Forty-seven: Two gold medals

Commander Tang is not a general who is afraid of death, he did not cross the river after receiving Gu Zhutong's call, although it was an order from the base camp, he knew that if he crossed the river and left, he would escape from the battle.

Now the Japanese army is still blocked outside the city, although the Japanese army has attacked the city several times, but they have been driven out. Nanjing was still in the hands of the Nationalist Army.

The third stage of the Battle of Nanjing, the street fighting, had not yet begun, and the Japanese army would definitely be wiped out if they entered the city. Drowned in barricade battles.

As the commander-in-chief of the defense of Nanjing, Commander Tang had his own battle plan, and he was confident. He did not give the order to retreat.

At eleven o'clock in the evening, the officer on duty at the headquarters ran to report the emergency call to Commander Tang. He thought it was because there was a tight battlefield on the front line. When he picked up the phone, he couldn't help but tilt his head and stand upright.

The personnel of the headquarters all stood up and looked at him in surprise. The supreme commander of the base camp personally called Commander Tang and ordered Commander Tang: "If the situation cannot last for a long time, you can retreat."

Commander Tang replied again and again: "Yes." He put down the phone and walked slowly back and forth. He was analyzing the battle situation for the defense of Nanjing, thinking about the orders of the base camp and the fate of the 100,000-strong army.

He did not fulfill his historical mission of defending Nanjing. did not achieve coexistence with Nanjing. He was unwilling, but helpless.

He could not forget his generous oath at the pledge meeting to defend Nanjing, his determination to close the river and fight against the water, and the determination of the army and people in Nanjing to resolutely resist the war and their confidence in winning the war.

The female textile workers and young volunteers who waved their fists and shouted slogans always appeared in front of him. He could not abandon them.

He believes that the situation has not reached a 'time when it cannot be sustained for long'. The best time to retreat has long passed. The timing of a new breakout did not form.

Now a forced breakout and no foreign aid will pay a huge price for the breakout troops. He is responsible for the army of 100,000 who lives and dies with him.

Although he has long been ready to fight to the end. But in just twelve hours, two gold medals came in a row to ask him to retreat, after all, it was the order of the supreme commander of the base camp. Military orders are difficult to do.

Considering him personally, it was clear to him that the retreat was a disgrace to him. Retreat and defeat are an equal sign for him. Defeat fell the hat on his head.

If he abandons Nanjing, he will become a sinner through the ages, mercilessly accused and ridiculed by future generations. It's better to die in battle than to survive like this.

But he had to carry out the order to retreat from the base camp. He conveyed the orders of the supreme commander of the base camp to Luo Zhuoying, Liu Xing, the two deputy commanders, and Chief of Staff Zhou. Ask for their opinion.

They studied until 2 a.m. and decided to call in their staff officers to draw up a plan for retreat.

At five o'clock in the afternoon of December 12th, the generals of the various divisions gathered at the garrison headquarters of the Ministry of Railways. Commander Tang briefly explained to the generals present the situation facing the defenders of Nanjing.

He took the telegraphic order to retreat, announcing that the defenders of Nanjing had retreated on the orders of the base camp. He asked the participants to sign the order.

Someone does not understand why it should be signed. It is believed that Commander Tang was afraid to take responsibility for abandoning Nanjing. Collective responsibility can be taken after signing.

In fact, he was not afraid of taking responsibility, and he was not responsible for carrying out the order to retreat from the base camp.

There are also those who believe that the order to retreat has been conveyed by the signature, and that it must be resolutely carried out after the signature.

There are also people who think that everyone is unwilling to sign, indicating that the officers and soldiers defending the city would rather die in battle than retreat, and vow to live and die with Nanjing. This is something that Commander Tang would like to see.

But this did not happen. No general wants to go against the base camp. No one wants to face the Japanese army in front of them and wipe out their troops.

The battalion chief of staff said to Wang Mingming: "You have to believe that the army is anti-Japanese, and now that the order to retreat has been issued, the officers and men of the teaching corps are still fighting fiercely with the Japanese army at the second commanding height of the Purple Mountain."

"The troops in front of you are determined to drive the Japanese out of Tongjimen. The retreat should also be glorious.

"Third aunt, you have to look at the overall situation. At the beginning, it was a strategic necessity to defend Nanjing, and today we are retreating for future battles.

"Nanjing is about to fall, and we would rather die in battle than be taken prisoner. I believe what I have said will be useful to you.

"I also hope that you can survive after the fall of Nanjing, until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Think no more. Let's go. It's getting dark. ”

Seeing that Wang Mingming nodded in understanding, he smiled and said, "We'll see you when we win." He turned and led the team in pursuit.

Wang Mingming watched them go away and suddenly felt a terrible loneliness. She was abandoned, the people of Nanjing were abandoned, and the city of Nanjing was abandoned.

The ancient land of Nanjing is about to fall. She remembered that the old housekeeper had said that the defense of Nanjing was defeated in the hands of her own people. His words have now been fulfilled.

Although it was the middle of December, the weather in Nanjing was still warm like spring. Wang Mingming looked at the sun that had set, and it left a faint afterglow in the distant sky.

She suddenly felt a biting cold wind, which was cold to her heart, and she shivered. Her heart tugged, and she wrapped her coat around her.

The deep winter in Nanjing has really arrived. The cold sky gradually darkened. Darkness is coming. She suddenly came to her senses, and in the blink of an eye, it was all over.

She had to live, she couldn't be a prisoner. She took one last look at the battlefield, the devil's attack had been repulsed, and the national army was pursuing.

The Japanese retreated outside the city. She breathed a sigh of relief and walked cautiously across the bridge made of two planks. She walked up the embankment and saw a deep alley.

In order to get home early, she ran slowly. She ran for a while and couldn't run. She saw a side alley facing south, and she stopped at the mouth of the alley to bend down and gasp for breath.

She looked back, and there was nothing to see in the dark alley except for a faint glow at the entrance of the alley.

She walked slowly along the alley, the alley in the south of the city was very deep, entering through the gate of a house, walking in and in. Coming out the back door was already another alley.

The inhabitants here are large families of several generations, and the alleys are lined with high gables and fences of houses. Above her head was a line of sky.

Every alley here is paved with bluestone slabs, and every high wall here is made of blue bricks.

The terrazzo bricks, drum stones or stone lions in front of the door are all so ancient. The ancient ones are like the rocks on the Purple Mountain. Because this is where Nanjing people have lived for generations.

The cold stars in the sky followed her footsteps. The bleak wind scurried through the alleys, and occasionally a dry leaf would drift up with it.

She never dared to walk down such an alley again on a normal night. Now she walks in the long alley where no one is around, not afraid at all.

She floated like a ghost from one end of the alley to the other. She walked down one alley and entered another.

Wang Mingming thought as he walked, there was no reason not to defend Nanjing, and there was no reason why he must give up Nanjing.

Nanjing's 100,000-strong army had already sworn to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum to live and die with Nanjing, and had already prepared for a battle against the water, and the Japanese army surrounded Nanjing or not.

Nanjing should fight to the last soldier, and every house and street in Nanjing should be the grave of the Japanese invaders.

This is because Nanjing is the capital and the banner of the whole of China's resistance against Japan, and the defense of Nanjing should be the most brutal defense battle. It is also the most glorious battle to defend.

It should leave a glorious page for future generations. This page is a city of the dead that has been razed to the ground by war.

Wang Mingming comforted himself helplessly: I don't want to, everything is over.

The ancient city of Nanjing is still surrounded by Japanese artillery tonight, and tomorrow will be a day that will shock the world: the day of the fall of Nanjing, the capital of China.

In the future, no one will mention the Battle of Nanjing, because the Battle of Nanjing began vigorously and ended inexplicably, and finally handed over the city of Nanjing to the Japanese army.

Those officers and soldiers and volunteers who sacrificed their lives to defend Nanjing, together with their immortal spirit of resistance against Japan, will be submerged in the dust of history. No one will commemorate them.

Tomorrow's fall will go down in history as an eternal shame for the people of Nanjing.