In the early morning of November 13, the crescent moon hung in the western sky, on the southeast shore of East Lake, and Shigeharu Suematsu and Mitsuzaburo Akiyama quietly took their attendants to a remote harbor.

The Japanese soldiers of the brigade lined up neatly and looked solemnly at the division commander Shigeji Suematsu and the chief of staff Mitsuzaburo Akiyama.

Shigeharu Suematsu walked past the queue, stretched out his hand and gently patted the shoulders of each officer and soldier, and did not speak, because at this time there was no need for any words of encouragement and mobilization.

This top-secret operation was personally responsible for Shigeharu Suematsu, and each of the fierce soldiers was selected by the captain Yoshino Shaosa from the whole division, and those who did not have good psychological and military qualities could not be selected at all. On this trip, they will shoulder the heavy task of washing away the shame of the entire division, and they are the most fierce warriors of the entire division, and they are ready to face all difficulties.

Shigeharu Suematsu came to the front of the team, and the cold moonlight sprinkled from the sky and fell on everyone's faces, and it was exceptionally silent.

Shigeji Suematsu nodded to Yoshino Shosa next to him.

Yoshino Shaosa immediately stood solemnly, turned around in a standard way, and waved his hand to the soldiers: "Go"

The soldiers came to the lake and boarded the raft in turn. The rafts were simple to make, and many of them were simply processed by sappers from door panels removed from nearby villages. But it took three days to complete these rafts for the sake of secrecy, which was the main reason why the 114th Division behaved so calmly in the past two days.

After the last battle with the new 2nd Division, Shigeharu Suematsu became more and more cautious. During the three-day confrontation with the New Second Division, he sent people to build this kind of raft that could pass on the East Lake. It is now the end of autumn and early winter, and the rivers and lakes are shallow, and if you use ordinary boats, they will run aground, but the raft has a shallow draft, which can just take on the mission of transporting people.

Shigeharu Suematsu called Yoshino Shaosa and explained the main points: "Yoshino-kun, after you land on the west bank of East Lake, the most important thing is to hide yourself. Tomorrow morning we will be attacking the line of the new 2nd Division head-on. When the rear guards of the new Second Division are empty, your department must be like a sharp knife to take off Wu Ming's command in one fell swoop...

Shigeharu Suematsu turned his head, his eyes like electricity, and looked at Yoshino: "Do you understand?" ”

Yoshino Shaosa bowed deeply: "Hai, we will definitely not disappoint the general." ”

"Yo West"

Shigeharu Suematsu nodded in approval, but he was still a little uneasy, after all, this was a life-and-death battle for the 114th Division, so he couldn't care less. Shigeharu Suematsu thought for a while with half-squinted eyes, and asked, "Yoshino-kun, have you figured out where Wu Ming's headquarters is, and do you know the situation of the responding personnel?" ”

A trace of pride appeared on Yoshino Shaosa's rigid face, and then his expression became serious, and he bowed his head and said: "Please rest assured, general, this time, the intelligence department of our Imperial Japanese Army has already found out the situation of Wu Ming's command in advance, and our agents will also fight with us." ”

Shigeharu Suematsu still appreciates the efficiency of the Imperial Espionage Department, and now that the intelligence officers cooperate, Shigeharu Suematsu's expectations for victory are much greater.

Yoshino Shaoza continued: "General, I heard from the people who came to contact us that Miss Ye Zi of the Fengtian Agency works as a nurse in the Pinghu Field Hospital and knows everything about the new Second Division, and I believe that this plan will go very smoothly."

Hearing Yoshino Shaoza say this, Shigeharu Suematsu was completely relieved.

A good doctor has no brilliant name, and a good fighter has no outstanding achievements, and Miss Ye Zi in Yoshino's mouth is such a person. Miss Yezi's full name is Chiaki Yezi, an ace spy of the Mukden Agency, who is not very famous in the Japanese army, but a lot of valuable information about the Chinese army comes from her, and Suematsu Shigeji has long heard of it.

An ace agent like Zhilu Dao lurked inside the new Second Division, and he couldn't help but let Shigeji Suematsu breathe a long sigh of relief: "Since there is Miss Yezi to help, this operation can be regarded as almost foolproof."

"Is that Miss Ye very powerful?"

Yoshino Shaosa and Akiyama Mitsuzaburo were confused, and they didn't quite understand how much influence this leaf lady had on Shigeji Suematsu, which made Shigeji Suematsu, who had been worried before, suddenly relaxed.

Looking at Yoshino with a resolute face, Shigeharu Suematsu knew that although he had the help of Chiaki Yezi, if he went to fight behind enemy lines, nearly 2,000 people in a reinforced brigade would fall into a battle to the death, and there would definitely be no one in ten who survived.

Shigeharu Suematsu took a step back, bowed ninety degrees to Yoshino Shaosa, and said in a serious tone: "This battle is related to the honor of our division, and if it loses, the consequences will be unimaginable." Yoshino-kun, I'll leave everything to you."

Yoshino Shaoza hurriedly returned a salute: "Eternal allegiance to His Majesty the Emperor, long live His Majesty the Emperor, long live the Imperial Army of the Japanese Empire"

The Japanese soldiers standing on the raft behind Yoshino stood like statues, their eyes full of determination and pride in the face of death. Shigeharu Suematsu felt that the trip was worthwhile, waved his hand to Yoshino Shaosa, and watched as the raft slowly sailed from the shore and made its way towards the lake under the cover of night.

Mitsuzaburo Akiyama, who was still a little apprehensive about Shigeharu Suematsu's decision, was completely convinced at this time

Shigeharu Suematsu's plan was extremely bold, and the Japanese troops on the front line carried out oppressive attacks, attracting the enemy to continuously transfer troops from the rear to reinforce the front line. When the reserve troops of the New Second Division were almost empty in the rear, Yoshino Shaoza led the reinforced brigade to penetrate the heart of the New Second Division, knocking out its headquarters in one fell swoop, and then cooperating with the frontal attacking troops, it was not difficult to penetrate the defense line of the New Second Division under the front and rear attacks.

The whole plan is tantamount to a disguised decapitation operation, the most critical of which is whether Yoshino Shaosa can take down the headquarters of the new 2nd Division in one fell swoop, thereby shaking the morale of the Chinese army. Now seeing that the Yoshino brigade is like a ghost in the night, and the whole army is full of confidence and murderous spirit, Akiyama Mitsuzaburo can't help but be full of faith

Shigeharu Suematsu took Mitsuzaburo Akiyama back to the division headquarters, studied and deliberated on the battle situation overnight, and felt that there was no omission, so he completely relieved himself and just waited for the gunshots to sound.

When Suematsu Shigeru was secretly making trouble, Wu Ming was also studying the battle situation, but he was studying the entire situation in Songhu.

At this time, the left wing of Songhu was already in disarray, and from western Shanghai to Qingpu, from Nanxiang to Kunshan, the roads were full of black and oppressive defeated soldiers, horses, artillery, and cars loaded with luggage, which were stuffed with water.

Early in the morning of the 9th, three Japanese planes flew over the heads of the retreating troops in a shout, and the fierce Japanese planes first went to bomb the Anting Highway Bridge, which was the place where the defense fortifications of the Kunzhi Line must pass, in order to prevent the Chinese troops from retreating. At about 7 o'clock, three more Japanese planes flew at a low altitude, bombed back and forth along the highway, dropped more than 30 bombs, and then flew to an altitude of 2 to 300 meters at an ultra-low altitude and fired wildly at the dense ranks with their aerial machine guns.

More than 100,000 troops were allowed to be bombed indiscriminately by the Japanese army on this only thoroughfare, and there were no evacuation paths on either side of the highway, and there were no bridges to pass. From the beginning to the end, no one organized anti-aircraft shooting, and the troops continued to advance. By 8 o'clock, more than 50 Japanese bombers were raining down like thunder, and the bombs that fell like fish eggs blew up bridges, collapsed villages, and broke trees, killing and wounding thousands of Chinese soldiers

In the face of the threat of Japanese fighters, not a single soldier dared to point his rifle into the air to shoot, the plane fell from the sky, the defeated soldiers ran on the road, when the bomb exploded in the crowd, it was as if a wave was set off in the sea, and the desperate soldiers rushed forward desperately, and they gave their lives to God.

In the afternoon, more and more Japanese planes flew lower and lower as there was no threat from the ground, until they descended to 50 to 60 meters, and the rain of bullets and air waves set off by bombs and aviation machine guns was like a storm, and officers and men with loaded guns fell one after another on the road. In fact, the Japanese fighters were just a few dozen meters above their heads, and as long as all the light and heavy machine guns were organized, it was impossible for them to be so unscrupulous, but these officers and men could confront each other, charge, and even fight hand-to-hand in a face-to-face positional battle, but they did not have any psychological preparation for dealing with the sky, and could only be passively bombed.

The teaching corps began to retreat on the night of the ninth day, and they advanced towards Kunshan in the dark. When they arrived at Huangdu near Anting, it was just dawn, and the bridge body had been damaged by Japanese fighters, and the Japanese parachute advance team blocked the retreat of the defeated army with fire at the bridgehead.

At the critical time of nine deaths and life, there was no room for any hesitation and hesitation, the chaotic crowd rushed over like a tide, the protruding tongue of fire of the machine gun was like the tongue of a poisonous snake, and many soldiers and heavy firearms fell into the bridge and rolled into the rolling Wusong River, and finally took back control of the bridge.

On the afternoon of the 10th, Huang Wei, commander of the 67th Division, received the order to hold the highway bridge, and Xue Yue, commander of the 19th Group Army, asked Huang Wei to rush to the vicinity of Anting on the 11th to guard the bridge and cover the general retreat of the whole army.

On the evening of the 11th, Huang Wei rushed to the vicinity of Anting Station, where there were people from Nanxiang in the east, Qingpu in the south, and Kunshan in the west.

Explosives have been planted at the head of the bridge, and as long as the button is pressed, the highway bridge will be broken into several pieces.

Huang Weizhi knew that the explosives were planted by the engineering unit of the 19th Group Army, so he set up a telephone call with the command post of the 19th Group Army, and he reported to Xue Yue that he had only four battalions with him because he was in a hurry, and asked the troops to cover it. Xue Yue replied that the 154th Division led by Wu Jianxiong on the right flank would arrive soon. As a result, when Huang Wei found Wu Jianxiong in the tide of people, the wizard commander could no longer find his troops, and he turned out to be the light pole division commander.

The task could not be completed without covering the troops, Huang Wei immediately reported to Xue Yue on the phone, and the telephone line was broken when he was talking. It turned out that the Japanese paratroopers attacked Huang Wei's command post under the guidance of traitors, Huang Wei had to escape in a car, and the Japanese planes chased his car and bombed and strafed, the car overturned into a ditch next to the road, and the driver and a guard were shot and killed. Huang Wei's life was big, he was pressed under him by the guards and luckily did not get shot, his whole body was wet and shivering, but fortunately, Huo Yuzhang, the commander of the 54th Army, passed by and took off his coat to put on him.

Hu Zongnan, commander of the 17th Group Army, also escaped by luck, and his command post was also attacked by the Japanese army, and many of the personnel and guards of the headquarters were killed.

Among the hastily retreating armies on the Songhu front, the hardest was the artillery. In order to prevent air raids, the artillerymen left their mules and horses behind, and everyone carried, carried, and carried the dismantled artillery parts, panting and huddled on the road to life and death. The officers and men of the artillery battalion were envious when they saw the infantry advancing lightly, and later found that a man in a robe was stuffed into the crowded and congested rout, and when he looked closely, it was Li Yannian, the commander of the Second Army and the commander of the Ninth Division under Xue Yue of the 19th Group Army.

On the afternoon of 11 July, division commander Yang Junchang called Liu Weikai, acting commander of the regiment, to the division headquarters and ordered him to retreat to Jiading at 8 p.m. After Regiment Commander Liu returned to the regiment headquarters, he arranged two things, the first was to concentrate artillery fire on the Japanese position ten minutes before retreating, to confuse the enemy, and at the same time relieve the hatred in his heart, and the second was to bury the fallen soldiers.

The artillery fire shook the earth, and in the midst of the roar of artillery fire, the officers and men scrubbed the remains of the martyrs, dug deep pits, and buried the officers and men from Guangxi in the land of Shanghai. They used to be on the same train, but now they have less than a third of their comrades combined.

Due to the problem of communication lines, the 14th Division guarding the outer positions of Nanxiang has not received an order to retreat from its superiors, and Chief of Staff Guo Rugui called to ask the chief of staff of the 66th Army who is friendly and neighboring whether to withdraw? The chief of staff hesitated and asked the 14th Division to retreat to Kunshan through Qingyang Port.

When it was dark, the 14th Division passed by Anting, Anting was full of fire, gunfire broke out, and the troops of more than a dozen divisions on the highway thought that the Japanese army had set up a block here to block it, and they all ran towards the railway, and the road and the railway were all blocked. Fortunately, a company of the Maoliangwu militia collected supplies nearby and repelled a Japanese parachute reconnaissance detachment, and the retreating team returned to normal.

On the evening of the 12th, the 14th Division retreated to the Qingyanggang Highway Bridge, and the 87th Division, which contained the routed troops on the bridge, said that it would burn the bridge as soon as possible. Chen Lie, the new commander of the 14th Division, stepped forward to stop him, saying that there were still troops behind, how to retreat after burning the bridge? After the officers and men of the 87th Division defending the bridge consulted their superiors, Wu Qiwei, commander of the Fourth Army, agreed with Division Commander Chen and other troops to cross the bridge before blowing up the bridge

The engineer battalion of the 14th Division planted explosives at the bridgehead and sent troops to occupy the bridgehead to cover the troops crossing the bridge. Division Commander Chen Lie immediately ordered the bridge to be blown up, but at the critical moment, there was a problem with the ignition device, and the explosives could not be detonated, and the Japanese troops swarmed in and occupied the bridgehead position on the west bank.

In desperation, the 14th Division launched several charges against the Japanese troops defending the bridge, but they were all repelled by the fierce artillery fire of the devils. Division Commander Chen ordered to leave three mountain guns to continue to bomb the bridge, and the rest of the troops withdrew, but unfortunately the three guns fired hundreds of shells, and the highway bridge was still not blown up, and the Japanese army pursued the victory.

After the 41st Division of the 10th Army, which had gone from Hubei to Songhu to fight, arrived in Shanghai, it coincided with the fact that the original 1st Division was almost completely wiped out in Luodian, so it took over the number of the 1st Division. The 1st Division held out at Liuhang and Yunzaobang for more than 20 days, with three-quarters of the officers and men suffering casualties, and the position remained unmoved like an iron nail.

The 1st Division withdrew from downtown Shanghai on the morning of the 12th, and the whole division assembled near Huangdu, but the officers and men of the 4th Regiment could not find the division headquarters and other teams, so they had to retreat like a tide on the Huqing Highway near Hongqiao with all the retreating troops. The foreigners in the Hongqiao villa area stuck out their heads and looked around the window, making grimaces with various expressions to the Chinese soldiers, whose faces were feverish and ashamed, and they did not dare to raise their heads.

The highway was crowded with defeated soldiers and refugees, Japanese planes swooped down like eagles, bombing and strafing the ant-like crowd, and a pregnant woman with a big belly and a child on her back, holding a small one in her arms and two on her shoulders, struggling to move forward.

The Japanese plane rushed down, a bomb set off a huge wave, the pregnant woman and the four children were all blown into a bloody blur, the poor mother's abdomen was blown by shrapnel, and the little life in the abdominal cavity squirmed in the blood.

The 14th Artillery Regiment, which was directly under the command of the theater, was also in the retreating ranks, and this regiment was all equipped with 150-mm heavy guns.

Just when the regiment commander Peng Mengzheng was about to push the cannon down the Wusong River with red eyes, a large fleet arrived, and several of the ships were set up with millimeter Erley anti-aircraft guns and. 7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun, alert to the invasion of Japanese fighters. Two officers of the major dressed in the uniforms of the Central Army jumped out of the boat, and the colonel saluted Peng Mengzhi and introduced himself as Ye Zhuhan, chief of the intelligence section of the staff office of the new Second Division, and the other major was Cheng Zhiming, deputy commander of the baggage regiment directly under the division, who was specially ordered to come to pick up the heavy artillery regiment back to the rear.

Peng Mengzhi was suspicious, at this time four Japanese planes hovered at a low altitude, ready to raid the fleet docked at the Wusong River, was in the dive when hit by anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, whimpered and fell into the Wusong River, then the suspicion was exhausted, the artillerymen dismantled the cannons, and then sent the cannons to the ship through the loading and unloading spreaders on the ship, and the artillerymen evacuated with the fleet.

Wu Ming let out a long sigh after reading the last telegram.

Du Pingzhang, chief of the confidential section, walked in with a telegram and reported: "Division, the fleet of the 14th Artillery Regiment has arrived at Taihu Lake, and it is expected that it will be able to enter the canal and move to Hangzhou before sunrise tomorrow." ”

Wu Ming took the telegram and read it carefully, and Zhang Dongning said with some sighs: "The Nanjing Commanding Organ and the Third Theater Command did not care about the lives of the front-line officers and men at all, and there was no way to make arrangements, which directly led to a series of problems such as the loss of direction of the various units when retreating, the misunderstanding between friendly forces, the separation of commanders and troops, the inability of superiors to grasp subordinates, the inability of troops to find the location of their own command organs and commanders, and the mixing of various departments and the mixing of military and civilian personnel. ”

"yes"

Wu Ming nodded, and after putting down the telegram, his fingers tapped lightly on the table: "The Japanese are not stupid, they can think of any tricks that are damaging, and I shudder when I think of those ubiquitous paratroopers and traitors...... In my opinion, Chen Yanhua's regiment was the mainstay, supplemented by the four regiments of the Maoliangwu militia that had recently arrived from western Zhejiang, which were specially used to contain deserters and routs, and then organized these defeated soldiers with combat experience to destroy all railways and highways, and all those rails, sleepers, and communication cables were stripped off, and all the rest, except for the sleepers, which were burned on the spot, and all the rest were transported back to Maoliangwu. ”

Wu Ming called the chief of staff, and he gave a face-to-face lecture: "Dongning, after the meeting, you rushed to Haining County overnight to convey the order and preside over the overall situation, and transport away all the things that can be moved, and the other is to contain the rout." Chen Yanhua has a very good set of leading soldiers, I believe he can help you. Yesterday I deliberately transferred manpower from various regiments to form a battalion, and there are more junior officers and non-commissioned officers, so that I can teach those veteran soldiers military discipline, and I want a strong force that can fight at any time when called, not a soldier who is about to be defeated at the slightest touch."

Zhang Dongning took out a pen and paper and recorded Wu Ming's requests one by one.

The military quality of the veterans is good, but the aura of the soldiers is too strong, Wu Ming wants to train them into a brave and good fighting elite through strict military rules and discipline, good treatment and meticulous ideological education, although many people may have to be eliminated, but the rest will become the outstanding soldiers urgently needed by the new Second Division.

Dai Ziran, who was conducting a sand table deduction with the staff officers next door, walked in, went straight to the map, picked up his baton and pointed to the south bank of the Yangtze River: "According to the report of the theater command, the first division of the 16th division of the Japanese army and the Shigetsu detachment launched landing operations in Hupukou and Baimaokou continuously. So far, the two sides have been fighting fiercely for three days, and the Japanese army's plan to encircle them has not succeeded. ”

The Kunzhi Line runs from Zhitang Town on the south bank of the Yangtze River in the north to Kunshan on the Shanghai-Nanjing Line in the south, which is the necessary place for the Left Wing Army to enter the southern Jiangsu region and Nanjing from Shanghai to the west, and is also the vanguard position of the Wufu Line. If such a key point of transportation is terminated by the Japanese army, it will really surround more than 700,000 national troops.

Because Wu Ming exposed the weakness of the national defense fortifications in advance, the Nanjing government attached great importance to the construction of the defense line between Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and a relatively solid defense system was built along the Kunming branch line and along the Yangtze River, which directly led to the difficulty of the Japanese army's combat plan.

Dai Ziran moved the indicator stick to the bottom and continued: "The Japanese army on the southern front captured Songjiang and Fengjing, the 18th Division turned south to attack the line from Jiashan to Pingwang, in an attempt to bypass the flank of Suzhou, and the 6th Division attacked Qingpu and Baihegang yesterday evening. ”

Wu Ming stood up and was about to speak, when suddenly a loud noise came, his heart moved, and he strode to the window and pushed it open, only to see a cluster of shining fires appear in the eastern sky.