At the time of the fierce battle between the Chinese and Japanese armies in Songhu, the situation in North China went down.

On July 20, the Japanese army deliberately expanded the Lugou Bridge Incident, launched a bombardment of Wanping City and nearby areas, on the 25th, the Japanese army attacked Langfang Station, on the 26th Langfang was lost, Beicang, Yangcun and other stations also fell one after another, Pingjin traffic was cut off, and then the Japanese army marched to Guang'anmen and drove into Beiping.

On the 27th, the Japanese army launched attacks on Tongxian, Tuanhe, Tangshan and other places.

On the 28th, the Japanese army launched a full-scale attack on the Chinese garrisons stationed in Beiyuan and Nanyuan, and the 29th Army, which was caught off guard, suffered heavy casualties, and the deputy commander Tong Linge and the commander of the 132nd Division Zhao Dengyu died heroically, and the 38th Division Special Service Regiment and the 114th Brigade retreated in the direction of Gu'an.

On the same day, the Qinghe River and the Shahe River fell.

That night, Song Zheyuan and others retreated from Tianjin to Baoding, and the 37th Master evacuated Beiping from Wanping, Babaoshan, and Mentougou.

On the 29th, Beiyuan and Huangsi were lost, and Beiping fell.

In the early morning of 29 July, the battle to defend Tianjin began. Under the frantic attack of the Japanese army, the Chinese army retreated to the area of Jinghai and Machang, and Tianjin was lost.

After occupying Pingjin and Tianjin, the Japanese army immediately attacked Chanan to relieve the threat of its flank and ensure that the main force moved south along the Pinghan Railway.

On 8 August, the Battle of Nankou began, under the attack of Japanese aircraft, artillery and poison gas in turn, Nankou was lost on the 25th, Zhangjiakou, the capital of Chahar Province on the 26th, the Chinese army Liu Ruming's troops retreated to the right bank of the Yanghe River, Fu Zuoyi's troops retreated to Chaigoubao, and Tang Enbo's troops broke through to the right bank of the Sangyu River.

In early September, the Japanese army attacked southern Chanan and Shanxi.

On September 6, the Japanese army launched a general attack on the positions east of Tianzhen, and all the Chinese officers and soldiers guarding Panshan and Zhoujiashan were martyred, and Tianzhen was surrounded on all sides.

On the 8th, the Japanese army bypassed the well-fortified Tianzhen to attack Yanggao, and on the 10th, the Yanggao city wall was destroyed in many places, the defenders suffered heavy casualties, and Yanggao fell. The next day, Tianzhen abandoned the defense, and on the 12th, the Chinese army abandoned Datong again and moved to Guangwu.

When the fierce battle of Tianzhen, the Japanese army gathered in Zhangbei, respectively to Xinghe, Shangdu, Huade to attack, in order to deal with the offensive of Datong, September 7 Shangyi fell, 9 Xinghe abandoned the defense, 11 days, Huade fell, 16 night, the Chinese defenders withdrew from Shangdu.

After the Japanese army captured Datong, they continued to invade the north.

On the 17th, Fengzhen fell, on the 24th, the Chinese army abandoned Jining, and on the 25th and 26th, Liangcheng and Taolin fell, and the gate of Guisui was opened.

At the same time as the attack on Chanan, on 15 August, the Japanese army headquarters issued a general mobilization order for the invasion of China, and dispatched the Japanese North China Front Army of the First and Second Group Armies under the command of the army to concentrate in the Pingjin area.

On 14 September, the 20th Division of the Japanese Army launched an attack on Liulihe, the 6th Division from Gu'an, and the 14th Division from Yongqing to Yongdinghe to Zhuozhou.

On September 18, Zhuozhou fell, on the 22nd, Mancheng was lost, on the 24th, the Chinese army abandoned Baoding, on the 29th, Xinle fell, and by October 8, the Japanese army had advanced to Changshou, and at the same time attacked Zhengding and Lingshou.

It can be said that while the officers and men of the Nationalist army fought bloodily on the frontal battlefield of Songhu and fought for every inch of land, the Chinese army in North China retreated in great strides while occupying an absolutely superior force.

Looking at the Songhu battlefield again, from late September to mid-October, China and Japan launched a repeated tug-of-war around Luodian

At the suggestion of the German advisers, the Chinese army concentrated the strength of 35 divisions and took turns to attack the Japanese troops stationed in Luodian. In order to cut off the connection between the Ninth and Fifteenth Group Armies, the Japanese army continued to expand the battle in downtown Shanghai while strengthening the defense of Luodian.

Beginning at 7 o'clock in the morning of the 9th, the 9th Division of the Japanese Army dispatched two wings, one from Qiujiang Wharf to Hujiang University, and the other from Huishan Wharf to attack Gongda Yarn Mill.

As four heavy cruisers and 12 destroyers joined the attack on the Chinese defenders' positions, and dozens of carrier-based fighters flew from the sea to bomb them in turn, the 87th Division, which was defending Hujiang University and the Gongda Yarn Mill, finally lost its support after a series of hard battles, lost Hujiang University at noon on the 10th, and the Gongda Yarn Factory fell at 5 p.m. on the same day.

While the main force of the 9th Division was storming Hujiang University and Gongda Yarn Factory, the 101st Division advanced at high speed from east to west to the first line of the Military Industrial Road.

In the early morning of the 9th, more than 20 Japanese planes and more than 20 warships stormed the military road. At about 8 o'clock, under the cover of smoke screens, more than 4,000 Japanese troops attacked the Chinese defenders' positions in Shenjiaxiang and Lujiazhai, and the two sides repeatedly rushed and killed until noon, when the 57th Division, which had withdrawn from Pudong, came to help and stabilized the position. In the afternoon of the same day, the Japanese attacked again, and the defenders suffered heavy casualties, and the battle lasted until dusk, and the two armies were in a stalemate. In this day's fighting, the 57th Division alone suffered 43 casualties among officers and more than 1,100 soldiers.

Also on the 9th, the 13th Division of the Japanese Army set out from Huishan Wharf and advanced in the direction of Hongkou along Wusong Road and North Sichuan Road. The 88th Division of the Chinese Army in the Gongwei Hongkou area engaged in continuous fierce battles with the Japanese army, but because the entire Shanghai Concession had already been fought together, and the 88th Division, which had been attacked by naval guns and aircraft in turn, failed to form an effective defense system, the Japanese Marine Corps Headquarters Building in Shanghai fell two days later

At this point, the strategic advantage achieved by Wu Ming's new second division with great efforts was wiped out in the face of high-level decision-making mistakes and the fierce attack of the Japanese army.

On the evening of the 11th, Yuepu and Yanghang also fell after Wusong, Baoshan, Luodian, and Hongkou, and the areas around Jiangwan, Miaohang, and Xincheng became the salient parts of the Chinese army's front.

As a matter of fact, after launching a two-front battle in North China and Songhu, the Japanese government and army went all out and did not leave anything to chance. Among them, the Japanese Diet issued an edict on 4 September declaring war on China, and the next day Japanese Prime Minister Fumito Konoe delivered a speech in the Japanese Parliament:

"The Chinese side took advantage of the forbearance of the empire, and the trend of humiliating Japan and resisting Japan became more and more intense, and the war finally spread to Central China. At this point, the government believed that it was no longer possible to clean up the situation by adopting passive and partial measures, and finally had no choice but to actively and comprehensively deal a major blow to the Chinese military. ”

"The only possible means for the empire today is to strike a complete blow at the Chinese army and make it lose the will to fight. If the Chinese side still does not reflect and continues to resist stubbornly, even if it is engaged in a long-term war, the empire will not hesitate. ”

To this end, the Japanese parliament approved more than two billion yen in temporary military spending to support its army in combat

As early as 10 September, Japan issued a cabinet proclamation announcing the shift to a nationwide wartime system. By mid-October, the Japanese army had assembled five divisions on the south bank of the Yangtze River and the mouth of the Huangpu River, including the third, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, and 101st divisions, plus 15 infantry brigades, a heavy artillery brigade, and other special forces, together with puppet troops drawn from Taiwan, northeast China, and Korea, with a total strength of more than 200,000.

The rear supply lines of the Japanese army have also become increasingly stable and strengthened, temporary airfields have been built on Sizhou Island, Shawo, Gongda Yarn Mill, and other places, the conditions for coordinated operations of various services and arms have gradually taken shape, and all kinds of conditions required for large-scale field operations have been increasingly available.

Pinghu, Mo's Manor, the headquarters of the new second division.

The generals sat neatly, and Dai Ziran, the chief of staff, held the indicator baton and explained the latest battle situation to everyone against the map hanging on the wall.

In the face of the current crisis, the generals did not speak, and their hearts were extremely heavy.

For the sake of the Songhu War, Chiang Kai-shek basically evacuated the whole army, and it was able to fight a draw with more than 200,000 Japanese troops, and finally formed a state of confrontation.

However, in Wu Ming's view, it was very unwise to fight at the mouth of the Yangtze River in Shanghai, where the Japanese army had absolute sea and air superiority, and the best plan was to withdraw all the troops to the national defense line and rely on the carefully constructed national defense fortifications to carry out rotational warfare, so as to expand the strategic depth of the Japanese army, stay away from the Japanese army's giant ships and artillery, and consume the Japanese army's troops.

As long as more than 100,000 Japanese troops can be eliminated near the defense line, the entire Sino-Japanese situation will undergo a tremendous change, and it is not possible to say that the enemy will be outside the country, and at least the plastered land in the Central Plains and the inland of the Yangtze River will not be invaded by the Japanese army. It is too much to consume the elite troops under the shells of naval guns and the bombardment of aircraft in vain as now.

Seeing that everyone was not interested in speaking, Wu Ming coughed lightly, and waited for everyone's eyes to focus on him, and then he said:

"The Songhu war has been going on for more than two months, the situation is very obvious, we mobilized 68 divisions of nearly 700,000 people, but with 200,000 Japanese troops to a draw, among the various reasons, I believe that everyone has a little bit of experience here, to share with you, it is a brick throwing jade"

"Since the first shot was fired on 13 August, the Nanjing side has not had a sober understanding of Japan at all, and although it opposes peace negotiations with Japan, it does not oppose international mediation, and once Britain, France, the United States, and other countries propose mediation, they will immediately stop the frontline offensive. As a result, the national army lost its early advantage, which was undoubtedly a major failure."

Although Wu Ming did not mention Chairman Chiang's name, the generals and colonels of the New Second Division who were present here understood that Chiang Kai-shek, who was accustomed to three parts military and seven points politics, always wanted to seek a win-win situation in politics, economy, and war, and this was almost impossible.

In the following explanation, Wu Ming believed that the Nationalist Government had made the following major mistakes: First, the operational thinking was not clear, and it pinned its hopes on the European and American columns to emphasize the stoppage, resulting in the missed fighters; Second, in terms of strategic and tactical principles, they were rigid in their thinking, unable to make good use of their own advantages, and ordered all units not to take a step back, which directly led to the various units being bombed by Japanese naval guns and planes in turn, and suffering heavy casualties. Third, the command was not well considered, and Hangzhou Bay was an important place on the strategic back, but it was not paid attention to at all.

On the last point, there are dissenting opinions.

Han Tiecheng stood up and said with a big grin: "Master, I deeply agree with your previous opinion, but I have reservations about the last point. Judging from the topography of Hangzhou Bay, the water is shallow and sandy, and large ships cannot be docked, and not long ago, Nanjing sent people to inspect and reached a similar conclusion. Such a terrain, even if it is landed, at most one division can come up, and it does not have much impact on the battle situation in Shanghai. ”

What Han Tiecheng said is the mainstream view of Nanjing at present, and it can also be said that it is Chiang Kai-shek's view.

"Tiecheng didn't take my words as a golden rule, and he questioned it, which is good"

Wu Ming still welcomed Han Tiecheng's disagreement, and patiently explained to everyone at the moment: "What do I judge for the Japanese army to land in Hangzhou Bay, it is one sentence: Husband and fighter, with the right fit, with the odd victory." Therefore, those who are good and surprising are infinite as heaven and earth, inexhaustible as rivers"

Wu Ming walked to the wall, pointed to the map with an indicator stick, and explained in detail: "Everyone, please look at Luodian and Zhang Huabang on the left flank of Songhu, there are heavy guards everywhere, although the Japanese army has the help of aircraft and artillery, but the front-line defenders supported by our unconscionable artillery and bazooka can still give a strong counterattack. ”