After reading Ma Cao's report, Chen Feng was silent, Lao Jiang has invested a lot of money, although he only sent two regiments to mix sand, but these two regiments are not ordinary troops, the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army, this army is the descendant of Lao Jiang's lineage from the inside out.

The officers are all Huangpu students, and the soldiers are all selected from the following units, and the weapons and equipment are also the most advanced in the country. Just like after the outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, Lao Jiang gave an order, and the First Army was quickly expanded into the 17th Corps.

And the two colonels are not ordinary people, it is impossible for ordinary people to serve in such a unit, let alone climb to this position. It is necessary to know that if Lu Dao wants to climb faster in the Kuomintang troops, he needs qualifications and background, and Chiang Kai-shek's employment criteria have always been said to be "Huang, Lu, and Zhejiang". Especially for mid- and high-ranking officers, there are special standards. First of all, it depends on whether this person is from the Whampoa Military Academy and the Army University. If not, it depends on how many years he has been in Chiang's regime and how well he performs. If it's his hometown of Zhejiang, he can open the net, and if it's Fenghua, it's even better.

A person who can mix with the rank of colonel and regiment commander in the First Army must be inseparable from these three standards, and it is even likely to be a Zhejiang person who graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy.

Originally, according to the suggestion of Yang Yi and others, after the two regiments arrived in Datong, they found a plausible reason to split the two regiments, disrupted the establishment and mixed them with other units of the 61st Army, and then transferred the two regiment commanders to the military headquarters as staff officers, completely swallowing up the two regiments.

This idea is good, but the feasibility is not high, first of all, Lao Jiang dared to transfer these two regiments to the 61st Army, he was not afraid of Chen Feng disrupting the organization and reorganization, as long as those officers who were loyal to him were there, Lao Jiang's plan to mix sand would be considered a success, after all, no matter how much Chen Feng did, he could not remove the hundreds of officers of these two regiments. Second, the disruption of the organization and reorganization will inevitably cause the officers and soldiers of these two regiments to be dispersed to various units of the 61st Army, and the means of winning over the hearts and minds of the people by Lao Chiang's division, Chen Feng is really worried that the troops below will be in chaos. In addition, with the current pace of expansion of the 61 st Army, it may not be long before those officers who are scattered to various units will become company commanders, battalion commanders, and regiment commanders.

So no matter what aspect you consider, these two regiments cannot be separated, not only that, but also let them hold together, only in this way can Lao Jiang's claws not stretch too long.

Before the arrival of these two regiments, Chen Feng still has some things that must be arranged, and now the troops under the command of the 61st Army are nearly 120,000 people, although the recruits account for more than half, but this number is still very terrifying, if the old Jiang Zhilu said that he has more than 100,000 heavy troops in his hands, with his suspicious character, some things will inevitably happen, so some troops must turn from light to dark. On the one hand, it is of course to defend against the old Chiang, and on the other hand, it is to defend against the Japanese, Chen Feng's creed of leading troops is that you can never let the enemy know your true strength.

Soon, Chen Feng ordered the Xinghe Garrison Brigade to immediately carry some ammunition supplies to Dashan for covert training. The Jining Garrison Brigade will be transferred to Sumushan on the Chasui border for covert training from now on, while the Taolin Garrison Brigade will be transferred to the Liangcheng Daihai area for repair and training. In addition, the cavalry group continued to operate freely in Saibei, closely monitored the movements of the Japanese troops stationed in Mongolia, and did not return to Datong for the time being. In addition, one infantry regiment was transferred from the 101st Division, the 222nd Division, and the Seventh Independent Division, and then dispersed to various counties and townships in the defense area as battalions and companies to help each county form a county brigade, a district squad, and a militia group.

In this way, the 61st Army only left the 101st, 222nd, and 7th Independent Divisions, the three dissatisfied infantry divisions, as well as the guard regiment and the air defense brigade, the two directly subordinate units, although these troops still add up to more than 60,000 people, which is far more than a type A army, but presumably this strength should be within the scope of Lao Chiang's tolerance.

December 13 was an extremely difficult day for Chen Feng, it was the day in history that the Japanese army occupied the city of Nanjing, and the horrific massacre began. Although the Nationalist Government had published in newspapers throughout the country and even in the world in the past two days that the Japanese army was preparing to carry out a massacre after the occupation of Nanjing, Chen Feng was not sure that the Japanese would stop their brutal behavior.

Until eleven o'clock in the evening, the news of the loss of Nanjing had not come, which made Chen Feng breathe a sigh of relief.

What Chen Feng didn't know was that it was because of his telegram that Lao Jiang temporarily changed his mind, and did not give the retreat order to the defenders in the city as in history.

Without Lao Chiang's order, the defenders in the city would not have retreated in a hurry, you must know that the first retreat order in the history of the road was not issued by Chiang Kai-shek to Tang Shengzhi personally, but Chiang Kai-shek told Tang Shengzhi through Gu Zhutong in Jiangbei, Gu Zhutong asked Tang Shengzhi to cross the river to the north that night, so that the defenders could break through. However, Tang Shengzhi himself had advocated holding on, and if he suddenly withdrew first, he was afraid that he would be unable to bear the responsibility in the future, so he demanded that he must first convey the intention of the supreme commander to the defending generals before he could evacuate. That night, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Tang Shengzhi: "If the situation cannot last for a long time, you can retreat in order to sort out and anticipate a counteroffensive." Tang Shengzhicai studied with Luo Zhuoying, Liu Xing, the two deputy commanders, and Chief of Staff Zhou that night, and decided to start retreating on the night of the 14th. At about 2 a.m. on the 12th, the staff officers were summoned to draw up a retreat plan and order.

In other words, if it were not for Chiang Kai-shek's order to retreat the defenders, Tang Shengzhi and others would not have dared to retreat without authorization. More importantly, there is no doubt that the final outcome of Nanjing City cannot be held, but it is not easy for the Japanese army to occupy Nanjing City.

Historically, when Tang Shengzhi ordered the retreat, Nanjing was not broken by the Japanese army, which was one of the biggest tragedies of the defense of Nanjing. On December 12, the Japanese not only did not enter the city, but did not even control more than half of the area outside the city. The specific situation in the early morning of the 12th was that the direction of Zhonghua Gate was not lost; In the direction of Gwanghwamen, the Japanese attacked, and the positions of the 87th and 261st brigades of the 260th division outside the city "stood still". The 87th Division's Zhongshanmen position was not lost; There was less pressure in the direction of Shuiximen, and the defenders were the 51st Regiment of the 306th Division. On the afternoon of the 12th, the Japanese army broke through the city wall between the Zhonghua Gate and the Shuixi Gate, but was wiped out by the 306th Regiment death squad, and the enemy did not attack on the night of the 12th. If it weren't for that damn order, Nanjing would have held out for at least half a month or so.

Now due to the appearance of Chen Feng and the appearance of that telegram, Lao Jiang considered the lives of millions of people in Nanjing City, and was worried that he would bear the historical responsibility of losing the people of Nanjing City and being slaughtered, so in the end he still did not give the order to retreat, but strictly ordered Tang Shengzhi to hold on to Nanjing City.

In addition, the soldiers and civilians in the city of Nanjing also knew that the Japanese would carry out the conspiracy of massacre after entering the city, which greatly stimulated the determination of the army and the people to resist the war.

On December 13, Nanjing survived. The Nationalist Government's overwhelming propaganda caused an international uproar, especially in the telegrams sent by the Nationalist Government to various governments, pointing out that the news of the Nanjing Massacre had been learned from the mouth of Lian Zhaopan, the commander of the Japanese army stationed in Mongolia, and that there was also a telegram to prove it.

For example, in a telegram issued by Lieutenant General Yanagawa Heisuke, commander of the 10th Army, to Lieutenant General Toshio Tani, commander of the 6th Division, the commander of the 10th Army, the commander of the 10th Army, explicitly mentioned that "in principle, no prisoners will be left." Most importantly, a top-secret telegram was sent out at the cost of his life by a senior spy of the Military Command Bureau embedded in the Japanese army, which was signed on December 8, 1937 by the provisional commander of the Japanese army on the Nanjing front, Hatohiko Asakanomiya, with the words "Secret, Destroy After Reading": "Kill all the prisoners!" ”

It no longer matters what this order was not destroyed by the senior commanders of the Japanese army, and how it was brought out by the spies of the military command, but what is important is that the Japanese army and the entire Japanese government finally saw the power of international public opinion in the next few days, whether it was Japan's ally Germany, the United States, which was a trading partner, or Britain, France, Italy, and the Soviet Union, they all sent telegrams to the Japanese government to severely condemn the Japanese army's violation of humanitarian principles. The United States, Britain, and other countries, which were already extremely dissatisfied with Japan's invasion of China, even threatened Japan that if Japan dared to carry out a massacre in Nanjing, and even affected the overseas Chinese in the United States, Britain, and other countries, then the United States and Britain would not rule out the possibility of directly sending troops to China.

The Japanese people also expressed their shock that the invasion of China was not a big deal in the eyes of the Japanese people, but if the imperial army, which made them proud and proud, wantonly slaughtered innocent Chinese civilians, this would not be what they wanted to see. Stories that do not speak against the government will be stamped and approved before they appear on the pages of newspapers. When there is a report criticizing the government or the military, it is erased with black ink, indicating that the report is invalid.

Soon, the Japanese Emperor Hirohito also learned about this matter, and had no choice but to issue an order to the Japanese troops on the front line in Nanjing through Prince Kanin Miyazahito, chief of staff of the base camp, so that they must consider the image and honor of the Japanese Empire, and absolutely not do anything that damages the honor of the empire in Nanjing, and all combat troops must be stationed outside the city after capturing Nanjing, and it is strictly forbidden for combat troops to appear in Nanjing without permission, and only a certain number of military police units can be left to maintain law and order in the city.