The 74th Army held out in Wuxian (Suzhou) and Wujiang until the 16th of March.

It was not until the outpost of the 9th and LL divisions of the Japanese army appeared outside Wuxian that the 74th Army received an order from the commander's headquarters of the theater to move to Wujin, and after retreating to Wujin, it was ordered to guard the north of Wujin to the south bank of the Yangtze River, continue to cover the retreat of the army, and retreat to Danyang after Wujin held on for three days, and then retreated in great strides and took a short rest in Chunhua Town.

At this time, the Nanjing Garrison Command had already been established, Tang Shengzhi had already taken office, and the number of the 74th Army had already appeared on the formation table of the Nanjing Garrison Command, but the officers and men of the 74th Army who had just withdrawn to Chunhua Town did not know about this, and they were still full of hope that they could withdraw to the rear for rest and recuperation like other troops.

When Wang Yaowu and Feng Shengfa took all the brigade and regiment commanders of the 51st and 58th Divisions to the military headquarters of the 74th Army for a meeting, the most discussed thing was where to retreat to rectify and replenish?

The Battle of Songhu was the first battle after the formation of the 74th Army, in Shanghai and on the way to retreat, it fought with the Japanese invaders for 85 days and nights, killing and wounding more than 4,000 Japanese soldiers, and the results were not brilliant, but at the same time, the 74th Army itself also paid an extremely heavy price, with a total of more than 10,000 casualties in the whole army, including more than 4,000 killed.

The 51st Division and the 58th Division have all been wounded, and the loss of weapons and equipment is still secondary, the key is that after a large number of casualties among the veterans, the newly replenished strong men have not even touched their guns, which has caused a serious decline in combat effectiveness, and the 74th Army has not even had time to stop and catch its breath since the Battle of Songhu has been fought, and the officers and men of the whole army are physically and mentally exhausted, and they are really unbearable to fight again.

For example, Ji Hongwei, commander of the 301st Regiment of the 51st Division, Zhang Lingfu, commander of the 305th Regiment, and Qiu Weida, commander of the 306th Regiment, are even already thinking about how to strengthen the training of strong men so that the troops can restore their combat effectiveness as soon as possible.

In such an atmosphere, Yu Jishi, commander of the 74th Army, came back from a meeting at Tang Shengzhi's residence.

Seeing Yu Jishi's face solemn when he walked into the door of the conference room, there was still a hint of melancholy between his eyebrows, and the division commanders, brigade commanders and regiment commanders who attended the meeting suddenly sighed in their hearts, has the situation changed?

The speculation was quickly confirmed, and Yu Jishi informed everyone of the latest order of the Nanjing Command, that the 74th Army had been transferred from the Third Theater to the Nanjing Garrison Command, and would participate in the upcoming defense of Nanjing, responsible for guarding the line of Dasheng Pass, Niushou Mountain, Fangshan and Chunhua Town.

There was a long silence in the room, and everyone pursed their mouths and refused to say anything.

It is said that Yu Jishi only needs to convey the latest orders of the Nanjing Command to the participating officers before announcing the dissolution of the meeting, but Yu Jishi also knows that if even the division, brigade, and regiment commanders can't figure it out, let alone expect the grassroots officers and the big soldiers below to obey the order.

Grassroots officers and ordinary soldiers will definitely think like this, the same troops withdrawn from the Songhu battlefield, why can other troops be withdrawn to Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Anhui to rest, while their 74th Army has to stay in Nanjing to continue to fight to the death against the Japanese invaders? Although the 74th Army has just become an army, it is also a serious German mechanic anyway, so it can't be cannon fodder, right?

Yu Jishi knew all the more that if the officers and men of the whole army could not be made determined to live and die with Nanjing, the morale and fighting spirit of the troops would become a big problem, and with the equipment and fatigue of the 74 th Army at this time, it was very likely that it would collapse on the battlefield at the first touch, and if the entire Nanjing defense line collapsed first from the side of the 74 th Army, he Yu Jishi would become a national sinner.

Yu Jishi first set his eyes on Wang Yaowu and said, "Brother Zuomin, make a statement." ”

Wang Yaowu sighed in his heart, but he said solemnly: "As a soldier of the party-state, it is our duty to obey orders, since this is the will of the leader, there is nothing to say, our 51st Division resolutely obeys the orders." ”

Yu Jishi set his eyes on Feng Shengfa again, and Feng Shengfa immediately stood up and said: "All the officers and soldiers of our 58th Division also resolutely obey the will of the leader and swear to live and die with the capital.

The two division commanders of the 74th Army have expressed their positions, and the matter can be regarded as settled.

Yu Jishi was relieved, but he couldn't help but sigh, after the Battle of Songhu, the 74th Army was already injured, and when the Battle of Nanjing was over, how many people would be left in the 74th Army? It's almost time to revoke the number, right? If the number is not revoked, the troops are basically rebuilt, and it has little to do with the old 74th Army.

As soon as Feng Shengfa returned to the 58th Division, he sent his own guards to call Xu 19, Feng Shengfa knew that Xu 19's brain was flexible and he was also good at doing ideological work in the troops, so he wanted to discuss countermeasures with him.

However, the guards did not find Xu Shijiu, which made Feng Shengfa very angry.

Xu 19 was indeed not at the headquarters of the 58th Division, he wanted to improve the food for the officers and soldiers of the 19th Brigade, so he took out more than 200 yuan of legal currency from the salary he had just received to buy four live pigs, at this time, due to the large amount of money printed by the national government, the actual purchasing power of legal currency has seriously declined, and pork has risen from two jiao per catty in the 24th year of the Republic of China (1935) to more than one yuan per catty now, and Xu 19 only bought back less than 400 catties of hairy pigs with half of his salary.

Xu 19 borrowed a log from the villager's house, and asked the black blind man to tie the limbs of the four pigs and pick them back to the station, the black blind man was the stupid big man Xu 19 received in the Kunshan Detention Station, and was beaten by a few Guijun small and fat people, because his body was covered with long and black fluff, like a black bear, so everyone gave him the nickname "Black Blind Man".

The black blind man has a lot of food, but he also has a lot of strength, and carrying four pigs is like playing.

Xu Shijiu followed behind the black blind man who was walking like a fly, and was thinking about taking the remaining more than 100 yuan of fiat currency to buy three or four hundred catties of vermicelli in the vegetable market, and eating pork stewed vermicelli for the brothers tonight.

"Ah Jiu?"

"Lao Zhu?"

Xu Shijiu didn't expect to meet Zhu Xia in Chunhua Town.

Zhu Xia retreated with the headquarters of the 61st Division to Jurong County, southeast of Nanjing, two days ago, and by this time the 61st Division of Zhongsong had been transferred from Huang Jie's 8th Army to Hu Zongnan's 17th Army.

The legion is a temporary combat unit, between the group army and the army, the reason why such a temporary combat unit is set up is entirely to take care of some of the old qualified army commanders, after the outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, it was successively organized into more than a dozen armies, and many division commanders like Yu Jishi, Wang Jingjiu, Sun Yuanliang, and Song Xilian became army commanders

Then, it is not suitable for veteran commanders like Hu Zongnan, Tang Enbo, and Luo Zhuoying to continue to be army commanders, but if they are to be appointed as commanders-in-chief of the group army, there are not so many positions to arrange, so Chairman Jiang set up a corps between the group army and the army, and several veteran commanders have become corps commanders one after another.

Hu Zongnan's 17th Army Corps was actually still the old foundation of the 1st Army; because Hu Zongnan's thinking was rigid and completely unsuited to modern three-dimensional operations on land, sea, and air, he often launched a group charge against the Japanese army in broad daylight, so that the troops were completely exposed to the wanton and indiscriminate bombardment of the Japanese naval artillery and bomber groups, and suffered heavy casualties and extremely heavy casualties.

After the Battle of Songhu was over, although the 1st Army performed mediocre but suffered greater casualties than the 74th Army, Chairman Chiang still cared for this chief student, and the 17th Army was not only able to evacuate from the Songhu battlefield first, but after retreating to Jurong County, whether it was military supplies or recruits, all were given priority to replenish.

Even Zhong Song's 61st Division, which was temporarily under the command of the 17th Army Corps, was also stained, and Zhu Xia met Xu 19 when he passed through Chunhua Town after receiving military supplies from Nanjing.

When the old people see each other, they naturally can't help but sigh.

Zhu Xia asked: "Ah Jiu, how are you doing in the 5th and 8th divisions?" ”

Xu Shijiu said: "What else, this is all defeated and retreated to Nanjing." ”

Zhu Xia's expression darkened when he heard this, and he sighed: "Yes, the eighty-five elite divisions fought for more than eighty days and nights, and finally they were defeated, not only lost Shanghai, but now even Nanjing is almost unable to keep it. ”

When the Hongqiao Airport incident first occurred, Xu Shijiu expressed his worries, worried that Chairman Chiang would choose to fight a decisive battle with the Japanese army on the outskirts of Shanghai, and in this case, the Nationalist army would suffer a decisive defeat, and not only Shanghai would not be able to defend it, but even Nanjing would be lost

Xu Shijiu sighed and said in a quiet tone: "Win or lose, the Battle of Songhu is over after all, but I am worried that Chairman Jiang will not learn a lesson from it, and he will make a second decisive mistake in the future, in that case, the entire situation of the Anti-Japanese War will become extremely difficult." ’

"The second decisive mistake? What's wrong? Zhu Xia was shocked.

Xu Shijiu looked back at the rainy and misty city of Nanjing in the northwest, and said, "I'm worried that Jiang will leave a heavy army to defend Nanjing." ”

Zhu Xia's face suddenly became a little strange, and he said: "Ah Jiu, your worries have become a fact, Chairman Jiang has ordered the establishment of the Nanjing Garrison Command, and the Teaching Corps of the Central Military Academy, the 66th Army, the 71st Army, the 72nd Army, the 78th Army, the 83rd Army, and your 74th Army have been transferred from the Third War Zone to the Nanjing Garrison Headquarters, and the 2nd Army will soon be driven to Nanjing to participate in the war. ”

"Sure enough......" Xu Shijiu said bluntly with a bitter face, "Alas, such a supreme leader is really a misfortune for the country and the nation." ”