Xu 19 pointed to the scars on his body, and trembled every time he said a rout under the stage, and when he reached Zuihou, the eyes of more than a thousand rout soldiers looking at Xu 19 changed, there are many officers and soldiers in the national army who are not afraid of death, and there are many who have been injured, but it is rare to see officers and soldiers like Xu 19 who have been seriously injured so many times but are still alive.

"And here!" Xu Shijiu stretched out his finger and pointed to his head, his tone was calm but suffocating, "It's still the 128th Shanghai Anti-Japanese War, in the Temple Lane, when fighting bayonets, the old man asked Xiao Ri to sneak attack an officer's Wang Ba box, and now Zi Jian's bullets are still in his head, maybe one day I will fall down and see Lord Yama." ”

Putting on his shirt again, Xu Shijiu pointed to the defeated soldier who boasted that he had been injured just now, and said sharply: "If you want to say that you are injured, the old man has more than any of you, but has the old man ever said a word?" If you want to talk about merit and hard work, the old man has been a soldier since he was sixteen years old, and he has fought more than 100 battles in 11 years, can you compare with me? But did the old man say a word? ”

The defeated soldiers who were pointed at by Xu Shijiu were so ashamed that they were ashamed, and many of them also lowered their heads.

"Yes, the commander-in-chief, army commander, division commander, brigade and regiment commander all ran away, all ran away, but it was their business for them to run, and it was our own business whether we ran away or not!" Xu Shijiu patted his chest hard and yelled, "To be a man is to rely on conscience, to do things to ask our hearts, we should be soldiers and eat food, should we work hard for the people?!" ”

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

The forty-odd veterans of the surrounding guard platoon had already heard the trembling of their eggs, and they couldn't help but roar angrily at the moment, and many veterans even clamored: "Captain, we don't care what others do, at least the people of our 19th Brigade will never be deserters!" We don't have a single breed in the 19th Brigade! ”

"That's right, our 19th Brigade will never be deserters!" Xu Jiujiu turned his head, his cold gaze turned to those defeated soldiers again, and shouted, "I can't care if your commander wants to be a deserter, and I don't want to care, but I hope you don't want to be a deserter, and I hope you can look like a soldier." ”

Xu Shijiu pulled out the box cannon, opened the nose of the machine again, and said sharply: "Xiao Ri's large army has arrived outside the city, Qingpu will soon fall into a heavy siege, those who are not afraid of death will stay with me, defend Qingpu to the death, cover the westward retreat of the main force, cover the retreat of the people in Shanghai to the rear, if you are afraid of death, you can go now." ’

The routs raised their heads one after another, their eyes showing a look of struggle.

As long as it is a human being, it will struggle, seeing that there is a chance to escape, but to stay and fight with the Japanese army, it is not easy to make such a decision, the scars on Xu 19's body and the oath of the officers and soldiers of the 19th Brigade did cause a great shock to them, but it is still difficult for them to give up the opportunity to go back alive to reunite with their families.

Of course, Xu Shijiu could see the struggle of the defeated soldiers, and said solemnly: "You can leave, but I must remind you that once you leave, once Qingpu County is lost, the entire battlefield situation will be catastrophic, and if the more than 500,000 national troops on the Songhu battlefield are all finished, there will be no one to protect your relatives." ”

"You must understand that you are not fighting for others, not for the commanders who have fled, not for the so-called leaders, but for yourself, for your parents, your wives and children, and you have chosen to flee here, and tomorrow, when your hometown is invaded by the Japanese invaders, others will also choose to flee."

"To stay or not to stay, no one will force you, but I hope you can face your heart."

"Of course, I can't and don't want to deceive you, this battle will be very miserable, there are tens of thousands of Japanese troops outside the city, there are tanks, there are artillery, tomorrow the weather will improve, there will be planes to bomb, there will be many deaths, even ...... All of them are killed! But what the old man wants to say is that even if he dies, the old man has to die like a soldier and die like a man! ”

Give these words, the rout under the stage finally reacted, the rout who boasted just now that he had fought nine bayonets, looked up at Xu Jiuda on the stage and shouted: "Sir, you have said everything to this, if I still want to escape, I don't even count people, in a word, as long as you don't run away, my Qin Da's life will be stacked here." ”

"The turtle's son, since he hit Sichuan, the old man didn't have to think about going back alive, he worked hard."

"Saw mother, it seems that you Sichuan Yankees are not afraid of death? We Cantonese are not afraid of death. ”

"What a deflated calf, the old man ran from the northeast to the northwest, from the northwest to North China, and then from North China to East China, and now he is running again, the old man is really fed up with his mother, and he is fighting with the dog."

"Medium, count me as one, and I won't run away."

"Damn the dragon, if you die, you're afraid of a bird?"

Different accents, from different regions, different troops, but they all vented the same emotion, inadvertently, the blood that had been cooled seemed to become boiling again, and the fighting spirit that had been lost seemed to return to his body, looking at the routs under the stage who gradually became angry, Xu Shijiu finally smiled.

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In Sheshan Town, the headquarters of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army has moved back to the open land close to the Songjia Highway again, and several reconnaissance detachments sent out by the Inoue Brigade have also returned.

The news reported by the Sakai detachment is not very good, and there are no formed national troops found around Qingpu County, and only formed national troops are active near the city walls, but the number is not much, and the total number of national troops fortified outside the city is only three or five hundred, not to mention two divisions, two battalions.

When the Biedong team, which reconnoitred in the north and south directions along the Songjia Highway, came back, the situation was even more wrong, because there was no Nationalist army heading south to Qingpu along the Songjia Highway from Baihegang, and there was no Nationalist army heading south from Qingpu to Songjiang along the Songjia Highway, and the two Nationalist divisions mentioned in the telegram disappeared like air.

However, many of the routs of the Nakamura Brigade fled back and reported to Gu Shoufu an astonishing news that the Nakamura Brigade had been ambushed and routed by the Nakamura army in the middle of the night last night, and there were not many Nakamura troops ambushing the Nakamura Brigade, at most only about 2,000 people per regiment, which was far from the strength of the two divisions.

Gu Shoufu and Shimono Ichihuo looked at each other, and they both felt a little bad.

"Division commander, it looks like we've been fooled!" Shimono Kazuho gritted his teeth and said, "The telegram we intercepted in the morning is likely to have been deliberately spread by the Chinese army, the purpose of which is to lure us to withdraw the Sakai detachment from Kunshan!" Ba Ge Yalu, these cunning supporters, we have been fooled, fooled! ”

Gu Shoufu kept silent with a gloomy face, he thought more about it.

"Division Commander ......" Shimono Kazuho was about to say something more, but was stopped by Gu Shoufu waving his hand.

Staring at the map, Gu Shoufu said: "Shimono-san, this time we have met a powerful character, you see, this person did not take a break after the success of the ambush of the Nakamura Brigade, but went south to Sheshan non-stop to attack the division headquarters, not only made the rout of the Nakamura Brigade have no time to flee back to report the news, but also made us lose the ability to control the situation in Qingpu."

Immediately afterwards, this person sent another telegram, ordering the troops to fortify Qingpu, and ordering the troops to attack Songjiang, and posing a heavy army to gather in Qingpu, vowing to tear the gap from Songjiang and reopen the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway and Shanghai-Hangzhou Highway, thus forcing us to transfer the nearest Sakai detachment from Kunshan back to Qingpu.

If the Zhina Army that went south to Qingpu really only had one regiment of less than 2,000 people, then I would have met this Zhina commander, and if possible, it was best to capture this person alive, because this person's tactical command ability and ability to grasp the fighter plane were indeed very extraordinary. ”

"Hmph, he's just unlucky." Shimono Ichihuo was a little unconvinced, and said, "If it weren't for the rain and fog, our aerial reconnaissance planes would not be able to dispatch, how could the tricks of the Shina Army hide from us?" ”

"Not really." Gu Shoufu waved his hand and said disapprerovingly, "With this person's calculation ability, how can he not take into account the battlefield reconnaissance of the imperial army's air force?" If the weather is clear, the other side must have other arrangements, and it can also hide from the sight of aviation scouts, after all, aerial reconnaissance is not as good as ground reconnaissance, right? ”

Shimono Kazuho was noncommittal, and said: "Division commander, since Qingpu's Zhina Army is bluffing, and its real strength is only one regiment of less than 2,000 people, then leaving two infantry brigades, an artillery squadron, and at most a tank squad is enough to deal with it, do you want to transfer the main force of the Sakai detachment to Kunshan?" ”

"Forget it, anyway, there are still the Nakajima Division and the Suesong Division in front, and the Zhina Army can cross Kunshan, but it can't cross Taihu Lake!" Gu Shoufu waved his hand and said, "Let's let the Sakai detachment solve the Zhina Army in Qingpu City as soon as possible, although the strength of this group of Zhina Army is not much, its combat effectiveness is not weak, and their commander especially cannot be underestimated, if this Zhina Army is not solved, the logistics supply line of the imperial army will really have an accident." ”

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In Kunshan, not long after the Sakai detachment retreated, the defeated soldiers who retreated from Nanxiang, Beixinjing, Nanshi and Pudong were like the tide of the ebb tide, surging along the Shanghai-Kunming Highway and Shanghai-Kunming Railway.

Looking at the surging rout frenzy on the road, Xue Yue was already in tears.

In any case, Kunshan, the gateway to the life and death of more than 500,000 troops, was not lost in his hands Xue Yue, and he could be regarded as worthy of the party-state and the chairman.

Taking advantage of this precious gap, Xue Yue had already moved the headquarters of his 19th Army to Kunshan, and also made contact with more than a dozen army and division commanders under his command, organized two incomplete divisions to go out of the Qingkun Highway, and blew up the Shipu Bridge.

##########

Nanjing, High Command.

Although he didn't sleep all night, Chairman Chiang's spirit was not bad, and in any case, Kunshan, the life passage of Zuihou, was always preserved, and of course, even if Kunshan was saved, the more than 500,000 troops of more than 80 divisions withdrawn from the Songhu battlefield were still not out of danger, because the Japanese army had already run to the front of the national army.

The Japanese army has been discovered in Pingwang in the south and Changshu in the north, and the intention of the Japanese army on these two routes is obvious, that is, to seize Suzhou in front of the national army and block the westward retreat of the national army again! In addition, there is also a Japanese army to trace the Yangtze River westward, and the other Japanese army through Jiaxing to attack Nanxun, and its troops are directed at Nanjing!

In other words, if the Japanese army was allowed to capture Suzhou before the Nationalist army, or if the main force of the Tenth Army, which was detoured south of Taihu Lake, to occupy Wuhu first, and then cross the river to the north to capture Pukou, thus completing a strategic detour, then the more than 500,000 troops of more than 80 divisions withdrawn from the Songhu battlefield would still be surrounded by the Japanese army near Nanjing.

The only good thing is that this is not happening anytime soon.

Chairman Chiang was now more concerned about the reasons for the sudden withdrawal of Japanese troops from Kunshan.

Liu Fei and the senior staff of the headquarters unanimously agreed that the reason for the sudden retreat of the Japanese army in Kunshan was the telegram of unknown origin, because the telegram pretended to be the commander of the 74th Army, Yu Jishi, and clearly gave the order to attack Songjiang by Wang Yaowu and Feng Sheng.

Liu Fei, the leader of the combat group, had also made dozens of phone calls, asking all the commanders-in-chief, corps commanders, army commanders, and division commanders of the group army who could be contacted, but he had no clue, and the commanders of these troops all said that they had not sent such a telegram, and the investigation was unsuccessful, so Chairman Jiang could only return to the official residence with a state of confusion.