On August 13, 1937, the Battle of Songhu broke out.

At 9:15 a.m., a small group of Japanese marines from Hongkou, Shanghai, rushed into the area of Yokohama Road and Dongbaoxing Road and fired at our security forces. Our 88th Division was also fired upon by the Japanese and was forced to counterattack. At four o'clock in the afternoon, Major General Okawauchi, commander of the Japanese Marine Corps stationed in Shanghai, ordered an attack on all fronts against the Chinese defenders, attacking the military road and the 88th Division in Hongkou with tanks and infantry, and the Japanese warships on the Huangpu River simultaneously fired artillery fire at the city center, and the Chinese and people's all-out war of resistance began.

Later, the Chinese Air Force issued Combat Order No. 1 to meet the Japanese army that invaded Shanghai.

On the night of that day, the Military Council decided to launch a general attack on the Japanese troops in Luhai, and ordered General Zhang Zhizhong, commander of the Ninth Group Army, to "attack at dawn" and "order the air force to bomb tomorrow and the navy to blockade Jiangyin."

At 9 a.m. on 14 August, the Nationalist Government issued a "Declaration of Anti-Riot Self-Defense," declaring that "China's territorial sovereignty has been subjected to Japan's aggression, and that the Covenant of the League of Nations, the Nine-Power Pact, and the Non-War Pact have been completely destroyed by Japan," and that "in order to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and the dignity of the above-mentioned treaties," China "can only respond by exercising its natural right of self-defense."

At 10 o'clock, Zhang Zhizhong took up the post of commander of the Beijing-Shanghai garrison and made a statement to reporters, saying that "to this day, peace has indeed been completely hopeless, sacrifice has reached the last moment, and the goal of protecting China's integrity and territorial sovereignty has not been achieved, and the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression will not be stopped."

At the time when Zhang Zhizhong was making his speech, a group of Japanese bombers took off from Taiwan and attacked the Jianqiao Airport in Hangzhou, the base of our air force, and our air force took off to meet them, and Gao Zhihang, the leader of the Fourth Evacuation Group, shot down six Japanese planes. He Yingqin sent a telegram to Zhang Zhizhong to sweep the strongholds of the Japanese army entrenched in the concession.

Earlier, according to the plan of the Military Committee, Zhang Zhizhong ordered the officers and men of the 87th and 88th Divisions to launch an attack on the Japanese army, preparing to annihilate the Japanese army in Shanghai in one fell swoop and control the military important places before the Japanese reinforcements arrived.

That night, the 1st Division of the 87th Division attacked near the Huishan Wharf, preparing to seize the Japanese bridgehead fortifications, and the Japanese set fire to the surrounding area in order to stop the advance of the Nationalist army, and the fire in the Yangshupu area spread and burned for several days.

On the 15th, Japanese fighters attacked Nanjing twice and shot down eight, and Japanese planes attacked Hangzhou twice and shot down six. On this day, our army occupied a local position of the Japanese army in Shanghai, and most of the Japanese army gathered in the area of Tilanqiao.

At the same time, the Japanese troops on Jiangwan Road, Yangshupu front line and rear base areas were all surrounded by our troops, and the Japanese troops south of Dongbaoxing Road and east of Songhu Station were also pressed back into the concession area.

On the 16th, the Chinese army formed a pincer offensive on the left and right flanks to encircle the Japanese army, and the Japanese army was forced to abandon the warehouses and docks of Mitsubishi, Taicang, Nissin and other companies in Pudong under the fierce attack of the Chinese army. The 88th Division also launched an attack to seize the headquarters of the Japanese Marine Corps in Hongkou, and the Japanese army accelerated the mobilization of reinforcements while holding on to stubborn resistance, and the fighting was very fierce.

At this critical moment, the ambassadors of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Italy were invited by Japanese Ambassador Shigeru Kawa Yue to mediate the Songhu war.

The central government in Nanjing instructed Yu Hongjun, the mayor of Shanghai, to try his best to control the impact of the situation and to hold consultations with the Japanese on the situation in Shanghai to discuss how to quell the war.

By the time the Japanese army took the initiative to provoke again on the 18th and Zhang Zhizhong was forced to respond to the battle, the Japanese army had already used three days to make adequate preparations, and the flames of war were once again pervasive.

Wu Ming looked at the latest battle situation transmitted by Zhu Wenhua, deputy chief of the Intelligence Section of the General Staff Office, on the front line in Shanghai, and shook his head silently. Politically, many times we play with our hearts, pay attention to seeing the wind and steering, and seek the greatest interests. However, in military affairs, there is no turning back from the bow, and once the strategy and tactics have been decided, they must be carried out unremittingly until the winner is decided.

Now that Shanghai has obviously started a war, Chiang Kai-shek and other central bigwigs are still looking ahead and backward, resulting in being played by the Japanese as a monkey, which makes Wu Ming angry.

Wu Ming threw the telegram on the table, and then slapped it heavily, which attracted the attention of Deputy Division Commander Long Shaogang, Chief of Staff Dai Ziran and others.

Dai Ziran put down the documents in his hand, walked over and asked Wu Ming, who was covered with frost, "Master, what's wrong."

Wu Ming snorted coldly, pointed to the telegram on the desktop, and said angrily: "Two days ago, I swore that I would not give up if I would not expel the Japanese from China's territory...... I really don't know what these big guys are pretending to be in their brains? ”

Dai Ziran shrugged his shoulders, after all, this was a decision made by the country's top leaders, and no one could help it, so he persuaded at the moment: "Master, don't think so much, we have a population of 450 million, and we have a vast strategic depth, even if the war situation is unfavorable for a while, the Japanese will be defeated in the end." Chairman Chiang also hoped that the European and American powers would see that Shanghai was the largest city in the Far East, and that it was both an important tax area for China and where the interests of Europe and the United States were located, and pinned their hopes on the League of Nations to mediate the Sino-Japanese war. ”

Wu Ming snorted coldly, didn't say anything, and silently came to the large Songhu map hanging on the wall, looked at the situation of the enemy and the enemy above, and fell into a long thought.

As the war in Shanghai intensified, the 56th Division, which was originally stationed in the Jiaxing and Jiashan areas, was transferred to Shanghai, Zhong Song's independent 20th Brigade completed its assembly in Nanxiang, Beixinjing, and Hongqiao, and the 98th Division under the command of Xia Chuzhong was sent to the Yangshupu area, and Song Xilian's 36th Division, which was originally part of the Beijing-Shanghai garrison and was transferred to Xi'an after the Xi'an Incident, arrived in the northern suburbs of Shanghai on 16 August.

At the same time, the Military Commission authorized the reorganization of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Border Region Army into the Eighth Group Army, with Zhang Fakui as commander-in-chief, and among the subordinate units of the operational cluster, the 55th Division, of which Li Songshan was the division commander, advanced from Fengxian to the line of Zhoupu and Tangqiao and marched along the Huangpu River, and the 57th Division, of which Ruan Zhaochang was the division commander, marched from Jinshan to Luhai and on the 17th to the line of Tangqiao in Pudong, and guarded the Bailong Port in Chuansha. The 62nd Division, of which Tao Liu was the commander of the division, set out from Haiyan, advanced to the line of Jinshanwei and Quangongting, and guarded the north shore of Hangzhou Bay east of Zhapu. The independent 45th Brigade of which Zhang Luanji was the brigade commander was transported to Jiaxing by train from the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Line and the Shanghai-Hangzhou Line, and the first part arrived near Haiyan Kip Shi on the 17th.

Zhang Fakui set up his group army headquarters in the city of Jiaxing.

On the one hand, the task of the Eighth Group Army was to guard the north shore of Hangzhou Bay and be ready to resist a possible landing by the Japanese army at any time, and on the other hand, to sweep away the enemy in Pudong, bombarding the Japanese wharf and barracks in Puxi with artillery across the river, and to cooperate with the Ninth Army to encircle and annihilate the Japanese troops in the concession.

Wu Ming's new 2nd Division was under the leadership of the Eighth Group Army, defending the coast from Haiyan to Zhapu, and at the same time guarding the Jiaxing-Zhapu section of the Zhajia defense line. Wu Ming went to the headquarters of the Eighth Army in Jiaxing several times to visit the commander, but he did not see Zhang Fakui's people. It is reported that when the Ninth Group Army was besieging the Japanese troops in downtown Shanghai, Zhang Fakui had already set out to Pudong to survey the terrain on the spot, deploy defense, and command artillery to cooperate with the Puxi operation.

The new second division was repaired in Pinghu, and although the front line was fighting lively, no order came, and Wu Ming was both relieved and a little anxious. I am glad that I don't have to go to the flesh mill in Shanghai to fight hard, and I am anxious that if I don't take advantage of the fact that the Japanese reinforcements have not arrived to take the concession area where the Japanese army is entrenched, and wait for the Japanese army to increase its troops, this battle will be difficult to fight.

Looking at the map, Wu Ming thought about it for a long time and asked Dai Ziran:

"Ziran, judging from the current situation, in less than a week at most, the Japanese army will mobilize elite troops from North China and Japan to Shanghai. Although there is no information on the movement of the Japanese army at present, I judge that the Japanese reinforcements are already on the way, and your staff office should take precautions......"

"Considering that after the Japanese army has assembled heavy troops on the front line of Songhu, in order to plug the huge gap in the Hongkou and Yangshupu areas, our division is very likely to be transferred to plug the leak, and your staff office must formulate an action plan as soon as possible."

Dai Ziran nodded: "I'll arrange it when I go back, let's not fight a battle that we are not sure of"

Shanghai, Nanxiang, headquarters of the Ninth Army.

After the resumption of fighting on 18 August, the divisions of the Ninth Army once again launched a fierce attack on the Marine Corps Headquarters, the Huishan Wharf, and the Gongda Yarn Mill, where the Japanese were entrenched.

Zhang Zhizhong adopted a parallel frontal offensive tactic, with the enemy holding on to the stronghold, the Chinese army charging in turn, and throwing another regiment into a broken regiment.

If we calmly review and sum up experience, this outdated tactic is obviously not suitable for attacking fortified cities and commits the taboo of dispersing troops and throwing troops into battle one by one.

At the same time, due to the fact that the Japanese Marine Corps had received two armistice orders from the central government in Nanjing (the first time was before 13 August), the best time for the attack was delayed for three days, and the Japanese marines were fully prepared, and the Ninth Army was a little weak after continuous hard fighting.

Due to He Yingqin's mistake in allocating materials, the heavy weapons used to attack the fortified positions were not delivered to the Ninth Army in time, and the divisions under Zhang Zhizhong's command advanced unfavorably, and under the bombardment of Japanese warships and planes, the Ninth Army suffered heavy casualties and was weak in attack, and all units were in a state of semi-truce by the 20th.

Under these circumstances, Chiang Kai-shek criticized Zhang Zhizhong by name, and at the same time issued a general order to commend the Eighth Army under the command of Zhang Fakui, the right-wing who was fighting across the river. Although the Eighth Army did not gnaw hard bones, they did wipe out the enemy on the east bank of the Huangpu River and recover the lost territory in Pudong.

With the passage of time, the situation became grim in just a few days, and the enemy's huge sea fleet, including two aircraft carriers, had already concentrated on the waters of Songhu, and the first batch of Japanese reinforcements of about 60,000 men in two divisions had been assembled and could board ships from Japanese ports at any time.

Once the Japanese reinforcements arrived, or the Japanese army could not uproot the enemy's stronghold in the Shanghai concession before landing, then the superiority of the Chinese army would be completely lost, and the Shanghai battlefield would become a dangerous situation that could not be optimistic.

In the dead of night, a few rays of orange warm light shone from the headquarters camouflaged in the wind and rain.

"It is a death order personally given by the chairman of the NPC Standing Committee to clear out the Japanese strongholds in downtown Shanghai before the Japanese reinforcements land, and those who do not flinch, those who escape from the battle, and those who delay the fighters shall be subject to the orders of the commander under military law, and all divisions, brigades, and regiments will begin their attacks at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning, and there must be no mistake. If the weather clears, the Air Force will dispatch aircraft to support ground operations, and the chief of staff will explain the delineation of the specific combat area and matters."

Xu Quan, chief of staff of the Ninth Group Army, coughed lightly, pointed to the map of downtown Shanghai on the wall, and began to elaborate on Zhang Zhizhong's strategic deployment.

"The enemy in Songhu has his back to the Huangpu River, mainly relying on the support of enemy ships' artillery fire, and the various strongholds are connected into a long snake formation, which are horns of each other, and they are stubbornly waiting for reinforcements. Our army must concentrate its combat strength and attack from Hongkou, Zhabei, and Yangshupu at the same time, cut off the head of the snake, smash the body of the snake, and cut off the tail of the snake, so that the enemy guards it will ignore and win. ”

"Everyone, please note that the building of the headquarters of the enemy's Marine Corps is seven inches away, and it is necessary to fight snakes, so this task is very difficult. According to the commander's order, the combat positions of each division were divided as follows: The 88th Division attacked from the north to Hongkou with the main force, the 87th Division attacked along the North Sichuan Road to Hujiang University and Gongda Yarn Factory, and the 36th Division joined Shajing Port to the front of Baoding Road overnight, with the 216th Regiment of the 108th Brigade taking the lead in the attack, and carried out a key breakthrough to the riverside of Huishan Wharf. Do you understand? ”

"Yes"

Colonel Zhang Shaoxun, commander of the 216th Regiment, stood up: "Resolutely complete the task, please accompany the artillery fire to cover our operations"

"Yes"

Zhang Quan nodded and said: "The 10th Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Artillery Regiment will concentrate all their artillery fire to destroy the enemy's fortifications, and the 98th and 11th Divisions and brigades will be assigned to the above-mentioned main attack units respectively and accept the command of the main attack division commander."

Major General Huo Ran, commander of the 98th Division, said: "Why do you want to dismantle my 98th Division?" Is this to be agreed upon by the Theater Command and the Military Commission? ”

Xia Chuzhong is a civil engineering general, the division is subordinate to Luo Zhuoying's 18th Army, was transferred to Songhu to participate in the war, and was temporarily assigned to the command of the Ninth Army.

"The commander has his own decision, and those who disobey military orders will be punished by military law." Zhang Zhizhong looked at his watch after speaking: "It's not early, everyone go back and rest, I have to play early tomorrow morning......