After inflicting a near-devastating blow on the heavy artillery wing of the 9th Division of the Japanese Army, the artillery of the Cadet Corps won ample time for the Nanjing Garrison Headquarters to readjust its defensive line.

Soon after the battle ended at Gwanghwamen, the Japanese troops in several other directions stopped their attacks. It was from this abnormal move that Ouyang Yun concluded that the Japanese army must have a big move next, and what awaits the Nanjing garrison will be an unprecedented test.

At half past eleven o'clock in the afternoon, at Qian Guangming's headquarters, Ouyang Yun and the commanders of the three cadet divisions, the two commanders of the Northeast Division, the two commanders of the Sichuan Army, the three commanders of the Central Department, and Li Hansoul and other principal personnel of the headquarters discussed the next combat plan.

The first to speak was naturally Ouyang Yun.

"You must all know that the Japanese army that surrounded Nanjing has now stopped attacking, and this abnormal situation means that the little devil's next strategy must be greatly adjusted. Yoshiju Ryosuke made such a big move at Gwanghwamen, and then found traces of the 18th Division southeast of Pukou, and it was not difficult to conclude that the Japanese army wanted to hold us back and prepare for the encirclement on all sides. If my prediction is correct, Yoshizu Ryosuke's original plan was to gather the forces of several other divisions, use the Gwanghwa Gate as a breakthrough, and then quickly occupy the main city, and then attack from both sides to besiege our other defenders. Fortunately, Brigade Commander Zhu and Brigade Commander Xie coped well and repelled the Japanese attack. Otherwise, just now, I have sent all the remaining men of the Broadsword Regiment to the Single-Man Male, and I have asked them to gather all the surrounding Japanese forces and dispositions by twelve o'clock tonight. There must be a big conspiracy for the Japanese army next, and we suffer from ignorance. According to my personal analysis, the next action of the Japanese army is nothing more than two possibilities: one is to encircle but not fight, so as to have sufficient forces to pursue and suppress the main force of the Central Army, expand the results of the Battle of Nanjing, and take advantage of the situation to occupy the entire territory of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang; There is also a possibility to abandon the pursuit of the main force of the Central Army and mobilize heavy troops to encircle and annihilate us. Either way, you can't stay in Nanjing. At present, the main force of the Central Army has safely retreated to Hubei, and only some guerrilla troops remain in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This means that no matter what the Japanese army does, we will have to rely on ourselves next. Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why I stayed in Nanjing was to be able to evacuate as many people as possible. After a few days of work, we have also achieved a certain effect, and next, it is time to think about ourselves. This major war between China and Japan cannot be resolved in one or two years, and we must preserve our strength and prepare for the battle that follows. On the Pukou side, there is now a regiment of left-behind troops, and their task is to defend the Pukou ferry. At present, Qian Bin is sending additional reconnaissance troops to reconnoiter the movements of the 18th Division, and if the 18th Division attacks Pukou ahead of schedule, we will have to evacuate immediately. This is a relatively general statement, if you have any good opinions and suggestions, you may wish to speak freely. ”

Liu Yuqing stood up and said to Ouyang Yun: "Commander, everyone, then I'll talk a little bit first." Nanjing City really can't stay, it's not that we don't have the determination to sacrifice, but it's not worth it. The central government and the main forces of the central army have all retreated, and the evacuation of the people has almost been carried out. The Japanese must have also known that we would evacuate Nanjing sooner or later, so what worries me is that the reason why the Japanese are not in a hurry to attack may be to wait for us to retreat, and then use this opportunity to follow and pursue our troops. And as soon as the retreat of our army falls into chaos, then the opportunity for the Japanese army will come. Don't you find it strange, Commander? So far, the frequency and number of Japanese fighters have been quite low. We all know that when little devils fight, their favorite thing is to bomb first and then bomb, then the tanks as cover, and the infantry to charge collectively. But this time, how did the little devil go against the norm? There must be articles in this. Last night, I thought about this issue more and more, and I became more and more sure that the reason why the Japanese army did this was to wait for our army to retreat! Our troops left behind in Nanjing currently have 10 divisions, deducting the battle damage of these two days, there are still about 100,000 people, if so many people are evacuated at the same time, the target is too big, and the speed is also a problem, once bitten by the Japanese army, the most likely result is that an elephant was eaten into a goat, and then, beaten to death. It's not that I'm worrying about it, the Japanese army is now in East China, and a total of more than 300,000 people have been invested. In addition to the remaining troops occupying the city, there are always 200,000 that can be used to fight, and once the 200,000 people are laid out on the evacuation route of our army, the consequences will be unimaginable! My personal suggestion is that when the meeting is dismissed, we can consider withdrawing some of the troops first. For this retreat, I think we can adopt the wave Lang style. The troops that evacuate first are responsible for occupying important cities, passes, and fortresses along the road to receive the troops that follow them. When there are troops to take over, they will retreat, and so on, which can not only ensure the overall combat capability of the troops, but also avoid the goal being too big and being bitten by the Japanese army and unable to escape. One of the biggest advantages is that if the Japanese army shows a flaw, we can still mobilize all our strength and play a game ......of encirclement and annihilation."

Liu Yuqing's words were obviously far-sighted, and Ouyang Yun and the others nodded again and again when they heard it. So, this retreat policy was decided, and after everyone worked together to improve it, they began to decide on the retreat sequence.

Liu Yuqing's retreat plan is undoubtedly the most suitable in terms of the situation of both the enemy and us. Of course, this retreat plan is not perfect, and one of the biggest worries is that once the entire army is dispersed, it seems to have a long snake formation, so the coordination of all units is very demanding. And once there is a problem in a certain link, the consequences will be unimaginable. Therefore, the retreat sequence is quite important, which divisions are the head of the snake, and which divisions are the rearguard, which tests the wisdom and wisdom of Ouyang Yun as the commander.

There is no doubt that in the entire retreat sequence, the first in line and the most behind will be the most dangerous in the entire team. Those in the front should worry about whether there will be a fortification task, and those in the back should worry about whether they can hold it, and whether they will be cut and surrounded by the Japanese army.

Ouyang Yun thought about it carefully, and exchanged opinions with Li Hansoul and the others, and the retreat sequence was as follows.

The first to evacuate were three divisions, namely the 121st Division, the 5th Xue Division, and the 145th Division of the Sichuan Army, which only belonged to the Capital Garrison Command; The two divisions evacuated in the second wave were the 117th Division of the Northeast Army and the 1st Division of the Jiangsu Security Corps; In third place are still two divisions, namely the 60th Division and the 103rd Division; The last group to evacuate was also three divisions, namely the 3rd Division, the 114th Division of the Northeast Army, and the 26th Division of the Sichuan Army. As for the artillery divisions and tank divisions, they were scattered and incorporated into each retreat sequence, of which the first wave was attached to two tank regiments and one artillery brigade; The second wave was accompanied by a tank regiment and an artillery regiment; The third wave is the same as above; The fourth wave consisted only of one tank regiment and one self-propelled artillery regiment.

In terms of the selection of commanders for each wave, Li Hansoul is responsible for the first echelon; Wu Keren is in charge of the second echelon; Fu Kaixing (commander of the 103rd Division) is responsible for the third echelon; Ouyang Yun personally commanded the fourth echelon.

After the retreat sequence and specific retreat time were formulated, Ouyang Yun said in the dark: "Everyone, speaking of which, I am the youngest here, and I should not be the big one. However, since the Chairman has entrusted me with this burden, it is my duty to bring you back safely. Therefore, I hope that you will focus on the bigger picture and not only look out for yourself and others. I said ugly things ahead, no matter who dares to put the entire army in danger because of his personal reasons, then he is a traitor! You must know what kind of attitude I, Ouyang Yun, have towards traitors - as long as Lao Tzu does not die, I will hunt him down to the ends of the earth. ”

Ouyang Yun's words were extremely serious, it was Wu Keren and Liu Yuqing and other famous patriotic generals in later generations, and they were still unhappy when they heard this. However, Ouyang Yun's original intention was only to knock on the mountain and shock the tiger, as for whether it affected his glorious image, he couldn't care less.

Almost at the same time as the meeting of the defenders of Nanjing, the commanders of the Japanese units besieging Nanjing received the latest orders from the headquarters of the dispatch army from Shanghai.

As Ouyang Yun inferred, after General Yoshizu Ryosuke reported the results of the morning's battle to Matsui Ishone, the old devil made a decision after gathering the staff of the staff to discuss collectively for more than half an hour, and decided to seize this opportunity to annihilate the troops stationed in Nanjing in one fell swoop.

Yoshizu Ryosuke's plan to concentrate on blasting the Kokamon Gate was approved and appreciated by Matsui Ishone. In the old devil's opinion, this combat plan is quite perfect, and the success rate should be very high. However, because of the emergence of the artillery of the Cadet Army, this plan ended in nothing, which made the old devil finally realize how awkward the little pebble of the Cadet Army was. Thinking of what happened to the Japanese army in North China, Matsui Shigen felt that it was time to annihilate the main force of the Xuebing Army in one fell swoop (because of the appearance of a large number of self-propelled artillery and Jiguang tanks, the old devil thought that Ouyang Yun must have brought out the main force, so he dared to make such a determination.) You must know that the battle order given to it by the Japanese base camp before was to quickly annihilate as many Chinese troops as possible and capture as much territory as possible).

Therefore, he not only ordered the 18th Division to immediately move towards Jiangpu and seize Pukou in any case, but also ordered the 3rd Division and the 16th Division, which were active in Zhejiang and northwest Jiangsu, as well as the Taiwan Infantry Brigade, to move immediately in the direction of Nanjing, and strive to completely contain the defenders of Nanjing, so as to completely annihilate the main force of the Xuebing Army in Nanjing.