The Japanese invaders came with 27 planes to attack Jinling, firing at low altitudes over Guanghuamen Airport, Zhonghua Road, Yuhua Road, Jiankang Road, Sanshan Street, Xinjiekou, Gulou, and other downtown areas, dropping bombs one after another like hens laying eggs.

The people who had taken refuge in the bomb shelters crouched on the ground, their hearts pounding, and the buzzing sounds of airplanes and machine guns, as well as anti-aircraft guns, could be heard from outside. The explosion of the bomb caused a huge wave of sound that shook people's ears and made their eardrums feel a dull pain. After the air raid, the houses in the city burned and turned into a sea of fire. Shops and houses were burned to the ground, broken walls, fans stood in the sun, in the ruins, on the streets, countless innocent people were killed, burned, and their bodies lay on the ground, blood stained the earth.

The cries, screams, and the gnashing of the car were incessant.

During the Battle of Songhu, Japanese planes frequently visited the sky over Jinling City, and they also played tricks of deception.

On 16 September, 66 Japanese planes in two groups carried out another large-scale air raid on Jinling City, and the radio and television station, the Capital Garrison Headquarters, and some residential areas were indiscriminately bombed by Japanese planes, leaving a devastated body at the end of the air raid.

On this day, in order to further deter the Chinese capital, the commander of the Japanese Third Fleet, Hasegawa Kiyoshi, stationed in Shanghai, issued a 'circular' full of blackmail.

The 'Circular' stated: "Jinling is the main base of China's military activities, and in order to eliminate the hostilities of the Chinese army and end the present hostilities at an early date, after 12 noon on 21 September 1937, the Chinese troops in and around Jinling City, as well as all buildings belonging to the military work and activities of the Chinese army, will be bombed or other means." ”

On the 20th, there was still one day before the day of the bombing by the Japanese planes, and the citizens of Jinling City thought that the emptiness would be on the 21st, so they firmly remembered this day, but they did not expect that on the 20th, the Japanese army began to implement their bombing plan. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 80 Japanese planes flew over Jinling in waves, and they continued to be like a flock of black crows, covering the sky and the sun, and carrying out a fierce bombardment of Jinling City.

The advance of the bombing was, of course, a conspiracy and deception of the Japanese devils.

During the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese army constantly sent planes to bomb the capital Jinling City, so that after the fall of Shanghai, the capital of the national army changed from Jinling to Chongqing (Chongqing, Qing).

The outbreak of the war in Shanghai was extremely shocking to the 40th Division, and the atmosphere of the 40th Division had obviously changed. On the morning of the 13th, Xia Yuan, as the deputy squad leader of the second platoon and the third squad, and Xu Yu formed the whole team together, and 80% of the entire ninth company were recruits, gathered on the playground to receive a lecture from the company commander.

"Training is to make you better survive on the battlefield, don't think that training is to torture you, on the contrary, train hard for one more day, and the more likely you are to survive on the battlefield."

"It's going to change."

The content of the lecture was quite simple, but the fighters all felt a sense of impending a storm.

The training time is tighter.

But the old man Wang, who is over half a hundred years old, is tired enough, and everyone in the class is basically unable to hold on, not giving them enough food, and thinking about hard training, how is it possible.

That night, when Old Man Wang was chatting with Xia Yuan, they heard the news that someone had escaped again, there was no doubt that these people who had escaped had been arrested, and Old Man Wang wanted to let the monkey go to see it, but was stopped by Xu Yu.

"Don't go out, stay quiet." As a veteran, Xu Yu knew that something would happen if he went out at this time.

Old man Wang stopped the monkey's actions and laughed: "What the squad leader said is true, but I don't understand a little, are we preparing to fight?" ”

He turned his head and looked at Xia Yuan again.

Xia Yuan exhaled and said vaguely: "Listen to what the company commander said, if you really want to fight, no one can run." ”

Xu Yu glanced at Xia Yuan and nodded: "What your deputy squad leader said is right, if you really want to fight, no one can run, so, don't worry so much, train with peace of mind, when you want us, we have to go, when you don't want us, we just need to train with peace of mind." ”

The rest of the class was a little uneasy, and the monkeys who were active in the past were no longer active, sitting on the futon in a daze, and the scholars were already silent, but now they are even more silent.

Probably going to war? They stayed in the camp more for a bite to eat, otherwise who would want to endure such hard training and not have enough to eat all day, so after the company commander conveyed the news to them today, the entire recruit camp was panicked for a while, and many people wanted to escape from the camp that night, but then these people were arrested, and no one had such thoughts anymore.

Sure enough, on the second day, there were many soldiers who had been severely beaten hanging from the trees around the playground, and the bloody wounds on their bodies were particularly eye-catching, constantly reminding the running recruits not to think about running away, otherwise it would not be them who would be hanging from the trees tomorrow, but you.

"Look, isn't that Han Er? He also ran away last night. ”

Old man Wang saw an old acquaintance among the few people hanging, who was from the third platoon of their ninth company, who came to the barracks a day later than them, and met during training, chatting and spanking when he was fine.

Xia Yuan raised his head and looked over. He also had a deep impression of this Han Lao, he was a little younger than Old Man Wang, but he was not young, but he didn't expect that this time he would think about running away.

Han Lao Er was accompanied by several acquaintances in the third row, all hanging from a tree, beaten half to death, and the skin of his body was open.

Han Lao Er slowly raised his head as if he was aware of everyone's gaze, his hair was wet, and water droplets kept dripping down, and when he saw Old Man Wang and Xia Yuan, he smiled, his teeth were bloody, and his smile was a little oozing.

Old man Wang opened his mouth, did not speak, and fell silent. The monkey was also shocked, he didn't feel much when he looked at the hanging people before, but when these people were replaced by people he knew, the feeling was different.

The scholar's lens was broken and was picked off by him, only one was used to look at it, he covered one eye, saw Han Laoer's appearance, was startled, turned his head to look at Xia Yuan, and saw that he didn't say a word, and the scholar fell silent.

This scene in front of me shocked many soldiers of the Ninth Company, Han Lao Er's reputation in the Ninth Company is not small, he is relatively kind, he likes to make friends when he has nothing to do, everyone basically knows each other, even if they don't know each other, they are also familiar, and now they are hanging under a tree with other people, and the impact of this scene is still not small.

In this way, it is indeed a shock to some people who have the idea of escaping.

Old man Wang has settled down, no longer thinking about his own thoughts, and Xu Yu also said last night that they may not go to the battlefield. In this way, life gradually returned to normal, the daily training is still the same as before, nothing has changed much, the only difference is that the soldiers began to care about the front-line battles, every one to two days, you can hear some news from the front, also known as the topic of chatting after training.

After two days, Han Lao Er followed the training of the army normally, the wounds on his body were not medicated, and he was beaten with a whip by the training instructor every day, and Han Lao Er's situation became more and more wrong.

Four days later, Han Lao Er got up early in the morning, earlier than everyone else, got up and cleaned himself up, and even cleaned the grass shed, and everyone was stunned.

"Second Han Lao, your injuries are healed?" Someone looked at Han Lao Er and asked puzzled.

"It's good, it's not good." Han Lao Er responded.

Everyone scratched their heads, and they didn't know what was going on, but the instructor saw Han Laoer's state, and said with a smile: "It's very spirited, it's rare, train hard." ”

"Gotta train well." Han Lao Er also responded with a smile.

Old man Wang also jokingly said: "Han Lao Er's spirit is good, no matter how you look at it, it seems to be a return to the light, saying that people are dying and begging, so as not to be confused." ”

Old man Wang was still right.

The next day, Han Lao Er died, died in the grass shed, the third platoon leader did not treat Han Lao Er as a person, he was so seriously injured, he still pointed at him with a whip, let him participate in training, and persisted for four days, this morning, he died in the grass shed, when the people in the same grass shed called him, they found that his body was already cold, and the few people who escaped with Han Lao Er were not so lucky, they were all half dead, the weather was too hot, when everyone passed by Han Lao Er's grass hut, they were able to ask a rancid smell, very unpleasant, That's their wounds ulcerated, inflamed, but the national army's medicines are limited and will not be used on these people.

And such a ragtag army is cannon fodder.

Han Laoer's death surprised everyone, because the first day was fine, but it was not good this morning, so what Wang Lao said made many people think that it was right, Han Lao Er really returned to the light, cleaned himself up, cleaned up the grass shed, and trained very seriously, as if he was saying goodbye to this.

Xia Yuan was as calm as ever.

Since he has entered the ranks of the national army, he has long been psychologically prepared, the life of the low-level soldiers of the national army is very difficult, on the one hand, he is oppressed by the landlords and bullies, and when he enters the army, he will inevitably be oppressed by the commanders.

The momentum of the commander of the ninth company is not bad, but it's a pity that the third platoon commander is a bastard.

The day after Han Lao Er died, several soldiers who escaped with Han Lao Er hanged themselves in the grass shed, and they hung themselves quietly.

"It's a pity, I'm stupid in my early twenties." Old man Wang looked at the crazy young soldier with a look of regret.

Everyone didn't speak, looking at the funny appearance of the crazy young soldier, they wanted to laugh but couldn't laugh at all.

On the second day, the crazy young soldier disappeared without a trace, and I don't know where they went, but Xia Yuan and they gradually returned to normal, physical training, kicking and stepping, platoon, tactical training, etc., and daily life was just a little bit of a ripple with the incident of Han Laoer, as the stones sank to the bottom of the lake, the ripples collided with the shore, and the lake fell into calm.

"The situation on the front line is not optimistic, and we have to be ready to go."

On this day, the company commander suddenly summoned all the cadres in the company and started a secret meeting, and then Xu Yu called Xia Yuan out at the end of the night, and when he went to the toilet, his expression was a little solemn.

Xia Yuan has been thinking about the time in his heart, it has been twenty-three days, it has been ten days since the Battle of Songhu began, and the battle situation on the front line has been transmitted to the barracks every day.

Summed up in four words.

There is no room for optimism.

In the early morning of this day, about 10,000 people of the 11th Division of the Japanese Army landed at Xiaochuansha and Shishilin, and the 3rd Division landed at Wusongkou at the same time.

Not only that, but General Zhang's headquarters was also cut off from the front-line combat units, and there was no communication with the information, which was undoubtedly the most deadly. The headquarters of the 87th Division is in the area of Jiangwan Town and Wusongkou Lion Forest.

General Zhang, knowing that he could not sit still at the headquarters, grabbed a herald's bicycle on the way, stared at the stray bullets fired by the Japanese warships, crossed the line of fire all the way, and personally delivered the letter to the division headquarters of the 87th Division.

The war in Shanghai is tense, and the capital Jinling has issued an order to the provincial armies to support the front line, and today's secret meeting is to prepare for the next move.

Xia Yuan knew the news, he didn't have much nervousness, his talent for calmness kept him a calm brain, and he only asked: "When will you leave?" ”

"The day after tomorrow!"

The time of departure was beyond Xia Yuan's expectations, he didn't expect it to come so quickly.

"The Flesh Mill."

Every time this word was mentioned, Xia Yuan's heart couldn't help but sink, and the Yu army dispatched two divisions, and there was no ripple in this flesh and blood mill. Xia Yuan still remembers the heavy mood he felt when he first saw this period of history.

General Bai of the Gui Army is the bald rival, but at the time of the national disaster, he still chose to let go of the past, unite to resist the Japanese, at the beginning of the outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, the Gui army set off, this army from Guangxi, by train, then by car, and then on foot, after more than three months to arrive in Shanghai.

At that time, the battle plan adopted by the national army was to swear to hold the position, General Bai arrived at the front line, found that the situation on the front line was not optimistic, after the meeting and discussion, he decided to take the initiative to attack, take the central breakthrough battle plan, the Gui army has a lot of French equipment, but in the face of the Japanese army with very luxurious weapons and equipment, it is not enough to see.

But the Gui army did not intimidate at all, this is a wolf soldier, during the Northern Expedition, the Gui army is known as the 'steel army', they dare to fight, not afraid of death, like an awl.

(End of chapter)