At about 11 o'clock in the morning of December 10, a jeep drove from the headquarters of the Central China Front of the Soviet Army in the prefecture and parked not far from the Zhongshan Gate.

After the four of them got out of the car, they looked at the doorway of the Zhongshan Gate, and they waited for a representative of the Chinese military to appear there and accept their persuasion.

At noon on the 12th, Muto stretched out his hand to look at his watch, shook his head and said, "There is no hope for that, if they agree to lay down their arms, they should have come a long time ago." ”

The senior chief of staff gritted his teeth fairly and ferociously: "If they don't surrender, you can let them perish." ”

The jeep started again and returned to the state as it had been. Muto reported the situation to Matsui Ishine, and after listening to it, Matsui Ishine lowered his head and was silent for a moment, and then his eyes revealed a fierce light, and he said to Muto: "According to the plan, order the troops to launch an attack on all fronts early tomorrow morning, all the way to the Yangtze River!" ”

"Yes!" Muto retreated and conveyed to the various divisions.

December 11th.

The sky had just dawned, and the cold wind was blowing and making people's cheeks hurt.

Explosions sounded everywhere in Jinling City, and at this time, the vast majority of residents in Jinling City were still asleep, and there were only a few small vendors in the market who had just come out of the market.

The sudden explosion directly woke everyone up from their sleep, the violent explosion, the bombardment of the house trembled continuously, followed by the piercing air raid siren, a large number of citizens rushed out of the house, ran to the bomb shelter, everywhere was the panicked shouts of the people, looking for the lost relatives shouts.

The encircled Japanese army opened fire on Jinling, a famous city with a history of more than 500 years.

The cannon roared incessantly, the houses in the city were blown up, the bricks and tiles were shattered, and the smoke and dust were dispersed.

The Japanese troops on the entire front, with the early morning shelling, began to launch a frantic attack.

Wang Jingjiu, the commander of the 71st Army, who was in charge of the defense of Dongcheng, hid in the basement of Fugui Mountain at the foot of the Purple Mountain, learned about the situation of defending the city by telephone, and issued an order to resist in time.

The defenders then fought to the death with the Japanese army, until the evening of the 11th, when he learned that the Guanghuamen city wall was blown up by the Japanese army to open a huge gap, and then, the Guanghuamen defenders kept reporting to him that there were too many enemies and it was difficult to resist, so please ask him what to do?

Wang Jingjiu thought for a short time and immediately ordered the defenders to place thirty gasoline cans at the gap to deal with the Japanese troops who were storming the city from the gap.

At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the night defense.

At midnight, the Japanese army really poured in from the gap, Xie Chengrui, the regiment commander who was responsible for holding the Guanghua Gate, gave an order, several soldiers hiding on the city wall lit torches and threw them at the gasoline barrels, and in an instant, the fire rose to the sky, reflecting half of the sky and burning the entire gap directly, and the Japanese soldiers who were caught off guard were ignited by the fire, rolling on the ground, and screaming in pain.

The defenders were condescending, light and heavy firearms intertwined into a dense network of firepower, and swept angrily towards the enemy group.

Zhonghua Gate, Yuhuatai.

After a few days of fighting, the remaining strength of the 88th Division was only a handful, and in the face of round after round of attacks by the Japanese army, the remnants of the 88th Division were still not afraid of death, like a nail, deeply rooted in the position.

At this time, the Zhonghua Gate has appeared a leaderless situation, and the division commanders and regiment commanders who participated in the battle suffered countless casualties with the attack of the Japanese army in the morning, and all that remained were some remnants and wounded soldiers.

Xia Yuan threw away the broadsword with a curly blade and assumed the responsibility of commanding.

A few days earlier, the Zhonghua Gate was blasted through by the Japanese army, and Xia Yuan led a group of soldiers of the 88th Division who were still in good health to form a death squad, carrying a big knife and a rifle, to build fortifications on the streets near the gap.

Then Japanese tanks and infantry poured in through the gap.

Xia Yuan led his troops to counterattack, using all the means available to push back this Japanese army.

The battle lasted from early morning to afternoon, the soldiers did not touch a drop of water, did not eat a grain of rice, and fought with the Japanese army hungry until three o'clock in the afternoon, when the Japanese attack was repulsed, and no more troops were sent to attack.

Xia Yuan sat on the ground with his elbows on his knees, looking at the remaining ten or so soldiers, there were more than two hundred of them since this morning, and they had been fighting for most of the day, and there were only so many people left at the moment.

However, Zhonghua Gate is not only their 88th Division, but also the regiment of Qiu Weida of the 51st Division next door, which is still holding on.

I don't know if the Japanese army will attack Zhonghua Gate next, Xia Yuan collected grenades and weapons and ammunition after a short break from the fire, and prepared for the next battle.

What Xia Yuan didn't know was that the 88th Division at this time had become a lone army.

Sun Yuanliang led a force of 2,000 people and moved to Xiaguan.

On the evening of December 10, Commander Tang was busy commanding, and it was not until 4 o'clock in the morning that he collapsed on the sofa in the office physically and mentally exhausted and fell asleep.

Until Liu Xing broke in and brought bad news: "Gui Yongqing called and said that more than 1,000 devils in the Qilin Gate area participated in the attack on the second peak of the Purple Mountain, and the situation was critical. More than half of the troops they led at Purple Mountain suffered casualties, and Gui Yongqing asked for reinforcements from an artillery regiment. ”

Commander Tang was stunned after hearing this, now all the troops have been sent to the front line, and there is not even a single army in Jinling City, where did he get an artillery regiment to reinforce Gui Yongqing.

At this time, the phone on the table rang, Liu Xing stepped forward to pick up the phone, and after listening, he said to Commander Tang: "This is Sun Yuanliang calling, saying that Yuhuatai is lost, Zhonghua Gate is also in an emergency, their ammunition is running out, and we are asked to send someone to send ammunition quickly." ”

Commander Tang's eyes flashed with gold stars, "The defense of Jinling has been fought so much, and the weapons and ammunition that should have been reinforced have already been reinforced, where else can I get the ammunition." ”

He stopped his words and said to Liu Xing: "You call Sun Yuanliang quickly, forget if Yuhuatai is lost, but Zhonghua Gate must be defended by all means, and borrow some from their friendly neighbor 74th Army if there is no ammunition." ”

After a while, Sun Yuanliang's phone call came again, and Sun Yuanliang said to Commander Tang on the phone: "We have no ammunition, I will immediately lead 2,000 people to move in the direction of Xiaguan." ”

After listening to this, Commander Tang was about to speak, but Sun Yuanliang had already hung up the phone.

Commander Tang put down the phone and said to Liu Xing: "Sun Yuanliang is going to Xiaguan, what is he going to Xiaguan for?" Is there ammunition there? ”

When Liu Xing heard this, he suddenly felt that something was wrong: "Where is there ammunition in Xiaguan, there is not even an ammunition depot there, should he want to retreat from Xiaguan across the river?" ”

Commander Tang was stunned and scolded: "At the critical moment, how can he run away, this is to escape from the battle, catch him in military law!" ”

Liu Xing thought quickly, and then said: "Commander, in this way, I will immediately call Commander Song Xilian of Rujiangmen and ask him to send someone to Xiaguan to block Sun Yuanliang, let him rush back to Zhonghua Gate, and tell him to live and die with Zhonghua Gate!" ”

"Go, go."

Liu Xing conveyed Commander Tang's intention to Commander Song on the phone, but Commander Song told him that Yu Jishi, the commander of the 74th Army, led his troops to build a pontoon bridge from the Three Forks River to Xiaguan and prepare to retreat to Xiaguan.

This is a wave of unsettled, wave after wave, even Liu Xing listened, his head was about to blow up.

Commander Tang was anxious and stammered: "No matter how they are all evil, they are all going down, hurry up and take measures to stop their escape!" ”

He snatched the phone from Liu Xing's hand and ordered Song Xilian's 36th Division to be the martial law force in Rujiangmen, focusing on maintaining the area around Xiaguan, and immediately under martial law, not allowing any soldiers to move, let alone any excuse to retreat through Rujiangmen.

What Tang Shengzhi didn't know was that his order blocked the only retreat path for the troops in the city, and finally led to 100,000 officers and soldiers being slaughtered by the Japanese devils.

At this time, there were many spies in Jinling, and they often wore the clothes of the Chinese army and openly set up a radio station on the side of the road in the name of a certain unit to indicate the bombing targets to Japanese planes. Since Chiang left Jinling, the Tang Mansion was the main target of the bombing, and every day planes came to bomb in turn, diving and strafing, and the Tang Mansion was bombed almost beyond recognition.

For the Japanese bombing, Commander Tang was very helpless and could only hide in Tibet.

On this day, the Japanese army ended the bombing of the Tang Mansion, Commander Tang hid in the basement with his entourage, and after a while, the phone rang, Liu Xing picked up the phone, listened for a while, and then handed the phone to Commander Tang, and said: "It was Gu Zhutong who called from Jiangbei with Deputy Commander." ”

Commander Tang picked up the phone and heard Gu Zhutong say on the other side of the phone: "Commander Tang, the chairman of the committee called from Hanwu and ordered all the Jinling defenders to retreat immediately. Hurry up and come to Pukou, Hu Zongnan is waiting in Pukou. ”

Fall back!?

Commander Tang was bent on sticking to Jinling and coexisting with Jinling, after Jiang arrived in Hanwu, he kept in touch with him and told him a good news, now the Nanyun troops are supporting Jinling, and they can arrive in a few days, as long as Tang Shengzhi defends Jinling for half a month, Jiang will lead a million troops to relieve the siege, and then the inside and outside should be combined, and the enemy on the periphery of Jinling will be completely annihilated in a week.

However, only a few days later, the chairman of the committee changed the order and asked them to retreat.

When Commander Tang heard this, he was very surprised, and he was stunned for a while before he reacted, and only then did he come back to his senses when he heard Gu Zhutong shouting "Hey, hey, hey" over there.

He said to Gu Zhutong: "Now the defenders of each gate of Jinling are intertwined with the enemy, and it is difficult to distinguish between the enemy and me, and it is impossible to retreat in this situation. If there is a sudden retreat, the enemy will follow like a flood of beasts into Jinling, and the defending troops will definitely be pursued by the Japanese army. You say retreat, but in such a situation, why do you tell me to retreat, and where will I retreat if I retreat? ”

Gu Zhutong was impatient and didn't give Commander Tang any face, "This is the chairman's order, you must resolutely implement it unconditionally!" You are a veteran and the supreme commander of the garrison Jinling, you should know what unconditional execution is! ”

Seeing that Commander Tang didn't react again, he continued: "When you accepted the mission, you should have thought of how to retreat and where to retreat if you held on to Jinling and couldn't hold on, this is the basic requirement for commanders, but now you come to ask me, how did you become a commander?" ”

Gu Zhutong was sarcastic and sarcastic, and Commander Tang felt like he had knocked over the five-flavor bottle, the five flavors were mixed, sweet and sour, and it was very unpleasant.

But he still insisted on his thoughts, "Chief Gu, now that your eyebrows are burning, what's the use of you talking so much?" I have a lot of things to do, and I always have to make it clear to the divisions and armies before retreating, right? It turned out that I had always wanted them to live and die with Jinling, and now I want them to retreat, how can I open this mouth!? ”

Tang Shengzhi was anxious like an ant on a hot pot, "More than 100,000 people, I, the commander of the light pole, patted my ass and left, how can I explain to the chairman of the committee?" How to explain to the people who have banned it? I'm alone, haven't I become a sinner through the ages? ”

"You're a soldier, how did you become a mother-in-law today?" Gu Zhutong said impatiently: "Let me remind you, you leave a chief of staff to clean up the mess, you don't care about other things, hurry up and come to Pukou, you must cross the river tonight, the devil has already arrived in Liuhe, there is only one day, tomorrow Pukou will become the world of devils!" ”

After that, Gu Zhutong dropped the phone with a snap.

Ten minutes later, the chief of communications sent a telegram to Commander Tang, which said: "Commander Tang, if the situation cannot be sustained, you can see the opportunity to retreat in order to sort out and counterattack in the future. ”

Commander Tang's original idea was to live and die with Jinling, but now that he received Chiang's order, although he was a little at a loss, the soldier took obedience to the order as his duty.

But at this moment, Commander Tang is quite embarrassed, it is easy to go up the mountain and difficult to go down, so many troops are still fighting and fighting with the Japanese army on the city wall, how easy is it to retreat, once retreating, the city wall is unguarded, the Japanese army will definitely enter Jinling, so what should the people of Jinling do?

At this time, no one would have realized that after the Japanese army entered the city, they would slaughter more than 300,000 people in a frenzy.

Just when Commander Tang was making a move, the chairman's order came again, and like the previous order, it was obviously urging him to evacuate quickly.

In order to prevent being annihilated by the enemy's tail pursuit in the retreat, he thought for a long time and thought of a plan, if his plan could be realized, it could alleviate the contradiction between tail pursuit and retreat.

So, he took the car to the International Committee on Ninghai Road, which was inhabited by Germans, British, Americans, Danes, etc.

He approached the director of the International Committee, Spoling, and said in an almost pleading tone: "In order to protect our wounded and sick, I also ask you to come forward to negotiate a truce with the Japanese, and the representatives of both sides will negotiate the settlement of the wounded after the truce." ”

After hearing this, Spolin shook his head and said, "I'm sorry Commander Tang, I can't do anything now." Besides, what time is it now, the day you received the letter of surrender, you asked for a truce and can still negotiate, and now people are angered by your actions, the troops are coming to the city, and Jinling is at your fingertips, will they agree to your peace talks? Unless the Japanese are fools, and in the current view, they are clearly not fools, you better leave Jinling quickly, if you are late, you will be in danger. ”

Commander Tang's last ray of hope was blown out, his face was flushed, and he returned to the Baiziting Mansion dejectedly, asking Adjutant Wang to inform the commanders above the division level to come here to attend the meeting.

At that moment, he thought of another person.

"Go, go to Zhonghua Gate, call Xia Yuan too, and let him attend the meeting!"

(End of chapter)