With 250,000 people crammed into an area of just 2.5 square miles, sanitation quickly became a new nightmare.

The camp was a mess of dirty, cramped roads on both sides of the road, where human waste was everywhere, the smell was unpleasant, and the toilets in particular angered all the members of the Safe Zone Committee, for which they convened a general meeting at which Rabe made a fiery speech.

After the meeting, the sanitary conditions in the camp were improved, and not only that, but in addition to the improved toilet environment, the entire courtyard wall was corrected by the refugees.

Rabe sighed: "The Chinese are very hands-on, I don't even know where to get those beautiful new bricks on the walls." ”

Later, Rabe discovered that many of the new buildings in the zone were much shorter than before, and it turned out that the Chinese refugees in the zone had demolished the roofs of some useless houses in the zone and strengthened the perimeter walls of the zone.

This was comforting to Rabe.

However, one was not settled, and the other was raised.

A British professor approached Rabe and looked at Rabe with a sad face: "Chairman, I shouldn't tell you about this, you are busy enough, but right now we are facing a huge problem that we cannot solve." ”

Rabe asked, "What's the problem?" ”

"The food problem, there are too many refugees in the safe zone, and the amount of food they eat every day is astronomical, and we don't have much food to supply them," the British professor said. ”

Rabe rubbed his eyebrows, this is indeed a huge question: "Have you discussed it?" ”

The British professor nodded: "Yes, at the beginning of December, when Jinling had not yet fallen, the mayor of Jinling gave us 30,000 stone (about 2,000 tons) of rice and 10,000 bags of flour as rations for the refugees, but these grains were stored outside Jinling City, and there were no trucks to transport these grains in the security zone. ”

Since the Chinese army had already requisitioned most of the region's means of transport to transport 20,000 men and 5,000 boxes of treasures out of Jinling, desperate civilians and individual soldiers even took the plunge and stole almost all of the remaining vehicles.

There are no trucks in the security zone.

Rabe thought for a moment and said to him, "No, we still have our own car. ”

Their cars are also capable of transporting food, but their cars are cars, unlike trucks, which can pull a lot of goods at once.

"Let's go a few more times."

The grain was stored outside the city of Jinling, and it took a long time to go back and forth, and on the way, you even had to pass through areas occupied by Japanese devils, which was very dangerous.

But they have no choice, and if they don't get food delivered quickly, they won't be able to get food for the hundreds of thousands of people in the safe zone.

Rabe and the other foreigners had no choice but to drive their own cars frantically back and forth between the two places, transporting as much food as possible to safety, even when the Japanese bombed Jinling, they drove their cars through the ferocious artillery fire to transport bags of grain to safety.

One of the drivers was blinded in one eye by stray shrapnel while transporting food, and in the end, the person in charge of the security zone returned only a small portion of the food obtained.

10,000 stone of rice and 1,000 bags of flour, although a small amount, have saved many refugees in the zone from starvation.

On 9 December, Rabe realized that the situation of terror was deteriorating, and the International Committee for the Security Zone attempted to mediate between the two sides to achieve a three-day ceasefire, during which the Japanese could maintain their existing positions and the Chinese troops could peacefully withdraw from Jinling.

However, Chiang's opposition to a cease-fire prompted the Japanese to begin an even more violent attack on Jinling the next day.

On the 12th, the International Committee for the Security Zone again mediated the surrender of China to Japan at the request of the Chinese army, but the plan was also not realized.

After several attempts, but without success, Rabe could do nothing but wait and wait for the inevitable disaster to strike.

The deterioration of the situation was briefly recorded in Rabe's diary.

On December 12, at 6:30 p.m., Rabe wrote: "The cannons on the Purple Mountain continued to fire, and all around was the light of fire and the roar. Suddenly, the whole mountain was in flames - some houses and ammunition depots were on fire. ”

At 8 p.m., Rabe saw the sky south of the city glowing red by the light of fire, and then he heard a frenzied knock at the door, and many Chinese women and children were outside the gate, begging Rabe to open the gate and let them in.

The men climbed over the garden fence from the back of the German school.

People scrambled into foxholes in the gardens, and some even hid under a huge German flag that Rabe used to warn Japanese pilots not to bomb their houses.

The cries and knocks on the door became louder and louder, the sky in the distance shone with flares, and one after another the cannonballs dragging the arc fell into Jinling City, and in an instant, the entire Jinling City was shaking violently.

With a great condemnation of conscience, Rabe could not bear it anymore and ran to the gate to open the door and let the crowd in.

But as the night deepened and the crowd grew louder, Rabe was so enpimented by the group of Chinese that he took his steel helmet and went into the garden, shouting loudly to silence the group of Chinese.

At about 11 o'clock in the evening, Rabe received an outside visitor, Christian Kreel, who, like Rabe, was a member of the Nacui, about thirty years old, and worked for the German Rites & Foreign Firm.

He was a tall, blond, blue-eyed engineer who had been sent to China to oversee the construction of a large steel mill, but now, like Rabe, was caught in the frenzy of Jinling.

The International Committee for the Safety Zone designated him to be in charge of financial work.

"Rabe, Zhongshan Road is full of soldiers of the Chinese army, they retreated, they lost all their weapons and equipment, and some people even asked to buy a car, twenty dollars a car."

Klogel asked, "Do you think anyone will buy their car?" ”

"No, how could a fugitee buy this car?" Rabe said.

"It's impossible, so I told the guy to come to my office tomorrow morning." Klogel said.

"Which car are you going to buy?" Rabe asked him.

"Yes, we have to prepare in advance, don't we? The Chinese army has already run, and the Japanese will come in. "Klogel spreads his hands, this car can hold a lot of things, and there is always a time when it comes in handy.

The next morning, Rabe was woken up by the sound of a loud air raid, and Rabe sat on the bed, thinking to himself that not all the troops had chosen to evacuate, and that there must be a Chinese army that resisted.

It was about 5 o'clock, and before dawn, Rabe chose to lie down again, and like most of the citizens of Jinling City, he was exhausted by the Japanese air raids.

Fortunately, the army he was in was a foreigner's residential area, and Japanese planes would not drop bombs here, but even so, the huge explosion still made him unable to sleep, put on an overcoat, opened the curtain of the window, and looked at Jinling shrouded in flames.

He decided to go outside for a walk.

In the garden, the refugees did not sleep, they seemed to have stood all night, their faces tired, and their expressions a little panicked.

This exacerbated the heaviness in his heart even more.

Later in the evening, Rabe went around the city to inspect the damage to Jinling.

The streets were littered with the bodies of Chinese, mostly those shot in the back, civilians shot in the back.

When he saw a group of Japanese soldiers break into a German café, Rabe ran over, pointed to the German flag hanging from the café, and angrily rebuked: "You are stealing!" ”

An English-speaking Japanese soldier shouted, "We're hungry, if you want to complain, go to the Japanese embassy and they'll pay the bill." ”

Then he told Rabe: "Our munitions have not yet arrived, we are tired and hungry now, and even if those munitions do, it will not be our turn, and we will be responsible for our stomachs." ”

Rabe watched as the Japanese soldiers stormed the café and ransacked it.

After walking a few streets, he turned his head to look in the direction of the café, and saw that smoke was billowing and burning in that direction.

He scolded angrily.

The Japanese not only ransacked the café, but also burned it to the ground.

Worse was to come, as Rabe saw from afar that Japanese soldiers were advancing from the south to the north of the city, thus taking over the city.

To avoid them, Rabe drove north to south to Zhongshan Road, the main road in Jinling, and stopped outside the Red Cross Hospital of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Chinese medical staff have fled, hospitals have been badly smashed, and the bodies of patients have filled rooms, corridors and even hospital exits.

Rabe wanted to curse angrily, he had lived here for more than thirty years, and the Chinese were friendly to him, but because of the arrival of the Japanese, these people all died.

He also once said to his Chinese colleagues: "You don't have to be afraid of the Japanese, once they take over Jinling, peace and order will be restored, the railway to Shanghai will soon be built, and shops will be back to business." ”

Even when he fell asleep, he thought, "Thank God, the worst has passed, and peace is coming!" ”

What he never expected was that the guy he said would bring peace and order back to his behave like a demon.

Instead of bringing peace and restored order, they have brought death and killing.

Rabe walked among the corpses, there were old people over half a hundred years old, young children, wounded with amputated limbs, pregnant women.

He had never seen such a bad deed, but he had seen it in his allies.

He even wondered whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing for Germany to form an alliance with such an ally.

On that day, Rabe also met some Chinese troops hiding in the city, who had not yet evacuated, this group of tired and hungry routs had not been able to cross the Yangtze River, Rabe saw them, these people had gray eyes, their hats were crooked, their clothes were dirty, and the smoke of gunpowder blackened their clothes and cheeks, like beggars on the streets.

As he drove through the Shanxi Roadabout, he met 400 Chinese soldiers who had not yet been disarmed, who were advancing in the direction of the Japanese advance.

When Rabe saw them, he had a 'humanitarian' impulse, he thought of the streets and hospitals littered with corpses, this impulse haunted his conscience all the time, and with great condemnation in his heart, he stopped the car and said to them in Chinese: "Don't go forward, there are Japanese people in front, they are coming in this direction." ”

There was also an officer of the Chinese soldiers in the ranks, and when he heard Rabe's words, he was like a frightened, fried-haired raccoon cat, and shouted: "Prepare for battle!" ”

The originally lazy soldiers quickly raised their guns, and Rabe looked at them with a terrible dead silence, a bottomless pool, with contempt for death and a hint of despair.

He took a deep breath and said to the officer, "I can guarantee your safety, but you have to throw away all your weapons and change your clothes." ”

The officer looked at Rabe and did not agree at first, but consulted with the other soldiers.

Eventually, they heeded Rabe's advice, unarmed themselves, changed into refugee clothes, and followed him to safety.

The same situation is happening in the security zone, where more and more soldiers who have not had time to evacuate are breaking into the security zone and asking the international committee in the zone to protect their lives.

The members of the International Committee on the Safe Zone were undecided whether to lend a helping hand to them.

The purpose of the zone was to provide refuge for civilians, not military personnel, when the zone was established.

If Chinese soldiers enter the security zone, the Japanese side will certainly have a lot of opinions about this security zone, which itself is not recognized.

They could not make up their minds and could only try to get in touch with the Japanese command to solve this dilemma, but they only met a Japanese captain on the Hanzhong Road, and failed to contact a higher-ranking Japanese commander.

The International Committee of the Security Zone eventually relented to their request, telling the soldiers that the Japanese might treat them well if they laid down their weapons and equipment.

Subsequently, the Commission helped the soldiers to disarm and place them in various buildings in the security zone, and in the midst of the chaos, many of them took off their uniforms and changed into civilian clothes and blended with the civilians.

The next day, Rabe wrote a long letter with a Japanese commander explaining the situation, in which he implored the Japanese to show sympathy for these former Chinese soldiers and treat them humanely in accordance with the accepted laws of war.

To Rabe's relief, a Japanese officer promised him that they would spare the lives of the Chinese soldiers.

However, the Japanese broke their promise and dragged the disarmed Chinese soldiers out for execution, much to Rabe's anger, and he loudly rebuked the Japanese for what they had done.

The Japanese commander told him: "The Chinese have killed many of my soldiers' companions, and if I choose to forgive them, then who will comfort the dead Imperial soldiers, and who will comfort the Imperial soldiers who have lost their comrades, Mr. Rabe, I have full respect for your nobility, but please do not embarrass me." ”

Rabe could only hope that the Japanese army would not be able to discern the Chinese soldiers hiding from the hundreds of thousands of civilians.

But he couldn't have been more wrong.

(End of chapter)