One general is incompetent and the three armies will be exhausted!

Tang Shengzhi, who had vowed to stay in Nanjing for at least half a year, stayed in his reinforced headquarters. The only order he could issue was:

"Hold on, you must hold on for me!"

How to resist? I don’t know which troops will defend the front, which troops will cover the flanks, and which troops will serve as reserves.

The only thing we can rely on is the frontline commander's own decision.

The Japanese artillery fire was almost crazy.

The entire city of Nanjing was baptized by artillery fire.

And the soldiers on the front line are still fighting bloody battles there!

Extremely brutal and bloody hand-to-hand combat has broken out many times.

There is no doubt that in this defense battle, the 51st Division commanded by Wang Yaowu was always on the front line and suffered the greatest casualties.

Saihong Bridge, Huayan Temple, and Zhonghua Gate are all positions they are responsible for guarding.

"To order the troops to continue advancing, we must drive out the Japanese troops on the front line of Zhonghua Gate." In order to boost morale, Wang Yaowu, who was commanding the troops on the front line at this time, issued an order to the troops to defend the positions on all lines, saying "revolutionary soldiers"

Li Tianxia, ​​commander of the 153rd Brigade, ordered Li Tianxia:

"You immediately lead the division's special agent company to supervise the battle. If there are any troops who withdraw without permission, no matter which part they belong to, they will be dealt with according to military law!"

"So what if it's from other troops? For example, the 88th Division or the 58th Division?" Li Tianxia asked cautiously.

The teacher's almost cold words made him feel heart palpitations involuntarily.

Wang Yaowu didn't hesitate in his words: "What are the retreating defeated soldiers doing? They will all be executed. We must not disrupt our army's position because of the defeat."

Li Tianxia nodded silently. He knew that once a rout was formed, the entire defense line would probably collapse. A rout could wipe out the retreat of a group of people, and the retreat of a group of people would cause the entire line of defense to collapse.

"Order a battalion of the 88th Division here to immediately attack the Japanese army. If anyone disobeys the order or retreats, kill them all!"

Wang Yaowu's almost cold words made Li Tianxia's heart rise again. She was from the 51st Division, and the opponent was from the 88th Division. She would kill him if the division commander said so?

But an order is an order!

According to the orders of brigade commanders Wang Yaowu and Li Tianxia, ​​the 51st Division, with Zhang Lingfu's 305th Regiment as the main force, immediately launched a comprehensive counterattack on the front line of Huayan Temple.

However, the counterattack was not very smooth. During the successive Japanese artillery attacks, their counterattack suffered heavy casualties. The sound of shell explosions was accompanied by billowing smoke everywhere, while the Chinese soldiers who counterattacked were unprotected.

Exposed to the streets, the casualties were heavy, so much so that the corpses of Chinese soldiers lay outside Zhonghua Gate. Amidst the hail of bullets, the 51st Division and part of the 88th Division continued to advance tenaciously despite heavy casualties.

The command of the entire battalion was in chaos, and each combat company could only fight independently and desperately organize an attack.

The rising flares exploded from time to time, and the slowly passing flares were like the occasional sunlight in the dark night, bringing light as bright as day to this killing battlefield.

But every time the flares went up, people were deeply shocked by the corpses pouring into their sight.

In addition to the frontal attack of the 51st Division, the first section of the 88th Division organized a group of brave troops to make a large detour from the flanks and use the frontal cover to advance forward.

The shells that hit one after another sent up plumes of smoke in the ruins, rising straight into the sky and hanging high in the night.

The cold wind in the winter night makes people feel very uncomfortable, it is biting and cold, and it blows on the face like a knife.

At this time, Li Tianxia was alone and quietly looking into the gray night, watching the Japanese army launch wave after wave of large-scale shelling on a ruined position.

Amidst the dull explosions, the ground beneath my feet was trembling slightly, and fireworks hovered over the battlefield.

"I'm from the 88th Division, damn, you have no right to arrest me!"

An officer who retreated from the front line yelled and cursed, which caught Li Tianxia's attention. After all, a retreat occurred.

The officer was soon hit hard on the cheek by a soldier from the division's special agent company: "You shameless deserter, you still have the nerve to scream!"

Li Tianxia walked up to the retreating officer, squatted down, and stared at the trembling officer being escorted: "The commander has an order, and anyone who retreats will be severely punished by military law."

After speaking, he stood up and said to a group of ragged soldiers:

"Behind us is Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China. No one can retreat without orders from the commander-in-chief. Kill one to serve as a warning to hundreds. Whether you die bravely on your own position or die at the gunpoint of your own people, you can see for yourself. Let’s do it!”

Then, Li Tianxia took off her gloves and slapped the trembling officer hard on the blood-stained face: "What a man! Don't be a fucking deserter in your next life. As an officer, you actually abandoned all your brothers. Fortunately, you are still here." A man who is an official.

"Ignoring the resentful gaze at all, Li Tianxia turned around and glanced at the retreating deserters: "Are you willing to die like this, or go back to the battlefield and fight to the death with the Japanese?"

"Damn it, brothers, you're going to die this way, you're going to die that way too, just fight with those stupid little devils."

The officer reluctantly got up, saluted Li Tianxia, ​​and led a group of defeated soldiers who retreated in a mess, then turned around and rushed towards a sea of ​​​​fire.

The athletes on the front line risked their lives in repeated hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese pirates, and braved three-dimensional artillery fire from the air and the ground to defend their position.

But they probably didn't expect that just when each of them was preparing to throw their lives in the capital, starting from noon on the 11th, the headquarters had already considered retreating.

On the 12th, the Chairman personally called Tang Shengzhi and asked him to stay in Nanjing for one more day. If he could hold on for more than half a month, a large number of reinforcements could arrive.

But what people never expected was that when this telegram reached Tang Shengzhi, the commander-in-chief who had previously vowed to be able to defend Nanjing had already hastily issued a retreat order.

Retreat? How to retreat? Who retreats first, and who is responsible for sniper cover?

Regardless of the eight-point "Order No. 1 on the Special Characteristics of the Garrison Operations" formulated at 3 pm on the 12th, or the six-point "Nanjing Garrison Breakout Plan" formulated based on this order, both were very vague and general.

The eight points and six points are filled with a lot of words such as "self-destruction, coordinated destruction, crossing the river as a last resort" and so on.

How the 36th Division covering the river crossing should be attacked, the specific holding time, when it could be withdrawn, etc. were not stated at all.

The basic core of this hastily drawn up retreat plan was that most of the troops would break through from the front, while a small number of troops would follow the garrison headquarters and cross the river from Xiaguan.

However, just after the written order was issued, Tang Shengzhi suddenly changed his mind and ordered the 87th Division, 88th Division, 74th Army and the Central Military Training Corps, which are direct troops of the Central Army, to cross the river first and assemble in the direction of Chuzhou when ferries are available.

The most taboo thing for a commander is to get lost in battle and go back on his word.

But this Commander Tang has gotten involved in everything!

What's even more ridiculous?

The pier along the river outside Yijiang Gate is crowded with people and the order is chaotic.

Thousands of people want to cross the river, but there are only two or three ferries.

Finally, the severely overloaded ferry reached the middle of the river. On the other side, Hu Zongnan's First Army in Pukou opened fire and prohibited the ferries that had been withdrawn from the south from docking.

Because Commander Tang was famous, no one was allowed to evacuate Nanjing.

Then, when his commander fled in a hurry, the retreat order was not notified to the defenders on the north bank in time.

It is rare in ancient and modern times for a dignified commander to be so comatose.

Nanjing Military Police Commander Xiao Shanling could have left, but he did not.

"The members of the Military Police Regiment stay with me to withstand the Japanese attack and cover the retreat of the friendly forces!"

This is the order issued by Xiaoshan Order.

"Commander Xiao, our Commander Qiu is injured on his leg. What should we do? What should we do?"

Several soldiers of the 306th Regiment who had retreated from the front line were carrying their regiment leader Qiu Weida in panic.

"Quick, Wang Yaowu knows that you have never crossed the river, and he has gone through a lot of trouble to find a boat to pick you up. Let's go!" Xiao Shanling was too busy to think: "It's right at the Coal Port!"

"Commander Xiao, come with us!" Qiu Weida said hurriedly.

"If I don't leave, the capital will fall, which will be a disgrace to us revolutionary soldiers! I am ready to die for the country." Xiao Shanling smiled sadly: "Qiu Weida, how do you know that Meng Shaoyuan?"

"Yes, we fought together in Qingpu."

Xiao Shanling took a deep breath: "When I have the opportunity to meet that little scoundrel, tell him that I can no longer do what my old brother promised him. I, Xiao Shanling, have always kept my word, but this time I will break my promise!"

"What I want Commander Xiao to do is, no matter how the battle to defend Nanjing goes, I want Commander Xiao to live well. A living commander can bring far more impact to the country than a dead one."

Commander, I want more. Please promise me!"

That was what Meng Shaoyuan had begged him to do that day.

Xiao Shanling broke his promise.

The country was ruined and the family was destroyed, and the capital fell. As the commander of the Nanjing garrison, Xiaoshan Ling had no face to live any longer.

There must always be soldiers, a high-ranking officer who can shed blood on this city.

That person is him, Xiao Shan Ling!

Not everyone is like Tang Shengzhi.

On December 12, 1937, the Nanjing evacuation took place.

That night, Qiu Weida, the commander of the 306th Regiment of the 51st Division, was pulled from the water to the boat with a rope tied around his waist.

The next day, Xiao Shanling, deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Police, Nanjing Garrison Commander, and Air Defense Commander, led his soldiers to engage in a bloody battle with the Japanese army in Xiaguan. The battle lasted for five hours. In the end, thousands of soldiers died heroically because they were outnumbered and had no help.

Those soldiers who were still alive and unwilling to be slaves to the subjugation of their country put the muzzle of the gun into their mouths at the last moment and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Xiao Shanling shot himself with a gun and committed suicide, fulfilling his promise to live and die with Nanjing. When he died, half of his body was still standing in the river.

It is said that Xiao Shanling’s last words before he died for his country were:

"Little rascal, we will meet again in the next life!"
Chapter completed!