No wonder this man is sitting next to Commander Tang. After all, he is a man whom even the Chairman of the Generalissimo praised. Almost everyone knows that if this man comes to Jinling and the national government, his future career will be smooth.
If this person is loyal to the government, he can even directly control the Central Army and his status can surpass Chen Cheng.
These days, there are too many people who know how to fight, but there are too few who can use their small skills to make great achievements.
And this person is someone who can make a big difference with a small thing.
Commander Tang said: "Everyone knows about Xia Yuan's contribution during his stay in Songhu, but they don't know that in the Battle of Jinling, he participated in the Jiangyin battle. With a battalion of troops, he killed thousands of enemies and held the Jiangyin position for a whole day.
At that time, he guarded Yuhuatai and led a battalion to meet the enemy. He held on for a day and killed thousands of enemies. Then he held on to the Zhonghua Gate. The Japanese army broke through the city wall. He fought alone with more than ten Japanese soldiers and easily fought them. Qiu Weida, the commander of the 306th Regiment of the 51st Division, saw it with his own eyes.
It is an honor for the government and an honor for China to have such talents."
When the conversation changed, he suddenly asked everyone: "How long do you want to fight?"
This question was too sudden. Just now I was introducing the Songhu God of War, and now it suddenly fell on me. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to answer this inexplicable question, and everyone stared at him with doubts.
It seemed like he was asking rhetorically.
Didn't you tell us to live and die with Jinling? Why do you ask us how long we want to fight?
Of course Tang Shengzhi understood what everyone was looking at. After standing awkwardly for about half a minute, he had to carry the chairman out, coughed a few times and said, "Everyone, the chairman has an order!"
As soon as they heard the chairman's order, everyone stood up, legs together, bowed their heads and listened respectfully. Even Xia Yuan was no exception, doing as the Romans do.
After Tang Shengzhi read out the chairman's brief order on retreat, Chief of Staff Zhou then read out the retreat routes of each division and the time to arrive at the designated location.
After Chief of Staff Zhou finished reading, Tang Shengzhi waved his hand to dismiss the meeting without explaining anything.
The army commanders and division commanders rushed to the door after receiving the amnesty order. They knew that as soon as the retreat order was announced, Jinling City would definitely fall into chaos. The troops who left the city first could avoid the danger of being pursued by the enemy.
In layman's terms, whoever runs faster will survive.
As for staying to block the enemy, it is basically impossible. The Japanese army surrounded Jinling on all sides and attacked from three gates. Those who stayed to block the enemy could only resist one side, but not the other. As for deploying troops to stay to block the enemy, that would be even more difficult.
Impossible, the Japanese army began to attack across the board, using all aircraft and artillery.
They also relied on their numerical advantage and terrain advantage to be able to defend Jinling.
Moreover, if we hold on until this point, we don’t have many troops in our hands, and those who remain will surely die.
Therefore, everyone had no intention of talking to Xia Yuan, and anxiously ordered the driver to increase the power. It was still dark, so they had to rush back to notify their troops.
According to Commander Tang's retreat route, the 87th Division, 88th Division, and 74th Army's teaching regiment retreated to Xianguan, and then concentrated in Chuzhou. The remaining troops had to fight a bloody path from their positions and retreat outside the city.
However, no matter which direction these 100,000 officers and soldiers break through, they are risking their lives.
Especially from Xiaguan, Tang Shengzhi ordered not to retreat a few days ago, ordered to guard to the death, and even ordered to burn all the ships. At this time, there were no ferries at Xiaguan Pier, and the enemy formed three or four circles of Jinling.
Breaking out of these heavily guarded breakout circles is not easy.
But now, the order to retreat has been conveyed to all ministries. After receiving the order, the officers and soldiers below abandoned their guns and fled. Even many army commanders and division commanders did not return to their troops after leaving Tang Shengzhi's mansion, and fled directly to Xianguan Pass.
Even Tang Shengzhi, after saying "take care" to Xia Yuan, hurriedly left with others.
Tragedy happened under such circumstances.
The 100,000-strong army was leaderless for a while. The army commanders and division commanders had all fled, so why not run away? The 100,000-strong army fled along Zhongshan North Road, via Drum Tower, and Shanxi Road to Xianguan Pass.
At this time, Song Xilian's troops, who were maintaining order in Xiaguan, had not received the notice to withdraw from Yijiangmen. Even Tang Shengzhi had forgotten about it when he escaped. Therefore, Song Xilian's troops were still resolutely executing the plan.
An order issued by Feng to prevent soldiers from escaping from here.
Yijiang Gate is tall and heavy, painted with a layer of red paint. There are sandbags piled in front of the gate, and a large scrapped truck is parked.
Tang Shengzhi once came to Xiaguan and gave Song Xilian many warnings and instructions. No deserter was allowed to go without his warrant.
Now, what did the defeated soldiers who came over say to the sentries guarding Yijiang Gate? The sentries did not believe what they said, and told these poor officers and soldiers who wanted to retreat: "The task now is to defend Jinling to the death, and no one can escape. Commander Tang has
Order, without his approval, no one can open the door and escape."
In order to carry out this order, they also fired warning shots at the incoming officers and soldiers from time to time.
The fleeing officers and soldiers crowded, pushed, and cursed loudly. Some soldiers couldn't bear it and actually shot the sentry directly, which immediately caused an explosion.
One sentry fell down, and other sentries were so shocked that they also opened fire. Many people narrowly escaped death under the gunpoint of the Japanese. Who would have thought that Yijiangmen would die under the gunpoint of one of their own people.
At this time, Yijiangmen had fallen into chaos.
In order to escape, some people found ropes, or simply mopped their clothes off the floor, tore the quilts into strips of cloth, and tied them into ropes. Then they tied the rope to the tree trunk in front of the city gate. They crowded around and grabbed the rope to climb up.
Seeing this, some people rushed up to grab the rope and climbed up.
How could a slender rope withstand the climbing of so many people? It quickly broke and the soldiers in mid-air fell to their death under the city wall.
Foreigners and people living in Jinling City witnessed this unprecedented rout.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Some foreigners recorded this matter: On the way to the Xiaguan River, the situation was extremely embarrassing, filled with rifles and bullets abandoned by the Chinese army.
Belts, military uniforms, cars, trucks, etc. Countless vehicles were burning, a terrible fire scene. The city gates leading to Xiaguan and the riverside had been closed, and the terrified soldiers used ropes, leggings, belts and cloth strips to hang down the city wall.
, many people fell to their deaths. This was a tragedy that should not have happened.
The officers and soldiers who tried their best to escape to the riverside had no time to rejoice in their fate, but a more tragic situation was before them.
On the river, the mighty water has three-foot waves even if there is no wind, making waves and roaring continuously. They originally thought that there were a large number of ships waiting for them by the river, and there must be tea on the roadside to entertain them, but now everything
It has all become a fantasy.
The river was empty, with not a single boat. When the water was exhausted, someone found a wooden plank and plucked up the courage to jump into the cold river. On a December day, the river was bitingly cold, not to mention the rapid loss of body temperature.
It was not certain that they could not reach the other side of the river, but huge waves swept them into the bottom of the river.
Some officers hired a boat at a high price. Before he could leave the shore, the fleeing soldiers saw it and jumped into the cold river water. They swarmed up and the small wooden boat was packed to the brim.
When they reached the center of the river, the rolling waves swallowed them up...
...
China Gate.
In the 88th Division, Sun Yuanliang gave up command and went into hiding. The entire division lost command and fell into chaos. Most of them died in the Nanjing Massacre. Two of the three brigade commanders of the 88th Division under his command were killed, and three of the six regiment commanders were killed.
Eleven of the commanders were killed, and the company and platoon commanders accounted for eight-tenths of all casualties. The 88th Division had approximately 6,000 men before the war, but only 500 returned to the unit after the war.
Xia Yuan participated in the meeting and knew that what was about to begin was a great escape. He took the remaining soldiers of the 88th Division with him and only 36 wounded, which was only the strength of a platoon.
The 88th Division at Yuhuatai and Zhonghuamen were beaten like a piece of loose sand by the Japanese army.
Xia Yuan led these remaining soldiers to abandon their garrison at Zhonghua Gate and began to retreat into the city.
They retreated relatively late. After Xia Yuan left the conference room, he walked towards Zhonghua Gate without a car. When he arrived at Zhonghua Gate, it was already dawn and the Japanese attack arrived.
Xia Yuan led the remaining soldiers, and after repelling a wave of Japanese attacks, began to retreat into the city.
At this time, except for the section of Zhonghua Gate guarded by Xia Yuan, most of the Zhonghua Gate and other city gates had been breached by the Japanese army. A large number of Japanese troops poured into the city like locusts, carrying the burning flame of revenge and killing everyone on sight.
, rapes women whenever they see them, without caring about anything.
The remnant troops led by Xia Yuan saw an alley along the way, filled with corpses of Jinling people, with their white flesh and blood, exposed organs, and twisted into deformed bodies.
There were men, women, old and young, and the smell of blood filled the alley.
There's not even a place to put your feet down.
The remnants of the 88th Division led by Xia Yuan had livid faces and clenched their fists hard. Even Xia Yuan was like this. Even though he was mentally prepared, his heart still couldn't stop after seeing so many Chinese corpses.
Trembling, the seeds of hatred were deeply rooted in his heart.
When did the Japanese army start massacring Chinese people?
In fact, in the early days of the Battle of Jinling, the Japanese army had no intention of committing the Jinling Massacre.
The Sino-Japanese War attracted worldwide attention.
During the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese army attacked China. The resulting Battle of Songhu, coupled with a series of "performances" by Chiang Kai-shek, had tilted international public opinion towards China, which was detrimental to the Japanese army.
Therefore, when the Battle of Jinling broke out, the focus of the world was on China, and what the Japanese troops did when they entered Jinling was bound to be seen by the whole world.
At this time, what Matsui Iwane wanted was to let a well-disciplined team enter Jinling.
But things always backfire.
On December 7, 1937, just as the Japanese army was approaching Jinling, Matsui Iwane's condition worsened at the Suzhou Field Command, and his chronic tuberculosis recurred again.
Matsui Iwane fell ill at the right time, because his command was about to be handed over to a member of the imperial family, the Asaka Palace.
According to the new order, Matsui Iwane was promoted to the supreme commander of the entire Central China battlefield, and Lieutenant General Asaka Miya Hatohiko, who had served in the army for thirty years, became the new commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force, responsible for commanding the troops around Jinling.
Since Asaka Palace is a member of the royal family, the power in his hands far exceeds that of all the generals fighting on the Jinling front line. Most importantly, because he worked with Nakajima Kongo and Yanagawa Heisuke in the Japanese Army Intelligence Office in Paris for three years,
His relationship with the two is much closer than that of Matsui Iwane.
During the Japanese mutiny in February 1936, Asaka Palace once sided with the emperor's younger brother on a certain political issue and opposed Emperor Showa. Then among all the royal family lists, Emperor Showa still selected this person who once stood on
The guy on his younger brother's side and appointed him as the commander-in-chief of the Japanese army in the Jinling area, obviously wanted to give his uncle a chance to redeem himself.
At the time, this seemed to be an insignificant personnel change, but later facts proved that it had a decisive impact on the lives of thousands of Chinese people.
No one knows what happened to the Japanese army at that time, but they do know a little bit about what was later explained in the trial of Matsui Iwane and his colleagues.
Matsui Iwane was worried that this new member from the imperial family would abuse his power and do something that would harm the Japanese army, so he issued a series of moral orders to the troops attacking Jinling.
He ordered his troops to stop and repair a few kilometers outside Jinling City, allowing only a few well-disciplined troops to enter Jinling and complete the occupation.
In this way, the Japanese army performed well in front of the Chinese, thus winning their trust in Japan. He also summoned his staff to a meeting in front of his bed and announced:
"The entry of the imperial army into a foreign capital is a major event in our country's history... It will surely attract the attention of the whole world. Therefore, the troops entering the city must be strictly disciplined... Let them know in advance what they need to remember
Matters and the rights and interests of foreigners in Jinling City must not be robbed. If necessary, sentries will be arranged. Robbery and arson, even if they are unintentional mistakes, will be severely punished. Gendarmerie and auxiliary gendarmerie should be sent to join the troops.
city to prevent illegal acts from occurring.”
It can be seen from this that Matsui Iwane has a good strategy and vision. He is very aware of the impact of entering a foreign capital, which is quite noticeable around the world.
Therefore, what the Japanese troops did in Jinling City must be strictly guarded and anything that would insult the face of the imperial troops must not occur.
However, the illegal events brewing elsewhere were beyond Matsui Iwane's control.
On December 5, Chaoxiang Palace left the scene by plane and arrived at the front line three days later. In an abandoned country villa about 10 miles southeast of Jinling, not far from the field headquarters, Chaoxiang Palace met with him in Paris.
Colleague General Nakajima.
Nakajima suffered a flesh wound on his left hip and was recovering. Nakajima told the Asaka Palace that the Japanese army would defend about 300,000 Chinese soldiers near Jinling, and preliminary negotiations were underway to indicate their intention to surrender.
Most of these troops were local troops who retreated from the Songhu Battlefield and came from various provinces. With the failure of the Songhu Battle, their escape can be described in one word.