At this time, while the soldiers in the forward positions were selflessly fighting the Japanese army, in the Military Commission in Chongqing, a meeting to decide the fate of Nanjing and her defenders was taking place.
A spacious conference room was filled with military personnel. There were so many stars on their shoulders that it reminded people of the bright stars in the night sky.
In front of a huge map, a stout young officer was pointing his baton at the Nanjing area on the map to introduce the battle situation. The generals sitting in front of the huge long conference table listened and watched intently.
"The Japanese 6th Division and 9th Division have been pressing towards our defense line step by step from the directions of Shuangzhao, Yuhuatai and Guanghuamen. Most of our frontline fortifications have been destroyed by enemy artillery and aircraft, and the soldiers have suffered heavy casualties. The enemy's 114th Division and 16th Division have concentrated their superior forces and have captured part of our Zijin Mountain positions. Our teaching corps has suffered more than half of its casualties. The Yamada Brigade of the Japanese 13th Division has occupied the flanks and rear of our teaching corps' defensive positions. The 66th Army was unable to counterattack. The position here seriously threatened the safety of the Teaching Corps and the Fourth Gendarmerie Regiment. Therefore, the loss of the Zijinshan position was also a matter of time. In addition, near Dangtu, the troops directly under the Japanese 10th Army The Guoqi Brigade began to gather troops. We only have one battalion to defend. Dangtu may fall tonight. If the Japanese army crosses the river from Dangtu, our Jiangbei position will be in danger, and the situation in Nanjing will become increasingly serious. .
I suggest that we immediately conduct a total retreat from Nanjing and formulate a retreat plan as soon as possible. Otherwise, our more than 100,000 elite troops will be completely wiped out. Please make your decision as soon as possible, Commander-in-Chief. "
The young lieutenant colonel sat back in the last row of the conference table. After listening to his introduction, many senior officers disagreed. A white-haired general loudly said to a lieutenant general next to him: "Retreat from Nanjing, what a shame he thought." Come out." Other senior generals were also talking and arguing.
Wang Jingwei sat opposite the commander-in-chief in a Chinese tunic suit. He cleared his throat, and the arguing general stopped talking. This also showed his status in the military committee. The commander-in-chief frowned unnoticed.
"I don't understand war, but you don't understand politics. Nowadays, all countries in the world are taking a wait-and-see attitude to see who can win this war between China and Japan. Brother Fohai and I paid a visit to the American Ambassador and Italian Ambassador the day before yesterday. Ambassador, the American ambassador told us that the key to being able to give us military assistance is to see how many days we can defend Nanjing. It depends on whether we are determined to fight the war. Do we have it? If not, they can also ask us to temporarily stop fighting. They So as to reconcile it." The last few words are very serious.
The commander-in-chief stood up: "Niang Xipi, these foreigners, we are fighting so hard and making such huge sacrifices, don't we still have the determination? I think some people should not think that just because the Japanese are coming, they can stand on my side. The head has spoken. I said in Lushan, unless we don't fight, once we fight, we must fight to the end."
He turned to Li Zongren: "Brother De Neighbor, I wonder if there is any news from the German Ambassador?" Li Zongren replied: "The German Ambassador told us tactfully that Hitler did not intend to intervene in the dispute between us and Japan, and he said that he would not intervene in the dispute between us and Japan. After the last batch of arms is delivered, Germany will abide by the Germany-Japan agreement and will no longer sell arms to China. I am afraid that the three torpedo boats and two submarines we ordered will not be delivered on time."
There was another discussion among the generals below, and Navy Commander Chen Yonggui started to fight: "Damn, these Germans, our navy is just waiting for these rice to be cooked, and they actually don't sell it to us."
The commander-in-chief looked at the map carefully. The red and blue arrows on the map were intertwined, and the red arrow had tightly surrounded Nanjing.
Chen Cheng stood up: "I think the opinion of Staff Officer Wang Hongxian is very correct. There is indeed no need for our army to sacrifice more than 100,000 of the best national troops in Nanjing for the sake of illusory international mediation. These troops will be our force for the future war of resistance. Please Commander-in-Chief as soon as possible." We must make up our minds not to be like the Battle of Songhu, where too late a retreat led to the rout of the army, and it was not even possible to stop the pursuit of the Japanese army."
Wang Jingwei spoke again: "Chen Cheng's statement is wrong. In the military and economic comparison between China and Japan, the Japanese have the advantage. If we want to go to full-scale war with the Japanese, we will have to sacrifice a lot. If there is mediation by international forces, we can There will be a showdown with the Japanese in a few years."
An officer hurriedly ran in and handed a telegram to Staff Officer Wang Hongxian. Staff Wang took a quick look at it and sweat dripped from his face. He hurriedly came to the Commander-in-Chief and said, "Commander-in-Chief, the Japanese army has broken into China." Gate, the Guoqi Brigade has crossed the Yangtze River and occupied Pukou, Nanjing is in danger."
Chief of General Staff Gu Zhutong also came to the map and carefully observed the location of Pukou. Beads of sweat fell from his face. He hurriedly said to the commander-in-chief: "It's too late to retreat now. We don't even have a plan to retreat." Plan how to retreat. The Japanese army has cut off the retreat route of the Nanjing garrison. I propose to immediately organize troops to counterattack. We must recapture Zhonghua Gate and Pukou tonight. After recapturing Pukou, our Nanjing Garrison Headquarters will formulate a retreat plan as soon as possible. Commander, we must make a decision."
In fact, Chen Cheng and other senior generals knew as early as the Battle of Songhu that the Chinese army was now using inferior weapons and flesh and blood to fight the Japanese army's steel weapons. But now the Japanese army has reached behind hundreds of thousands of troops. If they don't retreat, the consequences will be disastrous.
This new military information shocked all participants. Forced by the deterioration of the situation, the Commander-in-Chief agreed to use the 88th Division, the 36th Division, the 156th Division, the 1st and 2nd Gendarmerie Regiments to counterattack the Guoqi Brigade in Pukou, and the 56th Division to counterattack and break in. The Japanese troops at Zhonghua Gate and the garrison commander Tang Shengzhi formulated a retreat plan as soon as possible.
What Tang Shengzhi was thinking about at such a life-or-death moment was not how to preserve the troops, but how to preserve his reputation, because he had previously strongly advocated holding on to Nanjing, but now he suddenly retreated, fearing the infamy, and asked the general headquarters to issue a written order. That night the commander-in-chief's telegram arrived, and Tang Shengzhicai instructed the staff to draw up an evacuation plan, but the precious half day was wasted again.
The Wuming Brigade received the order from Commander Zhou. I hurriedly went to the training room with the pilot to deploy the combat plan, because this was our first night sortie, and if our own troops were bombed, the consequences would be disastrous.
I selected the 6 most skilled pilots, equipped my "Fierce Dragon" with 6 60kg bombs, and led 6 I-16 fighter jets with 4 additional bombs to take off. In the night, the ground crew and pilots Car lights illuminated the runway and watched us take off. The flight from the base to Nanjing took no more than an hour. According to the prior agreement, the infantry troops used red flares to indicate the target. I ordered the pilot to glide quietly over the Japanese troops occupying Pukou. When the Japanese troops found that they were flying silently in the night sky When they hit the Blackbird, our bombs had been accurately dropped on their heads. In the violent explosion, fire and gunpowder smoke rose at the same time. The Japanese army was blown up and screamed, causing heavy casualties. The Japanese anti-aircraft firepower hit us. They remembered to shoot after we left. To vent their anger, they kept shooting for a long time in the direction in which we disappeared.
"Attack" took advantage of the chaos of the Japanese army, and the officers and soldiers of the 88th Division who had already reached the Japanese position launched a charge. Dozens of Japanese machine guns formed a cross fire net to try to prevent our army from advancing, but in the night, the dazzling muzzle flashes were exposed After finding the position of the machine gun, our mortar, which had been prepared for a long time, immediately spoke. Several basic ammunition were poured into the Japanese firepower point, and soon the Japanese machine gun became mute. A regiment of the 36th Division also launched an attack on time and rushed into Pukou Town. The two sides launched a fierce hand-to-hand battle in the darkness. Both sides panted heavily, stabbed each other silently, and struck with grenades and shovels. China The army suffered huge losses in exchange for the Japanese army's retreat. Platoon leader Huang Xiao graduated from Huangpu and had just participated in the battle. He had already killed three Japanese soldiers. He led a squad to advance bravely and forced several Japanese soldiers to approach a private house. The Japanese soldiers hid in the house and shot outside. The Chinese soldier was shot and died. Huang Xiao clung to the wall and came to the bed where the Japanese soldiers were shooting. He took out a few grenades, tied them up, ignited them and threw them into the house. Several Japanese soldiers screamed in fright. With a sound, fire and smoke broke through the windows, and the house was razed to the ground. Huang Xiao happily motioned to the soldiers to move forward. A Japanese soldier crawled out from the rubble and hit him in the chest. Huang Xiao covered his wound and fell down. The soldiers Shouting, they rushed forward, stabbed the Japanese soldier's head with a bayonet, but Huang Xiao had already died, and the soldiers continued to chase the enemy with grief and indignation.
The tactical quality of the Japanese army was indeed higher than that of the Chinese soldiers during this period. During the attack, the Japanese soldiers did not cluster together, but dispersed the attack, keeping in a straight line with each other, but it did not allow your machine gun to shoot 2 or 3 people at a time, and in The shooting hit rate during the march is very high. When they reach a certain distance, they will throw grenades to suppress our machine gun fire, creating opportunities for the follow-up troops to rush into the trenches. Looking back at our Chinese army, most of the time the veterans can disperse and charge, dropping bombs while charging. However, the new recruits will gather together out of fear and be killed by Japanese firepower. Moreover, our military officers have obvious signs. In many cases The following are the key targets of the Japanese army. Once an officer is killed or injured, the troops will be leaderless and lose their combat effectiveness.
Our army paid a heavy price to expel the Japanese army from Pukou, and most of the Japanese army withdrew to the river. Lieutenant Colonel Antou, the captain of the enemy brigade, sent a report to the head of the Guoqi brigade, requesting reinforcements, and retreated to the direction of Yizheng. Guoqi did not dare Neglecting, he immediately ordered a Japanese brigade on the south bank of the Yangtze River to quickly cross the river by boat for reinforcements. When the Japanese fishing boats, sampans and river ships sailed to the center of the river, several searchlights suddenly lit up on the dark river surface. , the Japanese officers and soldiers were shocked. Four Chinese Navy torpedo speedboats appeared in front of them. Staff Officer Yang Weizhi looked coldly at the ships not far away that were full of Japanese troops, and ordered to fire. The eight machine guns equipped with the four speedboats opened fire at the same time. The Japanese troops fell into the water one after another, the sampans were sunk, the fishing boats were punctured with hundreds of holes, and the river ships sank slowly amidst huge explosions. The torpedo speedboat of Wen Tianxiang's squadron made a big deal and had a joyful water sports target shooting competition. The results were brilliant, while Major General Guo Qi stamped his feet and beat his chest on the shore, crying bitterly. After dawn, the water downstream was filled with corpses of Japanese soldiers. More than ten days later, some corpses of Japanese soldiers floated to Wusongkou.
