We were born in a peaceful era, but we cannot and are not qualified to laugh at the soldiers at that time.
Even though some of them may not be literate, they may have bad habits of one kind or another.
But we must always remember that our happiness is based on the blood of those soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the motherland!
————"Kongchen Quotations"
Seeing that the Nationalist Army refused to surrender, the Japanese commander outside Nanjing launched an all-out attack on Yuhuatai, Tongjimen, Guanghuamen, Zijinshan and other positions. The fierce fighting was even more intense than the previous day.
Especially in the southeast of the city, the battlefield situation was particularly severe because the Fukuo position had been basically lost, allowing the Japanese army to directly attack the city wall.
The garrison headquarters urgently ordered the 156th Division of the 83rd Army to reinforce the defenses of Guanghuamen and Tongjimen city walls, and rush to build preparatory fortifications for street fighting at various key points in the city. At the same time, the 66th Army was transferred from Dashui Pass and Yanziji.
Inside the city, they deployed to build fortifications inside Zhongshan Gate and Xuanwu Gate to prepare for street fighting.
In addition, the 103rd Division and the 112th Division, which had just been withdrawn from Yixing into Nanjing City, were commanded by Gui Yongqing, commander of the Teaching Corps, and were stationed at the city walls near Zhongshan Gate and the Zijin Mountain position.
In the city of Nanjing, nightfall did not stop the spread of war. This thousand-year-old city ushered in a baptism of blood and fire.
At night, a small team of the 156th Division of the National Army quietly slid down the city wall. This was a thirty-man special operations team. Their mission was to annihilate the few Japanese troops lurking in the city gate.
More than thirty people lined up in two teams. No one spoke in the night, but their eyes flashed with hatred. They were all local soldiers. The Japanese not only destroyed their homes, but also killed many comrades.
and relatives.
They quietly advanced along the wall, but the group of more than thirty people was a bit large after all. Not far from the city gate, they were spotted by an alert Japanese officer.
"What are you doing!?" a Japanese second lieutenant shouted loudly, and then only a gunshot was heard, and the Japanese second lieutenant was hit by a bullet in the head.
"Brothers! Come on, avenge the villagers." As the captain shouted, all kinds of long and short guns fired, and the few Japanese soldiers who had just rushed out were immediately beaten into sieves.
The sudden exchange of fire was rapid and short. After about five minutes, the National Army soldiers successfully annihilated the Japanese squad. However, the National Army also lost eleven soldiers.
But the battle on the second day did not change because of the courage of the National Army. On the Yuhuatai battlefield in Nanjing, the Japanese army assembled the main forces of two divisions, infantry, artillery, tanks and naval aviation to coordinate the attack and destroyed the National Army in one hour.
The 88th Division's first line position on the right wing, and the troubled remnants of the 88th Division could only retreat to the second line position.
On the evening of the 17th, as the Hainan Army's pressure to move north increased, the Japanese 18th Division stormed Wuhu at all costs. After three hours of fierce fighting, it cost more than a thousand people to break this hard nut.
At the same time that night, the Japanese 16th Division was not idle. They organized multiple attacks on the National Army positions in the north and south of Zijin Mountain.
However, what was defending Zijin Mountain was the teaching corps. They were expanded from the original Hainan Army teaching corps. The division commander Wang Jingguo was the person Li Weidong had placed in the Gu National Army.
After a night of bloody fighting, the Japanese 16th Division made no progress. Although the right-wing troops captured the Yangfangshan and Yinkongshan positions defended by the 2nd Army of the Teaching Corps, they were quickly recaptured again under the counterattack organized by Wang Jingguo.
The Japanese 16th Division, whose attack was frustrated, crossed the Yangtze River the next day with the 13th Division (the Japanese troops that were fighting the Hainan Army Parachute Division). Most of the Japanese 13th Division was still blocked north of the Yangtze River, and only a few troops took advantage of it.
The Yamada Squadron was mobilized during the boat crossing of the river in order to cut off the retreat route of the teaching corps.
The next day, the main forces of the 114th Division and the 6th Division of the Japanese 10th Army continued to attack Yuhuatai. The defending second-line position of the 88th Division of the National Army was destroyed again, and the defenders were forced to hold on to their core positions.
The fall of the outer positions of Yuhuatai also affected the battle at Zhonghua Gate. The right-wing troops of the Japanese 114th Division attacked Zhonghua Gate from the flank, and a large number of defenses deployed on the city gate were destroyed by artillery fire.
The command line was paralyzed for a time, and a few Japanese troops even broke into the city, but they were quickly annihilated by the troops of the 88th Division defending the city wall.
Wuhan, the base camp of the Nationalist Government, during the Nanjing Defense War, Chiang Kai-shek was also very concerned about the battle situation on the front line, and sent telegrams of inquiries and instructions every day.
In fact, Chiang Kai-shek also knew that the combat effectiveness and morale of the troops defending Nanjing were far inferior to those at the Battle of Songhu.
This can be seen from the fact that the main position outside Nanjing was lost after only two days of defense. However, before the Fukuo position could gain a stable footing, it was broken through by the enemy in the main direction. When the city wall was pressed, the situation was severe.
But Chiang Kai-shek did not say anything about this. The expansion of the Hainan Army has made him feel threatened. He is a national leader, but he is also a politician. Sometimes, he knows what to do is right, but he cannot do it.
.
"Chairman! Japanese troops have landed in Wuhu!" the President's Secretary-General walked into the office and said.
"Nanjing...can't we really hold it back?" Chiang Kai-shek put down the telegram and muttered to himself.
Chiang Kai-shek still had feelings for Nanjing. After all, he had been in power there for decades and the tomb of the founding father was also there.
As a last resort, in the face of the Japanese encirclement situation, in order to prevent the Nanjing garrison of the National Army from being encircled and annihilated by the enemy, Chiang Kai-shek considered ordering the Nanjing garrison to retreat on the afternoon of the 17th, and ordered Gu Zhutong, who was in Jiangbei at the time, to inform the Nanjing garrison by phone.
Commander Tang Shengzhi.
Gu Zhutong asked Tang Shengzhi to cross the river and go north that night, and ordered the defenders to break out one after another. However, because Tang Shengzhi had insisted on holding on, if he suddenly withdrew now, he was afraid that he would be blamed for it in the future. Therefore, the request must be communicated to the defender generals first.
Only when it is clear that this is the Supreme Commander's intention can we evacuate.
And that night, Chiang Kai-shek personally called Tang Shengzhi: "If the situation cannot last long, we can retreat in an attempt to organize and counterattack."
Therefore, Tang Shengzhi, together with Luo Zhuoying, Deputy Commander Liu Xing and Chief of Staff Zhou, convened the staff that night to formulate a retreat plan and orders. Finally, the troops decided to withdraw from Nanjing four days later.
At this time, Tang Shengzhi did not know that the vanguard of the Hainan Army heading north had already crossed the Japanese Maoshan front and would reach Nanjing within two days as expected.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The artillery fire in Nanjing has never stopped since the war began. The Japanese artillery fired their shells at the city of Nanjing fearlessly. At the same time, it also caused heavy casualties to the civilians of Nanjing. Under the artillery fire, the city was filled with flames. This was also the most miserable incident in the history of the Far East.
City capture song.
The next day, as the out-of-control teaching corps withdrew into Nanjing City, it was announced that all the outer positions of Nanjing City were lost, and the brutal street battles and mass annihilation battles in Nanjing City slowly began.
Overall, the decisive battle in Nanjing was unfavorable to the National Army. Jiangsu and Zhejiang fell to the Japanese first, and the National Army's industrial capabilities could only be transferred to the southwest. This meant that all the logistical supplies of the National Army needed to pass through the Yangtze River from at least Hunan and Hubei.
Transported over.
The Yangtze River route was easily blocked by Japanese aviation and warships, and the Hanoi fleet of the National Army was unable to break through the Japanese maritime defense line. Judging from the map, except for the road where the Hainan Army went north, the other three sides were surrounded by Japanese troops.
Heavy troops are a standard place of death.
In contrast, the Shanghai port, which was backed by the Japanese troops attacking Nanjing, had very convenient supply lines, and ships from the mainland could easily unload their cargo.
In this battle, the commander of the National Army also made a very serious mistake. Without gaining firepower advantage, especially the artillery firepower advantage and mobility advantage, he rashly launched a strategic decisive battle with the Japanese army, which led to this
The defeat of a battle.
Wenchang City, Hainan Army Headquarters.
"General! The situation in Nanjing is critical. The Japanese army has broken through the outer front and has begun street fighting!" No. 0 came over to report.
Li Weidong has been paying attention to the situation of the Nanjing Defense War, and No. 0 is mainly responsible for processing the intelligence fed back by the Nanjing Station of the Military Intelligence Section.
"Well, order the tank brigade to set off overnight to attack the surrounding areas of Yingzhou and clear out the troops handed over to the eighth division." Li Weidong was silent for a moment and said. This battle was spearheaded by the Hainan Army's tank brigade, but he did not expect the Nanjing defenders.
The collapse was so severe.
The 8th Division of the Hainan Army is a new unit, and most of the soldiers have just been transferred out of the reserves, so their combat effectiveness is much lower. The First Field Army and the Second Field Army operate together, and it is obvious that these new units fall behind
The very back.
At the same time, fifty kilometers west of Nanjing, soldiers of the Hainan Army's First Tank Brigade were resting in a temporary camp. The tank soldiers, who had been jolting for two days and two nights, were almost at their limit, and their skeletons were about to fall apart.
As the weather gets warmer in the south in the summer, the tank crews lie down near the tanks, lay down on blankets and then fall asleep. In the midst of war and the threat of survival, it is rare to have a moment of tranquility.
Liu Tiedan had just slept for a while, but was awakened by the busy engineering soldiers around him. After a bumpy day, many vehicles could not hold up, and they either broke down or had problems.
He raised his head and looked at the stars in the sky. He cherished the tranquility of the night. Gradually, he felt sleepy and his eyelids began to tremble.
"Assemble! Emergency assembly!" In less than half an hour, the sky was still very dark, and brigade commander Wu Shaoting stood on the tank, his roar echoing in the open fields.
There was no complaint. The inherent duty of a soldier is to obey orders. As soon as the order to attack was given, the tank crews immediately got up, rolled up their blankets, and got into the cab one after another.
Because they all know that there are still more than 300,000 people in Nanjing who need to be rescued. On the Zhenjiang Bridge, their comrades are still holding on. Arriving at the battlefield earlier will give their comrades more hope of survival.
The tank engine roared and spit out a plume of green smoke. The headlights illuminated the rugged road ahead. As the tank moved forward, dead grass and dust were rolled up again on the ground.