The Xuebing Army's artillery did not fire, and it was a blockbuster. After inflicting a nearly devastating blow to the heavy artillery regiment of the Japanese 9th Division, it bought ample time for the Nanjing Garrison Command to readjust its defense line.
Shortly after the fighting ended at Guanghua Gate, the Japanese troops from other directions stopped attacking one after another. The arrival of the Japanese 6th Division and the 114th Division at Guanghua Gate failed to escape the eyes of the Xuebing Army. It was from this anomaly that Ouyang Yun concluded that the Japanese army would make a big move next, and what awaited the Nanjing garrison would be an unprecedented test.
At 11:30 p.m., at Qian Guangming's headquarters, Ouyang Yunhe, three commanders of the cadet division, two commanders of the Northeast Division, two commanders of the Sichuan Army, three division commanders of the central department, and Li Hanhun and other major commanders of the headquarters The personnel discussed the next step of combat plan.
The first person to speak was naturally Ouyang Yun.
"Everyone must be aware that the Japanese troops surrounding Nanjing have all stopped attacking. This abnormal and demonic situation means that there will definitely be major adjustments to the kid's next strategy. Yoshihashi Ryosuke pulled off such a big attack at Guanghua Gate. action, and then contacted the traces of the 18th Division in the southeast of Pukou. It is not difficult to conclude that the Japanese army wanted to hold us back and prepare for an encirclement on all sides. If my predictions were correct, Yoshihashi Ryosuke's original plan was to They wanted to gather the forces of several other divisions, use Guanghua Gate as a breakthrough, and then quickly occupy the main city area, and then attack from both sides to surround and kill our guarding troops in other directions. Fortunately, Brigadier Zhu and Brigadier Xie We responded properly and repelled the Japanese attack. Otherwise, just now, I had asked the single hero to send out all the remaining members of the Dasword Regiment. I asked them to send out the surrounding Japanese troops before twelve o'clock tonight. We have also collected all the deployment information. The Japanese army must have a big conspiracy next. We are at a disadvantage because we know nothing. According to my personal analysis, the next actions of the Japanese army are nothing more than two possibilities. One is to encircle but not attack. , thus having sufficient troops to pursue and suppress the main force of the Central Army, expand the results of the Battle of Nanjing, and take advantage of the situation to occupy the entire territory of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang; there is also a possibility to give up the pursuit of the main force of the Central Army and mobilize heavy troops to encircle and annihilate us, no matter where we are. One way, we can no longer stay in Nanjing. The main force of the Central Army has safely retreated to Hubei. The only ones left in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are some guerrilla troops. This means that no matter what the Japanese army does, we can only rely on ourselves in the future. , Everyone, the reason why I stayed in Nanjing was to evacuate as many people as possible. After these few days of work, we have achieved certain results. Next, it is time to consider for ourselves, China and Japan. A big war cannot be resolved in a year or two. We must conserve our strength and prepare for the subsequent battle. There is now a regiment of left-behind troops at Pukou. Their mission is to defend Pukou Ferry. Now, Qian Bin Additional reconnaissance troops are being dispatched to detect the movements of the 18th Division. If the 18th Division attacks Pukou in advance, we will have to evacuate immediately. I am speaking in a more general way. If you have any good opinions and suggestions, please feel free to express them."
Liu Yuqing stood up and said to Ouyang Yun: "Commander, everyone, let me start by saying something. Nanjing City really cannot stay. It's not that we don't have the determination to sacrifice, but it's not worth it. The central government and the main force of the Central Army have already All have retreated, and the evacuation of the people is almost in progress. The Japanese army must also know that we will evacuate Nanjing sooner or later, so what I am worried about is that the reason why the Japanese army is not in a hurry to attack is to wait for us to retreat, and then use this opportunity to attack Our army is following and pursuing, and once our army's retreat falls into chaos, the Japanese army will have an opportunity. Commander, don't you find it strange that so far, the frequency and number of Japanese fighter planes have been quite low. We all know that, When the little devils fight, their favorite thing is to bomb first and then bomb, then use tanks as cover, and the infantry charges collectively. But this time, why are the little devils so uncharacteristically different? There must be an article in this. Last night, I focused on this issue. It is becoming more and more certain that the reason why the Japanese army did this is to wait for our army to retreat. There are still 10 divisions of our troops left in Nanjing. After deducting the battle losses in the past two days, there are still about 100,000 people. If so many people Evacuate at the same time. The target is too big, and speed is also an issue. Once bitten by the Japanese army, the final result is very likely to be eaten from an elephant to a goat, and then beaten to death by a group. I am not unfounded. The Japanese army has invested a total of more than 300,000 people in East China. In addition to the remaining troops occupying the cities, there are always 200,000 that can be used for fighting. Once the 200,000 people are laid out in layers on our army's evacuation route, , the consequences would be disastrous. My personal suggestion is that after the meeting is over, we can consider evacuating part of the army first. This time, I think the retreat can be done in waves. The first troops to evacuate will be responsible for occupying important cities along the way. and passes, and fortresses to receive the subsequent evacuating troops. When troops take over, they will retreat. This cycle can not only ensure the overall combat capability of the troops, but also avoid the target being too big and being bitten by the Japanese army and unable to escape. , and the biggest advantage is that if the Japanese army reveals a flaw, we can mobilize all our forces to encircle and annihilate..."
Liu Yuqing's words were obviously far-sighted. Ouyang Yun and others nodded after hearing this. Therefore, the general retreat policy was decided. After everyone worked together to improve it, they began to decide on the retreat sequence.
Liu Yuqing's retreat plan is undoubtedly the most appropriate in terms of the situation between the enemy and ourselves. Of course, this retreat plan is not perfect. One of the biggest worries is that once the entire army is dispersed, it seems to have spread out. The word "Snake Formation" means that the cooperation between the various units is very demanding. Once there is a problem in a certain link, the consequences will be unimaginable. Therefore, the retreat sequence is very important. Which divisions will be the snakeheads and which divisions will be the snakeheads? The individual division serves as the rearguard, which tests Ouyang Yun's wisdom and knowledge of people as a commander.
There is no doubt that in the entire retreat sequence, those at the front and at the back will be the most dangerous in the entire team. Those at the front have to worry about whether there will be a tough mission, and those at the back have to worry about being able to escape. If we cannot hold it, will we be cut and surrounded by the Japanese army?
Ouyang Yun thought about it carefully, exchanged opinions with Li Hanhun and others, and finally decided on the retreat sequence as follows:
The first three divisions to evacuate were the 121st Division, the 5th Xue Division, and the 145th Division of the Sichuan Army, which only belonged to the Capital Garrison Headquarters. The two divisions that evacuated in the second wave were the 117th Division of the Northeast Army. division, and then the 1st Division of the Jiangsu Security Forces; the third in line are still two divisions, the 60th Division and the 103rd Division; the last group of evacuations are also three divisions, namely the 3rd Xue Division, the Northeast The 114th Division of the Army and the 26th Division of the Sichuan Army, as for the artillery divisions and tank divisions, were dispersed and organized into various retreat sequences. Among them, the first wave was assigned two tank regiments and an artillery brigade; the second wave was assigned one tank The regiment has one artillery regiment; the third wave is the same as above; the fourth wave is only equipped with one tank regiment and one self-propelled artillery regiment.
In terms of commander candidates for each wave, Li Hanhun is in charge of the first echelon; Wu Keren is in charge of the second echelon; Fu Kaihang (commander of the 103rd Division) is in charge of the third echelon; Ouyang Yun personally commands the fourth echelon.
After the retreat sequence and specific retreat time were worked out, Ouyang Yun finally said: "Everyone, I am the youngest here, so I shouldn't take the lead. However, since the Chairman has entrusted me with this important task, I will I have the responsibility to bring you back safely. Therefore, I hope that you will put the overall situation first and never just care about yourself and others. I will say something ugly up front. No matter who it is, if you dare to put the entire army in danger because of his personal reasons. , then he is a traitor, and you must know my attitude towards traitors, Ouyang Yun, as long as I don’t die, I will hunt him to the ends of the earth."
Ouyang Yun's words were very serious. Even Wu Keren and Liu Yuqing, who were famous patriotic generals in later generations, still looked unhappy after hearing these words. However, Ouyang Yun's original intention was just to knock mountains and shake tigers. As for whether it affected his own He couldn't care less about the glorious image,
Almost at the same time that the Nanjing garrison held a meeting, the commanders of the Japanese troops surrounding Nanjing received the latest order from the dispatched army headquarters in Shanghai.
As Ouyang Yun deduced, after Yoshihashi Ryosuke reported the morning's results to Matsui Iwane, the old Japanese convened the staff to discuss collectively for more than half an hour, and then made a decision to seize this opportunity and seize this opportunity in one fell swoop. Completely annihilated the troops stationed in Nanjing of the Xuebing Army,
Yoshihashi Ryosuke's combat plan of concentrating on blasting the Gwanghwamun Gate was approved and appreciated by Matsui Iwane. In the eyes of the old Japanese, this combat plan is quite perfect, and the success rate should be very high. However, because the Xuebing With the emergence of the army's artillery, this plan came to nothing. This made the old Japanese finally realize how useless the Peking Army was. Reminiscent of the Japanese army's encounter in North China, Matsui Iwane felt that it was necessary to completely annihilate the Academic Army in one fell swoop. It’s time for the main force (because self-propelled artillery and light tanks appeared in large numbers, the old Japanese believed that Ouyang Yun must have brought out the main force, so he dared to make such a determination. You must know that the Japanese base camp had previously given him The battle order is to quickly defeat as many Chinese troops as possible and capture as much territory as possible),
Therefore, he not only ordered the 18th Division to move towards Jiangpu immediately and seize Pukou no matter what, he also ordered the 3rd Division and 16th Division active in Zhejiang and northwest Jiangsu and the Taiwan Infantry Brigade to immediately Movement in the direction of Nanjing, striving to completely capture the Nanjing defenders, in order to completely annihilate the main force of the student army in Nanjing.