Chapter 12 precarious

If you can't even keep the outskirts of the city, an isolated city is bound to be dangerous.The consensus of the generals is about to be fulfilled as quickly as possible. After withdrawing to the vicinity of Shuixi Gate, Yu Jishi divided the 74th Army and ordered the 51st Division to undertake the defense inside and outside the Shuixi Gate, while the 58th Division was assembled in the city as a reserve team.As soon as the arrangements were made, the Japanese army launched an offensive. On December 11, the 151st Brigade of the 51st Division (including the 301st and 302nd Regiments) outside Shuiximen was attacked.At the fierce point, three Japanese tanks joined in, trying to cover the infantry to break through the defenders' positions.The 151st Brigade concentrated its artillery fire. The tanks used by the Japanese army were mainly Type 92 and Type 94 cavalry armored vehicles.In the process of dodging, a panicked tank plunged headlong into the ditch. Even the man and the vehicle were finished, and the remaining two tanks also fled in a hurry.

This was a moment of applause, but the good times didn't last long. There was a problem with the Yuhuatai position where the defense line was connected with the 151st Brigade.The 88th Division defending Yuhuatai was originally the most elite German weapon division in the Chinese army, but the most elite was also the fastest and worst exhausted on the Songhu battlefield. When it participated in the Nanjing Defense War, the 88th Division The fighting power is already quite weak. The Japanese army quickly occupied the Yuhuatai position.The 151st Brigade was attacked from the front and back, and the first position was broken through. Cheng Zhi, the commander of the 302nd Regiment, was killed, and the regiment suffered more than 1,700 casualties.So far, the entire 151st Brigade has basically lost its combat capability.

You can't defend the outside of the city, you can only defend the inside of the city.On December 12, the 153rd Brigade (including the 305th Regiment and 306th Regiment) defending along the city wall of Shuiximen was in a hurry. Two hundred Japanese soldiers took the opportunity to climb up the city wall with rope ladders and attacked the left side of the 153rd Brigade. Li Tianxia, ​​deputy commander of the 51st Division and commander of the 153rd Brigade, was furious when reporting to Wang Yaowu: "The city wall is an important line of defense to hold on to the city. Why didn't the chief minister order the various ministries to occupy it, so that Nanjing can still defend?"

Tang Shengzhi's chief department is a temporary team, and Tang Shengzhi commands all troops temporarily assigned to him.This is not a problem in a country with a relatively mature military system. For example, Matsui's "Shanghai Expeditionary Army" is temporarily composed of various divisions, like building blocks, which can be built into a desired shape at any time according to requirements.China can't do it. The commander can only be truly handy and free when he dispatches the so-called direct line troops. Tang Shengzhi used to be the leader of the Hunan Army, but his direct descendants of the Hunan Army had been dealt with by Chiang Kai-shek as early as the period of warlord melee.None of the troops guarding Nanjing has been commanded by him before. He does not know the specific situation of each army, and each army may not be able to carry out his orders without compromise.

Wang Yaowu had known these situations before he defended the city, and it was also one of the disadvantages that he believed that Nanjing was not easy to defend.But it is useless to blame the sky and complain, and it is too late. Wang Yaowu ordered Li Tianxia to mobilize troops to quickly wipe out the Japanese troops who climbed the city wall. The task was given to the 306th regiment.Qiu Weida selected a hundred capable fighters from the third battalion that fired the first shot in the Battle of Songhu to form a counterattack death squad.The whole regiment was led by death squads, and the rest of the officers and soldiers were covered by firepower, and the enemy soldiers who entered the city were cleared within an hour.

The hand-to-hand combat began.Japanese front-line reporters used a long focal length to shoot the siege shots. In the shots, the Japanese soldiers who climbed the city wall waved the "plaster flag", but they were quickly killed by the Chinese counterattack. The Japanese soldiers who rushed under the city wall could not escape the fate of being annihilated. Only one reporter accompanying the army was left alive, and he had to squat in the trench and wait for rescue.The Japanese army rushed up again, and the reporter quickly stood up and waved, but because he was wearing a khaki uniform instead of a military uniform, the Japanese soldiers thought he was a Chinese soldier, and immediately stabbed him with a bayonet.After stabbing to death, he looked at the armband and realized that he had killed his own reporter by mistake.

In this counterattack, Hu Hao, the commander of the third battalion, was killed, Li Tianxia and Qiu Weida were also killed, and the following officers and soldiers were killed and injured.Li Tianxia urgently dispatched the 305th Regiment to help, but the dilapidated 305th Regiment was unable to rescue the crisis, and the situation was in jeopardy. The situation of other friendly troops in the city was roughly similar, and there was already chaos in the city. Tang Shengzhi urgently called a meeting of the army commanders.Before going to the meeting, Yu Jishi called Wang Yaowu and said that he estimated that major adjustments might be made at the meeting, which meant that the issue of abandoning Nanjing might be mentioned.

Wang Yaowu was busy commanding and could not separate himself. He reminded Yu Jishi that if he really wanted to evacuate, he should advise the chief to allocate ships and even docks across the river, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous. Yu Jishi also thought about it in the same way.As expected, it was decided at the meeting to break out of the siege, but what Yu Jishi did not expect was that Tang Shengzhi's written order was to break out of the city and then move to Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi.