Chapter 46 1. Shake

Since December 11, the 16th Division of the Japanese Army under the command of Lieutenant General Nakajima Kine Asago has been attacking the Chinese defensive positions at the northern and southern foot of Zijin Mountain. Teach the team to fight tenaciously.Throughout the fierce battle on December 11, the Japanese army made little progress. Only the right-wing troops captured the Yangfangshan and Yinkongshan positions defended by the 2nd Army, and advanced to the vicinity of Yaohua Gate.From the early morning of the 12th, the 16th Division was still attacking fiercely on this line, while the Yamada Detachment of the 13th Division, which was reinforced from Zhenjiang, quickly advanced towards the Wulongshan Fort.

On the southern defense line, the main forces of the 114th Division and the 6th Division of the Japanese Army's 10th Army continued to attack Yuhuatai fiercely.After the second-line position of the 88th Division of the Chinese Army was destroyed, the defenders were forced to hold the last core position.The right wing of the Japanese 114th Division has advanced its attack to the Zhonghuamen position.A part of the left wing of Gu Hisao's 6th Division moved northward along the east bank of the Yangtze River, repelled a battalion of the 2nd Gendarmerie Teaching Regiment at Shangxinhe, and occupied the Huahuadi position outside Shuiximen. The 74th Army formed a trend of suppression.

The Guoqi detachment crossed the Yangtze River near Dangtu Beici Lake, marched westward, and marched towards Pukou.Although the 18th Division of the Japanese Army occupying Wuhu was transferred to the battle in Hangzhou due to the order of the Central China Front Army, and no longer participated in the attack on Nanjing.Everyone knows that it doesn't matter whether there is this division participating in the war. The destruction of Nanjing City is only a matter of time. At the same time, the Supreme Command in Wuhan was also paying close attention to the battle situation in Nanjing. Every day, a large number of telegrams inquiring about the battle situation and giving instructions were sent to the Nanjing Garrison Headquarters.The General Staff Headquarters has realized that the combat effectiveness and morale of the troops withdrawn to Nanjing are far inferior to those at the time of the Battle of Songhu. The enemy broke through and forced the city wall. It can be said that there is another way out except Xiaguan, and Nanjing is already a besieged city.

And after the news that the Japanese army had crossed the river near Dangtu, Wuhan felt that the situation in Nanjing was critical.The severity of the situation has forced the General Staff Headquarters to consider the retreat of the Nanjing defenders.In order to prevent the Nanjing defenders from being encircled and wiped out by the enemy, the Supreme Command began to consider the feasibility of ordering the Nanjing defenders to retreat as early as noon on December 11. Commander Gu Zhutong told Tang Shengzhi by phone: On the night of the 11th, he crossed the river and went north, and at the same time ordered the defenders to break out with cameras.

That night, Chiang Kai-shek personally called Tang Shengzhi again: "If the situation cannot last for a long time, you can retreat in camera, in order to organize and counterattack." problem, the initial decision was to begin the retreat on the night of 14 December. At 2 o'clock in the morning on the 12th, the commander's headquarters began to convene staff members to formulate retreat plans and orders. At dawn on the 12th, the Japanese concentrated artillery and aviation firepower to launch a fierce attack on the Fukuo positions and city walls, trying to tear through the defenses of the Chinese defenders on the 12th.The 16th Division of the Japanese Army on the east side of the city is still fighting fiercely in the area of ​​Xiaolingwei West Mountain and Zijin Mountain.Because the 9th Division of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army was counterattacked by the 87th Division of the defenders in the Guanghuamen area, and there was no progress, it ordered the 9th Division to stop the offensive and carry out rectification in the early morning of the 12th. At the same time, it ordered the Eagles of the 3rd Nagoya Division to Commander Mori Ko commanded the 68th Infantry Regiment to join the battle from the left wing of the 9th Division and attack the city wall.

Since the main positions of the 88th Division in Yuhuatai were all occupied by the Japanese army, the second peak of Zijin Mountain was also lost, and the 2nd Army was oppressed to the backwater positions from Wulong Mountain to Jixiang'an.The dangerous city has become a broken city. Under this critical situation, the garrison chief immediately mobilized the 154th Division to reinforce and block the enemy entering the Zhonghua Gate, and the 36th Division was transferred into the city to prepare for street fighting. At the same time, Luo Zhuoying and Liu Xing, deputy chiefs of the Garrison Chief Command, Chief of Staff Zhou Lan, Chief of Staff Liao Ken, Deputy Chief Lin Weizhou, and others were already busy drafting withdrawal orders.Under the heavy bombardment of the Japanese army, Zhonghua Gate and several parts of the city wall to the west collapsed, and a Japanese army broke into the city through the gap under the cover of artillery fire.In addition, the 88th Division withdrew immediately, even if the 306th Regiment of the 51st Division went up, it still could not stop the Japanese attack.At that time, a large number of residents in Zhonghuamen fled to the refugee area in the north of the city to escape the shelling and the Japanese army, and crowded the streets with the retreating stragglers, and the order in the city was completely in chaos.In order to retreat in a planned and organized manner, the Garrison Chief Command instructed the 36th Division to be responsible for maintaining order in the city and Xiaguan in the afternoon.

At the same time, a strict order was issued: "Xiaguan leads to Pukou, which is the only traffic road behind our army. We should try our best to maintain order. It is strictly forbidden for officers, soldiers and stragglers to gather together to ensure the main points; the 74th Army fought fiercely with the enemy in Shangxinhe, and the traffic in the rear should be The connection between the Hanzhong Gate and the city is prohibited for the troops of the army to retreat into Xiaguan through the Sancha River. Song Xilian of the 36th Division immediately imposed martial law in the area from Yijiangmen to Xiaguan, and all activities were prohibited.”

At this time, part of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army had broken into Zhonghua Gate, the 16th Division and the 68th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division had approached Zhongshan Gate and Guanghua Gate, and the left wing of the 6th Division had approached Shuixi Gate.The 2nd Corps of the Chinese garrison retreated to Wulong Mountain, and the teaching corps retreated to Zijin Mountain. The Nanjing garrison began to waver. Tang Shengzhi, the chief of the garrison, had to decide to retreat that night instead. Under the fierce attack of the Japanese army, although the 88th Division of Yuhuatai resisted resolutely, it finally retreated under the violent attack of the Japanese army.In the morning, regiment leader Han Xianyuan, battalion commanders Huang Qi, Zhou Hong, and Fu Yiting were martyred successively. After noon, brigade commander Zhu Chi of the 262nd brigade, brigade commander Gao Zhisong of the 264th brigade, regimental commander Hua Pinzhang, battalion commanders Su Tianjun, Wang Honglie, and Li Qianghua Thousands of officers and soldiers were killed.

Since the Yuhuatai position had been captured by the Japanese, after the remnants of the 88th Division and the 264th Brigade defending the area retreated, they could not retreat into the city because the gate of Zhonghuamen was blocked, so they could only move laterally under enemy fire, along the The moat goes around the city and withdraws to the north.Sun Yuanliang, the commander of the 88th Division, led the division directly under him and a part of the 262nd Brigade to retreat to Xiaguan without authorization. However, they were dissuaded by the 36th Division Song Xilian in Yijiangmen, and the two sides even fired guns, which made the order in the city even more chaotic.As the Xiaguan retreat was blocked by Song Xilian's 36th Division with the reason that "the chief ordered to take a half-step back, he will be killed". As a last resort, the 88th Division had to return to the Zhonghuamen defense line to fight.

After occupying Yuhuatai, the Japanese army was condescending. In this way, the positions of Zhonghuamen and Saihongqiao were completely exposed to the firepower of the Japanese army. Some officers and soldiers of the 262nd Brigade of the 88th Division and the 306th Regiment of the 51st Division of the 74th Army were in this situation. Under such circumstances, they still stick to the position of the city wall and fight hard.In the previous battle, Zhou Zhidao, the commander of the 151st Brigade, commanded the only remaining main force of the brigade, the 302nd Regiment and the 305th Regiment, to fight on the Saihongqiao defense line, while Li Tianxia, ​​the commander of the 153rd Brigade, commanded the 306th Regiment to guard the city wall to the west of the Zhonghua Gate. The 51st Division The casualties accounted for almost 2/3 of the entire division, but they were still desperately resisting.

Wang Yaowu was not much less angry than Li Tianxia and other grassroots officers at this time, because Li Tianxia reported to him before: "Because there are no troops defending the city wall positions in the left and right areas, about a hundred Japanese troops from the 153rd Brigade position and the left wing area took advantage of the gap. Go up the city wall and occupy the position I have set up. With the coordination of infantry and artillery, they attack the left side of the garrison troops of the 153rd brigade. The city wall position is an important line of defense for the city. Why didn't the chief minister order the other ministries to occupy it? Can Nanjing still defend?" In addition to yelling at Sun Yuanliang, Wang Yaowu could only give Li Tianxia a death order: "Since the enemy has sneaked up on the city wall, we should concentrate our efforts to destroy it quickly." As a last resort, Li Tianxia had to personally supervise and lead troops to compete with the Japanese army repeatedly, but failed to succeed in several counterattacks.The Japanese army continued to increase, and the battle on the front line of Zhonghuamen became more and more intense.As the left-wing friendly forces retreated without support, the 306th Regiment tried its best to fight fiercely with the Japanese troops who had climbed into the city wall, but it was difficult to maintain a stalemate due to its weak strength. Even Li Tianxia and Qiu Weida, the commander of the 306th Regiment, were injured. He died for the country, and the regiment suffered more than 1,300 casualties. Due to the heavy casualties of officers and soldiers, the position held by the 153rd Brigade was already in jeopardy.The houses inside and outside the Shuixi Gate were destroyed by the Japanese artillery fire, and there were fires everywhere.The Japanese planes and artillery were still bombarding the gates of the city intensively. The solid city walls were blown to pieces of stones, the surrounding houses collapsed, and the city walls were opened. The Chinese officers and soldiers in the city could even see the enemies outside the city. More than 30 enemy planes hovered in the sky, and bombs and leaflets fell at the same time. The Japanese army tried to tell the Chinese officers and soldiers guarding the city by means of the smoke and fire of the bombs and the persuasion of the leaflets: either die or surrender.Since many parts of the Yuhuamen and Zhongshanmen city walls were blown up by Japanese artillery fire, groups of Japanese infantry took advantage of the gap to sneak in. Under such circumstances, the chaotic and disorderly Chinese defenders did not retreat, but Spontaneously went forward, used his own body to prevent the enemy from driving straight in, and told the Japanese with his actual actions: Between bombs and leaflets, the Chinese defenders chose bombs. At this time, due to the fall of the Zhenjiang Fortress, the Japanese Navy's 3rd Fleet also began to approach the city of Nanjing.Since the morning of December 9, the two Japanese warships on the Yangtze River began to move forward cautiously.After being hit by heavy artillery fire from the Dutian Temple, the Zhenjiang Fortress has reached its last moment. At noon on December 10, dozens of Japanese bombers flew over Dutianmiaotai and bombed in turn, completely flattening the fort's fortifications and barracks. effect. Since the fort was lost, Chief of Staff Wang Geng immediately ordered the remaining officers and soldiers of each station to go to Gaoyou to concentrate on standby. At the same time, he ordered the garrison battalion and engineering company to still stick to the riverside position, continue to resist the enemy from crossing the river, and keep in touch with the security forces.The command post was moved to Shijiaqiao, the rear of the headquarters was transferred to Gaoyou, and the officers and soldiers of the fortress were accommodated on standby for reorganization. On the morning of the 11th, the riverside garrison fought fiercely with the Japanese troops crossing the river, and the stalemate lasted for more than ten hours. Then, taking advantage of the sea and air, the Japanese army broke through the riverside defense line and forcibly landed at around 5 pm.The garrison was forced to abandon the riverside position and move to the front line of Shijiaqiao to continue to resist.The Yangzhou Garrison Headquarters and the Security Headquarters were hastily transferred to Huaiyin County in northern Jiangsu. Therefore, the fortress garrison had lost the task of covering the fortress and was ordered to transfer to Gaoyou for reorganization. The command post was withdrawn at the same time. "I heard that the military department sent people to build a pontoon bridge on the Sancha River and prepare to cross the river and retreat to Pukou, but they were shot by machine guns from the 36th Division, and many brothers died." Such rumors began in the 74th Army of Zhonghuamen The defenders' positions spread out.Although some people doubted the authenticity of such rumors, there was no guarantee that they were not true. Many defenders on the battlefield began to worry about their own fate, and their morale was also greatly reduced. At this time, the 6th Wing of the Field Artillery of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army, under the personal intervention of the regiment leader Ken Fujimura, Duan Lieutenant Major Ikebe Eihiro, and the command squad leader Lieutenant Takanashi Toshi, covered the 6th Division with fierce artillery fire. The regiment attacked Zhonghuamen again.At the Yuhuatai position on the flank, an infantry battalion of Japanese troops who had opened the cordon had begun to advance slowly, preparing to launch a flank attack on the outer line position of Saihongqiao. Cooperating with a frontal brigade, they completed the attack on the Chinese defenders at Saihongqiao. The breakthrough of the outer line position, and in the other direction, the 114th Division also started their attack operations. With the 114th Division as the frontal attack and the 6th Division's right wing as the flank, the final strategy began.At this time, the city of Nanjing was in chaos, and the crazy Japanese attack came in a blink of an eye.The Japanese had captured the positions on the outskirts of the city, and a series of artillery shells roared and fired into the chaotic Zhonghua Gate, which was completely in chaos.The left-wing team of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army also rushed up quickly, and they directly formed a siege of Nanjing's flanks, which directly plunged the Nanjing defenders into a situation of destruction. "Order Captain Takata to send up two more infantry squadrons, and turn around from the flanks. We must break through the Chinese defense line in one fell swoop." Maj. The 23rd Regiment commanded the operation. Looking at the fireworks, Ushijima Mitsuru ordered, "Let Captain Sazawa Toshiki's infantry artillery squadron carry out barrage suppression!" The 88th Division deployed in the direction of Zhonghua Gate in the south of the city had just been stopped by the 36th Division because it had left its position without authorization before.Taking the north-south line that runs through the Zhonghua Gate as the boundary, the right wing consists of the 114th Division, and the left wing is the 6th Division. The Japanese army launched the final attack on the Zhonghua Gate with the two divisions at the same time.Since the 6th Division had not made any progress after the extremely fierce battle on the front line of the city wall west of the Zhonghua Gate, and encountered stubborn resistance from the Chinese army, it felt difficult and took a long time, so it had to adjust its combat deployment. The idea of ​​whether the 9th Division, which had just captured the front line of Gaoqiaomen two days ago, would continue to march towards Guanghuamen had not yet been finalized.This made the officers and soldiers of the 9th Division who were determined to be the first to enter Nanjing City obviously at a loss.You must know that before this, the reason why the 9th Division was blocked in Guanghuamen for two days and could not advance was because the Chinese defense was too tenacious. Less than 10 miles to the northeast from Nanjing is the Wulong Mountain Fort, which is also the location of the outermost river defense line in Nanjing under the control of the Chinese army.According to the information obtained, the Japanese army attacking this front was part of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army that captured Zhenjiang a few days ago.Although the intelligence department said that the Japanese army was only a wing-level force, the defenders of Wulongshan Fort were still at a loss because Japanese ships had already appeared on the river.But what they were afraid of would happen. Two days after the Japanese launched a full-scale attack on Nanjing, under the order of "March to Nanjing", the Yamada Detachment of the 13th Division had already left Zhenjiang, and dragged its way to the slightly northwest direction. Nanjing marched. Although I don't know if this Yamada detachment will face him face to face, the officers and soldiers of Wulongshan Fort are still scolding.The officers and soldiers of the Yamada Detachment also continued to criticize, because everyone knew that going to Nanjing made it clear that they were attacking those self-righteous guys of the 16th Division.At the end of the Russo-Japanese War, in the thirty-eighth year of Meiji (1905), the military expanded a total of 6 divisions. Among them, the 13th Division of Sendai and the 15th Division of Nagoya were formed on April 1, and the 15th Division of Nagoya was formed on July 6. The Utsunomiya 14th Division was formed, and then the Kyoto 16th Division was formed. In Japan's "Taisho Disarmament" triggered by the Great Depression after World War I, the 13th Division, 15th Division, Himeji 17th Division, and Kurume 18th Division were abolished. The 16th Division escaped this catastrophe because it was stationed in Manchuria.Due to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army suffered a serious shortage of troops. Therefore, on September 10, Showa 12 (September 12, 1937), it was reorganized into the No. 2 Division with the remaining 2nd Division as the main body. 13 divisions.At this time, let the proud 13th Division fight for the 16th Division, which was also formed in 1905. The officers and soldiers of the Yamada Detachment felt disgusted. However, as luck would have it, just after leaving Zhenjiang less than 10 kilometers away, the avant-garde troops hadn’t left Zhenjiang’s boundaries, and when the rear guards were still dragging their feet in Zhenjiang, the headquarters of the Yamada detachment received an emergency call from the headquarters of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army. The telegram: "Go faster!" A few words were enough to make the Yamada detachment realize that the Nanjing Raiders had reached the final juncture.