Chapter 49 4. National Memorial Jinling

Wang Yaowu, the commander of the 51st Division, and his party were also stranded by the river, and there were no boats to cross the river. Just as they were in a hurry, the division staff of the 51st Division encountered Adjutant Zhang of the 74th Army. Adjutant Zhang hurriedly said to Wang Yaowu: "Commander and Master Feng Shengfa of the 58th Division has already crossed the river. Seeing the defeat in the battle, the army commander sent someone to prepare a small steamer in Pukou. This steamer can hold more than 300 people at a time, so he asked me to come Get you and the troops."

Ignoring much to say, Wang Yaowu immediately took some people on board to cross the river. At the same time, he immediately sent Zhao Ruhan, the deputy director of the division department, and some soldiers to pick up the officers and soldiers of the 74th Army in cooperation with Zhang, the deputy officer of the military department.Looking at the chaotic beach, Wang Yaowu, who had already boarded the boat and crossed the river, was even a little at a loss.There are surging crowds everywhere, and the beach is covered in darkness.Although a temporary evacuation field was set up on the riverside, troops and refugees were arranged to board the ship one by one, and evacuated from Xiaguan to the nearby Pukou, but the situation was out of control and chaotic.

At this time, this seemingly inconspicuous water area on the map has become an insurmountable natural moat in front of tens of thousands of Nanjing defenders. "Let the troops maintain order!" Zhao Ruhan, the deputy director of the division, personally commanded the troops to maintain order on the beach. If there was a major disturbance at this time, it would be a disaster.However, in the face of the Japanese army's approaching step by step and the continuous roaring shells, it is really difficult to control the situation. All kinds of ships berthed at random along the river, there are no trestles, only some limited wharves.Fearing that the shallow water near the river would cause ships to run aground, some large ships with slightly larger tonnages could only park on the river a little farther away.Rafts, boats, and even wooden barrels became "vessels" for evacuation, and some people even jumped directly into the river.

The gendarmes who maintained order—the officers and soldiers of the 36th Division pulled up the cordon and tried their best to suppress the rioting crowd.Facing the frenzied influx of people, the weak military police had to fire warning shots again and again. "Da da" gunshots fired into the air one after another, one after another.But some people still rushed through the warning line, and more people swarmed over, climbing towards those ships desperately.The gendarmes and even sailors who tried their best to stop the riot and maintain order were shoved aside. People trampled, yelled, crowded into a heap, and climbed into the boat desperately.Soldiers, civilians, and even military officers, all of them have only one thought: escape, escape from here.Guns and ammunition were thrown away indiscriminately, and suitcases, packages, and luggage were thrown everywhere. It didn't matter whether they wanted these things or not.The people who were beaten into a group rushed to climb onto the boat, and some crazy soldiers even shot those who had already climbed onto the boat to death, just to save a place for themselves on the boat.

The gendarmes also fired, and the sound of gunfire exploded one after another. Those who lost control of order were mercilessly shot to death on the beach, and pairs of desperate hands clung to the side of the ship until their death.Regardless of the freezing cold of the river in winter, some people waded waist-deep in the river and swam to the large ships moored on the sea far away, regardless of anything. The cannonballs continued to crash down, exploding jets of water one after another on the sea surface, and strands of dark red gradually dispersed among the waves.People ran away in panic, even more desperately broke through the obstruction of the military police, and climbed onto the moored boat at the risk of being shot.The shells that fell were telling everyone that the Japanese were getting closer.

There were fireballs from the artillery fire everywhere, and the falling artillery shells set off bursts of blood mist, and stumps and broken arms were flying all over the sky.There was chaos on the pier, with noisy soldiers and refugees pouring into an out-of-control wave.All kinds of abandoned equipment are everywhere on the river beach.Soldiers have begun to strip themselves of their clothes and disguise themselves as refugees. "Boom" a huge explosion seemed to be close at hand, and there were bursts of painful groans from outside the division headquarters.The lethality caused by the falling shells on the crowded river bank was extremely huge.

Xiao Shanling waved his hands dejectedly: "Let's go. As the mayor of Nanjing and the commander of the gendarmerie, I cannot leave my troops behind. This is what any Chinese military officer must do." Thinking of those crowded outside The tens of thousands of defenders on the beach were in chaos, Xiao Shanling felt a little sad. "But Nanjing is over. As you know, no one can help us now!" Song Xilian said, "We can only withdraw as many troops as possible, not how many troops we withdraw, we have as many as we can." "No need to say any more, brother Yin Guo, I've already made my decision." Xiao Shanling interrupted Song Xilian, "You go, I must stay here, with those troops. Even if they all die for the country." Song Xilian said helplessly Looking at Xiao Shanling in front of him, after shaking hands and saying goodbye, he led the 36th Division and began to retreat. "Everyone retreat!" Song Xilian ordered sharply, "Dispose of all documents, and destroy everything that cannot be taken away."

As several senior officers ran away, the division headquarters suddenly became chaotic.The staff officers and officers randomly threw stacks of documents into the brazier and burned them. Secret operators frantically smashed all the communication equipment and radio stations, and the guards shot at all the radio equipment with guns.Sparks danced from several radio stations, and thick blue smoke ignited.After saying goodbye to each other, all the officers at all levels in the division headquartered dispersed in a crowd. At this time, who can control who else, running away is the most important thing.There was a lot of artillery fire outside, and shells from a distance rained down one after another.The entire river bank seemed to be trapped in purgatory, with shrapnel and flames flying everywhere.

On the river in the distance, one after another Japanese ships were rampaging, some ships were burning raging fire, and some ships had already begun to sink.Countless lives struggle among the waves.People screamed and wailed in despair.Rows of artillery shells smashed into successive waves on the river, and the Japanese ships frantically strafing the river continuously swept small splashes of blood between the heads of the people struggling in the river. Smoke was billowing and fires were burning everywhere.Looking at the chaotic situation, everyone is extremely depressed. Is this the end?There was another huge explosion, and the loud noise that hurt the eardrum almost made Xiao Shanling faint.A wooden boat full of people near the river burst into flames, and the soldiers covered in fire screamed in pain and ran away. "It seems that the Japanese are planning to use this place as our cemetery." Xiao Shanling said hoarsely.

The clusters of flames looked extraordinarily dazzling in the night, and the high temperature and raging fire almost made people feel suffocated.Countless soldiers and refugees ran frantically on the river bank, trying their best to run towards those ships.No one cared about order or gendarmes anymore, and even the gendarmes who maintained order threw away their weapons and flocked desperately to the coast.Regardless of whether there was a boat or not, no matter how icy the river was at night, many people rushed into the river with ammunition boxes and a board in their arms. It would not take long for them to freeze to death in the cold river water.

"Let me stay with the gendarmerie, resist the devil's attack, and cover the retreat of the friendly army." Xiao Shanling roared loudly, he didn't want to leave like this.Everyone in the chaotic pile cried, and some people were willing to stay, watching the brothers who crossed the river with Xiao Shanling gradually go away, maintaining order in Xiaguan, and preparing to organize defenses at the same time.As for the navy dock stationed by the special agent company of the Jiangning Fortress Headquarters, there was a ship parked there.There were already three or four hundred people on board, all of whom were officers and soldiers from the chief's department. However, Tang Shengzhi, the commander of the garrison, Luo Zhuoying, the deputy commander, and She Nianci had not arrived at this time. In the chaos, many people advocated sailing immediately. If some officers hadn't tried their best to stop them, they must wait for Tang Shengzhi and the others to come before sailing. I'm afraid the boat would have sailed away long ago.An hour later, Tang Shengzhi arrived in a hurry, accompanied by an adjutant from the Nanking Garrison Headquarters.After a while, Luo Zhuoying and Liu Xing also came in a hurry, but She Nianci and Chief of Staff Liao Ken hadn't come yet.Although Tang Shengzhi ordered to wait another hour, he left in a hurry because he was worried that the Japanese would come. Although before the start of the Nanjing battle, Tang Shengzhi handed over all the ships to the 36th Division in order to prevent the guards and soldiers from crossing the river privately, and he was not allowed to keep a single ship.On December 7, the small steamer carrying some personnel and military supplies of the Jiangyin Jiangfang Command headed to Wulong Mountain outside the Jiangning Fortress and stayed outside the blockade line, so the chief of staff, Zhou Lan, ordered the ship to be taken away temporarily. Come, send someone to inform Jiangning Fortress Commander Shao Baichang to lead the ship into the coal port with a small raft, and park the ship at Coal Port. At this time, the personnel of the Garrison Commander's Headquarters can escape almost entirely because of this ship. At this time, part of the Japanese Kunisaki Detachment had already crossed the river in Jiangpu County and was heading towards Nanjing, so the gunshots across the river were very dense, and no one knew the news.Amidst the gunfire, Qiu Weida, head of the 306th Regiment of the 51st Division who retreated from Zhonghua Gate, and his group hurriedly retreated towards Coal Harbor.He received a call from Wang Yaowu, the division commander: "The battle situation in Nanjing is chaotic, and it is impossible to fight in a planned way. In order to maintain part of the strength for future long-term combat plans, after completing the current mission, the troops should retreat in time, and the north of Pukou is the retreat direction. "Qiu Weida thought that the situation was not good and the task was very difficult. When he was in a stalemate with the Japanese army, how could he retreat?Where is the rear in a state of encirclement?So Qiu Weida gathered several battalion and company commanders to study the retreat plan on the city wall.However, because the Japanese army discovered the light of the flashlight and fired at it with extreme force, Qiu Weida, who was shot with a broken bone in his left leg, was carried off the battlefield on a stretcher, but he was unconscious due to excessive bleeding. When he regained consciousness, he was already in Xiaguan pier.At this time, under the command of Yan Zifeng, the deputy of the regiment, a group of 306 regiments without boats crossing the river were all stranded on the riverside, and the regimental adjutant and guards had to split up to find the boat. Waking up on a stretcher, Qiu Weida suddenly heard someone calling Qiu Weida's name from a distance in the middle of the river: "Where is Commander Qiu of the 51st Division?" He listened for the voice and found that the shout came from the direction of Coal Harbour.A group of people rushed to Coal Harbor and found a motor boat parked in the middle of the river, about 200 meters away from the shore. It turned out that the boat was left by Minister of Communications Yu Feipeng for Army Commander Yu Jishi to cross the river.The 74th Army originally had 17,000 troops participating in the Battle of Nanjing, but the remnants of the 51st Division and 4,000 people from the 58th Division were hastily taken in by the remaining troops that were withdrawn to Jiangbei.Although the military headquarters of the 74th Army immediately set up shelters after crossing the river, and successively accommodated more than 4,000 people, a large number of officers and soldiers were still separated along the way from Zhonghuamen to the riverside. Hearing that Qiu Weida hadn't crossed the river and was seriously injured again, Yu Jishi and Wang Yaowu were very anxious. They immediately left the ship and sent an adjutant and two guards along the river to shout for a group of people from the regiment headquarters of the 306th regiment.At this time, it was almost dawn, but fortunately, Qiu Weida, who was injured in his leg, still encountered this boat at Coal Harbor.Due to the huge crowds on the shore, when the boat was still 300 meters away from the shore, a large number of people jumped into the river and swam towards the boat, almost capsizing the boat.After taking in a part of the rout, the people on board immediately started to rescue Qiu Weida and the accompanying adjutant guards.Qiu Weida was tied by one end of a rope and dragged into the boat from the water before he was able to leave the blood-stained city of Nanjing.Although the cold river water pierced the wound very painfully, looking at the crying and chaotic scene from a distance, Qiu Weida didn't feel the pain of the wound at all, because at this moment he felt that the most painful part was in his own heart. . It was almost dawn, and the entire Xiaguan River was in chaos. A raging fire was burning one after another, and some ships that had been hit in vital positions rolled down slowly with thick smoke. On the deck that was a mess, panic Uneasy people either hugged lifebuoys or jumped directly into the icy river.This is not bad, those small wooden boats with smaller tonnage are often hit by a shell or a bomb, and the people and the boat disappear directly into the huge fireball.Everything was torn into flying pieces in an instant. The Japanese planes hovering in the air fired violently at the ships that had not sunk.On the bloody deck, people screamed and cried, and raised all the white objects in their hands. Surrender might be able to exchange for a life.Many people who were struggling in the river had already lost consciousness due to the cold, and the bombs dropped by the plane kept blasting water jets soaring into the sky on the sea full of floating corpses.Most of them will be numb and lose consciousness due to the low temperature in a short period of time, and eventually sink to the bottom of the river. The artillery fire from the Japanese warships that were strafing in conflict cut scarlet streaks of scarlet streaks among the undulating crowd, leaving too many wandering souls among the waves of the Yangtze River.It was a cold winter, and the corpses of Chinese people floating on the river in Xiaguan seemed to be crying.On the bank of the Xiaguan River, more and more Japanese troops gathered, and the artillery fire gradually stopped, only intermittent gunfire.The screaming planes in the sky gradually receded amidst the roar of their engines.Except for a few ships that were burning violently on the river, there were still burning ships. The shore was full of dead bodies, and some bombed-out buildings were still burning. At dawn, bombed-out boats ran aground messily on the bank of the river, and broken wood and discarded life buoys were everywhere.The tide slapped the river bank in bursts, eyes were full of scarlet, blood froth flew up on the beach where corpses were strewn across the field, and corpses were soaked in the scarlet river water. In the direction of Zhonghua Gate, under the rising sun, countless Japanese soldiers shouted "Long Live", embraced, and fell into ecstasy.Fire was still being fought in some places, but the Chinese defenders of Nanking had been irretrievably defeated.Some Chinese military officers who couldn't bear to be subjugated slaves stuffed their pistols into their mouths and pulled the triggers.However, more soldiers put down their guns and raised their hands towards the Japanese soldiers who were walking towards them.However, Xiao Shanling, the mayor of Nanjing and Commander of the Gendarmerie who commanded the cover on the bank of the river, committed suicide with a gun. Half of his body was still standing in the river when he died. At dawn, the Yamada detachment of the Japanese army came from Zhenjiang and occupied Wulong Mountain without a fight. The Japanese naval ships also passed the blockade and reached the Xiaguan River. Part of the 16th Division also entered the river near Baguazhou by boat.A large number of Chinese army officers and soldiers who were crossing the river were killed and injured by the firepower of the Japanese Navy and the 16th Division and the collision of ships. At the same time, the divisions of the Japanese army entered Nanjing through Zhongshan Gate, Guanghua Gate, Zhonghua Gate, and Shuixi Gate.The Tiangu detachment originally in Zhenjiang has crossed the Yangtze River and is heading for Yangzhou; the Guoqi detachment has arrived at Jiangpu and is heading for Pukou.The Chinese army that had retreated to Jiangbei began to retreat in the direction of Xuzhou along Jinpu Road.Tang Shengzhi, commander of the Nanjing Garrison, Luo Zhuoying, Liu Xing, deputy commanders, and officers and soldiers from the commander's department took a small fire ferry from Xiaguan Coal Port to Pukou on the evening of December 12. However, after receiving the news that the Japanese army had arrived near Jiangpu and was encircling Pukou, they approached Gu Zhutong's headquarters in Yangzhou on foot.When they arrived in Yangzhou at 7:00 in the morning, due to the approach of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army, Gu Zhutong and the Commander of the Third War Zone had already moved to Linhuaiguan, leaving 6 trucks behind. Transfer to Chuzhou by train and withdraw to Linhuaiguan.After the headquarters crossed the river, Song Xilian's 36th Division also crossed the river in batches at Meimei Port, assembled at Wuyi, and then drove to Bengbu.However, most of the officers and soldiers of the 87th and 88th divisions and the teaching corps were not able to withdraw, and they were still stranded in Nanjing.