Chapter 15 Chapter 15 Breakout

The breakout route planned by Tang Shengzhi was to rush out of Nanjing, except for Song Xilian's division in Xiaguan and a few troops, and then transfer to Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi.This is a relatively wise decision, because if the entire army crosses the Yangtze River to the north, the north bank of the Yangtze River is already facing the danger of being blocked, and the two also lack sufficient ships. It is still very big, as long as you have the courage, you can definitely rush out. It is very important whether Tang Shengzhi made clear arrangements for retreat and breakout. After the fall of Nanjing and the tragic massacre, almost all those who broke out poured their grievances on Tang Shengzhi, thinking that as the supreme commander of the army, he should go to a military court for such a huge loss.

But Tang Shengzhi did make a clear plan for breaking out, but he didn't expect that at this moment, not many people were willing to seriously follow his request.Everyone instinctively thought that there were devils everywhere outside the city, and going out of the city would not be a trap. Many people even ran to the river alone after the meeting without even returning to the troops, let alone notifying them. . As a result, most of the troops did not follow Tang Shengzhi's order to break out of the city, but rushed to the riverside with the common people. Before the Nanjing Defense War, Tang Shengzhi asked Song Xilian to collect all the ships in order to prevent the troops from disobeying the military order and retreating without permission. There are not many ships, and with so many people coming up, there is not enough.

The tragedy happened like this. Of the troops crossing the river, Xu Yuanquan's 2nd Army lost the least, because they did not hand over the ships at the beginning.The other defending troops, from the "Iron Guards" to the three German armorers who participated in the "Ten-Day Siege", all suffered heavy losses. When they arrived in Pukou, there were only a thousand people left. Strictly speaking, only two Cantonese armies, Deng Longguang and Ye Zhao, basically carried out Tang Shengzhi's order to break out of the city. When the building is about to collapse, perhaps nothing is needed, what is needed is trust, obedience and courage. Even if there is a little doubt and cowardice, they dare not rush out of the city with the whole army.

On the land of Jiangnan, the unfamiliar Cantonese dialect began to resound. The first sentence: as big as you are, don't be a bad boy! It roughly means that if you go all out, you will die, but you must not be a softie. The second sentence: Throw that mother, carrot head! I don't need to explain the front, but the latter refers to the little devil. I don't know if it means the little devil looks like a carrot head, or the carrot head looks like a little devil. The one who took the lead in shouting these slogans was Luo Cequn, the division commander under Deng Longguang. He charged forward and led his troops to rush towards the Japanese positions several times, but failed to break through the blockade until he died in battle.

The division commanders all fell down, which shows how difficult and dangerous this road to break through is. Deng Longguang checked the team directly under him, and there were only less than a hundred people left. At this time, it was late at night, and the Japanese army's position was still open, staring ferociously at the group of struggling Cantonese. The chief of staff who accompanied Deng Longguang in the charge had the reputation of being a dragon and a tiger, but he was exhausted and terrified after fighting here, and even the sound of teeth chattering could be clearly heard. With less than a hundred people, how could they still be able to rush through? Almost everyone lost confidence and advocated waiting until the troops behind came up before charging.

At this time, everyone looked at the commander. Deng Longguang and Xue Yue are both students of the sixth grade in Baoding, so of course they also know a little bit about strategy and tactics. With such a violent impact in front, although it hasn't been knocked open, it must have loosened a bit. Maybe it was only one step before the door opened. Can't wait, if the troops behind don't wait and the Japanese army comes down, wouldn't it be miserable. So we have to continue to "several majors". Deng Longguang mobilized the most powerful spy company to launch a surprise attack on the Japanese positions, but this was just a false move. Under the cover of the spy company, the others used the terrain to leap forward one by one.

The previous frontal charge had given the Japanese an impression that the next round of attack would be the same, so Deng Longguang's technique of attacking east and west finally had a miraculous effect, and everyone rushed through the blockade. After crossing the blockade, the secret service company has already gone half way, looking forward, but the journey is still long and the night is vast. If you encounter the Japanese army again, you can be sure that you can neither fight nor rush. Seeing that there is no way to go to the sky and no way to go to the earth, the moment of despair is really approaching, but Deng Longguang gradually finds out that everything is not as bad as imagined.

Our people are afraid of being blocked by "carrot heads". In fact, "carrot heads" are also afraid of you attacking at night. Therefore, after the blockade, as long as there is a place to camp, bonfires will definitely be lit. This is easy to handle, if you don't want to step on the devil, everyone will live in peace, just go around the bonfire. Going forward, I heard an extremely familiar voice: "Dou Na Ma, Carrot Head!" When charging, it inspires morale, and when meeting, it makes people cry. It turned out to be another lost Cantonese army, and Deng Longguang suddenly fell to the ground with a stone.Behind him, there were only a dozen or so people left.

What happened to another Cantonese army commander, Ye Zhao, was even more bizarre. Like Deng Longguang, he was also a sixth-grade student in Baoding, but he was even worse than Deng Longguang. The latter had hundreds of soldiers around him until the end of his life, but after losing contact with the main force, he became a bare-handed commander without even a guard. , What strategy and tactics, riding a horse to fight, all fail. In desperation, Ye Zhao and his chief of staff had no choice but to disguise themselves as refugees and flee all the way, but in the eyes of the devils, there was no difference between refugees and soldiers, and they would not let them go if they saw them.

Ye Zhao had no choice but to hide in the mountains.Since they didn't bring any food with them, they were so hungry that they couldn't hold on anymore and had to venture down the mountain. By the roadside, there is a pile of sweet potato peels. Not sweet potatoes, just the peeled skin.On weekdays, no one would look directly at it, but at this moment Ye Zhao was extremely excited, as if he had found a treasure. The two immediately squatted down and rushed to put the sweet potato rind into their mouths.After I wiped my mouth, I found that there was some left, and carefully put it into my pocket for the next ration.

In Zhou Xingchi's version of "Wu Zhuangyuan Su Qier", Su Qier and his son, who have been reduced from aristocrats to beggars, will fight for dog food together, and even high-five each other for picking up a shredded meat from a broken bowl.If Ye Zhao could travel through time and space and saw this scene in advance, he might think he was playing himself. Yesterday, they were majestic generals, but in a blink of an eye they were even inferior to small soldiers. To survive has become the only belief. After eating sweet potato rinds, I unexpectedly encountered a group of Japanese soldiers. This team of Japanese soldiers was a heavy army, and they were short of people to carry the burden, so they were arrested and made porters. The chief of staff picked first, and after walking for six or seven miles, he pretended that his feet were hurting (or maybe it was really hurting), but when he couldn't walk, he stopped.Seeing this, the Japanese soldiers went up and kicked him hard, and he simply lay down on the ground and "died". Among the Japanese troops participating in the Beijing-Shanghai battle, the Kumamoto Division and the Kyoto Division, which rushed to the front, were the most savage field troops. Since landing, they have reached the point where no house is not burned, and no one is not killed. This made the follow-up and logistics troops complain. Not enough, because the Japanese army's logistical supplies were also very problematic, they were all killed and burned, not to mention looting food on the spot, and there was no one to bear the burden for them. If Ye Zhao and his two met Japanese combat soldiers, it would not be a matter of kicking a few times, but at least one shot or knife, then the chief of staff who "playing dead" would be miserable. The chief of staff "died", and his burden was shifted to Ye Zhao's shoulders. Poor Lieutenant General, who has never worked as a porter before, suddenly a heavy burden is on his shoulders, and he can't walk after a while. The devil looked at him and he was not a material for heavy work, so he happened to catch other strong men, so he let him go. Including Deng Ye, every Cantonese army rushing out of Nanjing City was considered heroic, but of course they were also in a state of embarrassment.Cantonese has become the spiritual pillar of their group, whether they get together or separate, or get together or leave, as long as they hear "Ji Da" and "Dou Na Ma", they know that they are not alone on the road to survival. There were more than 1,000 Cantonese troops collected and organized in the early stage. In fact, there were still many stragglers in the Jiangnan area who had not been accommodated in time. I once heard from the old people here that at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War behind enemy lines in the south of the Yangtze River, among the anti-Japanese armed forces, not to mention fighting, there were very few people who knew how to shoot, except for some veterans who spoke Cantonese.Thinking about it, they are most likely the officers and soldiers of the Cantonese army living in the local area. If the Cantonese army did not break out of the city, no one dared to think about their fate. Deng Longguang felt this, and when he learned that Tang Shengzhi was besieged by a crowd and might even go to a court-martial, he took the initiative to take out the mimeograph order he had been hiding on his body, and relieved Tang Shengzhi from the siege. At 23:15 on December 13, 1937, Emperor Hirohito received a report from the military officer's office, which was sent by the General Staff Headquarters. Introduce my emperor: Nanjing has been completely captured. After the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, in order to avenge the loss of nearly 100,000 casualties in the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese army began to massacre the prisoners and Nanjing citizens. This medieval massacre lasted for six weeks.After the war, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East investigated and confirmed that about 350,000 people were killed. Nanjing, what a beautiful city. From the lifelike dialogue between neighboring ships in "Long Gan Xing", to the low-pitched singing in "Stone City", I dare say that there is no other place that can express the southern elements of Han culture like this. Touching. You can salvage the old moonlight on the Qinhuai River, appreciate the elegance of the past in the Confucius Temple, and even feel the shock of melting history, culture and mountains and rivers in one furnace in the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty. Like glazed blue and white porcelain, when it fell to the ground, it was a truly heartbreaking sound. It was only ten days since the Qing army massacred Yangzhou 300 years ago, but Nanjing has experienced bottomless darkness for six weeks. In those days, maybe even the moonlight over Nanjing was pale, and everyone who escaped from here would add a layer of blood, tears and unforgettable hatred to their memories. The Nanjing Massacre shocked the international community.Under the pressure of international public opinion, the Japanese government was forced to recall Matsui Iwane and more than 80 subordinates from China in the second year. After the victory of World War II, those directly responsible for the massacre were prosecuted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.In addition to the former commander of the 10th Army, Yanagawa Heisuke, who died of illness, the former commander of the Central China Front Army, Matsui Iwane, was sentenced to hang. The one who owed the most blood debts in the massacre was the 6th Division of Kumamoto. . Ten miles across the Qinhuai River, thousands of wronged souls can finally be comforted. However, there are some things we still cannot forget. Real estate tycoon Wang Shi was once criticized in the "donation gate" incident, but I changed my view after listening to an interview with him. He said, I have been to the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, but I have never been to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial in my own country. I haven't been there either, and I'm very ashamed, and I also admit that my subconscious reluctance to face it is an important reason why I haven't been there yet. There is no doubt that it is a wound of the nation.Wounds are never pleasant, just like Chinese operas, no matter how sad the beginning and the process are, they will be processed into a happy ending in the end. What Wang Shi said next moved my heart. He asked whether it also had something to do with the fact that our national consciousness as a whole had been ignored. When a nation faces its wounds, what actions and responses will it make? Don't talk about the Jewish Memorial, but the Wailing Wall. A huge stone wall, thousands of Jews come there every year, or stand facing the wall, or silently pray, or kneel in mourning, or tears like rain. I once said in a short article that the deep precipitation and explosion of this group emotion is enough to make the whole nation more united and strong, and this is exactly the value of the Wailing Wall. The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall is also our Wailing Wall. In addition to hatred and grief, it should also carry more, such as the self-recognition and reflection of the nation, as well as the remembrance and remembrance of every victim. Tang Shengzhi was very likely to die with Nanjing as he had sworn. He didn't reserve a boat to cross the river for himself, but he said that the staff around him can go, and everyone else can go, so the chief of staff of the Minister's Department made his own decisions and asked for a boat that was withdrawn from the Jiangyin Fortress. , And it was this boat that became Noah's Ark with three or four hundred people in the executive department. At first everyone boarded the boat, but Tang Shengzhi was not seen. Hearing gunshots from the shore, many people advocated not to wait, but to hurry up. The chief of staff was very conscientious, and he tried his best to dissuade everyone, saying that the boat must wait for Chief Tang to arrive before sailing. An hour later, Tang Shengzhi came to the riverside accompanied by an adjutant.After boarding the boat, he still hoped to take as many people away as possible, so he waited on the shore for more than an hour until other people urged him to order the boat to sail. After crossing the river, he didn't expect the Japanese army to appear on the north bank, so he continued to flee for his life and went to Yangzhou to join Gu Zhutong. At this time, Tang Shengzhi was very weak and needed someone to help him walk.The adjutant followed found a cart on the side of the road, but the cart was full of cow dung. As a general, although Tang Shengzhi was in such a poor state, he still needed a minimum of respectability. Where he was willing to sit, he had to continue walking with the support of the guards. After walking for a few miles, I couldn't move anymore, so I asked the adjutant: Is there a car to take? The adjutant replied: Yes. Yixi: Where? The adjutant said, well, I have been pulling this cart, and I know you will still have to sit in it sooner or later. Tang Shengzhi was saddened by this, and he couldn't help but sigh: I think I, Tang, led troops for 20 years and fought more than a hundred battles, how could I ever be defeated today? I am really sorry for both my countrymen and myself. The scooter stinks, but go ahead. Sitting on the scooter, Tang Shengzhi asked all the way around if all the personnel from the Minister's Department had crossed the river, and if anyone followed, with an extremely sad expression. When I went to Yangzhou, I went to Meihualing. Meihualing is named after Shi Kefa's tomb.There has now been surrounded by a small courtyard. I wanted to go in, but it was getting late, so I had to give up. According to Quan Zuwang's account in "Meihualing Ji", when the city of Yangzhou was broken, Shi Kefa wanted to commit suicide, but the sword was seized by the generals, and he "run away" because of it.In other words, if he could break through at that time, Shi Kefa would not have died. Reluctantly, Yangzhou was besieged on all sides. When they retreated to the gate of the city, "big soldiers came like a forest", and the Qing army came in. Most of the others died in battle, but Shi Kefa was arrested. This section of "The Story of Plum Blossom Ridge" is the most magnificent: Duoduo, who besieged Yangzhou, was very polite to Shi Kefa, calling him a gentleman and persuading him to surrender, but he died of cursing, leaving his last words before he died, "I will be buried on Meihualing". In hindsight, this Duoduo was at best a birdman with a left lapel, and he did not bury Mr. Shi in a grand manner. On Meihua Ridge, there were only Shi Kefa's old clothes collected by his generals. If you want your enemy to respect you, the only way is to hurt him. Dodo is not hurt enough, so he won't really respect you from the bottom of his heart. Shi Kefa is famous for thousands of years, and the plum blossoms on Meihua Ridge are like snow, and the fragrance is not dyed. However, it should be pointed out that all these have not been able to prevent the catastrophe of Yangzhou. According to historical records, before Shi Kefa died, he once told Duoduo that even if his body was broken into thousands of pieces, he would be happy with it. The only request is that "millions of souls in Yangcheng must not be killed." However, the notebook "Ten Diaries of Yangzhou" in the late Ming Dynasty shows how cruel the Qing army's massacre of Yangzhou was, so much so that more than two centuries later, it can still sound the clarion call for the Han people to launch an anti-Qing uprising and create the Republic of China. On the way to Yangzhou, I don't know if Tang Shengzhi thought about it, but in fact he only owed death. If there wasn't that boat, if he didn't escape, even if he didn't "curse to death" in front of the Japanese like Shi Kefa did, or die in melee or chaos like thousands of soldiers and civilians, he would still be famous in history carry on. Life is impermanent, between luck and misfortune, it really cannot be judged by reason. Of course, there is another way. A Qing Dynasty notebook I have seen has a completely different account of Shi Kefa's martyrdom. A scholar was exiled in Ningguta, Heilongjiang. Before he was about to be released back to the Central Plains, General Ningguta told him an anecdote: I was also in the army when Yangzhou was broken before, and I once witnessed Shi Kefa riding a donkey to the camp alone.Our Prince Duoduo persuaded him to surrender, and took Hong Chengchou as an example.But Shi Kefa just kept shaking his head. He said that he was going to commit suicide, but he was afraid that his death would be unknown, so he came here for nothing but to die. Doduo's persuasion was useless, so he had to be killed. Regarding this account, I always feel puzzled. Under such extraordinary circumstances, how could Shi Kefa ride a little donkey to meet Duoduo leisurely?You know, any soldier of the Qing army on the road can kill him with one blow. The Manchus ruled the Central Plains, and many bloodstains of the past wanted to be erased in order to dress themselves up as the king's teacher who did not commit any crimes. This general Ningguta probably had the same starting point, but he recalled Shi Kefa's statement that he only wanted to die A certain degree of credibility. What should Tang Shengzhi do in Nanjing? Perhaps, he should have committed suicide by sitting cross-legged on the ground like General Rao Guohua of Sichuan.If the city falls, they will die together, this is the best choice. From long-distance combat to close combat, from close combat to defending the city, from defending the city to street fighting, to short-circuiting, he has done all of these, only the last link is missing, which is "If the short-circuiting is not effective, you will commit suicide."He did not commit suicide, nor was he killed, so Tang Shengzhi's moral character and integrity were criticized, and therefore he failed to become a hero in the end. But no matter what, we should know that the slaughter of Yangzhou was not Shi Kefa's fault. Similarly, the slaughter of Nanjing cannot be attributed to Tang Shengzhi's resistance.This point cannot be put before the horse. After Tang Shengzhi arrived in Wuhan, Wang Jingwei, the boss of the "low-key club", invited him to dinner. During the dinner, he repeatedly lamented that he could no longer fight and had to find another way. Although Tang Shengzhi was criticized for the defeat in Nanjing at this time, he still did not change his original intention.During the meeting, he said to Wang Jingwei in grief and indignation, we have already killed so many people, and they all died for the resistance against Japan. If we have to "think of another way" at this time, why treat the ancestors and the dead? Wang Jingwei bowed his head and said nothing, and the family banquet broke up unhappy. When meeting Chiang Kai-shek, he expressed that he was willing to take all responsibilities and asked for punishment.Although Chiang Kai-shek did not punish him, he still avoided living in the countryside in the name of taking care of his seriously ill father. After that, Tang Shengzhi immersed himself in Buddhism and philosophy all day long, and the pain and guilt for losing Nanjing almost accompanied him for half his life. Reality often makes people more vulnerable. The nickname many years ago seems to have prepared for the end early. The blue lantern, the ancient Buddha, the meaning, and the ups and downs of life. The fall and massacre of Nanjing was a major event for both China and Japan. From top to bottom in Japan, from the emperor to the cabinet, to the general staff and the military headquarters, almost everyone was immersed in ecstasy and excitement. It took a total of four months from the Battle of Songhu to the fall of Nanjing. At the beginning Lu Xiang Sugiyama boasted that the war between China and Japan could be ended in a month, and the Battle of Songhu had not yet started.After that, the time dragged on longer and longer, instead of one month, it became three months, and if three months failed, it dragged on to the current four months. But it's finally over, it's all over. Emperor Hirohito was extremely satisfied.He was satisfied because he judged that the Battle of Nanjing was the decisive battle after the Songhu War. If he won this battle, the outcome would be judged, and the Sino-Japanese War could thus end with a complete victory. He was wrong, completely wrong. In fact, there is a person who has already made a prophecy, but his words seem to be less noticed. He said that the war does not end today, but continues tomorrow. Together with his teacher Jiang Baili, Tang Shengzhi had been busy with national defense strategy for many years. Even at the most critical moment when Nanjing abandoned the defense, he was still clear-headed about this. In fact, before and after the Nanjing Defense War, the Japanese army consumed part of its troops, and the main forces of the five divisions were temporarily restrained in Nanjing. Taking advantage of this gap, as many as 50 or 60 divisions of the Chinese army were able to safely withdraw from the Beijing-Shanghai line. They not only got a breathing space, but also initially organized a second-line defense. It is Nanjing that pays the price, and the high price makes a person miserable. This person is Chiang Kai-shek who issued the retreat order.