Chapter 4 3. Life and death struggle on the Shanghai-Nanjing line

After the Battle of Songhu was finalized on November 12, the Japanese troops of Iwane Matsui and Yanagawa surrounded Nanjing from east and west.The first Liuchuan troops went around Hangzhou and arrived at Jiaxing, then went straight to Changxing along the northern shore of Taihu Lake, and then divided into two groups: one team marched northward towards Yixing and Liyang and approached Nanjing; Nanjing.Matsui Iwane sent troops from the author's hometown of Kunshan and Changshu to Suzhou and Wuxi, and then went straight to Wujin and Zhenjiang.The other army took advantage of the Yangtze River waterway, and the army and ships advanced side by side, especially the two moves of raising troops at Baimaokou and attacking the Jiangyin fortress, taking all the key battlefields on the east side of Beijing and Shanghai into their pockets.

As mentioned earlier, the straight-line distance from Shanghai to Nanjing is less than 300 kilometers, which is the distance between the city and the city. If the distance between the city and the city is the shortest, it is only about 250 kilometers.Since the defeat of our army in the Battle of Songhu, only the Yangtze River, Taihu Lake and the city walls were able to serve as natural barriers on the "Beijing-Shanghai Line" at that time, because there is no such thing as "one man guards the gate, ten thousand men guard the gate" in the beautiful Jiangnan water town. "Don't open" mountains and dangers.In front of the invaders, the beautiful and rich Jiangnan land is like a naked mother. When the robbers appear in front of her, the mother can only suffer the fate of being trampled and raped...

When I was a child, I heard my grandfather and grandmother tell about the crimes of "Oriental people". The elementary school I attended was an old hall with half a wall, and the other half was bombed by Japanese soldiers who raised troops from Baimaokou.The grandfather of Jin Chongliang, who was at the same table in elementary school, was killed in this bombing by Japanese soldiers. "At that time, the Japanese soldiers were very powerful. When they saw men, they arrested them to build bridges and cook for them. When they saw us women, they arrested them and went to sleep..." My grandma said. At that time, she and my grandpa had only been married for three years. She and her sisters hid In the reeds by the river. "The villages here are dense and crowded, and it's hard to find places to hide. It's easy for the Japanese to arrest people, so we had to use stove smoke to blacken our faces. But the Japanese are bad, you don't look like an old woman, so catch you Dip in the river, and you will know exactly what you look like... This is how Xu Guanquan's brother and sister-in-law were stabbed to death by Japanese knives." I know who the grandma is talking about.A distant relative of mine was the captain of the anti-Japanese guerrilla team at that time. The Japanese army captured him and a dozen of his teammates in an attack, and asked them to help build roads and bridges. I tied them with ropes one by one and threw them into the river. The Japanese army then launched the boats and drove wildly. My relatives and teammates drowned in the water... Some people refused to lead the Japanese army to rob and find the "flower girl", so the devils Let them eat a few bowls of rough bran first, and then force them to drink a lot of water. When their stomachs are distended and painful, the Japanese soldiers will put them into sacks, trample on them, and kill you before using them. He was stabbed to death with a bayonet and thrown into the river.

The crimes left by the invaders in my hometown are everywhere.But the bloodiest ones were in Suzhou and other cities. Chiang Kai-shek's government set up three defense lines between Shanghai and Nanjing. The first line is to connect Suzhou as the center point to Changshu in the north and Jiaxing in the south, forming a defensive chain.The Japanese Yanagawa troops quickly captured Jiaxing before November 10.Seeing this situation, Matsui Iwane's troops showed no sign of weakness, and immediately dealt a heavy blow to Suzhou City. Pity my beautiful paradise Gusu, how can it stand the ravages of raging tigers at this time!

The Japanese certainly know what kind of city Suzhou is. It not only has the beauty of "paradise" called Hangzhou, but also the beauty of the water city of "Venice of China". It is about 50 kilometers away from Shanghai. In the 1930s, Suzhou had a permanent population of about 350,000.After the Chinese army withdrew from Shanghai, Suzhou actually became a completely undefended city. On November 19, this flowery city fell into the clutches of the Japanese army.However, before the Japanese army entered the city, because they were afraid that there would be heavy Chinese troops hidden in the city, they carried out several heavy bombings regardless of the situation.Pity my unarmed relatives in my hometown, like a bunch of poor wretches who can't struggle, they either died or lost their limbs and bleed under the random trampling of iron hooves...

"A large number of bombs fell from the sky and exploded violently. Limbs, dirt, bricks and mortar, constantly flying up, like waterfalls. Nostalgia. The Japanese plane flies overhead all day long, dropping the gift of death.” A foreigner who was traveling in Suzhou at that time and had not had time to evacuate described it this way. A few days later, the Japanese army still did not dare to enter the city rashly, thinking that there were still heavy Chinese troops concealed in the city and had not been wiped out, so they used planes to distribute leaflets over the city, and warned that in three days, the whole city would be bombed more violently !

"Hell! Hell! If you don't leave, you will go to hell!" The citizens really panicked.As a result, men and women, big and small, with limited luggage, left the city where they had lived for a long time and fled aimlessly outside the city. The desolate and helpless scene is hard to describe with words.All the boats, rickshaws, and other vehicles are not enough at this moment. Some people even use buckets as tools for crossing the river, taking children and old people to wade across the river. Behind them are the Japanese army’s intensive bullets and carnival Voice…… Many citizens had no time to leave the city, and the Japanese army surrounded the whole city. 12 hours of indiscriminate bombing followed by another sweeping ground attack.At this moment, Gusu City is like a beautiful naked girl being torn apart by a thousand sharp knives. It can be described as horrible!

"At daybreak, I got up and went into the city. The death and destruction we witnessed was beyond description. We were very sad and depressed. A Chinese pastor led a thousand refugees. People go to Guangfu, which is the only comforting thing, but what a miserable sight! Children, old men, old women, crippled, and crippled by bullets and bombs, follow As the pastor staggered forward, I thought of Christ. Within two days, 5,000 refugees were moved from Suzhou to Guangfu." An American reporter entered the scene of the war.The Guangfu he mentioned is a famous monastery. "However, at one time we finally discovered that the property of the church had also been looted. The front door, side door and back door of a house were smashed open, and the gates of the school building and the residence were obviously pierced by axes and spears. Houses large and small Doors are visited. Boxes of all kinds are inspected. Unneeded things left haphazardly, the floor is in disarray, and in my house cups and plates are scattered, obviously violently thrown. In a friend's house , a violin on the floor, damaged beyond repair." This is inevitable, the Japanese soldiers don't care about temples and holy places!

"Another time, I went to inspect the school building of Yancheng Middle School. The Japanese soldiers didn't know that I was going there suddenly, so I ran into them in the school building. They were desperately trying to open a safe. One soldier tried to smash the whole safe, and a few more soldiers moved the desks in the principal and dean's room. When I looked elsewhere for an interpreter, they took the guy and walked away... "The next morning, when we went to Yancheng Middle School, the door of the safe was finally opened by the Japanese soldiers, and about 400 yuan was stolen. It was very interesting. Those robbers threw the 300 yuan in the salary envelope on the floor. At the same time, according to the results of our inspection, the safes in several church houses and the large safes in bank shops were destroyed by Japanese soldiers, and they robbed everything .”

What the Japanese army robbed was not only the contents of the safe, but countless priceless antique shops suffered liquidation catastrophe.In the two to three hundred years since the Ming Dynasty, Suzhou has always been an important economic center in China, rich in the world, and a gathering place for literati and scholars.There are countless mahogany furniture hidden in royal gardens and rich people's homes.Even if the Japanese know the goods, they loaded all the good mahogany that can be pulled away on the ships and carriages, and transported them back to the mainland continuously.But this is nothing to the robbers!What they want to conquer is the Chinese, what they want to exterminate is the Chinese.

"After the Japanese army occupied Suzhou, when we went back for the first time, we saw the streets full of corpses, and those corpses had been stored for ten days. The most painful thing was that the Japanese army insulted women from all walks of life. How did the Japanese soldiers with lust for animals rape them? How many women, I am afraid no one can estimate. I personally know that there are many rapes, which are purely reliable. However, we need not estimate, because 9,500 or 9,600 rapes are relatively large for this monstrous What is the difference? One morning in Guangfu, I met a student from Soochow University. He told me with tears in his eyes that Japanese soldiers raped his beautiful sister. I also saw many People, sitting on the side of the road trembling, because a group of armed Japanese soldiers drove them out and detained their wives and daughters. "That night, a Chinese person begged me to live in his home to protect his daughter and several girls who had taken refuge. I agreed, and I did a good deed. At about eleven o'clock that night, I was worried about the flashlight. I woke up with a start (lightning came in through the small window on the top of the door). Someone whispered in my ear: Japanese soldiers are coming. Holding a flashlight, I rushed into the next room. I caught a glimpse of three Japanese soldiers shining their flashlights on the More than a dozen girls on the floor. My appearance surprised them. When I reprimanded them angrily, those bandit soldiers hurried downstairs. At the critical moment, the master did not leave my side..." It is really a blessing for Sansheng to meet the protection of this foreign friend when tigers and wolves come and go.But how can the vast majority of Suzhou people have such luck?They can only accept the cruelty and humiliation of the Japanese army. The city became a slaughterhouse, and the blood flowing in the streets blocked the sewers, so it flowed down the alleys and streets to the nearby fields and villages. The rice fields that were originally harvested in autumn were trampled down one by one by the feet and chariots of the Japanese army.The village is smoking, the cattle and sheep that have lost their owners are taken by the robbers to slaughter, and the beasts that have filled their stomachs start a new round of rape and robbery—oh, my suffering Suzhou, my suffering relatives. God, my beautiful Jiangnan water town really doesn't have the slightest power and weapon to defeat the Japanese army? God doesn't say anything. God started to rain non-stop... Heh, we suddenly found teams of little devils shivering in the rain, their legs stuck in the mud just couldn’t be pulled out—haha, God is helping us Chinese!Help our parents and folks! As I said before, the mere two or three hundred miles from Shanghai to Nanjing is an unobstructed plain, and if you ride on an iron horse, you can only reach it with a few whips.The war between the strong and the weak is most afraid of such a situation.Apart from the cities that our side can resist the Japanese army, it is the rivers and lakes-the Yangtze River and Taihu Lake.However, the water of Taihu Lake is still and motionless, as calm as sleep, and neither the enemy nor the enemy can rely on its strength.The Yangtze River is turbulent and mighty, rolling eastward, but there are no strong ships and ships. Instead, the Japanese warships went up the current with menacing momentum, and slaughtered the flesh and blood of countless Li people on both sides of our bank!But what the Japanese army hadn't expected was that in autumn, the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River in China were raining continuously, and the roads were so muddy that it was difficult to walk an inch.It was a week's journey, but under the feet of Japanese soldiers, it turned out to be an endless journey of compassion... This is providence. But the invaders did not stop. After crossing Suzhou, they headed towards Wuxi and Zhenjiang, with the capital Nanjing as their goal.The other line of the Japanese army is sticking to the west bank of Taihu Lake, extending its claws to Changxing and Guangde... in an attempt to outflank and cut off the rear of the defenders of our capital. After the Japanese Yanagawa troops occupied Jiaxing, they quickly entered Changxing, an important town southwest of Taihu Lake, our second line of defense.After Changxing is the third line of defense, which is also the last outer line of defense of Nanjing's southwest line of defense.Obviously, Guangde and Wuhu fell, and Nanjing was torn apart behind the scenes... Our garrison in the Changxing area is in charge of Liu Xiang's Department of the Sichuan Army who traveled more than 2,000 miles and came here on foot.Matsui Iwane knew that all the places his Southwest Route troops attacked were outside Chiang Kai-shek's pre-fortified defense line. Guangde belonged to Anhui, Si'an belonged to Zhejiang, and Changxing belonged to Jiangsu at that time, all of which were west of Taihu Lake and south of Nanjing.If the troops on this route advance quickly and occupy Wuhu, which is located behind the Nanjing side, they can cut off the retreat of the Nanjing defenders, and the "capital victory" planned by the Japanese army will be within easy reach.Therefore, Matsui Iwane ordered Tani Hisao to lead two divisions to march northward from Wuxing at the south end of Taihu Lake. At the same time, he ordered Ushishima Sadao's 18th Division to cross Taihu Lake and outflank the Chinese Sichuan Army that had just arrived here. Changxing and Yixing attacked Guangde again, and finally took down Wuhu, thus completely cutting off the back road of Nanjing. Chiang Kai-shek could see this move. When the Liu Chuan Department conquered Jiaxing and marched toward Wu Xing, Jiang realized the danger of Nanjing's retreat, so he immediately ordered the Military Commission to set up the 7th theater, and appointed the leader of the Sichuan Army, Liu Xiang, as the commander-in-chief. Command the 23rd Group Army of the Sichuan Army to station in the east of Wuhu to contain and intercept the enemy who invaded Nanjing from the west of the Taihu Lake Basin. On November 23, Rao Guohua, the commander of the 145th Division, led his troops to Shiziopu, Xuancheng with the headquarters of the 23rd Army. What he learned at this time was that the Japanese army had more than 3 divisions, and they had already occupied the two divisions of Wuxing and Gushou. It is rushing to Changxing along the Jinghang Road (Nanjing was the capital at that time, so the road from Nanjing to Hangzhou was called "Jinghang Road").The Niu-dao division occupying Suzhou is seizing private boats and marching towards Dongting Mountain in Taihu Lake. There is a tendency to outflank Yixing across the lake.Liu Xiang's 23rd Army Headquarters comprehensively made deployments quickly based on various aspects of the situation. Guangde is the key to the battlefield on the southern front. Once Guangde is lost, Wuhu will definitely not be preserved.And Si'an is a strategic hub that both sides must compete for. The name of Si'an contains the meaning of guaranteeing the safety of Wuxing, Yixing, Changxing, and Guangde.Both Guangde and Si'an were defended by the 145th Division. Rao Guohua could be said to be shouldering the most important and difficult task on the southern front—to fight the Japanese ace troops head-on. "I was ordered to go out of Sichuan, with the aim of annihilating the bandits, returning my rivers and mountains, and relieving the suffering of my compatriots. Fortunately, I was sent to the front line to defend against the enemy. The war opportunity is coming. How can I not make my blood boil, how can I not call my brothers Clenching fists and sleeves, eager to try." Rao Guohua said to his own aide-de-camp.This Sichuan general from a poor family joined the New Revolutionary Army at the age of 17 and moved to the north and south with the crusade against Yuan Shikai. From a soldier to a platoon, company, battalion, regiment, and brigade commander, he was promoted to division commander. He is a famous general of the Sichuan Army.After following the hero Liu Xiang, Rao Guohua was highly regarded.During the July 7th Incident, He Yingqin went to Chongqing to reorganize the army but failed, and a full-scale war of resistance broke out.The desire of Rao Guohua and others to go to the front line has become a foregone conclusion as the situation of the war changes. At the beginning of September, Rao Guohua led his division out of Sichuan with Liu Xiang's 300,000 troops to support the frontline resistance against Japan.From that day on, Rao Guohua vowed to fight the Japanese army to the death.On the way out of Sichuan, when the troops passed through Ziyang, Rao Guohua went home to visit his old mother on purpose.Always frugal, he made an exception to hold a grand banquet for his mother's 70th birthday and visited the tombs of his ancestors.When leaving his hometown, Rao Guohua said to his mentor, Mr. Wu Jun: "Students are doing this to fight against the country. If they fail, they will be benevolent." At this time, Rao Guohua's wife and five children were in his hometown. Leading the team, wearing straw sandals, walked more than two thousand miles, and came to the forefront of the Anti-Japanese War. According to the deployment of the 23rd Group Army, Guangde and Si'an, guarded by the 145th Division, are on the right wing of the entire army, and their positions are important, but they are flat and there is no danger to defend.When he first came to the shore of Taihu Lake, a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, Rao Guohua felt a heavy responsibility on his shoulders.Pan Wenhua, deputy commander of the group army, directly gave Rao Guohua a death order: "Even if there is only one soldier left, we must persist to the end." Rao Guohua's answer was only five words: "People are in the field!" Before the 145th Division arrived in Guangde, the 11th Division of the Central Army was stationed in Guangde.When the defense was handed over, the 145th Division, which rushed into battle, could not match a company with a machine gun. The whole division only had a few small cannons. , Some people even carry the "Made in Sichuan" that can't be pulled off after dozens of bullets are loaded on their backs.Look at the soldiers of the Sichuan Army wearing bamboo hats, single clothes and thin trousers, and straw sandals on their feet. They cannot be regarded as a decent national army.After the soldiers traveled thousands of miles, many of them were bleeding from the cuts in their feet, and they were in great pain. In November, the south of the Yangtze River was humid and cold, and Sichuan soldiers had to rely on chewing the dried chilies they carried with them to resist the cold. However, although the 11th Division of the Central Army has just been routed from the Songhu front line, the soldiers are wearing yellow-green khaki cloth winter uniforms just issued by the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs, and black rubber-soled cloth shoes on their feet. The inside is one color German equipment.Peng Shan, the commander of the 11th Division, couldn't bear to see the shabby friendly troops who had rushed thousands of miles away, so he asked the quartermaster to spare part of the equipment from his troops' supplies as much as possible, and handed over some Japanese weapons captured in the previous stage to these respectable soldiers. Brother Sichuan Army.Rao Guohua was very grateful when he heard this act of charity.However, the soldiers of the 145th Division saw that the Central Army equipped with German-made rifles, machine guns, and cannons were all retreating before the Japanese. Some people couldn't help muttering: "No weapon as good as the Central Army can match the Japanese devils. How can rotten iron work?" "The Chairman and the Commander-in-Chief ordered us to fight the enemy not to complain. Complaints can only be made after the enemy is defeated. The Japanese are not made of iron. Although our guns are not good, our bullets can still penetrate the Japanese devils. Head!" Rao Guohua shouted to his officers and soldiers after hearing this.Then he took a brush, wrote six big characters on the paper: "Victory is life, defeat is death", and held it high in front of everyone, staring at the bull's eyes and shouting loudly: "Anyone who has the guts will do this." Determined to compete with the enemy. Dare you?" "Dare!" For a while, the officers and soldiers of the Sichuan Army were excited. "That's about the same!" Rao Guohua laughed. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon on November 26, more than 200 Japanese cavalry suddenly appeared in front of the position of the 435th Brigade of the 145th Division in Si'an, some with carbine and some with pistols. They rushed east and west in the area, and sometimes fired a few shots at the position, and when they were fired back, they drove away in different directions.On the same day, small groups of Japanese troops also appeared in the positions of other divisions.When the Sichuan army fired a shot in response, the Japanese army immediately retreated. Obviously, the little devil was making a tentative attack. "The battle is imminent!" Rao Guohua realized that he asked the troops to be on high alert.That night, after gathering the combat situation of each division and brigade, the Staff Office of the Group Army Headquarters judged that a major war must break out on the 27th. At dawn on the 27th, the Japanese army indeed dispatched 10 planes to bombard Liu Xiang's Sichuan army positions in turn.Then, under the cover of tanks, the Japanese infantry attacked each position separately.The 146th Division is guarding the Beijing-Hangzhou Avenue, which is the main obstacle for the enemy to move forward.The Japanese army failed to succeed yesterday, and today it is making a comeback, with a ferocious attack. "Calm down! Let the little devils think that we have no power to fight back and retreat..." Commander Liu Zhaoli climbed up and saw the Japanese army rushing towards our position in a mighty manner, so he deliberately let the troops pretend to be defeated and fled to lure the enemy into the trap set up. "Advance—!" The Japanese commander held up his saber and led his troops forward triumphantly. "Let it go!" On the ground of our army, the division commander Liu Zhaoli suddenly shouted.Suddenly, several cannons fired together. Amidst the deafening sound of artillery, the Japanese army was in chaos, and people and vehicles were jammed with each other.At this time, the 875th and 876th Regiments of the 146th Division, which were lying on both sides of the pass, quickly took the opportunity to kill the enemy. Light and heavy machine guns, rifles, and grenades all attacked the enemy. fly. The Japanese army suffered a terrible blow and was unable to advance or retreat. Finally, with the support of aircraft, they barely withdrew from the encirclement.In the first battle, the 146th Division captured 6 Japanese soldiers, destroyed 3 tanks, 4 artillery vehicles, and 9 armored vehicles, seized 3 mountain artillery pieces, 1 field artillery piece, 89 rifles, 2 machine guns, 17 large and small military flags, and other materials More than 300 pieces.It can be described as a success.Rao Guohua was very envious of his brothers and divisions for achieving such results. During the day on the same day, another group of Japanese troops attacked the Si'an position.This time they adopted the strategy of dispatching fighter planes first to destroy our fortifications. As a result, Rao Guohua "eat" thousands of tons of bombs at once, and the fortifications he had just built with all his efforts were destroyed, and the soldiers on the position suffered heavy casualties. The Japanese army was proud for a while. The Si'an position is divided into three parts: Shangsi'an, Zhongsi'an and Xiasi'an.The middle and lower Sian positions were guarded by two regiments of the Meng Haoran Brigade of Rao Guohua Division. Due to the heavy casualties of officers and soldiers in the fierce battle between the brigade and the Japanese army, the entire brigade was greatly reduced.The brigade commander Meng Haoran urgently begged the division commander Rao Guohua to transfer Tong Yi's 433 brigade to the front line. "Yes!" Rao Guohua nodded in agreement, and personally supervised Tong Yi's brigade to advance at full speed.Unexpectedly, the Japanese army at this time intended to win Zhongsi and Xiasi'an on this day, so the 433 brigade had just entered the position, and was attacked by nearly 6,000 Japanese troops using aircraft as cover.Zhong and Xia Si'an finally fell into the enemy's hands. At this time, the 144th Division, which was stationed on the west bank of Taihu Lake and served as the left wing of the entire army, also exchanged fire with the 18th Division of Udo Island.While the cunning Japanese army sent planes to bomb the defense line of the 144th Division, they secretly used a dozen wooden boats full of soldiers and many small motorboats to attack our position from Taihu Lake.Division commander Guo Xunqi immediately ordered the defense officers and soldiers along the lake to stop the enemy on the lake with all their strength. As a result, they were swept by enemy planes in the air. The defenders were killed and injured everywhere, and the west bank of Taihu Lake was stained with blood.The division commander Guo Xunqi was also almost captured by the enemy, but after all, the position did not fall into the hands of the enemy. On the 28th, the forward commander of the 18th Division of the Japanese Army thought that the Sichuan Army could not breathe after a day of hard work yesterday, and was preparing to attack again. Unexpectedly, at dawn, there were loud gunshots around - it turned out that the Sichuan Army had made a surprise attack! "Bageya Road!" The Japanese commander was so angry that he waved his saber wildly, and was almost shot dead by our army in a panic.Hisao Tani, who later became the executioner of the Nanjing Massacre, heard that his vanguard was besieged, so he sent more than 20 planes to rescue the trapped animals. The Niudao Division was hit hard by the Taihu Lake, and almost broke the vanguard again. The Japanese army became angry and determined to take revenge on the Sichuan Army who was "equipped like a farmer". So in the early morning of the 29th, under the cover of aircraft and the approach of tanks, artillery vehicles and light machine guns, the Japanese army attacked the Sichuan army's position in several ways.Tens of thousands of people from the two armies fought between Si'an, which was simply a chaotic hand-to-hand battle.During this period, the division commander Rao Guohua personally led the spy company, rushed into the enemy's line to fight, but unfortunately was shot in the abdomen and retreated. At around 2:00 p.m., the upper, middle and lower Si security lines fell one after another.At this time, the main force of the Japanese army went straight to Guangde along the Wujia Highway. "We must not let the thieves cross Guangde!" The injured Rao Guohua was so anxious that he hurried back to the boundary card about 5 miles in front of Guangde to set up defenses to welcome the arrival of the Japanese army. "This is the last position of our division!" It was night, and Rao Guohua had hoped to receive reinforcements, but he learned that other places had also fallen, and that Guangde was the last position of the 145th Division.In the autumn night of Taihu Lake, the wind is blowing.Not only did Rao Guohua and his colleagues not lose their morale, but they were even more passionate about fighting. "The country raises soldiers to protect the country and the people. No one will die. Death is as heavy as Mount Tai and as light as a feather. Today is the time for me to serve the country. I should spare no effort to serve the country and make our Sichuan Army dedicate itself to the benefit of the people. The position is at I am here, I am dead on the battlefield. I hope that my officers and soldiers will spare no effort to serve the country and fulfill their duties. If you win, you will live, and if you lose, you will die. , to die for the country." Rao Guohua said to his subordinates when he inspected the position. At dawn on the 30th, the Japanese army appeared in front of Rao Guohua's 145th Division with overwhelming momentum. Facing the storm-like offensive, the formations of the 145th Division's various units have collapsed.Rao Guohua was anxious and annoyed, endured the pain, and personally led more than 20 pistol soldiers to supervise the battle a few hundred meters away from the enemy's position, but it was difficult to turn the tide. Rao Guohua had to lead his troops to retreat to a place called Cishangang in Guangde. Everything is a foregone conclusion.Rao Guohua looked at the countless officers and soldiers of the 145th Division, and still raised his arms and shouted: "We are all soldiers. We came out of Sichuan together, lived together, and died together. Today, everyone has reached the time to serve the country and die. If you are a hero, stay. We will fight the little devil to the last drop of blood!" "Fight to the last drop of blood with the teacher!" Rao Guohua received an earth-shattering slogan in response. The Japanese army rushed in like a tide and surrounded Rao Guohua's back to the last cross shop.Suddenly the enemy stopped again.why?It turned out that the leader of the enemy, Hisao Tani, had some respect for Rao Guohua during the battle with the Sichuan army for several days, so he ordered his subordinates not to approach Rao Guohua, but to persuade him to surrender. "Joke. I spare Guohua, a dignified Chinese soldier with a big name, how can he do something shameful to the Chinese nation?" Trapped by tigers and wolves, Rao Guohua calmly ordered his guards to lay out a blanket on the bloody field in the wilderness, and then sat cross-legged in the middle of the blanket.I saw him slowly looking up at the sky—that was the vast night scene with the moon in the sky!How does the general feel? There are too many emotions!Why do we, the Chinese nation, have been bullied and ravaged several times by a neighboring country with a much smaller population? The sound of the enemy's iron hoofs can already be heard.The light of the bayonet was already shining in front of my eyes. "General, as long as you put down the gun, you can be forgiven!" The Japanese soldier said in unfluent Chinese. "Put down the gun? Be a loser?" Rao Guohua sneered, and suddenly said loudly, "William II is so powerful that he will perish, not to mention your little Japan will also perish in the future!" After saying that, Rao Guohua glared at the enemy, then suddenly pulled out his pistol and pointed it at his head... "Bang!" The sound of the gun echoed in the night sky full of flames for a long time. Thousands of miles away from Taihu Lake, I recorded this time with my own sobs: December 1, 1937 at 2 o'clock in the morning.General Rao Guohua, a famous patriotic general, committed suicide by shooting himself in the encirclement of the Japanese army at the age of 43. Rao Guohua's body was transported back to Sichuan by Minsheng Company's "Minjian" ship. On December 12, 1937—that is, the day Nanjing was captured, Rao Guohua’s body arrived in Chongqing, and the national government of Chongqing, the capital, held a grand memorial ceremony for him. Chiang Kai-shek personally wrote two elegiac couplets: The captives are riding rampantly, thinking of good generals when they hear the drums; When Bingjie comes, defend the country and defend the people and rely on the coffin; save benevolence and achieve success, condolences for life and death. The Nationalist Government also gave a special posthumous gift to Rao Guohua, an army general.However, can this appease the general's feelings for the Red Country?Can it save the rivers and mountains of the motherland that was swept away by bandits and is about to be completely broken? As I write this, the author happened to be on a business trip to Chongqing and Chengdu. When I heard that I was writing about "Nanjing Massacre", some kind-hearted people came over to chat. One of them had a friend whose father was a veteran of the "Sichuan Army" who supported Nanjing to stop the Japanese army. "Writer He, do you know the origin of the 'bloody battle to the end' in our Sichuan mahjong game?" People from Sichuan are famous all over the country for playing mahjong, but I can only shake my head when it comes to questions like this. "That's why we Sichuanese became famous when we went to Nanjing to fight!" "Really?" I was surprised. "Of course!" The son of the "Sichuan Army" said with great air, "When my father was alive, he often told me that they were tricked by Liu Xiang to fight with the little Japanese devils in Wuhu, Anhui, and it was a terrible fight. The Sichuan soldiers who went there had never fought any battle at all! As soon as the shells of the little Japanese devils hit the ground, everyone ran around in fright with their heads in their hands. Come here from Nanjing! Don’t lose face in front of the Japanese, you have to hold on! Even if shells and machine gun bullets come, you have to hold on to your position, and you must not shame our Sichuan army in front of the devils! There was no way out. So someone came up with a bad idea: I was herding cattle for the landlord’s house since I was a child. In order to prevent the cattle from running away, I locked the cattle’s legs with iron chains, so you can do whatever you like. Sir Hearing that this was a good idea, he sent people to find a lot of iron chains in the local blacksmith shop, and chained up the Sichuan soldiers on the ground one by one—locking their feet. The little Japanese devils began to attack , artillery shells and machine guns went into battle together, hitting even the stones and turf bloomed and overturned, but the Sichuan soldiers did not see them running away, and they defended their positions to fight back. The Japanese soldiers were defeated, and those who stayed in the Sichuan army were Pieces of corpses." This confused the commanders of the 10th Army in Yanagawa: Is there a communist army in Liu Xiangmazi's army?After some reconnaissance, it was concluded that there were no Communist troops. "Call the armored tanks!" The Japanese commander became cruel, and drove more than 20 tanks towards the Sichuan army's position, and bombarded them indiscriminately with artillery and planes.In the binoculars, the Japanese commander clearly watched the officers and soldiers on the Sichuan Army's position flying their heads all over the ground, but the rows of soldiers in the trenches who had lost their heads still stood there neatly and motionless!The Japanese army was stunned: what's going on?The death squads were sent to rush into the trenches, only to find that the feet of the decapitated Sichuan Army soldiers were locked together by iron chains... A Japanese military interpreter asked a dying Sichuan soldier, "Why are your feet locked?" Chuan Bing glared at the Japanese translator and said, "This is called a bloody battle to the end!" This is how "Blood War to the End" came out.Sichuan people now use it on mahjong tiles, which is somewhat disrespectful to their predecessors.However, after the author told the story of the "bloody battle to the end" to the fellow villagers in Nanjing, some old people said that the Sichuan Army was indeed very brave in defending Nanjing's peripheral battles, and many people died. "The bloody battle to the end", the sky was silent.Entering December of 1937, the city of Nanjing is at stake!The flames of war at this moment have already scorched Zijin Mountain Cliff and the waters of the Yangtze River... The only thing that can really resist for a while outside Nanjing is the Jiangyin Fortress!Chiang Kai-shek thought so.Japanese commander Matsui Iwane also thinks so. Jiangyin Fortress must fight to the death. Before the founding of New China, Jiangyin was also under the jurisdiction of the Suzhou area, so this is also the author’s hometown, and it is connected to Changshu. When I was young, my father often took me to Jiangyin to see the great river—the Yangtze River in the lower reaches of Nanjing is the narrowest and most dangerous. place.The Jiangyin Fortress is here, and it is the gateway to the Nanjing waterway. The surging Yangtze River, if you go upstream from Wusongkou, you can see the river from the Nantong, Taicang, and Changshu sections, which can be compared with the sea, because the river here is more than ten miles wide, and you can't even see the other bank from this bank.I was used to seeing the Yangtze River in my hometown, and later I went to Sichuan and Chongqing as a soldier and saw the Yangtze River there. I was secretly happy: How can this be the Yangtze River? It is simply a small river in front of my house! Only the Yangtze River in the Jiangyin area, like the mouth of a gourd, narrowed his waist and narrowed his figure.The river here is narrow and the water flow is turbulent. It turned out that Langshan and Fushan in Jiangyin formed a natural barrier on the east bank of the river. A natural fortress: it can block the military strategists fleeing from the sea at the top, and stop the invading enemy at the bottom. On the eve of the Battle of Songhu, it was found that the Japanese Navy had 5 warships and dozens of Japanese merchant ships equipped with war supplies, which were on the river in Wuhan, upstream of Nanjing.Chiang Kai-shek ordered He Yingqin to secretly send troops to the Jiangnan fortress to prevent the Japanese ships from escaping to the downstream, and smashed his conspiracy to join the Japanese fleet in Shanghai.Unexpectedly, the records of the secret military meeting were obtained by Wang Jingwei's confidential secretary and traitor Huang Jun, and informed the Japanese ambassador to China. In the early morning of August 13th, under the order of our Navy headquarters, more than 10 ships including Pinghai, Hairong, and Haichou sailed to the Yangtze River in the Jiangyin section under the command of Chen Jiliang, commander of the Navy's First Fleet. .Suddenly, billowing black smoke billowed from the fog-shrouded upstream river, and after a while, five Japanese naval fleets and several Japanese merchant ships led by a flagship named "Yaeyama" were seen heading towards Shanghai at full speed. "Oh my god, it's the Japanese fleet! What's going on? Do you want to fight or not? Don't let them run away!" My navy officers and soldiers were all sweating, because they set off from Nanjing in the middle of the night to go to the Jiangyin Fortress. Block the Japanese ships trying to escape upstream!Now the Japanese ship arrived ahead of schedule, right under the cannon muzzle of our army fortress and between dozens of warships... "Commander Chen, what should we do? To fight or not?" The heads of the various fleets asked Chen Jiliang one after another. At this time, Chen Jiliang was also confused: the mission of my fleet is absolutely to block the upstream Japanese ships!But why did they come just after I arrived? "Contact Nanjing right away—quick! Hurry up!" Chen Jiliang jumped into the cabin in a hurry, and asked the communication officer to use the radio to quickly contact the duty room of the Nanjing Military Commission... "What? The Japanese ship has already arrived in Jiangyin? Why is it so fast? Who leaked our military secrets? Shoot him!" Who dares to decide on such a big matter?The phone in the duty room of the Military Commission made several turns and finally got to He Yingqin. When Chief of Staff He Da angrily yelled, "Stop it! Destroy the Japanese warships! Don't let any of them escape", Chen Jiliang said weakly. Report to him: "Mr. He, an hour ago, the Japanese fleet slipped away from our guns..." "Why didn't you, Chen Jiliang, order to fire on the enemy ship? Why not?" He Yingqin jumped from the bed to the floor and asked Chen Jiliang loudly into the phone. “是、是……可之前我没有接到上峰的命令嘛！”陈季良哆嗦着身子，委屈地回答道。 本可被截获并能全歼的日舰，到上海后迅速加入了与我军殊死决战的日海陆空队伍之中，起到了不可替代的战场效应。这是江阴要塞失掉的唯一一个可以轻易取胜的机会。 之后的江阴要塞在被动的防御抵抗之中度过了最后的三个多月，能够做的只有两件事：一是集中舰艇力量，阻止日海军逆流而上企图用炮舰攻打和进犯我首都南京；二是利用江阴要塞上的一百多门大炮和急从贵州等内地抽调来的几个师的兵力，死守两岸，全力打击从江上而来的日海军部队。 江阴要塞万万不能失了！一失首都南京便断了喉咙……没了喉咙，怎可活命？ 老蒋、何应钦这一点还是清楚的。于是在淞沪大战期间，江阴的防御战备已经放在日程上，并成立了江防司令部，由刘兴任总司令，下辖原有的江阴要塞司令部——负责两岸8个炮台的锁江炮火群；江防司令部——下辖的第57军，有111师、112师及何知重任师长的第103师，分守在长江岸边的不同要地作为守备部队。还有国民政府耗尽国力从德国买进的十几艘战舰，在江上等待与敌舰搏杀一场。 “江阴要塞是我们的家！江阴要塞也是我们的坟墓！兄弟们，身为要塞司令，我和你们一样，活在江阴要塞，死也死在江阴要塞——！”许康是江阴要塞的司令，他平时就这样教育自己的官兵，眼下日军兵临城下，他把嗓子都喊哑了。 要塞的战备不能不说是花了功夫和代价的。如要塞的构筑工程处，是参谋本部城塞组派出的。在淞沪大战之前，军政部兵工署便运来从德国新买来的口径88毫米高平两用半自动火炮，4门装在东山，4门安在肖山，这种火炮到中国后被命名为“甲炮”，即中国最有杀伤力的好炮，高射射程可达9千米远，平射可达14500米，此炮在当时也算是世界上的先进武器了。中国总共从德进口20门，江阴要塞装备了8门，可见是花了血本。 至此，江阴要塞的防守虽不说“万无一失”、“固若金汤”，也算周密全面。严防江面江岸的守军，战斗意志高涨，齐声高呼：“与要塞同在！” 先前到达的通济、大同、自强、德胜、威胜、武胜、理胜7艘曾多次南征北战的老舰，突然接到命令：就地在江心“破釜沉舟”！ “什么，还没跟小鬼子干一仗，就让我们自己沉至江心？这是啥子事嘛！”舰队官兵一听，如晴天霹雳。几位老舰员，不由嚎啕痛哭起来。 “这是命令！沉舰堵江——让小鬼子的军舰驶不进我们的首都！”舰队司令陈季良这回板着脸，命令道。 无奈，首都危急，日舰随时都有可能逆水而至，不能让强盗从长江水路上得逞！沉舰开始——大同、自强、通济……一艘又一艘伴着呜咽的江水下沉、下沉。之后是德胜、威胜、武胜、理胜，统统的不战而自沉…… “谁下的臭命令？我要军法惩治他——！”据说何应钦向蒋介石汇报德胜、威胜等舰艇已经沉入江阴要塞处的长江底后，蒋气得大骂。其实沉舰阻拦日军舰艇的决定，是经蒋介石批准的，可身为中国三军统帅，老蒋实在心疼他仅有的十几艘海军舰艇啊……要塞处的江流太急，7艘旧舰下去，远不能达到封江之目的。军方立即出面，调来宁兴、醒狮等一批商船一起沉锁于江中航道。 “还是不行呀！”接任陈季良的海军第二舰队司令曾以鼎将军发现，这么多军舰和商船下沉后仍然没有封锁住港道，便急得不知如何是好，于是只好找到地方官员商量燃眉之急。 “还有没有其他船只了？”曾问江阴地方官。人家回答说：仪征县那边有个盐港，是淮盐的集散地，安徽、江西、湖北、湖南等省的食用盐都从那儿运去，故那里经常停泊几百条大大小小的运盐船。 “好，马上派人带我去！”曾司令一听，仿佛有了救命稻草。 次日，即有省里派来的两名专员，打电话告知仪征县长葛克信：“你到盐港那儿等我们……”此时正为办理“兵差”忙得不可开交的葛克信听说让他放下手中的活，立即到港口征用民船百余只，原想推辞，却遭专员大骂：“敢贻误军事，是要杀头的！”葛克信知道没辙了，便亲自到港口征船。百姓不知何意，只好连夜腾船，那盐船都是拖家带口的主儿，所以征船把整个盐港闹得比菜市场还热闹，老的喊，小的哭，女的骂。不管怎样，葛克信算完成了一项艰巨任务，征船130余只。几天后，这些民船全部装满水泥和石子，然后在江中排成一排，凿破沉入江底，作为封锁港道的一部分。船主听说自己的船全被军队沉入江底，更是哭天喊地，举着木棍和鱼叉要找县长葛克信算账，可怜葛县长被逼得天天向南京方面要个说法：“那都是百姓的家产呀，总得有个赔偿什么的，要不咋交待？” “没有说不赔，可现在是战时，小日本都要打到首都了，你做做工作啊，做做工作嘛！”上峰这样推诿道。 是啊，战时，一切都变得无头无序无章法！ 旧舰该沉的都沉了。主力舰能调的都从长江上游全速向江阴要塞靠拢…… 干吗我们总吃亏？趁小日本在上海吃紧，我们为啥不袭击它一下？江阴要塞处有国民党军队的一个新组建的防御式的海军电雷学校，这里有一支鱼雷快艇队，是前两年从德国和英国进口的，共13艘，政府原本还向德国订购了一艘六千吨级的“谭伦”号航母，但尚未交货，另一艘从英国订购的“戚继光”号航母此时则在香港，还没能赶回长江防线。电雷学校的年轻海军学员们，个个血气方刚，他们向校方提出如此大胆建议。“奶奶的，干一把何妨！”校方领导竟然同意快艇队主动向下游的敌军舰队出击！ 8月14日，也就是淞沪大战开战第三天，快艇大队派出史无102号、文171号两快艇，伪装掩护，由江阴黄泥港出发，经太湖、松江，从黄浦江上游，于16日深夜，出其不意地偷袭了敌第三舰队旗舰“出云”号。日海军好在实力强大，方没让我快艇全面得胜。而此举让日方着实吃惊不小，后日将军评价道：“这是中国海军唯一的一次积极性攻击。” 从不把中国军队放在眼里的日派遣部队的作战官兵们，决定给江阴要塞，尤其是那个敢于挑战他们的电雷学校来点“厉害”——果不其然，8月22日，有备而来的日方派出12架飞机，目标直接盯住电雷学校，进行报复性的轰炸。 “嗡——”警报在校园内紧急响起。 “敌机来啦——！”学校官兵迅速进入阵地，一时间，高射机枪、步枪，齐向空中盘旋的日机瞄准射击。 "Da da da--" "Boom—" 炸弹声、枪弹声，乱成一片。 敌机一架接一架地向学校俯冲而下，并掷下罪恶的炸弹。迎接他们的是一排排雨点般的子弹……地面上，有人流血，有人倒下，但没有一个退却畏缩。当敌第五架飞机再次俯冲而下时，地面学生队的机枪、步枪来了个迎头痛击，结果敌机拖着一团长长的烟尾，坠地摔毁在学校的校舍一角。见此景，其余敌机急忙掉头逃之夭夭。 “我们胜利啦！”警报解除。学员们纷纷跑到坠毁的敌机前观看胜利成果。这是中国海军在抗战中击落的第一架日九四式轰炸机，机号为“154”。 “电雷学员们不愧为我军英勇顽强的军中佼佼者！”江防司令给打下这架敌机的学校第三期学生队授予锦旗一面，上面写着四个大字：铅刀小试。 再说江中要塞的其他阵地。 日军自然不会轻易放弃把江阴这一通向南京的最重要的江域要塞作为主攻目标进行攻击。就在9月22日轰炸电雷学校的同时，日机开始向守卫在要塞江面上的我海军舰艇实施袭击。中午时分，三四十架敌机绕过炮台，轮番向中国舰艇投弹，落至江中和舰艇甲板上的炸弹，发出一次次可怕的爆炸声。中国海军早有准备，一时间，江面上的各艘舰艇的高射炮、机关枪甚至长官的手枪、士兵的步枪，齐向空中的敌机开火，为首的敌机很快被击中而栽入江心。战斗持续两个多小时，最后敌机因弹尽返航。此役中国舰艇仅有平海舰被炸伤进水，艇长高宪申负伤，舰员高品衢、罗汉霖阵亡，另有十余人负伤。 如此结果，中国海军非常振奋。然而日军怎能罢休？ “拼了！小鬼子敢再来，老子让它更多地栽到江中喂鱼去！”中国海军将士斗志昂扬。第二天——9月23日清晨，首先出场的是海军电雷学校的十余艘鱼雷快艇，年轻的中国海军学员们驾着快艇，绕游于我军舰艇周围，那隆隆之声震耳欲聋。这是江阴要塞有史以来所没有的阵势，一场恶战即将拉开序幕……江面上各艇队官兵也提前各就各位，盯住东方的天空，等待敌机的出现。 果不其然，刚过十时许，只见东边的天空上突然黑压压的一片向江阴要塞飞来……其数量是前一天的数倍！ “敌机来啦——！准备战斗！” 顿时，天上、江上，一个下掷，一个上射，整个江阴要塞上空一片光电闪闪，硝烟弥漫，炮声轰鸣。当一颗炸弹落在宁海舰上时，敌机也摇摇晃晃栽入水中。而我宁海舰艇上的舰长陈宏太刚要从驾驶舱探出头去救航海员林人骥，炸弹的一串弹片飞进他的胳膊，“哎呀——”陈舰长一声惨叫，摸摸手臂，血肉模糊，再回头看林人骥，他早已气绝命亡，白糊糊的脑浆溅遍了指挥舱…… “为林人骥报仇——！”陈舰长紧握着拳头，高呼着。 江面上空再度火光一片，江中的一根根冲天水柱，仿佛要刺破天空。 这回日军出动的战机达一百余架，目的是想把中国海军所有守卫舰艇全部“吃掉”，因此不管死活地向我舰艇实施轮番轰炸。我逸仙舰在高射炮弹药告罄后，官兵们毫不退缩，继续用大炮回击敌机，并击中一日机……数小时激战，敌机终因弹尽远走，江面上方才渐渐没了枪炮声。中国海军一点数：击落敌机5架，我数艘军舰受伤，其中宁海舰基本全毁，平海等舰也遭严重损伤。海军官兵多人牺牲，数十人负伤。但总体战果令南京的蒋介石、何应钦“满意”。然而我方舰艇此刻只剩4艘尚存有战斗力。不日，南京调应瑞、逸仙舰回南京守备，至此封锁江阴要塞江面的中方海军舰艇只剩海容、海筹二舰。后在上海方面的海圻、海琛二舰来到江阴要塞。可是，所剩的4艘军舰并没有正面迎敌，而是“奉命”沉舰堵江……官兵听后，再度声泪俱下。 至此，中国军舰在江阴要塞上的舰艇或负伤搁浅，或调离远走，而多数是被自毁沉于江中……欧阳景修是海容舰舰长，在数十年后回忆这段经历时痛苦不堪道：“我在舰上服务多年，谙于航行及水上作战生活，平生主要志向，愿展我一技之长为国效劳，但目睹当时我海军舰艇全部毁沉于江底，失去作战武器，使我原有理想趋于幻灭，且当时我年事已高。因此从江阴要塞下来后，便申请退休。数十年海军生涯，便从此呜呼哀哉也！” 呜呼哀哉的何止欧阳先生一人！更可悲的是，数千舰队官兵，在无武器可握、无舰艇立足之后，许多人徒步到南京，以求上司安置后路，哪知尚未进入南京城门，却被进攻南京的日军赶在前面，于是这些无家可归的中国海军官兵，成了日军屠刀下第一批被砍头的中国人…… 军舰没了，要塞还在。日军便开始用他们的舰船进攻江阴要塞，企图冲破我方的防守。10月1日拂晓，敌派遣部队驻上海的海军第24分队3艘驱逐舰逆水上行，试探我方防守能力。乌山炮台我方官兵随即发现敌情，炮台副台长陈秉清下令各炮台开炮迎敌，4尊大炮同时瞄准来犯之敌，其中1尊因炮台没有巩固，结果一震便自行倒塌了，所幸官兵没有伤亡，不过也够丢脸的了。其余3尊大炮齐发，除1炮未命中敌舰外，有2炮击中敌舰之一，那日舰顿时舰身倾斜，硝烟弥漫。另两艘敌舰见此情形，夹着尾巴溜之大吉。 11月中旬，正当中国海军官兵斗志昂扬，准备再迎来犯之敌，拼死一战之时，江防司令部突然接南京方面的军政部来电：“暂守江阴候令撤退，中正。”蒋介石的命令刚下，军政部的具体指令又来：“将新炮准备拆到后方安装，铁驳一到即行起运，应钦。”什么意思？就是命令江阴要塞那些新安装的德国大炮拆掉，准备起运到其他地方。 What?不要江阴要塞了？不在这儿打日本鬼子了？让他们在长江上直冲南京去了？南京方面的指令一传达，要塞上的官兵全给弄糊涂了：这是打什么仗嘛！ 我们不干！为什么不打就撤？老蒋他想干啥？让我们当炮灰？不干！我们就是死也要与江阴要塞同死！要塞几千官兵愤然不从。 要塞许康司令无奈向南京汇报此情：怎么办呢？ 南京方面默然。几天后，军政部又来电，这回内容全变了：“固守江阴，中正。”又是蒋介石签署的。 搞什么名堂！一国之君，才几天就全变了！要塞官兵虽然等到了好消息，但想想堂堂中国，最高统帅竟然在战斗关键时刻，下了两道完全不同的命令，实在令人心酸和不可思议。上峰回应是：英、美、法、苏同情我与日军作战，并予协助，故我们重树力量。 I see.老蒋从国际上获得了底气呵！ “死守江阴，中正。”要塞又紧接南京来电。 官兵们听后，哭笑不得。几天之中，他们连续接到最高统帅三份“撤”、“固守”、“死守”的不同命令，打还是不打？真打还是假打？打打松松？还是松松打打？ 谁也弄不懂。弄不懂能不输吗？ “妈的，反正输赢都是他'蒋该死'的。”官兵们开始骂娘了。这样的军心能挡得了如虎如狼、志在必得的日军吗？ 其实，这段时期身为中国最高统帅的“蒋该死”也够可怜的，他原来想借淞沪之战引起国际上几个大国的支持，从而与日本坐下来“商议”维持七七事变前的现状，可是人家几个大国各有各的打算，况且这个时候他们都在忙着自己的事——希特勒方面正在抓紧对欧洲邻国虎视眈眈，第二次世界大战更大的战役尽在瞬间爆发，顾得了你中国吗？ 日本大本营也是看准了这一点，所以更无顾忌地把目标盯在灭你首都南京之上。 地面部队的进攻比江面上的要顺利得多，松井石根的部队不仅顺利地踏平苏州、常熟一带防线，而且也很快收拾了无锡之中国守军。另一支进攻南京的部队在西太湖那边虽有些苦战，但自突破长兴、广德之后，芜湖已是早晚可以“拿下”的城池了！蒋介石不急才怪，故此刻他的命令出现混乱也属正常——方寸已乱，指令怎不颠三倒四！ 这可苦了我前线将士。 11月25日，无锡失守。日军开始由锡澄公路直向要塞背后开始进犯，守军第112师和第103师坚守数日，苦战抵御，打得异常激烈。而日军此时已经大军压境，轻型坦克等也在前沿阵地出现。初始时，我炮台用炮火强压对方，尚能产生作用，但时间一长，两个师的守军渐渐吃紧。 12月1日，江防新任司令刘兴召集江阴要塞地的各军、师长及要塞司令开会，讨论对付战局之策。112师师长霍守义提出：我们步兵与敌人激烈战斗一个星期了，伤亡惨重，现在既无部队来接替，又无人来补充，要求撤退。103师长何知重也有此意，电雷学校教育长欧阳格则表示：留下打也行，撤退也赞成。 “那不行。江阴要塞是南京的门户，我们撤了，就等于给南京开了一扇大门，无论如何我们不能撤！”许康怒了，拍着桌子嚎起来。 正在争执不休时，南京方面来电话：不用争了，最高统帅部决定你们撤离江阴要塞，而且还布置了具体方案：一、从现在起（当日晚8时），要塞炮兵火力，向江阴西门外射击，掩护步兵突围，到12时为止（意思是说，步兵守军必须在4小时内全部撤离江阴要塞，否则死活自保）；二、12时后，要塞进行破坏自毁，结束后要塞炮台官兵从靖江向镇江撤退；三、江防司令部准备快艇和船只，载司令部向南京撤退。 “各部队受命后立即行动！”南京方面加了最后一句。 Alas!要塞将士听到这样的命令，哭的哭，骂的骂，更多的人则忙碌着收拾行李，准备后撤。炮台的官兵还有一个重要任务是：那些装了没多久但还珍贵的德国“甲炮”不能留给敌军。dismantle!把所有零件能拆的就拆，不能拆的用炸弹炸毁！ 可怜“固若金汤”的江阴要塞，在日军强力攻击下巍峨挺立的要塞，最后还是被我军自己用铁锤、用炸弹，毁了个七零八落…… 江阴要塞失守！我中国海军和守军丢下一片狼藉，或向芜湖方向撤逃，或向南京城后撤退，但等待他们的命运则更悲惨—— 江防司令许康本想往南京撤，结果到仪征时就被日军堵在江边的一片沙滩上，差点丧了老命，后在几位下属的全力掩护下，改道到了武汉。据说到武汉时，堂堂许司令像只“落汤鸡”一样狼狈。许自己说：“能活着从那边出来，就是当一百回落汤鸡也不算最差的命了！” 可不是，他属下的几千江阴守军不仅没有当成“落汤鸡”，而且多数最后皆成了日本鬼子屠刀下的冤魂…… “师长、参谋长不知到什么地方去了。我们的团长战死了，副师长带着我到镇江打了两天又失守，之后我们撤向南京。”时任103师618团团长万式炯回忆说，“12日我们赶到南京江边的下关。到了下关，那个混乱状况非我所料。到处是为寻找渡江器材而在奔跑的人群，官不识兵，兵不认官，谁也不听谁的指挥。我团早被冲散，身边只剩下吴凯。我们看到下关的情景，实在无法过江，就回头向南，随人流越过秦淮河，走到唐社附近，遭到敌军阻挡，情势十分危急。我急中生智，大声喊道：'弟兄们，我叫万式炯，是103师的团长，我愿带大家冲出去！但要组织好队伍。'大家齐声说'好'。 于是我把队伍分成两队，一队我带，一队吴凯带，我们沿小巷走。这时敌人来了个反击