Chapter 67 The beginning of collapse

The city walls of Zhonghua Gate and Shuixi Gate also collapsed, and the Japanese army took the opportunity to pour in. At this time, the officers and soldiers of the 88th Division could not find them even if they wanted to find a boss for advice.

"Take the position back! Fight with the Japanese!" The officers and soldiers of the 306th Regiment guarding here roared and rushed forward directly. Next to them were clones who rarely spoke during the battle.

"Urgent report, the Zhonghua Sect has fallen again! Sun Yuanliang brought people to Yijiang Sect." Tang Shengzhi was surprised.

He looked at the battle report carefully, and after reading it three times in a row, he closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, and said, "Call the military commanders to have a meeting!"

Zhou Lan read the content of the retreat plan placed in front of everyone. Then, everyone looked at Tang Shanren together.

"Tell me if you have any opinions!" said Tang Shanren, "If you agree, sign your name on the retreat plan distributed by the meeting!"

If you sign the letter, it is a collective decision, and it is no longer a matter of one person.

"I oppose evacuation!" Gui Yongqing said, "At this time, the city of Nanjing is not the most critical moment. It can still be guarded, so why should I evacuate now? My left wing defense zone is fine, Guanghua Gate also withstood the attack of the Japanese invaders, and the positions outside the city are also standing. Only the Zhonghua Gate is a bit dangerous, but the reserve team on the northern foot of the Zijin Mountain has not been used yet, so you can directly transfer to support Zhonghua Gate."

Retreat requires a slander, and if you are not careful, you will take the blame. Although Gui Yongqing is a celebrity under Chiang Kai-shek, he took the position of captain of the teaching corps, and the world's No. 1 army retreated before it was defeated, and it will cause a lot of storms in the future. Of course, it is unclear whether he really wants to defend it. Anyway, in the original history, after returning to the basement command post of Fuguishan after the meeting, he informed his staff of the retreat task, and left Chief of Staff Qiu Qingquan to handle the documents, and went to Xiaguan alone to evacuate.

"This is the Chairman's telegram!" Tang Shanren read the content of the telegram word by word, and then gave the original to everyone to check. After everyone read it, they stopped talking.

"A meeting ended!" After Tang Shanren said a little tiredly, senior officers from all military divisions and brigades began to withdraw.

Retreat was a foregone conclusion. When he shouted that he had lived and died with Nanjing City, he began to consider the matters after retreat. Didn’t he retreated from Songhu to Peiping? There were more people evacuated, and the key was how to deal with the matters behind him. Although he didn’t know why Chiang Kai-shek suddenly said to retreat and sent that telegram, perhaps it was because of the Soviets’ promise to send troops. But he understood that if he wanted to clean up the things behind him, he would have to bring back Chiang’s direct line.

"If you can't break through all the encirclements, you can cross the river when there is a ferry and gather towards Chuzhou!" Seeing officers with Huangpu faces walking past him, he added.

Many people heard this and suddenly felt lit up. So a rigorous evacuation plan was torn apart.

If the original plan was as planned, all troops broke through the front. Although the Japanese army had a large force, they did not have many troops, and the real encirclement was not tight enough. Although the Central Army broke through the front in a desperate situation, the main force might be able to be roughly retained. But as soon as the rear road was opened, the momentum of the unwarranted war had already been released. All troops were using this verbal order to make excuses and could evacuate from behind.

So, everyone who knew there was a boat in Xiaguan flocked over.

Although it was planned that the evacuation time of each unit was after 11 o'clock in the evening, after the meeting, someone had already begun to evacuate.

The 2nd Corps was responsible for defending the Wulong Mountain Fortress and covering the evacuation of other teams, which should be the final evacuation. But in the afternoon of the same day, Xu Yuanquan led his 41st and 48th Divisions to take civilian ships that had been pre-controlled there from Zhoujiasha and Huangnidang Wharf. He was the first to cross to Jiangbei and went to Jiangxi for rectification through Anhui.

The commander of the 71st Army, Wang Jingjiu, and his subordinate Chen Fazao, the commander of the 87th Division, did not return to the command post at all, and directly crossed the river with the retreating command headquarters.

Hu Qiru, the commander of the 2nd Brigade of the sect, learned that the retreat was early, and before the meeting ended, he called to inform his 3rd Regiment commander on the grounds that he was ordered to contact the 36th Division and went to Xiaguan to take the responsibilities of the brigade commander and went to Xiaguan alone. Many other senior officers also evacuated early in order to occupy a seat on the evacuated ship.

As a result, the senior officers were gone, and many of the people below were still in the dark and they were doing their own things. However, the news of ships in Xiaguan had already spread everywhere, and officers from all walks of life who were doing things cheaply began to rush towards Xiaguan.

"The headquarters has an order, no one is allowed to pass!" At Yijiangmen, Song Xilian's troops blocked the troops who wanted to pass through Xiaguan, and the black machine gun pointed directly at everyone.

"Commander Tang has a command! You can cross the river by boat!" Someone in the crowd shouted, and the officers and soldiers around him were even more surging. The city gate was closed, and even the crying people were not allowed to let go.

"Class and military orders, instructing all armies to break through from the front!" shouted a major defending the city gate.

"There are a large number of Japanese soldiers on the front, how can they break through?" Someone shouted. The documents and military orders had already spread, but when facing the defense of Japanese soldiers on the front, there would be great casualties. Besides, even if they break through, there would be no people or horses, and the soldiers would be alone, there would be no danger. How could they compare to following the team!

"Are you still soldiers? Those who serve in the army want to fight the Japanese. If you break through the enemy head-on, are you afraid of the Japanese?" The major shouted loudly, and when he saw him, many officers and soldiers bowed their heads.

"Sir, we are ordinary people, let us go? Please, sir!" an old man came to the front and shouted.

The major looked at a young woman holding the child beside him, hesitated for a moment, and let him go over with thanks.

But everyone behind shouted, "We are also the people, let us go!" Everyone hugged each other, and immediately crowded in front of the door, and the soldiers in front also took advantage of the situation and rushed over.

"Bang!" After Chaotian's warning, the major shouted again: "No one in the army is allowed to go there!"

"The Chinese Gate is broken, the Japanese are here, if you don't run away, you will die!" Someone shouted in the crowd. The crowd, who had just been shocked by the gunshot, immediately started to sensation and squeezed forward together.

In the crowd, someone's gun fired first. As soon as the gunshot sounded, the stimulating crowd immediately lost control, and both sides began to hear gunfire.

"Dadada!" At this time, the machine gun fired. But most of the targets were open space, so I didn't dare to point at the crowd at once.

"It's Xiaguan that's right? There's a boat there!" someone shouted loudly. Everyone was even more crazy and rushed in. The bullets could not penetrate such a thick wall of people. They just thought that they could leave after rushing to Xiaguan. But what they didn't know was that there were not many boats in Xiaguan, and they were not prepared for them.

"Ah, don't squeeze! My feet, my..." In an instant, the sound was drowned in the noisy crowd. As long as you fall to the ground and face the trampling of countless feet, life can be judged to end...

The cry of babies, the screams of women, and the screams of old and weak falling to the ground were all drowned by the roars of people under the sound of gunfire.

"Bang!" No matter how strong the door is, it cannot stop the crowd, and Yijiang Gate was washed open by the crowd.
Chapter completed!