Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 193: Retreat to Fukuo Position

The Japanese soldiers of the 9th Regiment were eager to turn the tables, so they were very brave. They rushed towards the defenders' positions in rows, and when one row was knocked down, they rushed forward again.
Relying on the advantage in manpower and firepower, they gradually seized the position of the 955th Regiment, and the two sides fought fiercely and blood flowed like a river.

The Japanese were constantly increasing their forces, and their artillery shells were pounding the defenders' positions like crazy, wiping out entire rows and companies of the defenders.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese troops of the 955th Regiment rushed onto the positions and the two sides engaged in a brutal hand-to-hand combat. After suffering most of their casualties, the th Regiment withdrew from the outer positions of Jurong, and the city of Jurong was thus exposed to the Japanese troops.

Then the Japanese pursued the victory and occupied Jurong City, and expanded to Wanjialian, Zhujiaxia, Shaojiacun and other positions;

By four o'clock in the afternoon, the 20th Infantry Regiment also arrived at Tuqiao Town, attempting to advance to Xintang City; another team of more than 1000 people advanced towards Tangshui Town via the ranch.

By the evening, the 160th Division was surrounded on two sides. The 16th and 9th Regiments of the 20th Division attacked from multiple directions and surrounded the 160th Division.
In order to avoid annihilation, the 160th Division immediately broke out. Major General and Chief of Staff Situ Fei died in the breakout, and the Jurong defense line was breached.

After capturing Jurong, the 9th and 20th Infantry Regiments split into several groups and launched a fierce attack on other strongholds defended by the 66th Army. After fierce fighting, they lost their positions one after another.

At the same time, several other Japanese divisions launched a full-scale attack on the outer positions. The divisions holding the outer positions suffered heavy casualties and lost their positions one by one.

By the next morning, the main divisions of the Japanese army had advanced to Xuancheng, Moling Pass, Chunhua Town, Tangshui Town, and Longtan, confronting the outer defenders.

At dawn on the 7th, the Japanese launched a general attack on the outer positions of Jinling, and the frontier positions of Tangshui Town were lost that day;

Then thousands of Japanese soldiers rushed to Tangshui Town under the cover of planes and tanks. The position of the 66th Army was breached again, Tangshui Town fell, and the defenders suffered more than 2 casualties.

In the afternoon of the 8th, the 51st Division, the defending army in Chunhua, suffered heavy casualties, and almost all the officers and soldiers of its 5th Battalion were killed. Chunhua was eventually captured by the Japanese army, and most of the outer positions were breached. Commander Tang immediately ordered the outer positions to be abandoned and the main force withdrawn to the Fukuo position to defend the city of Jinling with all their strength.

From the time the Japanese army launched the attack on the outer positions on the 5th to the evening of the 8th when Commander Tang ordered the abandonment of the outer positions, it took a total of 3 and a half days to lose the outer battle. The Japanese army was about to arrive at the city, and the defenders retreated to the Fukuo position.

At the Central China Expeditionary Army Headquarters, Chief of Staff Major General Iinuma Mamoru introduced the sand table to General Matsui Iwane:

“The enemy’s 74th Army retreated to the line from the stronghold in the Niu Shou Mountain area to the Heding Bridge;
The 88th Division held on to Yuhuatai;

The 71th Division of the 87st Army held the line from Heding Bridge to Haizili (north of Jiangnan Railway);

The teaching corps held on to Purple Mountain;
The 2nd Corps held the Yangfangshan and Wulongshan lines and the Wulongshan Fortress;

The 36th Division defended the areas of Hongshan and Mufushan..."

Matsui Iwane waved his hand and said:
“They are just a bunch of defeated soldiers. Their numbers sound a lot, but in reality, there aren’t that many people. They are not worth mentioning!
The truly combat-capable ones here are the Teaching Corps defending Purple Mountain and the 88th Division at Yuhuatai, especially the Central Military Academy Teaching Corps, which is known as the most elite in China. It is an officer corps with a total of 1.8 people, all equipped with German weapons. It is the only unit that did not participate in the Battle of Shanghai (the Teaching Corps was divided into two, and some of it participated), and it has a complete system.

Strike while the iron is hot. After the disastrous defeat in the peripheral battles, the Chinese army's morale was completely gone. This was the best time to capture Jinling City in one fell swoop.
I decided to launch an attack on the Chinese Fukuo position today. The Shanghai Expeditionary Force was responsible for capturing Zhonghua Gate, Taiping Gate, and Heping Gate, and the 10th Army was responsible for capturing Gonghe Gate, Zhonghua Gate, and Shuixi Gate.

The battle area between the two armies in the city was bounded by Gonghe Gate - Park Road - Zhongzheng Street - Hanzhong Road..." That night, the Japanese army took advantage of the defenders' unstable foothold and successively captured Gaoqiao Gate, Qiqiao Weng, and Zhonghe Bridge that night, and the next day they advanced to the Grand Parade Ground outside Guanghua Gate and Tongguang Barracks in Nanjing City. The Japanese army's front line soon advanced to Jinling City;
When they woke up one night, they heard the sound of gunfire outside the city of Jinling. The people in the city began to panic and fled in waves. However, the city of Jinling was surrounded on three sides and faced the water on one side. Commander Tang also ordered his men to confiscate all the ferries on the river. There was no boat to cross the river even if they wanted to escape.

The first gate that was blasted open by the Japanese was Guanghua Gate. They used infantry artillery to blast two gaps in Guanghua Gate, and a squadron of Japanese took the opportunity to rush into the city.

The defending 87th Division mobilized a large number of troops to counterattack and wiped out most of the Japanese devils, but some Japanese troops still entrenched in the Tongguang Barracks and Guanghua Gate city tunnels and resisted stubbornly. The Japanese devils broke into the city on the first day of the outer defense battle, which showed how fragile the defense line was. The shadow of failure hung over the hearts of many people.

Since the Japanese divisions had consumed a huge amount of supplies in the previous peripheral operations and urgently needed time to adjust, Matsui Iwane started to play tricks again;
He sent someone to submit a letter of surrender to the Jinling Garrison Command, demanding that the defenders lay down their arms and surrender. He also told the Chinese people that the Japanese army was not treating the prisoners well, and gave them until the morning of the 10th to respond.

This was obviously done for the Westerners to see, in order to shut them up and complete the deployment of troops and supplies;

Commander Tang sternly rejected the Japanese army's persuasion to surrender, and ordered all the defenders to fight to the death. As long as the people were in the position, he announced loudly that he would live and die with the city of Nanjing.

Matsui Iwane did not pay much attention to Commander Tang's reaction. After receiving the reply, he just smiled contemptuously and said to Iinuma Mamoru:

"This man is ambitious but incompetent. Apart from his seniority, he has no outstanding command skills.

The Chinese really have no one to use, so they sent such a mediocre person to command the defense of Nanjing. They still look down on me, Matsui Iwane!"

Matsui Iwane's last sentence was obviously meant to be sarcastic, and Iinuma Mamoru also laughed knowingly. Seeing that the commander was in high spirits, he said in a humorous way:
"Commander, it's not that there is no one available in China, but those in power are good at calculating, and no one is willing to take the responsibility for losing Nanjing.

After Tang Mengxiao's Hunan Army was annexed by the Central Army, he became an idler who only had time to eat and wait for death. He needed fame and wanted to learn from those scholars and officials, fighting to the death to gain a good reputation after his death. However, when the city was broken, it was unknown whether he still had such courage. "

Matsui Iwane laughed and said:

"Iinuma-kun, does this matter? He is just a mediocre scholar. The empire only wants Jinling City!

Since he wants to live and die with Jinling City, then let them do it and notify all divisions to end the unilateral ceasefire;
Since the Chinese are ungrateful and unwilling to surrender, then resume the attack immediately and kill them all!"

Following Matsui Iwane's order, the Japanese divisions launched a general attack on the Fukuo position. The flames of war spread all over the city of Jinling. Yuhuatai, Zijinshan, Guanghuamen, Tongjimen and other places were attacked at the same time.
Thanks to Matsui Iwane's special attention, Purple Mountain and Yuhuatai became the main targets of the Japanese aerial bombing.

At Yuhuatai, shrill anti-aircraft whistles sounded, and teams of soldiers all hid in the anti-artillery holes on the reverse slope through the communication trenches, leaving only a small number of observation posts on the positions.

A few minutes later, the Japanese aircraft group flew over Yuhuatai, and a new round of bombing began...

(End of this chapter)