On the afternoon of December 12, 1937, the streets of Nanjing

"Run, the Orientals are coming."

"Daddy, kid, hurry up." "Leave those people alone, grab a gun and go" On the streets of Nanjing, the fleeing people, the retreating soldiers, and the beggars begging for food gathered in a narrow area, leading to the riverside Rujiang Gate, Yanziji, and Straw Shoe Gorge, all repeating the same scene.

After the defenders' retreat order was issued, most of the officers did not return to their units, but retreated on their own after being notified by telephone, and the order to break out of the encirclement without organization and disorder instantly evolved into an unorganized and disorderly rout.

The senior officers and some of the troops directly under them desperately rushed to the ferry near the Yangtze River, and the officers who stayed behind also left their troops. Chaos and disorder are the best descriptions of the scene at this moment.

The routs on the street and the gendarmes at their posts scuffled together, and the machine guns on sandbags in the distance were pointed at the crowd. The area around Rujiangmen is the most chaotic area, but also the area with the most people, first, this is the closest to the Yangtze River, the hope of escape is greater, second, the 36th Division is guarding here, all the ferries before the war were taken over by the 36th Division, from the Rujiangmen, the possibility of finding the boat is greater, the officers followed, with refugees and civilians also followed, people were crowded, and all the streets leading to Rujiangmen were blocked.

The wounded soldiers on the ground were wailing, and their former comrades-in-arms had abandoned them, and the wounded soldiers could only express their helplessness with wails and cries, but unfortunately, no one came to help them.

At the gate of Rujiangmen, officers and men of two companies of the 36th Division were on guard here, and the leader of the team was a deputy battalion commander. Shiny Type 24 heavy machine guns were mounted on three-man high sandbags, and the city gate was blocked by half-wall-high sandbags.

Inside the door, soldiers armed with Zhongzheng rifles, led by officers and non-commissioned officers, lined up in three horizontal columns, loaded with guns and loaded with bayonets. The order received by the deputy battalion commander was simple: no one or any unit was allowed to pass through this gate. Violators may be disposed of with a gun.

Three human blocking lines stood inside the door, the soldiers in the front row clenched the guns in their hands, and not far away, a noisy crowd had appeared, heading straight for the Rujiang Gate.

"Everyone is ready, intercept the rout" A platoon commander in the front row gave the first order, and it was also his first combat order after coming to Nanjing, the soldiers shortened the distance, and the bayonets were pointed outward, blocking the crowd.

The rout and the fleeing people mixed together, desperately moving forward, and finally saw the gate, the door of hope to escape. Everyone subconsciously quickened the pace, the hope of life was in front of them, and the defeated soldiers in the team played their advantages at this time, waving the butts of their guns in groups, smashing the crowd in front of them, regardless of whether they were officers or soldiers, and rushed towards the front of the team.

"The soldiers in front, let go of the door and let the old men pass," the leader of the rout shouted, and behind him, there were more than a dozen rout soldiers gathered together. The scattered routs in the team echoed the leader: "That's it, let Lao Tzu pass", the people didn't have the courage, some knelt on the ground and kowtowed, and some cried and begged.

"Okay, boss, I'm just a little common man, you can treat me as a fart."

"It's a pity that we lost our lives, so you can raise your noble hand and pity the poor child."

The deputy battalion commander guarding the Rujiang Gate walked out and gave everyone the answer: "No, there is an order from above, no one is allowed here, let alone the retreat of the troops, not even a bird can cross, please go back."

After saying that, the cries of the common people became louder and louder, and the crowd gathered together became more and more. The deputy battalion commander was unmoved, but when he saw the crowd in sight, he felt a trace of worry in his heart.

"Do you people have a conscience, we who carry guns are easy to say, just rush at these ordinary people who don't have anything in their hands, you have to open the door" Taking advantage of the people's cries, the leader of the rout began to add fuel and vinegar again. And the rout behind him gathered more and more.

The words of the rout angered the deputy battalion commander, he had been in the army for so many years, and he had seen everyone, but it was the first time that such a shameless person had been encountered. "You still have a face, ordinary people who don't have a guy, so why are you calling for three and a half catties in your hand?"

The leader of the rout was choked by the deputy battalion commander's words, and began to play a scoundrel after losing face: "Lao Tzu has beaten the Orientals, I'm afraid you haven't even beaten the Oriental hair."

"Keep your mouth clean, Lao Tzu has been fighting with the Japanese in the alleys of Shanghai for half a month, Nanjing is ordered to guard the back door, and when you meet the Japanese, it is better than your group of runaway goods" The deputy battalion commander didn't want to make more theories after replying to this sentence, turned around and returned to the city gate, the company commander behind him was on top, and he didn't make a sound, staring at the chaotic crowd with tiger eyes.

"Whoever dares to come over will be killed directly" Kara-heavy machine gun pulled the bolt. Seeing that it was useless to play scoundrels, the leader of the rout simply instigated others: "They won't let us pass, won't let us live, let's rush over, go up."

People wanted to live, but when they saw the rout, the soldiers and the people simply rushed forward.

Seeing that the situation was critical, the deputy battalion commander who returned to the city gate simply ordered to shoot, hoping to make an example of him.

"Heavy machine guns, hit the lead cargo"

The heavy machine gun, which had been aiming for a long time, had already been eyeing the rout soldiers who were hitting the head, and just a moment before the crowd and the blocking line intersected, a row of bullets flew over, and the rout soldiers who hit the head were instantly torn apart by their own bullets.

The rout in the "fight with them" team continued to frenzy, and the bullets could no longer stop the crowd running wildly. The two parallel human lines collided together, and the defenders of Rujiangmen were so small in front of the fleeing crowd that the moment they collided together, the blocking line was knocked open.

The heavy machine gunners did not stop, and the machine guns did not distinguish between soldiers and civilians, young and old, and roared at the crowd. "Block, block," the deputy battalion commander constantly shouted.

But the crowd still inevitably poured over, the two sides scuffled together, the rout also used guns, some even took out grenades, regardless of the direction, pulled the string is still a still, the exploding shrapnel exploded a group of people, and before the people who were overturned by the shock wave could get up, they were trampled on the soles of their feet by the people behind, tearing their internal organs and tearing them apart.

Screams, explosions, gunshots, everyone is desperate for that hopeless word.

The crowd rushed to the sandbags piled up at the city gate, and some people frantically picked up the sandbags backwards, and after the predecessors were killed by heavy machine guns, the descendants stepped on the corpses and continued to move, blocking half of the city gates, and they were picked up little by little......

The heavy machine guns of the defenders stopped firing, and the machine gunner knew that everything he had done was in vain, and looking at the crowd, he simply dropped the machine gun, turned around, and ran in the same direction as the crowd.

There were more and more people, like ants blocking the city gates, and the crazy people stepped on the bodies of others, frantically moved the sandbags blocked in front of them, and ran out frantically.

The defenders of the two companies had long since been dispersed, leaving only a trampled corpse, and the deputy battalion commander was among them.

"The sandbags are all open, and the big guys are rushing and running for their lives." The city gate of Rujiang Gate was finally broken through by the fleeing crowd, and in the distance, the Yangtze River was rolling.