Chapter 305: The Final Meeting
Fierce gunfire has sounded in the city of Nanjing, and the defending troops have launched a fierce street battle with the devils who have broken into the city, and the two sides have repeatedly fought for every house and every street, and the battle is fierce, and the blood stains the long street. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Tang Shengzhi's garrison commander could clearly hear the sound of firefighting in the distance, and urgent phone calls came and went one after another.
The staff officers in the garrison commander's headquarters were all nervously busy, and the air was filled with a panicked atmosphere, Tang Shengzhi had no intention of tasting tea, looking at the gloomy sky outside the window, and smoking a stuffy cigarette.
The chairman of the committee had already sent him a secret telegram, and if Nanjing was really undefendable, he could evacuate, and he sighed gloomily.
The devil's plane and heavy artillery have blown away his oath to live and die with Nanjing, and if he continues to fight, I am afraid that he will really lose his life in Nanjing, at this moment he has no intention of fighting, just retreat, it is better than losing his life.
"Report!" An officer rushed to Tang Shengzhi and said, "Chief Tang, Chief Liu, and Chief Luo are back."
Deputy Commander Liu Xing and Deputy Commander Luo Zhuoying personally rushed to the front of Guanghua Gate and Zhonghua Gate to command at the moment of fierce battle, and after receiving Tang Shengzhi's order, they returned to the headquarters of the garrison commander in dust.
"Chief Tang, what's the matter with you calling us back in such a hurry?" Liu Xing was covered in blood, and on the way back, he exchanged fire with the devil soldiers who broke into the city several times.
Tang Shengzhi said to the two of them with a serious face: "Chief Liu, Chief Luo, now that Nanjing City has been broken by the Japanese army and cannot be defended, the chairman of the committee has ordered us to evacuate, and I am ready to retreat."
Liu Xing was a little annoyed when he heard this, and said: "Sir Tang, although several city gates have been lost, the strength of our defending troops is still there, we can completely retreat into the city to fight street battles, even if Nanjing can't be defended, the Japanese army will have to pay a great price!" Wouldn't retreating now be a hand-off of Nanjing? ”
Deputy Commander Luo Zhuoying also frowned and said, "There are still three or four hundred thousand soldiers and civilians in the city who have not yet withdrawn, what will they do if they retreat in a hurry now?" You can't leave them to the enemy, can you? ”
Tang Shengzhi was in an irritable mood now, and he had no intention of defending the city, so he asked, "What should I do then?" We can't just stay in a lonely city and die, can we? ”
Liu Xing suggested: "Even if you want to retreat, you have to have a careful plan, how to take the retreat route of each army?" Where are the troops dispersed and assembled? And which unit is responsible for the cover of the palace? We haven't prepared for any of this yet. ”
Tang Shengzhi waved his hand and said: "I have considered this, and let the staff officers formulate a breakthrough plan, you can take a look." As he spoke, he picked up a makeshift plan from his desk and showed it to the two lieutenants.
After reading it, Deputy Commander Luo Zhuoying asked: "Although my troops have a plan to break out, what should the people in the city do?"
Tang Shengzhi replied: "Now the situation is urgent, I can't take care of so much, the war is a matter of two countries, and it has nothing to do with the people, even if the Japanese army enters the city, I don't expect it to do anything to the people, and the army will withdraw first."
Liu Xing, the deputy commander, came here from Jiangyin, knowing that the devils were fierce and brutal, and they indiscriminately threw bombs at Nanjing, knowing that they treated the soldiers the same as the people, and wanted to dissuade Tang Shengzhi from thinking about the people again, but was interrupted by Tang Shengzhi waving his hand.
"I've ordered the commanders of the troops to come to the conference room, let's go to the meeting." After Tang Shengzhi finished speaking, he went straight to the conference room.
In the basement of the headquarters of the garrison commander of the Nanjing Railway Department, the commanders of all the armies and divisions that had been urgently summoned from all over the front line had already gathered here.
The commanders of these corps and divisions were all dusty and embarrassed, and the unsmooth fighting on the front line made them sad and miserable, and they were all smoking in silence, and the conference room was full of smoke and dreary
The arrival of Tang Shengzhi and the two deputy commanders made these military divisions hurriedly extinguish the cigarettes in their hands and stand up and salute.
Tang Shengzhi walked to the first place, looked around at everyone, pressed down with both hands and said, "Everyone sit."
He instructed the adjutant behind him: "Send the retreat order and the breakout plan to everyone."
Hearing Tang Shengzhi's words, these army commanders and division commanders who came to participate in the combat meeting looked at each other, although this city is broken, but it can still fight street battles, why is it suddenly about to withdraw, and no news has been received in advance.
Their expressions were grim, and they hurriedly unfolded the retreat order and breakthrough plan sent to them, and immediately understood that it was the chairman who sent the retreat order.
No one spoke in the conference room, and the indescribable dullness suppressed everyone's nerves, and after fighting for so many days and dying so many officers and soldiers, they were reluctant to withdraw when they said that they would withdraw.
"Chief Tang, our teaching corps is still fighting in the Purple Mountain, and this breakthrough plan allows us to break through from the northern foot of the Purple Mountain to the south while it is dark, and break through head-on in the direction of the enemy's attack, doesn't this send us to death?" Gui Yongqing, the head of the teaching team, stood up and said.
Tang Shengzhi said: "There are not many enemies in front of you, you only need to rush out of the gap in the encirclement, you can fight a bloody way, and I will let the artillery cover you."
When Gui Yongqing heard this, he immediately understood a little in his heart, this is clearly for them to teach the corps to be a target to attract the devil's firepower.
When the army commanders and division commanders attending the meeting got the breakthrough plan, they already knew that Nanjing could not be defended, and they sat there like a deflated ball, and they still had the heart to hold a meeting, thinking about how to get out.
Tang Shengzhi stood up and said in a hoarse voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, the war does not end today, but continues tomorrow, the war does not end in the defense of Nanjing, but extends indefinitely beyond Nanjing, please remember today's shame, he will be ashamed every day!"
Although Tang Shengzhi's words were impassioned, he still couldn't hide his careful thoughts of being greedy for life and afraid of death, and some of the generals attending the meeting let out a soft sneer, but Tang Shengzhi didn't care.
He sighed and added: "We have done our best to defend Nanjing, and you don't have to blame yourself too much."
"When the troops retreat, it should be pointed out that the commander in command, if the troops are scattered and cannot be controlled, they can cross the river with me, and there are still boats to cross the river at the headquarters of the chief of Shimonoseki."
After Tang Shengzhi finished speaking, before the military division Changmen could react, he waved his hand dejectedly and said, "Disperse." Strode out of the conference room.
Xiao Shanling, the mayor of Nanjing and the commander of the military police, saw that Tang Shengzhi had left so quietly, and hurriedly stood up and grabbed Liu Xing, the deputy commander who was leaving, and said, "Chief Liu, Chief Liu, just disperse like this?"
Liu Xing also shook his head helplessly and said, "Disperse, everyone should act separately according to the breakthrough plan." At this moment, Liu Xing was also disheartened and powerless.
Although the breakout plan clearly stipulates that each unit will break through along its own breakthrough route after dark, with the departure of Commander Tang Shengzhi, these army divisions still have the heart to go back to the troops.
The commanders and commanders all ran away, why did they go back to send them to death, out of the commander's gate, they all wanted to get out quickly, and many people didn't care about organizing the troops to retreat, so they went to the Xiaguan ferry.
Some commanders returned to the headquarters to convey the order before leaving, and some directly sent adjutant back to convey the order, and their own troops did not return, and the commander of the 88th Division, Sun Yuanliang, slipped away after the meeting, and did not convey the order to retreat and break through the encirclement at all.