It was already early morning on the 12th when Xu Shijiu returned to the 19th Brigade station near Zhonghua Gate from the division headquarters.

At this time, the news that the Supreme Leader had ordered the retreat had already spread, and the veterans of the 19th Brigade had already known that before Xu Shijiu came back, the troops had already spontaneously completed the assembly. Just wait for Xu Shijiu to come back and the troops could set off immediately. Where should they go? Of course, they were going to Xiaguan Wharf and cross the river by boat.

Because at this time, Nanjing was surrounded by the Japanese army on three sides, only the Yangtze River in the north had not been blocked by the Japanese army.

Seeing Xu Shijiu, Gu Wei, Lu Yong, One-eyed Long and Gao Shenxing, several officers came up and asked, "Captain, should you start now?"

Xu Shijiu ignored Gu Wei and strode to the front line.

Gu Wei was stunned for a moment and stood behind Xu Shijiu. At this time, he did not realize what was going to happen next. The veterans of the 19th Brigade who stood in line also did not realize that a death battle with no reinforcements, no retreat, or even no hope of survival was waiting for them.

Xu Shijiu's cold eyes flashed over the faces of more than 200 veterans standing in line, and then shouted: "The family is the only son, leave the line."

Six or seven veterans responded with an unknown face.

Xu Shijiu didn't have a word of explanation, and then shouted loudly: "If you have studied middle school, go out of the line!"

There were seven or eight soldiers leaving the list, including Li Mu, a young engineer, Shu Tongwen, and a student soldier. Oh, by the way, there were three female soldiers, in addition to Wang Yulan and Cao Jiao, there was another female soldier. After the street fighting that day, the beautiful female soldier followed the 19th Brigade, and to be precise, she followed Gao Shenxing.

Xu Shijiu had no choice but to let her stay in the health team for the time being.

Xu Shijiu took a deep breath and shouted again: "As under 18 and over 40 years old, leave the list!"

This time, only one veteran stood up. He was either someone else, or the chief officer Cao Mancang. Old Cao was just 40 years old this year, and he was already considered old in the army.

When Xu Shijiu's eyes flew over Cao Mancang's face, an undetectable sadness finally appeared in his eyes. The old soldiers of the 19th Route Army who went from Fujian to Shanghai with him were the only ones left. If you missed today, Cao Mancang would probably be the only one left. The 19th Route Army will finally become history.

Cao Mancang realized that something was wrong and suddenly shouted: "Captain, I won't leave!"

Gu Wei and other officers looked at each other with more than 200 veterans, leaving? Where should the captain let these people go?

The answer was soon revealed. Xu Shijiu walked to Shu Tongwen and said in a deep voice: "Awen, from now on, you are the 4th company commander of the Independent 19th Brigade. I will give you these dozen soldiers to you, and I will give you two more tasks. First, go to Confucius Temple to take all our wounded soldiers over. Second, take them to cross the river with the main force of the division, and must lead them across the Yangtze River alive."

Shu Tongwen was stunned at first, then quickly stood attentively and answered loudly: "Yes!"

Xu Shijiu turned around and looked at Heixiazi again and said loudly: "Heizi, from now on, you will be Awen's guard. Your task is to ensure his safety!"

"Captain Dawu, this..." Hei Xiazi was in a dilemma.

Xu Shijiu groaned and said coldly: "This is an order!"

"Yes!" Hei Xiaozi shivered, stood up attentively, and then shouted with a ferocious expression, "As long as I, Hei Xiaozi, still breathe a sigh of relief, I will never let Deputy Chief Shu lose a hair!"

"I'm wrong, it's Company Commander Shu!" Xu Shijiu waved his hand and shouted at Shu Tongwen, "Set out!"

A moment later, Shu Tongwen and Hei Xiazi hurried to Confucius Temple with this small army of more than ten people, and responded to Ergua, Li Zihan and other wounded soldiers from the 19th Brigade.

At this time, no matter how slow-minded the person is, he has already come back to his senses.

Gu Wei grabbed Xu Shijiu and said anxiously: "Captain, we won't leave anymore?"

"I won't leave." Xu Shijiu nodded and sighed, "We have to stay and cut off the back!"

After the words came to the ground, not only did the few officers change their faces, but more than 200 veterans lined up changed their faces. The battle situation in Nanjing has collapsed to this point. What does it mean to stay and cut off the rear? It means to die!

"Yes, staying and cutting off the rear now is going to die!" Xu Shijiu paced in front of the queue, his tone trembling with coldness, "But have you ever thought about what would happen if no one stayed?"

No one said anything, and many veterans' chests were bulging, obviously, they were holding their anger in their hearts.

Think about it, the entire 58th Division has more than 5,000 people and the 74th Army has more than 10,000 people. Why did the 19th Brigade stay?

Xu Shijiu's cold eyes crawled across the faces of the veterans like a knife, and shouted: "You don't want to think about it, I'll think about it for you, you don't want to say it, I'll tell it for you! If no one breaks the rear, let Xiao Ri Wuben catch up with him, the entire 58th Division has more than 5,000 people and the entire 74th Army has more than 10,000 people. No one can cross the Yangtze River, and no one can live!"

Gu Wei couldn't help but retort: ​​"But Captain, you said just now that the 58th Division has more than 5,000 people, and the entire 74th Army has more than 10,000 people. Anyone can stay and cut off the rear. Why do we have to be our 19th Brigade? It's not fair, this is not fair!"

"Fair? There has never been fair in this world!" Xu Shijiu said coldly, "You said that more than 10,000 brothers in the entire 74th Army can stay and cut off the rear. Why can't it be you? Why can't it be our 19th Brigade? Since we have come out to serve in the army and have put on this military uniform, we have to shoulder the responsibilities we must bear!"

As he said that, Xu Shijiu took out the Browning gun that Feng Shengfa gave him from his pocket, and raised it at more than 200 veterans, and then said, "Did you see this gun without a gun? Browning's world famous gun, this gun without a gun was given to me before the division left, but I only had one bullet without bullet. Do you know why this is?"

The two hundred veterans' eyes were focused on the gun.

"Do you know why this is?" Xu Shijiu weighed his hand and yelled, "Tell you that this bullet is not used to attack the Japanese, it was prepared for me! This time, the rear was broken, and I didn't plan to leave alive!" After that, Xu Shijiu said murderously again, "I put ugly words in front, who dares to escape in the battle, and kill you without mercy!"

All the more than 200 veterans looked tragic. Xu Shijiu, the captain of the colonel, died. What else can these big-headed soldiers do? Forget it, do the ball if you fight to the death!

Xu Shijiu put away Browning's gun without a gun, pulled the hem of the German military uniform hard, and finally shouted at the top of his lungs: "Everyone has it, the target is Hongqiao, run... go!"

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Time soon entered the early morning of December 12th.

At this time, the chaos in Nanjing was very serious. How serious? It was so serious that a large-scale stampede occurred in Yijiang Gate. Xie Chengrui, the commander of the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the Central Military Academy, was trampled to death by his soldiers in Yijiang Gate. Commander Xie did not fall at the gun of the Japanese invaders, but died at the feet of his subordinates!

There is also Xiaguan Wharf, where hundreds of thousands of people rushed to the wharf, but there were only a few ferries on the wharf. The officers and soldiers who had no time to get on the boat were dragging the ferry side tightly and did not get on the boat. The officers and soldiers on the boat were anxious and stabbed the bayonet with their knives and machine guns. The comrades who had fought bloodyly in the same trench began to kill each other!

In addition, thousands of soldiers of the National Army could not grab the ferry or even a piece of wooden board. In despair, they jumped into the cold river water and tried to swim across the river. In the end, all the soldiers of the National Army were frozen to death in the river. Swimming across the Yangtze River in the cold winter was simply seeking death. No matter how good the water was, they would be death!

At this time, if you look at Nanjing City from above, you can find that almost everyone is running towards Xiaguan, and only a small army is leaving the city from Zhonghua Gate to Saihong Bridge, which is naturally the 19th Brigade. Xu Shijiu took the task of breaking the rear from Feng Shengfa and was leading the troops forward.

Along the way, the defeated soldiers from the front line kept coming to the roadside.

"Brother, where are you going?" A defeated soldier kindly reminded, "There is no longer our troops."

"I know." A captain came out of the small army and smiled at the defeated soldier, saying, "It is because there is no more of our troops in front that we have to go forward."

"What are you going to do?" another defeated soldier asked.

"What should I do? I'm ordered to cut off the queen."

"What's the matter of breaking the back? That's a death."

"What should I do? Someone must stay and cut off the back?"

The defeated soldiers stopped talking. Inexplicably, he suddenly raised his right hand and paid a standard military salute to the small army slowly moving in front of him. Someone took the lead and asked the defeated soldiers on the roadside to follow the military salute, and then watched the small army with only more than 200 people head south, south, and south against the retreating tide of troops...

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The chaos of the national army quickly attracted the attention of the Japanese army.

When the meteorological observation team reported the movement of the opposite national army to Gusuo, the old devil quickly concluded that the national army planned to give up Nanjing. He excitedly said to his chief of staff, Shinoya Ichiho, "Shino, if nothing unexpected happens, the Chinese leader Jiang has already issued an order. The Chinese army decided to give up Nanjing. Hahaha

Tani Suo's inference was soon confirmed by the intelligence department, and they had intercepted the telegram from the Kuomintang army.

"Yoxi, Yoxi." Shinono Ichikawa rubbed his hands with excitement and said, "It is extremely stupid for the Chinese army to retreat at this time, and there is no more stupid decision than this."

Tani Shoufu laughed and said, "This is true for the Chinese leader Jiang Yiguan."

Shinoya Kazuki said again: "Second Commander, I seem to see that thousands of Chinese troops have put down their weapons and surrendered to the Imperial Army of Japan. Originally, if these Chinese troops defended Nanjing to fight street battles with the Imperial Army, even if the Imperial Army occupied Nanjing, they would probably pay an extremely heavy price. But now, Nanjing is within reach.

Tansuo said proudly: "It is said that the 18th Division, the 9th Division were not going well in Zijin Mountain and Guanghua Gate."

Shinoya Kazuki smiled and said, "It seems that the great achievements that have been trapped in Nanjing will still fall on our 6th Division."

Before Shinoya Kazuki's words could be landed, fierce gunshots suddenly sounded in front of him, and then a combatant staff came over and reported to Tani Shouo: "The division commander, the direction of Sai Hongqiao was stubbornly resisted by the Chinese defenders, and the offensive of the 45th Infantry Regiment was frustrated. Colonel Kanda requested emergency artillery fire support from the field artillery corps."

"Nani?" Tanisuo said in disbelief, "There are Chinese defenders in Saihongqiao?"
Chapter completed!