In the Defense of Nanjing, why was the General Army completely destroyed? The diary of a brigade commander tells the truth
The defense of Nanjing after the Battle of Songhu has always been a topic of people's mouths. After the defeat of the Defense of Nanjing, the brutal Japanese army carried out a brutal massacre of the vast number of nanjing masses. Moreover, in the defense of Nanjing, why did the Teaching Corps completely annihilate the army? Years later, it was thought that the brigade commander had only told the truth.
After the end of the Battle of Songhu, more than 200,000 Nationalist soldiers retreated to Nanjing. At that time, Tang Shengzhi, a famous general of the Nationalist Army, served as the commander-in-chief and commanded the defense of Nanjing. At that time, among the many units of the Nationalist Army, the Teaching Corps was the most effective. Why, after the end of the battle, not only was Nanjing not defended, but even the teaching corps was completely destroyed?
After the great retreat at the Battle of Songhu, Tang Shengzhi led 200,000 Chinese troops to withdraw to Nanjing to defend Nanjing. Tang Shengzhi was appointed commander-in-chief, responsible for the command of the various units defending Nanjing. At the beginning, the guard of Nanjing was to stick to the outer Tangshan line. Later, with the development of the war situation, it was changed to defend the first line of Wulong Mountain Fort, Purple Mountain, and Yuhuatai.
At that time, the teaching corps was ordered to guard the fork in the road, the Purple Mountain Xiaoling guard to the front line of the engineering school, and the commander-in-chief of the whole team was Gui Yongqing.
The Nationalist command judged that the Japanese army's route of advance was the Beijing-Hangzhou National Highway to the Nanjing City Wall, and the focus of the attack was on Purple Mountain and Yuhuatai. Therefore, the troop deployment of the teaching corps focused on purple mountain and was commanded by brigade commander Zhou Zhenqiang.
On the evening of December 12, Zhou Zhenqiang, who was holding on to the Purple Mountain, saw a fire burning in the direction of Zhonghua Gate and The direction of Xiaguan. At this time, Zhou Zhenqiang could not get through the telephone of the headquarters of the general team, and did not know much about the situation in Nanjing. Therefore, Zhou Zhenqiang sent people to check on it, and the spies returned, and the chief of the brigade, Gui Yongqing, had already disappeared, and the chief of staff, Qiu Qingquan, also fled. There was chaos in the city of Nanjing, and the troops went their separate ways.
Later, Zhou Zhenqiang learned that the Yuhuatai position where Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division was located had been captured by the Japanese army. At the same time, the 88th Division was distracted. The troops, including the Cantonese army Deng Longguang, withdrew from Nanjing. At this time, Zhou Zhenqiang understood that the defense of Nanjing was only one of their troops fighting, while the other defensive lines of Nanjing City had been completely destroyed, and the 200,000 troops of the Nationalist army did not know where to go.
For this situation, Zhou Zhenqiang already knows the final result. Therefore, Zhou Zhenqiang led the teaching corps to retreat, and after reaching the riverside, Zhou Zhenqiang saw corpses all over the field. There were even more floating corpses on the river, and the Japanese army exploded violently, and the nationalist generals were killed and wounded in a large area. Zhou Zhenqiang successfully crossed the river with a few people who taught the brigade and returned to Chongqing, the capital at that time.
After the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, the cruel Japanese invaders began to search the city for hidden officers and soldiers. During this time, a large number of officers and men of the Teaching Corps and friendly troops were searched. In the end, the Japanese took them to Shimonoseki and killed them with machine guns and threw their bodies into the river.
The Nanjing Massacre lasted for many days, killing and injuring countless Chinese soldiers and civilians, and the cruelty was unimaginable, and it is said that the river surface at that time was stained red. Who should be blamed for such a tragic situation in the defense of Nanjing?
The defeat of the Nanjing Defense War, the collapse of the Teaching Corps, the nationalist army headquarters, as well as Tang Shengzhi and Gui Yongqing all had unshirkable responsibilities. If it were not for Tang Shengzhi, Gui Yongqing and others who took the lead in escaping, the teaching corps known for its elite would not have been completely destroyed. If you want to blame it, blame it on the national army headquarters, and blame it on Tang Shengzhi's greed and fear of death.
Reference: "The Defense of Nanjing"