Chapter Sixteen: Breakout Battle

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  January 17, 1938, at 1:00 pm, Matsui Iwane immediately convened an emergency combat meeting at the command center. At the meeting, Matsui Iwane formally announced: "Now, I officially announce today's battle plan: The Sixth Division is responsible for guarding the western line, the 114th Division, Ninth Division, and Nineteenth Division are responsible for the southern line, the Thirteenth Division is responsible for the northern line. All other troops will be concentrated on the eastern line under my command. This must be done secretly, without letting the Chinese discover it! It must be completed before 5:00 pm today. At 5:10 pm, the Sixth Division and 114th Division will open fire towards Nanjing City, pretending to launch a general attack."

  "General, why are you doing this? Won't the Chinese troops break through from the western front?" Tatōya Mutō asked in surprise.

  "Their commander is no fool, he must have discovered that our forces are weak in the eastern line. Although heading east seems to be going in the opposite direction from their rear, as long as they break through our encirclement, they can head west at any time. I just want to create this illusion for him, this is called 'showing shape on the western front, deciding the battle on the eastern front!' " said Matsui Ishihara with a self-satisfied tone.

  "General, you are brilliant! Truly brilliant!" Wutou Akira flattered, patting the horse's rear end of Matsui Ishikon.

  At 2 pm, Liu Zhenfeng invited John Rabe, the head of the Nanjing International Safety Zone, to express his gratitude for establishing a safety zone for the Chinese people. Now that our army is about to break through, the order in Nanjing needs to be maintained by Mr. Rabe, and the refugees who refuse to leave Nanjing also hope that Mr. Rabe will protect them. Liu Zhenfeng handed over all the remaining food to the safety zone. John Rabe also stated that he would do his best to protect Chinese refugees and minimize their suffering at the hands of the Japanese. Liu Zhenfeng sighed slightly, thinking that despite traveling thousands of miles from Central China to Jiangnan, he still failed to evacuate more than 200,000 refugees from the city, and only about one-tenth of them were willing to relocate with the army. It seemed that the Nanjing Massacre was unavoidable. The only thing Liu Zhenfeng could change was to lead tens of thousands of elite troops out of Nanjing, who would have otherwise been slaughtered by the Japanese.

  Looking at the smoke in the city, he couldn't help but shed tears like rain. His several guards asked in confusion: "General, what's wrong with you?" He wiped away his tears and said to the guard beside him: "You must remember today! On December 16th of the 26th year of the Republic of China, Nanjing has completely fallen, and more than 200,000 civilians will be brutally slaughtered by the Japanese invaders. And now my 77th army is powerless. Everyone remembers this blood feud, we must avenge it! This time we break through, we must also make the Japanese pay a bloody price!"

  "Yes, sir!" several guards said in unison.

  At 5:00 pm, AK regiment commander Fu Dongping ordered the artillery to officially bombard the enemy outside the city. Suddenly, dozens of remaining large-caliber guns let out a deafening roar, and shells whizzed towards the enemy's position.

  Inside the city, more than 30,000 people who were willing to withdraw with the army began to break through the south of the city with General Chang Zongzhung's troops. The commander of the enemy's 6th Division, 23rd Brigade, Colonel Okamoto Tomomi, urgently requested reinforcements from friendly forces and even sent a distress telegram to the command center.

  "General, the enemy's main force is launching a fierce attack on the western front. The 6th Division on the western front can't hold out much longer and is requesting support!" Takashi Takeda reported to Ishihara Shuzo.

  "Hachigatsu! Impossible! They must be trying to break through from the eastern front, they should know that we will definitely heavily defend the western front, breaking through the western front is a dead end, how can this be possible?!" Matsui Ishizuka said disbelievingly. "The troops on the eastern front are not moving, order the 114th and 19th divisions on the southern front to send out troops to support!"

  "Hi!"

  Liu Zhenfeng arrived at the gathering place of the 102nd and 109th Divisions, and said to everyone: "Comrades, have you all polished your guns and sharpened your knives? Now we are going to break through from Taiping Gate to the east. The battle may be very fierce. Are you afraid?"

  "I'm not afraid!" The thunderous roar shook the heavens.

  "Good! You are indeed the brave warriors of my 77th Army. What I want to tell you is: although this time we are breaking out, I require you to launch an attack on the enemy in front of us, even if our entire army is left with only one person, we must still attack, and die on the battlefield, for it is there that heroes emerge victorious! Our 77th Army will fight to uphold national prestige, military prestige, and the invincible spirit of the 77th Army! Wherever our swords point, all will be vanquished!"

  "Where the sword points, all will be swept away!" Everyone shouted in excitement once again.

  "Full speed ahead!" Liu Zhenfeng gave the order.

  Liu Zhenfeng led two divisions of troops out of the city from Taiping Gate and soon encountered a small group of enemy soldiers, who were quickly defeated by our army and fled rapidly in the direction of Zijinshan.

  As he walked, he felt that something was not right. Even if the Japanese army's defense on the Eastern Front was weak, there shouldn't be only this many troops. The number of Japanese soldiers surrounding the city was greater than the number of troops he had in hand now. According to reason, on the Eastern Front, the enemy should have at least arranged a division-level force for defense, and it shouldn't be just a mere regiment-level force.

  "No good! Everyone, break through in the direction of Zhongshan Mausoleum!" Liu Zhenfeng immediately gave a new order. But it was already too late, several divisions of Japanese troops had surrounded them, and the vanguard was the elite Imperial Guard Division. The soldiers were engaged in a fierce battle with them, and Liu Zhenfeng stayed within the protection circle of the guard unit, pacing back and forth anxiously. After a while, he suddenly raised his head and shouted: "Chief of Staff of the 109th Division, bring me the tactical map!"

  Soon, the chief of staff of the 109th division rushed to his side with a battle map, Liu Zhenfeng let him spread out the map and carefully examined it, completely disregarding the planes flying overhead and the Japanese army attempting to break through the protective circle constructed by the guard regiment.

  "Damn it, Song Xilian this old thing, wants to trap me to death here, no doors! You see, Qixia Town, our intelligence department has searched for radio signals from the wireless telegraph station here more than once, it can be confirmed that their headquarters is located in Qixia Town. Well, doesn't Song Xilian want me dead? No big deal, let's have a fish die together with the net! You want my life, you want my 77th Army, I'll take down your command center! Order the 102nd Division to break through to Zhongshan Mausoleum, don't worry about us, then join up with General Zhang Zizhong and his troops, break through in the direction of Poyang, our 109th Division will directly insert into the enemy's heart, if we're lucky, we'll break through, if not, we'll die for the country!"

  After the order was given, Liu Zhenfeng led all the officers and men of the Guard Regiment as well as the 109th Division to attack in the direction of Qixia Town. The enemy's Ninth Division came to block them, which could be said to be their elite division, but compared to this batch that completely showed a desperate and reckless attitude, what awaited them was a terrible slaughter. All the officers and men of the 109th Division were like leopards, ferociously launching an attack on their prey.

  Liu Zhenfeng was also holding a 38 rifle, stabbing the enemy's chest again and again, occasionally firing a cold shot. The defensive line of the 9th Division was quickly torn open by our group of "rioters". Liu Zhenfeng ordered the troops to attack fiercely towards Qixia Town at all costs!

  "General, General, it's not good, it's not good!" A Japanese communications soldier rushed into the command center with a flustered expression. At this time, Matsui Iwane was studying the battle map and couldn't help but feel some anger at this panicked little guy.

  "Eight marks! As a soldier of the Great Japanese Empire, you should pay attention to your image and remain calm at all times. What kind of appearance is this?!" Matsui Ishizuka scolded the careless young soldier.

  "Attention!" The signalman stood at attention, bowed to General Song Ziren, and said: "Report to the general, the main force of the enemy's 77th Army has indeed broken through from the eastern line and is now surrounded and restrained by our eastern troops!"

  "Yoshi, yoshi!" exclaimed Matsui Ishizuka happily.

  "But one of the enemy units has broken through and is heading straight for our command center!" The communications soldier continued.

  "Yo, yo!" continued Matsui Ishizuka with his eyes narrowed, but he quickly came to: "Where are they charging towards?"

  "General, sir! He's coming this way!" The little communications soldier said cautiously.

  "Eight battalions! Idiots! All idiots! With so many divisions surrounding them, they actually let them open a gap and run towards the command center!" Matsui Isamu shouted hysterically.

  "Now the headquarters has no troops, once this group of fugitives kills here, we will definitely be finished! The nearest troops are whose, let him come to defend the headquarters quickly." Matsui Isamu slammed his fist on the table and shouted.

  "General, the nearest troops are the 33rd Regiment of the 16th Division, we have informed them to rush back to defend the headquarters!"

  "Yohei, yohei. Also, order the 9th Division, the 16th Division and the Imperial Guard Division to assemble at headquarters quickly!" Matsui Iwane issued another command.

  "Hi."

  At the same time, Liu Zhenfeng was leading his troops to rush towards Xi Xia Town. The vanguard ran over to report that a large number of Japanese troops were gathering in Xi Xia Town, seemingly determined to defend it to the death. He thought for a moment and ordered his troops to launch an attack from the eastern edge of Xi Xia Town half an hour later. "I won't enter Xi Xia Town," he said. "I'll just trick you, Song Qi, into deploying your troops to protect that dog's life." ("Woof woof woof!" Wang Cai barked discontentedly. "How did we dogs get dragged into this again? How can creatures as lovely as us be compared to them?")

  After a night of struggling, Liu Zhenfeng finally led the 109th Division and the Guard Regiment to break through the siege and advance towards Zhenjiang. This breakout was at great cost, with the 109th Division suffering heavy losses. Except for the AK regiment which was sent to the western front to hold off the enemy, more than 10,000 men in the division had lost over a third of their number by the time we broke through the first line of encirclement. The Guard Regiment also lost an entire battalion. At a place 100 li east of Qixia Town, Liu Zhenfeng ordered each unit to take stock of their numbers, and it was found that they now had only over 9,000 men left. Looking at the exhausted officers and soldiers, my heart bled.

  Western Front AK Corps Breakout Position

  "Comrade Commander, Comrade Commander, all the shells have been fired!" The artillery company commander ran to the front of Fu Dongping and said.

  "Now that we've finished firing, blow up the big guns for me and never leave them to the enemy! All artillerymen, join the infantry ranks and fight!" Fú Dōngpíng ordered.

  With a series of loud explosions, all the artillery were destroyed by the demolition team. Then, the AK squad began to launch fierce attacks on the enemy's position one after another.

  "Report to the commander, this Burmese army is attacking fiercely, we have lost nearly a regiment of men." A division commander reported the situation to Kōjiro Tachibana.

  "Yoshi, this Chinese army seems to be a hard bone to chew on. Issue the order, everyone push forward, at all costs, and annihilate this Chinese battalion for me!" Kusunose Yukiyasu gritted his teeth and said. Since the attack on Nanjing on December 1, 1937, more than half a month had passed, and his Sixth Division had suffered heavy losses. It was no longer a division, but rather an enhanced brigade. As he watched his elite troops dwindle day by day, he felt a deep pain himself.

  One explosion after another, the charge bugle sounded repeatedly. The AK squad launched a melee battle with an enemy several times their own number on their own position, back and forth charging and counter-charging, no one knows how many times.

  "Brothers, our AK squad launches a full-scale attack on the Japanese devils, kill..." Fuyang Ping once again issued the order to attack.

  "What are these Chinese troops doing?" asked Tani Hisao in amazement, "Do they really think that with such a small force they can break through our defensive line? In an unfavorable situation for them, they actually launched a counterattack against us. What kind of troops are they?"

  The sky gradually brightened, and the AK squad was left with only six or seven people. Everyone else had died in the repeated charges. Fu Dongping looked at the soldiers around him and said: "Everyone is doing well, brothers! The military seat has said that even if we die, we must die on the charging road!"

  At this time, a voice came from the Japanese position: "Chinese soldiers on the opposite position, you have no way out. Put down your weapons and surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army. We guarantee your safety of life. If you continue to resist, there will be only one dead end!"

  "Damn it, I'm telling you, our 77th Army only has dead soldiers, no surrendered soldiers. Let me surrender to you pigs, there's no way! Fudongping shouted loudly, then he said to the guard beside him: "Support me, today even if I die, I will die on the charge road, brothers, launch the final general attack against Little Japan! Kill~~~"

  With a series of explosions, the 77th Army's most elite AK regiment was completely annihilated after a night of fighting!

  "Hachi-gatsu! Hachi-gatsu! Hachi-gatsu!" Matsui Ishizuka's angry roar, "What are you all eating?! You've been fighting for a whole night and yet you let the enemy break through! Only the western line managed to encircle and annihilate the breakthrough enemy, but even that was done at great cost. What are you all eating?!"

  "General, I think we should send troops to pursue them now!" said Ryūkawa Heisuke.

  "Alright!" Matsui Iwane nodded and said: "The 6th Division and the 16th Division will enter Nanjing and occupy it; The Sanxia Detachment of the 13th Division, the Kunisaki Detachment of the 5th Division, the Oshima Hisashi Cavalry Brigade of the 101st Division, the 68th Regiment of the 3rd Division, and the 9th Division, under the unified command of Lieutenant General Yoshio Kawabe of the 9th Division, will cross the Yangtze River and pursue the enemy north of the river to the vicinity of Yangzhou; The 114th Division and the 19th Division will pursue southward, and must annihilate them before they break through our second line of defense; The Imperial Guard Division will advance eastward, pursuing the enemy fleeing east. Act immediately!"

  Then, the various departments that received the order began to act. After the soldiers of the Sixth Division and the Sixteenth Division entered the city, they started burning, killing, looting, and raping women, doing all sorts of evil things. Because the Emperor issued a massacre order, the Japanese soldiers who entered the city slaughtered the remaining civilians in the city without any restraint, plundering the people's property. Any woman seen, regardless of appearance or age, became the object of this group of beasts' venting. The shocking and horrific Nanjing Massacre still occurred inevitably. Although the Nanjing Massacre was delayed for one month and five days due to Liu Zhenfeng's relationship, it still happened! On December 17, 1937, January 18, 1938, on this day, the Japanese army committed unforgivable sins in Nanjing like beasts!

  The entire Nanjing Massacre lasted for six weeks, from January 18, 1938 to February 28, 1938. At that time, more than 450,000 civilians who were still stranded in the urban and suburban areas of Nanjing were killed, with at least 150,000 people slaughtered. The tragedy of the massacre finally occurred!