Chapter 8: The Nanjing International Safety Zone

  December 12, 1937 Nanjing Refugee Zone

  "Mei Ting, hurry! The safe zone is just ahead." Xu Mei Ting's colleague at the Central News Agency, photographer Lin Wanxiang, pulled her along as they rushed towards the safe zone.

  The situation in Nanjing is becoming increasingly dire, with the Chinese army losing one position after another outside the city. It seems that the fall of Nanjing is only a matter of time. In this desperate situation, it appears that the only "safe" place is the "International Safety Zone" established by the "International Committee" led by John Rabe and composed of a dozen or so Westerners.

  "There are so many people." Xu Meiting sighed, seeing the sea of refugees in front of her. She couldn't believe that there were still so many people from Nanjing to this point. Could this small safe zone accommodate so many people? What if Japanese planes dropped bombs in the densely populated safe zone, wouldn't it be a massacre?

  "Mei Ting, hold on tight to me, we don't want to get separated!" Lin Wan Xiang shouted loudly to Xu Mei Ting.

  Lin Wanzhang was a student of journalism at National Central University, one year junior to Xu Meiting. After entering the Central News Agency, he held Xu Meiting in high esteem. In July 1937, when Xu Meiting was in Beiping, Lin Wanzhang learned that the Japanese had launched the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and became worried about Xu Meiting's safety. Fortunately, Xu Meiting returned safely to Nanjing at the end of July. However, seeing Xu Meiting with a scowl on her face, looking unhappy, Lin Wanzhang didn't dare ask her what was wrong. It wasn't until later that he found out that Xu Meiting had met an old classmate from university in Beiping, who was supposedly a regimental commander (who said that? At the time, I Liu Zhenfeng was the commander of the 37th Division, who spread the rumor that I was just a battalion commander?). Xu Meiting wanted to follow the troops for reporting purposes but was flatly rejected by the regimental commander and sent back to Nanjing, which made her unhappy.

  Later, the Battle of Shanghai broke out, and Xu Meiting repeatedly asked to go as a war correspondent, but the director did not allow it, making this little girl depressed for a long time. Until November, when the Central News Agency moved inland, Xu Meiting insisted on staying in Nanjing to report back the situation in Nanjing. The director had no choice and agreed to let her satisfy her desire to be a war correspondent since other reporters were unwilling to stay behind. At this time, Lin Wanchang was also worried that Xu Meiting would get into trouble and asked to stay in Nanjing to take care of her.

  "Boom, boom, boom!" The rumbling sound of cannons outside the city continued to reverberate inside, as people waiting in line at the entrance of the safe zone grew increasingly anxious, constantly urging those in front to move forward quickly. No one knew when the Japanese would enter the city.

  "Boom!" A shell exploded not far from the troops, fortunately without injuring anyone, but even so, the frightened and uneasy crowd was scared out of their wits, and the already anxious group became even more chaotic.

  "Hey, hey, hey! What are you pushing for? Be careful! My camera." Lin Wanxiang shielded his camera with one hand while protecting Xu Meiting with the other, and shouted at the people who were desperately pushing forward.

  "Damn it. You little brat, are you asking for a beating?" Behind Lin Wanjun was a middle-aged man with scars on his face and a sturdy physique, who looked like he wasn't someone to be trifled with.

  When Lin Wanjia saw clearly the person he scolded, he felt a little scared, his small body was not enough for that person to pinch.

  A good man doesn't take advantage of a situation, Lin Wanjun endured and didn't speak again. But at this time, the middle-aged man looked at Xu Meiting with a lustful gaze: "Haha, I didn't expect such a beautiful girl to squeeze into the safe zone too. Damn it, after the Japanese enter the city, they'll be ruined by them anyway, so why not take advantage of our own people?" As he spoke, the middle-aged man pushed Lin Wanjun away and tightly hugged Xu Meiting.

  "What are you doing? What are you doing!" Xu Meiting exclaimed in shock and fear, trembling as she scolded the middle-aged man.

  This middle-aged man seemed to be unaware of his surroundings, wanting to tear off Xu Meiting's clothes. Xu Meiting was so scared that she shouted loudly. At this time, the police maintaining order discovered something unusual in the crowd and immediately ran over to take a look. In the chaos, someone actually wanted to show off their ferocity, and it was near the international security zone. It really didn't put them in the eyes of the police. So several police officers quickly took away the middle-aged man who was showing off his ferocity.

  "Mei Ting, Mei Ting, are you alright?!" Lin Wan Xiang hastily ran to Mei Ting's side, helped her up and asked with concern.

  "I'm so scared, I'm so scared!" Xu Meiting sobbed, as she tightly hugged Lin Wanjun. Lin Wanjun could only comfort Xu Meiting.

  The team slowly moved forward, and Xu Meiting and Lin Wanchang finally entered the safe zone at around 9 pm.

  The next morning, the Japanese army was surprised to find that Nanjing City, which had resisted fiercely yesterday, was now eerily quiet. The vanguard of the Kiyoshi Tachibana Division cautiously entered the city from the Zhonghua Gate and walked for a while before discovering that over 10,000 civilians were still lingering on the streets. As soon as they saw the legendary Japanese soldiers arriving, they immediately fled in all directions, shouting: "The Japanese devils have come! The Japanese devils have come!"

  "Attention, everybody! Surround this group of Chinese people and kill anyone who resists!" A Japanese lieutenant colonel shouted to disperse the troops and drive away these Chinese civilians.

  More and more Japanese troops entered the city, although there were still some scattered units in the city that were fiercely resisting, but to little effect, and were soon surrounded and annihilated by the Japanese troops.

  The sky gradually brightened, and the refugees in Nanjing finally ushered in the darkest moment - the Japanese began their massacre. They used heavy machine guns to sweep, grenades to blast, bayonets to stab, and Japanese military swords to chop, sparing no extreme measures. A large number of civilians died indignantly, filling this ancient capital of six dynasties with bloodshed.

  "Oh no, Yunxuan, Japanese soldiers are coming from that direction, let's run this way." A pretty girl looked around at the entrance of the alley and immediately ran back, saying to another girl in the alley.

  Two girls were like headless flies, running around everywhere without a clue.

  "Mei En, where are we running to now? There are Japanese everywhere." The girl named Yunxuan said breathlessly while running alongside another girl.

  "I don't know either. Wait! Let's go to the safe zone, it might be safer there." The girl named Mei'en suddenly thought of the International Safe Zone.

  Two girls had just come out of an alley and walked onto the main street when they saw a group of Japanese soldiers in the distance firing at Chinese civilians ahead, some even using bayonets to pierce the abdomens of Chinese civilians, the scene was extremely brutal.

  "Flower girl, flower girl!" A Japanese soldier discovered Yunxuan and Mei'en, excitedly shouting. Yunxuan and Mei'en found something was wrong, immediately turned around and ran away, behind them, a group of ferocious devils chased after them in a flurry.

  Yunxuan and Mei'en ran for their lives, they knew that once they fell into the devils' hands, it would be a fate worse than death.

  "Mei En, I...I can't run anymore. You go ahead." Yun Xuan was now exhausted and panting heavily. She felt that she definitely wouldn't be able to escape the clutches of the Japanese devils, although it was unbearable, but she also couldn't implicate her friends.

  "No, I won't abandon you," Mei En said anxiously. "I've lost all my relatives now, my mother passed away early, and my father just died in the Nanjing defense war. You're my best friend, I don't want to lose you too!"

  "Mei En, I'm sorry. Originally, I wanted to take you to the 88th Division to find my cousin. Do you know? My two cousins, one is the chief of staff of the 87th Division and the other is the chief of staff of the 282nd Brigade of the 88th Division. But now the troops have been scattered and I couldn't find them either. Sorry, sorry~~"

  "Never mind, let's run quickly, we'll be safe once we reach the safety zone." Mei En still dragged Yun Xuan along, desperately running towards the international safety zone...

  At that moment, on the road in front of them, they suddenly saw several Japanese soldiers again, who were desperately tearing off a woman's clothes. The woman let out a miserable scream and desperately cried for help, but under such circumstances, even if someone heard her, who would dare to intervene?

  "This voice sounds so familiar? It seems like Wang Qinyi's voice." Mei En said in surprise.

  "Yes, let's go and save her!" Yun Xuan said anxiously.

  "Save her? How to save? The two of us ran over, it's also a sheep entering the tiger's den. Besides, Wang Qinyan usually has that arrogant attitude, always talking about how great her boyfriend is, why can't we see her boyfriend saving her now? Her boyfriend is a deputy regiment commander in the 36th division of the National Army." Mei En said while planning to pull Yun Xuan, taking advantage of the Japanese soldiers' unpreparedness, quietly slipping away from the nearby alley. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, just as they were about to rush over and slip into the alley, the Japanese soldier chasing behind them shouted: "Flower girl! Flower girl!"

  The Japanese soldiers who were indulging in their beastly nature in front of them heard the cries of their companions behind and looked up to see two lovely Chinese girls, Mei En and Yun Xuan, frantically trying to escape into a nearby alley. How could they let these two little girls get away? Several Japanese soldiers, with lustful smiles, blocked Mei En and Yun Xuan's path.

  "It's all over..." Yun Xuan felt a wave of sorrow in his heart.

  Mei En gritted her teeth and said, "Yun Xuan, we'd rather die than lose our integrity to these beasts!" After finishing speaking, Mei En picked up a broken stone from the roadside, looked at Yun Xuan with a sorrowful expression, and said, "Yun Xuan, I'll go first."

  "No, Mei En~~" Yun Xuan shouted loudly.

  At this moment, the Japanese soldiers behind them suddenly heard gunfire, and they were greatly shocked, relaxing their vigilance, never expecting that someone would shoot at them from behind. In a state of shock, they hastily turned around with their guns, preparing to counterattack, but facing them were Chinese soldiers with eyes spewing fire, and in such close range, the Chinese soldiers who had fixed bayonets directly engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese soldiers.

  "Yours, wait a minute, mine, bullet's, not yet withdrawn." At this moment of close combat, a Japanese soldier actually blurted out such an absurd sentence.

  "Kill!" A soldier who looked like an officer shouted and ran towards a Japanese soldier with a big knife...

  "My father told me to bully people, my father told me to move Chinese women!" This big man hacked at his opponent with a knife, each knife showing great strength, causing the Japanese soldier to retreat step by step, and finally unable to hold on, was killed by this big man with one knife.

  The battle is still going on, these dozen Japanese soldiers are still fighting to the death, but in the end they were no match and were all killed by these Chinese soldiers.

  "Mei'en, Mei'en, it's all right, Mei'en!" Yun Xuan said, hugging Mei'en. Fortunately, this batch of Chinese soldiers arrived in time, and Mei'en had not yet smashed the stone in her hand onto her own head, narrowly escaping disaster.

  "Don't touch me, don't touch me, don't..." At this time, Wang Qinxin cried out in a tragic voice, after all, her clothes had been torn off by the Japanese soldiers, and she was shivering with fear on the streets of Nanjing in the severe winter.

  "Miss, are you alright? Xiao Yang, bring a piece of clothing to cover this miss." The big man who had just held the large knife said to a young fellow who was searching for ammunition on the body of a Japanese soldier.

  "Yes, Captain!" Little Yang replied.

  "Thank you, thank you for saving us." Yun Xuan forced a smile as he spoke to the Chinese soldiers.

  The big Han said to Yunxuan: "You hurry up and escape, it's still four miles away from the safe zone. You go towards the safe zone, we have received orders and will safeguard the lives of the people in the safe zone at all costs."

  Dahan thought for a moment, and didn't feel at ease. After all, they were three girls' families. What if they encountered Japanese soldiers again? "Xiao Yang, I'm assigning you a task: safely escort these three girls to the safe zone."

  "Yes, sir!" Little Yang stood up straight and replied.

  Yunxuan, Meien and Wang Qinxin followed soldier Xiao Yang to the safe zone. However, this road was not very peaceful, there were too many Japanese soldiers, Xiao Yang had no choice but to lead them to a broken house to hide.

  "Little brother, which unit are you from? The 36th Division? The 87th Division? The 88th Division? Or the 66th Army?" Mei En asked curiously, after all, with the Japanese army entering the city, most soldiers had stopped resisting and fled for their lives.

  "I am from the 102nd Division of the 77th Army." Little Yang replied.

  "What's the 77th Army? I've never heard of such a unit stationed in Nanjing!" Mei En, whose father was a famous general, had some knowledge of the troops stationed in Nanjing. The 77th Army wasn't among them; instead, the units that participated in the battle were the 41st Division, 48th Division, 66th Army, 87th Division, 88th Division, 74th Army, 36th Division, 83rd Army, the Instructional Corps and three regiments of the Military Police. Where did this 77th Army come from? Was it a reinforcement unit?

  "We just arrived in Nanjing and immediately joined the battle." Little Yang said with a smile. Fortunately, they are temporarily safe for now, so Little Yang has some free time to chat with curious Mei En.

  "It's useless, it's useless. The 87th Division, the 88th Division, the 36th Division and the elite troops like the Instruction Corps all failed to hold on and collapsed, what's the use of sending in a nameless division like the 77th Army?" Wang Qinhua muttered, having calmed down emotionally by now.

  "Who says our 77th Army is useless!" Little Yang said with a huff, "What other troops can't do, our 77th Army can! Because we are the Wild Wolf Army!"

  "Wild Wolf Troop?" Mei En looked at Xiao Yang in surprise.

  "Yes, as long as our military seat is still there, our army can't be defeated and won't collapse, because the motto of our 77th Army is: Where the sword points, all will surrender!" Little Yang said proudly.

  "Where the sword points, all will be swept away?" Yun Xuan was shocked when she heard these eight words, because her cousin Liu Zhenfeng had said this sentence with great arrogance after graduating from military school and joining the local troops.

  "Who set this motto for you?" Yun Xuan asked anxiously.

  "Our army commander." Little guy replied.

  "Who is your commander?"

  Liu Zhenfeng!

  "Big Brother Biao?" Yun Xuan exclaimed in surprise.

  "What! Yunxuan, the commander of the 77th Army is your cousin? Didn't you say that your cousin was the chief of staff in the 87th Division? Didn't you say that your cousin was the chief of staff in the 282nd Brigade of the 88th Division? How did a commander cousin suddenly appear?" Mei En was very interested.

  "I don't know, because the name of the military commander and my second aunt's second son are exactly the same, I can't be sure that the commander of the 77th army is my cousin, but I intuitively think he is!" Yun Xuan said firmly.

  At this time, the battle outside was getting more and more intense. Xiao Yang decided that he couldn't wait any longer, and since the gate of the safe zone was already in sight, even if it meant fighting his way through, he had to rush into the safe zone, absolutely not allowing those three girls to get hurt.

  "I'll count to three, we'll make a run for it together. Remember, don't look back, just keep running towards the safe zone. One... two... three, go!" As soon as he finished speaking, Little Yang took off first, and the three girls followed close behind, sprinting out with all their might. Suddenly, gunfire erupted from behind them, and a multitude of footsteps came pouring in...