On August 13, 1937, the Battle of Songhu, the largest and most tragic battle on the Battlefield in China since the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, broke out. In order to change the offensive posture of the Japanese army from north to south, Chiang Kai-shek took the initiative to seek fighters in Shanghai, hoping to change the strategic offensive direction of the Japanese army from east to west, so as to use the dense network of mountains and rivers in southern China to block the Japanese army, exchange space for time, and win the final victory.
At the time of the Battle of Songhu, the national army was only 1.9 million people, and if some miscellaneous military units and some troops who ate empty salaries were removed, it was only 1 million people. However, in this battle, Chiang Kai-shek successively mobilized 148 divisions and 62 brigades from various regions of the country, a total of 800,000 people, and almost all the main forces of the Chinese army were dispatched. The 87th Division, the 88th Division, the 36th Division, the three German mechanized divisions, as well as the Central Military Academy Teaching Corps, Hu Zongnan's First Army, Luo Zhuoying's 18th Army, the Ministry of Finance's Taxation Police Corps and other central military units all participated in this battle, and engaged in an earth-shattering and deadly battle with the Japanese army.
The first to go up were the 87th Division and the 88th Division, the two guards of the Nationalist government, and these two divisions and Song Xilian's 36th Division were the German model divisions trained by German advisers at that time, and they were the number one elite units of the Chinese army at that time. After secretly going to Shanghai, these two units launched an attack on the Japanese Marines stationed in Shanghai, hoping to drive the Japanese troops into the sea, but because Chiang Kai-shek blindly pinned his hopes on the mediation of the League of Nations, the troops stopped and stopped, giving the Japanese army a chance to breathe and taking the opportunity to increase a large number of troops to Shanghai.
Luodian is located in the transportation hub, the strategic location is very important, was an important area for the Chinese and Japanese armies to compete at that time. Luo Zhuoying commanded the 18th Army to repeatedly charge and kill the Japanese army, the commander of the 67th Division of the 18th Army was seriously wounded, the commander of the 201st Brigade of the 67th Division, Major General Cai Bingyan, was killed, and finally the 67th Division was replaced by Huang Wei, who had just been urgently transferred back from Germany. Wu Song's 61st Division was directly reduced to a regiment due to heavy casualties. The 98th Division led by Xia Chuzhong repeatedly fought with the Japanese army in the area of Yuepu and Baoshan, and also engaged in many large-scale white-knife battles, with heavy losses. Under the leadership of battalion commander Yao Ziqing, 500 officers and men of the third battalion of the 583rd Regiment of the 98th Division stationed in Baoshan held Baoshan for seven days, and the Japanese army sent dozens of fighters and dozens of ships to bomb Baoshan, and finally all but one of them escaped to report the news.
On September 22, the Japanese army once again concentrated heavy troops to attack Luodian, and two divisions launched a three-day charge against the Luodian defenders, and the Nationalist 159th Division and 160th Division were all killed. In addition to the central army troops, the rest of the local troops also fought very fiercely, the 20th Army of the Sichuan Army lost more than half, and the Gui 21st Group Army led by Liao Lei also launched a large-scale counterattack against the Japanese army, but due to the excessive firepower of the Japanese army, the Gui army suffered huge casualties and was forced to retreat. More than 20,000 officers and men of the 67th Army of the Northeast Army, under commander Wu Keren, were all killed in the Battle of Songhu.
On November 8, as the main forces of the Japanese army continued to assemble in the rear of the Chinese army, in order to avoid the total annihilation of the main force of the Chinese army, Chiang Kai-shek ordered all the participating troops to retreat, and the three-month Battle of Songhu was declared over. The Battle of Songhu lasted three months, with 300,000 Chinese casualties and blood staining the Huangpu River red. Although this war ended in the defeat of the Chinese army, the Chinese soldiers declared to the world a truth, that is, even if China fought to the end of a single soldier and one shot, it would fight the aggressors to the end, and the Chinese nation would respond to the challenge of this historical crisis with all-round sacrifice.