In December 1937, due to the defeat in the defense of Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, Nanjing, was completely lost to the hands of the Japanese army, under the command of Matsui Ishigen, commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, and Gu Shoufu, commander of the 6th Division, the murderous Japanese army invaded China and launched a 42-day massacre of Nanjing and the surrounding areas, and countless families were torn apart by their wives and children.
According to statistics, in the Nanjing Massacre, the total number of victims has exceeded a full 300,000, such a huge number is simply appalling.
However, some people have doubts, although the captured soldiers of the Nationalist army are not strong enough, but they have rich combat experience, why did not take the initiative to stand up and resist when the massacre occurred, and rescue the suffering people?
On July 7, 1937, after the Japanese army launched the 77 Incident at Lugou Bridge, it suddenly launched a full-scale war of aggression against China.
On August 13, the Battle of Songhu in Shanghai officially began, and in less than a month, the situation on the Battlefield of Songhu took a sharp turn for the worse.
On November 8, Chiang Kai-shek issued an order for an emergency withdrawal of troops from Shanghai, and four days later Shanghai fell, but the Chinese army resisted to the death without success.
Moreover, because Chiang Kai-shek's order to withdraw was too hasty, coupled with successive mistakes in the rear defense fortifications, the Nationalist soldiers who retreated west from Shanghai were fully covered by Japanese bombers, and the retreat gradually evolved into a major rout.
The soldiers were unable to organize an effective resistance defensive offensive, and even opened the door to the Japanese army on the north road, and the Japanese army killed the red eyes one after another, and marched all the way west, directly to Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China.
The Ministry of National Defense and the General Headquarters deeply felt that the current situation and situation were extremely serious, and on November 17 and 18, respectively, they expanded the discussion on the defense of Nanjing City for three consecutive times, and most of the military cadres attending the meeting, headed by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, generally held that at present, the troops urgently need to rest and are unable to fight any more, and that Nanjing's military defense is insufficient, and it is recommended that they only retreat to the rear of the great southwest after symbolic resistance to see the after-effects.
However, he was met with stern objections from Tang Shengzhi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission, who said: Nanjing is the capital of the country and the mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen, the father of the country, how can it be trampled by the iron hooves of the Japanese army? On the grounds that it hindered international observation and covered the retreat of troops, he advocated holding nanjing to the death and vowed to coexist and die with Nanjing.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek still had great expectations for German military mediation and Soviet military intervention in the War of Resistance, so he appointed Tang Shengzhi as the commander of the Nanjing Garrison Military Region, issued an order to "hold Nanjing for a short period of time" for one to two months, and stationed 100,000 troops, officially opening the prelude to the defense of Nanjing.
Unfortunately, Tang Shengzhi had the heart to kill the thief, but he was powerless to return to heaven, and there were generals in the air to report to the country, but they were seriously dragged back by the army under his command.
On the one hand, most of the troops left by Chiang Kai-shek to Tang Shengzhi were retreated from the Songhu battlefield in Shanghai, and had just experienced bitter battles and major routs, many of which were directly scattered, suffered heavy casualties, and were very demoralized, and they simply did not have the ability and courage to continue to fight and kill the enemy.
On the other hand, although Chiang Kai-shek added tens of thousands of new recruits to Tang Shengzhi, these people have not experienced the tests and tempers of war and seriously lack combat experience.
However, at present, the time left for him was running out, and in order to boost morale and stabilize the morale of the army, Tang Shengzhi had no choice but to shout the slogan of "vowing to coexist and die with The city of Nanjing, and not to retreat from the battle."
But at this time, Chiang Kai-shek's government did another thing, so that the morale of the troops that Tang Shengzhi had so hard to improve was wiped out in an instant.
On November 20, Jieshi issued a document "Declaration on the Relocation of the National Government to Chongqing", officially moving the capital to Chongqing, and the stone stirred up thousands of waves, and the already panicked citizens of Nanjing became even more agitated, suspecting that the government was going to abandon Nanjing, so they began to flee Nanjing in droves, and the morale of the army that had been high was once again low.
On December 1, the Japanese army concentrated its superior forces to capture Jiangyin, and officially issued the order to attack Nanjing, and the defense of Nanjing began.
On December 10, the Japanese launched a general offensive against Nanjing.
On the 12th, Tang Shengzhi was forced to issue a retreat and breakout order under the helplessness of all kinds, and the resistance of the Chinese army collapsed, and the loss of Nanjing City in just ten days was a huge loss to China's economy, culture and military politics.
The failure of a battle, the first to suffer and the first to bear the brunt of the defeated army, the martyrs still died with dignity, admired by the people, and praised by future generations, but those prisoners of war of the nationalist soldiers who had not yet had time to retreat had a very miserable life in the prisoner camp, and the Japanese army has always treated the Chinese soldiers with extreme cold blood, killing at will, without any humanitarianism to speak of.
At only 19 years old, Tang Spectrum was serving as a service member of the teaching column within the Nationalist Army, and although he was still young, he had participated in the Battle of Songhu in Shanghai and the Battle of Nanjing, and was a veteran of the Hundred Battles who was accustomed to life and death.
At that time, after Tang Shengzhi, commander of the Nanjing garrison, issued the order to retreat, everyone in the army was in danger, and everyone was trying to escape, and Tang Spectrum had long been lost in the chaotic flow of people, and could only follow a veteran who was older than himself, stumbling and blindly collapsing and fleeing.
At that time, not only the soldiers of the army fled, but also the ordinary people in Nanjing, the Japanese army rioters are well known, and now that Nanjing has fallen, there is definitely no good ending to continue to stay, so there are many people on the way to escape.
However, the Japanese army set up additional sentries in various key areas, so that there were few and pitiful escapes from nanjing, so on the congested road section, stampedes occurred all the time.
In such a huge flow of fugitives, there are also many patriotic revolutionaries with lofty ambitions, who do not want to be a subjugated slave who has lost his dignity, so they shout one after another, shouting the slogan of "swearing to die and not to be a slave to the country", trying to lead people out, but they quickly fell under the ruthless guns of the Japanese army.
Pang Spectral and another veteran were both highly experienced soldiers who knew how to evade the Japanese search, but because the Japanese army suddenly launched a carpet search, the two were inevitably captured as prisoners of war and imprisoned by the Japanese army.
In the beginning, the Japanese army only cut them off water and food, and did not do anything else, so many people had no idea what the invaders were going to do next.
But being so hungry was not the way to go, so some people secretly colluded and organized the captured soldiers to try to flee en masse, but the Japanese army had already laid out heavy firepower like a net of heaven on the periphery, and whenever someone ran out shouting "Down with Japanese imperialism", they would immediately fall to the ground and die in the dense gunfire.
Seeing such a scene, the people behind them did not dare to continue to rush, but silently crouched up, waiting for the next chance to escape.
After five consecutive days of detention, the Japanese army took Tang Spectrum and other prisoners to Tiger Mountain, where they were cut off from water and food for many days, and many people did not even have the strength to walk and talk at this time.
I don't know how long later, there were more and more people in the open space by the river, and many Nationalist prisoners of war had already sensed in horror that the Japanese army was about to concentrate on the massacre, and the reason why they had starved them for so long was so that they did not have the strength to escape and resist.
It can be said that this concentrated massacre is not out of thin air, but premeditated and organized, but no one wants to kneel and wait for death, so many people begin to use their teeth to help each other, ready to bite the rope with the last bit of strength and make a final attempt.
Unfortunately, before they could completely get out of trouble, the Japanese army issued the order to massacre, and the sound of gunfire was everywhere, and a large number of civilians and prisoners of war fell in pieces, and the blood immediately stained the ground red.
Tang Guangxi knew that at this time, any resistance was futile, and saving their lives was the most important, so when the Japanese army issued the order to strafe, they would lie on the ground one step at a time, and soon more and more corpses would be pressed on them, and the gunfire of the Japanese army would slowly weaken, and they knew that the massacre was about to end.
But unexpectedly, the Japanese army actually rushed up to the survivors for the second round of reinforcement, and another veteran who traveled with Tang Spectrum was sacrificed in the second round of massacre, fortunately, Tang Spectrum's psychological quality was excellent, allowing the blood to stain his whole body red and remain motionless, and finally escaped a disaster.
After determining that the Japanese army had left, he carefully took advantage of the thick night to escape the massacre concentration point where corpses were strewn across the field.
40 years later, Tang Spectrum, who survived the Nanjing Massacre, recalled the unforgettable past, still woke up from the nightmare, and also told the truth that the captured soldiers of the Nationalist army did not resist: "Hungry for five days and five nights, I don't even have the strength to walk, what to take to resist?" ”