After the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese left the town of Nanxun on November 19, 1937, and marched west along the southern shore of Taihu Lake in pursuit of the Chinese troops who had hastily retreated from the Songhu War. This battle is known in the history of the Japanese army as the "Battle of Hunan". (Japanese troops washing lunch boxes by the Taihu Lake)
Huzhou was occupied on November 24, and Changxing fell on the 26th. The Japanese troops on the south bank of Taihu Echoed the Japanese troops attacking at the same time on the north bank, and the targets were directed at Nanjing. (On November 25, the Japanese army occupying Huzhou rested in the city))
The Japanese forces of Chiba, Yamada, and Yamamoto continued to advance north after occupying Changxing on November 26, and broke into the city of Yixing on November 28, and the next day Yixing fell and pounced on the next target, Liyang. The picture shows Yamamoto's troops advancing north by Lake Taihu on November 28, 1937.
On November 28, the Japanese Chiba troops in the march of Yixing.
After the town of Si'an, west of Changxing, was occupied by japanese troops such as Nagano and Yamada, on November 27, the Japanese army broke through the whole of Zhejiang and entered the territory of Anhui. On November 29, under the cover of fierce artillery fire from Fujimura's troops, Fujita's troops captured Guangde, an important stronghold on the defensive back of Nanjing, and the airfield was occupied by the Japanese. The picture shows the Japanese tank unit attacking Guangde near the town of Si'an on November 28.
After the capture of Yixing, the Japanese Qianye, Yamada and other rapid pursuit forces captured Liyang, an important stronghold of Nanjing's defense. Then the Japanese army marched all the way to Nanjing.
On November 30, the Japanese army forcibly requisitioned a large number of Chinese civilian ships along the shores of Taihu Lake to pursue the Chinese army, and hung plaster flags on the sails.