Niu Dongxing was from Ruian, and he had joined the organization in 1930.

After the organization began its Long March, he was among those who stayed behind to persist in the struggle.

Over the years, he had grown from a newcomer in the fight against the enemy's encirclement and suppression campaigns, slowly maturing in the mountain operations.

Now, he was a backbone member of the team. Over the years, he had personally witnessed many comrades and comrades-in-arms die in the Kuomintang's encirclements.

The incident that occurred in December 1936 changed the fate of this country and the establishment of the National United Anti-Japanese League.

It also changed the fate of those warriors who had been fighting for freedom.

Their guerrilla unit responded to the organization's call and put aside their hatred.

They walked out of the jungle, ended the civil war, and were determined to resist Japan.

Their ranks had been steadily growing for some time, as they accepted guerrilla units scattered throughout the mountains.

As the team grew larger and larger, Niu Dongxing received orders to take twenty core members to the Songhu battlefield.

This day was November 1, 1937.

This order was for them to join a force and transform it into one with combat effectiveness and belief.

As for what kind of team the other side was, the order contained no details.

However, their twenty-man team had already begun intensive training.

The main focus was on ideological education and how to better carry out ideological liberation work.

Only one day passed before Niu Dongxing's small team was about to set off.

The order was issued again: the number of people he was to take to report for duty was increased to forty.

All forty of these people were required to have firm beliefs, strong organizational skills, and powerful combat capabilities.

Niu Dongxing looked at the people gathered together: Bao Junyan, whom everyone called "Grass-hopper."

He was the captain of a team from behind the mountains, agile, and accurate with his marksmanship.

Liang Yongkang, known as the "Double Flying Swallows" alongside Bao Junyan, one as the captain and the other as the deputy captain.

After that team had these two people transferred away, their combat effectiveness would definitely decrease significantly.

They were supplemented later.

Niu Dongxing looked at the team in front of him and suddenly discovered a secret: the initial twenty people sent down were all backbone elites.

The twenty people added later were all leaders of various guerrilla teams or other units.

Sure enough, when the chief came to speak, he made it clear: "You are all seasoned warriors. This time, you are going to fight and study in a team that none of us are familiar with.

Some of you are going to fight in that unit.

Some of you are going to fight and study in that unit.

Learn their training methods, learn their combat methods.

You must also impart our useful methods without reservation.

Don't have the idea that teaching an apprentice will starve the master."

After the chief finished speaking, Bao Junyan raised his hand and asked, "Report, Chief! Can we trust them?"

This was a problem!

The chief thought for a moment: "The unit you are going to is a special company, and this company can be absolutely trusted.

You have to be careful with the others."

Liang Yongkang raised his hand.

The chief smiled: "Everyone is very conscious today! So disciplined?"

Everyone present laughed.

These people had been fighting guerrilla warfare with the Kuomintang in this area for more than five years.

More or less, they had developed some banditry. Today, they were really restrained a lot.

It was because these people were concentrated here.

It was even more because of the chief in front of them.

This was not a simple person: injured in the foot, inconvenient to walk.

Even when the people who wanted to capture him were less than five meters away, he could remain calm and still.

He was also the person who could write the Three Wonders of Meishan.

None of the people present did not admire this chief.

Liang Yongkang asked, "Chief! What kind of team are we going to after all?

Now the fighting on the Songhu side is the most intense. If you ask me, we should simply take all the people there.

There is no need to send only a few of us there.

What role can a few people play?"

The chief looked at everyone present seriously: "You are not the only one with this idea!"

The others smiled embarrassedly.

The chief explained, "The team you are going to has only one company, but they are quite extraordinary.

A company dares to fight a Japanese battalion.

They can attack Japanese airports.

Who says that few people can't accomplish anything?

You are going there to learn from them.

See how they fight guerrilla warfare, how they achieve more with less."

As soon as the chief said this, those standing in formation became excited.

"Chief! Are we going to the 769th Regiment of the 129th Division? They were the ones who attacked Yangmingbao Airport.

They fought really well, annihilating more than a hundred Japanese soldiers and destroying twenty-four enemy planes in one fell swoop.

This is a great victory!

This was also achieved by our troops, truly majestic!"

The chief finally smiled: "The unit you are going to is not the 769th Regiment.

It's the Special Company. They are also our people, our troops, but the organization is still in the Kuomintang series.

Therefore, this time you have to take the passes issued by our army with you.

As for their achievements, you will naturally know when you arrive."

The chief was not very clear about the inside story of this mysterious team.

But he knew the weight of it: because at first, only twenty backbones were arranged to go over, saying that they wanted to bring up the ideology of a team.

This team was very important, and it was necessary to send backbones with the firmest beliefs and practical experience.

This already made the chief feel bad.

Under his veiled inquiries, he finally learned some of the deeds of this team.

Although the other party only revealed a little: this mysterious company played a decisive role when stationed at the Sihang Warehouse.

The chief was shocked when he heard this news.

The deeds of the Sihang Warehouse were being promoted all over the country.

Wasn't the newspaper promoting the Eight Hundred Warriors of the 524th Regiment?

Later, when the latest order came from above again: to select twenty capable company-level or higher officers to go together.

The last order to select twenty backbones already made the chief feel bad.

This time, to select twenty more officers, meant picking away twenty company commanders.

This was not digging flesh, it was scraping bones.

The chief firmly disagreed.

The higher-ups had no choice but to reveal the performance of the Special Company in the most recent battle.

It was said that this one company raided a Japanese airport, killing nearly two thousand Japanese soldiers and destroying more than a hundred Japanese planes.

The chief was shocked when he heard this news.

This was simply impossible!

The higher-ups solemnly told him that the news was true, and the Japanese themselves admitted that the airport had been attacked, and the entire airport had been turned into ruins.

Therefore, the added twenty company commanders were going to learn.

It was like entering a military academy for further study, and they would return after they had learned.

The chief was happy to hear such an arrangement from his superiors.

Now it was the chief's turn to do the ideological work for his generals.

Niu Dongxing led this team, where no one was convinced by anyone else, and set off.

In this team, there were twenty guerrilla captains, and the remaining backbones were also the mainstays of their respective teams.

In terms of merit, no one was worse than anyone else, and the latest to join the Party were before 1931.

Everyone had persisted in guerrilla warfare for six years.

Everyone had already competed in fist fights when they were gathered together.

Niu Dongxing suppressed everyone by relying on the family martial arts he had practiced since he was a child.

In terms of marksmanship, no one was bad, not to say hitting the target every time, but hitting eight out of ten times was no problem at all.

The only thing that has not been compared now is the actual combat on the battlefield.

Under the leadership of Niu Dongxing, such a team set off for Jiangyin.

They first went to the Yangtze River, took a small boat, and went downstream directly to Jiangyin.

The fighting on the Songhu battlefield on November 7, 1937, was very fierce, and the defeat of the Kuomintang army was already evident.

However, the Jiangyin Fortress was very calm today.

However, the atmosphere of the entire fortress was heavy. If the front line of Songhu was not doing well, the pressure here would become heavier and heavier.

The officers and soldiers on the fort were inspired by the training of the Special Company, and now all the artillery positions that could be moved were undergoing disassembly training.

Commander Xu Kang was very satisfied with this training atmosphere.

In fact, he knew in his heart: if this place really could not be defended, he hoped to take all the artillery away when evacuating.

Under no circumstances could it be left to the Japanese devils.

Now with such training, the speed of disassembly by the soldiers has greatly increased, and the troops can retreat quickly during the transfer.

On the battlefield, new situations may occur every minute, and being able to be faster by one minute will take the upper hand.

Not to mention that Lin Fan's Special Company had really compressed the travel and combat conversion time of the eighty-eight-millimeter gun to five minutes.

Not only that, the Special Company had even dragged their gun to the bottom of Xiaoshan for a run.

Yuan Youren, the county magistrate of Jiangyin and deputy commander of the Martial Law Command, entered a state of war and established the Jiangyin County Anti-Japanese Support Association.

County Magistrate Yuan Youren served as the director of the Support Association, and Jiang Xingya, the director of the County Party Department, served as the deputy director.

The purpose of the establishment of the Jiangyin Anti-Japanese Support Association was to do its best to ensure the supply of the Jiangyin Fortress and protect the lives of ordinary people in Jiangyin County.

Based on this purpose, the Support Association took the first action after its establishment.

Immediately began to plan the evacuation and air defense plan for the entire Jiangyin County.

And what to do about the fire fighting work after Jiangyin County was bombed by the Japanese devils and caused a fire.

The Support Association used three local newspapers to promote the Anti-Japanese War and published knowledge about air defense, fire protection, and anti-espionage.

In fact, the tense atmosphere in the entire Jiangyin County had been going on for several months.

It's just that in the past, they could only be regarded as strategic locations and one of the targets of the Japanese devils.

Now that the battle situation on the front line is unfavorable, this place will become the most fiercely fought place on the entire battlefield.

Not only the officers and soldiers on the Jiangyin Fortress understood this, but also the ordinary people in Jiangyin City.

The Anti-Japanese Support Association not only published the plan in the newspaper.

They also organized the people in the city to conduct fire protection, air defense surveillance, and lighting control drills on the spot.

And also notified: if there are houses in the countryside and relatives, it is best to move to the countryside during this period of time.

County Magistrate Yuan also established the Jiangyin Intelligence Station and served as the station chief himself.

The main task of their station was to send local police and people to set up air defense surveillance posts along the Yangtze River and observe the activities of enemy ships and enemy planes.

Xiao Huanzhang, director of the Jiangyin County Special Affairs Office, also established an intelligence team to specifically investigate the activities of traitors and enemy spies.

Since the beginning of the Battle of Songhu, the activities of traitors and Japanese spies have been particularly rampant. The telephone lines from Shanghai to Nanjing have been sabotaged dozens of times every day by those spies and traitors.

If the National Government had not secretly erected two new telephone lines in 1935, the communication between the entire battlefield and the rear would not have been guaranteed at all.

Even now, traitors and spies are still very active on the Songhu battlefield.

Now, Major Fujiwara Yuzhen had the idea of disguising himself as a National Army soldier to enter the Jiangyin Fortress to sabotage it.

Before he took action, those traitors and spies had already begun to act.

This is called preparing the food and fodder before the troops and horses move!

Takenouchi Sho was originally Japanese, but he had lived in Northeast China since he was eleven years old.

Now his name is Ma Shouxin, a traveling herbal medicine peddler.

Originally, he had always been active in Northeast China. This time, the Empire was in a tight spot on the Songhu battlefield.

Dohihara Kenji specially brought a group of capable subordinates from Northeast China.

He scattered these people to various places in Jiangnan to gather information and sabotage communications.

Major Fujiwara Yuzhen wanted to know the intelligence of the Jiangyin Fortress, so he approached Dohihara Kenji.

So Ma Shouxin was sent out. He carried a large medicine box, shook a rattle drum, and swayed off the boat at the Jiangyin Wharf.

After he got off the boat, he did not go straight to the Jiangyin Fortress, nor did he directly enter Jiangyin County.

Instead, he walked down a small road that was neither wide nor narrow.

Based on his years of experience on the road, there must be a village ahead on such a road.

Ma Shouxin wanted to first find a place to stay in such a village, report his name, and then enter the county seat or circle around the Jiangyin Fortress.

That way, he could have an excuse.

Also on the 7th, the Shanghai Public Concession was as noisy as usual.

Director Pan once again took the deposit slips made last night to the Japanese Concession for the last withdrawal.

The defeat of the National Army on the Shanghai battlefield was a foregone conclusion. Next, he had to prepare to implement the suggestion made by Lin Fan when he left.

Mobilize all forces that can be mobilized, and strive to receive the most soldiers who have left the National Army's ranks, or the weapons and equipment in their hands.

The defeat of the regular army will be followed by the battle between the guerrillas and the Japanese devils on this land.

Over the years, the organization in the entire Central China region has basically abandoned its operations here, and now it is very difficult to start again.

Now there is one advantage: at least the funds are not bad.

Director Pan reported all the suggestions made by Lin Fan to the superiors truthfully.

As for the gas masks, weapons and equipment, medical equipment and medicines purchased for Jinxi Northwest, they were all sent out of the Concession and were on their way.

Mitsubishi Bank, Taihe Bank, and First Bank exchanged hundreds of millions of legal tender in just two days, the 5th and 6th.

From the 7th, the withdrawal limit was raised to one hundred yuan.

This time, those people who came to queue up to withdraw money every day were finally fewer.

Seeing that the length of the queue at the bank entrance was less than one-tenth of yesterday's, the general manager of Mitsubishi Bank finally felt relieved.

Tomorrow: a batch of Japanese yen sent from China will also arrive, and we will finally not have to receive loans from the National Government's Central Bank.

This news was deliberately spread by all Japanese-funded banks.

Immediately aroused the thoughts of interested people, and these interested people were Du's Mansion and Director Pan.

These days, all the cash they have cashed out is legal tender.

It was time to prepare to cash in the deposit slips for Japanese yen.

However, it was safest for those who withdrew small amounts to find someone who could speak a few words of Japanese.

On the 7th, Lin Fan led the Special Company to continue yesterday's work, and the entire company followed the traction vehicle to familiarize themselves with the terrain.

The external situation was getting more and more serious, and even staying in the Jiangyin Fortress, Lin Fan and the soldiers of the Special Company could feel it.

Faced with such a situation, Lin Fan and all the officers and soldiers of the entire Jiangyin Fortress were helpless.

What they can do now is to prepare their weapons and train as much as possible.

The training of the Special Company was still carried out according to Lin Fan's plan: assassination, ten-kilometer cross-country, wartime transition from transit to combat for anti-aircraft guns, and transit to wartime training.

When Lieutenant General Tani Hisao, commander of the 6th Division, received the news that his 13th Regiment's vanguard battalion had lost more than half of its troops.

Immediately ordered the entire 13th Regiment to press on and engage in fierce offensive and defensive battles with the 67th Army in Songjiang Town.

At the same time, Tani Hisao requested aircraft guidance. Songjiang Town was subjected to fierce enemy aircraft bombings. On the 7th alone, Japanese devils had more than 300 bomber sorties and dropped thousands of 300-kilogram aerial bombs.

Even so, the Japanese 6th Division did not advance half a step. On the contrary, the entire 6th Division suffered heavy casualties.

In this situation, if the Japanese landing force cannot break through Songjiang, and the National Army's subsequent troops arrive, it is very likely that they will be driven back into the sea.

The two divisions of the 67th Army stubbornly resisted in Songjiang County. At this time, although the Japanese 3rd Division had aircraft bombing support, it was still unable to advance half a step.

The enemy and our forces fought fiercely under Songjiang County, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.

After a day of hard fighting, the enemy had to retreat again.

On November 8, the Japanese 10th Army finally brought a batch of heavy artillery ashore.

Tani Hisao immediately used this batch of heavy artillery in the Battle of Songjiang. After two days and two nights of fierce fighting, the officers and soldiers of the 67th Army suffered huge casualties.

They were still persisting despite the fierce bombing of the Japanese devils.

The walls of Songjiang County were directly shot by the enemy with heavy artillery, blasting out one gap after another. The entire forward position was now almost completely destroyed.

Even if the Japanese devils' 3rd Division used heavy artillery, the entire 67th Army still guarded the position desperately.

They held the position here for three days, finally allowing the 200,000 troops of the Right Wing Army on the Songhu battlefield to finally retreat completely.

At this time, the entire 67th Army had sacrificed four generals and eight regimental commanders.

When they finally received the order to retreat, the entire Songjiang County had been bombed into ruins by the Japanese devils' planes and artillery.

There were no ordinary people in Songjiang County.

During the retreat, Wu Ke-ren, commander of the 60th Army, and his chief of staff, were strafed by Japanese planes when they crossed the river.

They were hit by machine guns and heroically martyred together. Their bodies drifted away along the river and were never seen again.

From this time on, there had been news of General Wu Ke-ren's surrender, but there was no evidence.

The reason for this news was related to the fact that the 67th Army was a Northeast Army.

After such a heroic blocking battle, the entire 67th Army was completely crippled. Chang Kai-shek did not forget to take the opportunity to abolish the designation of the 60th Army, and the remaining people of this army were added to other units.

It was not until forty years later that General Wu Ke-ren was finally vindicated. These were all stories for later.

The entire Songjiang blocking battle saw the sacrifice of six generals and eight regimental commanders of the 67th Army.

The Songjiang blocking battle was just one of the countless difficult battles in the later stage of this battle.

With the retreat of the Right Wing Army, the Japanese army's offensive became more fierce. Now they had cut off the railway and highway connecting the Songhu battlefield to the rear.

Faced with this situation, Chang Kai-shek had to issue an order on the evening of November 8: "All the National Army on the Songhu battlefield will retreat completely."

This order was issued in a hurry, long after the best time to retreat.

And there was no retreat plan yet. The Japanese army sent a large number of traitors and sabotage detachments. The communication from the entire front line to the rear was basically paralyzed.

This made the National Army's orders difficult to convey.

Some troops received the retreat order, and some did not.

Each team observed each other, seeing that the friendly army was retreating, and wanting to retreat faster than them.

From the 9th, the more than 700,000 National Army troops on the entire Songhu battlefield fell into a completely disorderly retreat.

The expected retreat turned into a rout.

In response to the current situation, the Third Theater of the National Army formulated the main contents of the operation during the retreat on November 8:

First, in order to break the Japanese army's encirclement attempt and consolidate the Nanjing-Shanghai line. Use the existing positions, save troops, and use some of them to resist the enemy in Shanghai and Hangzhou, and some troops to consolidate the capital.

After the support troops arrive, take Guangde as the center, transfer the offensive, and pressure the enemy and annihilate the Japanese army in Qiantang and Jiangxi.

Second, the Beijing-Shanghai side will use the least number of troops to use the Wucheng Town-Fushan Town section of the Wufu Defense Line position to block the enemy, and transfer to the Wuxi-Jiangyin Defense Line and the Yixiao-Wujin position when necessary.

Third, transfer two divisions from the Beijing-Shanghai side to Wuxing under the command of the Eighth Army, and then transfer three to five divisions to defend Nanjing.

Fourth, the Shanghai-Hangzhou side defends the Chongde-Nanxun Town line and the Linping Town-Wuxing line, and finally the Tenth Army retreats to the vicinity of Hangzhou. The two divisions of the Seventh Army retreated to the vicinity of Changxing. Wait until the Sichuan Army arrives before transferring the offensive.

Fifth, the six divisions of the Sichuan Army that arrive later will be transported by train to the vicinity of Guangde, and those who come by water will be concentrated in the vicinity of Ningguo, focusing on Guangde, and attacking the enemy in Shanghai and Hangzhou.

This was the new plan made by the Third Theater of the National Army when Songjiang Town was captured.

The entire plan was also full of pessimism about whether the National Army could hold the Wufu Line.

On the 10th, the Japanese Sato Detachment landed in Pudong. As soon as this unit landed, they launched a general attack on Nanshi.

Fengjing Town was the forward position of Nanshi. The 382nd Brigade of the 128th Division, the 654th Regiment of the 109th Division, and the 41st Regiment of the 11th Reserve Division were blocking the Japanese army in this place.

These troops had been engaged in fierce offensive and defensive battles with the Japanese army since the 8th.

More than 2,000 Japanese devils of the Sato Detachment attacked Fengjing, and there were more than 20 Japanese planes bombing them. In just one afternoon, they dropped more than 200 300-kilogram aerial bombs.