137: Chapter 137 Retreat into Jinling City?

"Since that's the case, we will evacuate tomorrow morning. Have the Chinese Soldiers organize the supplies tonight."

General Huang Wei's expression was serious. Without further hesitation, he directly issued the order to evacuate.

Adjutant Chen immediately went to convey the order.

General Huang Wei sat on a stool in the Command Post, closing his eyes to rest.

The organization of supplies was completed quickly.

To facilitate the evacuation, they reduced their burden, traveling as light as possible.

They carried quite a bit of ammunition and firearms on their backs, but as for food, there was almost none left.

In the early morning hours, after preparations for the evacuation were complete.

General Huang Wei ordered the retreat to begin.

First, the Command Post evacuated, taking the wounded and sick with them.

Then came the main force, and finally, the rear guard.

They were there to ensure that if they were discovered by the Japanese and the Japanese pursued them, they would be able to respond.

After all, the current mission was to evacuate.

In the early morning, the main force began to evacuate.

General Huang Wei had already packed his things.

The viewers in the livestream room were all somewhat surprised to see this scene.

"They're really retreating? Are they leaving just like that?"

"It felt like the Japanese were crippled yesterday."

"Don't just feel it, they were indeed crippled, but our side is about the same."

"If they don't retreat now, if Japanese reinforcements arrive, they'll still be wiped out."

"That's right, retreating into the city is a good choice. I've seen other streamers retreat into the city, and the fighting there is quite intense too."

"It's different, I think. Other streamers retreated into the city after being wiped out on the third day. The Chinese Soldiers fought until the fifth day before retreating; the situations are not the same."

"I'm not sure, let's just watch. But going into the city is better than waiting to die on the mountain. At least there are supplies and such in the city."

The audience in the livestream room discussed the evacuation very intensely.

After all, this was an active evacuation, different from the passive evacuations of many other streamers.

Some viewers thought they could continue to hold out.

But more viewers believed that the outcome of continuing to hold out would not be very good.

They discussed it intensely, while the Chinese Soldiers on Zijin Mountain evacuated very quickly.

Their evacuation route was in the northern foothills of Zijin Mountain.

The 5th Regiment was there to meet them.

During these two days of rest, they hadn't just been doing nothing.

They had already figured out the surroundings.

And after learning of the evacuation plan, they had also formulated a safe evacuation route.

This would ensure that the Japanese would not discover their evacuation trail.

Of course, this was theoretically speaking.

Actual execution still depended on the specific situation.

Except for the rear guard left on the mountain, all other units retreated from the mountain.

Then, while the night was still dark, they began to march towards the Nanjing city area.

The sky was slightly bright.

The Japanese did not launch an attack immediately.

During yesterday's attack, their casualties were not small either.

Of course, they could be sure that the defenders on the mountain had suffered even more losses.

To replenish his troops, Noda Ken directly incorporated part of the Artilleryman into the infantry.

In any case, the Artilleryman's heavy artillery was gone, and it would take more than ten days to bring in new heavy artillery and shells.

He might as well bring the Artilleryman over to attack together; the infantry would hold the front, while the Artilleryman would fire from the back.

At ten o'clock in the morning, they launched another attack.

First came a round of aerial bombardment, followed by an infantry assault.

Their advance was very smooth, encountering almost no resistance.

They fought all the way to the Purple Mountain Observatory.

Upon entering the Purple Mountain Observatory and seeing that it was empty, the Japanese immediately realized something.

The Chinese Defenders on the mountain had all evacuated.

"Baka!"

Realizing this, the Japanese Officer cursed angrily.

Although they should have been happy to occupy the Purple Mountain Observatory, these Japanese could not bring themselves to be happy.

Several thousand Chinese Defenders had evacuated right under their noses.

They had even ambushed them two days ago.

As a result, before they could retaliate, the defenders on the mountain had already evacuated and disappeared without a trace.

Just as these Japanese were still angry.

A loud explosion suddenly rang in their ears.

Immediately after, the Japanese were instantly turned to ashes.

The endless explosions tore these Japanese apart.

In a tunnel not far from the Japanese, seeing the destroyed observatory, a small squad quietly retreated from there.

This explosion was caused by them.

Under the observatory, there was an ammunition depot that stored quite a bit of explosives.

They had originally intended to take it with them, but the commander decided to leave a big gift for these Japanese.

This way, they could reduce their burden and also cause significant casualties to the Japanese.

These Chinese Soldiers watched with their own eyes as over a hundred Japanese entered the observatory. After confirming that no more Japanese were entering, they pressed the detonation button.

The Japanese around the observatory, hearing the explosion, immediately reacted and rushed towards the observatory.

When he saw the Purple Mountain Observatory billowing with thick smoke, Noda Ken's originally calm face immediately became ferocious.

He hadn't expected that the Chinese Defenders would not only evacuate right under his nose.

They had actually left him such a big surprise.

"Colonel, we just discovered traces of the detonation wire. This explosion was deliberately planned by the Chinese."

"The explosion caused all of our two hundred-plus Imperial soldiers to perish."

Beside Noda Ken, a Japanese adjutant reported the cause and losses of the explosion with his head bowed.

Noda Ken clenched his fists tightly. Today's losses would become another major stain on his career.

Two days ago, when the Command Post was ambushed and the Regimental Commander learned of it, he had been scolded severely.

If he could not occupy Zijin Mountain, he would have to commit seppuku.

Now that he had occupied Zijin Mountain, his mood was still terrible.

Regarding the evacuation of the Chinese Defenders, there was nothing he could do.

On the other side, after evacuating Zijin Mountain, the remaining forces of the Training Corps quickly retreated towards Nanjing.

Including the wounded, the entire Training Corps still had over six thousand troops.

But just a few days ago, the entire Training Corps had 11,000 troops.

In just a few days, only half remained.

On average, at least over a thousand people sacrificed themselves every day.

After studying the conditions of the Nanjing city area, the Training Corps temporarily set up camp a few miles outside of Nanjing.

They then dispatched seven or eight squads to head into Nanjing to investigate the situation inside the city.

This was a necessary action. Currently, they did not know the situation inside Nanjing. If they rushed in blindly, and there happened to be many Japanese in the city, it would easily cause unnecessary casualties.

Their current troop strength was limited, and their ammunition and supplies were also very scarce.

They could not sustain a large-scale battle.

The dispatched squads quickly sneaked into Nanjing.

They entered through the collapsed holes in the city wall.

These collapsed holes in the city wall were everywhere, and no one was guarding them at all.

Looking at the charred bricks and the bloodstains all over the ground at the holes in the city wall, the squad of Chinese Soldiers could imagine that there must have been very intense fighting here before.

The ground here was very clean, with no corpses; they must have been cleared away.

Only various traces of battle remained on the ground.

But seeing this scene, these Chinese Soldiers felt something was not right.