Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

Psychological defenses collapse faster than physical defenses.

Those soldiers who were ready to die were suddenly given the hope of life and were at a loss.

An inexplicable panic spread across the battlefield like a plague.

"Pack your things! Quickly!" someone shouted.

The soldiers suddenly became confused. Some of them were frantically stuffing things into their bags, while others just stood there looking around blankly.

Several soldiers scuffled over a pair of relatively intact boots. This was the first internal conflict on the battlefield in three days.

"Keep order! The first row retreats first, and the second row provides cover!" An officer tried to maintain discipline, but his voice was drowned out by the sudden chaos.

At the same time, the same scene was playing out in every corner of the Songhu front.

At Zhabei Railway Station, a battalion of the 88th Division was in complete chaos.

Soldiers scrambled for the limited escape routes, and many dropped their weapons just to run faster.

A lieutenant standing on the platform fired a warning shot, but no one paid any attention.

"Don't push! Keep in formation!" the officer shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice was drowned out by the wave of panic.

A group of soldiers jumped off the platform and ran west along the tracks, even trampling over the wounded lying on the ground.

"My leg! Help me!" A young soldier dragged his injured right leg and tried to grab the corner of his companion's clothes, but was ruthlessly thrown away.

On the Yangshupu front, the situation was even more tragic.

The Japanese army seemed to have sensed the Chinese army's hesitation and intensified the bombardment. A shell landed in the crowd, and blood and flesh flew everywhere.

"Oh my God!" A soldier who was only seventeen or eighteen years old looked at the blood splattered on his face, suddenly had a mental breakdown, dropped his gun and ran wildly to the rear, triggering a larger-scale rout.

Yet, amidst this scene of total collapse, there are still glimmers of heroism.

In Hongkou District, Yang Ruifu, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 524th Regiment, refused to retreat immediately.

He stood on a worn soap box and spoke louder than the gunfire: "Brothers! We can't all run away like rabbits! Someone must cover our retreat! Those who are willing to stay, step forward!"

Surprisingly, about a hundred soldiers stood up.

They quickly organized a defensive line to buy time for the others to retreat. The soldiers had calm faces, as if they had accepted their fate.

They silently gathered the grenades, distributed the last of the ammunition, and searched for the best shooting position among the ruins.

At the same time, on the banks of the Suzhou River, engineering troops were building a temporary pontoon bridge.

Japanese planes kept diving and strafing, and engineers fell one after another, but there were always new soldiers rushing up to take their place.

A major stood in waist-deep river water and personally directed the bridge construction until he was hit by a bullet and his blood dyed the river red.

"Hurry up! Cross the bridge!" the soldiers shouted and squeezed onto the wobbly pontoon bridge.

From time to time, people were shot and fell into the water, but the team still moved westward tenaciously.

The veteran squad leader looked at the chaotic scene in front of him and was vaguely reminded of the dam in his hometown. Once there was a small gap, the entire dam would collapse rapidly and irreversibly.

"Sergeant, let's go!" Xiao Li pulled his arm.

Chen Tiezhu glanced at the fortifications on the battlefield that they had sworn to defend with their lives, glanced at the Japanese flags gradually approaching in the distance, turned around and joined the retreating crowd.

At this moment, they are no longer heroes who are determined to defend their country until death, but just a group of ordinary people who want to survive.

The order came too late, late enough to destroy the last line of defense built with the determination to die.

Yet even in the midst of a complete rout, some troops maintained discipline.

Near Jiading in the southwest direction, the 101st Brigade of the 67th Division, under the command of the brigade commander, fought and retreated, taking turns to provide cover, and preserved its manpower to the maximum extent.

"Hold steady! Don't panic!" the officer galloped back and forth beside the troops. "If we retreat in an orderly manner, we'll be able to fight back more powerfully in the future!"

Although the troops were also retreating, they maintained their basic structure and fighting spirit.

They took away all the weapons they could, supported each other's wounded, and even members of the military band insisted on carrying their instruments.

Two completely different scenes were unfolding simultaneously on the Battle of Shanghai. On one side was a catastrophic retreat, with soldiers throwing away their armor and weapons, hoping only to survive.

On the one hand, there was an organized retreat, the troops maintained discipline and prepared to fight again another day.

But the Japanese army obviously did not want to let the Chinese defenders escape easily, and they organized a frantic pursuit. The fighter planes in the sky also circled and strafed the sky like a thorn in their flesh. . .

. . . . . . . . . . .

At dusk on the 8th, the 67th Army in Songjiang organized its last large-scale counterattack. This was a desperate attack they launched to cover the retreat of the main force.

Wu Keren, Guo Rudong and Wang Gongyu decided that the 67th Army would cover the rear, while the remaining troops in the city would break out from the north gate.

At this time, the Japanese army had surrounded the east gate, west gate and south gate of Songjiang City.

"Commander Wu, you guys retreat first. My troops are few in number, and we will cover your retreat!" Guo Rudong suggested.

Wu Keren shook his head: "No, our 67th Army is better equipped and more suitable for blocking missions.

Commander Guo, Commander Wang, you lead your troops to retreat first, this is an order!"

After completing the three-day holding mission, Wu Keren ordered all units to prepare for retreat.

At this time, the defenders had suffered heavy casualties, with five brigade commanders, division commanders, and chiefs of staff killed. The Japanese army surrounded Songjiang on three sides, and only the north gate was passable.

Wu Keren held out until midnight before ordering a full retreat.

Late at night on the 8th, Songjiang fell.

The retreat was chaotic and tragic. There were too many wounded and not enough stretchers, and many seriously injured soldiers volunteered to stay behind to cover their retreat.

"Commander, you guys go ahead and leave me a grenade," a battalion commander whose legs were blown off said with a smile, "I can still exchange them for a few more Japanese soldiers."

Wu Keren held his hand tightly: "Brother, I'm sorry..."

"Don't say that, Commander. For us soldiers, dying on the battlefield against the Japanese is worth it!"

The surviving defenders supported each other and left the position where they had fought a bloody battle for three days with heavy steps.

Everyone's face was covered in a mixture of gunpowder, blood, and tears.

Suddenly, deafening artillery fire came from the sky without warning. It was different from the dull roar of the Japanese infantry artillery and the familiar roar of the Kuomintang mountain artillery.

This was a more dense and sharp sound of breaking through the air, as if the sky was being torn apart.

"Bombard! Take cover!" The veterans instinctively shouted and lay down, even though they were already exhausted.

However, the next moment, everyone who was still able to look up was stunned.

Hundreds of shells did not fall on the precarious Songjiang City, but as if they had eyes, they accurately hit the Japanese offensive sequence that was organizing the final general offensive!

boom! boom! boom! boom!

The earth was shaking violently, as if there was an earthquake.

Continuous explosions sent huge fireballs and smoke columns rising from the Japanese army ranks, and broken limbs, weapon parts and fragments of the Japanese army's plaster flags were thrown violently into the air.

The rhythm of the attack was instantly interrupted, and the Japanese soldiers fell into chaos under the sudden attack. The shrill screams even briefly drowned out the sound of the explosion.

"Where did the gunfire come from?!"

"Is this our reinforcement?!"

"No! That's not the right sound! It's not from us!"