With hundreds of thousands of troops under attack from both flanks, on November 8th, they received orders for a full retreat. Under relentless pursuit and bombing by Japanese forces, they retreated in defeat toward Nanjing.

On the 12th, Shanghai fell.

This war lasted three months, with the Sichuan Army, Guangxi Army, Guangdong Army, Hunan Army, Northwest Army, and Northeast Army all gathering in Shanghai to fight bloody battles. One hundred and ninety thousand soldiers died heroically for their country, with hundreds of thousands more sacrificing their lives during the retreat, shattering the Japanese military’s arrogant boast of destroying China in three months.

The troops were severely damaged, and morale plummeted.

On the way to Nanjing, heavy rain never stopped, but no matter how heavy the rain, it couldn’t wash away the indignation in the soldiers’ hearts.

Some ground their teeth in rage, some sat in silent contemplation, some broke down crying…

Men don’t shed tears lightly, but at this moment, countless tears soaked the earth. All the soldiers saluted in the direction of Shanghai. These tears were for the two hundred and ninety thousand comrades who died for their country, for the civilians who died under gunfire and artillery, for the wavering authorities who placed their hopes in international intervention, for this land they had defended for three months…

At this moment, factories large and small, schools, government offices, and other institutions in Nanjing had already begun relocation work. Foreign diplomatic envoys left one after another, and the Nationalist government also moved the capital to Chongqing.

Japanese forces burned, killed, looted, and pillaged all the way, arriving at the city gates.

Aircraft continuously bombed the city, civilians became displaced, corpses lay scattered across the streets, and hospitals overflowed with patients.

Gunfire and artillery never ceased outside the city as Japanese forces broke through Nanjing’s outer defense lines.

People panicked, all saying Nanjing couldn’t be held.

Civilians rushed to hide in safety zones. Early in the morning, Meng Yuan and A’Ru squeezed outside a safety zone, standing in a very long queue. Soon it was full and stopped accepting people, so they had to go to another safety zone.

A family was squeezed in front of them. A’Ru immediately recognized their hometown dialect and grabbed them to ask, “Are you from Jiangyin?”

“Yes.” The woman held her child, looking A’Ru up and down. “Are you also from Jiangyin?”

“I’ve been in Nanjing all along.” A’Ru saw their family carrying luggage of all sizes. “Did you just arrive in Nanjing?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you come here? Nanjing is at war! The devils have reached the outskirts of the city.”

“There’s fighting everywhere! Suzhou, Changshu, Zhenjiang, Wuxi, Jiangyin, Yangzhou, Changzhou, and all of Zhejiang province – the devils have occupied everything around us. My husband insisted that the headquarters is in Nanjing, that running to the capital would definitely be safe. Now the government has moved away too, and we can’t get out of Nanjing either.” The woman sighed. “They’ll massacre the city. I heard that in Suzhou, the streets are full of corpses – soldiers and civilians alike.”

A nearby refugee heard this and asked, “They kill civilians too?”

“More than just kill – they chop off heads, don’t even spare little children, and they rape women, some as young as ten years old.”

“These beasts!”

Meng Yuan gripped A’Ru tightly. “How can they do such things! So frightening. I think we should go check the docks.”

The woman continued, “Going there is useless. You can’t get out, can’t buy tickets either. The train station and docks are so packed with people you can’t even squeeze through a crack. We just struggled our way out of there.”

A man said, “Let’s just stay here. Where else can we go? They say this safety zone is American territory – the little devils don’t dare come in.”

Suddenly, the air raid siren sounded again. With no shelter nearby, everyone scattered in fear, covering their heads and pressing against walls.

Unexpectedly, what fell wasn’t bombs, but papers filling the sky.

“What is this?”

“There seems to be writing on them.”

Papers fell to the ground, and people picked them up one after another. They were printed with Chinese characters.

A’Ru couldn’t read and hugged Meng Yuan’s arm. “What does this say?”

A group of people surrounded Meng Yuan, waiting with grave expressions for her to read aloud.

“One million imperial troops have swept across Jiangnan, and Nanjing City is under siege. Looking at the overall strategic situation, future fighting will bring only harm and no benefit. Nanjing is China’s ancient capital, the Republic’s capital, where historic sites like the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum are concentrated – truly a place where East Asian culture converges. What nonsense is this.” She roughly scanned it and summarized, “This Commander-in-Chief Matsui Iwane says he won’t make things difficult for civilians and soldiers who surrender, and will guarantee our safety. He’s urging the army to lay down their weapons and peacefully hand over Nanjing City.”

“Wonderful!”

Someone nearby said, “Wonderful what! It’s definitely a lie! The devils killed their way to Nanjing! Completely inhuman. If our soldiers really surrender on their knees, they’ll probably immediately break their word!”

“Right! We can’t surrender!”

“The little devils go too far.” The speaker threw down his luggage and headed south.

His wife grabbed him. “Where are you going!”

“To fight the devils!”

“What devils are you going to fight! You don’t even know how to hold a gun!”

“I’ll block these sons of bitches even if it’s just with a shovel!” The man shed tears, his face full of hatred. He hugged the woman and kissed her. “Hua’er, go remarry!” With these words, he pushed her away and ran off in big strides.

“Jun Ge!”

…

The Thirty-Sixth Division had fought Japanese forces in Shanghai for three months, suffering heavy casualties. When they retreated to Nanjing, only three thousand remained. Without being sent to the front lines, they were assigned to guard Hongshan, Mufu Mountain, and from Yijiang Gate to Xiaguan Ferry. A few days ago, an infantry regiment was dispatched to seize Qilin Gate to cover the Sixty-Sixth Army’s flanks and repel the devils from the perimeter. He Feng was hit by a bomb blast at the front lines. His head scraped past steel reinforcement bars and he nearly lost his life, but thanks to timely rescue, he survived.

His head was wrapped in thick bandages, the back already soaked with blood. His right arm had been shot several days ago and hadn’t healed yet.

Li Changsheng found half a cigarette somewhere, lit it, and put it in his mouth.

He Feng wasn’t in the mood to smoke and pushed his hand away.

Li Changsheng, who had been blinded in one eye, started smoking it himself. “What’s wrong? So worried you can’t even smoke?”

“You don’t understand Nanjing’s terrain. Its geographical position makes it easy to attack but difficult to defend.” He Feng used his knife to draw on the ground. “The Yangtze River is to the north, and the devils are surrounding us from these three sides, trapping us tightly.”

“What can we do?”

“What can we do? Hold on. Concentrate our forces for urban warfare, use the city fortifications – we can still hold out for a while.” He Feng looked at the new recruits guarding the alley entrance in the distance, where a veteran was teaching them how to use guns.

After three months of war in Shanghai, the army had been reinforced four times and was no longer the elite force it had been initially. Look at these new recruits – thin as monkeys, probably can’t even lift their guns.

A rumbling sound came from the distance. A young boy thought Japanese soldiers were coming and knelt on the ground holding his head, even wetting his pants.

Who knows where they grabbed this one to fill the ranks – patched together from here and there, poorly equipped. Of the eighty thousand defending troops, thirty thousand were new recruits.

How could such a force fight?

He Feng limped over and grabbed the boy by the collar. “How old are you?”

The boy cried, “Thirteen.”

“Stop crying for your mother, wipe those tears.”

The boy cried even harder. “My mother was blown up by bombs. Couldn’t even find her head.”

“Enough, crying won’t help. Get up and avenge your mother.” He Feng let go, and the boy fell to the ground. “Cry again and I’ll stuff a grenade in your mouth.”

A veteran nearby laughed. “Don’t scare the kid.”

He Feng kicked him. “Pick up your gun.”

The boy picked up his rifle.

He Feng couldn’t lift his right hand, so he used his left to steady the gun for him. “Hold it steady. When I was your age, one shot could take down a bear. If men don’t stand up, what happens to all the women in the city?”

The boy fired a shot as he instructed. He Feng patted his shoulder. “Practice well. If the front can’t hold, we’re still here.”

…

General Tang vowed to defend Nanjing to the death, ordering all boats by the river to withdraw. Fighting with their backs to the water, morale surged.

Seeing our army wouldn’t surrender, Japanese forces launched a full-scale attack.

Enemy artillery, tanks, and aircraft bombed repeatedly. Yuhuatai was engulfed in flames reaching the sky, with black smoke billowing. The soldiers held their positions, fighting the devils to the death in hand-to-hand combat. The defenders were almost completely wiped out, and Yuhuatai fell.

Immediately after, Zhonghua Gate fell, and Purple Mountain fell.

Xiaguan Dock was packed with residents trying to cross the river. Remnant troops from the city also retreated there one after another, but there wasn’t a single boat on the river.

Just earlier they had given orders to live and die with Nanjing, but now they ordered a full retreat. Due to problems with command transmission, large numbers of troops were stranded in the city. The forces fell into chaos, with soldiers and civilians crowding together at Xiaguan Dock.

“Damn retreat again! Didn’t we agree to live and die together! Shanghai was the same way – defend one moment, retreat the next. Are they playing us for monkeys? All the civilians are crowded here, and soldiers have the face to retreat!” He Feng turned and walked away. “If you want to retreat, you retreat. I’m not leaving.”

“Get back here, this is a military order.”

“Screw your military order.” He Feng kicked over a sandbag, grabbed someone’s gun and grenades, and headed in another direction. “If you want to enter the city, step over my corpse.”

…

Jiang Shouyue and Xiao Wangyun arrived in Nanjing at noon.

Jiang Shouyue’s father, Jiang Lian, had returned to Nanjing a few days earlier to retrieve ancestral tablets and relocate the family graves, but was unexpectedly killed by stray artillery fire. Xiao Wangyun had no choice but to risk the danger and accompany her back to handle Old Jiang’s funeral arrangements.

The Jiang family servants had returned to the countryside in mid-month. The vast mansion had no one caring for it, with a layer of dust covering the tables. Jiang Shouyue wrapped up the ancestral tablets and neatly placed them in a box along with Jiang Lian’s ashes, then prepared to hastily leave Nanjing. Who knew there were so many refugees that they forcibly took their car.

Xiao Wangyun used connections and finally managed to buy two boat tickets at a high price for departure the next morning. They still had to spend one night there.

All the shops on the street had closed. Refugees wandered everywhere, and corpses lay scattered across the roads.

With nowhere to eat, Xiao Wangyun took Jiang Shouyue to find Xie Chi, but saw that her qipao shop had been bombed so badly that even the roof was gone. Going to check her residence, they found the villa intact but occupied by refugees. Perhaps she had already left Nanjing.

Xiao Wangyun bought two flatbreads from civilians, filled their stomachs casually, then returned to the Jiang mansion.

The next morning at dawn, they rushed to Xiaguan Dock. It was overflowing with people – those with tickets, those without, drivers, cart-pullers, all squeezed together impossibly.

Xiao Wangyun gripped Jiang Shouyue tightly, afraid of being separated by the crowd. Seeing Jiang Shouyue clutching the urn tightly, he said, “Let me carry it.”

Jiang Shouyue shook her head. “No need, I’m not tired.”

A family nearby was saying goodbye, crying in each other’s arms. The elderly person in the family had swollen eyes from crying and apparently had to stay behind due to lack of boat tickets. Jiang Shouyue watched them with deep emotion.

The young woman instructed, “Hide well in the safety zone and wait for us to come back.”

“Go on, go on. The fortune teller said I’d live a long life, that bombs will avoid me. Nothing will happen. The Japanese commander said they won’t kill civilians. Don’t worry about anything.”

Just as the young woman was about to leave with her child, the grandson hugged the old man’s legs and wailed, “Grandpa, come with us! I can’t bear to leave you.”

The old man crouched down to wipe his tears. “Grandpa will watch the house here. You go play with Mama for a while, and when you come back, Grandpa will have good food waiting for you.”

“I don’t want good food, I want Grandpa.”

Jiang Shouyue found it painful to watch. She broke free from Xiao Wangyun’s hand and directly pressed her ticket into the old man’s hand. “Elder, you board the boat.”

By the time Xiao Wangyun realized what happened, the ticket was already in the old man’s hand. The family cried and bowed in gratitude. Jiang Shouyue helped them up and turned to leave.

Xiao Wangyun grabbed her. “Shouyue, what are you doing?”

“I’m not leaving. You go.”

Xiao Wangyun looked at her in silence for a long time, then picked up the suitcase and put his arm around her as they left. “I’ll stay with you. I’ll try to find more tickets.”

“Wangyun.” Jiang Shouyue looked up at him. “I’m not leaving. Nanjing is my hometown. I grew up here.”

“But it’s very dangerous here. Don’t you know about those bestial things the devils do?”

“I can go to the safety zone.”

“No, we must leave. Let’s go back first. We’ll discuss the tickets later – there should still be time.”

“Wangyun.” Jiang Shouyue frowned. “I’m sorry for dragging you down and getting you trapped here too.”

Xiao Wangyun touched her head. “What are we saying sorry for? Wherever you are, I’ll be there too.”

Jiang Shouyue smiled. “Then let’s go home.”

…

Now tickets were worth their weight in gold and hard to obtain. Seeing the army retreating and the city about to fall, Xiao Wangyun took Jiang Shouyue to the safety zone. She looked at the masses of people inside and out, and her privileged temperament emerged again – disgusted by the dirt and chaos, complaining about having nowhere to sleep, stubbornly refusing to stay.

Xiao Wangyun had no way to deal with her, so they had to return to the Jiang mansion.

In the afternoon, a group of people came knocking, saying the safety zones were no longer accepting people and they had nowhere to go. Jiang Shouyue was kindhearted and took in all twenty or thirty of them. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much in the house, only some leftover food from the servants. With many people and little grain, they could only cook thin porridge. Jiang Shouyue didn’t know how to cook, so she asked an old woman to help. After cooking, they distributed it one by one, and everyone was grateful to her.

Xiao Wangyun still wanted to leave Nanjing. He barely warmed his seat before going out again to find a way. He didn’t return until evening. Jiang Shouyue was worried and went out to look for him, seeing many discarded guns and military uniforms on the street. Since the many refugees at home lacked clothing, she picked some up and hid them away.

Everyone had gone to sleep when Xiao Wangyun returned with a small amount of food. Jiang Shouyue brought him a bowl of porridge. Xiao Wangyun took it with some surprise. “You made this?”

“No, an auntie made it. It’s cold – should I heat it up?”

“No need.” Xiao Wangyun was starving and finished it in a few gulps.

Food was a big problem. The little grain in the house might not even last a day. Before dawn, Xiao Wangyun told Jiang Shouyue to be careful and not go out, then left again to find food.

Just two streets away, Japanese aircraft dropped bombs everywhere, blasting the already ruined city into clouds of dust and flying debris. Countless refugees fell in pools of blood among the rubble.

He encountered an old man pinned under rocks and went forward to help, but another shell landed nearby. He couldn’t save the old man and was also knocked unconscious by the blast.

When he woke up, it was already evening. He lay on a hospital bed in the main hall.

Wails echoed all around, with beds spaced just enough for one person to walk between them, so crowded you could smell the blood from the person on the next bed.

A nurse was changing bandages for the man on the bed next to him. Seeing him open his eyes, she said, “You’re awake. Don’t move around.”

“What time is it now?”

“Almost nine o’clock.”

Xiao Wangyun sat up, feeling his head throb with pain and dizziness.

“Lie down quickly, don’t move around.”

Xiao Wangyun didn’t plan to keep lying there. He had to go back to find Jiang Shouyue. Having been away for a whole day, she must be extremely worried.

Just as he was about to throw off the blanket, he heard gunshots in the distance. “What’s the situation outside?”

The nurse glanced back at him hurriedly, her eyes vacant. “Nanjing City has fallen.”

…

Countless sky lanterns slowly rose into the Tokyo sky.

To celebrate the Japanese army’s occupation of China’s capital Nanjing, the Japanese people held celebration parades with performances, singing, and dancing…

Streets resounded with gongs and drums as people cheered loudly, celebrating through the night.

At this moment, Nanjing was shrouded in a blood-soaked gloom.

Countless piercing wails echoed in every corner of the city.

It was like, it was,

A living hell.

…