Mark Gagnon

Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Chinese nationalist forces, knew that he couldn't win head on.

So he chose to trade land for time, basically, and just pull back inland and try to stretch Japan as thin as possible and just drag the war on as long as he could, basically grinding to, you know, just a halt that Japan couldn't sustain.

But that choice came with a brutal cost.

Entire cities and millions of civilians were just left behind.

So Shanghai fell in November after three brutal months of fighting, and the battle had turned the city into a graveyard.

I mean, Chinese troops held out for a lot longer than anyone expected, but this courage and this bravery wasn't enough to stand up to Japan's artillery and specifically their air power.

When the lines finally collapsed and survivors went west towards Nanjing, just exhausted and carrying nothing but their weapons and basically just the memories of what they had been through.

Refugees followed behind them in waves.

Some walked, others would...

try to get onto trains, others clung to trucks, and families were completely split apart, holding whatever they could manage to grab before fleeing.

They brought stories of these burning cities and just bodies in the streets, and places just completely wiped off the map.

And some made it to Nanjing, but most never even got that far.

The Chinese government knew what was coming.

Chiang ordered Nanjing to be defended, but he had already begun moving the capital west to Chongqing, taking key officials and basically all the government that he could take with him.

What he left behind was just confusion.

Generals with no clear direction and soldiers without any clear coordination and civilians with basically no protection.

Then General Tang Shengzi was put in charge with around 100,000 troops.

Most of them were exhausted and hungry and just poorly armed after this slaughter in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, the Japanese army advanced with speed and fury and just closed in on the city as fast as they could.

And by early December,