Editing Battle of Nanking (section)

=== Japanese requests for a Chinese surrender ===
At this point General Matsui had a "summons to surrender" drawn up which requested the Chinese to send military envoys to Nanjing's Zhongshan Gate to discuss terms for the peaceful occupation of the city, and he then had a [[Mitsubishi Ki-21]] scatter thousands of copies of the message over the city.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Noboru Kojima |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |location=Tokyo |pages=172–173 |language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3)}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref><ref name="hayase22">{{Cite book |last=Toshiyuki Hayase |publisher=Kojinsha |year=1999 |location=Tokyo |pages=125–130 |language=ja |script-title=ja:将軍の真実 : 松井石根人物伝}}; For this information Hayase cites the diary of Iwane Matsui and the memoirs of the Japanese interpreter Hisashi Okada.</ref> On December 10 a group of Matsui's senior staff officers waited to see if the gate would be opened, but Tang Shengzhi had no intention of responding.<ref name="hayase22" />

Later that day Tang proclaimed to his men that, "Our army has entered into the final battle to defend Nanjing on the Fukuo Line. Each unit shall firmly defend its post with the resolve to either live or die with it. You're not allowed to retreat on your own, causing defense to collapse."<ref name="fuk22" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=朱月琴 |script-title=zh:南京保衛戰 |trans-title=Defensive War of Nanjing |url=http://www.njrd.gov.cn/jlzg/201502/t20150202_3183654.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721163202/http://www.njrd.gov.cn/jlzg/201502/t20150202_3183654.html |archive-date=July 21, 2015 |access-date=July 16, 2015 |publisher=[[Standing Committee of the National People's Congress]], Nanjing |language=zh |quote={{lang|zh-hant|下達「衛參作字第36號命令」作為回應，聲稱「本軍目下佔領復廓陣地為固守南京之最後戰鬥，各部隊應以與陣地共存亡之決心盡力固守，決不許輕棄寸土、動搖全軍。若不遵命令擅自後移，定遵委座命令，按連坐法從嚴辦理}}」}}</ref> To enforce his orders, Tang deployed the elite 36th division near the Xiaguan docks to ward off any retreat attempts across the Yangtze River, and sent many of the larger vessels away to [[Hankou]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937, Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=187}}</ref> The American journalist [[F. Tillman Durdin]], who was reporting on site during the battle, saw one small group of Chinese soldiers set up a barricade, assemble in a solemn semicircle, and promise each other that they would die together where they stood.<ref name="durdin222" />
[[File:Battle_of_China_Nanking.webm|right|thumb|The battle of Nanjing from [[Frank Capra]]'s ''[[The Battle of China]]'']]