dilemma posed by the situation. He ordered Tang to continue the hopeless fight long enough to save face, and then he would have the prerogative to decide to withdraw. Tang was now in the very difficult position of trying to conduct a defense that he knew was futile would be abandoned in the near future. The tension was palpably obvious at a press conference Tang held to boost morale prior to the siege of Nanking. It was noted by reporters that Tang was extremely agitated and that he sweated so profusely that someone handed him a hot towel to dry his brow. While the Japanese army was dropping leaflets ordering the city to capitulate, Tang had publicly expressed his outrage. Privately, however, he negotiated for a truce. Despite his original promise to fight to the last man, he seemed eager to do anything to avoid a showdown in the city to save the capital and its inhabitants. At the same time, he also had to carry on the hopeless symbolic fight to defend the capital for the Chinese government to face the Chinese public. The decision to order a general retreat Once the news reached Tang's headquarters that several units had abandoned their positions and fled against orders, it became obvious that a general retreat was inevitable. The problem was that whoever gave the order to retreat would be blamed for losing the capital and face a very angry Chinese public, Tang was very reluctant to take the responsibility and the consequent blame alone and so he called a meeting that included every divisional commander and those of higher rank and showed them Chiang Kai-shek's permission to retreat when needed, a decision to be made by Tang's headquarters. As Tang asked everyone's opinion and got the answer that he wanted, which was unanimously agreeing to retreat, he had everyone sign their names on Chiang's order before he gave out the general retreat order. On December 12, after two days of defending against an enemy with overwhelming numerical superiority, which was shelling the city with heavy artillery fire and aerial bombardment, and with many of his troops in open flight, Tang ordered a general retreat. That evening, he himself escaped from the city through the Yijiang Gate on the northern side of the city walls, the only gate still available as an escape route at the time, without officially announcing to