A mass exodus begins right as the fighting starts in shanghai that will be the largest in the city's history, and at times will reach stampede like levels of panic. And you have to imagine, and all the books try to convey this, it's already a crowded city, and you have all these war refugees that have also poured into it. So it is jam packed with the sea of humanity. It was a mad and merciless stampede where the weak had little chance. For the chinese, life was falling apart as the fighting intensified around the japanese district. Thousands of refugees fled through the streets, heading for susao creek and the garden bridge, which was the