Just when Sun Yumin kept fighting his troops and horses and deployed the defense line of the Shandong-Henan border, the largest confrontation between the enemy and us broke out in southwest Shandong since the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War.

On February 22, Cao Fulin's 55th Army's Gunzhou outlying position was broken through by the Japanese 10th Division, and the city of Gunzhou was also declared lost after a day and a night of bloody battles.

The situation of the 241st Brigade of the 81st Division led by Zhanshutang was slightly better, since the 19th began to open tentative fire, after holding for three days, after learning that Gunzhou was lost and Jining was besieged, he had no choice but to take the initiative to abandon the city and retreat to Jiaxiang, perhaps because the battle of Wenshang was not bad, Li Zongren valued it deeply, and handed over the second line of defense after Jining to the 241 Brigade that had become a remnant, Zhanshutang could not shirk it, and scolded the staff officers of the Fifth Theater Command for eating, but the scolding was scolded, and the city had to be defended, He transferred the rest of the 81st Division to Jiaxiang, and was ready to rely on the 20th Division and a large number of Nationalist troops stationed on the front line of Zhengzhou Kaifeng to have a hard fight with the 10th Division.

When Sun Yumin learned that Zhanshutang had made a desperate bet and transferred the 485th and 486th regiments of the 243rd Brigade of the 81st Division and even the division headquarters to Jiaxiang, he felt deeply respected and ashamed, and he was embarrassed to embarrass others in Jining City, so he specially sent some supplies to show favor to others.

Zhanshutang is not a fool, you must know that nearly 20,000 people in the 20th Division are behind his ass, no matter in any way, it is not the time to offend Sun Yumin, in order not to cut off his back road to others, he sent an adjutant to personally send 20,000 oceans to show friendship.

On February 23, under the attack of the Japanese heavy artillery and aircraft and tanks, Jining City only held out for less than a day, and then declared the city broken, Cao Fulin's 55th Army after a short four days of bloody battles, the troops were sharply reduced by 70%, and when the troops of 25,000 people were withdrawn, there were less than 8,000 people, and they no longer had much combat effectiveness, and Sun Tongxuan, the commander of the Fifth Theater Command and the 12th Army, had to order them to retreat to Henan to rest and recuperate.

When Sun Yumin heard that Cao Fulin and his troops were passing by from the 117th Regiment Defense Area of Deng Dongping in Juye and retreating in the direction of Henan, he deliberately rushed to the headquarters of the 117th Regiment and saw Cao Fulin who was covered in dust, as well as Gu Liangmin, another division commander of the 55th Army.

In the small temporary regiment headquarters, there were three major generals, and the brilliant and dazzling stars reflected the splendor of the room for a while.

Although Cao Fulin suffered a great defeat of the lost soldiers, he was not discouraged, he held a cup of hot tea, and said with deep feelings: "Brother Yumin, I now deeply understand that it is not easy for you to attack Jining and Gunzhou at the beginning, and the brother who is still dead and shameful has robbed you of your credit, it really shouldn't be." ”

Sun Yumin had no hostility towards the soldier in front of him who had already done his best, on the contrary, his efforts won the respect of the officers and men of the 20th Division, including Sun Yumin.

"Commander Cao led tens of thousands of soldiers in his hands to fight on the battlefield and kill the enemy to serve the country, how can it be said that he robbed others of their credit! These military exploits belong to the officers and men of the 55th Army, and they belong to the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the country. Sun Yumin said, his voice was full of respect, which moved Cao Fulin and Gu Liangmin.

From these two people, Sun Yumin also roughly understood the basic situation of the invading Japanese army. Serving as the vanguard of the 10th Division was a newly formed brigade: the Nagase Brigade, and the brigade commander was Sun Yumin's "old friend" Seya Kei. The 33rd Brigade was almost completely wiped out in Jining, but most of it suddenly turned on the way to attack Linyi, because they had already advanced too much, and after the defeat of Seya Kai's army, Fukuei Zhenhei Daizo brought his troops back to the vicinity of Tai'an, echoing the 10th Division behind him. It was also this move that allowed Seya Kei to avoid being chased and punished by the upper echelons, and Lieutenant General Ryosuke Isoya re-supplemented him with a wing of infantry and some other auxiliary troops, and ordered him to defeat the national army on the front line of Jining, in order to prevent the recurrence of the last accident, most of the 10th Division and this Nagase Brigade always maintained a distance of 100 kilometers.

With the assistance of the Japanese North China Flying Team and the leadership of the armored vehicle squadron, the Japanese puppet army broke through almost all the defense lines and cities in southwest Lu. This is also the reason why Cao Fulin's department and the Zhanshutang department will suffer heavy losses, their weapons and equipment are not at the same level as the Japanese puppet army, even if they are filled with more than 10,000 soldiers, but they still lose three of the five cities that Sun Yumin's 20th division worked so hard to fight.

Since Cao Fulin's ministry gave up Jining, Zhanshutang would call Sun Yumin almost every hour or two, saying all the good things, and let him read the same 12th Army sequence and help him at a critical moment. Hearing this, Sun Yumin's ears were calloused, and then he simply asked Liu Wenzhi to talk about all the calls, so as to escape his entanglement.

Cao Fulin and Gu Liangmin didn't stay too long and left, when they parted, Sun Yumin sent the two out of the division, this was the first time he gave it away since he became the division commander, for the heroes of the anti-Japanese resistance, Sun Yumin never skimped on his admiration.

Xiao Yuying kept sneering on the side: "This surnamed Zhan is damned, he used to show off his might like that, but now he is pestering others like a dog." ”

"State affairs first! Country, country, country has home, how many times do I have to say it to make you remember it for a long time. Sun Yumin knocked on Xiao Yuying's head, pretending to be distressed.

……

After Zhang Changde, the commander of the 60th Brigade, returned to Heze after beating Sun Yumin, he immediately held his tail and hid in the brigade headquarters to meet people. These days, he finally understood why Sun Yumin handed over the position of brigade commander to him, and on the first day of his tenure, he played a majestic trick to the 120th Regiment stationed in Heze, but Liu Jiahua did not give him any face, and directly led people to beat them out. These days, the 119th Regiment and the newly formed 2nd Regiment have also been rebuilt, but no one has come to report to him, and no one has ever come to the brigade headquarters. Even the entire brigade headquarters was left with only his henchmen brought up from the 430th Regiment of the former Sichuan Army, and he didn't dare to go out to drink flowers and wine to listen to the theater when he was bored, for fear that Sun Yumin would come to find him, so he had to stay in the brigade headquarters to drink tea.

The officers brought from the original 430 regiment were idle, gathered in the brigade headquarters to play dice cups and gamble on the size, for a time the entire brigade headquarters was full of miasma, shouting and shouting, Zhang Changde was not good at this, lying on a rocking chair with a teapot in his mouth, watching his brothers gambling from a distance.

A soldier stumbled in, his feet falling to the door.

The gambling crowd didn't find the fallen soldier, but Zhang Changde, who was leisurely drinking tea, found out, he stood up and grabbed the soldier's collar and asked, "What's the hurry, did the fire burn your buttocks?" ”

"Division ......" The soldier said a word, and a group of people came in at the door, and one of them was surrounded by the division commander Sun Yumin, who had a scar on the left side of his face, which made Zhang Changde, who was looking up, tremble in fright. He quickly let go, and the soldier fell to the ground before he finished the next words: "...... It's been a long time. ”

Sun Yumin frowned and looked at Zhang Changde in front of him, and then looked at the officers who were gambling at the conference table and didn't notice that someone was coming. Zhang Changde saw the hideous scar on Sun Yumin's face tremble, and his heart trembled, and he hurriedly ran over and shouted at everyone: "Stop me." ”

It wasn't until Zhang Changde snatched the dice cup and threw it on the ground that the officers found out that there were a bunch of people in the room, and in the middle of the crowd was a division commander with the rank of major general, who frightened the officers of the Sichuan Army into standing straight.

Sun Yumin walked to the side of the Sichuan army officers who were standing in a mess, straightened a few crooked hats, and then picked up two silver yuan from the table, threw them, and said: "Life is good, and there is spare money to gamble." ”

Zhang Changde's face was hot, and he was about to open his mouth to argue, but Sun Yumin said again: "I haven't played for a long time, does anyone play two games with me?" ”

Two stupid officers had a smile on their faces, walked to Sun Yumin's side, and said in their mouths: "Master, you are good too!" Tell me earlier. The two of them didn't notice that Zhang Changde kept glaring at them, and when he saw two stupid subordinates, he closed his eyes helplessly.

Only two snaps were heard, and the two officers who walked to Sun Yumin's side each received a loud slap in the face, and the officers of the Sichuan Army in the whole room trembled twice.

"The Japanese army is close at hand, the soldiers in front are fighting bloodily, and your former Sichuan army brothers are still not well fed and clothed, but now you are gathering here to gamble." Sun Yumin was very angry, he pointed at Zhang Changde and scolded: "As the commander of the first brigade, the commander of the main brigade of my 20th Division, this is how you led troops to me?" ”

Zhang Changde wanted to scold the human-looking division commander in front of him, so he took his regiment of more than 3,000 people away, and gave it to a brigade commander in the name of the main brigade, but in fact, TMD was not even as good as a company commander, except for these cronies, he did not have ten soldiers under his command.

With Sun Yumin coming, someone in the crowd couldn't help but cover his mouth and laugh, and the voice reached Zhang Changde's ears and turned into naked humiliation.

Who else could laugh except Xiao Yuying, she really couldn't stand Sun Yumin's serious appearance of looking for someone else, and couldn't help laughing.

Seeing that Zhang Changde's face was red and white for a while, and he didn't answer, Sun Yumin was even more annoyed, and he shouted: "It is said that the brothers of the Sichuan Army are all real men, but you people are so disappointing to me, the 20th Division does not need moths like you." After saying this, he said to Xiao Yuying, who was still covering her mouth and holding back a smile: "Secretary Liu, give Brother Zhang and them the travel expenses." ”

Xiao Yuying walked out of the crowd, clapped her hands a few times, several soldiers picked up a few boxes of things and walked in, put them down and opened the box again, except for one box full of oceans, the other boxes were full of Sichuan army uniforms, which were the clothes that Zhang Changde had changed out of before.

All the Sichuan Army officers present saw these things and understood that Sun Yumin came prepared, and everything was up to his own thoughts.

Zhang Changde snorted coldly, directly took off the Central Army uniform on his body, casually picked up a Sichuan Army uniform and put it on, and said: "Sun Yumin, you cross the river and demolish the bridge, unload the mill and kill the donkey, you are ruthless!" ”

Dong Wenbin saw that this goods opened his mouth to accuse Sun Yumin, he couldn't help it, the blood that hit the major of the Wuhan City Defense Army at the dock surged up again, rushed up and kicked Zhang Changde over, a mouthful of saliva quenched on his face, and said hatefully: "What are you talking to our division commander like this." ”

Sun Yumin did not stop him, for the sake of the upcoming war, he could only be an unscrupulous person and nip the hidden danger of a possible outbreak in the bud, after all, everyone was desperate in front, and there were still a bunch of wolves with different hearts hidden at home. Since he couldn't tolerate others, he could only compensate them materially, so he spent his blood and took out 10,000 oceans as a gift. It's just that these Sichuan army officers are all blinded by hatred and anger, and they can't appreciate his kindness at all.

……

After dealing with Zhang Changde's file, Sun Yumin can prepare for the war with peace of mind.

The 10th Division's troops were slightly restrained, and after capturing Jining, there was no movement for two consecutive days, so that the 81st Division of Zhanshutang, which was deployed on the front line of Jiaxiang, never dared to relax the taut string.

In the early morning of 25 February, the vanguard of the Nagase detachment suddenly launched an attack on the Xinghua Village position, and in just a few hours, several positions on the periphery of Jiaxiang were all declared lost, which made the already unconfident Zhanshutang even more panicked.

Faced with the Nagase detachment, which had heavy artillery and armored vehicles, the troops of the 81st Division retreated until there was no place to retreat.

On the evening of the 25th, Jiaxiang City was abandoned by the Zhanshutang, and all the headquarters retreated to the south bank of the Zhuzhao New River, blew up all the bridges, and relied on the water of the river to arrange a defensive line to stabilize the position.

Sun Yumin calculated that the 10th Division of the Japanese Army would not forcibly cross the river, and the exhibition department would not be in much danger, so he simply let Li Tiedan's department in Juye start a short-term intensive training.

Unexpectedly, as soon as dawn the next day, the Japanese heavy artillery began to carry out fierce shelling of the positions of the Chinese troops on the south bank of the river. Japanese engineering units also began to build at least five pontoon bridges at various points along the Suzhao New River.

Sun Yumin, who received the report on the war situation, was dumbfounded, and hurriedly informed Li Tiedan and Deng Dongping that the plan of forced training was canceled and all the troops were prepared for the war instead. He himself also hurried to Juye with Li Tianxi's division of the new 2nd Regiment of the 60th Brigade, Qiu Zehua's division of the 1st Battalion of Sun Jiehai's artillery regiment, and Lin Yuanping's division and Huang Baisheng's division of Dong Wenbin's guard regiment.

When Sun Yumin's troops arrived at Juye City, the remnants of the 81st Division also retreated to Qilin Town, not far from the county seat.

Sun Yumin was determined to take advantage of the enemy's unstable foothold, and launched a strong attack first, eating raw Nagase's detachment to break through the front.

In order to paralyze the enemy, he did not explain his plan to Zhanshutang, who was constantly asking him for help, but repeatedly asked him to hold out for a few hours, and reinforcements were already on the way.

After nightfall, the Japanese army began to camp and suspended the pursuit of the Chinese army, which gave Sun Yumin a great opportunity, he personally led two battalions of the Sichuan Army and the Guard Regiment, taking advantage of the cover of night, to secretly approach the place where the two sides confronted each other: near Qilin Town.