After the army was dispatched, General Terauchi Shouichi also returned to Beiping on January 23.

After returning to Beiping, General Terauchi Shouichi received another exciting news that the base camp decided to set up the Fifth Brigade of Reading Power Mixed in Tianjin, and the brigade commander, Major General Qin Yashang, had under the jurisdiction of five Reading Infantry Brigade and artillery, engineering, communication, and baggage teams, with 8,280 people in the whole brigade, equipped with 1,800 military horses, 4,050 infantry guns, 120 grenadiers, 120 light machine guns, 30 heavy machine guns, 10 flat-fire guns, 20 mountain artillery, 12 field artillery, and other weapons and equipment. The troops have arrived in Tianjin from the mainland. At the same time, the 13th Brigade of the Reading Army, which was subordinate to the Kwantung Army, was transferred to the North China Front, and the brigade commander, Major General Morita Masatom, had jurisdiction over the 56th, 57th, 58th, 59th, and 60th Brigades of the Reading Infantry, the artillery team, the engineer team, and the signal team.

Prince Zairen of the Xianyuan Palace told him in a telegram that the base camp hoped that he would make correct use of the huge number of troops, quickly find the instructor of the Shina sect to exterminate him, restore law and order in North China, and open up contact with the Central China Front. His Majesty the Emperor now has high hopes for the fact that the Imperial Army is in dire need of a great victory to lift the spirits of the people.

After receiving the telegram, General Terauchi Shouichi felt a great responsibility and a glorious mission, and immediately sent a telegram back to the base camp, saying that he would never fail His Majesty the Emperor's kindness and would make contributions to His Majesty's conquest of China.

After sending the telegram, General Terauchi immediately adjusted his deployment and ordered the newly arrived Reading Li to form the Fifth Brigade to be stationed in Tianjin, responsible for public security in the eastern Hebei and Pingjin areas. The 24th Division was ordered to move to Cangxian County, strengthen public order in the area around Cangxian, and undertake the combat mission of supporting the Second Army. The newly arrived Reading Force was ordered to be transported to Shandong by car of the 13th Brigade and subordinate to the Second Army. General Terauchi also informed the First Army and the Second Army of the troop adjustment.

In view of the fact that Liu Yimin's instructor has not been traced, General Terauchi Shouichi made several hard surname regulations in the telegram to all armies, divisions, and mixed brigades: First, the troops are not allowed to march at night and are not allowed to reinforce; Second, it is necessary to strictly follow the rules of the infantry, and whenever there is a march or battle, it is necessary to strengthen search and reconnaissance, march in groups, and contact each other. In the event of an attack, they set up a position on the spot and called for aviation support. Third, the troops' passwords and contact signals changed one by one, so as to strictly prevent Liu Yimin's instructor from pretending to be a sneak attack by the imperial army. Fourth, in this operation, it is necessary to win the hearts and minds of the people of China, and all units must restrain discipline, establish a good image of the Imperial Army, strive to absorb as many Chinese troops as possible to serve the Imperial Army, and cooperate with the Imperial Army to eliminate the Chinese Political Axe Army and the Eighth Route Army.

After that, General Terauchi Shouichi summoned Lieutenant General Naosaburo Gangbu to seriously discuss the current political, economic, and military situation in North China, and also listened to reports by Wang Kemin and Qi Kuiyuan on the situation of the provisional political axe of the Republic of China and the construction of the public security army in North China.

After listening to the report, General Terauchi Shouichi instructed Wang Kemin and Qi Kuiyuan that there are three main tasks for the political axe in the near future: first, to quickly establish local political power at all levels, carry out work as soon as possible, and raise food for the imperial army; Second, it is necessary to seize the time to develop the economy and develop transportation, especially in Tianjin, and to restore the economy destroyed by the Eighth Route Army, all enterprises must start work as soon as possible. If there is no equipment, it can be taxed as soon as possible, and the tax can be used to buy it in the Great Imperial District; Third, on the basis of Qi Kuiyuan's troops, we should open military academies and noncommissioned officer schools, expand the number of troops, and strive to let the North China Public Security Army shoulder the heavy burden of maintaining public order, so that the main force of the imperial army can concentrate on suppressing Chiang Kai-shek's regular army and the Eighth Route Army.

Wang Kemin was a little worried when he heard that he was going to let the temporary political axe raise money to buy equipment. Shouichi Terauchi patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, there are many rich people in Tianjin and Beiping, go to their homes and look for them, you will definitely find a lot of money." You can also sell some land in Tianjin, and the British, French, and Italians will be happy to expand the concession. These things are inconvenient for the imperial army to go out, you can do it quietly. ”

When Wang Kemin heard that this was indeed the case, he should be able to get a lot of money according to this method, so he accepted the task with a smile.

Qi Kuiyuan proposed that money and equipment would be needed to expand the troops, and asked His Excellency the Commander to allocate them.

General Terauchi replied that Mr. Wang was asked for money, and that weapons and equipment were distributed to Shanxi-made weapons, and that the imperial army had seized a large number of weapons and equipment when they captured Taiyuan, but unfortunately only a small part of them were brought back, and most of them were taken away by Liu Yimin when he attacked and occupied Taiyuan. However, this small part is enough for the security forces.

After sending Wang Kemin and Qi Kuiyuan away, General Terauchi Shouichi ordered the 23rd Division, the 224th Division, the Zhutun Army's Reading Brigade, and the Fifth Brigade of the Reading Force Mixed Brigade to carry out the battle plan. Help the provisional government of the Republic of China to establish local power at all levels and restore traffic and public order.

At the same time that General Terauchi Shouichi ordered the sweep of the Pingjin and Jizhong regions, Lieutenant General Nishio Shouzo, commander of the Second Army, who had returned to Jinan, was also convening an operational meeting to study and implement the operational plan for the base camp and the front army.

Nishio Toshizo is a native of Tottori Prefecture, participated in the Russo-Japanese War, and graduated from the 51st place in the second place of the University of Japan. This person is quite unusual in the military, and advocates that military personnel should not interfere in politics and do things seriously.

This time, he was ordered to command the 5th Division, 10th Division, 16th Division, 21st Division, 108th Division, and the 3rd and 4th Brigades of the Reading Force Mixed Brigade to be responsible for operations on the Jinpu Line. However, Nishio Shouzo had an idea, that is, to take advantage of the relatively concentrated forces at hand to completely eliminate the resistance forces in Shandong, and create a unified, public security and stable Shandong occupation area for the Great Shoben Empire.

Originally, Nishio Shouzo was worried that the railway troops of the front army alone could not guarantee the safety of the Jinpu line, but now that the base camp has formed the fifth brigade of the reading force mix, the front army will transfer the 24th division to Cangxian to garrison, not only the safety of the Jinpu line does not need to be worried, but also the 24th division can also be used as a support force of the second army, and the 21st brigade stationed in Dexian can be freed up for operations. Moreover, General Terauchi Shouichi also strengthened the elite 13th Mixed Brigade of the Kwantung Army to the Second Army, which made the troops more abundant.

Sitting on the main seat, Nishio Toshizo's gaze swept over the faces of generals such as Lieutenant General Anto Toshiyoshi, commander of the 5th Division, Lieutenant General Ryosuke Isotani, commander of the 10th Division, Lieutenant General Nakajima Imasako, commander of the 16th Division, Lieutenant General Washijin Matsudaira, commander of the 21st Division, Lieutenant General Kumaya Shimomoto, commander of the 10th 8th Division, Major General Sasaki Toshiichi, commander of the 3rd Brigade of the Reading Force, Major General Kawamura Higashi, commander of the 4th Brigade of the Reading Division, and Major General Morita Masafu, commander of the 13th Brigade of the Reading Division. The purpose was to sweep away the resistance forces in Shandong, capture Xuzhou, and open up contact with the Central China Front. To accomplish this task, the command of the Second Army decided to operate in two stages. In the first stage, the resistance forces in Shandong were completely wiped out, and the specific arrangements were: the 1st and 5th Divisions set out from Jinan and moved south along the Jinpu Line, taking charge of the southwest area of Jinxi west of the Jinpu Line and southeast of the Yellow River, and directly taking Heze; 2. The 10th Division went south along the Jinpu Line and went straight to Zaozhuang; 3. The 16th Division swept the mountainous areas of central and southern Shandong and took Linyi; Fourth, the 21st Division, with Dexian as the center, made every effort to sweep the northwest of the Yellow River and the northwest of Jinpu Road on both sides of the Jinpu Road, focusing on the northwest of the Yellow River and the east of Jinpu Road; 5. The 108th Division is responsible for defending Jinan and serving as a strategic reserve; 6. The 3rd Brigade swept the vast area east of the Yellow River and on both sides of the Jiaoji Line; 7. The 4th Division was formed to cooperate with the 21st Division to sweep the northwest of the Yellow River and the southwest of Jinpu Road. 8. The 13th Brigade was stationed in Tai'an as a reinforcement to support the 5th, 10th, and 16th Divisions at any time. In the first phase of the campaign, there was also a task, which was to find friends to cooperate with the imperial army, form local power, and set up local security forces. In the second stage of the campaign, Xuzhou was captured. The specific deployment was as follows: The 10th Division served as the main attack, and the 5th Division and the 16th Division attacked Xuzhou from the west and east respectively. The 108th Division and the 3rd, 4th, and 13th Brigades served as reinforcements. ”

After the deployment, Lieutenant General Nishio Shouzo read out a telegram of operational guidance from General Terauchi Shouichi, commander of the North China Front, and after reading it, he emphatically said: "Our army has been invincible since it entered North China, but just when our army was advancing by leaps and bounds, Liu Yimin, the instructor of the Shina Sect, dared to lead his troops to attack Taiyuan and Tianjin, and the number of warriors of the imperial army in his hands reached more than 40,000, nearly 50,000. This shows that you must be extra careful when fighting against the Chinese people. Now, Liu Yimin and his instructor are nowhere to be found, we don't know where they are hiding, how many troops they have, the names of commanders at all levels, and so on. The only thing that can be judged clearly is that this is an unusually elite and unusually powerful force. Because the heavy firepower of the 21st Brigade and the Chahar Dispatch Corps alone can equip a powerful heavy firepower unit, not to mention that he has obtained heavy supplies from Tianjin from our North China Front. It can be said that the current firepower of this unit is unimaginable. The losses of the Kwantung Army air forces during the bombing of the Tianjin airfield can prove that they are using our heavy firepower, but it seems that they are not using it skillfully. In view of this situation, we can conclude that it is very dangerous for one of our brigades to encounter this force. Therefore, General Terauchi Shouichi sent a telegram ordering all troops not to march at night, not to reinforce at night, and to change passwords and contact signals every day, for fear of encountering Liu Yimin's instructor. ”

Speaking of this, Nishio Shouzo glanced at the generals again, and said loudly: "You don't have to worry too much, now we have strong aviation support, as long as we camp at night and be strictly vigilant, they will not have a chance to take advantage of it during the day." In the face of the powerful sea and air superiority of the Great Empire, no matter how powerful the instructor is, he is just a target. You must have confidence that our army's attack on this heavy army group will be successful! ”

After the meeting, Lieutenant General Nishio Toshizo took a group photo with the division commanders and brigade commanders at the headquarters and had dinner together, and then ordered them to return to the unit and take action quickly.

Almost at the same time, the commander of the First Army, Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyoshi, also held a military conference in Taiyuan.

Unlike the situation in Jinan, Taiyuan City is lifeless, except for the soldiers, it is difficult to see Chinese on the streets. This made Kyosuke Kawamura and others, who had just returned from the bright lights of Tianjin, very uncomfortable.

Lieutenant General Shiro Inaba rushed to Tianjin by plane, succeeded Gu Shoufu as the commander of the Sixth Division, and together with the chief of staff, Shimono Ichihuo Dazuo, led his troops into Shanxi.

Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyosi, the commander of the First Army guarding the city, finally looked forward to supplies and the army, and his mood became better. Sitting on a makeshift wooden bench in the conference room of the headquarters, Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyoshi smiled and said to Kyosuke Kawamura and the others, "Ladies and gentlemen, if you come a few days late, I'm afraid I'll starve to death." ”

Lieutenant General Inaba Shiro didn't know how the prosperous Taiyuan became like this, so he asked Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyoshi with a smile, was His Excellency the Commander too brave and killed all the men and women in Taiyuan?

Xiangyue Qingsi smiled bitterly and said: "Inaba-kun, you just came to Shanxi and don't understand the situation, when our army occupied Taiyuan for the first time, although the battle was fierce and many people in Taiyuan fled, the city was still prosperous and the population was still dense. When we occupied Taiyuan for the second time, we found that the huge city of Taiyuan could not find a single Chinese or a single screw. The people of China were so ruthless that they did not hesitate to destroy this famous city in order to confront the imperial army. ”

Only then did Inaba Shiro know that Shanxi and Tianjin were very different, and there may be hateful eyes and bullets hidden everywhere.

After the greetings, Xiangyue Qingsi began to preside over the meeting.

Unlike the style of the Second Army's Nishio Shouzo, who presided over the meeting, Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyoshi was much more lively and spoke a lot more funny. He explained his deployment like this: "Gentlemen, I have been hungry in Taiyuan recently, but my mind is clearer. I found that there are three main forces in Shanxi that are now fighting against the imperial army. The first is Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army, which originally had a strength of about 100,000 people, and was a local powerful faction in Shanxi, and they are currently mainly entrenched in the mountainous areas of western Shanxi and the southwest and southeast of Shanxi. The second is Chiang Kai-shek's political axe army, the main force is Chiang Kai-shek's 14th Group Army, the commander is Wei Lihuang, entrenched in southern Jin. The third is the Eighth Route Army led by [***], Liu Yiminjiao, who attacked and occupied Taiyuan and Tianjin, and caused heavy losses to the imperial army, is their troops. The strength of this force is difficult to judge, but it is good at sneak attacks and ambushes, and its will to fight is extremely strong, and it is likely that they will be our main opponents in future operations. ”

(To be continued)