After reading the telegrams from the scouts who were secretly monitoring the Japanese army in Texas and Xu Xiangqian and Xiao Hua, Xiao Siming picked up a few telegrams from the headquarters and the Yan'an headquarters and read them carefully.

Originally, it was Xiao Siming's idea to lead the Japanese army by the nose and transfer the Japanese army from the Jilu border to the Pinghan Road, and then attract the Japanese army from the Pinghan Road to the Yellow River in northern Henan, which was also the task assigned by the headquarters and the Yan'an headquarters to the eastward advance detachment. After Xiao Siming attacked and occupied Chenqiao, he led his troops to calmly cross the Yellow River, first retreated to southwest Lu, and then marched into the mountainous area of central and southern Lu, thus achieving the strategic goal of advancing eastward.

Now, because there is no bridge over the Yellow River, and the engineer battalion of the eastward advance detachment does not have the equipment and technical ability to erect pontoon bridges on the Yellow River that can pass through tanks and cars, and the Japanese army has been beaten to the bone marrow by the eastward advance detachment, the fifth and sixteenth divisions are following behind the eastward advance detachment, and the fourth brigade is guarded by the Zhanghe River.

The headquarters also forwarded a telegram from the commander of the First Theater to the two bosses, demanding that the eastward advance detachment take the Japanese Fifth Division and the 16th Division away from the Yellow River in the vicinity of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng as soon as possible, and that the two elite divisions of the Japanese army should not be allowed to take the opportunity to cross the river and join the Longhai Road operation. In that case, the pressure on the first theater of operations will be too great, which will be detrimental to the overall situation of the Wuhan battle!

Xiao Siming was a little annoyed when he boarded, when was this, the eastward advance detachment was about to fall into the encirclement of the Japanese army, the first theater did not take the initiative to launch a counteroffensive against the enemy in Kaifeng, contain the Japanese army, and cover the transfer of the small eastward advance detachment, but asked the eastward advance detachment, which was only a brigade-level detachment, to continue to undertake the task of luring the enemy and luring the Japanese army back to North China! What's going on?

If the Fifth Division and the 16th Division left the eastward advance detachment and turned around to cross the Yellow River and attack Zhengzhou together with the 14th Division, it is estimated that the troops of the First Theater will be defeated at the first time under the conditions of Xue Yue's Eastern Henan Corps and Hu Zongnan's 17th Army Corps, just like the later Henan-Xianggui Campaign in history, the First Theater will not only lose Zhengzhou, but even Luoyang may be lost. In that case, the war situation in the Central Plains will be eroded in advance, and the Battle of Wuhan will end early, and the joke will be bigger.

If it really comes at that time, it is estimated that the first war zone will not hesitate to open the embankment of the Yellow River, resist the enemy with water, and repeat the historical tragedy, and Xiao Siming's previous series of plans will be put to waste, which is equivalent to a waste of hard work!

Xiao Siming definitely didn't want to see this kind of scene!

After reading the telegram, Xiao Siming pondered for a while, and felt that this time was different from the past, the Japanese army's intentions were extremely sinister, and it was probably to take advantage of the natural danger of the Yellow River to play a big game of chess, and encircle the eastward advance detachment on the plains of northern and northeastern Henan, and then gradually narrow the encirclement and annihilate it all in one go!

This can be seen from the Japanese army's mobilization of the mixed 3rd Brigade and the 13th mixed brigade stationed in Kaifeng to move towards southwest Lu. If it weren't for the blockade of the banks of the Yellow River in the southwest and west of Luxi, wouldn't the little devils need to mobilize these two troops sent from the Kwantung Army!

Historically, after the Japanese army captured Kaifeng, the Central Plains war situation was in a state of stagnation due to the opening of the garden mouth in the first war zone and the flooding of the Japanese army. The mixed 3rd Brigade and the 13th Mixed Brigade that participated in the Battle of Xuzhou, captured Shangqiu, and Kaifeng were soon transferred back to the Kwantung Army and rebuilt.

Now it is different from history, although the first theater did not open the entrance to the garden, Xiao Siming led his troops to attack and occupy Dezhou, blew up the Luokou Yellow River Bridge, and cut off the supply line of the Japanese army's mixed 3rd Brigade and 13th Brigade, plus the 16th Division was hastily transferred to North China to pursue and annihilate the eastward advance detachment, and only the 14th Division and the 1st Theater troops were left in the Kaifeng area to confront each other, and it was impossible to quickly transfer the 3rd Brigade and the 13th Brigade to the northeast.

The 3rd Brigade is a mechanized unit formed from the 2nd Division; The 13th Brigade was formed from the 17th Division, and was a pack horse unit.

These two troops, don't look at it as just a brigade and regiment structure, but they are both elite of the Japanese army. In particular, the mixed third brigade, the second division from one of the three major mechanized divisions of the Japanese army, are all old devils, and their combat effectiveness is absolutely number in the Japanese army, and the fifth division and the sixth division should be on a par with each other, and in terms of mobility, it is the same as the fifth division, surpassing the sixth division!

Because there were the 3rd Brigade and the 13th Brigade in the mixed group, which was equivalent to two more mobile brigades with strong combat effectiveness in the hands of Shouichi Terauchi, he dared to leave the 14th Division to stick to the defense line around Kaifeng and Zhongmu, and transfer the 3rd Brigade and the 13th Brigade to southwest Luxi to strengthen the Yellow River defense line and strictly prevent the eastward advance detachment of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army from smuggling across the Yellow River!

Xiao Siming judged that Terauchi Shouichi and Okabe Naosaburo must have known that the eastward advance detachment lacked the equipment and technical means to erect pontoon bridges over the Yellow River that could pass tanks and cars, and the reason why the two brigades were transferred in a hurry was to take a precautionary measure.

Not to mention, if these two mixed brigades really arrived on the other side of the Yellow River, Xiao Siming's plan to transfer the captured arms and materials through the Guantai ferry would definitely be in vain!

No wonder Wang Lushui is so worried!

The eastward advance detachment has undergone training in Yuxian and Leling, and the tactical quality of the backbone of the battle is absolutely excellent! Coupled with the current level of equipment and sufficient ammunition, Xiao Siming was not afraid of the heavy encirclement of the Japanese army at all. Even if he is surrounded by the heavy Japanese army, Xiao Siming has the confidence to tear a hole and stand out! But the premise is that we must think of transferring the captured materials in advance and let the troops go into battle lightly. Otherwise, so many seized materials will turn the entire detachment into a transport team, how can there be a war?

Like Wang Lushui, Xiao Siming also realized at this time that there were too many seized materials, which became a burden and a burden!

The Eighth Route Army has always lacked food, clothing, guns and ammunition, but after the rise of Xiao Siming, whether it was the independent battalion or the eastward advance detachment, it became an alternative in the Eighth Route Army. If it weren't for the tight pursuit of the little devil heavy army group, with the existing surplus weapons and equipment, Xiao Siming would have no problem pulling up a few more regiments!

Well, now that there is no time to expand the troops, the munitions and materials, which were originally treasures, have become a burden that affects the mobile operations of the troops!

It's hard to laugh and cry when you think about it!

In any case, the captured surplus munitions must be transported across the Yellow River and transferred to the mountainous areas of Lunan. Otherwise, you will have to bury it on the spot!

Wang Lushui, Hu Qingyun, and Zheng Xiuchuan came in after eating early, and they all silently watched Xiao Siming flip through the telegram, waiting for him to discuss what to do together!

Xiao Siming finally raised his head and asked Wang Lushui: "Does the Japanese army know about our army's capture of Puyang?" ”

Wang Lushui replied that he did not know, after the troops entered the city, they quickly controlled the external communications, wiped out the Japanese puppet army in Puyang City, and carried out strict camouflage, and assigned a special person to answer the phone calls from the Japanese puppet army, and the radio also used the captured radio to accept and reply to the inquiry telegrams sent by the Xinxiang Japanese army, the Anyang Japanese army, the Liaocheng Japanese army, and the Heze Japanese army.

Xiao Siming nodded, and then asked: "How is the progress of the mobilization of the masses and the recruitment of troops by various troops?" ”

As soon as he asked this question, Wang Lushui's face immediately brightened, and he immediately said, "Not bad! This place is densely populated and has plenty of soldiers! After our army captured the county seat, the troops divided their troops and swept through the surrounding areas of the county seat, and long queues were formed at the recruitment points. From last night until you come back, preliminary statistics show that the number of recruits in each unit has exceeded 1,500! ”

This number is not much, you must know that after the victory of Pingxingguan, the 686th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army recruited, and there was a long queue in front of the recruitment point, and more than 1,000 and nearly 2,000 recruits were recruited at once. Wu Zongyu of the 685th Regiment, that is, the famous Wu Faxian in later generations, recruited more than 1,000 people in Jinnan, and formed a new second battalion of the 685th regiment, making up for the vacancy after the second battalion was transferred out to form five detachments. Including the recruitment of the 120th Division Working Group in Pingshan County, it also pulled up the Pingshan Regiment of 1,700 people at once!

Puyang is a densely populated area with more soldiers than in mountainous areas. If the eastward advance detachment can be stationed here for a month, it will be no problem to recruit 3,000 troops. It's a pity that the eastward advance detachment fought too well, and it was exposed by the news release of the Central News Agency, and became a thorn in the side of the Japanese army, and was chased and beaten by the little devils, so it was impossible to stop in the Puyang area for a long time!

Considering that the war was imminent, and the troops should be concentrated for a short period of repair, Xiao Siming said to Wang Lushui: "Yes, it's okay, order all the troops to stop recruiting, immediately gather and concentrate, and all the recruits will be sent to the artillery regiment, baggage battalion, and heavy machine gun battalion to act as ammunition men and transporters." After this battle, all the recruits of the new regiment will be replenished to each unit, and this group of recruits will then enter the recruit regiment for training! ”

When Zheng Xiuchuan heard this, he was confused and asked: "Commander, you also instructed all units to set up supplementary battalions and new battalions in a telegram last night, why do you now hand over all the recruits to the artillery regiment, baggage battalion, and heavy machine gun battalion?" Isn't this a change of day? It will affect the mood of the troops! ”

Xiao Siming smiled and said softly: "The big war is imminent, and it is a vicious and tough battle related to our life and death, what we need is elite soldiers!" These recruits are not trained and do not have the slightest combat experience, and if they remain in the main regiment, the casualties will be very large. The troops also had to send people to protect them and influence the main battle. Giving new recruits to artillery regiments, heavy machine gun battalions, and baggage battalions to carry ammunition is to protect them. You know, these are all great guys, and after training and honing on the battlefield in the future, they will become good soldiers! ”