Seeing Political Commissar Nie and Political Commissar Deng in Nangong, Liu Yimin and Luo Ronghuan were naturally overjoyed.

After arriving in Nangong, he exchanged experiences with Liu Yimin and Luo Ronghuan on troop training and political construction, visited the instructor's field hospital, and also visited Tang Xingying's mother and son and Lin Yueqin's mother and son, which made Liu Yimin feel warm.

When Political Commissar Deng was in Xi'an, he had more contact with Liu Yimin, and from time to time he accompanied Comrade Chen Yun to Liu Yimin for a meal and a tooth sacrifice. When he arrived at Nangong and saw Liu Yimin, he held Liu Yimin's hand tightly, and even said thank you to the comrades who taught the instructor, in the past, he personally went to Master Liu for a tooth sacrifice, and now the 129th Division comes to find Master Liu for a tooth sacrifice. After speaking, he urged Division Commander Liu to ask how many weapons and personnel he could provide to the 129th Division this time, and whether he could get more 92 infantry guns, mortars, grenadiers, and other firepower suppression weapons that were convenient for guerrilla warfare in the mountains.

Political Commissar Deng and Political Commissar Nie are old acquaintances, and their relationship is like that of brothers, and after meeting Liu and Luo, they immediately sat down to discuss the defense of the base areas in southern Hebei and central Hebei.

At that time, these old [***] people were all carrying their heads to the revolution, all they thought about was work, and they had no selfish thoughts such as status. Although Liu Yimin joined the Red Army late, due to his contribution and the strength of his instructor, when several people sat together to study and work, Liu Yimin was naturally the main person.

Liu Yimin had already integrated into this era at this time, without the excitement of seeing these great fathers and greats when he first crossed over, and was also accustomed to his identity as the main head of the main force of the Eighth Route Army, leading Political Commissar Nie, Political Commissar Deng, Luo Ronghuan, Cai Zhong, Zeng Zhongsheng and others to conduct in-depth discussions on the current international and domestic situation, and also studied the joint defense interaction mechanism of the base areas in central Hebei, southern Hebei, western Hebei, northern Shandong, and southwestern Shandong. Northern and southern Lubei have been built into the granary of our army and a base for replenishing troops. In 1938, the main tasks of the several large plain base areas were to consolidate local political power, develop production, and establish a defense system with tunnel connections as the core, the main forces, local troops, and militia as the mainstay, and tunnel warfare, mine warfare, sparrow warfare, guerrilla warfare, and movement warfare as the means, so as to ensure the survival, development, and growth of the plain base areas.

In order to ensure that the plain base areas would not be lost when the enemy was swept away by heavy troops, after the main force of the instructor advanced eastward, the troops in central Hebei should actively infiltrate the Pingjin and eastern Hebei regions, and after the troops in southern Hebei completed the run-in, they should actively develop to the south of the Handji Road and extend their tentacles to the northern Henan region. The general principle is to consolidate the base areas, develop guerrilla areas, and constantly squeeze the areas occupied by the Japanese army. At the tactical level, vigorously carry out the cold gun and cold artillery campaign, stew frogs in warm water, and slowly encroach on the Japanese army.

After discussing the major policies, Liu Yimin asked Luo Ronghuan, on behalf of the instructor party committee, to hand over the troops, weapons and ammunition that needed to be reorganized to the 115th and 129th divisions, and handed over the funds handed over to the central government to political commissar Nie and political commissar Deng respectively to bring back.

Nie Rongzhen and Deng Xiaoping are both very strict people, but Deng Xiaoping and Liu Yimin are more familiar with each other, knowing that Liu Yimin's surname is open-minded, as soon as he finished discussing major matters, Political Commissar Deng asked Liu Yimin to treat him, saying that he didn't know the taste of meat when he stayed on Taihang Mountain. Political Commissar Nie was also very interested at this time, and he also echoed it, saying that it was rare to eat vegetables in Jinchaji, and since he had arrived in the Great Plains and the richest instructor of our army, he had to make up for the vegetables that had been lacking for such a long time anyway.

Liu Yimin laughed, took Nie Rongzhen and Deng Xiaoping's hands and went to his house, asked Tang Xingying to hurry up to the street to buy wine and vegetables, and called Luo Ronghuan, Cai Zhong, and Zeng Zhongsheng to accompany them.

In the end, when Chen Yaoguang helped Tang Xingying come up to change the tea, Political Commissar Nie and Political Commissar Deng invariably glanced at Chen Yaoguang and stopped talking.

Liu Yimin hurriedly waved his hand to let Tang Xingying and Chen Yaoguang go to their own business, and they didn't have to come in if they didn't call.

After the two women went out, Political Commissar Nie said: "Division Commander Liu, you are a legendary hero of our army and have made great contributions to the Chinese revolution. Division Commander Lin and I admired your talent, insight, thinking, strategy, and use of troops like a god, and the cadres and soldiers of the 115th Division were all working hard to learn from the instructor. However, I will shout at you, brother, there are some things that cannot be accommodated, and the more accommodating you are, the deeper you will fall. I know you're very strict with yourself and have a clear conscience. However, between men and women, what they are most afraid of is long-term love. I see that this girl surnamed Chen is full of affection between her eyebrows and eyes, and she may already have other thoughts about you, and it is not just as simple as being assigned by Chiang Kai-shek and Dai Li. Let me make a suggestion for you to see, this time the main force of the instructor will go east to Shandong, don't take her there, I will report to the chairman and Vice Chairman Zhou, and send her back to Yucheng. ”

The others were silent.

Liu Yimin hurriedly poured a glass of wine for Nie Political Commissar, raised his hands together, respectfully held it up in front of Nie Political Commissar, and said: "Okay, my Nie Political Commissar, this is Big Brother, you hurry up and report to the Central Committee, and think about sending her away." I'll toast you on behalf of my wife and children, thank you! Thank you! ”

Nie Rongzhen took the wine glass and said with a smile: "I want to leave so many of your soldiers, take away so many of your weapons and equipment, and bring back so much money, I have to help you do something, right?" Otherwise, I will dream of indebtedness to you at night, and I will not be able to sleep well. ”

Before Liu Yimin could answer, Political Commissar Deng said in a thick Sichuan accent: "Senior Commander Liu, comrade, don't be excited, I think Political Commissar Nie's promise will be disappointed." ”

Liu Yimin looked at Political Commissar Deng with a little doubt, and Political Commissar Deng sold it at this time, and he didn't look at others, and ate vegetables one bite after another.

Political Commissar Nie was a little surprised and asked, "Xiaoping, do you think there is anything wrong?" With the current strength of our army, there is no need to look at other people's faces. This girl has been following Master Liu, we know that this is a set set by Chiang Kai-shek for Master Liu, but people who don't know still think that Master Liu is unruly and has a beautiful wife and concubine. Didn't even I always want to send beautiful women as bait? If this problem is not solved, the impact is not good. ”

Political Commissar Deng then said: "It's not a big deal, comrades know the truth of the matter. Take 10,000 steps back, not being able to send it away now does not mean that you can't send it away in the future, as long as the time is ripe, someone will naturally let her go. Besides, this girl has been in our army for a long time, maybe she can be completely transformed into a real soldier of the Eighth Route Army. If she is forcibly sent back now, not to mention whether the central government will approve it, it will be approved, and she will lose her use value when she goes back, and the ending must be very tragic. It's better to let her make some contribution to the resistance here! ”

Liu Yimin was full of likes at first, and the more he listened, the more he felt that his head was big. In the end, Luo Ronghuan saw that Liu Yimin was in a bad mood, and proposed to go to the street to see the Lantern Festival night scene in Nangong after eating, which made several people change the topic, quickly finished eating, and took Xiao Zhenghe and Xiao Dong into the street.

In the plain area, the transportation is convenient, the cultural exchanges are wide, this Nangong is a commercial port extending in all directions, and after the main force of the Eighth Route Army is stationed, the social security is good, and the people see hope. Therefore, the lanterns on the night of the Lantern Festival in Nangong City are colorful. In addition to the large lanterns specially made in front of the store, children carry small lanterns and hold the hands of adults to play around the street. Many young people gather in front of the lantern riddles in the shops to see the lantern riddles made by the owners. Whoever guesses the answer to the riddle takes the reward given by the shopkeeper and continues to guess again with joy. scratched his ears and cheeks without guessing, meditated hard, and guessed correctly. Seeing that several leaders were happy in their hearts, they felt that all the struggles and struggles were so meaningful.

Liu Yimin was also full of joy, bought a lantern for his son and Xiao Dongjin, and held his son's hand for his son to play. Xiao Dongjin was too young, Luo Ronghuan could only hold the child and hand the lantern to Nie Political Commissar to carry, which made several other leaders laugh.

This situation made Liu Yimin excited, and he couldn't help but recite Xin Qiji's "Qingyu Case. Yuan Xi": "The east wind blooms thousands of trees at night, and the stars are like rain. BMW carved cars are full of incense, the sound of the phoenix flute moves, the jade pot turns brightly, and the fish and dragon dance all night. The moth snow willow is golden, and the smile is full of dark fragrance. The crowd looked for him thousands of times, and suddenly looked back, but the man was there, and the lights were dim. ”

As soon as I finished reciting, as soon as I looked up, I saw that in the shadow of the lights in the distance, Zhao Xiaoman and Jingjing led several female warriors to look at the lanterns, as if they were still guessing lantern riddles.

Seeing Liu Yimin walking with the child on his back and accompanying several chiefs, Zhao Xiaoman was so surprised that he couldn't help but shout, probably thinking about it and thinking that there were too many people, he covered his open mouth with his hand, glanced at Liu Yimin, pulled Jingjing and a few female soldiers and turned elsewhere.

Cai Zhong, who was following Liu Yimin, gently poked Liu Yimin with his hand. Liu Yimin turned his head and glared at Cai Zhong viciously, and was about to speak, when he felt a lightness on his shoulders, it turned out that it was Political Commissar Nie who handed the lantern to Political Commissar Deng, reached out and hugged Xiao Zhenghe and put it on his neck.

Political Commissar Deng patted Liu Yimin with a smile and said, "Master Liu, you shouldn't memorize this poem." You are a person with family members, and it would be wrong to think about the beautiful woman in the dim light, and what kind of willow tops on the moon and the mood after dusk. Brother comrade, trouble! ”

Liu Yimin pointed to Political Commissar Deng and said that Political Commissar Deng was not kind, making fun of the little brother, it seems that he has to care about Political Commissar Deng's marriage problem, and it is not a way to beat a single person like this. When I have time, talk to Sister Deng and them, help Commissar Deng find one, and let Commissar Deng also taste the pain of being managed by his lover.

Political Commissar Nie ignored the jokes of several people, and said seriously: "Xiaoping should indeed become a family." The group walked and watched while talking and laughing, happily wandering in the lamp market.

Political Commissar Nie and the Jizhong troops left after the Lantern Festival. The instructor handed over all the armed forces captured and collected in Jizhong to the 115th Division, and Political Commissar Nie was anxious to rush back to Jizhong to join the troops of the 115th Division who had changed guards with the instructor's troops there.

At the time of separation, Liu Yimin gave Lu Ben, Meng Qingshan, and Lu Zhengying a notebook each, and the inscription on it was the same: "Mobilize the masses, rely on the masses, constantly strengthen the people's armed forces, fight the people's war, and build Jizhong into a model anti-Japanese base area." Presented by Liu Yimin. ”

The gift to Political Commissar Nie and Division Commander Lin was a fur coat seized from Tianjin, and Liu Yimin told Political Commissar Nie: "This thing is good, wear it during the day, cover it at night, and it is closer than your daughter-in-law!" The political commissar Nie laughed, and even said that Liu Yimin didn't learn well at a young age, and anything could be done to a woman, and it seemed that he was destined to have peach blossom luck for the rest of his life.

After Political Commissar Nie left, Liu Yimin stopped at Nangong for a few days, handed over all the defense of southern Hebei to the troops of the 129th Division brought by Political Commissar Deng, and handed over the reorganized Zhao Yunxiang, Duan Haizhou, Qiao Mingli, Fan Zixia and other units to the 129th Division. It was busy until February 20, when the instructor's troops in central and southern Hebei arrived at the designated assembly site, and Liu Yimin said goodbye to Political Commissar Deng and led the division headquarters to leave Nangong, where he had been fighting for two months, and rushed to Liaocheng.

During this time, the instructor fought well in central and southern Hebei, and the units of the Eighth Route Army fought well in the Shanxi battlefield.

After the victory of Zihongkou, the Reading Division joined forces with the 129th Division to constantly ambush and harass the devils in the Taihang Mountains and Taiyue Mountains, and the main force was scattered at the same time, avoiding the attack edge of the heavy army group of the army, and specifically looking for the devil's palace troops, lone outstanding troops, and baggage troops. On several occasions, Kou carried out the tactics of pulling the net and attacking together, trying to defend and eliminate the main force of the Reading Division, but he failed. Lieutenant General Kyosuke Kawamura, commander of the 1st Division, who was the commander of the front line, wrote in his diary with great depression: "The vast mountains are the natural barrier of the Eighth Route Army, and the night is the best cover for the Eighth Route Army. The only gain for the Imperial Army was to occupy large tracts of land. ”

Commanding the 115th Division, seizing the opportunity of the heavy army group of the Yue Army going south to encircle and suppress the Jinzhong base area and stretching the defense line of the 25th Division left behind, he sent a number of small troops, crossed the blockade line of the devils, returned to the Beiyue base area, organized the masses to fight guerrilla warfare in the area occupied by the Yue Army, and the main force went out of the Taihang Mountain, constantly attacking the patrol and alert troops of the 25th Division, causing the 25th Division to be alarmed, and constantly reporting the enemy situation to Lieutenant General Xiangyue Qingsi, and demanding that the main force return to the division to completely destroy the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army.

He Long commanded the 120th Division to divide into two routes, one to the south to attack the 25th Division of the Yue Army, and all the way to the north, expanding to Suiyuan.

However, although the units of the Eighth Route Army fought very well, they were unable to completely turn the tide of the war for the time being in the face of the squeeze of the heavy army group of the Yue Army. Especially in the Jinzhong area, the troops spent every day in battles and transfers, the number of wounded and sick people continued to increase, and food became a big problem that needed to be solved.

Xiangyue Qingsi didn't know the difficult situation of the Eighth Route Army, but he knew the difficult situation of the Yue Army, and the army pursued and suppressed the Eighth Route Army every day, not to mention the results, the logistical pressure alone was amazing. Oil and grain have become problems. He did not expect this situation at all, according to his battle plan, he wanted to annihilate the main force of the Eighth Route Army in one fell swoop, and at the worst he would drive the Eighth Route Army to the Taihang Mountains to suffer from cold and starvation. I didn't expect the Eighth Route Army to be so tenacious and flexible. Now the imperial army has basically occupied the base of the Eighth Route Army, but it has not eliminated the main force of the Eighth Route Army at all, on the contrary, the imperial army is bleeding every day, this situation is not what Lieutenant General Xiangyue Qingsi wants.

Xiangyue Qing thought about it, and felt that it was not a way to go on like this, and he couldn't be entangled with the Eighth Route Army like this anymore, and the initial purpose of the campaign had been achieved, although the main force of the Eighth Route Army had suffered little loss, but the base area was basically lost, and it was necessary to hurry up and clean up Yan Xishan. As long as the main force of Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army is cleaned up, you can concentrate your forces to capture Jinnan, or you can attack the Eighth Route Army with all your might.

On the morning of 20 February, as soon as Kazuki Qingsi got up, he received a telegram from the headquarters of the North China Front, informing him of the Kwantung Army's request for the reorganization of the First Division and the decision of the base camp to send additional garrisons and mixed brigades and regiments for local garrisons, and instructed the First Army to speed up the pace of the clean-up, and that it was impossible for the First Division to stay in Shanxi for too long, and that the overall strategic situation of the empire could not be delayed because of the war in Shanxi.

After reading the telegram, after closing his eyes and thinking for a while, Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyoshi called the chief of staff, Major General Hashimoto Qun, and asked if there was any information on the recent transfer of the main force of Yan Xishan's Jin Sui army on the western side of Jinxi.

Major General Hashimoto reported that everything was normal with the Jin Sui Army, and that there was no major troop movement, and that when the Imperial Army encircled and suppressed the base area of the Eighth Route Army, the Jin Sui Army did not take major actions to cooperate with the Eighth Route Army.

After hearing this, Xiangyue Qingsi narrowed her eyes, lay down on the chair and tilted her head back, combing her hair with her fingers while tilting her head.

After waiting for a while, Kazuki Kiyoshi made a decision and asked Major General Hashimoto to send a report to the headquarters of the North China Front, requesting additional reinforcements and replenishing supplies, and asking the Front Army to urge the local garrison troops sent by the base camp to set off as soon as possible.

After Major General Hashimoto left, Kazuki Qingsi asked someone to bring breakfast, ate a few bites randomly, and after letting people put it away, he climbed to the map and looked at it while drawing. It wasn't until noon that Kazuki Kiyoshi called Major General Hashimoto again, and issued an order to gather and assemble troops, prepare to implement the next battle plan, and focus on attacking the Jin Sui army.

From Nangong to Liaocheng, it is now all under the control of our army, although it is a night march, but there is no problem with safety. Therefore, Liu Yimin did not travel nervously along the way.

On February 26, Liu Yimin arrived in Liaocheng and joined the troops who had already arrived in Liaocheng.

In Liaocheng, the instructor held a public memorial ceremony for General Fan Zhuxian.

(To be continued)