The battle of the Second Brigade to capture Luokou was sudden and swift.

The little devil stationed at the Yellow River Iron Bridge in Luokou said that he had a very comfortable life. They are railway garrison troops, and they don't have to go to the front line to sell their lives, and they usually mean patrolling and standing guard, which are simple tasks that cannot be simpler. When it's your turn to take a vacation, you can take the train to Jinan to play, enjoy the scenery of Jinan City, accept comfort, or go to the Bagua Building's Courtyard to have fun. If they are interested, the little devils will go to the north and south of Luokou Town, go down to the restaurant to taste the famous sweet and sour carp in Luokou, and slap the boss a few times and extort some money on the way. If you're lucky, you can grab a few flower girls and go back to the stronghold for a silver humiliation.

The devils stationed in Luokou Town live more nourishingly than the devils guarding the railway bridge.

Luokou is located at the crossing of the Yellow River, the location of the ground is important, the north is directly connected to Pingjin, the south of the economic road to Quancheng, is the key to connect Shandong, East China and the North China Plain, whether you are a high-ranking official or a businessman, up to the emperor Lao'er, down to the peddler pawn, all have to pass through this. Although this is the era of burning, killing and looting, and all industries are withering, after all, this is the largest ferry port in North China, and even if you flee, you have to pass through here, right? Therefore, the little devils stationed at the Luokou ferry, from officers to soldiers, everyone had oily lips, drunken faces, bulging waists, and bloody bayonets.

After the headquarters of the 12th Army ordered all units to conduct a detailed reconnaissance of the enemy in front of them last night, the little devils stationed in Luokou did send several search and reconnaissance units. However, this is the hinterland of the rule of the Yue army, there are 36 divisions of the Yue army in Luxi, there are 32 divisions of the Yue army in Hebei and Lubian, there are not only railway garrisons on the Jinpu Road, but also the Yue army stationed in Dexian and Cangxian counties, they are facing their own strongholds, there is no face-to-face enemy, the search and reconnaissance will become a scourge of the surrounding villages to grab money and grain and ask for women, naturally it is impossible to imagine that the elite Second Brigade is hidden in the cliffs, ditches and dry reeds by the Yellow River.

This can't be blamed on the carelessness of the little devils, most of the locals in these places usually don't go, let alone the army stationed in Luokou and only knows how to plunder money and destroy silver women.

How could Gu Shoufu, who gave orders in Jinan City, know that the Luokou defenders would carry out his orders like this.

When it was just dark, the restaurants in Beiluokou Town were still open as usual, and the little devils stationed at the railway bridge and Luokou ferry had just had dinner.

At this time, the Eighth Route Army moved.

The attack on the railway bridge was the Second Brigade and the Fourth Regiment of the Eighth Route Army, which was the main force of the battle. Captured the railway bridge, the second brigade of the Guanjiao attacked the north gate of Jinan, Liu Jianli naturally wanted to sacrifice the treasure sword, and sent the fourth regiment of the sect with the same name as the first regiment of the sect to take the railway bridge in one fell swoop and open the passage to Jinan in the south.

The first-class main forces such as the 1st Regiment, the 4th Regiment, and the 7th Regiment are different from other troops, and if the tactical actions are made into movies, they will definitely surprise the directors of later generations who don't know what the war is all about, because there are no spectacular scenes like in the movie, they all work quietly.

The fighters then formed a battle formation in twilight and terrain cover, and quickly engaged the enemy movement. When the sentry standing guard by the little devil found out that something was wrong, the first battalion and one company of the fourth regiment had already arrived in front of him.

Take the most elite troops to deal with the most rubbish railway garrison in the army, and everyone knows the outcome, tom, a few rockets separately drilled into the little devil's bunker, directly beating the little devil's bunker into ruins. The soldiers quickly rushed forward, and the Bayi automatic rifles, submachine guns, and 38 big covers in their hands all opened fire, and the devils of a squad stationed at the bridgehead stronghold on the south side of the railway bridge had no time to react and were eliminated.

The explosion of rockets and gunfire alarmed the devil's stronghold on the north side of the railway bridge, and the searchlight soon shone on, and the little devil who had been leisurely and complacent just now became confused, and the sound of whistles, officers' reprimands, soldiers' running footsteps, and the sound of pulling bolts were all over the place. Soon the little devil's heavy machine gun went off.

This is the difference between the elite of a hundred battles and the garbage troops. Do you think, the iron bridge of the Luokou Yellow River Highway is 1255.2 meters long, and what can the little devil's light and heavy machine guns hit on a dark night? Isn't this exposing the firing point himself and instructing the Eighth Route Army to bombardment targets? Only the railway garrison that had never been on the battlefield would do this, and if it was to be replaced by a field army, it would definitely be silent and wait for the Eighth Route Army to approach before firing. Now that the devil is doing this, when he sees the eyes of the soldiers of the Second Brigade and the Fourth Regiment of the elite of a hundred battles, he immediately knows that he has encountered a group of recruits.

The devils stationed in Nanluokou are different, although they are the Jinan garrison, and the railway garrison belongs to the garbage army, but they have not been attacked for the time being, they have sufficient time to react, under the command of the officers, while reporting to the superiors that the Eighth Route Army is sneaking up on the railway bridge, while entering the position, and also sending a squadron of troops to run to reinforce the garrison north of the railway bridge.

Liu Jianli, who was on the north bank of the Yellow River, saw that the firing point of the Yue army on the south side of the railway bridge was exposed, and immediately ordered the artillery regiment to open fire to cover the occupation of the railway bridge by the Fourth Regiment.

The artillery of the Eighth Route Army opened fire, and the shells swept over the Yellow River and landed accurately on the devil's position south of the railway bridge.

Zeng Chunjian, the political commissar of the Fourth Brigade, personally commanded the battle of the Fourth Brigade to seize the bridge, and Liu Jianli gave him a clear explanation, using anti-aircraft guns to deal with the turrets and pillboxes south of the Little Devil Bridge. Therefore, he took two anti-aircraft guns with the 4th regiment of the sect.

After all, it was night, and across the Yellow River, although the little devils on the north side of the railway bridge were hit by artillery fire, there were always pillboxes that survived. No, when the first battalion and one company of the fourth regiment rushed to the railway bridge less than 500 meters, the devils opened fire again, and the bullets hit the bridge deck of the iron bridge, rubbing sparks one after another, and immediately some soldiers were hit, and blood flowed on the tracks.

Zeng Chunjian, who was following behind the first battalion, was furious and immediately ordered, "Pull up the anti-aircraft guns to Lao Tzu!" ”

The anti-aircraft gun was pulled up, and at a distance of 700 meters, the gunner adjusted it slightly, and with two toms, two shells were fired, and one of the devil's pillboxes that was spitting bullets was overturned.

The soldiers who climbed on the railroad immediately began to run in a low position and rushed towards the south bank.

When the devil squadron that set off from Nanluokou to reinforce the railway bridge rushed to the bridgehead, it collided head-on with the Eighth Route Army that had just solved the bridgehead defenders and was about to attack Nanluokou.

After capturing the railway bridge, the main force of the 2nd Brigade of the Jiao continuously drove to the south bank of the Yellow River through the railway bridge. On the south bank, the division of troops was implemented, and one part went to capture Nanluokou, and the large army embarked on the Jiluo Highway and marched towards Jinan City.

At this time, the artillery group of the Eighth Route Army on the front line of Wangsherenzhuang in the east of Jinan opened fire.

After the war, Zeng Chunjian, the political commissar of the Second Brigade, had a question, that is, did the little devil know that anti-aircraft guns could be used to hit tanks, turrets, and pillboxes horizontally? Do you know that the Eighth Route Army has bazookas?

Brigade Commander Liu Jianjian replied very well: "The little devil knows a ghost!" If they knew, would they dare to show off their might everywhere with a turtle shell as thin as an iron sheet? Will it take so much effort to build these brick and wood turrets? That can only bully and bully local armed forces and guerrillas, in the eyes of Lao Tzu, it is all a pile of garbage"!

Tani Shoufu sat on the cold bench in Tokyo for so long, and finally sat on the throne of the commander of the 12th Army, and his heart was very high.

According to Gu Shoufu's idea, it was to use Jinan City as a bait to lure the main force of Liu Yimin's instructor to attack the city, and then mobilize the elite division of the Yue Army to gather and annihilate the instructor of the Eighth Route Army under the city of Jinan. His plan was affirmed by the North China Front Army and the base camp, which originally only asked for the transfer of the first and second divisions of the Kwantung Army to the customs to participate in the battle, but as a result, the base camp transferred three divisions at once. Among them, the 23rd Division was reinforced by the Kwantung Army, and unlike the garrison divisions in North China, the strength reached 18,000 men. The 14th Division, which was subordinate to the First Army, also returned east from Zhengzhou to reinforce the Jinan battlefield. All this made Gu Shoufu ecstatic, and he felt that his time to shine had come.

This afternoon, Gu Shoufu felt particularly good.

The reconnaissance troops and aircraft air reconnaissance sent out all reported that the Eighth Route Army had arrived in Zhangqiu, and the specific strength was unknown. The reconnaissance team was unable to penetrate deep into the Eighth Route Army's defense area, so it was not clear how large the Eighth Route Army was. The plane deduced from the smoke area that the Eighth Route Army had arrived at Zhangqiu.

That's enough! Gu Shoufu took a ruler and measured it on the map, and then transferred the telegrams sent by the troops of the 25th Brigade of the 10th Eighth Division and read it carefully, and felt that according to the normal marching speed, the main force of the Eighth Route Army could not reach Zhangqiu, and it should be their vanguard. It seems that the fish has bitten the hook!

What made Gu Shoufu even more pleased was that the battle in Lunan was progressing smoothly, and the 114th Division, with the cooperation of the Manchukuo Defense Forces, implemented a little breakthrough tactics and broke through the defense line of a regiment of the Eighth Route Army, forcing the Eighth Route Army to retreat step by step. The battle of Taixi was even more gratifying, the 35th Division made a successful surprise attack, and the Eighth Route Army lifted the encirclement of the 13th Brigade of the Reading Force and began to retreat. The 35th Division and the 13th Brigade of the Reading Force Mixed Brigade, under the cover of the aviation group, had already swooped down and eliminated the rear guard units of the Eighth Route Army.

These two battles allowed Gu Shoufu to figure out the numbers of the Taixi Eighth Route Army and the Lunan Eighth Route Army, one is the Lunan Reading Li First Regiment, and the other is the Taixi Garrison Brigade Garrison Third Regiment.

Gu Shoufu immediately reported this information to the headquarters and base camp of the North China Front, and won another round of praise. You must know that since the war between the army and the instructor of the Eighth Route Army, they have always only suffered losses and not taken advantage, let alone found the corpse of the Eighth Route Army and identified the number of the unit. Prince Zairen of Xianyuan Palace was excited, and he did not hesitate to praise him, saying that Gu Shoufu was a leader in the army, with both wisdom and courage, and a sharp style.

Gu Shoufu was overjoyed, and strictly ordered the Lunan and Taixi armies to speed up their attacks, and completely defeated the enemy in front of them with the heroic and tenacious style of the army and the tactics of sneak attacks in a roundabout way, making a good start for the total annihilation of Liu Yimin's instructor.

While having dinner, Gu Shoufu received a report from the defenders of Luokou about the Eighth Route Army's sneak attack on the Luokou Yellow River Bridge.

Gu Shoufu was shocked, he didn't expect that the Eighth Route Army would make a move on the Luokou Bridge. What does Liu Yimin want to do? Does he want to blow up the bridge, block the reinforcements on the northern front, and encircle Jinan?

Gu Shoufu strictly ordered the defenders of Luokou to repel the attack of the Eighth Route Army, and ordered Lieutenant General Guan Guizhi to quickly send troops to reinforce Luokou, and at the same time ordered the troops stationed in Dexian County to quickly dispatch to attack the Tubalu that attacked the Luokou Bridge.

As soon as the order was issued, a report was received from the defenders of Luokou, saying that the North Luokou and Luokou Yellow River bridges had been lost.

Gu Shoufu's good mood for a day was completely dispelled in this short period of time. He was the commander of the Sixth Division, the most elite of the Yue Army, and knew that the Eighth Route Army attacked the Luokou Bridge first, which was to block the retreat of the Jinan defenders to the north and cut off the support of the Northern Front Army to Jinan.

Gu Shoufu did not dare to slack off, and immediately reported the situation to Terauchi Shouichi, and strictly ordered the troops stationed in Dexian County to recapture the Yellow River Iron Bridge.

At this time, Gu Shoufu heard the sound of cannons shaking the ground and mountains.

Kobayashi Asaburo stumbled in, opened his mouth and said, "Your Excellency, Commander, the Eighth Route Army has begun to attack. They used massive artillery groups. Judging from the sound of artillery, there were at least more than 300 field and mountain artillery. ”

Gu Shoufu now understood that the Eighth Division and the Tenth Division were all killed by the artillery group of the Eighth Route Army. With such a powerful artillery fire, even his original Sixth Division, if he fought in the field, it would also be blown up by the Eighth Route Army.

Gu Shoufu was shocked and scolded Kobayashi Asaburo: "What are you panicking about? This Jinan city wall is strong, the Eighth Route Army is the army of the Chinese, Liu Yimin will not bombard Jinan with so many cannons. As soon as the morning dawns, the air force group can be dispatched to blow up Liu Yimin and his Tubalu to death. Go and send a report to Commander Shouichi Terauchi, asking him to urge the reinforcements on the northern and southern fronts to move quickly. I'll go up to the city wall and see. ”

When Tani Shofu went up to the top of the city wall, Lieutenant General Seki, the commander of the 34th Division, was already there.

Seeing Gu Shoufu coming, Guan Guizhi saluted respectfully, and then pointed to the direction of Licheng in the east and said: "Your Excellency Commander, please see, the headlights have illuminated the sky, indicating that Liu Yimin's troops have a lot of vehicles!" ”

Gu Shoufu realized that his judgment of Liu Yimin's strength was ridiculous, just thinking that he couldn't get to Jinan now at the normal infantry marching speed, how could he forget that this guy had been to Tianjin, Qingdao, and Lianyungang, and had eliminated so many imperial troops, and must have captured many cars, rubber cars and war horses, and his mobility ability was probably stronger than that of the Sixth Division!

At this time, Gu Shoufu realized that this Jinan City was probably in danger.

Jinan used to be called Jinan Road and Daibei Road, and it was only changed to Jinan City on July 1, 1929.

Jinan City is different from other cities, it is a set of cities, which is typical of easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Before the Qing Dynasty, Jinan City was just an old city with four city gates, the east gate was called Qichuan Gate, the west gate was called Leyuan Gate, the south gate was called Shuntian Gate, and the north gate was called Huibo Gate, that is, North Water Gate. The walls of the old city are 12-14 meters high and 10-12 meters thick. Every 70 to 100 meters there is a fort (commonly known as a horse face) protruding 4 meters outward, and the moat is 5 or 6 meters to 20 or 30 meters wide. There is an urn city inside the city gate, so each city gate is a double city gate.

In the Xianfeng period, due to the increase in the number of households in the east, south and west of the city, commerce prospered, and the outer city was built. The circumference of the outer city wall is 20 kilometers, and it is an earthen wall built for slabs, commonly known as the polder wall. During the Tongzhi period, the earthen wall was rebuilt into a stone polder wall, the north earthen polder was abolished, and it was shrunk to the northwest corner and the northeast corner of the city wall, with a circumference of 12,221 meters, a height of 5 meters, a base thickness of 5 meters, a top width of 3.3 meters, 14 forts along the polder, and more than 3,300 battlements. There are 7 Weizi gates: the east is the Yonggu Gate, commonly known as the East Shefang Gate; The south is Dai'an Gate, commonly known as Nanweizi Gate; the southwest is Yongsui Gate; The west is Yongzhen Gate; The northwest is Ji'an Gate, commonly known as North Small Gate; The north is Haiyan Gate, commonly known as the vegetable market Weizi Gate; The northeast is Yongjing Gate. There is an outer trench dug outside the polder wall, which is eight meters wide and four meters deep.

In the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, because the old city wall seriously affected the traffic inside and outside the city, on the basis of the city wall of the Ming Dynasty, a gate was added on each side: Kenji Gate was opened in the east of the north gate, Xunli Gate was opened in the south of the East Gate, Kunshun Gate was opened in the west of the South Gate, and Qianjian Gate was opened in the north of the West Gate.

After opening up the commercial port in 1904, in order to facilitate the traffic between the city and the commercial port, the Puli Gate was added to the Weizi Wall in the outer city, and the phosphorus Xiang Gate was opened in the fifth year of the Republic of China, and after the establishment of Qilu University, in order to facilitate the traffic with the medical school and hospital in the Weizi, a new gate was opened at the south entrance of Nanxin Street opposite the school gate, and in the early 30s, the Zhongshan Gate was opened in the southeast corner of the Weizi Wall.

So far, there are 19 city gates in Jinan City, including eight city gates in the old city and eleven city gates in the outer city polder wall.

Due to the 1928 Jinan tragedy, the old city gates and urn towers in the east, south and west were destroyed by artillery fire, and Han Fuyu was unable to repair them when he was in charge of Shandong, and Jinan had another polder city to protect it, so the surname Suo demolished all the three gate towers and built the city wall as a ring road.

After the artillery group launched an attack, Liu Yimin led the division headquarters to leave the Hudi Catholic Church in Zaoyuan, and went to Wangsherenzhuang by car, where he established a headquarters in the reading hall in the village.

Wangshe Renzhuang is 15 kilometers away from Jinan, which can be reached in more than 20 minutes by car and an hour by horseback riding.

After the location of the division headquarters was determined, the communications battalion was busy setting up radio antennas and pulling out the telephone lines connecting with the brigades and regiments.

The telephone line was not connected for a while, but the radio was quickly connected.

Liu Yimin first sent a report to the chairman and the headquarters, reporting that the attack had been launched and that it was progressing smoothly. He then sent a report to all brigades, Hong Chaoyuan of the Lunan Group, Chen Shiqu of the Taixi Group, Zhao Shan of the Eighth Brigade of the Jiao Eighth Brigade, and Xu Shiyou of the Luxi Garrison Brigade, asking them to report on the progress and changes in the enemy situation in a timely manner.

Zeng Zhongsheng reminded Liu Yimin that the battle plan allowed the artillery group to directly shell the city wall and the tanks to directly enter the city to launch an attack.

The reason why Zeng Zhongsheng reminded him like this was mainly because he fought in the past, and his instructors paid great attention to the protection of cultural relics. Under normal circumstances, Liu Yimin strictly forbids the bombardment of urban buildings. But what time is it? On both the north and south lines, there are elite divisions of devils rushing to Jinan non-stop, trying to gather the main force of the instructor under the city of Jinan. And Jinan City is a typical easy to defend and difficult to attack, the city wall is solid, not to mention, there is a city in the city, and then to be confined to the concept of protecting cultural relics, do not dare to let artillery, tanks into the city, just to attack the city by ordinary means, I am afraid that the attack on a day and a night can not be taken down, after dawn said that the military aircraft group is coming, that the instructor is really going to be a river of blood under the city of Jinan!

Liu Yimin nodded and told Zeng Zhongsheng that according to the implementation of the battle plan, in addition to the residential buildings, any other place where there is stubborn resistance from the army can carry out fire attacks!

(To be continued)