It was the Eighth Brigade led by Zhao Shan and Zhao Jie who was responsible for the attack on Weixian. This force was formed by the instructor who contained the [***] soldiers who had been scattered in the Battle of Taiyuan on the way to Taiyuan. After the formation of the troops, they were pulled into the Niangziguan battlefield, but they rarely encountered major battles in the future. In Liu Yimin's heart, among the eight main brigades of the instructor, the first seven are already the elite of a hundred battles, and only the eighth brigade needs to be tempered the most. Therefore, he deliberately transferred the Eighth Brigade from Jiaodong back to take on the important task of attacking Weixian.

After giving the order to attack Weixian, Liu Yimin rode his horse and rushed to the Eighth Brigade.

This Zhao Shan was born as the commander of the old fifth battalion and joined the Red Eighteenth Regiment by the Xiangjiang River. Zhao Jie was born as an instructor in the old first battalion, and was sent to the Red Eighteenth Regiment from the central government in the passage. These two people were unsuccessful on the Long March, and they were one of the most backbone generals under Liu Yimin. Not to mention Wang Laohu, who is a pioneer cultivated by Liu Yimin.

Since the recovery of Jizhong, Liu Yimin, Zhao Shan, Zhao Jie, and Wang Laohu have not seen each other for nearly three months. As soon as they heard that the division commander had come to visit the troops in person, Zhao Shan, Zhao Jie, and Wang Laohu greeted them.

Liu Yimin jumped off the horse, shook hands with Zhao Shan, Zhao Jie, and Wang Laohu, and went directly to the brigade headquarters.

This Weixian is the kite capital of Weifang in later generations, because it is located in the middle of Luzhong and Jiaodong Peninsula, Yishan in the south, Bohai Sea in the north, Jiaolai in the east, Qidu in the west, known as the capital of Donglai, the famous city of Beihai.

There is a Qing generation, Weixian imperial examination culture is wonderful, what the mountain left two giant Confucian, what one alley two champions, what one door four jinshi, one door three Hanlin, etc., the sound shocks the world. With such a cultural atmosphere, coupled with the economic effect brought by the opening of Jiaoji Road, the ancient Weixian County has become a pearl on the land of Qilu. In the city, there are many houses, shops, cultural relics, and many historic sites.

However, this Weixian county is different from other counties, the Bailang River passes through the city from south to north, dividing Weicheng into two and becoming a twin city.

Weicheng in the west of the Bailang River is called Xicheng, also called Chengli. When the Han Dynasty created Beihai County, it was a soil city that was built, and Chongzhen was rebuilt into a stone city in 12 years, and the terrain was high and low, and it was tortoiseshell-shaped. The circumference of the city wall is nine miles, the average height of the city wall is 3.7 zhang, the thickness is 2.6 zhang, there are 28 forts, 1,600 battlements. The streets in the city are in the middle of the big crossing, and there are 48 large and small streets and alleys. There are four city gates built in the whole city, namely the north gate Wanghai gate, the south gate stable gate, the east gate Chaoyang gate, the west gate Ying'en gate, and the city gate is built with a tower to look into the distance. The four corners of the city are built with corner towers and urn cities, and there are isolated forts with the same height as the city walls outside the city, and there are tunnels to communicate with the city. At this time, the East Gate Tower has been demolished, and there are Gothic standard clocks on top of it, which are sonic booms for several miles.

Weicheng in the west of the Bailang River is called Dongguanwu, Qing Xianfeng started construction in 11 years, Tongzhi was completed in 5 years, rammed with Sanhe soil, similar to snake skin, and the turtle back shape of Xicheng, cleverly formed the urban layout of "turtle and snake dependent". There are many streets and alleys in Dongguan City, there are nine streets and eighteen lanes, and it is the commercial and trade center of Weixian.

Weixian City not only has a high and wide city wall, but also has a moat that is two zhang wide and five feet deep, which is a typical fortress that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. In the 15th year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, more than 10,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry of the Qing army used red-coated artillery to bombard in turn, erecting hundreds of ladders to attack the city, but they were desperately repelled by the county commander Zhou Lianggong and the soldiers and civilians of the city. Since then, such as the uprising of the Twist Army, the warlord melee at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, etc., the besiegers have repeatedly come to the city, but because Weicheng is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is impregnable and indestructible, and none of them have broken through the city. So it has the reputation of "Weixian Stone City can be worth 100,000 male soldiers".

In history, in 1948, when Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin led the Shandong Corps to launch the Weixian Campaign, they used 54 regiments and more than 800 artillery pieces, taking advantage of the characteristics of the high west city and low east city of Weixian County, and using powerful artillery fire and blasting to break through the fortifications of the Xicheng city, capture the west city, and then attack the east city condescendingly according to the west city, creating an example of our army's fortifications. Of course, at this time, the situation was different from that of the Weixian Campaign, when Xu Shiyou fought the Weixian Campaign, he faced more than 40,000 Kuomintang troops, and at this time, the army did not have many troops in the city, and there were only about 2,000 people when the battle was full. What's more, the Shandong Corps did not have such a killer weapon as a special combat team back then, so it could only attack by force. Besides, what Liu Yimin wants is to encircle the point and send reinforcements, and the devil in Weixian County can't be eliminated immediately, so he must use it to fish and catch big fish.

The Eighth Brigade had long known that the task of attacking Weicheng had fallen on its shoulders, and the reconnaissance company had already found out the situation in Weicheng clearly, and the battle plan had already been determined, so it was waiting for the attack order.

According to the original plan of the Eighth Brigade, the attack on Weicheng was divided into two steps. In the first step, the first squadron of the special operations brigade mixed into Xicheng to hide, and the new eighth regiment took the lead in Fangzi, attracting the Weicheng devils to come to the rescue, and the main force was ambushed between Weicheng and Fangzi, and after luring the snake out of the hole, the main force of the Weicheng devils was eliminated between Weicheng and Fangzi. In the second step, the No. 1 Special Operations Squadron opened the west gate, received the troops into the city, and engaged in street battles with the remaining enemies. Teach the Eighth Brigade to leave part not to besiege the enemy, and the main force will go out of the city, and cooperate with the large army to eliminate the devil reinforcements.

This battle plan was vetoed by Liu Yimin, the reason is that Fangzi is too close to Weicheng, and there are few devil defenders, and the troops cannot be concealed during the day, and the devils are likely not to reinforce at night, because the devils stationed in Fangzi are only a small team of devils, and the commander of the third brigade and regiment, Sasaki, is a standard China expert, and he is known as the father of the Manchurian Defense Forces. In this way, the idea of eliminating the main force of the devil between Weicheng and Fangzi seems too wishful thinking. In addition, in the past two months, the 3rd Brigade and the 7th Brigade have been operating on the north side of the Jiaoji Line, although it has been a covert development, it is impossible for the devils to not know a little bit about the inside story with their intelligence ability, and their vigilance will inevitably be extremely high; as long as the fang is fired, the little devils will inevitably defend the city to the death, and it will be impossible for our army to break the city without using artillery and explosives. But Weicheng is full of humanities, and Liu Yimin, who came from later generations, naturally knew that every brick and wood would be a tourist resource in the future, and he was absolutely unwilling to destroy those ancient buildings under his own fire. Therefore, it is inevitable to deny the original battle plan of the Eighth Brigade.

According to the fact that the Weicheng Army had only one infantry brigade and the cavalry, artillery, engineer, and baggage teams of the Third Brigade and a small number of Han puppet troops, Liu Yimin's request to Zhao Shan was to use the No. 1 Special Operations Squadron as a sharp knife to directly break the city, and after controlling the city defense, divide the devils and the puppet army and destroy them, leaving only the devils and the puppet army to surround and destroy the headquarters of the Third Brigade and a part of the puppet army, forcing the enemy to ask for help, and first transfer the puppet troops stationed in various county towns back and gather and annihilate under Weicheng. Then cooperate with the main force to eliminate the main force of the devil who has been reinforced.

As for the devil squad of Fangzi, while our army is attacking the city, we can send a battalion to piggyback on them and destroy them.

In this way, whether the main force of the army will reinforce Weixian, Liu Yimin has absolute confidence. Because he knows the important surname of Jiaoji Road, cut off Jiaoji Road, and the army will inevitably send reinforcements from east to west to restore the normal operation of Jiaoji Road.

After arriving at the temporary headquarters of the Eighth Brigade, Liu Yimin looked at the schematic diagram of the deployment of combat forces on the wall, and knew that the Eighth Brigade had revised the battle plan in accordance with his own orders, and that the situation in Weicheng was very accurate, clear, and thorough. According to the signs on the schematic map of the Eighth Brigade, the main force of the defending army was concentrated in the west city, and there was only one squadron in the east city, and the headquarters of the third brigade was located in Xiaohuanglou.

In this way, a situation may arise, that is, once the devils can't resist it, they may retreat to the east city, and after dawn, the devil planes may bomb the west city indiscriminately.

Liu Yimin looked at the schematic diagram of the deployment of troops, and Zhao Shan took this problem into account, and deployed the No. 1 Special Operations Squadron separately, and started Xicheng and Dongcheng at the same time.

After reading the schematic diagram of the deployment of troops, Liu Yimin was completely relieved, turned to Zhao Shan, Zhao Jie and Wang Laohu and said: "I came mainly to see your final deployment, which is very good and detailed. Let's go! ”

After Zhao Shan, Zhao Jie, and Wang Laohu saluted, Zhao Shan ordered the troops to start moving. Liu Yimin immediately returned to the division headquarters, and in his eyes, this Weicheng was already in the teacher's pocket.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the units of the Eighth Brigade, which were hidden in the northwest of Weixian, quickly moved to the southeast, aiming directly at Weicheng.

Leading the team for Wang Laohu was Qiao Mingzhi, the leader of the third reconnaissance brigade of the Jiaodong People's Anti-Guerrilla Detachment, which was born from the Yuhuangding Uprising in Ye County. He is a native of Zhuli Village, Weixian County, originally pulled the pole as a bandit leader, the bandit name Qiao Ba, because of the failure of the conspiracy to rob Jinan Minsheng Bank in 1936, the team broke up, he fled to Pingdu to work as a barber. During the Yuhuangding uprising in Ye County, because he had a gun and superb marksmanship, he could raise a gun and pinch wires, and he was developed into a guerrilla by Luo Zhufeng, a [***] person. This person is a legendary hero, experienced in a hundred battles in history, has repeatedly performed miraculous feats, has been wounded 13 times, Xu Shiyou once awarded him a war horse, a pistol.

After the Eighth Brigade arrived in Jiaodong, in accordance with Liu Yimin's order, the armed forces led by our party in Jiaodong were reorganized, and the three detachments were organized into the Jiaodong Reading Force First Regiment, and Qiao Mingzhi was also reappointed as the reconnaissance platoon commander of the Jiaodong Reading Force Regiment No. 1 Regiment. This time, the main force of the Eighth Brigade marched west to participate in the Luzhong Campaign, and the Jiaodong Reading Force Regiment stayed in Ye County, but Zhao Shan took a fancy to Qiao Mingzhi's advantage of being familiar with the geography of Weixian County and brought him with him. The result was really right, and it was under his leadership that the reconnaissance company of the Eighth Brigade infiltrated the city of Weixian to conduct a detailed reconnaissance.

After seeing Wang Laohu's Special Operations No. 1 Squadron, Qiao Mingzhi's mouth couldn't close, he couldn't imagine that there were such elite troops in this world, the steel helmets were covered with cloth, and the automatic rifles that he had never seen before were all wrapped with strips of cloth, and he was wearing a ragged cloak, the color was colorful and green, and when he lay on the ground, it was simply a pile of grass. Those fighters knew at a glance that they were all practitioners, and they were practitioners in the same step. However, it can be seen from their cold eyes that they used to be ruthless bandits, and these fighters are afraid that they are much more ruthless than themselves!

Qiao Mingzhi didn't know why the No. 1 Special Operations Squadron wrapped its guns with cloth and covered its steel helmet with cloth, and he didn't dare to ask. Because in the afternoon, when he was idle, he once tried a trick with a warrior, but he was inexplicably knocked down with one move. At this moment, Qiao Mingzhi felt that these somewhat mysterious warriors were all men, and he must come to this small army!

When he touched the side of the moat, because the drawbridge had been pulled up at night, Qiao Mingzhi was thinking about how to pass, and he saw the leading captain Wang Laohu make a gesture, and immediately a soldier put a few regular rafters flat towards the other side of the moat, and there was no sound at all. Qiao Mingzhi thought to himself, these soldiers are afraid that they often engage in this kind of training, and the methods are too sophisticated, if they go to be bandits, it is estimated that they will definitely succeed in robbing Jinan Minsheng Bank back then.

Just as he was thinking, he saw several warriors crawling across the bridge made of rafters. Then, one by one, the warriors beside him crossed the moat. Qiao Mingzhi flickered in his heart, this is an impregnable Weicheng, there are devils' sentry posts on the forts outside the city, there are not only devils' searchlights on the city wall, but also devils with three steps, one post, five steps, one sentry, those machine guns are afraid that they are all aimed at the city, these people are really more courageous than themselves!

After looking around, Qiao Mingzhi smiled himself. It turned out that the path he led them was itself a dead spot of the devil's searchlight, and the little devils on the city wall and the little devils on the forts outside the city were afraid that they couldn't see it.

Before I could think about it again, Captain Wang's extremely low voice came from my ears: "You stay here to pick up the troops, and you are not allowed to say anything no matter what happens." When we have taken the west gate, you will go into the city with your troops and continue to lead the way for us. ”

Qiao Mingzhi nodded, and Wang Laohu quickly crossed the moat.

The next thing opened Qiao Mingzhi's eyes even more. After crossing the moat, the 1st Special Operations Squadron used crossbow arrows to solve the devil sentries on the fort outside the city, and several fighters took off the small iron claws with strings from their backs, threw them at the fort, and then climbed up. Qiao Mingzhi now understood, they were going to enter the city through the tunnel of the fort!

By the time the large army behind him came up, it was already one o'clock in the night.

Qiao Mingzhi waited for the west gate with straight eyes, hoping that the heroes who touched it would open the city gate.

Sure enough, under Qiao Mingzhi's longing gaze, the impregnable west gate of Weicheng opened, and then, the command of the devil sentry and the crisp gunfire sounded on the city wall. Soon, the 1st Special Warfare Squadron went up to the city wall and began to exchange fire with the enemy, and the devil's searchlight was also extinguished. All the devils in Weixian County were awakened, and a terrible whistle sounded all over the city.

After the 1st Special Operations Squadron firmly controlled the West Gate, the suspension bridge over the moat was also lowered. The large army of the Eighth Route Army stepped across the drawbridge, rushed into Weicheng through the west gate, went up to the city wall, and began to fight fiercely with the devils.

On this dark night, the history of Weicheng, which has never been breached since ancient times, has been rewritten.

(To be continued)