January 21, 1939, the second day of the first lunar month, the great cold, is also the fifteenth anniversary of Lenin's death.

On this day, the sky was freezing cold, and the cold wind was swishing, enveloping the land of North China into an ice-like world.

No matter how cold the weather is, the battlefield where the two armies are fighting is hot.

After the commander of the 35th Division of the Japanese Army, Osamu Maeda, and the commander of the 13th Independent Mixed Brigade and Regiment, Morita Masafumi, commanded the troops to break through the first line of resistance of the Eighth Route Army, "they did not taste the joy of victory," but were made furious by a series of casualty figures. In particular, the leaflets of the Eighth Route Army were found from the soldiers, which made the two old devils even more frightened. These two old devils immediately ordered the commanders of all units to command the troops to sing the Japanese military song to boost morale.

After some tossing, the 35th Division of the Japanese Army and the 13th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade attacked the porcelain kiln. After the plan achieves its goal, it quickly goes north to "encircle Dawenkou."

Just as the 35th Division and the 13th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade were advancing along the Jinpu Road, Takamasa Sekii commanded the 14th Division to arrive in Yanzhou.

After the 10th Division was eliminated in the Battle of Jilubian, Takasho Sekii commanded the 14th Division to participate in the Japanese heavy army group's attack on Shandong to Dashao, and in the bloody battle of Zhoucun, he learned the power of the Eighth Route Army.

To a considerable extent, the combat effectiveness of a military unit derives from the command style of a military commander. Like the 14th Division, under the command of Kenji Dohihara, it once made a roundabout run for thousands of miles to attack eastern Henan, and its combat style was quite sharp. The reason for this is not how high Kenji Tuhihara's command level is, but that this old devil has been engaged in spy work in China for a long time, and he thinks that he has thoroughly studied the politics, economy, and military affairs of China's society, and he looks down on the ** team in his heart, so he dares to cross thousands of miles with a division and regiment. This is the case with Tsuchihara, and so is Seishiro Itagaki, who committed suicide by caesarean section. If they had encountered an opponent like the Eighth Route Army at the beginning of their war of aggression against China, I am afraid they might not have dared to be so rampant.

Sekii Takamasa was different from Tohihara, and when he took over as commander of the 14th Division, the Eighth Route Army had already created earth-shattering achievements in North China. The last time he participated in the sweep of Shandong, Chen Dayong commanded the main force of the Seventh Brigade to defeat the 33rd Division, and Sekii Takachang sat on elite soldiers and powerful firepower, and the first thing he thought of was self-preservation instead of counterattacking and outflanking and cutting off the rear of the Eighth Route Army, which showed that he was no longer as bold and rampant as Tu Feiyuan, and had become a cautious commander who was afraid of being annihilated.

It is precisely because of this that Liu Yimin looks down on him from the bottom of his heart, and he wants to settle the Japanese army's southern front group in a war.

After arriving in Yanzhou, Sekii Takamasa did not rush to attack. He had to wait for the Eighth Route Army's blocking troops to be inseparable from the 35th Division and the 13th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, and the strength of the Eighth Route Army's blocking troops was all violent before he could swing his army and kill them. Anyway, Yanzhou is not far from Jinan, and the road mileage is only more than 100 kilometers, and his 14th Division has been fully mechanized, and "the speed of movement is fast, as long as the Eighth Route Army does not block it," it can reach the city of Jinan in a few hours.

Osamu Maeda and Masahomi Morita commanded the 35th Division and the 13th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade to storm the porcelain kiln, and the Japanese planes kept flying over the porcelain kiln, dropping dozens of kilograms of bombs one after another at all suspicious targets, and the artillery of the 35th Field Artillery Wing and the 13th Independent Artillery Brigade were also shelling incessantly, covering the Japanese army to launch one bō charge after another, and every moment Japanese soldiers fell under the guns of the Eighth Route Army that were blocking the attack.

At this time, His Excellency Lieutenant General Takamasa Sekii, commander of the 14th Division of the Japanese Army, was sitting leisurely in the division headquarters of Maeda Osamu in Yanzhou City, drinking tea and teasing female soldiers, as if the war had nothing to do with him.

It was not until 1 o'clock in the morning that Maeda captured the first line of the porcelain kiln and began to attack and advance in the direction of Dawenkou, and then Sekii Takamasa left Yanzhou City and commanded the 14th Division along the Yanzhou, Ningyang, Feicheng, and Jinan highways, and viciously killed the past.

At this time, Liu Yimin, who was in Tai'an, was relieved.

At this time, the battlefield situation was extremely clear.

The Japanese offensive on the eastern front was fierce, and the Jiaodong Garrison Brigade, Qinghe Garrison Brigade, and Luzhong Garrison Brigade, which were responsible for blocking the attack, were strictly ordered by Liu Yimin not to block the attack head-on, but to carry out flank attacks on both flanks, forcing the Japanese army to the Jiaoji Railway and the Jiqing Highway as much as possible, and to reduce the poison of the Japanese elite corps to the market towns and villages along the line as much as possible. It is tantamount to letting the Japanese army advance towards Jinan in great strides.

The Japanese army on the northern front pressed the border with heavy troops, but Xu Shiyou's Luxi Garrison Brigade and Fu Zhuting's New Sixth Brigade, which served as blockers, had already prepared, relying on fortifications to resist step by step. Every time the little devil breaks through a line of defense, he has to leave a dead body behind.

The Japanese army on the southern front, since the 14th Division was put into battle, was held by our army, and was advancing step by step towards the preset battlefield attack.

Liu Yimin pulled a chair and sat in front of the map. According to the battlefield situation, Zhu Zhexiao kept working on the map to "draw the latest progress of the enemy and us." "The staff officers kept answering the telephones, constantly briefing the troops on the enemy situation and conveying the instructions of the division commanders.

From morning to noon, our army on the northern front was not afraid of the Japanese heavy army group, the Luxi Garrison Brigade and the New Sixth Brigade had Jinpu Road and the Dexian-Jinan Highway as the defensive axis, and the six main regiments were deployed in echelons, blocking them one by one, and mines, explosives packs, long guns and short artillery were put into battle together, making the little devils pinch their noses and cry. It was not until noon that the Japanese army occupied the plain county seat, which was 3 kilometers away from the county seat of Dexian.

The commander-in-chief of the Japanese army on the northern front was Lieutenant General Naosaburo Okabe, former chief of staff of the North China Front Army and current commander of the 1st Division of the Japanese Army. This old guy "learned from Terauchi Shouichi that he was not strict." Terauchi Shouichi also saw that he was very useful, so he recommended him to replace Kyosuke Kawamura as the commander of the first division. At this point, Naosaburo Okabe couldn't wait, "Determined to release the winner."

It turned out that although the Japanese army on the northern front fought all morning, the first and second divisions of the Japanese army did not enter the battle, but only followed behind the 23rd Division, the 32nd Division originally stationed in Cangxian, and the 36th Division stationed in Luxi as reserves.

Naosaburo Gangbe served as chief of staff of the North China Front Army and had a deep understanding of the operational characteristics of the Eighth Route Army. He knew that he was not afraid of the Eighth Route Army fighting blocking warfare and positional warfare, but he was afraid that the Eighth Route Army would fight guerrilla warfare.

Regarding Shanshanyuan's battle plan to recover Jinan, open up Jiaoji Road and Jinpu Road, and gather and annihilate Liu Yimin's instructor, Gangbu Naosaburo had little confidence from the beginning. Joke, last time he and Terauchi Shouichi and Tada Jun carefully planned "Mobilizing 700,000 troops failed to eliminate Liu Yi's main force" What ability does Shanshan Yuan have to eliminate Liu Yi's main force?

Gangbu Naosaburo knew that it was not difficult to open up Jiaoji Road, Jinpu Road and recover Jinan, but the difficulty was to eliminate the main force of Liu Yimin's tutor. What are the characteristics of Liu Yimin's operations? That's never dead, keep a place "when you see the opportunity, pounce on and bite one.! It was this accurate and ruthless bite that made the North China Front Army feel painful to the bone marrow and couldn't slow down. Maybe he has already prepared to evacuate Jiaoji Road, Jinpu Road and Jinan, and is waiting for the imperial army to recover! Because "as long as the Imperial Army recovers these places", they will divide their troops to defend. This division of troops" heavy army group has become a garrison force, and each division and regiment has become a fragrant feast in front of Liu Yimin, he can eat whenever he wants, and he will not even say hello to the imperial army.

On this point, General Terauchi Shouichi made it very clear at the first operational meeting on the encirclement and suppression of Shandong by heavy troops, that Liu Yimin was an imperial army that wanted to use Jinan, Tai'an, and Weixian to fish and catch the bait. Otherwise, "where does he steal money, food, and ammunition?"

Don't say "This Okabe Naosaburo is really smart, and he understands the thoughts of his old opponent very thoroughly."

Now, Naosaburo Okabe is in charge of commanding the strength of the seven divisions of the Japanese army's northern front group, and he has a heavy army, and he has to make good use of it.

In the opinion of Naosaburo Gangbe, "Liu Yimin will never use the main force of the instructor to deal with his northern line group." Because Liu Yimin has always concentrated superior forces and superior artillery fire in wars, and fought a quick battle, "I have not heard of any of Liu Yimin's battles that lasted for a few days and nights." It is very likely that Shanshanyuan and they guessed correctly, Liu Yimin may have concentrated his main force to ambush the Fifth Division. Although the Eighth Route Army, which was in front of his own northern front group, was full of tricks and tricks, "and was very well equipped and had a large enough force," and fought very tenaciously, the 23rd Division, the 32nd Division, and the 36th Division that were responsible for the attack suffered heavy casualties in one morning, but they were definitely not Liu Yimin's most elite troops. The reason for this is the lack of artillery and anti-aircraft artillery fire of Liu Yimin's elite troops.

Okabe Naosaburo also sent a telegram to Osamu Maeda, commander of the 35th Division of the Japanese Army on the southern front, asking whether the attack had been bombarded by the artillery group of the Eighth Route Army. Maeda replied that the Eighth Route Army did not have artillery formed in regiments, and only infantry guns, mortars, and grenadiers were used. At this time, Gangbu Naosaburo became more and more convinced that Liu Yi's main force was hiding and waiting in Luzhong.

In that case, "Naosaburo Okabe is welcome. This old devil is ambitious, and wants to swallow the Eighth Route Army that served as a blocker in one bite and create a miracle in the history of the Japanese army since the start of the war. Okabe Naosaburo felt that as long as the troops of the Eighth Route Army on the west bank of the Yellow River were surrounded and annihilated, he could naturally serve as the commander of the army, and even be directly promoted to general and take charge of a front army.

As a result, the 1st and 2nd Divisions, which had been following behind the 23rd, 32nd, and 36th Divisions, made a move. Even the 40th Division and the 41st Division, which were on guard duty at Deshi Road, received orders from them to quickly deploy troops and make preparations for support operations.

The Eighth Route Army was fighting the Japanese army, and the local armed forces were not idle. The Yucheng County Party Committee's "Book", Wei Jingping, the political commissar of the Yucheng County Detachment, who developed from the original Fan Zhuxian Seventh Detachment, and Wang Kekou, the county magistrate of Yucheng County and the leader of the county detachment, led the county detachment to the border area between Yucheng and Gaotang and the plains after organizing the Jianbi Qingye. Their task was to monitor the movements of the Japanese troops on the northern front and prevent the Japanese army from outflanking Yucheng by detouring through the road from Dexian to Gaotang.

Wei Jingping and Wang Kekou both went to the first branch of Kang University to study, "So far, Ma Yizhi, another old party member in Yucheng, is still studying at the first branch of Kang University with a group of cadres.

In just three months of study, local underground party members Wei Jingping and Wang Kekou have gained insight, and not only their political and theoretical level have been improved, but their military ability has also been improved. After returning to Yucheng, the seven brigades were developed into a county detachment with more than 1,500 people, and became three brigades.

At noon, the cold wind drilled into the soldiers' uniforms, and the soldiers who were crawling in the trenches couldn't help coughing.

Wei Jingping considered "whether to leave one brigade to monitor the devils, and the other two brigades to temporarily withdraw to Fangsi" to prevent the cold, and come to familiarize yourself with the tunnel fortifications here, in case the little devils really capture Jinan in the future, the border area of the three counties is an important base of the county party committee and the county government.

As soon as I wanted to discuss it with Wang Kekou, the reconnaissance platoon came back on a bicycle to report. He's ***, the little devil is really sneaking up on him.

The reconnaissance platoon commander rode all the way, tired and panting, pointing to the direction of the plains and the direction of Gaotang, and reported that there were a lot of devils, including iron turtles, "motorcycles, cavalry, cars, and a lot of artillery." It seems that "the devil is not going to detour to Yucheng", but goes straight to the Qi River.

Wei Jingping was alert all of a sudden, could it be that the little devil wanted to make a detour back to Qihe and copy the back roads of the Luxi Garrison Brigade and the New Sixth Brigade that blocked the attack?

After discussing with Wang Kekou, they all felt that the matter was important and that they had to report it to the troops.

Wei Jingping immediately ordered, and the radio reported to the Luxi Garrison Brigade, and the whole detachment immediately prepared for battle.

The northwestern plain of Lu is endless, and there are large roads crisscrossing it everywhere. This area was originally occupied by the Japanese army, and it was liberated after the Eighth Route Army captured Jinan. A few days after the good days, the *** devil came to do evil again. Can the cadres and fighters of the Yucheng detachment agree?

The sound of land mines exploding in the distance, and the sound of gunshots, must be the bad luck of the militiamen along the road who have seen the ghosts and half-relied on the tunnels in the village to find the little devils.

Wei Jingping and Wang Kekou raised their binoculars and began to observe, and in the distance, "the little devil came up" from north to south on all the country roads were dusty, needless to say, it was the smoke and dust raised by the devil's car and cavalry. Strangely, the devil doesn't seem to care about the militia's attack at all, and just buries his head in the road.

Wei Jingping and Wang Kekou glanced at each other, "I know that I am in trouble, I have encountered the elite division of the devil, and the land mines and rifles of the militia are basically useless in front of the devil's tanks, armored vehicles, and cars." It seems that "if you hit hard, you have to retreat into the tunnel as soon as possible, and if it's late, you will be dumplings made by little devils."

When the leaders of the Luxi Garrison Brigade assigned tasks to them, they made it clear that this was a battle against the Japanese army's heavy army group, not against those grain conscription teams and puppet troops in the past, and the Yucheng detachment was not an opponent of the little devils. When a small search and reconnaissance force of the Japanese army is discovered, it is necessary to resolutely eliminate or block it. In the face of a roundabout attack by a large army led by Japanese tanks, it is necessary to quickly retreat, relying on villages and tunnels to deal with the follow-up infantry of the little devils.

Sure enough, this group of devils was unusual: "They all opened the road with tanks and armored vehicles, followed by cars carrying infantry, and the cavalry galloped on horses in the fields to serve as a guard and search mission."

To deal with such devils, the only effective weapon of the Yucheng detachment is the explosive bag. Fortunately, they have enough explosives packets, and they are all buried in the main road, "just waiting for the little devils to come up!"

Wei Jingping asked Wang Kekou to immediately lead the detachment to retreat, leaving a squad to ignite explosives, and Wang Kekou knew that this battle could not be won and that he had to withdraw. However, he didn't die, "I have to fight with the devil anyway", I can't let them go south so easily.

Wang Kekou's eyes were full of excitement, and he whispered to Wei Jingping: "Old man, we have light and heavy machine guns, and it doesn't work to fight devil tanks, but it works to fight cars." After a moment of explosives, all our weapons fired, heavy machine guns for the cars of the little devils, light machine guns and rifles for the cavalry of the little devils. Lao Tzu didn't believe it, "More than 1,500 people can't kill him one hundred and eighty people in a row." ”

Wei Jingping asked rhetorically: "What if you are caught up by the devil?" ”

Wang Kekou said with certainty: "No, the little devils are in a hurry, they will not use such a large force against local armed people like us, we will fight for a while and run." By the time the little devil caught up, we had already entered the tunnels under the village. , now it's good. After the big army of little devils, there must be heavy troops, and those cars and carts must have pulled a certain amount of rice and white flour and boxes of bullets, grenades, and shells. We will specifically find these logistics soldiers to start and fight a few battles, and our Yucheng detachment can also be replaced with Japanese-style equipment. ”

Wang Kekou said that Wei Jingping's heart also warmed up, and he immediately issued a combat order.

It was the 2nd Division of the Japanese Army that came.

After Okamura Ninji was promoted to commander of the first army, Lieutenant General Yasui Toji, commander of the 5th Independent Garrison of the Japanese Army in North Manchuria, was transferred to the commander of the 2nd Division. This time, "it is also the first time that Fujiji Yasui led the Second Division into the customs to participate in the battle, and he still dreams of making meritorious contributions!"

After receiving the Gangbu Naosaburo detour to outflank the Eighth Route Army, Yasui Fujiji shouted Yo Xi, this is the battle that the Second Division of the Imperial Army should fight in a roundabout, good at running, and good at night fighting!

With the support of Naosaburo Okabe, Yasui Toji became rampant, and regarded the Shandong Eighth Route Army as the North Manchurian Anti-Japanese Alliance, feeling that as soon as his army arrived, "the Eighth Route Army would scatter and flee for his life."

Fujiji Yasui couldn't have imagined that someone would come to brush his beard when he left Pingyuan County. Moreover, the people who came were not the main force of the Eighth Route Army, but the militia and local armed forces. The militia's land mines, old-fashioned rifles, he can ignore the "Yucheng detachment's light and heavy machine guns and explosives packages, can he still ignore it?"

In fact, Wei Jingping and Wang Kekou ambushed the vanguard of the Japanese Second Division, and if the Japanese Second Division pressed up on the whole line, "it would really not be able to run...