Just when Liu Yimin finished the combat meeting and was about to bend his bow, the situation on the southern front changed abruptly.

When Lieutenant General Maeda Osamu of the 35th Division stationed in the Yanzhou area received a telegram from the new commander of the 12th Army, Lieutenant General Gu Shoufu, he was organizing troops to advance towards the Nishan area, preparing to destroy the Eighth Route Army in the Nishan area, and to coordinate with the attack launched by the main force of the 114th Division in the direction of Xuzhou from the direction of Linyi.

Nishan is the birthplace of Confucius. According to historical records, Nishan was originally known as Niqiu Mountain, where the wife of the King of Qisheng prayed, and the person who gave birth to Confucius also. Its mountain has five peaks in a row, there are Confucius Temple, Nishan Temple, Nishan Academy and other buildings, and there is a cave where Confucius was born at the foot of Shandong - Confucius Cave.

It stands to reason that Nishan, like Qufu Sankong, is a holy place of Chinese civilization. Since he has repeatedly claimed that he has the same language as China, he should worship the top of Nishan Mountain, but Maeda Osamu doesn't care about this, he is full of thoughts about how to destroy the Eighth Route Army. Therefore, a well-known artillery expert in the army can be regarded as having a place to come into play, and he is thinking about how to command the 35th Wing of the field artillery to fiercely shell all suspicious targets in the Nishan area and cover the infantry to launch a multi-pronged attack in the Nishan area.

It is a pity that the tactics of the Eighth Route Army were flexible, and it implemented active defense tactics, with small units attacking, local armed forces and militia cooperating, laying mine arrays, and ambushes and attacks.

After reading Tani Toshio's telegram, Lieutenant General Maeda felt that Tani Shouo was worthy of being the commander of the Sixth Division, and that his operational command was like a sharp arrow, much more clever than the reckless guy who was Otaka Kamizo.

People are so strange, this Maeda Osamu and Odaka Kamezo quarreled at the combat meeting of the Twelfth Army, and there was a grudge in his heart, but now Odaka Kamezo was captured by the Eighth Route Army, and his life and death were uncertain, Maeda Osamu had a feeling of sadness when he thought of him, and the quarrel and scolding of Otaka Kamezo at the combat meeting were all forgotten.

Tani Toshio's telegram was tantamount to relieving Maeda's siege. Because of the complicated terrain in the mountainous areas and the fact that he had to guard against the traps set by the Eighth Route Army at any time, Maeda knew that it would not be easy for his 35th Division to recover its current combat effectiveness after the defeat on the Jilu border, and he could not take risks casually. Therefore, although nominally he swept the Nishan area with the strength of a division, in fact he moved very slowly, paying great attention to the coordination between various units to avoid being seized by the Eighth Route Army to attack him all the way.

The commander of the 114th Division, Lieutenant General Shigeji Suematsu, was very interesting and sent a brigade of 5,000 puppet Manchurian Defense Army to assist, with the purpose of making the 35th Division attack the Eighth Route Army on the flank and relieve the pressure on the 114th Division's attack in the direction of Linyi.

The puppet Manchurian defense force is different from other puppet army units, and the army advisers are sent to the platoon level, which is firmly in the hands of the army. In a sense, the combat effectiveness of the puppet Manchurian army is much higher than that of the Xuzhou garrison.

With these 5,000 puppet troops, Osamu Maeda will be easy to handle. He learned the lesson of the last rout on the Jilu border and felt that although his 35th Division had greatly improved its combat effectiveness after such a long period of brutal training and battlefield training, it was best not to be hit by the first wave of firepower of the Eighth Route Army, because the losses would be too great and it would easily lead to the rout of the troops. If the 35th Division was placed on the second line and used to support the front-line operations, Rong deliberately dispelled the fear of the soldiers and improved their courage. As a result, Osamu Maeda assigned the puppet army to his three wings as a regiment unit and served as the main attack. According to Maeda's instructions to the three wing commanders, the task of the Imperial Army was to provide fire support, tactical guidance, and supervise the battle, while the task of the Manchurian Defense Army was to attack the positions of the Eighth Route Army, hunt down and kill local cadres of the Eighth Route Army, and eliminate the guerrillas and militia. In short, the puppet army is the dog of the army, and the owner of the dog who lets the dog bite only needs to pull the leash.

Fortunately, these 5,000 puppet troops blocked the bullets for the army, otherwise, the bullets and mines of the Eighth Route Army would have been aimed at the 35th Division.

Now, we can justifiably end the headache of mountain warfare and go to the plains to raid the Eighth Route Army. On this point, Maeda Osamu felt that Tani Shofu was better than Otaka Kamezo, and although the ground in Shandong was large, it was still rich in the plains. As long as you occupy the plains, you want money and money, you want food, guard the lines of communication and blockade, trap the Eighth Route Army in the mountains, and starve them to death, where is the use of losing the lives and ammunition of the soldiers to fight for the mountains! Besides, the Imperial Army has strong mobility and is suitable for fighting in the plain area, and it is not easy to find out that a large army of the Eighth Route Army is showing up in the plain area, which is tantamount to giving credit to himself, if he does not go to the raid immediately, the book of the Army University will be in vain!

Maeda Osamu immediately took action, commanded a regiment of puppet troops with a brigade and an artillery squadron, disguised the main force, continued to feint to the Nishan area, and planned to fight in response to the 114th Division in the direction of Linyi, Xuzhou, and personally led the main force to return to Yanzhou overnight. After dawn, he left two brigades of the 35th Baggage Wing and units directly under the division and regiment, commanded a regiment of the puppet Manchurian National Defense Force and county garrisons to garrison the Yanzhou area, and asked the divisional search wing and the 219th Infantry Wing to put on [***] clothing, set off first, and led the 220th Infantry Wing, the 221st Wing, the 35th Field Artillery Wing, and a brigade of the Baggage Wing to quickly go north along the highway from Yanzhou to Ningyang to Dongping and Feicheng. The target is the town of Anjiazhuang.

The small town of Anjiazhuang is the main battlefield of the fierce battle between the Taixi Group of the Eighth Route Army and the Reading Force of the Yue Army.

The 13th Brigade was formed by troops drawn from the Kwantung Army. This mixed brigade, like the 1st and 5th Reading Mixed Brigades, is an 8,000-strong Reading Mixed Brigade formed in the early days of the Chinese Army, and in addition to having five infantry brigades, it also has four special forces brigades of cavalry, engineering, artillery, and baggage.

When the main force of the instructor advanced into Shandong, the 13th Brigade of the Reading Force Mixed Brigade was attacked by the annihilation surname at Beijipo and Jieshou Station, and all five Reading Infantry Brigades were annihilated. Later, he was transferred back to Jinan and mixed with a remaining wing of the 21st Division, and a part of the soldiers were supplemented to form the Jinan Garrison. Since the basic strength of this unit was a field unit and its combat effectiveness was relatively strong, it was later reinstated and mixed into the 13th Brigade and stationed in the Taixi area.

After receiving the original order from Otaka Kamizo to gather troops and prepare to launch an offensive operation, Morita Masatori concentrated the troops stationed in various places in Dongping County. By the time Shouichi Terauchi ordered him to evacuate Dongping and return to Tai'an, the 13th Brigade had already completed the build-up of troops. However, at this time, due to the annihilation of the 60th Brigade of the Reading Infantry of the 13th Brigade of the Reading Force Mixed Brigade when the Eighth Route Army Taixi Group launched an active attack, Morita Masaho's strength was only left with the 56th, 57th, 58th, and 59th Infantry Brigades of the Reading Infantry and the Reading Cavalry Brigade, the Reading Artillery Brigade, the Reading Engineer Brigade, and the Reading Baggage Brigade, a total of about 7,000 people in 8 brigades.

Major General Morita Masahomi, the commander of the brigade, did not dare to slack off, and after burning, killing and looting in Dongping County, he led the troops concentrated around Dongping County to march eastward, planning to return to Tai'an along the road from Dongping to Tai'an.

As soon as Morita Masahomi led the troops to leave Dongping County, the Eighth Route Army surrounded them from all directions. Morita Masahomi attacked all the way forward, and when he arrived in the area of Anjiazhuang, he was completely encircled by the Eighth Route Army.

The old devil Morita Masatomi was also stubborn, and when he saw that he was encircled by the Eighth Route Army, he simply didn't leave. It was only sixty or seventy miles from Dongping to Anjiazhuang Town, and he walked too hard, and the Eighth Route Army was like a pack of wolves, constantly attacking his troops, and every bite was dripping with blood.

Morita Masatomi had already heard clearly, although the Eighth Route Army besieging him was also Isshiki-style equipment, they did not have formed mountain artillery and field artillery units, let alone tanks and armored vehicles, and their heavy firepower was only infantry guns, grenadiers, and heavy machine guns. Since this is the case, Morita Masaho decided to rely on the villages around Anjiazhuang to deploy troops, fight well with the Eighth Route Army, defeat the Eighth Route Army, and then withdraw to Tai'an.

Morita Masatom also has a trump card, that is, he received an order from Gu Shoufu, knowing that the 35th Division was gathering troops and preparing to advance here in concealment, and would join him to flank the Eighth Route Army.

Not to mention, the combat effectiveness of the 13th Brigade is really not to be underestimated, and the Taixi Group commanded by Huang Su and Chen Shiqu really can't do anything about them.

The army has a field artillery brigade with 12 field guns with a long range and great power, and several tanks and armored vehicles to cover the infantry in battle. However, the Southwest Lu Garrison Brigade and the Taixi Garrison Brigade of the Taixi Group are not the main forces of the instructors, and the artillery regiment has not yet been established, let alone such sharp weapons as anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers, except for laying anti-tank mines and electric explosive packs, they can only use melee grenades and Molotov cocktails to destroy the devil's tanks and armored vehicles, but unfortunately the infantry guns and grenadiers of the Eighth Route Army are not the opponent of the Little Devil Field Artillery Brigade, and they cannot destroy the devil's artillery positions and cover the troops to attack closely. In this way, the Eighth Route Army can only surround the devil and pounce on it at the right opportunity.

If it is replaced by other squadrons, it is likely to launch an attack desperately, exposing the troops to the firepower of the little devils, and exchanging the tactics of crowds for victory. However, both Huang Su and Chen Shiqu knew that the instructor forbade such a style of play, and the cadres and soldiers knew that Division Commander Liu had already made it very clear when he was still the acting head of the 18th Red Regiment that the most valuable wealth of the Red Army was the lives of Red Army soldiers. In other words, there are more opportunities to eliminate the little devils, you can find another fighter, and there is nothing left after the troops are finished. Besides, the division commander's order was also very clear, mainly attacking the rear guard troops of the army and eating the little devils one bite at a time. If an attack were launched under such a situation in which the army was fully deployed, it is estimated that the division commander would not wait for the battle to end, and several of them would be removed from their posts and investigated.

Chen Shiqu and Wang Jian'an are both famous tiger generals of our army, and Huang Su and Tang Liang are also generals who can write and fight, and seeing that the army has put on a decisive battle posture, and our army does not have much advantage in addition to the strength of the army, they resolutely adjusted their deployment and ordered the troops to start building positions, suppressing smoke, and planning for a protracted siege.

As a result, a very strange situation appeared on the battlefield, that is, both the Yue Army and the Eighth Route Army were carrying out small-scale tentative attacks, and as soon as they encountered the enemy's firepower, they immediately retreated. If the enemy and us are about to leave, the Eighth Route Army will not attack on a large scale, and the army will not attack on a large scale, which is equivalent to being in a state of stalemate.

In fact, if Morita Masahomi was determined to break through at this time, the Taixi Group would not be able to stop it, but the casualties of the army would be very large. But Morita Masahomi knew at this time that the reinforcements were coming, and it was only a matter of time before he broke through the siege of the Eighth Route Army, so he would not break through! On the contrary, he changed the dressing to control the situation on the battlefield, stuck to the Eighth Route Army, and waited for the arrival of the main force of the 35th Division to flank the Eighth Route Army.

How did Huang Su and Chen Shiqu know that the little devil would have such a conspiracy!

Shi Jianfei, commander of the reconnaissance platoon of the Southwest Lu Garrison Brigade, who had made great contributions in the battle at the Guantai Ferry, crossed the Dawen River with his reconnaissance platoon that morning to Qianfushan Village in Ningyang County, where he prepared to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance of the puppet army in Ningyang County.

Ever since Liu Yimin set the regulations on the vigilance of the troops in the Hunan Passage, both the Red Army University and the teaching teams of instructors have taken battlefield vigilance as a compulsory subject and trained cadres. The main force of the Taixi Group besieged the 13th Brigade of the Yue Army in the vicinity of Anjiazhuang Town, and the troops serving as reconnaissance and alert were scattered in four directions, southeast, northwest, and northwest to closely monitor the changes in the surrounding enemy situation.

This Fushan is divided into the front and the back, and Shi Jianfei took the reconnaissance platoon to select the front Fushan as a hidden location, because this is the side of the road from Ningyang to Anjiazhuang, if the little devil sets out from Ningyang for reinforcements, he will definitely pass by here.

In Shi Jianfei's mind, it was unlikely that the little devil would pass by here. Because the devil has a train, he is used to moving troops along the Jinpu Road. If the devils take the railway, they will not be able to escape the eyes of the Luxinan Reading Group of the First Brigade, and they have already cut off the Jinpu Road.

Things were out of Shi Jianfei's expectations, and it didn't take long for lunch to eat, and the investigators reported that there was a situation.

Shi Jianfei hurriedly came to the side of the road, raised his binoculars to observe, and found that there was a team of [***] cavalry coming in the distance, and the number was not large, probably about 200 people.

Shi Jianfei wondered in his heart, why would there be [***] cavalry at this time? You must know that the main forces of [***] have already left here, how can they march on the road with swagger?

Slowly, I could see clearly that this [***] cavalry was very magnanimous, and it turned out to be a color of Oriental horses, Oriental sabers, and cavalry spears. These things are available in the instructor cavalry brigade and the cavalry battalions of each brigade, and Shi Jianfei recognizes them clearly.

Shi Jianfei's brain exploded with a bang, damn, the little devil of the dog actually played the trick of camouflage [***], and they didn't want to think about it, how could there be a cavalry unit of Oriental horses in [***]! If the cavalry of the Eighth Route Army was almost the same as camouflage, maybe Lao Tzu would still be fooled!

Where did Shi Jianfei know, it was not that the army did not want to disguise the Eighth Route Army, the problem was that they had not eliminated the Eighth Route Army in a formation, and they did not even know the numbers of the various units of the instructor, once the camouflage would be exposed, and they could only use the original captured [***] clothing to disguise.

Shi Jianfei immediately ordered to report to the brigade commander by radio, and found that the cavalry of the Yue Army disguised as [***] was searching and advancing along the road from Ningyang to Feicheng.

After sending the telegram, Shi Jianfei ordered the reconnaissance platoon to continue covert surveillance to see if there was a large army behind.

This covert surveillance reveals a big problem. After the cavalry, it didn't take long for a group of [***] infantry to catch up. This time, Shi Jianfei's judgment was clearer. Because although the army is wearing a [***] military uniform, the feet are wearing the leather shoes of the army, the head, the strong body, the marching military posture and the 38 big cover, the 92-type heavy machine gun, the infantry gun, and the grenadier, all show that they are a group of out-and-out devils.

Shi Jianfei hurriedly asked the telegraph operator to send the report again, and found that the infantry disguised as [***], with a strength of about 3,000 people, should be a wing.

The next situation was completely clear, the devils behind were not even free of camouflage, and they were tanks, armored vehicles, cars, and field artillery carried by pack horses, and they were moving quickly along the main road.

At this time, Shi Jianfei figured out all the enemy situations and immediately reported to the brigade headquarters: The 35th Division of the Japanese Army came to help and went north along the road from Ningyang to Feicheng.

After sending the telegram, in the distance, Shi Jianfei faintly heard the sound of gunfire coming from the side of the Dawen River. He knew that it was our army's troops guarding the front line of the Dawen River that began to block it.

After receiving Shi Jianfei's report, Huang Su, Chen Shiqu, Wang Jian'an, and Tang Liang immediately understood that the reason why the 13th Brigade of the Reading Force Mixed Brigade stopped retreating and confronted our army on the front line of Anjiazhuang was that they were waiting for the 35th Division.

This enemy situation was too important, Chen Shiqu immediately said to Tang Liang: "Political commissar, remember that after the war, Shi Jianfei was appointed as the commander of the brigade reconnaissance company. ”

Tang Liang looked solemn and replied, "Don't talk about these useless things first, hurry up and study whether to withdraw or fight." Our army is very passive now, and if we don't do it, we will immediately fall into the flank of devils. ”

Chen Shiqu laughed: "The little devil wants to attack Lao Tzu? He didn't ask when Lao Tzu was a soldier and what battles he fought, only Lao Tzu surrounded and attacked them, where was their turn to sneak attack and attack Lao Tzu! ”

Huang Su turned out to be the political commissar of the Red Eighth Army, and the outcome of the Red Eighth Army during the Xiangjiang fiasco was always in mind, and he knew the terrible result of the rout of the newly formed troops. Therefore, he frowned and said: "Brigade Commander Chen, don't forget that the Luxi Garrison Brigade and the Taixi Garrison Brigade are both new units and cannot be compared with the main force. My opinion was immediately reported to the division commander and political commissar, requesting that the task of besieging the 13th Brigade of the Reading Force be revoked, that the task of the 13th Brigade be quickly transferred, that a blocking position be established north of Tai'an, and that the devils be allowed to retreat to Tai'an. ”

Wang Jian'an asked rhetorically: "If the little devil does not return to Tai'an, but goes north to Jinan along Feicheng, affecting the main force of the division to capture Jinan, what should we do?" ”

As a result, several people stopped talking, and there was silence in the headquarters.

(To be continued)