After crossing the Jinpu Road, he connected with Ma Zhenhua, the temporary head of the Lubei Special Committee, and the Dongguang County Brigade, who rushed to greet him, and the 31st Detachment of the Special Brigade of the National Revolutionary Army, which was reorganized from the rescue [***] led by the Dongguang County Brigade and the Lubei Special Committee, served as a guide to guide the troops to march to the depths of the Hebei-Shandong border by separate routes.

Ma Zhenhua is a veteran party member who joined the party in 1932 and is 33 years old this year. He was originally the person in charge of the Jinnan Working Committee, and after meeting with Yu Wenbin, a special commissioner of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee, he jointly established the Lubei Special Committee, with Wenbin as secretary, Ma Zhenhua as an organization member, Zhao Ming as a new propaganda member, Di Yudong, a special commissioner, and Wang Junfeng, a member of the committee, organized anti-Japanese armed forces in northern Lubei. After Yu Wenbin was wounded and died in February, the Lubei Special Committee lost contact with the Shandong Provincial Party Committee, and Ma Zhenhua temporarily took charge of the work of the Lubei Special Committee.

Historically, the base area of the Jilu Border Region established by our party is located in the southeast of Hebei Province and the border with the north of Shandong Province, bordering the Bohai Sea in the east, the Jinpu Railway and Canal in the west, the Yellow Sea in the south, and the Duliu River in the north. Dezhou City, Shandong Province, Ningjin, Leling, Qingyun, Lingxian, Shanghe, Linyi, Jiyang seven counties and Pingyuan, Yucheng two counties of Jinpu Road East, Qihe County Jinpu Road North part; The three counties of Huimin, Wuli and Yangxin and part of Zhanhua and Bin counties in the Huimin area of Shandong Province have a population of about 6 million.

At this time, the situation in the Hebei-Shandong border area is complicated, in addition to the pseudo-forces, there are also various local forces and bandit armies, these people have a common characteristic, that is, [***]. At the beginning, the Lubei Special Committee was in a state of underground activity, and its strength was too weak in the early stage of pulling the team, and it has been surviving in the cracks. Later, the news of the occupation of Tianjin by the instructor reached the border area of Hebei and Shandong, and the 31st detachment began to actively fight against the puppet forces, and recently recovered the county seat of Yanshan, and drove out the 500 puppet troops and 100 soldiers stationed in the county seat. The 31 detachment also grew to about 1300 people.

Seeing such a scale of the main force, Ma Zhenhua was excited, he has been engaged in underground work, all under the nose of the enemy, to the Hebei and Shandong border area to build an organization to pull the army, but also has been under the pressure of the enemy forces to survive, where did you think that you can meet such a powerful force of our army. Therefore, when Zhang Hongtao conveyed to him the spirit of the Central Committee's establishment of the Shandong Bureau and the main force of the instructors to march eastward into Rulu, as well as the instructors' decision to set up the Hebei-Shandong Border Party Committee, the Hebei-Shandong Border Administration, and the Hebei-Shandong Border Military Region, Ma Zhenhua held Zhang Hongtao's hand tightly and said in a loud voice that he was finally looking forward to the higher-level organization and the large army.

After the excitement, Ma Zhenhua immediately suggested to Zhang Hongtao and Fu Zhuting that they should take advantage of the passage of the large army to directly sweep away those pseudo-forces and reorganize those variegated armed forces. In this way, the situation of the Anti-Japanese War in Hebei and Shandong will be stable in the future.

Zhang Hongtao and Fu Zhuting originally had this idea, but they were afraid of delaying the trip of the eastward troops, and with their powerful Sixth Brigade, were they afraid that they would not be able to reorganize those variegated armed forces that were not yet a climate?

Seeing Ma Zhenhua say this, Zhang Hongtao considered that a large army would pass by, sweep away those puppet forces and motley armed forces like an autumn wind sweeping away leaves, and solve most of the problems in the Hebei-Shandong border region at once, and play a role in laying the foundation for the establishment and future development and growth of the border region. It is a pity that the division commander made it clear that he wanted to advance eastward in concealment and not fight a major war of annihilation in the short term, but only asked all units to extensively carry out a cold-gun and cold-artillery campaign to accumulate small victories into big victories.

Although Zhang Hongtao did not know why Liu Yimin issued such an order, he knew that this was a strategic attempt to conceal the troops and avoid directing the attack of the heavy army group to the Shandong anti-Japanese base area to be established. The division commander made it very clear that it was necessary to immerse itself in development in Shandong for two years, establish a strong base area, raise up hundreds of thousands of elite field troops, and finally carry out a strategic showdown with the heavy army group of the Chinese army, and demanded that the whole division should strive for this goal. Besides, the east of the Jilu border is the sea, the west is the Jinpu Road, and the south is the Yellow River. It is still necessary to rely on the troops of the Hebei-Shandong Border Military Region to slowly consume the puppet forces, and when the time is ripe, the division commander will be able to give an order, and then he will be able to strike hard.

Zhang Hongtao patiently explained to Ma Zhenhua that he could not drag the main force eastward, and told him that with the strength of the Sixth Brigade, it would be easy to integrate the armed forces of various local forces along the Hebei and Shandong borders, and it would be possible to completely eradicate the puppet forces in the Hebei and Shandong borders. At present, it is necessary to quickly organize forces to help the large army quickly cross the Yellow River and continue to advance eastward.

Ma Zhenhua is an old party member, and as soon as Zhang Hongtao explained it, he understood that this army had another mission, and it was secretly passing through here. So he hurriedly organized forces to boil water and cook for the large army to pass by, so that the soldiers could have a hot meal.

Li Qing turned out to be the director of the Political Department of the 18th Regiment and the Central Guard Division, and from the beginning of the Xiaoshui ambush battle, he took on the important task of being in charge alone. Liu Yimin asked the 3rd Brigade to command the 7th and 8th Brigades to advance eastward, in fact, Li Qing was responsible for commanding the eastward movement of the three brigades. This is well known to the commanders of several brigades.

After a short rest in Dongguang County, Li Qing said goodbye to Zhang Hongtao and Fu Zhuting, and told them to follow the orders of the division headquarters to grasp the building of political power and mobilize the masses with one hand, and the struggle against the enemy with the other, and resolutely and thoroughly expel the puppet forces to the railway line. In the short term, don't fight big or small, don't show the instructor's brand, and the troops will fight disguised as 31 detachments. It is necessary to convince the devils that the Sixth Brigade is only a civilian anti-Japanese armed force operating in the Hebei-Shandong border region, and that the main force of the instructors is still in central and southern Hebei, so as to gain as much time as possible for the troops in central and southern Hebei to consolidate their base areas. After the division headquarters marched eastward into the Yimeng Mountains, they promptly asked the division headquarters for instructions on the combat strategy.

Finally, Li Qing reminded Zhang Hongtao and Fu Zhuting that they should implement the principle of plain warfare as taught by the division commander, organize and train the militia, use tunnel warfare and mine warfare to deal with devils, and strive to build tunnels to the side of the railway, bury mines on the side of the railway, and let the devils shrink on the railway line and dare not go out to sweep at will. Particular attention should be paid to dismantling the puppet army, striving to control several hidden and safe railway passages, and maintaining unimpeded communication with central Hebei, southern Hebei, and western Hebei, so as to facilitate mutual cooperation in combat.

Li Qing said a lot, Zhang Hongtao was very moved, not how good Li Qing said, the same backbone generals brought out by Liu Yimin, Li Qing can think of Zhang Hongtao can also think of it. The key is that Li Qing's words contained a strong sense of comradeship, which made Zhang Hongtao sigh. During the war years, the separation was often goodbye, and only old comrades-in-arms like them, who had come all the way down from Jinggangshan, would take the trouble to confess so tirelessly.

Chen Dayong, Zhao Shan, and Li Qing, like Zhang Hongtao, all participated in the Long March as criminals, and they were all used by Liu Yimin on the Xiangjiang River. This walk, and the Jilu border and the Sixth Brigade of the Jiao are across the sea and the river. Jilubian is such a geographical environment, there is little room for strategic maneuver, and the devils may sweep on a large scale at any time, which is indeed extremely dangerous. Chen Dayong told Zhang Hongtao that he must maintain contact with Liu Jianjianjiao's Second Brigade at all times, and that when the situation is critical, he will not let go of his son, and he should immediately ask for help when Liu Jianli should be rescued, and he must not put the troops and himself in a dangerous situation.

Zhao Shan said even more absolutely, suggesting that the Eighth Route Army should develop naval forces, or build several hidden pontoon bridges over the Yellow River; if necessary, the Sixth Brigade could cross the sea and cross the river to support operations in the Qinghe area in northeastern Shandong, and the Third and Seventh Brigades could also cross the Yellow River to support the operations along the Hebei and Shandong borders.

Zhao Shan's remark immediately reminded Zhang Hongtao that it was entirely possible to think of capturing a little of the army's ships, building some boats, and using the boats to build pontoon bridges over the Yellow River, so that the Sixth Brigade could not only go north to Pingjin and west to Jizhong and Luxi, but could also directly go east to Qinghe and Luzhong and join the Luzhong battlefield, and the troops' mobility would be greatly enhanced.

Zhang Hongtao immediately asked Ma Zhenhua to send key cadres to move with the large army, and when they arrived at the river crossing point designated by the division headquarters, they mobilized the masses to help the troops build pontoon bridges to ensure the safe passage of the troops.

As soon as Li Qing heard this, he said that it was okay to lead the way, and when it was necessary to build a pontoon bridge, the engineer battalions of several brigades could do it, and there was no need to trouble the fellow countrymen. Now is not the time for the Long March, the equipment of the sappers has been greatly improved, and the construction of pontoon bridges is already a normal operation.

Zhang Hongtao thought about it, too, that the training of the engineer battalion of the Sixth Brigade had been improved in an all-round way, and that the Third Brigade had been in Tianjin for a long time, had good equipment, and had a lot of materials, so there should be no problem in building a pontoon bridge. Besides, maybe you can cross the Yellow River with ice without having to build a pontoon bridge!

After bidding farewell to Li Qing and them, Zhang Hongtao immediately presided over a meeting, announcing that the Party Committee of the Instructor would establish the Party Committee, Administration, and Military Region of Hebei and Lubian, and that the Lubei Special Committee would be merged into the Party Committee of Hebei and Lubian, with Zhang Hongtao as secretary, Fu Zhuting as deputy secretary, Ma Zhenhua as member of the organization committee, Zhao Mingxin as member of the propaganda committee, He Mingming, Di Yudong, and Wang Junfeng as members. Fu Zhuting served as the commissioner of the Jilu Border Administration, and Ma Zhenhua served as the deputy commissioner. Zhang Hongtao, commander of the Hebei-Shandong Border Military Region, Fu Zhuting, political commissar, and He Mingliang, chief of staff. The 2,000 new soldiers and 1,500 soldiers of the 31 detachments received from the training headquarters will be mixed with the troops, 300 new soldiers will be added to the 16th Regiment, 17th Regiment, 18th Regiment, 6th Regiment, and Supplementary Regiment, and 100 new soldiers will be added to the 2nd Field Artillery Regiment, the Cavalry Battalion of the Brigade, the Engineer Battalion, the Baggage Battalion, and the Fire Support Battalion. After the completion of the mixed formation, 300 cadres and fighters were drawn from each of the five regiments, and 50 soldiers were drawn from each of the engineer battalion, baggage battalion, and fire support battalion to form the first regiment of Jilu Border Reading Force. Huang Hua served as the head of the first regiment of the Jilu Border Reading Force, and Yang Zhong served as the political commissar of the First Regiment of the Jilu Border Reading Force.

(To be continued)