Wang Shihe hurriedly replied respectfully: "Returning to the commission, according to the telegrams reported by the commander's headquarters of the Ninth and Third Theaters, the current progress of the war in the Second Theater is quite smooth, especially in the Ninth Theater, because the Central China Army suffered heavy losses in the battle in the north some time ago, and the enemy's Front Army Command Hata Shunroku was forced to shrink its forces to the area along the banks of the Yangtze River. ”

To this end, the Ninth War Zone took advantage of the situation to recover a large area of land south of the Yangtze River. As for the Third Theater, the troops faced by the Third Theater were slightly stronger than the enemy in front of the Ninth Theater in terms of strength and combat effectiveness, so their progress was slightly behind that of the Ninth Theater. ”

"But it's not without progress, a few days ago, Shangguan Yunxiang's department in the third theater fought a beautiful battle of annihilation in Eastern Jiangsu, encircling and annihilating more than 2,000 people, and captured a lot."

"Oh!" After hearing this, Jiang Gong nodded slightly, pondered for a while and asked, "What about the Xuzhou battlefield?" ”

"After the Xuzhou battlefield was recovered from Xuzhou, the 11th Group Army of the Fifth Theater and Qiao Anbang launched a joint pursuit of the Yue Army. Wang Shihe continued to answer.

Jiang Gong turned around and walked to the giant battle map hanging on the wall, frowned and stared for a moment, as if muttering to himself, "It's time......

……

The position of the special operations battalion of Baoqigang.

The gunfire had stopped, and the ghost soldiers who were swarming and charging not long ago had all retreated at this time.

The [***] soldiers on the battlefield are taking advantage of this rare respite to rescue the wounded and repair the damaged fortifications, in short, they are busy.

Liang Yiyu, commander of the special operations battalion, was holding a telescope at this time to observe the situation of the army under the mountain.

At this time, Gao Chu, the commander of the first company of the special operations battalion, hurriedly ran over along the winding fortifications, looked down the mountain and said to Liang Yiyu: "Camp, which one is this little devil singing?" If they don't retreat just now and continue to storm for another half an hour, our defense line will most likely be broken through by them! ”

Liang Yiyu nodded silently when he heard this, indeed, if the Yue army could hold out for another half an hour just now, then his own mixed army might not be able to hold on.

Although in terms of numbers, their side has an absolute advantage, but the combat effectiveness of these mixed armies really does not dare to be complimented.

And they faced 6,000 well-trained and well-equipped elite troops who were eager to break through.

After thinking about it, Liang Yiyu said: "In my opinion, most of the time our reinforcements are about to arrive, and it is precisely because of this pressure that the devils will stop attacking!" ”

"Reinforcements have arrived?!" Gao Chu's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he said with an excited expression: "Then wouldn't we be able to wipe out all the thousands of troops under the mountain?" Judging from their combat effectiveness and equipment, this group of devils must be elite, maybe there are big fish among them! ”

"It's not that easy!" Liang Yilu paused, and then said: "The army is not stupid, they will never sit still, waiting for us to surround them, and suffer from the enemy on their backs!" ”

Gao Chu nodded approvingly, and said, "Then what will the devil do next?" ”

"There are two possibilities, one is to do everything in their power to deliver the final blow to us, and the other is to escape." Liang Yilu said without thinking.

After speaking, he said earnestly: "No matter how they choose, our task is to nail it here like a nail, and as long as we still have a breath, we must not let a little devil pass." The order went down, everyone hurried to rest and prepare for a decisive battle! In addition, send people to closely monitor the movements of the Yamashita army, and if there is any abnormal movement, report it immediately! ”

"Yes!" Gao Chu solemnly stepped forward and responded.

……

It didn't take long for Gao Chu to rush back again and report to Liang Yiyu: "Yingzao, the devils are moving, they are retreating." ”

"Huh?" Liang Yiyu was shocked when he heard this, and immediately got up and raised his binoculars to look down the mountain.

Sure enough, the devils under the mountain were really retreating, and they were retreating in a hurry, and in such a short period of time, even the alert troops set up at the front line were withdrawn.

"Camp, what are we going to do?" Gao Chu stood aside and hurriedly asked, "Do you want to pursue?" ”

Liang Yilu pondered for a while, and immediately decided: "In order to prevent this from being the devil's plan to lure the enemy, we will not move for the time being, and the task given to us by the general seat is to hold here, as long as we hold here and don't let the devil pass here, then our task will be completed." ”

After a pause, Liang Yiyu said again: "If the devil really wants to retreat, then it doesn't matter, we just need to report this information to the head seat immediately, and he will decide!" Wait, send two squads to scout before making a decision! ”

"Yes! I'll arrange it. Gao Chu nodded in reply, and then turned to leave.

Soon, the reconnaissance unit of the special operations battalion sent back the news that the army was really retreating to the east, and the battalion commander Liang Yilu did not dare to delay, and immediately reported this information to the general headquarters in Xuzhou.

……

Xuzhou, the headquarters of the 11th Group Army (Tiger Army).

Qiao Anbang hurriedly read the urgent telegram sent by the special combat battalion from Baoqigang, met the inquiring eyes of Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, Li Pinxian and others, and said in a deep voice: "Duke De, Brother Heling, according to the situation reported by my special operations battalion, the more than 6,000 troops who fought fiercely with the special operations battalion at Baoqian Gang have now taken the initiative to retreat eastward. ”

With that, Qiao Anbang led the group towards the giant battle map hanging on the wall.

Coming to the map, Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren looked at the map, looked at each other suspiciously, and said with doubts: "Retreat to the east, are they going to retreat to Qingdao?" ”

"That's right, the purpose of this army is very clear, that is, to retreat to Qingdao!" Qiao Anbang nodded in agreement.

Li Pinxian looked at Qingdao on the map and said: "The road to the north is not passable, and it is reasonable for the army to retreat to Qingdao, after all, where is the special geographical location of Qingdao." ”

"Well, indeed, as long as they withdraw to Qingdao, first, they can occupy the Jiaodong Peninsula with Qingdao as the center to resist the attack of our [***], although the army and land have been defeated one after another, but we must not forget that they also have their strong enough naval fleet, in Qingdao, their naval fleet can directly give absolute fire assistance." Bai Chongxi nodded and said with interest.

"The second is that even if the army can't hold Qingdao, they can retreat by sea with the help of its navy and preserve their combat strength." Li Zongren continued without losing any time.

After Li Bai and the three finished speaking, their eyes invariably looked at Qiao Anbang, who did not speak.

Under the gaze of everyone, Qiao Anbang frowned deeply and said: "If it is only this army that retreats to Qingdao, don't be too surprised, what I am worried about is that other Japanese armies will follow suit." ”

As he spoke, Qiao Anbang pointed to the map and said: "With the current battlefield situation, if all the Yue troops turn around and retreat in the direction of the Jiaodong Peninsula at the same time, it will be extremely unfavorable to us. This is because once the number of Chinese troops entrenched in Qingdao exceeds a certain number, and with the support of their naval fleet artillery and aircraft, it will be difficult for us to capture Qingdao, and in this way, we will not be able to accomplish our strategic goal of eliminating all the Chinese troops south of the Yellow River and north of the Yangtze River. ”

"Yes, if the army is entrenched in the Jiaodong Peninsula, the harm to us will definitely be very great. Because if we can't recover the Jiaodong Peninsula, we will give the Yue army a chance to breathe, and when they finish resting and replenishing, they will be able to counterattack us in turn, so that the Central Plains will be under the watchful eye of the Yue army at any time, and if you want to secure the Central Plains, you must deploy a large number of troops on the Jiaodong front. ”

"In short, we will be in a very passive situation at that time, and the army can attack the Central Plains, and if we retreat, we can rely on the naval fleet to hold Jiaodong." Bai Chongxi nodded in depth when he heard this, and said in a deep voice.

"Then we should take measures as soon as possible to prevent the army from retreating to Jiaodong!" Li Pinxian said.

Qiao Anbang shook his head and said, "With the current situation, it is impossible to completely stop the Yue army. ”

After a pause, Qiao Anbang said with determination: "For today's plan, we must be ready to attack Qingdao with all our might, recover the Jiaodong Peninsula, and recover our coastal areas."

In fact, Qiao Anbang had already made plans before going north to Xuzhou.

In his plan, in addition to annihilating the Yue army south of the Yellow River as much as possible, there is also to capture Qingdao and other coastal cities in Shandong.

Now that the situation in China is very good, he must begin to build a naval fleet belonging to China in order to achieve further victories.

Because, if you want to completely defeat Yuben imperialism, you can't just defeat their army, but also defeat their most powerful naval combined fleet, otherwise, even if the [***] team completely annihilates all the Yuben land forces in Chinese mainland, it will not be able to completely defeat Yuben, let alone let the wolf son's ambition Yue himself submit, let alone snow country shame and blood revenge.

Because China and Yuben are separated by a raging sea, if China wants to defeat Yuben and keep the enemy out of the country, it must develop its navy.

If you want to develop the navy, you must have an outlet to the sea and excellent deep-water wharves and military ports, Anhui is located in the Central Plains, and there are no coastal cities for Qiao Anbang to develop the navy.

However, Qingdao, Shandong Province is an excellent outlet to the sea and a military port.

Therefore, even if there is no sudden situation of the army retreating to Qingdao, Qiao Anbang will wave his troops to Qingdao and recover Jiaodong.

It's just that the Yue army, which has now withdrawn from the direction of Xuzhou, actually took the initiative to retreat to Qingdao, which just gave Qiao Anbang an excellent excuse to concentrate heavy troops in the Fifth Theater to attack Qingdao.

However, Qingdao is adjacent to the sea, and to attack it, it will have to fight with the naval fleet and sea-based air force of the Japanese army.

Joan Bang seems to have been able to foresee that the battle would be a bloody one, but no matter what the cost, Joan Bang will have to bear it.

Because Qingdao must be won, at this stage, it is too important for Qiao Anbang.

(To be continued)