After receiving Qiao Youhua's commendation and appointment telegram, Li Yunlong smiled and put the telegram on the table in front of him, and several important military commanders of the 4th Division couldn't help but ask: "Deputy division commander, what did the telegram say?" ”

"Yes, did the commander and chief of staff give us any rewards?" After all, they were ahead of the 3rd Division, which was responsible for the frontal attack, and took Tai'an City, which was supposed to be the responsibility of the 3rd Division, and the devil's Taishan defense line no longer existed.

They also did not have the direct subordinate units with strong combat power provided by the column headquarters, so this battle was particularly high-spirited, and at this moment, the commanders of these main regiments, like children who have done good deeds, are very eager to get the praise of their parents or teachers.

Li Yunlong said without changing his face: "The message is here, you can read it for yourselves." ”

Chen Mingliang, commander of the 2nd Regiment of the 4th Division, took the lead in taking action, picked up the telegram, and then read it with a few colleagues.

As soon as they saw that the headquarters was going to appoint Li Yunlong to officially serve as the commander of the 4th Division, Chen Mingliang and Kong Wu, the commander of the 3rd Regiment, couldn't help but shout: "Great, the commander has finally promoted you to the deputy division commander." ”

"After careful consideration by the column headquarters, in view of Comrade Li Yunlong's outstanding performance in previous battles and in the current battle of Tai'an, Li Yunlong is hereby formally appointed as the commander of the 4th Division of the Longya Column of the 18th Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army.

The chief of staff of the division was concurrently served by Comrade Kong Wu, commander of the Third Regiment. Yang Mingwu, commander of the tank regiment, read out all the main contents of the message at this time.

Zhang Yingkui, the commander of the air defense regiment, said with a smile: "The commanders of several of your main regiments have been promoted!" Zhang Yingkui was sincerely happy, after all, several of them were from the old Eighth Route Red Army, and they were higher than them in terms of military exploits and qualifications.

"Comrades!" Li Yunlong suddenly said: "The commander and chief of staff have adjusted our positions, don't be too happy, there are still many battles to be fought in the future, what kind of officials we are, it doesn't matter how high or low our position is, as long as we can fight devils, we can protect our families and defend the country, and let the people live a good life, even if I, Li Yunlong, can I be a private, right?!" ”

"Yes!" Chen Mingliang, Kong Wu and the others immediately put away their smiles and stepped forward to respond.

"Now, let's discuss the next battle plan immediately." Li Yunlong cut straight to the point.

Zhang Dafu, the commander of the artillery regiment, said: "Division commander, this headquarters has not given us clear instructions, how to fight next, should we go to support the Jinan battlefield, or continue to advance to the southeast and march into Luzhong?" ”

The other regiment leaders were also a little confused, and they all looked at Li Yunlong.

Li Yunlong flattened the battle map, glanced at the map, looked up at his subordinates, pointed to the Jinan area on the map, and said: "Comrades, you see, Jinan has been surrounded by the main force of our army, and Zichuan County has also been surrounded by the three divisions on all sides, and the devils in these two areas will definitely not last long."

After that, the column headquarters will definitely order the main forces to move eastward along the Jiaoji Railway, attack Weifang, Linyi and other places, and then compress the remaining main forces of the Japanese army to Yantai and Qingdao on the Jiaodong Peninsula, and then encircle and annihilate them.

And our goal must be to Jining, Laiwu, Tengxian to Zaozhuang generation, so next I decided to focus all my energy on attacking the important town of Jining, after recovering this place, immediately divide the troops into two ways, attack Laiwu and Tengxian, and then attack Xuzhou! ”

"Yes!" Several regiment commanders can fight, but if it comes to the overall military deployment, that is, the strategic vision, they are all big bosses, and they have always been convinced by Li Yunlong's command, so whatever Li Yunlong says, they will fight.

At the moment, Li Yunlong led more than 70,000 main forces, quietly left Tai'an City, and went straight to Jining City, an important town in Luzhong, as long as Jining was taken, it can be said that there is no big battle to fight in Luzhong, they can not only march into Xuzhou, but also attack Linyi, so Jining is a very important strategic place.

…………

At the same time, in the city of Jinan, the Japanese garrison headquarters.

"Your Excellency General, while the airport has not yet been captured by the Chinese army, please hurry up and board the plane." Seeing that there was nothing to do, Takema Umemura came to the division headquarters to persuade Sasaki to come to one.

Sasaki was wiping his saber at this time, sitting on the office chair, he slowly wiped the already clean saber, ignoring Umemura Takema's words, and a Japanese staff officer next to him also saw this and followed along with the persuasion, but unexpectedly, Sasaki suddenly stood up and slashed him to the ground with a knife.

Then he wiped the blood stains on the saber with a rag that wiped the saber, and said in a gloomy tone to Umemura Zhuma, and his face was almost hideous: "Umemura-kun, have you forgotten what I said before, whoever dares to retreat again will die!" I don't want you to have another mistake for the same mistake, otherwise I don't blame me for ignoring our friendship for many years. ”

Meicun Zhuma felt bitter in his heart, but still insisted on it: "But, Your Excellency General, our main force outside the city has been almost completely wiped out by the Zhina Army, Jinan cannot be held no matter what, the 8th Independent Mixed Brigade has also been surrounded by a partial division of the Zhina Army in Zichuan, and Tai'an City has also been captured by another Zhina Army, we can't have reinforcements." ”

"Then fight to the death and be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor!" Sasaki roared in a seemingly crazy way.

"However, this is a senseless sacrifice, Jinan is not the native city of our Great Japanese Empire after all, otherwise we will fight to the death, for a city that has lost its strategic significance, it is unwise to waste the precious troops of the empire in vain!" Umemura Bamboo Horse argues with reason.

"Enough! Yaga! You drip, get out right now! Get lost! Sasaki roared angrily at Plum Village Takema with a hideous face, and the saber in his hand was raised unconsciously, it seemed that if Plum Village Takema dared to say a word, he would kill him on the spot.

Seeing that Sasaki had made up his mind, Umemura Takema sighed and turned to leave.

In fact, Sasaki didn't want to retreat, but in the first battle of Jinan, he and his tens of thousands of troops were defeated, and now even Zichuan and Tai'an were surrounded and occupied by the dragon tooth column, and Jinan was also surrounded by nearly 100,000 elite dragon tooth columns, and there was no hope of breaking through.

What if he left on a plane alone? His military career will come to an end here, and the high-level people in the base camp will definitely hold him accountable for losing the important defense line in northern Lubei, and he will definitely go to a military court, which is better for the arrogant Sasaki to choose death, so that at least he can enter the Yasukuni Shrine after his death, and his family can also get some preferential treatment, and the most important thing is that he has preserved the reputation and face of his imperial soldiers.