The troops marched to the county seat of Luquan, rested in the county seat for a few hours, and then continued to march towards Shimen, during which Qiao Youhua sent a telegram to Wu Ming, ordering Wu Ming to bring the artillery units of the Third Brigade in case of emergency.

If we really want to recover Jingcheng County first and capture Jingcheng Pass, then we will definitely need the heavy weapons and fire support of artillery units.

Wu Ming had already left Dezhou with a small number of troops and was on his way to Shimen to join the division, and after receiving Qiao Youhua's order, he immediately sent someone to order an artillery battalion stationed in Dezhou to assemble urgently, and then marched towards Shimen to stand by.

In the evening of the same day, Qiao Youhua took the lead in arriving at Shimen County with the guard regiment, the troops did not enter the city, stayed outside the city, Qiao Youhua was surrounded by a few guards such as Li Yansan and Zheng Yunshan, and entered the city to rest.

It didn't take long for Wu Ming and deputy brigade commander Zhao Youde to rush over with several regiment commanders under their command and battalion commanders directly under them.

In Shimen County, Qiao Youhua held the first military meeting on this southward operation.

In a conference room, Qiao Youhua sent the intelligence report about Jingcheng County to Wu Ming, Zhao Youde and others.

After they have "digested" it for a while, they ask, "Well, what do you think about this?" Should we attack Jingcheng Pass first, or should we ignore it first, attack Liaocheng, Handan and other places in the south, clear the area on the north bank of the Yellow River, and then make plans? ”

Wu Ming took the lead in expressing his opinion and said: "If this information is true, I am afraid it will not be so easy to capture Jingcheng Pass." ”

Zhao Youde nodded and agreed: "However, if we can't capture Jingcheng Pass, then even if our army recovers Jingcheng County, it will be of little significance, but it will become a difficult situation to ride a tiger, and we must have heavy troops stationed in Jingcheng County in case of accidents, so it will be much more passive." ”

Zheng Yunshan and several other commanders of the Third Brigade all nodded their heads in agreement.

Qiao Youhua muttered: "Well, what you said makes sense, but this information is only unilateral information sent by Long Yingwei, and they are not professional combatants, so I think we still have to send people to the area around Jingcheng County, especially Jingcheng Pass, to conduct a field survey and then make a decision on whether to fight or not!" ”

"Commander, then leave this task to me, I will personally take a few good hands to reconnoiter in the area of Jingcheng County." When Zheng Yunshan heard this, he immediately took the initiative to ask for help.

Qiao Youhua nodded in agreement: "Well, be careful all the way, come back early, and be sure to find out the specific environment and the size and deployment of the enemy's troops." ”

Zheng Yunshan stood up and said, "Yes, I promise to complete the task!" ”

After saying that, he turned and left the conference room. Qiao Youhua said to Wu Ming, Zhao Youde and others: "Everyone has worked hard all the way, so let's rest and rest in Shimen now, wait for the reply from the intelligence officers, and at the same time step up the deployment of combat troops and military supplies."

Whether we dig Jingcheng County or Liaocheng first, we must make adequate preparations in advance. ”

Wu Ming, Zhao Youde and others all got up and responded in unison: "Yes!" ”

……

After Zheng Yunshan left the conference room, he went straight out of the city to the temporary camp of the guard regiment, and from the reconnaissance unit of the guard regiment, about fifty or sixty experienced elite soldiers were drawn from the reconnaissance unit of the guard regiment, and left Shimen in three military trucks and rushed to the direction of Jingcheng County.

After a march of nearly midnight, they rode to the area near Shang'an Town, north of Jingcheng County, which was already the sphere of influence of the Japanese puppet army, in order not to reveal their whereabouts.

Zheng Yunshan ordered the car to stop, and after all the soldiers got out of the car, except for the three car soldiers who stayed behind to watch the car, the rest of the people followed him on foot and continued to move towards Jingcheng County.

At about half past twelve in the evening, they passed through the blockade line of the Japanese puppet army in Shang'an Town and entered a sorghum field on the outskirts of Jingcheng County.

Zheng Yunshan instructed several key subordinates around him: "Later, I will take three people to reconnoiter in disguise and go to the area of Jingcheng Pass, you pay attention to your hidden whereabouts here, and tomorrow find a way to send a few people to reconnoiter and reconnoiter in and around Jingcheng County, and be ready to respond." ”

Several grassroots officers and backbone veterans nodded one after another and said to the regiment commander to take care.

Then, Zheng Yunshan took three soldiers to take advantage of the cover of the dark night, quickly got up and left, and disappeared into the vast night after a while.

…………

The sun rose in the east, the sky was bright, and the not strong sunlight in winter shone on the precipitous Jingcheng Pass as usual, bringing a faint warmth to the Japanese puppet army here, and more or less helping them dispel some of the bitter cold that made people grit their teeth and helpless.

Tadaichi Baoyuan is a 28-year-old soldier of the Jingchengguan Garrison Brigade of the Japanese invasion of China, and he is a veteran who has been in the army for nearly five years.

He stretched his waist and walked out of a barracks in Jingcheng Pass, looked at the sky, and said in Japanese: "Yo Xi, the weather seems to look good today. ”

After saying that, he turned around and picked up his rifle, put it on his back, and walked out, and when he came to a small open space on the left side of the barracks, several Japanese infantrymen under his jurisdiction had completed their formation and were waiting for his arrival.

"Morning, everybody." Hozono Tadaichi was in a good mood and took the initiative to greet several of his soldiers.

"Bao Yuanjun is early!" Several devil soldiers said in unison.

After saying hello, Hozono Tadaichi took this group of devils to the canteen in Kannai to eat, and after breakfast, they started their new day's mission.

Bao Yuan Zhongyi's group was to be responsible for the handover of defense from a turret outside the pass, and after leaving the pass, they came to a turret located about 300 meters away in front of the Jingcheng Pass.

Several devil soldiers on duty in the turret had already lined up and were waiting for their arrival under the turret. When a leading military cao saw Bao Yuan Zhongyi and others coming, he greeted him with a smile: "Bao Yuanjun, you are a few minutes late today, and you want to invite us to work in the county seat of Miximi when you go back on vacation!" ”

Bao Yuan Zhongyi smiled and said: "No problem, when the time comes, let's go to Jingcheng County to find the flower girl Missy." ”

The conversation between the two made the other devils burst into laughter, because the dragon tooth column had not attacked the area around the county seat of Jingcheng, and there was a blockade cordon composed of several peripheral towns and villages such as Shang'an Town in front, the devils in Jingcheng Pass had been comfortable for too long, and their vigilance had become very poor.

From the conversations of the devils like Tadaichi Hozono, it can be seen that they did not perceive any information about the imminent war, and as usual, they had the leisure to joke and spend their boring military career day after day.

In this turret, except for Baoyuan Zhongyi and their few devils, most of them are puppet soldiers, and when they see them, they are like mice seeing cats, all of them are timid, for fear of offending, and they are all flattering and flattering.

After Bao Yuanzhong and the other devils entered the turret, there was soon a low greeting from inside: "Good morning Taijun, good morning Taijun......