GUO Dian Tun. The headquarters of the first column of the Eighth Route Army in Shandong.

Beginning at 8 o'clock in the morning of 5 April, the entire headquarters of the first column in Shandong was in a state of chaos, with column commander Xu Xiangqian, political commissar Zhu Rui, and other high-ranking cadres all appearing at the headquarters to discuss operational plans nervously, and the sound of the high-power radio station in the operational command headquarters has not been interrupted.

"Lao Zhu, what's the situation now, which army is prominent?" Xu Xiangqian asked with a frown.

"The situation is very bad, except for the headquarters of the second regiment and the first battalion rushing out, the other troops are surrounded by devils, and now the encirclement of the little devils is shrinking, their strategic space is getting smaller and smaller, we must rescue them." Zhu Rui said loudly.

"Did the brigade headquarters rush out, is there any news for Li Erzi?"

"Chong rushed out, but they only broke through the first encirclement of the Japanese army, and there was still an encirclement of the Japanese army outside them. Brigade Commander Li and the others didn't have anything to do, but the three battalions of the first brigade headquarters now have only more than 400 people left, and they have lost more than 500 people, of which 200 wounded volunteered to stay behind to block the Japanese army, and all of them died! Jury replied.

"What about the casualties of the other troops?" Xu Xiangqian continued to ask.

"All of them are very heavy, the first brigade has now lost one-fifth of its soldiers, and more than 70 villages have been sacked by the Japanese army, and many militia squads have been completely wiped out by devils, of which 27 villages have been slaughtered by devils, and the casualties are estimated to be about 3,000. And that's not counting the casualties of ordinary people. If all of them are counted, the Japanese puppet army caused at least more than 10,000 casualties in our army's defense area in just one day. ”

Hearing that the loss was so big, Xu Xiangqian couldn't help but gasp, the little devil was determined to get rid of them this time, otherwise he wouldn't have done it.

"What is the morale of the troops, what do the fighters think?" Xu Xiangqian's biggest concern now is the morale of the troops, as long as the morale of the troops is still there, there is still a chance to turn around, if the morale is gone, then the soul of this army is gone, and a unit without a soul is no longer a regular army. It's a matter of time before someone eats it.

Zhu Rui sighed and said, "Because of the little devil's slaughter village. As a result, the morale of the troops was very low, and some soldiers were reluctant to retreat and transfer, and they were in a mood with the headquarters of the 1st Brigade. ”

"Hey! There is no way to do this, most of the soldiers in the first brigade are locals. Now the little devils are killing people and setting fires in their homes. It's a person who doesn't want to be chased by little devils like this. Let the political commissars of the 1st brigade and the instructors of various battalions and companies do more ideological work for the soldiers. We are forced to transfer, only by transferring can we preserve our strength, and then we can avenge our dead fellows! Xu Xiangqian said.

"The main thing is that the little devils are too ferocious. There were almost no chickens and dogs left in the place where the first brigade headquarters was located, and there were more than 1,200 people in Douhutun, except for less than 200 people who withdrew with the troops, and the other more than 1,000 people were all slaughtered, including many babies and young children who were waiting to be fed and gray-haired old people, which was really miserable! Zhu Rui gritted his teeth and said.

"Bastard!" Hearing that the Japanese army dared to cause such a tragic murder in North China, Xu Xiangqian couldn't help but slam the pencil in his hand on the conference table, and spit out these two words through gritted teeth.

"Commander, what should we do now, the little devil is clearly going to eat the first brigade, we can't let their conspiracy succeed!" Li Guang, chief of staff of the Shandong First Column, asked loudly.

"Just a mixed brigade and two garbage infantry divisions want to eat my Shandong Yizhong, the appetite of the little devil is not small, there are not many little devils in Luxi, and we have been afraid of it in the past few years, this little devil should be transferred from other places, and we don't know our strength very well, so we will have a good time with this group of bitches." Speaking of this, Xu Xiangqian's voice suddenly changed, and he said loudly: "Order: The first brigade immediately looks for favorable terrain on the spot to organize a defensive line, and maneuver with the Japanese army, and must hold out for more than a week." The 2nd Brigade, the 3rd Brigade, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Garrison Brigades, the Lihai Detachment, and the Wangshan Detachment immediately went to the front line of Liaocheng to assemble and stand by, and at the same time ordered the county brigades, district squadrons, and militia detachments in various localities to immediately cover the transfer of the people. Xu Xiangqian decisively ordered.

"Yes!" Although none of them knew Xu Xiangqian's strategic intentions, they were in the same trust, and everyone still faithfully carried out Xu Xiangqian's orders.

In fact, Xu Xiangqian's plan is very simple - encircle Wei to save Zhao! With the strong support of the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, the development of Shandong First Column in the past two years has been extremely rapid, although there are only three regular infantry brigades on the surface, and the total strength of the troops directly under the column is only 18,000, but in fact, there are 12 infantry regiments and a total strength of 32,000 troops in the entire Luxi area, and there are also a large number of local armed forces, with a total strength of more than 70,000.

After launching successive attacks on the Japanese puppet army in Luxi, the Shandong First Column had established a solid base in the Luxi area, and the Japanese puppet army in Luxi could only control a few kilometers within a radius of the county seat. In addition, a part of the puppet army has secretly defected to the Eighth Route Army, if it were not for the fear that the elimination of the entire Japanese puppet army in the Luxi area would cause large-scale retaliation by the Japanese army, otherwise the Shandong First Column would have killed all the Japanese puppet troops in the Luxi area.

Xu Xiangqian judged that the Japanese army obviously did not know about the situation, and the Japanese commander of Luxi should not have told the truth to the headquarters of the 12th Army stationed in Shandong, otherwise the Japanese army would never dare to send only one infantry brigade to sweep Luxi.

Moreover, this time the Japanese army appeared very suddenly, according to common sense, these Japanese troops could not carry too many weapons and ammunition, so Xu Xiangqian judged that the Japanese army must have a logistics base in the Luxi area. Through analysis, Xu Xiangqian judged that this logistics base is the most likely in Liaocheng, on the one hand, because Liaocheng is the largest city in Luxi, where the transportation is convenient, which is very conducive to the transportation of materials.

On the other hand, because Liaocheng is the closest to the main battlefield, setting up the logistics base there is conducive to the offensive of the troops. Therefore, Xu Xiangqian prepared to concentrate superior forces to besiege Liaocheng and force the main force of the Japanese army to return to help solve the crisis of the 1st Brigade.

After receiving the order of the 1st Column Headquarters, the 1st Brigade immediately established a defensive line in the area of Wangtangshan, and then the troops scattered in the vicinity quickly assembled in Wangtangshan and stood by for the position. By the evening of 7 April, the regular troops of the Eighth Route Army on the front line of Wangtangshan had exceeded 3,000 troops, in addition to more than 5,000 local troops and militiamen, in addition to about 20,000 civilians who had been transferred with the troops.

Seeing that the battle situation was developing in the direction they expected, Yan Junliu and Nemoto Hiroshi were extremely happy, although this was not a battle worth paying attention to in Yan Junroku's opinion, but as part of the test of the true combat effectiveness of the Imperial Japanese Army, Yan Junliu was still very concerned about this battle.

However, looking at the situation on the battlefield now, the people of China still seem to be as vulnerable as before, although the news from the front that the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army has improved, causing some casualties to the imperial army. But the imperial army has already taken the absolute initiative strategically, as long as this branch of infantry brigades is surrounded, then the remaining two branch infantry brigades can only be led by the nose of the imperial army.

However, soon another news from the front broke the good mood of the six generals of Yanjun, and the tens of thousands of troops besieged Liaocheng, and the defenders were in danger, and sent a telegram to the headquarters of the 12th Army asking for help.

Where is Liaocheng, of course, the six generals of Yanjun know that this small city of China has a very important position in the battle of encircling and suppressing the Eighth Road of China, and it is the logistics base of tens of thousands of troops of the imperial army, so there is absolutely no room for loss.

Although the good mood was destroyed, but the six generals of Yanjun were not worried, although Liaocheng is not a heavy city, but in order to ensure the smooth progress of the western bandits, the 12th Army still strengthened the defense of Liaocheng, and now stationed in Liaocheng in addition to a reinforced brigade, there is also a heavy machine gun squadron and mortar squadron, in addition to 1 puppet army infantry regiment, plus the gendarmes and police in the city, the total strength of the garrison has exceeded 3,000 people.

Moreover, the fortifications of Liaocheng are very perfect, and it is not so easy for even the Eighth War Zone, which has the strongest combat effectiveness in China, to take Liaocheng, let alone the Eighth Road of China, which lacks heavy firepower.

Although the number of troops attacking Liaocheng is claimed to be tens of thousands, they lack the necessary siege weapons and equipment, and they are barely able to deal with the strongholds under the general county or township, let alone a city like Liaocheng. As long as Liaocheng can hold out for three or two days, the imperial army will be able to annihilate the Zhina army in the encirclement in one fell swoop, and when the time comes, return to Liaocheng, and cooperate with the defenders in the city to destroy the hateful Tubalu.

However, the ideal is plump, but the reality is skinny, not only backbone, but also cruel. On the night of April 8, the Liaocheng Garrison Headquarters sent a telegram that the Imperial Association Army in the city mutinied, Jiang Shouyi, the deputy commander of the Imperial Assistance Army, led two battalions of soldiers to rebel, killed the regiment commander Liu Erhu, and opened the east gate of Liaocheng, and put the Tuba Road in, and now the Liaocheng Garrison Command is organizing street battles, but due to the huge gap in strength, they can support up to 3 to 5 hours, if the reinforcements have not arrived by then, they will collectively break the jade for the loyalty of His Majesty the Emperor.

Yan Junliu, the commander of the Liaocheng garrison, didn't know him, but he heard from the top of the 12th Army that this person was a real soldier. Since Inoue Shaozo has already said such words as the collective jade shattering, the acceptance of the erosion of the situation must have far exceeded their expectations, so General Yan Jun ordered the troops around Liaocheng to urgently reinforce Liaocheng, and at the same time ordered the troops of the Root Hiroshi to immediately strengthen the offensive, and be sure to wipe out all the Chinese troops in the encirclement before the 9th. (To be continued......)