Jiang Qiang did not expect that Li Jinglin's 1st Aviation Brigade would achieve such brilliant results as soon as it made a move, and it would blow up the 33rd Division that was on the march, completely shattering the dream of Gansu Shigetaro to withdraw to Pingdu and stick to it and wait for reinforcements. Take advantage of your illness to kill you!

After receiving Li Jinglin's report that the air force had disabled the 33rd Division, Jiang Qiang immediately ordered the 1st Division and the Cavalry Brigade, which had just finished the battle at the 20-mile fort airfield, to quickly attack, seize the opportunity of the 33rd Division being severely damaged by the 1st Aviation Brigade of the Jiaodong Group Army, and annihilate the remnants of the 33rd Division in one fell swoop.

In view of the fact that the 33rd Division had become a frightened bird, had lost many heavy weapons, and its combat effectiveness had been greatly reduced, Jiang Qiang revised the original plan of outflanking the 1st Division and the Cavalry Brigade in a roundabout way, and ordered the 2nd Regiment of Zhao Zhengbi's 2nd Division to be the attack arrows, concentrate all tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles, and carry out a rapid pursuit along the main road. Ordered Shunzi to lead the cavalry brigade to carry out a roundabout battle plan, go around to the east of the Xinlai River, and intercept the little devils.

Considering that in order to save the fate of the 33rd Division, the little devils will inevitably dispatch planes to provide air fire support, and if it is a large group of aircraft, they will also carry out crazy retaliation, Jiang Qiang ordered Li Jinglin to put all bombers into storage or air defense protection, and the fighter formations took off to meet the Japanese planes in the sky over Weixian. Tactically, it is necessary to fight an ambush in the air, concentrate all fighters, and implement high-altitude concealed standby, so that when the devil fighters are ambushed and fleeing by our ground fire, they will suddenly kill and intercept the enemy planes. It is only allowed to fight once, retreat after the battle, and return to the airport to hide, and absolutely cannot be caught up by devil fighters to discover the airport. The 1st Division and the Cavalry Brigade, which were tasked with the pursuit mission, were ordered to carry enough smoke pipes and organize anti-aircraft shooting. The Air Defense Command was ordered to prepare for battle, and the units of the Air Defense Brigade quickly took up positions and prepared to meet the devil planes and cover the battlefield. The 8th Brigade of the 1st Division was ordered to stop making a detour in the direction of Xintai County and to wait in secrecy on the spot. After seizing Xintai County, the 6th Division was ordered to quickly evacuate the masses and prevent air raids by enemy planes, in addition to completing the task of blocking the retreat of the 33rd Division. All the units of the Jiaodong Group Army in Shandong were ordered to mobilize, and the soldiers and fellow villagers were organized to smoke and shroud the base area in smoke. Linzi, Yidu, Changle, Weixian, Fangzi, Boshan, Linqu, Changle, Anqiu, Gaomi, Jiaoxian, and all the newly occupied county towns and market towns of our army must urgently mobilize the masses to make kites, fly kites, fly balloons, and lay aerial mine arrays over the base areas to cover the battlefields and towns.

Jiang Qiang's battle slogan for the First Division and the Cavalry Brigade was: Catch up with the little devils, capture Ganji Jutaro alive, and create a miracle of capturing lieutenant generals in one day! This slogan is so exciting! Li Yannian put down the phone and immediately ordered that Commander Jiang Qiang's order be conveyed to every soldier in the First Brigade, and the whole brigade should be mobilized, catch up, and capture Ganji Jutaro alive!

After giving the order, Li Yannian and Junzi each asked for a 95 assault rifle from the guard, and both strode out of the division headquarters, got into a truck, and chased the first division westward.

After receiving the order, the commander of the cavalry brigade, Shunzi, said to Tao Zhuangming, the chief of staff: "I will lead the first cavalry regiment to go first, and you will lead the second cavalry regiment, the third cavalry regiment, the cavalry artillery regiment and the brigade direct troops to follow. This time, Lao Tzu is going to personally sneak the dog's sweet meal Jutaro to the commander! ”

After speaking, without waiting for Tao Zhuangming to answer, he went out and turned on his horse, leading the guard battalion to gallop towards the cavalry. Zhou Yi, chief of staff of the First Division, watched the division commander and Shunzi go away, and angrily raised his foot to shine on a birdcage.

Liu Jinping, the commander of the guard battalion of the First Division, was about to go crazy when he wanted to arrest Ganji Jutaro, and when he saw that the chief of staff was also in this situation, he said: "Chief of Staff, I will leave the second and third battalions to you to wait for birds and kites to fly near Weicheng." I'll take a battalion to the battle, do you think it's okay? ”

Zhou Yi's mind immediately turned in circles, if this little devil plane was coming, it would definitely not be ten or eight, because all the planes at Xuzhou Airport were taken away by Jiang Qiang and Li Jinglin, and the fighters and bombers at Jinan Airport and Shijiazhuang Airport basically let their birds be knocked out. Despite this, the little devil will still find a way to mobilize the plane to retaliate. The reason is very simple, one is that the Jiaodong Group Army captured Odaka Kamezo, and the Japanese army could not afford to lose that face. The second is that the Japanese army must have known that the Jiaodong Group Army had eliminated the 108th Division and was pursuing the 33rd Division. In order to save the 33rd Division, they would also send planes desperately to bomb and strafe to cover the 33rd Division's breakthrough. Third, the Japanese army has never been able to find the position of the main force of the Jiaodong Group Army, and now that the goal is clear, they will definitely do their best to bomb and retaliate. If this is the case, the little devils will definitely dispatch a large-scale aircraft group, and the battlefield of the 33rd Division, the anti-aircraft fire positions of the air defense brigade, and Weicheng and Fangzi will be the key bombing targets of the devil's planes. Other counties are just targets of retaliation for the second wave of bombardments by the little devils.

After figuring it out, Zhou Yi immediately called Jiang Qiang, reported his thoughts to him, and then asked for approval to send the special air defense team to the air defense brigade position and the battlefield of the first division and cavalry brigade to assist the troops in air defense operations.

Of course, this idea was approved immediately, and Zhou Yi also happily set off with his air defense special operations team and the guard battalion of the first division.

As soon as Jiang Qiang ordered the pursuit and annihilation of the 33rd Division, Chang Yuan reported and requested to take advantage of the situation to capture Zhoucun, Zhangdian, and Zhangqiu, and pointed the attack arrow directly at Jinan. Immediately afterwards, Chang Yuan led the Seventh Brigade to join Liu Qingshan and put forward a battle plan to advance to Jinan and capture Jinan before the Japanese reinforcements entered Jinan.

Jiang Qiang considered that although the little devils knew that the Jiaodong Group Army attacked and occupied Weicheng and that the 108th Division might be annihilated, they still had illusions about the 33rd Division retreating northward, and under normal circumstances, they would think that the main force of the Jiaodong Group Army was destroying the 104th Brigade and the 25th Brigade, or was deploying to eliminate the 33rd Division, and it was too late to attack Jinan. You must know that the Luxi Group established by Liu is not far from Jinan, and as long as it maneuvers quickly tonight, it can launch a surprise attack early tomorrow morning. With the combat effectiveness of the Japanese garrison in Jinan, it is impossible to stop the pace of attack by Liu Qingshan, the elite of the hundred battles, and it is very likely that street battles will be fought in Jinan. When Chang Yuan and Ren Yixiong commanded the 3rd, 4th, and 7th Brigades to arrive, Jinan City was captured. When the time comes, even if the little devils are ordered to mobilize troops to attack Jinan, it will be too late. Based on this consideration, Jiang Qiang approved Chang Yuan's battle plan.

As soon as Chang Yuan's battle plan was approved, Lei Cannon reported that the Fourth Brigade had eliminated the Devil Guard Brigade. In this way, it would be impossible for the little devils in Zhoucun to reinforce the rear guard brigade of the 25th Brigade, and Jiang Qiang's plan to let the 4th Brigade transfer the little devils stationed in Zhoucun out of the city to annihilate them fell through.

On the morning of November 8, the Jiaodong Group Army and the Japanese army fought non-stop, and every battle could be said to be fought at a pinching point in time. The two brigades of the 1st 08th Division were almost destroyed one after another after a short period of time. Naturally, the first battle was the battle of the 1st Division, the Cavalry Brigade, and the Artillery Brigade at the Twenty-Lipu Airport, followed by the battle of the 3rd Division to destroy the advance guard brigade of the 25th Japanese Division, followed by the battle of the main force of the 3rd Division to destroy the main force of the 25th Brigade and the battle of the 4th Brigade to occupy Linzi and eliminate the Japanese automobile transport troops. By the time the 4th Brigade had eliminated the rear guard brigade of the 25th Brigade of the Japanese Army, the 1st Division and the Cavalry Brigade had already begun to carry out the pursuit order.

Later, Chang Lingfeng, deputy director of the General Staff Office, calculated that the entire Jiaoji Road Battle to eliminate the Japanese Army's 108th Division, except for one regiment to eliminate the enemy defending Weicheng, the other battles were almost started at the same time, the time interval was extremely short, and each battle was almost half an hour to end the battle, except for the 25th Brigade Guard Brigade barely resisted for a while, and the little devils in other battles did not even have a chance to shoot. The reason for this situation is that, in Chang Lingfeng's words, the 104th Brigade was buried under the cluster artillery fire at the Twenty Lipu Airport, and the units of the 25th Brigade were divided into brigades by the Eighth Route Army, and they were wiped out one by one. After blowing up the military column, the little devil not only suffered heavy casualties, but also lost its combat effectiveness in a short period of time, and was easily annihilated by our army.

At this time, the units of the 1st Division and the Cavalry Brigade that had departed from Fangzi rolled away to the east like water that had burst its embankment.

Although the 108th Division is an ad hoc division, it is the first batch of ad hoc divisions and regiments to go to the battlefield, and it is also a four-unit system, and its equipment is on par with that of permanent divisions and regiments. There is a tank brigade, an armored vehicle brigade. In peacetime, they are subordinate to the command of combat units, and the division and regiment only retain one tank squadron and one armored vehicle squadron for use as a reserve assault force. There are also more cars, 50 in each of the two brigades. The divisional baggage wing is composed of a truck brigade with a load of one and a half tons and a rubber bottom truck brigade. Among them, there are three squadrons of the truck brigade with a total of 150 vehicles. Not to mention the tanks, armored vehicles, and cars of the two brigades, except for the tank squadron of the 25th brigade, which was completely captured, the others were destroyed by artillery fire. The tank squadron, armored vehicle squadron and 150 vehicles left at the regimental headquarters of the 10th and 8th Divisions in Weicheng were all captured by the 1st Regiment.

The first regiment was originally the first battalion of the Jiaodong Army, but after capturing Fengtai, Jiang Qiang ordered to give all the captured Japanese tanks, armored vehicles, and cars to the second battalion, and the second battalion became an armored battalion. In this way, during the operation, the Second Regiment became the backbone assault regiment, and the status of the First Regiment tended to be weakened.

Now that so many tanks, armored vehicles, and cars were captured at once, Hu Dawei didn't even report to Jiang Qiang, and directly ordered a regiment to be equipped. Anyway, the study of the first regiment is the most important grasp of the whole division, and there are more fighters who can drive tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles, and they usually covet the mechanization of the second regiment, but this time it is also the turn of the first regiment, and the soldiers can't care about fatigue, so they hurriedly compile camouflage nets, protect the vehicles, and then start to drill on the cars.

During the battle of Twenty Lipu just now, after the artillery group bombarded, two mechanized teams of the 1st Regiment and the 2nd Regiment appeared on the scene, but when Hu Dawei led the cavalry brigade to pounce, he could only look at the back of the car and sigh.

Chang Yuan knew that Jiang Qiang was going to set up an armored force as the assault force of the whole division, so he waited for Jiang Qiang's approval, and originally wanted to order Hu Dawei to seal and hand over the tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles, but considering that the 33rd Division was about to be wiped out, the armored force could make the combat effectiveness of the regiment reach a higher level, so he acquiesced to Hu Dawei's decision.

In fact, in Li Yannian's heart, he couldn't wait to mechanize all the first division. In this way, when encountering the little devil's heavy army group, you can launch a frontal attack and completely crush the little devil's attack. However, he also knew that it was impossible for the time being, because the road conditions were so bad, and the air power of the Japanese army was so strong, when the first division really wanted to be fully mechanized, I was afraid that it would affect the mobility of the first division.

No, as soon as he received the order to pursue and annihilate the 33rd Division, Hu Dawei took the lead, led the regiment onto the highway, and chased it in the direction of Xintai. As for a group of soldiers whose cars could not fit in, Hu Dawei ordered them to all ride horses, keep up with the main force, and quickly pursue. Behind the first regiment was an even larger armored contingent of the second regiment.

After the troops set off, Hu Dawei, who was sitting in the car, looked at the Second Regiment following them, and said to Chief of Staff Wang Xinyun excitedly: "How about it, a regiment is a regiment, and it will always charge in front and retreat in the rear." Lao Tzu has been holding his breath for so long, and today he finally got this breath back! ”

Wang Xinyun knew that the 1st and 2nd regiments would eventually hand over tanks and armored vehicles, and the division commander would set up an armored unit to undertake the task of assault on the battlefield. The first regiment is the sharp knife of the Jiaodong Group Army, and the tasks it undertakes are much more complicated than that of a simple armored regiment, and Jiang Qiang will not let the regiment leave behind the tanks and armored vehicles, which will affect the all-round and all-weather combat of the regiment. If nothing else, if these iron guys are useless in mountain battles, will Jiang Qiang let a group stay honestly in tanks and armored vehicles and let other troops go? That's impossible. Of course, Jiang Qiang is likely to concentrate his cars as a means of delivery for a regiment, just as a regiment has already been packed, which can improve the mobility of the troops. However, Wang Xinyun didn't want to sweep Hu Dawei's excitement at this time, so he followed his tone and said: "Of course, the old battalion will always be the old battalion, and the regiment will always be the same regiment." ”

It was only more than 20 miles from Twenty Mile Fort to Qingchi, and it took half an hour to arrive. At this time, the remnants of the 213th Wing of the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army had just rushed to Qingchi from Kaiyuan and joined the brigade of the 214th Wing that remained in Qingchi.

At this time, the little devil had not yet woken up from the nightmare of being attacked by the air attack of the Jiaodong Group Army Aviation Brigade, and he was panicked, and as soon as the two troops met, they immediately retreated in the direction of Xintai. The captain of the 213th Wing told the captain of the 214th Wing, Akita, that his wing had suffered more than half of the casualties and retreated first.

Akita's rank is not as high as that of a wing commander, plus the 213 wing is indeed a heavy casualty, the 2,900-strong wing has only 1,500 or 600 people left, and there are many wounded. The search team of the division and regiment that followed the operation of the 213th Wing was even worse, perhaps they were on horseback, the target was large, and they did not have time to hide in the village, and the search team of 319 people was now only 50 or 60 people, and all of them became infantry.

Akita agreed and was willing to act as a rearguard to cover the concentration of troops in Hancun, where the division commander was located. The captain of the devil wing was overjoyed, and even saved polite words, and led the team to retreat west along the road.

Akita was not stupid, knowing that it was very dangerous to leave behind the palace at this time, he hurriedly urged the troops to move, followed the 213 Wing out of the town, and fled westward.

As soon as he left the town, Akita heard a booming sound and looked back and almost fell to the ground. At the west end of the town, a river of the same color as the grass and leaves of the late autumn and early winter appeared, rolling from west to east.

Akita, a battle-hardened soldier, knew that it was not a river, but a camouflaged steel army of chariots, armored vehicles, and automobiles. Akita immediately ordered the entire brigade to halt its advance and immediately set up positions and set up machine guns, grenadiers, and infantry guns to prepare for a blockade.

Akita's reaction should be said to be fast enough, but it didn't work at all, it was a torrent of steel, how could he resist the infantry brigade of a garrison division? This is the Great Plains, there is no terrain suitable for blocking the attack of combat vehicles, there is no time to dig anti-tank trenches, and they have no anti-tank guns, so they can only become ants crushed under the rolling torrent.

The machine guns on the chariots and armored vehicles opened fire, and the bullets were so dense that they were really like flowing water, and the soldiers of the autumn brigade tumbled and rolled on the ground like dumplings falling into a boiling pot.

After Hu Dawei led the 1st Regiment to catch up with the Autumn Brigade, he did not further intercept and kill, but continued to advance. At this time, what is needed is the speed of pursuit, and it should be constantly impacting and impacting. This tactic has been taught many times by Jiang Qiang and the Military Academy, and the cadres of the first regiment will do it. The second regiment behind him was different, dozens of tanks left the road, lined up, followed by dozens of armored vehicles and hundreds of cars, and launched an encirclement and interception of the autumn brigade.

Akita had forgotten what fear was at this time, his mind had become a blank, it turned out that chariots, armored vehicles and automobiles could be used in such a concentrated way! Amaterasu! Amaterasu!

The tanks of the 2nd Regiment did not open fire, and all of them used vehicle-mounted machine guns to strafe, and the little devils who were blocking the front were bounced up and fell, and finally became ants under the tires of tanks, armored vehicles, and cars. The 2nd Regiment slaughtered the Akita Brigade cleanly, and pursued it forward like a regiment. The destruction of the Akita Brigade made the commander of the Devil 213 Wing, who was retreating, heartbroken.

The 213th Wing was only one step ahead of the Akita Brigade, and the distance was only more than a mile, and the naked eye could see the Akita Brigade dancing on the fire net woven by tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles of the Eighth Route Army without a telescope. In particular, the scene of the 2nd Regiment setting up a position and chasing and crushing the little devils with tanks, armored vehicles, and car tires all fell into the eyes of the commander of the 213th Wing. Not only did the captain of the 213th Wing see it, but so do the soldiers under him.

The tank was born during the First World War. At that time, a colonel named Ernest Winston in the British army came up with a way to break through the strong defensive line of German trenches, barbed wire, and machine-gun fire points, which was to create a self-propelled vehicle with armor to protect against both trenches and machine gun bullets. Intrigued by Colonel Swinter's vision, Winston Churchill, the British Admiralty at the time, organized a "Land Boat Committee" to conduct experiments, and then appointed Triton and Lieutenant Walter Wilson to design the first locomotive.

In 1916, the British produced the "Mark" 1 tank, with a diamond-shaped outline, rigid suspension, track mounts on both sides of the hull with protruding gun mounts, two tracks around the hull from the top, and a pair of steering wheels sticking out from the rear of the car. This tank has a crew of 8 people, and there are two types: "male" and "female". The "male" was armed with 2 57-mm guns and 4 machine guns, and the "female" was armed with only 5 machine guns. On September 15, 1916, 32 Mark-1 tanks entered the Battle of the Somme for the first time. At that time, for the sake of secrecy, the British described the new weapon as a "water tank" (English "ta") for delivering water to the front line

k”）。 As a result, the name is still used today, and "tank" is a transliteration of the word.

Although tanks have already emerged in the First World War, and major powers have been developing tanks after World War I, there is debate in the international military theory community about the role of tanks and how to apply them. Britain and France, for example, took completely different approaches in terms of mechanics and tactics. The British considered the tank to be a mobile combat vehicle, whose role was to repel enemy resistance and break the barbed wire fence over the trenches in order to reduce the likelihood of an enemy infantry attack. The French believed that the role of the tank was that of an armored personnel carrier, capable of transporting infantry behind enemy lines without casualties, over barbed wire and trenches, and then unloading them. This, of course, was an early disagreement about tanks. By this time, the level of tank manufacturing and the theory of application in all countries of the world had greatly developed, and the Germans, in particular, had theoretically raised tank warfare to the height of armored group operations, not only produced various types of new tanks and organized powerful armored units, but also sharpened their knives and prepared for actual combat tests.

The Japanese have a relatively short history of developing tanks.

Although they are the most developed country in Asia and one of the world's great powers, their economic level is still much lower than that of the European and American powers. In 1937, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, and Japan accounted for 38%, 10%, 11%, 5%, and 4% of the world's industrial production, respectively, with Japan ranking last. Moreover, the foundation of its heavy industry is relatively weak, and its proportion in the industrial structure is relatively small, only 49.6% in 1936, less than half. Not to mention, the most important thing is the scarcity of mineral resources and heavy dependence on imports, resulting in steel production equivalent to one-tenth of that of the United States, unable to meet the needs of its military industry and machine manufacturing industry. In particular, the little Japanese have always tried to build a huge navy that can compete with the United States, and the mere manufacture of ships and ships has seriously tightened the steel production of little Japan.

In addition to heavy industry and steel production not as good as those of European and American powers, another factor affecting the development of tanks is the automobile manufacturing industry. Tanks are the steel of movement, and in order for steel to be installed on wheels, it must be closely dependent on the entire technical team and personnel of the automobile industry. At this time, European and American countries have generally used cars as a means of transportation, and the United States reached the level of one car for every five people in 1930, and now it produces several million cars a year. Japan, on the other hand, still relies mainly on foreign-funded companies for its automobile industry, and mainly relies on imports for automobiles and engines. The national automobile manufacturing industry is developing slowly, and the annual output of automobiles is less than 50,000.