At the end of June 1943, the four military fortresses under the control of Zhou Weihan were almost completed, marking the phased construction of the Hebei, Shandong and Henan base areas was coming to an end.
Zhou Weihan originally wanted to have a few days of leisure, but he did not want another trouble south of the Longhai Line. The Japanese army of the 35th Division seemed eager to jump over the wall and repeatedly sent troops to invade the base area in eastern Henan.
In desperation, Zhou Weihan had to go south. Since Wei Monk and Wan Jingang were studying at the Anti-Japanese University, only Yang Bo, Tian Defu and a guard company accompanied them.
As the bridgehead of the Hebei, Shandong and Henan base areas, the Yucheng area had a close encounter with the Japanese and puppet troops in Shangqiu. Naturally, Zhou Weihan had to give more instructions, so he stopped in Dayangji that night.
Compared with before, the Eighth Route Army troops in the Yucheng area have undergone some changes in personnel. Zhu Guoming, deputy director of the political department of the column, led the newly established Yucheng Independent Regiment to garrison in Yucheng County. Cheng Qiwu, chief of staff of the column, led the Second Military Region Directly Affiliated Regiment.
The regiment was stationed in Dayangji, and Xin Tiebing, chief of staff of the 16th Brigade, still led the remainder of the 16th Brigade and the First Regiment directly under the Military Region to continue cutting off the Longhai Railway.
That night, Dayangji was brightly lit, and all traces of the war were gone. The damaged houses were restored and rebuilt with the help of the Eighth Route Army.
The only pity is that due to the fighting between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party here, many fields around Dayangji were destroyed. Fortunately, the base area provided corresponding compensation afterwards.
As soon as he entered the room, Zhou Weihan's eyes lit up. There was a map hanging on the wall and a sand table in the middle room. Cheng Qiwu on the side smiled and said: "Commander, how are you doing?"
Zhou Weihan praised: "Not bad, the workmanship is exquisite, and a lot of effort was put into it. It seems that you have a capable person under your hands!"
During the previous battle with the National Army, Zhou Weihan had asked the staff office to draw the topography of the Yucheng area into maps and sand tables. Although Cheng Qiwu stayed in the Yucheng area after the war, he was at most a vertical leader. How could
may actually be responsible for this.
As expected, Cheng Qiwu had no intention of hiding anything and said: "Hey, I knew I couldn't hide it from you. The staff office is really full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Several staff officers were transferred from the Zhinan Military Division and had participated in the work with Comrade Zhou Weiguo before.
Based on the drawing of sand table and map!"
"These comrades with special skills must be well cultivated, promoted and reused. Although there is a Kangda University in the base area, it is useless to just study in school. We must learn in actual practice and let them lead more new people!"
An accurate map is too important for marching and fighting, but such talents are too rare for the Eighth Route Army. The level of technical personnel who graduated from the Anti-Japanese University is at most about the same as that of the soldiers of the reconnaissance company, and they can still do the job of drawing a simple map.
, more practice is needed.
Li Yunlong once boasted that he was born with the ability to read maps. This was true. Otherwise, he would not be a qualified commander. However, if he were to be responsible for drawing maps, it would be difficult for him to die.
When it comes to the homework in the picture, Zhou Weiguo is second to none in this aspect. The others are from wild backgrounds after all, so they are not even the slightest bit worse.
Not long after, Zhu Guoming and Xin Tiebing came to Dayangji one after another.
"How is the situation on the front line recently?" Zhou Weihan asked.
"Comrade ***, the Japanese and puppet troops in Shangqiu tried to open up the Longhai Railway before, but there has been no movement in the past half month. Is it possible that they have given up? Or are they unable to make progress?" Xin Tiebing said.
"It's the same here in Yucheng. After several times of suppressing the rebels, the local security has been significantly improved. It has been basically sorted out and there has been no more trouble?" Zhu Guoming said.
Zhou Weihan looked around at the many counties on the sand table, from Kaifeng to Shangqiu. The Eighth Route Army, marked by red arrows, compressed the territory of the 35th Division's divisional area from the north and south into an increasingly narrow area.
Although eastern Henan and northern Anhui were dilapidated and of little operational value in the eyes of the Japanese army, after being occupied by the Eighth Route Army, they unexpectedly lost strategic depth. Once the Eighth Route Army continued to cut off the railway lines between several counties, the last communication channel for the Japanese army would also be lost.
was cut off.
"Sometimes the water surface seems calm, but in fact there are whirlpools hidden under the water. I called you three here this time to remind you not to be fooled by the short-term favorable situation in front of you. The Japanese army must be accumulating strength. It won't take long before there will be a collapse of the earth.
The battle!"
"If we can win this battle, the danger to our base in the south will be minimized!"
The effect of Zhou Weihan's troops cutting off the Longhai Railway became more and more obvious. At first, the Japanese and puppet troops in the division-controlled area of the 35th Division tried to endure it and delay it until they went to the base camp to dispatch reinforcements from other divisions, so they kept playing turtles.
However, the domestic situation in Japan changed, and it was obvious that there was no time to take into account the situation of the 35th Division. The reason why the Japanese and puppet troops changed their defensive strategy was that the Eighth Route Army first occupied northern Anhui and then eastern Henan.
Although the grain production in the two places has decreased, the little devils do not care about the life and death of the people. They only wait for the summer harvest to grab a wave of grain, so how can they hold on for a while longer.
Early the next morning, Zhou Weihan set out to continue his journey south. He passed by the Niuwang Lake stronghold and went in to take a look: "It looks quite solid. Who would have thought it was a shoddy project? The little devil is ruthless enough to trap his own people!"
Xin Tiebing, who was accompanying him, said: "Commander, I have had people try it. The current strength of the stronghold is enough to withstand the continuous attack of 75-caliber artillery shells. In addition, there is no concrete under the turret bunker. I have people dig an escape passage. If
The Japanese army really has heavy artillery, which gives them more hope of escape!"
Zhou Weihan said: "You have a lot of ideas. Let me tell you good news. The 16th Brigade is about to be reestablished!"
Xin Tiebing was delighted when he heard this: "Really, that's great!"
After the battle with the 28th Group Army, Li Yunlong led the 16th Brigade to enter the Shandong base area to fight for two months. At first, Li Yunlong kept sending telegrams asking when he would return to the base, but later there was no movement.
Zhou Weihan estimated that Li Yunlong was reaping some benefits in the Shandong Military Region, otherwise he would not be so peaceful. However, the four brigades of the Hebei, Shandong, and Yu columns were scattered in various places. Now that the Japanese and puppet troops were ready to move, everyone knew that a war was inevitable.
This battle was what Zhou Weihan had been looking forward to, so naturally the 16th Brigade was not allowed to remain outside. The Deputy Chief of General Staff contacted the Shandong Military Region through the radio to discuss the return of the 16th Brigade.
The matter of returning to the army had never been mentioned before, so when the Deputy Chief of General Staff mentioned it, Political Commissar Luo of the Shandong Military Region did not delay. He just replied in a telegram that the 16th Brigade needed to hand over the specific matters and set off from Shandong in two days.
After Li Yunlong learned the news, he was even reluctant to leave. The reason was very simple. The leaders of the Shandong Military Region took too much care of the 16th Brigade. There was no need for Li Yunlong to make requests to the superiors. Weapons and equipment were given priority to be supplied, and the missing soldiers were directly transferred from the main force.