Zhao Zhi, who was blocked on the Jiaodong Peninsula by Okamura Ningji's heavy troops, finally made a move, but the battle situation of the Qingzhou defense line made Okamura Ningji almost collapse, and the Qingzhou defense line, which he thought was impregnable, collapsed at the touch of a button. Under the mad onslaught of Zhang Lingpu's 58th Division, coupled with the flank breakthrough of more than 100,000 Burmese troops, the Japanese puppet army troops on the Qingzhou defense line only held out for only one day before falling apart. At the same time, the reinforcements who were transferred from Zibo by Okamura Ninji to support Qingzhou found that there were enemy troops on the back road and hurriedly retreated, and after they got rid of the enemy's entanglement layer by layer, Zibo had changed hands and was taken by the 51st Division of the 74th Army.

Zibo's change of hands means that Zhao Zhi in Jiaodong has successfully opened the passage to the north or west, and Okamura Ningji can no longer effectively intercept and block Zhao Zhi, and trouble is coming. "General, a large number of Zhina troops appeared in the direction of Liaocheng, and the people from the special high class also said that they found Thunder's armored troops in Liaocheng." The information sent back from Liaocheng by the special high class made Okamura Ningji even more furious, and the intelligence showed that the number of the Chinese army that appeared in Liaocheng exceeded 200,000, but the people of the special high school made such a big move, why couldn't the people of the special high class find out earlier.

The situation began to be unfavorable to Okamura Ningci, not only Zhao Zhi had already been killed from Jiaodong, but even Liaocheng also appeared a large number of Zhina troops, these Zhina troops that appeared in Liaocheng were not those Tubalu guerrillas in Hebei, they were all serious 800 regular Chinese army. Okamura Ninji couldn't imagine what it would be like for more than 200,000 regular troops to besiege Jinan, and besides, they also had the assistance of the Thunder Armored Force, and the Imperial Officers who had contact with the Thunder Armored Force said that it was the devil's army.

Okamura Ningji can command more than one million Japanese puppet army troops, but he has no way to take Zhao Zhi, this person is like a catfish that does not lose his hand, once Okamura Ningji gathers heavy troops to encircle and suppress, Zhao Zhi will disperse his forces and lurk, once Okamura Ningji's troops are also scattered to pursue and suppress, Zhao Zhi will secretly gather troops to deal with Okamura Ningji's troops one by one. When the two sides were in Hebei, they had secretly fought many times, but most of them ended in the defeat of Okamura Ningji.

But this time is different, once Jinan is captured by Zhao Zhi, the empire's north-south communication line strategy will be aborted, for the glory of the empire, Okamura Ningji will never sit idly by and watch Zhao Zhi seize Jinan. "Who said we were going to fight Jinan?" At the same time that Okamura Ningji was thinking about how to keep Jinan, Zhao Zhi, who had rushed to Zibo, was also convening a meeting of his officers, and all the officers of the 74th Army who had just recaptured Zibo were also present, and the joy of victory made the people of the 74th Army a little carried away, and even shouted that they wanted to take Jinan, but they were rejected by Zhao Zhi.

"If we don't fight Jinan, at least not now." Zhao Zhi pointed to the map on the table and said, "This marks the approximate deployment of the Japanese puppet army in Shandong, and these pieces of information are all collected by the brothers of the military commander at the risk of death, and the intelligence shows that Okamura Ningji is in Jinan at the moment." Okamura Ninji is the commander of the Japanese dispatch army, he can't only be escorted by wing-level Japanese troops in Jinan, and we have just broken his Qingzhou defense line and taken Zibo. ”

Zhao Zhi's words are not as shocking as the map on the table, the map is densely marked with red and blue pencils to mark the deployment of the Japanese puppet army around Jinan, judging from the map, Okamura Ningci has turned Jinan and its surrounding areas into a fortress, and if you want to fight hard with Okamura Ningci in Jinan, it will not work at all without more than 200,000 troops. The 74th Army itself has only more than 20,000 people, and Zhao Zhi's Burmese mercenaries are purely cannon fodder troops, and their combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the Imperial Army.

Without enough troops, Jinan really can't fight, but looking at Zhao Zhi's tone of speech, even if he has enough troops, he is not ready to fight Jinan, is there anything else that can't be said here? Wang Yaowu was the first to have doubts, and Zhang Lingpu was the second. "Everybody, look here." The command point in Zhao Zhi's hand is located in Liaocheng, southwest of Jinan, "This is Liaocheng, Chairman Jiang has arranged 300,000 reserves of your national army here, but these troops cannot move for the time being, because this is a bargaining chip to contain Okamura Ningci's Jinan troops, without Liaocheng's 300,000 troops, Okamura Ningci will mobilize heavy troops to encircle and suppress us at any time." ”

"Then why don't we fight with the troops in Liaocheng to attack Jinan back and forth? After killing Okamura Ninji, won't the Japanese mess up themselves? The officer of the 74th Army, who spoke in a hurry, felt that something was wrong when he said it, and then turned his head to look around, and all he saw was contempt. It is true that Okamura Ninji is the commander of the Japanese Dispatch Army, but according to the character of the Japanese, he will never be the commander of the last Dispatch Army, which means that even if the Chinese army kills Okamura Ninji, the Japanese still have someone else to choose to take the position of commander, and the life and death of Okamura Ninji has almost no impact on the overall situation of the entire Anti-Japanese War.

"Jinan wants to fight, and Okamura Ningji also wants to kill, but not now, now we have more important things to do." Zhao Zhi smiled and said his plan, "Let's put Jinan aside first, Binzhou and Dezhou are both good choices, in these two places, our Thunder and Military Commanders are lurking to receive the troops, and it is easy to take here." ”

"Since it is easy to take Bingzhou and Texas, can we use these two places as bait to lure Okamura Ningji to send troops to help, and we will take the opportunity to fight his ambush, first, we can exercise the actual combat ability of the troops, second, we can also kill and injure a large number of Japanese puppet army troops in Shandong, and thirdly, we can also put pressure on Okamura Ningji psychologically, and it is best to drive this old fox directly crazy." Wang Yaowu is also a fierce general in the army, and he has experienced far more battles than Zhao Zhi, and after listening to the meaning of Zhao Zhi's words, he understood Zhao Zhi's intentions, and said it immediately.

"General Wang is right, since we can easily take Binzhou and Dezhou, then why can't we set a trap for Okamura Ningji and wait for him to jump by himself, no matter how many Japanese puppet troops jump into the pit in the end, I believe it will be a blow to Okamura Ningji. With Okamura Ninji's character, he would never allow himself to make such a low-level mistake, so he would look for an opportunity to find us for a decisive battle or the idea of fighting our back, and this is the time for us to attack Jinan. Zhao Zhi's command fell on the position of Liaocheng and slammed hard.

"Wonderful, good strategy." Knowing that at this time, Wang Yaowu and his officers understood Zhao Zhi's true intention, not not to fight Jinan, but to transfer Okamura Ningji and his main force out of Jinan before fighting, such casualties would be much smaller, and the 300,000 national army reserve army that appeared in Liaocheng became the main force to seize Jinan. Zhao Zhi had already told Wang Yaowu that Thunder would mobilize 100,000 Jewish troops from Vietnam to go north, so Wang Yaowu didn't care about Okamura Ningci's sneak attack on Jiaodong, and believed that Thunder's Jewish troops would definitely leave a deep impression on Okamura Ningci.

"Mr. Zhao, I have reported to the chairman of the committee that the 74th Army will accept your command, and I hope you will not shirk again." Seeing that Zhao Zhi seemed to have the intention of shirking, Wang Yaowu moved out of Chiang Kai-shek directly. Although the 74th Army has been completely equipped with American-style equipment and weapons, it still follows the set of tactics and tactics of the National Army in terms of operational tactics, and the battle to break through the Qingzhou defense line caused Zhang Lingpu's 58th Division to suffer nearly 3,000 casualties, but the Thunder that can advance from the flank only suffered less than 2,000 casualties in the face of the troops, but the number of Japanese puppet troops shot by both sides is the same.

After the war, Wang Yaowu organized his officers to analyze the gap between the 74th Army and the Thunder, and found that the differences between the two sides were mainly reflected in the tactical arrangement and on-site command. Most of the Burmese troops who participated in the battle used Japanese-style weapons, but they paid attention to firepower coordination based on squads and platoons, and only when there was no avoidance could not be avoided, they would use strong firepower squads to carry out close strikes or cautious hand-to-hand combat. But the troops of the 74th Army didn't know how to use firepower to suppress the enemy, or rushed up to fight the Japanese in a melee with Garand, then the casualties would naturally be large.

From the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War to the present, the national army has always been a passive resistance of defeat and retreat, resulting in the replacement of American-style equipment of the 74th Army still can not get out of this framework, Wang Yaowu believes that if Zhao Zhi personally commanded the Qingzhou defense line battle, the speed of breaking through the Japanese puppet army's defense line will be faster, and the casualties of the soldiers will be smaller. As the commander of the 74th Army, Wang Yaowu is not a small person, after careful consideration, Wang Yaowu took the initiative to write to Chiang Kai-shek, asking his 74th Army to accept the command of Zhao Zhi, at least before the 74th Army meets the 300,000 reserve army in Liaocheng.

"Well, since Chairman Jiang has agreed, then I will take charge for a while, and after your 74th Army and the reserve army in Liaocheng meet, this resolution will be declared null and void." Since it is Chiang Kai-shek's intention, Zhao Zhi is not good at shirking, anyway, it is only temporary, as long as the passage between Jiaodong and Liaocheng is opened, the 74th Army can meet with the 300,000 reserve army at any time.

"Order, 50,000 people of the 1st Burmese Division immediately went to Binzhou to carry out a feint attack and clear out the Japanese puppet army troops on the periphery of Binzhou, and the 58th Division of the 74th Army cooperated with 20,000 Burmese troops to block the Japanese puppet army reinforcements on the periphery of Binzhou. 50,000 people of the 2nd Burmese Division carried out a feint attack on Dezhou and cleared the Japanese puppet army troops on the periphery, and the 51st Division of the 74th Army and 20,000 Burmese troops ambushed the periphery of Dezhou to block the Japanese puppet army. "This is the first order after Zhao Zhi commanded the 74th Army, if the plan is implemented smoothly, what awaits Okamura Ningji will be a big disaster.