Judging from the location of the Dragon's Tooth Column and the Third Division, if you want to cross the Yellow River eastward and march into the land of Qilu, there are two more suitable routes to march, the first is to go south from Dezhou and go straight to Jinan.

The second route was to cross the Yellow River from Binzhou to the south, attack Zichuan County (now Zibo City), and completely cut off the contact between the Japanese army in Jinan and the Japanese army in Weifang, which was also equivalent to cutting off the Japanese army in Jinan.

Pushing the Japanese army to Tai'an, Jining and other hinterland and mountainous areas of Shandong, and striving for the final decisive battle with the Japanese army in the central Luzhong region was the most beneficial operational goal of the Eighth Route Army.

Because the Japanese army was not fighting on its own, it was naturally impossible to survive in the mountains, and without the support of the local people, they would never have been defeated and retreated into the mountains like the anti-Japanese forces.

Therefore, if the Japanese army could not hold Jinan, it could only retreat to Tai'an, Laiwu, and Qingdao, which were important coastal cities.

Therefore, in his telegram to the Third Division, Qiao Youhua also made detailed military arrangements, requiring the Third Division, together with the 20,000 regular troops of the Eighth Route Army that had been withdrawn from the Tianjin battlefield before, to divide the troops into two routes and attack Jinan and Zichuan respectively.

After achieving the tactical goal, the partial division immediately divided its troops to the west and made a detour to Jinan, towards the rear road of the Japanese army in Jinan.

As mentioned earlier, Qiao Youhua asked the Third Division to seize Mount Tai first, but in fact, there is a premise for this, that is, the Third Division must first break through the Yellow River defense line composed of heavy military groups deployed by the Shandong Japanese army in the areas along the Yellow River north of Jinan, especially on important wharves and railway bridges.

Mount Tai is located between Jinan and Mount Tai, and if you want to break through Mount Tai's natural danger, you must first defeat the Japanese army in Jinan.

Why did Qiao Youhua not say that the Third Division should break through the Yellow River first, but said that the Third Division was going to seize Mount Tai, in fact, this was a strategic goal for the Third Division.

That is, to recover Jinan, break through the natural danger of Mount Tai, as long as the natural danger of Mount Tai is broken, then the Japanese army will no longer be in danger to defend in Shandong, the mechanized troops of the Longya Column and the regular army of the Eighth Route Army, the guerrillas can drive straight in, galloping across the land of Qilu, invincible.

As for whether the Third Division can be qualified for this mission, Qiao Youhua is still very relieved, because he has to stay in the base area, in the previous Northern Expedition, the Third Division, together with a large number of militia and other second-line troops in the area they are stationed, failed to participate.

Therefore, tens of thousands of soldiers must have made enough efforts, and now let them be the vanguard, they must all be like hungry tigers, swarming up.

On the Japanese side, because the war in Hebei had been deteriorating before, the original North China Front Command had transferred the main forces of the Japanese army in Shandong to the north as much as possible, and in the ensuing battles, they were successively wiped out or disabled by the Dragon's Tooth Column, and finally the whole army was wiped out on the dock in Tianjin.

Therefore, there are not many main forces of the Japanese army in Shandong, only two divisions and regiments, plus a few mixed brigades, and in addition, there are a large number of puppet troops.

Qiao Youhua's order was quickly passed to Wu Ming, the commander of the Third Division, and Wu Ming immediately convened the deputy division commander, the regiments directly under the division headquarters, and the military commanders of the main infantry regiments to open an emergency military meeting before the war.

In the war room of the Third Division, after Wu Ming read out Qiao Youhua's order, he said to Deputy Division Commander Zhao Youde: "Deputy Division Commander Zhao, please tell me about the situation of the Japanese army on the other side that we have mastered for such a long time, as well as the strength of the Japanese army in the entire northern part of Shandong. ”

Zhao Youde immediately stood up and took the lead in walking towards a huge military sand table not far from the conference table, and Wu Ming and several other major officers also got up and walked over.

On the giant sand table, the sphere of influence of the Dragon's Tooth Column and the Japanese Army is clearly distinguished, the red flag represents the Dragon's Tooth Column and other Eighth Route Army, and the white flag represents the Japanese puppet army, which can be said to be clear at a glance.

Zhao Youde picked up a bamboo command pole next to the sand table, pointed to the military sand table and said to Wu Ming and the others: "Everyone, according to the information we have, of course, many of them are provided by our Dragon Shadow Guard agents risking their lives.

There are two divisions of the Japanese army in Shandong, namely the 114th Division and the 10th Division, please note that this 10th Division has been wiped out by our army as a whole, and the current 10th Division is newly formed by the Japanese with the remaining and supplementary troops of the original 10th Division.

The 114th Division was mainly expanded from part of the reserve units of the 14th Division of the Japanese Army, but it should be noted that since its formation in 1937, the 114th Division has not suffered any major losses, and it has been baptized by war many times, and it is already a relatively elite enemy force.

In addition to the above, the Japanese army also has six mixed brigades, some brigades, special units such as combat vehicles and air defense at the wing level, and to sum up, the total strength of the Japanese army in Shandong is about 100,000 to 120,000.

In addition, there are at least 200,000 puppet troops and a large number of traitors as their wings.

And stationed in Jinan is the Japanese 10th Division and two mixed brigades, and the rest of the northern Lubei region, such as Tai'an, there is a mixed brigade of the Japanese army, because it is more important here, there is Mount Tai natural danger!

In the area from Zichuan to Weifang, there was a mixed brigade of Japanese troops, but because the area to be garrisoned was too large, the troops were very scattered.

In addition to these Japanese troops, in order to prevent us from going south, the devils also deployed at least 100,000 puppet troops in Jinan, Tai'an, and Zichuan.

This can be glimpsed from the special information provided by our agents, because of the lack of troops, the Japanese army attaches great importance to these puppet soldiers who are loyal to them, not only gives them the same military salary and weapons and equipment treatment, but also sends a large number of elite veterans of the Japanese army to these puppet army units to serve as backbones or instructors.

Therefore, we have to face at least 150,000 Japanese puppet troops, of which at least 60 percent of the Japanese puppet troops have gathered in the Jinan area and along the river defense line.

So, we don't have an advantage in terms of troops. But we also have our own advantages, that is, we have more than 100,000 elite troops and tens of millions of blind date captives behind us to support us, and there are no worries about food, grass, ammunition, etc. ”

After listening to Zhao Youde's analysis and introduction, the main military commanders of the Third Division, including Wu Ming, had a general understanding of the comparison of the strength of the enemy and us in this battle.

This is very important for their next command of the battle, after all, as the saying goes, knowing oneself and knowing the other side can not be defeated in a hundred battles.

Wu Ming pondered for a while, and then said loudly: "Okay, everyone has a systematic understanding of the situation of the enemy and the comparison of strength, and the next thing is to carry out the task assigned to us by the commander, and I will order ...... below!" ”

Wu Ming had just issued a combat order, and a signal soldier suddenly rushed in, and saluted with a smile: "Division commander, the commander has called again, he said that the tank vehicles that have not been equipped for them before, and now the arsenal has produced them, and the tanks are being transported to us under the escort of the tank armored brigade."

Our tank regiment will live up to its name in the future! ”