As for Okamura Ningji, who has now withdrawn the headquarters of the front army from Tianjin to Jinan, in the face of Lieutenant General Uchiyama Eitaro's request for help, perhaps because he knew that he had made a series of fatal mistakes on the battlefield in Jizhong before. The main reason for the rapid deterioration of the war situation in Jizhong is still on himself.

Therefore, Okamura Ninji was very generous, and immediately forcibly advanced along the Jiaoji Railway to the direction of central Hebei along the Jiaoji Railway, which was originally used to reopen the Jiaoji Railway and create conditions for the arrival of follow-up reinforcements and the delivery of materials.

But Okamura Ninji did not expect that the detachment had just left Qingdao. The Shandong Military Region of the North China Communist Army, with the cooperation of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, was entangled in the line from Gaomi to Changle. In a short period of time, this brigade he Uchiyama Eitaro is not to be counted on.

What Okamura did not expect was that the communist army in Shandong was now swelling to such a point. Although the equipment is far inferior to the Northeast Communist Army, it is even very different from the Shanxi and Hebei Communist Army. However, the extremely effective targeted tactics adopted by the communist army made the detachment he sent at risk trapped on the Jiaoji Railway, and it was almost impossible to move an inch.

Not only did he fail to open up the Jiaoji Railway, but he also reinforced the Jizhong battlefield according to his own ideas. Even because of the difference in the number of troops carried by the military train, there is a danger of being divided. The Shandong communist army that fought with them was really a road picker, and the army column they were riding on. The railroad tracks in front and behind each military column were all stripped away.

Without the tracks, how would this train run? The several military trains on which the detachment rode were directly trapped on the railway line because the front and rear rails disappeared without a trace. got off the train to repair the railway, but was blocked by the enemy's dense firepower, and could not move in the carriage.

Because it was a multi-column military train, the result was that the upper strength of each column was insufficient. Neither was able to break through the ambush of the enemy army, nor was it able to assemble at all times. The most critical thing is a large number of troops, trapped on the railway line and unable to advance or retreat. Not only was it impossible to get the much-needed troops on the battlefield in Jizhong, but these troops were also trapped on the railway, with neither food nor drinking water, and they themselves were in danger.

Okamura Ninji never understood how the communist army in Shandong did these actions. He couldn't figure out how to strip off the railroad tracks between the two military columns in less than half an hour. The most important thing is that people are not simply ripping off the railroad tracks, and a large number of troops are deployed on both sides of the railway line.

On both sides of the railway line, and under the noses of the Japanese strongholds, there were so many ambush troops. The Japanese troops who tried to get off the train to repair the railroad did not dare to show their heads. The only mobile force in his hand was trapped on the Jiaoji line, and Okamura Ninji was helpless at the moment.

Compared with the units under the 12th Army, which were originally stationed on the battlefield in Shandong, the defense area was distributed throughout Shandong. The follow-up reinforcements are either still far away in East China and have just landed, or they are trying to reach the Jizhong battlefield safely in circles. Or simply trapped on the railway line, unable to move, but it is already good.

Lieutenant General Uchiyama Eitaro, the commander of the 12th Army, and the other units under his command are also the closest Japanese troops to the Jizhong battlefield, so he doesn't even think about it at the moment. The other garrisons of his Twelfth Army in Shandong were fragmented by the Shandong Communist Army, which could almost be said to have been dispatched, and part of the newly formed Fourth Army, which was reinforced by northern Jiangsu.

Now his 12th Army is staying behind in Shandong, and the actual situation is like this. If you want to concentrate your forces, you will have to shrink part of your defensive line and abandon part of your strongholds. But these strongholds were either destroyed by the enemy, or they were divided and besieged by the enemy. If you want to concentrate the troops in these strongholds, you must concentrate enough troops to respond.

However, the most difficult thing at the moment is that the entire 12th Army, no matter which formation, does not have enough troops to deal with the Japanese troops trapped in large and small strongholds. The 12th Army, which had been transferred almost all of its mobile strength, was divided into divisions and wings, or independently mixed brigades. It was really impossible to mobilize enough troops to break through the siege of the communist army and gather the scattered garrison troops.

Compared with the base areas behind enemy lines in Shanxi and Hebei, which have completed the refitting with the assistance of the Anti-Japanese Federation. Because the anti-Japanese base area behind enemy lines in Shandong was divided by the Japanese army in a corner, and was divided between other strategic areas by Japanese-controlled areas and railway lines, it received the least equipment support.

However, the Shandong base area is also the best developed of the entire North China and the major theaters behind enemy lines. In the 41st and 42nd years of the Japanese army, the losses in the entire sweep of North China were also the smallest. The main force and the local armed forces are complete, and the number of militias is quite large.

This time, under the order of the central authorities, in order to cooperate with the southward operation of the Anti-Japanese Federation before the war, the Shandong Military Region carried out a certain reorganization. In addition to the transfer of some of the main forces of each military region, the field army of eight divisions and the reinforcement of the New Fourth Army were concentrated into a field army of eight divisions, which were under the unified command of the military region as a mobile force.

A certain amount of reorganization and adjustment has also been carried out for the local armed forces and the troops of various sub-divisions. Faced with the current situation that the equipment was inferior to the Japanese army and the attack weapons were scarce. The Shandong Military Region has also specially formulated targeted tactics to mobilize a large number of local armed forces and militia to cooperate in besieging various strongholds. So that the enemy army could not get any supplies, and it was impossible to concentrate.

The eight divisions and 21 regiments that had been concentrated, plus two brigades of the New Fourth Army, were equipped with the best weapons and relatively sufficient ammunition in the division formation and used as mobile units. Once the Japanese army, with the cooperation of the puppet army, forcibly broke through and concentrated. He used mobile troops to ambush along the way, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Japanese army to break away from the stronghold and catch him off guard.

This tactic now seems to be quite effective. Not only the detachment transferred by the Southern Army was trapped on the Jiaoji Railway. Even the two divisions and regiments of the Twelfth Army left behind in Shandong and northern Jiangsu, plus some units of the two mixed brigades, were scattered and besieged in large and small strongholds, and it was almost equally difficult to move an inch.

And if you want those Japanese troops scattered in large and small strongholds to find a way to break through and come back, then in the current Shandong battlefield, this approach is tantamount to a wolf into the tiger's mouth. It's true that the enemy doesn't go toe-to-toe with you, but the fucking tactics can be described as yin. He lacked the means to attack fortifications, so he rarely attacked strongholds directly.

But he can besiege you around the stronghold overnight, making it difficult for you to move an inch. With mines, earth cannons and cold guns, you will be directly blocked from one door without leaving two doors. If you send troops to meet them, even if you try to squeeze out some of them, the ambushes along the way are almost endless.

There is often a situation where the responding troops do not rescue the people they want to rescue, but they do not return to the situation where they beat the dog with their own meat buns. Break through on your own, even if you can stand out from under the siege of their mines, earth cannons, and cold guns. From this stronghold to the rallying point, they still use the same tactics, ambushing you along the way.

And when he ambushed you, it wasn't those dirt roads, but all the old eight roads. The point is that the Japanese troops are stationed in a scattered posture, and there are not many Japanese troops in each stronghold. In this case, if you break through by yourself, if you don't have a relatively strong receiving force to respond, it is tantamount to looking for death by yourself.

The chief of staff of the corps who took his place tried to get the Japanese defenders of several large strongholds to withdraw. As a result, the squad-level units were like sheep in the mouth of a tiger almost as soon as they left the stronghold, and they completely disappeared into an unknown corner of the land of Qilu without realizing it.

The squadron-level troops were beaten all the way to the designated assembly area. Yes, the rest of the people might as well not be concentrated, because then the loss is a little smaller. The more mountainous the stronghold, the more difficult it is to evacuate, and the greater the losses. Even at the county level, it was already difficult for the Japanese army to get out of the city.

Because it is easy to break through the dirt eight roads, but there are still old eight roads with strong combat effectiveness behind them. You go out of the city to sweep the dirt eight roads, but you often face the old eight roads. There are not many garrisons, where can they withstand the old Eighth Road plus a large number of dirt Eighth Road, and come up to besiege together?

So at present, the Japanese troops in various parts of Shandong can only sit in the city of sorrow. In some counties, even the sorghum rice that the Japanese did not eat has been mixed to the point that they can't get enough to eat. Even the garrison of several strongholds in the Weihai area was besieged by a large number of communist troops in the surrounding area. Even if they could not get supplies, they could not fight, they could not get support, and there were no troops to respond, so they starved to death in the stronghold.

And the garrisons of several surrounding strongholds, no one dared to collect the corpses. In fact, they are also mixed around it, and they can't even get out of the door, and their allies who can't protect themselves can't collect the corpses. According to the report of the chief of staff of the army, the garrisons in many strongholds, in order to be able to eat their stomachs, have gone so far as to exchange weapons and ammunition for food.

The troops below, even heavy machine guns and grenadiers, dared to sell to the communist army in Shandong in exchange for some of the food on which they depended, or a promise that the enemy would not attack. In this case, let alone gathering troops to reinforce the Jizhong battlefield. Even the area under the control of the Twelfth Army itself was on the verge of getting out of control.

At present, Tuba Road in Shandong does not occupy as many county towns as Hebei and Shanxi. It mainly occupies the countryside, but now it has developed to the point of openly carrying a gun and swaggering into the county town to hang out. And not to mention the local puppet army, even the local Japanese garrison, it is not like you didn't see it at all.

It's not that the Japanese troops everywhere don't want to take care of it, but they really don't dare to take care of it. If you catch one of them, it's like stabbing a beecom's nest. The days to come will make you worse off than dead. Not only the surrounding Old Eighth Road, but also the Dirt Eighth Road will retaliate, and even the already difficult grain route will be directly cut off, and all the Japanese troops can only go hungry.

After receiving a report from the chief of staff of the army, Lieutenant General Uchiyama Eitaro could only sigh that the enemy's tactics of heaven and earth were too powerful, and could only secretly sigh that the situation in Shandong, and even the situation in North China as a whole, was now a matter of fact. The Imperial Army, which was majestic on the battlefield in China back then, was mixed up to such a point. Even to get some food, you have to exchange it for weapons.

There is not much need for this situation, and who would have believed that the current Twelfth Army would be reduced to a garrison unit, and actually starved to death in the stronghold, and the surrounding friendly forces did not even dare to collect the corpses. Most of the troops were so that they couldn't even get out. But with a long sigh, Lieutenant General Uchiyama Eitaro did not dare to draw his own troops to death.

Because once Shandong is completely lost, it will also mean that the North China Front will completely cut off the contact with the Japanese army in Central and East China. Therefore, at present, Lieutenant General Eitaro Uchiyama, who is the commander of the 12th Army, cannot pin his hopes on the divisions under his own structure. The hope of increasing troops can only be placed on the base camp and the dispatch army.