Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

Therefore, when Naozaburo Okabe captured Yuncheng and was about to turn around and encircle the 389th Brigade, he discovered an embarrassing problem. If he wanted to encircle the 389th Brigade at this time, he would need at least two divisions. In addition to the 20th and 14th Divisions, the 109th Division was maintaining the northeastern part of Shanxi. The 3rd and 4th Independent Mixed Brigades had their own defense areas to maintain. Northwestern Shanxi was currently a brigade of the Mongolian Corps. They were only assisting, and it was still unclear whether they would obey the orders of the First Army.

Once two divisions were withdrawn, would there be any other places left in this large territory? Moreover, according to Naosaburo Okabe's idea, he wanted to send another division to participate in the encirclement, as he always felt that two divisions were not safe enough.

When he reported this idea to the commander of the North China Front Army, Sugiyama Hajime, Sugiyama Hajime immediately became interested. Considering that the entire North China Front Army was currently short of troops and it would take some time to expand, he asked Okabe Naosaburo to wait for a month.

Naosaburo Okabe had different opinions in his heart, but considering the reality, he nodded and agreed and began to consolidate the occupied area.

Zeng Jiwen waited for over a month, completely bewildered, for the Japanese troops had not yet arrived. However, he quickly realized based on the current situation that the Japanese were probably under-strength and were more likely to send more troops to encircle the 389th Brigade.

Sure enough, on the 12th, Zeng Jiwen received a telegram from headquarters that the 20th Division stationed in Yuncheng had moved northward, and the Independent Mixed 3rd Brigade began to take over Yuncheng. At the same time, the Independent Mixed 4th Brigade in Yangquan began to shrink its forces and assemble.

The 14th Division in Quwo also began to return to Changzhi in batches, while one brigade returned to Handan. The most serious problem was that the 19th Brigade of the 16th Division of the North China Front Army was heading south. The headquarters speculated that the destination was likely Shijiazhuang or Xingtai.

From south to north, from east to west, according to the current situation, the Japanese army has dispatched three divisions of troops and began to prepare to encircle Zeng Jiwen's 389th Brigade. The total number of Japanese troops encircled is close to 60,000.

When this number of people was released, it was almost equal to the number of people in a large-scale battle, and instantly attracted the attention of forces from all over the country to Shanxi. At the stage when the Battle of Xuzhou was in full swing, no one expected that the Japanese army was still capable of deploying such a large number of troops in Shanxi.

Although we did not obtain the approximate battle plan of the Japanese army's attack, we can roughly judge the Japanese army's intentions from the troops mobilized by the Japanese army.

After Zeng Jiwen marked the positions of the Japanese divisions on the map with a pencil, he had a rough idea in his mind. Compared with the nine-way siege in the original time and space, the Japanese army had invested twice as much energy and manpower this time, launching an enhanced version of the nine-way siege.

Compared with the original time and space, except for the military strength and the Japanese offensive forces, almost nothing else has changed. The 20th Division returned to Jinzhong to be stationed. According to Zeng Jiwen's guess, it is likely to sweep in the three directions of Shouyang, Mafang and Yushe. The Independent 4th Mixed Brigade moved south from Yangquan.

In the Changzhi area in the south, the 27th Brigade of the 14th Division, the 2nd Infantry Regiment moved towards Xiangheng, Qinxian, and Wuxiang, the 59th Regiment attacked from Licheng towards Liaoxian, and the 28th Brigade of Handan was likely to move along the Handan-Changzhi Highway, with part of the brigade heading towards Shexian and part of the brigade starting from Longhu Township to sweep into the mountainous area to the northwest.

The 19th Brigade of the 16th Division, located in Xingtai and Shijiazhuang, sent one regiment along Jingxing to sweep the mountainous area around Yangquan, while another regiment moved from Xingtai along the mountainous area to Liaoxian.

Thinking of this, Zeng Jiwen immediately sent his summary of speculation to the headquarters, asking the intelligence department to find out the specific numbers of the troops currently stationed in these places.

At this moment, there was also a solemn atmosphere in the headquarters that had evacuated to the mountainous area near Yanqu.

The deputy commander held a pencil and kept gesturing on the map of southeastern Shanxi with a serious expression, while the division commander next to him was also looking at the map, not knowing what he was thinking.