Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

On the 17th, with the Taiyuan First Army Commander Naosaburo Okabe issuing the preliminary assembly order according to the combat plan formulated by the General Staff, all troops have now assembled at the designated location.

At the same time, supplies were continuously transferred from North China along the Zhengtai Line to the assembly areas of various divisions and have now arrived.

In order to ensure that this batch of supplies could reach various troops safely and prevent them from being intercepted again by the 389th Brigade, Naosaburo Okabe directly sent a large team to escort each train, and at the same time, martial law was imposed on the entire Shota Line.

In order to prevent the attacks of the Eighth Route Army troops on the Handan-Changzhi Highway, a brigade of the 14th Division was directly ordered to escort the supplies during the day under the escort of the air force.

Okabe Naosaburo would rather delay for some time than give Zeng Jiwen any chance to reveal his flaws.

By summarizing the previous attacks of the 389th Brigade on the locust army, he found that in the mountainous area of ​​Jin, it would be easy for Zeng Jiwen to defeat them one by one if the troops were divided.

At the same time, the locust army's air advantage became a decoration and was not brought into play.

Originally, this time, Naosaburo Okabe wanted to send three divisions, each of which attacked in one direction, and at the same time send out six routes and six regiments. Even if one of the regiments was destroyed by Zeng Jiwen, as long as the main division continued to advance, it would be possible to encircle the 389th Brigade sooner or later.

However, when he reported this plan to General Sugiyama Hajime, commander of the North China Front Army, he was directly scolded by Sugiyama Hajime.

In order to support the First Army this time, the North China Front Army almost withdrew all of the air force in North China, all of which was used to support the First Army in Shanxi.

At the same time, a brigade of the 16th Division was withdrawn from the front line of the Xuzhou battlefield to carry out the encirclement.

In addition to the 14th Division in Handan, the 1st Army can send out its own 20th Division and the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade.

With the strength of nearly three divisions, plus the air force, nearly 60,000 people, almost all the mobile reserve forces in the hands of the North China Front Army were withdrawn. In Sugiyama Gen's view, this was the greatest attention to the 389th Brigade.

Moreover, after the troops were withdrawn, the North China Plain suddenly fell into an embarrassing situation of insufficient manpower, and finally the Imperial Army had to maintain local public order in North China.

As for why the Imperial Army was not allowed to participate, Sugiyama Gen knew it very well. This group of Imperial Army were previously security groups in various places. They stole things on weekdays. After the Locust Army occupied North China, they surrendered to the Locust Army.

If we expect these guys to fight against the elite troops of the 389th Brigade, I'm afraid they will be shot and run away as soon as they enter the battlefield.

Moreover, the locust army has just occupied North China and has not had time to train these people. Instead of relying on them, it would be better to let them stay in the local area and not cause trouble for the locust army.

After this war, we will train these spineless people hard.

Sugiyama Gen thought that this was already enough face given to the First Army, but he didn't expect that Okabe Naozaburo was still not satisfied and even wanted six regiments. He was immediately furious and called Okabe Naozaburo to scold him.

He even said directly on the phone that Zeng Jiwen didn't have three heads and six arms, so he didn't need so many locust soldiers. The 389th Brigade scared you to death!

Besides, he doesn't have any other troops to give to your First Army now. Didn't you see that he even sent those thieves and idlers of the Imperial Army to guard the county towns in various parts of North China?

After Naosaburo Okabe's plan to increase troops failed, he looked at the map and thought that if the three divisions each surrounded one route, southeastern Shanxi was so large and the mountainous areas were crisscrossed, then there was a high possibility that the 389th Brigade would escape.

However, if he divided his troops, he was afraid that Zeng Jiwen would unite them and surround and eat them. In this situation where he was stuck between two ends, Okabe Naosaburo missed Kazuki Seiji a little. Even Umezu Mijiro, whom he had always disliked, suddenly became less annoying.