Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

When Yoshito Takagi and the remaining troops began to march south along the route, scouts soon reported that the Eighth Route Army's blocking positions were discovered ahead.

When Takagi Yoshito arrived at the Eighth Route Army's blocking position and observed the situation with a telescope, he recalled the previous ambush by a small group of Eighth Route Army troops. He immediately understood that this group of Eighth Route Army had some conspiracy and immediately sent a telegram to the division commander Ushijima Mitsugu to report the situation.

At the same time, he told the division commander Ushijima Sanetsu that he thought the Eighth Route Army might ambush a certain locust army. After thinking for a moment, he decided that no matter which locust army the Eighth Route Army decided to ambush, they would engage in a firefight with the opposing sniper unit.

When the commander of the 20th Division, Ushijima Mitsumoto, received the telegram from Takagi Yoshito, the 79th Regiment he led had just arrived at the entrance of Xiangli Village in front of Changning. At this time, a battalion of the 79th Regiment was engaged in a firefight with a part of the Eighth Route Army troops in front of Xiangli Village.

Because Xiangli Village is surrounded by mountains on both sides, the hillside on the south side protrudes to the north, making the road leading to the village extremely narrow. At this time, the second and third battalions of the 82nd Regiment, led by the commander of the 82nd Regiment, Chen Jinquan, established ambush positions on the mountains on the north and south sides respectively, harassing the advancing route of the Japanese army.

At the same time, the 1st Battalion and the Shouyang local regiment 128th Regiment engaged in a firefight with the 80th Regiment at Songjiazhai, north of Songta. Relying on the ravines in the mountainous area around Songta, the 1st Battalion continuously sent small units to launch sneak attacks on the 80th Regiment in the process of marching, which drove the commander of the 80th Regiment, Suzuki Kenji, crazy.

When a small team was sent out to expel the enemy, the entire team was wiped out. When a squadron was sent out, there were heavy casualties. Suzuki Kenji immediately suspected that this Eighth Route Army wanted to attack him and annihilate his regiment, so he did not dare to divide his troops to fight.

After all, after the last incident on the Zhengtai Line, except for the 80th Regiment's own regimental headquarters, artillery squadron and machine gun squadron, almost all other infantry battalions were destroyed in the strongholds on the Zhengtai Line.

This directly left Suzuki Kenji as a commander without troops. Although two battalions were later added from the North China Front Army, many of the soldiers in these two battalions were new recruits recruited from the country, and their combat effectiveness was not as strong as before.

During the previous attack on Yuncheng, the 80th Regiment was directly used as a logistics security force, which made Kenji Suzuki extremely distressed. A good field regiment was turned into a reserve security force by the 389th Brigade. Kenji Suzuki wished he could immediately lead his troops to chop off this small force that was hovering around him.

There was no need to guess, Suzuki Kenji knew that the troops circling around him must belong to the 389th Brigade, and he also heard a big news from the division commander in the morning. The locust army's Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang and Handan airports were attacked by the Chinese army, suffering heavy losses.

In other words, they currently have no air force support, which makes Suzuki Kenji very cautious on the march. He decides to concentrate his firepower to break out of the encirclement directly if he encounters an ambush by the Eighth Route Army, and never give the 389th Brigade the opportunity to encircle and annihilate the regiment.

After all, for most people in the 20th Division, the term "389th Brigade" has almost become a nightmare for their division. Since the 389th Brigade entered Shanxi, their division's troops were beaten every time. When they heard that most of the 108th Division was surrounded and annihilated by the 389th Brigade, everyone felt the same way and thought that it was finally not their turn.

The new recruits who were added to the division looked at each other in confusion after hearing what the veterans were saying. They thought, "This is still the Locust Army. Why are they so timid?" It was a disgrace to the Japanese Locust Army.

However, as the Eighth Route Army continued to harass and shoot nearby, and at the same time, a certain squad was inexplicably injured by a shell, they dared not say anything more.