Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

At this moment, the Japanese army had already marched to Daoqianyu, not far from Huangyadi.

According to intelligence, this Japanese force belonged to the Ishikawa Battalion of the 136th Sabae Regiment of the 109th Division. The entire battalion was formed from the 9th Division's remaining garrison and had previously been on guard duty in the rear. This reinforcement, thanks to the successive victories of the Japanese forces on the front lines, had boosted the morale of the battalion.

Ishikawa Kazuo, the captain of the Ishikawa Battalion, was riding a warhorse, staggering along the road, admiring the scenery along the way, not caring at all that he was on the battlefield on his way to Xiyang.

"It's such a waste for the Chinese to occupy such a vast land. It still depends on our Imperial Japanese Army to conquer it. Only an empire is worthy of such a vast land." Ishikawa Kazuo looked intoxicated.

The staff officer Ono Yaji beside him also looked in agreement.

Suddenly, a messenger came to report that a small number of Chinese troops were spotted ahead. Upon hearing this, Ishikawa Kazuo immediately ordered the first squadron to go and eliminate those Chinese soldiers.

In order to successfully lure the Japanese army into the valley and annihilate them, Huang Fu divided the 1st Battalion into squads and platoons, used a small part of its forces as bait, and took advantage of the Japanese army's underestimation of the enemy and their urgency to lure the Japanese army into the ambush encirclement of the 781st Regiment.

Therefore, when the 781st Regiment sent a platoon of soldiers as bait to harass the Ishikawa Battalion, Ishikawa Kazuo was dismissive and immediately ordered the 1st Squadron to pursue. After a brief exchange of fire, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion took advantage of the battlefield's advantageous terrain and began to fire in a guerrilla-style manner, slowly drawing the Ishikawa Battalion into the encirclement at Huangyadi.

At this time, Ishikawa Kazuo was impatient with the harassment of the first battalion, so he ordered the second squadron, the third squadron and the subsequent machine gun squadron to start chasing the remaining enemies.

When the 1st Battalion pretended to retreat to the northwest heights of Fengju Village, Ishikawa Kazuo and his entire brigade had already entered the ambush circle of the 781st Regiment. Under the order of the regiment commander Hong Chao, the 781st Regiment directly launched an attack on the Ishikawa Brigade at the bottom of the valley using light machine guns and grenades.

Faced with the sudden firepower and artillery bombardment, Ishikawa Kazuo led three squadrons in several counterattacks, but due to the unfavorable terrain, they suffered heavy casualties and were unable to continue the offensive. The artillery squad in the rear, seeing that the attack in front was not going well, began to bombard the positions of the first battalion with artillery fire and covered the retreat of the large group to the Huangyadi River beach.

At this point, Ishikawa Kazuo was in a state of panic, thinking he had escaped the 781st Regiment's ambush. He began to rest and relax his guard, unaware that he had entered an ambush circle formed by the 2nd and 3rd Battalions. At Hong Chao's command, the 1st Battalion opened fire from the front, while the 2nd and 3rd Battalions fired obliquely from the flanks. The fierce firepower intertwined into a web of fire, frightening Ishikawa Kazuo. He quickly organized his troops to counterattack and said to his staff officer Ono Yaji, who was huddled in the corner, with a panicked look on his face: "Hurry and send a telegram to Colonel Morimoto, commander of the 79th Regiment. Our troops are under attack by a Chinese army corps at Huangyakou, Zhaobi Township, Xiyang. Request tactical guidance!"

At this time, the 79th Regiment, which was still resting in Pingding County, immediately ordered the messengers to assemble urgently after receiving the telegram from the Ishikawa Battalion, and led the 79th Regiment to advance quickly towards Xiyang.

At the same time, the telegram from the Ishikawa Battalion was forwarded to the commander of the 20th Division, Kawaban Bunsaburo.

At this time, Kawaban Bunsaburo was enjoying a massage from a comfort woman recruited from Japan, watching a dancer perform Japanese dance, and drinking sake with his chief of staff, Kitamura Hisazo. Upon receiving the telegram from the 79th Regiment, he revealed a look of anger.

"Damn, Ishikawa is such an idiot, so arrogant, just like Yamane," Kawaban Bunsaburo slammed the table. The dancer and the comfort woman massaging him were trembling with fear. After receiving the telegram and signaling the others to leave, Kimura Kyuzo said with a puzzled look on his face, "Hey, division commander, there's something wrong!"

Kitamura frowned as he read the telegram. Kawaban Bunsaburo turned and looked at him. "Oh, what do you think of Kitamura-kun?"

"Your Excellency, the Division Commander, the Battle of Taiyuan is over, and the Chinese government forces have gradually withdrawn. Xiyang and other places are still in the hands of the Imperial Army. How is it possible that an army's troops appear there? If they existed, the intelligence department should have discovered it long ago." Kitamura said as he put down the telegram.

"Oh, what does Kamura-kun mean?"

"Perhaps there isn't a single army. Your Excellency the Division Commander, do you still remember the Yamane Battalion?"

"Oh? You mean the troops that ambushed my Yamane Battalion?"

"Yes, it's possible. According to intelligence, their troops are a brigade, and they received most of the equipment of an Imperial Army brigade from Nanling Station. Their firepower is already on par with the Imperial Army, which is exactly what Ishikawa said about the firepower of an army."

"Yoshi, it seems that the 389th Brigade is the one that ambushed the Ishikawa Battalion this time. We finally found this unit." Kawaban Bunsaburo said excitedly.

Afterwards, Chuan An ordered the 79th Regiment to speed up its march southward and quickly merge with the Ishikawa Battalion, dragging this unit with him. Then, he personally led the 39th Brigade from Yangquan, determined to cripple this Chinese army and wash away the shame of the 20th Division with the blood of this Chinese army.

When the commander of the 79th Regiment received the division's order, he immediately informed the entire regiment. After all, because of this Chinese army, the 79th Regiment had recently been ridiculed by the other Yellow Army troops, and the entire regiment was filled with anger. Then the entire regiment rushed towards Xiyang in anger.

At Huangyadi, after receiving the telegram from the 79th Regiment ordering them to hold their ground and await reinforcements, Ishikawa nearly called out to Morimoto. The current terrain was extremely unfavorable for them, and they feared they would be annihilated before they could even receive reinforcements. Especially after learning that the troops ambushing them might be the same ones that had destroyed the Yamane Battalion, Ishikawa cursed. They'd been able to ambush the Yamane Battalion before, so why were they afraid of a single rearguard battalion? His division was newly formed, and its combat effectiveness was no match for the Yamane Battalion, and now they were facing this kind of terrain.

After much deliberation, Ishikawa decided he couldn't listen to Morimoto and decided to look for an opportunity to break out. After coming under heavy attack from the 781st Regiment, he reorganized the 500 or so men still able to fight at the foot of the mountain. He discovered from the sound of gunfire that the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were facing insufficient firepower, so he chose the positions of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions as a breakthrough point, attempting to use artillery fire to create a gap.

So the artillery team set up two Type 92 infantry guns and launched an artillery attack on the positions of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions. When the 2nd and 3rd Battalions saw the Japanese preparing to bombard, they entered the cat-ear caves that Zeng Jiwen had invented to prevent Japanese artillery bombardment. When Ishikawa saw that the gunfire from the positions of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions was sparse, he mistakenly believed that the enemy forces in this direction had suffered heavy losses, so he led the Japanese troops to launch a fierce attack on these positions.

When Ishikawa led his troops halfway through the attack, the four 90mm mortars and four 60mm mortars hidden in the command center began to show their power. They fired three rounds in rapid succession, and more than twenty shells exploded directly in the Japanese formation, causing heavy casualties to the Japanese. At the same time, the soldiers of the second and third battalions hurried back to the trenches, pulled grenades and threw them at the Japanese, and then began to aim and shoot at the remaining Japanese soldiers not far away.

This wave of attacks directly caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army. Because Ishikawa was alert, he knew he had been tricked when the first round of artillery fire sounded, so he shouted "Enemy attack, defense", and then lay on the ground.

Sure enough, when he stood up, there were only a few Japanese soldiers left around him, about a hundred or so.