Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

During the entire battle, three more divisions were added to the original ten divisions.

Now the two sides are fighting fiercely around the three towns.

At this time in North China, the Japanese army was beginning to be unable to bear the huge consumption of the Battle of Wuhan, so they mainly focused on defense.

However, intelligence from all directions indicated that the Japanese army was stepping up its stockpiling of supplies in preparation for launching a large-scale mopping-up operation in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region.

Before that, the temporary commander of the First Army turned his attention to the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, which had been relatively active in southwestern Shanxi recently.

Because he had been influenced by the Eighth Route Army's recovery of southeastern Shanxi, the man in Kenanpo also had the idea of ​​recovering southwestern Shanxi after the Eighth Route Army recovered southeastern Shanxi.

After all, as the former King of Shanxi, he was now driven out of Shanxi by the Japanese army, and he watched the Eighth Route Army win victory after victory in his own territory and continuously expand the scope of its base.

Those are all his territories, Yan Laoxi couldn't help but think.

Since the end of the Battle of Taiyuan last year, he has gathered the remnants of his defeated troops, and his total force is only over 20,000.

After a year of development, there were only 40,000 men, and the new army alone had nearly 50,000 men. However, as the new army outnumbered the old army, he soon discovered that this force was gradually slipping out of his control.

Originally, when recovering southeastern Shanxi, I wanted to send some troops to be stationed in the southeastern Shanxi area, and I had already negotiated with the Eighth Route Army.

But then he thought that the strength of the new army was beginning to surpass that of his original troops. Once he sent out troops, it was certain that the Japanese army would retaliate next year. He knew what his own troops were like, and he was afraid that the troops he had accumulated with great difficulty would be destroyed again.

At the same time, an important issue now is how to deal with the problem of the new army. Before these problems are resolved, he dare not send troops to southeastern Shanxi.

He wanted to restore his strength, but he didn't have many troops, and the entire Jin area was almost lost.

If he could take over southwestern Shanxi while the Japanese army in North China was short of troops, he would have enough territory to expand new troops.

So this is why the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army wanted to enter southeastern Shanxi, but then suddenly there was no news.

Therefore, when he wanted to take advantage of the Japanese army's lack of manpower to recapture southwestern Shanxi, his subordinates suddenly became interested.

After all, once they entered southeastern Shanxi, in addition to having to guard against the Japanese army's large-scale retaliation attack in the coming year, they would be surrounded by Eighth Route Army troops.

If the surrounding areas were other Eighth Route Army troops, it would be easy for these people to deal with, but the areas surrounding southeastern Shanxi are all Zeng Jiwen's troops. Once I want to do something, if I am dealt with by Zeng Jiwen, I am afraid I will be the one who gets scolded in the end.

After all, these people had heard of Zeng Jiwen. At the same time, the expansion of the 389th Brigade into the 389th Division was enough to show how much the person in the south wanted this guy.

Besides, the 389th Brigade, before it was expanded into the 389th Division, caused heavy casualties to the First Army after entering Shanxi, and his previous troops, a total of 200,000 troops, were beaten by the Japanese army and only had the current strength left.

Don't go looking for trouble with Zeng Jiwen. You may end up getting beaten up by him instead of finding him.

So when Yan Laoxi said that he was going to send a division to southeastern Shanxi, his subordinates began to humbly evade responsibility.

After he gave up the idea, everyone tacitly agreed not to mention it.

Now that this person started talking about recovering southwestern Shanxi, everyone began to get excited again.

After all, the Japanese troops were short of manpower at that time, so they could take advantage of the weak ones. It was a good opportunity to recover southwestern Shanxi.

At that time, there was only one battalion of Japanese troops in Yuncheng, and the Japanese Independent Mixed Brigade 3 was stationed in Linfen.