Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

Hearing Yamashita Tomoyuki's wise words, Sugiyama Gen couldn't help but nodded. There were still some sober people in the North China Locust Army who could understand his painstaking efforts.

Then, I began to look forward to the chief of staff's next words.

"After considering this situation, we know that the Locust Army still has a large number of troops in North China. We can send the 14th Division in Handan and the 5th Division in Zhengding south to Xingtai. These two divisions will protect the Pinghan Road and ensure the safety of the southward transportation channel for supplies."

"At the same time, for this encirclement and suppression campaign in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region, we will have the Mongolian-based corps cooperate with us. We will use the 26th Division, the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade, the 4th Independent Brigade in Yangquan, the 109th Division in Wutai, and the newly formed 110th Division to launch a sweeping sweep in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region."

"At the same time, have the 108th Division take over from the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade to protect the entire Zhengtai Line."

"At the same time, the 20th Division in Taiyuan will serve as a mobile force and provide immediate support if the Zhengtai Line is attacked."

"To prevent the Eighth Route Army from supporting us in southeastern Shanxi, I think it's more than enough for the Locust Army to deploy four divisions."

"Other troops are responsible for maintaining law and order in other parts of North China."

When Sugiyama Gen heard the strategy proposed by Yamashita Tomoyuki, his eyes lit up. He finally heard something different. This rising star was indeed worthy of his reputation.

Therefore, Sugiyama Gen decided to follow the plan given by Yamashita Tomoyuki and prepare to start the autumn sweep of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region.

This is why Sugiyama Gen started to mobilize troops.

On the Eighth Route Army's side, after the Japanese army took action, the Eighth Route Army received intelligence and began to discuss the anti-mopping-up operation in autumn.

After Zeng Jiwen and others received the general situation of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, the leadership team of the entire military region began to come back to discuss how to support the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region in its anti-mopping-up operation and attack on Shijiazhuang.

Through previous communication with the General Command and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, in this counter-mopping-up operation, the four military sub-districts under the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, in addition to the guerrilla army and the Hebei-Rehe-Chahar Advance Army, currently have 21 main force regiments that can be deployed in combat, in addition to two understaffed artillery regiments with more than 40 artillery pieces.

In addition to the more than 20 75mm field guns that Zeng Jiwen had previously captured and supported to the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, with the advantage of artillery fire, the Jin-Cha-Ji region has also almost assembled two understaffed artillery regiments in the past six months through the capture and remaining stocks of the Northeast Army that had been secretly hidden in the Pingxi area.

In order to attack Shijiazhuang this time, they took out all their best weapons.

In addition, there are a large number of local militia armed forces responsible for logistics transportation, plus the 389th Division in the southeastern Shanxi region.

After discussions at home and at the headquarters, they all agreed that they could take advantage of the current shortage of Japanese troops to capture Shijiazhuang.

At the headquarters, the deputy commander could not help but sigh when he saw the troops and equipment reported by the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region.

Since entering Shanxi last year, the entire Eighth Route Army has not been able to gather an artillery regiment. The only artillery regiment that is there has only a dozen artillery pieces and some 82mm mortars.

In just over a year, the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region already had two artillery regiments. The Tainan Military Region was even more impressive; with the arrival of gun barrels and spare parts from the rear, both artillery regiments were officially fully staffed within two months.

At the same time, 18 artillery pieces were sent to the Taiyue Military Region, and Lao Chen was asked to reorganize an artillery regiment based on the previous artillery pieces.

Now the headquarters no longer needs the artillery regiment, and the artillery can be directly transferred to the troops in each military region.

Now, under the leadership of He Ping and Yuan Zi, the Taihang Army Factory is working hard to master the manufacturing process of 60mm mortars. After actual testing on the battlefield, it was found that when fighting with the Japanese army, a small number of imitation 60mm mortars were able to suppress the Japanese army's attack more effectively than 82mm mortars, causing great damage to the Japanese army.