Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

What annoyed Sugiyama Gen the most was that Handan and Xingtai had already fallen.

Ever since receiving the telegram from the locust troops guarding Handan and Xingtai in the middle of the night, the entire headquarters was thrown into chaos.

Rescue? Where will the reinforcements come from?

Now the garrisons in various parts of North China are basically fighting against the Eighth Route Army.

Only the 21st Division in Tianjin and the 114th Division in Shandong remained.

The 114th Division is now maintaining stability in the occupied area of ​​Lu. If the 114th Division is asked to send reinforcements, then the 114th Division will have to withdraw the locust troops from various parts of Lu before it can send reinforcements to Xingtai and Handan.

Otherwise, if a regiment was sent directly, the locust army would be surrounded and destroyed by Zeng Jiwen's troops on the way before reaching Handan and Xingtai.

As for the 21st Division, although it is now stationed in Tianjin for guarding, it is the last mobile force of the North China Front Army.

Once the 21st Division was deployed, the defense of the entire Peking area began to become empty.

The movement of the locust army certainly could not be concealed from China's intelligence personnel.

Once the 21st Division moves south, if the nearby Jin-Cha-Ji troops intend to attack Peking, they can just let these Eighth Route Army soldiers fire a few shots at the city walls outside the city, which will be a lot of fun.

As a result, when the staff of the headquarters received the request for help from Xingtai and Handan, they didn't know which troops to send for support.

If Jingxing at the end of the Zhengtai Line had not been ambushed by the Eighth Route Army, the 40th Brigade in Shijiazhuang would still be able to move south to provide support.

However, the news of the attack on Jingxing and the news of Xingtai and Handan reached the General Staff Headquarters within ten minutes.

At this time, no one in the huge command center dared to say where to mobilize troops to provide support.

As for the 5th Division and the 14th Division that are still attacking Anyang, they might also be in danger, not to mention support.

So after everyone discussed it to no avail, they reported the news to Commander Sugiyama Hajime who had gone to Tianjin for inspection.

When Sugiyama Gen received the news, he did not dare to delay, so he returned to Peiping overnight and finally arrived back to the headquarters at dawn.

After reading the telegram, Sugiyama Gen turned to look at Chief of Staff Yamashita Tomoyuki beside him.

"Yamashita-kun, what is the current situation in Xingtai and Handan?"

After hearing Commander Sugiyama Gen's question, Yamashita Tomoyuki quickly responded.

"Your Excellency, Commander, the locust army lost contact with the Handan locust army at 2:00 AM. Not long ago, the Xingtai locust army also lost contact with the headquarters."

"I suspect the Eighth Route Army has already captured Handan and Xingtai!"

Sugiyama Gen was suddenly surprised when he heard Yamashita Tomoyuki's answer.

Sugiyama Gen was shocked by the speed of the Eighth Route Army's siege. Handan and Xingtai were not ordinary small counties. Even if the Eighth Route Army attacked the city, no matter how powerful Zeng Jiwen's troops were, they could capture the cities guarded by the Locust Army one after another within a few hours. This was a bit abnormal!

Sugiyama Gen couldn't figure out how the Eighth Route Army had managed to break into the city in such a short time.

Could it be that the city walls cannot defend against Zeng Jiwen’s troops? Are the locust soldiers guarding the city firing their guns into the sky?

If Zeng Jiwen knew what Sugiyama Gen was thinking, he would definitely burst out laughing.

Although the troops currently lack heavy assault artillery, they can still sneak into the city to cause damage and build secret passages after prior planning. At the same time, the base is not short of earthen explosive packs.

If the city gate cannot be blown down, it only means one thing: the amount of explosives is not enough. The entire southeastern Shanxi may be short of other materials, but there is no shortage of raw materials for making simple explosive packs.

At the same time, as for the tough fortifications, after Yuan Zi improved the process formula of armor-piercing shells, the so-called solid fortresses of the Japanese army could not withstand a shell from 40mm fire at all. If they could withstand it, they would be hit by another one.