Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

Xinji, Wangjiajing.

At this time, the 128th Regiment of the 5th Column, under the command of its commander Yuan Yongqing, captured Wangjiajing Railway Station.

After taking over the train station, Yuan Yongqing immediately said to the people around him.

"Hurry, comrades, hurry up and build a defensive position. The comrades of the 129th Regiment are buying us time!"

After hearing the words of the regiment commander, the people around him immediately began to clean up the Japanese firepower points that had been blown up before, and then began to dig deep trenches, preparing to block the 114th Division coming to support from Ludi.

At the same time, the 129th Regiment was on the road more than 20 kilometers away from Xinji, blocking the 102nd Regiment of the 127th Brigade, the vanguard of the 114th Division, along the way.

Although the 114th Division at this time was a newly formed special division of the Japanese Army, the entire division had a total of about 1.8 people.

In order to reinforce Shijiazhuang this time, the 114th Division quickly assembled two regiments of its 127th Brigade and one regiment of its 128th Brigade in Dezhou, as well as cavalry, engineers, logistics and artillery, totaling 1.4 people, to prepare to reinforce Shijiazhuang.

At the same time, in order to reach Shijiazhuang as soon as possible, the commander of the 114th Division, Shigeharu Suematsu, immediately ordered the 102nd Regiment under his command to serve as the vanguard to reinforce Shijiazhuang after the 66th Regiment arrived in Dezhou.

In order to prevent being blocked by the Eighth Route Army on the road, the 5th Cavalry Brigade will move to Shijiazhuang to provide reinforcements together with the 102nd Regiment.

When the 102nd Regiment and the 4th Cavalry Brigade arrived in Hengshui, the subordinate organizations in Hengshui soon received news that the vanguard of the Japanese reinforcements had arrived.

After learning that the vanguard of the Japanese army had arrived in Hengshui, the commander of the 5th Column Liu Gancheng and the commander of the 6th Column Chen Shouchang checked the map and made a prompt decision to order the 129th Regiment to immediately block the vanguard of the Japanese army on the way from Hengshui to Xinji.

At the same time, based on the terrain, the two quickly realized that they must send troops to immediately seize the Wangjiajing Railway Station not far from Xinji, forcing the Japanese army to abandon the train at Wangjiajing and move forward on foot.

Otherwise, the Japanese army would quickly reach Shijiazhuang along the railway in less than three hours.

Therefore, he ordered the 128th Regiment to immediately capture Wangjiajing, providing sufficient time for the three regiments of the 6th Column to eliminate the Japanese guard troops in Xinji and Jinzhou City in the rear.

And in Qianmotou Town.

After the 129th Regiment raided Qianmotou Town, it immediately organized the residents to evacuate the town and then quickly built a defensive position.

At this time, there were no residents in the entire town, but huge explosions continued to be heard throughout the town.

When the 102nd Regiment arrived in front of the town, they found that the Eighth Route Army had blocked their way and set up blocking positions.

When the commander of the 102nd Regiment, Chiba Kotaro, saw that the Chinese army in front was ready for battle, he immediately showed a mocking expression, and then directly ordered the artillery squadron to bombard the defensive positions of the 129th Regiment.

After the shelling ended, the First Battalion was immediately ordered to rush forward to occupy China's blocking position and destroy this overconfident Eighth Route Army.

However, unexpectedly, after the shelling ended, when the 1st Battalion, under the command of Captain Tetsu Asada, began to attack the Eighth Route Army positions opposite, it was immediately counterattacked by the 1st Battalion of the 129th Regiment.

For a moment, the first squadron at the front suffered heavy casualties, and the other squadrons of the first battalion also retreated when they saw this situation.

When Chiba Kotaro saw this scene, he narrowed his eyes. He didn't expect that the firepower of the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side was actually not inferior to that of the Locust Army.

From the sound of gunfire from the Eighth Route Army's counterattack just now, Chiba Kotaro heard clearly that the troops blocking him were about a battalion, but the firepower of their light and heavy machine guns was almost as strong as half of his own battalion.

When Chiba Kotaro thought that the opposing force might be the 389th Division that had defeated the First Army of Jin, he immediately showed a look of surprise.

We had never encountered this situation when we fought against the Eighth Route Army in Shandong before. I used to think that the troops of the First Army had been living comfortably in Shanxi for too long and had all become weaklings.

He didn't expect that the firepower of the troops under the 389th Division, which had defeated the First Army, was so strong. This changed his previous impression of the Eighth Route Army he encountered in Shandong.

Previously, when his regiment went to the countryside to conduct sweeps, the Eighth Route Army they encountered did not have this kind of firepower. They often overestimated their own strength and started fighting with the locust army with bayonets after exchanging a few shots.

Although the locust army fell into the conspiracies and tricks of the Eighth Route Army every time, they had never seen the Eighth Route Army with such strong firepower.

If the Eighth Route Army in Shandong knew what was going on in Chiba Kotaro's mind, they would definitely scold him and ask what conspiracy was. He failed in the rural raid but still tried to flatter himself. He couldn't tell the difference between the big and small kings.

After all, compared to the original time and space, after Zeng Jiwen summarized the methods of dealing with small groups of Japanese troops in the vast rural areas, not only the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, but also the Eighth Route Army in Shandong learned them well.

Although we cannot start a head-on confrontation with the large Japanese army, every time the Japanese army goes to the countryside to sweep, if there is only a small team, then this group of Japanese troops can go to meet their locusts.

Whenever a small Japanese army unit went to the countryside, the Eighth Route Army soldiers hidden in various villages would lead them into the village, and then rely on tunnels and secret exits to surprise the Japanese army.

After observing the Eighth Route Army position opposite, Chiba Kotaro's expression began to become excited.

Since taking office as the commander of the regiment, Chiba Kotaro has not encountered a Chinese army that dares to confront the Locust Army head-on for a long time. Today he will take a good look at the so-called 389th Division that has made the First Army look humiliated.

If his regiment could defeat the Eighth Route Army troops on the opposite side, then his regiment would become famous in North China.

Afterwards, Chiba Kotaro invited the cavalry artillery company of the 4th Cavalry Brigade and merged it with his own artillery company, and began to launch continuous artillery bombardment on the entire Eighth Route Army's blocking positions in front of him.