Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

As the artillery squadrons of the 102nd Regiment and the 4th Cavalry Brigade began to bombard Qianmotou Town continuously, the entire town was soon engulfed in flames.

The first battalion was in a defensive position built against the town, listening to the continuous artillery bombardment from the Japanese army overhead.

From time to time, sand and dust began to fall from the cracks in the wooden boards above.

Battalion Commander Feng Chenfeng listened to the fierce artillery fire outside and couldn't help but sigh for a moment that the Japanese devils' three tricks were really not talk.

If it weren't for their division's unique defensive fortifications, more than half of the troops on the entire position would have suffered casualties by now.

After the Japanese stopped shelling, Feng Chenfeng immediately ordered his troops to prepare for a counterattack.

Due to the urgency of time, the 129th Regiment immediately began to build defensive fortifications after capturing Qianmotou Town, and did not arrange small troops to ambush the Japanese artillery positions.

Therefore, the entire regiment had to race against time to block the Japanese vanguard regiment in the entire Qianmotou Town for eight hours.

Buy time for the troops behind.

When Chiba Kotaro saw the Eighth Route Army's position opposite turned into a sea of ​​fire, a look of satisfaction immediately appeared on his face.

In order to show his respect to the Eighth Route Army troops on the opposite side, Chiba Kotaro decided to go to the front line in person to command the First Battalion to attack the defensive position of the 129th Regiment.

When a squadron of the First Battalion was less than thirty meters away from the First Battalion's position again, suddenly, a gunshot was heard from the corner of a collapsed house in the town.

The Japanese squadron leader who was leading a squadron of the First Battalion to attack suddenly had a blood-red mark between his eyebrows, and then he slowly fell down.

Immediately, the sounds of light and heavy machine guns began to be heard from the entire front line of the attacking Japanese army, and the Japanese soldiers at the front suddenly fell down in large numbers.

Seeing this situation, the remaining Japanese soldiers in this squadron began to rely on various obstacles in front of the position to avoid bullets from the Eighth Route Army's heavy machine gun positions.

At the same time, at the sergeant's signal, a group of Japanese soldiers began to set up light machine guns to fight back. At the same time, an old Japanese soldier took out a grenade launcher from behind, then closed his right eye, raised his thumb and gestured, then took out a grenade from his waist, knocked it twice, and then put it into the grenade launcher.

And at the heavy machine gun position of the first battalion.

At this time, shortly after a heavy machine gun platoon of the machine gun company opened fire, the observer saw that most of the Japanese troops in front had already taken shelter, and immediately signaled the other soldiers in the platoon to prepare to change positions.

During the previous military training, we had developed special evasion methods for the Japanese army's targeted fire attacks.

Since there was no effective way to avoid the Japanese veterans' marksmanship and precise throwing based on feeling, the machine gun company reserved more than a dozen heavy machine gun positions of various sizes on the defensive positions when building heavy machine gun positions to avoid the Japanese counterattack after the heavy machine gun positions were exposed to the Japanese sight.

Following the observer's urging, the remaining soldiers immediately picked up all the ammunition parts and buckets in the entire position and evacuated.

As the last soldier evacuated, suddenly, a grenade landed accurately on the heavy firepower position of the heavy machine gun platoon.

This scene happened simultaneously at three heavy machine gun positions on the front line.

After the Japanese grenade launcher hit the heavy machine gun position of the Eighth Route Army opposite, the Japanese sergeant immediately waved his hand to signal the Japanese soldiers below to continue attacking forward.

However, as the Japanese army continued to crawl forward, the soldiers of the first battalion on the front line, organized into squads, immediately pulled the fuse of the grenade, delayed it for three seconds, and then threw it at the advancing Japanese army.

After a battle, the attacking Japanese squadron of the First Battalion was soon reduced to only a few dozen people and hurriedly withdrew from the front-line offensive position.

After seeing this scene, Chiba Kotaro, who was commanding at the front line, suddenly lost his excitement and became solemn instead.

Chiba Kotaro quickly judged from the sound of weapons and gunfire coming from the Eighth Route Army's position opposite when the First Battalion attacked the Eighth Route Army's position that the artillery squadron's shelling had played a very small role and it was very likely that they were wasting ammunition.

Chiba Kotaro was very puzzled. Were the fortifications built by the 389th Division really as solid as a rock? Why didn't the artillery of the Locust Army cause huge casualties to it?

When Chiba Kotaro thought about the fact that the Locust Army's artillery had lost its effectiveness on the 389th Division's defensive positions, he was at a loss for a solution.

As for launching a desperate charge against the Eighth Route Army in front, Chiba Kotaro has no such intention.

On the way to support, the division commander Shigeharu Suematsu warned him that if the attack of the 389th Division was not successful, he should wait for the arrival of the main force of the division and must not act arbitrarily and cause heavy casualties to the locust army.

At first, when Chiba Kotaro heard what Suematsu Shigeharu said, he respectfully agreed on the surface, but secretly, Chiba Kotaro couldn't help but curl his lips.

Even the division commander was frightened by Zeng Jiwen's troops. Chiba Kotaro didn't believe it. Could it be that the 389th Division had supernatural powers and the locust army had no way to deal with it?

After hearing Chiba Kotaro's rather perfunctory words, Shigeharu Suematsu didn't say much. He just muttered in his heart that he was afraid that everything would become clear once he met her.

As a division commander who had committed crimes in China no less than those of the 6th Division, Shigeharu Suematsu's relationship with Kenji Doihara, Chief of Staff of the 1st Army and Commander of the 14th Division, was deeper than many people guessed.

As the former commander of the 14th Division, Shigeharu Suematsu was well aware of the combat effectiveness of the 14th Division.

However, unexpectedly, in the middle of the year, when the 14th Division participated in the nine-way siege in southeastern Shanxi, its two regiments suffered heavy casualties.

Then, more than half a month ago, in less than a week of fighting with Zeng Jiwen's 389th Division in southern Hebei, the entire division, except for the regiment left behind in Handan, along with the artillery regiment, was directly crippled by the troops of less than six regiments under Zeng Jiwen.

When Shigeharu Suematsu heard the news, he was immediately shocked.

If someone said something about the First Army, Shigeharu Suematsu might believe it.

However, as the former division commander, he was very clear about the combat effectiveness of the 14th Division. Even if Zeng Jiwen's troops had used some strategies, the 14th Division would not have fallen to its current state.

According to Xian'erjun's telegram, the 14th Division was already dead in name only after this battle.

This gave Shigeharu Suematsu a great shock.

14师团尚且如此，作为14师团预备役组成的114师团，末松茂治可是明白114师团论战斗力可是比不上14师团的。

Even though the 14th Division was in such a state, Xian Erjun still wanted to order the North China Front Army to attack Zeng Jiwen's main force in Shijiazhuang at all costs.

Will it be effective? After receiving Kenji Doihara's assessment of the current situation, Shigeharu Suematsu had only one thought in his mind.

"It's hard to tell!"