Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

Afterwards, Yamashita Tomoyuki immediately picked up the telegram that had fallen beside him after Sugiyama Gen fell to the ground, and began to read it.

At this moment, Yamashita Tomoyuki was eager to know what kind of news could make the commander so angry.

When Yamashita Tomoyuki saw the content of the telegram, his eyes suddenly widened and his whole body trembled.

When Hasunuma Han saw Yamashita Tomoyuki's expression, his heart, which had been relieved, suddenly became heavy again.

Are you coming again?

However, to Hasunuma's surprise, after reading the telegram, Yamashita Tomoyuki just dropped his hands in despair and let the telegram fall to the ground.

When Hasunuma saw this situation, his expression changed. He thought something big might have happened, so he immediately picked up the telegram and started reading it.

It didn't matter that he took a look at it, but the words "Farewell to the 110th Division" printed at the beginning made Hasunuma Fan's brows jump.

At the same time, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye and saw the words "108th Division, 4th Independent Mixed Brigade". Suddenly, a bad premonition popped up in Hasunuma's mind.

Time goes back to 1 a.m., Xingtang, the 110th Division Command in the city.

At this moment, the sound of artillery explosions outside the city continued to reach the division headquarters inside. Since the 110th Division's engagement with the Eighth Route Army in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region, its total losses had approached two regiments. Furthermore, one battalion of the artillery regiment had suffered heavy casualties while encircling the main force of the Eighth Route Army in the First Division with the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade in Yu County.

Then shocking news came from Shijiazhuang. After receiving the order, the 110th Division immediately evacuated from Fuping to reinforce Shijiazhuang, and continued to fight with the Eighth Route Army along the way.

When they arrived in Xingtang, the commander of the 110th Division, Sangmu Chongming, found that the entire division had been exhausted by the Eighth Route Army from Shanxi, Chahar and Hebei in recent days. At the same time, news came that Shijiazhuang had been captured by the Eighth Route Army. Sangmu Chongming made a prompt decision and let the entire division rest in Xingtang and wait for the 26th Division and the 109th Division to join forces.

Unexpectedly, just after entering the county town, they were surrounded by four regiments of the Eighth Route Army. Sangmu Chongming felt something was wrong, so he immediately sent a telegram for help to the 109th Division and the 26th Division, asking them to rush to Xingtang as soon as possible.

However, until yesterday, the two divisions had been blocked by the Eighth Route Army troops in the Chengnanzhuang area in the south of Fuping and had made no progress. At the same time, the number of Eighth Route Army troops outside the city suddenly began to increase.

When he thought that he might be surrounded by the Eighth Route Army, Sangmu Chongming immediately organized his troops to break out to Baoding in the north, but he did not expect that the breaking out troops were immediately driven back into the city by the artillery fire of the Eighth Route Army.

Sangmu Chongming immediately knew from the sounds of gunfire and artillery that it was probably the arrival of Zeng Jiwen's troops from southeastern Shanxi.

From the sound of gunfire from the Eighth Route Army that had been attacking the city since yesterday, Sangmu Chongming could easily tell that another group of Eighth Route Army troops was coming outside the city.

Moreover, this group of Eighth Route Army troops are well-equipped. From the sound of gunfire, one can clearly tell that these are all standard weapons and equipment of the empire.

Currently, apart from Zeng Jiwen's troops in southeastern Shanxi, which other Chinese army unit is equipped with so many Locust Army weapons on a large scale?

Thinking of this, Sangmu Chongming couldn't help but curse the First Army again. If it weren't for the First Army, how could Zeng Jiwen's troops have so many Locust King weapons.

But when he thought about Shijiazhuang being captured by the Eighth Route Army and the entire North China Locust Army's logistical supplies, weapons and ammunition being seized by Zeng Jiwen's troops, he suddenly felt confused.

Unlike other troops, the 110th Division was a special division formed after the outbreak of the war. A large part of its mission in the Hebei Plain was to transport the locust army's logistical supplies from Tianjin.

Sangmu Chongming is one of the few people who knows how much logistical supplies, weapons and ammunition Shijiazhuang has in reserve.

You should know that next year the headquarters has decided to massively increase troops in China. In addition to the current divisions, the North China Front Army alone is expected to prepare to reinforce four divisions and a number of independent mixed brigades.

Most of the reserve supplies of these troops had already been stored in Shijiazhuang in advance. When Sang Mu Chongming thought that all the supplies of the locust army reinforcements next year would be intercepted by Zeng Jiwen's troops, he felt a little confused for a moment.

Including the daily combat consumption of the locust army in North China and the material reserves of more than 100,000 people, how strong would the Eighth Route Army be?

For a moment, Sangmu Chongming was a little afraid to think about it.

However, Sangmu Chongming did not have time to react. After arriving in Xingtang, the troops attacking Shijiazhuang took a short rest and then replaced the troops of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region that were besieging the city and began to launch a fierce attack on the city.

Under the fierce attack of the six regiments that had been replenished with weapons and equipment, the Japanese troops on the Xingtang city wall were quickly suppressed by the troops commanded by Huang Hanjia and could not raise their heads.

At one o'clock, Huang Hanjia began to order the artillery regiment to concentrate its firepower and bombard the southern city wall of Xingtang. Eventually, the city wall could not withstand the continuous artillery attacks and a gap was finally blasted in it.

When Huang Hanjia, who was commanding the siege, saw this scene, he immediately asked the bugler on the front line to blow the horn for the general attack.

In the 110th Division headquarters in the city, except for the commander of the 139th Regiment Fumio Nagata who was killed by the troops of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Second Division because of underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly, the commander of the 108th Brigade Kaho Ishii, the commander of the 133rd Brigade Mitake Tsuda and the commanders of the following brigades were all in the headquarters looking at the division commander Takaaki Kuwaki.

Sangmu Chongming heard the attack horn of the Eighth Route Army that had already entered the city, and knew that the 110th Division was in great danger today.

Sang Mu Chongming took a deep breath, stood in front of the table, and looked at everyone seriously.

"Gentlemen!"

"Today, I and all of you will be loyal to His Majesty the Heavenly Locust!"

"Hi!"

Upon hearing the division commander's words, all the officers stood up immediately and bowed deeply to Sang Mu Chongming.

"Long live His Majesty Tian Locust!"

Hearing the fanatical words of the crowd, Sangmu Chongming didn't say much. After asking the signalman to send a farewell telegram to the North China Front Army, he began to burn documents and destroy the radio station.

Sangmu Chongming left the command center and called on the remaining Japanese troops to gather outside the command department.

Sangmu Chongming looked at the Japanese soldiers in the open space without saying a word.

Suddenly, Sangmu Chongming drew out his command knife and swung it over his head.

He shouted excitedly, "Your Majesty the Heavenly Locust!"

The soldiers below were also immediately excited.

"Onboard!"

After saying that, Sangmu Chongming led this group of soldiers towards the direction of the Eighth Route Army's attack after the city was broken.

At the same time, in Yangquan and Yu County, the same scenes were also played out at the headquarters of the Japanese 108th Division and the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade.