Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

In an instant, on a still, cold winter night, a massive explosion erupted throughout Qixian, Pingyao, and Taigu, killing scores of Japanese soldiers in their strongholds. Countless people were awakened by the blasts, followed by the roar of gunfire.

All of a sudden, the Japanese troops in the three places were in chaos, and they hurriedly began to organize people to investigate what had happened.

In Qixian and Pingyao, when the Japanese troops in the county heard the explosions outside the city, the security forces stationed in the county immediately contacted the strongholds outside the city, but found no response. At the same time, they planned to send troops out of the city to check.

However, they did not expect that just as the team had gathered, explosions were heard outside the city. Soon the messenger reported that the county town was under attack and the attacking troops were suspected of having heavy artillery.

Upon hearing the news, the Japanese commander immediately sent people to defend the city wall and passed the news to Taiyuan.

In Taigu, due to the suddenness of the incident, the city was destroyed by the reconnaissance battalion. The huge explosion caused heavy casualties to the Japanese soldiers resting in the barracks. The command center was blown into ruins, and the entire Japanese army defending the city fell into panic.

When the 781st Regiment captured the surrounding strongholds and attacked the city defenses, there were not many people defending it. The city gate had already been blown to pieces, and the entire regiment rushed into the county town.

Since the main task this time was to delay the Japanese reinforcements, the 781st Regiment simply searched the city for supplies and money, then quickly transported them out and handed them over to the 4th Battalion to be transported to the nearby mountains for hiding, build fortifications, and wait for the Japanese reinforcements.

Taiyuan.

Late at night, the commander of the Japanese First Army, Seiji Kazuki, was hurriedly called by his guards.

After receiving the telegrams for help from Qixian and Pingyao, the Japanese troops in Taiyuan did not respond much. Considering that the troops in the two places were only security forces, they casually contacted the Japanese troops in Taigu for reinforcements.

After this contact, it was discovered that the defenders in Taigu could not be contacted, and there was no response from telegrams and telephones. At this time, the staff officers in the General Staff began to realize that something was wrong.

So, these people began to carefully check the telegram sent by the Pingyao defenders in Qi County. The telegram said that it was discovered that the Chinese army attacking the city might be carrying heavy artillery, and the strongholds outside the city were quickly eliminated and had now reached the city gate.

At this time, the faces of the staff officers finally began to become serious. Thinking of the fact that they could not contact Taigu, they judged that Taigu had fallen. According to the current situation, the Chinese army must have mobilized heavy troops to capture Taigu in an instant, otherwise the Taigu defenders would not be able to send a single telegram.

The situation at this time was no longer something that the staff could decide, so they immediately sent someone to ask Commander Kazuki Seiji and Chief of Staff Okabe Naosaburo for instructions.

After listening to the staff's report, Katsuki Seiji, Okabe Naosaburo and others immediately connected it with the bombing of the Tongpu Railway some time ago.

He thought it must be a counterattack by the Chinese army to prevent the imperial army from attacking southern Shanxi, so he immediately ordered the 9th Brigade of the 5th Division in Jinzhong, led by Brigade Commander Kunisaki Noboru, and the 41st Regiment to assemble and prepare to march to Taigu. At the same time, the 5th Cavalry Regiment, as the advance force, immediately advanced to Taigu.

Taking into account the possibility that the enemy may have heavy artillery, the 5th Field Artillery Regiment was ordered to send an artillery battalion with 12 Type 94 75mm field guns to act together with the brigade commander Kunizaki Noboru.

So Jinzhong sent a brigade plus cavalry and artillery to advance towards Taigu.

Soon, the 781st Regiment received news from the reconnaissance troops that a cavalry regiment of the Japanese vanguard began to emerge from Jinzhong and move rapidly towards Taigu.

Wu Lin looked at the map. According to the current situation, a Japanese cavalry regiment with only 450 people would reach Taigu in about two hours. The regiment happened to have plenty of light and heavy machine guns plus the captured weapons, so he decided to ambush this cavalry near Jiyi and eliminate this vanguard first.