Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

At this time, the Japanese intelligence agencies were also depressed. Judging from the intelligence collected from various places, the Chinese army had not made large-scale mobilizations, and the intelligence departments had not yet obtained any recent combat plans of the Chinese army, which resulted in the intelligence departments being confused.

However, Itagaki Seishirō did not think so. From his inspection of the frontline positions just now, he knew that the army currently building fortifications in Taigu belonged to the 18th Army of China. But based on his understanding of China, it was extremely abnormal that this beggar army, which was not considered an army in the eyes of the Japanese army, actually began to engage in positional warfare to defend the city.

The only way the Eighth Route Army could be so willing to fight a positional war with the Japanese army was that the two sides had reached some agreement and were plotting something big. Thinking of this, Itagaki Seishirō couldn't help but become serious. He sent his analysis to Katsuki Seiji and the commander of the North China Front Army, Terauchi Hisaichi, and asked the intelligence department to do its best to investigate.

With the order, 18 Type 92 infantry guns and 12 Type 94 mountain guns opened fire at the same time. At the same time, Japanese planes began to drop gasoline bombs at the positions and city walls, and began to bombard the frontline positions in front of the county town.

In the command post below the city, Wu Lin and the others from the 781st Regiment heard the vibrations coming from the front position and could not help but sigh that the Japanese army's three-pronged attack was indeed awesome.

This time, the 781st Regiment had a thorough understanding of the intensity of the Japanese field brigade's artillery fire before its all-out attack. Fortunately, the soldiers were able to retreat to the fortifications below; if they had been at the front, they would have suffered heavy losses.

After a while, the first of the Japanese army's three-pronged attack was completed. The Japanese army directly dispatched a large team to launch a tentative attack on the position. Soldiers from the first battalion began to come out from the temporary fortifications below one after another to block the Japanese army.

In order to paralyze the Japanese army, only a small number of troops from the first battalion opened fire at the beginning, aiming at the Japanese army who were preparing to rush into the fortifications. When the Japanese army approached the front line, the grenade launchers began to fire, aiming at the enemy's heavy firepower machine guns and began to attack.

At the same time, their own light and heavy machine guns began to fire, sweeping towards the Japanese army, which immediately caused heavy losses. After a while, the Japanese army began to retreat. Zeng Wenhui, the commander of the first battalion who was commanding the front line, realized that the Japanese army was about to start a large-scale artillery bombardment again, and immediately ordered his men to withdraw to the rear with their heavy weapons.

As expected, the Japanese army launched another large-scale artillery bombardment. Many temporary fortifications were blown down. The battalion commander looked at the fortifications in front of him and knew that he could no longer defend them, so he decisively retreated into the city.

After the Japanese army occupied the positions in front of the county town, they began to attack the city.

At 3:00 p.m., the Japanese troops in Taiyuan received another report that Xinzhou to the north and Mengxian to the north of Yangquan were also under attack by the Eighth Route Army. The Eighth Route Army's offensive was so fierce that the strongholds outside the city were captured one after another.

This series of actions immediately confused Xiangyue Qingji. He didn't know what the Eighth Route Army was up to, or whether the Imperial Army had done something recently to irritate the Eighth Route Army, causing them to launch such a fierce attack at all costs.

As far as Kazuki Seiji knew, three places were attacked by the Eighth Route Army, not to mention the large and small strongholds in other places. However, no matter how annoying it was, reinforcements were still needed.

However, thinking that there was only one regiment stationed in Jinzhong at present, he called the new commander of the 20th Division, Ushijima Sanetsugu, and ordered the 77th Regiment to reinforce Mengxian, and the 78th Regiment to take a train immediately to Taiyuan to reinforce Xinzhou.

By six o'clock in the afternoon, the entire Shota Line became completely quiet. There was a war in the north and a war in the south, but there was no movement at all on the Shota Line.