Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

July 1, Beijing, North China Front Army Conference Room.

At this moment, the atmosphere in the conference room was depressing and solemn.

On the map of the North China war on the wall,

The red and blue interlaced markings showed the latest battle situation, and the most conspicuous ones were the key strongholds along the Zhengtai Railway.

A striking red flag was hoisted on it, representing the area controlled by the enemy army - the 389th Division of the Eighth Route Army.

Tada Shun sat at the head seat at the conference table with a gloomy expression.

He held a piece of intelligence in his hand. The rough paper recorded in detail the intelligence of the 389th Division over the past six months.

“Ever since the Zhengtai Railway was cut off by the Eighth Route Army two years ago.

Over the past year or so, the locust army has put immense pressure on Jin. His voice was low and weary, and his eyes swept over the people present.

"The combat capability of the 389th Division of the Eighth Route Army far exceeded our expectations, and their tactics were extremely flexible.

The raid was precise and swift, and has severely impacted our supply shipments."

Sitting at the first seat next to him, the commander of the First Army, Yoshio Shinozuka, frowned.

Since their disastrous defeat in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, the entire North China Front Army was forced to carry out a strategic contraction.

This inevitably led to the rapid growth of the Eighth Route Army's power in other parts of North China.

The Eighth Route Army troops roamed the mountains like ghosts, ambushing and raiding the locust army, making them suffer terribly.

Especially the supplies for the Taiyuan First Army, which were previously transported through the Zhengtai Railway.

Since the Zhengtai Railway was cut off by the 389th Division, the First Army's supplies have been supplied through the Tongpu Railway.

But now, the Tongpu Railway is also occasionally ambushed by other units of the Eighth Route Army.

Chief of Staff Yukio Kasahara, who was sitting next to him, seemed calmer. He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, flipped through the intelligence report, and said in a deep voice:

"According to our reconnaissance report, the Eighth Route Army, except for the 389th Division, is now adopting typical guerrilla tactics.

They first used a small force to destroy the railway to attract our attention, and then used the main force to ambush our reinforcements.

After we were exhausted, they quickly retreated and started the war again in another place."

"In other words, they don't intend to confront us head-on, but rather to wear us down through constant harassment."

After hearing this, Tada Shun slowly put down the documents in his hand. The anger on his face seemed to ease a little, but he still looked helpless:

"Even now, the security war in North China has not been able to effectively suppress the activities of the Eighth Route Army. We are even unable to ensure the smooth operation of important transportation lines such as the Zhengtai Railway.

Moreover, for more than half a year, the 389th Division in western Hebei and southeastern Shanxi has been silent, which is not a good sign.

At the same time, I read the battle reports from when the 389th Division was still the 389th Brigade.

Are the Locust Army going to wait until other units become like the 389th Division before making any changes?!"

"Public security war? Public security war has been completely ineffective so far!" Tada Shun's face looked a little serious.

Then he turned to look at Yoshio Shinozuka beside him.

"We have been promoting the tactical suggestion of Yamamoto Ikki that you recommended in various places, but the facts have proved that...

This not only failed to destroy the Eighth Route Army's combat capability, but made the local people hate us even more.

The Eighth Route Army's intelligence network spanned the countryside; they knew everything about our movements, even the dispatch of a transport convoy."

He paused, his tone filled with dissatisfaction: "What about the special operations tactics proposed by Yamamoto Ikki? Doesn't it mean to use elite troops to infiltrate their base and carry out precision strikes?

Why hasn’t it worked yet?”

Shinozuka Yoshio shook his head, his expression serious: "We have tried several special operations, but the problem is that the Eighth Route Army's intelligence capabilities far exceeded our expectations.

Their grassroots organization is extremely tight. The special forces we sent were exposed before they even penetrated the base, and were eventually ambushed by them."

"Moreover," he flipped open the combat records in his hand and pointed to a certain data, "from last winter to now, we have conducted a total of 17 special operations against the 389th Division.

Twelve of these attempts ended in failure, and although five achieved some success, the cost far outweighed the gains.”

After hearing this, Tada Shun's face became even uglier.

He knew very well that the 389th Division was not an ordinary Eighth Route Army unit, but an elite unit with great combat effectiveness.

Their performance on the battlefield even made the staff doubt whether the command system of this unit had received special external training.

"The Eighth Route Army's combat mode has completely jumped out of our traditional cognition."

Chief of Staff Yukio Kasahara spoke in a low voice, "If we continue with the tactics of large-scale clearing, we will likely be trapped in an endless war of attrition and eventually fall into their trap."

"Then what do you suggest?" Tada Shun raised his eyes and stared at his chief of staff.

Kasahara Yukio paused and said in a deep voice, "We must change our strategy. We can no longer rely solely on security warfare and special operations. Instead, we must develop a more targeted counter-guerrilla warfare system."

He picked up his baton and pointed to several red areas on the map: "Except for the 389th Division, the Eighth Route Army's bases are scattered, but their logistics rely on the surrounding villages.

We can adopt a 'stronghold warfare' approach and establish multiple strongholds along the railway.

A firepower network was formed between each stronghold to ensure that they could not easily destroy the railway.

At the same time, we must establish mobile strike forces that can be deployed quickly when they harass the railways and turn their guerrilla warfare into frontal combat."

"In addition, we must strengthen the defense system along the railway line to prevent them from taking advantage of the situation."

After hearing this, Tada Shun nodded, his eyes still stern: "Then adjust the battle plan according to this idea..."

Tada Shun glanced at everyone around the conference table and said in a deep voice, "The next topic is about the Shota line."

As soon as the words fell, a low murmur suddenly sounded in the conference room.

Since the 389th Division of the Eighth Route Army recaptured Yangquan and regained control of the Zhengtai Railway.

There were constant calls within the North China Front Army for action to retake this strategic road.

The Zhengtai Railway is not only an important transportation line connecting Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan, but also a key link for the North China Front Army to maintain control of southeastern Shanxi and western Hebei.

The loss of this railway made the connection between Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei and the Eighth Route Army in southeastern Shanxi closer.

The movement of supplies and troops has also become smoother, which is undoubtedly a huge threat to the locust army.

However, although such voices had long been heard within the North China Front Army, there had been no progress in actually taking action.

Two years ago, the Battle of Shijiazhuang dealt a heavy blow to the North China Front Army, with frontline troops suffering heavy casualties and their combat effectiveness significantly reduced.

Last year, the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain caused the North China Front Army to suffer a crushing defeat, losing four divisions in one go.

In addition, the death of Lieutenant General Abe Nobuhide caused the morale of the locust army in North China to be low and the strength of the troops to be further weakened.