Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

However, not long after, when the Japanese army arrived at the robbed place, all the carriages were empty, and various wheel marks were left on the ground. Just as the Japanese army was preparing to pursue along the road marks, bad news came one after another.

Outside Jinzhong City, the 781st Regiment waited for the news that the Japanese army had arrived in Shouyang, and immediately built artillery positions outside the city and began to bombard the city walls of Jinzhong. The sound was so loud that a large group of Japanese troops left in Jinzhong City became extremely nervous and began to ask for help from the 5th Division.

When the Fifth Division received the telegram for help from Jinzhong, it was completely amused. The invincible Fifth Division was actually being toyed around like a monkey by the Chinese army that it looked down upon one day. In the end, it had no choice but to send the 11th Regiment back to Jinzhong for help.

783rd Regiment, outside Yangquan City, when Ushijima Mitsugu led two regiments of troops and began to advance towards Chengjia Station, they began to be attacked by the Eighth Route Army again. The explosive bags thrown by the flying thunder cannons exploded violently on the top of the city, frightening the Japanese soldiers defending the city. No matter how the regiment commander commanded, no soldier was willing to go to defend the city.

At the same time, when the defenders of Jingxing Coal Mine hurriedly dispatched the entire regiment and left only one squadron of Japanese troops to guard it, the 83rd Regiment began to capture the Jingxing Coal Mine. After entering the coal mine, they rescued nearly 3,000 prisoners of war and miners, and quickly evacuated to the mountains with these people.

At Niangzi Pass, when the Japanese saw the troops attacking them withdrawing, they immediately realized that the supplies, weapons and ammunition might have been intercepted. Their commander immediately led the troops out of Niangzi Pass and rushed towards Chengjia Station. When they met up with the 20th Division at Chengjia Station, they received the news that Niangzi Pass had been attacked and fallen again.

Throughout the night, the Japanese troops on the Zhengtai Line moved back and forth in a hurry. By the next morning, all the Japanese soldiers had no idea how they had spent the night and were exhausted.

The commander of the 20th Division, Ushijima Mitsutsugu, and the commander of the 5th Division, Itagaki Seishirō, watched this scene and had no choice but to report the specific situation to Taiyuan and let each unit return to its base and wait.

At ten o'clock in the morning, in Taiyuan, the entire First Army headquarters was utterly silent. The last time such a solemn atmosphere had prevailed was when the 79th Regiment was completely annihilated.

Katsuki Seiji sat in the main seat, Chief of Staff Okabe Naozaburo sat on the left, and the commanders of the 5th Division, 20th Division and other major generals of the First Army sat at the conference table. The entire conference room was silent, and no one spoke a word.

"Mr. Chief of Staff, please tell us what happened from yesterday morning to this morning?" Kazuki Seiji said lightly.

Okabe Naosaburo stood up solemnly. "Hi! Commander, everyone, yesterday morning, our Imperial Army stationed in Qixian, Pingyao, and Taigu was attacked by the next unit of the Chinese Army's 18th Group Army. At the same time, after being reinforced by the 5th Division, fierce fighting broke out with the 5th Division."

"Yesterday afternoon, Xinzhou, Mengxian and other places came under fierce attack from the Eighth Route Army. In the early hours of last night, a batch of military industrial equipment that our army was transporting to the Northeast was intercepted by the Eighth Route Army. At the same time, all the supplies, weapons and ammunition that were being transported to Taiyuan to replenish the Imperial Army's combat units were also intercepted by the Eighth Route Army."

"In this incident, our Shanxi garrison suffered heavy losses. So far, the specific details of the losses have not been released."

After listening to the chief of staff's story, everyone was at a loss and lowered their heads.

After a long time, Kazuki Seiji spoke slowly.

"This time, our Shanxi garrison suffered heavy losses. The Chief of Staff will notify the intelligence department to conduct a thorough investigation into the details of this incident. They must find the unit that intercepted the supplies and equipment, submit a summary to me, and then report it to the North China Front Army."