Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

Anyway, let's leave all this to the next commander. Then, turning to the chief of staff, he said,

"The losses of the two artillery battalions of the Fifth Division will be reported as internal losses. Also, the losses of the equipment transported from Peking to form the mixed brigade will be reported as half."

"We'll also cut personnel losses in half, you know what I mean!"

Okabe Naozaburo immediately nodded. If such a huge loss was reported to the North China Front Army, all the personnel of the First Army would be held accountable. Instead of this, it would be better to reduce the losses by half and let the commander bear it alone.

He believed that the other members of the First Army would also accept this result.

Sure enough, when the commander of the North China Front Army, Terauchi Hisaichi, received the intelligence sent by the Japanese army in Shanxi one night, he became furious. On the surface, he began to scold Kozuki Seiji, saying that Kozuki Seiji was intoxicated by the beautiful scenery of China. In fact, he was already very happy in his heart.

It turned out that since the establishment of the North China Front Army, Katsuki Seiji and Terauchi Hisaichi had always been at odds, and they often argued over combat concepts. This time, Katsuki Seiji suffered a big setback in Shanxi, so Terauchi Hisaichi naturally removed him from his position and replaced him with his confidant Umezu Michijiro.

He also strictly ordered Kazuki Seiji to rush to Peiping immediately and wait for the results of the headquarters' handling.

The outcome was not unexpected. When the Japanese military headquarters learned of Katsuki Seiji's defeat, they immediately recalled him to the country. After some behind-the-scenes arrangements by the generals of the First Army, he was finally transferred to the reserve.

After two nights of arduous journey, Zeng Jiwen and his team finally arrived back at the base. At this time, Zhou Shi and others returned early to count the harvest and waited for Zeng Jiwen and his team.

In Dajinggou, Zeng Jiwen enthusiastically introduced Liu Guifu and Zhang Kai to Zhou Shi and others.

"Old Zhou, let me introduce you to two people. This is Chief Engineer Liu Guifu. He was previously the chief firearms designer at the Taiyuan Arsenal. Unfortunately, he was blocked by the Japanese army in Taiyuan City because he was slow to retreat. This time, Chief Engineer Liu was also taken to the Northeast by the Japanese army, and we rescued him on the train."

"This is Chief Engineer Zhang Kai. He's a gunpowder expert. The famous Kai explosive was invented by him. He was also taken to Northeast China by the Japanese army and was rescued by us."

When Zhou Shi and others heard Zeng Jiwen's introduction, they immediately shook hands with Liu Guifu and Zhang Kai enthusiastically, talking non-stop, and were very happy.

After exchanging greetings for a while, everyone went into the command post together and sent people to accommodate the rescued workers and engineers.

Everyone in the command post was extremely excited. Although all the gains had not been counted yet, from what they knew so far, it was an unprecedented bounty for the entire Eighth Route Army.

"Brigade Commander, you don't know how worried I have been these days. I can't sleep." Zhou Xi said.

"The political commissar has been worried these days that our whereabouts will be exposed. There are Japanese reconnaissance planes hovering overhead every day, dropping a few bombs from time to time. Although it doesn't seem serious, we are afraid of being discovered." Huang Hanjia explained.

"I also found out on the way back. We didn't dare to travel during the day and had to travel all night. But if we wait for a while, the Japanese army should know about it," Zeng Jiwen replied.

"After all, no matter how covert our whereabouts are, we are the only troops nearby. We must quickly transport this batch of equipment to the Taihang Upper District. The places we found before are very suitable for building our industrial base."

"Yes, that's right. After we finish the statistics, let's discuss it and send the news to our families and the headquarters first." Zhou Xi also agreed.

No one said much, so they sent the general situation to their families and the headquarters.