Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

The battle in Wutai City has been going on for several hours. Smoke fills the streets and the air is filled with the smell of burnt and blood.

The Eighth Route Army and the Japanese Army fought in the alleys, bullets whistled in the narrow space, and the collision of bayonets and sabers brought out a cold murderous intent.

As soon as the Japanese army launched the attack, the first and third regiments that entered the city were caught off guard.

But after a brief panic, the troops quickly followed the tactics they had trained in before.

Under the command of the squad and platoon leaders, they relied on the ruins, roofs and walls in the city to engage in a tug-of-war street battle with the Japanese army.

"Team One! Keep an eye on the machine gun position on the second floor!"

"Grenadier, blow up that Japs in the window!"

On a street, a squad of soldiers was engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese army.

After being suddenly attacked, the entire class quickly organized a counterattack under the command of the squad leader.

The entire class used the damaged houses as cover, avoiding the Japanese firepower while looking for opportunities to snipe the enemy machine gunners and grenade launchers.

One of the soldiers, holding a rifle, hid behind a collapsed wall, held his breath, and aimed at a Japanese machine gunner.

"boom!"

A bullet accurately hit the enemy's eyebrows, blood splattered everywhere, and the body hung upside down on the windowsill.

At the same time, a grenade was accurately thrown into another house. With a loud "boom", the Japanese soldiers inside the house were blown away with screams, and the machine gun position in the house was instantly destroyed.

However, the Japanese army's combat proficiency was also extremely high.

Even though they suffered losses, they remained calm, mobilizing troops to encircle the Eighth Route Army while implementing a fire blockade with grenade launchers and machine guns.

Similarly, after the Eighth Route Army soldiers were ambushed by the Japanese army, the rocket launcher squad immediately picked up rocket launchers and kept aiming at the building targets where the firing points appeared.

With the sound of explosions, the lurking Japanese troops were blown to pieces, with flesh and blood flying everywhere.

The street fighting intensified, and corpses were strewn all around the area. When both sides met, they suffered heavy losses for a while.

As the battle progressed, Qiu Wei, commander of the 1st Regiment, and Zheng Sansheng, commander of the 3rd Regiment, gradually realized that if this continued, the casualties of the troops would increase dramatically.

At the same time, the Japanese army was hiding in the dark, and it was not clear how many Japanese troops were still in the city. If this continued, the two regiments would probably suffer heavy casualties.

In less than a day, the combined casualties of their two regiments exceeded one thousand.

“We can’t fight to the bitter end!

Get out of the city first!" Qiu Wei ordered decisively.

"I'll tell the commander that we can't attack the city again until we find a solution. This isn't the way to fight. We've suffered a huge loss this time!"

Qiu Wei said anxiously to Zheng Sansheng, the commander of the 3rd Regiment.

After hearing Qiu Wei's words, Zheng Sansheng thought about it and agreed. Then the two of them began to order the troops to slowly withdraw from the city.

As the order was issued, taking advantage of the chaos of the street fighting, the companies of the two regiments quickly adjusted their formations and began to evacuate the city in an orderly manner based on the tactics they had trained previously.

They used grenades and rocket launchers to block the Japanese pursuit, and at the same time set up explosives at some street corners to destroy the roads and slow down the speed of some Japanese troops who rushed out of the secret passages to pursue them.

"boom--"

A house was blown up after a squad of the Eighth Route Army evacuated, and thick smoke rose, completely blocking the intersection leading to the eastern block.

The Japanese troops who came out to ambush tried to pursue them, but the soldiers of the two regiments retreated very efficiently and did not give them much chance.

In the central underground command center, when Kuribayashi Tadamichi heard the chief of staff's report on the Eighth Route Army's retreat, his face remained calm, but his eyes revealed a serious look.

"incredible!

It's only been a few years. A few years ago, the Eighth Route Army was able to use this kind of tactics. Even the Locust Army would have to pay a price when faced with such a situation!"

Kuribayashi Tadamichi said with a grim expression.

Although they successfully forced the Eighth Route Army to retreat from the city, the Japanese army also paid a heavy price in the entire battle of Wutai City.

Many streets and alleys were littered with Japanese soldiers' corpses, ammunition was consumed at a great cost, the organization of the reinforced regiment remaining in the city had been disrupted, and the soldiers were exhausted.

What made Kuribayashi Tadamichi even more uneasy was that once the Eighth Route Army found a solution, the situation would become very bad.

At the same time, the Japanese 41st Division in Xinzhou also engaged in a firefight with the Eighth Route Army's blocking forces.

The commander of the 41st Division, Shimizu Noriki, was at the temporary command post in the wild with a frown on his face.

At this time, their division had been fighting with the Eighth Route Army's blocking troops for four hours, but still had not advanced a single step.

After the reinforcements of the 109th Division joined forces with the 139th Regiment, they were suppressed by heavy artillery fire from the Eighth Route Army as soon as they crossed Guyugou.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The Eighth Route Army artillery on the hill fired in unison, and 82mm mortars and 122mm howitzers bombarded in turn. The shells fell into the Japanese army. The blast waves blew away large groups of soldiers, and screams were heard everywhere.

"Enemy attack——!"

The Japanese officer had just screamed when a bullet pierced his forehead and blood splattered on his uniform.

"Bang! Bang bang bang!"

The Eighth Route Army machine gun positions on both sides of the valley opened fire at the same time, and the dense barrage of bullets blocked the Japanese army's route.

The Japanese army tried to fight back, but in the mountainous environment, their firepower could not be effectively deployed and they were suppressed at the bottom of the valley.

Despite this, the Japanese army did not completely collapse. They quickly organized defensive positions and launched a counterattack with the help of armored vehicles and artillery.

The two sides continued to fight fiercely until five o'clock in the afternoon.

The battle lasted for a full six hours. Although the Japanese army suffered heavy losses, they still held on tenaciously and stabilized their position thanks to their excellent individual quality and tactical adjustments.

However, the advance route was firmly blocked by the Eighth Route Army, making it difficult to advance further.

After learning that the front-line troops were under fierce attack, the commander of the 41st Division, Shimizu Noriki, had to slow down the reinforcement process and march cautiously for fear of repeating the same mistake.

At eight o'clock in the evening, both the Japanese reinforcements and Wutai City were silent.

Although the Japanese army had the advantage in the daytime street fighting by relying on secret passages and fortifications, they also suffered heavy losses and failed to achieve the goal of severely damaging the Eighth Route Army that had entered the city.

The reinforcement troops encountered strong resistance from other Eighth Route Army troops in Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei on the way, and the reinforcement progress was severely suppressed.

Kuribayashi Tadamichi looked at the map, his eyes becoming increasingly gloomy.

Inside the Geziling Command Post in the northwestern mountainous area outside the city, there was a depressing atmosphere at this moment, and the air seemed to be frozen.

A simple battle map was spread out on the table, marking the deployment of various troops and the enemy defense map of Wutai City.

The commander of the 1st Regiment, Qiu Wei, the commander of the 2nd Regiment, Zhong Tianfa, and the commander of the 3rd Regiment, Zheng Sansheng, stood in front of the table with their heads lowered, looking depressed, as if they had just experienced a storm.

Opposite them, Yang Nengjun, commander of the First Military Sub-district of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region, had a dark face and suppressed anger in his chest, as if it would explode at any time.