Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

Southeastern Shanxi, however, was relatively quiet. Last month, Zeng Jiwen's organization, in coordination with other Eighth Route Army units, destroyed the Tongpu Railway in Shanxi. They also intercepted a large shipment of munitions and supplies from Peking to Taiyuan, as well as equipment looted from the Taiyuan Arsenal. This resulted in heavy casualties for Japanese troops on the Zhengtai Line, leaving them severely short of manpower.

In order to prevent the security in the occupied areas from deteriorating, the newly appointed First Army Commander Umezu Michijiro did not send troops to pursue the 389th Brigade at the first time. Instead, he focused on consolidating and building the occupied areas.

At the same time, due to the 5th Division being transferred to the Xuzhou battlefield, upon taking office, he immediately mobilized the 109th Division to station in Shanxi, with the 108th Division ready to enter at any time. He also left the 3rd Independent Mixed Brigade in Shanxi, and drew troops from the North China Front to supplement the 20th Division to strengthen control over the occupied cities. He also forcibly conscripted civilians from the surrounding cities and began constructing bunkers and artillery towers along major transportation routes.

Because the Tongpu Railway was destroyed by the Eighth Route Army, it was difficult to transport supplies along the Tongpu Railway. Therefore, a large amount of supplies and ammunition began to be transported from the Zhengtai Line. In order to prevent the Eighth Route Army from intercepting supplies again, Umezu Yoshijiro directly ordered the 109th Division and the 20th Division to jointly take over the Zhengtai Line. At the same time, he dispatched troops from the two regiments to patrol the Zhengtai Line continuously to prevent the Eighth Route Army from finding an opportunity to intercept supplies again.

Throughout February, a tacit balance quietly developed between the Japanese army and the anti-Japanese armed forces in southeastern Shanxi. The Japanese army, after occupying the city, resolutely refused to leave the city to conduct sweeps, while the anti-Japanese armed forces around the city did not cause trouble for the Japanese army in the city.

However, Zeng Jiwen knew that this was only the quiet before the war. Once the Japanese troops were deployed, a new round of war would begin throughout southeastern Shanxi. And this time was not far away, perhaps as early as the middle of the month, when this peaceful atmosphere would be broken.

Meanwhile, in the vast Taihang Mountain area of ​​southeastern Shanxi and western Hebei, base construction was also in full swing. After Zeng Jiwen reported this to his family and sought approval from headquarters, the Eighth Route Army's first military factory, the Taihang Mountain First Military Factory, was established, with a teacher personally inscribing its name on a plaque.

In other areas, some small light industrial factories have also begun to be built one after another, such as the currently more urgent textile factories, sanitary material factories, pharmaceutical factories, cigarette factories, etc. In addition to many raw materials coming from captured Japanese soldiers, most of them are built according to local actual conditions.

In order to ensure the logistical supply of the troops, Zeng Jiwen discussed with the Logistics Department and started to open some breeding bases in the mountainous areas to raise white pigs imported from the Netherlands, which could be slaughtered in a few months. At the same time, every household in the base area was encouraged to raise poultry such as chickens and ducks, and the surplus could be purchased by the Eighth Route Army at market prices.

At the same time, in order to prevent the Japanese army from conducting large-scale raids in the countryside, Zeng Jiwen began to organize people in various bases to carry out emergency evacuation drills. After summarizing the various methods of dealing with the Japanese army in the North China Plain a few years later in the original time and space, he held a meeting and distributed them to the various troops below.

The troops were sent deep into the vast countryside to help the villagers dig various underground tunnels and make homemade explosives. Once the Japanese army began a raid, the people could quickly hide in the tunnels to avoid being captured and killed by the Japanese army.

Zeng Jiwen believed that the chemical reaction produced by combining tunnel warfare with guerrilla warfare, mine warfare, and counter-encirclement warfare would make it impossible for the Japanese army to advance in the base area.

After finishing the affairs of each base, Zeng Jiwen began to devote himself to the training of the troops. Speaking of training grassroots soldiers, Zeng Jiwen had to think of the three-three system tactics for infantry training in the original time and space.