Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

After hearing this, everyone burst into laughter and looked at Ding Wei, the commander of the 122nd Regiment, with joking eyes, because they had heard the same words just now.

Ding Wei, however, looked embarrassed at this moment. He had not expected that the brigade commander had heard his complaint.

Zeng Jiwen quickly helped Ding Wei out of the predicament and said with certainty, "Alright, stop looking at Ding Wei. He did the right thing. He wanted to trap the enemy."

"Before the Japanese occupied the county town, they would occasionally send people to the countryside to conduct sweeps. However, as long as we fought according to the previously established methods, the small troops that came down were there to deliver equipment and supplies to us."

After Zeng Jiwen finished speaking, everyone looked in agreement and Zeng Jiwen nodded. At this time, most of the regiment commanders below were not stupid. They were all high-level commanders before and they knew what to do.

Zeng Jiwen said this because he wanted them to trap the Japanese troops in the county town and make them unable to move, and completely trap the Japanese troops in the county town.

After he finished speaking, Zeng Jiwen took a sip of water and then slowly said, "I've called everyone here to discuss a major military operation. I believe you can at least guess what it is."

"Brigade Commander, the Japanese army is about to start attacking Changzhi? Has the headquarters given us a combat mission?" Cao Deqing, the commander of the 783rd Regiment, said excitedly.

After hearing what Cao Deqing said, everyone was excited. Finally, there was going to be a big action. Before, they had only been doing small things, which was not enough for the people present.

"Quiet!" Zeng Jiwen raised his hands and gestured. He replied, "Comrade Deqing's words can be said to be right, but they cannot be said to be wrong."

Zeng Jiwen finished speaking, and everyone was puzzled. Zeng Jiwen didn't wait for anyone to ask questions and explained, "According to the news sent from headquarters, the Japanese army is indeed preparing to start attacking Changzhi and Jincheng. The Second War Zone ordered us to conduct a raid behind the Japanese army to harass and inflict heavy damage on the Japanese army."

After hearing this, no one's expression changed much. Most of those present were senior commanders, so they still had some judgment.

Zeng Jiwen continued, "However, after reading the combat orders, I think we can have a bigger combat plan."

"Harassing the Japanese army is nothing. With the current strength of our 389th Brigade, we can completely annihilate this invading Japanese army!" Zeng Jiwen said in a resounding voice.

Upon hearing this, the comrades present were all shocked, and then looked at Zeng Jiwen with burning eyes.

Sure enough, this was the purpose of the brigade commander gathering everyone. If it was an ordinary raid, the brigade commander would have just sent a telegram and would not have called so many people to the brigade headquarters for a meeting.

And looking at the number of people present, except for a few individual regiments, most of the commanders of the main regiments were on the scene, so what the brigade commander said next was probably a major battle operation.

Zeng Jiwen looked at everyone and continued, "I know you comrades have questions in your minds. Isn't the overall strategy of our Eighth Route Army to fight behind enemy lines? Why are we taking the initiative this time?"

"Let me give you some numbers, comrades. Since our brigade established six new main force regiments last month, after more than a month of development, everyone has basically trapped the Japanese troops in their respective defense areas."

"Then, our brigade currently has four regiments directly under its command, ten main force regiments, plus the special forces of the directly subordinate artillery regiment. Not counting the local forces, the total number of personnel is at least over 35,000."

"This time, not counting the various local regiments and militias, there are various local militias and local regiments. Do you think we still need to engage in small-scale raids and other small-scale operations?"

After hearing the brigade commander talk about the current strength of the entire brigade, plus the weapons configuration of each regiment, it can be said that compared with other brother units, it can almost be said that it has been reborn. Thinking about it carefully, everyone had a general impression in their minds before, but never described the strength of the entire brigade in such a comprehensive way like this time.