Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

The 83rd Regiment will immediately move to the Wuan-Handan area to delay the Japanese reinforcements from Handan. The 782nd Regiment will move to the Shexian area as a mobile force, ready to provide support on the battlefield at any time.

After Wang Zhuo finished explaining the regiment's combat mission, he dismissed the meeting and asked everyone to go back and prepare.

As the order was issued, the atmosphere in the entire southeastern Shanxi began to become tense. Troops began to lurk day and night, heading to their respective ambush positions to build ambush fortifications.

On March 23, with the 20th Division capturing Pucheng (different from the original timeline), the 108th Division began to advance from Wu'an via Shexian to Changzhi. In addition to the 52nd Infantry Regiment attacking northern Henan, it also took a detour to attack Jincheng.

The remaining troops, led by the commander of the 25th Infantry Brigade, Naozo Nakano, the 117th Infantry Regiment, the 108th Cavalry Battalion, a squadron of the Field Artillery Battalion, engineers, and baggage, served as the vanguard and began to advance towards Dongyang Pass under the cover of the tank armored squadron and aircraft. The remaining two regiments and the rest of the troops assembled in Wuan under the leadership of the division commander Kumamiya Shimomoto.

At this time, the area from Dongyang Pass to Shexian was mainly commanded by Huang Hanjia, Deng Xie and Zhu Guosheng. Brigade Commander Zeng Jiwen, together with Political Commissar Zhou Shi and Chief of Staff Wang Zhuo, commanded the Yetao area. Wu Lin, Liu Ming and Cai Xu were stationed in the rear base to prevent emergencies.

After Huang Hanjia, Deng Xie and Zhu Guosheng inspected the terrain in Dongyang Pass and She County, and conducted on-site investigations and intelligence analysis, the three decided to set Xiangtangpu as the ambush site for this battle.

Xiangtangpu, located at the southern foot of the Taihang Mountains, lies between Shexian County and Dongyangguan Pass, and is a must-pass on the Handan-Changzhi Highway. This area is nestled in an east-west river valley, where the Handan-Changzhi Highway passes along a small river. The road itself is practically the riverbed, covered in gravel, making it difficult for pedestrians to walk, let alone cars.

The southern part of the road was a mountainous terrain, often steep and precipitous, making it difficult to climb. The northern part of the road was a relatively flat, rolling plateau with numerous valleys, making it ideal for concealment and attack. Once the battle began, if we could block the east and west ends, the enemy would be unable to escape.

At 14 p.m., the soldiers who went to Shexian for reconnaissance came back and reported that the 108th Cavalry Battalion of the Japanese Army attacking Dongyang Pass had begun to emerge from Shexian as the vanguard and marched towards Dongyang Pass along the Handan-Changzhi Highway, while other Japanese troops had not yet assembled in Shexian.

Upon hearing this information, Huang Hanjia immediately concluded that the Japanese army was planning to send a cavalry unit as a vanguard to conduct firepower guerrilla reconnaissance, and that the real time to wait for the 117th Regiment to leave the city should be tomorrow morning. A plan of segmented encirclement and annihilation immediately emerged in his mind.

So, he turned to Deng Xie and Zhu Guosheng and said, "Originally, the Japanese army mobilized a tank squadron this time, and I was thinking about how to separate their tank squadron from the main force. Now, this opportunity has come."

So they immediately dispatched a battalion of the 80th Regiment and at the same time contacted the 624th Regiment stationed at Dongyang Pass. They ordered the two groups to ambush the Japanese cavalry in Xiaokou Village in front of Dongyang Pass and attract the tank squadron from Shexian County to quickly reinforce.

"Once the tank squadron arrives at Xiaokou Village, as long as the tank squadron is in imminent danger, the 117th Regiment will definitely rush to support the tank squadron, and then things will be much easier." Zhu Guosheng also agreed.

"Furthermore, Xiaokou Village is surrounded by mountains on both sides, with steep terrain. The main road in the middle is wide, making it difficult for the Japanese cavalry to charge up the mountain. Heavy machine gun positions are deployed on both sides of the mountain to fire back and forth. We only need a small number of machine guns to block the retreat routes of the cavalry in front and behind, and these four or five hundred Japanese soldiers can be easily wiped out. And we have no shortage of light and heavy machine gun bullets now."

"Yes, with the 624th's light and heavy machine guns plus ours, it's more than enough. We can send some of the ammunition to the 624th Regiment." Deng Xie agreed. After the three of them agreed that there was no problem, they immediately contacted the 624th Regiment located in Dongyang Pass.