Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

She County.

When the commander of the 25th Brigade, Naozo Nakano, received the telegram requesting help from the cavalry battalion, he immediately understood the emergency situation of the cavalry battalion and ordered the tank squadron to rush to Xiaokou Village immediately, while he himself led the 117th Regiment to follow.

At this time in the Chinese battlefield, due to the lack of resources of the Japanese army, most of the steel was invested in the navy. Although the Japanese army introduced British and French Whippet tanks and French Renault FT tanks for armored warfare research after World War I, there were no large quantities of equipment in the army. They were only mixed into the divisions for firepower breakthroughs.

In order to capture southern Shanxi, the North China Front Army specially deployed a tank squadron to strengthen the firepower of the 108th Division. It was dispatched by the division commander Shimomoto Kumamiya as the vanguard to attack Dongyang Pass with the 117th Regiment.

这支战车中队由2个各5辆八九式坦克（乙型）的坦克小队，一个超轻型坦克小队包含5辆九四式超轻型坦克小队（骑兵装甲车）组成。中队部都是2辆八九式坦克，合计17辆坦克装甲车辆组成。

As the main force of the Japanese army began to leave the city, Huang Hanjia and others also received news that the cavalry brigade had successfully ambushed and annihilated the entire Japanese army and that the Japanese army was advancing. They immediately sent the news to Zhu Guosheng and asked him to prepare to ambush the tank squadron.

After receiving the news, Zhu Guosheng in Xiaokou Village immediately began to disperse and camouflage himself to ambush along the Xiaokou Village road. At the same time, about a platoon of people, carrying unfamiliar weapons, began to ambush in groups of three at various distances along the road.

When one of them took out a gun barrel about one meter long, the soldiers lying in ambush nearby were confused. Then they saw a trigger at the back of the gun barrel. When they saw the other two soldiers start to open the ammunition box and take out a shell about 40 centimeters long, they widened their eyes and looked confused. No one knew what kind of weapon this was, but they soon found out.

At 17 pm, the tank squadron hurried to Xiaokou Village. Standing on the tank, they saw a large number of corpses lying on the ground from a distance. They were so angry that they screamed. In order to prevent a sneak attack, they could only notify the troops in the rear to speed up and clean up, while they maintained their combat formation nearby and waited for the arrival of the large troops in the rear.

At this time, in Xiangtangpu, the Japanese 117th Regiment, led by the brigade commander Naozo Nakano, gradually entered the ambush circle of the 80th and 81st Regiments.

Previously, after inspecting the terrain, Huang Hanjia decided to divide the 80th and 81st Regiments into left and right wings to ambush in the mountains from Kuanzhang to Yangjiashan north of the Xiangtangpu Highway, and each regiment sent a small force to set up an ambush at the foot of the mountain south of the highway. At the same time, the 16 infantry guns of the 180th Regiment were divided into three parts, and artillery positions were set up on the slopes of three hills.

To prevent him from escaping and returning to Shexian County after the 117th Regiment was ambushed, the 86th Regiment was dispatched to intercept the Japanese army's retreat route after the 117th Regiment passed through Shentou Township. After the battle began, the 87th Regiment immediately raided Shexian County and captured it. They also set up their outpost headquarters on the hillside of Houdi Village, north of Xiangtangpu Road.

At the same time, the troops began to move into their designated positions.

In Xiaokou Village, when Zhu Guosheng received the news that the 117th Regiment had begun to enter Xiangtangpu, he ordered the artillery to start carrying the strange weapon that the brigade commander ordered to be the Taihang Type 38.40 rocket launcher and start firing.

Zhu Guosheng was also very interested in this weapon. When the brigade commander told them that he had a way to deal with the Japanese armored forces, he was skeptical. He was not very sure about the method the brigade commander mentioned. Time was urgent and he had no time to see the effect, so he hurriedly set off with the 20 weapons given by the brigade commander.

This time, the tank squadron ambushing the Japanese brought 10 tanks, while the others stayed with Huang Hanjia to deal with the Japanese heavy firepower. As the order was issued, Zhu Guosheng saw the soldiers beside him began to pick up the long, narrow armor-piercing shells and insert them directly into the barrels. Then, the soldiers with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers aimed at a Japanese Type 89 tank, pulled the trigger, and fired the shells.