Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

The National Government directly rewarded Zeng Jiwen with 50 French francs, awarded him another Blue Sky and White Sun Medal, and rewarded his troops with 100 million French francs. At the same time, Zeng Jiwen was promoted to Lieutenant General, commander of the 389th Division, and all chief officers at all levels were promoted one level. He was in charge of three brigades and nine regiments, namely the 389th, 393rd, and 395th, and it became a Type A division.

When Zeng Jiwen received the telegram forwarded by the headquarters, he suddenly felt a headache. If this matter was not handled properly, there would be big trouble. Finally, he asked his family for instructions, and it also caused a discussion at home.

In the end, it was Mr. Li who made the final decision to let Zeng Jiwen take over. After all, the Eighth Route Army had not had many members before, and it was a rare opportunity to expand the army with justification.

Therefore, Zeng Jiwen accepted the organization of the 389th Division. As for how to determine the organization, it would have to wait until the Japanese army's mopping-up operation was over before a decision could be made based on the actual situation.

After all, the troops under Zeng Jiwen, not counting the local regiments, plus the artillery, engineering and special operations battalions, are almost 20 in number, which cannot be accommodated even with the establishment of 9 regiments.

Not to mention that if we continue to expand in the summer, the number of people in the entire brigade will increase significantly again.

After discussing these things, Zeng Jiwen talked about the issue of air defense with Zhou Shi and Wang Zhuo.

It turned out that when the 14th Division was on the way to attack southern Shanxi, Zeng Jiwen personally led his team to the mountain and saw Japanese air force patrolling in the sky. After that, the issue of air defense once again came to Zeng Jiwen's mind.

Zeng Jiwen considered that if the air defense problem was not solved, the base would not be able to have a stable and safe development environment. However, in order to prevent Japanese planes from entering and leaving the base every day, air defense weapons and radar were needed.

However, both of these weapons require time. At present, the anti-aircraft machine guns in the base's military factories can be imitated, and the radars can also be imitated based on our own preparations in previous years after the people we sent abroad return, and we can even be ahead of other countries.

However, according to the current situation, once the Japanese army invades the base, the Japanese bombers and attack aircraft will definitely attack along with them. Under the disadvantage of having no air defense weapons, even if the troops hide in the mountains and forests, once the Japanese army bombs everywhere, the people in the base will definitely suffer great losses.

Therefore, we must find a way to destroy the Japanese planes, preferably before the Japanese army launches a raid. If we do so in advance, the Japanese army will likely mobilize a large number of planes.

During the previous Battle of Xinkou, the 129th Division launched a surprise attack on the Yangmingbao Airport, which resulted in the Japanese army having no air force to attack during the Battle of Xinkou, greatly reducing casualties. It can be seen that during this period, air firepower could be regarded as a dimensionality reduction attack.

If the Japanese army wanted to conduct a mop-up operation, the worst-case scenario would be that all the Japanese airfields in Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang, and Handan would be deployed. The planes from these three locations would be sufficient to reach southeastern Shanxi.

Therefore, we must find a way to destroy the Japanese airfields and, at the same time, destroy a large number of Japanese aircraft so that we don't have to defend against their air force when the Japanese attack.

Afterwards, Zeng Jiwen began to order people to collect intelligence about these three airports, preparing to raid these three airports when the Japanese army mobilized troops on a large scale.

After dealing with these matters, Zeng Jiwen left the brigade headquarters and went to the temporary resting place of the 47th Army in Liao County to visit the commander of the 47th Army, Li, and discuss the next arrangements.

When they arrived at the 47th Army’s base in a mountain village outside Shexian County, Zeng Jiwen walked to the village entrance with his guards and said to the soldiers at the entrance.

"Hello, comrade. I am Zeng Jiwen, commander of the 389th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army. Please inform your commander, Li, that I am here to see him."

The guarding soldiers saw a group of Eighth Route Army soldiers riding horses coming from afar and were confused for a moment. Until Zeng Jiwen walked up to them and heard what Zeng Jiwen said, they suddenly looked excited.