The Sword of Swords is a Guard for Kong Jie

Yoshio Iwamatsu of the First Army Headquarters of the Japanese Army in Taiyuan looked forward to reviewing the battle plan in his hand.

The Chief of Staff and Operations Section Chief Fujino Daisaku stood in front of him respectfully, waiting for him to make the final decision.

"Tell me briefly about your second battle plan!" Yoshio Iwamatsu said suddenly.

Fujino Dazuo hurriedly spread out the battle map in his hand, pointed to the marked attack route and said, "The second battle plan is the most direct and simplest..."

"Using our superiority in military strength and firepower, divide the troops into three groups, sweeping from the southeast direction all the way to the northwest direction!"

"Take one base and destroy one!"

"All the houses were burned, all the livestock were killed, and all the food was taken away, forcing the independent regiment to come out and fight us!"

Yoshio Iwamatsu nodded again and again, before Fujino Dazuo finished speaking, he interjected: "I like this style of play..."

"Go straight, Tangtang is killing the opponent on the battlefield..."

"We will follow the second battle plan to sweep Northwest Shanxi..."

"I'll contact the front army headquarters immediately and ask about reinforcements!"

"Commander Okamura promised me that the two divisions and the Heavy Artillery Regiment will be our main force in sweeping Northwest Shanxi, and there must be no accidents!"

"Chief of Staff, you are responsible for drawing troops from the First Army and delivering ammunition supplies to the predetermined attack point..."

"Prepare [-] days of ammunition supplies for each main division!"

"Including the ammunition supplies carried by each division, exactly one month's ammunition supply is enough to sweep the entire northwest of Shanxi!"

"Another [-] carts will be raised for each division, and the two regiments of the Royal Association Army will specialize in transporting ammunition supplies and the wounded!"

"Ensure that every soldier in the main division can go to the battlefield and not be troubled by the wounded and ammunition supplies!"

Duanjiabao is a village that the Japanese and puppet troops must pass through after entering the base area.

It is built on the mountain, and the official road passes through the middle of the village. As long as the village and the high ground behind the village are occupied, the puppet army will not be able to pass through here for many days and continue to penetrate the hinterland of the base.

The first blocking position discussed by Kong Jie and Li Yunlong happened to be here.

Starting three days ago, the people in the village were transferred away.

The three main camps, more than [-] carefully selected young and strong victims, all hid here, hiding here day and night, transforming the Duanjiabao and the mountains behind it.

Three main battalions, nearly [-] young and strong victims, scraped and transported steel rails along the railway line...

The same day and night, sending a steady stream of steel rails to Duanjiabao...

"Regimental Commander..." Shen Quan, deputy chief of staff and first battalion commander, pointed to the half-repaired bunker in front of him and introduced it!

"It's good to use steel rails to repair the bunker, and it looks very strong, but it takes too much time!"

"One platoon of soldiers, one hundred young and strong, worked hard all night to build such a half-baked bunker!"

"According to this progress, it will take at least three days to repair it..."

"Three similar defensive positions will be built in the future, and the trenches will be connected with hidden traffic trenches... The task is too heavy, and I'm afraid I won't be able to complete it!"

Kong Jie asked in surprise, "Why so slow?"

"I remember that it took Huang Yu one night and one day to build a steel rail bunker. Why did it take you so long? Did you use the wrong method!" …

Shen Quan shook his head and explained: "Staff Huang built a steel rail bunker on the ground, but we built it underground, and the difficulty has increased by at least three times."

Seeing that Kong Jie didn't believe it, Shen Quan immediately dragged him to another bunker that had just started to be built: "Our bunker is only three or four meters wide, but the steel rails are tens of meters long, and it will be about ten meters long after being cut..."

"If we want to fix the rail and bury it in the ground, we have to dig a deep trench more than ten meters long at least, then build up the rail layer by layer, and finally fill it with soil!"

"This is what Staff Officer Huang asked us to do. Even if a heavy artillery shell hits the rail, it can only blow up part of the rail, and the other part is still buried deep in the soil to ensure the stability of the bunker!"

"I roughly calculated...a trench needs forty bunkers, fifty artillery holes, plus hidden traffic trenches, trenches, and mortar positions...at least twenty days..."

"We only have less than two months to prepare, and we will definitely not be able to complete the four defensive positions!"

Kong Jie was still very worried at first, fearing that Shen Quan would spend twice as long repairing the position because of other reasons, which would delay the big event.

After learning that it would take twice as long for the troops to make the bunker stronger, the worry on his face was immediately replaced by joy.

The Japanese and puppet troops that the independent regiment was fighting against this time were too strong. If the bunker could last longer on the battlefield, it wouldn't matter if it took twice as long.

As soon as I turned my mind, I made a decision: "There is no time to build a trench at the same time, so we will build two blocking positions at the same time!"

"There are only so many troops, but I can draw another [-] local troops, guerrillas, and young people from the rear to support you!"

At the brigade headquarters, the chief of staff suddenly ran in front of the brigade commander with a serious expression: "The headquarters has an urgent call... Yoshio Iwamatsu made a move..."

"Three main divisions, a heavy artillery regiment, a cavalry regiment, a chariot regiment, and six regiments of the Royal Association Army, a total of more than [-] Japanese puppet troops, divided into three groups, starting from the southeast Sweep Northwest Shanxi!"

"The only good news is that the three main divisions are all second-class divisions!"

"Each division has three infantry regiments under its jurisdiction, which is one infantry regiment less than the first-class divisions we encountered before, and there is no brigade first-level command organization!"

"But they haven't lost much of their heavy firepower."

"In addition to the three infantry regiments, each division has an artillery regiment, a cavalry brigade, a supply brigade, and an engineering brigade..."

"The total force adds up to [-] people!"

"Counting Yoshio Iwamatsu's strengthening of their heavy artillery brigade, cavalry brigade, chariot brigade, and two regiments of the Imperial Association Army, the total strength of each Japanese and puppet army will exceed [-]!"

"Heavy firepower is even more terrifying!"

"Each Japanese and puppet army is equipped with nine to twelve large-caliber howitzers or mountain guns, thirty-six field guns or mountain guns, eighteen infantry guns, eighteen rapid-fire guns, about one hundred mortars, one hundred Heavy machine gun!"

"Sweeping the troops all the way can completely crush Kong Jie and Li Yunlong in terms of firepower!"

"Yoshio Iwamatsu sent three groups of mopping up troops at once... I'm worried that I won't be able to hold on!"

"The bases that have been built so hard will also be lost..."

The brigade commander didn't answer, and took the information over and over again to read it three times before putting it down. He sighed and said, "If we can't hold on, we will hold on!"

"Yoshio Iwamatsu, this old devil is very smart!"

"The troops sweeping Northwest Shanxi are basically seconded, and the First Army only dispatched three regiments!"

"In this way, the Japanese and puppet troops who blocked us basically did not move. We wanted to make a fuss, and it was difficult to provide some support for Kong Jie and the others... It is clear that we want to win the Northwest Shanxi in one battle and kill Kong Jie and the others!"