Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 79 What a Good Steel
A week later.

The Japanese 20th Division finally stabilized the rear a little, so it immediately dispatched the 2st Battalion of the Chida Regiment and a pseudo-Mongolian and Manchurian cavalry regiment, totaling more than people, from Suxian and began to advance towards Fu'an.

Naosuke Chida of Fu'an also personally led an infantry battalion northward, preparing to launch a surprise attack on the flank of the 386th Brigade and support the reinforcements from Suxian.

However, Brigade Chen had anticipated the enemy's actions long ago, and the 771st and 772nd Regiments ambushed the enemy from two directions respectively.

The two sides fought fiercely for a whole day. In the end, the 772nd Regiment killed more than 300 Japanese soldiers who were leaving the city from Fu'an. In addition, Naosuke Chida was also injured by a stray bullet and had to lead his team back to Fu'an.

After Chida Naosuke led his troops to retreat, the 772nd Regiment took a detour and attacked the Japanese reinforcements in Suxian from the flank. The Japanese reinforcements were no match for the main force of six or seven thousand people and finally had to retreat to Suxian.

At the same time, Pinggang also sent an infantry battalion along the Tongpu Railway to provide emergency support to Fu'an. Together with the infantry battalion was an artillery squadron carrying four mountain cannons.

After receiving the news, Li Yunlong hurried to find Chen Chengxing.

Now Chen Chengxing is leading the New Second Regiment to pry the rails along the Tongpu Railway.

Since arriving at Guozhuang Railway Station, Chen Chengxing asked Li Yunlong and Kong Jie to continue forward to Shaohukou to set up defenses, while he stopped with the New Second Regiment.

At the same time, Chen Chengxing also sent a message to the base area, transferring a large number of engineering companies, regiment logistics, guerrillas, county brigade district squads, militia, etc.

Chen Chengxing knew very well that except for the Hundred Regiments Campaign, the New Second Regiment might only have this one chance to obtain a large number of rails.

Especially now that the Japanese are re-tracking the Beitongpu Railway, the entire railway has all kinds of large and small tracks.

This is a rare opportunity. With this batch of rails, the Erlangdong Arsenal will be able to get back on track.

To this end, during this week, Chen Chengxing led his engineering company to pry up more than 10 kilometers of railroad tracks, with a total weight of more than 1 tons.

In other words, a large number of people are needed to transport the rails back to the base. Otherwise, Chen Chengxing would be able to pry off all the rails from Fu'an to Guangshan in the east.

Even with so many people involved in the transportation, there are still a large number of rails that need to be buried halfway, waiting to be slowly transported later. Less than 1/3 of the rails have actually arrived at the base.

"Chen Chengxing, stop. The Japanese from Pinggang have moved out and have already reached Daniu Village." Li Yunlong shouted to Chen Chengxing who was swinging a sledgehammer.

If the reconnaissance troops had not been sent out to blow up the railway, the Japanese would have already taken the train directly to Shaohukou.

"What a pity! The steel is so good." Chen Chengxing put down his sledgehammer and looked at the endless railway with regret. It would be better if the Japanese came later, and it would be best if they did not come at all.

"Don't work like a laborer here. Why are you tearing this down? If you want to destroy it, just blow it up directly," said Li Yunlong.

Li Yunlong was very puzzled as to why Chen Chengxing gave up his job and took the entire regiment to dismantle the railway tracks here. Even if he was reluctant to use explosives, he could just let the militia cause sabotage here and the main force could do what they were supposed to do.

"You don't understand." Chen Chengxing glanced at Li Yunlong.

Li Yunlong had never been involved in production, so he didn't know that the entire Eighth Route Army's arsenal was in urgent need of steel, and rail steel was top-grade steel for the Eighth Route Army.

Chen Chengxing did not plan to keep all of the more than 300 tons of rails. Only those that had been transported back to the base were what Chen Chengxing was going to keep. These tons were enough for the new Second Regiment. After all, the Erlangdong Arsenal was still small and could not digest much. As for the remaining rails, they were all prepared for the headquarters.

If the arsenal can expand in the next two years, there will be another chance during the Hundred Regiments Campaign.

"Zeng Cheng!" Chen Chengxing turned around and shouted.

"Yes!" Zeng Cheng heard the captain calling him and hurried over.

"Stop dismantling the rails. Take your men and transport the rails that have been dismantled to the mountains, and try to transport them as far south as possible." Chen Chengxing ordered.

"By the way, Commander, there are some sleepers that have been dismantled. What should we do with them?" Zeng Cheng asked.

"If you can transport it away, transport it away. If you can't transport it away, burn it on the spot. Don't leave a single hair for the devils!"

"Yes!"

After giving the order, Chen Chengxing did not stay to help, but immediately gathered the New Second Regiment and rushed to Shaohukou.

Now there are only about 3,000 people from the New 1st Regiment and the Independent Regiment in Shaohukou. Facing a full-strength battalion of the Japanese plus an artillery squadron, they are really no match. Even if the New 2nd Regiment is added, it will only be a draw.

However, when the New 2nd Regiment arrived, their three regiments still had a certain advantage when facing the Japanese infantry attack.

The New 3st Regiment, the New 2nd Regiment, and the Independent Regiment together have 82 infantry guns and mm mortars.

Moreover, the Erlangdong Arsenal has successfully trial-produced mortar shells through the blackheart toughening process. When Chen Chengxing was prying the railroad tracks, the logistics department sent him 50 shells. This time he could use them to see if there was anything that could be optimized.

When the shells can be used freely, mortars are much more lethal than infantry guns.

Two hours later, the Japanese vanguard arrived at Shaohukou.

Seeing the Japanese stop advancing and start to build positions, Chen Chengxing and his men knew that they had been exposed and it was impossible to ambush the Japanese.

"The Japs are really smart. They didn't even fall for it." Li Yunlong said regretfully.

"The Japanese are not stupid. They can still see that it is such an obvious siege and attack on reinforcements." Chen Chengxing said.

This is just like people are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being fat. The Eighth Route Army's guerrilla warfare of besieging and attacking reinforcements was well-known, and the Japanese could understand what was going on at a glance.

However, Chen Chengxing and his team's mission this time was to block the enemy's reinforcements, not to destroy them, so it didn't matter if the ambush failed. They could just fight a fair positional battle.

"In this case, we don't need to hide anymore. Let's continue to strengthen our fortifications," Kong Jie said.

They had already occupied the advantageous terrain in advance, but if they wanted to fully utilize the advantages of the terrain, they still had to rely on fortifications.

Since the Japanese had already discovered them, the three regiments no longer hid and began to quickly deepen and reinforce the fortifications. This time the Japanese brought mountain artillery, and the stronger the fortifications, the less casualties the troops would suffer.

For this purpose, they also placed infantry guns and mortars on the reverse slope to avoid the firepower of the Japanese mountain artillery.

This is why the Japanese infantry guns can be used as mortars at high elevation angles, otherwise they would not be able to guarantee the safety of the infantry guns.

As the three regiments worked hard, the Japanese follow-up troops also arrived at the battlefield.

However, the Japanese did not launch an attack immediately after arriving. They also needed to build fortifications to prevent possible surprise attacks.

After the Japanese built their simple position, the situation on the scene suddenly became tense.

PS: 10,000 words, please give me a monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)