Chapter 16: Declaration of War on the Soviet Union (III)

In addition to delaying supply for one day in Lanfang, the first batch of ships arrived successfully after fourteen days and nights of sailing. This not only made the Shandong Bureau's insiders ecstatic, but also made Zhao Zhenzhong and others worried about the northwest breathe a sigh of relief.

After nearly ten days of busyness, the 300,000 tons of grain carried by the six ships had been unloaded into the warehouse on the wharf and were transported to the warehousing center of the Guards in Yimeng through the Dazhushan underground railway. They were then transported in batches through the Jiaoji Railway branch line extended from Boshan to Laiwu, and were transferred from the Jiaoji Line, Jinpu Line, Longhai Line, etc. to the disaster areas such as northern Shandong and northern Jiangsu.

After the six unloaded ships set off on the return route on the night of December 9, the second batch of eight cargo ships arrived in the early morning of December 17, and then there was another nervous and busy schedule.

After unloading the cargo on the 29th, it was a moonlit night and the submarines guarded in the nearby waters found the Japanese patrol ships, and the return time of the eight ships was postponed. It was not until the evening of the 31st that heavy fog occurred on the nearby sea surface that the eight ships took the opportunity to embark on a voyage back to Shannan under the leadership of Lin Yuntao.

The same route as the first fleet returned, after crossing the Japanese maritime blockade line overnight on the southeastern sea of ​​Ryukyu, the fleet did not return along the original route, but slowed down and headed towards the Philippines in a northeast-southwest direction. There, the fleet would load steel, copper ingots, aluminum ingots, rubber, rice and other materials, and some would be transported to Lanfang along the way, and some would be transported to Chittagong via the Strait of Malacca.

The current scope of activities of the Japanese Navy is limited to the area north of the South China Sea. The merchant ship led by Lin Yuntao is far away from its scope of activities and is under the name of "from the West Coast of the United States", so he is naturally not afraid of making public appearances... Moreover, such changes on the route can not only shorten the range and carry cargo along the way, but also avoid the possibility of crossing the equator and encountering a summer storm in the southern hemisphere when returning according to the route. It can be said that it kills several birds with one stone.

During the process of replenishing materials to the Shandong Bureau for nearly two months, the People's Party prepared in all aspects and took advantage of the impact of seasonal weather. In the entire operation, the fleet had no other thrilling except for the wind and waves in the South Pacific, which was a complete success. Of course, the success of this material transportation operation is also related to the current situation of the Japanese naval forces.

After occupying Hainan Island, the Japanese naval forces started from the south of Sakhalin Island, the Okhotsk Sea north of Hokkaido, and to the South China Sea near Hainan Island, with distribution ranges from about 18 degrees north latitude to about 50 degrees north latitude, spanning the northern latitude dimension about 32 degrees north latitude, and the straight distance between north and south is more than 2,000 nautical miles. At such a vast distance, no matter how strong the Japanese naval forces are, they cannot take care of every corner!

What's more, at the end of 39, the Japanese Navy had not reached the peak level after the outbreak of the Pacific War in history. Due to the invasion of China and its enthusiasm for the policy of moving south, the Japanese Navy focused more on China's southeastern coast and Southeast Asia. In the waters north of the Yangtze River Estuary to the south of the Shandong Peninsula, the Japanese Navy only deployed a fleet to carry out blockade missions. Even the patrols of the waters near the Ryukyu Islands were much relaxed due to the withdrawal of maritime forces.

If the weather is good during the day, the Japanese army can explore the situation along China's coast through reconnaissance planes taken off on the aircraft carrier, but the plane cannot be dispatched at night, or the weather is bad, the blockade line will be loopholes everywhere.

"Lao Gao, although there are only sixteen enemy planes invading, the news reported by the radar troops said that this group of enemy planes was much faster than before. Perhaps the Japanese changed the new planes, so we only dispatched the same number of fighter planes to meet the enemy, isn't it a little less?" Deputy Commander Liao Haisheng asked inquired.

"Even if the Japanese have changed into a new plane, it's not as fast as ours! Compared with the same number, we can better see the advantages and disadvantages of the two sides!" Gao Lingfeng patted Liao Haisheng on the shoulder and smiled, "Old guy, don't worry, with the cooperation of the ground air defense forces, there will be no trouble!"

"Then we have to say hello to Commander Yu and the others, so as not to miss the coordination!" Liao Haisheng suggested.

"Okay, listen to you!" Gao Lingfeng nodded happily and replied.

After receiving the report from the Fourth Air Regiment, Jiang Xing, the chief of staff of the Fourth Army, did not care much about it. He also issued an order in the past to cooperate with the Air Force, and to pay attention to cooperation with the direct air defense brigade and the air defense regiments of various divisions.

Before the Japanese were able to enter the air defense radar of the Guards, they were locked by the Guards' air defense radar. When they crossed the Beiyang River line and entered Funing, they were intercepted by the 16 fighter jets of the Guards' fourth air regiment.

Although the Japanese Zero fighter's performance exceeded that of the Japanese previous fighter jets in various aspects, the speed of more than 530 kilometers per hour, which is proud of, is still a big difference in the speed of nearly 700 kilometers per hour in the Guard fighter jet!

With the advantage of speed and the advantage of discovering the enemy first, once the two sides met, the fourth Air Regiment and one squadron shot down three enemy aircraft! The Japanese fought with the Guard Air Force with the advantages of low load on the zero-type wing, high horizontal plane rotation ability, and strong cannon fire.

Judging from the indicators that consider fighter performance, such as flight speed, combat radius, maximum range, climb rate, practical ceiling, and ammunition load, although the Fourth Air Regiment of the Guards was equipped with early F-1 fighter jets, it surpassed the Zero fighter jets in these hard indicators.

However, due to its fast speed, the performance of the small radius trap is not as good as that of the Zero Type. The force configuration of the four 12.7mm caliber heavy machine guns is also quite different from that of the Zero Type two 20mm caliber cannons and two 7.7-caliber machine guns.

Although both sides have advantages, the air force of the guards discovered the enemy first and achieved results first, thus forming a numerical advantage. With the cooperation of the ground air defense forces, the result of this air battle is no suspense.

In the end, the first squadron of the Air Fourth Regiment shot down thirteen enemy planes and escaped three of them to win. However, the Air Fourth Regiment also paid the price of five fighter jets being shot down, four fighter jets being injured to varying degrees, two pilots were sacrificed, and three were slightly injured while parachuting.

Such a result was unprecedented for both the enemy and us, and naturally caused considerable reactions.

For the People's Party, compared with the same number of fighter jets and the cooperation of ground troops, such a huge loss occurred for the first time. Naturally, we must summarize the experience and lessons and report the battle situation upward to remind other troops to pay more attention when dealing with Japanese enemy aircraft in the future.

And for the Japanese army, it is even more meaningful! Although only two fighter jets escaped in the end, the other one fell to the sea due to injury, it may have achieved an unprecedented victory in the 14th exchange for 5th. This means that the Japanese aviation army will have the capital to compete with the Chinese People's Air Force in the future, and it will not be the one-sided situation of the previous air battle!

What excites Oshiki Takijiro and the Japanese base camp is that this is the result of the first time that Japanese pilots have come into contact with Zero fighter jets and are not yet proficient in operation. If they have undergone rigorous training and then the number advantage is formed, the People's Party Air Force will no longer be terrible.

After this battle was spread, the Japanese army seemed to be fed with chicken blood and became arrogant again. But what a pity was that the Zero fighter jets had not been produced in large quantities and could not immediately report to the People's Party. This tone can only be held back now.

On the side of the People's Party, after summarizing the relevant situation, Su Lei, commander of the Jinan War Zone Air Force, hurried to the northwest and reported the relevant situation to Zhao Zhenzhong, Zhou Mingyuan, Jiang Yishan, Zou Degui and others with the People's Air Force Commander Hong Fei.

After listening to Su Lei’s report on the battle situation, Zhao Zhenzhong looked at Su Lei and Hong Fei who were a little nervous in front of him and said seriously: "The summary must be done, and it is indeed important to pay attention to it, but the movement is too big! If five fighter planes are dropped in northern Jiangsu, Hong Fei can’t sit still in the northwest? The air force’s minds are confused? Are you used to winning battles and feel that the world’s number one can’t afford to lose?!"

Hong Fei opened his mouth to defend himself, but when he thought about the reactions he and the comrades in the Air Force Command after learning the news, he felt a little too much and fell silent again.

"Since it's a war, it's not a child playing house, there will definitely be sacrifices! The problem is whether this sacrifice is worth it!" Zhao Zhenzhong continued to whine, "I want to see, the result of this battle is both expected and unexpected!

It is unexpected that the Japanese were suppressed by our air force for more than two years, so we should have some decent results to fight back. It is unexpected that the Japanese fighter jets are not very good, and our Air Force's reaction is also unexpected!

When the Japanese arrived sixteen fighter jets, your air force dispatched sixteen fighters to respond to the enemy. It was quite a 'gent style'! But Hong Fei, Su Lei, our party, when did our army pay attention to this kind of trend in fighting against the enemy?! Even if we really want to understand the performance of the new Japanese fighter jets, we don't need to be so arrogant!"

This criticism made Hong Fei and Su Lei cry and sweat on their foreheads. After Zhao Zhenzhong knocked, Zhou Mingyuan raised the summary material reported by Su Lei in his hand and said with a calm face: "You should be glad that the Japanese are more stingy. This new fighter cannon has a small load of ammunition, with only sixty rounds per door. If the ammunition load is larger, there will probably be more than five of them falling from Su Bei!

In the autumn of 1937, after the Air Force confronted the Japanese army in northern Shanxi for the first time, the headquarters issued instructions to carry forward the strengths of its fighter jets and not to fight against Japanese fighter jets in a small range! In the air battle with the Japanese army over the past two years, this instructions were implemented well. Why did the Japanese change a new aircraft? The soldiers in front of us put the effective tactics behind us and started fighting with them again?

If we can continue to implement our own style of fighting, even if we have a slightly weaker firepower, we will still be slaughtered after the Japanese fighter jets consumed all the few cannons and shells? Even if there is any loss, there will never be any result of five damages and four injuries!

In the future, the Air Force should further emphasize the tactics of leveraging our strengths and avoiding our weaknesses and giving full play to our military's equipment advantages!"

After Zhou Mingyuan finished the approval, Jiang Yishan, director of the General Political Department of the People's Army, re-emerged the fire again and said to Hong and Su, "I will only announce the results of the headquarters' handling of the relevant parties in this battle:

1. He was the leader of the four air regiments, Gao Lingfeng, and made him make a profound inspection;

2. The Fourth Air Regiment issued a notice of criticism within the Jinan War Zone;

3. Order the Jinan War Zone Air Force troops to carry out rectification within the next one and a half months and come up with practical results; the rectification period shall not affect combat readiness tasks."

This result of the treatment made Hong Fei and Su Lei breathe a sigh of relief, at least not as severe as the two imagined. But if we consider that this is the treatment after the victory, it would be not light.

"Considering that the new Japanese fighter jets used 20mm cannons and our new fighter jets also used 30mm cannons, the headquarters decided to ground all early models of f-1 fighters to modify weapons and reinforce the aircraft." General Logistics Minister Zou Degui said, "As for the combat readiness tasks in the relevant war zones during the grounding period, the new f-1 fighter jets equipped with cannons will be replaced."

This news made Hong Fei and Su Lei even more confused. The f-1 fighter has exceeded zero in terms of performance in multiple parties. With a cannon that can exert firepower from a long distance, the combat effectiveness will definitely be greatly improved. If the Japanese attack again, they will be able to show them their strength!

"The 311 operation in northern Jiangsu has come to an end. You must strictly rectify the troops after you go back!" Zhao Zhenzhong continued, "While you are here, I will communicate with you first. The headquarters will start to form an aviation division this year. Each aviation division will have two fighter regiments and bomber regiments, and one transport regiment. Each theater will have at least two aviation divisions, and the headquarters will have several directly under the jurisdiction.

With the improvement of equipment types, the Air Force will add new troops. This time is probably not too far. Of course, this is also a later story, so let it be put aside first. After you go back, the first thing you must do is to rectify the troops, change the clothes, and prepare to welcome the arrival of the new troops."

After years of development, by the end of 39, the existing F-1 fighter jets in the northwest had reached more than 1,500; after it was produced, it was trained in the Anxi area, with more than 900 F-2 fighters that have never been disclosed to the public, more than 600 B-1 bombers, and more than 400 C-1 transport aircraft. In addition, there are more than 200 H-1 and Y-1 aircraft imitating the DC-3, but the production lines of these two aircraft have been completely closed.

Since the Guards have been in Yimeng for 25 years, compulsory education has been implemented forcibly, while the Northwest has been the People's Army since 31 years of establishment. After years of hard work, from 38 years, the People's Party has also accepted intellectual youth enlistment, which has laid the foundation for the development and growth of technical troops.

So far, more than 6,000 people have graduated from the northwest and received one-year flight training from Yimeng Flying School alone, and the number of people in this team continues to expand over time.

With the presence of aircraft and pilots, it will be natural for the People's Party to expand its air force.

Hearing that the air force was about to expand significantly, Hong Fei and Su Lei were overjoyed. Su Lei even ignored the criticism just now and asked: "Sir, changing clothes and growing troops are good things, but after we ground, we cannot deal with the Japanese air invasion before the arrival of new fighter jets. The Japanese only came sixteen this time, and I am worried that more flies will come later!"

"The headquarters decided to reorganize the 9th Air Regiment, which has been equipped with a new F-1 fighter jet in the Yulin War Zone, and the 10th Air Regiment went to the Jinan War Zone to replace the Air Regiment, the 4th Air Regiment. The 4th Air Regiment was rectified on the spot!" Zhao Zhenzhong said, "After completing the rectification work, these four regiments will be included in the two aviation divisions in the Jinan War Zone.

Don't worry, the new fighter jets like the Japanese are not mass-produced yet, and they have to deal with multiple battlefields. The pressure on the Jinan war zone in the first half of this year is relatively limited. By the second half of the year, with the changes in the world situation, the Japanese are probably not on our side. And with the formation of various aviation divisions, we don't have to worry about the Japanese aviation troops at all!"

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Chapter completed!