"Sit down and talk." General Arnold looked up from the pile of papers, signed them with his hand, and handed them to the adjutant as he said casually to Ron.

"Yes, General!" Ron sat down in a chair.

"What do you think of the fighting in Burma?" General Arnold asked directly.

Ron knew that his answer might be crucial, so he pondered it for a moment, then replied:

"General, I think the poor performance of the P-51 is more due to tactical reasons."

With that, Ron paused, quietly paying attention to the general's reaction. However, General Arnold didn't react any further, and Ron had to continue.

"Obviously, in Burma, we are using our weaknesses against Japan's strengths. The P-51 is a high-speed fighter with a laminar wing that makes its high-speed performance unmatched. However, there are gains and losses, and its performance in the low-speed section is also affected by this. But the battles I saw in the reports were mostly at low speeds of up to 250 miles per hour (about 400 kilometers). At this speed, any kind of aircraft of the Japanese was superior to the P-51. Therefore, this unfavorable situation arose not because the P-51 was not bad, but because the tactical mistake of attacking with a short blow and a long shot was made, and our tactics should be to engage the enemy at high speeds. ”

"But, Ron, our {one + book{read} novel YBDU plane is on escort duty, the transport plane flies very slowly, and the escort fighter can't fly too fast." General Arnold raised his own doubts.

This issue was also on Ron's radar. Ron knew how General Doolittle had used the P-51 correctly in Europe, thus crushing the Luftwaffe in one fell swoop. Doolittle's tactics are the solution to this problem. So he replied in a hurry: "General, I have a new idea. We might be able to do that......"

A week later......

At an airport in the Indian state of Assam, a concrete runway glows a blinding white glow in the intense tropical sun. As far as the eye can see, the scenery in the distance, whether it is a snow-capped mountain or a forest, seems to fluctuate like a layer of water.

"MMT, today, I'm afraid it's more than 100 degrees Celsius (Americans are used to using the temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 37 degrees Celsius)." Ron stood under a tall palm tree, shirtless and clutching an ice cream in one hand and a fan in the other. He shook his fan wildly and complained. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and he felt like the ice cream in his hand was about to melt.

"It's alright, Colonel. Today, it's a hundred degrees at most. It's not bad, it's only May, and in two months, it will be 120 degrees (about 49 degrees Celsius). A young officer, who was standing next to him, replied.

"Fortunately, by then, I should have gone back." Ron thought to himself. Turning his head to look at the young officer he had just spoken to, that guy was the liaison officer assigned to him by General Bissel of the Tenth Air Force, named Brian. I don't know how long he has been in India, his face is tanned by the sun, although it is not as good as an authentic African, but it is already comparable to an African-American.

At this time, the sound of an engine came from a distance - and after a while, a C-47 transport plane appeared in everyone's field of vision.

Through the telescope, Ron could clearly see that the transport plane was in an abnormal condition—one engine was visibly stalled, as could be easily seen from the stationary propeller.

As the plane flew closer, more details became clearer in the fixed high-powered telescopes: the plane had clearly been attacked, with many clearly visible bullet holes in the fuselage, and even more holes in the tail of the pendulum.

The plane staggered toward the runway and slowly landed. The wheels landed on the runway and jumped, then quickly stabilized again, and finally the plane came to a solid stop at the end of the runway.

The door opened, and a man rushed out, shouting something in a language that Ron didn't quite understand. Then, the ambulance drove up immediately. Ron also jumped into the jeep and said to the driver, "Go over and have a look." ”

By the time Ron got to the plane, several paramedics were carrying a stretcher off the plane. On the stretcher lay a Chinese in a flight suit, who had passed out. Ron saw that he was soaked in blood from the thigh down.

"I think I was shot in the thigh," Ron thought, "and given the location of the Japanese base, after being shot, he would have to fly for at least an hour and a half, including mountains and valleys, and it would not be easy to hold on." ”

The captain was apparently not the only one injured on the plane, and just after he was carried out, three more wounded people were lifted out in quick succession - all of them were injured by Japanese planes. The last thing to be brought out was a corpse - a 12.7mm machine gun bullet hit him in the chest, killing him instantly.

After the wounded and bodies were carried away, the passengers on the plane began to walk out one after another. Their appearance surprised Ron.

These people are all naked, most of them only wear a pair of close-fitting shorts, and a few don't even have shorts! They staggered off the plane, each with white lips and trembling all over, and Ron could hear the clatter of their teeth from a distance of ten or so meters.

"Holy! What's going on! What do these people do? Ron asked.

"They're all recruits from China." The young officer, Brian, replied. Probably accustomed to such situations, he seemed nonchalant. Seeing that Ron's face was still full of doubt, he went on to explain:

"When we get here, all their supplies are provided by us, whether it's uniforms, weapons, training. Their original uniforms will be replaced here. So 'Peanut' — their president, General Stilwell gave him that nickname — stripped them naked before they got on the plane, so that they could save a military uniform. ”

"But it's cold to fly at high altitudes. The cabin of the C-47 is not pressurized and closed, and when it flies to a high place, the temperature inside can drop to more than ten degrees below zero, are they not afraid of freezing to death? At least we have to get them a military blanket, right? Ron asked, pointing to a guy with white lips and a blue face, shivering in the tropical sun.

"We had military blankets for them on the plane, but, seriously, military blankets didn't work very well. In addition, this plane is not ours. What airline does it belong to the Chinese. This can only be considered bad luck for these guys. But don't worry, most Chinese just bask in the sun and will be fine in a short time - they are as easy to feed as livestock. ”

In fact, as Brian said, after a few minutes in the warm Indian sun, the herd of livestock-like recruits gradually warmed up. At this time, a Dodge truck drove up, and a Chinese in an American military uniform got out of the car and said a few words to these people - his dialect was heavy and spoke quickly. So much so that Ron basically didn't understand anything other than the word "Ge Laozi" - and then the recruits climbed the trucks one by one. Then the truck drove away. Ron noticed that the recruits were silent all the time, like a herd of animals that couldn't speak.

In the period since, the airport has become very busy, and more than a dozen C-47s have landed here, each scarred and filled with Chinese recruits who have frozen half to death.

"The route was to pass near Myitkyina, where the Japanese had an air base. The route is under the direct threat of enemy aircraft. While Ron was carefully inspecting the C-47 that had landed, Brian explained to him on the side, "Fortunately, the Japanese planes are not strong enough, and the Ki43 only has two .50 machine guns, and it is far less powerful than our .50." Otherwise, the losses will be even greater. ”

"Have you tried to attack the airfield with bombers, paralyzing the enemy?" Ron asked. Many people will think that the seizure of air supremacy is a matter for fighters, but in fact, using bombers to wipe out enemy fighters on the ground is often more efficient. Just like when the Germans launched the Barbarossa plan to raid the Soviet Union, the first step was to use bombers to raid Soviet airfields. In that campaign, the Soviets lost thousands of aircraft, the vast majority of which were blown up on airfields.

"Colonel, we have launched two attacks on Myitkyina airfield, but the results have been poor." Brian replied, "Japanese fighters have very low runway requirements, and they only need a very simple runway to take off. This kind of runway can be repaired faster than it can be fried! Every time our bombers just landed on their own runways, the Japanese planes on the Myitkyina side were ready to take off again. The area around Myitkyina Airport is covered with dense rainforest, and Japanese planes and oil depots are hidden nearby, and you can't find them from the air. The attack has no effect at all, and the damage is not small. Coupled with the fact that the Japanese had the support of the locals - as the 14th Air Force did in Yunnan - there were Japanese anti-aircraft lookout posts everywhere, it was difficult for us to achieve the effect of a surprise attack. So later, we rarely took the initiative to attack Myitkyina airport. ”

Ron knew Brian was telling the truth. Indeed, if you cannot destroy enemy planes, it is impossible to have any long-term effect by simply attacking the runway. The battle on Kuah Island vividly illustrates this point: even if it is shelled by battleships, the runway can still be quickly repaired. And Kuah Island illustrates how easy it is to hide a few planes from reconnaissance planes in the rainforest.

"Brian, you go and get in touch with General Bissel, give me four P-51s, and give me three old birds, and I want to fly to Myitkyina to see it myself."

"Colonel, the general has received an order from General Arnold that you cannot take part in combat flights."

"Did I say I'm going to fight the Japanese? I can assure you generals that the Japanese will not come to me, and I will never fight them...... Or else? You say, I need to fly to China, I need a P-51 and three escort P-51s - for this route, I think it's much safer to fly the P-51 than to take a transport plane. ”

"Alright then, but Colonel, I can't guarantee that General Bissel will agree."