On May 6, 42, the Eighth Great Air War in Southeast Asia broke out. The cause of the air war was that Indonesia, in order to support its allies and to counter China's momentum, sent 18 large merchant ships, passing through the Natuna Island to replenish water, and then continued to sail northeast for a period of time, and then turned in the direction of the Gulf of Thailand, specially bypassing part of the South China Sea, swaggering to transport weapons, ammunition, clothing, cotton and medicine and other military supplies, and it is said that it is definitely not pretentious, full of 18 large merchant ships, a total of 150,000 tons, escorted by 10 Indonesian warships. This is obviously a provocation to China, the fleet can sail safely in the eastern Indian Ocean, there is no need for the real risk of a frigate being sunk as soon as the fleet leaves the waters controlled by Indonesia, and there is no need to challenge the nerves of the Chinese! If the Chinese side ignores it, it means that the Chinese is not confident enough to carry out an air battle and is willing to cede sea control, and the morale of the Chinese side can endure this kind of provocation? If someone were in command, he would have said, "Let him go, just give yourself courage," and send a large number of submarines to give a proper sneak attack, but this is unacceptable to many! Since the opponent has already made a move, then the Chinese will definitely dare to take it, isn't it a sea and air war, well, let's have another sea and air battle.

On May 6, the merchant fleet set sail, and in the evening, a frigate was killed by a submarine, and a large number of submarines were quickly waiting on the route, which is also bullying the coalition forces not having enough anti-submarine forces, and limited air anti-submarine forces cannot reduce these threats; At the same time, the South China Sea Mixed Battle Group, which has always been active, has also set off for the south, and the Americans are not trying to lure the snake out of the hole, so let's have a ship-to-ship, air-to-air, or even sea and air war! The coalition forces have ninety percent certainty of destroying this fleet, but this requires at least dozens of fighters, although an average of four fighters can deal with an ordinary warship, but it is not so easy for eight fighters to sink two warships, to deal with this kind of mixed battle group, it is necessary to have one-third more fighters than usual, and it must be without air harassment. The idea of the Chinese was to both eat this bait and strike at the coalition forces, and at least they could capture the coalition pilots and put the main goal on the air confrontation. Because the speed of merchant ships is relatively low, and it is necessary to draw out Chinese fighters and fleets, and even more to guard against the surprise attack of Chinese submarines, the contact between the two sides is on the ocean of the Gulf of Thailand in northeast Malaysia, and in order to stimulate the nerves of the Chinese, they are not sailing close to the coastline, but taking a route biased towards Vietnam. So, on the afternoon of May 8, at the time that the two sides thought was the most suitable, they finally collided together.

The battle group sent by the coalition is unusually large, consisting of 150 Indonesian fighters (including 100 U.S. fighters), 50 Malaysian fighters and 140 Thai fighters, a total of 340 advanced fighters, of which 180 are advanced fighters in active service with the U.S. military; The Chinese side dispatched an escort battle group composed of 194 advanced fighters, including 98 of the Second Division of the HNA Army, all of which were the most advanced fighters in the whole army. A total of 534 fighters participated in the war, of which more than 370 were absolutely first-class fighters in the world, (in fact, the coalition forces divided 40 fighters to attack the ship, so the real participation of the two sides was about 490, and the number ratio was 190 to 300), the Chinese side is obviously at a disadvantage!

The Chinese side also knows that this is a risky fight, the opponent is extremely strong, and does not dare to relax in the slightest, how to allocate troops is a headache for the commanders, from the perspective of strength, the Thai side is relatively weak, but it should not be underestimated, 140 fighters is definitely not a small number; From their own point of view, the Second Division of the HNA is relatively strong, it is a sharp knife, and the final victory or defeat of the air battle depends to a large extent on their performance. The strength of the three aircraft groups of the coalition forces is not balanced, and the Malaysian side is not worth mentioning, and the staff officers analyzed that they are more likely to get close to the Thai side, one is that the Thai side is also relatively weak, and the other is that most of the Malaysian fighters take off from some northern airfields, (the southern half of the airfields are temporarily unusable), which makes the number of enemy planes on the northern front relatively large, and it is very likely that a part of the attack fleet will be separated. The Thais had enough reasons to do so, not to mention that the position of the aircraft group was also more suitable, so the Chinese side also placed the strongest HNA Division on the northern front, in order to first defeat the Malay-Thai coalition army, and then support the 1st Air Force Division on the southern front, and the task of the division was to withstand and entangle the fighter group that took off from the Indonesian side, so as to gain time for the victory of the battle on the northern front.

Military experts around the globe are watching this air battle!

People unanimously believe that if the coalition forces do not have the heart of a woman and can concentrate their forces to besiege the Chinese air force, then they will surely achieve the final victory in this air battle, crush the opponent, at least make them lose their combat effectiveness in a few days, and it is not impossible to even have a shortage of fighters within a month, and further, it is not impossible to destroy the Chinese air base in Vietnam, and even ...... The defeat of the coalition completely appeared on the northern front of the Thai-Malaysian coalition army, the Thai side sent 80 advanced fighters of the United States, but the Thais divided 40 imported fighters to attack the first ship, the original 190 to 98 advantage, has become a 150 to 98 relative advantage, and the Indonesian side is different is that a considerable part of the most advanced fighters on the Thai side are piloted by retired pilots, but their opponent is China's most powerful reinforced aviation division! Perhaps it was too excited, perhaps it was destined by God, or even more deliberately by the Chinese, the air battle on the northern front was 60 seconds ahead of the southern front, and it was these 60 seconds, or 40 seconds, that the initiative on the battlefield finally fell into the hands of the Chinese.

When the 1st Air Division on the southern front gradually resisted and even struggled to support, the 2nd HNA Division had already shown signs of victory or defeat; When one side of the southern front is about to turn the advantage into a possible victory, the northern front has already divided the winner and loser! The two sides on the northern front went from 98 to 150 at the beginning, to 92 to 120, then to 80 to 90, then to 70 to 60, and then to part of the coalition forces, so that at 65 to 40, the first 4 Chinese fighters were still harassing some enemy aircraft, and the rest of the fighters quickly turned to support the friendly forces on the southern front, which suddenly made the number of the two sides change from 55 to 100 to 116 to 100, and in the entire battlefield, the Chinese achieved a numerical advantage for the first time. And in terms of morale, it began to completely overwhelm the coalition forces, and after a period of "hand-to-hand combat", the two sides ended up 103-70, if the battle continues, it will definitely not be the Chinese side that will be annihilated in the end! Although the coalition withdrew 110 intact fighters, 100 of which were active fighters of the US military, it is an indisputable fact that their "ineffective support" enabled the Chinese to achieve the final victory in the air war.

The Chinese once again won the air battle, losing 190 planes of their opponents in exchange for 87 aircraft, of which as many as 80 advanced fighters were in service with the US military, which can be said to have achieved a huge victory. At the same time as the air force won the air battle, the battle on the sea was also divided between winners and losers, 6 merchant ships were captured after being damaged, another merchant ship was forced to surrender, and the remaining 11 merchant ships were either sunk or sunk by submarines as they fled. Of the 9 warships escorted by the escort, 6 were sunk in the engagement, and the rest were sunk by submarine sneak attacks. China not only captured 135 coalition pilots in the combat area, rescued all the Chinese pilots who fell into the water, but also rescued 80 coalition naval officers and soldiers, of course, more people who fell into the water were not rescued, in fact, as long as the other side did not rescue the pilots, the Chinese Navy was also happy to save themselves, although it is said that in the end at least 5 coalition pilots were rescued or their lives and deaths are unknown!

According to statistics, the 2nd HNA Division lost 38 fighters, of which 26 were shot down; The 1st Air Division lost 49 aircraft, of which 38 were shot down, arguably the heaviest loss since entering the war. Of course, the coalition forces are not easy, only the US military has lost 80 fighters in service, of which 56 have been shot down, Malaysia has lost 46, and the number shot down is even more astonishing, as many as 40, Indonesia (only referring to non-US active fighters) has lost 44, of which 26 have been shot down, but it is the Thai side that participated in the war, only 20. As far as the Chinese side is concerned, the pressure is not only from the air, but also from the navy, which has to deal with both the air and the sea, and the key is that the appetite of the parties concerned is too great, and they always want to eat this bait, with the result that the two warships were seriously damaged, the combat capability of the entire fleet was seriously reduced, and many officers and men were injured or even sacrificed! Military experts from all over the world attach great importance to this air battle, and at the same time express shock at the outcome of this battle, because the Chinese side not only defeated the powerful coalition forces with inferior forces, but also lost less than half of the coalition forces, and even made the loss rate of the coalition fighters exceed 50%, and even the loss rate of the US fighters in service exceeds 40%! Of course, the most depressed is Malaysia, and India behind it, because her loss rate is more than 90%, which is an unwilling thing!

Of course, in the eyes of some, it is not impossible for the Chinese side to achieve such a record, because she has a terrifying aviation division, an incredible "king of air combat"! The Second Naval Aviation Division, which entered Vietnam for the second time, was the center of attention of aviation experts and military experts all over the world, and it was she who defeated the Thai-Malaysian coalition forces on the northern front, and finally made the Indonesian air force on the southern front return in vain, shooting down and damaging 125 coalition troops in the entire campaign, and the attack power was terrifying! And the 2nd HNA Division is indeed very proud, with the cooperation of friendly forces, they not only defeated the Thai and Malaysian coalition forces, but also defeated another powerful enemy army together with friendly forces, and sent a large number of American active fighters to the sea! Naturally, the most striking thing is still the two heroic flying regiments, not only because the two flying regiments themselves have the smallest loss rate (the two flying regiments each lost 3 fighters), but also because they destroyed the most enemies, the second regiment shot down 24 enemy planes, and the third regiment shot down 36 planes, accounting for a total of 43% of the army's record, and they have the highest probability of shooting down the enemy, which is said to have reached more than 95% of the horror, which is simply a killer flying regiment! Suffice it to say that the battle of the whole army was carried out exclusively under the leadership of these two flying regiments.

The 3rd Flying Regiment seems to have a special experience in dealing with the Malaysians, the last time they achieved an incredible record, and when they encountered this "fish belly" again, they were like hungry tigers pounced on the sheep, and the Malaysians killed were crushed, so that the 2nd Flying Regiment complained that they "can easily handle it"; Of course, the mission of the 3rd Flying Regiment was not only to defeat the Malaysians, but after suppressing the opponent in a precarious position, and having already achieved a record of 20 aircraft, it broke into the Thai fleet, and as for the Malaysian fleet with heavy losses, it was handed over to the brother flying group. It is a pity that due to the difference in personal ability and the factors of the opponent, some pilots only shot down one enemy plane, and some pilots were shot down, and what made them feel even more depressed was that although they were the flying regiment that shot down the most enemy planes in the whole army (36 in total, 12 more than the second regiment), they also became the largest flying regiment in the whole army to be shot down, because there was not a single injured fighter in the whole regiment! What especially made everyone angry was that the core of the whole regiment, Colonel Meng Haibo, was actually joined forces to do it, which was something that caused everyone's public anger! For these allied fighters who fly US fighters on active duty, everyone can "tolerate" them shooting down someone, but "never allow" shooting down everyone's beloved regiment commander, because the regiment commander is their leader, and it is very likely that he will become the first nanny in the division to be promoted to colonel because of his combat exploits! Of course, there is no suspense about the outcome of the incident, they are still stunned to send these three guys into the sea, so that they have no chance to show off at all, when it is so easy to kill the commander of the Chinese flight regiment with 15 battle stars! In addition to another comrade-in-arms, Huang Shanhe, Major Zhu Zhi was also shot down, because these big names are too eye-catching, and they are always treated with special hospitality by the other party, and those retired pilots are particularly unreasonable, they come up to greet one by two or three, and if they are not careful, they will give people a sneak attack...... In fact, all three pilots of the Third Regiment were shot down on the Northern Front, and once they reached the Southern Front, some of them were not very sure to take advantage of the numerical superiority to defend themselves, because at least in terms of self-protection, everyone was still confident.

Huge achievements bring great glory, although now everyone has no chance to show off to their girlfriends, but it still makes the newly promoted major or lieutenant colonel happy, now, the third flight regiment is already a concentration of colonel-level officers, the whole regiment 16 pilots, except for the two lying in the hospital, the remaining 14 people have 13 colonel-level officers, and there are seven lieutenant colonels, two of whom are about to be promoted to colonels, and more importantly, everyone believes that in the near future, there will soon be a colonel pilot, And even more! Merit is too simple for the 3rd Flying Regiment, not only everyone has been promoted, many have also been promoted not only by the first rank, but some people have even been promoted continuously, although it is said that they have fought a bad battle every time!

And the focus of the whole army's attention this time is still the sinister Li disciple, if it weren't for the fact that he was a comrade-in-arms or the noble young master of the Li family, everyone would definitely beat him up in groups, and his comrades-in-arms in the same regiment would definitely not provide him with protection! Because he not only shot down two Malaysian fighters, but also shot down in one fell swoop the US military active fighters with a "Thai hukou" that had no "defense" against them, one of which was the one who shot down Meng Haibo, who was said to be an American from Florida, in addition, he also killed a US military fighter on the southern front, and helped the wingman shoot down a US military fighter, which made Li Wentong also addicted, so that Li Wentong said gratefully, "If someone is unfavorable to you, I will never participate"!

Meng Haibo's downing made the Third Flying Regiment a little embarrassed in the celebration, and some worries or worries, because the regiment commander was not only the core of the whole regiment, but also because the enemy could not be taken lightly; It can be said that this air battle was the most serious loss since they entered the war, and what surprised everyone even more was the excellent performance of the US fighters in active service, and many pilots were shot down when they confronted the US fighters in active service, especially the downing of Meng Haibo, the commander of the Third Regiment, which became a dangerous signal. Of course, the coalition forces were even more difficult, not only losing 135 pilots, the number of advanced fighters dropped from 438 to less than 300 at once, and less than 250 were able to immediately take to the air for combat, but also at least 56 foreign pilots were captured, 22 of whom were newly "retired" servicemen of the US military.

Of course, the coalition forces are not willing to be defeated, now is the best opportunity to launch a campaign, although the main force of the Chinese side is still there, but they have the initiative to launch a campaign, the mixed battle group of the Chinese Navy is still within their strike range, the damage to many warships has seriously reduced his speed, and it will take at least a day to get out of the strike range...... For the Chinese side, this is also a more troublesome problem, the coalition forces still retain a lot of combat capability, the main force has not been seriously damaged, and what is more embarrassing is that the own side is not without the ability to fight again, although the establishment is not enough; But the problem is that they are tired divisions, and the vast majority of the main pilots took part in the last air battle......