From the beginning of dawn to the fall of night, it is only 13 hours, and the noise of these 13 hours feels longer than the long winter. In the fierce confrontation on this day, both sides did their best, and judging from the scenes of the battle, this day's battle was not enough to distinguish the winner and loser.

This is like a professional boxing match, after the first round, both sides have their own gains and losses, maybe one of them has some advantage on the field, maybe experienced people have been able to see the trend of the game, but the rest between rounds, whether it is dominant or not, will analyze the situation in time, think about countermeasures, in order to win more points in the next round, to weaken the opponent to the greatest extent.

The following night, as Weiss and his companions ventured through the night sky, they spotted many flying ships and combat planes coming and going, many of them belonging to the Norman camp and many of them Union troops. In night operations, it is almost impossible for the two sides to distinguish between the two sides without the identification equipment of friend or foe, and in many cases, fighters belonging to different camps even stagger from very close distances.

In the chaotic night sky, the reconnaissance plane used by Weiss and his team seemed to be free and easy. With Weiss's special vision, they were able to intuitively observe and judge the situation on the battlefield with a level of technology that would not have been possible in a few decades: the Union army fought on its own soil, continued its offensive after nightfall, and many Norman aviation facilities, including the two secret assembly points for flying ships that were discovered during the day, were attacked by air. At night, the scenes of fire and fire mean that the fruits of countless Normans' labor have come to naught.

Weiss couldn't help but think of Ze's remarks about the level of military mobilization of the Norman Empire, which was still at a low level of about 50% in this war. This meant that the Norman aristocracy, who wielded power and wealth, continued to live in luxury, while the living conditions of the people, who may not have been affected by the war on the surface, were in fact exploited even more incompletely – a law of economics that could only be concealed by the most sophisticated means.

During this night reconnaissance, Weiss discovered the enemy's new concealed assembly point, and also found many of his own pilots scattered in the mountains and forests. At this time, it is autumn, and in the second half of the night, the temperature in the mountains and forests will drop to much lower than during the day. He wrote down the approximate location, and when he returned to the guerrilla camp, he asked the guerrillas to split up to rescue them. However, the effectiveness of rescue efforts is limited by horseback and foot, or by a small number of motor vehicles. At night, if you use old biplanes, you can avoid enemy air and ground fire, but the problem is that you cannot guarantee the safety of temporary landing and takeoff. Therefore, in the process of reconnaissance flights, Weiss spent a lot of time and thought about how to improve the efficiency of his own battlefield rescue.

After a rough estimate, he made a rough estimate that there were at least fifty or sixty Federation pilots scattered around, if not more. This is a reflection of how fierce the fighting was during the day. On the other hand, the Normans scattered around had only a significant higher number of pilots. Today, Lorraine is still occupied by the Normans, whose light ships come and go, speeding towards the position where the flare was raised, landing in the mountains and forests, and rescuing the pilots. If they are not injured, or only slightly injured, these pilots can be put back into battle the next day.

I wanted to come to the ultralight aircraft developed by the federal army, which also took into account the multiple uses of the battlefield. It is a pity that they have not yet reached the conditions for mass production, and the response to pilots in the enemy-occupied areas also requires the upgrading and improvement of communication equipment. In short, this is a long process, and perhaps full-fledged battlefield rescue will not appear until the next war, or the next war, where both sides no longer need to send large numbers of personnel to the front line, but use automated mechanical equipment......

Stephen Chow is a veteran pilot in the 335th Attack Aircraft Group of the Federal Air Force. In the first three days of the Battle of Lorraine, he made seven sorties to bomb Norman warships on ground targets, and achieved some good results. On the fourth day, he set off against the rising sun, with a 1,000-pound heavy aerial bomb hanging under the belly of the fighter plane and three 50-pound light armor fragmentation bombs hanging on each wing of the plane. This is the "1+6 package" commonly used by the Federal Air Force in this war and proved to be very effective. That bombshell was designed to deal with enemy flying ships and could also be used to destroy enemy fortifications. As long as one hits, there is a high probability of severely damaging one of the enemy's light ships, or even destroying them directly, or razing a large building or fortified fortress on the ground.

Those light armor-shattering shells are not much more powerful than ordinary shells. They are usually used against personnel targets or transport vehicles on the ground, but they can also be used against enemy flying ships – capable of destroying the ship's technical equipment and killing or injuring personnel in unarmored protected areas.

In the previous three days of the attack, Stephen Zhou carried this package four times.

In this important battle, the Federal Air Force invested nearly 200 flying groups, accounting for more than 40% of the total size of the Air Force. When the Union army was about to break through the Norman border defense line and attack the enemy's homeland, the dispatch of so many flying troops into the Lorraine battlefield shows that the Federation army attaches great importance to this strategic direction.

On this magnificent battlefield, Stephen Zhou and his attack aircraft are clearly not a lonely existence. Within sight, combat planes were grouped one after another, forming an overwhelming spectacle. According to rough estimates, more than 1,000 fighters were dispatched in the same batch.

Combat planes that had taken off from various front-line airfields gathered together in the northeast corner of Lorraine and slaughtered into the hinterland of Lorraine. In the first three days of fighting, the Normans fought extremely strongly, and the Union army also spared no effort. Many young pilots had never seen such fierce and tragic battles, and for an old bird like Stephen Chow, it was probably second only to the Northern Frontier battle at the beginning of the last war. The difference is that at that time, the flying capital ships of the two sides were still the dazzling protagonists on the battlefield, and although the combat aircraft played an important role, they were not enough to play a core role in terms of strategy and tactics.

Nowadays, the status of flying ships and combat aircraft has been reversed.

After the fierce tug-of-war in the first three days, the advantages of the Federation Army in the home field were undoubtedly revealed. Although the Normans were highly skilled in tactics and made careful arrangements to seize the lead, their overall situation was weak, and their investment in the battlefield of Lorraine was somewhat strong. Three days of high-intensity combat seemed to be the limit of what they could hold, especially in the afternoon of the third day, they were obviously unable to keep up with the beat of the battle.

Early in the morning, when the Union Army's thousand-plane formation entered the airspace of Lorraine, Norman combat planes met them from three different directions, but the number of troops in each direction was no more than 100. After the battle began, some more flying ships entered the battlefield from a high altitude with combat aircraft. There was no suspense in the outcome of such an air battle with a huge disparity in strength, but even so, the Normans showed their proud tenacity on the battlefield. Nearly every fighter is fighting to the death, using group cooperation as much as possible to create a local advantage with excellent tactical skills. However, this kind of struggle cannot jump out of the shackles of strength. There are fewer and fewer Norman fighters visible in the line of sight, and although the fleet of federal military aircraft is scattered, it still maintains an unstoppable momentum on the whole.

After the fighters opened the air passage, Union attack planes and bombers swarmed over and swooped towards the Norman aviation facilities and assembly areas. Their offensive was obviously smoother than the previous three days, but it would be a mistake to think that the Normans had put all the combat forces they could mobilize into the first wave of interceptions, and that there was no backup at this time. Even in extremely difficult situations, the Normans would try to organize reasonable tactics to maximize the might of their combat troops. When the large fleet of Union troops dispersed, and the attack planes and bombers attacked various targets separately, the Norman fighters were killed from the sky in groups.

These Norman fighters, in a formation of ten or twenty aircraft, were specifically designed to hunt down groups of Union military aircraft that were attacking or ending their attacks. The battlefield was full of vigilant Union fighters, and the Normans slyly searched for the opponent's loopholes, and instead of dwelling, they adopted a flexible, one-shot strategy. More than a dozen fighters pounced and strafed, shot down three or five Federal fighters, and then quickly shifted their positions, leaving behind the Federal fighters who had rushed to hear the news. This tactic of stinging like a bee certainly does not stop the offensive of the Federal Air Force, but it is also a strategy that fits their current situation.

It was in this situation that the experienced Stephen Chow was shot down by enemy fighters. If it is an honest fight, he will quickly drop the bomb to reduce the load, and then use the maneuverability of this attack aircraft to deal with the enemy, even if he cannot hold out until his own fighters arrive, making it difficult for the enemy to quickly succeed. Now, the enemy is roaring and whistling away, catching people off guard, but his luck is not good, the landline is hit by the enemy engine. Seeing the hot oil spraying and splashing in the air, he knew that the situation was not good, and hurriedly beckoned the shooter in the back seat to skydive. At the same time, he struggled to control the joystick to keep the plane balanced and avoid falling into that death spiral. After the backseat shooter parachuted, he quickly opened the hatch, climbed out of the cockpit despite the hot oil splashing out, and opened the parachute in the air.

The landing process lasted no more than a minute, during which the old bird did not bother to observe the grand scene of the battlefield from a special perspective, but cautiously looked at the mountains and forests below and calculated his location. Just last night, all the pilots were recruited to the brigade headquarters and a temporary war survival lesson was added. In addition to some clichéd tricks, the pilots were told that the guerrillas and resistance were very active in Lorraine, and that if they were about to land in a no-man's land, all they had to do was quickly collect their parachutes, hide them, and then move towards a nearby valley to find a fir tree that was quite common in Lorraine, and wait nearby. The guerrillas in Lorraine would search for the fir tree and if they saw someone, whatever costume they were wearing, they would imitate the call of a cooing bird as a signal of communication.

As a veteran of 55 combat flight missions, Stephen Chow knows exactly what awaits him if he falls into the hands of the enemy on the battlefield. In the last war, even after the end of the war, many pilots who were captured by the enemy did not see their families again, which was one of the points of conflict between the Federation and the Norman Empire after the war. Comparatively speaking, the Norman pilots captured by the Union were a powerful bargain for prisoner exchange, but even in this case, only a small number of Norman pilots were released by the Union before the end of the war.

On land, Stephen Chow struggles to search for fir trees in the nearby forest. During this season, the leaves of the fir tree take on a beautiful golden yellow, and the golden fir tree is actually easier to identify when the surrounding evergreens are still green and the deciduous bridges are close to baldness. He saw a small fir grove on the north side of the valley and a few scattered fir trees on the south side.

Before landing, I already had an idea in my heart.

It was not the most decisive day of the Battle of Lorraine, but the battle on this day seemed fiercer than the previous three days. Weiss marched with a small guerrilla detachment through the vast mountains and forests north of Lorraine. Instead of continuing to operate in the secret camp, they did not continue to operate in the secret camp because they received orders from the federal forces, but instead engaged in decisive action after the full deployment was deployed.

Although the group's route was not directly related to the Union's air combat deployment, in just one morning, Weiss's insight allowed them to rescue three Federation pilots and have them join the group, heading north of Wallens' River to the Moron River.

There is a hydroelectric dam, which is not very large, and its power supply is only a kind of auxiliary - Lorraine's main energy comes from thermal power generation, and the coal mines that can be found everywhere are the fuel source for power generation, but the river dam has the characteristics of low cost and good sustainability compared to thermal power generation, especially in the wet season, and the power provided here is not a problem to support the operation of the two factories. To protect the dam, the Normans sent a detachment here, deploying several anti-aircraft guns and some machine guns. With the strength of the Federal Air Force, it was easy to destroy the dam, but considering that the dam also has irrigation and flood control functions, which is directly related to the lives of the residents around Wallens, the Federal Air Force never attacked the dam during the war. Weiss's trip was not to blow up the dam, but to eliminate these isolated Norman detachments, take control of the valley suitable for airborne operations, and add tactical options for further operations of the Union Army.