After seeing the helicopter flying towards this direction, Lian Mingyang and Jiang Shanggui ran out of the grass where they were hiding and threw out a signal flare that produced a yellow smoke screen.

It was a special helicopter painted with the Imperial Air Force logo.

After landing, four special forces of the Air Force Search and Rescue Brigade rushed out, two ran towards Lian Mingyang and Jiang Shanggui, and the other two were on guard.

Almost dragged the two of them onto the helicopter.

From landing to re-liftoff, it took less than half a minute.

There were also 3 pilots of the Air Force in the helicopter, judging by the epaulettes, all of them were from the "Black Spider" squadron equipped with the "Attack-9".

There is no doubt that they were all shot down while on duty.

Fortunately, the three pilots suffered only minor injuries and were not in serious trouble except for their low mood.

Still, there's nothing to be happy about.

According to the three pilots, in the first round of engagement, five "Attack-9s" were shot down, and the other two pilots were not spared.

The battle was so fierce.

Lian Mingyang and Jiang Shanggui were lucky, they avoided the enemy's search team, successfully got in touch with the rear, and happened to encounter this search and rescue team.

Due to range restrictions, the "Z-8T" only sent Lian Mingyang and them to the field airfield outside Akhtubinsk.

There are still many pilots waiting to be rescued, and the Air Force special forces on search and rescue missions are only responsible for sending the rescued pilots to the relatively safe rear.

After putting down Lian Mingyang and several other pilots and filling the helicopter with fuel, the search and rescue team set off again without stopping for a moment. Those special forces, when they were refueling, got some food by the way, and replenished the items needed in the search and rescue operation, such as first-aid kits.

As for the ammunition, it didn't consume much.

They only seek out and rescue pilots who have fallen behind enemy lines, not to fight the enemy, and they do not risk engaging a large number of enemies.

To say, field airfields are only relatively safe.

At the Field Airfield Command, Lian Mingyang got more information.

Volzhsky had already been captured by the enemy, and to be precise, the army defending the area had broken through and abandoned the city, which was bound to fall.

Fortunately, the heroic counterattack launched by the armored forces of Dongluosha successfully thwarted the enemy's offensive spirit.

Now, the enemy's advance had reached Kapustinyar, but had to temporarily halt its advance due to huge losses.

Of course, only temporarily.

After the second line of troops has been raised, the enemy will continue to advance towards Astrakhan, and the next attack will be on Akhtubinsk.

A few hours ago, the Northwest Theater Command had already sent an order for the imperial ** team to retreat.

The East Luosha Army will send an infantry battalion over to guard this field airfield, which is not particularly important, and cover the withdrawal of the imperial ** team to Astrakhan.

In addition, the situation in other directions is also bad.

On the Rostov side, the armored forces of Western Luosha had broken through the first line of defense and had not suffered too serious losses.

At this time the advance towards Tikhoretsk was underway.

Although the East Luosha Army has strengthened its defenses at Knosdano and is preparing to defend the city, it is unlikely that the city will be held.

Perhaps in a few days, Novorossiysk will be under siege.

To the north, the Western Luosha Panzer Corps, which had set out from Ulyanovsk and Saratov, had already made a breakthrough and were expected to meet on the outskirts of Samara within three days. As long as there were no accidents, the army of Western Luosha in this direction was able to advance to the outskirts of Orenburg within a week.

In general, the Eastern Bloc's defensive line on the eastern bank of the Volga has completely collapsed.

The purpose of Lian Mingyang and Jiang Shanggui was only to return to the Chakara base as soon as possible, and then return to the battle with helicopter gunships.

The premise is that there are still helicopter gunships available over there.

"You don't know?"

The commander of the field airfield was called Tang Boxiong, an air force major in his 40s.

Seeing the doubts on the faces of Lian Mingyang and Jiang Shanggui, Tang Boxiong sighed before he said: "After the war began, the Zhangala base was saturated by missiles and has been completely destroyed. Because there were still a large number of time bombs that had not been cleared, the Army Aviation did not send additional combat troops to the area. ”

"All ruined?" Jiang Shanggui obviously couldn't believe it.

Tang Boxiong nodded, and then said: "As far as I know, there is an army aviation unit in Atyrau that will participate in the battle to defend Astrakhan. ”

"How can we get to Atyrau?" Lian Mingyang didn't dwell on other issues, and the top priority was to return to the team.

"We will go to Ushtakan in the east, organize a line of defense over there, and not go to Atyrau." Tang Boxiong wrote a note when he said this. "Go to the airport logistics office and take this to drive away a military vehicle and take all the things that Atyrau needs."

"But ......"

"There's only so much I can do for you."

Jiang Shanggui still wanted to say something, Lian Mingyang had already taken the note in Tang Boxiong's hand.

"Thank you very much, Major. If we have the chance, I hope we can fight together. ”

Tang Boxiong only nodded, and then shook hands with Lian Mingyang.

After coming out of the headquarters, that is, the only barracks in the field airfield, Lian Mingyang couldn't help but sigh.

"Head, that's not the matter, from here to Atyrau ......"

"What else? It's war times, and Major Tong gave us a military vehicle, which is already good. Lian Mingyang smiled bitterly and grabbed his partner's shoulder. When I got to Atyrau, I went to find a relationship and got a helicopter, and then I had a good job. ”

"Okay, listen to you."

"Hey, you two!"

After hearing the greeting, the two immediately stopped.

Tang Boxiong chased after him again, and the pace was still very fast.

"You are Major Lian Mingyang, a helicopter gunship pilot of the Army Air Corps?" After approaching, Tang Boxiong took a serious look at Lian Mingyang.

"Yes." Lian Mingyang looked surprised, because he began to introduce himself, and now it seems that Tang Boxiong didn't listen at all.

"I just received a call from Atyrau's side, reinforcements from the Army Aviation have arrived, a reserve, and there is a serious shortage of experienced pilots. In a little more than ten minutes, a transport plane will come. I've made arrangements for you two to take the transport plane to Atyrau. ”

"Army reinforcements?"

"An air assault brigade has hundreds of helicopter gunships, but there are only a few dozen pilots."

"Okay."

Before leaving, Tang Boxiong also nodded to Lian Mingyang deliberately.

Obviously, he has figured out Lian Mingyang's identity. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so polite.

In this regard, Lian Mingyang was also speechless, but if he could return to Atyrau in time, nothing else mattered.

About a quarter of an hour later, an Air Force "Y-9" arrived.

This tactical transport aircraft is capable of taking off and landing on leveled field runways, and its main value, that is, to travel between the front line and the rear.

The transport plane did not come to pick up Lian Mingyang and them, but brought the materials and equipment needed by the troops, and only picked up two pilots of the Army Airlines on the way back.

It's still a "Y-9B", not the latest "Y-9F", and the surface paint has fallen off a lot, perhaps from the reserve forces.

But at this time, no one cares so much.

Of course, there is little comfort in transport aircraft.

The interior is also very old, at least half of the seats do not have leather covers, some seats do not even have seat belts, and the feelings seem to be patched together from rags.

At the time of takeoff, the violent turbulence made Lian Mingyang feel that the broken plane might fall apart at any time.

Fortunately, it finally flew.

About an hour later, at about 5 a.m. on 12 September, the transport plane arrived at the air base north of Atyrau.

It's called an air base, but it's actually an integrated base.

Outside the airport, there is an army camp.

In addition, the airport is also shared with the Army.

However, the army's helicopters are concentrated on this side close to the barracks, while the side where the runway is located is mainly used to deploy the combat aircraft of the air force.

If anything, Atyrau would have been the number one military stronghold of the Eastern Bloc in the Astrakhan direction.

The combat units guarding Astrakhan, or more precisely the support units, were all deployed around Atyrau.

In addition to this air base, there is a large army base to the west, and a military train station managed by the army to the east.

To put it simply, Atyrau is a strategic support point in this direction.

Tang Boxiong didn't say nonsense, the army aviation reinforcements had already arrived in Atyrau, and it was indeed an air assault brigade, with more than 100 armed helicopters alone.

Of these, at least one battalion is armed with "Z-10A".

Most of the helicopters had just arrived, and ground crews were busy loading parts that had been removed during transport, such as rotors.

Obviously, these gunships are new from the factory.

Let Jiang Shanggui figure out the situation, that is, the status of those "straight-10A", and when they can be dispatched, Lian Mingyang went to the headquarters.

When he saw the commander of the brigade, Lian Mingyang was startled.

It turned out to be Colonel Zheng Zhishuang, Lian Mingyang's previous boss in the army aviation.

This Zheng Zhishuang is also very promising, he is Zheng Jiangming's youngest son, almost 30 years older than Lian Mingyang, and he was an Army Airlines pilot more than 20 years ago.

In his words, when Lian Mingyang was wearing open crotch pants, he flew in a helicopter over the country of Boi.

When Lian Mingyang joined the army, he was already a colonel of the Army Airlines, and more than four years ago, due to health reasons, he retired from the Army Aviation ahead of schedule.

According to convention, Zheng Zhishuang became a reserve officer of the Army Airlines after retiring from the army.

"Major Lian Mingyang of the Army Airlines came to report!"

"You've come just in time, and what you're missing now is pilots." Zheng Zhishuang didn't talk nonsense with Lian Mingyang at all. "This is a reserve force, and the task assigned from above is to defend Astrakhan, and now there are only two-thirds of the pilots, and the other third is empty. You have a partner, right? ”

Lian Mingyang was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said, "Yes, I'm going to the toilet." ”

In front of his old superiors, Lian Mingyang didn't dare to talk nonsense.

"That's good, you wait and choose a gunship and be the captain of the first brigade." When Zheng Zhishuang said this, he brought Lian Mingyang to the front of the map. "The enemy's advance is expected to reach Akhtubinsk this afternoon, and the troops defending the place will certainly hold out until after dark, to be precise, at night, so our first task is to strike after dark."

"Anti-armor warfare?"

Zheng Zhishuang nodded and said, "The Air Force will send bombers to cut off the battlefield." Because there are very few attack aircraft left that can be mobilized, the anti-armor tasks at the front are shouldered by us. If we can withstand this wave of attacks, we will be able to buy a few more days. ”

"Only us?"

"So far, it's just us." Probably guessing what Lian Mingyang meant, Zheng Zhishuang said again: "According to the above arrangement, the focus of the Dongluosha army is on the side of the shackled land bridge, so we will take on the heavy responsibility of guarding Astrakhan." But the problem now is that our main force will not arrive in three days at the earliest, so in the next three days, the only one who can stop the enemy's armored forces is us. ”

"There are no ground forces to cover ......"

"It's challenging, but we can't afford to retreat. If you really want to say it, now it's a fight with the enemy to see who can't hold it. Although our losses were enormous, the situation of the enemy was not much better. I heard that in the north, just to force the crossing of the Volga, almost a brigade of armored forces was lost. A few more times, and the enemy will not want to capture Astrakhan. ”

Zheng Zhishuang said this, Lian Mingyang didn't say much.

He didn't tell Zheng Zhishuang that it was the low-altitude assault force he led that killed most of the armored brigade, and the Dongluosha armored unit that was killed later killed the other half of the armored brigade.

Unfortunately, compared to the number of troops invested by the enemy, this result is nothing at all.

According to the information obtained on the road, just on the Volgaz side, at least 3 Western Luosha armored brigades crossed the Volga.

When the enemy's second-line troops catch up, 3 to 5 more armored brigades and infantry brigades will be added.

To say that the loss of 1 armored brigade, which is completely in pre-war forecasts, will not have a negative impact on combat operations.

"Nothing else, you go find your gunship first. Coming over at lunchtime, we finalized the night assault. ”

"Other pilots ......"

"A few squadron leaders, you know them all, I'll let them go to you."

"Okay, I'll go see the plane first."

In fact, there is no need for Zheng Zhishuang to make an introduction.

When Lian Mingyang came out of the command center, he saw Jiang Shanggui and several squadron leaders.

All of them are old faces, and they are all reserve pilots who are more than ten years older than Lian Mingyang.

At the beginning, when Lian Mingyang joined the Army Airlines, they were Lian Mingyang's commanders, because they had been transferred to the reserves, so now they have become Lian Mingyang's subordinates.

However, there is nothing to lament about this.

Lian Mingyang has been flying on the "Z-10A" for three years, and these reserve pilots only have a maximum of 50 hours of flight time per year, and many of them have never touched the "Z-10A" and other advanced armed helicopters, at most they are only practicing on the "Z-7" as a training aircraft.

The first thing to solve is to familiarize these reserve pilots with the "Z-10A".

However, this is also the issue that does not need to be bothered by Lian Mingyang the least.

In any case, these retired pilots have more than 1,500 hours of flight time and are very experienced, so it is not a hassle to master the new helicopter.

All it takes is a few exercises.