Speaking of the Chinese Air Force in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, it was really a history of blood and tears. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoBefore the war, the government of the Republic of China did not attach importance to the Air Force, and the investment was really not small, but it was fooled and lame by those Italians.

At the beginning, the Italians grabbed the big business of the Chinese Air Force under the banner of aid. The cost of the purchase of Italian aircraft was a so-called "Gengzi refund" (in World War I, China became a member of the Entente at the cost of exporting 100,000 laborers. After the war, in order to express their willingness to be "friendly" with China, various countries successively gave up or returned the balance of the indemnity payments of the "Xinchou Treaty" signed by the Qing government. In fact, the wool is also out of the sheep. After that, the government of the Republic of China also paid millions of dollars for personnel training, airport construction, maintenance, and other expenses.

The point is that the money is spent, but what is bought back is a pile of rags. The Italians also said: "You China is poor, and the planes are being replaced quickly, and even if you buy the most advanced planes now, they will be outdated by the time the time the war comes." Why don't you buy something cheap to train first, and wait? When you go to war, you buy a new one. We're here for you. "It's ridiculous that the people in the government of the Republic of China actually really believe it. Now, as soon as the war began, they immediately declared neutrality, imposed an arms embargo, and the air force was completely blinded.

What's even funnier is that there was another reason for choosing Italian planes in the first place, that is, the military aviation school opened by the Italians implemented a policy of "wide entry and wide exit". In other words, regardless of ability, students can graduate as long as they have consumed the necessary number of hours. It is said that ****** is most "satisfied" with this irresponsible behavior. As we all know, Chinese pilots are mainly from the upper class, and when aviation schools in other countries sweep away unqualified candidates for various reasons, the Republic of China is often under pressure from many sides, and ****** will also be disturbed. The Italians' way of running schools that everyone is happy with caters to the inherent mentality of the Chinese as a group, but it also ruins the Chinese Air Force.

These are all things that Chennault, who had returned home with Reilly, told John. Three months earlier, Reilly had been sent to China by John to contact him about the export of airplanes. He got in touch with Chennault, who was an adviser to the Chinese Air Force, through his old boss, Colonel Stilwell, who was a military observer in Hankow. The government of the Republic of China was moved to tears by Reilly's noble act of "sending charcoal in the snow". Soong Meiling, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Air Force and the first lady who was in a dizzy mess, instructed Chennault to return to China immediately to assist Soong Ziwen's China Defense Supply Company in discussing the purchase of aircraft and the recruitment of pilots.

Among the thousands of generals on both sides of World War II, Chennault can be regarded as a legendary one. The former tire factory worker stumbled into the Army's Signal Corps Aviation Division during World War I and was trained as a pilot. For the next 17 years, he served as a squadron leader in the aircraft squadron, and as an instructor at the Aviation Tactical School, he also participated in the Army Air Force aerobatic team.

In 1935, Chennault edited and published the tactical textbook "The Role of Defensive Expulsion", which advocated the use of two-plane formations, believing that this would allow them to concentrate fire on enemy aircraft while protecting the attacking pilots. However, at that time, the "bombing supremacy" air combat theory of the Italian military theorist Du Hei was popular in the world air force circles, and fighters were generally ignored. Chennault's tactical theories had a certain influence in the U.S. Army Air Corps, but they did not attract the attention of the upper echelons of the military. In April 1937, Chennault retired from active duty with the rank of captain due to hearing loss and feud with his superiors.

At the age of 46, his comrades-in-arms around him have already been honored as colonels, and Chennault, who has served for 17 years, still carries the captain's badge on his shoulders. This is simply unacceptable for a very competitive person. But at this moment, the goddess of fate suddenly favored him. One of his old comrades-in-arms, Horbrooke, who had served as a personal adviser to Soong Meiling, contacted him and invited him to visit China.

At that time, because after the Xi'an Incident, He Yingqin and others advocated the use of the air force to bomb Xi'an, which made the Jiang couple deeply feel that the air force must be led by "their own people" and could not pretend to others. Coupled with the large sums of money involved in the purchase of the planes, it ****** impossible to tell who among his corrupt aides could take on the task. So, in the end, he appointed his wife as the secretary general of the Aviation Committee, and took charge of the Air Force.

However, Soong Meiling was only educated in music, literature, and social virtues, and she was a good hand at lady diplomacy, and she knew nothing about aviation theory and aircraft design. Soong Meiling urgently needed a capable assistant to help her straighten out the Air Force, so she asked her personal friend Holbrooke who could transform the Chinese Air Force into a similar service in a short period of time. Holbrooke immediately thought of Chennault, a fierce old pilot.

Soong Meiling wrote to Chennault and hired him as a consultant to the Chinese Air Force for a monthly salary of $1,000, in addition to additional allowances, a dedicated driver, a car, and a translator, as well as the right to fly any aircraft of the Chinese Air Force. Chennault immediately agreed upon receiving the letter, and in April 1937 he took the cruise ship "President Garfield" from San Francisco to China via RB.

Chennault was in early June, and in July, the war between China and Japan broke out. He immediately called ****** and expressed his willingness to serve in any position where he could do his best. Chiang called back to accept Chennault's request to volunteer. In October 1937, Chennault managed to hire four French, three Americans, one Dutch, and one German, plus six surviving Chinese bomber pilots, to form an "international squadron" and successfully attacked several targets in Japanese-occupied areas. Since then, he has won the favor of ******. By the time Reilly reached out to him, Chennault had become the couple's most trusted expatriate adviser to the ****** and his wife in the Air Force. In the next few years, the retired captain would become the commander of the U.S. Army's 14th Air Force, where he received his third star (the rank of lieutenant general) after the war.

Chennault told John: "Although the Chinese Air Force claims to have more than 500 aircraft, only 91 of them can take off and fight in the event of war. Today, it is barely sustained by a small number of aircraft aided by the Soviet Union, and if it is not replenished, it will soon be depleted. The Chiang couple were very dissatisfied with the current state of the Air Force, and Director Mao of the Aviation Committee almost lost his head because of this. You saved his life this time. ”

The director of the Department of Mao mentioned by Chennault was Mao Bangchu, the director of the Military Command Department of the Aviation Commission. He is currently the real power figure of the Chinese Air Force, a native of ZJ Fenghua, a graduate of the third phase of Huangpu, and the nephew of Mao Fumei, the original wife of the ******. It was he who led the team to Italy to learn aviation technology, and he took the opportunity to embezzle public funds. Historically, when ****** was defeated and retreated to Taiwan, Mao Bangchu, who was negotiating arms purchases in the United States, took the opportunity to flee to Mexico with more than $10 million. For this reason, the Taiwan authorities and the United States and Mexico have been at loggerheads since then. John felt a little disgusted when he thought that his efforts these days had indirectly saved the life of this big corrupt official.

Perhaps because of the urgency of the domestic war, the efficiency of the Chinese personnel who came to negotiate this time was quite good. A few days later, John signed a secret agreement with the Chinese Defense Supply Corporation. For $180,000 each, 100 H1 fighters were sold to China. Because it is a mass production, there is a large cost gap between different batches of the same aircraft. (If only 100 aircraft are produced, the average cost per aircraft can be more than 3 times higher than the average cost of 10,000 aircraft). And this price also includes all transportation and conversion costs, which is very fair.

China's defense supply companies readily accepted the offer without even paying the price. There was no doubt about John's subsequent request that Chennault be the commander of the volunteer air force, with the Chinese paying $250 per ground crew member and $500 to $750 per pilot per month. They even offered to give pilots an additional $1,000 bonus for each Japanese plane shot down. The salary will be paid through a Chinese bank based in San Francisco. Only later did John learn that Song Meiling had approved $20 million for this military purchase. The silverfish returned at a price of $180,000 on bare metal, taking the opportunity to embezzle the remaining $2 million on the grounds of transportation and modification costs.

At the moment when the agreement was signed, John's heart was very excited. After coming to this world for so long, I finally made some contributions to my "hometown". And this time not only made a small profit, but also planted a nail in the future Pacific theater through the volunteer air force, leaving a foreshadowing for FedEx to open the Asia-Pacific market in the future. John remembers that Chennault had made a fortune by starting a civil aviation company in China after the war. Maybe after the war he could recruit Chennault into the company as well?

But then, he thought of a villain book he read when he was a child, "Chennault the Snitch". Yes, because during the Liberation War, Chennault's airlines helped the GMD government to transport troops and supplies. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the image of this anti-fascist hero in the country was not very good. When the time comes, I won't be the "Snitch Vanderbilt", John hesitated.