When the telegram was translated and sent to General Gan Yongxing through two examination procedures, it was 9:45 a.m. At this time, Colonel Chiang Shikuan led a group of bombers to Kyoto, Japan. Gan Yongxing only glanced at it, and immediately went to Marshal Nie Renfeng, and the time he walked into Nie Renfeng's office was 9:53.

"What a name!"

Nie Renfeng slapped the table violently, "Tan Renhao, don't you know the seriousness of the matter?" It's just playing the piano randomly! ”

"Headmaster, I've had the bombers come back......"; No, you directly telegraph to the past, in my name, telegraph to the past, you must let Tan Renhao, they recruit the bombers back! ”

The telegram was fired, but when the communications officer on Iwo Jima translated the telegram and sent it to Tan Renhao, it was already 10:18 o'clock, and at this time, the bomber group was still about 38o nautical miles away from Kyoto, about 33o nautical miles away from the Japanese mainland, and the aircraft group was out of the maximum communication range of the radio station.

"What should I do?"

Luo Yunchong was called, and after reading the harshly worded telegram, he immediately became nervous.

Tan Renhao picked up the cigarette with a serious expression. "It's too late to summon the bombers, so we can only pray that the emperor hasn't arrived in Kyoto yet!"

"But ......"

"It's okay, I'll call back later!"

Tan Renhao nodded at Luo Yunchong: "Don't go out for news, wait for the group to come back, and immediately take out the battle report." Any consequences will be borne by me alone, you just need to arrange the affairs of the troops. ”

"Renhao, do we want to ......?"

"It's okay, you can go out first!"

Tan Renhao turned around and didn't look at Luo Yunchong again.

Luo Yunchong hesitated for a moment, and then left Tan Renhao's room. Judging by the telegram from the commander of the Navy, this time they were going into trouble.

Nearly 500 bombers of the first three regiments led by Colonel Chiang Shikuan saw the Japanese mainland at 11:42. The group was still flying in a dense formation, and all the members of the "Touyan II" were nervous. Half an hour ago, the fighters who had gone out to escort the aircraft encountered a small group of Japanese fighters, and as a result, those "Zero Battles" were no match for the "Falcon" at all. In just five minutes, he was killed by "Falcon". Now that the fleet is about to enter the skies over the Japanese mainland, Japanese fighter jets will definitely go crazy.

"The escort fighters of the first squadron of the regiment commander have encountered Japanese planes and are now intercepting!"

"Understand that all gunners pay attention to the surrounding sky, *** will definitely come to trouble us!"

Jiang Shi Kuanxuan glanced at the escort fighter group in the upper left. More than 30 "Falcons" have already begun to climb. Then he saw that the fighters had dispersed into a dozen or so two-plane formations, and the Japanese fighters had "finally" arrived.

Compared with the huge "wolf dove" escorted by the "Falcon" and the "Zero Battle" from the periphery, it seems much smaller. By the time the self-defense artillery on the bombers rang out, the Japanese fighters had already entered the range of the attack bombers. The battle was fought extremely fiercely, and soon all the bomber pilots on the ground, especially those who had already carried out bombing missions on Jeju Island, showed a little bit of the quality of the Japanese fighter pilots, and the quality of the Japanese fighter pilots dropped a lot. There is simply no comparison with a few months ago.

The performance of the "Zero Battle" is much worse than that of the "Falcon". And a large number of pilots were consumed in the war, and Japan did not have a sufficiently complete pilot training system (many novices who only flew for less than 2o hours were sent to fighter jets, or sent to the grave), and the sharp decline in the quality of pilots made the Japanese mainland no longer safe. On the contrary, the pilot training system of the Tang Empire is very large and complete, and any pilot will spend four months to half a year to learn, and when he goes to the battlefield, he will first serve as the wingman of an excellent pilot, so as to become familiar with the brutal battle as soon as possible and gain combat experience.

As soon as the fighters of the two sides clashed, they immediately separated. The first batch of "Zero Battles" was almost wiped out. The pilots of the Tang Empire, who are frantically striving for the results of the battle, will not give up such a good opportunity, all the fighter pilots want to become aces in air combat, and under the hands of a group of rookies, this is the best way to become an ace.

Twelve "Zeros" were shot down or fled before the Japanese army's large fleet arrived. Thirty-six "Falcons" against sixty-four "Zero Battles", the sky seemed to be burning, and every few seconds a fighter plane fell like a meteor.

The ground-air battle on the left side of the bomber group had not yet ended, and the third batch of more than 20 "Zero Battles" killed from the right side of the group. The "Falcon" of the third squadron, which had been staying in the upper right of the bomber group, immediately killed it. The sky was dark again. The escort fighters wanted to intercept the enemy plane, and the air defense fighters desperately rushed to the bombers to shoot them down.

"Commander, I killed a 'Zero', see? I took out a 'Zero' ......"

"Don't be too happy, pay attention to the sky around you, *** won't give up!"

Jiang Shikuan let out a long breath and quickly wiped the sweat off his forehead: "When will Xiao Li arrive in Kyoto?" ”

"There are still ten minutes to go, and in seven minutes the flight altitude will begin to be lowered."

This was the most violent interception encountered by the Tang Empire's bomber group over Japan since the beginning of the strategic bombing against Japan. From the sea 12o nautical miles from the Japanese mainland to the sky over Kyoto, the bomber group was intercepted by more than 200 Japanese fighters, and almost all the escort fighters that were not shot down ran out of ammunition before returning home. And the self-defense artillery on the bombers also fired hundreds of thousands of shells. This was a forcible assault, and even more so a forcible bombing.

After more than a month of night bombing, the bomber groups of the Don Empire began to bomb during the day. The Japanese fighters, who lacked the ability to fight at night, almost cleared the nest and tried to intercept this huge group of bombers, but in vain. During the entire penetration phase, only eight bombers were shot down, and twelve bombers were damaged and then dropped bombs and returned home ahead of schedule. The escort fighters lost only six units. Among the Japanese fighters who participated in the interception, 78 of which were confirmed by the pilots of the Tang Empire were shot down in the air battle, and dozens were damaged (some of them crashed because they were not confirmed, so they were not included in the list of downed), at 11:50 Jiang Shikuan saw the bomber group in the city of Kyoto in front of him and began to reduce the altitude. The bombing still uses the tactic of high entry and high output, and the height is reduced to 18oo meters when the bomb is dropped. The Japanese anti-aircraft guns had already opened fire on the interception five minutes earlier. Several more bombers were shot down, but the others were able to break through.

At 11:53 a.m., the "Touyan No. 2" dropped two tons of incendiary bombs. The bombers of the first three regiments 6 continued to drop bombs in five minutes. When Chiang Shikuan and the others began to climb higher and turn to withdraw from the battle, the bombers of the second group of two regiments also reached the sky over Kyoto and dropped bombs again. The last group of bombers led by Colonel Liu Xiangzhi dropped all the bombs at 12:08.

On the way back, Japanese fighters were dispatched again. The second interception of the bomber group was carried out, the craziest one. More than 200 Japanese fighters pounced on the bomber group like flies, and by this time the escorted fighters had already returned home (most of the fighters had to return early because they ran out of ammunition), leaving the bombers to fight alone. It was another bloody battle, but the bomber group did not suffer. Having dropped all the bombs and leaving half of the fuel, the "Wolf Dove" could fly at an altitude of 65oo meters at a degree of 175 knots, while the "Zero Battle" at this altitude had less than 21o knots and had extremely poor maneuverability. It is difficult to break through the net of fire organized by the bomber group. As a result, after paying the price of several bombers being shot down and damaged, more than 20 "Zero Battles" fell victim to the fire of bomber self-defense artillery, and the other "Zero Battles" "escorted" bomber groups all the way to about 18o nautical miles from the Japanese mainland. I also turned around and went back.

The "Touyan No. 2" landed at the Iwo Jima airfield at 3:15 a.m., and Tan Renhao got the report on the results submitted by Luo Yunchong at 3:05 a.m. (several of the bombers in the third batch carried aerial cameras and were specifically responsible for assessing the results), and after three rounds of bombing, it was already possible to declare that the city of Kyoto had been completely destroyed. More than 1,100 bombers from seven regiments dropped more than 22oo tons of incendiary bombs on Kyoto. Kyoto is only a medium-sized city, with an urban area of just over 10 square kilometers and a population of more than 200,000. More than 22oo tons of incendiary bombs were enough to burn more than 20 square kilometers of urban areas, and this time it was three rounds of continuous coverage bombing. Kyoto is completely finished.

"Is there any news from the emperor?"

Luo Yunchong shook his head. "This can only be confirmed by the intelligence services. All three waves of bombing threw incendiary bombs at the old Imperial Palace in Japan, and judging by the photographs, the Imperial Palace was completely finished. If the Emperor were here, unless he could burrow into the ground like a mole, he wouldn't even be able to find his bones by now! ”

Tan Renhao sat down, he hadn't sent the telegram back yet, he wanted to wait for the result, even if it was just self-deception.

"Renhao, I'd better call back. After all, it's our ......."

"Yes, it's our business."

Tan Renhao nodded, "I'll be responsible." How big are we losing? ”

"Twenty-seven bombers did not return, and about thirty bombers were seriously damaged. The loss was not expected. ”

Luo Yunchong knew that he couldn't talk about Renhao, "In addition to blowing up Kyoto, the escort fighter bomber group also shot down nearly 100 Japanese fighters. It was a bonus, the only problem now was that we had too few escort fighters at our disposal. ”

This is indeed within the range of Tan Renhao's losses. This is the second daytime bombardment after more than a month of night bombardment. Japan will certainly do everything in its power to intercept the bomber group. When making the plan, Tan Renhao and Luo Yunchong felt that the loss of fifty bombers (about 5% of the loss rate) was completely acceptable.

"There is nothing to worry about about fighter jets."

Tan Renhao stood up: "The 6th team is winning the battle of Deng6 on Hachijojima, I have contacted General Yan Guozhong in the morning, and they will complete the battle as soon as possible." Construction of the second airfield is scheduled to begin early next month, with a view to completing it by the end of June, when we will have at least six squadrons of escort fighters deployed. ”

"That's enough, with six squadrons of escort fighters, the skies of Japan are open to us."

"The third airport will be completed by the end of August."

Tan Renhao hesitated for a moment: "After the number of fighters is sufficient, we can select some excellent pilots to come out and let them carry out free hunting missions." Can't give *** a little respite. As the bombing progresses, Japan will be able to replenish with very limited fighters. One day, there will be no 'Zero War' in the skies over Japan, and then our bombers will be able to drive straight in, completely destroy Japan, and let us write a new history." ”

"No problem, I'll press the platoon immediately, and I'll contact General Liao Hanxiang when we wait, if our fighter ......"

Luo Yunchong glanced at Tan Renhao, and suddenly had a bad premonition: "Renhao, what news have you received?" ”

Tan Renhao smiled reluctantly. "No, there is no news yet, and there should be news soon."

Luo Yunchong gritted his teeth, he understood the meaning of this sentence.

"Well, don't think so much about boosting the morale of the pilots."

Tan Renhao walked up and patted Luo Yunchong on the shoulder: "This bombing is outstanding, we have proved that whether it is night or daytime, the sky of Japan has been opened to us, so we must make persistent efforts to turn Japan into ruins as quickly as possible!" ”

"Okay, I'll arrange it, you can rest early......"

"It's fine!"

Tan Renhao let out a sigh and rushed Luo Yun to the door: "I heard you say before: fighters are used to gain honor, and bombers are here to rewrite history. I believe you are the one who rewrote history. ”

"Renhao ......"

The door was already closed, and Luo Yunchong stood outside Tan Renhao's door for a while before leaving. He already sensed that Tan Renhao was in trouble, and it was a big trouble.

Tan Renhao did not receive an order from the naval command, and he had a hunch that an order would be sent soon, and he would have to leave Iwo Jima at that time. That night, a telegram was delivered to the headquarters of the First Army of Strategic Strike on Iwo Jim, and as Tan Renhao had expected, the transport plane that had come to pick him up arrived before dawn.