readx; "The 26th Division of Gao Fei will immediately withdraw from the battlefield and go to the front line of Wuhan to stand by!"

"Yes!" Goofy answered loudly, but there was a sigh in his heart. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The 26th Division has been transferred all the time, and the troops have not been well repaired, although they have been heavily replenished, and if they continue like this, perhaps their own troops will really be dragged across.

Gao Fei knew that he was transferred to Wuhan this time to prepare for the upcoming battle of Wuhan. However, in what form will the vigorous "Battle of Wuhan" take to continue?

Goofy didn't know

At the beginning of April of the 27th year of the Republic of China, the victory of the "Taierzhuang War" came, and the whole country rejoiced and all the people celebrated together. But then the situation took a turn for the worse, and he said that he launched a large-scale counteroffensive, and the situation on the front line in Xuzhou was precarious.

An important sign of the deterioration of the situation was the beginning of large-scale air strikes on cities in the rear by the planes. On April 29, this day is the "Tencho Festival", that is, the people of this country celebrate the birth of Emperor Hirohito. The day before, the radio announced that in order to congratulate His Majesty the Emperor on his birthday with victory, this plane would mercilessly bomb the city of Wuhan in China until it was erased from the map.

It was the first death card that the brutal robbers publicly issued to this densely populated metropolis in central China. For the Qin Yuntang family and millions of Chinese living in the three towns of Wuhan, there are only a handful of peaceful words, and the enemy's festival has become their suffering, and they cannot escape a bloody disaster from the sky.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, 18 heavy bombers of the Navy, under the cover of 36 fighters, swooped down in the direction of Wuhan in a vigorous manner. The arrogant Radio also threatened that it would be an "indiscriminate" bombardment, which meant that there was no distinction between military and civilian targets, in other words, a brutal massacre at will. More than five months ago, when the capital Nanjing fell, Wuhan became the temporary center of the Kuomintang's anti-Japanese war, and not only did state organs and war base camps move to the city, but also foreign missions, diplomatic agencies, and internal relocation organs, factories, schools, and mass organizations from all the occupied areas across the country gathered in the three towns of Wuhan. For himself, Wuhan is not only a transportation hub and strategic point in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, but also the heart of China's War of Resistance.

That's why he vowed to "wipe Wuhan off the map."

According to the information provided by the Han Jian, he was well aware of the Chinese Air Force stationed at the Hankou airport in advance, and not only did he know the numbers and movements of these units, but he also knew that these units claimed to be three fighter groups, but in fact they had no more than a dozen combat planes, and he had also discovered that most of these planes had exceeded their time limit and were seriously damaged military secrets. In the past 10 months of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese Air Force, which has attacked the strong with its weakness, has been on the verge of exhaustion, so the person who occupies an absolute advantage is very confident that in the face of the powerful escort group, the remnants of the Chinese Air Force will not have to flee far away?

On this day, the cumulus clouds covering the sky over central China suddenly dispersed, and a round of red light showed a smiling face from the thick clouds, and at this time, a knife-sharp air raid siren sounded over the city.

St. Paul's Primary School is a church school located in the British Concession of Hankow, and this road is still called Poyang Street. The symbol of the school is a steeple-roofed church, and the parishioners of Hankou come to worship every week. At the beginning of the war, the spire of the church was painted with a red and white cross, which was a neutral position of foreign institutions in China to the warring parties in accordance with international practice. However, as soon as the air raid sirens sounded, the classroom order was still in chaos, and the elementary school students rushed out of the classroom like frightened birds, huddled in the chaotic playground to watch the excitement.

A sharp-eyed classmate was the first to spot the enemy plane, and he screamed: Ah, this plane! A student named Qin Yuntang looked out along his classmate's arm, and sure enough, he saw a swarm of small black dots like wasps appearing under the sun. Later, the black dots gradually climbed higher and climbed into the sun, causing some fear, as if the sun had become a vicious hive.

It was said that the plane was approaching the undefended city.

Suddenly, there was a heavy and powerful motor roar in the low sky, and some classmates exclaimed: Look at the plane! So Qin Yuntang quickly turned his head, he saw a group of silver planes flying from the direction of the Jiang'an Railway Station, and when the group of planes roared over the city, they all saw a striking blue sky and white machine emblem under the wings of the plane.

Chinese planes have taken to the skies to meet the battle!

Since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the greatest wish of the common people is to hope that their army will become strong as soon as possible, so as to drive the evil bandits out of China. On this day, their wish was partially granted.

There are very few Chinese planes, and most of the planes at Hankou Airport are wooden planes used to deceive them, and it is very difficult to find any trace of Chinese planes once enemy planes come to the sky. But this time is different. As the thunderous motors shook the sky, he saw one group after another of Chinese fighters take to the air to meet the battle, their number and lineup are unprecedented, and they have greatly overwhelmed the enemy planes, as if the balance of war has tipped to the weaker Chinese side overnight.

"IV. The 29th Wuhan Air Battle" Chinese Air Force dispatched 64 new fighters, occupying an absolute advantage.

A total of 64 Soviet-made fighter planes, the Il-15 and Il-16, took off from Hankou and Xiaogan airfields to meet the enemy.

It was an inspiring spectacle.

The school was immediately boiling, the students were cheering and excited, and many teachers were looking up at the sky with tears rolling down their eyes, and the moment of revenge they had hoped for had finally arrived.

On the ground, people watched as the Chinese planes formed in battle formation plunged straight into the blue sky, and then rushed towards the invincible and brutal enemy with a thunderous force.

In fact, my intelligence was not wrong, and there were indeed only a dozen Chinese fighters at Hankou Airport, and due to the long-term hard fighting and the lack of spare parts, the combat effectiveness of these scarred planes was greatly reduced. However, what I never expected was that the Soviet Air Force for China's aid, that is, the "Soviet Volunteers" sent by Marshal Stalin, had secretly arrived in China, and two well-equipped fighter groups with high morale were transferred to Xiaogan Airport on the outskirts of Wuhan overnight, becoming the absolute main force in this surprisingly victorious anti-Japanese air war.

So "Four. The "29th Wuhan Air Battle" became a nightmare for the invaders.

On this day, thousands of people in Wuhan were empty, people poured out of their homes regardless of the danger, and millions of people shouted and cheered for the Chinese and Soviet air forces on the ground. Since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the vicious planes have done whatever they want in the skies of China, wantonly bombing Chinese cities, villages and towns, and raining thousands of tons of bombs on the heads of the unarmed Chinese people. However, "if you do many acts of injustice, you will kill yourself", and on this day, the aggressors who committed many evils were finally punished justly.

When the first heavy bomber of Yueben fell into the Yangtze River with billowing smoke and splashed high columns of water, the hatred that had been buried in people's hearts for a long time immediately erupted like a volcano, and the earth-shattering roar turned the three towns of Wuhan into a vast sea where the people who had invaded and experienced it were buried.

But the crazy Yue himself was not reconciled to defeat, and their fighters desperately opened fire to resist, trying to cover the bomber breakout. Although the intensive artillery fire of the Chinese and Soviet air forces continued to hit the enemy planes, causing them to catch fire and explode, several enemy planes that had escaped the net jumped over Wuhan and dropped bombs, destroying some houses and causing casualties among the people on the ground.

The thrilling Wuhan air battle lasted about 40 minutes, during which the Chinese and Soviet air forces shot down 10 heavy bombers and 11 fighters, lost 12 planes and lost many outstanding pilots. After being wounded, the Chinese pilot Chen Huaimin drove a plane into the enemy and became a hero of resistance who spilled blood in the sky; Soviet pilot Shusterl also died heroically in the crash of an enemy plane and was awarded the title of Meritorious Pilot of the Soviet Union.

At that time, Wuhan held a huge celebration rally and a people's procession, known as the "four. 29 Victory in the Air".

Qin Yuntang didn't rush home until dark, and as soon as he stepped into the house, he was immediately stunned by the chaotic scene in front of him.

There were many people who broke into the living room, some of whom they knew, like cousin Xiao Sange and Xiao Erge, and there were also many strangers who didn't know each other. Some of the people who came were dressed in dirty overalls, some were shirtless, some were standing, some were squatting; Some people had bandages hanging from their arms, and the bandages were still oozing blood, and some people still had bloody mud sticking to their faces, making the otherwise clean and tidy living room dirty. The air was filled with a pungent smell of sweat and blood.

Qin Yuntang's home is a small three-story building located in Xian'an Fang, in the British Concession of Hankou.

Qin Yuntang's father's name is Qin Songqiao, also known as Deng Xuanzong, and his identity is the owner of Wuhan Yuhua Yarn Factory, which can be regarded as a well-known industrialist in Hubei Province.

Qin Songqiao usually does not stay at home most of the time, but lives in Wuchang on the other side of the river, because his old man loves the factory like his life, and if the machine does not sound, he will not be able to sleep. On this day, he happened to return to Hankou to rest, so many strangers rushed into his house. These people were all workers in the factory, and it took Qin Yuntang for a while to figure out that he had thrown a bomb into the raw material yard, killing a porter and injuring more than a dozen people.

This was the second air raid on Wuhan. The first time was about after the Spring Festival, because the scale was not large; Bombs fell in the river, and the city and factories were safe. However, the airstrikes still injured many of the female workers at the factory, many of them who were frightened and fell down the stairs and injured themselves, and some were disabled as a result. But this time it was different, and his bomb finally landed in the factory and killed people.

The people who came looked very irritable, they were all Wuhan locals, they were all hot-tempered, they spoke with their throats open, and they gulped phlegm on the ground, and some people smoked the spicy Henan dry tobacco so loudly that the smoke in the room and the air were cloudy. But it wasn't long before the people fell silent, and they heard heavy footsteps like rolling thunder overhead.

The people quickly stood up straight, respectful and silent.

Qin Songqiao walked downstairs, and Qin Yuntang saw an inseparable middle-aged man followed by him, this man was very light-footed, and he followed each step, just like Qin Songqiao's shadow. He is the factory supervisor Xiao Boss. Boss Xiao should be Qin Yuntang's eldest cousin according to his generation, but he is more than thirty years older than him, he is not only Qin Songqiao's own nephew, but also his most trusted right-hand man and family successor.

Originally, the casualty caused by the air raid did not necessarily have to be solved by the boss, and it was not the responsibility of the Chinese factory to drop the bomb. But during the war, Qin Songqiao decided to go downstairs in person to tide over the difficulties with his staff. Qin Songqiao announced on the spot that he would give generous pensions to the families of the deceased, recruit family members to work in the factory, treat the injured, and pay them during the treatment. After receiving a satisfactory reply, the visitor left the small building with great gratitude, and Boss Xiao immediately sent someone to write down the boss's decision and post it in the factory, so as to calm the people's minds and eliminate the chaos caused by the air raid.

In the official propaganda at that time, the Battle of Xuzhou was still going on vigorously, and the news of victory was published in the rear newspapers every day, giving people the impression that the situation was very good and good news was frequent.

Qin Songqiao was uneasy about this. If the Chinese [***] team had won the battle every day, as the newspapers had propagated, would the plane still dare to be so rampant and bomb deep into China's rear with such unscrupulous bombs? To be precise, as the owner of a yarn factory, my grandfather did not have military talent, but out of the instinct of a capitalist to smell the danger of the approaching enemy, so when only the Xiao brothers were left in the living room, my primary school student Qin Yuntang heard him Qin Yuntang worriedly said to this group of nephews: Tell me, can Wuhan be defended?

It turned out that the Xiao brothers were all sent out to investigate the current situation, that is, to spy on military news. During the war, news from the military was tightly sealed, and if you wanted to get the real war situation, of course, you couldn't rely on reading the newspapers, you had to find out by all means. Second Brother Xiao, who has been dealing with the press for a long time, reported that, according to reliable sources, no major progress had been made in the Battle of Xuzhou, and the situation was quite bad, and defeat was probably only a matter of time.

Xiao Sange has attracted many friends in the military circles, and the news he heard also confirmed that the battle situation has deteriorated, and it is reported that the Chinese [***] team is retreating in the direction of the Central Plains, and Chief Li is preparing to evacuate Xuzhou. He said that after he occupied the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, his next step would be to enter Wuhan.

At this time, Qin Songqiao's Shijiazhuang Daxing Yarn Factory, which had invested in the north, had already fallen into the hands of the enemy, and he said that he had declared that the Chinese factories, including the Daxing Yarn Factory, were "enemy property" and forcibly confiscated them. And the bad news coming from the occupied areas everywhere is also frightening; He said that he used a bayonet to "screen" Chinese factories, and if the factory owners refused to "cooperate" with the occupying forces, your factories would be immediately confiscated under the charge of "enemy property." If you are forced to agree to cooperate and work for yourself, then you are turning yourself into a shameful lackey.

Qin Songqiao was speechless for a long time.

Although Qin Yuntang didn't quite understand the serious crisis that adults were facing, he also felt that the family was in a bad situation.

At this time, Boss Xiao spoke.

Boss Xiao lowered his hand, his expression respectful and cautious. He whispered: "There is a top-secret news from the party headquarters, I heard that peace talks are underway with Yu himself, and if the peace talks are successful, maybe the war can be stopped." ”

Qin Songqiao's eyes widened and said, "How much hope do you think there is for peace talks?" ”

Boss Xiao spread his hands: "Director Li of the Party Department said that the key is to talk about conditions. But in front of me, I am saying that my offensive is flourishing, and I am afraid that there will be more than one luck. ”

Boss Xiao's last words once again made Qin Songqiao fall into a disappointment that could not be concealed. Obviously, it is unreliable to expect peace talks, as the saying goes, "it is difficult to quench the thirst of the near in the far water," not to mention that the initiative in the war is not in the hands of the Chinese side but in the hands of the Chinese side. After a long time, the son finally saw that his father had regained his former majestic expression, and he instructed Boss Xiao in a decisive tone:

"When the capital fell last year, I shipped some of my spare machines to Sichuan just to prevent the situation from worsening. Originally, I wanted to wait and see, but now it seems that I can't wait any longer, and it will be too late for me to hit Wuhan. You immediately set off to Shangjiang, buy the land in Yucheng, and prepare for the relocation of the factory. ”

"Shangjiang" is a Hubei dialect, and Hubei people call themselves "Xiajiang people", so Sichuan and Yucheng above Hubei are collectively referred to as "Shangjiang". In fact, as early as last year's "Seven. As soon as the "Seven Incidents" broke out, Qin Songqiao, who had taken precautions, had already personally inspected Yucheng and Chengdu in the Shangjiang area, investigating the rural production situation along the way, collecting business intelligence, selecting the site of the factory, and negotiating the purchase of land. At the beginning of the year, Qin Songqiao took the lead before other peers, and transferred a small number of spare machinery and production materials to Yucheng in advance.

However, the victory in the Battle of Taierzhuang greatly encouraged the people in the rear, causing them to rejoice and have the illusion that the dawn of victory was about to rise, and that there would be a fundamental turning point in the war situation.

There are even domestic newspapers that optimistically predict that the army will retreat to the Lugou Bridge, that the armistice agreement will be signed and take effect soon, that peace is coming, and so on. So Qin Songqiao stopped the work of building a factory in Yucheng and waited for the situation to change. Unfortunately, what he was waiting for was the bombing of Wuhan and the deterioration of the situation on the front line, which prompted the owner of the mill to decide to restart the relocation plan.

Early the next morning, the loyal Boss Xiao boarded the ship and set off.

Accompanying Boss Xiao to Shangjiang was a group of shrewd and capable yarn factory backbones, all of whom were Hubei Yankees known as "nine-headed birds", who were not only assistant to the factory director, purchasing, but also experienced engineering and technical personnel.

When the small steamer that Boss Xiao and his entourage took slowly disappeared into the depths of the smoky Yangtze River, Qin Songqiao had one more thing on his mind, and often led his son to climb the Yellow Crane Tower to stop and look. The Yangtze River is full of smoke and waves, and the water and sky are the same, "the people of the past have taken the yellow crane to go, the yellow crane tower is empty here, the yellow crane is gone, and the white clouds are empty for thousands of years." The poet's eternal sigh is infinitely reverie, Qin Yuntang recalled, at that time, Qin Yuntang, that is, my grandfather, the most recited sentence is, in the future, when will I come to the Yellow Crane Tower again?

But more than half a month has passed, until Xuzhou was defeated, but there was no news of Boss Xiao!

(To be continued)