March 25, the tenth day of the second lunar month.

At 8:10 a.m., the mouth of Lushun was already in chaos, the smoke formed by the explosion and burning of the aircraft caused by the sneak attack of the Eighth Route Army fighters at the Tuchengzi Airport had not yet completely dispersed, the cargo ships on the sea were hurriedly anchoring and leaving the port, and the gunboats and patrol boats of the Japanese Lushun base were also fleeing in a hurry.

It was the bomber formation of the Eighth Route Army led by Xue Junmin who attacked the Tuchengzi airfield in Lushunkou, the Zhouqingzi airfield in Dalian, and the Japanese airfields in Yingkou and Liaoyang. The Feng Dafei formation, which bombed the Japanese airfield in Shenyang, and the Chang Qiankun formation, which bombed Jinzhou, Shanhaiguan, and Huludao, were all on their way back.

When the fighter formation led by David arrived in the sky above the Port of Arthur, it began to lower its altitude and hunt down the Japanese gunboats and patrol boats.

The number of aerial bombs carried by fighter formations is limited, and they must be dropped as soon as possible so that the weight of the planes can be reduced and they can prepare for aerial combat.

Because they carried few aerial bombs and were reluctant to waste airborne machine gun bullets used in aerial combat, the bombing tactics adopted by the fighter formations of the Eighth Route Army were wolf packs; after discovering Japanese gunboats and patrol boats, they concentrated several fighters to pounce on them, bombed them intensively, and were sure to sink them. The purpose of this tactic was to further expand the results of the bombing campaign and reduce the threat of Japanese warships to the Eighth Route Army's landing fleet. Because after the bomber formations completed the sneak attack on the Japanese airfield, there were no aerial bombs, and it was impossible to carry out the task of bombing the Japanese warships. This task fell to the fighter formation, which arrived later to cover the smooth return of the bomber formation.

In terms of the level of single-plane air combat, no one in the Eighth Route Army Air Force can surpass David.

David was a retired instructor in the U.S. Army, and after he arrived in the Eighth Route Army, he helped train pilots. After the Eighth Route Army captured Taiyuan, it used the heavy bombers of the captured Japanese army to attack the Temporary Aviation Regiment of the North China Front, which was the masterpiece of David and others.

David's cheerful voice came to mind in the fighter pilots' headphones: "I'm David. Boys, we got to the place, and below was the Port of Arthur, pounced on it and dropped aerial bombs on the Japanese cargo ship. ok！ ”

Liu Yimin's order was to bomb the Japanese warships, because the Eighth Route Army's fighter formations carried aerial bombs were limited, so they had to concentrate on bombing the Japanese warships. David temporarily modified the bombing target and ordered an attack on the cargo ship, the direct reason was that the cargo ship was large and easy to bomb, and the trigger was the Japanese army's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the launch of the Pacific War, which angered the Yankee David.

David came to China to help the Eighth Route Army resist the war on the condition of Ni Hua's high salary, and his thinking has already changed in recent years, from participating in the war to making money to sympathizing with the Chinese people to consciously participating in the war, and now it has been transformed more thoroughly, to defend China and the United States in World War II. Therefore, he believed that the Japanese cargo ships were carrying all the materials plundered from the northeast, and they were in the service of the Japanese invasion, and they would be bombed when they encountered it, and there was nothing to discuss. As for the warships, David has already seen clearly, there are no cruisers, destroyers and other large warships in this Lushunkou now, and some are only small gunboats and patrol boats, which are just small black spots when viewed from high altitudes, which are difficult to hit with aerial bombs, and they are of little value.

In fact, attacking merchant ships is an important part of warfare. On the European battlefield, the British and German armies both dispatched warships and submarines to attack each other's merchant ships, and the fighting was in full swing and very lively.

Blessed were the Japanese merchant ships fleeing from the harbor, they could taste the aerial bombs made by the Empire of Japan.

A Japanese cargo ship loaded with cotton was the first to be hit by the fighters of the Eighth Route Army, which ignited a raging fire and saw that it was hopeless. Immediately afterwards, several coal ships and huge ships transporting ore were sunk one after another.

It's a pity that the fighter formation led by David carried too few aerial bombs, and such a good opportunity could not pursue those fleeing cargo ships, otherwise the results would be greater!

After the fighters dropped the bombs, David ordered the formation to quickly rise to an altitude of 5,500 meters, turn around, and fly horizontally to the south, preparing to meet the Japanese planes. Because the reconnaissance plane had already discovered the Japanese reconnaissance plane, needless to say, a large group of Japanese fighters soon arrived. Needless to say, these Japanese fighters came from the airfields of the Japanese army in North China, and their goal was to intercept the bomber formation of the Eighth Route Army.

At 8:40 a.m., the reconnaissance plane discovered that the Japanese fighter formation was coming from the direction of Qingdao, 24 of them, in a dense formation, flying at an altitude of 5,000 meters. It seems that the Japanese planes wanted to seize the height and ambush the bomber formation of the Eighth Route Army that had withdrawn from Shenyang.

At this time, the bomber formation led by Chang Qiankun and Xue Junmin had already crossed the Jinan and Qingdao lines and returned home, and there was basically no danger. Only Feng Dafei's formation, which bombed Shenyang, was still north of Jinan and Qingdao due to the long distance, and was on its way back. Once this bomber formation is discovered by Japanese reconnaissance planes, it will inevitably become the prey of Japanese planes.

David immediately reported to Feng Dafei by radio that he had discovered the formation of Japanese fighters, judged that there would still be a formation of Japanese fighters patrolling at high altitude, and asked Feng Dafei to speed up the return of the bomber formation, and he led the formation of fighters to pounce on the formation of Japanese fighters.

For fighters at this time, an altitude of more than 5,000 meters is not suitable for air combat, only for concealment. Because of this altitude, the pilot's breathing is difficult, and it is supported by perseverance.

The fighter formation led by David consisted of 40 fighters in four fighter squadrons. Compared with the first group of Japanese fighters to arrive, the strength was superior to that of the other side. However, this is only a fighter formation formed by one or two squadrons of the Japanese air force, and as soon as it starts, other fighter groups of Japanese planes will rush to reinforce it, and it must be fought quickly!

The tragic air battle began!

Just when the fighter formation of the Eighth Route Army pounced on the Japanese fighter formation, the Japanese planes also discovered the fighter formation of the Eighth Route Army, and the fighter formation of the Eighth Route Army was 500 meters higher than them! It's a damn 500 meters! The Japanese commander immediately ordered the formation to quickly rise to meet the battle through the throat microphone, and at the same time reported to the base that a large number of fighters of the Eighth Route Army had been found over the Bohai Bay, and asked for urgent tactical guidance!

At this time, it was a little too late to pull up, and the fighters of the Eighth Route Army had already pounced, two in a group, and the on-board machine guns spat out tongues of fire, rolling towards the Japanese planes that began to pull up.

David was aiming at a Japanese Type 97 fighter. As soon as the devil pilot pulled up, David arrived in a plane, and a long line of machine-gun bullets entered the nose of the Japanese plane. The Hiki, which was pulling up, whimpered and fell headlong.

David attacked downward, and after shooting down the Japanese plane, the plane swept down from the Japanese plane, and when he pulled up again, it was already in the sky behind the Japanese plane. A good David, with a push of the nose of the plane, pounced again ferociously, and fired fiercely at the fuselage of a Japanese army, breaking the Japanese plane in two.

Fierce air battles continued.

Airplanes are the same. The difference is that the combat quality of the pilots of the Eighth Route Army was significantly higher than that of the Japanese pilots. This was because the Third Flying Group of the Japanese North China Front suffered too great losses under the continuous blows of the Eighth Route Army, and the pilots were replaced one after another, and most of the recruits were eggs, and they were no match for the battle-hardened fighter pilots of the Eighth Route Army.

The two sides fought from an altitude of 5,000 meters to an altitude of 3,000 meters, and from an altitude of 3,000 meters to an altitude of 2,000 meters.

Li Sanliu of the No. 2 Fighter Squadron of the First Aviation Group served as the wingman of US military instructor Nick, covering Nick's attack on Japanese planes. Nick, like David, is a flight instructor who has made great achievements. As soon as the battle began, the long plane Nick led the wingman Li Sanliu to pounce on the Japanese fighter formation. However, Li Sanliu's luck was not good, just when Nick turned a Japanese plane into a fireball, Li Sanliu's fighter was hit by a Japanese plane that was pulling up and firing at the same time, and the plane lost its balance.

As soon as Nick saw that his wingman was injured, he immediately ordered Li Sanliu to withdraw from the battle and parachute over land through the throat transmitter.

Where did the pilots of the Eighth Route Army have the tradition of withdrawing from combat? Li Sanliu gritted his teeth, pushed the control stick violently, and rushed into the middle of the Japanese aircraft formation with the fighter plane, and crashed straight into one of the Japanese planes.

With tears in his eyes and shouting "My God" from his mouth, Nick pulled the plane up and pounced on the Japanese plane again.

The fierce battle lasted for 10 minutes, and the ambushed Japanese fighter formation collapsed, and only six of the 24 fighters were left, and they fled the battlefield in a hurry. It's just that the Japanese plane did not flee in the direction of Qingdao, but in the direction of Jinan. The fighter formation of the Eighth Route Army fought an ambush war, the enemy discovered and attacked first, and the losses were negligible, except for Li Sanliu's plane and the enemy died together, there were no other losses, and a brilliant result of 1:18 was achieved!

Unfortunately, the good fortune came to an abrupt end. A formation of Japanese fighters flying from Jinan joined the battle. This time, it was the Japanese army's Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa fighter formation, which was equipped with a pair of 7.7mm "89" machine guns and a drop fuel tank suspension point on each wing, which the Japanese army called the army "1" fighter "Hayabusa", factory number KI-43-I armor.

The performance of the "Hayabusa" fighter is similar to that of the Japanese Navy's Zero carrier-based aircraft, and it is superior to the Zero in hovering performance, but slightly inferior to the Zero in level flight and dive speed. The main reason is that the Zero fighter uses gasoline No. 92, and the Fayabusa fighter uses gasoline No. 87. However, the engine, like the engine, the difference is not big.

As soon as they fought, the pilots of the Eighth Route Army felt the pressure, the speed of the Japanese planes was too fast, and the turns were too flexible. Seeing that the tail of the Japanese plane was shaking, it seemed to be hit, but the Japanese plane suddenly rolled, turned back to seize the height, fired fiercely, and took the advantage!