At that moment, a red flare rose like lightning from the edge of the woods. The flare seemed to slow down under the starry sky, bent gently into an arc, and then released a dazzling blood-red light, and then turned into a flashing fireball, slowly falling towards the ground.

Red flares, which are in the name of Konstantin? Nikolaevich? The signal for the take-off of the first batch of nine-plane formations of the friendly aviation regiment headed by Colonel Tidenkov.

Tidenkov is a bit famous, he is an experienced pilot of the first rank and a shrewd and capable captain. He was a burly man, a strong and radiant man, and his fiery youth, vigor and hospitality were particularly endearing. Vassili? Dzhugashvili was a little envious of the colonel, and thought to himself that he should learn from his bold demeanor and practical work. Even wearing a helmet imitated Tytenkov, pushing the back of his head slightly.

Just as the engine was heating up, Dzhugashvili always felt regret in his heart during this extremely long minute before takeoff, and he also wanted to fly the faster "Yak-1" fighter plane, which was equipped with machine guns. But in the arsenal on the other side of the Volga, there was no choice. However, Vasily's displeasure did not last long, and the "donkey" was "donkey", this big-mouthed guy like a pig, with only one machine gun, but it was easy to drive and dexterous. No wonder everyone calls it "Young Eagle"! It was this kind of plane that Chikalov flew in the first place.

There is another unsatisfactory thing: that is, I broke up with the aviation regiment I was familiar with. When the pilots received the new planes, they also received an order and a route map to fly to the outskirts of Moscow, land at Kobinka airfield, and be assigned to a regiment belonging to the 6th Army of the Moscow Air Defense District...... So, Vasily? Colonel Dzhugashvili went from a front-line pilot to a "rear pilot". However, defending the capital is not an honorable position for everyone.

Dzhugashvili forgot to unplug his helmet in his thoughts, and when the green flare rose and began to slide the plane to the take-off line, the helmet on his head looked like someone had pulled it down. This distracted him for a few seconds, and to his annoyance, the "Yak-1" aircraft group was originally the rear group of the whole regiment, and as a result, he became the last take-off of the "I-16" squadron of the group.

It doesn't matter, though. The night sky seemed to be swallowing up the flying group. Only if you look closely will you see a flickering blue flame spewing from the engine vent in front of you.

Vasily suddenly felt flustered, he couldn't determine the direction according to the landmarks, you know, this was his first night flight! Immediately after takeoff, the course of Chinogorsk should be aligned, which is almost due north. As soon as he thought of this, his eyes were fixed on the small ball of the compass on the dashboard, which made the plane fly in the desired direction.

There was another thing that disturbed him, this fighter plane, except for the fact that it took off from the factory yesterday and landed twice on the way to refuel, was almost unfamiliar to him. Vasily sat in the cockpit of the new plane, as if he had put on an awkward coat that had not yet been put on. He felt that the steering stick was not very comfortable, the sound of the engine was not very coordinated, and he could not hear a bit of the sound he was used to in the rumble.

The engine of Colonel Dzhugashvili's "donkey" that crashed in western Siberia was like his best friend of flesh and blood, and he was familiar with its temperament and habits. Vasily listened to the rhythmic rhythm of the engine, as if he had seen through its internal organs, and the dexterous metal elements and instruments were dependent on each other, encouraging each other, and he seemed to see the meaning of its tireless work, that it was a living organism. Everything seemed so surprisingly simple and rational that the whole plane seemed to merge with him, Vasily, his flesh and blood, and the steering stick and footpegs seemed to be an extension of his hands and feet.

When he flies during the day, his heart is like a mirror, everything is clear, and the world around him is vast and boundless...... And now, he seemed to be plunged into a vast darkness, and if there were no stars twinkling, he could hardly tell where the sky was and where the earth was. Below is the bottomless abyss, and the sight of the still world around you is simply terrifying. It was only when the plane flew northward that Vasily saw the column of light illuminated by the searchlight. Some pillars of light shoot from one side to the other as if they are crazy, or they draw circles, some pillars of light are carefully touching the sky, as if trying to add a little warmth to the dark and bottomless sky, and some of the pillars of light are motionless, as if standing on the sky.

Vasily felt uneasy and agitated in his heart. In the sky illuminated by searchlights and streaked across the beams, he saw his own planes flying in a squadron formation like black dots, and continued to climb higher. In order not to break away from the brigade, Vasily increased the throttle and climbed high with a lever. The fighter obediently raised its nose, so that the starry sky seemed to turn upside down. When the altimeter of the plane pointed to 5,000 meters, he leveled the plane, and at this time he had come to the vicinity of the irradiation area, and the light was getting stronger and stronger. At this moment, he immediately saw that under his plane, at an altitude two kilometers below him, a dense group of Chinese bombers was flying in the direction of Moscow, and from above, it looked like a black cross held together by an invisible force. Is it a whole aviation brigade?

Vassili? Before Dzhugashvili could make a decision, he saw a series of golden fires fired from machine guns, shooting at the front and flanks of the bomber formation. That is, Colonel Tidenkov's brigade and his brigade were already in battle, and he, Colonel Dzhugashvili, forgetting to unplug the call in time, was left alone behind to "dangle...... At this time, the fuselage of your own fighter plane shone slightly in the searchlight, and this was entering the second attack...... Vasily also gritted his teeth and approached the enemy plane, allowing his "donkey" to make a sharp dive to attack the Chinese bomber.

The fighter sharply accelerated downward, and Vasily saw that the Chinese bomber was illuminated from below, and he was getting closer and closer to the enemy plane, as if he was also radiating light, but only from the direction in which he began to dive, the longitudinal profile of the Chinese bomber in front could be seen, and Vasily recognized from the silhouette that this was the "KD" bomber (that is, the "Quick Knife" bomber) and the "FH" aircraft (the "Spitfire" tactical attack aircraft).

Dzhugashvili decided to attack the "KD", which was covering the left flank of the enemy group. This "KD" could soon get into the aperture of his machine-gun sights. But what's going on? …… Immediately to the right of Colonel Dzhugashvili's fighter, the green-painted tip of the "Yak-1" swept through in a dazzling white light. Vasily even saw the black numbers on the fuselage, this was Colonel Tidenkov's plane. It was so fast that Vasily felt as if his I-16 was not diving at full speed, but simply sliding sideways.

In an instant, Titenkov's "Yak-1" rushed above the center of the Chinese bomber group and opened fire on the leader of the Chinese group. Dozens of Chinese planes also immediately returned fire on the "Yak-1", with machine-gun bullets dragging a long string of red fire. However, the machine guns and machine guns of the "Yak-1" piloted by Tidenkov were already "staring" at the leader of the Chinese...... Vasily could no longer watch this aerial dogfight. The machine guns of the Chinese air shooters also fired at him. The dazzling red light that swept next to his "young eagle" was like an invisible plane in front of him, spewing a large number of sparks from the nozzles of the engine.

Then Vasily experienced the moment when the actions and thoughts of the fighter pilots were united. "KD" seemed to be approaching and getting bigger, and this fanged and clawed, silver-shining beast looked particularly hideous and terrifying in the searchlight column.

Vasily felt, his plane, as usual, trembled, which he knew instinctively, but again in time to pull the trigger of the machine gun. So he saw through the sights that the bullet had hit the enemy plane. But the "KD" aircraft seemed to remain motionless in the air in the group. Suddenly, it went berserk, spitting strings of tongues of fire at the fighter planes that attacked it.

Vasily remembered that there were 2 machine guns and 2 machine guns on the "KD" aircraft. This kept his anger in check. He turned the plane around and prepared for a second attack. When he flew into the darkness outside the irradiation zone and was about to attack again, he was so startled that he could barely breathe, the "KD" and "FH" aircraft groups had disappeared, and the large enemy aircraft formation, due to the loss of the leader plane, had been divided into small groups and single planes, and scattered away from the center of the irradiation zone. They used their weapons to shoot at Soviet fighters that weaved like golden wasps among the bombers, and the Soviet fighters flew out of some dark corner of the night sky and fired with machine guns and machine guns.

Vasily was overjoyed and saw that the cockpits of one "KD" and one "FH" were turning downward, and the limbs were scattered and began to fall. Having lost "his target", Vasily went to intercept the nearest "KD", which made a semi-dive maneuver in order to escape from the searchlight zone as soon as possible. Vasily knew the location of the bomber's aerial shooter, he dived under the enemy aircraft and hit its left engine with a machine gun. When he saw that the engines of enemy planes were smashed to pieces like splinters from sharp axes, he shouted with joy.

He turned another corner and attacked the "KD" again. The plane dropped its bombs indiscriminately in an attempt to escape with one engine. And Vasily won the first battle, wanting to knock out the still working engine...... "KD" is getting closer and closer to him...... Vasily pulled the trigger, and the plane began to tremble from machine-gun fire, and suddenly fell silent again...... What the hell is this?! …… Vasily reloaded again in a panic and approached the enemy aircraft. At this time, "KD" took advantage of the situation to drill out of the searchlight irradiation zone. Vasily could barely see the floating black dot in the night sky with only the sparks from his engine. Vasily pulled the trigger...... The trigger of the machine gun went off, but no bullets were fired...... His heart was cold, and a shiver ran down his spine. Only then did Vasily understand that the bullets had run out, and now his "donkey" could no longer pose any threat to this "KD"!

"No more bullets?" Colonel Dzhugashvili asked himself, and he felt bad. He remembered that he had read some reports in the newspaper "Red Star": on the day of the outbreak of the war, Colonel Lyabtsev was in the Kazan region, and Colonel Mishakov was near Sverdlovsk, and they each crashed into an enemy bomber. And it was here, on the outskirts of Moscow, that Colonel Goshko had wrecked an imperable "FH" with the propeller of his Yak-1. Colonel Morozov not only crashed into the enemy plane, but also subsequently parachuted and saved his life...... All these "heroic deeds" flashed in his memory like a lightning speed, which lifted his spirits, and then he immediately made a decision to hit the "KD" and use his "young eagle" to fight the male and female!

The crew of the "KD" seemed to have guessed the attempt of Soviet Colonel Dzhugashvili, by this time it had dropped all its bombs, and with ease, began to make a gentle dive, escaping the pursuit...... Vasily saw through the enemy's tricks and cursed in his heart that the "I-16" had small thrust and it would be difficult to catch up with this bomber, let alone at night,...... But he also immediately let his "young eagle" dive down and maxed out the throttle...... The only mark of a Chinese bomber during a night dive flight is the tongue of fire that erupts from its jet pipes. Vassili? Dzhugashvili's biggest fear at the moment is not seeing the flame. The flame fluttered in the gale, like a red and blue turban. But after all, you can't dive endlessly, and by this time, Chinese planes have begun to rise. Vasily had already stopped the fighter from diveting early, and by the light of the stars in the sky, he could clearly see a black dot not far from him, which seemed to hang motionless. Fortunately, the tail shooting communicator did not spot the "young eagle", he was shooting blindly.

The throttle has been maxed out. It seems that it is no longer the fighters who are chasing the "KD", but the bombers who are swooping down on the "Eagles". It's getting closer...... Everything was like a nightmare...... After a few more seconds, the cracking sound of the time overwhelmed the roar of the engine. The propeller of the fighter cut off the tail of the "KD" in a matter of seconds, and the "KD" plane crashed into a stone wall and immediately fell into the dark abyss.

Colonel Dzhugashvili felt that there was a force beyond the control of reason and frantically dragged him out of the suffocating nightmare. But he immediately understood: the reason why the "young eagle" trembled all over was due to the fact that its propeller, like a huge circular saw, sawed off the water and vertical stabilizers of the Chinese "KD" aircraft. Vasily's thoughts and feelings forgot about reality for a moment, and when he regained consciousness, he was surprised to see that his badly injured "I-16" could continue to fly horizontally, but the entire fuselage trembled terribly due to engine damage. The invisible propeller was still spinning, most likely badly deformed, twisting and turning in the air. Vasily listened carefully to the sound of the engine, which, with his experienced hearing, could tell that it was gasping for pain and could stop at any moment.

Suddenly, a heavy stream of liquid flowed from the windshield of the "Young Eagle" cockpit. This is hot water. The cockpit was filled with a misty white mist. A disgusting mixture of oil, burning paint, and gasoline sprayed Dzhugashvili's face. His throat immediately wanted to vomit, and his eyes were sore with tears. It was as if the stars in the sky had disappeared, and the sky itself had vanished.

If a pilot sits in front of the steering stick and loses his sense of level, if he does not have the ability to distinguish between the sky and the earth, then he must beg for the instrument, otherwise the plane will be destroyed and people will die.

Vasily pressed his face against the instrument panel and stared through the goggles at the not-so-bright gauge. He looked at his watch and measured that there was enough gasoline to fly back to the airport if the plane didn't start to fall.

The fighter plane was still jolting, but it was able to continue flying, albeit with great difficulty, and even had to do all its best to master the rudder. Dzhugashvili flew due south, and it suddenly occurred to him, with the sorrow of imminent death, that the hope of finding the airfield was extremely slim. Nothing can be seen in any direction on the ground. The light of the lights in some places and a few fires did not help him in the slightest. It is impossible to find features using a map, you can neither see any features nor see the map clearly. Yes, about 50 kilometers to the left, there are flashes of light in the sky, which appear and disappear from time to time, like the night sky with thunder and lightning. That's Moscow...... In the midst of the many searchlights, it was as if by the distance there was a huge blacksmith that was hard to see, and where thousands of blacksmiths were steaming with heavy hammers and anvils, pounding the hot, flaming metal.

Dzhugashvili's "I-16" fighters had neither a radio nor any navigation equipment. It was no longer helpful to have a compass, because his plane had deviated from course many times during the struggle with the "KD" aircraft, and he did not know how far away he had gone from the course called the azimuth in military language, which he could have followed into the irradiation zone. Now, the lights in the illumination zone are searching the sky, and batches of Chinese bombers flying towards Moscow from different heights have been spotted.

There is a silver lining. It is necessary to find the junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Moscow-Minsk highway through the darkness of the night. From there, even without petrol, gliding and landing at Kobinka Airport is a breeze.

He increased the throttle a little to descend as quickly as possible, and it occurred to him that tomorrow people would find the wreckage of the Chinese bomber that he had crashed and destroyed, and they would praise him for his exploits, and he, Vasily, would most likely be no longer alive...... When I think of this, my heart is very heavy, and I don't feel sad when I think that this situation can happen.

(To be continued)