readx; The piercing sirens finally sounded, and the sparse sound of anti-aircraft machine gun fire rang out from the peaks around the airport, interspersed with the sound of anti-aircraft artillery fire from time to time. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Dozens of pilots rushed out of the barracks, intending to force their take-off and fight the attackers to the death, only to find their weapons destroyed.

When the last bomber finished dropping bombs, Liu Xirui rushed down first, first dropping a few small bombs, and then flying at a low altitude along the airport runway, sweeping the pilots with a dense stream of machine-gun bullets, drowning them in a pool of blood. The fighters behind quickly passed through the sparse anti-aircraft fire network of the Japanese army, kept all the bombs on the runway and barracks of the airport, and then chased the fleeing Japanese soldiers with machine gun bullets, leaving rows of dense bullet holes on the concrete floor.

Liu Xirui carefully observed the situation on the ground, and only after making sure that all the targets had been destroyed, did he order the return of the ship. At the same time, the fighter and bomber squadrons of the second attack wave also successfully attacked the military bases and ports of the Japanese army on the Penghu Islands, and sank several speedboats moored in the harbors, clearing the threat for the transport fleet.

After landing at the airport, the ground crew rushed over to refuel the planes, plant bombs, and prepare for a second attack, and at this time, a fleet of fishing boats, speedboats, and transport ships had already set off from the back of Xiamen Port and headed for Tainan.

Half an hour later, the group took off again and quickly crossed the Taiwan Strait, and heavy air strikes were carried out on ports and cities such as Kaohsiung, Tainan and Chiayi on the southern coast to clear the way for the impending landing operation.

In order to cooperate with the "Taiwan Storm" operation, the Taiwan Corps, under the command of Ding Changjian, divided its troops into two routes: marched north all the way, used the strength of one regiment to cut off the land communication lines between Chiayi and Tainan and Kaohsiung, and then built fortifications on the spot to block possible reinforcements from the Japanese army; The other advanced all the way to the south, with the strength of three infantry regiments, with the support of more than 2,000 volunteers of the Gaoshan tribe, they stormed Kaohsiung since yesterday evening.

Because Tainan is not the focus of the defense of the Yue army, it is far inferior to the opponent in terms of the configuration of troops and firepower, and the Chinese [***] team has air support, constantly throwing heavy bombs on the fortress that the Yue army is firmly defending, which has caused a great shock to the psychology of the defenders, and after 14 hours of hard support, the two brigades of the Yue army guarding Kaohsiung were finally defeated, and the Taiwan army finally officially entered the city before dark and completely controlled the wharf.

At about 10 o'clock that night, the mighty fleet arrived at Kaohsiung Port very smoothly, and the Taiwan Army Corps immediately unloaded the goods and personnel with the support of the local people, and after 10 hours of all-out rush transportation, more than 1,000 tons of supplies were sent to the shore, and the fleet immediately returned to the sea, and several hundred wounded, disabled, and seriously ill soldiers were in the cabin, ready to return to the mainland for treatment or demobilization. According to Gao Fei's instructions, Ding Changjian immediately organized trucks to transport the materials to the hinterland of Alishan after the fleet left the port, and stored them in a very safe and reliable place.

In order to ensure the safety of the fleet, starting the next morning, the bomber squadron continued to bomb the northern part of Taiwan and Keelung Harbor, and the fighter squadron took turns to take up to ensure the safety of the bombers.

The warship formation cruising in the waters off northern Taiwan took the initiative to retreat back 100 nautical miles as soon as it received the attack, and at the same time reported the enemy situation to the Tokyo base camp and the Chinese Dispatch Army Headquarters, requesting that air forces be dispatched to provide support.

The nearest army air unit of the 21st Army dispatched 20 fighters to intercept the attack in the afternoon of the same day, and in the end, the two sides engaged in a fierce air battle over the Taiwan Strait for half an hour; however, the "96" fighters could not compare with the opponent's P-35 fighters in terms of firepower or surname, and finally accepted the painful outcome of being shot down four planes and not a single one of the opponents was damaged.

The news of the disastrous defeat of the army air force reached the Tokyo base camp as soon as possible, and the detailed data of the US fighters and bombers purchased by the Fourth Theater were also quickly placed on the desks of the senior staff. It is also the most superior fighter with the surname Neng:

"Zero Fighter"!

As soon as the returning fleet crossed the center line of the Taiwan Strait, many glittering spots appeared on the air defense radar screens deployed on the Matsu Islands; after several checks, the radar crews confirmed that a huge group of planes was flying in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, and a terrible air defense alarm sounded over the islands, and radio waves quickly passed through the strait and transmitted the news to the air bases in Fuzhou and Longyan.

When the alarm sounded, the fighter group led by Liu Xirui had just returned to the airport, and the ground crew was refueling the plane's fuel tanks.

Liu Xirui stopped at the moment when the alarm sounded and shouted: "Brothers, stop refueling and prepare to take off!" Then he turned and ran wildly towards his own fighter plane, and dozens of pilots immediately scattered in all directions and ran towards their own plane.

Ten minutes later, all 24 fighters took to the air, and after completing their formation over the airfield, they immediately flew over the Taiwan Strait.

As soon as the fighter group flew over the fleet, a huge hybrid group broke through the thick dark clouds of the zenith, and swooped down like a lightning speed, the silver-gray wings glowing dazzlingly in the sunlight, and the roar of the engines and the sound of the wings piercing the air suddenly echoed in the ears!

Liu Xirui made a brief visual inspection and found that the number of enemy planes was roughly the same as his own, and his mood was a little relaxed, however, when he found that the appearance of the fighters accompanying the bombers was different from the previous Army's Type 97 and Navy's Type 96 carrier-based ship battles, it was a type of aircraft that had never been seen before!

Suddenly, Liu Xirui had an ominous premonition in his heart, as if he was being watched by a beast hidden in the dark, and he was about to remind his comrades to be careful, but he found that everyone had already launched a battle formation behind him, so he had to put aside the doubts in his heart for the time being, and drove his fighter plane to pounce on the enemy plane that was speeding at high speed.

Liu Xirui first aimed at an enemy plane that rushed to the front, and as the distance gradually approached, the opponent entered the range of the machine gun, and he hurriedly adjusted the fuselage so that the enemy plane was just in the middle of the scope. Liu Xirui was about to press the launch button, when the enemy plane suddenly accelerated and rushed straight at an incredible speed, and at the same time, a series of fires flashed under the nose of the plane. Liu Xirui, who was caught off guard, reacted completely instinctively, loosened the shooting button, and suddenly twisted the longitudinal rod to the right, and avoided it sideways at the last moment. However, there was still a shell that hit the part near the tail of the aircraft, and a hole the size of a bowl suddenly appeared in the sturdy fuselage, but fortunately, there was no fire.

At the same time, dozens of artillery shells and countless machine-gun bullets whizzed through the air, causing a series of explosions, bursting red and black salutes in the air, and then three planes dragged their long tails and fell to the sea!

Liu Xirui knew that he had encountered a fierce enemy today -- the moment the enemy plane accelerated just now, the speed reached at least 500 kilometers per hour, far exceeding his own P-35; since the enemy plane has such a high speed, it naturally has a very high degree of flexibility, and the shells hitting the tail of the plane confirm that the enemy plane's firepower is also quite powerful!

After turning around, Liu Xirui found that in just a few tens of seconds, he had lost three fighters, and two were wounded, but the opponent's fighter had not even been wiped off a bit!

Without time to regret it, and without having time to care about the injuries of the plane, Liu Xirui pulled the longitudinal rod violently, increased the speed of the plane to the limit in more than ten seconds, and flew over against the military plane. Before the enemy planes approaching at high speed could enter the firing range, Liu Xirui opened fire fiercely, pouring out a dense stream of machine-gun bullets, and the fighters behind knew the huge gap in the aircraft's surname and ability, and did not hesitate to use machine guns to fire fiercely, trying to seize the opportunity by using preemptive tactics.

In the face of the rain of bullets, the "Zero" fighters of the Chinese army showed amazing potential.

The fighter suddenly pulled the nose of the plane upwards and climbed straight up at an angle of 90 degrees from the horizon, and in an instant, it rose several hundred meters in height, not only dodging the opponent's attack, but also seizing a favorable attack position. In the face of the "Zero" fighters that swooped down, the pilots of the Chinese Air Force either accelerated forward or climbed upwards to try their best to get rid of the attack of the Japanese army.

A "Zero" bit Liu Xirui's landline from behind, and shells swept past the roof of the cockpit and around the fuselage one after another. Liu Xirui knew that it was impossible to get rid of the enemy's pursuit at the speed of the P-35, so he hurriedly pressed the nose of the plane down, dived down at an almost vertical angle, and then flew forward for several hundred meters, and then suddenly pulled upward. After doing this set of actions, fine beads of sweat appeared on Liu Xirui's forehead, and the palm of the hand holding the longitudinal rod also became wet, however, with a violent explosion, the cockpit canopy was hit by a shell, blown to pieces, and he looked back to see that the "Zero" fighter was gradually approaching from a distance of several hundred meters, and the machine gun under the nose began to shoot out fire snakes, which were flying up and down around the plane.

Seeing that the vertical climb and acceleration cannot get rid of the opponent, it is obvious that the new fighter of the Yue Army can far surpass its own P-35 in these two surnames!

Liu Xirui gritted his teeth and violently pulled the longitudinal rod to the right in the strong air current, and the P-35 easily rolled to the right beautifully, breaking away from the fire network of the "Zero" army. At this time, Liu Xirui had already become a frightened bird, and there were two rolls in succession, and then he pulled the plane all the way up, and then peeked back, but he didn't see the shadow of "Zero", and his heart couldn't help but feel a burst of ecstasy.

Liu Xirui piloted the fighter plane to climb to an altitude of 4,000 meters, and then reduced the speed of the plane to the normal cruising speed, overlooking the battlefield below from here: dozens of fighter planes flickered and flickered, fiercely fighting in the airspace of dozens of kilometers, machine gun bullets drew traces in the air, the roar of the motor was mixed with violent explosions from time to time, and from time to time some fighters dragged the smoke down and fell, and some were directly beaten into a dazzling fireball!

Although the pilots of the Chinese Air Force resisted with all their might, they could not change the situation of being passively beaten, and if they continued to develop like this, they would soon end up in the annihilation of the entire army!

Liu Xirui once again drove the fighter plane to dive down, and directly below him, a "Zero" was firing fiercely at a P-35 a few hundred meters in front, however, when the military plane had just entered the firing range, before it had time to aim, a "Zero" rushed over from the side, and with a few muffled sounds, a neat row of bullet holes appeared less than a meter away behind the cockpit.

After passing by the enemy planes, Liu Xirui noticed that after a short battle of more than 10 minutes, his side had lost more than a dozen fighters, and the army had formed a situation in which more fighters were fighting less, and each P-35 had to deal with more than two enemy planes. The neat battle formation had been completely disrupted by the other side, and the pilots of the Chinese Air Force were driving new-type fighters on a rampage in the air, unscrupulously chasing down opponents whose pilots were far inferior to their own.

Now that the defeat is decided, there is no need to continue to entangle with the army. Liu Xirui immediately gave a signal to retreat, led the surviving more than 20 fighters to fly down from an altitude of 2,000 meters, and then maintained an altitude of about 500 meters above sea level and flew inland at full speed.

Liu Xirui led the group of fighters to fly straight toward the air defense position, lowered the altitude again a few hundred meters away from the position, and then flew at a low altitude around the airfield guarded by more than a dozen air defense positions and landed.

The "Zero" fighters, which were in desperate pursuit, had just wanted to lower their altitude when suddenly a dense burst of shells from below, quickly forming a dense net of fire in the direction of their advance. The "Zero" hurriedly pulled upward, the nose of the aircraft moved at a high speed at an angle perpendicular to the ground, and tried its best to fly out of the range of the anti-aircraft guns before entering the fire net, and the eleven fighters in front relied on the pilot's superb flying skills to pick up a life before the ghost gate closed, however, the two fighters at the back were not so lucky, because the speed was too fast, and they were afraid of hitting the plane in front, so they did not pull up in time, and crashed into the fire net, and then were beaten into two huge fireballs, and thousands of fragments fell to the ground like scattered flowers.

Only then did the pilots who survived the disaster remember the strength of Fujian's air defense firepower network, and immediately gave up their plan to continue going deeper, and after climbing to an altitude of 6,000 meters, they flew toward the Taiwan Strait at a cruising speed of nearly 400 kilometers to attack the opponent's fleet together with the bomber formation.

The flotilla that had lost the cover of the air force had already been blown to pieces by the bombers: the huge, old-hull transports were sent to the bottom of the sea by bombshells of the Japanese army after holding out for ten minutes; Relying on the advantage of speed, the smaller ships rushed left and right on the sea, avoiding bomber bombing again and again, and were about to rush to the shore, but they were caught up by the fighters of the Japanese army, and were finally hit by machine guns, and the crew was also killed and wounded, and ran aground on the empty and uninhabited beach; The dozens of fishing boats escaped because the military pilots thought it was not worth bombing them, and because they were scattered very widely.

Subsequently, under the escort of fighter planes, the bombers of the Chinese army successively launched a series of sorties and launched fierce air strikes on several cities and ports that had just fallen into the hands of the Taiwan Army, forcing them to take the initiative to abandon the above-mentioned areas that night and retreat again to the hinterland of the central mountain range, which is high and densely forested.

The air battle over the strait lasted for more than 20 minutes, and 16 of the 40 P-35 fighters of the Fujian Air Force participating in the battle were shot down, 9 were damaged, 12 pilots were killed, 7 were wounded, and two were missing. Only two fighters were hit by anti-aircraft guns! This disparity in results is not only the most painful defeat of the Fujian Air Force, but also very likely the most painful defeat of the Chinese Air Force since the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

A few days later, Chen Yingying's military intelligence office received a belated piece of information from the rear: On 13 September, the Chinese naval air force, which had just been equipped with a new type of fighter, engaged in an equally tragic battle over Chongqing, and the Chinese air force, with the I-15 and I-16 fighters as the main force, was shot down 13 planes, wounded 11 planes, and killed 10 pilots in a 13-minute air battle, while the Chinese air force with the I-15 and I-16 fighters as the main force lost 13 planes, and no fighter plane was lost! Worried that the disastrous defeat of the Air Force would affect the army and the people, the Nationalist Political Axe tightly sealed the news, and the results of the air battle were not as easy to react as the ground battle, so almost no one in the outside world knew the news.

After carefully studying the course and results of the two battles, Gao Fei realized that there is a huge difference between the fighters of the Chinese Air Force, including Fujian, and the new fighters of the Chinese Army, and the gap is so great that the number of planes and the skills of the pilots cannot make up for it, so he resolutely ordered the Air Force to narrow the scope of its activities to Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and other areas supported by ground air defense positions, and absolutely not to enter other areas until a way is devised to deal with them.

Subsequently, Gao Fei summoned the pilots who participated in the air battle that day and the head of the aviation project of the Ordnance Research Institute to hold a meeting to discuss countermeasures and boost the morale of the Air Force, which was a little low!

(To be continued)