But...... However, he did not let a Chinese plane with a full 3,000 kg of bombs break into Moscow in any way. Colonel Dzhugashvili is well aware of the tactical-technical data of Chinese aircraft. "KD" was the most powerful bomber after the "FH" and "TX" ("Sky Strike" tactical attack aircraft). If it hadn't crashed into it, how many people would have died in Moscow under the bombs of this "KD" plane!

All sorts of disorganized thoughts came together. It was necessary to seize the moment when he could see the ground so that the plane could fly horizontally, but in his fiery imagination, suddenly there appeared a ball at a Leningrad secondary school, where he had been with Katarina? Bamiyanova danced a waltz. Suddenly the little mound appeared, Katarina? Bamiyanova wept at the grave. Who is she crying for? Lo and behold, wasn't this him, and her Vasily came to her with flowers in his hand and a crumpled silk umbrella over his shoulders.

I saw the ground, like the bottom of a vast pool...... The moisture on the cockpit has disappeared. Dzhugashvili clearly saw that the altimeter pointed to 500 meters. But the ground was a blur, as if the glasses on his helmet had been blackened by smoke. I can't tell the difference between the forest and the wilderness, and I can't choose the forced landing site at all. Vasily looked over to see the three types of lights on the airport, one red and two white, in a triangular configuration. You should land from the direction of the red light...... However, there was no light...... Gasoline is only enough for a few minutes...... Can you find a random place to land? …… That is certain death...... It is good to see a lake, and you can glide and land on the lake.

He turned the plane around, his eyes glued to the ground. By this time the engine had stopped, and Vasily felt that the fighter had lost speed. The engine went off suddenly, and then fell silent...... There was only the gentle whistling of the wings of the "young eagles" skimming the air......

Vasily flattened the fighter, straightened up with both hands, grabbed the edge of the cockpit and jumped out. The I-16 fell to the ground at an angle and disappeared without a trace......

Vasily didn't have time to look around, he jerked open the opening ring on his chest and adjusted his posture with the wind......

Air attacks continued on Moscow, Soviet fighter pilots threw themselves into the fight, and other means of air defense, especially anti-aircraft guns, were matched with their full firepower, as a large number of Chinese bombers had already swarmed into the Bolshevik capital under the cover of fighter jets.

The fighter brigade under the command of Colonel Yumashev, Hero of the Soviet Union, also took off to take part in the battle. For the first time, all the crews of this brigade were engaged in night battles. And among them there was test pilot Olg? Behring.

There's nothing worse than being idle, feeling depressed, having a chaotic mind, and running into walls everywhere anyway, and you can't do anything......

Test flight team pilots, including Olg? Behring, after learning the news that it was impossible to go to the front, was in such a mood. You know, right next to it, in the aviation research center that is closely related to them, two fighter regiments have been formed, and their crews also have test pilots like them. By the time the news was heard, it was too late, and the two regiments had already gone to battle.

Suddenly, as if deliberately trying to accommodate Org's wishes, news came: two night-flying fighter reading brigades for Moscow's air defense were being created. The pilots of one of the brigades were selected from among the superior pilots of the aviation industry...... This time, Olg did not miss the opportunity and was assigned to the 2nd Brigade under the command of the famous Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Yumashev. As early as 1937, this man made a name for himself on a long-distance non-landing flight from Moscow to the North Pole to the United States. Yumashev is not only a hero, but also has a good heart and is an excellent test pilot.

Olg? Behring was glad that he had good luck, but there was one thing he didn't expect: the brigade's mission was to operate at night. He had flown at night, but that was when there were no lights on the ground. He didn't know anything about shooting from the air. But he's not alone! …… No other test pilot had ever fought at night, but they believed they could handle it, because real test pilots are accustomed to learning and doing, and everything will be familiar, learned, and figured out. These "recruits" were not military pilots after all, and it was envisaged that they would be given some time to train for night flights and night shooting at illuminated towing targets.

Immediately after the formation of the brigade, it received an order to start night combat readiness duty, ready to take off at any time to meet the enemy. And to Olge? Belin said that moment would come soon, though he didn't believe it yet.

In the evening, he took the plane from the mechanic hand Mashkov, sat in the cockpit, checked the steering stick, igniter and throttle stick, touched with his hands to see how the engine switch and the engine worked under various load conditions, felt the machine gun trigger. Then, like other pilots of the squadron on duty, lie down on the cloth next to the plane, take a nap, or make a joke......

The higher authorities quickly gave an order: "First level combat readiness!" "That means putting on a parachute, getting into the cockpit, heating up the engine, and getting ready for takeoff......

He couldn't believe it anyway, and he was about to go into a real battle...... He panicked when the faint sound of factory whistles, the howls of sirens, and the long whistle of a tense train came from the direction of Moscow, and he felt like a piece of ice pressed against his chest. It was as if something too could be done in the capital.

Then Olg saw a strange reflection on the glass of the cockpit dashboard, and he looked back to see that in the east, in the direction of Melinsk, the darkness of the sky seemed to be erased, and a white light flashed, like sunlight shining through a large slit in the depths of the clouds to the ground. Behring knew that this was the "irradiation zone" where the searchlights of the ground air defense forces reached the sky, and night fighters could easily spot Chinese bombers in the irradiation zone.

Columns of white light piercing the darkness of the night also appeared over Moscow, as if to drive away the stars in the sky, and lit bonfires that continued to shine brightly on the dark horizon. They flew all over the sky, flickering and flickering, lighting up the night sky of Moscow with a fiery red flame. It also seems to make people feel that there is a pyrotechnic master there who is selling his wonderful fireworks...... This was a barrage of barrages fired by anti-aircraft artillery of the Red Army. That is, the enemy finally broke into the skies over Moscow......

Olg looked uneasily around at the dark silhouette of the squadron aircraft on duty. The pointed noses of these planes are aimed at the runway. The runway is like a gray wedge inserted into the distant distance of the airport. At this moment, Colonel Yumashev probed into Olg's cockpit, and he was out of breath from running too fast.

"Olg, need to take off! ......" He spoke in the same tone as usual, as if he were not talking about combat take-off. A little later, Yumashev's tone became serious and unfamiliar, "Three thousand to three thousand five hundred meters at a height, in the center of Moscow...... It must not be less than 2,500 meters, beware of the blocking balloon that is tethered. Enemies must be discovered, they must be attacked, and they must be destroyed! ”

And so began the moment when the pilot's thinking and reflexes merged. Olg? Behring may not have paid attention to how to start the engine and how to slide to the runway. However, as soon as the engine was put on the gas pedal, it immediately spewed a huge stream of fire from the nozzles on both sides of the cockpit, which was dazzling. Now this spark in the tail just blocks the view from between the wings and the engine. In the daytime, the tail light is not visible. The view from the rear of the cockpit through the hood is only possible after takeoff.

But how can you take off blindly without stray from the direction? …… He looked up at the sky with unease,...... Saw the stars...... Good! That's it!

Before closing the canopy, Olg shouted to the mechanic Timashkov, who was standing next to him: "Tell everyone that when you are sliding, in order not to dazzle your eyes, look at the stars through the hood!" Got it? ……”

The mechanic nodded and ran towards the plane next to him. Behring piloted the MiG-3 to the take-off line and began to slide...... He was amazed when the earth remained below, he didn't expect the night take-off to be so smooth, knowing that this was the first time he had ever experienced it, without any training.

As he ascended, he got used to the unusual sensation, and there was nothing but the dark night sky and bright stars. He turned the plane in the direction of Moscow and flew away. And as when he was taking off, he seemed to feel that something had happened that was unforeseeable and the monk did not understand. In front of his eyes was a blinding light, from the nose of the plane to the engine hood to the leading edge of the wings, a white flame seemed to rise, illuminating the infinite space...... Soon after, his heart suddenly became like a knife, and he guessed: Moscow was burning! …… The fire was raging, like hundreds of volcanoes erupting and lava gushing out.

He wouldn't even have a nightmare of such a spectacle. Olg really couldn't believe his eyes, because such a scene was unthinkable. He's all on fire, he's going to protest, he's horrified...... How many enemy planes would have to rush into Moscow to drown hundreds of streets and rows of houses in this white, blinding, flaming flame?

He couldn't believe it because the fierce, dense anti-aircraft gun blocking fire over Moscow never slowed down, and the number of searchlights never decreased. The light of the searchlight resembles a long board nailed with huge cross-cut wooden strips of different textures, which emit light and sway in the wind that blows on all sides......

But Moscow is still on fire. The fire spread across the vast and dark land. The scene was clearly visible under the stars. He felt sweat on his forehead, and as he struggled with his hands, he held the steering stick with both hands and increased the throttle...... Now that he had put life and death aside, the pain disappeared, and a superhuman courage arose in his heart.

However, when people are extremely nervous, there is often a realm where imagination and wisdom are blended, and whenever this happens, people will be in a hurry. Olg suddenly remembered that a heavy bomber could drop 2,000 "incendiary bombs", that is, small bombs filled with white phosphorus, high incendiary agents and magnets. Even one such bomb is enough to light up a neighborhood in a light-controlled city......

While Behring's mood was as calm as a mountain stream running along a rocky steep slope, his plane was already flying over Moscow. What has always troubled him is: where to start? How can enemy aircraft be spotted and by what means can they attack it? He saw the black word "man" on a bomber in the cross-illumination of the searchlight, so he suddenly turned the fighter in that direction and increased the throttle, but the enemy plane had apparently finished dropping the bomb and slipped into the dark night sky.

Behring almost intuitively felt the searchlights shining on his plane, and in the sudden bright light, he lowered his head, his face almost against the dashboard, and his nose almost touched the steering stick. Then it was darkness, and the searchlight crew apparently didn't recognize it as their plane...... This was repeated several times, and then sparks began to explode from fleaming rocket-like anti-aircraft shells around the plane...... Alas, it's really unfortunate that I can't communicate with the ground, I can't announce or shout to the whole universe that my family is fighting my family...... Maybe it's Olg's own fault? Didn't bypass the blocking fire belt? …… I had to use a maneuver to escape the danger. Pressing the steering stick to one side and kicking the other side, he quickly got out of the danger zone......

In the cross-shining light of several searchlights, he immediately noticed a small shining dot. The lights were glued to it, as if intent on directing the plane towards him......

"Look at me! ......," he shouted inwardly.

The shiny dots grew noticeably larger, revealing the silhouette of an oddly shaped airplane. Olg stared intently at the target, piloting the plane to turn a corner, so that he could enter through the tail of the enemy plane, he could not make up his mind to attack from the side, for fear that the enemy plane would flash by, because he had never hit a fast-moving target, and he had never practiced to get a advance to hit the plane accurately.

When he flew from the shadows to the irradiation zone, there was a strange feeling. The light gray wing of the enemy plane had the word "man" on it, and it did not even have a tail, but why did the propellers on its wings not in the front, but in the rear?

"It's the enemy's new heavy fighter!" Olg recognized this as a never-before-seen Chinese fighter...... At this moment, it was as if he had forgotten his plane, or even his body, and he was quietly observing, waiting nervously in the dark, with only one conviction in his heart: he could not let the enemy plane go......

It's only 400 meters away from this weird Chinese heavy fighter...... Olg leaned close to the sights and fired a machine-gun at the wing of an enemy aircraft with the word "man" in black...... But why hit from such a distance, why hit the wings ?! Get closer, hit the engine, hit the crew cockpit! …… Got closer, fired another point shot, this time in the middle of the Chinese fighter. It seemed to have pierced several holes for the enemy plane, but Olg was also almost hit by an aerial shooter in the tail of the cabin of a Chinese heavy fighter. He saw two strings of tracer bullets flying towards him, but they flew by...... Probably because he was in the dark, and the Chinese shooters could not see him under the harsh searchlights.

He turned to the other side and re-entered, attempting to hit the driver's cockpit with a machine gun from below, and then to the right engine...... Another string of glowing bullets flew, and although he made a turn in time, he was hit......

Olg stared at the Chinese heavy fighter, and now he could see clearly that it was an extremely strange plane, with huge triangular wings, and two huge propeller engines on the wings, but the propellers were upside down, and the engines had two inclined vertical wings, and it had a pointed nose, and the nose had two small wings. If you don't look at it up close, you might think it's like an airplane flying upside down.

This strange Chinese plane obviously had a lot of firepower, it hit Olg's "MiG-3" with ease, and his armor protection was also very strong - this is the usual style of Chinese things - Olg had obviously hit it first, but it looked unscathed!

Olg tried to control the injured "MiG-3", but at this moment, the Chinese fighter fired at him again, Olg felt as if countless sharp swords had pierced him in an instant, everything in the cockpit began to shatter, scattering in all directions, and he saw red smoke sprayed onto the shattered cockpit glass.

That's blood......

In an instant, everything around was engulfed in flames.

Vasily who has already landed? Zhugashvili couldn't help but feel a pang of confinement as he watched one Soviet fighter after another dragging the flames like moths to the ground.

He counted that in the moment between his own parachute jump and his fall to the ground, about 20 Soviet fighters were shot down (three of which were shot down by Soviet anti-aircraft fire), and the loss of enemy aircraft was only 4 - one bomber and three fighters.

At this moment, although his heart is inexplicably painful, he also has to admit that the gap in technology cannot be made up by manpower and the spirit of sacrifice that is not afraid of death.

The Chinese aircraft, both fighter and bomber, were excellent, and the proficiency of the Chinese pilots, especially in night battles, showed that they had undergone a great deal of training that the Soviet pilots lacked.

Another Soviet fighter was shot down, and the pilot inside apparently failed to parachute in time, and the flaming fighter plane roared over Vasily's head and crashed into the field in the distance, with a loud bang, turning into a cloud of fire.

Vasily did not dare to look any further, he calmed down, took a deep breath and ran in the direction of the outskirts of Moscow.

(To be continued)