"Now that China is fully prepared for war, it can openly abandon the restraint of the past. You can see it from the large bombers they sent ...... Hongyan."

This is the end of Murayama's war record, as he was subsequently killed in a battle to stop the "air fleet" consisting of Chinese "Hongyan" strategic bombers.

"Why are all these sorties of 'fast knife' fleets?"

After reading the battle report, Yang Shuoming asked with some puzzlement: "The 'Quick Knife' is a medium-sized tactical bomber, so it should not be suitable for carrying out such a mission as strategic bombing, right?" ”

"What the chief said is right," Xiao Yang, deputy minister of the Air Force, nodded with a smile, "The bombing is enough, the range of the 'Quick Knife' is enough, but the bomb load is not enough, and the task of performing the same kind should be a heavy bomber like the 'Hongyan'." ”

"The biggest advantage of the 'Quick Knife' bomber is that it is only slightly inferior to the fighter and fast enough, as well as the survival surname of the armored fuselage, and it is a penetration model used to face high-intensity air defense." Yang Shuoming said, "If we must 'quickly knife' to carry out strategic bombing, the best targets are air defense positions, radar stations, military airports, and high-protection military targets." ”

"That's right, the 'Quick Knife' is like an army tank, used to break through strong defenses," Xiao Yang said, "The 'Hongyan' is like the infantry that follows the battle, and after breaking through the enemy's defenses, the rest will be done by the 'Hongyan'." At present, the bombing of the "Kuaidao" group has caused great damage to the air defense system of the company. Next, it's time for 'Hongyan' to play. ”

"Then I see." Yang Shuoming nodded with satisfaction, "The 'Hongyan' strategic bomber can only carry out horizontal bombing above 5,000 meters, and the 'Quick Knife' is to smash the walnut shell, but the 'Quick Knife' is best used to break through the tightly defended battle line with the army." The 'Quick Knife' can perform dive precision strikes, and in addition, it can mix and match the 'Quick Knife' and the 'Wild Goose', with the 'Quick Knife' starting and the 'Wild Goose' washing the floor. ”

"It seems that the chief can pick up the affairs of our Air Force Department." Xiao Yang said with a smile.

"Is the 'Hongyan' group departing today?" Yang Shuoming asked.

"It should have been dispatched by now." Xiao Yang looked up at the clock on the wall and said.

Hearing Xiao Yang's answer, Yang Shuoming sighed, Xiao Yang noticed that a trace of melancholy seemed to flash in Yang Shuoming's eyes, he immediately thought of something, and couldn't help grinning, showing a wry smile.

"Yuhan, this kid, is really too ...... surname"

"Her classmates fought against her in Nanyang, and several of them died, and she was bent on avenging them, so she joined the Air Force bomber team." Yang Shuoming smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Today's young people are no longer something that we old people can manage. ”

"They are a generation that grew up in the era of the Ming Boiling Constitution." Xiao Yang said, "The one in our family is also a surname about the same as Yuhan, no, he also went to the Siberian front." ”

Listening to Xiao Yang's words, Yang Shuoming was speechless for a while.

"We can only think of more ways now to end this war sooner and make them sacrifice less." Xiao Yang said, "The strategic bombing of Yuben is also aimed at achieving this goal. ”

Yang Shuoming listened to Xiao Yang's words, and his eyes unconsciously appeared with thousands of bombers, as well as the burning city.

"Yuhan! See? We're over Tokyo now. ”

In the cabin of the "Sapphire" heavy bomber, the navigator Zhang Ying looked at the coordinate display and said to the bomber Yang Yuhan.

"See." Yang Yuhan looked at the hazy city at night outside the window and nodded.

After carrying out several "1,000-plane bombings" with the "Kuaidao" bombers as the protagonists, the newly formed strategic bomber squadron composed of the "Hongyan" heavy bombers undertook the task of carrying out strategic bombing against the "Hongyan" bombers. After the strategic bomber fleet was formally formed, it was under the direct command of the Chinese Air Force Command, and at the same time under the command of the Supreme Command. The headquarters of the strategic bomber fleet is located in Yanjing, and the strategic bomber fleet is mainly equipped with the latest G6 "Hongyan" heavy bomber, which is currently the best bomber in the world. The speed is 617 kilometers per hour, the ceiling is 12,000 meters, the combat radius is more than 3,000 kilometers, and the maximum bomb load is 10 tons. The aircraft is also equipped with the latest "Beidou" radar, "Xingpai" navigation coordinate instrument and movable turret, in addition to the sealed cockpit on the plane to provide a good working environment for the pilot.

The first shot of the strategic bombing of the capital was first fired by the 1st Strategic Bomber Force. On 12 August, the "Hongyan" heavy bombers of China's 1st Strategic Bomber Unit began to be stationed on the Korean Peninsula. After a period of training bombing of the islands off the coast, the Chinese Air Force began to prepare to deliver a heavy blow to the islands.

On 24 August, 272 "Hongyan" bombers took off from the Korean Peninsula and flew non-stop to Tokyo. The rumbling sound of motors shook the sky, and this was the first attack of the Chinese Air Force on Tokyo since the start of the war. The government and the opposition are full of confidence in this bombing - this is not the time when I let Yue himself call! The first target of the "Hongyan" bomber formation was the Nakajima factory near Tokyo, which was the largest aircraft engine manufacturing plant in Japan.

The sky over Tokyo is thick with clouds. This has brought many difficulties to the "Hongyan" bomber formation, which intends to carry out precision bombing during the day. The commander of the commander of the commander had no choice but to change the battle plan on the fly: 82 "Hongyan" bombers equipped with bombing radars bombed the original targets, and the remaining 190 "Hongyan" bombers carried out visual bombing of the industrial area of Tokyo.

At the same time that the Chinese bombers were flying on the mainland, more than 100 planes quickly took off and flew towards the Chinese bomber group. As soon as the two sides approached, the powerful defensive artillery fire on the "Hongyan" bomber rang out, making it difficult for the fighter to get close. The "Hongyan" bomber had a total of five automatic turrets, four of which were equipped with double-barreled 12.7-mm machine guns and two 20-mm machine guns in the upper front. The plane's fire control makes it easy to maneuver these turrets and automatically fire at incoming enemy aircraft. During the entire bombing process, only 2 "Hongyan" bombers were shot down and 11 were damaged. Even so, the bombing effect was not satisfactory - fewer than 30 aircraft found their intended targets, and the bombing of targets was far from exhausting. On 2 September, 124 "Hongyan" struck again. Although throughout the month of September, the number of bombers involved in the bombing assault increased and the bombed cities expanded to Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Yokohama, etc., American intelligence analysts judged from the aerial reconnaissance photos taken that most of the main assault targets were not destroyed!

"This must change!" Lieutenant General Luo Yasen, who had just been transferred from the post of commander of the bomber unit to serve as commander of the strategic bomber force and former commander of the 2nd Bomber Division of the 6th Air Force of the Siberian Military District, secretly made up his mind. Although there were some objective difficulties during this period, such as the small number of heavy bombers, the average availability of only 425 "Hongyan" in the strategic bomber force, and the poor meteorological conditions on the route from the Korean Peninsula to Yueben, and the frequent occurrence of hurricanes, which seriously affected the approach to the bombing entry point and the selection of targets. However, this is by no means the main reason, and after careful analysis, Luo Yasen realized that the Chinese Air Force's habitual daytime high-altitude precision bombing on the East Siberian battlefield is fundamentally inappropriate for strategic bombing. Since most of the important military industrial targets in the city are concentrated in the vicinity of the city, and the city has many wooden buildings and is extremely flammable, the effect of switching to incendiary bombs will be better than that of high-explosive bombs. At the same time, if night bombing is adopted, the bomb load can be increased from 3 tons to 6 to 8 tons, and the attack on Chinese bombers by the fighters can also be reduced.

General Royasin was bold and intelligent. It is precisely on this point that the son of an ordinary worker in Changchun City, through continuous struggle, was promoted from a bomber pilot to a lieutenant general, and was promoted to the commander of the strategic bomber force at the age of 36. When the pilots heard the news, they were shocked and thought that their commander was really crazy. Ke Luo Yasen believes that a night attack is a kind of surprise attack, which will not be intercepted by fighter planes, and that removing the cannon can also avoid accidental damage in the dark night. Of course, he was well aware that there were many difficulties that could determine the success or failure of this new idea: meteorological conditions, interception by enemy fighters, aircraft failures, air navigation at night, and so on, but he was determined to give it a go. Of course, there are winners and losers in gambling, but Luo Yasen firmly believes that he must be a winner!

As a rehearsal, on October 4, 1943, Luo Yasen used 90 "Hongyan" bombers to carry out an "experimental surname" assault on Osaka, in which a total of 260 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped. Seeing the encouraging results of the bombing, Royasin conducted a larger "experiment" on October 15. On that day, he sent a total of 183 "Hongyan" bombers to bomb Tokyo, dropping 560 tons of incendiary bombs, as a result of which 38,000 buildings were reduced to ashes.

In view of the very good effect of the "Hongyan" bombing at low altitudes in Kobe and Tokyo, the Chinese wartime cabinet meeting formally decided to use incendiary bombs to bomb selected industrial targets throughout the territory of Japan. The first large-scale fire attack was scheduled for November 9, targeting Tokyo. The Shitamachi area of the city was the focus of the bombing, because it was a residential area for low-income people in Tokyo, and the houses adjacent to each other were only about one meter apart from each other, and most of them were made of wooden slats, which made the Shitamachi area an ideal target for the Chinese Air Force to drop incendiary bombs. While this may have killed tens of thousands of civilians, it is the best way to compensate for the poor precision bombing due to the dispersion of industrial targets.

At 5:32 p.m. on 9 November, the first batch of "Hongyan" bombers, led by Major General Ye Chu, commander of the 212th Bomber Wing, took off from the Seoul Air Base on the Korean Peninsula. The roar of the 354-plane G6 "Hongyan" bomber group echoed over the Korean Peninsula for more than two hours, and the low-altitude bombing at night was still a new thing for the Chinese Air Force after all. Although the strategic bombing of Yueben in the past few months was a psychological blow to the military and civilians of Yueben, it was far from reaching the situation of demoralization of the people predicted by Du Hei, and even made the civilians of Yueben increase their resentment against the US military, and even the pilots of the Chinese Air Force were warned before taking off: "If you are shot down, try to capture the military as quickly as possible, otherwise, the civilians will kill you on the spot!" ”

After a long voyage, at 21:15 p.m., the navigators of the "Hongyan" group took the lead in flying over Tokyo and dropped flares on the Lower Town area to indicate the targets of other planes. The sirens screamed in the quiet night sky, and before the air defense units could react, the two "Hongyan" bombers in the vanguard had already flown out of the city at a speed of 480 kilometers per hour, and a fiercely burning "fire dragon" slowly appeared behind them.

Due to the sudden realization of the bombardment, the resistance of the Japanese army was very weak, and there was only the swaying of the light pillars of searchlights in the night sky and the sparse artillery fire from anti-aircraft guns, and not a single fighter plane appeared. Since the Chinese Air Force is carrying out high-altitude bombing, it can be said that the air fleet composed of "Hongyan" can be dealt with with by the surname of the current fighter plane. Since most of the fighters were designed to focus on offensive warfare in field battles and to give full play to the best air combat capabilities at an altitude of about 5,000 meters, the use of fighters for territorial air defense could not reach the ascent altitude and climb rate required by air defense operations at that time. At that time, although the theoretical ceiling of the fighters was about 10,000 meters, the actual ceiling was only 8,000 meters, and most of the fighters could only maintain a normal flight state at best when attacking the "Hongyan" bomber formation at an altitude of 10,000 meters, and the body would immediately slide as soon as it tilted slightly. Therefore, in an air battle, they can only attack once and cannot repeatedly attack the same target; coupled with the powerful defensive firepower of the "Hongyan" strategic bomber, it is undoubtedly very difficult for the air force to intercept such a behemoth as the "Hongyan" with fighter planes. As far as he is concerned, using antiaircraft artillery for air defense is a feasible method, but to deal with the high-flying "Hongyan" bombers, the caliber of anti-aircraft guns needs to reach more than 120 mm, and the army has very few such anti-aircraft guns; in the second half of 1943, the huge Tokyo area was only equipped with 46 120-mm antiaircraft guns! The gap in the quality and quantity of equipment has greatly limited the army's counterattack capability.

"Where have all my fighters gone?" Zhang Ying looked at the dark night sky around her and asked to herself.

"I should be going to intercept the 'Quick Knife' group." Mechanic Yuan Dan pointed to the faint red light flickering in the distance and said, "The mission of the 'Quick Knife' bomber is to lure them away for us. ”

"Then we'll have to thank them when we go back." Another mechanic, Song Hehui, laughed.

"Thank you, thank you! Isn't it enough for you Xiao Song to let them take advantage? Zhang Ying smiled. When the other comrades-in-arms heard her words, they also laughed, and for a moment the bomber, which was composed entirely of female pilots, was filled with laughter.

"Damn the Wako! Go to hell! Thinking of the classmates who died in the Nanyang war, Yang Yuhan restrained her smile, and at this time she saw that the city below suddenly lit up, and a fire dragon soared into the air and immediately began to drop bombs.

The two navigators at the front of the bomber group flew into the quiet sky over the city of Tokyo and dropped two strings of napalm in a crisscross in the air less than 500 meters above the ground. Immediately afterward, more than 300 "Hongyan" bombers began to rain more than 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo. During this period, dozens of modified "Quick Knife" bombers directly sprinkled dozens of tons of gasoline, and the originally scattered flames quickly gathered into a storm of flames.

For a time, the wind took advantage of the fire, and the fire helped the wind, and the fire swept through the whole of Tokyo, and everything was set on fire. The temperature of the ground approached 1,000 degrees Celsius almost instantly, and trees, houses, and human bodies were all on fire, and even the metal was melted. On the ground, the fire spread like a flood, and the fleeing crowd ran back and forth. But the flames soon enveloped them and quickly turned them into burning char. Some people jumped into ponds and rivers to survive, but the water in the ponds and rivers boiled in the heat, scalding them to death. The heat wave produced by the fierce combustion even caused the "Hongyan" bombers in the sky to jolt up and down, and the original silver belly was smoked black.

The unfavorable weather for the "Hongyan" fleet also helped a lot this time. At the moment when the bomb exploded, a gust of wind suddenly blew up, and the fire spread rapidly, burning everywhere. High winds blew burning debris through fire lines and ditches. The scattered flames quickly converged into a raging sea of fire, and the bombers flying towards the target could see the flames from a distance of forty kilometers. The arriving bombers cut through the billowing smoke, and the fuselage and glass windows were blackened. When the bomb bay door opened, the smell of burning buildings invaded the engine room. The raging fire also caused several powerful air currents, sending several "Hongyan" several feet high in the blink of an eye. The crew bounced off their seats, and some of them fell off their seats hard, and if it weren't for the pilot's protective helmet, the consequences would have been devastating.

After dropping the bombs, General Ye Chu climbed directly above the "Hongyan" group that was launching an attack, drove the plane to hover over Tokyo, and carefully observed it with the crew to collect data for later analysis and evaluation. Ye Chu reported the status of the fire to General Luo Yasen through the radio code.

(To be continued)