The little devil pilots didn't know that the Eighth Route Army and the common people had released a lot of kites and balloons in the air, but they knew that when the plane was flying at high speed, hitting a bird might destroy the plane and kill them.

Leading the operation of the devil group was Major General Nakamoto Shengxiao, commander of the First Flying Regiment of the North China Front Aviation Group. Just last night and this morning, his 90th flying team was defeated by the Eighth Route Army. After Major General Nakamoto Shengxiao led his 10th Reading Flight Brigade and 83rd Reading Flying Brigade to Jinan and Qingdao airports respectively, he was ordered to go to Weixian to support the 33rd Division in the operation between Weixian and Pingdu. After the two brigades converged in the sky over Weixian and Pingdu, Major General Nakamoto Shengxiao naturally became the supreme commander of the group.

When Rear Admiral Moritaka Nakamoto ordered the group to conduct a low-altitude search attack, the devil pilots were in front of them in a cloud of smoke, and the visibility was extremely low, and it was impossible to see what was in the smoke clearly. Only when a plane hits a kite or a balloon will they know they're in trouble.

The planes of this era were all propeller planes, and when balloons and kites were sucked into the propellers, the engines would immediately stop working, and the final result would be to fall headlong into the ground.

Under normal circumstances, when the group finds that there are killers such as birds, kites, balloons, and Kong Ming lanterns in front of them, they will immediately pull up and dodge.

The problem is that this is not the normal situation right now. Liu Yimin dared to launch a pursuit of the 33rd Division during the day, and he had already made a plan in his heart. After Zhou Yi conducted a test of a flock of birds and balloons against a swarm of dive planes of the Yue army at the Twenty Lipu Airport, he was even more confident and determined to use smoke and kites, balloons, and flocks of birds to deal with the retaliatory attack of the devil swarm.

Zhou Yi's special air defense team originally collected and produced many kites and balloons, and this Weixian County is the place where three consecutive kite conferences have been held, and there are many shops in the city that specialize in kite production and sales, and there are many stocks. Moreover, the vast majority of families in Weixian County can make kites, and the level of flying is also very high. When they heard that the Eighth Route Army was going to use kites against the little devils' planes, the villagers who had just been liberated immediately started up. Without the excessive mobilization of the cadres and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, the men, women and children of the city began to be busy. All the kites that have been in stock are taken out and released into the sky, and those that are not in stock are immediately made. For a time, the most heard words in the whole Weicheng were two words: "kite". The work that the fellows do with all their strength is one thing, three words: "paste kite"!

The idea of the villagers is very simple, the Eighth Route Army can wipe out all the little devils in Weicheng without knowing it, then there must be great magical powers, they say that kites can fight planes, then they must be able to. Besides, it can cost a lot of money to make a kite, not to mention using ten or eight to get rid of a machine, that is, to fly all the kites in the city into the sky, as long as you can get rid of one machine. That guy, it's so damnable!

Weicheng people are this idea, Fangzi people are this idea, from Jiaoxian to Linzi, the villagers who were liberated overnight along the entire Jiaoji Road are all this idea. How could the little devil have thought that these people who are usually invaded and enslaved will also resist, and it is the most primitive resistance. Not only did they burn the sorghum straw in their fields to make thick smoke and cover the battlefield where the Eighth Route Army was chasing and killing the little devils, but they also used their calloused dexterous hands and kites that they used only to watch, entertain, and compete to bury the army's weapons of aggression and advanced fighters!

Major General Nakamoto Shengxiao also had no choice. He knew that the smoke was used by the Eighth Route Army to block the pilot's line of sight and cover important targets, and this situation had occurred as early as when the Japanese military fighters bombed southern Hebei on a large scale. However, at that time, only some county towns and market towns were surrounded by thick smoke, and some county seats, market towns, and villages were not doing that, and they were all clearly exposed under the fighters of the imperial army. Now it's different, the whole Jiaoji Road seems to be burning crop straw, the smoke is billowing and you can't see anything clearly. Originally, under such circumstances, it should have withdrawn to the airfield and waited for the smoke to dissipate before dispatching, but the key was that the 33rd Division was in urgent need of reinforcements, and the Eighth Route Army could think of using smoke to cover the battlefield, that is, to launch an attack on the 33rd Division with the help of smoke cover. Therefore, he had no choice but to order a low-altitude search attack.

Of course, there are places where the smoke is not very thick, and you can see the target on the ground clearly. But there was no Eighth Route Army that was attacking, and their key target was the road from Weicheng to Pingdu. The telegram of the 33rd Division made it clear that they were retreating along this road, and that the Eighth Route Army was also pursuing along this road. Another key target is Weicheng and Fangzi, the commander of the 12th Army, Lieutenant General Ogaka Kamizo, was attacked at Fangzi's Twenty Lipu Airport, and the Eighth Route Army is likely to have occupied Weicheng and completely eliminated the 10th Eighth Division. In other words, if the bomb was thrown on the streets of Weicheng and Fangzi, it was either the Eighth Route Army or the common people who colluded with the Eighth Route Army that were killed. Unfortunately, these key targets are shrouded in smoke.

Major General Zhongyuan Shengxiao knew that the Eighth Route Army Aviation Brigade was in Shandong, and he knew very well that Xuzhou's Camel Mountain Airport and Matoushan Airport had just been attacked by the Eighth Route Army, and that all the fighters, bombers, and reconnaissance planes at the two airports had fallen into the hands of the Eighth Route Army Air Brigade. As soon as this fighter plane is in the hands of the Eighth Route Army, the danger will occur at any time. Therefore, although Major General Nakamoto Moritaka ordered the aircraft group to conduct a low-altitude search attack, that was only an order to be carried out by the bombers. Reconnaissance planes were sent by him to reconnoiter everywhere, and fighters were ordered to hide at high altitudes and take up combat alert missions.

Nakamoto Moritaka's combat experience is no problem, he did not blindly order a low-altitude search attack, but determined an important target area based on several rivers, and only then gave the order to start a low-altitude search attack.

Originally, every time the military air force participated in a battle, it was able to achieve air-ground coordinated operations; in addition to aircraft reconnaissance and determination of attack targets, ground troops could also indicate targets and guide air forces to carry out air-to-ground attacks. This is a logical thing, but the 33rd Division is retreating rapidly and cannot be contacted, so it can only rely on the formation of the aircraft group to reconnoiter on its own.

At present, the army is determined to search and attack the direction according to the direction of the Wei River, the Bailang River, and the Wei River, and with reference to the coordinates of Weicheng and Fangzi. Major General Zhongyuan Shengxiao thought that as long as he found the exact location of Weicheng, found the Eighth Route Army, and launched a round of bombing, he could disrupt the morale of the Eighth Route Army and ease their offensive against the 33rd Division. Then, according to the position of the river, the exact position of the 33rd Division was determined, and a second round of attacks was carried out, and the Eighth Route Army, which was attacking the 33rd Division, was directly sent into a fire net woven with bombs, airborne machine guns, and machine guns, and sent this group of daring and reckless guys who repeatedly carried out despicable sneak attacks to hell.

The little devil bomber began to descend rapidly.

Seeing the bombers descend to the top of the smoke layer, and then plunge into the smoke without hesitation, the commander of the devil fleet, Major General Nakamoto Moritaka, had a grim face, and the posture was very similar to the appearance of the devil commander in the later movies "Pearl Harbor" and "Sneak Attack on Pearl Harbor".

After the devil bomber formation drilled into the cloud layer, the pilots found that the so-called low-altitude search attack was too difficult, because the visibility was too low, and not only could they not see the ground targets clearly, but they could not even see the ground obstacles clearly. The plane is so fast, if it hits, it will be destroyed and killed.

Suddenly, an exclamation came from the throat microphone of Major General Nakamoto Moritaka: "My engine has failed"!

Zhongyuan Shengxiao wondered in his heart, he had just carried out maintenance before takeoff, and there was no problem with each fighter, how could it break down at a critical time?

Just thinking about it, there were shouts of engine failure in the throat microphone one after another, Nakamoto Shengxiao was not stupid, he knew that there was something strange in it, and immediately ordered to abandon the low-altitude search attack, and all the bombers quickly pulled up and got out of the smoke layer.

As soon as the order was given, the shouts of the captains of the several malfunctioning bombers requesting to parachute were heard from the throat microphone, and Nakamoto Shengxiao did not hesitate at all, and immediately replied to approve the parachute jump.

It's a pity that Nakamoto Shengxiao's own plane was hovering at high altitude, and he couldn't hear the sound of the malfunctioning bomber crashing, nor could he see the scene after the pilots parachuted. Otherwise, he would have ordered all the bombers to drop bombs at high altitudes.

Just when the group of bombers of the army was urgently raised, a light bomber of the army was lucky, this guy descended quickly, and finally got out of the smoke layer and saw the ground. Therefore, he immediately reported excitedly: "I saw Weicheng, and it is right in front of my eyes". Unfortunately, his lucky time was too short, because he was too close to the ground, and when the plane flew over a poplar forest, the belly of the plane was scratched by a branch, and he staggered to kiss the earth.

When the bombers were pulled up, Nakamoto Shengxiao found out that four bombers had lost in this unsuccessful low-altitude search attack, and except for the bomber that reported that Weicheng had crashed into the city wall or other ground obstacles, the remaining three bombers were all inexplicably engine failures that caused people to parachute and planes to crash.

Zhongyuan Shengxiao had a retreat in his heart, he couldn't joke with the precious fighter, the enemy situation was unknown, he couldn't see the ground target clearly, this battle couldn't be fought at all!

As a result, Major General Nakamoto Moritaka personally sent a report to Lieutenant General Kinoshita Toshita, commander of the North China Front Air Group, reporting the situation and requesting approval for the retreat of the group.

At this time, Lieutenant General Kinoshita Toshita also knew about the farewell telegram sent by the commander of the 33rd Division, Tataro Gansu, and understood that the 33rd Division no longer needed reinforcements, so he agreed to the request of Major General Nakamoto Moritaka and approved the end of the reinforcement operation, and the aircraft group returned to Jinan and Qingdao airports.

If the matter ends at this time, then the military aircraft group composed of the 10th Reading Flight Brigade and the 83rd Reading Flight Brigade of the First Flying Regiment will really retreat safely, and they have fighter escorts, and the Eighth Route Army really has nothing to do with them. But there are accidents in everything, and this is when an accident happens.

On the morning of 8 November, although the temperature was a little low, the sun was hanging in the sky and there was no wind on the ground, which did not affect the group operations, and the smoke array of the Eighth Route Army was also laid out smoothly. But by this time the weather had changed and the wind had risen.

A gust of wind slowly blew away the smoke, and the ground target that had been wrapped in the smoke began to loom in the air. As soon as he saw this situation, Major General Nakamoto Shengxiao, who had just received the order to retreat, changed his mind, his fleet was all fully loaded with ammunition, since he could basically determine the ground target, what did he hesitate about?

Nakamoto Shengxiao seemed to be a different person, and the voice of the order was murderous: "I am the commander of the First Flying Regiment, Nakamoto Shengxiao, all of them, immediately carry out a low-altitude search attack and destroy all the targets found." To repeat, I am the commander of the 1st Flying Regiment, Nakamoto Moritaka, all of them, and immediately carry out a low-altitude search attack to destroy all the targets found. ”

After giving the order, Major General Nakamoto Moritaka was even exempted from high-altitude alert, and took fighters and bombers to change angles in the air and swoop down with the wind.

Major General Zhongyuan Shengxiao didn't want to think about it, how could Liu Yimin not want to take revenge on the little devil when he wiped out the two divisions of the Yue Army in one battle? Can he be so stupid as to put the troops there in a bright way for the devils to blow up? Will he not deploy anti-aircraft fire to meet the plane?

When Nakamoto Shengxiao led his group of dozens of planes to pounce viciously, the wind gradually increased, and Weicheng slowly emerged from the smoke.

Han Qianjian, commander of the Air Defense Command and commander of the air defense brigade, and Zhou Huan, political commissar of the instructor, already knew that a vicious battle was inevitable when the wind was blowing, and immediately issued an order to prepare for battle.

Following Han Qianqian's order, the gunfire of the air defense guard posts rang out one after another, and there was silence on the positions of the 1st and 2nd Air Defense Regiments, and all the antiaircraft guns and antiaircraft machine guns were pointed in the southeast direction. The soldiers knew that it was a southeast wind blowing now, and the little devil plane must have taken advantage of the southeast wind to pounce downward.

As soon as the anti-aircraft gunfire rang out, it was passed from station to station that the instructors' units, which had just been transferred to concealment and standby, immediately entered a state of emergency air defense. Light and heavy machine guns were all erected, and rifle shooters were either lying on their backs with their guns or raising their guns upwards according to cover, ready for battle.

When the anti-aircraft gunfire came to mind, Liu Yimin was drafting a telegram to the central authorities.

In the telegram, Liu Yimin not only reported in detail the course of the battle, but also analyzed the reasons for the success of the battle.

In Liu Yimin's view, the second phase of the Jiaoji Road Battle was so successful mainly for several reasons:

First, the fighter plane was accurately grasped, and when the main force of the army was about to see the Wuhan city wall and the Guangzhou city wall, it was not afraid of reinforcements from the main force of the army.

The second is to ensure that the campaign is launched suddenly. Before the war, the instructors were on standby for a long time in concealment, so as to carry out a cold-gun and cold-gun campaign to cover up the truth about the main force's return to Shandong, show the enemy weakness, and give the army the illusion that the main force of the instructor was not in Shandong. Therefore, when the main force attacks from multiple directions, the devil is easy to panic and command properly.

The third is the proper use of tactics. The first step is to use special tactics to attack Anqiu and open the gates to Fangzi and Weicheng. Then he directly took Weicheng, terminated the headquarters of the 10th and 8th Divisions of the Yue Army, and replaced the command of the Yue Army to mobilize troops, disrupting the command system of the Yue Army, causing it to make mistakes again and again. The second step was to capture alive the commander of the 12th Army, Lieutenant General Otaka Kamezo, implement fishing tactics, and mobilize the army to reinforce desperately. The third step is to carry out the tactics of splitting the enemy in sections and destroying the enemy in batches, taking advantage of the fact that the army likes railway transportation, seizing the air raids at the front and rear of the reinforcements, dividing the 25 brigades of the 108th Division of the Syrian army into one brigade after another, concentrating superior forces to attack the troops of the size of the Japanese army's brigade, supplemented by explosive means, turning the Syrian army into a dead snake in sections and annihilating it in parts. The fourth step is to implement the air-ground integrated combat tactics. Seizing the opportunity of the 33rd Division's panic retreat, it dispatched all the bombers of the First Air Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, divided into several formations, to intensively bomb the Syrian troops who were retreating along the highway. Then the 1st Brigade and the Cavalry Brigade were dispatched to outflank the cavalry and quickly pursue the armored troops to completely annihilate the enemy.

Fourth, it is necessary to concentrate firepower and armored forces. After the 19th Brigade of the 19th and 8th Divisions of the 1st and 9th Divisions of the Chinese Army was reinforced to the Twenty Lipu Airport, they seized the opportunity of the devils to assemble their troops and mobilized six artillery regiments, namely the Artillery Brigade, the 1st Teaching Brigade, and the Cavalry Brigade, to wipe out the 104th Brigade of the 10th Brigade of the Chinese Army in one round of saturation strikes. Then, in the pursuit of the 33rd Division, a tank squadron, an armored vehicle squadron and 150 vehicles of the 108th Division captured in Weicheng were mobilized to equip the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division, and two mechanized regiments of the 1st Regiment and the 2nd Regiment were dispatched to launch a pursuit along the road, ensuring the speed of the pursuit, forcing the devils to be unable to assemble troops and not having time to build a strong position. Practice has proven that a powerful armored assault force is the fundamental direction for the future development of our army.

As for the next stage of combat deployment, Liu Yimin pondered for a long time, feeling that the change in the enemy situation this morning was a bit strange. The 33rd Division suddenly turned around and fled near Weicheng, indicating that the army had already judged that Weicheng had fallen into the hands of our army, and that there was a problem with the headquarters of the 108th Division. Lei Ming reported that the Yue Army Brigade that had stayed in Zhoucun and Zhangdian had suddenly abandoned the city and fled westward, indicating that the Yue Army had received an order to withdraw to Jinan, and at that time, the main force of the 25th Brigade of the Yue Army from Zhoucun had just been annihilated. It is said that this army brigade in Zhou Village can only go out of the city to reinforce and will never abandon the city and flee immediately. What's even more strange is that Hong Chaoyuan reported that the puppet army in Xuzhou and the puppet army on the front line in Yanzhou were ready to move and began to attack the areas controlled by our army, and the scale was very large. What does this mean? Could it be that the Yue army has seen through the operational deployment of our army and wants to launch an offensive in Lunan to contain our army and implement the strategy of encircling Wei and saving Zhao? Did Naosaburo Gangbe, chief of staff of the North China Front, and Kobayashi Asaburo, chief of staff of the 12th Army, have such great ability? Do you have such a big right? You must know that mobilizing troops at the level of divisions and brigades to launch a campaign is not something that these two petty chiefs of staff can do. None of them were military commanders. Of course, it is okay to dispatch troops to rescue Odaka Kamizo, but that is a special situation, and no one can do it urgently.

Such an action by the army can only show one problem, Shouichi Terauchi is back!

Only Shouichi Terauchi, who has been suffering defeat at the hands of the instructor, can have such a high vigilance surname, and can sniff out the clues of the attack and occupation of Weicheng from the capture of the Otakaki Turtle hiding at the Twenty Lipu Airport. He was the only one who dared to immediately order the 33rd Division to flee eastward regardless of everything. Replaced by Naosaburo Gangbe, chief of staff of the North China Front, at most, he would only order the 108th Division and the 33rd Division to move closer. In fact, he did the same.

Thinking of the puppet army's offensive in Lunan again, Liu Yimin became more and more convinced that the problem was Shouichi in the temple. He is the real leader of the Chinese army in North China, and only with his orders will all divisions and regiments of the army resolutely carry out their orders without reservation. Neither of the people of Ogamobe Naosaburo and Kobayashi Asaburo have such prestige. Just look at how many telegrams Kobayashi Asaburo sent to the 108th Division from the capture of Odaka Kamizo to the elimination of the 33rd Division, this guy knows in his heart that his orders must be discounted when executed, so he will send telegrams and urges over and over again. If you want to put it aside if Terauchi Shouichi is there, it's just a matter of a telegram.

The strange thing is that until now, there is no information that Terauchi Shouichi has returned to Beiping, could it be that Terauchi Shouichi failed to command remotely after receiving the report in Tokyo?

Everything is abnormal, it is a demon!

If it's really the old devil Shouichi Terauchi who is remotely commanding in Tokyo, then things will be in trouble. This old bastard has suffered a lot and has become wiser. I am afraid that he will see through his deployment at a glance, and whether he can or whether it is necessary to capture Jinan and Qingdao will have to be reconsidered. This is because it can be seen from the eastward flight of the 33rd Division, the westward flight of the Zhoucun Army Brigade, and the offensive launched by the Lunan Army that the North China Army has once again begun to operate with unified command and careful deployment. If this is the case, I am afraid that Shouichi Terauchi has now ordered the transfer of troops to Jinan. It is difficult to say whether Zeng Zhongsheng and they can capture Jinan before the army reinforcements enter Jinan.

After thinking about it, Liu Yimin regretted it, and felt that he should not have allowed Odaka Kamizo to have the opportunity to send a report for help, should not have reported to the Central Committee so early that he had caught Otaka Kamizo, and should not have asked the Central Committee to report to Chiang Kai-shek. As soon as the news of the capture of Odaka Kamizo was announced, the 12th Army and the North China Front Army would inevitably report to the base camp, and the base camp of the army would also hear the announcement of the national political axe, which aroused the vigilance of the base camp and brought out the big devil of Shouichi Terauchi. If Otaka Kamizo is not allowed to have a chance to send a report for help, or if the news of Otaka Kamizo's arrest is not announced, then the truth of the 108th Division and the 33rd Division can be eliminated in concealment, even if it is for a day and a night, the cavalry and cars are likely to be able to rush to Jinan and Qingdao, and take the two largest cities in Shandong before the army has time to strengthen the defenders of Jinan and Qingdao. That way, the next battle will be bigger.

As soon as he thought of this, Liu Yimin felt that he was simply stupid, a good game of chess, and he walked out of the stink at the last moment.

(To be continued)