Kunming Naval Airport is actually an enlarged aircraft carrier hangar, but it has only one floor and no elevator. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Low and cramped, ground crews have to wear filter masks to drill between planes and cars, like dwarfs picking wild fruits in the bushes. At this time, the engines in the semi-underground hangar were bursting, and the dwarfs were overhauling every malfunctioning aircraft, according to the standards of the Navy, the aircraft attendance rate must reach 95 percent, but the land battle is not as good as the sea, and the frequent sorties make the aircraft attendance unable to meet the established standards, especially when both squadrons are full. In addition, the cleanliness of the land runway is not as good as that of the aircraft carrier deck, and if you fly a few more times, the engine vaporizer will be full of dust and have to be removed for cleaning.

"So ......" Seeing such a narrow hangar, Chennault, who came to visit here, endured the choking exhaust of the plane and said to Colonel Stepabin Owen, who took over Chen Wenlin's duties (to be honest, he didn't understand why this retired colleague of the US Army Aviation could be trusted by Chinese to become the head of the Navy's Kunming Air Force, but this is a good thing, Chang Kaishen has agreed that he will form and take full charge of an air team, and it is always better to deal with an American than with a Chinese): "It's because of this, Those bitches in the Navy are not allowed to export fighters? ”

"Yes. The U.S. Navy is all bitch-raised! Colonel Istabin Owen nodded hatefully, "We should be allowed to use a new plane that we have developed, but those bitch bastards in Washington think it's a very good carrier-based fighter, so it's forbidden to export." It's really hard for me to imagine what the hell they're thinking?! The value of a weapon lies in its use, and if it cannot be improved in real combat, its problems will always be there. And for us, without fighters, we can only fight the Japanese with attack aircraft, but fortunately they are stupid and slow bombers, and there is not enough firepower, if it is a fighter, everything is over......"

The hangar is full of planes, and because the wings can be folded, it doesn't take up too much space. This is also the first time Chennault has seen a Navy folded wing aircraft, very ingenious design, but wasted dozens of kilograms of weight. In addition to the folding wings, Chennault also lamented the sturdiness of the plane - it could still wobble back even if half of the wing was lost (he was also curious about where the broken winged plane flew back from, if it was Gohara, it would be incredible).

"Then ......," Chennault mused, "what must we do to get the fighter?" ”

"Fuck those bitch raised ** to get it!" Colonel Owen brought the inherent roughness of an Army Aviation officer, and he was already impatient with the Naval Aviation Agency. "That's the way they like it, nothing else."

"Ahh Chennault could only laugh dryly at this, he wanted to say that fucking those bitches raised ** may not be able to get the plane. "Istabain, until I fuck those bitch raised **, I'll only have to accept saboteur attack planes from you."

"Exactly." Owen nodded in agreement, "But my boss, Commander Lee, is worried about whether your men will have the guts to line up and storm the Japanese monkey bomber array. That's what we do, and it's very effective. If your people are like those little white faces of the Chinese Air Force, they only know how to use some tricks to save their lives, and they don't dare to hit the ...... head-on"

"Nope! No! I promise that those children are not like that now, they are brave and they hate the Japanese to the core. Chennault hurriedly denied, "If there is such a person, I will let him get out of the way early, no matter what his origins are." ”

"Really?" Owen looked at his compatriots, and he had a hard time trusting a Chinese bureaucrat, but it was easy to trust an American.

"Really. I promise. Chennault raised his right hand and swore solemnly with a Bible.

"Oh well. I will submit an application for the transfer of four saboteurs to your use, mainly to familiarize your men with this aircraft as soon as possible. "Owen was ready to give himself the best help he could once he believed, but that wasn't the problem.

"Istabain, I think what I need most right now is a trainer and not a saboteur." Chennault stammered. As an instructor at the Air Force Officer Academy, he was well aware of the situation of his cadets. During the war, Chongqing only focused on combat aircraft and ignored training aircraft, and aviation gasoline was also tight. Cadets of the Air Force Sergeant School can graduate in nine months and 50 flight hours, and the officer school is better, which is currently a year and a half, and the flight time is even longer. But that wasn't enough, and it would be great if the Navy's aviation school in Singapore could open it up to its own cadets. "I need more than just combat aircraft, I need everything I need to train qualified pilots, and only then will there be a qualified air force. I want my men to be able to get into the Naval Academy......"

"It can't be." Stepabin Owen subconsciously shook his head, "You know, Claire, the Navy and the Air Force must be separated, this is the unanimous opinion of the Navy leadership. They will not agree that the Air Force and Navy are trained in the same school. ”

"Isolation?!" Chennault was surprised to see the use of this word, which is generally used for whites and blacks. "I don't understand, they are all Chinese, and their skin color is exactly the same."

"But they belong to different branches of the military, and they have different political beliefs." Owen remembered Chen Wenlin's warning, and said: "My predecessor, Colonel Chen, told me that the navy must not be contaminated with the germs of the air force. I asked him: Is it because they are cowardly? HE REPLIED THAT IT WAS TO PUT AN END TO 'WENQING'. ”

“WENQING？ What is WENQING? Chennault pressed back, he had never heard of the disease.

"I had that question, but his answer wasn't specific." Owen shrugged, and he couldn't figure out why the air, navy, and air force were segregating whites and blacks. He said that it cannot be denied that the Air Force also has warriors, and they are also not afraid of sacrifice, but the Air Force has never been able to make organized and efficient sacrifices. Although the purpose of the victims is not like this, on the whole, their sacrifice is more like a gimmick, a kind of smearing like a dog's blood, the purpose is not to strike at the enemy, but to move themselves, and then to gain a sense of moral superiority. It's like saying, 'Hey! Man, you see, how can I make myself so miserable? Admire? Scared? HE SAID THAT THE SACRIFICE WAS ACTUALLY MEANINGLESS, BUT THEY TALKED ABOUT IT WITH RELISH, AND IT WAS CALLED WENQING. ”

After Owen finished speaking, he looked at Chennault, who was half-understood, and said with a smile: "Claire, do you understand?" ”

"I don't really know." Chennault thought about Irving's words, he had been in China for a long time, because he was close to the center and knew more about the Chinese than the average American.

"Yes. I don't quite understand it either. Owen shrugged his shoulders again, "Chen once said that Commander Li Zeng said: The biggest difference between the navy and the Kuomintang army is that the navy is proud of how much damage it has brought to the enemy, and the Kuomintang army is proud of how much it has paid. One is proud that I can fight, and the other is proud that I can sacrifice, but this sacrifice is often of little value. Many of them shout that sacrifice is not to sacrifice themselves, but to make others sacrifice. I guess that's why both sides need to be quarantined. ”

This time Chennault finally understood, and nodded his head. He knows China. The army has a spirit of pride in death, and they call it 'Chengren'. 'Chengren' is China. The most important thing for a military man, not to achieve victory. A 'Chengren' China. The honors received by soldiers are generally higher than those of a victorious China. The honor of the military, which is unthinkable in the United States. Correspondingly, compared with Shili, the spirit seems to be more valued by the Chongqing authorities, at least Chang Kaishen. Ironically, in addition to Chang Kaishen, even many people around Chang Kaishen say 'Chengren', but they are actually very afraid of death, and whenever they retreat, they always find various ways to leave first.

Chennault seemed to understand the reason for the need to separate the Navy and the Air Force, but at that moment, a whimpering air defense siren suddenly sounded. Owen's expression changed suddenly, and he quickly ran to the combat command room. He scolded as he ran, "Damn! The Japanese are coming, while we are supporting the army in the operation, damn it!. ”

At the beginning of the navy, there were six saboteurs to support Fu Zuoyi's operation, and after the Japanese reinforcements who rescued Wuyuan were annihilated, the Japanese army stationed in Mongolia once again went out to crusade against Fu Zuoyi, so at the request of the army, one and a half squads of saboteurs were stationed at Zhongwei Airport, and one and a half squads were eighteen saboteurs, and more should have been sent, but the simple Zhongwei Airport had limited support capacity and could only be stationed in one and a half squads. The Japanese intention to assemble forces to prepare for a large-scale bombing of Kunming was discovered by the intelligence network more than 10 days ago -- the transfer of a large number of planes was difficult to conceal, and the planes at the Haikou and Weizhou Island airports were counted. In this regard, Owen had suggested that he should take the initiative to attack and send attack planes to bomb Haikou Airport and Weizhou Island Airport, but this plan was rejected, and the General Staff believed that the attack planes would not be escorted by fighter planes, and they would suffer serious losses if they were lost.

On the surface, the reason for this is that in fact, the key to Li Kongrong's disagreement with the initiative is the voyage: Kunming to Haikou is more than 900 kilometers, while Kunming to Chongqing is only more than 600 kilometers. Naval planes can attack Haikou, which is 900 kilometers away, and naturally they can attack Chongqing. He is within the attack range of the Navy, and the bombing accuracy of the attack aircraft is so high, will Chang Kaishen be unmoved?

Colonel Owen scolded, Chennault kept running with him, he wanted to take the opportunity to see how the Navy fought, but unfortunately halfway through Owen suddenly said: "Claire, you should be in the bomb shelter instead of following me." ”

"No, I want to know how you command the battle, this experience is very important to me." Chennault insisted that he wanted to know how the Navy would use radio-to-air detectors to fight the Japanese.

"No, I can't. You are not a naval officer and cannot enter the command room. Orderly, take the colonel to the dugout. Owen turned around, said very solemnly, and then gave an American-style military salute to Chennault, who was extremely disappointed.

"Report the enemy!" Owen asked loudly as soon as he entered the operations command room, he wanted to know how many planes the Japanese devils were coming.

"Report sir, the No. 3 radar station reported that an unknown plane was found in the 135th direction, at a distance of 260 kilometers, the number is very alarming, it is likely to exceed 100 planes......" Lieutenant Zheng Liandeng was busy reporting the enemy situation to Colonel Owen, this is not an alarm from the Kunming radar station, this is an early warning from the No. 3 radar station located in Xichou County.

"A hundred?!" Owen was taken aback. The naval aviation had only two squadrons of seventy-two attack aircraft in the country, and this was due to the fact that there were no fighters, and the fighter squadrons had to fly attack aircraft instead. Now there are eighteen aircraft in the north, minus the seven that are being repaired, and there will be no more than fifty aircraft capable of taking to the skies for combat.

"Sir, radar station No. 3 urgently reported that another group of aircraft was found behind the first group, numbering about forty-five aircraft. The azimuth is 135, and the distance is 290 kilometers. Communications Sergeant Tang Furong reported loudly, looking extremely nervous. The combined number of enemy planes in the two groups is likely to be close to or exceed 200, and the Japanese rarely dispatched a bomber group of this size in China.

"Immediately order the pilot to take off, sir?" Lieutenant Zheng Liandeng also felt that the situation was critical, so he wanted the plane to take off earlier.

"Nope. No. "Owen said two noes in a row." The enemy is still more than 500 kilometers away from us, and if the target is Kunming, at normal cruising speed, it will take them two hours to reach the sky over Kunming. I now give the following orders: 1. The saboteurs at Zhongwei Airport should immediately take off and return home, and two tanker planes and one AWACS aircraft should take off immediately after they are ready, and one of the tanker planes should refuel them near the No. 2 radar station; Second, all the saboteurs at the airport entered the hangar to carry 60 kilograms of bombs, which must be completed within an hour, and other personnel went all out to repair the malfunctioning planes and strive to complete them within an hour and a half. Complete! ”

"Yes, sir." It was Tang Furong's business to give the order, and Zheng Liandeng was just a staff officer. He didn't have too many doubts about the first order, although Zhongwei Airport is more than 1,400 kilometers here, but there is an autopilot on the plane, the pilot will not feel tired, and it is not a problem to have air tanker fuel, the key is time: 1,400 kilometers will require three hours of flight, and by that time the Japanese aircraft will most likely have been evacuated; As for the second order, he wondered why he had to put bombs on the saboteurs, or should he bomb the Japanese?

Zheng Liandeng was only a lieutenant, and he could only mumble in his heart about the commander's order. With the order given, it was not difficult for all ground crews to carry 60 kg bombs when they went to work, because the number of hardpoints was limited, and a saboteur could only carry 11 60 kg bombs, which was only one-third of its bomb load.

While the ground crew was busy, the pilots began to prepare, and they rushed to the mission room for a pre-battle briefing, just as Chennault's car had just left the naval airfield, and he was still frustrated that Colonel Owen would not let him into the operations command room. He wouldn't hide in a bomb shelter like a fool, and he was going to the aviation school immediately to call Billy MacDonald and a few of them to watch the naval planes fight high outside the city, which was a rare opportunity.

Chennault hurried to the Wujiaba airport next door, and as he drove through the city with his people, two red lanterns were hung on the Wuhua Mountain Tower, the city wall, and the high places of the streets, and the whistle was blaring, and the police also appeared at the intersection. "Hang the ball, hang the ball!" People muttered while looking at the red lanterns, they were scared and curious, but they didn't stop walking, and everyone knew that if the alarm didn't run, it would kill people.