Just half an hour after Zhou Zhirou ordered the air raid siren to be sounded and the fighter squadron took off, the first wave of air raid planes arrived in Wuhan.

Major Chen Ruitian, commander of the 28th Air Force Squadron stationed at Hankou Airport, is originally from Dajiang Village, Taishan County, Guangdong Province, with a Chinese father and a Peruvian mother. Born in Portland, Oregon, USA in 1913, Chen Ruitian entered the American Aviation School run by local Chinese after graduating from high school, and obtained a U.S. pilot license after graduation. After the "918" incident, he joined the volunteer army with 13 overseas Chinese patriotic young people from Oregon, Washington, and California, and returned to China to participate in the war. Unexpectedly, after arriving in Shanghai, the [***] Air Force did not take them in, so they had to go south to Guangdong, joined Chen Jitang's Air Force, and served as a second lieutenant in the Sixth Flight Team of the Guangdong Air Force.

In 1935, Chen Ruitian was sent to Germany to study air combat techniques. After returning home, he was promoted to lieutenant. In the "Liangguang Incident", Chen Ruitian and his comrades-in-arms flew north together, joined the Central Air Force, served as a fighter flight instructor at the Jianqiao Central Aviation School in Hangzhou, and later served as the leader of the 17th Squadron.

On the second day of the Songhu War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chen Ruitian and his comrades-in-arms participated in the famous "August 14" air battle, and two days later he piloted his own Hawker biplane fighter to shoot down an advanced single-wing Type 96 bomber, setting his own record for destroying the enemy. In the following Songhu Anti-Japanese War, Nanjing Defense Battle, and Xuzhou Battle, Chen Ruitian became more and more courageous, shot down two planes, and destroyed one plane with the tail. His landline was also hit twice, but fortunately he was saved by parachuting.

At this time, Chen Ruitian was already the captain of the 26th Squadron of the Air Force.

It is said that Chen Ruitian's record should be very brilliant, and his popularity should be directly after the four heavenly kings of the Chinese Air Force, but I don't know what's going on, [***] always has no him when promoting Air Force heroes. Chen Ruitian himself received an American-style education since he was a child, paying attention to fair competition, and did not understand the bad habits of Chinese officialdom, plus he was bent on killing the enemy and serving the country, and he did not care about propaganda and did not promote himself. But others see it very clearly, the reason is that Chen Ruitian was born in the Guangdong Air Force, not a descendant of the Central Air Force, and in the eyes of some people in power, publicizing him will have a negative effect. Therefore, Chen Ruitian's record was hidden in the snow.

Of course, these things are also good things to think about, Chen Ruitian himself has not thought about it, and he has no time to think about it. Spend all day in intense battles, how can you have time to think about these false names!

When he received the order to take off urgently to meet the enemy, Chen Ruitian and his comrades-in-arms were on standby in the cabin. Hearing the announcement on the radio that the enemy planes were attacking and all the fighters were urgently taking to the air to meet the enemy, Chen Ruitian immediately ordered all 10 Il-15 fighters of his squadron to take off urgently, and then ignited the planes, taxied to the runway, and quickly lifted them into the air.

After the fighters took off smoothly in turn, Chen Ruitian commanded the whole squadron to climb high, seize a favorable position, and prepare to intercept the planes.

At half past five o'clock in the morning, the first group of planes of the Chinese army arrived in the sky over Wuhan.

The little devil has bombed Wuhan many times, and he is already very familiar with the terrain and defense situation of the three towns in Wuhan. In their minds, this is a sneak attack, and the Chinese Air Force must be unprepared, and it is the best time to take down the Wuchang and Hankou airports. Therefore, as soon as the plane came up, it rushed to the Hankou airport.

At that time, there were few military airstrips with hardened cement, and the ground was basically leveled directly and the runway was paved with gravel. The airport is rudimentary, but it is repaired quickly. This is also the fundamental reason why the air airfields of both sides can be quickly repaired after they are bombed.

After Chen Ruitian and the others were deployed, they flew to the airspace over Hankou Airport.

At this time, the sky gradually brightens and visibility improves. Chen Ruitian looked down, at an altitude of about 3,000 meters below, the plane was dark, and it really matched the intelligence, the fighter was protecting the bomber, and it seemed that the bombing was about to start.

Of course, Chen Ruitian is a veteran pilot, and he knows that the reason why the military planes are at an altitude of 3,000 meters is that on the one hand, they think that the sneak attack is safe, and on the other hand, it is also the most important aspect, that the military fighters can only fly at the highest speed at an altitude of about 3,000 meters.

The current situation is very favorable to Chen Ruitian and them, and the army thinks that the sneak attack will be safe, and not only will they not find the Chinese fighters that have occupied a favorable position, but also the height of the fighters escorting them is not enough, and as long as Chen Ruitian and his troops make a move, they will definitely have results.

Chen Ruitian made a gesture and ordered an attack.

Although the bombers of the Yue Army had completed their formation and were about to start dropping their altitudes and starting to drop bombs, Chen Ruitian still commanded the entire squadron to pounce on the fighters of the Yue Army, and his intention was obvious, to knock out a few of the fighters of the Yue Army first, and then attack the bombers of the Yue Army.

The Il-15 fighter has average speed, but it has high sensitivity, which makes it easier to fight in the air. As soon as Chen Ruitian launched an attack with his wingman, the other 8 fighters of the 26th Squadron also launched an attack on the Devil fighter group in a group of two planes.

Not to mention, the little devil is still very alert. When the bombers were about to lower their altitude to drop bombs, they found that there were no planes parked at the Hankou airport, which surprised the commander of the Yue army who led the team, thinking that the secret of the sneak attack had been leaked, and the squadron set a trap in Wuhan and immediately ordered the fighters to prepare for battle, and the bombers quickly bombed the airport facilities.

The devils woke up quickly, and Chen Ruitian's attack came faster. Seeing that Chinese fighter planes suddenly came out of the sky above the fighters, the commander of the army directly scolded the baga, and while scolding, he shouted and ordered the plane group to disperse, and the fighters to pull up and seize the advantageous position.

But at this time, it is a little late to spread out the formation.

Chen Ruitian was aiming at a Type 95 fighter jet. This fighter was developed by Kawasaki in 1935 and has a duralumin truss biplane, an open cockpit with a windshield, a fixed landing gear for fairings, and an all-metal force skin. Unbeknownst to Chen, this aircraft was the last biplane fighter of the Japanese army, and production was discontinued at the end of 1938.

In previous combat experience, the Chinese Air Force was originally equipped with the Hawk 2 type, which was slightly worse than it, but the Il-15 and Il-16 imported from the Soviet Union were slightly stronger than it. The main reason for this was that the aircraft was slow, low sensitivity, and had weak firepower, and was armed with only two 7.7mm machine guns.

When the commander of the army gave the order to disperse and seize the advantageous position, this devil pilot stepped on the left rudder, and the plane slid to the left, opening up the distance from other planes, and then as soon as he pulled the longitudinal rod, the nose of the plane was raised upward, and he saw that he was about to climb. said that it was too late, Chen Ruitian and his wingman pounced from a high place, and the machine gun spat out tongues of fire, directly hitting the middle of the devil's plane, and forcefully beating the little devil into a ball of fire.

After winning the first battle, Chen Ruitian was arrogant, and turned around with his wingman and pounced on the devil's wingman.

At this time, the information about the air battle at Wuhan Airport was already known to both the enemy and us. It is said that the military's communications are relatively advanced, and the follow-up group of planes has already known from the call of the first wave of planes that the sneak attack has failed, and they are eager to rush to the battlefield to reinforce the first wave of planes. On the part of our army, Zhou Zhirou had already issued a death order, and the fighters of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Air Force Brigades and the Soviet Air Force Volunteer Corps at various airports around Wuhan were also rushing to Wuhan, intending to repel the incoming planes and defend Wuhan. Both sides are fighting each other, and they are about to turn this air battle into the largest air battle in the defense of Wuhan.

In the first wave of attacks, Chen Ruitian and his comrades-in-arms shot down four planes and damaged one plane. But then the plane reacted, and the remaining seven fighters of the army fought desperately, dragging Chen Ruitian and they could not pursue the bombers of the army. After discovering that there was no oil or water at the Hankou airfield, the bombers of the Yue Army only carried out a wave of bombing of the Hankou airfield, blowing up the remaining oil drums and ammunition that had not had time to be transported away after refueling and reloading the Eighth Route Army Air Brigade into shrapnel flying in all directions, and the flames soared into the sky.

Because the Yangtze River and the Hanjiang River pass through the city, Wuhan is naturally divided into three towns: Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankou. However, there is no name for the three towns of Wuhan in history.

The construction of Wuhan began in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and there were Qiyue City and Lushan City in present-day Hanyang. Those who are familiar with the history of the Three Kingdoms know that at that time, Liu Biao sent Huang Zu to be the Taishou of Jiangxia according to Jingzhou, and the county was located in the city of Qiyue on the Turtle Mountain in Hanyang. At the beginning of the Three Kingdoms, in order to compete with Liu Bei for Jingzhou, Sun Quan built Xiakou City in the Snake Mountain of Wuchang today, and built a watchtower at the Yellow Huji in the city, named the Yellow Crane Tower. Unexpectedly, as soon as the Moon City and Xiakou City were built, it showed an important strategic position, the successive dynasties continued to strengthen, and the economic transportation status is also rising, like Hanyang, in the Tang Dynasty, it became the center of the merchant ship distribution in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and has the reputation of "Southeast Giant Town". The great poet Li Bai came here to write the beautiful poem of "blowing the jade flute in the Yellow Crane Tower, and the plum blossoms fall in May in the Jiangcheng", so Wuhan is also called "Jiangcheng" since ancient times. When the Southern Song Dynasty poet Lu You passed through Wuchang, he wrote that "the city is rich and rich, the columns are complicated and wrong, and the southern city outside the city is also several miles, although Qiantang, Jiankang, can not pass, and there is a hidden metropolis" to describe the prosperity of Wuchang.

Before the Ming Dynasty, there were only two towns in Wuhan, Wuchang and Hanyang, and Hankou was just a barren island close to Hanyang. The poets of the Yuan Dynasty referred to Wuhan as the "Twin Cities" in their poems. In the tenth year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, that is, in 1474 AD, the Han River was diverted from the northern foot of Guishan to enter the river, so that Hankou and Hanyang were separated, and Hankou Town was formed on the north bank of the new channel of the Han River during the Jiajing period. At this time, merchants gathered, and Hankou came from behind, becoming the country's water and land transportation hub and the largest inland river port in China. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Hankou and Zhuxian Town, Jingdezhen and Foshan Town were called the "Four Famous Towns" in the world, and Yanjing, Suzhou and Foshan were placed side by side, called "the four gatherings of the world". Merchants spread the word of mouth that "goods arrive in Hankou to live", which proves that Hankou commerce was developed in those years.

After the outbreak of the Opium War, Hankou was opened, and Britain took the lead in opening a concession in Hankou, and then Germany, France, Russia, and Yueben all opened concessions in Hankou, turning Hankou into the largest treaty port in Chinese mainland, forming the three towns of Wuhan in the modern sense. Coupled with Zhang Zhidong's factory in Hanyang, Wuhan became the cradle of China's modern industry. By the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1908, the trade volume of Hankou alone was as high as 130 million taels of silver, and it was called the Chicago of the East by foreigners.

After the Wuchang Xinhai Uprising and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Hankou became a special city of the Republic of China, Wuchang became the capital of Hubei Province, and Hanyang also became Hanyang City. Until 1927, the political axe of the Republic of China moved its capital to Wuhan, and merged the three towns of Wuhan to form Jingzhao District, collectively known as Wuhan.

During the Republic of China, Wuhan carried out municipal reform, and the scale of the city was further expanded, and western-style houses and western-style buildings abounded. In particular, after the fall of Shanghai and Nanjing, Wuhan became the central city of China, and the slogan raised by many young intellectuals in the occupied areas to participate in the War of Resistance was "Go to Wuhan." It's a pity that the army often bombed, and the national political axe moved Wuhan's industry for the long-term war of resistance, and the prosperous Wuhan is no longer beautiful.

As soon as he saw that the bombers of the Yue Army had escaped from the fire net of the ground air defense fire and were going to bomb Wuhan in the early morning, Chen Ruitian's eyes were red, and he hurriedly ordered four fighters to pursue the Yu Jun bombers, and he took the remaining six fighters to fight with the Yu Jun fighters.

The fighters of the army suffered a loss at first, but now they have reacted and are tumbling in the air with the fighters of the 26th Squadron, fighting and fighting.

The army often bombed, and the people of Wuhan were used to it. Although the air raid sirens have been sounded long ago, and the police and gendarmes are organizing the evacuation of the people, many people are more concerned about the outcome of the air battle, and some simply stand on the streets and look into the air, refusing to leave despite the sound of the sirens and the blowing of the police whistles.

Seeing the ordinary people watching the battle on the streets, the little devil was so mad that he threw bombs and turned on his machine guns at the crowd.

Blood flowed on the streets of the three towns of Wuhan.

When the four Chinese Air Force fighters in pursuit saw the bombers slaughtering civilians, they immediately opened fire. The pilot of a Japanese bomber only smiled cruelly, but he did not expect the retribution to come so quickly, the fuel tank was blown up, and the plane immediately exploded in the air. At this moment, the ordinary people watching the battle on the ground were not afraid of the threat of death, rushed to the street, waved their arms and cheered.

It's a pity that the surname of the Type 96 bombers is good, and when they encounter the same number or a small difference in the number of Chinese Air Force fighters, they will flee for their lives in fear. But now there are only four fighters in pursuit, and the army has lost 17 bombers, and the little devil actually turned around and fought with the fighters in an attempt to destroy these four fighters.

Chen Ruitian has no numerical advantage, no first opportunity, and the battle with the fighters of the army is very hard, at this time what he hopes for the most is that the reinforcements will arrive as soon as possible to encircle and suppress these sneak attack devil fighters. As a result, the reinforcements did not come, and the second wave of the army arrived again.

The second wave of fighters in the second wave of the army is the Type 97 fighter of Isshi, which is a fighter corresponding to the Type 96 carrier-based attack aircraft of the Army, with a single seat, a single engine and a single wing, and a good fighting ability in the air, and it is a new type of aircraft developed by the Army in view of the shortcomings of the Type 95 fighter with short range, weak firepower, and poor fighting ability, and it is also a first-line aircraft of the Army.

In the previous stage of the battle, the Chinese Air Force's method of dealing with the Type 97 fighters was to use the Il-15 to fight and the Il-16 to cooperate with the sneak attack. But now Chen Ruitian's 26 squadron is all Il-15, and without the cooperation of Il-16, the superior judgment is made.

As soon as the second wave of the Chinese Air Force arrived, a situation was formed in which several planes attacked one fighter plane of the Chinese Air Force, and the situation deteriorated unprecedentedly.

As soon as Chen Ruitian protruded from the encirclement of the three planes, he saw that his wingman had been hit by the planes, and one of the planes was chasing the pilot who had parachuted and shooting. Chen Ruitian was furious, pressed the nose of the plane and rushed down, and fired directly at the devil plane. The pilot of the devil's plane was smiling and chasing down the Chinese parachutist pilot, never dreaming that the mantis catching the cicada and the yellow finch were behind, and Chen Ruitian's fighter plane passed by him, and the bullet made a bullet hole in the side of his plane until he was killed in the seat of the cockpit of the plane.

As soon as Chen Ruitian pulled the plane out, he felt a shock from the plane, and when he looked up, he saw that the three planes that had surrounded him just now surrounded him, and the machine guns on the plane were spewing flames.

Chen Ruitian knew that there was no longer a chance to break out of the encirclement, and the blood suddenly gushed up, and the Devil Type 97 fighter plane directly collided with it.

Seeing that Chen Ruitian's plane was already smoking, the little devil knew that the Chinese plane, which had the most sophisticated actions and had achieved the greatest results, was finished, and was proudly pursuing it, wanting to turn Chen Ruitian's plane into a volley explosion. In a hurry, the devil pilot hurriedly accelerated to dodge. Seeing that it was about to flash over, at this moment, Chen Ruitian's left foot slammed on the left rudder, the fighter plane floated to the left, and the wings slammed into the waist of the plane, like a sharp steel knife, cutting the plane into two at once.

At this time, Chen Ruitian's fighter plane had no wings, and the plane was completely unbalanced, unable to control it, and fell crookedly towards the west of Wuhan.

Chen Ruitian's ferocity frightened the other two planes, and the little devils on these two planes did not dare to pursue again, and watched Chen Ruitian staggering and falling. As a result, Chen Ruitian really succeeded in parachuting, and later returned to the blue sky and continued to fight with the machine.

The 26 Squadron of the Air Force parachuted out with the collision of Lieutenant Colonel Chen Ruitian, the squadron leader, and the fight with the Yue Army was basically coming to an end. At this time, the devil-like bombers roared wildly and wreaked havoc, not to mention military targets and industrial targets, and the little devils did not even let go of the small wooden boats parked by the Yangtze River and the Han River, and kept dropping bombs and diving and strafing, turning Wuhan into a Shura field.

(To be continued)