"Nani?! What's wrong with the search wing, you say?! Seishiro Itagaki grabbed the collar of the communications staff officer, gasping for breath, his eyes red and roaring. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"The search wing is all broken." The young communications staff officer lowered his head and whispered.

"......" Seishiro Itagaki slowly let go of his hand, lowered his head, and remained silent. The arrogant Itagaki Seishiro was hit, from the crushing defeat of the Army Aviation to the heavy losses of the Fifth Division in the air raid, and then to the extremely elite search wing vanguard at the moment. originally thought that his Fifth Division was enough to compete with any strong army in the Ming Dynasty, but he didn't expect the reality to be so cruel. He felt a little more sober.

"Order the officers of the division and regiment to come to the division headquarters for a meeting, immediately!" After a moment of silent silence, Seishiro Itagaki clutched his saber tightly and commanded in a deep voice. The strength of the enemy army was far beyond imagination, and his heart began to feel uneasy.

"Gentlemen, the Ming army is strong, and it is likely that we will be frustrated if we continue to launch a counteroffensive." Seishiro Itagaki didn't hide anything in front of his subordinates, he really expressed his worries about the unfavorable situation of the battle. Although the top brass of the Japanese army basically did not have much strategic vision, their middle-level officers were still good in tactics. After all, they are all high-achieving students who came out of Lu Shi and Lu University all the way.

"What Your Excellency said is very true." Major General Nakamura Masao, commander of the 21st Brigade, nodded in response, "The strength of the Ming army is strong, and if you go to the top hard, you will definitely suffer heavy losses, and even the losses under the air strikes along the way are enough to make people unbearable." ”

"What do you suggest?" Seishiro Itagaki looked at Masao Nakamura and asked out loud.

"Your Excellency, Division Commander." Major General Nakamura Masao bowed slightly and saluted, and said, "My suggestion is that since the Ming army is attacking, then we might as well defend on the spot." Use defensive warfare to deplete the strength of the Ming army. After a large amount of consumption of the strength of the Ming army, a night battle was launched at night to defeat the exhausted Ming army in one fell swoop! ”

As soon as Nakamura Masao's words fell, many Japanese officers around him nodded their heads in approval. Indeed, the powerful air power of the Ming Army Aviation has brought them a lot of pressure. And the elimination of the elite search wing also undermined their confidence. In this case, these middle-level commanders, who have studied in military schools for many years, will naturally be able to understand what is the best choice now. Since no one dared to mention the matter of retreating troops at this time, it could only be defended on the spot.

"Okay." After seeing that everyone agreed, Seishiro Itagaki nodded in response, "The division will switch to defensive operations on the spot, and wait until night falls, and the Ming army will launch a night counterattack after losing air support." At the same time, artillery and aviation support were requested from the sending army. ”

"Hi Yi!"

......

While the tens of thousands of Japanese troops of the Fifth Division began to spread out and desperately dig trenches, the Seventh Panzer Division, which had taken a short break, also began to readjust its deployment and prepare to attack the Japanese positions. Behind the 5th Division was Suwon, and Suwon was no longer a formed Japanese army.

Major General Wang Dexiang readjusted the deployment, and the Tiger Tank Battalion, which had been rushing to the front as a fist, began to be repaired and replenished, and was transferred to a reserve. The Panzer Regiment, which had nearly 200 tanks No. 4, stepped forward, and they were to launch an armored assault on the Japanese under the cover of artillery and aviation. And the mechanized infantry regiment will follow behind the armored regiment to expand the gains and consolidate the position.

Although it was far inferior to the Japanese in terms of strength, the firepower of the 7th Panzer Division was unusually strong. Its combat effectiveness was far from being comparable to that of the Japanese army, which mainly used old-fashioned bolt-action rifles. There is not much else, and the firepower density that the two sides can pour per unit of time is at least two levels worse!

The infantry division, which followed the 7th Panzer Division, was also not slow to move. In addition to the fact that the distance from the battlefield this time is not too far, a very important reason is that the Ming army is very rich, even the infantry divisions have basically completed motorization and are equipped with a large number of vehicles. The infantry units were not at all slow in marching and could quite well keep up with the armored forces to provide them with flank cover. This ensured that the 7th Panzer Division had no worries and could go all out to fight with it. At the same time, they were able to receive a steady stream of reinforcements.

Originally, Major General Wang Dexiang was going to let the Seventh Armored Division take a temporary break. However, Zhang Cheng landed directly next to his marching column in a light plane of the landing air, and personally ordered him to occupy Suwon as soon as possible to cut off the retreat of the Japanese troops near the outskirts of Seoul. This is of great significance for ending the war on the Korean Peninsula as soon as possible and advancing the front to the vicinity of the Japanese mainland.

Major General Wang Dexiang accepted Zhang Cheng's order. If you don't accept it, you can't do it, Zhang Cheng is his top boss.

Take a short break, after the logistics troops send in fuel and ammunition for replenishment. The 7th Panzer Division soon began to attack the improvised positions hastily constructed by the 5th Division.

Truth be told, the terrain of the Korean Peninsula is definitely very defensible because of the abundance of mountains. However, the most unfavorable place for defense is near Seoul, the lower reaches of the Han River. This is one of the few plains on the Korean Peninsula, and the terrain is flat, which is typical of easy to attack and difficult to defend. The Fifth Division had no choice but to form temporary positions in such open areas.

The humming of the engines in the sky was endless, and hundreds of fighters on both sides were fighting each other in the sky, and the battle was extremely fierce. Even if the strength was weak, the Japanese army aviation did not give up the reinforcement of the ground forces. Tokugawa Yoshitoshi mobilized all the fighters he could use into the battlefield, and even transferred a new flying wing from Kyushu through the base camp to provide air umbrellas for the front-line troops.

There are also people who understand the top of the Japanese army. They also know what will happen if the situation on the Korean battlefield collapses. Once Korea is lost, the large-scale strategic bombing that the Ming Army Aviation has just begun can push the front to Kwantung and even Tokyo! This is something that is unacceptable to any of the top brass of the Japanese military.

After Zhang Cheng became commander of the Western Pacific Theater, he soon arranged for a strategic bomber unit to take over from the HNA to carry out a large-scale bombing of the Japanese mainland. When these huge four-shot fighters appeared at an altitude of several thousand meters, the Japanese air defense forces were directly vomited blood.

Zhang Cheng kept the strategic bombing units under his command extremely secretive, and the outside world could at most get some superficial information, and no one could get any important information in the real sense.

Zhang Cheng's important confidant and right-hand man, Wang Yan, who is in charge of intelligence work, arranged to build an intelligence defense system that was very successful. This is true not only for strategic bomber forces, but also for other aspects of secrecy.

The Ming of this era is one of the best countries in the world, without it. The Ming Dynasty lived a rich and prosperous life, and ordinary people also had a strong sense of identity with the country. It is very difficult for a hostile country to develop an intelligence system, and the traitors they can seduce are generally not high. No one is a fool, who can achieve a certain position in a world empire like Daming, who is sick to be a spy who is in danger? Therefore, Daming's intelligence secrecy work was very successful.

The strategic bomber unit was secretly formed and directly under the command of Zhang Cheng. The prototype of the bomber that this unit was equipped with was the famous B17 Flying Fortress. The four-engine large bomber had a combat range of about three thousand kilometers and a maximum speed of more than four hundred kilometers per hour.

Although the range of this aircraft is short, it has a large bomb load and flight altitude, and it is strong and reliable, and its self-defense force is also very strong. The space and power saved by reducing the range were basically used by Zhang Cheng for defense. The heavy armor and good quality greatly increase the survival probability of this aircraft.

In fact, the main reason why Zhang Cheng chose B17 is that the current engine strength of the Ming Dynasty cannot directly reach the level of B29, a very important reason is that Zhang Cheng has always believed that the main target in the early stage of the war was Japan, which was very close. For the time being, there is no need for the B29, which has a long range.

At the same time, it is also done to save costs. The difference between the cost of B17 and B29 is huge. In Zhang Cheng's eyes, B17 is an early consumable.

When the strategic bomber unit of the Ming Army Aviation took over the Hainan Airlines and began to launch a strategic bombing campaign against Japan, the Japanese army suffered a great blow in a short period of time.

Before the war, the strategic bomber forces had about eight hundred or so Flying Fortresses. This is mainly because they have not proven themselves yet and do not get much military spending. However, only a few hundred of them posed an unbearable threat to the Japanese.

With a combat radius of nearly 1,500 kilometers, the Flying Fortress could be carried out from the Shandong Peninsula and enveloped most of the western part of Japan within the range of attack. If we had set out from Jeju Island and southern Korea, we would have been able to envelop most of Japan in the attack.

From the moment fierce fighting broke out between the two sides on the south bank of the Han River, hundreds of aerial fortresses had already set off from the Shandong Peninsula and Jeju Island to carry out large-scale air raids on important industrial cities around Kyushu in Japan at an altitude of thousands of meters.

It is different from the tactical bombing of Hainan Airlines, which mainly focuses on dive bombers and horizontal bombers. Flying fortresses rained down bombs on the ground at thousands of meters in the air, destroying their targets.

And most of the local anti-aircraft fire of the Japanese army could not reach the aircraft at this altitude. And the air defense aircraft are only the new Zero Combat can fly to this altitude to attack the heavy bombers of the Ming Dynasty. This is also the main reason why the air support force of the Japanese army in various places has been greatly reduced, and the important zero battles have been sent back to the home air defense.

Moreover, even the Zero Battle, which can fly so high, will not play a big role. The strategic bomber force is escorted by more advanced Fighting Falcons. Moreover, the Zero's performance in high altitude was very poor, and it was difficult for them to really threaten the Flying Fortress with machine guns and 20mm machine guns. Many times the Flying Fortresses can stagger back with injuries, and Zero if they are hit. Whether it is the self-defense firepower of escort fighters or air fortresses, it is basically a dead end.

First Oita, then Kumamoto, then Nagasaki. These important Japanese industrial cities suffered heavy losses in the intensive bombing, which directly led to a decline in the war potential.

When the great power of the Flying Fortress was revealed, Lord Shousuke, who had a very strategic vision, immediately agreed to the application of the Army Aviation to expand the strategic bomber force. At the same time, a special fund was also approved for Zhang Cheng to be used for the research and development of a new type of strategic bomber. (To be continued.) )