"What, a lot of transporters!?"

Takeuchi's heart sank when he heard this, and he immediately walked into the air defense observation post with the chief of staff of the 55th Division, Gennosuke Kato, and looked through the telescope into the northeast airspace, only to see dozens of Allied transport planes hovering in the air, waiting to land, and around these transport planes, there were more than a dozen Allied fighters patrolling on guard.

Seeing so many Allied transport planes, Takeuchi Kuan and Kato Daisa suddenly felt awe-inspiring.

Previously, every two days, there were also Allied transport planes landing at Mandalay Airport, but the number was not much, at most only two or three, obviously, it was to transport ammunition for the [***] squadron in Mandalay, but today there are so many Allied transport planes at once, obviously it is impossible to transport ammunition supplies.

"Your Excellency the division commander, it should be that China's reinforcements have arrived!" Kato Daisa said in a deep voice.

Takeuchi put down the binoculars and asked with a solemn expression, "Kato-kun, how many troops did you say there were on it?" ”

Kato Osa groaned: "I just roughly counted, there are about 20 Allied planes hovering in the sky, all of them are American-made C-47 transport planes, each of which can carry about 30 people, so this batch of squadrons that arrived in Mandalay is only one battalion at most!" ”

"However, ......," Kato Osa said, and then said worriedly, "This is just the first batch, according to the information obtained by the Yugoslav authorities, the US Air Force in India has more than 100 C-47 transport planes, and if it only goes back and forth between Yunnan and Mandalay, it can fly at least four times a day!" ”

That is to say...... 400 sorties? Takeuchi said awe-inspiringly, "12,000 people!?" ”

"Not really." Kato Osa shook his head and said disapprovingly, "The capacity of the US Air Force is not the decisive factor, because the marching speed of the various units of the 39th Group Army is uneven, and the forward troops have already arrived in Kunming, but the new 39th Division of the rear guard is said to be far away in eastern Sichuan, according to my estimate, there are only two regiments at most that can rush to Kunming Airport every day." ”

………… Daisa Kato's speculation eventually came true.

On this day, the 10th Air Force of the US Air Force dispatched 300 sorties of transport planes to airlift the 1st Regiment of the Baoshan Division to the Ramgarh base in eastern India, and then airlifted the headquarters of the Baoshan Division to Mandalay along with the 5th and 6th Regiments.

………… Mandalay Airport.

Major General Li Yulong, commander of the Baoshan Division, Colonel Zhang Zhongyi, chief of staff, Colonel Yang Donglin, commander of the 5th Regiment, and Colonel Ma Zhenting, commander of the 6th Regiment, stepped forward one by one to salute Yue Weihan, and then saluted Major General Luo Youlun, Major General Peng Bisheng, Major General Lu Guoshui, and Major General Chen Mianyue behind Yue Weihan.

Yue Weihan returned the salute one by one, and shook hands with his old subordinates one by one.

With the arrival of the two main regiments of the Baoshan Division, the hope of holding Mandalay suddenly increased greatly!

Yue Weihan did not distrust the officers and men of the expedition, let alone doubt the combat effectiveness of the Sixth Army, but after all, this was not the old unit that Yue Weihan relied on, and it was impossible to really command like an arm, but the Baoshan Division was different, the combat effectiveness of the Baoshan Division was only stronger than that of the Sixth Army, and it was more suitable for Yue Weihan's command style.

As for Li Yulong, the commander of the Baoshan Division, it is needless to say, this Xiao general from the Sichuan Army has now fully grown into one of the four King Kongs under Yue Weihan, among the four King Kongs, Li Qinglong stayed in Taihang Mountain and did not come to Myanmar, Cao Xinglong is good at defense, Chi Chengfeng is good at night fighting, and Li Yulong is the best at frontal attack!

Supposedly, the battle of Mandalay was a defensive battle, and it seemed more appropriate to airlift Cao Xinglong's new 6th Division over?

However, Yue Weihan did the opposite, not only did not transport the new 6th Division, which is good at fighting defensive warfare, but airlifted the Baoshan Division, which is good at frontal attack, Yue Weihan's intentions can be said to be obvious, this guy has never been a master who plays cards according to regular routines, this defensive battle, he wants to attack!

Yue Weihan always believes that offense is the best defense!

………… Yangon, known as the army headquarters.

Major General Haruki Isayama hurriedly entered Shojiro Iida's office, and immediately retracted his feet and said uprightly: "Your Excellency Commander, the 55th Division is in an emergency, ten minutes ago, the 6th batch of Allied transport planes has flown to Mandalay, so far, Allied transport planes have flown more than 200 sorties to Mandalay, and at least two regiments of troops have been airlifted!" ”

"Yagayalu." Iida Shojiro gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice, "It's not okay to go on like this." ”

Haruki Isayama nodded, and said with a solemn expression: "If we can't regain the air supremacy of Burma, the Chinese Expeditionary Force will be able to calmly deploy troops between Yunnan, Myitkyina and Mandalay through the powerful airlift capabilities of the US Air Force, which is quite unfavorable to the Battle of Mandalay, and the Imperial Army must try to reverse this unfavorable situation." ”

Shojiro Iida pondered for a moment, and suddenly asked, "Has the Navy's First Air Fleet returned?" ”

"The main forces of the 1st Air Fleet are still searching for the main forces of the British Far East Fleet in the Indian Ocean." Haruki Isayama shook his head, and then continued, "However, the detachment led by His Excellency Abe has entered the Bay of Bengal. ”

At this time, the main force of the First Air Fleet of the Navy, led by Vice Admiral Nagumo Tadaichi, happened to be operating in the Indian Ocean in order to seek a decisive battle with the main force of the British Far East Fleet, and the intention of the base camp of the Japanese army was to destroy the main force of the British Far East Fleet in World War I, so as to sweep away the worries of the southwest seas, and then go all out to win a decisive victory with the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean!

However, at this time, Britain has long lost the majesty of the empire!

At this time, the British army, whether it was the army or the navy, had become frightened birds, and after discovering the whereabouts of the navy, the main force of the British Royal Navy's Far East Fleet directly retracted to the east coast of Africa, completely giving up the Indian Ocean and the southwest Pacific Sea sea dominance, and even the 100,000 British troops besieged on the Malay Peninsula were ruthlessly abandoned by the Royal Navy.

Therefore, the navy seems to have unlimited scenery, but in fact it has not achieved the operational goals set before the war.

At this time, the Burma battlefield was a sudden change, and the 5th Flying Group belonging to the 15th Army Corps was also heavily damaged by the Flying Tigers, so that it completely lost the air supremacy of the Burma battlefield.

The Flying Dragon and the Canglong are medium-sized air carriers of the Navy, and each air carrier can carry up to 73 fighters, but these fighters are mainly dive bombers attacking ships, and there are only more than 20 air superiority fighters.

However, Shouichi Terauchi and Shojiro Iida did not intend to do so.

In fact, what the Burmese military needs is only a group of veteran pilots of the naval aviation, and although the industrial base of the aircraft is weak, the output of aircraft is not low; after all, the technical content of the aircraft in this era is low, and the consumption of raw materials is also small, but the training of pilots requires a great deal of cost and a long time.

After the implementation of the "Southbound Plan" began, the army's war resources began to be seriously tilted toward the navy; not only did the newly produced combat planes give priority to replenishing the naval aviation, but a large number of experienced veteran pilots were transferred from the army air force to join the naval air force, with the result that the combat effectiveness of the army air force dropped sharply.

As a result, the Burmese Army's 5th Flying Group was severely damaged by the Flying Tigers and collapsed.

The air forces of the Javanese, Luzon, and Indochinese sides have not been able to regain air supremacy in the Burma battlefield from the Flying Tigers in two joint operations across the theater, but with the support of hundreds of naval pilots from the Afghan detachment, Terauchi Shouichi and Iida Shojiro have reason to believe that it will not be difficult to regain air supremacy in the Burma battlefield.

………… Mandalay Airport, 49th Division Headquarters.

Yue Weihan was convening a meeting of the commanders of the Baoshan Division, the 49th Division, the 93rd Division, and the Provisional 55th Division, and the agenda of the meeting was only one item, that is, to attack head-on, tear open the defense line of the 55th Division of the Western Front of Mandalay in one fell swoop, and establish a solid beachhead on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River to meet the Fifth Army to erect pontoon bridges and quickly cross the river.

After listening to Yue Weihan's idea, the officers present at the meeting immediately looked at each other.

Except for Li Yulong, the commander of the Baoshan Division, who seemed to be calm, the rest of the officers such as Luo Youlun and Peng Bisheng all showed disbelief on their faces, attacking!?

Attack at this time!?

God, I heard you right, did I?

Either I heard it wrong, or this guy is crazy!

"I'm against it." Luo Youlun Huo Ran got up and said, "Our army is not strong enough, is it too risky to fight a counterattack?" ”

"I don't think so!" Li Yulong said without hesitation, "The Yue army would never have imagined that our army would fight a counterattack under such an unfavorable situation, which has a sudden surname in terms of strategy, and also greatly increases the possibility of a successful surprise attack." ”

"More importantly......," Yue Weihan continued, "the 55th Division of the Chinese Army has been fighting fiercely with our army for 12 days, and it is also exhausted, and the Baoshan Division will have a chance to tear up the river defense of the Irrawaddy River, as long as the river defense is torn apart, it will be very beneficial for the Fifth Army to build bridges and cross the river." ”

"But we don't have heavy weapons!" Lu Guozhuan said, "How to tear apart the river defense of the army?" ”

"Who said we don't have heavy weapons?" Li Yulong said, "Conscienceless cannons and bazookas are not decorations!" ”

In this expedition to Burma, in order to speed up the march, the 39th Group Army did not carry much ammunition with the army, but there were three weapons with enough ammunition, that is, shotguns, bazookas and conscience guns, these three weapons are most suitable for exerting power in Burma's jungle warfare, so Yue Weihan emptied the ammunition reserves in the Taihang Mountain base area.

This time to reinforce Mandalay, although the Baoshan Division only came with two main regiments, it brought 20 guns, 100 bazookas, and 200 shotguns without conscience!

With bazookas, it is possible to ensure the destruction of the strong fortifications of the Japanese army, and with the conscienceless cannon and shotguns, it is possible to kill and wound a large number of the infantry of the Japanese army, plus the army is already exhausted, so it is completely possible to penetrate the defense.

Seeing that Li Yulong was very confident, Luo Youlun, Peng Bisheng and others didn't say anything more, anyway, the main force of this counterattack was the Baoshan Division, and the Baoshan Division didn't say anything, so what qualifications did the officers and soldiers of their Sixth Army have to make irresponsible remarks? As for whether this battle will be fought or not, it is not a matter of Commander-in-Chief Yue's words?

Li Yulong immediately said to Yue Weihan: "General seat, you just give the order, when will you attack?" ”

"Don't be in a hurry today." Yue Weihan waved his hand and said, "Brothers, who are new to the country, let them adapt to the hot climate of Myanmar first, and tell the brothers that the environment here is not as good as Taihang Mountain, don't eat indiscriminately, drink raw water indiscriminately, and insist on bathing with anti-poison water every day!" ”

"Yes!" Li Yulong stood upright and saluted.

Chu Zhongtian suddenly hurried in, leaning into Yue Weihan's ear and whispering softly: "General seat, the dark night rose is in a hurry." ”

Yue Weihan's expression moved slightly when he heard this, and he immediately followed Chu Zhongtian into the small conference room next door, Chu Zhongtian immediately took out the top-secret telegram just sent by Nanzao Yunzi from his pocket, Yue Weihan read the message, and immediately showed joy, and couldn't help but say: "Great, with the support of the navy, the little devil's army aviation finally can't hold it back." ”

Chu Zhongtian said puzzledly: "General seat, once the little devil's aviation force counterattacks, it will not be able to defeat the Flying Tigers and seize air supremacy, but the transport plane of the Tenth Air Force will definitely not be able to land at Mandalay Airport normally, so it will be difficult for Mandalay to be replenished with troops, how can the general seat be happy?" ”

"You, you only know one and you don't know the other." Yue Weihan happily explained, "First of all, I have never considered airlifting too many troops to Mandalay, not that I am boasting, if the entire division of the Baoshan Division is airlifted to Mandalay at any cost, the Burmese army will probably abandon the battle plan of the Battle of Mandalay and retreat to Yangon to defend it." ”

"Secondly, even if the army aviation has received the support of the naval aviation, it will not escape the fiasco, and today's Flying Tigers are no longer the original volunteer air force, she is now the 14th air force of the US Air Force, not only the number of fighters has increased several times, but the model and surname of the fighters have also been greatly improved."

"Finally, and most importantly." Yue Weihan touched his chin and said thoughtfully, "If we don't take this opportunity to lure the air force of the Southeast Asian army to Mandalay and annihilate it in one fell swoop, then our army's next stage of combat plan will be greatly disrupted, and even if the surprise attack on Yangon is successful, it may not be able to completely annihilate the Syrian army that has entered Burma." ”

Chu Zhongtian noticed that when Yue Weihan said this, his eyes were constantly moving on the map, and then finally stopped at a point, Chu Zhongtian couldn't help but turn his head sideways, and followed Yue Weihan's gaze to look at the map, but found that the point was not in Burma, Yue Weihan's eyes were actually on the capital of the Kingdom of Siam - Bangkok!

(To be continued)