After the Battle of the Fujiang Islands, the local area was faced with a huge threat, and the General Staff Headquarters formulated a battle plan to defend the mainland. For this reason, the National Congress approved an emergency appropriation of 1 billion yuan for war funds, and the whole country was transferred to war mode.

In view of the threat of air raids by the powerful air power of the Chinese Empire to the homeland and the tremendous role played by the Ministry of Defense in covering the operations of the landing force, the Ministry of Defense of the People's Republic of China increased its investment in air forces.

Previously, it was said that Ben had a total of 50 Type 3 fighters, and did not dare to confront the air force and naval aviation of the Chinese Empire, and was only deployed on the second line of alert to maintain the only deterrent.

However, after the Battle of the Fujiang Islands, the Chinese Emperor [***] cleared the outlying strongholds of Kyushu Island and was about to carry out a landing operation on the mainland, which made the army very nervous, so it immediately transferred these 50 fighters to the front line as air fire support for the anti-landing war.

At the same time, the country is also producing Type A-3 fighters on a large scale, and the Army Aviation Factory, Nakajima Flying Aircraft Co., Ltd., and Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., which have been transferred to the war mechanism, provided an astonishing 100 fighters to the army air force in November.

From the perspective of the Chinese Empire, the Chinese Imperial Navy has completely blockaded it, and the domestic automobile engines are not up to par, and they have to rely on imports from abroad, not to mention aero engines, and they cannot make their own products at all, so this is simply an impossible task.

But driven mad, the Yue himself performed a miracle, they obtained an aero engine from the United States from Hawaii through a submarine, although the reliable surname and surname are still inferior to the oldest Jian-1 fighter of the Chinese Empire, but the technology is mature and suitable for mass production and supply. It is said that Ben obtained American aero engines through submarines, so it is logical to build 100 Type 3 fighters in a short period of time. Of course, with the aircraft manufacturing technology of the original one, the subsequent 100 Type 3 aircraft were very simple, with only the skeleton frame, and the location of the machine gun, pilot, engine, fuel tank, etc. was clear at a glance.

Officially, this simple and cheap fighter gave Yuben air power in a short period of time, and once made the Imperial Chinese Air Force, which had been in smooth sailing and somewhat arrogant, suffer.

On the morning of the last day of November in the thirteenth year of Guanghua, the Chinese Imperial Air Force transferred from Busan Airport to Tsushima Airport on Tsushima Island.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, a group of 180 bombers took off and headed for Fukuoka City, intending to cut off the supply line of the Japanese army from Honshu Island to Kyushu Island and create an advantage for the upcoming landing battle on Kyushu Island. Since the Air Force despised the fact that it had no air defense, the bombing was not escorted by the aircraft carrier battle group of the Sixth Fleet.

Just after 9 o'clock, 36 bombers of the 37th Bombardment Group flew over Sogami in the northeastern part of Fukuoka and began to drop bombs.

It was said that the army air force was receiving a large-scale bombing of the Imperial Air Force around Fukuoka and decided to counterattack. However, because it was uncertain whether the Imperial Chinese Air Force had a large number of escort fighters, it did not dare to show all its family backgrounds for a decisive battle at once, for fear that all the planes would be destroyed at once, resulting in no counterattack in the follow-up air battle.

But soon, Zong reported to the ground army that there were only 36 bombers in the Zong area, and there were no escort fighters. This is because this bomber formation of the Chinese Empire really despised the fact that there was no one in the air, and did not drop bombs at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters, but directly showed off the ultra-low altitude bombs. Although this has a higher hit rate and is more able to deter the people on the ground, it clearly shows that the 37th Bombardment Group has no escort planes, and it is all bombers.

The base camp of the army immediately decided to pull out the teeth of the tiger and give the Chinese Imperial Air Force a counterattack, so that they would not despise the air defense of the Chinese Imperial Air Force.

At 9:30 a.m., the bombing mission of the Imperial Chinese Air Force in the extreme surrounding areas of Fukuoka City was completed, and all the aircraft groups returned one after another.

At 9:35 a.m., the 37th Bomber Group was ambushed by more than 100 fighters of the Tsushima Strait 76 nautical miles northeast of the Tsushima Strait on its way back from the farthest direction.

At first, the 37th Bomber Group thought it was the second wave of the Imperial Air Force's air raids, and greeted each other by radio communication from the Air Force channel.

However, the other party has not responded, which makes the captain of the 37th Bomber Group, Major Pan Jiewen, very annoyed, so Pan Jiewen curiously took out his high-powered binoculars to observe, wanting to know which wing actually despised him so much.

It didn't matter if he looked at it, Pan Jiewen suddenly found the plane with the plaster mark. Pan Jiewen immediately ordered all planes to turn around and dodge, but it was already too late. More than 100 fighters had been ambushed in this airspace in advance, so fighters were deployed in all directions, leaving the 37th bomber formation with nowhere to hide.

The H1N1 bomber did not have an aerial combat machine gun and could not fight the fighter. The only advantage is that the range of the N1H1 bomber of the Chinese Empire is longer than that of the fighter plane, and Pan Jiewen bets that the combat radius of the fighter is about to reach the limit, so as long as it is consumed for a while, the fuel of the fighter will not be enough, so that he can get rid of them.

Pan Jiewen then ordered the 37 bomber formations to go around in circles, hoping to delay for a while and avoid this disaster.

The fighters pounced quickly, knowing that the opposing Chinese Imperial bombers were not capable of counterattacking, so they did not fire until they were close. However, they did not expect that the speed of the Chinese Empire's bombers was not much slower than their fighters, so that the consumption of both sides would be detrimental to the aircraft.

"Da Da Da!"

It was said that the machine fired, and in an instant, the bullets rained down.

The 36 bombers of the 37th Bomber Formation dodged left and right from the hail of bullets in the face of the fierce fire of the planes.

The two sides were entangled for more than 20 minutes, and in the end, seven bombers were hit by bullets and caught fire and soon crashed, and more than 20 other bombers were also hit in multiple places, with dozens of casualties inside.

The captain of the group, Pan Jiewen, was also hit by two bullets, and was replaced by the co-pilot to lead the remaining 33 bombers to continue to hide in the eastern province.

Sure enough, Pan Jiewen guessed correctly, and the military plane soon ran out of fuel and no longer pursued, but turned around and left.

In this air battle, the Imperial Air Force of China was shot down by seven bombers, which became a great disgrace for the Imperial Air Force. In the first battle, the fighter plane achieved good results, which made the political axe of the whole country excited.

When Liu Xiang, minister of the Air Force of the Chinese Empire, learned of this, he immediately flew into a rage and scolded Lieutenant General Yang Zhenwu, commander of the air battle, and Lieutenant General Ye Zugui (who had just been promoted), the deputy commander.

"Yes! Be! Be! ”

On the phone, Lieutenant General Yang Zhenwu replied to Liu Xiang's words cautiously, saying yes again and again.

"Please rest assured, this is our shame, we will definitely wash it away with the blood of this air force, please rest assured."

"Three days! I'm only going to give you three days to find out this air force and destroy them, or I'll fuck off." ”

"Yes! Please rest assured, if you can't be ashamed, you don't need your order, and I will go to see you with my humble head. ”

"Do you want to scare me to death?"

"Don't dare!"

"Then I'll wait for your good news!"

"Yes!"

Hanging up the phone, Yang Zhenwu's face was pale, and Ye Zugui next to him also looked ugly.

"Three days, if we can't eliminate the Yuben Air Force within three days, we won't be alive with a face."

Ye Zugui got up and said, "Without further ado, I will immediately deploy a revenge plan." ”

Yang Zhenwu nodded and asked, "Do you know where they are?" ”

Ye Zugui shook his head and said, "The intelligence department didn't give us any information. ”

"It's a mistake on the part of the intelligence services, but we can't just count on them." Yang Zhenwu came to the map table, compared a few places, and finally said: "The battle site is located in the airspace about 70 nautical miles northeast of Tsushima Island. Most of the aircraft are bare-bones, and there is only one fuel tank about 50 liters in size, so we can judge that the maximum combat radius of the aircraft does not exceed 100 kilometers. ”

The staff officer used a circle to map out the combat radius of the possible military aircraft, including several suspicious locations.

"Yuta, Kurume, and Nakatsu, these three places are the only places where our bomber group has not carried out bombing, that is, the most likely place where the military planes are hiding."

"I immediately sent a reconnaissance plane to reconnoiter in three places."

"No!" Yang Zhenwu waved his hand to stop it, and then said: "We will retaliate immediately!" ”

Ye Zugui asked puzzledly: "But we haven't investigated yet?" ”

"No need to scout!" Yang Zhenwu said: "If we send a reconnaissance plane over, it will definitely be detected by Yu himself." They knocked out 7 of our bombers in the first battle, and we lost face, and now they must be very happy, even carried away, this is when their sense of vigilance is the weakest. ”

Ye Zugui nodded, seemed to understand what Yang Zhenwu meant, and asked, "Then let's act?" ”

"Good!" Yang Zhenwu nodded and said: "I will mobilize all the bomber groups, and there will be at least 300 bombers in each place to bomb them, and I will blow up all their planes on the ground." ”

Ye Zugui said: "Since it is a matter of face and net worth, then I can't do it, 960 carrier-based aircraft will participate in the war together, and I will not let one plane escape." ”

The two agreed and immediately began to act.

Since it is no longer facing the ground forces of the Yue Army, but the fighters of the Yu Ben Air Force, it is impossible for the Royal Air Force of the Chinese Empire to slaughter one-sidedly, so once it goes into battle, it must be careful.

At the same time, the aircraft carrier battle group of the Sixth Detachment of the Navy was all assembled in the West China Sea and the Tsushima Strait, and 960 aircraft carriers and carrier-based planes of various types were filling their decks with fuel and ammunition, and a large-scale retaliatory action against the Air Force was about to begin.

Although Yang Zhenwu did not agree to send a reconnaissance plane to reconnoiter first, in the end, Ye Zugui still thought that it would be better to reconnoitre, and he did not know how many fighters there were in the air force and how many fighters were hidden. At the same time, Ye Zugui believed that the Imperial Air Force had been conducting reconnaissance all along, and suddenly not reconnoitring would make the Imperial Air Force suspicious.

Therefore, Yang Zhenwu agreed and sent a reconnaissance plane to conduct high-altitude reconnaissance, trying not to be discovered by the army.

Most of the fighters used by the army air force were in the southern suburbs of Nakyu, and a few were in Kurume and Nakatsu, which are located in the central mountains of Kitakyushu and are easy to hide. However, the army air force had just had such a large fleet of planes, and the original hangar was not enough to use, so it had to be parked near the airport, so it was quickly discovered by the reconnaissance planes of the Chinese Empire.

After a check, they learned that Yue Ben had more than 150 fighters in such a short period of time, which surprised Yang Zhenwu and Ye Zugui.

"Judging from the photos, the fighters of this book are only at the level of our previous Jian-1 fighters, according to Pan Jiewen's report, most of them are bare machines, but they have strong firepower, there are two machine guns, you look at their skeletons, I think I have seen them somewhere."

"It's the British F1 Camel biplane!"

Intelligence staff officer Xiao Ke came in, handed a document to Yang Zhenwu and Ye Zugui, and added: "This is the news that the Intelligence Bureau has just obtained, you can take a look!" ”

The British F1 Camel biplane, produced at the Soproyis factory, was equipped with a very ordinary double-layer wing, and the air-cooled "Clagate" star-piston engine with rotating cylinders at the nose was covered with a bright, thin-shelled metal fairing to reduce drag. Due to the opening of a notch in the center of the trailing edge of the upper wing, it was convenient for the pilot to look upwards.

The British found that their Entente aircraft were inferior to the German Fokker in terms of firepower and combat ability, so in order to surpass the German Fokker fighter (J-5) in firepower and combat power, the British developed the Camel fighter on the basis of the French Newport (J-1 fighter). The aircraft had two machine guns installed side by side in the upper part of its engines, and, of course, the firing coordinator on the aircraft of the Chinese Empire was also used by the British. Because the machine guns were covered with a raised bulge like two humps, the aircraft was named "Camel".

Yang Zhenwu frowned and said, "How did the British plane get into my hands?" ”

"Our empire has always imposed an arms embargo on the United States and restricted the export of technology, and the fierce fighting over Europe is in full swing, and the United States has discovered the great role of fighter jets, so it is unwilling to lag behind, so American agents obtained the design drawings and engine technology of F1 fighters from the United Kingdom. The U.S. and Libon then used submarines to smuggle F1 engines and machine guns to Liben, who immediately assembled the fighters. However, the submarine transport capacity is small, and in order to obtain a large number of fighters as soon as possible, it can only import engines and other parts that cannot be produced locally, and at the same time, in order not to be discovered by us and not to be prosecuted by the British, it is said that the surname Bensuo does not install a shell to reduce the weight and obtain a surname can be improved, which causes this aircraft to become a bare metal. ”

"I see." Yang Zhenwu and Ye Zugui suddenly realized, so they immediately studied this copycat version of the aircraft.

I have to admire the technology of the British, although the development of aircraft is many years behind the Chinese Empire, but this F1 fighter is much stronger than other European aircraft. This is mainly due to its unique flying surname, which is the extremely sensitive surname of Yakuzuri. This special surname is not only loved by expert pilots, but also made novice pilots stay away. Because of the slightest carelessness, it is easy to enter a dangerous tail spin (also called spiral) state and cannot be changed.

It was precisely for the purpose of pursuing combat surname ability that the designers had to sacrifice some stable surnames in order to increase the reaction sensitivity of the aircraft. Heavy loads such as engines, pilots, fuel tanks, and weapons and ammunition were deliberately concentrated near the center of gravity of the entire aircraft in the short fuselage, and the vertical tail was made smaller, and the elevator and ailerons increased response sensitivity, so it was not so easy to control these "fierce horses".

Of course, this aircraft was originally designed to counter the J-5 multiplane fighter provided by the Chinese Empire for Germany.

Although the F1 fighter can be very strong, her rotor (referring to the rotation of the cylinder shaft) engine has a strong gyroscopic effect, which is also beneficial to improve the aircraft's flight maneuverability. However, compared with the most advanced J-4 Cat Demon fighter in service in the Chinese Empire, in addition to being equipped with two machine guns and strong firepower, other things such as speed, climbing height, protection and operation are far behind.

"It's not good news for us that Ben has obtained this advanced aircraft, so we must eliminate them as soon as possible."

"According to the reconnaissance, about 90 planes are located at Yota Airport, about 30 planes are located at Kurume Airport, and about 30 planes are located at Nakatsu Airport, for a total of about 150 planes."

"Without further ado, we will immediately launch large-scale air strikes on the three places and be sure to eliminate them."

"Yes!"

At the same time, the Kyushu Command of the Japanese Army, the whole army was jubilant, celebrating the victory of the first battle of the Army Aviation, but the commander of the Army, Lieutenant General Yoshida Miryo, was worried.

"We must strengthen vigilance, I think the Chinese Empire has suffered a loss, and it will definitely not be reconciled, and it will definitely retaliate against us."

"General, don't worry, our ground air defense station is closely monitoring the air, and we will have an early warning in the event of an attack by the Chinese Imperial Air Force."

The Chinese army could not predict the time and place of the attack of the Chinese Imperial Air Force, so it had to set up a large-scale anti-aircraft observation post on the ground in order to prepare for the early warning of the Chinese army.

On December 1, the Chinese Emperor [***] launched a retaliatory action, 930 bombers, 1080 fighters poured out, respectively to Kurume, Yuxiang and Nakatsu, preparing to destroy the main force of the air force in Kyushu in one fell swoop, revenge for the 11.31 air battle.

At about 11 o'clock in the morning, the huge attack plane group of the Chinese Emperor [***] had just flown over Kyushu, and the air defense posts of the Yue army arranged everywhere immediately passed the situation to the Kyushu Headquarters.

Yoshida Sanliang believed that this was the Chinese Emperor [***] retaliating, and affirmed that the target was directly aimed at the three places of Kurume, Soxiang and Nakatsu, where the Kyushu Army Air Force was located, so he immediately ordered the military planes to immediately transfer and fly back to the Honshu Yamaguchi Airport to take refuge.

However, the commander of the army aviation, Major General Yuki Yuki, was not convinced, and ordered 130 of the fighters to transfer to the Yamaguchi airfield, and the other 20 Shanzhai F1 fighters in Kurumi took off to avoid the direction of the Imperial Chinese Air Force group and went straight to Tsushima Island.

Yuki's intention was to take advantage of the fact that the air power of the Chinese Empire was over Kyushu and that there was no air defense force at the Tsushima advance base, and he was ready to retaliate for a tooth in revenge for the shame of having no air defense since the start of the war for more than two months.

His strategy undoubtedly succeeded. More than 2,000 fighters of the Imperial Air Force of the Chinese Empire flew over Kurume, Yuexiang, and Nakatsu, dropping more than 3,000 tons of aerial bombs, white phosphorus bombs, and gasoline bombs, completely destroying the military air bases and nearby villages and towns in the three places, and the fire, which stretched for more than 100 kilometers, burned for three days and three nights.

However, none of the fighters were in the airport, and the bombing failed.

Not only that, 20 fighters of the Chinese army rushed directly to the Tsushima air port on Tsushima Island, intending to attack the Chinese Imperial Combat Command there. However, as soon as the fighters approached, they were discovered by reconnaissance planes of the 3rd Aircraft Carrier Battle Group of the 6th Squadron of the Chinese Empire in the Tsushima Strait, and then the 7 Fengxian-class light cruisers of the 9th Cruiser Squadron immediately began air defense preparations.

Equipped with six 88-mm 50-fold rapid-fire guns and one 47-mm dedicated 50-fold anti-aircraft gun, the Funsian-class light cruiser was used for the first time as the main battleship of the fleet's air defense.

Seven Fengxian-class light cruisers fired fiercely at the air, and they did not expect that the naval warships of the Chinese Empire could also attack the air, and they were caught off guard for a while and were shot down by one of them. Unprepared for the powerful anti-aircraft fire network of the Imperial Chinese Navy, the plane hurriedly threw away the bombs it was loaded on, and quickly turned around and fled.

It is said that the bombs dropped by the plane did not all fall on the sea, and did not cause losses to the Chinese Emperor [***]. However, this incident made the combat command very nervous and humiliated, and scolded Yang Zhenwu and Ye Zugui, who had returned from the failed attack.

Yang Zhenwu and Ye Zugui were very sad, so angry that they didn't eat for a day, and buried themselves in the war room thinking about countermeasures.

Ye Zugui said: "I have set up a lot of observation posts on the ground, so much so that our plane just flew to Kyushu, and it was known to the army, so that the plan failed. ”

Yang Zhenwu said with a calm face: "Then we will attack at night instead!" ”

"Are you crazy?" Ye Zugui immediately protested and said, "The attack at night is effective, but how can our plane be recovered?" The accident rate of landing at night is as high as 90 percent, and this price is not at all compensated for by eliminating a single air force. ”

"What then?" Yang Zhenwu said angrily: "Consumed like this? We're running out of time! ”

"Yes! We had only three days to make a military order. Ye Zugui was suddenly depressed.

Suddenly, Ye Zugui had an idea and said, "We can take off before dawn and fly to the Yuejun Airport at dawn, so that it will be difficult for them to guard against us." ”

Yang Zhenwu nodded and said, "This is a good idea, but we have already blown up the military airports in Kurume, Yuxiang and Zhongjin, and the military aircraft group is no longer there." ”

Ye Zugui thought for a while and said, "This is easy to do!" We bombarded the major cities of the country, using white phosphorus bombs or poison gas bombs, and forced the air force to come out and attack our bomber groups, so that we could intercept them halfway and destroy them in one fell swoop. ”

Yang Zhenwu sighed and said, "Well, there is no other way. ”

(To be continued)