"Boom, boom, boom......"

A series of black smoke burst out from the lower part of the Chinese army's transport planes, startling Jiang Chunlin and others, who commanded the airborne landing, and were somewhat surprised by the density of Japanese antiaircraft artillery on the east coast of Kyushu Island.

He and other high-ranking members of the Japanese Front of the Chinese Army did not know that in fact, the Japanese army had already anticipated that the Chinese Army might carry out airdrops near several important ports on the east coast of Kyushu Island, so it deployed several divisions and regiments that had been withdrawn from the north coast of Kyushu Island to this area, and also deployed two antiaircraft artillery brigades on the east coast of Kyushu Island. However, due to the poor performance of the 76.2mm anti-aircraft guns equipped by the Japanese army, especially the poor quality of the fixed height fuse, the seemingly densely exploded shells did not pose much threat to the "high" Chinese transport planes.

Admiral Jiang Chunlin, who was riding on a long-range reconnaissance plane converted from a Ju.88 bomber, sighed slightly, turned back to the chief of staff beside him, and said, "It's okay, it's okay...... This time it was just a dummy, and if the air raid was really here, the brothers would have suffered heavy losses. ”

The chief of staff smiled and said, "One hundred thousand wooden men can mobilize at least ten divisions of Little Japan!" Commander, if your trick is true or false, it can be annotated in the Art of War. ”

Hearing this sycophant, Jiang Chunlin laughed, waved his hand, raised his wrist and looked at the time: "It's 6 p.m. on March 2, 1936, Nanjing time, and the airdrop will start in 10 minutes!" ”

At the sound of an order, all the doors of the transport planes were opened, but there were no heavily armed airborne troops in the cabin, only two Air Force ground crew soldiers wearing seat belts and flight suits, and a few large wooden boxes that were firmly fastened. The lid of the wooden box has been opened. Two Air Force ground crews who were temporarily on duty on the plane used daggers to cut the ropes, pushed the wooden box to the open cabin door, and pushed the wooden box down with force. Flipped a box of dummies with small parachutes into the air, then threw the wooden box in its entirety......

Looking down from Jiang Chunlin's landline, countless umbrella flowers were already spreading in the air, as if thousands of paratroopers were parachuting!

"Commander, Comrade Commander! The telegram is a telegram from the 101st Division, the 102nd Division, and the 109th Division! ”

In Kumamoto's headquarters in Kyushu, the Japanese Continental Defense Force was already ringing with telephones and the shouting of staff officers. A staff officer put down the phone and roared excitedly. "The enemy is airborne! It is located in Beppu, Oita, and Saeki on the east coast of Kyushu. There are about tens of thousands of airborne troops! ”

"What!?"

Sadao Araki and Ishihara were startled, and Ishihara hurriedly stepped forward to answer the phone and asked a few words, and a long-lost smile suddenly appeared on his face. The headset of the direction phone smiled at Sadao Araki and said: "Commander, as expected, the riotous airborne troops have really been airdropped on the east coast of Kyushu!" That's tens of thousands! Do you want to order the 101st, 102nd, and 109th Divisions to attack immediately and crush the violent invaders? ”

"Roar!" Sadao Araki touched his beard and nodded with a smile. Ishihara gave orders to the 101st, 102nd, and 109th Divisions on the phone. Just as he put down the phone. Someone else shouted: "Comrade Commander." The headquarters of the western country reported that airborne troops of the riot army were found near Nagato City, Ogi City, and Masuda City...... That's about 30,000 people! ”

"Another 30,000!?"

Sadao Araki and Ishihara were stunned for a moment, how many airborne troops are there in the Chinese? Tens of thousands were dropped on the east coast of Kyushu, and another 50,000 were dropped on the western part of Honshu...... Wrong! How many airborne troops can be loaded on a transport plane? There are also several ju.52 Japanese army aviation units equipped by the Chinese, which can be squeezed like a can and can stuff 30 people into the sky! Now throwing about 60,000 airborne troops at a time is not to put 2,000 ju.52s? Do the Chinese have so many transport planes?

"Report!" Another staff officer shouted: "Hinata, Miyazaki, and Shibushi have discovered the violent airborne troops, and the number is about thirty or forty thousand......."

Another thirty or forty thousand! Araki Sadao and Ishihara's faces were already gloomy, and Araki asked Ishihara and the chief of staff Anda Twenty-three: "Hinata, Miyazaki and Shibu Shi are not heavily garrisoned, do you want to send troops to help immediately?" ”

Do you want to help? Ishihara and Adachi Twenty-Three looked at each other. They all showed a wry smile. I thought it was an opportunity for the enemy, but who would have thought that the Chinese would actually play flowers. I don't know how to conjure up more than 100,000 airborne troops......

"Could it be that the people below are mistaken? Exaggerated the number of airborne troops? Anda Twenty-Three asked, thoughtful.

"There should be a possibility...... Ishihara thought for a moment and nodded. This is also common on the battlefield, where weaker units often overestimate the number of opponents. Ishihara said slowly: "Let's send reinforcements to Hinata, Miyazaki and Shibushi, transfer two wings from the 112th Division in Kagoshima to Shibushi and Miyazaki, and then send a wing from Saeki to reinforce Hinata." ”

"Isn't it too little to send three wings for reinforcements?" Sadao Araki got up and paced back and forth. If the front reported the riot airborne troops by three times, then there should be 10,000 riot airborne troops airdropped to Hyuga, Miyazaki and Shibushi, and the airborne troops are the elite of the riot army, not something that three Japanese wings can deal with. And why did the riot army disperse the limited airborne troops? Wouldn't it be better for them to throw 30,000 people in one place? He couldn't figure it out after thinking about it, and finally just sighed and ordered: "Order, transfer Kumamoto's 103rd Division to reinforce Hinata, Miyazaki and Shibushi, and then give an order to the Miyazaki Prefecture Red Guards, asking them to stick to the end no matter what, and not to give up Hinata and Miyazaki." He looked at Anda Twenty-three again and said, "Is there any news from the main force of the Navy's combined fleet and the 2nd Fleet?" ”

"No," replied Ada-Twenty-Three, "they are still in radio silence." ”

……

At 6:20 p.m. on March 2, the sun was setting.

Western Pacific, 220 nautical miles south of the Ryukyu Islands.

A long-range reconnaissance aircraft converted from a Ju.88 medium bomber flickered in the clouds. This medium-range bomber designed by the German Junker company is almost a "universal aircraft". Not only can it be used as a horizontal bomber, dive bomber, heavy fighter, night fighter, but also, after a slight modification, a very good long-range reconnaissance aircraft. Ultra-long voyages of more than 3,000 kilometers can take off from the island of Taiwan to search a large area of the sea south of the Ryukyu Islands. Moreover, after installing the latest 1800 hp air-cooled engine, the maximum speed of this aircraft reached 580 km / h, which was enough to get rid of the pursuit of Japanese Type 96 carrier-based fighters at high speed, so this naval reconnaissance JU.88 aircraft was not equipped with any weapons.

Outside the cabin, the white clouds are like flocculents, and the red sun is hanging in the west, which is a picturesque scene. The blue of the Pacific Ocean was like an endless velvet curtain, drifting slowly with the breeze, except that no ship entered the lookout's telescope eyepiece.

Li Changqing, the captain of the Ju.88 reconnaissance plane, handed over the plane to the co-pilot to operate (because it had to be left empty for a long time. So the reconnaissance ju.88 was equipped with two pilots and two lookouts, and at the same time the pilots had to act as navigators and telegraphers), and he took the line map and looked at it for a while, and then looked at his watch. His brow tightened. In another half an hour, visibility at sea will drop significantly. At that time, this reconnaissance plane will have to return and fly back to the island of Taiwan -- if only the radar could be installed on the plane, so that the Ju.88 can carry out reconnaissance missions around the clock, and there is no fear that the Japanese fleet will take advantage of the cover of night to approach the main force of the Nanyang Fleet.

Now, every night, all the officers and men of the Navy's Keelung base have a feeling of trepidation, for fear that their precious fleet will encounter a formation of Japanese capital ships in the waters near the Ryukyu Islands...... Although the Guangdong-class battlecruisers, Nanjing-class air defense cruisers, Zhongshan-class aircraft carriers, and Yingzheng-class aircraft carriers all have shipborne radars, they are constrained by the curvature of the earth's surface, and the shipborne radars can only find targets more than 30 kilometers away. This distance is not absolutely safe for the fleet! Therefore, the Keelung base sends eight long-range reconnaissance planes every day to carefully search every sea area within 300 nautical miles south of the Ryukyu Islands, hoping to grasp the whereabouts of the Japanese Combined Fleet at the first time.

It seems that today again there is nothing to be found. Just as Li Changqing was about to give the order to return home, Wang Xiaoshan, a lookout with a telescope behind him, suddenly shouted: "Captain, at 6 o'clock, 2 Type 96 fighters!" ”

Li Changqing hurriedly saw clearly, only to see two black dots in the distance rapidly approaching, and hurriedly shouted: "Everyone sit down, we are going to play something exciting!" ”

"Haha, little Japan's planes can't catch up with us!"

"I know, but I don't want to leave here yet!" Li Changqing knew that these two Type 96 fighters must be direct cover planes sent by Japanese aircraft carriers, which means that the Japanese aircraft carriers are nearby, and most of them have more than one! Therefore, Li Changqing planned to go around the vicinity two more times to determine the specific situation of the Japanese fleet.

The maximum speed of the Japanese Type 96 carrier-based fighter is just over 500 kilometers per hour, and this maximum speed is still a number on paper, except for the aircraft specially used for testing, the ordinary Type 96 can fly to 480 kilometers / h. However, the full speed of the Chinese army's Ju.88 reconnaissance plane can reach as high as 580 km/h, which is not a paper count used to fool people, and the Germans are quite practical in this regard. So the difference in maximum speed between the two sides is a full 100 kilometers per hour!

Li Changqing took over the control of the plane, flicked the control stick, and rushed head-on to the two Type 96s, and when the distance between the two sides was about 5,000 meters, another pressure on the control stick suddenly began to dive, with the help of the inertia of the descent to increase the speed to more than 600 km / h, and rushed under the two Japanese planes, not giving the opponent time to react at all. After throwing off the two Japanese planes, they flew for another two or three minutes, and dozens of black smoke that went straight into the sky suddenly made the lookout Wang Xiaoshan excited.

"Captain! Look over there. ”

Following the direction of Wang Xiaoshan's finger, Li Changqing quickly saw the smoke column, so he immediately flew towards the smoke column for another two minutes. A fleet appeared in front of everyone. Wang Xiaoshan counted it, and there were at least fifty or sixty Japanese warships flying the golden sun flag on a red background densely packed on the sea! Among them are at least 6 Soryu-class aircraft carriers!

"6 ships...... There are 2 more, at least 8 Canglong-class! ”

"Confirm 8 Canglong-class ......," the co-pilot took out a telegraph and began to send a telegram to the Keelung base and the Nanyang Fleet tick-tock.

"Are there any Japanese capital ships?" Li Changqing asked.

"No, no capital ships in sight."

"Confirm that no capital ......ship has been found," the co-pilot left, and sent the news out.

"Six Type 96. Coming at us! There are 2 more ...... in the back"

"Got it, got it, sat down. We're going to pull it up......"

……

"Baga! 8 Type 96 planes besieged a China plane without success, and these pilots are all stupid! ”

On the island of the aircraft carrier Flying Dragon, the commander of the First Air Fleet, Taki Jiro Onishi, put down his binoculars and cursed. However, he really wronged the pilots under him, and the Chinese Ju.88 plane broke through by pulling up the altitude. This reconnaissance type of Ju.88 has a better performance engine, so the practical ceiling has also been increased from 7,500 meters to 10,000 meters, this height is beyond the reach of the Japanese Type 96, and can only watch the other party swagger away.

"Commander. Let them go, we're meant to let them find out anyway. Kuroshima Kameto handed a telegram he had just received to Onishi Takijiro: "The Riot Army has landed in Kitakyushu, and it is still in the southeastern part of Kyushu and Nagato City and Ogi City in Yamaguchi Prefecture. There are also places such as Masuda in Shimane Prefecture that have invested in airborne troops. According to a report from the Kyushu headquarters, the Riot Army used three battle cruisers to shell the coastline of Kitakyushu. ”

"Oh?!" A cold light suddenly exploded in Onishi Takijiro's eyes: "Are there only three?" ”

"There are only three, and the intelligence officers we arranged at Zhanjiang Military Port have also sent a report that all eight aircraft carriers anchored there have left!" Kuroshima Kameto's finger made a line in the Ryukyu Islands. said: "According to the report of the defenders of the Ryukyu Islands. In the past few days, there are a large number of J-4E Dragon Eagles among the planes that have attacked the Ryukyus, and it is estimated that they have taken off from aircraft carriers, and I estimate that the aircraft carriers and battle cruisers of the Ryukyu Islands have converged in the waters near the Ryukyu Islands, commander, do you see if we should immediately retreat south......"

Onishi Takijiro understood what he meant, and now there were no battleships and battle cruisers in the First Air Fleet, and the ships with the strongest firepower were two Tone-class heavy cruisers and four top-class heavy cruisers, which were obviously not the opponents of the three Guangdong-class battlecruisers.

"Nope." Onishi Takijiro vetoed Kuroshima's construction with a wave of his hand. Of course, the 6 heavy cruisers are no match for the 3 battle cruisers, but the difference in strength is not too big. Because the Chinese's Guangdong-class battlecruisers were strong and lacking firepower, the 3 Guangdong-class battlecruisers only had 27 280mm naval guns, while their own 6 heavy cruisers had 56 203mm naval guns, and the firepower of the two sides was not much different. Moreover, the Tone-class and the most advanced class are still the so-called "heavy mine ships", and the most powerful weapon is not the 203mm naval gun, but the powerful Type 93 spear torpedo! The 6 heavy cruisers are equipped with 4 3-pack 610mm torpedo tubes, and the Type 93 spear torpedo equipped with it can be said to be the most powerful torpedo in the world today, not only the weight of the head is as high as 500 kg, but also the range and speed are far more than the torpedoes of the same period, even at a high speed of 49 knots, it can run 22,000 meters!

In addition, Onishi was also full of confidence in the night combat skills of the Japanese naval officers and men; although the actual combat experience of the Japanese army and air force officers and men was far inferior to that of their Chinese opponents, the Japanese naval officers and men fought fiercely against the world's number one naval power in the Pacific theater for nearly three years!

Thinking of this, Onishi Takijiro immediately looked at Kuroshima Kameto: "Order Jizaburo Ozawa to command the Seventh Sentai to stand by on the spot to prepare for a night battle, and the main force of the First Air Fleet will retreat south!" ”

At the same time, the telegram signal sent by the Ju.88 reconnaissance plane also reached the Nakayama, the flagship of the South Sea Fleet, in the ocean south of the Ryukyu Islands.

"Commander, the main force of the Japanese fleet has been discovered, there are at least 8 Soryu-class aircraft carriers, just 250 nautical miles south of the Ryukyu Islands, the direction is east longitude xx, north latitude xx, less than 180 nautical miles away from us!"

It's a pity! Feng Yundong looked at the sky outside the ship island and knew that he had just missed a good opportunity to annihilate the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet. Lee's report did not end: "The reconnaissance plane confirmed that the Japanese capital ship was not found!" Commander, we still have a chance, so let's let the battle patrol detachment and the 1st cruiser detachment try their luck. ”

"Luck?" Feng Yundong thought about it, but nodded and agreed with Li Zhilong's proposal. The Army does not believe in such a thing as luck, but in the Navy, there is always a saying of "luck". Because there are so many factors that determine the victory or defeat of the sea, and the situation at sea is also complicated, sometimes a strong wind can determine the outcome of a war - didn't Japan escape the catastrophe in history because a "kamikaze" destroyed the warships of the Yuan army? In the Russo-Japanese War, the most outstanding Russian admiral of the time, Stepan. Makarov's armored ship Petropavrosk was unlucky to sink by a mine, ruining the Russian Pacific Fleet's only chance of victory.

However, since China entered the "Changrui Qing Era", the good luck of the Japanese seems to have come to an end, first in the Far East and North Manchuria with the Soviet Union in a melee with heavy losses, and then in the war with China at the most critical moment encountered a catastrophic earthquake, as a result of which the emperor of the first line of the world was shaken! And if it were to fight a night battle, the Chinese Navy would not only be lucky with its opponents, because they also had a sharp weapon in their hands that the Japanese Navy did not have-radar!

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