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When Liu Yu and Lei Shaobao began to return home, Yamaguchi Tawen was also forcibly taken on the destroyer Yukikaze by the officers. At the same time, the "Sichuan" and "Guizhou", which were cruising in Yaeyama, also recovered the twelve patrol lightning fighters that had taken off in the morning. The aircrew was busy helping the second group of patrol planes take off, refueling the landing lightning, and clearing the deck to welcome the returning attack group. But Yang Guochang's mind was not here, he had already received the news that all four target ships had been hit, but he knew that his fleet was still in danger, because the attack aircraft group did not find a single Japanese attack aircraft.

This is impossible, any aircraft carrier will carry attack aircraft, unless it is a special mission. However, not a single Japanese plane could be seen on the Zuifeng and Fengxiang aircraft carriers, which means that the Japanese naval attack planes set off long before the attack group arrived. "I don't like to fight like this, like two blind men with knives. Speed up to 25 knots, head 51, approach Keelung, call the Penghu Air Brigade to prepare for support. The radars were all turned on, and the ships were positioned in a circular air defense formation. Inside the bridge of the Dinghai, Yang Guochang began to adjust the fleet after a few words. As a traditional officer, even if he can accept the era of aircraft carriers, he is very unsuitable for this way of fighting without seeing the enemy. So when choosing a flagship, the battleship Dinghai was chosen.

"Who made the naval battle style so fast, I estimate that in a few years, I'm afraid that before going out, I will have to let the plane comb through the airspace first." Lin Ruosheng took the telegram from the electronic communications officer, and after replying with a smile, his eyebrows flashed with joy: "Commander, the reconnaissance plane has confirmed that the Matsushima broke off and sank, the Ruifeng and Fengxiang began to sink, and the Itsukushima also began to catch fire. ”

"Well done. Looks like we'll be able to transfer to Guam in the evening. After Yang Guochang finished speaking, he pointed to the two lightning planes that were taking off, and ordered: "Release all the remaining fighters, and the first batch of twelve will also be lifted into the air within half an hour." By the way, who is leading the team? "He was still worried, so he increased the number of patrol fighters to 20." It was Zhang Peng who personally led the team. Lin Ruosheng scratched his head, feeling that there was a bit of a big fuss. Because the first escort fighters have been flying for nearly four hours, the planes have to land and refuel, and the pilots also need to drink water and eat something to replenish their strength. Not to mention that the target has been destroyed. Even if the Japanese planes attacked, twenty fighters and the fleet's anti-aircraft fire would be able to cope with the remaining Ryukyu attack aircraft.

"There's nothing wrong with being careful." Yang Guochang smiled. In fact, he did not know that the fleet was already in extreme danger, and he did so simply because he did not know how many attack planes were left in the Ryukyus. Moreover, the big victory has already been reached, and there is also the idea of keeping the fruits of the victory and going to Guam safely. But it turned out to be a very wise decision to make this mistake, of course. This also has to do with the fact that he left behind thirty-two Lightning fighters. Ten minutes later, all twenty Lightnings rose into the air, and the remaining twelve began to refuel. To save time, the pilots who had just landed had to crouch on the deck and simply eat some chocolate to replenish their strength. Just as the air crew hurried to inspect the planes and prepare for the incoming attack group, the patrolling lightning spotted two "bright spots" that were rapidly approaching.

"Eagle Eight calls the Eagle's Nest. Eagle Eight calls the Eagle's Nest. At 10 o'clock, at an altitude of 4,000 meters, two unidentified targets were found approaching, please instruct. Major Zhang Peng, who led the patrol group, was the "captain" of the Fifth Air Group of the Sichuan aircraft carrier. This "captain" does not refer to his military position. It's the most powerful flying skill in the team. Even Lei Shaobao, who has never been afraid of heaven and earth, has no temper, unless he can also get forty-one missions and shoot down thirty-seven aircraft, including six Soviet BF109s and nineteen IL-2s.

"Eagles 8, 9, 22, 23 to intercept. The rest of the planes obeyed my orders and climbed to 5,000 meters. Assemble in the direction of ten o'clock. Hearing the call, Zhang Peng immediately sent four lightning planes to intercept it, and at the same time led the remaining fighters scattered around to accelerate to the northwest.

"It's a ninety-seven seaplane, wait, and! Repeating, there were about ten to twenty Japanese planes behind the ninety-seven seaplanes. "As soon as the four lightning bolts that went to intercept came out of the clouds, they realized that something was wrong, because behind the seaplane, there was a string of bright spots.

"Throw away the drop fuel tank and prepare to intercept." When Zhang Peng heard this, he immediately threw away the auxiliary fuel tank and drilled out of the clouds. A moment later, he saw two day-ninety-seventy seaplanes and a dozen bright spots following behind. In order to find the 23rd fleet, Yamaguchi specially divided the group into five groups, starting from Ryukyu Island, fanning to the southwest, and finally found the patrolling lightning fighters at 12:40 p.m. There were patrol planes, which meant that the aircraft carrier was nearby, so the Japanese planes also began to accelerate in the direction of the 23 fleet.

"There is no Zero type, it is the 96 ship battle and the 99 ship explosion." The pilot who had seen the color spy photos of the Japanese aircraft secretly said that it was a pity, because he also wanted to fight the legendary Zero fighter.

Zhang Peng didn't care so much, his right hand operated the lever, his left hand was on the accelerator, his feet stepped on the rudder, a pair of eagle eyes coldly locked the approaching Japanese plane, and gave an attack order with incendiary words: "Brothers, do you want to be a trump card?" Here's your chance, rush! "Twenty Haijian-5 Lightning fighters maintained a two-plane formation and launched an attack from an altitude of 5,000 meters. In the roaring dive, the four nearest lightning bolts used twenty-four fiery red horses to envelop the two ninety-seventy seaplanes first.

The West Sichuan Type 97 Seaplane, also known as the Type 97 Flying Boat, has four 1300 horsepower engines, has a strong structure and a large range, and is a very excellent seaplane. But like all seaplanes, they were heavy and slow, and their self-defense firepower was weak, but the 20mm cannon mounted on the tail frightened a lightning that was about to bite the tail and attack. The two Type 97 seaplanes were beaten into flames, and when they saw that they could not survive, Zhang Peng also led the rest of the lightning to kill the Japanese aircraft group.

The commander of the Japanese aircraft group had good experience and knew that he was not an opponent of Lightning, so he immediately disbanded the formation after receiving the report of the seaplane, so as not to be overwhelmed. But the plane in his hand was really bad, and he met Zhang Peng, an ace captain who had fought in the Northwest and the Soviet Air Force for a year, so five slower-flying 99 ships were shot down in one shot. After crossing the Japanese group from top to bottom, Zhang Peng immediately climbed and turned, taking advantage of the vertical climb advantage of the fighters, and launched a second wave of dive attacks before the Japanese group could make the next tactic. The number of bodies is comparable. The gap in equipment was large, so the remaining Japanese planes after the two waves of dives were too frightened to fight again, and they scattered one after another. Zhang Penglai still wanted to pursue, but the news came from the earphones that four more Japanese aircraft groups had been found.

It turned out that after the discovery of the 23 fleet, this Japanese group began to summon friendly forces scattered in search. When the other four Japanese planes received the news and hurried to the scene, they were immediately caught by the radar of the outer destroyers.

"How many are there?"

"About sixty to seventy." Zhang Peng was slightly stunned after inquiring about the number of Japanese machines. It can be seen from the number that the Japanese navy is desperate, and it is estimated that it has pulled out all the fighters that can be mobilized near the Ryukyus. But he wasn't nervous. Judging from the news sent back by Lei Shaobao before, the zero battle base near the Ryukyus was concentrated to protect the two aircraft carriers. As long as there is no difficult Zero Battle, he won't worry too much. His most difficult problem was how long it would take to pack up the Japanese planes, knowing that the attack group would be back in an hour, and the Japanese planes were coming from three directions. If we can't clear the sky before this, I'm afraid it will affect the landing of the attack planes, and if everyone is forced to land on the sea because of lack of fuel, it will be a real shame.

Probably knowing that someone had come to help, the remaining five 96 ships that were chased by lightning actually sneaked back back. It made him angry and laughed, but he didn't have time to deal with these small fish with little attack power, after dropping four lightning bolts. With the main force, they met the Japanese army cluster.

On the sea, Yang Guochang also thought about the take-off and landing of the attack aircraft group after it returned, and immediately ordered the remaining 12 lightning planes to all attack, and it was necessary to stop the Japanese aircraft group outside the fleet's air defense circle. "Commander. Commander! At this moment, the electronic communications officer suddenly grabbed him and handed him a radio listening statistics table: "Commander, look at this. ”

"What's wrong?" Yang Guochang put on his glasses.

"This is what we found out when we were listening to the contact of the Japanese plane. You see. Most of them were short intercom signals, but a few were uninterrupted from the moment they were discovered. Look at this again. This is the radio signal we heard two hours ago, and the spectrum is exactly the same as theirs. Yang Guochang was a little confused. Electronics is too difficult for him. However, Lin Ruosheng saw a clue and asked, "You mean, the plane has been signaling since it departed these days?" ”

"Yes!" The electronic communications officer nodded heavily: "At first, we didn't pay attention, and we thought it was a signal from a Ryukyu or Japanese radio station. Because after a swarm sortie, the radio silence will be lifted only when the target is found, and only the radio station will transmit this short-wave constant signal without information. However, after the destroyer reported the appearance of enemy planes in three directions at the same time, we found that there were actually three signal sources, and the direction was the location of the enemy planes. ”

Yang Guochang was still confused, and said in a deep voice: "Simply say! ”

"Yes!" When the electronic communications officer realized the mistake, he immediately corrected it: "I think they are doing some kind of radio guidance work by sending a constant signal for navigation for a long time, instead of using silence!" ”

Yang Guochang's heart jumped: "Just like a navigation station?" ”

"Yes!"

Radio navigation is no longer an advanced technology in this era, and all countries will use radio signals to navigate aircraft, and positioning calculation methods such as triangulation calculation methods have also appeared. The Republic of China itself has a large number of wireless navigation equipment, most of which are in radio stations, through the transmission towers of radio stations to transmit special meaningless constant signals for aircraft navigation. The equipment of the military is more advanced and sophisticated, but the basic principle is similar. So Lin Ruosheng was full of disbelief: "Aren't you suspicious?" There can be no more planes in the Ryukyus. ”

"I don't know." The electronic communications officer scratched his eyebrows: "The radio navigation facilities of the Yaeyama Islands were blown up by the Penghu Brigade last night, and the radio broadcasts in Taiwan and southeast China have all been suspended, so it is impossible for this signal to be sent from the ground." It takes up to two hours from the island of Ryukyu, and Japan has been familiar with the sea and landscape for many years of Ryukyu rule, so there is no need to navigate for a long time, unless it is from the Philippines or other places. ”

The electronic communications officer is the most important senior non-commissioned officer of the fleet, and his rank is not high but very important, so his words made Yang Guochang vigilant. But Yang Guochang, like Lin Ruosheng, didn't think that there were still planes in the Ryukyus, and as for the Philippines and Japan, he didn't think about it, because the distance was beyond the range of the 97 ship attack and the 97 ship explosion of the main force of the Japanese navy, and he was not worried about the high-altitude horizontal bombers. As for the main force of the Shan 56, it turned around in his mind a few times, but even according to the maximum speed, the four aircraft carriers of the mountain could not enter the maximum combat radius until at least half past two, so they were still vetoed. But whether it was a mistake in judgment or a Japanese ulterior motive, Yang Guochang still decided to take precautions first: "Call in the Penghu Brigade to support, let the escort fighters of the attack group speed back, and all land on the Sichuan." The flight crew was informed that the aircraft should be replenished with fuel and ammunition after landing, and the pilot was not allowed to leave the cockpit. Order all warships and personnel to be ready for air defense! Have a nearby seaplane ready to rescue the overboard pilot. ”

After all the orders were issued, Yang Guochang turned his head to look at the electronic communications officer: "I hope you are wrong." ”