The German and Austrian air forces bombed the Tiemen Gorge defense line garrisoned by the Chinese army for only five minutes, and the damage caused was still not small. After all, the Chinese army had only occupied this place for a short time, and the defensive fortifications had just been completed, and it was too late to deploy empty positions, and a large amount of air defense equipment had not yet been transported.

In one day, the Austro-Hungarian army launched a total of five attacks, which were very strong, at least much more intense than the previous Austro-Hungarian attacks on other Entente armies, which shows how urgent the German-Austrian side was to retake these precipitous strategic points in the Tiemen Gorge.

The Austro-Hungarian Army launched five attacks in one day, and the German and Austrian air forces also cooperated with five bombings, although the casualties to the Chinese army each time were limited, but they could not withstand the number of bombings, and at the end of this day, the number of Chinese troops shot by the Austro-Hungarian soldiers was almost negligible, but hundreds of people were killed by the German and Austrian air forces.

On the evening of August 25, the headquarters of the 37 Infantry Division.

Chief of Staff Chai Yi handed the casualty and loss report to the division commander Shen Rongchen with a sad face, "Division, this is our army's casualty and loss report today, the situation is not optimistic, our dead and wounded soldiers were killed by the enemy's guns and artillery less than 60 people, but the total number of killed and wounded by the enemy's aircraft bombing reached 428, of which 222 were killed, almost half of the total casualties!" ”

Shen Rongchen took the report and looked at it, a Sichuan character wrinkled on his young forehead, and after taking a puff of cigarette, he said: "Report the casualty report to the above, and ask the above to provide air support as soon as possible." Without air support, our casualties would have been too great! ”

Chai Yi nodded and said, "Okay." However, I don't think the air support will be very fast, and I heard that 300 fighters have been transferred. But it will take some time before it can be used in combat."

"Try your best!" Shen Rongchen waved his hand irritably, "I'll leave it to you here, I'll go to the various positions to take a look!" ”

Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is where the headquarters of the commander of the Eastern European Theater of the Chinese Expeditionary Force is located, and Cai Ye walked back and forth in front of the map with his hands behind his back, but his eyes never left the map for a moment.

Yang Jie came over with the folder and saluted Cai Ye and said, "General, the German-Austrian coalition has made a move!" ”

"Oh?" Cai Ye stopped and turned his head and asked, "Where?" ”

Yang Jie opened the folder and said, "The 37th Division sent a telegram. In the middle of the night yesterday, the 22nd Army of the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army arrived at Orshova, and at 8 o'clock this morning, the Austro-Hungarian 22nd Army launched a full-scale attack on the Tiemen Gorge defense line where our 37th Division was stationed, and the Austro-Hungarian 22nd Army launched a total of five attacks today, each time the German and Austrian Air Force bomber groups cooperated with the bombing, and at present our army suffered nearly 500 casualties, of which the casualties caused by the bombing of the enemy bomber group accounted for ninety percent! Shen Rongchen, commander of the 37th Division, requested that the theater send air force fighters to provide air support as soon as possible."

Cai Ye looked at the location of the Tiemen Gorge and said, "The German army in the north has not yet moved. Instead, it was Austria-Hungary that made the first move. Can the airfield in Craowba take off fighters to provide air support for the Iron Gate Canyon defensive line? ”

Yang Jie shook his head and said, "Sir, it's not okay for the time being, although the airport has been repaired, most of the fighters have also arrived." But the ground crew and a lot of equipment have not yet arrived, and it will take at least a week to get the air force airfield in Craowa operational."

Cai Yi frowned. Still another week? Let the 37th Division of the Iron Gate Gorge defense line be bombed for another week? This loss is not small, he thought for a moment and asked, "Except for Clara Oouba." Where is the nearest airport to the Iron Gate Canyon? ”

"Sofia, Bulgaria, where the airfield of the Air Force was put into service a week ago!" Yang Jie said and used his finger to find Sophia's location on the map.

Cai Ye immediately said: "Then give an order to Sophia's air force airfield." Let them contact the 37th Division so that fighters can be taken off at any time for air support! ”

Yang Jie was stunned when he heard this, and reminded: "General, I'm afraid that this is inappropriate, Sophia Air Base belongs to the Southeast European Theater of Operations, and is not under the jurisdiction of our Eastern European Theater, if we directly cross General Cai Guodong and General Luo Zelin to give orders to Sophia Air Base, not to mention whether Sophia Air Base will obey the order, we are violating the regulations by doing so, and it will not be good to settle down at that time, and if we don't get it, we will be sued by a military court!" ”

Cai Ye slapped his forehead when he heard this, and said in distress: "Seeing that I have forgotten all about this, you should immediately send a telegram to General Guodong and ask for his help!" ”

Yang Jie saluted: "Yes!" ”

After Cai Guodong received the telegram, he quickly instructed Luo Zelin to order Sophia Air Base to dispatch fighters to cooperate with the 37th Division to provide air support to Tiemen Gorge.

Over the next two days, the German Fifteenth Army and the Sixteenth Army launched large-scale attacks on the strategic locations of Bran, Sinaya, Kaia, Moineshti, and Bikaz in Brasov, Mijerku, and Georghini, respectively.

In addition to the attack on the Tiemen Gorge, the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army also attacked the Chinese defense areas around the Tiemen Gorge, such as Mehadia, Kurane, Toplec and other places, these defense lines were attacked, relative to Orshova, the importance of these defense areas is not very large, even if the Austro-Hungarian army breaks through these defense lines, in the end it is necessary to attack the Tiemen Gorge, and only by taking the Tiemen Canyon can the Austro-Hungarian army enter the Chinese defense area.

In addition to attacking Bran, Sinaya and Kaeya, the German Fifteenth Army also captured the forward line of Kea, such as Secelle, Predejar, and Bushteni, at a very fast pace. These defense areas are basically undefendable, and the German army has an absolute advantage in strength, Cai Yi believes that these defense areas are dispensable for the Chinese army, and since they cannot be defended, then withdraw the troops and hold some key strategic points.

Although there were fighters from the Sophia Air Base to provide air support to the Tiemen Gorge defense area, the Chinese Air Force did not know the time of the German and Austrian Air Force's air raids, so they missed it many times, and when the Chinese Air Force arrived, the German and Austrian Air Force had already completed the bombing and turned around. However, with the support of fighters from Sophia Air Base, the casualties of the Chinese troops on the Tiemen Gorge defense line were much less.

After a week of fighting, the German-Austrian army was never able to break through some key strategic points garrisoned by the Chinese army, and the German-Austrian army was unable to seize these strategic points, and the German army was unable to launch a large-scale counteroffensive on the Western Front with all its strength and without completing the established strategic objectives.

Cai Ye had long seen the intentions of the German and Austrian side, so he ordered to give up some unimportant towns and checkpoints on the entire defense line, so that all the Chinese troops withdrew to the thirteen key strategic points for defense, he ordered that the deployment points in front of the thirteen strategic points can be abandoned, but these thirteen key strategic points must not be abandoned, once the German and Austrian troops occupy any of these thirteen strategic points, this is not only a war that the German army can safely and boldly carry out a counteroffensive on the Western Front, Rather, the German army has since grasped the initiative in the southeast defense line, while the Chinese army has lost the strategic initiative and can only defend passively.

After a week of fighting, the German-Austrian army occupied some unimportant towns and passes under the initiative of the Chinese army, but the German-Austrian army also paid some price for this.

The three newly built air bases of the Chinese army in Romania, including Craowa, Bucharest, and Foksani, have been put into use, and a total of 700 warplanes are active in the skies over Romania.

Because there is no early warning and radar system, the enemy and us can find each other at the first time and can send fighters to meet the opportunity is very rare, generally it is the German and Austrian air force first bombed the Chinese defense line, the Chinese fighter plane arrived, the Chinese army could not find the German and Austrian air force, can only bomb and strafe the German and Austrian ground offensive troops that are launching an offensive, so the German and Austrian army was also bombed by the Chinese army on a large scale.

In contrast, the Chinese army was in a defensive position, with a large number of trenches, anti-artillery holes and air-raid shelters, which the soldiers could dodge, while the German-Austrian army was in an offensive position, although there were offensive positions, but this had no effect on the threat from the sky at all, and the German-Austrian army was exposed to the bombardment of the Chinese fighters and paid a heavy price several times more than the Chinese army.

On the offensive position, the German-Austrian army was too dense, and there was no bunker and anti-aircraft firepower, the Chinese army caused thousands of casualties to the German-Austrian army in a bombardment, and sometimes the attacking German-Austrian army was bombed badly, and was directly bombed to a break, the officers could not restrain the soldiers, and the soldiers were afraid of being killed and ran around, and there were those who turned around and fled.

In view of the casualties caused by the German-Austrian air force to the Chinese army, Cai Ye has always had a headache about this matter, and in view of the current technology, there is no way to find the German and Austrian air force in the southeast defense line for a decisive battle, Cai Ye called the commanders of the two corps to a meeting to discuss this issue.

The generals expressed their views and suggestions one after another, and finally summed up all the suggestions and methods and came to the conclusion that the best way at present was to find a way to find a German-Austrian air base, send a strategic bomber group to destroy the German-Austrian air force airfield on the southeastern defense line, and kill all the German-Austrian air force fighters in this area.

This method was recognized and supported by all the generals, so Cai asked the military intelligence department to take action, and at the same time sent a report to the country, requesting the cooperation of the Iron and Blood Investigation Bureau in the intelligence distribution in Europe, and finding the location of the air force airfield in southeast Europe as soon as possible.

After receiving the telegram, Wang Yaqiao, director of the Iron and Blood Investigation Bureau, immediately instructed the European branch to immediately dispatch capable intelligence personnel to investigate the situation of the airport branch of the German-Austrian air force in southeastern Europe. (To be continued......)