Rear Admiral Guo Zhifei hesitated a little, but ordered the signalman to fire three red signal flares before the large triangular formation of the Third Bombardment Group swept past the commanding airship.

The 3rd Bombardment Group, which also responded with three red flares, was the first to attack, and all of its 4th Squadron and 5th Squadron C attacked the "Chaisharevich" in the harbor in two waves, and the remaining 4 squadrons attacked the four Russian destroyers outside the harbor.

The 3rd Brigade, which had the shortest training time, suffered huge losses in the face of the blazing ground fire of the Russian army.

When they swept past a tall building complex in the northeast of the harbor, the Russian rifle gunners on the roof fired fiercely at the planes, and the captain first lost control and fell into the water, and then the engine of the No. 3 unit of the first squadron caught fire and crashed into the southwest of the harbor. Even the people and the plane were blown up and there were no bones. The remaining two planes completely lost their will to fight, and when they were still three or four hundred meters away from the enemy ship, they hastily dropped bombs and climbed up, leaving the battlefield as fast as possible. The second attack wave six planes were led by the squadron leader of the fourth squadron, and this time they entered from the east side of the harbor, at this time the sun had risen high, and the Chinese pilots who carried out low-altitude horizontal bombing could no longer use the sunlight to reduce the probability of being hit, and three planes, including the squadron leader, were shot down before the bombs were dropped, and the remaining three planes fled after dropping bombs at will, among which the captain of the fifth squadron C and the No. 3 plane crashed during landing.

The 3rd Group's attack on the Russian destroyers was also fruitless, and the leader of the 5th Squadron B was shot down by the machine guns on the enemy ships.

On that day, the 3rd Air Bombing Group lost a total of 12 aircraft and 27 crew members (including accident losses), and the results were almost zero.

At the post-war review meeting, Chief of Staff Wang Shengping defended the Third Brigade by saying: "Think about it, compared with the prototype, the 'Qingfeng Change' they used was only increased by one-third when the maximum bomb load was doubled and the empty weight increased by 40 percent, and its flight performance when fully loaded can be imagined!" At the end of the day,' A few days ago, I personally experienced the flight performance of this modification when it was fully loaded, at an altitude of 200 meters, its maximum airspeed was only 90 to 100 kilometers, and the aircraft's operational response was very slow when maneuvering, and even normal turns were very difficult, and the pilot could only descend at a very low angle while approaching the enemy ship in a near-straight trajectory, in this case, it was not surprising that it became a target for enemy rifle guns and small-caliber rapid-fire guns！ If there is any problem with the three groups, it is that their crews are mainly composed of novices, and they only have half a month to adapt to the new aircraft and carry out sea attack training, but these problems should not be borne by the three groups themselves! ”

Witnessing the huge losses of the three major teams, Major General Guo Zhifei couldn't hold back.

"Signal! The 1st Floating Attack Group ceased operations and remained in the air. ”

As three green signal flares were fired from the port side of the No. 101 command boat, the nine "strong clouds" of the 1st Floating Attack Group, which had already entered the attack route, withdrew one by one, climbed higher, and slowly gathered around the command boat.

At about 10:50 a.m., the No. 102 "Qiangyun" boat slowly approached the No. 101 command boat, and a "Qiu" flag was hung on the stern of its gondola, which was the seat of the group leader, Colonel Qiu Ming, and at a distance of 100 meters, the signal light on the starboard side of the No. 102 boat shot a string of Morse codes at the No. 101 boat.

The signalman of Boat No. 101 reported to Guo Zhifei: "The other boat's inquiry for follow-up orders. ”

Guo Zhifei muttered for a moment, and then asked Wang Shengping: "Do you think it is still necessary to use airship troops to launch the most remedial strike against enemy ships?" ”

Wang Shengping was opposed to using airships to attack enemy ships from the beginning, he believed that the biggest role of airships was to bomb large areas such as cities, fortresses, and railway junctions, and that it was a waste of bombs to let bulky airships bomb warships. ”

"I think that at this time, the airship unit should bombard the enemy's dock facilities and urban areas from a safe altitude of more than 1,500 meters, and the rooftops of those places should also be an excellent base for the enemy's anti-aircraft shooting, so please ask the 1st Floating Attack Group to clear the obstacles for the follow-up attack force."

Wang Shengping's remarks also gave Guo Zhifei face, and he did not directly say that airships were useless against warships, but emphasized that at present, the First Floating Attack Group could strike at the enemy's anti-aircraft fire assembly area, so as to open the way for the subsequent attack on ships.

Guo Zhifei immediately decided: "The mission of the First Floating Attack Brigade has been changed to bombing the enemy's dock city with all its might, and it will be carried out immediately!" ”

Within an hour, 216 bombs of 250 kg were rained down on the wharf of Vladivostok Port, in the city, in the harbor and on the grassy outskirts of the city, causing casualties among more than 1,000 soldiers and nearly 1,000 civilians, in addition to further deepening the impression of the city's ruins.

At twelve o'clock in the afternoon, the sun was high.

Just as the eight "Purple Cloud" medium-sized attack airships of the Second Floating Attack Group appeared in Major General Guo Zhifei's field of vision, a gust of wind that was unexpected by everyone swept in with a large number of black clouds, engulfing these super balloons full of helium and hydrogen in the sky in one go. In the face of the great power of nature, the "Purple Cloud" and "Qiangyun" loaded with the Beiyang Heavy Industry HK-9C 180 horsepower aero engine is not worth mentioning, the No. 204 "Purple Cloud" boat once tried to return against the wind, but the clouds drifting with the wind is the universal law of nature, the 204 boat with full horsepower first barely hovered in the air, with the sudden increase in wind, the hull of the 204 boat began to tremble violently, the engine made a "quack" strange sound, the captain was frightened, had to order the rudder to drift with the wind.

As the wind blew into dusk, nine airships, including command boat No. 101, disappeared into the sky over Vladivostok without a trace, during which radio communication between the Vladivostok Aviation Command in Artyom and boat No. 101 was completely cut off.

It was not until midnight that the Artyom base made contact with command boat No. 101, and at 12:30 a.m. a telegram from boat No. 101 said: "This ship is alone at sea and is in star position"

Since the eight "Purple Clouds" of the 2nd Floating Assault Group were not equipped with radios, Artem Base had to ask the Navy to send ships to search the northern part of the Sea of Japan overnight, and then asked the Army to send personnel to search along the two foothills of the Sikhote Mountains.

Early the next morning, the Vladivostok Front Command, which was in chaos, received instructions from the base camp: "Before Commander Guo and Chief of Staff Wang return to the team, Deputy Commander Ma Hengming will be the acting commander, and Deputy Chief of Staff Fang Yongyang will be the acting chief of staff. ”

Acting Commander Brigadier General Ma Hengming, who was originally a good fighter at airplanes, did not dare to slack off after receiving instructions from the base camp; early in the morning, he personally carried a three-seat "Gale" reconnaissance and liaison plane into the sky, circled around the port of Vladivostok, and found that the "Chaisarevich" had already sunk in the harbor diagonally to the left; after returning to the base, Commander Ma immediately summoned the commanders of the major groups and announced that the main force of the enemy fleet had been destroyed, and only a few destroyers and tugboat barges remained. In addition, in order to improve mobility, it is strictly forbidden for all "Qingfeng reformers" to carry bombs with a total weight of more than 250 kg and a single weight of more than 50 kg.

Commander Ma was arranging operations here, and the chief of staff was in full charge of the search and rescue activities, and the young colonel sent telegrams and telephone calls everywhere, using both soft and hard measures, and finally got the army to agree to send two brigades to the Sikhote Mountains to search for the Sikhote Mountains, where enemy guerrillas were still active, and from the navy it received a promise to send 50 ships, including two water engine carriers, plus 40 naval planes to participate in the search and rescue, and the Vladivostok Air Front itself planned to send 50 shore-based reconnaissance planes and several small airships to search for the coast.

The so-called "1 June Weigang Storm Incident" was not announced by the base camp until 10 days later that it had been "completely resolved."

At about 3 p.m. on 2 June, a "Qiangyun-J" seaplane that took off from the "Flying Eagle" mothership spotted the No. 101 "Qiangyun" boat in the Japanese Sea, 300 kilometers northeast of Vladivostok, and immediately piloted the boat around the carrier formation. In the evening, under the guidance of the "Clear Wind" of the two adventurous night sailing, Rear Admiral Guo Zhifei and the crew of the boat finally returned safely to the Artem base.

In contrast, the search for the other eight Purple Cloud boats was much more difficult.

On 3 June, the sea of Japan was stormy and rough, and the air and sea search operations had to be stopped.

On the morning of June 4, when a Japanese patrol ship spotted Boat 204 in the northern part of the Sea of Japan, 380 kilometers from Vladivostok, "this huge aerial monster was so excited that it fired twelve dazzling red flares in one go." ”

The Japanese patrol ship piloted the airship to the vicinity of the Chinese Navy's search formation, and since the two hydro-engine carriers had been ordered to move south, the formation commander had to send a torpedo boat to guide the airship to the navigation station on the shore.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Army Search Team spotted Boat 210, which was lowering its altitude in search of the navigation station, in the vicinity of Cavalirovo at the eastern foot of the Sikhote Mountains, and successfully guided it to the navigation station.

At dusk, boat No. 206 returned to Artem, and at noon that day it was lucky enough to float over the town of Dalnegorsk, at the eastern foot of the Sikhote mountains, where a company of cavalry happened to be marching on the street......