On the Irtysh River, 20 kilometers east of Mibalatinsk, a steel-framed pontoon bridge has begun to emerge, and at the southern end of the pontoon bridge, Admiral Lu Kaiping, commander of the 2nd A Army, has his hand shading the sun, looking at the north bank from afar, squinting his left eye and sneering: "It's too smooth, there are only a few sentries in the Communist Party, either too stupid or too smart......

"Commander Qian's phone number." The staff officer leaned in and reported.

Lu Kaiping returned to his rectangular biscuit-box-like "Wise Wolf" armored command vehicle, took the microphone handed by the staff officer, and said with a smile: "Brother Ji Yun, if I guessed correctly, what you want to say to me is probably not much different from what I want to say to you." ”

Hearty laughter came from the earpiece.

"Could it be that you really put worms in my stomach? I'm afraid you won't believe it, but just now in the sky of Seisa, I saw for the first time so many Russian planes rushing over, not ten but nine, fighting with our planes in full swing, unprecedented, unprecedented. ”

Lu Kaiping nodded and said: "Okay, I can believe everything now, even if hundreds of Russian tanks suddenly burst out in front of me, I won't wipe my eyes, let me tell you, I'm smooth here, and I'm a little panicked." ”

"Panic the ball, the soldiers will block, the water will cover the earth, solve the matter in front of you first, and then walk and see. I'm contacting the Second Hangji to send you additional air support, not afraid of 10,000, just in case. ”

Lu Kaiping thanked him, and just as the staff officer reported to Lieutenant General Xiao Bin, the commander of the left wing cluster, that he asked for a call, so he called: "It's okay to hang up in advance, I'm about to cross the river here, and I'll send you a telegram when I get to the periphery of the city." ”

"Okay, take care, be careful. The cannons and sappers left for me in the bunkers that were not easy to clean up......"

After ending the call with Qian Lan, Lu Kaiping took another microphone and said in a broad voice: "Commander Xiao?" I'm Commander Lu, and it's going well on my side, how are you there? ”

"It's going well, it's going to be very good, and in 10 minutes I'll be moving to the north bank via the pontoon bridge." Xiao Bin shouted excitedly on the other end of the phone line.

"Pay attention to sending reconnaissance teams to your left flank, and pay special attention to air defense, the situation on the opposite side may be complicated. Be improvised. Remember, your mission is not to storm the fortress, but to make a detour behind enemy lines, cut off the enemy's retreat, and meet me at the first place on time, understand? ”

"Yes, keep it in mind!"

"Anything else?"

"It is very strange that the other side has almost no defenses, and, according to the report of the commandos who crossed the river first. The road leading to the Seybese side was shrouded in smoke and did not look like it was caused by our shelling. It seems that it is deliberately burning the grass and trees of the house to obstruct the view of our army. Because the smoke cloud was too thick and wide, the reconnaissance planes assigned to my cluster could not identify the target and had already returned. ”

Lu Kaiping frowned slightly, the uneasiness in his heart became more and more difficult to dissipate, but he lightly ordered: "Let him burn it, it can't be seen in the air, just strengthen ground reconnaissance, I don't care what you do, I will definitely get to the assembly point on time." Otherwise military law engages! ”

Hanging up the phone, Lu Kaiping got into the command car and patted the shoulder of the commander in front of him: "Close the door and cross the river." ”

Over the Irtysh River. Yang Zhiyong's landline was already full of holes, and the remaining canvas pieces shook violently with the airflow, as if the fuselage was covered with ugly bird feathers. The enemy planes behind were still raining bullets one after another, and the situation seemed to be irreversible, and the outcome was ......

Suddenly, a string of bullet marks swished across Yang Zhiyong's head, and then a gray whirring object instantly occupied Yang Zhiyong's field of vision, and with a whistling sound, it brushed against the horizontal tail of Yang Zhiyong's landline.

Looking behind him, the troublesome enemy plane, which had been chasing after him, rolled violently, and soon lost control and plunged down, crashing into the raging Irtysh River along with its broken wings.

Who saved him?

Yang Zhiyong quickly checked the instrument, operating stick and rudder, the Bodhisattva blessed, there was no big problem, so he easily poured half a somersault, and chased in the direction of the friendly plane just now, and caught up, good guy, it was his wingman, Warrant Officer An Jingshi.

Yang Zhiyong flew close to the wingman and gave a thumbs up to An Jingshishu, who was waving at him.

This was the first enemy plane shot down by Warrant Officer An on the battlefield, and it was the result achieved while rescuing the squad leader, Yang Zhiyong knew that from this moment on, he owed Warrant Officer An his life.

Playing the gesture of "follow me", Yang Zhiyong led An Jingshi back to the sky over Semipalatinsk, where the 4 fighters of the 1st squadron of the same squadron were circling, and the reinforcements were finally in time, but Zhiyong could not find the fighters of the 2nd Second Lieutenant Xie Feng and Warrant Officer Chen Changyun of the squadron.

The fuel gauge began to glow red, and when the time to return to the ship came, Yang Zhiyong reluctantly bid farewell to the battlefield, he failed to become the first trump card of the second air group in this sortie, and lost two of his subordinates, but his squad shot down a total of six enemy planes, and successfully protected two reconnaissance planes for the army school, and the battle over Semipalatinsk on this day had just begun.

When night fell, Lu Kaiping saw the city of Semipalatinsk, or rather, a sea of fire that swallowed the horizon and dyed the night sky blood-red.

The steel pincers of the two armored clusters on the left and right had successfully engaged an hour earlier, but according to the confessions of a few captives, Semipalatinsk had long since become an empty city, most of the inhabitants had been emptied, troops, ammunition, and food had been transported away at night, most of the artillery and machine guns in the fortifications of the fortress had been replaced with wooden fakes, and important facilities had been planted with explosives and fire-starters, ready to destroy and burn the whole city at any time. However, in order to confuse the Chinese army, a small number of troops left behind maintained a punctual and orderly patrol vigilance, and even regularly opened artillery bombardment on the opposite bank, and the trains also frequently entered and exited the Saicheng station, pretending to be reinforcements here, in fact, the troops unloaded under the noses of the Chinese reconnaissance planes during the day were quietly transported back at night, and the same troops were back and forth, and the trench system that was constantly extending and expanding around the fortress was dug by the sappers and no one was permanently stationed at all - at least from the air, the defense system of the fortress was constantly strengthened.

In the unprecedentedly fierce air battle, the Chinese army lost a total of 8 planes, including 5 fighters, reconnaissance planes, and 1 light bomber, shot down 17 enemy planes, and destroyed at least 6 Russian planes on the ground in a surprise attack. The number lost is not the most important thing, the important thing is that most of the original tasks of the air force have been affected or even canceled, and the Second Air Group has to send a large number of troops to search for and destroy the Russian air bases hidden in the forest, and for a long time thereafter, the first task is to find and destroy the enemy's air forces - they have not carried out such a task for a long time, in other words, the concept of unilateral air supremacy as a prerequisite for formulating combat plans must be corrected from this day on.

"Brusilov...... What the hell do you want to do......"

Lu Kaiping pinched his broad and smooth chin and muttered to himself.

The firelight reddened his eyes, and the darkness around him had no intention of answering his question.