In order to accomplish this operational policy, the Nationalist army mainly carried out a large number of large-scale battles, such as the Battle of Songhu, in which the Japanese army invested 280,000 troops in 10 divisions, and China invested 70 divisions. Although the Japanese army lost Shanghai and then Nanjing, it also caused the Japanese army to fall into a war of attrition on a thousand-kilometer front in North China and Central China, and the Nationalist Government took the opportunity to complete the transfer of enterprises and state organs.

In order to prevent the Japanese army from attacking the west, he and the Communist Party jointly organized the Battle of Taiyuan. The battle, with Yan Xishan as the commander of the Second Theater of the Nationalist Government, began in August 1937 and ended in November. The battle effectively echoed the Battle of Songhu, in which the Japanese suffered nearly 30,000 casualties, which consumed the Japanese army's combat strength and blocked the Japanese army's plan to fight south along Pinghan.

In order to prevent the Japanese North China Army from moving south along the Tianjin-Pudong Railway to join the Japanese army in Central China, the Nationalist Government organized the Battle of Xuzhou under the command of Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater of Operations. The Warring States Army mobilized 600,000 troops and achieved a great victory in Taierzhuang, which once again dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Japanese army. The battle lasted four months, and it bought valuable time for the Nationalist government, which had just moved its capital to Chongqing, to organize the defense of the Wuhan area.

Through several battles, the Nationalist Government initially achieved the strategic goal of exchanging space for time, but the Japanese army was forced to change its strategy toward China because the battle line was too long, its forces were scattered, and its strategic materials were seriously depleted. The practice was mainly to win over and divide the pro-Japanese factions such as Wang Chingwei within the Nationalist Government and establish a puppet regime. A strategy toward China supplemented by an offensive force.

The fourth step is the last step, and it is also the step that Lao Chiang has always insisted on and has never wavered, this step is to actively seek international help and join the anti-fascist war alliance to obtain the support of major powers. He knew very well that although Japan is one of the best powers in Asia, it is only a second-rate rogue country in the international arena, and Japan is still far from being a real power, and as vested interests, the United States, Britain, France, and other countries do not want Japan to rise, so it is necessary for Japan to have conflicts with these countries in the process of rising. So a long time ago, Lao Jiang planned to hug his thighs.

At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the Nationalist Government clearly advocated forming a united front with Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, and mainly hoped to unite with the United States to resist the war. After the Japanese army provoked the Sino-Japanese incident. In accordance with the "Nine-Power Pact," the Nationalist Government repeatedly filed a complaint with the League of Nations, hoping that the Western powers would intervene to mediate the situation. Whether it was the mediation of the League of Nations after the September 18 Incident or the intervention of various countries after the September 18 Incident to urge Sino-Japanese peace talks, this is a strong proof that Lao Chiang hoped that Western powers would intervene and actively seek international help.

However, to the dismay of the Nationalist Government. Great powers such as Britain, the United States, and France have sharp contradictions with Germany, Japan, and Italy. But in order to alleviate the internal crisis in the country. and the idea of suppressing the Soviet Union by Germany, Japan, and Italy adopted a policy of appeasement. Britain even signed the "China Customs Agreement" with Japan, transferring Chinese customs in Japanese-occupied areas to Japan. At the same time, the United States maintained friendly trade relations with China and Japan, and at the same time openly and covertly supported and connived at Japan's invasion of China.

It was not until not long ago that Japan threw out the "Outline of Basic National Policy" and made it clear that southward expansion was the main direction of aggression. Strengthening the alliance with Germany and Italy, hoping to annex the colonies of the European and American powers in the Pacific, in August of the same year, Japan coerced Britain to withdraw from Shanghai and forced the Netherlands to agree to his oil supplies......

Germany, on the other hand, was already invincible in Europe, and only Britain relied on the English Channel to resist stubbornly. This series of events has made the United States believe that its own interests have been seriously threatened. In order to resist the global expansion of fascist countries, the US Senate and House of Representatives passed the "Lend-Lease Act". The bill authorizes the president to sell, exchange, transfer, or lend any military supplies such as weapons, supplies, and food to countries that are deemed to be of great importance to U.S. security for their defense, thus opening the prelude to the comprehensive U.S. assistance to China.

This time, the United States promised to immediately provide emergency loans to the Nationalist Government, which was regarded by Lao Chiang as a great practice of his four-step strategy, and he could not help but feel a little complacent when he believed that his entire anti-Japanese strategy was correct.

At the same time, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally telegraphed Chiang and agreed that Chennault, an American flight instructor serving in the Chinese Air Force, would recruit retired pilots from the United States to form a volunteer army of the US Air Force to aid China.

In fact, as early as the beginning of July 1937, retired American flight captain Chennault arrived in China to assist Soong Meiling, then the head of the Air Force, to inspect the Air Force, a few days later, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, Chennault accepted Soong Meiling's suggestion, set up an aviation school in the suburbs of Kunming, and trained the Chinese Kuomintang Air Force with US military standards, he also actively assisted the Chinese Kuomintang Air Force in the war against Japan, and personally flew into the battle, under the pressure of Japanese diplomacy, Chennault's activities gradually turned private.

Not long ago, President Roosevelt telegraphed Chennault, saying that the U.S. government could secretly support him by recruiting American pilots and mechanics as civilians in the name of private organizations to participate in the war as civilians. At the same time, the U.S. government can retire a group of pilots in advance and go directly to China to participate in the war.

Although the Nationalist Government's Air Force, after receiving financial support from Chen Feng's department, has already replenished a number of Iraq series fighters that Chen Feng's department has eliminated, and now the entire Chinese Air Force has 384 fighters in four flight groups.

However, because the Japanese army's Zero fighter technology has matured, and this new fighter has reached mass production, no less than 300 of them have been deployed in central China alone, so the Chinese Air Force has suffered a lot of losses every time it confronts the Zero fighter. Although Le Yiqin and others deliberately developed a tactic of using the Iran-16 fighters to jointly deal with the Japanese Zero fighters, the Japanese Air Force was still in an absolute position in Central China.

Air supremacy is not a new word for the countries of the world at this time, the famous Italian military scientist Du Hei made a detailed exposition on the importance of air supremacy in many of his works, and there are four main works on air supremacy in his life, "Air Supremacy" revised in 1921 to comprehensively expound his theoretical views, "The Possible Face of Future Wars" published in 1928 emphasizing the role of new weapons in future warfare, and "A Brief Restatement" of polemical works published in 1929. The War of 19××, published in 1930, described the possible future European war, and in 1937, these four works were compiled and published in Rome under the title Air Supremacy. The book comprehensively expounded the basic viewpoints of his theory of air supremacy, and was the foundation work of the bourgeois air force military theory.

The core of Duhei's theory is the victory of the air force. He believed that after seizing air supremacy, the air force could attack the enemy's national and economic centers and win the war on its own. Although his theories exaggerated the role of the air force, such as the view that continuous air raids will quickly disintegrate the people's morale and morale, and the idea of partial air supremacy and the theory of the uselessness of air defense, and so on. However, it was revolutionary and advanced at that time, and was supported by certain military strategists in the West, which had a great impact. It was reflected in the theory of "blitzkrieg" in fascist Germany, in the theory and practice of the combat use of bomber aviation in the United States, Britain and other bourgeois countries.

In particular, it has a great impact on Germany, which is close at hand, and the blitzkrieg used by Germany in World War II has a strong black color in it.

With the recognition of Du Hei's theory in the world, the importance of air supremacy has also been valued by all countries in the world, although Lao Jiang is not a strategist, nor is he a qualified tactical commander, but as a leader of a country and a commander of the army, he is still very keenly aware of the importance of air supremacy.

Therefore, in November 1928, the Aviation Administration was established within the Military and Political Department of the Nanjing Nationalist Government to take charge of the construction of the Air Force. In 1933, the organization of the Aviation Department was gradually improved. The Aviation Administration has 1 director and 1 deputy director, and the Department has 1 section chief of each office, including the Military Affairs Section, the Aviation Affairs Section, and the Management Section of the Counselor's Office. The Aviation Administration has jurisdiction over the aviation fleet, the air station, the aircraft repair yard and the Central Aviation School.

In 1935, the Aviation Administration was renamed the Aviation Committee, directly under the Military Commission, in charge of the administrative and operational affairs of the Air Force, Chiang Kai-shek himself as the chairman, Soong Meiling as the secretary-general, and Zhou Zhirou as the director of the office. Sub-divisions and sections within the Aviation Commission, and the establishment of a political department. Subsequently, the Nationalist Government purchased a large number of planes from the United States, and at the same time successively incorporated the original Northeast Air Force and Guangdong Air Force, and strengthened the air force, and determined that the brigade was its basic structure, with three teams under each team, and each detachment had three pilots; The brigade has 1 captain, 1 team leader, and 1 detachment leader; and equipped with mechanical and clerical staff. Before the Anti-Japanese War, the Nationalist Government had established 7 flight brigades.

In order to strengthen the construction and security of the air force airfield, five special service brigades have been set up, each of which has three regiments. Two aviation engineer regiments, an air force communications corps and a motor transport unit were also formed. The air force officer system is also divided into three classes and nine grades, but the military system is stricter than that of the army, and air force officers must take flight time, technical skills, and combat exploits as the basis for approving promotions. The salaries of the rest of the personnel are also one-third higher than those of the army, but the ranks of various positions are lower than those of the army, such as the commander-in-chief of the air force is only designated at the rank of lieutenant general, and the commander of the brigade is only designated at the rank of colonel or lieutenant colonel.

Even though the Nationalist Government attaches great importance to the development of the Air Force, the huge gap in the national strength of China and Japan still makes it impossible for the Chinese Air Force to compete with the Japanese Air Force. As of August 14, 1937, the Japanese Army Air Corps had about 1,480 aircraft and the Naval Air Corps had about 1,220 aircraft. Japan's industrial base is relatively solid, and it is capable of producing all kinds of aircraft and technical equipment, which can be replenished in a timely manner after combat losses. (To be continued......)