In a small bay near Degupan in the southeast of Lingayen Bay, six Sea Hawk water fighters of the 901st Water Battle Squadron of the Navy's Third Air Fleet are moored.

Squadron Leader Captain Tang Peng pinched his cigarette and wandered on the trestle that jutted into the bay, looking back at the tent with a radio antenna on the beach from time to time.

Why hasn't the order come yet?

Could it be that the 901 Squadron is not needed to participate in the war?

Or do not believe that the 901 squadron will be able to complete the task.

Tang Peng knew very well how much criticism this unit he had personally founded.

"Water fighters? Is it necessary for such meaningless things to exist? ”

"Ordinary water scouts can fight with machine guns."

"It's a pure waste of money!"

With the support of a few high-ranking officers, he devoted all his energy to the training of the troops, explored the compilation of a training program with his subordinates, completed the training for the conversion of a new type of water warfare in just a few months, and participated in the first and only joint exercise of the fleet before the war. The squadron's outstanding performance in the exercise left a deep impression on the fleet commander, Rear Admiral Ling Yi, and Tang Peng also received a special commendation from Commander Ling. Less than a month after the end of that exercise, the 901st Squadron was ordered to sail to Lingayen Bay aboard the specially designed seaplane carrier "Fulan" and stationed in this unnamed bay on the last day of 1914 with the landing force.

Early in the morning, Tang Peng received an order from Commander Ling: It is expected that the enemy fleet will break into Lingayen Bay before this afternoon, and ordered your unit to immediately enter a state of first-class combat readiness and be ready to shoot down any enemy plane that attempts to approach the bay.

It turned out that the South China Sea Fleet Command had already anticipated that the enemy's combined fleet might send carrier-based planes to reconnoiter the situation in Lingayen Bay first, and if the enemy planes were allowed to smoothly enter the depths of the bay or fly over the sea area where our main forces were ambushed, our army's operational attempt would be completely frustrated!

Due to various practical reasons, the heavy task of intercepting the enemy's reconnaissance plane completely fell on the shoulders of dozens of officers and men of the 901 Squadron; as the squadron leader, Tang Peng was all the more deeply aware of the heavy duty and did not dare to slack off a little; from the time he received the order to the present, he never took a moment of rest, and constantly urged his subordinates to prepare the plane and inspect the weather, especially his own plane zero, and he personally inspected it again and again, eager to touch every inch of the plane with his own hands.

After looking forward to it, the curtain of the tent was finally lifted from the inside: "Call from the Fleet Command of the Front!" 11:30 at coordinates 1636 plus 11990 to discover the enemy fleet! ”

Tang Peng shook off the cigarette butt, took out the sea chart in his pocket and drew a circle: "I have found the enemy, the target is in the northwest of Kabaruyan Island, brothers, we will follow the No. 1 plan, divide into three teams to patrol, Xiao Song and I will go to Area A, Team 2 will go to Area B, Team 3 will go to Area C, are you ready!" ”

The subordinates who were already guarding the cockpit of the plane poked their heads out one after another: "The first plane is on standby!" Unit 2 is on standby! Unit 3 ......"

"The whole team is out! Follow me! ”

Within a few minutes, the six "Sea Eagles" of the 901st Squadron dragged a long trail of water on the surface of the sea, slid out of this ordinary cove that could not make any impressive impression, drove at full speed on the wider sea, and soon leaped into the sky as lightly as birds.

After the entire squadron climbed to 1,500 meters, it formed into three twin-plane squadrons and rushed straight to the patrol areas on the west, northwest, and north sides of the bay.

Twenty minutes later, Tang Peng discovered the first target in the southeast of Kabaruyan Island: a small plane without a pontoon boat, located in the upper right of the plane, heading southeast, very slow - the best prey! At this time, the wingman on the side waved his wings, and Tang Peng gestured to the wingman knowingly: I'll go first, you cover!

Increasing the throttle, pulling up the control stick, and kicking down the rudder and ailerons, Tang Peng's No. 0 "Sea Eagle" briskly drew a three-dimensional double curve in the air, and circled behind the enemy plane three times and twice.

The other party obviously found that two ill-intentioned planes were approaching, and turned around with difficulty, trying to flee to the north, Tang Peng was certainly not a good man and woman who liked to release, with a calm expression before the hunter fired, he bit the enemy plane with skillful operation, pulled the bolt of the machine gun, pressed the launch button, and the two one-two air-cooled heavy machine guns behind the nose propeller suddenly sprayed blazing gunfire, and the trajectory of the tracer bullet danced in the sky.

The distance kept approaching, from 100 yards to 30 yards, and the enemy planes did not fight back, allowing the machine guns of the "Sea Hawk" to open more and more dense bullet holes in the fuselage - Tang Peng saw clearly that this was a single-seater plane with the landing gear removed.

The intermittent firing lasted less than a minute, and the enemy plane's engine emitted billowing smoke, and the plane lost control and swooped down sharply towards the sea......

A quarter of an hour later, Tang Peng found a second prey on the west side of Kabaruyan Island, which was a Schott seaplane, with a Habegkai machine gun mounted on a ring frame in the back seat, Tang Peng did not give the other party a chance to counterattack, the "Sea Hawk" was much more flexible than the other side, with the absolute advantage in height and speed, Tang Peng drove the plane with his back to the sun, attacked continuously from the rear and above the enemy plane, and only three long point shots knocked the opponent into spitting fire, tumbling and falling.

At about the same moment, the 2nd Squadron of the 901st Squadron discovered and shot down two other enemy small aircraft in the middle of Lingayen Bay, in addition, the 3rd Squadron discovered a Schott seaplane in the eastern part of the bay and successfully captured it by forced landing.

The combined fleet of the four nations was completely wiped out, and Vice Admiral Bernie lost his most crucial means of reconnaissance, and while he knew nothing about it, his avant-garde troops had bypassed Kabaruyan Island, took a south-southeast course, and cautiously advanced deep into Lingayen Bay.

At 12:35 p.m., the fast cruiser "Yarmouth," which was on the reconnaissance line at the forefront of the fleet, suddenly exploded, and a few minutes later, two columns of water tens of meters high suddenly rose from the port side of the "Australia," the flagship of the avant-guard.

The thin "Yarmouth" struggled for less than a quarter of an hour before sinking under the surface, and the "Australia" suddenly lost power after this blow and collapsed into the sea like a dead fish.

The combined Franco-Dutch destroyer fleet, which was accompanying the left rear of the avant-garde, suddenly became busy, and five of them rushed all the way to the port side of the "Australia" and dropped one depth charge after another around the estimated position of the submarine. The follow-up ships of the avant-garde column quickly bypassed the crippled "Australia" and continued to move forward—but within a few minutes, the starboard side of the large armored cruiser "Drake" rose again......