Chapter 238: Braising Together (Asking for Subscriptions, Asking for Monthly Passes, Asking for Various !! ）

Both China and Japan did not pay much attention to this air encounter, after all, the losses on both sides were not very large. Moreover, warfare is the most common in this era, and it is not surprising that a chance air encounter occurs.

Despite some twists and turns on the road, all six aviation groups of the Northern Air Force finally arrived at Wuhan Airport without any problems. The huge lineup of the Northern Air Force made General Zhou Zhirou, director of the Aviation Military Commission of the Nationalist Government, extremely shocked, although the Air Force of the Nationalist Government also claimed to have thousands of fighters, but the actual situation Lao Zhou himself was the same as Spiegel, 1,000 fighters were just numbers on paper, before the Sino-Japanese war last year, the actual number of fighters owned by the Nationalist Government was only more than 300, and the others were either damaged or were only parts, and the assembly was not completed. Or some are simply only a part of the pre-order quantity, and it can be said that the air force of the Nationalist Government has never exceeded 500 fighters.

Zhilu said that this time the Northern Air Force went south to bomb Shanghai, and he saw the Japanese warships anchored at Wusongkou, so Zhou Zhirou personally came to greet the warriors of the Northern Air Force.

As the supreme commander of the Chinese Air Force, Zhou Zhirou hated the Japanese Navy to the core. What is the Japanese Navy and not the Japanese Air Force? This is entirely because Japan has never established an independent air force, and Japan's air force is divided into two parts, one part is a temporary aviation regiment that cooperates with the army operations, and the other part is a naval aviation regiment that cooperates with naval operations.

The disparity in military strength between China and Japan cannot be ignored. Before the Sino-Japanese war, Chiang was most confident in his air force, because according to Chiang's estimates, his air force had at least 1,000-1,500 combat aircraft, and all of Japan's air forces added up to roughly this number.

However, after a detailed investigation after the start of the war, Lao Chiang realized that the number of his air force was only more than 300 fighters, while Japan had more than 1,300 fighters at the same time, and the strength of the Chinese air force was only a fraction of others, so Lao Chiang never dared to use this trump card.

After the outbreak of the August 13 Incident, with the continuous expansion of the battlefield, the situation on the Songhu battlefield became more and more crisis. Watching the Japanese army use a huge number of naval and air forces every day to continuously bomb the Chinese army on the ground. Lao Chiang had no choice but to send the air force to the front line in Shanghai, and the air forces of China and Japan started a protracted and vicious war.

Zhou Zhirou was not a pure air force commander, he graduated from the Eighth Infantry Section of the Baoding Army Military Academy, in May 1933. Recommended by Chen Cheng. Jiang specially selected Zhou Zhirou to go to Europe and the United States to inspect air force education. Since then, he has left the army system and started his career in the Air Force.

Although he did not graduate from an orthodox air force academy, Zhou Zhirou studied English hard after going abroad. After carefully inspecting the aviation construction and air force training of various countries, and commanding many operations against Japan, it can be said that Zhou Zhirou was already a qualified air force commander at this time.

Because of this, based on his understanding of the Air Force, this huge number of combat aircraft in front of him can definitely inflict heavy losses on the Japanese army with its numbers.

In order to respect the Nationalist Government, Chen Feng authorized Zhou Zhirou to be the supreme commander of the air battle, commanding the Nationalist Government's air force and his northern air force. Originally, Chen Feng planned to make Major General Ivanovich and Liu Nijia commanders, but when the Nationalist Government sent a telegram to Guisui that Zhou Zhirou's air force would also participate in this war, Chen Feng changed his mind.

Although Zhou Zhirou is Lao Chiang's confidant, it is undeniable that he is the senior commander of the Air Force who knows the most in China, and it can also be said that Zhou Zhirou is the Chinese officer who knows the Japanese Navy and Air Force best. Moreover, compared with the Northern Air Force, the Air Force of the Nationalist Government has its own intelligence agency, which can collect intelligence on the Japanese Navy and Air Force at any time, which saves Chen Feng a lot of things.

Wuhan. The National Government Aviation Military Commission is stationed.

Since the battle plan was set for two days after tomorrow, they did not bother to eat, so several high-ranking officers of the Northern Air Force were invited by Zhou Zhirou to the operational command room of the Aviation Military Committee to conduct the most advanced tactical drill.

Zhou Zhirou looked at the senior commander of the Northern Air Force, then got up and said, "General Liu and General Ivan welcome you, welcome!" Then he pointed to Mao Limin, the deputy director next to him, and said: "Let me introduce to you, this is my deputy, General Mao Limin, and this is Gao Zhihang, the captain of the Fourth Destroyer Brigade, and the first ace pilot of the party-state."

"I won't say anything else, General Liu, I have already seen the battle plan sent by Commander Chen, to be honest, it is very risky, but if it is operated well, there is still a great chance of success. But what we need to do now is to plan and perfect this combat plan. ”

Liu Nijia got up and said: "Before I came, the general seat had already explained, and General Zhou had the final say on the matter of coming here for combat command, and General Ivan and I were both under your command." ”

"If that's the case, then I won't refuse. Now I have good news for you: I have just received a telegram from the intelligence officers in Shanghai that the Japanese Fourth Fleet had docked at the Wusongkou Naval Base an hour earlier, including the heavy cruiser Ashigara, the flagship of the Fourth Fleet. In addition, our intelligence officers saw Vice Admiral Toyoda, commander of the Japanese Fourth Fleet. Zhou Zhirou said loudly.

"Director Zhou, how can it be the Fourth Fleet? We have received information that the Third Fleet will arrive at Wusongkou Naval Base in three days! Liu Nijia said with a frown.

"I would have liked the Third Fleet, but in fact it was the Fourth Fleet. However, whether it is the Fourth Fleet or the Third Fleet, since we are sure to attack the Wusongkou Military Port in a sneak attack, then we must find out the strength of the enemy, the strength of the Japanese naval aviation is not weak, and we must go all out. Zhou Zhi judo.

"Director Zhou, you are an old commander of the Air Force, we have only collected intelligence on the Third Fleet before, and we don't know anything about the Fourth Fleet, and now that the opponent has been replaced by the Fourth Fleet, I hope Director Zhou will tell us about the situation of the Fourth Fleet." Liu Nijia said.

"This is as it should be, the 4th Fleet is a naval fleet formed by the Japanese army before the Battle of Songhu to support the Shanghai battlefield, its fleet command is Vice Admiral Toyoda, and the flagship is the heavy cruiser Ashigara. The Fourth Fleet is weaker than the First, Second, and Third Fleets because the Fourth Fleet does not have an aircraft carrier battle group to cooperate with it. The Fourth Fleet, with the 9th and 14th combat fleets, the 4th and 5th mine fleets, and an air force has more than 80 combat ships and more than 50 aircraft. Zhou Zhi judo.

"This Fourth Fleet is indeed inferior to the Third Fleet, but it is indeed a pot of fat, and it is worth a joint vote of our two major air forces, which is good." Liu Nijia said.

In the following time, Zhou Zhirou, Liu Nijia and others analyzed the operational plan formulated by Chen Feng, and then made major revisions to the entire operational plan.

According to the revised operational plan, in the early hours of tomorrow morning, Gao Zhihang, Li Guidan, and Xue Chenghu will lead the 4th and 2nd destroyer groups of the Nationalist Government Air Force and the 3rd Destroyer Group of the Northern Air Force to set out from Nanchang to attack Nanjing, forcing the Japanese Central China Front General Luya Air Force to come to meet the battle.

At the same time, the 1st and 2nd Destroyer Battalions of the Northern Air Force were dispatched to ambush the periphery of Nanjing, and when the two sides were fighting, these two brigades suddenly came out from behind the Japanese and caught the Japanese by surprise. The main purpose of this was to force the remaining destroyers of the Japanese army to come for reinforcements.

After receiving the order for all the Japanese fighters to take off, the group of bombers on standby at Wuhan Airport immediately set off and rushed directly to the Japanese naval base at Wusongkou to launch a Jedi extermination against the Japanese navy.

However, it took a whole afternoon to do a good job of the battle plan here, and before the implementation of the battle plan, a new situation appeared in Shanghai, and just when the meeting was about to end, a sweet-looking beautiful intelligence officer came in and handed Zhou Zhirou a document, and then Zhou Zhirou ordered the meeting to continue.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I just received information from the direction of Shanghai again, just half an hour ago, the Japanese Third Fleet also docked at Wusongkou, which also includes the flagship of the Third Fleet, the Izumo, and the Fengxiang aircraft carrier battle group that cooperates with it, but the commander of the Third Fleet, Hasegawa Qing, has not been found, so our battle plan has been revised." Zhou Zhirou said loudly.

"Director Zhou, do you know what caused the two fleets of the Japanese army to suddenly gather at Wusongkou?" Liu Nijia asked with a frown.

In fact, it is not to blame Liu Nijia for having doubts, after all, after the Battle of Jiangyin, the Chinese Navy has been completely annihilated, and the large ships have almost been lost, only Chen Shaokuan still has a few large ships that Chen Feng gave to the Nationalist Government in the direction of Guangzhou, but that strength is not worth the Japanese army mobilizing troops to send two fleets to encircle and suppress.

Zhou Zhirou thought for a while and said: "Actually, there is nothing to hide, not long ago we intercepted a top-secret telegram from the Japanese army, which was sent by the Central China Front to the North China Front. The Japanese army decided to launch the Battle of Wuhan and seize the metropolis of Wuhan, and in the telegram, the Central China Front of the Japanese army hoped that the North China Front would launch an offensive in eastern Henan in order to contain the party-state army, and at the same time attack Wuhan by land and water. Presumably, the appearance of the Third Fleet and the Fourth Fleet in Shanghai at this time must have something to do with this incident. ”

Liu Nijia thought for a while and said, "Since they are all here, then let's stew them together!" (To be continued......)