Episode 26 Losing the Sky

With a fierce roar, the columns of smoke on the ground exploded in a string of three strands and four strands, and the Soviet army's BT tank group was suddenly in a sea of fire. Now suddenly disrupted, these fast tanks were all spewing green smoke, some reversed, some accelerated, and some tried to dodge out of formation...... Soon it was a mess, and many intact tanks also crashed together.

After a round of bombing, the tank group in the rear of the Soviet army was in flames, and more than two dozen BT-7s were reimbursed. But at the front, the Ming and Soviet tanks were already in a scuffle and could not bomb. Even then, the Ming tanks saw the scene in the distance with a periscope. Inside each lightning tank, there were earth-shattering cheers. This greatly boosted the morale of the Ming tank crews, many of whom were wounded, clumsy, and more ferocious in attacking the nimble BT fast tanks.

The vultures in the sky dive bombers wagged their wings and prepared to fly back to reload.

At this moment, an exclamation sounded on the radio in the air:

"Enemy planes! Bearing 095! Protect the bombers! Protect the bombers! ”

Immediately afterwards, the voice of the captain of the fighter group sounded:

"Lao Maozi's fighter has come out, brothers, meet me!"

But it was clearly too late. When the Soviet fighters were spotted, the other side was already close at hand.

The 32 Yi-16 fighters instantly emerged from the dazzling morning sun and pounced on the Ming army group on the west side of the sky, as fast as lightning and extremely sophisticated.

Almost instantly, a frightened shout sounded in the headphones of all the planes of the Ming army, and then a miserable scream was heard. The pilots pressed against the glass, staring in horror at the Vulture bombers around them, spewing fire and dragging black smoke to the ground.

It's all so fast, in just a minute. These I-16 fighters are short and capable, shorter than the "Kingfisher", and as a monoplane fighter, they still have an open cockpit. These small fighters do not have the slender size of the Kingfisher, but they have a nose thicker than the Kingfisher, like a large bucket. The powerful high-horsepower engine inside dragged the small body, and the speed reached more than 400 kilometers per hour in an instant. Just like a swarm of small bees, they sting when they catch a "vulture".

Although the "kingfisher" of the Ming army is called "kingfisher", it seems to have become a big goose in front of these flexible "little bees". The Kingfisher is more streamlined and has an enclosed cockpit, but the engine is only 770 hp and weighs nearly 2,000 kg. The E-16 weighs less than 1,500 kilograms but has a 1,000 hp engine......

The Kingfisher fighter is now on the i-16, the fastest fighter in the world in 1937.

……

However, both sides have their own distinct advantages. The Kingfisher's biggest advantage is firepower, with four 7.92mm machine guns, compared to the two 7.62mm machine guns of the I-16. But there is no doubt that the advantage of the I-16 is that it is fast and flexible. Not only does it have the speed of horsepower and light weight, but the whole machine is very short and looks like a small bee. In fact, it was the Soviet aircraft designer Bolikarpov, who improved it from the American competition aircraft "Gee Bee".

The short size of a small bee gives it the ability to turn defrely. In general, speed is inversely proportional to the ability to turn in small radii. The slower the speed, the more suitable it is for nimble small radius turns. But the I-16 seems to be the exception here. Thanks to its short fuselage, the I-16's ability to turn in a small radius is not inferior to that of the slower Kingfisher at a faster speed.

Soon, while the "Vulture" bombers continued to fall, one after another "Kingfisher" were also shot and wounded, some withdrew from the battle, some fell, and some exploded directly in the air. For a time, a number of parachutes appeared in the sky, and sixty or seventy percent of them were pilots of the Ming army.

"Protect the bombers! Protect the bombers! ……”

In Ming Jun's headphones, this sentence echoed in despair.

……

Reinforcements from the Ming army soon arrived. This time, another brigade of kingfishers came, and the I-16 on the battlefield was obviously at a numerical disadvantage. But even so, while the Ming army fought two or three Soviet troops, the Soviet army was able to achieve a 1:1 exchange ratio with the Ming army.

The Ming army increased the number of fighters in this brigade, and all they could do was to allow the remaining bombers to escape and return to the airfield to land. But only a few minutes passed. Soviet fighter reinforcements also came.

The airfields of both sides are very close to the battlefield, and only separated by a mountain range of the Tianshan Mountains, anyone can "instantly reinforce".

Xiang Xiaoqiang braved the artillery fire, stood outside the command vehicle, held a telescope and looked at the sky battlefield, his face became more and more pale, and he bit his lip tightly, almost biting his lip.

The surrounding guards also tilted their heads and stared blankly at the battle situation in the sky.

…… This result really made the officers and soldiers of the Ming army fall from above, from heaven to earth, shudder.

The contrast is too great. From dominating the sky in the Northern Expedition, pressing others like hunters beating ducks, to now letting others press and beat, and becoming ducks...... words such as "strong stimulation" and "huge shock" don't seem to be able to describe their current mood.

"The planes of the Russians are faster than ours."

Fourteen Gege also blushed and said with a telescope.

Xiang Xiaoqiang bit his lip and looked at the sky, his breath trembling. He squeezed out a sentence for a long time:

"People are also good at technology."

Fourteen Gege didn't say anything, just held the telescope and watched with him, which was considered a tacit acquiescence.

What Xiang Xiaoqiang thinks now is that he should immediately let China start desperately producing aircraft, accelerate the training of pilots, and recruit flying enthusiasts among the people. The new "Goshawk" fighter, the BF109, no longer needs to be hidden, hurry up and mass production.

He looked at the miserable situation in the sky, and in addition to depression, there was also fear in his heart. The fear is that the 1st Division of the People's Guard may not be able to keep it. In this way, these dozens of fighters in northern Xinjiang will be exhausted before this morning. After the fight was exhausted, before the planes from the mainland were transferred, the First Division of the People's Guard Corps was a live target on the ground. And looking at it like this, the Soviet army is not afraid to fight with you for planes and people's lives, what they want is to fight you as soon as possible. What's more, they are still very cost-effective, and the exchange ratio is very good.

At first, Xiang Xiaoqiang couldn't figure it out, most of the fighter pilots of the Ming Army had been baptized by the unified war, even if the performance of the aircraft was not as good as that of the Soviet Army, but the rich combat experience should be able to make up for it greatly! Air combat is a technical job, just like playing CS, even if the old bird only takes a small pistol, he can blow up the rookie with a big sniper from afar.

But he quickly figured it out. It is true that the pilots of the Ming army have been trained in the war of unification, but the pilots of the Soviet army have not been idle. They were also trained in the Spanish War. Moreover, the time of training, the intensity of combat, and the opponents of "sparring" were much stronger than those of the Ming army.

The "sparring" opponent of the Ming army was only the Qing Air Force, which lacked training, had inferior technology, low morale, and was discouraged. Moreover, at the very beginning, through a sneak attack on the airport, the air supremacy was firmly obtained, so that the Qing air force was always in a state of "not daring to fight" throughout the war, and the planes of the Ming army were unscrupulously "rampant" in the sky. In fact, most of the time there is no air combat, just ground attacks. By the end of the war, most of the pilots of the Ming army had not experienced even a decent air battle.

And the Soviet pilots were different. They endured brutal aerial combat in the skies over Spain solidly, and got a real high-intensity workout. Their "sparring opponents" were Franco's Air Force in the second half of '36 and the German Condor Army in the first half of '37. No matter which of these two is the "Great Qing Air Force" that is in its infancy of decay, it cannot be compared. Especially the latter, the German Condor Legion, can be said to be the first-class "sparring opponent" in the world today.

In other words, the Ming army has gone through an experience and trained a group of ground attack masters. And the Soviet army went through an experience, and the experience was in addition to a group of real air combat masters.

Whether in aircraft or air combat technology, the Ming army was significantly behind the Soviet army. Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart became heavier and heavier - for a period of time in the future, the Ming army will have to get used to fighting without air supremacy.

……

At this time, a chief's car drove in the distance, braving the explosion of a cannonball, dodging left and right, and almost overturned to the ground. Finally, the car rushed to the armored command vehicle of the division headquarters, stopped with a "quack", and jumped out of the three officers.

looked at Xiaoqiang, it was Gao Dayi with two staff officers.

"Righteousness!" Xiang Xiaoqiang was overjoyed and stepped forward and grabbed his arm, "Dayi, you flew back?" Why didn't you sit in an armored car? So much shrapnel, it's too dangerous! ”

Gao Dayi didn't care about greetings, took a glass of water and poured it, wiped his mouth and said:

"Hey, the armored car is too slow! It won't take an hour to get from Dihua to here! How fast this little car is! ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't say much, and pulled Gao Dayi to board the armored command vehicle, and now he took over the command of the battlefield.

Gao Dayi looked at the map for a while, listened to the gossip reports of the surrounding staff officers, and then used the periscope to observe the tank battle in the distance, and said decisively:

"My lord, you are very right in your battle idea, the enemy army is too strong, we can't fight to the death here. Now it's time to step back a bit. Let the troops be withdrawn. We don't have a few tanks left, and if we fight again, we'll be done. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang frowned and said:

"Withdraw now? Now we have reached the northernmost part of the Tianshan Pass, and behind it is Dihua, which is the Great Plains! As soon as we retreat, the Soviet army will be able to enter the northern frontier unimpeded! ”

Gao Dayi sighed:

"Sir, do you think I don't know? But what's the use of fighting like this? The enemy's strength and firepower are 20 times that of ours, and even if we fight all at once, we will only delay the Soviet army to enter the northern frontier for half a day. My lord, listen to what your subordinates say, the most feasible thing at the moment is to break through the idea and stand out from the northeast, Outer Mongolia and Hami! ”

Hearing this, Xiang Xiaoqiang shook his head sadly:

"Dayi, you have fought the entire war of unification, it's not that you don't know."

He pointed to the sky and said with a wry smile:

"Air supremacy is gone, where can you break through? …… Besides, even if there were no heavenly factors, would we be able to outrun others on earth? The BT-7 fast tank has a maximum speed of 73 km, we are only 40 km, where can we run? ”

"Xiang Xiaoqiang!" Fourteen Gege shouted beside him, "Knowing this, why don't you hurry up and fly back on orders?" Do you want to stay here and die? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was stunned, and his chest suddenly became angry, and he also yelled at her:

"See for yourself! Now the sky is full of Soviet planes! Do you want to be a target for others? ”

"Then why are you delaying until dawn? Why not fly away while it's dark! ”

"I ......" Xiang Xiaoqiang was stunned for a moment and shouted loudly, "Who knew that Soviet fighters were so powerful?" Who knew that we would lose all the air supremacy in three or two clicks!! Now we are...... Is there no way to heaven and no way to enter the earth, do you know? There is no way out but to stay here and fight to the death! ”

Fourteen Gege was speechless for a moment, and his face turned pale.