Chapter 231: Air Force Volunteer Corps (Asking for subscriptions, monthly passes, and various !! ）

On September 12, Chen Feng received a telegram from Henry, who had returned to the United States, in which Henry told Chen Feng about the sales of penicillin in the United States. Due to the unsparing publicity of the Morgan family and the Rockefeller family, and because penicillin had become famous before, penicillin became popular throughout the United States in a short period of time.

Since the first batch of penicillin is not very large, the two families together are only 40 million US dollars of goods, 400,000 boxes of amoxicillin and 500,000 injections Although it seems like a lot, compared to the thousands of cities in the United States, this amount is really not enough.

When the amazing effect of penicillin was confirmed in major hospitals in the United States, in just half a month, $40 million of goods were sold out, and major hospitals and pharmacies were urging the two families to ask for goods. After seeing the broad prospects of penicillin drugs, the two families who made a lot of money together with the DuPont family placed an order of 150 million yuan with Chen Feng at once.

Although 150 million orders are indeed a lot, compared to the production line with an annual output of 25,000 tons of penicillin, 150 million US dollars is only one percent of the output, Chen Feng agreed to Henry's request without any consideration. However, Chen Feng asked Heng to use industrial products to compensate for the payment, so Chen Feng specially sent a list to the three major families, all of which were all kinds of equipment urgently needed by the 40th Group Army.

Of course, Chen Feng knew that the current US law did not allow American ships to transport arms for the warring parties, so Chen Feng did not embarrass Henry. All he wanted was some mining equipment and construction machinery, and of course, some cars and fuel.

The three families gladly agreed to Chen Feng's request to use industrial products to compensate for the payment, and industrial products were more in line with the interests of the three families than cash, after all, the three families were originally well-known conglomerates in the United States, and they controlled a large number of factories and enterprises. This not only solves the sales problem of their own business, but also makes a huge price difference, if they used to earn $30 for a box of penicillin drugs, then if they can pay for the goods with industrial products, the profit can increase by 50%.

14th. Henry sent another telegram. Two 10,000-ton freighters have set sail from the West Coast of the United States and are expected to arrive in Guangzhou in half a month.

At the same time, Chen Feng received a telegram from the Soviet government saying that the first batch of fighters and the volunteer team of pilots were ready. The Soviet side demanded that Chen Feng determine the flight route as soon as possible. Of course, Chen Feng's department was also required to build a large airport.

After receiving the telegram, Chen Feng was ecstatic. Some time ago, the intelligence department detected a very bad piece of information, and the Japanese army not only reinforced a large number of infantry to the North China Front, but also reinforced a large number of air units. It is said that there are now nearly 200 planes at Baoding Airport alone, and all of them are new Type 97 fighters.

A few days ago, Zhangjiakou was bombed by the Japanese air force, although the Seventh Independent Division shot down seven Japanese fighters, but the Japanese army's large-scale bombing caused great damage to Zhangjiakou, the military and civilian casualties in the city exceeded 500, 800 houses were destroyed, and the runway of the newly built Zhangjiakou Airport was blown up, and the ground facilities suffered heavy losses.

Beginning in September, the North China Front sent a large number of bombers and fighters to the defense areas of the 40th Army every day to bomb the cities, and those bastards even dropped incendiary bombs on large wheat fields, causing huge losses of grain in the northern part of the country.

In addition, the Japanese army repeatedly tried to lure and annihilate the air power of the 40th Army, and although this plot did not succeed, it still caused heavy losses to the aviation division of the 40th Army, and only 132 of the 160 aircraft remained.

The Soviet Union promised Chen Feng a total of 300 fighters, but they were delivered in two batches, with a total of 150 fighters in the first batch, including 75 fighters each for the I-15 and I-16 fighters. In addition, 300 volunteer pilots came with them.

It's easy to say that the airport is here, anyway, Chen Feng still has an airport construction order in his hand that has not been used. Soon a huge airport quietly appeared in the dense forest outside Guisui City, of course, in order not to appear too abruptly, before the use of the construction order, Chen Feng set up a military restricted area around the airport for more than ten kilometers, and sent a large number of soldiers to station, and also dispatched a large number of civilian workers and troops to level the site.

Although the appearance of the airport still surprised many soldiers and migrant workers, at least the people in the city did not think so, after all, thousands of people have been busy working there for so many days, and it is understandable that an airport should appear.

Now it's different, they used to be their own people, and even if they got out of Datong Fortress, they didn't say anything. Even Yang Yi, Li Wensheng, Xu Hu and others felt that his young master had a secret, but no one dared to say anything. But now the entire Chahar regime is divided into three, and in addition to the 40th Group Army, there are also the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, which makes Chen Feng have to guard against it.

On September 20, with the landing of one plane after another, 150 fighters and 300 pilots from the Soviet Union finally arrived in Guisui.

In fact, the Soviet Union's support for the Chinese air force had already existed before that, but it was the Nationalist Government that had supported it before. The Soviets were not stupid, they knew that once China was defeated, Japan's next target would be them, and at this time, Germany was also in Europe to grin at the Soviet Union, and provocations occurred from time to time. Stalin did not go to war with the enemy in both the East and the West at the same time, so he spared no effort to support the Chinese war of resistance.

On August 21, 1937, the government of the Republic of China and the Soviet Union signed the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact in Nanjing, and in November 1937, the Air Force Volunteer Corps was dispatched to fight in China. The first Soviet flying group to aid China had two aviation groups - SB bombers and И-16 fighter groups, with a total of 254 people. By October 21, 1937, 447 people had been assembled in Almaty to send people to China for renewal. Among them are pilots, aviation mechanics, aviation mechanics, radio operators, meteorologists, airfield masters, code interpreters, drivers, engineers, aircraft assembly teams, doctors, etc. In November 1937, under the command of Captain Palenin, the second group of SB bombers was sent to China, this group of about 150 officers and men. At the end of 1937 and the beginning of 1938, in A? Under the leadership of C. Prague Joshinsky, three И-15 fighter aviation groups were sent to China. Between July and October 1938, a new group of Soviet volunteers arrived in China. Among them was the SB bomber aviation group, headed by Tehoor, consisting of 66 people. Soviet volunteer pilots and aircraft were initially concentrated at the airfields of Suzhou and Lanzhou, where they were temporarily organized into air force combat groups, and then sent to the eastern and central Chinese fronts.

The pilots of the Soviet Union aiding China are still very good, although they do not have much actual combat experience, but their quality is not low. The first Soviet volunteer air force was transferred from Almaty to Lanzhou, China, and then to Nanjing, where air combat was underway when they arrived at the Nanjing front-line airfield. On November 21, the Japanese planes attacked, and 7 И-16 fighters of the 1st Brigade of the Soviet Volunteer Air Force took to the air to engage 20 Japanese planes. During the battle, Soviet pilots shot down two Japanese Type 96 fighters and one bomber, and the Soviet pilots fought alone and won the first battle. During the battle on November 22, the 1st Brigade 6 И-16 against 6 Japanese A5M aircraft. The sudden appearance of Soviet fighters on the battlefield made the Japanese pilots somewhat flustered. Even the Japanese admitted: "The Soviet И-16 and И-15 fighters, which hastily entered the war, still seized local air supremacy to some extent." In late November, the strong momentum of Japan's carrier-based aviation was curbed. Without the coordination of the Chinese Air Force and no experience in engaging with the Japanese army, the Soviet volunteer pilots relied on the technical superiority of Soviet-made fighter planes to achieve their first victory in the air battle of Nanjing.

With the above experience, the volunteer pilots of the Soviet Union to assist the 40th Army were commanded by Major General Ivanovich, and before that, Major General Ivan sent people to China to inspect the ground service units of the 40th Group Army's air divisions, and proved that they were fully capable of providing services to the Soviet Air Force, so the more than 300 people who came this time were all pilots, and more than 50 of them were Soviet air force officers, and their quality was very good.

Chen Feng himself personally greeted Ivan and others at the airport, and set up a dinner for Ivan and others in Guisui that night to entertain them.

According to the regulations of both sides, Ivan and others must unconditionally obey Chen Feng's command during their stay in China, and of course, if the order given by Chen Feng is obviously wrong, Ivan and others can refuse to carry it out.

The 40th Army, on the other hand, was to provide food, lodging, and salaries for Soviet pilots in China, and if Soviet pilots were injured or killed in battle, the 40th Army was to pay certain compensation.

Originally, the cooperation between the two sides was sincere, so the conditions were not related to the harshness, and an agreement was quickly reached. According to Major General Ivan, the pilots were drawn from the active soldiers of the Soviet Red Army, and the fighters were all relatively advanced fighters of the Soviet Union, which were absolutely not something that the Japanese Type 95 fighters could compete with.

The performance of this type of fighter is not very good, and it is not much better than Japan's Type 95 fighter, and it is worse than the Japanese army's main fighter, the Type 96 fighter and Type 97 fighter.

But the I-16 was different, it was the first Soviet fighter with a cantilevered lower wing and retractable landing gear. The aircraft was designed by Polikarpov in 1933 and tested by the famous pilot V.P. Chkalov in February 1934. In 1935, he made his first appearance at a mass rally on Red Square to commemorate May Day, flying in formation over Red Square.

In July 1935, production began of the I-16 with M-25 engines and ShKAS machine guns, and in 1935-1937 it was the fastest flying fighter in the world at the time, and significantly outperformed the rebel FiatCR-12 biplane during the Spanish Civil War.

With the addition of these planes and pilots, Chen Feng couldn't help but have a plan in his mind, a plan that the Japanese will never forget. (To be continued......)