Episode 89 Aircraft carrier squadron

After a day of fierce fighting on the 8th, Andong's Ming army still held its ground, but there were not many casualties. The two sides are almost in a semi-confrontational state. Sometimes, although you can't see through the ruins, you can hear the soldiers on the other side, and when the other party is cooking, you can smell what is cooking in the other party's pot.

On the contrary, the 10th Division, which served as an assist, suffered heavy casualties. The Yalu River was littered with the corpses of Japanese soldiers, and there were many rubber rafts that had been riddled with holes, all down the river.

For two days, Ryosuke Isoya, commander of the 10th Division, kept calling the headquarters of the 4th Division, questioning, angrily denouncing, and cursing, saying that they were all cowards and disregarded the title of "imperial army." In the words of Ryosuke Isoya, "It is not easy to form a stalemate with an absolutely inferior enemy on the second day of the attack."

And Ryosuke Isoya still doesn't understand the actual situation, otherwise he wouldn't have said that. The actual situation was not that the two armies formed a "stalemate confrontation", but that a regiment in the city, the Ming Army, was fully capable of defeating the Japanese Fourth Division. It was entirely because the "friendly enemy" of the Fourth Division was very rare, and the Ming army let them go, afraid of beating them away.

On the 7th, the Japanese army occupied Fuxin, and on the evening of the 8th, four divisions of the Japanese army attacked Yixian from the northeast and approached Jinzhou. At the same time, six divisions of the Japanese army also approached Shenyang from due north.

Jinzhou and Shenyang originally had only one division of the Ming army. Jinzhou is the land gateway connecting the inside and outside of the Guan, while Shenyang is the administrative center of the whole of Fengtian. It was also at this time that the reinforcements from the Ming Army Pass arrived in Shenyang from the south and began to engage the vanguard of the Japanese army. The reinforcements of the Ming army that arrived in Jinzhou also continued to move north and fought against the Japanese army in Yixian.

The Japanese army, which directly attacked these two cities, had a total of ten divisions. And the reinforcements that the Ming army has already arrived have also reached seven divisions. These seven divisions were all motorized infantry divisions, and their firepower was more than double that of the Japanese Army's Division A. Each division is equipped with a tank battalion with a total of 32 medium and heavy tanks. The divisions of the Japanese army attacking Shenyang and Jinzhou, each division was also equipped with a ** tank wing, a total of 30 Type III tanks.

In normal historical time and space, the Japanese Army's Type 3 tanks were not developed until the 40s to equip the troops, and they were designed to deal with the main battle tanks of the US and Soviet armies. In regular history, due to the fact that for a long time the potential enemy of the Japanese Army, the Republic of China Army, had almost no armored forces, and the heavy weapons were extremely backward, the Japanese tanks did not need to deal with tanks, and even the threat of anti-tank guns was not great. Hence the development of a "thin-skinned turtle shell" similar to the 95 tank. But in this time and space, the Ming army has a strong armored force and a strong artillery firepower. The number one imaginary enemy of the Japanese Army was, of course, the Ming Army. For this reason, the Type 3 medium tank, which was supposed to be born only a few years later, appeared earlier.

However, both sides did not concentrate on the dozens of tanks in this area, but dispersed them into battalions and companies and used them as weapons to cover the infantry. There is no way to equip these infantry divisions with tanks, which is what they do. A specialized armored division like the People's Guard, one division has one or two hundred tanks, after all, there are not many. Now the tanks on both sides are very scattered, and it is difficult to see one, and they are followed by large groups of infantry, carrying machine guns and pushing small guns, and rushing forward with cats on their waists. The tank stations on both sides could not fight at all.

Although the Ming army had rich combat experience and stronger firepower, it also strongly felt the strong combat effectiveness of the Japanese army and the strength to fight without dying. After the artillery of both sides exchanged fire, both sides charged. Thousands of Japanese soldiers on the opposite side rushed forward with bayonets and shouting "Long live" for their lives, and the momentum made every Ming officer and soldier shudder. Although they have a lot of submachine guns in their hands, the other party doesn't seem to be afraid of dead people at all, and rushes forward one after another. The soldiers of the Ming army were often killed by the bayonets of the Japanese soldiers before they had time to change the magazines. And the riflemen of the Ming army and the Japanese army fought bayonets, but they couldn't fight at all. The Japanese soldiers all seemed to be masters of white-knuckle warfare, and they stabbed a Ming soldier to death in three or two strokes.

Although in general, the Ming army was able to achieve a relatively good exchange ratio by virtue of its superiority in weapons and light weapons, everyone was under great mental pressure. They couldn't figure out how there was such an army like a tiger and a wolf in the world. The soldiers on the other side were obviously ignorant of their lives, but the unforgettable expression of hatred on their faces, the kind of energy that they couldn't wait to die together, made every Ming officer and soldier seriously worried.

"Does he have a vendetta against me for killing my father?"

This is a thought that lingers in the minds of many Ming soldiers.

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In the early morning of 9 July, the three aircraft carriers "Tianxuan," "Tianji," and "Tianshu," as well as nine destroyers, anchored at the Zhoushan base, quietly sailed out of the Zhoushan Islands from the complicated waterways, bypassing the Japanese destroyers monitoring the Ming fleet, and sailed from the south to the East China Sea.

Such is the benefit of the Zhoushan archipelago as a base for the home fleet. As an archipelago, it has a wide area, an extremely long circumference, and an extremely large number of exports, almost innumerable. It was almost impossible for the Japanese fleet to completely blockade and monitor from the periphery. And if it penetrates into the complex waterways and defense systems of the archipelago, the Japanese fleet will definitely not dare.

This time the flagship of the detachment was the Tianshu. In addition to the destroyers escorting the Tianshu detachment, the capital ships are only aircraft carriers. A total of 240 combat aircraft were carried, half of which were fighters, the other half were dive bombers and torpedo aircraft. The stated task of the detachment was to break through Japan's chain of islands in the western Pacific and advance into the Pacific Ocean.

Breaking through the Japanese island chain first would in itself mean engaging in a naval battle with the Japanese fleet guarding the island chain and destroying the other side. Second, after breaking through to the Pacific Ocean, the aircraft carrier planes had to search the oceans extensively, searching for Japanese transport ships and any warships, and then sinking them. Thirdly, if conditions permit, select suitable targets on the east coast of Japan and carry out air strikes. This target can be a military port, a commercial port, or an industrial zone. The purpose was not strategic bombing, but to give Japan a strong shock to the top and bottom, and to slap the Japanese navy in the face with a big mouth, forcing them to transfer their fleets deployed in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea to the east, giving the Ming navy room to maneuver and redeploy its forces.

The Tianshu detachment also had to meet the Japanese capital ships, strive to sink the Japanese capital battleships, and complete the ultimate goal of this voyage - to prove that aircraft carriers are stronger than battleships.

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Originally, "in principle" it was given to Xiang Xiaoqiang two aircraft carriers. But Xiang Xiaoqiang took the chicken feather as an arrow, and insisted that this was just saying "two aircraft carriers", and did not say anything about other ships. He also wanted a battlecruiser. But Xiong Dingming told him that the only battle patrol Zhurong of the Ming Dynasty was sent to Europe to blockade the Soviet Union before the war, and it was desperately on the way back to Nanyang at the moment.

Xiang Xiaoqiang then changed his mind and asked for battleships. He knew that although the aircraft carrier had an advantage in daytime and long-range, it was possible to have close "close contact" with enemy warships at night and on cloudy days. Then the aircraft carrier would be in a very dangerous situation. Besides, this is the first time that the Ming Navy has used aircraft carriers for naval battles on such a large scale. Whether the fleet is accustomed to it, whether the pilots have enough experience in attacking ships, Xiang Xiaoqiang does not count. He knew not to be blindly optimistic, but to prepare for the worst. The most certain scenario is that the aircraft carrier will first damage and weaken the enemy ship with air strikes at a long distance, and then the Ming battleships will stick to it and carry out traditional artillery battles to sink the enemy ships.

But asking Xiong Dingming for a battleship at this moment is tantamount to seeking the skin of a tiger. In the eyes of these giant ships and artilleryists, now battleships are the lifeblood of the Ming Navy. Now that one battleship was seriously damaged (Zhengde), one battleship, and one battlecruiser (Yongle and Zhurong) were overseas, the home fleet had been greatly weakened. Now to defend the sea gateway, rely on these four remaining battleships. How is it possible to draw out another one and send it overseas?

But Xiang Xiaoqiang refused to give up and insisted on getting a battleship. I almost turned my face for this. Xiong Dingming was unwilling to fall out with Xiang Xiaoqiang, nor was he willing to weaken the local fleet, so he reluctantly agreed to make another concession and allocate another aircraft carrier to Xiang Xiaoqiang.

And asking Xiaoqiang for battleships with him is also the intention of "seeking the top and getting it, and seeking the middle and getting the bottom". If a miracle happens, it's best to get to the battleship. If Xiong Dingming refused to give the battleship, then Xiang Xiaoqiang planned to change his mind and ask for another aircraft carrier. Now Xiong Dingming offered to give another aircraft carrier, and Xiang Xiaoqiang's goal was basically achieved, so he readily agreed.

Although aircraft carriers have great limitations, there is a big difference between two aircraft carriers and one battleship, and three full aircraft carriers. Although the former can "fight around the clock", first, if a battleship drags it down, the overall speed of the fleet will be much slower. Second, there is a qualitative difference between the air strike forces of the two aircraft carriers and the air strike forces of the three aircraft carriers.

There are only about 80 fighters and bombers each of the two aircraft carriers, so it is difficult to say that they will definitely be able to gain an advantage in both air combat and bombing. And three aircraft carriers, that is, 120 fighters and 120 bombers. Even in the face of the Japanese army's land-based airfield, 120 fighters are definitely a force to be reckoned with. As for the attack on the ship, 120 dive bombers and torpedo bombers, no matter what fleet the opponent is, are in danger.

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The Tianshu detachment rode at a high speed of 25 knots all the way south in the night, but it kept a relatively close distance from the coast of Fujian, and it was always within a few dozen kilometers. In this way, even if it is discovered by a Japanese reconnaissance plane or submarine after dawn, it will not be a big problem because it is under the protection radius of its own land-based aircraft.

Their goal was to go all the way south, passing through the strait between Tai-Wan Island and Diaoyu Island. The Japanese had at least two heavy cruisers there. However, the Ming army had an airfield on Taiwan-Wan Island, and from there it passed through the island chain and was able to be protected by land-based aircraft on Taiwan-Wan Island, which was an even greater advantage for the Ming fleet.

Sinking these two Japanese ships, passing through the strait, and then sailing eastward, they entered the vast Pacific Ocean. From there, turn around and head northeast to enter the busy area of Japan's Pacific route. From there, it will be possible to strike at the Japanese Pacific shipping line.