After the Military Commission made a specific retreat plan, Li Xiaofeng did not dwell too much on military issues, because a certain immortal still has self-knowledge, and it is no problem for him to propose a general strategy, but let him set specific details, especially those trivial tactics, then it is purely a layman to guide an insider.

Li Xiaofeng thinks that a qualified leader does not have to take care of everything, let alone do everything himself, otherwise nine lives are not enough to squander, not to mention that you have done everything alone, what do you want those subordinates to do?

If you have to point fingers at everything, on the one hand, it is the other hand, it also hits the subjective initiative of your subordinates, and even more will make your subordinates feel that you don't trust them, and over time it will be detached.

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng didn't intend to learn an empty way of doing things, and to govern the army and the country with warrants, and to make jokes like "President Jiang Zhongzheng consulted President Jiang Zhongzheng and ordered Minister Jiang Zhongzheng to send a letter to Governor Jiang Zhongzheng to President Jiang Zhongzheng's official letter".

Therefore, Li Xiaofeng only intends to grasp the main problems within his ability, such as the problem of military production. As mentioned earlier, he basically solved the problem of tank armored vehicles, and then as the war became more and more brutal, he needed to think more about the Air Force.

The problems of the Air Force include three aspects: fighters, bombers and attack aircraft. Yes, you read that right, there were problems with the main combat aircraft of the Red Army. Let's start with the fighter, the all-metal Yak-1/2 is mainly facing engine problems, and the VK-100 series, such as VK-100, VK103, and VK105, must be equipped with fighters, attack aircraft and bombers at the same time, and the production capacity is really a big problem.

How to solve the problem of several fighters, attack aircraft and bombers grabbing engines. It's enough for Li Xiaofeng to break his head. In addition to building a new production line to expand production capacity. Li Xiaofeng felt that it was necessary to introduce some foreign engines for emergency. For example, he admires Rolls-Royce's Merlin series of liquid-cooled engines.

It seemed like a good choice to equip Jacques with Merlin, and with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, there was also an intention of military cooperation between Britain and the Soviet Union. For example, the British were overwhelmed by German submarines and urgently needed Type 36B frigates, so could they engage in an engine-for-frigate program?

When Li Xiaofeng proposed this proposal in the Politburo, he received a positive response from Trotsky, and this was probably the first time since the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War that the two sides reached an agreement on a question. It's not easy to be honest.

At the same time, Li Xiaofeng's personal representative, Natalia, also approached the U.S. Department of the Army and North American Airlines, making it clear that he wanted to procure a batch of military aircraft for the Soviet government.

What military aircraft? Of course, the original Mustang was not as popular as it was later, and for the U.S. Army, North American Airlines and Mustang were both "little two black". At that time, the Mustang was completely ignored by the U.S. Department of the Army, believing it to be a "foreign" fighter that did not meet the specifications of the U.S. military (the first user of the Mustang was the Royal Air Force). Of course, there are shady things in it. Some bureaucrats at the War Department demanded that Kindberg, the president of North American Airlines, pay a bribe in exchange for a production contract, but Kindberg refused.

Of course. These were in 1940, and because the Royal Air Force considered the Mustang to be the best fighter the United States could come up with at that time, it placed a lot of orders, which in turn stimulated the US War Department to start focusing on the Mustang.

Especially after the Lend-Lease Act was passed, the Mustang lived a more nourishing life, and while stepping up improvements, it expanded its production capacity, and could fully cope with the orders of the Soviet Union. The only question is whether the U.S. Congress and administration will be able to agree to the sale.

You must know that since 1939, the Americans have looked at the Soviet Union differently, exporting a large amount of oil and scrap steel to Japan on the one hand, and on the other hand, they have drastically cut off military cooperation with the Soviet Union, and even set up a lot of obstacles to the export of aviation aluminum. At one time, the relationship between the two countries fell into a trough.

It was the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War that allowed the Americans to temporarily relax certain restrictions, allowing American companies to export primary raw materials and mechanical parts to the Soviet Union, but even civilian trucks were restricted from being exported to the Soviet Union, not to mention fighter aircraft.

Anyway, Natalia was ready to eat behind closed doors, but to her surprise, this time the Americans were a little more generous, and the US Secretary of War Stimson personally met with her, expressed his willingness to sell the Mustang, and even hinted that the Soviet Union could be included in the Lend-Lease Act.

This news surprised Natalia, almost thought that the sun was coming out in the west, but Li Xiaofeng was not surprised, for Americans, it is normal to balance in the war, before the Soviet Union was too strong, Americans were worried that Germany was not the opponent of the Soviet Union, and post-war Europe would become the sole power of the Soviet Union, so they tightened their policy towards the Soviet Union.

And now, the Soviet Union fell into the passivity of two-front warfare, and the shape on the battlefield was quite unfavorable to the Soviet Union, once the Soviet Union was defeated by Germany, this result was not what the Americans wanted to see, so it was the best choice to give the Soviet Union a blood transfusion, let the polar bear fight Hans for a few more rounds, and let both sides shed as much blood as possible.

Of course, the Americans were not alive, and in the same way, they also had a request, and Stimson was very interested in the German weapons captured by the Soviet Union on the battlefield, and hoped that the Soviet Union would provide a batch of BF-109, FW-190, Stuka, and tanks No. 3 and No. 4.

Such a request could naturally be met by the Soviet Union, anyway, when the Americans entered the war, sooner or later they would be able to obtain it, and it was not worth keeping it secret. But immediately the Americans put forward a second request, they also had a strong interest in the new tanks of the Red Army, hoping to be able to purchase a batch, amount, not too much, ten is enough!

This demand made the Politburo vigilant, what are the Americans trying to do? At best, this is also the preparation of the tank technology of the copycat Red Army, and even maliciously speculated, is the Americans making some preparations to regard the Soviet Union as a future enemy?

A controversy broke out in the Politburo around this issue, in which Dzerzhinsky's attitude was the most clear: "Americans are drunkards who don't mean to drink." We cannot afford to hand in our hands the weapons that the Red Army has developed at great cost. I'm rather skeptical. Americans are ill-intentioned! ”

Trotsky bared his teeth. Speaking from the bottom of his heart, he also knows that the Americans do have bad intentions, but the relationship between major powers has always been ill-intentioned. If you want to be like brothers, unless the Soviet Union is weak and the United States is strong, or the other way around. And as long as there is little difference in strength between the two countries, then it has bad intentions.

According to Trotsky, the most important problem facing the Soviet Union today is to win the war of aggression of the German fascists. It is to protect the family and defend the country, and every qiē must be in line with this point. Yes, the Americans had bad intentions, but the USSR really needed more assistance.

"I think that for the time being the war should be the priority, and that a few tanks can be exchanged for American aid, and this is a very good deal," Trotsky said earnestly, "and besides, our new tanks are still being developed." Didn't the General Armament Department already launch a series of improvement plans before? So even if you give the United States some tanks, it will be in the past tense. Don't worry too much about it at all! ”

Dzerzhinsky was still a little dissatisfied, but this time Li Xiaofeng stood on Trotsky's side: "I also think it can be given, not to mention that the Americans did not specify what kind of tank they wanted, right?" It is entirely possible to show them some less advanced models in service, such as the T-34-76, for example, the T-70 tank, and even the T-35. ”

Why does Li Xiaofeng have such self-confidence? The reason is simple, the Americans are now not enlightened about tanks, or how to use armored forces. Before Operation Torch in 1942, they were still full of confidence in the M3 Grant/Lee, thinking that this garbage could cope with the battle, but as soon as they went to the battlefield, they realized that this thing was really useless, so they hurriedly stepped up production of the M4.

Even the early model of the M4 is not good, the famous Langsen lighter is it (a dozen, every hit must be hit), after landing in France, if it were not for the British and American firmly control the air supremacy, the tanks of the M4 and the like could really only be beaten by the German tanks trained in the armored graveyards of the Eastern Front. In fact, even with huge air superiority, the exchange ratio between British and American tanks and German tanks was quite ugly, and if the same situation was changed to the Eastern Front, the hair would have to be sprayed out.

Even Li Xiaofeng felt that even if the T-34 was shown to the Americans, the bureaucratic US War Department would not necessarily attract too much attention, and the Americans would not be able to get a reliable diesel engine for a while.

Li Xiaofeng was on Trotsky's side, and naturally Dzerzhinsky's opposition was ineffective, and soon about four T-34s and four T-36s and two T-70s were packed and sent to the United States. Immediately after receiving this batch of gifts, the US War Department agreed to the Soviet Union's request to purchase the Mustang.

According to Li Xiaofeng's instructions, the Red Army immediately placed an order for 200 Mustang 1s, in fact, it was originally necessary to order more Mustang 1s, but the production capacity of North American airlines was limited, and it was really too busy to meet the orders of Britain and the Soviet Union at the same time.

There may be comrades who don't understand, why buy the garbage of Mustang 1? As we all know, the maximum speed of the Mustang 1 is only 615 km/h, which is faster than the Yak-1 and Yak-7, but it is much slower than the Yak-2, Yak-3 and MiG-3, and has no absolute advantage compared with the La-5 that has just been put into production (the La-5 is a wooden aircraft, and it uses an air-cooled star engine, which is cheap and durable!). ）。

What's more, Allison's V-1710-F3R(39) engine is only rated at 1,100 horsepower, and it is not equipped with a supercharger, and the high-altitude performance is a mess. According to the Royal Air Force test, the Mustang 1 is better than the P-40 and P-39 in low altitude speed and maneuverability, and even better than the speed, climb rate, acceleration, dive speed, stability and handling of any of the Royal Air Force's active fighters, in addition to the roll speed and turning radius are also excellent.

At an altitude of less than 4,572 meters (fifteen thousand feet), the Mustang 1 is 40 to 70 km/h faster than the Spitfire 5. However, once it exceeds 4572 meters, as the altitude increases, the performance of the Mustang 1 also plummets, and the Spitfire can climb to 6096 meters in 7 minutes, while the Mustang 1 takes 11 minutes!

Could it be that Li Xiaofeng was swayed by the performance of the P-51B and later models equipped with Rolls-Royce's Merlin 60 series engines, so that he purchased such a waste wood? Definitely not. In fact, Li Xiaofeng is well aware of the poor high-altitude performance of the Mustang 1. But he doesn't think it's a big deal.

Because the main task of the Mustang 1 he purchased was not to compete with German aircraft for air supremacy at medium and high altitudes. Instead, it covers the Il-2 for a battlefield cleanup. For the Red Army, it was enough to have the Yak-3, MiG-3, as well as the La-5 and Pe-2 at medium and high altitudes, anyway, the Il-2 flew most of the time at altitudes below five thousand meters, and at this altitude the Mustang 1 was enough to make the Germans suffer.

Letting the Mustang 1 cover the Il-2 will naturally free the Yak and La series fighters from this mission, and they can go on more aerial safaris and slowly play happily with the German pilots.

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng is quite satisfied with Mustang 1, and it is the best choice to use it for emergencies. But what he didn't expect was that Natalia and the test pilot who accompanied her to purchase planes in the United States also brought him a small gift that he didn't look up to.

"The P-39 fighter although the high-altitude performance is not good. However, the maximum flight speed at medium and low altitudes is no less than that of the Mustang 1, and there are no problems with the production capacity of this fighter, and the US government is happy to sell it to us in large quantities! ”

This report made Li Xiaofeng feel straight in his heart, of course the US government is willing to sell the P-39, because the American pilots don't like this damn flying snake at all, and the unique engine rear guide zhì The center of gravity of the aircraft is quite backward, and the pitch operation is simply as beautiful as the MiG-1. Moreover, the hatch cover used is also unique, and it cannot be opened as a whole, but has two small doors on both sides. To parachute, what an average fighter pilot needs to do is unbuckle his seat belt. Pull open the hatch and kick the rudder to make the plane fly upside down. And then it naturally fell.

The P-39's unique hatch design makes the pilot have to open one side of the hatch, and then climb out to parachute.

Historically, the United States produced more than 9,000 flying snakes, but more than half of them were sent to the Soviet Union through the Lend-Lease Act, and most of those who remained in the army served in the second line.

For Li Xiaofeng, the P-39 is naturally not a good aircraft, so he didn't think about introducing it at all. But who would have thought that what should have come would always come, he did not take the initiative to introduce, but the test pilots of the Red Army made Arxnis interested, what do you say.

Why would Arxnis also be interested in the P-39? The reason is very simple, for the Americans, the flying snake is full of slots, but for the Red Army's batch of pilots trained from the I-16, MiG-1, and MiG-3, the P-39 is not so bad.

The pitch performance is not good, what is this, the I-16 and MiG-1, MiG-3 have even worse pitch performance, even the latter Soviet pilots can fly very happily, what is the problem of flying snakes? As for parachuting, for the air tractor drivers of the Red Army, it is too normal to be played to death by their own fighter tricks, and it is over if you pay attention to such a small problem as parachuting, but if you can't do it, Lao Tzu will not jump, and it will be glorious to sacrifice his life for the country!

Of course, the Red Army also has opinions on some slots of the Flying Snake, such as the climbing performance, the Flying Snake's wings are relatively small, the wing load is very high, and the climbability and high-altitude maneuverability of the aircraft are even worse than those of the Mustang 1. Objectively speaking, flying snakes are only suitable for loitering at low altitudes.

However, this is still not a big problem, anyway, whether it is the Mustang 1 or the Flying Snake, the Red Army does not plan to use it as the main force, and its tasks are all used to cover the Red Army's Il-2 and Tu-2, and there is no need to stay at high altitude.

And as Natalia said, the Flying Snake has no production capacity problems, and the engine he uses is exactly the same as the Mustang 1, and the logistics are also convenient. What's more, compared with the Red Army fighters, which only had a range of seven or eight hundred kilometers, the range of the Flying Snake was almost doubled, which was great news for the Il-2 and Tu-2, which suffered from a lack of escort.

After some thought, Li Xiaofeng agreed to introduce the Flying Snake, and immediately placed an order for 500 aircraft, but what Li Xiaofeng did not expect was that the Americans seemed to be full of enthusiasm for getting rid of the Flying Snake, and immediately transferred about 200 packing ships from the active army. This was to the delight of Arksnis and Trotsky, and without further ado, they immediately placed an additional order for 500 aircraft.

This incident made Li Xiaofeng sigh with emotion, the emotional weapon is not the more advanced the better, but the more suitable the better, for the Soviet Union in 1941, the flying snake is the most suitable one. Of course, it can also be said that Maozi is the life of Dick Si, and he can't get up at all.

Don't worry, the more interesting is still to come, after testing the Mustang 1 and the Flying Snake, the Red Army expressed satisfaction with the two fighters, and even had great interest in Allison's V-1710-F3R (39) engine, not for installation for Yak 1, 2, 3 use, after all, compared with the new VK-100 series with two-stage supercharging, the V-1710-F3R (39) engine has too bad high-altitude performance, and it can only drag the Yak 1, 2, 3 back legs.

But don't forget, the Yak series not only has the high-end 1, 2 and 3 series, but also the 7 and 9 that have been modified from the trainer aircraft. The Yak-7 and Yak-9 also use VK-100 engines, which is equivalent to low-end machines grabbing the share of high-end machines, if they are replaced with Allison's V-1710-F3R (39) engines, this problem will be solved?

Yes, Allison's V-1710-F3R (39) engine has poor high-altitude performance, but its maximum power is also greater than that of the VK-105P. Wouldn't it be nice to change it to the Yak-7 and let the Yak-7 also accompany the Mustang and the Flying Snake?

If it weren't for the restrictions of the U.S. government, I am afraid that three or two thousand units would have to be purchased in one go, and of course, 1,500 units were purchased in the end, and the Allison company was instructed to develop new models with higher power and high-altitude performance to improve them to a certain extent...... (To be continued......)

PS: Yesterday the comrades were too fierce, more than 20 monthly votes were added, and I didn't record a considerable number of comrades who voted earlier, so I can only say thank you!