Soon swept across North China, the Autumn Offensive initiated by the Eighth Route Army.

The momentum is huge.

This move subverted the passive defensive situation behind enemy lines, in which the Japanese army took the initiative to continuously launch sweeps against the base areas of the Eighth Route Army.

Of course, before that, a team led by Kong Jie had taken the lead in trying to take the initiative against the Japanese army.

It's just that the scale and movement at that time were completely different from the momentum of the joint operations in the major base areas and theaters of the Eighth Route Army in front of us.

At the beginning of the battle, Okabe, an old devil, was still trying to make some small calculations.

On the one hand, he wanted to stick to Taiyuan and never allow Taiyuan to be lost.

On the other hand, this old devil is even hoping that he can take this opportunity to wipe out the main force of the Eighth Route Army that almost cleared the nest and surrounded the Taiyuan area in one fell swoop.

In order to accomplish the combat goals that Okamura was far from achieving when he was in office.

Until the offensive of the Eighth Route Army, like mushrooms after a rain, quickly broke ground, and even directly led to the entire North China side into a pot of porridge.

The major occupied areas of the Japanese army were fiercely attacked by the troops of all sides of the Eighth Route Army.

The troops reinforced by Taiyuan from all directions were blocked by the Eighth Route Army along the way.

Okabe hurriedly put away this careful thought.

At this moment, he no longer had the luxury of expecting to be able to annihilate the main force of the Eighth Route Army in one fell swoop, but only thought that he could hold the foundation that the Great Japanese Empire had built in North China over the years under the sudden autumn offensive launched by the Eighth Route Army.

Datong, Taiyuan, Zhangjiakou, Baoding, HD, Jinan, like these hub counties that were heavily guarded by the Japanese army, are all in a hurry, not to mention the small counties and towns around where the garrison strength is already weak.

The situation quickly heated up.

Okabe, who had considered the situation and the current situation at the General Staff, and a group of Japanese staff officers quickly came to a conclusion.

With the existing strength of the North China Front, it is afraid that it will be too strong to maintain the vast occupied area of the North China Front and block the autumn offensive launched by the Eighth Route Army on a large scale and in a large area, so as to minimize the losses of the empire.

This made General Okabe's face a little ugly.

It has only been a long time since he took office, and the North China Front, the number one imperial combat unit with the name "A", was under the offensive of the Eighth Route Army, which was originally trying to survive in the occupied areas, and actually asked for help from the Kwantung Army and the Central China Front Army in disgrace.

This is really an insult to the military prestige of the North China Front Army and to the majesty of General Okabe.

The chief of staff of the devil on the side said helplessly: "General, the Eighth Road has grown too fast over the years, and their bases are all over the major rural areas.

The vast territory of our security zone has led to the relatively scattered forces we have garrisoned, and it is difficult for us to carry out such a wide range of comprehensive defense in the face of the attack of the Eighth Route Army, which completely discriminates between the main and secondary forces. ”

In this regard, the chief of staff of the devil put forward his own suggestion: "General, for the sake of today, I am afraid that the only way to do this is to further abandon some areas of less important military value, shrink the strength of our army, and hold on to the hub counties, towns and towns and important communication lines, and at the same time, wait for reinforcements from the Kwantung Army and the Central China Front!" ”

Although Okabe was unwilling, he had nothing to do but nod his head and agree.

But he still wants to struggle.

"Just follow what you said, but the Eight Roads are so rampant, if my Great Japanese Empire doesn't have a corresponding counterattack, won't I lose the last face?

The army aviation units of all sides were notified to immediately enter a state of full combat readiness, and to listen to the orders of the command headquarters at any time to carry out air strikes against the troops of the Eighth Route Army in the areas where the parties were engaged.

At the same time, cover the defensive operations of hub counties, towns, and communication lines! ”

"Hey!"

……

Arrange your own troops.

On the part of the newly formed aviation command of the Eighth Route Army.

Kong Jiezheng, who temporarily served as the commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army's aviation, was analyzing the battle situation in North China after the winter offensive began with Liu Liu, the newly appointed chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army's aviation command headquarters.

Chief of Staff Liu is a veteran cadre of the Eighth Route Army, a veteran of the Red Army, and Kong Jie, Li Yunlong, Ding Wei and others are also old comrades-in-arms.

Not only that, but he graduated from the Anti-Japanese Red Army University, and also studied at the Frunze Military Academy in the Soviet Union, and was later awarded the rank of major general when he was an intern in the Soviet Red Army.

After the initial development of the aviation undertaking of the Eighth Route Army, Chief of Staff Liu returned to China from the Soviet Red Army in accordance with the instructions of the Yan'an side and devoted himself to the aviation construction of the Eighth Route Army.

This time, he was appointed chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army's aviation command headquarters, and together with Kong Jie, he was responsible for the operational command of the Eighth Route Army's aviation unit after the autumn offensive was launched.

For the rapid development of the aviation field of the Eighth Route Army, Chief of Staff Liu, who rushed back to China, was shocked, and then ecstatic.

Later, he heard from the headquarters how the aviation units of the Eighth Route Army had gradually developed in the blue wisps of the road, and even the first fighter plane was captured from the enemy's airfield.

But even under such difficult and dangerous conditions, the aviation units belonging to the Eighth Route Army were still smoothly formed.

And the biggest contributor to the successful completion of the aviation unit secretly built by the Eighth Route Army, the caliber of the generals at the headquarters is surprisingly unanimous - Kong Jie!

Although Kong Jie himself has always denied this, and modestly claimed that it was the result of the joint efforts of all the soldiers.

In the end, if Kong Jie hadn't jokingly said that the name of the father of the Eighth Route Army aviation would have to be used to encourage Brother Doolittle!

Maybe the cadres will put this name on his head.

In this regard, Chief of Staff Liu was also full of emotion.

Over the years, he has been studying in the Soviet Union, and the most heard deeds after returning to China are about the honest old comrade-in-arms Kong Jie in his former impression.

From the victory of the independent regiment one after another, to the growth of a team, and then to the leadership of the first independent detachment of the anti-Japanese resistance in the northwest of Shanxi, the first army of devils howled.

Even forced Yoshio Shinozuka, the commander of the First Army of the devil, to abdicate.

Later, I heard that even Okamura Ninji, the headquarters of the Japanese North China Front, had been transferred to Kuah Island because he had fought too many defeats in North China.

In this way, if you want to pick a rapidly rising dark horse among the front-line commanders of the Eighth Route Army, Kong Jie is undoubtedly the blackest and fastest horse.

"Lao Kong, look at the situation, the little devil seems to have learned to be obedient, our offensive is too scattered, there is no distinction between primary and secondary attacks, the little devil's defense line cannot be stretched so long, and there is always a time when the troops are not enough.

Sure enough, just as we speculated at the military meeting before the war, in the face of our full-scale autumn offensive, the devils can only choose passive defense.

It's really emotional to say, who would have thought that the little devil would also be beaten by us at home? ”

Chief of Staff Liu sighed.

The battle situation on the front line also came with news one after another.

After the autumn offensive was launched, the battle that broke out quickly around the point of Taiyuan attracted the attention of most of the Japanese army.

Immediately afterwards, the Eighth Route Army launched an attack on Datong, Zhangjiakou, Baoding, HD, Jinan and other major counties around Taiyuan, which caught the Japanese army by surprise.

The Japanese army barely parried, and after shrinking its strength to an important county area, it used the strength of its flying troops to launch targeted air strikes on the large-scale exposed engagement area of the Eighth Route Army.

At this time, on the huge military simulation sand table in the staff room.

Different from the conventional military markings in the past, this time not only did the Japanese army have some small red flags representing the air force, but the Eighth Route Army also had special flags representing the aviation units.

"Now in the secret aviation base of Lao Kong's detachment, there is the first air force formation we have built, which is responsible for fighting for air supremacy with the Japanese army in the front-line combat area in the Shanxi region.

At the Yongbei Airport in the Luliangshan area, we formed the Second Air Force, and then at the newly built Yongbei Yanta Airport in Yan'an, we formed the Third Air Force.

With these three aviation bases, we can compete with the devil's flying troops locally! ”

Chief of Staff Liu's words were very emotional, which was unimaginable in the past.

Just a few years ago, in the face of the Japanese air force reinforcements, the Eighth Route Army was still only embarrassed to parry, and it didn't even have some decent air defense weapons, let alone its own aviation units.

Kong Jie smiled, where is this!

"After all, it's still not enough, even if we have built three aviation bases, but the aviation strength of the Japanese army in North China alone is far greater than ours."

As he spoke, he casually picked up three small flags representing the aviation unit of the Eighth Route Army from the side, and then planted them in three places on the simulated sand table in front of him.

The first is in the Baotou area.

The second is in the Huangyadong area.

The third is in the central Hebei region, and the fourth is in the LY region.

Chief of Staff Liu on the side's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Lao Kong, do you mean to build aviation bases for follow-up plans in Baotou, Huangyadong, Jizhong, and Shandong LY?"

Kong Jie smiled: "Lao Liu, I really can't hide anything from you."

In fact, we carried out this autumn offensive, on the one hand, to take advantage of the illness of the little devils, to ask for the lives of the little devils, to further expand the advantages brought to us after the May 1st sweep and the comprehensive defeat of the Japanese army, and to strive for the further growth of our base areas in all directions.

On the other hand, at the same time, it is also the autumn offensive launched in an all-round way against the Japanese occupation areas to explore more experience for the operations of our army and even the operations of the aviation units that cooperate with the army.

Only after the actual combat has completely started can we have a clearer understanding of the deployment and tactics of our aviation units.

In the light of the current warring situation, my initial scenario is this.

At present, the First Air Force of our Eighth Route Army is in the base area of the First Brigade, the Second Air Force is in the Luliang Mountain area, and the Third Air Force is in Yan'an.

These three-way aviation units are basically used for anti-aircraft operations in Taiyuan, or Shanxi, and it is difficult for us to reach further areas.

On the surface, the autumn offensive we launched this time seems to be a conventional offensive on the part of the army, further expanding the area of our base areas and stabilizing the development of our base areas.

But it is also an operation in which we use the army to fight for air bases to advance further to the front line.

The entire Mongolian and Baotou areas almost overlook the overall situation, and Baotou has been beaten down by the 35th Route Army many times, and the Japanese army seems to have given up treatment, and there are not many troops stationed in the Baotou area.

With the help of our autumn offensive this time, Commander Fu can capture Baotou in one fell swoop and completely develop Baotou into a stable anti-Japanese revolutionary area.

Then an attempt was made to establish a pioneer aviation base in Baotou.

Commander Fu and I discussed this matter, and in addition, just a few days ago, Commander Fu sent a special communication, in which he happily said that he had deceived several aviation units from Lao Yan and Lao Chiang.

At that time, we will support some more fighters and pilots to form the Fourth Air Force to support the Mengxi line of communication.

This completely revitalizes the entire Mengxi area! ”

Commander Liu immediately came back to his senses and said with a smile: "Understood, what do you think of this aviation unit Lao Kong in the Huangyadong area?" ”

Kong Jie said: "In the last operation against the looting of the Japanese army's HD airfield, we have accumulated a lot of experience in air force transportation.

I also suggested to the boss on this matter, I think we can set up an aviation logistics support center in the Huangyadong Industrial Zone, okay, we still have a number of transport planes, including some C47 transport planes, 100 transport planes, mosquito night fighters, Katerina radar planes, Katarina relay communication planes, to form a joint logistics support force.

These transport and communication planes were combined to form a centralized air transport center to airdrop vital supplies to front-line troops.

Reinforcements are available from afar at any time.

This is extremely important to enhance the long-range strike capability of our troops, to ensure the logistics of longer transportation routes, and to ensure the emergency material reinforcement of the aviation bases of all sides.

My initial plan is to station three squadrons of five fighters, two squadrons of P38 fighters, two squadrons of Mosquito fighters, and one squadron of Type 1 Falcon in the early stage, and then station in the dive bomber unit in the later stage.

The main combat mission is to ensure the air supremacy of the frontline of the Baoding troops in the early stage, and the air supremacy of the attack troops in the eastern Hebei region in the later stage, and to cooperate with the operations in the central, eastern and even southern Hebei regions.

Finally, there is the Shandong LY area.

The specific locations can be selected to build temporary airfields, establish three front-line airfields, and set up the Sixth Air Force in Huxi, Baoqinggu, and other base areas.

Including this time, Lao Li and Lao Ding led the mobile troops to fight in the Shandong region, which is also to further strive for a stable base environment, so as to lay the foundation for our subsequent construction of a temporary front-line airfield.

The preliminary plan is that after the construction of the 6th Air Base is completed, three P38 squadrons, five pull-5 squadrons, one Mosquito radar unit, three Mosquito bomber units, three SBD dive bomber units, and one seaplane communication relay unit will be stationed.

It can cooperate with various base areas in Shandong to confront the Japanese army and compete for air supremacy on the front line. ”