Zhao Xuwu did not give up his efforts to return to China on his own, and the more than ten Russian cavalrymen who pursued him also did not give up.

I gave up halfway, and when I went back, my face was dull, and I naturally didn't have the confidence to be happy. If you continue to persist in the search, even if you still can't find it, the result will be the same as giving up halfway, but you will have to run around for a while.

But...... What if I found it?

Second Lieutenant Gavril was a stubborn temper and vowed to catch the Ming pilot who had slipped under his nose.

His subordinates knew the lieutenant's temperament and obeyed him, and he could only come.

Considering that the stream that the Ming pilot jumped off was flowing northwest, in order to return to China, he would definitely find a place to go ashore and then walk south.

So the cavalry search detachment followed the stream for fifteen kilometers to the northwest, and then, after crossing the stream, turned around and headed south.

Because he overestimated the distance that Zhao Xuwu would travel in the stream (he actually only drifted four kilometers), the team led by Second Lieutenant Gavril followed Zhao Xuwu all the time.

But the cavalry were still faster than the weakened pilots, and as time passed, the distance between the two sides was getting closer.

About an hour and a half ago, they found the remains of a burnt campfire and food scraps, and it was clear that it had not been a long time, so they were sure that it was the Ming pilot they had been looking for.

After speeding up for about nine kilometers, one of the cavalrymen pointed to the sky diagonally in front of him and shouted, "Signal flare?!" Sir! Look at that! ”

Everyone looked in the direction he pointed, and several conspicuous red fireworks could be seen in the mid-air at ten o'clock.

At this moment, the hearts of the Russian cavalry were lifted all of a sudden, and many people couldn't help but raise the corners of their mouths.

The cat-and-mouse game is finally over!

"Let's go!" Second Lieutenant Gavril shook the reins vigorously.

The taste of searching and camping in the uninhabited Siberian wilderness was unpleasant, and most of the people were tired of it for the past two days, but they were forced to show it by the orders of their superiors.

At this moment, boredom and irritability were swept away, and everyone cheered while shaking the reins.

"I'm going to ask the logistics sergeant for double the wine when I get back!"

"Haha, I haven't touched Alina in a long time, and this time I'm going to spend the whole night with her."

"You're dreaming! How could she possibly handle only one of you? ”

In this way, in the laughter of your words and my words, the Russian cavalry rushed to the direction of the raised signal flare very easily.

Ten minutes later.

However, instead of the simple capture expected, when they were about to cross the woods and approach the wilderness ahead, a Ming bomber hovering in the sky forced them to stop.

With the withdrawal of the Ming army into the territory, the ground forces of the two sides have turned into a standoff, but the battle in the sky continues, and the air supremacy that the Russian army lost on the day of the outbreak of the conflict is firmly in the hands of the Ming army until now.

Although several groups of I-15 and I-16 fighters were later reinforced, the Russian army was only able to control the airspace near the airport and railway line.

When the I-16 fighter fights the Type 36 fighter, it can only be said that it is a situation of four or six open, and the backward biplane I-15 is even more unable to parry, and the risk of taking off to fight is no less than jumping on the edge of a cliff.

Since the outbreak of the conflict, excluding the losses from the trailing sneak attack on the evening of the first day, the Russian army has shot down 27 I-15 fighters, 12 I-16 fighters, 4 SB-2 bombers, and 9 aircraft of different types have been seriously damaged and scrapped.

In comparison, the Ming army lost a total of 26 aircraft, including 3 fighters that ran out of fuel and abandoned on the way back from the trail attack that day.

Therefore, the Ming army aircraft group dared to boldly leave a bomber alone to cover here.

As a result, the team led by Second Lieutenant Gavril was in a dilemma.

It's still uncertain where the Ming pilot is hiding, and if he goes out rashly, he is destined to have no good fruit to eat.

I was happy before, but now this situation is ...... There was a joy in the air, and the Russian cavalry hated it so much.

Gavril held the binoculars and searched for the pilot in the wilderness, hoping to rush over and capture him if he found it, leaving no room for the bombers in the sky to react.

However, his attempt failed.

The so-called eating a trench and growing a wisdom were exposed because of negligence and boldness before, and Zhao Xuwu no longer dared to act so recklessly.

He hid in the bushes of a depression, motionless, sucking toffee and humming a little song, looking up at the southern sky from time to time.

But it didn't take long for him to be disappointed, because the hovering bomber threw down a ball of paper, which meant that it was getting late, the wilderness was dark, and the risk of the service plane landing was too high, so he planned to wait until dawn to pick him up.

Zhao Xuwu was disappointed, but Gavril and his men were overjoyed.

I was worried that I couldn't find where I was, but you showed up to pick up something by yourself.

Second Lieutenant Gavril drew his saber and ordered: "Go to four people, you must be fast." ”

With his order, the four Russian cavalry jumped out, rushed out of the woods, and quickly whipped straight towards Zhao Xuwu, who was thousands of kilometers away.

At the same time, the Type 36 bomber in the sky ......

The Heavy at the rear self-defense turret had just walked back from the middle of the fuselage - there was a small electric stove there, and he had just gone to boil a kettle of hot water to make tea.

As soon as he sat down, he suddenly saw several figures on the ground moving rapidly from a distance.

His first reaction was that he was dazzled, but he immediately saw that it was indeed four Russian cavalrymen.

The frightened Heavy didn't bother to unscrew the lid of the kettle, and threw it away, splashing the warm tea all over the floor.

Pull the bolt and load it, open the safe!

The sound of "da-da-da" gunfire suddenly rang out, and he controlled the 12.8mm aviation machine gun to shoot fiercely downward!

At this moment, the sun is setting in the west, the sky is getting late, and the bright trail of tracer bullets is like an arrow piercing the sky.

Due to the hasty shooting, none of the dozens of bullets hit, but one 12.8×96mm all-metal was hit by an armored bullet on a war horse.

The large-caliber machine gun bullet containing 16,000 joules of huge kinetic energy was terrifying, the bullet happened to shoot diagonally from the skull of the horse, then penetrated the entire neck of the horse from top to bottom, and finally pierced under the horse's belly, deep into the earth.

The handsome Don hippopotamus was no longer beautiful in an instant—its head exploded like a watermelon, and it collapsed to its death.

The cavalryman on its back fell forward and dismounted due to inertia, and with a scream, the left arm of the lucky and unlucky fellow hit a stone and broke on the spot.

Although not a single bullet hit directly, the terrible suppressive power of the large-caliber machine gun was by no means false, especially the tracer bullets that fell from the sky and pierced the sky, which were even more terrifying to the enemy.

The Russian cavalry did not dare to advance further, so they hurriedly pulled the wounded unlucky man on his horse, and then retreated back into the woods in a panic.

The range of fire from the bomber's tail turret was limited, and now the gunner could not see what was on the ground because of the circling circle.

The other crew members were also frightened by the sudden fire, and thought that Russian fighters had come to sneak attack.

"What's going on?!" The mechanic walked over quickly.

"Well, a few Russian cavalrymen suddenly rushed out of the ground, and I shot them back into the woods over there." The machine gun pointed into the distance.

"Aha? In this ghost place in the wilderness, the Russians actually came to hunt him down? What a grudge this must be. ”

"Fortunately, Lao Tzu has quick eyes, otherwise these guys would definitely catch the person down there and leave."

Since they were originally returning from the mission, and now they have been circling here for a while, and the bombers have not enough fuel left, they will wait here for another half an hour at most.

They sent back a telegram to the base, clarifying the current situation.

After discussion and rebuttal, the result of the weighing was that it was not advisable to wait for a long time, and perhaps these Russian cavalry took advantage of the night to capture the pilot below.

The base dispatched two small service planes and a bomber, and asked the bomber on the scene to keep covering until there was only enough fuel left for the return flight.

So after several rounds of diving back and forth, the bomber, which was short of fuel, had to turn around and turn back.

At this time, Gavril and his subordinates breathed a sigh of relief, went out of the woods again, and began to look around for the Ming pilots.

But this is obviously very difficult, where is it easy to find someone hiding in the night?

The Russian cavalry flashed flashlights, which made it easy to find and at the same time exposed their own positions.

Half an hour is as long as half a day for Zhao Xuwu, and composure is the basic quality of every qualified pilot, but he has never been so nervous.

Lately, he could even hear the horses snorting.

Finally, a Type 36 bomber that took off from Fuyuan Prefecture Airport arrived over this area after flying over the Chernoki Mountains of Beihai Lake.

In those days, there were no high-precision instruments like the positioning systems of later generations, and treks were a common occurrence, and pilots could not be expected to accurately reach the target.

In the vast night, the stars were shining, but Zhao Xuwu still judged the approximate location of the plane through the sound of the engine, and then saw a black shadow in the sky.

He slowly raised his flare gun, then looked at several flashlight spots in the distance.

This is undoubtedly a bet, a bet that the crew of the bomber saw the flare, that they reacted faster than the pursuers.

It's a matter of success or failure! Shengjun, I'll marry you when I go back this time!

Thinking back to his fiancée, he pulled the trigger.

"Bang-huh-"

Dazzling flares flew into the night sky, and the red flames stood out in the night.

The sound from behind made the Russian cavalry turn back in unison, and then they saw a fire signal in mid-air.

"Damn! Damn it! There he is!!! Second Lieutenant Gavril yelled out in a very disgraced manner, and for the first time he was enraged by the stubbornness and cunning of his opponent.

Eleven horsemen began to rein in their horses and turn, and then quickly rushed there.

300 meters, 250 meters, 200 meters, 150 meters......

Suddenly, the sky brightened up in an instant, as if it had suddenly come to daylight.

In an instant, it turned from dark to bright, the human eye could not adapt, and the war horses were also stimulated, and the cavalry covered their eyes while pulling the reins.

The bomber dropped large aviation flares, and everything on the ground was hidden.

Mortar flares are bright enough to illuminate an area of nearly a kilometre as if it were daylight, and this type of aviation flare is much larger, with a luminous intensity of more than a million candela, and the effect can be imagined.

Subsequently, the Russian cavalry was blocked by dense machine-gun fire, and even though they were extremely angry, they could only retreat into the woods in panic.

After another quarter of an hour, two small service planes arrived belatedly.

With the help of the bombers' incessant flares, one of the small planes, after three attempts, finally barely landed.

Zhao Xuwu, who was excited, hurriedly ran over, and didn't care if he fell, just like a man who fell into the water grabbed a life-saving straw.

"Bang! Bang! ”

The angry Russian cavalry fired at the small plane in the woods, and bullets whizzed by.

"Sure, isn't it? Close the door, let's go! ”

"Wait!"

Under the pilot's puzzled gaze, Zhao Xuwu took out the exquisite Browning M7906 pocket pistol, threw it out with the tattered parachute, and then closed the door.

The grass-green painted service plane slowly accelerated, slid for more than 50 meters, and then gradually left the ground, and finally jumped up.

Looking out through the round window, to be honest, after the big stone in Zhao Xuwu's heart fell to the ground, a subtle feeling arose spontaneously - these pursuers are really persevering, admire, but unfortunately we are still skilled.

At this time, the pilot turned his head and smiled: "Sir Zhao, you don't know yet, right?" You're famous now, you're in the newspapers, hero! ”

"Huh?"

"Didn't fool you, really!"

Zhao Xuwu, who felt a little inexplicable, was full of confusion, and longing arose spontaneously in his heart.

Anyway, I'm finally home!

Towards the homeland, set off!

The next day, Jingshi Ying Tianfu.

The sky is gloomy, the autumn rain is continuous, and the east of the Zhaoren Hall in the Forbidden City is secondary.

“…… That's pretty much it, according to the decision of the Cabinet. For the time being, I will ignore the official clear attitude and talk about it privately. ”

"Yes."

Zhu Lingjing, who seemed to be smiling, glanced at Zhou Changfeng, and then "admonished": "Let you go because you happen to be an old acquaintance with one of the people in the embassy, and your identity is just right." They must feel that you are closer to them, and they will inevitably find ways to say things that should not be said, otherwise they will not be spared. ”

Ahem!

Zhou Changfeng coughed dryly twice, and said: "The minister is naturally measured, and the interests of the country come first." ”

Later, he saw that there was a white-glazed porcelain jar filled with tea leaves on the imperial case than before, so he asked curiously, "Your Majesty, what kind of tea is this?" ”

"Oolong tea from Fujian." Zhu Lingjing said lightly, and then waved her hand gently, "You can take it, this tea doesn't suit me (taste)." ”

Scold! It's just a little tea, and she doesn't like to give such a small can.

Why is this woman so stingy now? I used to be very generous when I wooed myself.

In this way, Zhou Changfeng went home with the white-glazed porcelain jar, and then casually put it on the table in the main room.

Just as he was changing his shoes, Xia Xiaoshi on the side opened the porcelain jar, took out a little tea and smelled it, and asked curiously, "Sir, why did you buy such valuable tea?" Didn't you say that good tea and bad tea are all the same flavor? ”

(End of chapter)