In order to ensure that they could distinguish the location in the night, each officer and soldier of the Yiluan Division tied a flashlight with duct tape to his right calf.

Although it is safer to start the parachute after a mid-altitude skydive, it is easier to deviate from the intended location, and it may be several miles away when blown by the wind.

Therefore, the officers and men of the Yiluan Division took a very risky use of the parachute landing method of high jump and low opening, and now there is no automatic parachute opener, everything is manual, and if they are sluggish, they may fall to their death.

There was an accident after landing - someone was forced to use the emergency parachute because the main parachute failed to open, but the altitude was less than 100 meters, and he touched the ground before he could fully decelerate, so his left leg was broken.

"Make a splint and tie it up, and then clean it up." Cai Zhichen raised his hand and looked at his watch.

The men hastily cut down two thick branches, used them as improvised splints to secure his legs, and hid him in a hidden place.

At this time, several men dressed in gray Shell oil company employee uniforms also trotted in, and the soldiers on guard in front immediately pointed their guns at them.

"Stop! Stay back! Who knows Zhuxi Road. ”

"The song blows Yangzhou!"

After the code, those people were allowed to come over - they were the ones who used the lights to indicate the landing point before.

One of them was a successful agent of the Governor's Intelligence Service, and the other two were his informants.

Zhong Baiquan came by order in the thirty-fifth year of Zhichang, and the rest of the people who came at the same time as him have been arrested-

Although the Nanyang region has been infiltrated like a sieve under the efforts of the Ming Dynasty for decades, it has also suffered a lot under the anti-spy attacks that the Dutch have done their best in the past two years.

"All right? Is your car ready? Cai Zhichen asked while flipping through his notebook.

"Three, just enough to fit you."

"Are the Dutch troops preparing for sabotage?"

Zhong Baiquan shook his head, "Not yet, it was originally scheduled that some sappers would be sent yesterday, but it was shelved again." ”

The efforts of the Ming were clearly effective, and the Dutch intended to wait and see for two more days, not to rush into preparing for the sabotage.

The group then set off, and the soldiers divided into two routes.

The first detachment of the 4th Combat Team went to the planned airborne field and set up the signs, while the remaining 30 people directly infiltrated the refinery.

Which is the first to ensure that the storage depot or the production well is intact? Nature is the latter, and that's the difference between fish and fishing.

But the embarrassment is the refinery in the middle – let's say it's important, it's not as important as the production well; Let's say it's not important, and crude oil can't be used directly.

The aromatic hydrocarbon-based crude oil produced in the Balikpapan oil field can be used directly, but it will damage the boiler, and it is volatile and flammable, and the armored aircraft carrier Dafeng died because of this.

The officers and men of the Yiluan Division came to the side of the highway connecting the oil field and the city on the outskirts of the city, while Zhong Baiquan and the two informants pedaled their bicycles to an auto repair shop a few kilometers away.

There was another agent lurking here, who was here under the guise of an automotive engineer, and the Shell trucks had been deliberately damaged by Zhong Baiquan and sent here to be repaired.

A few people then drove over in three trucks and picked up the officers and soldiers who were hiding in the wilderness.

The oil field was garrisoned by the 8th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the Indo-Dutch Army, in addition to a separate light anti-aircraft company and an armored vehicle squad.

Because it was confident that the Ming army would not dare to attack the oil field facilities, this air defense company could be regarded as a subordinate to this infantry regiment, and the same was true for the armored vehicle squad.

The sentries who stood guard were all recruited local natives, and now they were sleepy-eyed and unsteady on their feet, barely relieving themselves until the car approached; The two Dutch non-commissioned officers were even more presumptuous and fell asleep directly in the sentry box.

Zhong Baiquan casually threw out a pack of cigarettes, and the sentries gathered together to divide it, ignoring the trucks at all.

After passing safely, the officers and soldiers of the Yiluan Division who were hiding in it breathed a sigh of relief and dialed the safety of the guns in their hands.

The core of being a commander is to always be calm, quickly weigh the pros and cons, and make decisive judgments.

As the forerunner of this airborne raid, it is obviously impossible for Yiluan Si to complete the whole thing independently, and their task is to disrupt and delay the Dutch and Indian army, and buy time for the main force of the subsequent Ming army paratroopers.

Cai Zhichen's original plan was to place some mines at random in the Dutch and Indian army camp, and then set a few fires, while his own side fired indiscriminately from a distance. As a result, it may take some time for this rabble to figure out the situation.

However, as he passed through the parking lot, the rows of trucks and armored vehicles made his eyes shine.

Suddenly, he thought of what Zhou had done in Batavia.

Do you want to be bold enough to follow suit?

According to the information in his impression, Cai Zhichen knew that the armored vehicles that the Dutch and Indian troops are now equipped with are mainly Mamun MkIII, and there are also improvised armored vehicles that the Dutch have modified themselves using truck chassis.

Cai Zhichen, who was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, asked sideways: "What kind of armored vehicles are these?" It looks very rough. ”

"The Dutch people can't wait for the burning eyebrows, so they are simply taking the truck to rebuild, six centimeters thin steel plate."

There are four vehicles in this armored car squad, and the shells of each car are welded from pieces of inclined steel plates, which is simple and tough, and looks quite presentable; Equipped with a Lewis light machine gun, it also has the ability to carry people.

However, after weighing it, Cai Zhichen still gave up this plan, and he made a decision, "Get off!" Prepare for Mine! ”

If your paratroopers can't arrive on time, then these armored vehicles will become things that bind Yiluanji, and it is safer to leave after laying mines.

The Broadsword mine was officially defined as the Type 38 anti-infantry directional mine, while the Type S mine was also modeled as the Type 39 anti-infantry bounce mine, and was mass-produced.

However, because the Ming army has been in an offensive posture to this day, and the British Commonwealth army and the Dutch and Indian troops in the Nanyang region have no habit of attacking and counterattacking at night, these excellent mines have never had a chance to shine.

The two mines were staggered next to the various paths and barracks, and some people also carefully arranged a chain of mines - tripwires were not only used to trigger directional mines, but also connected to two jumping mines.

The sun was already above the horizon and the sky was bright.

The three trucks swaggered out of the station and headed straight for the area where the oil wells were located.

The officers and men of the Yiluan Division got off the car halfway and hid in an undulating anticline, watching and waiting patiently.

During this time, Shell employees were constantly passing by and were on their way to work, some on bicycles, some on motorcycles, and others hitchhiking on trucks carrying spare parts.

But at this time, there was still no movement in the station of the 8th Infantry Regiment?

Civilian employees get up earlier than army soldiers, and this is in times of war, it has to be said that this is truly a rare spectacle in the world.

On an anti-aircraft position in the northeast of the Old Port City, an anti-aircraft listening device is parked there, and four large square horns are pointed diagonally at the sky.

The listeners, who had just changed shifts, suddenly heard something strange - yes...... The sound of an airplane engine? And there are a lot of them?

Twenty-one Type 36 bombers and 14 Type 37 dive bombers of the 6th Light Bombing Detachment swooped down on the escort of eight fighters.

The three P-36 fighters of the Dutch and Indian Army Aviation patrolling around the airport bravely went to meet them, but in the blink of an eye they were besieged by the Ming escort fighters.

Because of the rush of the encounter, several P-36 fighters did not have time to seize the altitude advantage, and the Dutch pilots had to engage in close combat.

Fighter jets were trying to take off from the airfield, while the Dutch and Indian soldiers were hurrying to their respective positions, before the Erlikon 20mm anti-aircraft guns and Browning 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns opened fire one after another.

The Dutch and Indian armies are equipped with many American-made weapons, such as the Browning M7921 water-cooled heavy machine gun, the predecessor of the M2HB, which was installed on trucks by the Dutch and Indian armies as a low-profile version of self-propelled anti-aircraft firepower.

In the face of sparse anti-aircraft fire, the bomber formation flew safely over the airfield, and one after another the bombs broke away from the bomb bay and swayed and floated down.

Hundreds of bombs turned the entire airport into a sea of fire in the blink of an eye, filled with billowing smoke and dust.

A P-36 fighter almost had enough speed to take off, but at the last minute it was overturned by a huge shock wave from the explosion of a 250kg aerial bomb.

Five or six P-36s on the tarmac on the side of the runway were also blown up in place, shattering into pieces.

A part of the dive bombers did not drop bombs, and they formed two three-plane formations and flew towards the garrison in the northwest direction.

A second lieutenant of the Yiluan Division took out a reflector, reflecting the sunlight to shine on the bombers, and the pilots were shaken by the light from the ground and immediately noticed them.

Subsequently, the officers and men of the Yiluan Division fired three red flares in a row, and used 64mm mortars to fire two smoke bombs at the defenders' station.

The two zigzag formations rushed straight to the location of the 8th Dutch and Indian Infantry Regiment, where the soldiers were inevitably going to lose their luck.

"Enemy bombers! Look for cover! ”

"Let's go! Get out of here! ”

"Where's Lieutenant Whitney? Take your men to maneuver the anti-aircraft guns! ”

I was in a hurry to flee the barracks to find cover to avoid the air raid, but as soon as I went out, I was blown up by all kinds of mines and tricks.

Flying prefabricated fragments sent a bloody storm through the crowd, and a single thunderbolt could inflict horrific casualties on the crowded soldiers.

Immediately afterward, the dive bombers roared in, one of them slamming into the ground, firing heavily with machine guns until the last minute, and the closest to the ground may be only a few stories high.

Although the officers and men of the Yiluan Division did not have time to lay too many mines during the previous infiltration, they were enough to cause great trouble to the panicked Dutch and Indian troops.

Lieutenant Whitney, the acting commander of the air defense company, finally arrived at the position with a group of disgraced soldiers, and then had to confront the arrogant Ming dive bombers.

It was difficult for a few Erlikon anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns that did not have a unified command of fire to pose a threat to the dive bombers, especially since the anti-aircraft artillery of the Dutch and Indian armies had not experienced several shooting trainings at all.

There are only two types of target training they can occasionally receive: shooting balloons that are released and target planes that are towed by slow biplanes.

Obviously, there is a world of difference between the situation of "after-class exercises" and "actual exams".

After leaving a mess, the Ming army group calmly left.

At this time, a huge formation of transport aircraft also flew to the destination.

"Come on, come on, I'm almost half an hour slow by these guys!"

The dozen or so officers and soldiers of the Yiluan Division who had been separated at the beginning finally waited for this moment, and the lieutenant who led the team took out a match, took out three and pinched them together to burn them, and then threw them away.

The five-meter-square cross-shaped firewood on the ground had been doused with gasoline and burned with a breath.

Some people stood, some sit, and some lay down, looking at the dense group of planes in the sky with great interest.

Dozens of seconds later, dense small black dots "flowed" out of the group, and then bloomed into dandelions.

In just a few breaths, I saw that the entire blue sky seemed to be covered by white umbrella flowers, which can be described as covering the sky and the sun.

One of the corporals seemed to have thought of something, and quickly reached into the pocket of his clothes, took out a small spy camera, pointed it at the sky, and fixed the spectacular scene on film.

The 1st Battalion of the 1st Paratrooper Regiment and the Heavy Firearms Battalion parachuted in 53 transport aircraft; The second battalion landed on a glider towed by a transport plane; The 3rd Battalion is still on standby at Dingyangbao Air Base before being reinforced.

This was an operation against the oil field of the old port of Sumudara; At the same time in Balikpapan, Borneo, the 2nd Paratrooper Regiment was performing the same task.

Such a large-scale airborne operation was unprecedented, and even larger than the German operation against Norway.

Halfway through, two transport planes had to return due to mechanical problems; Later, another glider entered an unpowered gliding state in advance due to the collapse of the towing cable, but fortunately did not fall into the sea, but was forced to land in Jambi, which is 300 miles away from the old port.

However, these unexpected circumstances could not affect the overall situation, and when he saw this, Lieutenant Colonel Bernat, the commander of the 8th Regiment of the Dutch and Indian Army, who had been disgraced by the air raid just now, was greatly shocked.

"Damn! These damned Chinese deceived us! We need support! ”

The leg bags that were packed in a hurry played their due role, and these gadgets allowed the Ming paratroopers who fell from the sky to immediately take up arms and participate in the battle.

It is difficult to ensure order in dense airborne, and it is very likely that there are no people around you after landing, which is easy to mess up.

For this reason, the paratroopers of the Ming Air Force adopt a unique mode of drawing lots to eat in peacetime -

Lots are drawn every 10 days, so that tables are randomly assigned, and each time they eat at the same table, people from other classes are arranged. After a long time, everyone got to know each other one after another.

"That slope is a good place, you go over, hey, go with the two men with machine guns; Then a few of you went to the northeast side......"

The officers were directing any nearby soldiers to set up positions, and now everything was based on rank.

In the field, a patrol of more than 20 Dutch and Indian troops was the first casualty, frightened by bullets that cut their heads and faces, or blown to pieces by grenades.

The Ming paratroopers used gun grenades and three-three light machine guns to suppress these enemy troops, and then dispersed and leaped forward, pressing step by step, leaving no respite.

"Dada-da-"

"Bang! Bang! ”

The Dutch and Indian patrols were overwhelmed by the sharp siege and were powerless to parry.

Several grenades were thrown at them and exploded with a bang, and the remnants of the soldiers were immediately shot and killed by the paratroopers who rushed up.

(End of chapter)