At the end of July, the ship "Sesti," which had arrived from the US mainland, received a telegram order on the way, and first docked at Hong Kong Island for one day to unload the 12 fighters and related personnel it was carrying there, and then sailed for the Shanghai Sea.

On Tuesday, Aug. 6, 12 new fighter jets assembled flew to Shanghai under the pilot's pilot, while the rest of the crew boarded American Airlines planes to Shanghai.

In the process, because there were only four instructors in the US military unit, they had to borrow eight pilots from the British troops stationed in Hong Kong, and for this reason, they also deliberately trained at the Kai Tak Air Base for three days.

In the previous period, Li Junhao asked people to collect some more land on the west side of Jiaozhou Park and incorporate it into the park, and then expanded the original 600-meter-long and 30-meter-wide wartime runway to 750 meters long and 70 meters wide, and also built and expanded the conning tower, semi-enclosed hangar, underground oil depot, ammunition depot, personnel dormitory, semi-underground air defense positions and other buildings next to it, and even set up channel ground lights on both sides of the runway for night navigation.

As a result, in addition to the runway made of non-permanent concrete, there is already a decent small airport in Jiaozhou Park, which can accommodate less than 30 fighters.

When the 12 fighters landed safely one after another, the pilots were warmly welcomed by the officers and men of the barracks and the ground crews who had arrived. That night, Li Junhao also held a banquet in the barracks canteen to entertain everyone, but only beer was served, and the amount was limited, so as not to get drunk.

That night, because of the establishment of the air force, Li Junhao acquired junior air force command skills.

——

The next day, eight British pilots who had rested for the night were sent to Longhua Airport with gifts and souvenirs prepared by Li Junhao, and a small group of American Marines would escort them all the way back to Hong Kong Island and then back by plane.

This method was conceived by Li Junhao, since it is not easy to transport after the shortage of goods from the Shanghai Terminal, it will be unloaded on Hong Kong Island, and then the plane will be driven back, although it is troublesome, but it solves the biggest difficulty.

Now, the military strength of the concession is considered to be complete on land, sea and air, although it is impossible to compare with the Japanese army in terms of numbers, but if it really fights, the Japanese army will not lose a dozen warships, dozens of aircraft, and tens of thousands of soldiers, and it will not want to take the concession - and it will be a completely ruined concession! It will depend on how determined the Japanese are.

——

Li Junhao's prediction was correct, and the Japanese side was very surprised after confirming the news, a small airport was built in the concession, equipped with 12 very advanced fighters!

The detachment that came to Shanghai not long ago, as well as nearly 50,000 troops and more than 10,000 policemen, as well as an unknown number of militiamen, and an unknown number of tanks (the Japanese army identified those armored vehicles as tanks), the current military strength of the concession is too strong for Shanghai!

Because Huhai is the largest industrial and commercial city in the Far East, the Japanese army never thought of destroying it, in that case, the real loss will not be the United States, but the Japanese, who consider themselves the rulers of Central China!

Moreover, urban warfare is different from field warfare, just like in the previous two Songhu battles, the Chinese army had an absolute advantage in numbers, even dozens of times the gap, but the Japanese army, or the marines whose combat effectiveness was despised by the army, withstood the siege of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of troops, with only a few thousand people, and persevered until the arrival of reinforcements. Of course, in addition to the better equipment of the Japanese army and the support of naval and air forces, there are also reasons for the limitations of terrain and terrain and the unique tactics of urban warfare.

In the original plan of the Japanese army, as long as 1,500 military police stationed in Shanghai, 8,000 marines, and the 17th Mixed Brigade (5,100 men) stationed in Songjiang were mobilized when needed, with the cooperation of 36 fighters of the three squadrons at Jiangwan Airport and the First Fleet stationed at Wusongkou, it should be easy to occupy the concession.

Now the size of the military strength in the concession has far exceeded the expectations of the Japanese army, which makes it difficult for them to ride the tiger, because they feel that they may not be able to successfully complete the task if they triple the number of troops.

The situation in the Huhai Concession was urgently reported to the headquarters of the Chinese Dispatch Army by the Japanese Central China Front, and Senior General Nishio Toshizo, who was then the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Dispatch Army, and Lieutenant General Seishiro Itagaki jointly reported the situation to the domestic base camp, and gave his own advice, saying: At present, the military strength of the Huhai Concession is strong, and unless the jade is ready to burn, it is not appropriate to go to war!

The staff officers of the Japanese base camp had a fierce debate about this unexpected situation, but most of the officers did not agree with settling the concession by force, because the result was already predictable - even if the concession was won, it would only get a mess, which was not at all in line with the established strategy of the current base camp of "fighting to feed the war", and this battle was bound to suffer heavy casualties and huge losses, and the gains outweighed the losses!

The controversy will not end for a while, and it is impossible to come up with a new plan in the short term! Fortunately, Japan has not yet made up its mind to start a war with the United States, and the staff officers still have time to discuss it, so take your time!

——

Of course, Li Junhao did not know about the internal controversy of the Japanese army, and he was busy arranging for the ten soldiers who had learned to fly seaplanes to learn to fly new fighters from the instructors, but for 12 aircraft, the number of flight cadets was a bit small, so he could only urgently select 20 cadets from the 327th Regiment to join the study.

Before he said that he would fly a plane, except for a very small number of people who knew about the past, most of the officers and soldiers did not believe it, but on the first day of the students' class, he personally got on the plane and flew a circle of P-38 and F4F respectively, which shocked everyone's eyes!

After getting off the plane, facing the four instructors with admiring expressions, Li Junhao was really embarrassed to say what he thought: these two planes are too backward!

However, the thirty flight cadets were greatly encouraged by Commander Pansen's actions, and their enthusiasm for learning flying skills was even higher, and they took the initiative to devote themselves to it without anyone urging them.

Hearing that a new type of carrier-based aircraft was coming, the commander of the detachment, Rear Admiral Gali, also came to Jiaozhou Park and took more than a dozen naval pilots to watch the flight training of the F4F. In the end, Gary made a request to Li Junhao, that is, he hoped that the naval pilots of the detachment could learn the piloting of the F4F together!

In this regard, of course, Li Junhao agreed, this is not a matter at all! He wished that more people would learn to fly these two planes and be reserve pilots in the future.

(End of chapter)