Chapter 845 844 [Air Combat]

Just after the Lantern Festival, Zhou Hexuan set off for Wuhan, accompanied by Vivien Leigh, Meng Xiaodong, Zhou Xuan and Yu Peichen, as well as several of Zhou Hexuan's bodyguards.

Meng Xiaodong and Zhou Xuan will stay in Wuhan to perform for the soldiers who are about to go to the front line. Zhou Hexuan took Vivien Leigh and Yu Peichen and took the Guangdong-Han Railway to Guangzhou to go to sea.

On the deck, Zhou Hexuan looked at the river with his hands behind his hands.

Although it was wartime, the waterways in the three towns of Wuhan were obviously much more prosperous, because manpower and materials from all over the country were gathering here.

The sound of airplanes suddenly came from the distant sky, and a large group of Japanese planes were seen buzzing towards Hankou like a swarm of flies. It was 12 bombers attacking Wuhan under the cover of 26 destroyers.

Three Chinese squadrons stationed in Hankou and Xiaogan flew 29 fighter planes assisted by the Soviet Union to attack. Just as the two sides engaged in battle, another 10 Chinese Soviet fighter planes took off, preparing to block the enemy planes' retreat.

The common people in the city, as well as the passengers on the ship, came out to watch the battle, stretching their necks and looking up into the sky.

"good!"

"Well done!"

"China will win!"

"..."

People danced and cheered, but it was Dong Mingde, Yang Hufan, Liu Zhesheng and Liu Zongwu of the 21st Squadron who worked together to shoot down a Japanese fighter jet, making a good start.

At the same time, the 11 fighter planes of the 22nd Squadron and the 11 enemy fighter planes met in a narrow road. The two sides soon fell into a single-plane melee situation, and they coincidentally fought one-on-one. Squadron leader Liu Zhihan took the lead in shooting down one enemy plane, and other teammates also shot down four Japanese planes one after another. The people watching on the ground were so excited that they shouted wildly.

"Oh my god, go and save people!"

"Steady, steady, don't fall!"

"..."

At the same time that the Japanese plane was shot down, the Chinese plane was also poisoned. Five people, including captain Li Guidan, squadron leader Lu Jichun, and pilots Ba Qingzheng, Wang Yi, and Li Pengxiang, died. But they achieved a beautiful aerial record, shooting down 10 Japanese fighters and 2 bombers.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the other Japanese planes immediately fled frantically. The bombers even threw their bombs randomly to reduce their weight and escape.

The main force in this air battle was the Fourth Battalion of the Chinese Air Force, which was founded in October 1936 and its backbone was Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Air Force. They had their first confrontation with Japanese aircraft in Hangzhou last year, and won an impressive record of 6-0 in one fell swoop. Since then, they have shot down dozens of Japanese aircraft. Unfortunately, the team leader Gao Zhihang later died heroically.

Li Guidan, who died in this battle, was the second captain after Gao Zhihang. He and Gao Zhihang were both from the Northeast.

Gao Zhihang used to be Feng Yong's subordinate. When Feng Yong was the commander of the Northeast Air Force, Gao Zhihang served as the pilot of the Northeast Aviation Department's Flying Eagles. There were five brigades in the Northeast Air Force, and the Flying Eagles were one of them. Many people in it were Became the backbone of the Chinese Air Force in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War.

So Feng Yong was very anxious. His former subordinates fought fiercely in the sky and were known as the "God of War in the Air Force", but he could only watch in the United States. If he can no longer bring the plane back to China, Feng Yong will only take the pilot students back to the country to participate in the war.

In fact, the Chinese Air Force in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War was not technically weaker than the Japanese Air Force. The aircraft assisted by the Soviet Union also made up for the Chinese Air Force's equipment disadvantages, and often fought beautifully.

Unfortunately, China has too few aircraft and too few pilots. If one is lost, one will be lost. If one is lost, one will be lost.

Today's air battle over Wuhan would not have been possible if it had not been for Soviet-assisted aircraft, because China has very few of its own aircraft left. During the Battle of Songhu, more than 300 Chinese aircraft fought against more than 800 Japanese aircraft. The battle was extremely fierce, and countless heroic stories emerged.

Yan Haiwen is from Liaoning. On the way back from bombing the Hongkou Naval Headquarters in Japan, he was hit by Japanese anti-aircraft artillery. While parachuting, he was blown down by the wind and fell to the enemy position, where he was immediately surrounded by dozens of Japanese soldiers. Yan Haiwen took out two sidearms, killed five Japanese soldiers and wounded several others. He kept the last bullet for himself and shouted "China has no captured air force" and died heroically for his country. He was only 21 years old.

Shen Chongjie was born in Hubei. Chen Xichun is from Hunan. When they were performing a bombing mission, the plane temporarily malfunctioned and smoke came out of the tail. According to regulations, they should parachute to save their lives. But they knew that there were not many Chinese aircraft and they could not abandon the aircraft in vain, so they piloted the malfunctioning aircraft and staggered into the Japanese battleship Izumo, and died heroically. At that time, Shen Chonghui was 27 years old and Chen Xichun was 22 years old.

Le Yiqin, a native of Sichuan, shot down 7 enemy planes in two months. When the Japanese army attacked Nanjing, there were not many Chinese aircraft left. Le Yiqin resolutely took off alone to fight. He was outnumbered and died outside Nanjing at the age of 23.

Liu Cuigang, a native of Liaoning, shot down 11 enemy planes in two months. Because the plane ran out of gasoline, he fired the last flare to guide his wingman to land. In order to save the plane, he refused to parachute and searched for a suitable place to land. Unfortunately, he hit a building and died. He was only 24 years old.

There are also Gao Zhihang and Li Guidan we mentioned earlier, who jointly composed an aerial war song for China.

Unfortunately, China has too few aircraft, and the number of aircraft is getting smaller and smaller, causing pilots to sacrifice themselves in order to keep the aircraft. If the Soviet Union hadn't brought in planes for assistance at the critical moment, there would have been no planes to fly to Wuhan at this time.

…

On the ship, people were still cheering for their victory.

Zhou Xuan chattered while Meng Xiaodong was talking, pointing at the Chinese plane that was landing, her face flushed and she kept laughing.

"The Air Force athletes have really boosted the morale of our countrymen!" Yu Peichen was also inexplicably excited. He clenched his fists tightly and wanted to run to the airport immediately to express condolences to the heroes.

Zhou Hexuan could only smile bitterly. Wuhan was able to engage in air combat because Chiang Kai-shek's Military Commission was located here. Other places could only be ravaged by Japanese aircraft.

What Zhou Hexuan didn't expect was that because he funded the construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, completely connecting the Pinghan Line and the Guangdong-Hankou Line, it was equivalent to performing a heart bypass surgery on China's transportation industry. Japan will bomb Wuhan more frequently. The focus of the bombing is the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge. As long as the bridge is blown up, the efficiency of China's troop and material transportation will be greatly reduced.

Chang Kaishen also regarded Wuhan's air defense as a top priority and mobilized all of China's most elite flying squadrons to garrison around the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge.

In the next two months alone, China and Japan will engage in seven air battles over three towns in Wuhan - these are all the effects of Zhou Hexuan. Without his money to repair the bridge, the Japanese invaders would not have died. Keep an eye on Wuhan.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Boom boom boom!"

"Boom boom boom!"

From Chongqing to Wuhan, and then from Wuhan to Guangzhou, Zhou Hexuan encountered four bombings along the way.

One of the most dangerous times was on the railway. A bomb hit the track ahead, and then Japanese planes bombed the train indiscriminately. Zhou Hexuan was stabbed by a piece of flying glass, and blood surged from his forehead. Yu Peichen and Vivien Leigh also suffered varying degrees of minor injuries because the train rolled over.

Before the fall of Guangzhou, the Japanese conducted bombings here for 14 months, with the Guangdong-Hankou Railway being the primary bombing target.

As a last resort, Zhou Hexuan had no choice but to get off the train and walk for two days and nights before he got a truck in Lian County (later Qingyuan City) and arrived at the main city of Guangzhou without any danger.