Chapter 1501: Set up a Net and Wait?

After this heavy blow, the Japanese troops in the south of the city finally calmed down a bit, and there was no fighting in the south of the city throughout the morning.

But this was only on land, and the fierce battle in the air started at about 9 am.

This was actually the daily routine after the Battle of Hengyang started. The Military Commission attached great importance to Hengyang. Although the ground reinforcements from various routes progressed slowly, the air support was still in place.

There were fighter planes taking off from airports in Guilin, Liuzhou and other places, and there was Zhijiang Airport nearby. The fighter planes involved included two squadrons of the Chinese Air Force, five squadrons of the Flying Tigers, and four squadrons of the US Air Force. The total number of fighter planes and bombers dispatched in turn was no less than 200. The total number of aircraft deployed in the first week of the war exceeded 1,600, which was almost larger than the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, which involved 700,000 elite army troops from the whole country.

The Japanese army also gave it their all. The Chinese Expeditionary Army Command mobilized almost all of the army aviation fighters in China, more than 280 aircraft, to compete with the Chinese side for air supremacy.

From 8 am to 5 pm every day, there are almost always fighter planes in the sky attacking the ground or chasing each other.

But it is obvious that even if the Japanese army assembled all the aviation forces in the Chinese theater, it is already a spent force.

Because the fighter planes equipped by both sides at this time are completely different from those in the first few years of the war. The Chinese Air Force is equipped with old-fashioned Hawk III and I-15 biplanes that have been eliminated by the United States and the Russian Bear, while the Japanese army is equipped with Type 96 and Type 97 fighter planes with better performance. The Chinese Air Force has to rely on desperate tactics and even bayonet tactics in the air to barely get the record of shooting down enemy planes.

At this time, the Chinese Air Force has been fully equipped with new fighter planes such as Wildcat or Hellcat, and even one flight squadron has been equipped with the most advanced P-47 fighter nicknamed "Thunderbolt" in the United States. This new fighter with the reputation of "air tank" is definitely a nightmare for the Japanese Army Aviation.

The big guy with a huge weight of 6,000 kilograms not only has steel armor plates to improve the air combat survivability, but also has 8 12.7 mm heavy machine guns and 3,400 rounds of spare ammunition. The wings can also carry more than 1,000 kilograms of bombs. What makes the Japanese Army Aviation most buzzing is that this aerial firepower output platform also has a speed of 690 kilometers per hour and a combat radius of up to 1,200 kilometers.

And for the Battle of Hengyang, the Military Commission actually sent the Thunder Squadron, which guards the mountain city, to Liuzhou Airport.

The Thunder Squadron did not live up to the heavy responsibility. It was dispatched 5 times in a week, shooting down and damaging 28 Japanese planes, while only 3 of its own planes were damaged and none of them crashed, which greatly inspired the morale of the Chinese Army on the ground.

But there are only 12 P-47 fighters in China that are ahead of the Japanese Zero fighters in all aspects, and it is impossible to rely on these 12 Thunder fighters to patrol over Hengyang every day.

The most Chinese fighter planes in the sky over Hengyang are still mainly Wildcat or P-40 fighter planes!

Lin Heng, who has been promoted to deputy commander of the 4th Air Force Squadron, was ordered to lead his team to attack the sky over Hengyang at 11:00 on June 10. This is his 8th time to come to the sky over Hengyang in the past 7 days.

Intelligence shows that more than 20 Japanese fighter planes have fought fiercely with friendly forces over Hengyang from 9:00 to 10:30, and no more Japanese aircraft will arrive over Hengyang in a short time.

He will lead his 18 P-40 fighter planes to bomb and dive-strafe the Japanese infantry in the west and south of Hengyang to reduce the pressure on the Hengyang defenders.

Lin Heng and his subordinates have done this kind of work several times, especially for the open areas in the west of the city, they are not unfamiliar at all.

There are ponds and swamps of all sizes in the west of the city. Because of the hot weather, Japanese infantry often jump into these ponds to catch fish and take a bath during the intervals of fighting. When the enemy's fighter planes come, most of these Japanese soldiers will climb ashore naked and scatter like birds and beasts. If they don't have time to run, they will simply hide in the pond and hold their breath, and climb ashore after the planes leave.

Because the Japanese army lacks anti-aircraft guns, Chinese pilots often only leave a few fighter planes on alert at medium and high altitudes. Most fighter planes search for targets at low altitudes or drop bombs or simply use machine guns to shoot. Sometimes when they see Japanese soldiers in the pond in the air, they deliberately fly low over the pond again and again, so that the Japanese soldiers can't get out.

At this time, the Japanese soldiers will either be suffocated to death in the pond, or show their heads to be live targets for Chinese fighter planes. As long as they are not too stupid, they will eventually choose the latter.

After playing enough with these fools, the Chinese pilots would be satisfied and flutter their wings to drop bombs on the pond. After a violent explosion, the water surface would often be covered with white spots, including dead fish and shrimps, as well as naked bodies of Japanese soldiers.

Whoever controls the air superiority has the right to speak. The Chinese Air Force will make them pay back for everything that the Japanese fighter planes have done to the Chinese military and civilians. They will not only destroy them physically, but also torture them mentally.

The Japanese infantry also hated the Chinese fighter planes so much that they bit their back teeth, but they were just like the Chinese infantry back then, with only light and heavy machine guns, and they were helpless against the lightning-fast fighter planes.

"Form three planes into a group, with one plane staying at an altitude of 2,500 meters on alert, and two planes going into low altitude to search for targets for ground bombing and strafing. Attention, each plane needs to keep 300 rounds of ammunition in case of emergency. The Japanese army has not completely lost its combat capability, and each group must not be careless! I emphasize again, you must not be careless!" Before arriving over Hengyang, the young Air Force captain gave orders on the radio with a serious face.

He, the deputy captain, originally had 24 fighter planes in 2 squadrons, but now he only had 18 fighter planes, 3 of which were damaged and under repair at the airport, but there were still 3 people and their fighter planes left in the mountains and waters of Hengyang.

Only one person parachuted successfully, while the other two pilots crashed into the ground with their fighter planes and exploded into a fireball. Lin Heng did not want such a tragedy to happen again.

"Received!" The Chinese pilots felt the seriousness of Deputy Captain Lin and answered solemnly on the radio.

The 18 fighter planes were divided into two teams, one team went to the west of the city to bomb the Japanese army, and the other team went to Zhangjiashan in the south of the city to bomb the main force of the Japanese army with more than 10,000 people.

As the leader of the No. 3 formation, Air Force Lieutenant Chen Xiangrong was responsible for air alert. Looking down from an altitude of 3,000 meters, he could clearly see large areas of charred black on the ground. This was land that had just experienced heavy rain. It should have been large areas of yellow mud, but it was burned black by artillery fire. It is completely conceivable how fierce the battle was yesterday and at night.

The fact is just as the Air Force lieutenant thought. While the 116th Division deployed more than a dozen infantry battalions to attack Zhangjiashan, Huxingchao and other positions in turn, it also mobilized the artillery regiments of the 116th Division and the 68th Division and an independent artillery regiment, totaling more than 120 artillery pieces. In the more than ten hours of infantry fighting, a total of more than 18,000 shells were thrown at the Chinese positions, and the intensity of the artillery fire exceeded the total during the battle of Tanzhou.

Fortunately, the Chinese side also organized more than 60 artillery pieces of various types to fight back, and also threw no less than 10,000 shells at the Japanese army.

Anyway, the main point is that if you don't let me live, I won't let you have an easy life. Hundreds of people on both sides of China and Japan died in the fierce artillery fire, and 70 to 80 percent of the various fortifications carefully built on the surface of the Chinese side were also destroyed.

Six Chinese fighter planes roared and dived down, looking for the positions of Japanese infantry and artillery that had already hidden. The two 500-pound bombs hanging under the wings were enough to blow up any target they found.

But the Japanese army had learned to be smart after several days of bombing. The infantry used branches to camouflage the trenches and fortifications. It was difficult to find the Japanese soldiers hiding, not to mention from a height of more than a thousand meters, even at a low altitude of four or five hundred meters.

The fighter planes in the high altitude and the Chinese air force flying at high speed in the low altitude did not know that in the jungle on a hillside on the ground, accompanied by the roar of Japanese officers, long gun barrels were pointing to the sky.

The Japanese army lacked sufficient ground defense weapons, but it did not mean that they did not have them. At the almost tyrannical request of the commander of the 11th Army, Isamu Yokoyama, the Japanese Army Headquarters had been preparing various equipment and supplies for the battle against Hunan Province three months ago, including the anti-aircraft guns required by the 11th Army.

After half a month of arduous transportation, this batch of anti-aircraft guns arrived in the south of Hengyang two days ago. However, at the request of the 116th Division Yan Yongwang, this air defense brigade consisting of 24 Type 98 20mm anti-aircraft machine guns and 4 Taisho 11 75mm anti-aircraft guns has been hiding in the mountains and forests.

The Japanese army hopes to use this air defense brigade, which the Chinese side is not aware of, as its trump card to attack the most advanced "Thunder" fighter squadron of China. Only in this way, not to mention regaining air supremacy, at least it will not allow China to occupy a complete air advantage, and from time to time, it will use fighter planes to bombard infantry.

In the past week, the number of infantry killed and injured in China's aerial bombing and strafing has reached 2,000, which is unacceptable to the proud Imperial Japanese Army.

However, the Chinese Thunder Fighter Squadron did not appear on the battlefield during the past two days. Seeing that six P-40 fighters carrying heavy bombs jumped into the low altitude and began to stare at the infantry on the ground, Yan Yongwang, who was hiding in the command post, finally couldn't help it.

"Shoot down all the Chinese fighters. I want them to know that this is not a place where they can run rampant." Yan Yongwang gave a military order to Lieutenant Colonel Matsui Masao of the Air Defense Brigade under his temporary jurisdiction on the phone.

"Hi! Please rest assured, I will definitely shoot down all enemy planes and teach the Chinese a lesson that will be unforgettable!" The Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel promised solemnly on the phone.

As the Japanese gunners shook the mechanical handles, the gun barrels wrapped with dry grass and branches were aimed at the sky.

At this time, on the 221 high ground, Tan Tai Ming Jing was holding a can of canned meat to feed his puppy 'Er Niu'. Er Niu was the great-grandson of the meritorious dog 'Hammer' of the Four Lines Regiment. He was just nine months old and started training when he was two months old. He was just assigned to the army last month as a search and combat dog for the infantry squad, and then followed the temporary independent company to go to war. The company commander Tu Yunsheng handed this military dog, who was not even one year old, to Tan Tai Ming Jing to become a member of his infantry squad.

Er Niu is not even one year old yet, but the puppy who inherited the excellent genes of his great grandfather is very smart and brave. In the battle to support the 221 high ground yesterday, this little guy has been following Tan Tai Ming Jing.

After discovering the enemy in the dark, they knew they could not make a sound, so they used their claws to dig the ground to remind Tan Tai Ming Jing. This allowed Tan Tai Ming Jing's infantry squad to always discover the enemy one step ahead of the enemy. In the fierce fighting that night, Tan Tai Ming Jing's infantry squad only lost one person due to injuries, which ranked first among all the participating infantry squads of the 10th Reserve Division and the Four-Line Regiment. In the morning, they received a general commendation from the 10th Reserve Division headquarters.

During the battle, Erniu, who weighed 40 kilograms, bit three Japanese soldiers to death, but he was also injured. One of the wounds was caused by a desperate Japanese soldier, who tore off a piece of meat. Fortunately, he wore a special combat vest. Tan Tai Ming Jing specially made a 4mm thick steel plate for him before departure and inserted it into the vest cloth at the chest and abdomen. Although it was a bit heavy, it could save his life at a critical moment.

After the war, there were at least three dents on the steel plate, which should have been stabbed by the Japanese dagger. If the attack missed, for this combat dog with the excellent genes of the Hammer, the Japanese would only have death waiting for him.

Tan Tai Ming Jing liked Erniu very much. After the war, he not only carefully bandaged Erniu's wounds, but also gave him his own canned beef as lunch.

"Squad leader, look, our planes are here to mess with the Japanese again." A soldier heard the roar in the sky and pointed to the sky excitedly.

Although such scenes are not uncommon, for infantrymen, especially those who have been bombed by Japanese fighter planes for a long time, it is hard not to be happy when they see the Japanese devils being "bullied".

"You kid, if you have this little time to watch the air force brothers bomb the devils, you might as well take care of your precious rifle. You rolled in the mud yesterday. I don't know how much mud got into the gun. Don't let the gun fall off the chain when the devils come." Tan Tai Ming Jing scolded with a smile.

After 4 years of war experience, the boy who was less than 17 years old not only lost his immaturity, but also grew into a qualified veteran sergeant. Although this soldier is a few months older than him, he has a full 2 ​​years of military service and usually treats Tan Tai Ming Jing as a brother.

"I cleaned and maintained it during breakfast this morning, but the performance of this rifle is really good. It has been soaked in muddy water for so long, but it still has no malfunction. It is much better than the Germans' flower machine guns. That thing has fierce firepower, but it is too delicate. It might misfire when fighting with the devils in such a place." The soldier replied with a smile.

"That's good. Call the brothers to smoke and watch the show. I took a pack from the company commander's backpack yesterday. It's cheap for you." Tan Tai Mingjing took out a pack of wrinkled cigarettes from his jacket pocket.

Fortunately, the packaging was not opened, otherwise it would have been soaked into slag after the battle scene in the mud last night.

"Haha, the squad leader is generous!" The soldier laughed. "Brothers, the squad leader is giving out benefits, come quickly!"

17 soldiers sat in the trenches, happily lit up the welfare cigarettes given by the squad leader, and smoked them so comfortably.

Now the Four Lines Regiment provides tobacco as part of the individual supplies for soldiers, but only 8 packs are provided per person per month. If you still want to smoke, you can only buy it with your allowance. Usually, these old smokers can only get it from each other, especially the squad leader Tan Tai who is not addicted to smoking.

In order to meet the needs of his brothers in his squad to get cigarettes, Tan Tai Mingjing's expenditure on buying cigarettes accounts for more than half of his monthly expenditure.

Since joining the army, Tan Tai Mingjing has never asked Lao Tan Tai or his sister Tan Tai Mingyue for money. In his words, "From now on, I am an adult, and I earn money and spend it myself!"

The military pay of the Four Lines Regiment is not enough, but it can't stop Tan Tai Mingjing from spending it. The comrades who died in the battle and the seriously injured comrades basically have difficult families. Tan Tai Mingjing's military pay and bonuses are basically subsidized to his comrades and their families.

This is actually a common phenomenon in the Four Lines Regiment. The living people always don't want to see the parents, wives and children of the dead comrades have no money to settle down.

After four years in the army, the ‘adult’ who has made great military achievements actually has no savings, which makes Tan Tai Ming Yue sometimes unable to help but complain about a certain adult.

Of course, the Tan Tai family never said that they expected Tan Tai Ming Jing to save money to marry and have children. As a sister, she just couldn’t help but feel sorry for her brother. The days in the war were already very hard, and she hoped that he would be better to her.

But, what is the happiness of a soldier?

Is it money or peace and tranquility, or the simple smiles on the faces of comrades? Only the soldiers themselves know this best.

After a fierce battle, seeing all the comrades still able to get together to smoke and chat, and still have smiles on their faces, may be the greatest happiness for Tan Tai Ming Jing at this time.

The comrade who was carried away by the stretcher team was only shot in the right chest. The Japanese Type 38 rifle has strong penetration power. The bullet did not remain in the body, nor did it hurt the heart and arteries. His life can be saved. With the superb medical skills and sufficient medicines of the medical team that came this time, he may be able to return to the army in 20 days.

Without this premise, I am afraid that Tan Tai Mingjing and his brothers in the infantry squad would not be so happy.

"Boom boom boom!" A series of terrifying shooting sounds suddenly resounded through the sky.

"There is no need for our anti-aircraft guns to fire!" A soldier subconsciously listened carefully and asked questions.

The anti-aircraft battalion of the Sihang Regiment also participated in the battle, but that was when Japanese fighter planes flew over the sky. Since shooting down five Japanese fighter planes, the Japanese fighter planes did not dare to fly below 2,500 meters in the south of the city. Even if they dropped bombs on the Chinese positions in the south of the city, they were at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters.

But at this time, there were only Chinese Air Force fighter planes in the sky.

"Not good!" Tan Tai Ming Jing's face changed drastically. He threw away his cigarette butt, climbed up the trench, picked up the telescope and looked into the distance.

The six Chinese fighters were frantically pulling up, and thick smoke had begun to rise from the tails of two fighters.

The fire net formed by the firing of 24 20mm anti-aircraft machine guns had begun to harvest prey!