Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1501: Set up a net and wait?

After suffering such a heavy blow, the Japanese troops in the south of the city finally became more obedient, and there was no more fighting in the south of the city throughout the morning.

But this was only on land; the fierce battle in the air started around 9 am.

This was actually the daily routine after the Battle of Hengyang began. The Military Commission attached great importance to Hengyang. Although the progress of various ground reinforcements was slow, the air support was still in place.

Fighter planes took off from airports in Guilin, Liuzhou and other places as far as the nearest airport, including Zhijiang Airport. The fighter planes involved included two squadrons of the Chinese Air Force, five squadrons of the Flying Tigers, and four squadrons of the U.S. Air Force. The total number of fighter planes and bombers dispatched in turn was no less than 5. The total number of aircraft deployed in the first week of the war exceeded 4, almost exceeding the scale of the Battle of Shanghai in 200, which involved 1600 elite ground forces from across the country.

The Japanese army also gave it its all. The China Expeditionary Army Command mobilized almost all of its 280-plus army aviation fighters in China 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 conducting ground attacks or chasing each other in fierce battles.

But it is obvious that even if the Japanese army assembled all its aviation forces in the Chinese theater, it would be at the end of its strength.

Because the fighter planes equipped by both sides at this time were completely different from those in the first few years of the war. The Chinese Air Force was equipped with old-fashioned Hawk III and I-15 biplanes that were eliminated by the United States and the Russian Bear, while the Japanese army was equipped with Type 96 and Type 97 fighters with better performance. The Chinese Air Force had to rely entirely on risking their lives and even using bayonet tactics in the air to barely achieve the record of shooting down enemy planes.

At this time, the Chinese Air Force had already replaced all of its equipment with new fighters such as the Wildcat or Hellcat. There was even a flying squadron that replaced its equipment with the most advanced P-47 fighter nicknamed "Thunderbolt" in the United States. This new fighter, known as the "air tank", was definitely a nightmare for the Japanese Army Aviation.

This huge guy with a huge weight of 6000 kilograms not only has steel armor plates to improve its air combat survivability, but also has 8 12.7mm heavy machine guns and 3400 rounds of spare ammunition. More than 1000 kilograms of bombs can be mounted on the wings. What makes the Japanese Army Aviation most excited is that this aerial firepower output platform also has a speed of 690 kilometers per hour and a combat radius of up to 1200 kilometers.

And for the Battle of Hengyang, the Military Commission actually sent the Thunder and Lightning Squadron that was guarding the mountain city to Liuzhou Airport.

The Thunder Squadron lived up to expectations and carried out five sorties within a week, shooting down or damaging 5 Japanese planes, while only three of their own planes were damaged and none crashed, which greatly boosted the morale of the Chinese army on the ground.

However, there were only 47 P-12 fighters in the whole of China, which were far superior to the Japanese Zero fighters. It was impossible to rely on these 12 Thunder fighters to patrol the sky over Hengyang every day.

  The most numerous Chinese fighter jets in the sky over Hengyang are still Wildcats, P-40s and other models!

已经升任第4空军大队副大队长的林恒在6月10日11时授命率队出击衡阳上空，这已经是他这7日来第8次来到衡阳上空了。

Intelligence showed that more than 20 Japanese fighter planes had fought a fierce battle with friendly forces over Hengyang from 9:10 to :, and no more Japanese aircraft would arrive over Hengyang in the short term.

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

Lin Heng and his men have done this kind of work many times, and they are not unfamiliar with open areas like the west of the city.

There are large and small ponds and swamps all over the west of the city. Because of the hot weather, Japanese infantry often jumped into these ponds to catch fish and take a bath during the intervals between battles. When enemy fighter planes approached, most of these Japanese soldiers would climb ashore naked and scatter like birds and beasts. If they did not have time to run, they would simply lurk in the pond, hold their breath, and wait for the planes to leave before climbing ashore.

Since the Japanese army lacked anti-aircraft guns, Chinese pilots would often only leave a few fighter planes on alert at medium and high altitudes. Most of the fighter planes were searching for targets at low altitudes, dropping bombs, or simply strafing with machine guns. Sometimes, when they saw Japanese soldiers in a pond in the air, they would deliberately fly low over the pond over and over again to prevent the Japanese soldiers from getting out.

At this time, the Japanese soldiers would either be suffocated to death in the pond, or expose their heads and serve as living targets for Chinese fighter planes. Unless they were too stupid, they would eventually choose the latter.

After having enough fun with these idiots, the Chinese pilots would contentedly flap their wings and drop bombs at the pond. After a violent explosion, the water surface would often be covered with white, with dead fish and shrimps and the 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 be physically destroyed, but also be tortured mentally.

The Japanese infantry also hated the Chinese fighter planes to death, but like the Chinese infantry back then, they only had light and heavy machine guns and were helpless against the lightning-fast fighter planes.

"Form three planes into a group, with one plane staying at an altitude of 3 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 2500 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.

As the deputy captain, he originally directly commanded two squadrons with 2 fighter jets, but now there are only 24 fighter jets including him, three of which were damaged and are being repaired at the airport. However, there are still three people and their fighter jets 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 sensed Deputy Captain Lin's seriousness and responded 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 that assembled more than people.

As the leader of Formation No. 3, Air Force Second Lieutenant Chen Xiangrong was responsible for air alert. Looking down from an altitude of 3000 meters, he could clearly see large areas of charred black on the ground. This was land that had just experienced a rainstorm. There should have been large areas of yellow mud, but it was burned and turned black by artillery fire. One can fully imagine how fierce the battle was yesterday and at night.

The fact was just as the Air Force second lieutenant had 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, with a total of more than 120 artillery pieces. During the more than ten hours of infantry fighting, they threw more than 1.8 artillery shells at the Chinese positions. The intensity of the artillery fire exceeded the total of 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 1 artillery 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 from both China and Japan were killed in the fierce artillery fire, and 70 to 80 percent of the various fortifications carefully constructed by China on the surface were also destroyed.

Six Chinese fighter planes roared and dived down, searching for the Japanese infantry and artillery positions that had already hidden. The two 6-pound bombs hanging under the wings were enough to blow up any target they found.

But the Japanese had learned their lesson after several days of bombing. The infantry used branches to camouflage the trenches and fortifications. It was difficult to find the hiding Japanese soldiers even at a low altitude of four or five hundred meters, let alone from a height of thousands of meters.

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

The Japanese army lacked sufficient ground defense weapons, but that did not mean they had none. At the almost overbearing request of the 11th Army Commander 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 requested by the 3th Army.

After half a month of arduous transportation, this batch of anti-aircraft guns arrived at the south of Hengyang City two days ago. However, at the request of Iwanaga Osamu of the 116th Division, this air defense battalion consisting of 24 Type 98 20mm anti-aircraft machine guns and 4 Taisho 75 mm anti-aircraft guns had been hiding in the mountains and forests without firing a single shot.

The Japanese army hoped to use this anti-aircraft brigade, which the Chinese were not aware of, as their trump card to attack the Chinese most advanced "Thunderbolt" fighter squadron. Only in this way, not to mention regaining air supremacy, at least it would prevent the Chinese from completely occupying the air superiority. From time to time, they would use fighter planes to bomb the infantry. In the past week, the number of infantry killed and wounded by the Chinese air bombing and strafing has reached 2000, which is unacceptable to the proud Imperial Japanese Army.

However, the Chinese Thunder fighter squadron was resting and did not appear on the battlefield in the past two days. Seeing six P-6 fighters carrying heavy bombs leaping into the low altitude and beginning 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 fighter planes. I want to let them know that this is not a place where they can run rampant." Yan Yongwang gave the order over the phone to Lieutenant Colonel Masao Matsui of the air defense battalion that was temporarily under his jurisdiction.

"Hi! Please rest assured, I will shoot down all the enemy planes and teach the Chinese a lesson that will never be forgotten!" The Japanese Army Lieutenant Colonel made a solemn promise on the phone.

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

At this time, on the 221 high ground, Tan Tai Ming Jing was feeding his puppy 'Er Niu' with a can of canned meat. Er Niu was the great-grandson of the Fourth Regiment's meritorious dog 'Hammer'. He was just nine months old. He started training when he was two months old. Last month, he was assigned to the army as an infantry squad search and combat dog, and then followed the temporarily formed independent company to go into battle. The company commander Tu Yunsheng handed this military dog, who was not even one year old, to Tan Tai Ming Jing, and he became a member of his infantry squad.

Although 'Erniu' is not even one year old yet, the puppy who inherited the excellent genes of his great-grandfather is very smart and brave. During the battle to support Hill 221 yesterday, the little guy was always by Tan Tai Ming Jing's side.

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", which weighed 40 kilograms, bit three Japanese soldiers to death, but it was also injured. One of the wounds was caused by a desperate Japanese soldier who tore off a piece of flesh. Fortunately, it was wearing a special combat vest. Before setting off, Tan Tai Mingjing specially made a 4 mm thick steel plate for it and inserted it into the vest on the chest and abdomen. Although it was a bit heavy, it could save its life at the critical moment.

After the war, it was found that there were at least three dents on the steel plate, which were probably caused by the Japanese army's daggers. If the attack missed, death would have been the only fate waiting for this fighting dog with the excellent "hammer" gene.

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

"Sergeant, look, our planes are here to cause trouble for the Japanese again." A soldier heard the roar in the sky and pointed to the sky excitedly.

Although such scenes were not uncommon, for the infantry, especially those who had been bombed by Japanese warplanes for a long time, it was difficult not to be happy when seeing the Japanese devils being "bullied".

"Boy, instead of spending this time watching your air force brothers bombing the Japs, you might as well take care of your precious rifle. You rolled around in the mud yesterday, and I don't know how much mud has gotten into your gun. You'd better not let your gun break down and fail to fire when the Japs come." Tan Tai Ming Jing scolded with a smile.

After four years of war experience, the boy who was not even 4 years old has not only shed his youthfulness, but has also grown into a qualified veteran soldier. Although this soldier is a few months older than him, his military length is two years shorter than his. He usually treats Tan Tai Ming Jing like an older brother.

"It was cleaned and maintained during breakfast this morning. The performance of this rifle is really good. It has been soaked in mud and water for so long, but there is still no malfunction. It is much better than the German submachine gun. That thing has fierce firepower, but it is too delicate. If you fight with the Japanese in a place like this, it may misfire." The soldier replied with a smile.

"That's good. Call the brothers over to smoke and watch the show. I stole a pack of cigarettes from the company commander's backpack yesterday. You can have it for free." Tan Tai Mingjing took out a pack of crumpled cigarettes from his jacket pocket.

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

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

17 soldiers sat in the trenches, happily lighting up the welfare cigarettes distributed by their squad leader, and they felt so refreshed when they smoked.

Now the Si Xing Regiment includes tobacco in the individual supplies for soldiers, but each person is only supplied with 8 packs per month. If they still want to smoke, they can only buy it with their allowances. Usually, these old smokers can only smoke from each other, especially Squad Leader Tan Tai, who does not have a strong smoking addiction.

In order to satisfy the needs of his classmates for free cigarettes, Tan Tai Mingjing's expenses for buying cigarettes accounted for more than half of his monthly expenses.

Since joining the army, Tan Tai Ming Jing has never asked Old Tan Tai or his sister Tan Tai Ming Yue for money. In his own words, "From now on, I am an adult. I earn my own money and spend it on my own!"

The Sixing Regiment's military pay was not enough, but it was spent lavishly by Tan Tai Ming Jing. The comrades who died in battle or were seriously injured basically all had difficult family circumstances, so Tan Tai Ming Jing's military pay and bonuses were basically used to subsidize his comrades' families.

This is actually a common phenomenon within the Four Element Regiment. The living people always don't want to see the parents, wives and children of their dead comrades without even the money to live.

This "adult" who has been in the army for four years and has made great military achievements actually does not have a penny in savings, which makes Tan Tai Mingyue sometimes unable to help but nag at this adult.

Of course, the Tan Tai family never expected Tan Tai Ming Jing to save money to get married and have children. As an elder sister, she just couldn't help but feel sorry for her brother. The days in the war were already hard enough, and she just hoped that he would be nicer to her.

  But what is the happiness of a soldier?

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

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

The comrade who was carried away by the stretcher team was only shot in the right chest. The Japanese Type 20 rifle had extremely strong penetrating power. The bullet did not remain in the body and did not damage the heart and arteries. His life could have been saved. With the superb medical skills and sufficient medicines of the medical team that came this time, he might be able to return to the army in days.

Without this premise, I'm afraid Tan Tai Ming Jing and his brothers in the infantry squad would not be so happy.

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

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

The anti-aircraft battalion of the Sihang Regiment also participated in the battle, but that was when Japanese fighter planes were flying in the sky. Since shooting down five Japanese fighter planes, the Japanese fighter planes did not dare to fly below 2500 meters in the south of the city. Even when dropping bombs on the Chinese positions in the south of the city, they were at an altitude of more than 2000 meters.

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

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

China's six fighter jets were climbing madly, and thick smoke was beginning to billow from the tails of two of the fighter jets.

The fire net formed by 24 20mm anti-aircraft machine guns firing together has begun to harvest prey!