On the eve of the fall of Liaodong, he led his troops in a remonstrance against the young marshal.

The Japanese army troops stationed along the Tiantong'an to Baoshan Road line, having lost air cover, became unprotected sitting ducks.

Their armored vehicles advanced through the streets, with Marines hiding behind them and firing at the 19th Army's positions, completely oblivious to the fact that the situation had reversed above them.

If we switched roles, I'd show you what despair truly means!

More than thirty Mustangs, arranged in an attack column, swooped down, six heavy machine guns simultaneously spitting fire, bullets pouring down from the sky.

"Rat-a-tat-tat!"

"Rat-a-tat-tat!"

Rows of soil splattered on the ground, and a piercing metallic tearing sound came from the top of the armored vehicle.

The Japanese Type 89 tank had thin, paper-thin top armor that was easily torn apart by the large-caliber bullets of the Mustang. The bullets penetrated the tank, turning the crew inside into a mangled mess of flesh and blood.

The tank wobbled onto the sidewalk, crashed into a rice shop, then its engine stalled, its cannon barrel tilted, and it could no longer move.

The infantry fared even worse.

A large-caliber bullet hitting a person can blow them up.

His arm was severed at the root, his head exploded like a watermelon smashed by a hammer, his body was split in two, his upper body flew several meters away, and his lower body was still in a forward-charging posture.

In just a few minutes, the Japanese offensive on the north side of Baoshan Road was completely crushed, and the streets were filled with the corpses of Japanese soldiers and the wreckage of burning armored vehicles.

The blood stained the entire road dark red, flowing slowly down the slope towards the drainage ditch.

The entire street was littered with severed limbs, and the walls were smeared with minced meat.

On the 19th Route Army's position, the soldiers stood up from the trenches and bunkers, gripped their rifles tightly, and stared intently at the Japanese positions that had been bombed to pieces. The blood in their chests was boiling.

Cai Tingkai drew his sidearm and pointed it toward Zhabei. His face was still wet with tears, but his eyes had become sharp as knives again.

"Order! Launch a full-scale counterattack!!!"

All the soldiers of the 19th Route Army on all the positions simultaneously roared:

"Kill the Japanese devils!!!"

The roar exploded in the sky above Zhabei, drowning out the screams of the Japanese soldiers.

Thousands of soldiers, bayoneted rifles at their heels, surged out of the trenches like a tidal wave, treading on streets riddled with holes from aerial bombs, and stepping over the still-burning wreckage of Japanese armored vehicles, charging toward the Japanese positions.

The positions that the Japanese had just seized were instantly pushed back.

Meanwhile, the hunt in the sky is far from over.

The second Mustang had already reached the Huangpu River, its engine roaring like thunder across the wide river.

On the deck of the Notoro seaplane carrier, chaos reigned. Sailors rushed to the anti-aircraft gun positions in a frantic rush, and the barrels of the anti-aircraft machine guns were swinging wildly upwards.

But the Mustang fighters were much faster than their reaction time.

Li Changkong led his squadron in a vertical dive from the clouds. The bombs under the wings flashed briefly in the sunlight; this was the last ray of light the Japanese sailors would ever see.

"boom!"

The first bomb accurately hit the flight deck of the Notoro, and the explosion sent the two seaplanes parked on the deck, along with the catapults, flying into the air.

Debris and flames spewed from the deck like a volcanic eruption.

Immediately afterwards, a second bomb penetrated the deck and exploded in the hangar.

The aviation fuel and ammunition stored in the hangar were detonated, blowing a huge gash through the middle of the ship.

Flames shot dozens of meters high from the breach, engulfing the entire ship in thick smoke and fire.

The ship broke in the middle and began to tilt and sink rapidly. Sailors on the deck jumped into the icy river water like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

The two destroyers following alongside the aircraft carrier were in no better shape.

Mustang fighters took turns diving and strafing, their large-caliber bullets turning their thin decks into sieves.

The bridge glass was shattered, the gun shields were pierced, and the gunners were killed in their positions.

One destroyer's bridge was completely destroyed, and the captain and his staff were all killed. The warship lost control and drifted erratically on the Huangpu River before finally crashing into the Bund's embankment and running aground on the mudflats.

After the air raid, the Notoro had completely sunk, with only half of its mast still visible above the water.

One of the two destroyers ran aground, and the other was still burning. The entire Huangpu River was shrouded in thick smoke and flames, as if it had become a giant incinerator.

The third group of wild horses arrived at Hongkou, and the Japanese airport sounded a piercing air raid siren.

The beams of searchlight swept wildly through the clouds, the muzzles of anti-aircraft guns swung towards the sky, and the Japanese soldiers frantically loaded ammunition at their gun positions.

However, the Mustang fighters were diving too fast, too numerous, and too spread out. When they came down from different directions at the same time, there were simply no anti-aircraft guns that could lock onto so many targets simultaneously.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Rat-a-tat-tat!"

"Rat-a-tat-tat!"

The bombs rained down like a storm.

More than a dozen huge craters instantly appeared on the runway, and dirt and gravel flew into the air.

The six fighter jets parked in the hangar were blown to pieces before they could even take off, and the burning fuselages ripped off the hangar's metal roof.

The ammunition depot was hit directly by an aerial bomb, and the fireball from the explosion rose dozens of meters high. The shockwave shattered all the windows of the buildings surrounding the airport.

The oil depot also exploded, sending thick black smoke soaring into the sky and obscuring the sun.

In less than fifteen minutes, the entire Hongkou Airport was turned into an inferno. The runways, hangars, fuel depots, ammunition depots, and barracks were all destroyed; nothing was spared.

In less than half an hour, the situation was reversed.

The Japanese surface ships were destroyed, the airfield was bombed, and the marines were riddled with bullets.

This is the power of the air force.

If China had a powerful air force in another time and space, it would definitely be able to curb the arrogance of the Japanese invaders.

Li Changkong completed his strafing mission, pulled up the nose of his plane again, and hovered over Hucheng.

The fuel gauge needle was gradually approaching the red line. After a long-distance raid from Lushun, and a large-scale air battle and three-way sweep in Hucheng, every Mustang's fuel tank was almost empty.

He yelled into the radio:

"Attention all units, fuel is running out. Immediately evacuate to Wuxi Airport! Repeat, evacuate to Wuxi!"

Eighty Mustangs regrouped in the air, forming a neat wedge formation, and turned their noses to fly west.

The shadows of the aircraft glided slowly across the streets of Hucheng, as if bidding a silent farewell.

On the ground, Cai Tingkai, riding a captured Japanese warhorse and holding a command sword, led his troops across the Tiantong'an Railway Station, which had been bombed into ruins.

The horse's hooves trampled over the spent cartridge cases and broken bricks scattered on the ground, and over the still-burning Japanese military flag, as it charged toward the Japanese concession.

Behind him, thousands of soldiers, with bayonets fixed to their rifles, surged out of trenches, ruins, and collapsed fortifications, sweeping across the Zhabei battlefield with overwhelming force.

The remaining Japanese soldiers dropped their weapons and scrambled to escape towards the concession, leaving their boots and helmets scattered on the ground.

..........

Headquarters of the Marine Corps in the Japanese Concession of Hongkou.

The telegrams in the operations room were ringing out incessantly.

Every telegram reported the same news: the Notoro had sunk, a destroyer had run aground, Hongkou Airport had been bombed into ruins, and the army's offensive forces had suffered heavy losses from strafing by the Northeast Air Force.

With the front lines collapsing, the Zhabei troops retreated in full force, and the 19th Route Army had already surrounded the Japanese concession.

Matsui Iwane stood in front of the war table, his hands gripping the edge of the table tightly, the veins on the back of his hands bulging out one by one.

The large urban map on the wall now looks like a death warrant to him.

A red cross was drawn at the location of Tiantong Temple, a red cross was drawn at the Baoshan Road defense line, a red cross was drawn at Hongkou Airport, and a red cross was drawn at the location of the Notoro.

Red crosses were everywhere, like bloody wounds.

"How could this happen..."

His voice was hoarse, his lips trembled, and his pupils were unfocused, like a fish washed ashore by the tide.

"Where did they get so many planes? The Northeast Army is in Lushun, over a thousand kilometers away!"

"Their planes can't get here! They can't get here!"

"Impossible, this is impossible!"

No one answered him.

Because everyone knew that the Northeast Army's planes had not only flown over, but had also destroyed the Empire's air power with overwhelming superiority.

The Notoro sank, the airport was bombed, all the planes were gone, and the entire air force of the East China garrison was wiped out within an hour.

There is now no air cover over the Japanese concession. The 19th Route Army is closing in from the perimeter of the concession. The Marine Corps has lost more than half of its strength and has run out of ammunition.

Everyone in the operations room lowered their heads, not daring to look Matsui in the eye.

Outside the window came the deafening shouts of the 19th Route Army charging forward, and the sounds of fierce fighting on the outer perimeter of the concession.

The flashes of exploding grenades shone through the curtains, casting a bloody hue over the atmosphere in the operations room.

Matsui Iwane stumbled to the window, pulled back a corner of the curtain, and looked outside.

Then, he saw a scene that made his soul tremble.