Liang Jian: Lao Li, I'm really not a military expert

Chapter 383: Fujiki Air Brigade attacks, Raiden fighters respond, and a fierce air battle breaks out

Gao Yuanzhi saw the signal sent by the transport plane from afar, and immediately led his pilots to seize the commanding heights, hiding under the cover of clouds, waiting for the arrival of the Japanese aircraft group to give them a fatal blow.

The team leader this time was Major General Fujiki. The bombing of the independent regiment's base in recent days had achieved remarkable results. He had been commended twice by the North China Front Army Command and even once by the headquarters, which indicated that his promotion to lieutenant general was not far away.

After hearing that the independent regiment had a fighter squadron again, he thought it was an opportunity to make merit, and requested to launch an attack against it many times, but had to decline many times due to the lack of ammunition. Fortunately, the headquarters finally agreed to use transport planes to transport ammunition, which finally gave Major General Fujiki the opportunity he had been waiting for.

But before he could request to attack, the order to attack was suddenly issued. After learning that the independent regiment had captured Ping'an County, Major General Fujiki was really shocked. He did not expect that the bombing operation for nearly a month had not destroyed the independent regiment's fighting spirit, so he had to face up to his opponent.

"Mr. Aso, we only have 30 Zero fighters left. The headquarters can't allocate more fighters to us in a short time. You must be careful when fighting later. Pay attention to the anti-aircraft fire from the ground. I hope you don't get shot down by the enemy's anti-aircraft guns like that idiot Harada!"

"Mr. Kimura, you will lead the dive bomber squadron to bomb Taiyuan City. Don't worry about the casualties of Chinese civilians. The entire Ping'an County has been occupied by the enemy. We can carry out indiscriminate bombing operations."

"In another fifteen minutes, we will be able to reach the sky above Ping'an County. All aircraft should be on guard against surprise attacks from enemy fighters..."

Before Major General Fujiki finished his reminder, Gao Yuanzi led an attack formation consisting of 36 Thunder fighters and launched a dive attack on the Fujiki Air Brigade. Using the advantage of altitude to make up for the lack of fighter performance, before Aso Kojiro could react, he killed three Japanese Zero fighters. After that, he did not linger in the battle, but rushed into the group of Japanese bombers, using the 30mm machine guns on board to indiscriminately shoot at nearby Japanese bombers.

This caused the Fujiki Air Brigade, which had been relaxed just now, to fly back and forth like frightened flies, avoiding the incoming shells. However, the distance between the bombers was too short, and they could not make effective evasive actions at all. There was even a scene where two bombers collided, which made Lin Zhenhua, who was closely watching the battle above, a little stunned.

Unexpectedly, the Japanese lost three Zero fighters and four bombers after only three minutes of the air battle. This boosted the morale of the Thunder Fighter Squadron. More importantly, there was no loss on their side, which made Gao Yuanzhi and his men more confident and no longer lost the courage to fight because of the difference in aircraft performance.

Under the leadership of Gao Yuanzhi, the Thunder Fighter Squadron frantically pursued the Japanese. They had only one goal, which was to hide among the Japanese bomber groups and avoid fighting with their Zero fighters.

In this fierce battle in the air, Gao Yuanzhi and his team had a firm advantage in the early stage, causing considerable losses to the Japanese. However, as the Japanese gradually reacted, especially after many life-and-death battles, the Japanese pilots' driving skills improved greatly. These people upgraded from rookie pilots to ordinary pilots. The three bombers formed a tight air firepower network, which forced the Thunder Fighter Squadron to avoid the enemy's edge.

This great air battle over Ping'an County lasted for one hour and twelve minutes. After running out of ammunition, the Thunder Fighter Squadron had to return to the base. This time they were not completely wiped out. Six Thunder Fighters survived, and six pilots parachuted in time and landed safely.

The parachuting pilots were once chased by the Japanese zero-time fighters. Fortunately, the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun vehicles played a role at this time. At the cost of two anti-aircraft gun vehicles being destroyed, the lives of six pilots were saved.

The Fujiki Air Brigade was indeed hit hard this time, and the losses were extremely heavy. Eight Zero fighters, 16 Type 11 horizontal bombers, and 1 Type 3 dive bombers were shot down, and one-third of its combat power was lost. This made Major General Fujiki so angry that he screamed and shouted and cursed, but to no avail.

"Damn it! We want revenge. We are going to drop all our bombs into Ping'an County. The Zero Fighter Squadron will be responsible for escorting and suppressing the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower. The dive bomber squadron will be responsible for destroying the enemy's anti-aircraft guns and armored vehicles. The bomber squadron will be responsible for bombing important facilities in Ping'an County. We must do it now. We will use the most ferocious revenge to tell the Chinese soldiers in the city that the empire will always be invincible!"

Under the order of Major General Fujiki, more than 70 fighter planes launched an unprecedented bombing operation against Ping'an County. Bombs were dropped into Ping'an City, destroying a large number of houses in the county. Many civilians were directly buried in the cellars, causing more than 2000 casualties.

Although the independent regiment had prepared a large number of anti-aircraft weapons in advance, facing the coordinated attacks of the Japanese Zero fighters and dive bombers, a large number of anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns were destroyed. In the end, they only shot down one Zero fighter, six Type 99 dive bombers, and eight Type 96 horizontal bombers.

The most important thing was that the armored forces suffered huge losses, including 12 Barbarian Bear tanks and 20 Rabbit armored vehicles. The losses were extremely heavy. The personnel losses that followed were also very large, completely beyond Li Yunlong's previous expectations. More importantly, the Japanese bombers also bombed the storage areas of supplies in the city, destroying more than 2 kilograms of food, and a small ammunition depot also exploded. If 3/ of the ammunition had not been taken away before the war, the losses would have been even greater.

After dropping all the bombs, Major General Fujiki was about to lead the fleet to turn back when six Thunder fighters came over like lightning and once again broke into the Japanese bomber fleet. After half an hour of air fighting, the six fighters were wiped out again. Two pilots successfully parachuted to escape, and the other four pilots all died heroically. They once again killed two Japanese dive bombers and 96 Type 96 horizontal bombers.

"Damn it! We suffered huge losses in this bombing operation, more than 60 fighter planes. I will definitely be punished by the headquarters when I return. I will come back for revenge. Next time, I will lead more fighter planes. I will bomb Ping'an County into ruins. I will also bomb the independent regiment base into ruins and completely wipe it off the map."

Major General Fujiki cursed while giving the order to retreat immediately. On the way back, they were very cautious, fearing that the Independent Regiment would ambush and attack them with fighter planes. Only when they returned to the sky above Taiyuan Airport did they feel relieved. They finally returned to Taiyuan Airport safely, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Yunlong and Zhao Gang immediately arranged people to rescue the civilians and the wounded. The damage caused by the Japanese bombing this time was very heavy. Li Yunlong, who had planned to stay in Ping'an County for two days, planned to change his plan. He had to leave Ping'an County tonight to avoid the bombing of the Japanese fighter planes.

"Old Zhao, I'll leave the task of rescuing the civilians and the wounded to you. I'll take people to transport the supplies. We have to move quickly and leave Ping'an County tonight."

"College student, don't just sit there. The devils in Anjiaji must be killed. Take the 1st Armored Battalion and half of the Artillery Battalion to Anjiaji and get rid of the lingering Yamamoto Special Forces for me."

Lin Zhenhua and Zhao Gang immediately acted according to Li Yunlong's arrangements. They only had a dozen hours left, and they had to leave Ping'an County before midnight, otherwise the people of Ping'an County would suffer disaster again.

Lin Zhenhua led the 1st Armored Battalion to rush to Anjiaji. It took only half an hour to encounter the Japanese reconnaissance team. Lin Zhenhua did not hesitate to use mortars to cover the fire, and then sent the 1st Company to easily wipe out the Japanese reconnaissance team.

Yamamoto Ikki and others who were hiding in Anjiaji became anxious when they heard the rumbling of artillery outside. Yamamoto Ikki had just persuaded these people to leave with him, but these people actually wanted him to lead his special forces to counterattack Ping'an County. This kind of behavior that was knowingly seeking death, I don't know how these people could say it out loud. If it wasn't for the purpose of raising more special forces members, he would have already started cursing.

"Everyone, we must hurry and leave now. I only have more than 200 soldiers available, including the Kuroda artillery squad. Otherwise, I only have 182 soldiers, and they are all equipped with light weapons. They are simply unable to deal with the enemy's heavy artillery and armored vehicles."

"The reconnaissance team I sent out has been attacked by the enemy and is likely to have been wiped out. We can't wait any longer. In ten minutes at most, the enemy will rush into Anjiaji, and then we will lose our last chance to leave. Please think about this carefully!"

"Hirata-kun, I have already dispatched an artillery squad and a special operations squad to stop the independent regiment. They can only hold out for ten minutes at most. You must make a decision immediately. Will you follow me or not? If you plan to stay here, I respect your choice. I plan to leave now and will never let my special operations team die here in vain!"