"Blood boils in Poyang, sparks fly in the Yangtze River, and the whole country roars violently to defend Wuhan! Wuhan is the center of the national war of resistance, and it is the largest city today. We must defend her resolutely, just like the Spanish people defend Madrid!

"

The majestic song "Defend Wuhan" was sung at Jianghan Pass.

The streets and alleys were covered with slogans "Defend Wuhan, live and die together", and the mood of bravely resisting the enemy and fighting to the death infected every Wuhan person.

Decisive battle in Wuhan!

Wuhan has become a city that attracts attention throughout China and even the world!

Defend Wuhan!

Let Wuhan become the Madrid of the East!

Countless students abandoned their writing and joined the army.

Countless citizens consciously joined the defense war.

In 1938, the historical mission of turning the tide fell on Wuhan's shoulders.

At that time, important towns in East China fell one after another, and the Japanese invaders moved westward from the Yangtze River. With a total of 300,000 troops from the 2nd Army and the 11th Army, they aimed directly at the hinterland of Central China in an attempt to defeat China quickly.

Wuhan gathered China's elite forces and became the wartime capital. The Nationalist Government deployed nearly 1.1 million troops in the 5th and 9th theaters here to stop the Japanese invaders along the periphery of Wuhan.

In April, the Japanese army began air raids on Wuhan, which marked that the battle to defend Wuhan had slowly begun!

Entering June, the war was about to break out, and the vanguard of the Chinese and Japanese armies had already exchanged fire.

At this time, Meng Shaoyuan had just completed his mission in northern Jiangsu and returned to Shanghai.

The war in Wuhan was raging, and the situation in Shanghai suddenly became tense.

The Japanese will never allow themselves to lose this decisive battle.

Defenses in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and other places have been significantly strengthened.

Meng Shaoyuan felt this atmosphere along the way.

As we approached Shanghai, we encountered several dangers in a row. If Meng Shaoyuan hadn't been quick to spot the opportunity and avoid it in time, it's hard to say what the consequences would have been.

Even after entering Shanghai, the air was filled with a suffocating atmosphere.

Meng Shaoyuan went directly to his office without stopping at all.

Director Meng has been "missing" for more than a month, but under the management of Wu Jingyi, everything in the special office is in order, and there is no chaos at all.

Meng Shaoyuan was busy with work. In fact, he was very tired at this time. However, after being away for more than a month, he felt worried and called Wu Jingyi in as soon as he sat down: "Report on the situation in Shanghai."

"Calm and calm."

"Calm?"

"The Japanese have not taken the initiative to provoke large-scale incidents during this period." Wu Jingyi immediately reported: "From the time you left last month to now, we have sacrificed seven agents and four are missing."

"It's okay." Meng Shaoyuan frowned.

It stands to reason that the Battle of Xuzhou would be followed immediately by the Battle of Wuhan, and the Shanghai secret service would make a big fuss. How come it turned out to be calm?

"There is another piece of information, I wonder if you are interested."

"explain."

"Before you came back, a gun battle broke out near the Japanese Army's Shanghai spy agency." Wu Jingyi said calmly: "According to the confession from the patrol room, it is said that thugs attacked the place and were killed by the guards. But our investigation,

But that’s not the case at all, the person who died was Fei Yaoqian.”

"Who? Fei Yaoqian?" Meng Shaoyuan was startled: "Why did Fei Yaoqian go to attack the Japanese spy agency?"

"I also felt very strange at the time, so I mobilized all my connections to get some information." Wu Jingyi quickly replied: "Liao Yuting was captured by the Japanese."

Meng Shaoyuan was really completely stunned this time.

The Japanese captured Liao Yuting?

Why?

What did Liao Yuting do?

"The Japanese have a very tight seal on this. I don't know any more specific information."

The Japanese arrested Liao Yuting. There must be articles in it. You must contact Tian Qi as soon as possible.

"I understand." Meng Shaoyuan said calmly: "What about the others?"

"Yesterday, Director Dai personally sent you a secret telegram, asking you to execute it immediately after returning to Shanghai." Wu Jingyi put a telegram in front of Meng Shaoyuan:

"On June 26, a group of special guests will arrive in Shanghai. Our task is to smoothly deliver them to Wuhan to participate in the Wuhan defense battle."

"Special guest? Who?"

Wu Jingyi looked solemn: "Plan Z!"

Plan Z!

Meng Shaoyuan's expression also became heavy.

Plan Z, a top-secret Sino-Soviet cooperation plan!

To be more specific, it refers to the Soviet Union’s Volunteer Air Force aiding China!

The Soviet Union signed the "Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty" with China and provided China with a large amount of secret assistance. Fundamentally speaking, it was out of its own interests.

Even so, it is very valuable to China. The Soviet Union was the first country to provide assistance to China at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War.

The day after the Battle of Songhu broke out, Chiang Kai-shek submitted a draft arms supply agreement to the Soviet ambassador to China: the Soviet Union was required to provide 350 aircraft, 200 tanks and 236 artillery pieces to China within a month, and at the same time send Soviet troops to China.

pilots, aviation technicians, artillerymen and tank crews to train Chinese military personnel. A loan and arms sales agreement was soon reached between China and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union loaned China US$250 million in three installments.

Immediately afterwards, a large amount of Soviet military equipment was exported to China.

The Soviet Union sent the flagship model of its air force to China.

Not only were they advanced aircraft with outstanding performance, the Soviet Union also sent excellent pilots. Soviet Defense Minister Voroshilov received an order in September 1937 to summon the best volunteer pilots to send fighters and bombers to China.

In name, they are "volunteer pilots", but in fact they are completely recruited in the form of military orders. These pilots come from all over the Soviet Union, and are mostly experienced pilots, including some Air Force test pilots.

In order to avoid irritating Japan, the Soviet Union's assistance to China was extremely secretive, and strict confidentiality measures were adopted even within the Soviet Union. The entire aid plan was nicknamed "Operation Z Plan".

When the first batch of pilots who came to China received the transfer order, they did not even know their destination. Many people speculated that they were going to Spain, where the civil war was ongoing.

The fighter jets aiding China were first concentrated in Almaty in the Soviet Union, then flew to Xinjiang, and were finally delivered to China in Lanzhou.

In the Soviet Union, all the Soviet Air Force logos on these aircraft were removed, the blue sky and white sun aircraft emblems were painted on the wings, and even the control sticks were changed to the blue and white KMT Air Force's iconic paint.

Large-scale transnational weapons transportation, no matter how good the confidentiality work is, cannot completely avoid Japanese intelligence reconnaissance. Even the Japanese media are aware of this. In October 1937, Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" reported that

:

"Nine high-speed fighter jets made in the Soviet Union were assembled somewhere and transported to Shanghai via Lanzhou and Xi'an."

The Japanese military was well aware of this. They quickly figured out the route of Soviet aircraft aiding China and prepared to destroy these weapons aiding China midway.

However, the "red channel" was not interrupted after all.

On the morning of December 1, 1937, a group of 23 I-16 fighter jets landed at Nanjing Airport. In the afternoon, 20 bombers also landed at Nanjing Airport. The pilots of these planes were all Soviet pilots, and they went into combat with Japanese aircraft that day.

.

The air battle over Nanjing was the first battle of the Soviet aviation fleet in China.

At the beginning of 1938, with the arrival of a large number of weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union to China, the Chinese army, which had suffered huge losses in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, was replenished, especially the air force, which was even stronger than before the war.

According to statistics in February 1938, China's air force in various battlefields had 390 combat aircraft, mainly Soviet-made aircraft.

However, pilots are in urgent need.

The number of Chinese pilots was not large to begin with, and a large number of them were quickly devoured by unequal air combat. Moreover, the more valuable and outstanding pilots were, the more they had to perform more air combat missions, resulting in the most severe losses.

The four ace pilots who were known as the "Four Kings" of the Chinese Air Force at the time, Liu Cuigang died while supporting the Xinkou Battle in October 1937, Gao Zhihang died on his way to Nanjing to participate in the war in November of the same year, and Le Yiqin died a month later.

He died in the air over Nanjing, and Li Guidan died in an air battle over Wuhan in February 1938.

Training a qualified pilot is a time-consuming and financially resource-consuming process. After the Soviet Union continued to send aircraft to China, Chinese pilots had to learn to fly new models.

Not everyone can master it as soon as they get started like Gao Zhihang, but the learning time left for them is at most two to three months, and they have to fly the aircraft to perform missions with Soviet volunteer pilots.

The main air defense force of the Chinese Air Force has actually been provided by the Soviet Volunteer Air Force. However, this team has never officially revealed its identity publicly.

Meng Shaoyuan also knew that the largest air battle was about to break out over Wuhan.

"Director Dai ordered to go all out to cooperate with Plan Z." Wu Jingyi said in a low voice: "A large number of Soviet aircraft and pilots suddenly appeared over China. The Japanese are well aware of it. There were also Soviet volunteer pilots who were shot down by the Japanese.

captive.

However, on the one hand, due to higher-level diplomatic strategic considerations, and on the other hand, due to fear of the Soviet Union's huge military strength, Japan did not openly attack the Soviet Union.

However, Japan has tightened the blockade of the red channel. The weapons were blown up and can be re-transported, but if something goes wrong with the pilots, the losses will be huge.

Therefore, the third batch of pilots to aid China were divided into two groups. One group still followed the previous route to Chongqing or Wuhan. The other group, mainly composed of instructors, avoided the eyes and ears of the Japanese, took a detour to Hong Kong, and then entered secretly.

Shanghai.

The mission given to us by Director Dai is to escort these flight instructors to Wuhan safely at all costs. It is your personal responsibility. Director Dai also strictly ordered that as long as there is a problem with one of the instructors, Meng Shaoyuan, you can follow the family law yourself.

"

Meng Shaoyuan thought there for a long time: "How many people are there in total?"

"Led by Colonel Shenyukov, there are thirty-five people in total."

Thirty-five instructors and thirty-five foreigners. It is very likely that the Japanese have obtained some intelligence. It is self-evidently difficult to escort these people safely out of Shanghai.
Chapter completed!