Chapter 396 The flying team of the Tainan Military Region
It was night, the moon and stars were sparse, and it was a good time for a long march.
A long dragon took advantage of the darkness and ran diagonally along the mountain path from Ludongnan to Changzhi.
The infantry regiment and the cavalry regiment can adapt to various terrains, but Chen Feng's artillery battalion is a problem.
The Handan-Changchun Highway was definitely unreachable, so Zhou Weihan had no choice but to order the two 105 howitzers and military trucks to be left behind, while the remaining artillery pieces were all dismantled and transported by horses.
Fortunately, the cavalry regiment has captured a lot of war horses, which come in handy at this time.
The distance between Ludongnan and Changzhi was more than eighty miles. Due to road restrictions and time constraints, it took the troops almost five hours to reach the outskirts of Changzhi.
Zhou Weihan took a look at the time and set out at seven o'clock in the evening. It was only after twelve o'clock, so he ordered the troops to disperse and rest.
Then several military chiefs were called back. Zhou Weihan was the commander-in-chief of the Changzhi battle, and the deputy chief of staff, as a representative of the Eighth Route Army, rushed to the first theater early this morning.
This time in the battle against Changzhi, the independent detachment was stronger, but the situation around Changzhi was also more complicated than in Handan.
When Handan was first attacked, all surrounding strongholds were removed in advance and the railways were destroyed. Handan was an isolated city and there were no large Japanese troops nearby.
At this time, Changzhi was the hinterland of the Japanese-occupied area. If Tainan was not adjacent to Changzhi, it would have been difficult for the Eighth Route Army to break through the blockade and reach Changzhi.
Seeing how many people had arrived, Zhou Weihan said directly: "I'll repeat what each regiment said, the fourth regiment mainly attacks Changzhi..."
Before Zhou Weihan finished speaking, He Wensheng, chief of the enemy engineering section, came over with two soldiers from the reconnaissance company: "Detachment leader, these are soldiers from the reconnaissance company. This is Dong Jianghua's Changzhi Airport defense plan!"
Zhou Weihan took the defense map, took a look at it, and couldn't help but said: "Dong Jiang's map-making skills are pretty good!"
Then he spread out the defense map, put it on his marching bag, and called Wang Yigong to come closer and take a look.
"Captain, the little devil's airport has changed a lot. It used to be that there weren't so many ways here!" Wang Yigong said with a frown.
I saw that the defense map drawn by Dong Jiang clearly marked the building structure of the airport, the direction of the airport, and various firepower points.
"The only thing that poses the greatest threat to us is the eight anti-aircraft machine guns in the four corners. However, I see that the commander of the little devil is not very good. The air force is sufficient, but the deterrent effect of the anti-aircraft machine guns on the ground is greatly insufficient.
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"Look, isn't this densely packed aircraft fort in the center of the airport the best bunker? No matter how powerful the anti-aircraft machine gun is, can it still penetrate reinforced concrete?" Zhou Weihan pointed at the center of the defense map and said with a smile.
Hearing what Zhou Weihan said, everyone present was happy.
"There is something wrong with the design of this little devil commander's head. The location of the machine gun position is very hidden, but the design angle is affected by the buildings on both sides!" Jing Dagang said.
"Don't mention it yet. This is really the case. As long as the nearest anti-aircraft machine gun in our regiment is destroyed as soon as possible, the rest will be just decoration!" Wang Yigong's frown also relaxed.
Zhou Weihan then made another detailed offensive deployment based on the airport defense map.
Seeing everyone disperse, Xing Zhiguo said worriedly: "Old Zhou, will your plan work? Don't let anything happen then, pilots are all valuable talents!"
"It doesn't matter whether it works or not, everyone has entered the Japanese military airport. Our country's industrial base is poor. Not to mention our Eighth Route Army, even the National Army relies on assistance from Big Brother to obtain aircraft!"
Zhou Weihan paused and continued: "We can only get planes from the little devils. I don't want to have air battles with the Japanese army in the future. It's also good to use the planes we get as training planes. They should be used as a reserve of talents!"
Zhou Weihan's plan has to start with He Wensheng.
Under the leadership of He Wensheng, the enemy's intelligence network spread across most of the three provinces of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan.
After the Hundred Regiment Battle, while the troops were resting, the enemy engineering department actually found two former Northeastern Army pilots in northern Henan. Zhou Weihan was greatly surprised when he heard about it.
After the Northeast Army changed its flag, it stands to reason that all its pilots were registered with the Nationalist Government. Now the Nationalist Government's air force is so short of pilots that there are still some missing.
Later, after inviting the two pilots to Yamawang Mountain, Zhou Weihan found out that after the September 18th Incident, when the airport in the Northeast was attacked by a Japanese drama, most of the pilots died on the spot, but these two were lucky to survive.
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The Nationalist Government thought that all the pilots had died. The two men did not say why they did not go to the troops, and Zhou Weihan did not ask.
Counting these two, plus Yamada Takema, Tainan Military Region already has three pilots, and Zhou Weihan also started to think about it.
So he reported it to the Eighth Route Army Headquarters and requested the headquarters to transfer several pilots from Yan'an.
There is an airstrip in Yan'an. The Northeastern Army once built a 1,000-meter-long gravel and soil airstrip on the eastern outskirts of Yan'an City along the Yanhe River platform. This was the first airport runway in the history of Yan'an.
At the same time, in the winter of 1935, the Northeastern Army also built an airstrip for small aircraft to take off and land on the plains of Anmin Village outside the east gate of Luochuan County where it was stationed.
The Red Army stationed in Yan'an City on December 18, 1936 and took over Yan'an Airport.
Yan'an Airport has since become the first airport under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and it is also one of the communication channels with the outside world. The National Army, the US Army, and Big Brother have visited and interviewed through Yan'an Airport many times.
After the Xi'an Incident, Zhang was imprisoned, and some Northeastern troops joined the Eighth Route Army, including pilots originally stationed at Yan'an Airport.
However, it was not until August 20, 1945, that Wang's special plane "Jianguo", led by Major Flight Instructor Zhou Zhihe, led a crew and 6 aircrew mechanics, flew from the Yangzhou Air Force Base of Wang's puppet regime to launch an uprising, and the Eighth Route Army had its first
An aircraft number "820".
After the headquarters learned of Zhou Weihan's plan, they immediately sent a telegram to Yan'an.
Around early October, a group of seven pilots arrived at Yamawang Mountain, including three former Northeastern Army pilots and four F pilots trained by Big Brother.
Zhou Weihan formed a flying team belonging to the Tainan Military Region the next day.
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At four o'clock in the morning, all units of the independent detachment arrived at their designated locations.
After the Fourth Regiment arrived at Changzhi Airport, the first battalion's attack direction was to the south, and the second battalion's attack direction was to the west of the Japanese barracks. The two heavy machine gun companies and the mountain artillery company were divided into two main attack battalions, and the third battalion served as a reserve team.
In order to reduce the casualties of the four regiments and speed up the progress, Zhou Weihan deliberately removed two mountain artillery batteries from the artillery battalion, with a total of twelve mountain artillery for artillery support.
Guancun, where Changzhi Airport is located, is on the northeast side of Changzhi. Next to it is Guancun Town, where the Japanese army is stationed. The Japanese and puppet troops here were intercepted by the Zhu Dashan Cavalry Regiment.
The 1st and 2nd regiments and artillery battalions were located on the main road from the Japanese army to Changzhi Airport in Changzhi City.
The guard companies of the three regiments were separately mobilized and personally commanded by Zhou Weiguo to intercept the reinforcements from Pingshun.