When Okamura Neji's headquarters got the news to blow up the steel plant airport, everyone was raising their hands and cheering or howling with joy, but only Okamura Neji remained calm.
Okamura Neiji knew that it was not the time to be happy yet. He had been dealing with the Eighth Route Army... to be precise, he had been dealing with Wang Xuexin for so long. He knew very well that he could not be too happy until the last moment.
Okamura Neiji looked at the map and was silent for a while, and then ordered: "Order the 32nd Air Force to take off for reinforcements!"
"Yes, the 32nd Air Force is taking off!"
…
In all air battles, basically all fighter planes will not be sent into the air at once, because air battles are quite special, and the amount of ammunition carried by the aircraft is limited. After a fierce air battle, there are not many bullets left, even in a "zero battle"
Long-range fighter jets also need to land to replenish ammunition.
Therefore, in order to cause a sustained blow to the enemy... For example, Okamura Neji's purpose this time is to ensure the air superiority of the Imperial Air Force over the steel plant, and to continuously bomb the steel plant airport so that it cannot be repaired by the Eighth Route Army.
use.
The 32nd Air Force also has 50 "Zero Fighters" and is also a team that cannot be humiliated.
However, compared with Sakamoto's air force, its pilots are Army Air Forces who do not have much combat experience... lack of combat experience means that they do not have the ability to avoid "x2".
It is conceivable that they would probably be defeated in a fight with the Eighth Route Army's fighter planes.
However, it doesn't matter.
Their mission is not to engage in air combat with enemy fighter planes; they are to bomb, straf, and interfere with the Eighth Route Army's efforts to repair the airport... As long as the temporary airport cannot be repaired, they will never need to worry about the Eighth Route Army's fighter planes.
After the 32nd Air Force took off, Okamura Neiji squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "I would like to see if this little Northeast...there is any way to change the situation of this war!"
But at this moment, a staff officer reported to Okamura Neji with horrified eyes: "Your Excellency, the Longxi Village Airport has been captured!"
"What?" Okamura Neji looked up at the staff officer in shock, then grabbed the staff officer by the collar and cursed: "Asshole, why did the enemy appear in Longxi Village?"
No wonder Okamura Neiji is so angry. The Longxi Village Airport is more than a hundred miles away from the border between the two armies. It is the hinterland of the hinterland. How could an airport there be occupied by the enemy?
"Your Excellency...General!" The staff officer turned pale with fright. He explained with difficulty: "Intelligence shows that the Eighth Route Army advanced along... along the railway. After a night of marching, it was already lurking near Longxi Airport in the early morning...
…”
"Railway line?" Okamura Neiji was stunned for a moment, and pushed the staff officer to the ground, as if discarding a useless piece of garbage, then ran back to the map and found the railway south of Longxi Village.
Wire.
Only then did Okamura Neji vaguely realize that this was his mistake.
The Eighth Route Army had actually been attacking along the railway line, but he didn't notice it at all.
The reason why I didn't notice it was first of all because the Eighth Route Army was hidden too deeply.
This may sound a bit unbelievable. Attacking the railway line is a war and occupation, and there are always Japanese troops stationed on the railway line and telephones. How can this be hidden? Especially the Eighth Route Army also attacks during the day!
But there are ways to hide it.
As the saying goes, "a small thing is hidden in the wild, a big thing is hidden in the city." Sometimes the more conspicuous a place is, the less likely it is to be noticed.
Just like the Eighth Route Army used mechanized troops to attack along the railway line this time, the reason why it never touched the sensitive nerves of the Japanese...that is, the intelligence was clearly obtained but was never taken seriously. The reason was that Wang Xuexin "hidden it in the city."
Wang Xuexin's idea is that if this mechanized force cannot be hidden and at the same time cannot stop fighting, then let more troops take action...
Therefore, when the Japanese railway lines were attacked, they were not attacked in one or two places, but were attacked by guerrillas everywhere. Intelligence and calls for help flew to the headquarters like snowflakes.
Okamura Neiji and the staff in the headquarters were somewhat used to seeing this information.
This is because there had been two "Hundred Regiment Wars" in which the Eighth Route Army launched attacks against the imperial transportation lines.
Okamura Neiji took it for granted that this was another battle conducted by the Eighth Route Army to slow down the empire's transportation.
Because of previous experience, the imperial army had more complete fortifications on the railway line, so Okamura Neiji believed that these transportation problems were only temporary.
On the other hand, the fact that a division of troops in the direction of Daqingshan was surrounded was too dazzling. All Neji Okamura could think about was how to rescue the division and how to seize air superiority and regain the steel plant, and finally turn defeat into victory...
... He simply did not expect that this time the Eighth Route Army's attack on the railway line was different from usual. A mechanized force had penetrated deep into its hinterland and headed straight for the Longxi Village Airport.
Longxi Village Airport is the airport where the Japanese reconnaissance aircraft dock, which is used for the landing and supply of 98 light explosives.
The reason why it is set up in Longxi Village is that it is more than 50 kilometers away from the front line, and it is exactly at the extreme combat radius of the Eighth Route Army's Liyuan Airport "La 5".
At the same time, reconnaissance aircraft need to frequently take off and land, and sometimes have to conduct deep reconnaissance in enemy-controlled areas, so they cannot be too far from the front line, otherwise it will be a huge waste of fuel.
Since Longxi Village is located in the hinterland of the Japs-controlled area and is a small airport, the only troops stationed here are a Japs squad and a puppet army company, plus a puppet army transport team.
The one who fought here was Zhang Dabiao's battalion. His battalion was assigned five tanks for the attack, but Zhang Dabiao did not bring the tanks.
Zhang Dabiao said this to the deputy battalion commander: "Although the tank thing is easy to use, it is too loud, especially at night. The enemy will know that we are coming from a long way away. What is the benefit of letting the enemy prepare?"
Besides, it’s still night, and a tank can’t handle anything!”
So Zhang Dabiao uncharacteristically put the tank at the back, and took his men on a half-track vehicle to travel along the path... The half-track vehicle is very off-road, and as long as the path is not so small that it is narrower than the axle, there is basically nothing it can't pass.
place.
In just over an hour, the First Battalion successfully arrived at Longxi Airport.
In order to prevent the Japanese from noticing, Zhang Dabiao even abandoned his half-track vehicle on the last stretch of the road, and asked the soldiers to walk and hide near the airport with rocket launchers, repeating rifles and other individual equipment.
It was not until dawn that the First Battalion suddenly launched an attack on the airport...