One thing Miyazaki Hiroki did not guess correctly was that the Eighth Route Army Air Force did not launch a fierce attack on Longxi Airport.
The Eighth Route Army Air Force did indeed attack, and not only once, but it was all done at the last minute.
To be more specific, the Eighth Route Army's attacks seemed to be massive every time: the first time there were fifty attacks, the second time there were sixty attacks, and the third time there were even eighty attacks from both sides...
This prompted Okamura Neiji to immediately send an aviation fleet of 36 aircraft for reinforcements, all of which were commanded by Hiroki Miyazaki.
But this doesn't seem to be abnormal.
Because every time the Eighth Route Army Air Force launched an attack on Longxi Airport, Hiroki Miyazaki always adopted the strategy of avoiding fighting and dealing with the Eighth Route Army fighter planes.
In doing so, Hiroki Miyazaki took advantage of the shortcomings of the Eighth Route Army's "La-5" fighter: the combat radius is only 300 kilometers.
This is the advantage of Longxi Airport: as long as the Eighth Route Army's "Pull 5s" dare to pursue the "Zero War", these "Pull 5s" will not have enough fuel to return home after just two turns.
So, what choice does the Eighth Route Army have when faced with this situation?
The only option is to return home, no matter how many fighter planes are sent!
Thinking of this, Miyazaki Hiroki slowly relaxed. He believed that this battle was a foregone conclusion. Air supremacy would soon return to the hands of the imperial army. Then the imperial army would crush the Eighth Route Army ground troops and continue to fight.
to the steel plant.
As for Datong...
The Eighth Route Army there would be surrounded by the imperial army and turned into an isolated island.
The Eighth Route Army at Yanmen Pass only has more than a thousand people, so it is nothing to worry about.
After calming down, Miyazaki Hiroki skillfully directed the fighter planes to take off in batches and then land in batches for supplies and rest.
Just when Miyazaki Hiroki felt tired and realized that it was time to land and rest for a while, a subordinate's exclamation suddenly came from the radio: "The engine is shut down! The engine is shut down..."
Hiroki Miyazaki looked around and saw that there was indeed a fighter plane flying precariously on inertia.
Miyazaki immediately ordered: "Troubleshoot and re-ignite!"
"Cannot restart!" A nervous voice came from the radio: "Unknown reason, I can't find the fault and can't eliminate it..."
Miyazaki watched helplessly as the fighter plane lost its balance and fell to the ground like a kite with a broken string. He could only order: "Sky jump, jump now!"
But it was too late... Although there were ejection seats at this time, only a few Hans and Eagle fighter aircraft were equipped with them. The pilots of "Zero Combat" still had to open the canopy and climb out to parachute, and they had to roll in a short time.
It is quite difficult to complete these actions in the cabin.
Therefore, Miyazaki did not see the pilot come out of the cabin until the end. All he saw was that the fighter plane fell to the ground and burst into flames with a "boom".
Miyazaki sighed and sighed in his heart: This is war, you never know when misfortune will happen to you.
At this time, Miyazaki thought it was just an ordinary engine accident, but a few minutes later a panicked scream suddenly came from the radio: "The engine has stopped! The engine has stopped..."
Miyazaki was stunned.
It would be excusable if there was an engine failure. After all, these are fighter jets, and it is inevitable that some defects will not be found after being injured in combat.
But it is unusual for two failures to occur within such a short period of time.
This time Miyazaki did not hesitate. He immediately ordered: "Skydive, skydive immediately!"
With a "bang" sound, a parachute opened in the air, and the plane rolled to the ground, followed by another loud noise.
What could be the reason?
It breaks down so frequently!
The next second, Miyazaki suddenly remembered a possible reason, and his face suddenly turned pale.
After being stunned for a moment, Miyazaki said in a trembling voice on the radio: "Everyone, could it be... that it's a fuel problem? The Eighth Route Army did something wrong with the fuel?"
There was an exclamation on the radio. If this is the case, it means that all fighter planes that have been refueled at Longxi Airport will be destroyed.
At this time, the two air fleets had a total of 72 fighter planes, at least two-thirds of which had been refueled at Long Si Airport.
Just when the Japanese pilots were panicking about this answer, another panicked voice came from the radio, this time it was the call of two pilots:
"Engine shut down!"
"The plane is out of control!"
…
This almost confirmed that Miyazaki's guess was correct, that the Eighth Route Army had indeed tampered with aviation fuel.
At this time, Miyazaki could no longer care about the two fighter planes in danger. He shouted angrily at the radio: "All refueled fighter planes, return to the airport and land immediately! Repeat, return to the airport and land immediately!"
In fact, it was too late to return to the airport to land, because they were patrolling the airspace about a hundred kilometers away from the airport, and it would take at least ten minutes to return to the airport.
If it were normal times, these ten minutes would be nothing at all.
But now, fighter planes can crash at any time due to engine shutdown. Japanese pilots are like sitting on a time bomb that can be detonated at any time. They have to worry every minute about whether they will crash the plane and kill people.
As a result, some of the fighters successfully returned to Longxi Airport to land, some crashed on the road due to engine shutdown, and many more looked for suitable ground for emergency landing nearby... After all, the "Zero Fighter" is a carrier-based aircraft, and it only needs
You can land at a distance of only 50 meters, and you can find many such flat areas around Longxi Airport.
However, even if these "zero battles" successfully land, they will not be able to take off again for combat in a short period of time.
In other words, it has only been more than three hours since the start of "Zero War". The empire's two aviation fleets have a total of 72 fighter planes, and only a dozen are still capable of combat.
Long Si Airport?
Air superiority?
Hiroki Miyazaki laughed at himself and said, "Don't think about it. The Imperial Army has never really gotten them!"
Miyazaki Hiroki guessed right. The Eighth Route Army had indeed tampered with aviation fuel.
This was an order given by Wang Xuexin. He originally wanted to mix water into aviation fuel, but this unprofessional order was quickly refuted by Yu Ping.
"Captain!" Yu Ping replied: "Japanese ground crews are not fools. They can tell at a glance when water is mixed with fuel!"
Wang Xuexin thought it was right, not to mention that the fuel will stratify after being mixed with water...the fuel is on top and the water is on the bottom, that is, when it is poured to the back, it will be full of water. Even ordinary people can see the difference.
Yu Ping suggested: "If we want to add anything to it, I think we should add more oil, but it's just rapeseed oil, which is also light yellow and transparent!"