After more than three hours of marching, the Eighth Route Army finally arrived at the gates of Yuncheng.
The enemy's defense line is like an egg shell. It looks hard on the outside, but once the shell is broken, it is empty inside.
Actually we can't blame the devils.
One reason is that the Japanese have a very serious mentality of underestimating the enemy. They always think that as long as the Eighth Route Army is blocked at passes such as Longfengping, the Eighth Route Army will not be able to break through its defense lines.
Therefore, after a defense line was deployed outside Luliang Mountain, no east-west defense line could stop the Eighth Route Army's offensive.
Another reason is that the Japanese mobilized most of their troops to the northeast to participate in military exercises, and at the same time confronted the stubborn troops south of Zhongtiao Mountain across the Yellow River, so the troops around Yuncheng were very empty.
Among them, the Japanese organized three blocking attacks.
One was a bombing by a Japanese reconnaissance plane.
Okamura Neiji didn't seem to believe that the Eighth Route Army had established an air defense network, or he hoped to test the Eighth Route Army's air defense strength, so he sent ten 98 light explosions to bomb the tanks...
In fact, this was not Okamura Neji’s original intention.
Okamura Neiji's order was: "I hope to find out the strength of the Eighth Route Army and confirm how many tanks and air defense equipment they have!"
So the Japanese took off six and four reconnaissance planes from Linfen and Zhongtiao Mountain respectively to make up ten joint operations.
There is nothing wrong with Okamura Neiji's idea, it is in line with the art of war of "know yourself and the enemy".
According to Okamura Neiji's orders, these reconnaissance planes should plan safer flight routes, such as avoiding mountainous areas and choosing plains or locations with railway lines... Most of these areas are areas controlled by the Japanese, and it is unlikely to deploy anti-aircraft guns.
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Then, after approaching the enemy tank, the aircraft formation should conduct a tentative attack, such as sending two aircraft to have a look. If the situation is not right, they should immediately raise their altitude to avoid it.
But the captain of the flight squadron, Captain Takami Naozhi, didn’t think so.
Perhaps due to his disdain for the Eighth Route Army, or perhaps out of habit, when Gao Jian Shangzhi discovered dozens of tanks on the ground, he excitedly shouted on the radio: "Did you see it? The tanks of the Eighth Route Army, these are ours
Opportunity! Come on, Takami Squadron!"
When the Japanese pilots heard this, they cheered excitedly, and then the planes dived down one after another aiming at their own targets.
If this were the case before, the Eighth Route Army would really have nothing to do with these reconnaissance planes.
But now... there are forty high-speed aircraft on the ground ready for combat in all directions, waiting for these reconnaissance planes to swoop down.
I didn't expect the Japanese to actually do this, so when the plane dived to a certain height, there was suddenly loud gunfire on the ground, and bullets were flying everywhere in the air.
The soldiers of the Eighth Route Army controlled the high-altitude aircraft and made a "clang" sound, and the steaming bullet casings were thrown out of the gun barrel like strings of popcorn.
Then, two reconnaissance planes were beaten up on the spot, emitting black smoke, lost control, and plunged down, turning into a ball of flame with a "boom".
Soon, another reconnaissance plane was hit on its wing while escaping at a high altitude. It turned several times in the air and then dived hard towards the ground, kicking up a large piece of loess.
Although the plane did not explode, you can imagine that the pilot inside must have been uncomfortable. Even if he survived, he would have become a prisoner of the Eighth Route Army.
When other reconnaissance planes saw that the momentum was not right, they hurriedly dropped a few bombs and hurriedly raised the altitude.
However, due to the influence of the high-speed aircraft and the fact that the tanks were still maneuvering and evading on the plain, none of the five bombs dropped hit.
"What should we do? Captain!" asked a Japanese pilot: "They have powerful anti-aircraft firepower!"
At this time, Gao Jian Shangzhi should choose to retreat, because the situation is obvious. The Eighth Route Army has organized a trap on the ground waiting for them to jump down... Those high-altitude aircraft are almost evenly distributed with the tank troops as the center of the circle, no matter from which angle the Japanese aircraft come
Anyone who dives will face terrifying anti-aircraft firepower.
But Takamaki Naozhi is unwilling to retreat just like that.
Or it can be said that this is the pressure put on him by the so-called "bushido spirit".
Takami Naozhi knew that if he went back like this, what awaited him would be removal from office, punishment or even prosecution.
Takami Naozhi didn't want this to be the result, so he should get some results so that he could have something to explain when he went back.
Thinking of this, Gao Jian Shangzhi gritted his teeth and ordered: "Let's destroy the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower first and attack from the surrounding area!"
"Yes!" The others responded, and then began to look for their own goals.
Gao Shangzhi's tactics are correct. To deal with such ground anti-aircraft machine guns, they should be cleared from the periphery toward the center.
The reason is that the range of anti-aircraft machine guns is limited, only more than a thousand meters.
If the fighter plane clears from the center, it will place itself within the striking range of all anti-aircraft machine guns.
But if we start clearing them from the surrounding area, at least half of the high-altitude aircraft will be out of range, so the fighters can deal with them calmly.
However, being tactically correct does not mean that it is strategically correct.
From a strategic perspective, the Eighth Route Army would certainly prefer reconnaissance opportunities to target anti-aircraft machine guns rather than tanks.
How much is an anti-aircraft machine gun worth?
How much is a tank worth?
How much is a reconnaissance plane worth?
It would make sense for the Japanese to exchange reconnaissance planes for tanks, but to exchange reconnaissance planes for anti-aircraft machine guns... that would be a mistake!
What's more, Mao Xiong's anti-aircraft machine gun is surprisingly safe. If the Japanese reconnaissance plane hadn't dropped a bomb and hit it right in the middle, it might not have been able to blow it up.
Therefore, the Eighth Route Army was also happy to accompany them, and the soldiers even used indigenous methods of air defense, that is, placing Czech machine guns on their shoulders and firing them into the sky.
The bullets coming from the ground were like weaving a net in the air, trapping the swooping aircraft so that they could not escape.
The Japanese were also frightened by this battle. They never knew that the Eighth Route Army could have such firepower. It didn't take long before they lost two more reconnaissance planes. Even Gao Jian Shangzhi's plane was damaged and emitted a little black smoke.
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Helpless, Gao Jian Shangzhi could only order a retreat.
However, it rained all night, and in a hurry, Gao Jian Shangzhi went to the wrong place again... He led the fleet into the sky above Longfengping, where there were two anti-aircraft artillery batteries and seven anti-aircraft guns.
After a burst of noise, three of the remaining five reconnaissance planes were shot down. Among the downed planes was Gao Jian Naozhi... His plane was injured and emitting black smoke, and slowed down at the end of the formation, so he became Gao Jian Naozhi.
The gun is a good target.
The soldiers immediately cheered, and many tank commanders stuck their heads out and waved their hats vigorously.
Li Yunlong, who was riding a horse, caught up and shouted at Wang Xuexin on his shoulder: "Xiao Dongbei, damn, we really shot down a Japanese plane. When will you come up with machine guns and cannons like this that can masturbate planes?"
!These things are powerful enough!”
Wang Xuexin looked helpless. These anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns are not just complete. They are not like rifles. They are all large-caliber and have matching ammunition...