Just after the Lantern Festival, Zhou Hexuan set off for Wuhan, accompanied by Vivien Leigh, Meng Xiaodong, Zhou Xuan and Yu Peichen, as well as several of Zhou Hexuan's bodyguards.
Meng Xiaodong and Zhou Xuan will stay in Wuhan to perform condolences for the soldiers who are about to go to the front line. Zhou Hexuan will take Vivien Leigh and Yu Peichen to take the Guangdong-Hankou Railway to Guangzhou to go to sea.
On the deck, Zhou Hexuan looked at the river with his hands behind his hands.
Although it was wartime, the waterways in the three towns of Wuhan were obviously much more prosperous, because manpower and materials from all over the country were converging here.
The sound of airplanes suddenly came from the distant sky, and a large group of Japanese planes were seen buzzing towards Hankou like a swarm of flies. It was 12 bombers, covered by 26 destroyers, attacking Wuhan.
Three Chinese flying teams stationed in Hankou and Xiaogan attacked with 29 Soviet-aided fighter planes. As soon as the two sides engaged in battle, another 10 Chinese Soviet fighter planes took off, preparing to block the enemy planes' retreat.
The common people in the city, as well as the passengers on the ship, came out to watch the battle, stretching their necks and looking up to the sky.
"good!"
"Well done!"
"China will win!"
"..."
People danced and cheered, but it was Dong Mingde, Yang Hufan, Liu Zhesheng and Liu Zongwu of the 21st Squadron who worked together and shot down a Japanese fighter jet, making a good start.
At the same time, 11 fighter planes of the 22nd Squadron met 11 enemy fighter planes. The two sides soon fell into a single-plane melee situation, and they coincidentally fought one-on-one. Squadron leader Liu Zhihan took the lead in shooting down an enemy plane, and other teammates also
Four Japanese planes were shot down one after another, and the people watching on the ground were so excited that they shouted wildly.
"Oh my God, go and save people!"
"Steady, steady, don't fall!"
"..."
When the Japanese plane was shot down, the Chinese plane was also attacked. Five people, including captain Li Guidan, squadron leader Lu Jichun, and pilots Ba Qingzheng, Wang Yi, and Li Pengxiang, died. However, they performed brilliantly in the air and shot down Japanese fighter jets.
10 aircraft, 2 bombers.
Seeing that the situation was not going well, the other Japanese planes immediately fled frantically. The bombers even dropped their bombs randomly to reduce their weight and escape.
The main force in this air battle was the Fourth Group of the Chinese Air Force, which was founded in October 1936. The backbone was Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Air Force. They had their first confrontation with Japanese aircraft in Hangzhou last year and won an impressive record of 6-0 in one fell swoop.
, and then shot down dozens of Japanese aircraft in succession. Unfortunately, the group leader Gao Zhihang later died heroically.
Li Guidan, who died in this battle, was the second captain after Gao Zhihang. He and Gao Zhihang were both from the Northeast.
Gao Zhihang used to be Feng Yong's subordinate. When Feng Yong was the commander of the Northeast Air Force, Gao Zhihang served as the pilot of the Northeast Air Force's Flying Eagle. There are five brigades of the Northeast Air Force, and the Flying Eagle is one of them. Many of them became members of the Anti-Japanese War.
The backbone of the early Chinese Air Force.
So Feng Yong is very anxious. His former subordinates fought fiercely in the sky and were known as the "God of War in the Air Force", but he can only watch in the United States. If he can no longer bring the plane back to China, Feng Yong will only bring the flight students back to the country to participate in the war.
.
In fact, the Chinese Air Force in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War was not technically weaker than the Japanese Air Force. The aircraft assisted by the Soviet Union also made up for the Chinese Air Force's equipment disadvantages and often fought brilliantly.
Unfortunately, China has too few aircraft and too few pilots. If one is lost, one will be lost, and if one is lost, one will be lost.
Today's air battle in Wuhan would not have been possible if it had not been for the Soviet-aided aircraft, because China had very few aircraft left. During the Battle of Songhu, more than 300 Chinese aircraft fought against more than 800 Japanese aircraft, and the battle was fierce.
It was extremely tragic, and there were countless heroic stories that made people laugh and cry.
Yan Haiwen, a native of Liaoning. On his way back from bombing the Hongkou Naval Headquarters in Japan, he was hit by Japanese anti-aircraft artillery. While parachuting, he was blown down to the enemy position and was immediately surrounded by dozens of Japanese soldiers. Yan Haiwen took out two guns and
He killed 5 Japanese soldiers and wounded several others. He kept the last bullet for himself and shouted "China has no captured air force" and died heroically for the country. He was only 21 years old.
Shen Chongjie, a native of Hubei, and Chen Xichun, a native of Hunan. When they were performing a bombing mission, the plane temporarily malfunctioned and smoke came out of the tail. According to regulations, they should parachute to save their lives. But they knew that there were not many planes in China and they could not abandon the plane in vain, so they flew the faulty plane.
Staggeringly collided with the Japanese battleship Izumo and died heroically. At that time, Shen Chonghao was 27 years old and Chen Xichun was 22 years old.
Le Yiqin, a native of Sichuan, shot down 7 enemy planes in two months. When the Japanese army attacked Nanjing, there were not many Chinese aircraft left. Le Yiqin resolutely took off alone to fight, but was outnumbered and died outside Nanjing at the age of only 10 years old.
Liu Cuigang, a native of Liaoning, shot down 11 enemy planes in two months. Because the plane ran out of gasoline, he fired the last flare to guide his wingman to land. In order to save the plane, he was unwilling to parachute, so he searched for a suitable place to land. Unfortunately, he hit a building and died.
Only 24 years old.
There are also Gao Zhihang and Li Guidan whom we mentioned earlier, who jointly composed an aerial war song for China.
Unfortunately, China has too few planes, and the number of planes is getting smaller and smaller, causing pilots to sacrifice themselves in order to keep the planes. If the Soviet Union had not brought planes to assist at the critical moment, there would be no planes to fly to Wuhan at this time.
…
On the ship, people were still cheering for the victory just now.
Zhou Xuan chattered while Meng Xiaodong was talking, pointing at the Chinese plane that was landing, her face flushed and she kept laughing.
"The Air Force athletes have really boosted the morale of our people!" Yu Peichen was also inexplicably excited. He clenched his fists tightly and wished he could run to the airport immediately to express condolences to the heroes.
Zhou Hexuan could only smile bitterly. Wuhan was able to conduct air combat because Chiang Kai-shek's Military Commission was located here. Other places could only be ravaged by Japanese aircraft.
What Zhou Hexuan didn't expect was that because he funded the construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge to completely connect the Pinghan-Han Line and the Guangdong-Han Line, it was equivalent to performing a heart bypass surgery on China's transportation industry. Japan's bombing of Wuhan would become more frequent.
The key point is the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge. As long as the bridge is blown up, the efficiency of China's military and material transportation will be greatly reduced.
Chang Kaishen also regarded Wuhan's air defense as a top priority and mobilized all of China's most elite flying squadrons to garrison around the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge.
In the next two months alone, China and Japan will engage in seven air battles over three towns in Wuhan. These are all the effects of Zhou Hexuan. Without his money to repair the bridge, the Japanese invaders would not have stared at them.
Wuhan will not let go.
"Boom boom boom!"
"Boom boom boom!"
"Boom boom boom!"
From Chongqing to Wuhan, and then from Wuhan to Guangzhou, Zhou Hexuan encountered four bombings along the way.
The most dangerous one was on the railway. A bomb hit the track in front, and then Japanese planes bombed the train indiscriminately. Zhou Hexuan was stabbed by a piece of flying glass, and blood surged from his forehead. Yu Peichen and Vivien Leigh also suffered injuries.
Various degrees of minor injuries, caused by the train rolling over.
Before the fall of Guangzhou, the Japanese conducted bombings here for 14 months, with the Guangdong-Hankou Railway being the primary bombing target.
As a last resort, Zhou Hexuan had no choice but to get off the train and walk for two days and nights before he got a truck in Lian County (later Qingyuan City) and arrived at the main city of Guangzhou without any danger.