Liang Jian: Lao Li, I'm really not a military expert

Chapter 492: It’s not easy to take advantage of the Japanese air force. We can’t fight any longer an

At Lin Zhenhua's order, 360 anti-aircraft rockets were fired almost at the same time, flying straight into the sky. When they reached an altitude of about 2200 meters, they exploded like flowers scattered from the sky. A large number of iron pillars scattered in all directions, submerging the Type dive bombers that were diving at low altitude. The engines of eight dive bombers were destroyed, and they fell to the ground with thick black smoke.

The 26 Type dive bombers that Sato Ichiro had high hopes for encountered fierce attacks from anti-aircraft rockets and anti-aircraft artillery of the anti-aircraft forces. Fourteen of them were directly destroyed, which made Sato Ichiro furious.

"Damn it! Immediately order the dive bomber units to retreat and quickly make a strategic shift. If it's any later, the entire army will be wiped out. Order the horizontal bomber units to increase the intensity of the bombing and bomb the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower points. When the bombs are dropped, when will we evacuate?"

Ichiro Sato was not blinded by anger. He quickly changed the combat order and ordered the Takahashi Fighter Squadron to launch a low-altitude dive to attract firepower for the bomber unit.

"Takahashi, clear out the enemy's firepower points. If we want to cause significant damage to the enemy's armored forces, we must first eliminate their anti-aircraft firepower. According to my estimation, the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower is definitely no less than that of a regiment. If we cannot severely damage it, we will miss such a good opportunity."

"According to my estimation, the enemy air force has probably already been dispatched. I have already issued an order to the rear to dispatch another aviation brigade to support us. Today, no matter how much it costs, we must destroy the enemy's armored forces. As long as we can eliminate the main force of the enemy's armored forces, our aviation forces will have made a great contribution!"

Takahashi Ichiro replied excitedly: "General, I will never miss this opportunity to make a contribution, and I will never let the enemy's armored forces escape. Please rest assured about this."

Sato Ichiro immediately sent an urgent telegram to the Taiyuan headquarters, requesting the headquarters to send ground reinforcements to launch an encirclement and suppression operation against the armored regiment. Shinozuka Yoshio, who was waiting for news in the headquarters, saw the telegram sent by Sato Ichiro, but did not directly order nearby troops to reinforce. Instead, he paced back and forth in the command room. Coincidentally, at this time, Yamamoto Ikki came to ask for a meeting, and he immediately agreed.

Yamamoto Ikki came to the command room with a solemn face, bowed and apologized: "General, I failed to complete the task you assigned. This is indeed my dereliction of duty. I have failed your expectations. I feel very ashamed and sorry!"

Yoshio Shinozuka handed the telegram in his hand to Yamamoto Ikki, wanting to hear his opinion. This made Yamamoto Ikki a little flattered. The sneak attack on the 358th Regiment headquarters failed for a very simple reason. It was mainly because Chu Yunfei had been missing for two consecutive days, and the intelligence department had not yet found Chu Yunfei's current whereabouts, which made Yamamoto Ikki's surprise attack fail.

Yoshio Shinozuka knew the whole story well, and in order to protect his beloved general, after all, he had already boasted before, and if he couldn't cover up the lie, it would have a huge impact on Yamamoto Ikki's reputation. The reason why he called Yamamoto Ikki over was to let Yamamoto Ikki make a contribution in this matter.

After reading the contents of the telegram, Yamamoto Ikki was shocked. He looked at the huge map behind the command room and carefully examined it at Shinozuka Yoshio's suggestion. After ten minutes of reading, he replied, "General, on the surface, this does seem to be a good opportunity for us, but I think it is a trap. Our enemies are much more cunning than we imagined. They definitely did not consider the impact that the attack on Shuiquan County would have. Now that they were discovered by us, I suspect this is a conspiracy."

"According to my judgment, our enemy has probably already mobilized fighter planes and ambushed them nearby, waiting for General Sato to fall into their trap. I think we should immediately order General Sato to withdraw from the battlefield. We'd better not send ground troops there. With the strength of the Imperial Army nearby, they can't stop the enemy's armored forces at all. That would be a suicide mission."

"I personally agree with your trench siege plan. This is the most effective method at present. Only by completely encircling the enemy's armored forces can we completely destroy them. There is really no need to care about the Black Stone Forest's armored regiment. The most important thing for us now is to reoccupy Shuiquan County and ensure that we do not lose this defensive fulcrum."

"Jiro Ogawa is a bit too stupid. The general clearly gave the order and asked him to dig trenches, but he didn't take it seriously. This is why Shuiquan County fell into the hands of the enemy. I think the general should punish him severely to avoid the situation of pretending to obey but actually disobeying in the future."

Shinozuka Yoshio walked around the command room twice before issuing an order: "Immediately give an order to Sato Ichiro to return immediately and not fall into the enemy's conspiracy. Order Ogawa Jiro to join the nearby reinforcements to recapture Shuiquan County. As for the enemy forces in Heishilin, there is no need to worry too much. Continue to carry out my previous trench siege operation!"

Time goes back to half an hour ago. The twenty-four Thunderhawk fighters, which arrived nearly forty minutes late, finally arrived over the Black Stone Forest before ten o'clock. According to Lin Zhenhua's deployment, they launched a surprise attack on the Japanese bombers. As soon as the battle started, they shot down 12 Japanese bombers. The result was very significant.

Ichiro Sato, who was bombing the armored regiment with all his might, had no idea that there was an ambush nearby. He was panicked for a moment and immediately called Ichiro Takahashi for rescue.

Ichiro Takahashi, who was diving at low altitude to deal with the anti-aircraft firepower of the armored regiment, suddenly came to his senses. He immediately led his twenty Zero fighters and tried desperately to get rid of the anti-aircraft firepower below. But how could Lin Zhenhua, who was well prepared, let the Japanese fighter unit successfully escape?

"Order all anti-aircraft firepower points to fire hard. Don't worry about the consumption of ammunition. Make sure to hold back the Japanese Zero fighters to create time for our fighter units to destroy the Japanese bombers."

Lin Zhenhua was not idle. He was operating a twin-mounted 20mm machine gun in his hands and firing frantically into the air. There was a pile of shell casings falling below. Three soldiers kept loading shells into the machine gun. The dense and fierce firepower made Takahashi Ichiro's escape attempt a complete joke. Among them, two Zero fighters were shot down by the anti-aircraft firepower of the anti-aircraft battalion.

"General, we have to retreat quickly, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous. Once your plane is shot down, it will deal a huge blow to the morale of our air force. I have just contacted Takahashi Jun, and he will find ways to cover a fighter squadron to protect you from the battlefield successfully. I will take the remaining bomber fleet to help you block the enemy's raid. Please do not hesitate, withdraw from the battlefield immediately, and urge reinforcements to arrive as soon as possible." Ichiro Tsuruta persuaded excitedly.

Sato Ichiro opened his mouth to refute, but his throat seemed to be blocked and he couldn't speak. He immediately issued an order to retreat, and a bomber squadron quickly left the battlefield. Takahashi Ichiro was also completely ruthless this time. After four fighters were shot down, two fighter squadrons successfully escaped and immediately escorted Sato Ichiro away from the battlefield.

"College student, there must be a high-ranking Japanese officer among the Japanese fighter planes that escaped just now. We almost succeeded. The damn Japanese are very cunning. When they saw that the situation was not right, they retreated immediately without any delay. If the Japanese had held on for another quarter of an hour, we could have left behind all the attacking Japanese fighter planes." Li Yunlong said indignantly.

Lin Zhenhua had expected this. He felt it was incredible to achieve such a result. He said with relief, "Old Li, we can't linger in the battle. We must quickly order the logistics transport team to slowly retreat. We can't stay in Black Stone Forest any longer. The Japanese air force support will reach the battlefield in two hours at most. We must move faster and leave this dangerous place as soon as possible."

"We have taken advantage of this time, so we must stop. The Thunder Eagle fighter can only stay in the air for an hour. We have been fighting for 40 minutes. We must evacuate the battlefield in 20 minutes, otherwise we may not be able to return to the base. There is no other way. The main reason is that the combat radius of our Thunder Eagle fighter is relatively short. We can't compete with the enemy's Zero fighter at all. If we continue to fight, the situation may be reversed. We can't make stupid moves in the heat of the moment!"

Zhao Gang also hurried over and said anxiously, "College student, half of our anti-aircraft shells have been used up. If we continue to fight for another half an hour, I'm afraid there will be very few shells left. This air defense battle consumes a lot of ammunition. We must resupply ammunition again tonight, otherwise our air defense forces will face the embarrassing situation of having no ammunition available."

Lin Zhenhua had anticipated this situation. He sent an urgent telegram to Kong Jie, asking him to prepare to transport ammunition tonight for the third replenishment of the armored regiment.

"Lao Zhao, I have already made arrangements for this matter. The third ammunition supply will be carried out tonight. We have been discovered by the Japanese now. I estimate that the Japanese will send an air force to deal with us tomorrow. In the next few days, we must be prepared to hide from place to place!"