Chapter 48: Hawk

  At 10:40 on the 17th, the armored vehicle squadron of the 1st Cavalry Brigade surpassed the 13th Cavalry Regiment. The regimental commander of the 13th Cavalry Regiment, Xiao Yuan Yiming, happily waved to the armored vehicle squadron. Twelve Type 92 armored vehicles, three in a row, trampled over the dead and wounded horses and men on both sides of the battlefield, advancing towards the 1st Cavalry Army. Occasionally, they startled a flock of birds into a miserable cry and scream. Zhao Chengzhu and Sun Changsheng, commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division, who had just arrived, exchanged a glance, "Fight to the death!"

  Type 92 Cavalry Armoured Car, equipped with Japanese cavalry units from 1932, speed 40 km/h, armed with 1 x 13.2mm heavy machine gun and 1 x light machine gun, armour thickness 6 mm, crew of 3.

  As the armored vehicles approached, a large group of cavalrymen turned around and retreated; the armored vehicle team drove out of the narrow pass, gradually dispersed and slowed down, waiting for their own cavalry to overtake. Suddenly, hundreds of cavalrymen turned back and charged towards the armored vehicles, and the Japanese light and heavy machine guns opened fire together, sweeping away the cavalrymen and horses with flames; seeing that most of them continued to retreat, the Japanese armored vehicles accelerated the pursuit without waiting for their own cavalry to catch up; again, dozens of cavalrymen turned back and charged towards the Japanese, and were swept away by the armored vehicles along with their horses; the large group of cavalrymen in front ran even faster, and the Japanese armored vehicles pursued at full speed. Suddenly, a loud explosion occurred among the armored vehicle group; in an instant, many cavalrymen who had fallen on the road in front of the advancing armored vehicles stood up again, holding explosive packages and charging towards the nearest armored vehicle, and then, amidst continuous explosions, the cavalrymen and the armored vehicles were blown to pieces together; at this time, a large group of cavalrymen turned around and charged towards the armored vehicle group, and the remaining Japanese machine guns continued to fire, knocking down the charging cavalrymen one after another, and in the midst of the neighing horses, heavy hand grenades flew towards the armored vehicles, and amidst the explosions, the Japanese armored vehicle team was completely annihilated.

  Just as the Japanese armored vehicle was being destroyed, the 13th Cavalry Regiment was rapidly approaching from behind; The commander of the Jin-Sui Army cavalry regiment shouted at the machine gun company following closely behind and led the cavalry regiment to charge through the smoke towards the enemy cavalry. After a burst of gunfire, both sides collided, swords clashed, and both sides fought desperately. Dozens of remaining Japanese soldiers were knocked down by the swarming cavalry, and the Japanese cavalry regiment was crowded together, bravely advancing forward, trying to rescue the armored vehicle squadron just tens of meters ahead. At this time, the machine gun company that had been set up between the smoking armored vehicles opened fire, and a dense barrage of bullets swept through the densely packed Japanese cavalry. The front row of cavalry and war horses were knocked down by the continuous firing of heavy machine guns, while the following cavalry was crowded together with the commander of the Xiaoyuan regiment, who was squeezed out of the narrow pass; After finally squeezing out, Xiaoyuan saw that the elite cavalry was being slaughtered helplessly by enemy machine guns, and he was shocked and lost color. Before he could react, he was hit in the head by a bullet and fell off his horse, trampled to death by horses on both sides. As more and more heavy machine guns joined the battle, the Japanese troops who poured out of the narrow pass were shot into sieves by the dense machine gun fire; When the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, Kataoka Shigeo, finally stopped the cavalry's suicidal advance, most of the 13th Cavalry Regiment had ceased to exist.

  "What luck!" Zhao Chengyu said.

  "It was all thanks to the bravery of our soldiers that half a battalion (the Shanxi-Suiyuan Cavalry Regiment had 4 companies) sacrificed themselves in exchange for an armored squadron; one company went to their deaths to create excellent shooting opportunities for the machine gun company." Sun Changsheng sighed.

  At 11:25, Shanghai was under air raid alert. Under the cover of a large number of 96-type warships, a fleet of Japanese naval bombers flew over Shanghai and circled in the high altitude before hundreds of 25-50 kg bombs fell from the sky. The Chinese Air Force made its first absence; the 88 anti-aircraft guns also remained silent for the first time. In the face of the northwest urban area of Shanghai turning into a sea of fire, Chen Cheng and Luo Zhuoying were speechless in the command center.

  A short while later, the Japanese aircraft carrier-based bombers returned, Chen Cheng patted the dust off his shoulder and smiled, saying: "Don't be so down in the dumps, just a few dozen small planes, what can they do to us? I still hope you can help me win another great victory!"

  "General! (Chen Cheng had been the commander of the 18th Army for a long time, and Luo Zhuoying took over later) Wen Bai's victories were only against 7,000 marines and some small warships, with Zi An's help, relying on surprise attacks to achieve those results; now they've played all their cards, half of our air force and heavy artillery have been destroyed, and three German-equipped divisions have been withdrawn for reorganization. What's left for us is to deal with those large warships and at least ten times as many Japanese troops; General, do you still think we can achieve a great victory? I think it would be lucky if we don't suffer a disastrous defeat!"

  "Don't be so pessimistic! Wen Bai and Zi An have left us with a few trump cards; I think the Japanese army will suffer heavy losses at the beginning of their landing! Don't you believe me? Are you daring to bet with me?"

  "Hahaha!"

  Air raid warning sounded again, "What's wrong?"

  "Report to the Commander-in-Chief! The air defense command post reports that in the southeast direction, at high altitude, an enemy medium bomber formation of over 30 aircraft is flying towards the city at a speed of 250 km/h and has already reached the airspace above Pudong."

  "Land-based bombers from Taiwan?" Chen Cheng and Luo Zhuoying looked westward simultaneously, "I don't know if Bai Fu will come?"

  At the same time, Zhou Zhirou and Mao Bangchu were also debating in the Nanjing Air Force Command Center "to fight or not to fight?", the special line phone from the official residence helped them solve the problem.

  "Hundred fortunes, all-out mobilization for battle!"

  "Yes!" Zhou Zhi Rou stood at attention and obeyed the order without hesitation. In a short while, more than 40 fighter planes of the Chinese Air Force that were left around Songhu took off to respond to the battle.

  But in the conference room of the official residence, I and Zhang Zhizhong, Lin Wei and others were all disappointed. Looking at Old Chiang's furious departure due to our provocation, I let out a deep sigh and sat down in my original seat, "It's over!"

  As expected, when the three Hawk and Boeing approached the 96th attack that had already arrived in the Shanghai urban area, a large group of 96 aircraft dived down from above! (The 96-type carrier-based fighter has a range of up to 1,200 kilometers)

  The Chinese Air Force immediately fell into chaos, with the three squadrons in the northwest continuing to dive-bomb the enemy bomber formation, while the five squadrons in the southwest attempted to climb and turn left and right. The four squadrons in the south engaged in a head-on battle with the enemy fighter planes. Hundreds of tracers burst forth from both sides' warplanes, with countless bullets shooting towards each other's aircraft.

  The four Hawk planes led by Hawk first engaged the enemy, and the speed advantage of the 96 fighter was fully utilized in the dive. Bullets flew towards Hawk like rain, while the skilled Four Big Team fighters struggled to utilize Hawk's maneuverability to dodge the shots; bullets from both sides flew horizontally through the air, with a string of bullet holes appearing on both planes, followed by smoke, fire, and crashes. After passing each other, the remaining five Hawks did not turn back but instead charged towards the enemy bomber formation. The 96 fighter on the outside hastily turned around but was too late; Hawk took advantage of its slight altitude advantage to charge recklessly towards the densely formed 96 middle attack, ignoring dozens of machine guns firing at it, using its last bullets and crashing into the enemy plane along with its own life. Two loud explosions were heard as two Hawks and a 96 middle attack were destroyed together. Although the other three Hawks were shot down, they also managed to hit several bombers, which were left with bullet holes and white smoke, causing their formation to disperse.

  The three squadrons of Hawks and Boeings charged into the scattered 96th Bomb Group, dozens of vengeful fire snakes spewing towards the confused bombers; with a loud crash, one bomber loaded with bombs exploded in mid-air; another bomber exploded with a deafening roar. The 96th Fighter Squadron facing this chaotic situation was at a loss, several planes dived down to engage in combat, while the rest circled high above, unwilling to enter the crossfire of both sides. Most of the 96th Bomb Group finally panicked, hastily dropping their bombs, strings of 50 and 100 kg bombs were thrown into the New City area, the Japanese Concession, and the Huangpu River, some even fell into the International Settlement. The empty 96th Bomb Group quickly climbed up, trying to reorganize; but the three squadrons of fighters closely followed, continuously firing at the climbing bombers. As one bomber after another had its tail and wings damaged, the situation became increasingly chaotic.

  At this time, nearly 20 Hawks and 96 fighters from the upper air domain encountered each other at a horizontal position, neither side wanting to retreat. Charging forward with a relative speed of 800 km/h, they faced each other head-on, resulting in hundreds of bullets hitting their targets, causing many planes to catch fire and smoke. Two planes even collided and became a ball of flames, while another two planes crashed down together after colliding and rolling over. The Fifth Squadron did not turn back to fight again but instead dove directly into the climbing bomber group, shooting and killing the disorganized bombers from top to bottom along with the Third Squadron. The 96 fighters finally came to their senses and rushed to pursue and kill the Hawks and Boeings, both sides constantly rolling over and firing at each other until they ran out of ammunition.

  At 1:00 pm, I entered the Chairman's bedroom. Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling sat opposite each other, silently listening to my report on the latest air force battle achievements. "As of 12:30, this campaign has confirmed that 17 enemy Type 96 fighter planes and 14 Type 96 bombers were shot down. Our military had 23 Hawks and 4 Boeings that failed to return, with another 10 Hawks and 3 Boeings in need of repair; 13 people from the 4th Squadron led by Gao Zhihang were killed, 2 missing, and 11 wounded from the 5th Squadron led by Ding Jixu."

  After a long while, Old Chiang stood up, "How many fighter planes are still usable?"

  "By tomorrow morning, it is estimated that there will be about 10-12 Hawkers and 5 Boeings available."

  "What's the bad news?"

  "No bad news, brother-in-law. On the Chahar front, General Fu's cavalry began operations this morning, occupying Shangdu, Xinming and Shangyi in one line within Chahar, annihilating over a thousand enemy troops including the commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade and several thousand puppet soldiers; it is estimated that the main battle will take place tomorrow morning."

  "How about Pingjin?"

  "As our army launched an offensive in the Chahar and Suiyuan regions, the Tianjin Japanese army began to launch large-scale artillery attacks on the 29th Army and strengthened its bombing, but due to insufficient troops, it has not yet launched a large-scale ground attack." To ease the gloomy atmosphere, "Song Mingxuan started singing a high-pitched tune."

  "Uh-huh."

  Old Jiang silently walked out, leaving me and Third Sister staring at each other in dismay.