Chapter 43: The War Arrives
January 8, 1976 Premier Zhou Enlai of the State Council of the People's Republic of China passed away due to illness. The whole nation was immersed in grief, and a nationwide memorial service spread across the land. Premier Zhou Enlai won the love and respect of the people with his extraordinary personality and charisma, especially as the Chinese economy gradually improved over the past five years, the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, and the significant changes in rural living conditions. Everyone's admiration for Premier Zhou was even more heartfelt. When they first heard that the Premier had passed away due to illness, almost no one could believe it. The people from the surrounding areas of Beijing spontaneously went to Beijing, wanting to see the Premier for the last time.
Lin Feng in Taiwan heard the news and sighed, some things can't be changed after all. The most respected old man by Chinese people finally fell in front of time, any prosperous person or thing can't resist the change of years. The death of Premier Zhou Enlai caused a great shock around the world, some countries felt sorry for the premier's charisma and some countries were eager to see something bad happen in China.
In the Prime Minister's office in Tokyo, Japan, two elderly men with gloomy faces sat facing each other. One of them, with a hoarse voice, said: "Prime Minister, this time we've stirred up enough trouble for those Chinese people. According to reliable intelligence, the health conditions of the Chinese leaders are not good, and it's estimated that there will be more unrest later this year. We should try to drag out the war until the second half of the year before starting to fight. Who knows what unexpected things might happen?"
Prime Minister Tanaka nodded slightly: "Yes, yes, you're right. The body of Mao Zedong in China is not good either. If something unexpected happens to him, the situation will be greatly beneficial to us. At that time, we'll take advantage of it and seize Okinawa with one move. They'll be entangled in domestic events, and by the time China reacts after extricating itself from its internal affairs, Okinawa will already be in our grasp." After finishing speaking, Prime Minister Tanaka's eyes shone brightly.
The fact also developed almost in line with some people's expectations, Jilin area dropped a world rare meteor shower, Lin Feng received the news after immediately went to the scene - Jilin City and Yongji County and Longjing City near the suburbs of 500 square kilometers of plain region, on March 8, 1976 at 15:00, with a deafening roar, unprecedented meteor shower fell in Jilin, Jilin meteor shower thus became a spectacle.
Lin Feng was so concerned about this meteor shower because the meteorites were called "cosmic envoys, guests from outside the sky". Many pieces of information about the universe can be collected from these fallen meteorites. However, sometimes due to technical limitations, humans cannot correctly identify the things in front of them. But Lin Feng had technology that was ahead of the world by several centuries, and he hoped to find information about cosmic celestial bodies from these meteorites. In the end, Lin Feng took away a piece of meteorite weighing about 200 kg from Jilin.
July 2, North and South Vietnam were unified, Vietnam became a communist country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was established. Although North Vietnam lost China's support, it had the Soviet Union as its backing, which was stronger than China, so after several years of hard struggle, North Vietnam finally defeated the South Vietnamese army and occupied the whole of Vietnam. This was not good news for China, Lin Feng knew that China and Vietnam later fought a local war lasting about ten years due to border issues.
July 27, before the Tangshan earthquake, Tangshan City received an urgent notice from the central government and began a large-scale evacuation. The equipment of the factory had been moved to a safe area in advance. The Beijing Military Region dispatched 200,000 troops to help the local government maintain order and evacuate the masses. At 3:42 on July 28 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred in Tangshan, Hebei Province, China. The epicenter was located in Yuhe Township, Kaiping District, Tangshan City, at a latitude of 39.6 degrees north and a longitude of 118.2 degrees east. The intensity at the epicenter was 11 degrees, and the focal depth was 12 kilometers. Just nearly two months after the Tangshan earthquake, Mao Zedong, the great leader of the Chinese people and the main founder of the People's Republic of China, passed away in Beijing at the age of 83.
This year is a difficult year for the Chinese nation. First, the national leaders passed away collectively, followed by natural disasters such as earthquakes, and finally, Japan was lurking nearby. On October 1, 1976, the United States and Japan signed a treaty on the status of Ryukyu in New York. Despite China's strong protests, the United States still entrusted Ryukyu to Japan, and then the Japanese Self-Defense Forces sent warships and soldiers to patrol and demonstrate in the waters around Ryukyu.
After consultations between the mainland and Taiwan, it was finally decided that this war would be dominated by the Taiwanese side. The Taiwanese Navy took charge of the main force attacking the Japanese army, while the mainland navy was responsible for coastal patrols and defending against some stray fish attacking coastal cities. At the same time, the mainland army and the Taiwanese army formed a joint landing force to prepare for the recovery of Ryukyu.
Both sides formed a joint command, with General Chen Mingren as the commander-in-chief of the allied forces, and Vice-Admirals Zhang Yuanpei and Lin Feng as deputy commanders. The chief of staff was Admiral Xie Zhenghao, chief of staff of the East Sea Fleet. The main force of the participating troops was the Taiwan Navy's aircraft carrier fleet. According to the preconceived plan, the entire battle plan was divided into three stages: the first stage aimed to completely destroy Japan's sea power, the second stage involved the army launching a landing operation to recover the Ryukyu Islands, and the final stage would involve aerial bombing of mainland Japan depending on the situation.
With the current strength of the Republic, it is not yet capable of landing on the Japanese mainland. If forced to land in Japan, China's hard-won vitality will be completely lost. Currently, Taiwan has only about 150 aircraft, and after deducting those needed for homeland defense, there are about 100 aircraft that can be used for frontline combat. Among them, 84 "Haidongqing" fourth-generation aircraft can carry out operations on an aircraft carrier. These aircraft will face more than 300 Japanese aircraft, with the Chinese air force at a significant disadvantage in terms of numbers. The only advantage is that China's technical equipment is fully ahead of Japan.
On October 2, 1976, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement: In order to safeguard China's territorial integrity, the navy will rush to the Ryukyu sea area today. At the same time, China will formally recover its sovereignty over the Ryukyu Islands. All non-Chinese military forces in the Ryukyu Islands must withdraw before October 3, 1976. Otherwise, China has the right to strike against all military forces that occupy Chinese territorial waters and territory.
After receiving a warning from the Chinese government, the US Seventh Fleet handed over all military facilities and weapons in Ryukyu to the Japanese military, then withdrew all military personnel to the Guam base. Japan immediately dispatched 50,000 troops to take full control of Ryukyu's defense, and the Combined Fleet also sent the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Escort Fleets to Naha Military Port. In response to Japan's armed invasion, China quickly reacted.
On October 3rd at 9:00 am, the Chinese aircraft carrier fleet set sail from Keelung Military Port and headed towards Ryukyu. At 9:21 am, after passing through the waters near Diaoyu Island, the aircraft carrier formation continued to head east. In the command center of the Confucius aircraft carrier, Fleet Commander Wu Shiwen was closely watching the display screen while listening to a briefing from his combat staff on the latest movements of the Japanese military detected by satellite. At this moment, a staff officer rushed in and reported, "Sir, about 80 Japanese planes are approaching our formation!" Wu Shiwen furrowed his brow, somewhat perplexed by the Japanese move, unable to discern their intentions.
Wu Shiwen carefully considered and said to the staff around him: "Order the first aviation squadron to take off and intercept, trying to annihilate this batch of Japanese troops." With a command from the command center, 21 "Flying Sharks" took off one after another under the leadership of an early warning aircraft, formed a formation in the air above the aircraft carrier, and headed towards the combat area. At 9:30, the forward early warning aircraft discovered the Japanese aircraft cluster and roughly determined its position and distance. Subsequently, the Chinese Air Force followed the guidance of the early warning aircraft to intercept.
Ten minutes later, the airborne radar of the early warning aircraft No. 01 relied on its strong search and reconnaissance capabilities to detect the Japanese army ahead of time. The commander Li Fei on the early warning aircraft immediately issued a combat order: "All squadrons pay attention, enemy planes have entered our military's attack range, ordering each squadron to freely attack and strive to annihilate this group of enemy troops."
"Ready to launch long-range air-to-air missile" 21 "Hai Dong Qing" under the guidance of the early warning aircraft identification system, looking for their own attack targets. The first batch of 42 "Flash" long-range air-to-air missiles have all locked onto Japanese military aircraft. "Launch air-to-air missile" "Whoosh" 42 missiles flew towards the Japanese aircraft formation simultaneously. The commander of the Japanese vanguard, Sasaki Masashi, was fantasizing about shooting down Chinese Air Force planes with a smug look on his face, when suddenly the onboard radar "beeped" out an alarm warning that he had been attacked, instantly shattering Sasaki's beautiful dream.
"Huh? What?" Sasagawa looked at the radar screen as the bright spots continued to approach, "This is not good, it's a Chinese missile, all squadrons be aware of incoming missile attack" The Japanese planes received the command and quickly released chaff and made emergency evasive maneuvers. Intelligence gathered by Japan before the war through various channels showed that Taiwan had already mastered advanced missile technology, but they estimated that China's missile technology was definitely inferior to that of the US, so Sasagawa did not expect the Chinese air force to launch a missile attack at a distance of over 200 kilometers, which was already the limit of Japan's airborne radar search range.
The Japanese aircraft formation was soon attacked by Chinese air-to-air missiles. The Japanese pilots found that all previous interference methods were useless in the face of Chinese missiles. A burst of explosions came, and more than 40 missiles accurately hit their targets. Japan's leading aircraft formation suddenly lost half of its planes. Sasaki hastily reported to headquarters: "Our side has been attacked by missiles and has already lost a large part of our air force, requesting return."
After receiving the report from the front line, Tokyo Headquarters considered it repeatedly and decided that the purpose of sending vanguard troops to probe China's military strength had been achieved. It then ordered all units under Sasaki to withdraw from the war zone. "Each unit should find its own way to retreat to Naha Military Port." After receiving the instructions from the headquarters, Sasaki immediately issued a withdrawal order.
"Report to the superior officer, the Japanese army is fleeing eastward." Li Fei, who was commanding the warning aircraft, immediately transmitted the latest dynamics of the Japanese army to the command post of the formation in the rear. Wu Shiwen received the intelligence from the front line and cautiously ordered the air force to return to the aircraft carrier after confirming that the Japanese had retreated. After all, this was the first real battle for the Chinese naval aviation, and being cautious would not be wrong. In the first clash between China and Japan, China achieved a perfect victory with zero casualties and destroyed 40 Japanese planes. Lin Feng received the good news from the front line and felt very happy. This small-scale air battle also greatly boosted the confidence of the Taiwanese air force in defeating Japan.
