Black Flag Army

Chapter 125: Fierce Air Battle

Ping Zuyi, the captain of the first fighter squadron, was called to the Aviation Command, where Commander Gu Yuan summoned him.

Ping Zuyi is 23 years old this year. He was one of the first batch of pilots to join the Black Flag Air Force when the Black Hawk Squadron was first established. Gu Yuan is his master who taught him step by step. Ping Zuyi's father was once the mayor of Daranza City. He was killed by Japanese planes when they attacked Daranza. Ping Zuyi has two younger brothers, Ping Zudao and Ping Zude, who are also air force pilots now. He also has an older brother, Ping Zuren, who joined the Southern White Star Party after returning from studying abroad.

Gu Yuan is thirty years old this year. He is tall, has a square face, sword-like eyebrows and tiger-like eyes. He is intimidating without even getting angry. After Ping Zuyi saluted him, he returned the salute and asked with a smile: "Did you meet Chi Baimei just now?"

Ping Zuyi said: "Yes, she accepted the love letter and flowers I sent her, wishing us a great victory in this battle!"

Gu Yuan asked: "You really don't care about her past?"

Ping Zuyi said sternly: "I only care about her as a person. How can I blame her for the humiliation imposed on her by those beasts in the past? Since ancient times, beautiful women have had short lives. I hope that after she follows me, her fate will change from now on."

Chi Baimei, a teacher at Zhengqing Primary School, was very beautiful and attracted many suitors. Ping Zuyi finally succeeded in his pursuit and won her heart. Before Chi Baimei came to Beitang City, she was abducted as a concubine by several warlords in Shaanxi and Henan. After this unfortunate life experience, other men pursued her just to possess her body, have fun with her and then abandon her. Only Ping Zuyi really wanted to marry her, and since he was a handsome air force officer, he naturally succeeded.

Gu Yuan said: "At present, more than 40 Japanese fighter planes are fighting fiercely with one of our fighter squadrons in Bulgan. Chief of General Staff Jiang believes that the Japanese will make a feint to the east and attack the west, and mobilize other planes to bypass Darhan County in the north and attack Beitang City. You are now taking the first squadron to Darhan County to ambush this possible Japanese fighter plane."

Ping Zuyi didn't say anything. He obeyed the order, saluted and left.

When Di Xiong was fully focused on dealing with the war, he encountered a troublesome incident. The Director of the Supervision Department Su Jinxu reported to him that the Chief of the Counterintelligence Section Gu Xingzhi had arrested the two intelligence dealers, Sean and Baker.

Di Xiong was horrified upon hearing this and said anxiously, "Who asked her to arrest them? Isn't this destroying the Great Wall? Although these two guys are greedy for money and lustful, they have recruited a lot of talents from all over the world for us, and also obtained a lot of the latest technologies for manufacturing aircraft and guns. If these two people are arrested, all channels will be cut off. What right does she have to arrest them?"

Su Jinxu said, "She said someone told her that they saw Sean and Baker drinking with a Japanese businessman in Tianjin. The Japanese businessman was a small leader of the Tianjin Black Dragon Society. She suspected that the two had defected to the Japanese and became Japanese informants, so she arrested them. I said I would ask for your consent before arresting them, but she said what if they ran away? So she arrested them first."

Di Xiong said, "This is simply nonsense! They are information dealers, and it is normal for them to deal with all kinds of people outside. What's the big deal about drinking with a small leader of the Black Dragon Society? Cha Jingfeng not only eats with the Black Dragon leader every day, but also sleeps with him. According to what she said, I should have Cha Jingfeng shot. You are the director of the Supervision Department, and she is just a section chief under you. How can she not listen to you and act arbitrarily?"

Su Jinxu lowered his head and said, "She is a very fierce person in quarrels. She is also very talkative. She can turn white into black and unreasonable into reasonable. I have quarreled with her before over some disagreements, but I found that I could not win the argument no matter whether I was reasonable or not. After she won the argument, she wanted to drag me to Lan Juzi to judge the matter. I was worried that Lan Juzi would believe her specious arguments, so I had to succumb to her. I am actually not worthy of being the director. Please find someone else."

Di Xiong sighed and said, "This female star Lai Junchen is indeed worthy of her reputation!"

Su Jinxu said: "When she was in the Supervision Department, she was only afraid of Director Leng. I have betrayed the trust of the great man and disappointed you."

After Leng Hanbing was transferred from the position of Director of the Supervision Department, the consequences of her departure have become apparent. Although Di Xiong refused to let Gu Xingzhi be the director as Lan Jinping wished, and did not even let her be the deputy director, Gu Xingzhi relied on her special friendship with Lan Jinping and was very powerful in the Supervision Department. She looked down on Su Jinxu, who had a somewhat weak character, and often exceeded her authority to do things that she thought were right.

Di Xiong asked, "She hasn't tortured them yet, has she?"

Su Jinxu said, "I have already told the interrogation section chief, Su Dajing, not to torture these two people without my order. Su Dajing is my cousin, and he will definitely listen to me in this regard."

Di Xiong said, "Come with me to the prison to apologize to Sean and Baker."

When the two quickly rushed to the prison and saw Sean and Baker, they saw that the two guys indeed had no scars on their faces or bodies, but their faces were pale and they were obviously frightened.

Di Xiong said, "I apologize to you on behalf of the Justice Party! You also know the Director of the Supervisory Office, Su Jinxu. He apologizes to you on behalf of the Supervisory Office. We will release you immediately and compensate you with a sum of money. Section Chief Gu who mistakenly arrested you will definitely be punished."

The German Beck said quickly: "It doesn't matter. Since it's a misunderstanding, just explain it clearly. You are the supreme leader of Mengxi. How can I ask you to apologize in person?"

When Sean heard about the compensation, his eyes lit up and he asked, "How much is the compensation?"

Di Xiong said: "Five hundred yuan!"

When Sean heard this, he immediately grinned and said, "You are the most generous chairman I have ever met!"

At this time, over the Orkhon River in Bulgan County, the air was filled with smoke. A fierce air battle had just ended. The Japanese Air Force, which had dispatched 42 fighters, did not win. Commander Matsushima Higashihito saw that 29 fighters had been lost, more than half, so he ordered a retreat. The Second Battalion of the Black Flag Army also suffered heavy losses. Only 10 of the 36 planes were left. Fortunately, the battlefield was their own territory. Thirteen pilots on the crashed plane parachuted and fell into trees or rivers and were rescued by the Black Flag Army ground personnel. Another more tragic air battle unfolded over Darkhan County.

Ping Zuyi, flying a fighter jet, led 36 planes of the First Squadron and parked at the simple airfield outside Darkhan County. The ground personnel were busy filling the planes with gasoline and checking various equipment, while the pilots took the time to drink water and eat dry food.

Ping Zuyi's third brother, Ping Zudao, was eating canned beef. He walked up to Ping Zuyi and said, "Brother! Why does the Chief of General Staff think that the enemy plane will come from Darkhan? If it flies from other directions, won't we have waited in vain?"

Ping Zuyi said: "Because the straight-line distance from Darkhan to Beitang City is the shortest, the shortest distance can save time, and saving time can minimize being discovered too early. The chief of staff's judgment is reasonable. If I were the Japanese commander, I would also choose this route to attack."

As soon as he finished speaking, the air defense alarm sounded. Ping Zuyi shouted, "Ground personnel leave immediately, pilots enter the cockpit immediately and prepare to take off to fight the enemy aircraft."

In less than ten minutes, Japanese planes came flying over in a black mass. Ping Zuyi ordered his pilots to take off, soar to an altitude of 5,000 meters, and then dive down to attack. One plane flew a little slower and was hit by several Japanese machine guns after being left alone. With a "bang", it was blown to pieces in mid-air. Behind the planes of the first squadron was the light of the setting sun. The Japanese pilots were blinded by the light and could not see the targets clearly, but the pilots of the first squadron could see them clearly. The machine guns fired continuously, and several Japanese planes were shot down in an instant. Seeing that the situation was not good, the Japanese commander Honjo Feng immediately ordered his men to soar upwards to avoid the setting sun. Yang Qiangguang, the first squadron of planes followed, and the two sides started another melee at an altitude of 6,000 meters. Ping Zudao found that Benzhuang Feng's plane was the commander's plane, so he rushed over and fired a string of machine gun shells. The four planes guarding Benzhuang Feng aimed at Ping Zudao and fired at the same time. Ping Zuyi saw that his third brother's plane was hit and exploded on the spot, and he couldn't help crying. After he shot down two Japanese planes, he found that the enemy's command plane did not fall to the ground after being injured, but staggered and fled to the rear. He hurriedly chased it and added a few shells, completely destroying the plane. His own plane was also hit and caught fire, so he had to parachute. An hour later, the air battle ended, and all 40 Japanese planes were shot down. And the Black Flag Army's planes, only three were intact. There were piles of burning aircraft wreckage on the ground.

On the afternoon of November 25, 1917, in a place called Bayangol, a mixed army was marching nearby. They were a coalition force composed of the Northeast Army and the Mongolian Army. They had previously received news through reconnaissance aircraft that a Black Flag Army of more than 10,000 people was preparing to ambush them in the valley near the Orkhon River. This forced the coalition's marching route to change. They were going to take a detour to the north to avoid the ambush set by the Black Flag Army. However, the other side seemed to have noticed the coalition's intentions, and the scouts of both sides began to have constant friction near Bayangol. Danbi, the commander, Jian judged that the enemy was in Bayangaoler, so he ordered his troops to attack Bayangaoler as soon as possible and destroy the Black Flag Army while they were still unstable. The nominal commander-in-chief of the coalition forces was Wu Junsheng, but he had no confidence in this battle. He took the initiative to hand over the command to Danbijian, and hid at the back of the army in the name of supervising logistics. He chatted with his subordinates from time to time, and did not look like he was going to fight. The people of the Northeast Army had no objection to this, because they were a ragtag force put together by Zhang Zuolin, and they had rarely seen even the top leaders of the Fengtian Army, so it didn't matter who the commander was.

It was the middle of winter and the weather was at its coldest. The winter clothes prepared by the Northeast Army when they entered Mongolia were of poor quality. Today there was a howling wind and many people were shivering with cold. Tang Yulin looked at Zhang Jinghui, whose forehead was hot, and said, "Old Zhang, your health is not good. You look like you're going to collapse at any time. You're not wearing enough clothes."

Zhang Jinghui said, "You... you think I want to be like this. I don't know what this fat Mongolian guy is doing. He keeps walking and stopping, making me feel cold and hot. It just so happens that my clothes had a hole two days ago, which is why I am like this..." Before he finished speaking, there was a loud sound of machine guns around him, and a large number of shells suddenly hit the coalition forces, scaring the two men to rush to their own troops.

The shots were fired by the Second Division of the Justice Army where Wu Chunlei was. They did not stick to Bayangol, but took the initiative to attack, using 3,000 cavalry as the vanguard to attack the coalition forces from both wings. At the same time, the artillery regiment kept firing to disrupt the order of the coalition forces. Maeda Toru, a Japanese adviser who served as a military supervisor, was also in the army. When he saw that the Black Flag Army had rushed over, he immediately ordered the Mongolian artillery unit to set up cannons and prepare to fight back against the cavalry. However, the Mongolian army had long been frightened by many failures, and the Mongolian artillery was obviously unfamiliar with training. Many people were so nervous that they didn't even know how to set up the cannons, and they fell into chaos. In the chaos, a stray bullet hit Danbijian's horse, and he was knocked to the ground by the horse. Then several shells fell on the place where he was. After several explosions, Danbijian suddenly disappeared from this world.

At the critical moment of the coalition forces, Tang Yulin and Zhang Jinghui mobilized the cavalry of the Northeast Army to fight against the cavalry of the Black Flag Army, but the situation of the Northeast Army was not much better. Many people could not hold their guns steadily. Hundreds of cavalrymen who rushed over fell down before they fired a shot. The chaos of the Mongolian army also affected the Northeast Army. Many people began to flee the battlefield. Maeda Toru saw that the troops were about to collapse, and he and his supervisory team fired warning shots in an attempt to stop the chaos of the troops. The gunshots not only shocked the Mongolian army, but also were noticed by the Black Flag Army. Leng Hanbing, a member of the Black Flag Army cavalry, noticed Maeda Toru's behavior. He immediately took out a sniper rifle, aimed for about three seconds, and fired a shot at Maeda Toru. The bullet hit Maeda Toru's throat. The Japanese spurted out a mouthful of blood and then fell straight down. With Maeda Toru's death, the coalition's collapse was out of control. The Black Flag Cavalry immediately rushed into the chaotic army, drew their sabers and chopped them randomly. The battlefield had already become a slaughterhouse.

Seeing that the battle could not be fought any longer, Tang Yulin and Zhang Jinghui chose to flee at the same time. Tang Yulin reacted quickly and found a way to retreat quickly, heading north with more than 100 cavalrymen. However, Zhang Jinghui was slow to react due to fever, and he almost lost the strength to whip his horse. At this time, a fleeing Mongolian cavalryman collided with his horse, and Zhang Jinghui, who was powerless, fell off his horse. Before he could get up, another deserter's horse rushed towards him, and the warhorse's hoof stepped on Zhang Jinghui's back. Zhang Jinghui screamed. Zhang Jinghui, who should have been the prime minister of Manchukuo in another time and space, was trampled to death by a horse. As for his superior Wu Junsheng, he disappeared without a trace at the beginning of the war, and even his followers did not notice where he was going.