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

Chapter 507 Let the brothers aim at the fighter planes on the runway of Taiyuan Airport and hit them

Sato Ichiro responded readily, "Fujiwara, we'll do as you say. Pass the order down immediately. Call Colonel Matsumoto now and tell him to buy us half an hour at all costs. No matter what the cost, we must keep the enemy out of the airport."

Fujiwara Ichiro left the headquarters in a hurry, while Sato Ichiro picked up the phone and called Colonel Matsumoto who was mobilizing troops. He ordered sternly: "Matsumoto Ichiro, no matter what you think of, you must buy me half an hour. There are more than 200 fighter planes parked at Taiyuan Airport. Once it is destroyed by the enemy, our 16th Flying Division will not be able to complete the mission assigned by the headquarters. You cannot bear the responsibility for this. You must try your best to intercept the enemy outside Taiyuan Airport and buy time for the fighter planes to take off."

After finishing his words, Sato Ichiro hung up the phone in a hurry before waiting for Matsumoto Ichiro to speak, and rushed to the direction of the airport. Matsumoto Ichiro listened to the beeping sound in the microphone, and felt very aggrieved in his heart, but he knew that General Sato Ichiro was telling the truth. If he didn't find a way to keep the enemy out of the airport, he might really have to commit seppuku to apologize.

"Sasaki, immediately give orders to all squadrons that can be contacted. Tell them to stop the enemy outside the airport at all costs, even if it means wiping out our entire brigade. Have the captains of each squad organize a desperate charge to blow up the enemy's armored vehicles. The anti-aircraft artillery brigade, open fire at full force and use the firepower advantage to destroy the enemy's armored vehicles to buy time for the fighter planes to leave."

After giving his instructions, Colonel Matsumoto did not stay in the battalion headquarters, but led his guards and hurried to the airport gate, intending to personally command the troops to block the enemy's attack.

Three minutes passed quickly, and the darkness before dawn disappeared in an instant. Li Yunlong picked up the telescope around his neck, looked through the observation hole of the communication command vehicle, and calmly looked at the Japanese soldiers at the gate. Through the glasses, he could clearly see three or four Japanese officers shouting loudly, with ferocious expressions on their faces. Seeing this scene, Li Yunlong was not afraid, but became very happy. This further confirmed his previous guess that the Japanese really made a mistake. If Wang Chengzhu had fired a few minutes later, he might have been able to get away with it.

"Sanwazi, fire at the Japanese anti-aircraft artillery battalion immediately. We must suppress the firepower of the Japanese anti-aircraft artillery unit and clear the obstacles for the armored unit's attack."

"Zhu Zi, hurry up and set up the mountain cannon for me. Fire hard at the gate of the Japanese airport and help the armored troops enter the airport."

"Zhang Dabiao, take the tank battalion and charge in. Don't worry about the Japanese anti-aircraft guns. The bomber troops are already overhead and will be able to drop bombs soon. Unless the Japanese anti-aircraft guns are desperate, they will never just focus on us."

"Armored vehicle troops, don't stop for me, keep charging forward. It's time to test your courage. As long as the Japs dare to block our way, we will just charge through them and let the damn Japs see how powerful our Rabbit Armored Vehicles are."

"The rocket launcher company, hurry up and start a round for me. Aim at the Japanese anti-aircraft artillery positions and bombard them hard to provide fire cover for the main force's attack."

Under Li Yunlong's command, the armored forces had already reached the perimeter of Taiyuan Airport. The machine guns and cannons mounted on the tanks and armored vehicles could directly pose a huge threat to the Japanese soldiers guarding the airport. Dense bullets and shells were fired, suppressing the Japanese soldiers in the positions and making them unable to raise their heads. The Japanese soldiers on the sentry posts had not even used up the bullets in their magazines before they were corroded by the bullets and shells. The two sentry towers were directly blown down by the artillery battalion's artillery, which completely stunned the Japanese soldiers defending the airport. They had never seen such fierce firepower before.

"Damn it! Get out of the position and launch a desperate charge immediately. Blow up all the tanks and armored vehicles that are within reach. Don't let them get into Taiyuan Airport." Ichiro Fujisui gave the order frantically.

Hundreds of Japanese soldiers rushed out of their positions carrying explosive packs or grenades, and rushed towards the armored vehicles and tanks a hundred meters away. Matsumoto Ichiro ran to the anti-aircraft artillery battalion, but the anti-aircraft artillery battalion leader Inoue Jiro objected and ordered all anti-aircraft guns to aim at the attacking tanks and armored vehicles, and completely gave up defense against the bombers attacking from the air.

"Mr. Inoue, the enemy's bombers carry limited bombs and cannot destroy our entire airport. However, the enemy's armored forces have the strength to attack our airport. By then, it will be difficult for any fighter planes to survive!" Ichiro Matsumoto advised with an angry face.

Inoue Jiro replied with a gloomy face: "Mr. Matsumoto, I must use 1/3 of my strength for the air defense of the airport. Once the airport runway is bombed, it will cause great trouble for the fighter planes to take off. I must ensure that the airport has a runway that can take off normally. Otherwise, even if we block the enemy's armored forces, the fighter planes at Taiyuan Airport will not be able to be saved."

"First Squadron, Second Squadron, Third Squadron, block the enemy's armored forces. Fourth Squadron, Fifth Squadron, continue firing into the air. We must not allow the enemy's bombers to drop bombs at low altitudes. The transport team must increase the delivery of ammunition to ensure that the ammunition needs of each combat position are met."

"Fortunately, I left two transport squadrons behind yesterday, otherwise we wouldn't have enough people. This is a blessing in disguise. As long as we give the airport half an hour, we can send dozens of fighter jets into the air to fight. With the help of the fighter jets, we can easily keep away from the enemy bombers."

"Without the threat from the air, we don't have to be too afraid of the threat from the ground. With the cover of air firepower, the enemy armored forces will no longer be a danger. We may be able to take this opportunity to completely wipe out the enemy's armored forces, turn defeat into victory and make great contributions."

Ichiro Matsumoto did not continue to persuade. He was not as optimistic as Jiro Inoue. In order to ensure that the Taiyuan Airport would not be lost, he arranged for his men to go to the warehouse to get explosives immediately and prepared to mobilize a squadron of troops to launch a death charge to block the attack of the armored forces.

The defense line set up by the Japanese outside Taiyuan Airport was like paper, and was easily passed by tanks and armored vehicles. It was thought that the next attack would be unusually smooth, but no one expected that the Japanese anti-aircraft artillery battalion was equipped with eight 75mm anti-aircraft guns, which posed a huge threat to the Bull tanks and Rabbit armored vehicles.

Inoue Jiro was very cunning, leaving only two 75mm anti-aircraft guns for air firing, and the remaining six were all used to deal with the enemy's armored vehicles and tanks. Facts have proved that his approach was not wrong, and these six 75mm anti-aircraft guns did bring great danger to the armored forces led by Zhang Dabiao.

Small-caliber artillery shells and machine gun bullets could not break the defenses of tanks and armored vehicles, but they were completely powerless to fight back against the Japanese 75mm anti-aircraft artillery shells. Under the Japanese anti-aircraft guns, more than a dozen tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed, which made Li Yunlong, who had been observing the battlefield, very anxious.

"The rocket launcher company, fire a salvo at the Japanese anti-aircraft guns. The artillery battalion, fire hard at the Japanese anti-aircraft guns. Immediately contact the bomber unit and have them transfer half of their bombers to destroy the Japanese anti-aircraft guns."

Having taken advantage of the enemy's armored forces, Jiro Inoue ordered his artillery to speed up the firing to help Matsumoto's battalion defend the airport. However, Jiro Inoue did not know that he had been targeted by the rocket artillery company and the artillery battalion. 88 rockets were fired at the anti-aircraft artillery battalion position, destroying two 75mm anti-aircraft guns, killing hundreds of Japanese soldiers, and injuring more than 100 Japanese soldiers.

The artillery battalion's mountain artillery and 12 heavy mortars simultaneously covered the enemy's antiaircraft artillery battalion's position with artillery fire. The two sides even engaged in a five-minute artillery battle, which resulted in an evenly matched result. After Zhang Dabiao discovered that the antiaircraft artillery battalion was entangled, he immediately led his armored forces into the Taiyuan Airport and rushed into the airport.

"Brothers, aim at the Japanese fighter planes parked on the runway and shoot them hard. Don't shoot blindly, aim at the vital parts of the fighter planes. As long as the engine of the Japanese fighter planes is damaged or the wings are broken, the Japanese fighter planes will not be able to take off normally!"

"The first and second companies of the fourth tank battalion will attack the enemy's fuel and ammunition depots and blow up their fuel and ammunition. The third and fourth companies of the fourth tank battalion and the second and third armored vehicle battalions will attack the fighter planes on the runway. The fourth armored vehicle battalion will be responsible for hunting down the enemy's pilots. The enemy's pilots are more valuable than their fighter planes. Without pilots to fly the fighter planes, the fighter planes will really become a pile of scrap metal."

After Zhang Dabiao attacked Taiyuan Airport, Li Yunlong and Sanwaizi's anti-aircraft battalion followed closely behind him, using the extremely high firing rate of the anti-aircraft guns to frantically strafed the fighter planes on the airport runway.

The bomber units in the air also began dropping bombs at this time. Dozens of bombs fell from the sky and hit more than 20 Japanese fighter planes. Seeing this, Ichiro Sato on the ground was furious, but there was nothing he could do. He could only urge the pilots to fly their fighter planes into the air urgently.

Relying on their superb flying skills, the nine Japanese pilots risked great danger and successfully flew the Zero fighters off the runway. The Japanese below were greatly excited and were about to cheer when three Zero fighters encountered fierce attacks from ground anti-aircraft fire. Their wings and tails were directly broken off and they fell to the ground again and rushed into the fleet, causing a total of eight fighters to be damaged. The only good news was that the remaining six took off successfully.