Brief aerial combat opened Kitaura Sota's eyes: he saw the Empire's air combat team, first swarming up using human-wave tactics.

Numerous fighter planes, attack aircraft, and bombers surged forward.

The anti-aircraft fire on the fortress was completely overwhelmed, and before it could recover from the Empire's aircraft attack.

The second wave of the Empire's air combat team arrived.

Two consecutive waves of attacks and bombings left the entire fortress position filled with smoke.

Although the Empire lost a lot of planes, the damage to the fortress should also be considerable.

Squad Leader Kitaura Sota could not watch the aerial combat all the time, nor did he put all his energy into it.

Therefore, he still had enough energy to observe that the defending troops' artillery fire had weakened a lot under the air force's bombing and strafing.

This must be because the defending troops were hit too hard, suffering heavy losses, and could no longer maintain suppression against their side.

This was a good sign.

It was just that the cowardly tank brigade wasted such a good opportunity.

They turned around and ran back before the aerial combat even started.

Now that they knew the defending troops' artillery fire had weakened, they turned around and came back.

These tanks were now completely behind his infantry.

Kitaura Sota sneered at such cowardly behavior.

A bunch of cowards!

However, the speed of the tanks was ultimately much faster than that of the infantry.

Even if they ran back and forth like this, they still quickly rushed to the front of the infantry.

At this moment, the cavalry galloped past the infantry ranks like lightning.

Soon they surpassed the tank formation.

With these cavalry, his infantry would not have much of a chance.

Squad Leader Kitaura Sota thought with a hint of bitterness.

He watched helplessly as two cavalry battalions sped past him, sweeping towards the defending troops' position like a storm.

There was nothing for the infantry to do now.

Kitaura Sota's gaze followed the cavalry in their charge, not looking anywhere else.

He saw that when the Empire's cavalry had charged to within two hundred meters of the defending troops' position, the defending fire was still much sparser.

As an experienced veteran, Kitaura Sota knew that this was because the defending troops were intimidated by the momentum of the cavalry battalion, and their movements had become stiff.

This was a good thing for the cavalry battalion, but for Squad Leader Kitaura Sota, it might not be a good thing.

If the cavalry battalion's attack was unsuccessful, his infantry could still grab the credit.

Now, with the defending troops seemingly scared out of their wits, it seemed that his infantry had no chance.

"Resist! Open fire! Hit them hard!" Squad Leader Kitaura Sota kept thinking this in his heart.

Sometimes, thinking could make things happen.

This time, his thoughts really worked.

Squad Leader Kitaura Sota watched the explosions that suddenly occurred in front of the defending troops' position.

He was far away and didn't know if those explosions were artillery shells or landmines.

Anyway, the power was very great, directly splitting the cavalry battalion into two segments, with fewer than two hundred cavalrymen breaking through those segments.

At the same time, his earlier thoughts of constantly praying for the defending troops to resist, open fire, and hit them hard.

Were coming to fruition, all the previous performance of those defending troops seemed to be just to lure the Empire's cavalry battalion into a trap.

At least, Squad Leader Kitaura Sota, standing in the distance, thought so.

Now he clearly knew that the explosions in front of the position were not caused by landmines.

They were artillery shells, artillery shells fired from the turret positions.

Because those artillery shells were still bombarding the cavalry battalion.

Although he should have felt a sense of grief for his fallen comrades at this time, Squad Leader Kitaura Sota felt only excitement in his heart.

Amidst the huge noise made by the tank engines, and amidst the continuous sound of artillery shells exploding all around, Squad Leader Kitaura Sota shouted loudly to the entire squad, "The charge still needs us, gentlemen, keep up the good work!"

The soldiers in his squad had similar thoughts.

They only wanted their own military merits, and of course, they hoped that the attacks of all other teams would fail, so that only they could rush in.

Encouraged by Squad Leader Kitaura Sota, the fifty-plus men in the entire squad quickened their pace of the charge.

In the following time, they suddenly felt the care that the cavalry battalion had received.

First of all, the artillery fire around them became much denser, followed by the tanks behind them, exploding one after another.

Then came the news of retreat from the rear.

Kitaura Sota's squad looked at the defending troops' position, which was now only seven hundred meters away.

They had to regretfully prepare to leave the field.

In the eyes of these infantrymen, the tanks that had already fled twice were exploding one after another, and finally, all of them stopped on this battlefield.

Fortunately, when retreating, they were not following behind the tanks.

The soldiers in Kitaura Sota's squad thought this with a sense of relief.

Now they could also see that the defending troops' artillery fire was somewhat fierce, no wonder the regimental commander had ordered a temporary withdrawal from the position.

The surrounding artillery fire rumbled, but the retreat of the two Japanese regiments was not chaotic.

Long-term strict military training and countless battles had allowed these infantrymen to maintain good order when retreating, and everything was still well-organized.

All the changes happened after the tank battalion was completely annihilated.

Squad Leader Kitaura Sota recalled afterward: all the soldiers retreated with undiminished morale, and were still complaining that the regimental commander should not have issued such an order.

If they had persisted for another ten minutes, his fastest-charging soldiers would have engaged the defending troops in close combat.

At that time, the defending troops' artillery fire would not have dared to continue bombarding.

Squad Leader Kitaura Sota, during the retreat, suddenly discovered an incredible thing.

He pointed to the front, at a place a thousand meters away, where it seemed as if landmines had been planted: a continuous series of explosions formed a line.

Most of the Empire's warriors on this line were torn to pieces, their bodies lifted high into the air by the blast, he could still see it even from this distance.

This scene was so familiar, and in a flash, Squad Leader Kitaura Sota remembered: wasn't this the same artillery fire that the cavalry battalion had encountered at the last moment of their charge?

The artillery fire targeting the cavalry battalion was not allowing them to rush into the defending troops' defensive position.

The artillery fire targeting the infantry?

Squad Leader Kitaura Sota instantly understood the defending troops' intentions in firing their artillery like this:

This was drawing a line for all the infantry, and the soldiers who had not crossed this line were the targets of the bombing.

The defending troops were drawing a line, not wanting any of them to live!

Squad Leader Kitaura Sota was very willing to think, and when he saw the sudden situation in front of him, he immediately began to prepare a countermeasure.

The countermeasure was simple: don't walk where there is a road!

At this moment, the charge horn sounded on the battlefield: this was the start of the Nationalist army's charge.

Those Nationalist soldiers, under the support of accurate artillery fire, had finally regained their courage!

Squad Leader Kitaura Sota looked disdainfully at those Nationalist soldiers who had just rushed out of their trenches.

He led the entire Kitaura Sota squad, quietly detached from the main force, and quickly left.

They no longer retreated along the original route they had taken when attacking.

This squad of fifty-four men was divided by Squad Leader Kitaura Sota into eighteen three-man combat teams.

Each group was separated by a distance of at least fifty meters.

The Kitaura Sota squad retreated diagonally, moving far away from that blockade line.

Now they were moving parallel to the blockade line.

Squad Leader Kitaura Sota knew that even if they walked like this, they would still be able to get out of the defending troops' artillery fire range.

After walking five hundred meters, the density of artillery fire in the area where the Kitaura Sota squad was now located had decreased a lot.

All the defending troops' artillery fire was still in the area they had just been in, where the infantrymen were still struggling to survive.

The Kitaura Sota squad also lost four combat teams.

This was unavoidable, who told an artillery shell to land in the middle of them.

Regimental Commander Luo Yibin led the entire 613th Regiment out of the trenches, running all the way towards the battlefield.

As their unit approached the battlefield, the artillery fire support from the fortress finally stopped.

Regimental Commander Luo looked around, and the scattered Japanese soldiers standing in this area had become sweet buns for his subordinates to snatch.

Now there were too many wolves and not enough meat, and not every soldier could get the chance to personally stab a Japanese soldier to death.

Colonel Sasaki Michikazu, the commander of the 58th Regiment, did not insist on watching his soldiers being forcibly blocked on the other side of that blockade line.

Seeing that things could not be done, he had already returned to the starting position along the Xicheng Highway in advance.

Together with Colonel Nakayo Tatsuya of the 65th Regiment, he reported in detail the setbacks in the attack on Jiangyin: in this battle, the infantry suffered 1,843 casualties, the tank battalion was completely wiped out, and the cavalry battalion suffered 713 casualties, equivalent to the loss of a whole cavalry regiment of the two regiments.

Today's battle was not over, there was still a pursuit battle continuing along the Yangtze River.

Ryosuke Amamura's fighter squadron had a total of seven fighter planes, and after receiving the order from Captain Sho below.

The entire squadron's planes quickly climbed higher, entering the clouds, thus avoiding being blocked by the anti-aircraft fire below.

They were chasing after Ryota Chiyoda Fuji's direction of escape at full speed.

They were a little late in setting out to pursue, and when the Ryosuke Amamura squadron chased to the crash site of the three planes in front.

All they could see was a lot of oil and debris floating on the river.

The shadows of Yuto Mieno's three planes could no longer be seen on the river.

Ryota Chiyoda Fuji's plane could not be seen in the entire field of vision either.

However, the Ryosuke Amamura squadron was not flustered at all, they flew upstream along the Yangtze River.

When Ryota Chiyoda Fuji was flying his fighter plane upstream along the Yangtze River.

The first to react was Zhenjiang, Ryota Chiyoda Fuji was unconsciously flying at an altitude of about one hundred meters above the river.

After flying for more than ten minutes away from Jiangyin Fortress, the Jiangmian outside Zhenjiang appeared.

The entire town of Zhenjiang was terrified by this suddenly appearing Japanese plane.

The air raid siren sounded, and the people in the streets ran around, looking for places to hide.

The ships sailing on the river at this time had no way to escape and could only resign themselves to fate.

At the same time, the Zhenjiang Joint Defense Office immediately called to notify the Jiangning Fortress upstream to pay attention: a Japanese fighter plane had flown over.

The other side even asked, "One plane?"

"Yes, only one!"

Now that the Japanese fighter plane had broken through Jiangyin and reached Zhenjiang, would it go to Nanjing next?

The air raid alarm kept passing upstream.

The Japanese fighter plane just flashed past Zhenjiang and did not stop at all.

So Zhenjiang's air raid alarm was ready to be lifted, but before the order to lift the alarm was issued.

Seven more Japanese fighter planes appeared, and the air raid alarm sounded again.

The newly sounded air raid alarm watched as seven Japanese fighter planes swept past from the high sky.

Besides leaving a shadow over the entire city, they left nothing else.

Jiangning Fortress, like Jiangyin, was a fortress built by the Nanjing government at great expense.

After receiving the warning from Zhenjiang downstream, they immediately reacted.

The air raid siren sounded, and all the units entered their positions.

All the artillery pieces were in place, facing the southern sky.

Zhenjiang called: the enemy plane was traveling upstream along the Yangtze River.

The initial call reported that there was only one fighter plane, flying extremely low, and five minutes later it reported that there were seven more fighter planes, flying extremely high.

For a while, the air raid alarm sounded throughout the fortress, and all the soldiers were ready for battle.

They were just waiting for the enemy planes to appear.

Three minutes after receiving the second enemy report from Zhenjiang, the observers on the fortress did not find any enemy planes.

But the gunners on the turrets were the first to spot Ryota Chiyoda Fuji's fighter plane.

It was not that the observers' eyesight was not good, it was just that this plane was flying too low.

It was not easy to see at all!

Ryota Chiyoda Fuji was just flying his fighter plane along the river, now he had no clear target.

He didn't know where he should go.

He had no idea, he was just flying his plane aimlessly towards the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Where was he exactly?

Where to go?

What to do?

Now he didn't know anything.

Anyway, Ryota Chiyoda Fuji felt that he had become a stray dog who had left home.

He didn't dare to go home, and he didn't dare to go anywhere else.

He had never flown too high, in fact, he should have been flying very low.

Just such an arrogant operation at an altitude of less than one hundred meters above the Yangtze River.

Immediately attracted the fire of many anti-aircraft weapons from the Jiangning Fortress.

However, precisely because he was flying low, and only flying over the Yangtze River, most of the anti-aircraft fire did not have time to adjust into position.

Ryota Chiyoda Fuji had no intention of sightseeing in Jiangning Fortress, so he just flew his fighter plane directly past.

Perfectly splitting all the attacks!

Jiangning Fortress was originally the last line of defense to protect Nanjing, to protect the capital.

A Japanese fighter plane broke through the low altitude defense and rushed directly into the urban area of Nanjing.

The air raid alarm in the entire urban area of Nanjing sounded earth-shattering.

All the senior government officials and senior military generals nervously ran to the air raid shelters.

Factories urgently stopped work, markets quickly closed, and citizens also nervously ran on the roads, trying to find a place where they could feel at ease.

Even though Captain Ryosuke Amamura did not see the target within his field of vision.

He still calmly gave the order: "Chase upstream."

All seven fighter planes rushed upstream with full throttle.

The anti-aircraft unit of the Jiangning Fortress, which had just missed Ryota Chiyoda Fuji's fighter plane, was ready.

This time, the observer was the first to spot the enemy plane.

The Ryosuke Amamura squadron was flying high in the sky, making it very easy to be spotted.

The observer spotted seven more Japanese fighter planes flying from the sky at a great distance.

Ranging report: enemy plane is 18,000 meters away!

16,000 meters!

Enemy plane altitude 7,800 meters!

…

Such an altitude had excluded most of the anti-aircraft fire.

They were flying so high, it was obvious that they were not here to fight, they could only be passing by.

Could it be that these Japanese planes were planning to attack Nanjing directly?

This idea made the officers and soldiers on the fortress break out in a cold sweat.

Although they didn't know what the purpose of this batch of fighter planes was, they believed: those who invade our airspace will be killed without mercy!

All those who should have opened fire were opening fire.

But even if they spotted the seven fighter planes of Ryosuke Amamura's squadron.

They were flying high in the sky, and there were not many anti-aircraft guns that could hit these fighter planes.

Jiangning Fortress also had eight 88mm anti-aircraft guns newly imported from Germany, which could hit the Japanese fighter planes.

But using artillery to hit airplanes was originally a probabilistic event, and there were not Lin Fans, the sharpshooters, everywhere.

The eight artillery pieces only fired ten or so shells as a demonstration, which was equivalent to an exercise.

They just watched helplessly as the Japanese fighter planes flew away.

Jiangning was upstream of Jiangyin, and the soldiers on the Jiangyin turrets had fired countless live rounds in the past few months.

Jiangning Fortress was still calm, and there were very few opportunities to fire artillery.

The accuracy and level were far worse than those of the soldiers at Jiangyin Fortress.

Dense artillery fire was fired towards the Ryosuke Amamura squadron.

Anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft machine guns were also used.

Most of the bullets and artillery shells could not fly as high as 7,800 meters at all.

Although they did not shoot down the Japanese fighter planes, they at least made their attitude clear.

The air raid alarm in Nanjing City had just been sounded.

Ryota Chiyoda Fuji was flying his fighter plane when he passed through the Nanjing section of the Yangtze River.

He was flying so low that many people on both sides of the river saw him.

They could also clearly see the markings on his plane, and they could clearly know that this was a Japanese plane.

But no one understood: what was this plane doing?

Tourism?

Regardless of what Ryota Chiyoda Fuji did or did not do, the air raid alarm in Nanjing City continued to sound.

The shrill alarm sound kept ringing, and the people in the city were in chaos.

The fighter planes of Ryosuke Amamura's squadron were flying much higher, and the entire squadron had no intention of fighting against the attacks from the ground in Jiangning.

They continued to climb higher, avoiding too much entanglement.

They now had only one thought: to shoot down the defector!

When they passed Nanjing, they also ignored the chaos below.

Squad Leader Ryosuke Amamura looked at the fuel tank, there was still enough fuel.

As long as there was enough fuel, he was not worried.