The Japanese soldiers, pinned down by machine gun fire, finally learned from communication soldiers crawling around to deliver orders that their planes were on their way.

Those Japanese soldiers who had already collapsed on the ground, completely giving up the struggle, finally showed some signs of life.

They merely had a glimmer of hope; the machine-gun fire overhead was too fierce and too continuous.

The artillery bombardment they had initially endured was nothing compared to what they were experiencing now.

During the artillery bombardment, there were always some blind spots and unoccupied areas that were not covered.

The machine-gun fire from the planes was different. As soon as any Japanese soldiers crawled up to escape, a plane would immediately chase after them and fire relentlessly.

The pilots of the Lu Nan Detachment were single-mindedly determined to make all the Japanese soldiers lie on the ground, motionless, waiting for the machine-gun fire. That was the only way they would be considered obedient Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese soldiers of the Aso Regiment also felt that their only option was to lie on the ground, motionless, waiting for the pinpoint attacks from the air. This way, they would not be subjected to malicious aerial pursuit.

If they stood up to flee, a plane would immediately chase after them, not stopping until they were killed.

However, lying on the ground, motionless, waiting for the aerial attacks, how lucky would they have to be to survive the repeated strafing runs?

The entire Aso Regiment currently had no target to attack. The planes overhead were firing at them, but they couldn't attack them.

There was nothing to attack around them either. At this moment, they hadn't even seen an enemy.

The entire regiment had suffered more than half casualties, yet they hadn't seen a single living person. The entire regiment hadn't fired a single shot.

Colonel Aso Gojuro crawled on the ground, dodging the strafing fire from the air, his frustration with nowhere to vent.

He had a feeling that he would die lying on the ground today.

Many Japanese soldiers lying motionless on the ground like him had died. Even the guards around him had been killed by machine-gun fire.

During the artillery bombardment, the guards could still surround him, using their bodies to block shrapnel.

Now, against the aerial machine-gun fire, they had no way to protect him. The surrounding area was a flat plain, with not even a cliff face to hide behind.

Trenches, fortifications, bunkers—these were just fantasies for them.

The entire Aso Regiment was simply passing through, intending to stop here for a short rest before moving on.

How could they possibly dig trenches and build fortifications in such a place?

Colonel Aso Gojuro's mind was racing chaotically; he was becoming mentally unhinged.

The thousands of Japanese soldiers in the entire regiment were in much the same state as their colonel, enduring endless torment, waiting for a miracle, waiting for the planes from Xuzhou.

Major Aso Akito had the same thought. He craned his neck like a turtle, stretching it until it ached, wanting to lie down and rest for a while.

Wait, Major Aso Akito had discovered a new situation. He saw troops appearing in the distance.

After craning his neck for so long, he had finally spotted some useful intelligence, which made Major Aso Akito quite excited: Heaven rewards those who persevere!

Major Aso Akito quickly observed with binoculars. He saw lines of troops dressed as National Revolutionary Army soldiers surging forward like a tide.

This discovery brought tears to Major Aso Akito's eyes. Even though they were coming to take their lives, the entire Aso Battalion now had a target to attack. Soldiers with a target would not be aimless.

Soldiers with a target would have cohesion, making them easier to command.

Regardless of the fact that the enemy was still several hundred meters away, Major Aso, who was lying prone, put down his binoculars, drew his command sword, and ordered, "Westward! Attack westward!"

At the same time, Major Yuto Yuto also saw the charging Lu Nan Detachment. He also made the same movement and issued the order, "Eastward! Attack eastward!"

The two majors were on the east and west sides of the highway, respectively, so the troops they spotted were different, and the orders they issued were also different.

However, their choices were the same: attack!

In the current situation, staying put would only lead to being passively beaten, truly tantamount to waiting for death.

Troops without a target to attack didn't know where to run. They had already tried it; as soon as they stood up to flee, planes would chase after them, not stopping until they were killed.

Now that enemy troops had appeared, as long as they charged forward and engaged them, there would be a glimmer of hope.

This idea was unanimously agreed upon throughout the entire Aso Regiment. After spotting the Lu Nan Detachment soldiers eight hundred meters away, the four majors all issued the same order.

Even though the planes overhead were constantly strafing back and forth, relentlessly attacking them.

This left nearly five thousand Japanese soldiers in the open, with nowhere to hide. They could only launch an attack in the face of a hail of bullets.

Regiment Commander Gu Xiuming was on the outskirts of Xuzhou when he saw Japanese planes taking off. He immediately reported, "Twelve fighter planes and twelve bombers taking off from Xuzhou Airport."

Upon receiving the news, Lin Fan immediately notified the fighter group responsible for providing cover in the high altitude.

Detachment Commander Yu Zhengyang of the Lu Nan Detachment Air Group was circling in the sky. These fighter pilots had been watching the ground attack planes feast, while they didn't even get to drink the soup.

However, according to the Special Operations Brigade's air combat orders, fighter planes had to accompany and escort ground attack planes every time they were deployed.

Just as Commander Yu Zhengyang was leading twenty fighter planes in circles in the sky, feeling bored.

He received intelligence from the Brigade Commander: twelve Japanese fighter planes and twelve bombers had taken off from Xuzhou and were heading in this direction.

They were estimated to arrive at the battlefield in six or seven minutes.

Commander Yu Zhengyang immediately notified the entire air group, including the ground attack aircraft that were strafing the Japanese infantry below.

He immediately led the entire fighter group toward Xuzhou. The twenty fighter planes divided into two teams and hid in the high-altitude clouds.

Anxiously searching for enemy aircraft, the Lu Nan Detachment Air Group knew that enemy aircraft were coming, giving them an advantage in information, which was advantageous for them.

Now they had hidden their positions in the high-altitude clouds beforehand, giving them the advantage of both timing and location.

The twenty ground attack planes that had been wantonly strafing the Japanese soldiers received the news that enemy planes were coming from the direction of Xuzhou.

Captain Dong Huayang simply ordered all aircraft to reduce their flight altitude to within three hundred meters and continue the mission.

These ground attack planes had to continue their combat missions until they had exhausted their ammunition.

When Captain Yoshioka Yuma of the Xuzhou Air Group received the order to attack, he was very excited. Their airport was on the edge of the city, and he knew what the Independent Mixed 10th Brigade had been going through recently.

There was one question he didn't understand: Tian Jia'an wasn't too far from Xuzhou, so why hadn't they sent air support to guide them?

Huang Tu Ling was even closer, so why did the 10th and 17th Brigades prefer to send infantry to rescue them instead of sending their air force to bomb them?

Did Brigade Commander Kuyu Shunji have some misunderstanding of the air force? These airmen had no attack missions and could only stroll around Xuzhou City every day, enjoying themselves, and their lives were too difficult.

Today was different. They finally received an attack mission, although it wasn't to Huang Tu Ling, but to the Zhao Family area in the direction of Huang Tu Ling.

They were not familiar with this Zhao Family on the map, but that didn't matter. They just needed to fly north along the main road north of Xuzhou City.

As long as they flew north, they would be able to find the battlefield, where National Revolutionary Army planes were strafing the empire's warriors.

Captain Yoshioka Yuma excitedly ordered the ground crew to inspect all the planes in the team again, and watched as heavy bombs were hung under the bellies of the bombers, and everything was ready.

Then he ordered, "Board the planes!"

Captain Yoshioka Yuma was the first to rush onto the runway and the first to fly into the blue sky. After circling twice over the airport.

All twenty-four planes in the entire squadron took off, organized their formation, and then headed north.

In order to see the road on the ground clearly, the Yoshioka Yuma Flying Group did not fly too high. They were all flying at an altitude of about three thousand meters.

In this way, they could clearly see a winding road on the ground that kept extending, extending north, with no end in sight.

As long as they flew along this line, they would be able to reach the battlefield. According to intelligence and the map, the Aso Regiment they were going to support this time should be about fifty kilometers north of Xuzhou. The Yoshioka Flying Group could reach it within ten minutes.

During the flight, Pilot Asano Takuma couldn't bear the loneliness and said to the whole team in a relaxed tone: "The North China Front Army has finally remembered that there is still our team in Xuzhou.

Brigade Commander Kuyu would rather commit suicide than give us a mission. He has completely forgotten about us!"

These Japanese pilots certainly didn't know how many infantrymen Commander Terauchi Hisaichi had abandoned in order to protect them.

They also didn't know that Brigade Commander Kuyu Shunji had begged in tears but failed to get air support.

If it hadn't been an infantry regiment that had been attacked this time, these airmen would not have been sent out.

In any case, the Japanese in the entire Yoshioka Flying Group were very excited to be sent out to perform missions.

They felt that the battlefield was their home.

After receiving the intelligence, Commander Yu Zhengyang of the Lu Nan Detachment Air Team had also analyzed it in his heart. The current battle location was just a small place.

It was really not easy for the Japanese planes to find this place. Their best way was to find it along the highway.

Therefore, the entire Lu Nan Detachment Air Team was ambushed on both sides of the road, and the two aircraft groups flew toward each other.

Not ten minutes, not eight minutes, but only four minutes later, Yu Zhengyang had already discovered a group of silver planes coming from the south at low altitude.

He immediately announced to the entire squadron: "Enemy planes detected in the due south direction! The number is large, twelve have already been detected."

In less than a minute, reports came from other pilots in the earphones: "Enemy planes detected in the due south direction, twenty-four, which is consistent with the previous intelligence."

Yu Zhengyang ordered: "All squadrons attack! Attack the Japanese fighter planes first."

These planes were hiding in the clouds, and the Japanese Yoshioka Group below had not discovered them at all. Moreover, they had only set off four minutes ago and were still twenty kilometers away from the battlefield.

These Japanese soldiers had not entered combat readiness at all. They were still chatting and bragging to each other.

Yu Zhengyang ordered to attack the Japanese fighter planes first. This was particular, because there were twenty fighter planes on his side, and although the total number of planes on the Japanese side was four more, they only had twelve fighter planes.

In this regard, the Lu Nan Air Group still had the advantage. In addition, they suddenly launched an attack from a high altitude unexpectedly, which completely laid the foundation for victory.

As for those bombers, because of their large load capacity and slow flight speed, as long as the Japanese fighter planes were cleared, these bombers would all be targets.

The fighter planes of the Lu Nan Detachment Air Group each signed up for the serial numbers of the enemy planes to be attacked, so that they could be defeated one by one and have a clear target.

Captain Yoshioka Yuma, who was cruising in front of the team, was smiling and listening to the various jokes coming from the earphones, and he was laughing in his heart.

At this moment, it suddenly felt like the plane was shaking, as if it was afraid of something, and then it heard in the earphones: "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

"There are enemy planes strafing!"

"Mr. Hata! There are enemy planes above you."

"Mr. Fujita! There are also enemy planes above you!"

These Japanese soldiers saw the planes of the Lu Nan Detachment above the planes in front of them, but they did not expect that there were also planes above their heads.

Yu Zhengyang and the others had already opened fire before the Japanese soldiers discovered it. The planes of the Yoshioka Flying Group only began to react when they were smoking and catching fire.

Some planes continued to dive, trying to avoid the machine-gun fire from above by diving at low altitude to accelerate.

Some of the Japanese planes tried to fly to a high altitude. In dogfights, only the planes at high altitude had a geographical advantage, and the chances of winning were much higher.

However, those who followed them were all pilots trained by the Special Operations Brigade themselves. These pilots did not have much combat experience.

This also formed their little understanding of the dangers of air combat. When they were shooting just now, they all flew to dozens of meters away from the Japanese planes before firing.

These soldiers who had transferred from the infantry to the sky were not satisfied with such a distance and felt that it was still a bit far away. For the soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade, the best combat distance for the infantry was the distance that the bayonet could reach.

In fact, for planes fighting in the air, a distance of dozens of meters was already a bayonet fight.

At a distance of dozens of meters, the machine guns kept strafing, no matter how the enemy plane in front fled, the plane behind was closely following.

It was not until the Lu Nan Detachment pilots really crashed the Japanese plane that was diving into the ground that they began to pull the plane up.

For those Japanese planes that were climbing to a high altitude, the planes that were originally higher than it were almost level shots, and the planes crashed straight over without even thinking about avoiding it.

It was not that the pilots of the Lu Nan Detachment did not understand how to dodge, but that this was the only way to better take down the Japanese planes.

Captain Yoshioka Yuma's plane was shot down in this way. The plane he was driving had already been hit by an unknown number of bullets.

When Yoshioka Yuma reacted and tried to fly the plane to a high altitude, the whole plane was shaking, the engine roared twice first, and then stopped suddenly.

His plane only tilted its nose slightly upward, and then began to fall downward.

With black smoke trailing from its tail and fire on its fuselage, it fell to the ground and exploded.

Captain Yoshioka Yuma parachuted out at the last moment. He was also unlucky. He was not hit by the machine-gun bullets of the Lu Nan Detachment, but was first hit by a piece of propeller blade that fell from an unknown Japanese plane in the air. He fell straight into the ground together with his parachute. Falling from a height of three thousand meters, Captain Yoshioka Yuma could not even pick up a complete bone.

He was not the only Japanese soldier who died. Captain Yoshioka Yuma was just the first Japanese soldier to die in the entire team.

Asano Takuma, who fell a little later than it, encountered a similar situation. The pilots of the fighter planes of the entire Yoshioka Group were almost attacked at the same time.

Their results were all the same, either they fell together with the plane, or they parachuted out.

Even if they parachuted out, Yu Zhengyang and the others did not intend to let these Japanese soldiers go. According to the tradition of the Special Operations Brigade, the Japanese soldiers should not be kept alive.

The pilots of the Lu Nan Detachment Air Group would rather turn around and strafe these Japanese pilots who parachuted out specifically, and they must ensure that not a single Japanese soldier would survive.

There were a total of twenty fighter planes in the Lu Nan Detachment, twelve fighter planes attacking the twelve fighter planes of the Japanese army.

There were also eight fighter planes attacking the other twelve bombers of the Japanese army. It was much easier for fighter planes to fight bombers.

Although the bombers were thick-skinned and sturdy, they could not withstand the machine guns chasing and shooting all the time. Sergeant Kuraki Kazuo was driving a bomber. His plane was large, and he did not feel anything when it was hit by bullets.

Sergeant Kuraki Kazuo only knew that the plane was being beaten when the bomb dropper Takei Taiichi in the cabin made a scream.

Before that, it had heard Captain Yoshioka yell that it had been attacked from the earphones.

Even if the entire fleet was attacked, there was not much it could do with such a bomber.

The weather was very good today, sunny and cloudless. If you want to escape, you can only expose yourself to the sun and continue to fly forward. If you want to struggle, you can only speed up a little.

Kuraki Kazuo could hear the terrified shouts from the cabin, and at this time, it also felt despair from the shaking of the plane.

The chance of a bomber being bitten by a fighter plane was very small. If you want to escape, you are not as fast as others. If you want to fight back, you are not as agile as a fighter plane.

Its bomber began to fall amidst Takei Taiichi's terrified screams.

After all, the number of fighter planes in the Lu Nan Detachment was four fewer than that of the Japanese army.

This allowed four Japanese bombers to escape from the battlefield after receiving the attack notice.

The bomber driven by Kita Goro was a lucky one. While his companions were screaming in terror and struggling desperately.

It drove the bomber, just refueling, accelerating, and speeding up to leave the battlefield.

At this time, there was no radar or other advanced equipment on the plane. If you want to find another plane, you can only rely on your own eyes.

Kita Goro did not have eyes behind his back, and the plane he was driving did not open its eyes behind its back.

Therefore, it did not know whether it had thrown off the planes of the Lu Nan Detachment, but it did see the battlefield ahead.

Finally arrived at the battlefield! Colonel Aso, who was still struggling for survival on the ground, was excited, but he was not carried away. He did not stand up amidst the plane's strafing.

Kita Goro looked at the plane that was flying much lower than it, and was strafing the Japanese soldiers on the ground.

Its heart began to throb: Those planes below were slower than it, if the bomber could take down one of the enemy planes, it would be legendary.

Thinking that it was about to start a legend, Kita Goro couldn't help it.

Bombers are also equipped with two machine guns, although they have not been used most of the time.

But today, Kita Goro felt that he could use it, at least for bombing?

The National Revolutionary Army troops on the ground were charging, so let them charge for a while, they can't run away anyway.

After making up his mind and making up his mind, Kita Goro began to operate the bomber to dive, which made the Aso Regiment lying on the ground very incomprehensible.

They did not understand: The bomber of their own team obviously did not dive and bomb the Lu Nan Detachment in the distance, but dived towards its own team.

Did they want to defect on the battlefield?

Lin Fan operated an eighty-eight-millimeter anti-aircraft gun and aimed it at the first enemy plane to arrive on the battlefield. Behind this enemy plane, there were three more bombers entering the firing range.

Kita Goro was a Japanese soldier who loved to share. When he was diving, he shared his design with the entire squadron: first take down a few low-flying planes, and then go bomb the infantry.

His experience was immediately learned by the three bombers following behind, and they also began to dive.

When the Lu Nan Detachment ground attack aircraft received a warning that enemy aircraft were coming, all the aircraft only lowered their altitude, that's all.

The strafing of the Japanese infantry continued. As for the enemy aircraft that came to attack, there were fighter groups in the air to protect them, and the brigade commander was protecting them on the ground. They were not worried at all.

Lin Fan fired. When four shells were fired, Kida Goro, who was driving the bomber, suddenly felt the plane shake violently, and then a heat wave mixed with strong light struck.

Colonel Aso watched the bomber overhead explode in the air, all four bombers were the same, and they all exploded in the air almost at the same time.

The fragments of the bombers, along with the heavy bombs they carried, slammed into the Aso Regiment, which was lying on the ground.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The explosions came one after another.

After the machine guns started strafing from overhead, it was the first time that the Japanese soldiers of the Aso Regiment had been bombed. They could feel the ground shaking with their prone bodies.

Colonel Aso never imagined that the air guidance they had worked so hard to call for was actually to bomb himself.

When Yu Zhengyang and the others were still chasing in this direction in the air, they received news from the ground forces that the four escaping bombers had been shot down. The pilots of the entire fighter group breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as they had just relaxed, a new enemy situation report came: There were Japanese aircraft groups flying over Teng County, with more than thirty aircraft heading towards Xuzhou.