"One last check! The wings and landing gear! Be careful! Get ready for takeoff!" In the evening, in a forest covered with camouflage nets, a huge biplane bomber was making its final takeoff. Prepare.
There are more than a dozen bombs mounted under the belly of this aircraft, which is its maximum bomb-loading state. The plane was fully fueled, and the two gunners were putting on their costumes and wrapping thick scarves around their necks.
The bombers of the Tang Army have been doing their best to destroy the Dahua Air Force Airport in the direction of Jiange. In order to avoid the attack of the Tang bombers, it has been carefully camouflaged.
The airport runway is disguised as farmland and is usually covered with branches and other random debris to ensure that it is not visible in the sky every day.
At the same time, four anti-aircraft gun positions are hidden in the woods on the side of the airport to ensure the safety of the airport when enemy planes attack.
There were three bombers parked in the entire airport, and they were all placed in hidden places in the woods and covered with camouflage nets.
Because of its small size and careful disguise, this airport has never been discovered by the Tang Army. It is considered a secret base of the Dahua Army, or a trump card that threatens the southern oil fields.
"Remember, you must keep the course! Deviation will make it impossible for you to find the attack target!" An officer thrust a planetarium into the hands of the machine gunner in the back row and warned him very solemnly.
During night bombing, there is no radio guidance or ground guidance. It is very difficult to maintain the course and find the attack target.
Therefore, several people on the plane must work together, and everyone must play an important role.
Compared with daytime bombing, they did not need to face the dangerous interception of Butcher fighter jets, but the risk was not small at all.
They must determine their orientation through the starry sky along the way, combined with the compass, and finally fly over the southern oil fields.
In the area controlled by the Tang State, they may be attacked by the Tang Army's anti-aircraft artillery at any time, and they must be careful of the enemy's searchlight search.
In short, they need to be very careful, finally approach the target and complete the mission of bombing the oil field - as for whether they can fly back to Jiange, only God knows.
There was no previous record of a bomber returning safely from a night bombing, so for these pilots, performing this mission was almost the same as committing suicide.
Even machine gunners who perform night bombing missions are completely different from ordinary machine gunners. The machine gunners who bombed at night had to also take on the work of navigators. They had to determine the stars, observe the compass, and even roughly judge their location based on some lights on the ground.
To put it bluntly, these machine gunners are also valuable talents, the kind of elites with excellent skills who are only one in a thousand.
What is uncomfortable is that these selected elite talents will inevitably be lost in the upcoming bombing mission.
They are destined to never come back, which is really sad. It's even sadder that they are willing to climb onto the plane here knowing they can't come back.
"I know, I learned it all when I was in school! If I can fly that far over the sea, I can definitely fly back with everyone!" The young machine gunner replied with a smile.
"Check the instruments! Don't have any problems!" A ground staff member confirmed again after helping the pilot climb into the plane.
The pilot nodded and once again checked the status of the instruments in the cockpit under the illumination of the oil lamp.
"I wish you success!" The commander of the unit to which the aircraft belonged stood beside the wing of the aircraft and said goodbye with tears in his eyes.
"Thank you! We will definitely succeed!" The co-pilot stood at attention and saluted, then prepared to climb into his own plane under the escort of the ground crew.
Everything is ready, and soon they will rush to the runway, take off under the moonlight, fly to the Tang State-controlled area, and carry out the mission of bombing the southern oil fields.
Under the moonlight, a car slowly parked in the forest. An officer opened the car door, nervously got out of the car, and rushed towards the brightly lit aircraft in the distance.
"Stop! Stop everyone!" The officer was running and holding his hat. Hearing his shout, many people around the plane looked in his direction.
Under everyone's gaze, the officer ran to the wing of the plane, panted for a while, and then adjusted his breathing and said: "Prince's order! ...The bombing mission is cancelled!"
"Are you kidding? Cancel?" The officer of the bomber unit frowned and took a document from the other party's hand in confusion.
The subordinate handed him the kerosene lamp and helped him illuminate the document. I saw that the document said that due to the peace talks, all night attacks on oil fields were temporarily cancelled.
"Why cancel? Didn't it mean that the armistice agreement has not been signed yet?" The commander of the bomber unit asked again.
"His Majesty personally issued an order prohibiting further attacks on the southern oil fields..." the officer explained: "Cancelled! Mission cancelled!"
"Yes! I understand!" The air force commander of the Great China Empire nodded slightly, then looked towards the plane: "Stop the engine! Help the pilot and gunner down."
The ground crew heard the order, hesitated for a few seconds, and then began to scramble onto the plane.
They helped the pilot off the plane, and then the commander canceled the bombing mission in front of everyone: "Gentlemen! The mission to bomb the oil fields has been cancelled. I will be on standby tonight... I need to go back to verify the prince's order. .”
After saying that, he nodded slightly to the soldiers and walked towards his own car in the dim light.
…
"Did you see the black smoke on the horizon? We may have found that damn fleet!" A captain stood on the hull, pointed to the sea in the distance, and shouted to the sailors beside him.
The sailor picked up the telescope and looked in the direction of the captain's finger. Sure enough, he saw some black smoke that had not completely dissipated.
"Yes! Captain! I think we found them!" The sailor put down the telescope and said excitedly to his captain.
"Go back! Let them speed up! Prepare torpedoes! Victory belongs to the Tang Dynasty!" The captain ordered loudly, raising the telescope again and looking at the target in the distance.
The waves are still beating against the slender submarine, and the waves hitting the shell are still splashing everywhere. The submarine moved forward on the ocean, cutting through the rough seas with its sharp bow.
The antenna of the long-wave radio station was slanted all the way to the front deck. Through this antenna, you could see the black smoke filling the sea level even without using a telescope.
Not only did this submarine find the target, on the other side, further north, on another submarine of the Tang Army, the sailors were also excitedly pointing to the black smoke in the distance and shouting.
Inside the small submarine, the sailors were already debugging the torpedoes in preparation for the upcoming battle. They are going to send all these damn enemy warships to the bottom of the sea. They have won this war.
"Wake up all the crew! Sound the battle alarm! Let everyone wake up! Drink less water and eat less!" The officer on duty issued combat orders one after another. Under the dim light, from time to time, there were The sailor ran by.
The densely packed turntables and instruments everywhere proclaimed the complexity of this submarine. The sonar soldier was already in place and was wiping his beloved earphones.
Everyone is very nervous because the specific situation is not clear yet. If the enemy fleet is heading in the same direction as theirs, frankly speaking, Tang's submarines really can't catch up with the escaping enemy warships.
Even when submarines of this era were sailing on the water, their speed was only about the same as that of merchant transport ships, which was still much slower than battleships.
So everyone is looking forward to the fact that the enemy's fleet routes are facing them, so that they can meet.
For submarines, the moment of intersection is the window for attack, and pursuit is just a waste of time.
The good news is that since they gradually discovered the black smoke coming from the enemy fleet, the distance between them and the opponent is getting closer and closer, which means that they have a chance to catch up.
other side.
"Sir!" Just when the tension reached a certain level, the signal soldier in charge of communication tore off a piece of telegraph paper and handed it to the captain who had just returned to the submarine: "An urgent telegram from General Bernard."
"Huh?" The captain was stunned for a moment, then took the message: "Cancel the attack order to attack the enemy fleet..."
"Is there a mistake?" After drifting on the sea for more than ten days, enduring the ravages of the cold, and finally finding the enemy fleet, the attack was cancelled? The Tang submarine captain said that he could not understand such an order at all.
"There must be a mistake..." The first mate took the order and felt that there must be an error in the contents of the telegram. He glanced at the captain and saw unwillingness in his eyes. So he thought for two seconds and then gave his opinion: "How about... pretending that the message was not received... and continue to attack?"
"Are you stupid in your sleep? What did you do in the past?" The captain directly rejected his suggestion. If someone is not allowed to do something against the emperor's order, he will have to go to a military court.
However, the captain obviously did not intend to give up like this: "However, it is also possible that the order was wrong! Keep the course! Let's catch up! In case there are new orders issued."
"Yes!" The first mate stood at attention and saluted excitedly, and then immediately issued the message that the submarine should continue to maintain its course.
On the sea, a submarine was ordered to turn around and drew a large U-shaped white track on the sea. The other submarine maintained its course and continued to rush toward the black smoke on the horizon at full speed.
