"Captain, I..."
When Li Hang heard this, he felt reluctant to agree.
You could call him pretentious, but he really didn't feel good about it.
He doesn't have to compete for this position. With his ability and his results this time, he will definitely not be able to escape the position of squadron leader after returning to the team.
Li Guidan immediately stopped, "Li Hang, I have already reported this matter to Commander Zhou, and Commander Zhou has agreed, so please don't refuse.
After this battle, you have shot down 24 Japanese aircraft. Although this is an honor, it is also a heavy responsibility, you should know.
Two people from the 23rd Squadron were killed and one was seriously injured in this battle. If you don't take this opportunity to cheer up and bring the 23rd Squadron out of this shadow, you will be living up to Lao Lu and I's expectations. "
Li Guidan originally came out of the 23rd Squadron, so he naturally didn't want to see the 23rd Squadron collapse because of this.
Similarly, Lu Jichun who died in battle must not want to see it.
The only one who can shoulder this important task is Li Hang, and Liang Tiancheng is still a little behind.
"Captain, I won't be able to fly a plane in the short term due to the condition of my legs."
"Don't worry about this. I will let Liang Tiancheng temporarily manage the 23rd Squadron. When you return from injury and officially take up the position of squadron leader, he will be the deputy squadron leader.
While you're recovering from your injuries, it's right for him to take on the important responsibilities. "
Li Hang didn't refuse after hearing this.
In order to downplay the losses in this air battle, newspapers publicized the large number of enemy planes shot down this time, especially emphasizing the fact that Li Hang shot down 24 Japanese planes in total. Even the official newspaper of the Nationalist Government admitted that he was One of the new four kings of the Air Force.
The main reason for doing this is to boost morale.
The new Four Heavenly Kings are headed by Li Hang, as well as Lu Jichun, Liang Tiancheng and Liu Zesheng.
Among the four, three are from the 23rd Squadron, and Yanagisaki is from the 21st Squadron.
It's not that the third and fifth teams will not be given quotas this time, but the performance is indeed not as good as the fourth team.
Even Lu Jichun, who had died in battle, shot down a total of 9.25 enemy planes. This achievement is worthy of being one of the new four kings.
However, he was also the only pilot among the four who died in battle. Putting him among them can be regarded as fulfilling his posthumous reputation.
Although there are four people, in fact, the number of enemy planes shot down by the last three together is not as many as that of Li Hang. However, it is impossible to promote Li Hang all the time, and several alternatives must be prepared.
After the news came, the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the military and civilians naturally increased.
In ground force operations, the Chinese army has not yet achieved a major victory.
Although Pingxingguan was won, the scale was still relatively small, and since it was fought by the Eighth Route Army, the National Government would naturally not publicize it.
The vigorous Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Taiyuan and the Battle of Nanjing all ended in failure.
As for the Taierzhuang battle, it has not yet begun.
Strictly speaking, the Battle of Xuzhou has been prepared, and it has even begun.
The Japanese Central China Expeditionary Force and the North China Front Army have already begun the battle to open up the Jinpu Line. The Chinese army cannot sit back and watch the Japanese army open up the Jinpu Line. There will definitely be a big battle around Xuzhou.
But it's just foreplay at the moment, neither party has yet to officially fight, and both are still testing and preparing.
The Army has nothing to promote for the time being, let alone the Navy. It has long since become a river fleet, and the better warships have sunk into the Yangtze River in Jiangyin.
Neither the army nor the navy could find a propaganda point, so naturally they could only target the air force.
The Air Force is also on track. Although its strength is far inferior to that of the Japanese army, its several battles this year have been very good, especially the several air battles involving the Fourth Battalion, which can be regarded as great victories.
As for losses, there is no battle without losses, and a tragic victory is also a victory.
With the current national strength of China and Japan, even a tragic victory for China would be a very good result.
I don’t know how the news that Li Hang was injured and hospitalized spread, and many people came to visit.
There were even people from the headquarters of the New Fourth Army, including several important figures, which made Li Hang very frightened.
I met a few people in Wuhan and a few more in Nanchang. Is this considered familiar to me?
Originally, the Fourth Group was stationed in Nanchang because the Fifth Group went to receive new fighters.
Taking into account the situation in Nanchang and the situation of the Fourth Group, the former enemy headquarters was also worried that if it continued, the strength of the Fourth Group would be too much damaged, so it urgently assigned three squadrons of the Fifth Group to equip British Fighter biplane fighters. Transferred back to Nanchang.
The Fourth Group, which had only 18 fighters, returned to Wuhan on February 18.
In history, the first Wuhan air battle broke out on this day, but because of Li Hang, it was moved forward to December 22 last year.
At this time, the Japanese army had just lost troops and generals in Nanchang, and it would take a few days to wait, not so quickly.
The Fourth Brigade returned to Wuhan without any accidents, but the Fifth Brigade did cause trouble.
I don’t know whether it was because they were not familiar with fighter planes, or it was really due to weather conditions. During the return to Nanchang, two fighter jets of the Fifth Group actually crashed on the way. One of the two pilots successfully parachuted, and the other was killed directly.
When this news spread, the Fifth Group was a little embarrassed. It lost two fighter planes that they had spent a lot of money to buy before the war started.
Everyone didn't laugh at the Fifth Group, but they also felt it was a pity, not only the two planes, but also the pilot who died accidentally. This may also mean that the Fifth Group is destined to have a rough road ahead.
. . . . . .
"Squadron leader, your legs haven't healed yet? You've already started to get down... Hey, my sister-in-law is here too!"
After completing the training, Zhou Zhikai couldn't wait to run to the workshop next to the airport. He thought it was just Li Hang and a few carpenters, but he didn't expect Chen Lu to be there.
"I just came to take a look!" Chen Lu quickly explained.
"Sister-in-law, you don't need to explain, it's not a secret anymore." Zhou Zhikai said with a smile.
"Then you're busy, I'll leave first." Upon seeing this, Chen Lu left first.
This made Zhou Zhikai a little embarrassed, as if he had ruined his superior's good deeds.
Being born into a family of officials, he actually didn't think anything of it.
After all, among this group of pilots, Zhou Zhikai can be regarded as the son of a top official.
His grandfather was a third-rank official of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and his father served as president of the High Court of Shandong and Henan.
Because of Zhou Zhikai's handsome appearance, his first dream when he was a boy was to be a movie star.
However, when Zhou Zhikai was in middle school, the national anti-Japanese and national salvation movement was growing day by day, and his "dream of stardom" was gradually replaced by the ideal of saving the country and serving the people.
When he was only 16 years old after graduating from middle school, he secretly applied for Jianqiao Aviation School.
Because of his family background, he has seen a lot.
To be honest, it was hard to imagine a situation like Chen Lu pursuing Li Hang from an ordinary person before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War.
