The 153rd Brigade was in a rock-solid defensive position in Wulao, the 37th Army and the 54th Army were surrounded by roads, and the 1st Marine Division and the 2nd Marine Division of the US Army gathered around Changjin Lake and the Battle Lake were in danger. With neither side able to provide air support to ground forces, no one considered the U.S. Marine Corps to be an opponent of the Republican Army.

More than 70 years ago, the U.S. army, which had planes, artillery and tanks in battle, was defeated at Changjin Lake to the volunteer army with only millet plus rifles.

Now that the equipment of the two sides is evenly matched, is it possible for the US army to defeat the Republic Army?

On the morning of the 23rd, Du Qiwei got in touch with Lieutenant General Pibrooke, commander of the 8th Army, and demanded that the ROK-US coalition forces regain air supremacy in the northern part of the peninsula at all costs, focus on bombing Goro, and cover the retreat of the marines. Subsequently, Du Qiwei issued an order to Major General York, commander of the 1st Marine Division, who was in charge of front-line field command, that the 1st Marine Division and the 2nd Marine Division should stop retreating and deploy defensive positions in Linchanli and the battle respectively, preparing to meet the approaching 37th Army and the 5th Army.

There is no way to stop the pace of the Marine Corps' retreat to the south.

The fact that the five veterans could not be defeated, that air supremacy could not be guaranteed, that the fleet was thousands of miles away, and that the officers and men of the Marine Corps were pouring in like a tidal wave and gathering in the narrow valley of the Chengchuan River. With troops that have no defensive positions to rely on, the Chinese Air Force only needs to dispatch dozens of heavy bombers to drop air-launched cruise missiles carrying anti-personnel armored warheads hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away, and it can easily annihilate the US Marines who have nowhere to flee and break the morale and fighting spirit of the US officers and men.

Before capturing Wulao, it was necessary to hold the northern defensive line to avoid a high concentration of forces.

Dudgway didn't lose all of his chips. As long as China does not want to expand the scale of the war and does not bomb the Japanese air bases where US fighters are stationed, the Chinese Air Force will have to concentrate on ensuring air supremacy in the northern part of the peninsula and it will be difficult to provide sufficient air support for ground forces. The two US Marine Divisions, which have more than 800 main battle tanks, more than 1,200 infantry fighting vehicles, and more than 600 self-propelled guns, are not inferior to the Chinese Army.

Will the U.S. military be able to put its mindset right?

Since the beginning of World War II, the U.S. Army has never left air support and is more adept at coordinated operations. From the Korean War in the 50s of the 20th century to the Iranian War in the 211th century, the most American GIs have done on the battlefield is to call for air cover and air support. Even if they were carrying out the task of "suppressing bandits" in the mountainous areas of Afghanistan, the US GIs would not be afraid of trouble to call in aircraft carriers and carrier-based fighters more than 1 kilometer away to use bombs and missiles against the Taliban in caves, and would not first consider using the guns in their hands to fight the enemy.

There is no air support. The U.S. military's combat effectiveness should at least be discounted.

The Army of the Republic began on the day of its birthplace. Fight a powerful enemy without air support. Independent combat capability is unique in the world. The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, the Korean War, the Sino-Soviet border conflict, the self-defense counterattack war on the border with India, and the self-defense counterattack war against the border with Vietnam. The Army of the Republic went all the way. All of them defeated the enemy without air cover and air support.

Even in the Laos War and the Vietnam War. The Republican Army received ground and air support that could not be compared to that of the American Army. Pay more attention to and rely on one's own combat capabilities.

Fight a close battle with the Republic Army. Even Dudgway didn't have the slightest chance of winning.

Can't beat it. It does not mean giving up efforts and surrendering without a fight.

All of Dudgway's efforts were made to get more GIs tickets home. Return them to their loved ones.

Hold the defensive line to the north to have a chance to open the passage to the south.

When talking to Pibrooke on the phone, Du Qiwei did not scold his mother, but used all the serious words he could think of, and did his best to convince the commander of the 8th Army that without air support and air cover, not only would the 1st Marine Division and the 2nd Marine Division be "denaturalized," but many American families would have lost their loved ones.

Even if Dudgway doesn't say it so seriously, Pibrooke knows how dire the situation is.

Ignoring the risk of all-out war, China annihilated the 2nd Amphibious Fleet by thunderbolt, not to seize sea supremacy in the Sea of Japan, because the 2nd Amphibious Fleet is not a sea supremacy fleet, and China has no ports and naval bases in the Sea of Japan and cannot send a fleet to the Sea of Japan. China has only one purpose: to create opportunities for the annihilation of the U.S. Marine Corps.

The elimination of the 2nd Amphibious Fleet eliminated the flank threat for the 38th Army, which was advancing south along the eastern coastline of the Korean Peninsula, and also cut off the retreat of the U.S. Marines from boarding ships from Hungnam or Wonsan.

Success or failure is not sea supremacy, but air supremacy.

As long as they regain air supremacy and assist the Marines in defeating the Five Elders, even if they cannot retreat by sea, the Marines can retreat to Wonsan along the road and railway lines and break out of the encirclement of the Chinese Army.

After receiving a call from Dudgway, Pibrooke made two more calls.

First, to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he requested that additional air forces be dispatched to Northeast Asia as soon as possible and strategic bombers should be dispatched to provide air support to the Marine Corps. The second is to send a request to the chief of the general staff of the ROK military to ask the ROK Air Force to adjust its deployment as soon as possible and assist the US military in recapturing it

Ministry of air supremacy.

It is precisely because of this that the US military urgently dispatched B2A to bomb the positions of the Wulao Airborne Forces with "super thermobaric bombs".

A number of troops, including the vanguard of the 54th Army, which had just arrived in the Wolf Forest, were also hit, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles and the casualties of hundreds of officers and soldiers.

The bombing came suddenly, and by the time the Air Force responded, the B2 fleet had already turned home.

At this point in the war, the only strategic bombers such as the B2 and B-1B that the US Air Force could dispatch were available. Because the survivability of strategic bombers is very limited, they can only use long-range ammunition to carry out battlefield interdiction and key bombing missions at a distance of hundreds or even thousands of kilometers, and cannot provide close air support for ground forces.

The strategic bombing of the US military provoked a strong reaction.

On the morning of the same day, Xiang Linghui issued an order to the Air Force and Army to mobilize long-range strike forces to focus on attacking the US Marines gathered near Changjin Lake and the Battle Lake.

It was not the H99 that appeared first, because the H-9 did not have a large number of equipment, and more than half of it had to carry out strategic deterrence tasks.

At 11:15, the Army's tactical ballistic missile units appeared first.

The tactical ballistic missile battalions deployed in Tongyuanbao, Cangshi, Sanhe, and Liujiazi in Liaoning Province fired 120 DF11FF and DF21EE ballistic missiles within five minutes, attacking the US military camps, command headquarters, troop assembly sites, and material hoarding centers in Linshanli and the two places where they went to the war.

The missiles that strike the barracks are equipped with sub-warheads specially designed to kill and injure people and soft targets, the missiles of the strike command are equipped with single high-explosive warheads, the missiles that strike at the concentration of troops are equipped with sub-warheads specially designed to destroy armored and semi-armored targets, and the missiles that strike at material hoarding centers are equipped with high-explosive incendiary warheads.

Although the US military has deployed a "theater anti-missile air defense system" with a protection range of 120 kilometers in Hamhung, most of the missiles have already hit the target when the US military's tactical anti-missile system responds to the situation. In addition, one set of "theater anti-missile air defense systems" can deal with a maximum of 24 air targets at a time, and when dealing with ballistic missiles, the two systems deployed in Hamxing can intercept a maximum of 120 air targets, far exceeding the interception capability of the tactical anti-missile system.

For the first time in decades, the tactical ballistic missile units of the republic took part in real combat.

The intensive missile assault has made the US military suffer enough.

Because the US military dispatched strategic bombers in the front and the Republic used tactical ballistic missiles in the rear, the United States could only swallow its anger after being beaten.

There is no fairness in war, but in a great power war, the "rules of the game" are more important than anything else.

It's just that the republic's counterattack did not end there.

The Army's missile assault has just ended, and 24 H9 planes that have completed combat missions against the sea have appeared.

The H99 fleet still carries air-launched cruise missiles, but instead it is a ground-attack model equipped with various warheads suitable for striking ground targets.

At 11 o'clock, the H99 group launched 288 air-launched cruise missiles over the northwest of Liaoning.

Unlike tactical ballistic missiles that attack important targets, air-launched cruise missiles guided by large unmanned aircraft mainly hit scattered US combat units, and the vast majority of air-launched cruise missiles are equipped with anti-personnel armored dual-purpose warheads. Each air-launched cruise missile carried 88 bullets, and a total of 10,000 bullets were dropped on US Marines scattered within more than 10,000 square kilometers. In addition to the projectiles that hit the target directly, the vast majority of the bullets that did not hit the target became "mines" after landing. Using the sensors equipped on the bullet head, it can launch a surprise attack on a target that enters the attack range at any time before using the electrical energy in the photocell.

The two rounds of counterattacks showed the determination of the Republic to fight the war to the end.

It's just that a counterattack cannot completely annihilate the enemy.

Everyone knows that the battle for air supremacy is about to break out again. From the night of the 22nd to the early morning of the 23rd, the Air Force of the Republic of China suffered a great deal of damage, with as many as 116 pilots killed alone, others wounded, and 211 missing. If it were not for the timely deployment of additional special forces to carry out search and rescue missions, more pilots would have been lost.

During the day on the 23rd, the tactical aviation of the Air Force of the Republic was barely sorted.

It takes time to mobilize forces from all over the place, and it takes time to adjust tactics.

The question is, will the enemy give enough time to the Air Force of the Republic?

Thankfully, the Army did not put pressure on the Air Force and was not even too willing to let the Air Force meddle in ground combat operations.

This is also the "characteristic" of the Republic Army, as the big brother of the three services, the Republic Air Force and Navy were born from the Army. Over the years, the Navy and Air Force have played a leading role in many wars, but the Army has been sitting on the cold bench. Even in the Old War and the Vietnam War, the Army's performance was still not as impressive as that of the Air Force and Navy.

Finally got the opportunity to fight the main force, will the army let the air force intervene?