A slightly salty sea breeze mixed with fine grains of sand hit Wang Shuming's face through the half-opened cockpit cover, but he, the future ace pilot of the Chinese Air Force, did not enjoy the pleasure of soaring above the nine heavens at this time. Because under the wing of the J-2A2 Bear Hunter fighter he piloted, an unprecedented and tragic battle was being staged.

Wang Shuming could hardly find words to describe this scene, and as far as the eye could see, the south bank of the Arabian River was full of fire and blood. Everywhere there are large and small orange fires constantly blooming and rising, earth-shaking explosions and the cry of "Ula" in Russian, which can be heard clearly at altitudes above 2 or 3,000 meters. In the face of this huge battlefield where millions of armies are fighting and killing, anyone can only feel their own insignificance and insignificance.

The Soviet Red Army seemed to have an overwhelming advantage, red flags were constantly erected all over the battlefield, and the shouts of "Ula" became louder and louder, which meant that the Red Army's offensive was getting stronger and more fierce. The British line seemed to be overwhelmed, and looking down from the sky, you could see everywhere the British throwing away their weapons and equipment and desperately retreating to the west and south. Fly further north, cross the Shatt al-Arab, and naturally it will be a different scene. There were hardly any traces of falling shells here, only the red light from the artillery positions of the Soviet Red Army, which was still shelling the British. All the roads were crowded with people and cars, and the impassioned and majestic Russian songs could be faintly heard, and the morale of the Soviet Red officers and soldiers on their way to the battlefield seemed to be high. After flying for a while, Wang Shuming was greeted by a convoy of dozens of kilometers long on the convenient highway. Tanks, armored vehicles, trucks with artillery, wagons loaded with all kinds of military supplies, and large brigades of cavalry filled the entire road!

The armored forces of the Soviet Red Army were dispatched! Wang Shuming took a breath and just wanted to turn the nose of the plane to end this reconnaissance mission. A string of flaming machine-gun bullets suddenly flew past him! Wang Shuming turned his head and saw that a two-winged Yi-15 fighter plane appeared above him at some point, and it seemed to be coming out of the clouds. The pilot who flew this plane was obviously a veteran, probably had fought against the Germans on the Western Front, and knew that his plane was far inferior to the German Fokker in terms of speed, and the only way to win was to sneak attack!

This Yi 15 desperately bit the tail of the J-2 piloted by Wang Shuming, and the bullets in the aviation machine gun shot out as if they didn't need money. Immediately, a few openings were made on the aluminum alloy skin of Wang Shuming's J-2 plane, which shocked the Chinese pilot, who participated in the air battle for the first time, into a cold sweat. However, this dangerous situation only fueled his fighting spirit, and he gritted his teeth and pressed down the joystick. The nose of the plane jerked down, and it swooped straight down. The J-2A2 Bear Hunter is the latest model in the Fokker D.21 series, equipped with 880 hp BMW W120D air-cooled engines and a maximum horizontal speed of up to 520 km/h. Now accelerate by dive. The speed is above 600 kilometers per hour. In the blink of an eye, it slipped away from under the gun of Yi 15. Immediately afterwards, Wang Shuming pulled the control stick back again, and the nose of the plane was suddenly lifted up, spiraling upward. The I-15 seemed to know that it was no match for the Fokker D.21 (J-2), and turned around and fled into the clouds as soon as it missed. Wang Shuming doesn't plan to let go of this Yi-15, he has been in the Chinese Air Force for eight years, and his rank has been promoted from second lieutenant to lieutenant colonel, and he has not shot down a single enemy plane! This time, he almost killed his opponent. It's really unbearable!

Perhaps the Soviet pilots who flew the I-15 did not expect the speed of the Fokker D.21 (J-2) to increase dramatically, and immediately panicked after realizing that they had been bitten by the tail by their opponents. A fighter with a top speed of no more than 320 kilometers. What is the way to survive being bitten by an aircraft that must have a top speed of more than 500 kilometers? However, it is not the style of the Red Army pilots to sit back and wait, this Yi 15 turned left and right, up and down under his control, and rolled a few times from time to time, as if playing acrobatics in the air! A series of hundreds of bullets fired by Wang Shuming were dodged, but a considerable number of 7.62mm (not 65-caliber firearms used by the Chinese Air Force) bullets hit the fuselage of the Yi-15, and the second half of the plane was suddenly sawdust and shrapnel flying sideways. But the Soviet plane was still flying tenaciously and had no intention of crashing.

It seems that the power of the 7.62mm caliber aviation machine gun is still a little small, and when the J-2 can be replaced with a 12.7mm machine gun, it will be like a tiger with wings. Wang Shuming was thinking about this, and several 7.62mm bullets had already hit the head of the Soviet pilot who could play aerial acrobatics, and a good life was lost. The plane suddenly lost control, and it swirled and went downward! Before Wang Shuming, who had achieved the first battle result in his life, had time to rejoice, several more Yi-15 fighters roared out of the clouds. The armored units of the Red Army marching on the road below also discovered the fierce battle in the air, and several Deshka 12.7mm caliber heavy machine guns were set up, and they fired at Wang Shuming's landline. Wang Shuming, who was caught between land and air, did not dare to fight again, so he hurriedly pulled up the J-2 plane, circled in the air for half a circle, and flew quickly to the south, just a few blinks of an eye to throw the chasing Il-15 into a shadow.

Ubolevich and Pavlov stood in the compartment of a half-track armored command vehicle and watched with binoculars as the Soviet Il-15 was easily shot down by Chinese aircraft. Ubolevich put down the binoculars and said with a wry smile: "The performance of the Fokker D.21 has improved again, and the speed of that aircraft must have exceeded 500 km/h, and it seems that it is equipped with a new engine with more powerful horsepower." ”

Pavlov nodded and said, "Fortunately, the Air Force blew up the British airfields in Basra and Baghdad early this morning...... According to intelligence, the only air power available to the enemy in Iraq and Kuwait is the Chinese Bulgan Air Base, where about 80 Fokker D.21s and 40 Henschel 120s (Attack 2) are deployed. There are not many of them, and they will not pose much of a threat to us. ”

"But we can't ignore the threat from the air." Ubolevich looked up at several Il-15s hovering in the air and muttered: "In the field of aviation. The Soviet Motherland is still inferior to the Germans and the British...... The gap is too big to catch up with in a short period of time. Therefore, we must do a good job of fighting in the situation where air superiority is grasped by the enemy, and according to the current speed of development of aviation technology, it may not be long before there will be aircraft that can really pose a huge threat to tanks and armored vehicles, and then our tank sea will encounter a real threat......" said here, he seemed to realize that a big war was imminent. He shouldn't say such a frustrating thing, so he waved his hand and said with a smile: "But now the hundred and dozens of planes of the Chinese can't stop the pace of our attack!" Comrade Pavlov. Do a good job, I will be waiting for you on the north bank of the Arabian River! ”

……

"These British, I really don't know what they are calculating, lost the Shatt al-Arab line so quickly. They are not yet willing to send out armored divisions to fight back. I only knew that I would flee to Jordan...... That's how they plan to preserve the glory of the empire on which the sun never sets? Zhang Zhizhong threw the telegram sent by the British Middle East Theater Command on the table, and his tone was full of mockery.

Two dull "whining" sounds, this is the Haiqi cruiser sounding the whistle, this displacement of 4,300 tons of old cruiser is now hanging the flag of white stars and moon on a green background, nominally belonging to the Hejaz Kingdom Navy, but all the officers and sailors on the ship are all veterans of the Chinese Navy, and the actual command of this warship and the entire Hejaz Kingdom Navy is also in the hands of the Chinese Expeditionary Force Command. Admiral Zhang Zhi, who is now preparing for a "strategic transfer," has moved his headquarters to the Haiqi and set up a temporary operations department in the officers' lounge of the Haiqi. A large combat map is hung on the bulkhead. The map shows what we already know about the situation of friend or foe.

The Soviet Union's early campaign in the Middle East not only caught the British troops off guard when they had just begun to retreat to the Suez Canal, but also disrupted the Chinese expeditionary force's plan to move to the port of Jeddah. Not only an infantry division of the 20th Infantry Corps under the Chinese Expeditionary Force remained in Kuwait. Even the staff of the Great Burgan oil field were not completely evacuated, and until the eve of the Soviet Red Army's attack, the largest oil field in the Middle East continued to produce oil, and the oil depots in Kuwaiti ports still stored more than 100,000 tons of light crude oil.

In order to buy time for the transfer of infantry, the retreat of personnel, and the transfer of oil, Zhang Zhizhong decided to accept Xue Yue and Lin Zuoda's proposal to send the 1st Armored Cavalry Corps and the British 1st Armored Division to block the southward Soviet armored forces in the desert on the border between Kuwait and Iraq.

However, the reply of the British Middle East Theater disappointed Zhang Zhizhong, and the commander-in-chief of the British army, Sir Montgomery Massingbent, clearly told Zhang Zhizhong in a telegram that the British had no plans for a decisive battle with the Soviet Red Army in Iraq or Kuwait, and that they intended to retreat to Transjordan and use the mountainous terrain there to prevent and contain the offensive of the Soviet Red Army. It also planned for the Chinese expeditionary force to withdraw to Trusil Oman (United Arab Emirates) and hold the difficult terrain of Ras Al Khaimah (located on the southern shore of the Strait of Hormuz at the exit of the Persian Gulf).

"General Wenbai, I think this is a good opportunity, the geographical location of Ras Al Khaimah is very important, guarding the entrance and exit of the Persian Gulf, and the Persian Gulf region contains a large amount of oil, as long as we control Ras Al Khaimah, it is equivalent to controlling the only export channel for oil in the Persian Gulf." The speaker was Chen Ce, commander-in-chief of the Hejaz Navy, who was an important figure in the Guangdong Navy and retired from the Chinese Navy after Chang Ruiqing and the Chinese government took full power, but Chang Ruiqing, in order to appease the hearts of the Cantonese people, arranged for him to be the commander-in-chief of the Hejaz Navy, and commanded a group of old warships eliminated by the Wehrmacht Navy to be stationed in the Middle East for several years, and he knew the situation in this area very well.

"Hold Cape Al Khaima?" Xue Yue shook his head again and again, and said, "The Soviet-Polish coalition army has at least one million people, and our expeditionary force is only 100,000, how can we still divide our troops?" Besides, how could the British not know about the importance of Ras Al Khaimah? Why don't they guard it themselves, and throw this sweet cake at us? ”

As he spoke, Xue Yue took out the report that had just been submitted by the Air Force Command of the Expeditionary Force and showed it to Chen Ce. "Brother Chipshuo, see for yourself, the Soviets' tanks and armored vehicles are discharged dozens of kilometers on the road, not to mention more than 2,000 units! If the British 1st Panzer Division joins forces with us, it will be able to resist for a while. Now ......"

"Now we have to resist," Zhang Zhizhong interrupted, "without repelling the Soviets' tanks, we will not be able to calmly withdraw to the port of Jeddah." ”

"Repelling Soviet tanks?" Xue Yue shook his head. Rhetorical question: "Air Force reconnaissance shows that the Soviet Union has at least 2,000 tanks, and our 1st Armored Cavalry Corps only has 592 tanks, which is less than one-third of the opponent's, and there is no such weapon as a pursuer, how can it beat the Soviet tank troops?" ”

As soon as Xue Yue's question was asked, the sound of a report sounded outside the hatch. It was Lieutenant General Zhao Zongyang, commander of the First Armored Cavalry Corps, and Lieutenant Colonel Lin Zuo, chief of the training division, who came in.

"Commander-in-chief, the counterattack plan of the 1st Armored Cavalry Corps has been prepared, please take a look, commander." Zhao Zongyang took a stack of Wen Jiàn from Lin Zuoda's hand. He handed his hands to Zhang Zhizhong: "We plan to use tanks to lure the enemy and anti-tank guns to destroy the enemy, just like the tactics of the North Korean Army's anti-tank special forces in the Korean Campaign." ”

Zhang Zhizhong took the plan from Zhao Zongyang's hand and read it carefully page by page. After reading it all, he nodded and said, "The method is feasible." But...... Have you ever thought about the disparity in numbers? Your 1st Panzer Cavalry Corps only has 50,000 men, and if the Soviets send 200,000 or 300,000 troops to attack, what will you do? ”

Zhao Zong's brows furrowed, as if he was thinking about countermeasures, but Lin Zuoda, who was beside him, replied without thinking: "If that's the case, we'll run away!" He smiled and explained, "Our 50,000 men are half-cavalry and half-mechanized troops, not only have they been mechanized, but they have been in the great desert of the Middle East for many years. He has long been accustomed to marching and fighting in the desert.

On the other hand, the Soviet army, although it had a large number of tank and cavalry units. However, the infantry, which accounted for the vast majority of the Soviet-Polish army, was not motorized, and was still relying on two retreating armies, and the logistics baggage and artillery were mainly hauled by horse-drawn carts, and the movement was very slow. Therefore, we planned to place the battlefield in the desert west of Kuwait Bay, about 125 kilometers from the Shatt al-Arab. This distance, the armored and cavalry units of the Soviet Red Army can reach it in less than 24 hours, while the infantry will have to walk for at least three days, and if the Soviet tank forces have not launched an attack on our troops within 48 hours, then we will have to retreat. ”

"The Soviets will not be so cautious," Zhang Zhizhong, looking at the huge red arrow representing the Soviet Red Army on the map, said with great certainty:

"In the face of a third of their own tanks, they dare not fight, what is the use of such a tank force? So I approved the plan, and the 58th Infantry Division was also assigned to the 1st Armored Cavalry Corps. ”

Saying that, he put down the battle plan, turned his head to Xue Yue and said, "Boling, I now appoint you as the deputy commander-in-chief of the former enemy to assist General Zong Yang in commanding this battle together!" Remember, you're always only a fraction of the size of the Red Army, and you won't have backup, so be sure to use it sparingly. ”

……

"Comrade Lukin, how is the situation now?" At the same time that China was planning the Kuwait campaign, Pavlov's armored command vehicle had arrived in the small Kwaiti-Iranian border city of um Qaisar. Fedorovich. Lukin had already arrived here before him with the headquarters of the 1st Tank Army (which was also the headquarters of the tank cluster). This Soviet general, who was excellent in the early days of the Soviet-German War in history, but had bad luck as a prisoner of the German army, had good luck in this time and space, and then Dongfeng Dongfeng, who was greatly expanded by the Soviet Red Army, became the chief of staff of the First Tank Army.

"The Chinese have retreated from the border," Lukin said slowly, handing Pavlov the latest battle report: "But before this we fought a small tank encounter with them, the Chinese invested their Type 31 tanks, we invested T28 and T26, the 45mm guns of the Type 31 tanks could not deal with the T28 with 30mm armor plates, but the 37mm guns of our T26 tanks could not touch the frontal armor of the Type 31 tanks. In the end, the two sides almost ended in a draw, we knocked out 8 Type 31s, lost 7 T26s and 1 T28. Saying this, he turned his head and asked a staff officer beside him: "Take that thing, it is the weapon that the Chinese infantry used to destroy that T28 tank." ”

"What do you say? The Chinese infantry broke our T28 tank!? Pavlov was stunned for a moment, and while he was pondering what secret weapon the Chinese reactionaries had copied from Germany, he saw the staff officer come over with something like an iron pipe carrying something from somewhere.

"This is it." Lukin pointed to the "iron pipe" and said, "That's how they used this weapon to penetrate the frontal armor of a T28...... And it's a 30mm thicker frontal armor! ”

"What?" Pavlov took the "iron pipe" from the staff officer with both hands, looked at it again and again: "The workmanship is very rough, it doesn't look very powerful, how to use this?" ”

"Comrade Army Commander," the staff officer seemed to witness the battle that had just ended, and he pointed to a red button on the "iron pipe" and said: "Originally, there was a spindle-shaped shell at the front end of this 'iron pipe', and the Chinese infantry carried this thing on their shoulders, and then pressed the red button and the shell flew out, destroying a T28 tank at a distance of about 60 meters. (To be continued......)