Yang Zhen's grim enemy situation was not only taken aback by the two top commanders of the First Route Army, but even the commander-in-chief and Li Yanlu, who had no knowledge before, were also taken aback. Hundreds of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops, what does this mean for the Jidong Military Region, which is still very weak compared to the behemoth of the Kwantung Army, and even the entire Anti-Japanese Federation, although its strength has expanded to a certain extent? They know it all in their hearts.

Looking at the few people in front of him who were shocked by the news he revealed and fell silent, Yang Zhen smiled bitterly: "That's why I insist on expanding the army regardless of our realistic ability to bear it." And by the end of the year, it is necessary to complete the establishment of half of the production and construction corps. It's about preparing for next year's big war. ”

"Do you really want me to be rare with those second-hand goods provided by Jiangbei? But there is no way, our own production capacity is not strong, and without foreign aid, we will not be able to meet the fundamental needs of the troops. Commander-in-Chief Yang, Political Commissar Wei, what I should have said has already been said, and if you insist on going south, I will not force it.

"I sincerely hope that you can stay, and the army will be used all the way, but it really can't be used according to the previous situation. Since the First Army is a sharp knife, it must be inserted into the chest of the Japanese puppet at the most critical moment. Let the sharp knife of the First Army be rolled in advance, which each of us does not want to see. ”

After Yang Zhen's words were finished, Yang Jingyu and Wei Zhengmin were silent for a long time, and finally nodded slightly after looking at each other. Although he didn't say it directly, he also agreed with Yang Zhen and hoped that they could continue to stay in the Xiajiang area to rest. ”

Seeing that they finally nodded and did not go south for the time being, after glancing at the commander-in-chief and a few people, Yang Zhen, who was greatly relieved, paused and said: "Commander-in-Chief Yang, I think what the First Army urgently needs now is not to go south, but to expand." In this way, the entire Jidong Military Region will be selected by you, and as long as you fancy that unit, it will be allocated to the First Route Army in an organized manner."

Regarding Yang Zhen's approach, Yang Jingyu shook his head and said, "You just finished a big battle, and the casualties are so big. The remaining old foundations will still be used as the backbone of the expanded troops, and our first army cannot take this opportunity to fight your autumn wind. Let's talk about this later, our first task now is to train the remaining 300 people to meet the standard. ”

"Comrade Yang Zhen, although I can't accept what you do in some aspects. But what you said just now is still very true, as long as the old foundation is there, the troops will be able to recover at any time. So I appreciate your kindness. But I can't take advantage of this time to dig up your old foundations. "In the end, it is Yang Jingyu, one is one, two is two, and he is quite broad-minded.

Looking at Yang Jingyu in front of him, Yang Zhen said a little embarrassed: "Commander-in-Chief Yang, you are out of sight when you say that." We are all a family, and it would be too angry to talk about these two families. In this way, I will replenish you with a thousand new soldiers, and a complete set of equipment according to your existing equipment. ”

"I'm sending you a platoon from the reconnaissance battalion as an instructor to work with you and increase their survivability behind enemy lines. When you go behind enemy lines in the future, you still have to have a certain strength, right? After the completion of my tactical synthesis training ground, your first army can use it first. But whether these people can be trained in the end is up to you. ”

Regarding Yang Zhen's idea of transferring recruits and instructors to himself, Yang Jingyu wanted to refuse. But Wei Zhengmin, who was beside him, secretly pulled his sleeve and nodded, although he was a little reluctant, but finally nodded and agreed.

Wei Zhengmin's meaning he understood, according to the current more than 300 people in the First Route Army, if they really go behind enemy lines to fight guerrillas, judging from the current strength of the Japanese puppet army's control over their old guerrilla areas, not only may they not even be able to lift a Lang flower, but they will even get a meat bun to beat a dog.

Last year, coupled with this spring's anti-encirclement and suppression struggle, the army fought too hard, and its strength dropped greatly. Even if you add the one that stayed in South Manchuria, there are now less than 500 people. It has reached the point where it is impossible to fight without replenishment. The fully equipped 1,000 recruits, whether it is for Wei Zhengmin or Yang Jingyu, cannot but explain an urgent need.

Seeing that Yang Jingyu finally accepted the recruits, the commander-in-chief turned his head to Yang Zhen and said, "You go to the first sub-district these days, we have reached an agreement with Jiangbei on the issue of opening an air route from Luobei through Jiangbei and Outer Mongolia to Yan'an. Jiangbei agreed that our plane would take off in Luobei and pass through a field airfield of the Soviet Army in Tengda, Ulan-Ude, and Dharamzadagade, the capital of South Gobi Province in Outer Mongolia, as an alternate landing and refueling point. ”

"We have carefully selected four pilots from among the pilots who arrived in the Jidong Military Region from Xinjiang to fly two Japanese 100-type transport planes captured in Jiamusi, and with the assistance of the navigators sent by the Jiangbei side, we have completed the test flight of this route. Yesterday I have returned safely to Luobei. ”

"Among this route, in addition to the first flight from Luobei to Tengda and Dharan Zadagard to Yan'an. The routes from Fuji to Ulan-Ude, as well as from Ulan-Ude to Dharamzadagard, have already been opened up in Jiangbei. Our navigator should be familiar with this flight. ”

"After taking off in Luobei last week, they used Tengda and Ulan-Ude as transit refueling and rest points respectively. In Dharamzadagade, they were forbidden to leave the airport because of the strict control of the Soviet army, so they just refueled, and after a short rest, they flew directly to Yan'an. The journey was smooth and did not suffer from bad weather. ”

"At our request, after taking off from Luobei, this route will go north in a straight line, and the entire route will fly in Jiangbei before entering Outer Mongolia, and try to stay as far away as possible from the Manchu-Soviet border. Even if you enter the Kannai, you will bypass the Japanese-occupied area, and in general, you should not be attacked by Japanese planes, so it is very safe. ”

"The whole flight time, taking off from Luobei plus transferring and resting between the two places, if you take off from Luobei to land in Yan'an, it takes a total of four to five days. Even if you count the return time, it is only about ten days. ”

"Although this time will have to be postponed if there is no flight in the middle of the way. However, this is a month shorter than the time it took to pass through Lanzhou and Xinjiang in the Guannai and enter the Soviet Union, and then transfer trains to bypass thousands of kilometers. There are also many guarantees in terms of safety. ”

According to the navigator sent by Jiangbei to coordinate, the two Japanese transport planes will frequently land for refueling because of their short range. If we use the Li-2 transport aircraft or C46 transport aircraft produced in Jiangbei, we can only choose a foothold in Ulan-Ude to refuel, and then we can fly directly to Outer Mongolia. ”

"Our pilots have now arrived in Khabarovsk, where the command of the Jiangbei Far Eastern Military District is located, and are receiving transport planes transferred from Jiangbei. The planes below were all active aircraft drawn from the aviation of the Far Eastern Military District, so the transfer was fast.

"Plus we, the pilots, themselves trained on Russian aircraft, are familiar with these aircraft. As long as it takes half a month of adaptive training flights, it can be fully put into service. ”

"In addition, 48 Polish-made fighters and 15 light bombers that Jiangbei promised to help us have also arrived. Have we started to select pilots so that they can be sent to Jiangbei for training, so that they can form combat effectiveness as much as possible? Jiangbei's move this time was very fast, and as soon as the agreement was signed here, things were shipped over there. This was a bit of a surprise. ”

Hearing this, Yang Zhen, who always felt that Jiangbei was moving so fast this time, seemed to be trying to hide something, frowned and said: "Commander-in-chief, not only can the landing point of the plane not be reduced, but we must also discuss with Jiangbei to increase three or four alternate landing points as much as possible." The airplane is too affected by the weather, once the flight encounters bad weather, there is no alternate landing point, and the people on the plane have only a dead end. These 20 or so pilots of ours are precious, and we must try our best to ensure their flight safety. ”

"In addition, we should train pilots not only to see a few planes in front of us, but also to carefully select from among the veterans of the whole army, including company and platoon cadres, who have fought two battles, and from the fresh high school students according to the standard of six pilots of one plane. Together with the ground staff, select about 600 to 1,000 people first. Although the conditions are not yet in place, we must prepare for the formation of our own air force. ”

"In this way, let the comrades of the air force first receive the transport planes handed over by Jiangbei, and as for these fighters, I will have to look at them before making a decision. Anyway, now we don't have enough pilots, and even if we receive them, no one can fly, so they are stored in Jiangbei first. The rest will be decided when I get back from the fourth division. ”

It's just that what Yang Zhen didn't expect was that after he returned to Luobei from the inspection of the fourth and third divisions a month later, at the invitation of General Abanashenk, commander of the Far Eastern Military District of the Soviet Army, and political commissar Ivano Kung Fu, he went to Jiangbei to discuss the next step of cooperation between the two sides in the future.

If it weren't for the forcible suppression of the fire, Yang Zhen almost kicked to death Kovalev, who had been following his ass all day, without a single heart. Do they really think that they don't understand the market for the development of fighters? Fool yourself with these old antiques. If you use these things on the battlefield, you will send your pilots to death.

Truth be told, those twelve fighter-bombers were not bad. Not only are two of them considered the latest in Poland, but they are not lagging behind even at the level of the world as a whole. The overall performance, especially the bomb load of up to two and a half tons, is far superior to the PZL 37B medium bomber of the Type 97 medium bomber that the Kwantung Army is now equipped with.

A PZL Type 46A light bomber that flies faster than the Type 97 fighter currently used by the Kwantung Army as the main force. Although it is a prototype, it is already a mature and ready to be put into production, and has real combat capabilities. Even the remaining ten slightly older ones are all PZL Type 43 light bombers with good performance.

This bomber, which was originally intended for export to Bulgaria, was a significant improvement over the PZL II or III used by Poland itself, because of the installation of high-power engines, and the performance was much improved. These light bombers were not captured by the Soviets, but were handed over to the Soviets by the Germans in accordance with the agreement. But after a meticulous overhaul by the Germans, it was clear that the planes were well maintained. For these bombers, Yang Zhen is generally satisfied.

As for relatively good fighter-bombers, those fighters almost didn't Yang Zhen to death. Except for 22 of the 48 fighters, which were also captured by the Germans and handed over to the Soviet Army, the latest PZLP 24F fighters produced by Poland for Bulgaria before the war, the rest were all old PZLP 11 fighters originally captured by the Soviet Army. Among them there are even six PZLP Type VII fighters produced earlier.

Although these apparently repainted aircraft look bright on the surface, most of them have incomplete parts and even overused engines. There were several aircraft where the rifling of the machine guns was not grinded. Those planes with overused engines, as soon as they start, emit a large amount of smoke, which looks like it is on fire from a distance, and can choke people.

Let the ground crews at the Soviet airfield start the planes, and these ground crews will have to scrape together to find usable parts from the planes parked in the corner of the airfield, obviously as parts suppliers for these planes. Even as soon as an airplane starts, the engine simply burns because of the aging of the body.

As for finding a pilot to test fly, this airfield, where an entire flight regiment of the Soviet Army was stationed, was stunned that there was not a single pilot who dared to go to these six outdated P-7 planes. Not to mention these six old antiques, even the twenty relatively new, but facing the same dilemma, no one dared to fly.

All the pilots at the airport had already reached a consensus when the planes arrived at the station. How the superiors deal with it is a matter for the superiors, but now they don't fly if they are killed. From the fact that these planes were transported by train instead of to their own station, these pilots knew that these planes were definitely not good goods.

It's one thing to die honorably defending the airspace of the great Soviets, but it's another thing to fall to your death while driving these old antiques into the sky. Even the threats of the commissar were useless, none of these pilots were willing to test fly these for this distinguished guest.

Finally, under the threat that Kovalev would now send his family to a court-martial, the regiment took part in the Battle of Nomenkhan, and the chief navigator, who had shot down Japanese planes, climbed aboard a P11 plane with trepidation. Perhaps in his opinion, the plane is a bit old, but it should always be safer than those older P-7s.

But there was a thought that the plane, which had just been overhauled, had just left the runway and had not fully climbed into the sky before it fell headlong in full view of everyone. Although the pilot was not high above the ground and had a lot of experience, the plane was completely broken.

After careful inspection, it was found that the engines of this aircraft, which had been in production for three or six years and had been used for almost four years, had reached the end of their lifespan. Moreover, he was born in the United Kingdom, and he was accustomed to using high-grade fuel engines, and he was obviously not suitable for the Soviet-made jet fuel gauge that was too low.

After watching the clumsy performances of these state-of-the-art aircraft, Yang Zhen, who was blushing, turned around without saying a word, and finally understood that the buddy in front of him was clear about these planes, and Kovalev was full of embarrassment.

After returning to the station, Yang Zhen found the person in charge of the aviation team and went straight to the point: "Those bombers can be wanted, but except for the 22 P24 fighters, all of them will be returned to them, and not a single one." ”

Of course, these things are still unthinkable for Yang Zhen now. Although he was so generous from Jiangbei this time. In particular, Jiang Bei, who has always believed that Soviet-made weapons are the best weapons in the world, actually boasted that this plane was the latest fighter this time, but he didn't think too deeply.

For him, the matter of aviation is something that will be considered in the future. It is gratifying to have his own air force, but it is not fatal to have one, and although he has a strong desire in his heart to build a strong air force, he is very self-aware. You can't make it yourself, you can't buy it, you don't have money and there's no place. Therefore, Yang Zhen thinks that it is better to daydream less.

For Yang Zhen at the moment, the most important thing in his mind is to go south to the fourth division, which will have the heaviest task in the future, to check the terrain in order to plan for next year's battle plan.