Long before the army captured Hangzhou, more than 3,000 people of a main regiment of the Red 15 th Army raided and occupied the Jianqiao Airport outside Hangzhou and the Central Hangzhou Jianqiao Aircraft Manufacturing Company at a lightning speed under the guidance and help of the special combat team (it can only assemble and repair aircraft, and almost all the parts needed need to be imported, and the speed is far from being comparable with that of advanced countries). At present, China's largest aviation school, the Jianqiao Central Aviation School, captured more than 100 pilots and cadets, and captured more than 50 planes of various types.

What made Hu Weidong even happier was that before the liberation, the best domestic aircraft designer and the first chief engineer of the Boeing Company, the great bull Wang Zhu, was captured, and because of the disappointment he had been disappointed again and again in the past ten years since returning to China, he was impressed by Hu Weidong's advanced aircraft design and manufacturing concept, and he quickly agreed to work for the Red Army, but he also put forward two demands, one is not to make it public, so as not to harm his family, and the other is that Hu Weidong must fulfill his promise to build a real aircraft factory within five years, and Hu Weidong readily promised.

Among the captured pilots and trainees, there were also a lot of talents, including three of the "Four King Kongs" of the Chinese Air Force during the Anti-Japanese War -- instructors Gao Zhihang and Li Guidan, and the graduating cadet Le Yiqin, as well as Liu Zhesheng and Zheng Shaoyu, who shot down the most Japanese planes during the Anti-Japanese War in history, and many other outstanding pilots in the future.

The aviation of the Nationalist Army was generally opposed to the civil war (pilots generally had a high level of education, and slanderous statements such as "communist wives" in the national government could not deceive them. In addition, the speed of the Red 15th Army's offensive was too fast, and in order to prevent a large number of planes that did not have time to take off from being destroyed by the Red Army's artillery, Gao Zhihang surrendered to the Red 15th Army on the premise that the Red Army agreed not to confiscate the pilots' self-defense weapons, did not completely restrict their freedom of movement (as long as they did not leave the aviation school), and did not force them to fight the Nationalist Army. Gao Zhihang thought that the Red Army did not have an air force, so naturally he would not be interested in those planes, but who knew that Hu Weidong's first words after seeing Gao Zhihang and other pilots of the Nationalist Army were to ask them to fly to the Soviet area immediately.

"Without an airport, how can this plane land? Even if you make a safe forced landing, it will be difficult to fly again, don't pretend to understand! Gao Zhihang, who was pushed out by the pilots as negotiators, said unhappily.

"Who said we don't have an airport? Although it is only a field airfield, it is no problem to park dozens of biplanes here, and we have built an underground hangar, so we are not afraid of being discovered by the enemy. Hu Weidong said with a smile, in fact, he asked people to build a field airport in Chong'an County, Fujian Province just to build an airport in the future for jishu and talent reserves, who knew that a batch of planes were captured so quickly, he naturally would not let them go, Hu Weidong's only regret is that the airport was built a little smaller, and the larger transport planes could only be abandoned, and those few civilian airliners had to be left behind, but who knew in advance that the Red Army could actually wipe out the Jianqiao Central Aviation School without using artillery, So that almost all the planes were captured? What's more, it is too late in time, and the construction of large airports is much slower than that of field airfields

"You mean really?" Although Gao Zhihang questioned it, he already believed Hu Weidong's words in his heart, and even the underground hangar knew that it was not impossible to build an airport. However, a group of "chaotic parties" had already begun to build their own air force when they were still very weak (Note 1), and their ambitions could not help but move Gao Zhihang, and then think that although the Nanjing government also attached importance to the air force, it regarded it more as a façade and a tool for civil war, and that corruption was rife in the national army, and there were many factions, and even the atmosphere of the air force was corrupted, and most of the pilots could not even complete the basic training in full. Compared with the two, Gao Zhihang had the urge to join the Red Army for a moment, but after all, he was no longer a stunned young man with strong blood, and he quickly controlled his emotions. …,

"I want you to train pilots for our Red Army, and I will let you go when 100 people are out of the division, of course, if anyone is willing to join the Red Army, then we are very welcome." , Hu Weidong didn't want to waste any more time, and went straight to Gao Zhihang.

"This is impossible, the fuel in the aviation school and airport inventory is simply not enough, and more than a dozen rookie pilots can use up the inventory when they are qualified! Unless you still have a way to keep getting a lot of jet gas. Gao Zhihang shook his head and said, he couldn't help but be a little confused again, does the other party understand the aviation force?

"You misunderstood, what I mean by qualified means that you can safely fly the plane up and down and know how to fire." , Hu Weidong explained.

"That's okay, as long as the trainees aren't too stupid, they should be able to do it in a month, but what's the use of training this kind of pilot who is almost completely ineffective?" , Gao Zhihang was relieved and had a new puzzle.

Hu Weidong pondered for a while, but Zuihou still said honestly, "Okay, it doesn't hurt to tell you, our group of pilots at the beginning was not to drive planes to fight the enemy, but to drive planes to transfer places, on the one hand, to protect the captured planes here, on the other hand, to occupy the Japanese airfield in the future, we can drive the Japanese planes back, without having to blow them all up." ”

"How could an airplane be easily captured? Do you think you'll be so lucky all the time? Gao Zhihang couldn't help but sneer, but he reacted instantly, and shouted with wide eyes, "You said you want to fight the Japanese?" ”

"It's not that we want to fight, but we are already fighting, and the Japanese concession has now been taken, and now the assets of the Japanese are being confiscated. In fact, we declared war on Japan as early as 32 years, but unfortunately the statement was banned by Lao Chiang, and basically no one outside knew about it, and the Soviet area has been besieged by the national army, even if you want to fight small Japan, you have to have the opportunity to meet it", Hu Weidong shrugged and smiled, he knew Gao Zhihang's bitter hatred for Japan, so he naturally wanted to play the card of "anti-Japanese".

Gao Zhihang almost took the bait, but Hu Weidong's sentence that "the assets of the Japanese are being confiscated" made him suspect that the Red Army's anti-Japanese might only be out of greed to attack the Japanese, so he decided to observe for a period of time before making a choice. But Hu Weidong immediately threw out a bigger bait, "I heard that your former wife was Belarusian, and later was forced to break up because the Central Aviation Administration stipulated that officers could not marry foreign women, and our air force will not be so inhumane." ”

Although Gao Zhihang remarried in 32, due to the disagreement between the two temperaments, they have long been separated, which makes him miss his ex-wife even more, and the psychological impact of Hu Weidong's words on him can be imagined. Gao Zhihang almost blurted out that he agreed to join the Red Army, but in an instant, he thought about whether the planes captured by the Red Army could be preserved, and whether the Red Army would really fight against the Japanese army in the future, these were not yet certain, so Gao Zhihang Zuihou still suppressed his excitement and decided to take a look first.

Note 1: In fact, as early as the early thirties, the Red Party had already sent people to the Soviet Union to learn aircraft piloting and aircraft manufacturing, but due to domestic conditions, it was not until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War that they returned to China to establish their first aviation school, that is, the old Northeast Aviation School.