novelden Chapter 493 Good things come to those who are late. It is better to arrive at the right time than to
Chapter 493 Good things come to those who are late. It is better to arrive at the right time than to
"Telegraph operator, contact the fighter planes immediately and have them evacuate in 15 minutes. Leave a gap for the Japanese to evacuate from the sky above the Black Stone Forest. Tell them to be careful when doing this and never let the Japanese find any flaws. After driving away the Japanese fighter planes, quickly return to the base and prepare to fight against the Japanese air force's massive attack."
"Lao Li, there is a valley 60 miles east of the Black Stone Forest. The nearby mountains and forests are dense and the ravines are relatively deep. If we use camouflage nets to camouflage, we can completely deceive the eyes of the Japanese. The reason why we were discovered by the Japanese this time is mainly because our wheel tracks are too deep. The Japanese can see it very clearly from high altitude, so they can directly determine our location."
"Lao Zhao, just leave the wounded to us. What you need to do now is to transport our food first. I will send an armored vehicle battalion to escort it to ensure the safety of our food. It is already around 11 o'clock in the morning. The Japanese have been fighting for air control for an hour and a half. I estimate that in another hour, the Japanese fighter planes will run out of fuel. If we don't retreat, we may not be able to retreat."
"Lao Li and I will hold out until 12 o'clock before we start to retreat. We will meet at the col before o'clock in the afternoon. Lao Zhao, you must check the situation nearby after you arrive. Don't be too careless. In the next two or three days, we need to take a short break and replace the engine. This is a huge project. I estimate it will take three or four days."
Zhao Gang left the Black Stone Forest as Lin Zhenhua arranged and headed for the nameless col. The Thunder Eagle Fighter Squadron, following Lin Zhenhua's instructions, shot down eight more Japanese bombers and deliberately left a gap for the Japanese bombers to escape. The Gaoqiao Fighter Squadron, which had been firmly suppressed, also managed to escape successfully under Sanwazi's deliberate release.
The 18 fighters of the Thunder Eagle Fighter Squadron immediately began to return, and Lin Zhenhua quickly issued an order to evacuate. This sudden air defense battle came to an end. In this battle, the Japanese side was shot down by a total of 15 Zero fighters, 16 Type horizontal bombers, and Type dive bombers, directly reducing the combat power by nearly half, which was a huge loss.
Lin Zhenhua's side also suffered heavy losses, with 700 casualties, 18 tanks and armored vehicles, 22 anti-aircraft guns, 13 anti-aircraft machine guns, 14 light and heavy machine guns, six Thunderhawk fighters, five pilots sacrificed, and one successfully rescued. As for the ammunition consumption, there is no statistics, but according to the figures reported by Zhao Gang before, the number is very huge.
"College student, this was a close call. If you hadn't asked the Thunderhawk Fighter Squadron to come to support us in advance, our armored forces would have suffered heavy losses. This time, we only lost less than two companies of armored forces, which was completely beyond my previous expectations. This time it can be considered a great victory."
"However, our vehicle engines must be replaced as soon as possible, otherwise we will not be able to continue the raid. The weather this year is a bit too weird. It hasn't rained since May. If it continues like this, it will seriously affect this year's summer grain harvest." Li Yunlong said with some concern.
Lin Zhenhua was also very worried about this. He immediately took out the weather forecast bottle hidden in the iron cabinet and immediately found something wrong. According to the instructions of the weather forecast bottle, it will rain tomorrow.
"Old Li, it will rain starting tomorrow. As for how many days the rain will last, I'm not sure. We have to hurry to the nameless mountain valley and find a suitable place to take shelter."
Lin Zhenhua spread out the map and looked at it carefully. He found that there was really no good place nearby, and he couldn't help but worry. Li Yunlong also looked around the map, but didn't find any suitable place. Suddenly, he had a bold idea and suggested excitedly: "College students, if it really rains, it will be a good thing for us. We should stay in the Black Stone Forest honestly. The rain can erase the traces of our armored vehicles."
"The Japanese probably never dreamed that we would stay in the Black Stone Forest. This time we will play a trick on them. I will ask the telegraph operator to send a telegram to Lao Zhao, asking him to bring the transport team back immediately. We must quickly open a landing field nearby and wait until nightfall so that the transport plane can land successfully."
"There are many trees in the Black Stone Forest. We can easily set up tents. If that doesn't work, we can live in the car. The terrain of the nameless col is too low. If the rain is light, the impact will not be too big. If the rain is heavy, it is likely to be flooded. We can't be stupid enough to go there, otherwise we may end up in trouble!"
Lin Zhenhua carefully considered Li Yunlong's opinion, nodded in agreement and said, "Old Li, your suggestion is very good. We should just stay in Black Stone Forest honestly. However, for safety reasons, we still need to send an armored battalion out to attract the attention of the Japanese fighter planes. After all, we cannot be sure that there are no Japanese reconnaissance planes in the sky. Sending out an armored battalion and faking traces of marching is the only way to truly deceive the Japanese."
"We have been out of the base for half a month. The days of traveling and fighting have made the soldiers very tired. We can take this opportunity to let them have a good rest. Our fuel has almost been consumed. We must resupply fuel and engines in the next two days."
"Time is still quite tight for us. We have to act quickly and replace the remaining dozens of engines we carry to ensure that our armored forces can be deployed in the best posture at any time."
Li Yunlong and Lin Zhenhua reached a consensus and took quick action. In order to confuse the Japanese, Li Yunlong mobilized two armored battalions to leave Heishilin. Lin Zhenhua continued to stay in Heishilin, looking for a suitable place to stay. Two doctors who came from the base area were also urgently operating on the wounded, and the medical staff also began to bandage and treat the wounded soldiers.
The entire Black Stone Forest was bustling with activity. The soldiers used the tanks' armor to knock down trees one by one, and then used iron saws to cut the trees into pieces. They used the pieces to build simple huts. A layer of waterproof cloth was tied on top of the huts, and many branches and weeds were placed on top to compact them. Wooden stakes were driven into the ground, and ropes were used to firmly fix the waterproof cloth, ensuring that the huts would be very safe even in windy weather.
Zhao Gang, who was heading towards the nameless col at a high speed, immediately started to return to the Black Stone Forest after receiving Lin Zhenhua's telegram. He rushed forward at full speed on the way there, but was slow on the way back, and it took him nearly two hours to return to the Black Stone Forest.
The kitchen team was relieved when they saw the food being transported back. They had already boiled hot water, and now they just needed to wash the rice and put it in. In order to reward the soldiers, the kitchen team prepared two meat dishes, one was canned beef stewed with cabbage, and the other was canned fish stewed with cabbage. They also used a special frying pan, brushed it with oil, and started to make fried pancakes. They were busy until 3:30 in the afternoon, when the soldiers finally had a hot lunch.
At noon, the soldiers were not hungry. Each of them ate a piece of compressed biscuit as a last resort. Compared with prepared meals, the compressed biscuits tasted really bad, and the soldiers ate them with their mouths full of oil.
Li Yunlong also returned with two armored battalions a quarter of an hour before dinner. After settling the troops, they were just in time for dinner.
"Haha, it's better to arrive at the right time than to arrive early. I came back just in time. College student, Lao Zhao, come over to eat quickly. We had lunch quite late today, but there's no need to be afraid of being late when we talk."
The monk and Duan Peng had already prepared food for Zhao Gang and Lin Zhenhua, and the two took it without hesitation and ate happily. Li Yunlong was not polite either, biting off a large piece of oil cake and eating it clean in two bites. After working for so long, he was already starving.
"College students, our food reserves are very sufficient, otherwise there would be no flour for everyone to make pancakes for lunch today. This time we seized a lot of food and cooking oil from the Japanese, enough for us to use for a month. From today on, we will let everyone eat white flour buns for every meal, and we don't have any pressure at all."
"What we are most in need of right now is ammunition. Today's air defense battle has consumed a lot of our ammunition, which is no less than a large-scale battle. Many of our ammunition reserves have run out, and the most abundant ones now are tank shells. More than 80% of the bullets and shells for other weapons have been consumed. If we don't replenish them, we will have difficulty even protecting ourselves."
"The engines of all vehicles must be replaced once. If they are not replaced, they will most likely break down on the road. When our transport team came back today, it took us half an hour just to repair the vehicles. Otherwise, we would have returned to Black Stone Forest long ago."
"A small part of the rainproof shelter has been built. After dinner, I will arrange for the soldiers to continue building it until the evening. We should be able to build all the shelters we need."
"It's better not to put the engines brought back from the base in the waterproof shack. I think it's safer to put them in the compartment of the armored vehicle. In addition, we don't have much fuel left. It's enough for us to use for half a day at most. If we can't get fuel supply from the base, the consequences will be disastrous!"