The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 587 We're Attending the Feast (Bonus Chapter for the Gentle Big Bad Wolf)

Maintaining an altitude of approximately one thousand meters, at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour.

Mina piloted the Hawk-3 fighter jet, flying north without worrying about veering off course late at night.

Because a few minutes after she took off and flew dozens of kilometers to the north, the National Revolutionary Army launched a full-scale offensive against the retreating Japanese army.

All Mina had to do was turn her head and look down at the ground.

Then you'll see a long, narrow band of firelight stretching for dozens of miles, appearing before your eyes.

However, it wasn't someone on the ground who set off the fire; rather, it was the countless gun barrels and the flashes of explosions that created this incredibly bizarre spectacle.

For Mina, this unique landscape served as an excellent guide, making it difficult for her to fly in the wrong direction.

Not long after, a stretch of river more than 200 meters wide appeared before Mina's eyes; the girl immediately perked up, knowing that the Miluo River was below and she had arrived at her destination.

Upon closer inspection, one can see some simple floating bridges built on the river using small boats, wooden stakes, and planks.

The pontoon bridge is described as simple because the surface can barely accommodate three people walking side by side; even a horse-drawn carriage cannot pass, let alone a Japanese truck.

However, the existence of such a pontoon bridge still poses a huge threat to Hu Biao's plan to annihilate the Japanese 6th Division tonight.

No other reason than that the Japanese still had most of the 3rd Division, the 4th Division, the Hayabuchi Detachment, the 40th Division, and many other units on the north bank of the Miluo River.

The friendly forces in the 9th War Zone were unable to completely contain them.

If their large reinforcement force were to return, the troops led by Lao Ma, Xiao Henan, and Zhi Xiang, along with more than one regiment of the 74th Army, would be unable to stop them.

So Mina's mission tonight is to blow up this pontoon bridge and stop the large-scale Japanese reinforcements.

That's why, once they reached the airspace above the Miluo River, Mina peeked out and carefully observed the Japanese troops' defensive capabilities against the pontoon bridge.

And believe it or not! It seems this is quite a tough nut to crack.

Perhaps they had learned from the painful lesson of how the crucial pontoon bridge over the Xinqiang River was blown up by Commander Xiang Wenbin and his men a few days ago, preventing the supply convoy from reaching the destination.

The Japanese soldiers' defenses against this pontoon bridge were quite thorough.

Not only were a large battalion of troops deployed at each end of the pontoon bridge, but they also constructed exceptionally sturdy fortifications.

The bridge was also heavily guarded by sentries and equipped with numerous electric lights and searchlights; regardless of whether the attackers came from the water or the shore, they would be detected immediately.

Most importantly, they deployed several Type 93 13mm heavy machine guns on one side of the small boats used to build the pontoon bridge.

On both sides of the river, eight Type 8 20mm automatic cannons were deployed.

These heavy machine guns and automatic cannons were generally used by the Japanese for air defense.

They are now deployed here not for air defense, since the National Revolutionary Army has practically no air force left.

Rather, they were designed to kill Nationalist soldiers who approached by diving, and to destroy fire ships; if laid flat, their power would be far greater than that of the Type 92 heavy machine gun.

Now, by sheer chance, this has become one of the biggest obstacles for Mina to destroy the pontoon bridge.

Because of the narrowness of the pontoon bridge, Mina wouldn't have been able to accurately drop the only bomb on the plane onto the bridge, or get it close enough, unless she descended to a sufficiently low position.

During this descent, the Japanese heavy machine guns and automatic cannons posed a greater threat...

******
After quickly surveying the ground and discovering the immense threat posed by the Japanese anti-aircraft machine guns and automatic cannons, Mina's face showed no panic, but rather excitement.

He muttered to himself:
"The flying skills that my sister practiced by staying up all night researching and squeezing out shopping time in the modern world are finally coming in handy."

With this in mind, Mina did not begin her dive.

Instead, he pulled the nose up, maneuvering the aircraft to gain altitude at an angle, climbing another 500 meters to reach an altitude of 1500 meters before diving towards the ground.

With the added boost from the dive, the Hawk-3 fighter jet, which originally had a maximum speed of only 360 kilometers per hour, could reach its maximum speed.

It quickly broke through the maximum speed, and then gradually reached 400 kilometers per hour, 450 kilometers per hour, and even higher.

Unfortunately, Mina was spotted by the Japanese soldiers on the ground as soon as she flew over. They raised their guns and cannons, entering anti-aircraft combat mode; despite their large numbers, the Hawk-3 fighters were still too slow.

When Mina's aircraft reached an altitude of about 800 meters, the anti-aircraft firepower immediately erupted.

Because every few rounds of ammunition for these heavy machine guns and automatic cannons were loaded with a tracer round.

Therefore, Mina could see that dozens of fire snakes formed an extremely dense anti-aircraft fire net along the path of her descent, enveloping the aircraft.

This made it impossible for Mina to use her speed to force her way into the low-altitude area above the pontoon bridge.

Feeling bullets and shells flying around her, and knowing that her plane could be hit at any moment, Mina's cheeks flushed uncontrollably.

Her eyes, glistening with tears, shone even brighter than the stars in the night sky.

After taking a deep breath, she first performed a series of beautiful 'poke rolls'.

In other words, in a very short time, the aircraft's diving attitude was suddenly changed to a parallel flight attitude, and then the aircraft was made to rotate continuously along the horizontal axis.

This tactic successfully rendered all ground-based air defense fire ineffective.

Then, without waiting for the Japanese anti-aircraft personnel on the ground to adjust the angle of the gun and cannon muzzles, she pushed the nose of the Hawk-3 fighter jet back into high dive mode.

Just seconds later, the plane reached an altitude of less than 100 meters above the river surface.

Facing the imminent danger of plunging into the water, and the imminent threat of a dozen hastily adjusted anti-aircraft guns attacking the approaching aircraft.

Mina's body trembled inexplicably, but her hand movements and reactions were not delayed at all.

The plane, which was diving, suddenly and miraculously did a half-loop; as soon as the loop ended, it seamlessly followed with a half-roll.

The Japanese soldiers on the ground, of course, did not know that the above maneuver was the famous 'Jomelman Turn', but each of them still had a look of despair on their faces.

Because after Mina completed this set of movements, she not only avoided all of their firepower.

The key point is that the plane had already flown across the pontoon bridge at an altitude of only fifty or sixty meters.

And as it flew over the pontoon bridge, the fuselage shook, and a 227-kilogram bomb hanging on it was dropped onto the pontoon bridge.

It's a bit of a shame! Even though Mina aimed as hard as she could, the bomb still failed to land on the narrow pontoon bridge.

Fortunately, the distance wasn't far, only about two meters, and the power of the explosion was still enough to destroy the pontoon bridge.

As she dropped the bomb and pulled up the nose of the plane to quickly gain altitude, Mina looked back at the water behind her.

Then you can see that a huge splash of water, tens of meters high, suddenly rises from the water's surface, and at the same time, a section of the bridge, hundreds of meters long, twists and turns as if it were made of paper.

A very short time later, this section of the bridge completely disappeared.

Thus, Mina has perfectly completed the task of blowing up the bridge that her brother-in-law gave her.

And then! Mina flew away in her plane? Of course not; in the time that followed, Mina, as if dancing amidst anti-aircraft fire, performed two more dives and strafing maneuvers.

The few small boats that the Japanese soldiers had on both banks were riddled with bullet holes and then flooded.

In this way, the Japanese soldiers would not be able to transport their reinforcements from the north bank by small boat.

The only way was for the Japanese soldiers to carry a piece of wood and swim across.

The problem is, how many of the Japanese soldiers, already exhausted in terms of physical strength, mental strength, and morale, would jump into the water on this cold night, clinging to a piece of wood?

At this point, Mina piloted her fighter jet toward the next crucial battlefield.

As she left the airspace above the Miluo River, she used the radio on her Hawk-3 fighter jet to send a code signal indicating her success to the regimental headquarters:

The banquet has begun...

(End of this chapter)