The 613th Regiment, led by Regiment Commander Luo Yibin, stationed at the westernmost edge of the Jiangyin defense area, requested artillery support.

Commander Xu Kang refused: all the artillery of the Jiangyin Fortress was busy exchanging fire with the Japanese naval fleet.

They also had to spare air defense forces to deal with Japanese aircraft.

There was really no extra strength to support the infantry.

It wasn't that the officers and soldiers of the fortresses were unwilling to provide support, but they had suffered the most intense attacks under the bombardment of Japanese artillery today.

Now, two 150mm cannons in the entire fortress had burst their barrels.

Six 100mm cannons were destroyed by Japanese artillery.

Many anti-aircraft gun positions were also damaged and could no longer be used.

All the fortresses were still continuing to block the river, preventing Japanese warships from approaching further.

The officers and soldiers on these fortresses were facing bombardment from three directions.

They also had to attack the Japanese planes in the air.

Lin Fan operated his cannon, firing at the Japanese planes.

He had now become the secret weapon for all the officers and soldiers in the entire Jiangyin Fortress to deal with Japanese aircraft.

With Lin Fan around, these soldiers could ignore the bombing and attacks of the Japanese planes.

The Japanese had become familiar with Lin Fan's tactics, and they no longer attacked in neat rows.

Because such formations had caused them too much damage.

The Japanese planes now staggered their attack routes, attacking from multiple directions and angles.

Even if Lin Fan was accurate, he still had to fire a shell and adjust the gun before he could fire the next one.

The result was a significant decrease in the efficiency of shooting down enemy planes.

The Special Company's two anti-aircraft guns, although with an air defense altitude of only 2,500 meters, truly played a role today.

Two streams of fire shot out from the Special Company's fortress, non-stop.

The entire Jiangyin area was filled with Japanese planes wreaking havoc.

They were not only bombing and attacking the fortress artillery positions, but also bombing and attacking the outer defenses of Jiangyin and the city itself.

Lin Fan operated the artillery in his hands, maintaining an undefeated record of shooting down a Japanese plane with every shell.

He steadily performed, taking down an enemy plane in less than two minutes.

In the small area of Xiaoshan Fortress, the bombing and attacks by Japanese planes were minimal.

Kamikata Sho, the captain of the 3rd Fleet's Aviation Battle Group who had previously organized the attack on Jiangyin Fortress, called for support from the warships: "The firepower of the defending Xiaoshan Fortress is unusually fierce, please provide support."

It was usually the naval ships on the river requesting air support, but this reverse request was highly valued by the navy.

Kiyoshi Hasegawa, the commander of the 3rd Fleet, immediately reacted: "Focus the bombardment on Xiaoshan Fortress!"

At this time, the status of the Japanese aviation battle group was still low, and it had not yet become an independent force.

Captain Kamikata Sho, having lowered his stance and just requested support from his big brother, the navy, of course wouldn't hold back just because he belonged to the navy. He immediately requested artillery support from his second brother, the army.

A naval aviation battle group requesting artillery support from the army was a once-in-a-millennium event.

Lieutenant General Tateki Ogisu, the commander of the 13th Division, also responded positively.

He ordered the 5th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment and the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment to concentrate long-range artillery fire and bombard Xiaoshan Fortress as much as possible.

They had to make this bombardment beautiful, to show the navy how the army fought.

When Lin Fan shot down the fifteenth plane, he felt the unfriendliness of the entire sky.

This time it wasn't because there were many enemy planes, but because the Japanese artillery fire seemed to have suddenly agreed to meet in Xiaoshan.

The entire Xiaoshan Fortress suffered the most intense artillery strike in its history.

Under this situation, Lin Fan ordered: "The Special Company's two anti-aircraft machine guns retreat into the bunkers.

Await orders, the entire company prepares for a突击 (tūjī - assault)."

Not only was his artillery position retreating, but all the artillery positions on Xiaoshan were retreating.

Ji Wudi realized earlier than Lin Fan that the main target of the Japanese bombardment had changed.

It had become Xiaoshan Fortress.

Lin Fan didn't dare to continue to hold on to this artillery position.

The entire Special Company only had one 88mm anti-aircraft gun.

Lin Fan loudly ordered: "Directly subordinate unit, immediately transfer the artillery."

At the order, Feng Junya immediately came up with the people from the directly subordinate unit.

Gong Boyi, the best driver in the entire Special Company, immediately drove the tractor into position, braving the artillery fire.

In three minutes, the cannon had left its original position.

Lin Fan ordered: "The entire Special Company launches towards Henggang."

He had seen that the Japanese warships on the river were the ones firing the most happily today.

Xiaoshan Fortress was a fixed target, and the Japanese had long measured the general location of the entire fortress artillery position.

As long as enough shells were dropped, no matter where the fortress was, it would be within range of the Japanese artillery bombardment.

Not to mention that the Japanese seemed to be pouring all their firepower on Xiaoshan.

He had to break through.

He had to find another place to fight the Japanese.

This time, all the cars assigned to the various squads were driven out. Unlike before, each car was filled with soldiers.

Henggang was the place where the Special Company had ambushed once before.

All the soldiers were familiar with the road, and they had even run a training exercise there yesterday.

Now, Lin Fan was in the first car, operating an anti-aircraft machine gun.

This was to deal with Japanese planes.

As for ammunition, that was up to luck.

The Special Company's more than 1,000 soldiers and 30-plus cars drove out of Xiaoshan Fortress.

Not only were the officers and soldiers on the entire fortress shocked, but even Fortress Commander Xu Kang was startled: Was the Special Company retreating?

He quickly asked Staff Officer He, "Has the ammunition for the Special Company been distributed?"

"No!" Staff Officer He said decisively.

Commander Xu Kang felt much relieved. In recent days, he felt that he understood Lin Fan.

He wouldn't leave just like that before the fat meat in his mouth was swallowed.

There was no way he would leave.

It seemed that he was preparing to leave Xiaoshan, this area of intense artillery fire.

Thinking of this, Commander Xu Kang immediately issued an order: "Allow them to pass all the way, do not stop the Special Company from launching an attack."

Lin Fan's car was at the front.

He saw with his own eyes that one of the cars in his team was hit by a Japanese shell.

A large crater suddenly appeared in the road.

The car that was hit was affected both in front and behind, losing at least three cars.

As for the casualties, Lin Fan could only write down the names of these soldiers.

The road ahead was blown up by Japanese artillery fire.

Zhen Danxiao's team was blocked, and he immediately jumped out of the car.

He ordered, "Push these three cars to the side. Carefully carry the sacrificed comrades to the side and lay them down properly.

Bring down the prepared planks and wooden stakes from the cars and immediately build a simple road."

Each car in the Special Company carried five 15cm thick, 30cm wide, and 3m long wooden stakes.

These were for wartime use.

And they had used these things to build temporary bridges and cross small rivers during their field exercises a few days ago.

Zhen Danxiao shouted loudly to Ye Dadan, who was running over, "Disperse your men.

Concentrate here again after ten minutes."

Ye Dadan smiled, "Do I need you to tell me what to do with my soldiers? They've already rushed forward."

Only then did Zhen Danxiao see two teams of Special Company soldiers running towards Henggang along the small road.

Yang Daren, with his seventh squad, even waved at him.

Ye Dadan quickly said, "I'll go first, you fix the road so my car can catch up quickly."

Xiaoshan became the focus of all the Japanese attention. When Lin Fan's team appeared, it immediately attracted the attention of Matsuki Chikae.

Today, these pilots of the aviation battle group noticed that the air defense capabilities of the entire Jiangyin Fortress were not as terrifying as rumored.

More than 130 warplanes entered this airspace today, and only a dozen were shot down.

Now they dared to discover targets and take the initiative to attack.

Matsuki Chikae discovered a team rushing out of Xiaoshan Fortress.

He immediately reported via radio, "Captain Kamikata Sho: A team has rushed out of Xiaoshan Fortress.

There are at least a thousand people, and many cars."

Captain Kamikata Sho immediately sensed that this might be the secret to how Xiaoshan Fortress shot down so many imperial planes.

He immediately ordered, "Attention everyone, concentrate your strength to hunt down that team that rushed out."

Immediately, a pilot laughed in the radio, "Is this their secret weapon? Was it finally forced out by the empire's artillery fire?"

Matsuki Akie was the first to discover it, and now he was the first to dive down towards the leading car of this team.

As long as the lead car was blown up, the cars following behind would be blocked, and then they could wait to be attacked by the entire aviation battle group's planes in turn.

Matsuki Akie had a smile on his face as he pressed the firing button of the two machine guns on the plane.

Two streams of fire had already begun to shoot downwards.

Suddenly, the smile on his face stiffened: a string of bullets pierced the fighter's glass and hit him.

Matsuki Chikae didn't feel any pain.

The 20mm autocannon bullets were outrageously large.

Only one was needed to die, and he had been hit by several.

The plane he was piloting hadn't disintegrated yet, but Matsuki Chikae, the pilot, had been split in his seat.

Matsuki Chikae had truly裂开了 (liè kāi le - split open).

Several bullets separated him from the middle.

Not far away, Furuya Nojun, who was flying towards this airspace, saw with his own eyes that Akie Matsuki was piloting his fighter plane, heading straight towards the ground.

It was so resolute, so selfless.

However, what stunned Furuya Nojun was that even though the plane had dived to the critical point.

Akie Matsuki didn't pull the plane up. He crashed straight into the earth as if committing suicide.

It was as if he wanted to crash a road straight to the underworld from the earth.

In any case, Akie Matsuki had definitely found the road.

However, the pilot Furuya Nojun didn't have such thoughts.

He didn't want to report to the underworld, but now he didn't dare to escape.

Just a few days ago, he had hunted down a deserter, and the empire had paid the price of seven warplanes to kill that person.

This made Furuya Nojun only able to think about it, but not dare to actually do it.

Helplessly, Furuya Nojun could only make the same tactical action as Akie Matsuki.

Dive! Dive down!

The only difference was that he hadn't started shooting yet!

He hoped that his friendly behavior, the goodwill he had implicitly expressed, could be understood by the gods who controlled this airspace.

So that they could spare him.

He was just pretending to dive, and guaranteed that he wouldn't fire a single bullet at the ground.

Furuya Nojun was silently making a vow in his heart, hoping to get a response.

His friendliness also received friendliness at an altitude of 3,000 meters. No shells, no bullets were fired at him.

At an altitude of 2,500 meters, the entire airspace was also very friendly to him.

Furuya Nojun suppressed his fear and didn't immediately pull up the plane, and just skimmed past Xiaoshan.

He wanted to hold on a little longer, just a little longer.

"I'm just flying low, I won't hurt you. I can even flap my wings for you.

Just think of it as a performance for you." Furuya Nojun's palms were sweating.

Two thousand meters, fifteen hundred meters, all was safe!

Everything was fine!

The next moment, everything changed. A line of fire suddenly appeared in front of Furuya Nojun.

His already sweaty hand reflexively pressed down, and the two 7.7mm machine guns on the fighter plane also spat out two long streams of fire.

Sweeping towards the ground.

"It's over!" This was the last thought of the pilot Furuya Nojun.

From a slightly further distance, Nakasode Ryotaro had personally witnessed two planes in a row, in perfect condition.

They had just dived according to the standard tactical actions, and then they had been rushing to hell.

"There are ghosts!" Nakasode Ryotaro suddenly shouted loudly.

In the radio, his shout spread to the entire flying squadron.

"What's wrong?" A pilot immediately began to ask.

"Matsuki-kun and Furuya-kun just drove their planes straight into the ground," Nakasode Ryotaro said urgently.

Captain Kamikata Sho quickly interrupted him, "They must have been shot down by the defending army's artillery."

"No! There was nothing wrong with their planes, they just dived so well, and then they kept diving, kept diving, until they rushed into the soil."

Kamikata Sho shouted sternly, "Nakasode-kun! Don't say any more.

Disturbing the morale of the army is a serious crime.

Besides, Matsuki-kun and the others may have just rushed too fast and didn't have time to pull up the plane."

Nakasode Ryotaro didn't dare to speak any more.

"They didn't even have the action of pulling up the plane!" Nakasode Ryotaro said silently to himself.

He thought of escaping, but he didn't dare! The empire's attitude towards deserters was extremely resolute. Last time, it had cost seven fighter planes to personally witness the deserter's death.

"I'm coming!" Nakasode Ryotaro muttered silently.

He also began to attack.

Ji Wudi held the car railing tightly with both hands, her two big eyes staring closely at the enemy plane diving down.

The screeching sound from the plane diving down made people distracted and upset.

The two long streams of fire under the belly of the plane looked very annoying.

In Ji Wudi's opinion, if the Japanese plane was allowed to strafe.

The Special Company's convoy would suffer heavy casualties.

But with the company commander around, she believed that such a thing would not happen.

Sure enough, the diving enemy plane crashed straight into the distant field.

The second and third planes also crashed in the same way.

"The company commander's artillery is too good. He can still shoot down planes while driving like this." Ji Wudi looked at Lin Fan with admiration and reverence.

It was as if she could see a flower blooming on him.

She wasn't the only one on this car looking at Lin Fan like this, all the dozen or so people on the car were looking at Lin Fan like this.

Especially Wu Xiaobao and Zhao Long, those two kids.

Their admiration and respect for Lin Fan had long been ingrained in their bones.

Nakasode Ryotaro's plane dived as he imagined.

Keep diving!

Until he rushed into the wilderness.

This time, it wasn't just one plane that saw this scene.

The planes that had rushed here nearby all saw it.

The faces of these pilots all changed: It really was a cursed place.

These pilots didn't dare to escape, so these pilots started diving from a distance.

They were preparing to enter the cursed plane-restricted area of Jiangyin Fortress in level flight.

Sure enough, it was true, these planes didn't have any accidents when they dived and leveled out from a distance.

When Company Commander Jiang Zhenghao was directing the soldiers to fight most fiercely, five enemy planes suddenly dived down from the sky.

"They really think highly of me!

The infantry didn't rush up just now, and the cavalry came to charge once.

Now you also ran in groups to attack." Jiang Zhenghao spat.

What surprised him was that these five Japanese fighter planes only dived and didn't attack.

The gun barrels under the belly of the plane were clearly visible, but they didn't fire bullets.

This made Jiang Zhenghao very happy, "Brothers! Did you see that! The Japanese infantry charge was repelled by us.

The cavalry charge was driven away by us, and now their planes are rushing down.

They didn't even dare to fire their guns and ran away.

Fight well everyone! The Japanese are already scared."

All the soldiers in the entire company laughed.

Although everyone knew that the company commander was joking.

However, the Japanese planes did run away without firing a single bullet.

This was too heartening.

The bullets fired from the position were much fiercer.

Lin Fan and the others had rushed out of the Xiaoshan area.

Although they hadn't rushed out of the fortress range, they could clearly feel that there was no more artillery bombardment around.

This didn't mean that the Japanese artillery bombardment had stopped.

The entire Xiaoshan was still shaking!

The Japanese had concentrated all their artillery fire on Xiaoshan.

"Assemble in place!

Anti-aircraft guns prepare to fire!" Lin Fan ordered.

He wanted to wait for Zhen Danxiao's squad here.

And the cars that were blocked behind.

Lin Fan was afraid that after he left with the large team, Zhen Danxiao's squad would become the preferred target for Japanese planes to attack.

The range of the anti-aircraft gun was much higher than the anti-aircraft machine gun in his hand.

Since they were going to wait for people here, and there was no more Japanese artillery bombardment here.

So the officers and soldiers of the entire directly subordinate unit immediately took action.

Every squad in the Special Column was very skilled in the training of converting this gun from traveling to firing state.

Especially the directly subordinate unit, they were operating this gun every day.

In three minutes, the 88mm anti-aircraft gun had been set up.

And they had adjusted the firing angle to the general direction.

Now, the two 20mm anti-aircraft machine guns were handed over to Wu Xiaobao and the others.

Lin Fan returned to the seat of the anti-aircraft gun.

He opened fire at the enemy planes that were flying low.