Li Zhize, upon receiving the task of building a temporary airport in Qianshan, didn't think it was a particularly massive project.

Before this, to accommodate the landing of Mao Wenxing's reconnaissance plane, makeshift runways over a thousand meters long had been smoothed out using existing roads in Qianshan, Taihu County, and even Tongcheng.

Now, all that was needed was to widen the runway and add a parking apron at the end.

This parking apron didn't need to be too big; it only needed to accommodate two planes.

Thinking of this requirement, Regiment Commander Li Zhize immediately came up with the idea of leveling a piece of land on each side of the runway's end, thus creating the parking apron.

The Tenth Regiment began organizing laborers in Qianshan to build the airport, while Chen Sichuan in Tongcheng was also fervently searching for a suitable site.

In his view, since an airport had to be built anyway, the location needed to be carefully selected. Tongcheng couldn't have anti-aircraft artillery groups like Jurong and Guangde.

This meant the airport's design itself needed to be well-executed, making it as difficult as possible for the Japanese to discover and, even if discovered, to prevent damage to the planes and airport facilities.

Infrastructure like the airport runway, even if bombed with craters, could be quickly repaired.

The biggest fear was the planes and fuel depots being hit by the Japanese. To fully protect the planes and fuel depots, the only option was to build the airport in the Dabie Mountains, finding existing large caves to house the planes and fuel depots separately.

When Chen Sichuan shared this idea with Lin Fan, Lin Fan naturally agreed wholeheartedly.

However, Lin Fan also told him, "There might not be an airport that perfectly meets these conditions. If you can't find such a standard airport, you can also set the airport entrance outside a canyon, with the middle and rear sections of the runway inside the canyon, and the parking apron and fuel depots all inside the canyon.

For air defense, you can use a high-caliber machine gun company, plus anti-aircraft guns to form a joint air defense regiment."

Lin Fan also guaranteed that he could equip Chen Sichuan's Jiangbei base with twenty planes and four anti-aircraft guns.

As the Special Forces Brigade's base area expanded, Lin Fan deeply felt the inadequacy of anti-aircraft artillery.

During the last purchase, the Special Forces Brigade didn't have much money.

This time, Lin Fan had the money recovered from dozens of Japanese banks. The Special Forces Brigade could truly be said to be richer than a country.

He wanted to buy another hundred 88mm anti-aircraft guns, each equipped with five hundred shells.

This was a large order that Krupp and the Germans couldn't refuse, and Lin Fan's payment unit was still gold.

It was now August 1938.

The German military advisory group in the National Revolutionary Army had already been completely withdrawn due to Japanese diplomatic efforts.

It would be somewhat difficult for Lin Fan to buy these hundred cannons.

He couldn't leave Taihu County, so he could only entrust the purchase of these hundred cannons to Li Xian, asking him to contact August, the East Asia regional representative of the Krupp Armaments Factory.

Since the German government had yielded to the Japanese request, August, this East Asia regional representative, was practically idle.

In the East Asia region, the one with the greatest need for weapons was, of course, Chiang Kai-shek.

The other small countries all had their respective suzerain states and had no need for weapons from Germany.

Due to the presence of the German military advisory group, Chiang Kai-shek would turn to him whenever he wanted to import advanced weapons.

As a result, this big client had now defected to the Soviet Union, leaving German weapons with no buyers.

As a regional representative, without performance, his words carried no weight.

At this moment, someone suddenly came to his door, asking for a hundred anti-aircraft guns plus fifty thousand shells.

This was a big deal!

And it was an old acquaintance he had dealt with before.

However, this business was a bit difficult.

Li Xian was clearly an expert in this area.

He only needed one sentence to find an excuse for August:

"Mr. August! The agreement you reached with the Japanese government is not to support Chiang Kai-shek, including withdrawing the military advisory group and no longer selling him weapons and equipment.

But we are not Chiang Kai-shek; we are the Jurong base!

I believe your government certainly hasn't restricted you from providing weapons to both sides of the war, right?"

August's eyes lit up instantly. "Of course not!

What the law doesn't prohibit is permissible!

We'll take this order.

We require payment in gold!"

Gold was the hard currency that could be used for circulation at any time.

Li Xian had been mentally prepared for this, thanks to Lin Fan's reminder.

"We need the delivery method and speed to be the same as last time!" Li Xian stated his requirements.

"Mr. Li, less than half a year has passed since the last delivery.

Our production speed isn't that fast."

August was a little anxious.

Last time, to deliver goods to the Special Forces Brigade, they had even postponed the German army's orders.

They couldn't do that again this time, no matter what.

Li Xian was a bit forceful. "If you can't deliver to the port within a month, we'll need a price reduction!"

A price reduction?

That was impossible!

Absolutely impossible.

August roared inwardly!

"A price reduction is impossible. We'll trade at the price we agreed upon last time.

To express our apology for not being able to deliver on time, we can give you a hundred anti-aircraft shells as a gift!"

August said, trying to keep his tone as gentle as possible.

"We have enough shells.

If that's the case, how about you give us two anti-aircraft guns as a gift?

After all, we didn't have any test samples either time."

Li Xian said with a smile.

Buying cannons and still wanting samples?

You've already shot down nearly a thousand Japanese planes.

And you still want to test them?

August became agitated once again.

However, he controlled his emotions.

"The time will be delayed by three months!"

"After all, we'll pay half of the purchase price when we sign the contract.

Such a large sum of money would make us a big client at any bank.

I think giving two anti-aircraft guns for each month of delay would be a constraint for both sides and seem fair!" Li Xian said with a smile.

August pondered silently for a while.

"Let's stop here for today.

I can't make a decision on this matter!"

The next day, when the two sides talked again, August said with a smile:

"Deal!"

Li Xian was also very happy.

In Jiangyin, he had personally seen Lin Fan operate these cannons to shoot down planes.

A few days ago, the Eighth Regiment had also shot down more than twenty Japanese planes without Lin Fan.

These could all fully illustrate the power of this type of anti-aircraft gun.

Now that the two sides could reach an agreement, he was naturally happy. "Deal!"

The two sides signed the contract.

Li Xian prepared red wine to celebrate, according to Western custom.

He also invited August to tour Jurong for a few days.

August had come specifically from Hong Kong to discuss business.

This was because Li Xian really couldn't leave.

The construction of Jurong was in full swing, and large numbers of refugees were arriving every day.

The first batch of grain that Lin Fan had purchased from abroad had arrived at the port.

Li Xian had grain in hand and didn't panic.

He could also receive a large number of refugees.

The Special Forces Brigade's Lunan Detachment was also busy receiving more refugees these days.

A large portion of the grain arriving in Wuhu was transferred to the Lunan Detachment.

Many wooden boats came all the way along the canal, conveniently delivering the grain.

These smuggling wooden boat captains had jointly bribed the checkpoints set up by the Japanese along the way.

For the puppet soldiers at these checkpoints, as long as they were given money, they would turn a blind eye and simply let them pass.

Lin Fan had practically handed over the rear area construction to Li Xian.

He was now focusing all his energy on the front lines.

The Konoe infantry unit of the Sixth Division was approaching Hutou Mountain and was finally two kilometers away.

The entire Konoe unit rested here.

They had marched thirteen kilometers.

After resting here for a while, they would go directly to the front lines.

Sergeant Eita Kawauchi sat on the ground, panting heavily.

The midday sun in August was scorching hot.

It was dazzlingly bright, but these Japanese soldiers were resting in the shade of the trees.

Sergeant Eita Kawauchi looked at the opposite side, not far away.

There seemed to be a flash of light.

He couldn't help but be curious.

He stood up, walked a dozen meters, parted the grass, and was startled by what he saw inside:

A shell was stuck in the ground.

Judging by its appearance, it was clearly an unexploded shell.

His actions had long attracted the attention of several Japanese soldiers around him.

When they saw a shell head stuck in the grass, they all laughed.

"Kawauchi-kun! This is a treasure!"

"Kawauchi-kun! This is a 150mm howitzer shell.

The shell head weighs fifty pounds!

This is a good thing!"

The speakers were all veterans.

Those newly supplemented Japanese soldiers in the Konoe unit were frightened when they saw such a shell.

They quickly moved away from it, afraid that such a big thing would explode.

The recruits' actions made the veterans laugh.

These old Japanese soldiers had seen too many unexploded shells on the battlefield.

Moreover, the markings on this shell clearly stated that it was a sand-filled shell.

Eita Kawauchi said sheepishly, "I thought it was some kind of treasure.

I didn't expect it to be this kind of thing.

I guess it flew over when the National Revolutionary Army was bombing Hutou Mountain."

This explanation was perfect!

The location where they were resting was two kilometers away from Hutou Mountain.

It was not uncommon for a 150mm howitzer shell to fly two kilometers.

The National Revolutionary Army plane in the air came again.

Although this plane had never fired a shot or dropped a shell, the Japanese soldiers of the Konoe unit were unhappy to see a plane that didn't belong to them soaring in the sky!

Even Unit Commander Konoe looked at the plane in the air and said, "Those devils in the air force are just eating dog shit. The empire has so many advanced planes, but they can't do anything about this plane. It's been flying around in the air for so many days. Instead, those air force planes are falling down one after another!"

As the unit commander complained, the staff officers in the unit headquarters immediately chimed in.

All these Japanese soldiers could say was how useless the air force was, and that the air force unit had so many warplanes that even throwing stones with their hands would be enough to knock down the Special Forces Brigade plane flying in the air.

Someone, in order to please Unit Commander Konoe, even pulled out a pistol and fired a shot at the plane in the air.

The crisp gunshot echoed in the valley, startling a large group of Japanese soldiers who were resting.

These Japanese soldiers quickly prostrated themselves on the ground, looking for cover and peering around nervously.

The consequences were clearly not what this reckless officer had expected.

Unit Commander Konoe had to send out a communications soldier to loudly announce to the Japanese soldiers that it was just a pistol that had gone off and that it was not an enemy attack!

...

Mao Wenxing spoke to Feng Junya in the air.

"I'm in position. The Japanese are currently at test point number three!"

Sergeant Eita Kawauchi was not wrong.

The shell he found was indeed a test shell.

There was one thing he guessed wrong:

This shell was not originally meant to hit Hutou Mountain, but to test the various locations in front of Hutou Mountain.

Before the Konoe unit arrived, the Eighth Regiment had tested a total of sixteen locations in this direction.

These locations were all places where the Japanese might stop to rest.

Now that they were stopping to rest at test point number three, the Eighth Regiment would, of course, use the number three test parameters for firing.

Regiment Commander Feng Junya loudly ordered, "Chief of Staff, what are the number three test parameters?"

The Eighth Regiment's Chief of Staff, Wu Kaile, was originally an 88mm anti-aircraft gun gunner.

Hearing the regiment commander's order, he immediately opened the small notebook in his hand and loudly answered, "Firing elevation angle thirty-four degrees six, direction angle sixty-nine degrees three, propellant band one, reduced charge two, propellant band two, reduced charge three..."

One piece of data after another was reported from his mouth and loudly transmitted by orderlies to each gun position.

At this moment, on the entire artillery position, the sound of the orderlies reporting the parameters and the responses of the gunners operating at each gun position could be heard:

"Firing elevation angle thirty-four degrees six, adjusted in place.

Direction angle sixty-nine degrees three, adjusted in place!"

...

The artillerymen's movements were crisp and efficient, and their responses were loud and clear.

Regiment Commander Feng Junya finally heard a report.

"All thirty-six 150mm howitzers in the regiment, all preparations are complete!

Please advise!"

Feng Junya loudly ordered, "Fire!"