"Right away," a Japanese adjutant reported, "the closest airfields to Wan Island are Hangzhou Jianqiao Airport, Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, and the aircraft from two naval bases in Okinawa. Of these, the Okinawa naval base is 663 kilometers from Wan Island’s Taoyuan Airport, Jianqiao Airport is 587 kilometers, Hongqiao Airport is 712 kilometers, and the naval base at Wusongkou is 740 kilometers from Taoyuan Airport."

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto walked to a world map and drew a few dotted lines on it with his hand. He immediately ordered, "Order all aircraft from the Wusongkou and Okinawa naval bases to immediately advance on Wan Island.

"The journey of over 700 kilometers will take about one hour and fifty minutes at top speed. The fighters can still fight for fifteen minutes after arriving at the battlefield.

"And by that time, the enemy planes will have been circling for about three hours. Their fighters will be short of fuel and will certainly not dare to engage in prolonged combat.

"Their fighters may even have already returned to base, making it the perfect time to attack their bombers.

"Order the Wan Island garrison and the airport defense forces to do everything possible to repair the runways immediately after the airport is attacked, in preparation for the landing of aircraft flying to Wan Island to fight."

"Hai!"

His orders were immediately relayed. In Wuhan, Detachment Commander Shigeno Hotta received a battle report from the mainland: "Wan Island is under attack by the Special Brigade’s air squadron.

"Order the Wan Island garrison forces to cooperate with the airport defense forces to quickly restore the airport's function and clear the runway to prepare for the landing of Imperial aircraft."

After issuing the order, Admiral Yamamoto finally looked at the map and began to think: "Is this special brigade air squadron that attacked Wan Island the same group that attacked Humen Fort this morning?"

He personally drew a line from Huiyang directly to the Wanbei Port, 800 kilometers!

"Such a long distance, their fighters will be out of fuel when they arrive!" Thinking of this, he ordered, "Send a message to Wanbei Port, asking what types of enemy aircraft are in the air."

At this time, Takashi Sakuragi had already run out of the basement. There was no other reason: the bombing planes had retreated.

Only now did they receive the inquiry about what types of aircraft were involved in the attack. Fortunately, they were still clear: "Fighters and bombers!"

"Fighters? They must have refueled en route! Where?" Yamamoto wondered.

"If the enemy aircraft that raided Wan Island are the same ones that attacked Humen Fort this morning, then their fighters must have needed to refuel.

"Where did they refuel?" Yamamoto asked.

The officers in his staff immediately began to work, and all the Japanese soldiers focused their attention on Quanzhou Airport, which was marked on the map.

Yamamoto was furious: "Order the bombers to bomb Quanzhou Airport!"

As a naval officer, he considered the bombing of the port to be a naval matter, and he did not think to notify the army at all.

Shigeno Hotta was not only the commander of the detachment, but also the commander of the Wan Island garrison. After receiving the order, he immediately sent a message back, ordering Hideki Nagayama, the deputy commander of the garrison who was still on Wan Island: "Immediately organize a team to go to each airport to prepare for the repair of the airports."

At this time, Taoyuan Airport guard squad leader Keigo Tanaka, on his way to find Commander Ryunosuke Mizuno, finally discovered the wrecked vehicles of the annihilated unit.

Although he could no longer recognize the deformed cars, he could still recognize them from the license plates. Commander Ryunosuke Mizuno's car was deformed, and the two charred corpses in the back seat were probably Commander Ryunosuke Mizuno.

Tanaka had no choice but to rush into the city and call the garrison headquarters, reporting the news that Taoyuan Airport had been occupied.

Vice Commander Hideki Nagayama had just received the order to send a team to rescue the airport when he received the news that the airport had been occupied. His reaction was the same as Commander Ryunosuke Mizuno: disbelief.

Now that the Japanese Navy Headquarters knew that the port had been bombed and the Army Headquarters knew that the airport had been bombed, the Army reacted calmly. They did not dare to gamble.

Yamamoto was betting that the Special Brigade's air squadron would retreat for lack of fuel when his fighters arrived, or perhaps had already retreated.

Perhaps his fleet could intercept the Special Brigade’s bombers. If so, his strategic intention would be achieved.

Upon receiving the news that Taoyuan Airport had been occupied by the Special Brigade, the Japanese Army Headquarters immediately ordered: "At all costs, the airport must be retaken, and all the Special Brigade's airborne troops occupying the airport must be left behind."

All the Japanese soldiers knew that as long as these people were left at the airport, they would never be able to escape.

Upon receiving the order, Deputy Commander Hideki Nagayama collected reports from all the airports. Fortunately, so far, only Taoyuan Airport had reported being occupied.

The other airports reported being bombed.

Although they were bombed rather badly!

Lin Fan's bomber squadron was bombing the Japanese Jinan Airport. The Special Brigade's bomber squadron had been too free in the skies over Wan Island today. No Japanese planes had harassed them during the bombing, and no Japanese anti-aircraft fire had been directed at them.

The Japanese airports were completely undefended, waiting to be bombed. This allowed the pilots on the bombers to lower their altitude as much as possible, and the accuracy of the bombing was increased by at least many times.

Bomb the Japanese first, then bomb the equipment! Today, there were no planes at the Japanese airports, so there was not much equipment left.

The nimble fighters first dove into position and strafed the Japanese soldiers at the airport, followed by the bombers bombing the Japanese airport buildings, and then the bombers bombing the Japanese oil depots.

They would not stop until they saw the oil depots burst into flames.

All the bomber squadrons completed their missions very smoothly. Neither the bombing of the airports nor the ports and docks encountered any resistance.

Inside Taoyuan Airport, Commander Huang Hongda was leading his soldiers, sweating profusely as they ran around.

His mission was to find the Japanese supplies in the airport and move them to the airport runway. Half an hour had passed.

He and his team had already found the Japanese aircraft parts warehouse, logistics supply warehouse, and weapons and ammunition warehouse.

These were all valuable materials, but ultimately not as direct as gold and banknotes. He had already arranged for most of the people to start transporting the materials.

Huang Hongda was still not giving up and continued to search with two or three confidants.

Qu Yanghui, the director of the oil depot, became excited when he opened the oil depot: there were at least tens of thousands of tons of fuel here!

If he were allowed to manage it, he would have become rich long ago!

He immediately directed his soldiers to quickly refuel the landing fighters: "Fill them up!"

This oil was not his, so he did not feel bad about adding more.

While refueling, Director Qu Yanghui had already begun to have people count the oil drums and, at the same time, asked people to bring over the empty oil drums to be filled.

He clearly remembered Shi Junxia's order: all the oil drums must be filled with oil, sent to the planes, and transported back.

This oil was money, all money!

Now that the only sea import route for the National Army was Zhanjiang Port, this oil was the most scarce commodity.

Whether it was the army or the people, the demand for it was rigid, and it was difficult to buy fuel even with money. Loading one more barrel was more than his monthly military salary.

While he was working hard to refuel, company commander Zhang Zhixin was also working hard to move goods. They first moved the aircraft maintenance parts to the runway, and then the weapons and ammunition.

Aircraft maintenance parts were the most valuable, but they could not be sold at all. Weapons and ammunition were good stuff, and in this chaotic world, they could be sold as long as you had them.

Quanzhou in this era was not peaceful, there were bandits everywhere, and they needed a lot of weapons and ammunition. Now that there were so many weapons and ammunition...

Zhang Zhixin was extremely happy in his heart. He was already thinking: the aircraft parts must all be given to the Special Brigade, but the airport should get some of the weapons and ammunition! Sell all the weapons and ammunition that were allocated.

Looking at the weapons here, there were at least two thousand guns. We don't want too much: one gun and one hundred bullets for each of the brothers at the airport.

Qu Yanghui was thinking the same thing in the oil depot: one barrel of oil for each of the brothers at the airport!

They were already thinking about how to distribute the spoils after returning to Quanzhou.

Deputy Commander Hideki Nagayama already knew the situation on the entire Wan Island. He was the first Japanese commander to know the overall situation: most of the airports and ports on the entire Wan Island had been bombed by the Special Brigade.

Only Taoyuan Airport was occupied by the Special Brigade. Why did they want to occupy Taoyuan Airport? Hideki Nagayama did not understand.

But he reported this information to Commander Shigeno Hotta and the Army Headquarters as it was.

At the same time, he had ordered the remaining forces of the First Garrison Regiment and the military police to organize a combat force of more than 3,000 Japanese soldiers to set off for Taoyuan Airport.

He also ordered the forces of the Second Garrison Regiment and the military police from Wanzhong and Wannan to mobilize more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers to form a second echelon to reinforce Taoyuan Airport.

Lin Fan did not know much about Wan Island when he organized the attack, and the bombing targets he set were only ports and airports.

He also did not know the location of the Japanese garrison's quarters. Lin Fan only knew one thing: the main force of the Wan Island garrison had been transferred by the Japanese headquarters to participate in the war of aggression since the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War. They were called the Shigetoh Detachment during the Battle of Shanghai, with Shigetoh Chiaki as the detachment commander.

During the Battle of Wuhan, their commander was replaced. Shigeno Hotta served as the detachment commander, and he was also the commander of the Wan Island garrison. Now his force was called the Hotta Detachment in the Japanese ranks.

Their combat effectiveness was originally only third-rate among the Japanese forces, but they had never been defeated in the Battle of Shanghai and the subsequent battles of Nanjing and the sneak attack on Wuhu, which made these Japanese soldiers rampant.

It was not until they were beaten back to their original form by Lin Fan leading the Second and Fifteenth Regiments of the Special Brigade at Ma Huiling that they calmed down a bit.

Although the main force of the Japanese Wan Island garrison had been withdrawn, they still had a garrison force on the island: the First Garrison Infantry Regiment, the Second Garrison Infantry Regiment, the Garrison Mountain Artillery Regiment, the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Team, the Base Heavy Artillery Regiment, the Gongdao Heavy Artillery Regiment, and so on.

The Special Brigade did not know the locations of these forces, so they were not included in the bombing targets.

Now, Hideki Nagayama was issuing orders to these forces. Although these forces had sent out their main equipment and main force, they still had some equipment after all.

The First Garrison Regiment, which was closest to Taoyuan Airport, was less than 40 kilometers from the airport, and the road was flat. Takuma Hyakudai, the captain of the First Regiment's garrison, immediately summoned his forces after receiving the order and issued an order: "The First Battalion will immediately take vehicles to the airport to reinforce, and the remaining forces will immediately collect various vehicles in the city to prepare for subsequent departures."

A 40-kilometer journey would take at least a day to walk on foot, and the situation might have deteriorated to an unknown extent by then.

Therefore, he ordered the immediate requisition of all vehicles so that the entire regiment of Japanese soldiers could travel together by car.

The military police in Wanbei City were also requisitioning cars everywhere, and their purpose was also to rush to Taoyuan Airport.

At the same time, the Japanese heavy artillery regiment, which was 55 kilometers away from Taoyuan Airport, was also nervously preparing to set off.

At this time, the Second Squadron of the Special Brigade's fighters had refueled and were flying towards their target. Mao Wenxing had ordered the bombers that had completed the first phase of their mission to land and start loading supplies. These bombers had bombed the Lake Basin Islands, and the bombs they were carrying had all been dropped. Now they were empty planes, which was the perfect time to load supplies.

According to Mao Wenxing's plan, these planes would fly to Huiyang after loading supplies. There were no Japanese planes in this direction, and even if the Japanese wanted to intercept them, there were no planes to carry out this task.

The people far away from Taoyuan Airport saw the busiest day at this airport since it was built.

Many planes landed and took off at the airport, and it had not been quiet for an hour.

In the sky near the airport, there were always many planes circling. Mao Wenxing arranged for twelve fighters and five bombers to protect Taoyuan Airport.

In fact, there were more than just these seventeen planes in the sky above the airport. There were also many planes that came to refuel.

According to Mao Wenxing's plan, these fighters had to maintain a combat state of at least half a tank of fuel at all times. Although it was more than 700 kilometers from the Japanese airport here,

Under normal circumstances, the Japanese would not send planes to fight, but what if there were commanders among the Japanese who were as daring as the brigade commander and sent fighters over?

Therefore, Mao Wenxing had been reminding himself: from the time he arrived at Taoyuan Airport, he had to send fighters to patrol the north and northeast directions an hour and a half later.

His plan was also approved by Lin Fan: when fighting a war, thinking about it more difficultly and arduously would make it less passive when difficulties arrived.

Now that the Special Brigade's troops had arrived at Taoyuan Airport for an hour, the first fighters to land and refuel were landing for the second time to refuel under Mao Wenxing's arrangement.

After these fighters were refueled, they would begin patrolling at high altitude, guarding against possible Japanese fighters!

Captain Pan Yongshan led thirty-six fighters, refueled again, replenished their ammunition, and soared into the sky to begin patrolling at high altitude.

The fighters had only used machine guns to strafe the Japanese soldiers on the ground in the previous battle, and the shells were used very sparingly.

This was to guard against possible air combat. The air combat in the morning made all the pilots clearly realize the importance of aircraft cannons in air combat.

Therefore, when dealing with Japanese infantry, they used machine guns as much as possible. The shells were now sufficiently prepared, just waiting for the Japanese to come and be shelled.

Yan Gaofei's fighter was shot down by the Japanese in the morning, and after being rescued by Captain Guo Yingwu, he drove a new fighter in the afternoon and set off with the team again.

Now he was flying high in the sky again, carefully inspecting the outside world, preparing to welcome the arrival of Japanese planes.

No one in the Special Brigade Air Squadron knew whether Japanese planes would come.

The intelligence network deployed by Lin Fan had not yet been extended to the Japanese interior. Everything the Special Brigade was doing now was just a strategic presumption and a preventive measure.

Captain Guan Guohao led thirty-six fighters and also began to land and enter the field to prepare for refueling.

Director Qu Yanghui was undoubtedly the busiest today. He directed his men to continuously refuel the planes, and these fighters were starting to refuel for the second time.

In addition, he had to have people load barrels of gasoline onto the bombers. So far, he had filled twenty bombers with oil.

Not only had the fuel tanks of the bombers been filled with oil, but the cabins of these bombers had also been filled with gasoline.

Twenty bombers filled with gasoline formed a formation and flew towards Huiyang. In the eyes of the Special Brigade Air Squadron, this route was still safe under the current circumstances, and of course they had to use this route to transfer supplies.

In another location, Commander Huang Hongda had led his men to search all the rooms in the airport, and Zhang Zhixin had led the soldiers of the guard company to fill the cabins of ten bombers.

These bombers all went to the oil depot to refuel first, then loaded supplies here, and finally five bombers formed a formation and flew back to Huiyang.

Everything was being transported in an orderly manner.

Under the leadership of Battalion Commander Miki Takuto, the First Battalion of the First Regiment of the Wan Island Garrison was driving more than fifty troop carriers, speeding towards Taoyuan Airport.

The only heavy weapons this battalion now had were heavy machine guns and mortars. The Type 92 infantry guns were all sent away when they were replenished to the Hotta Detachment in October.

Looking at the 1,300 fully staffed troops under his command.

Battalion Commander Miki Takuto was full of confidence: he had learned the number of troops occupying Taoyuan Airport from squad leader Tanaka Keigo and the few Japanese soldiers who had escaped.

It was estimated that the other side's strength exceeded 600 people.

In counting heads, squad leader Tanaka Keigo had passed the test. He was able to accurately estimate the number of Special Brigade troops sent to occupy the airport in the midst of such a tense escape.

This showed that squad leader Tanaka Keigo's professional basic knowledge of command was solid.

Although he was not able to accurately distinguish that the real combat troops only had a company of 250 people, and the rest of the soldiers were here to perform technical work.