It yanked back on the control stick, trying to level the plane.

Rongcang Yongjie believed that with this maneuver, even if enemy planes were pursuing him, they wouldn't be able to catch up now.

This maneuver was something even he had never attempted before. It seemed the saying "a cornered dog will jump a wall, and even a desperate rabbit will bite" was true. He had actually broken through his technical limitations in this life-or-death moment. He was quite proud of himself.

Rongcang Yongjie was now certain that no enemy planes were following him. He had just glanced at the sea and saw no splashes of bullets hitting the calm surface.

If enemy planes were chasing him, they would have been spraying machine-gun fire. With machine-gun fire, there would definitely be dense splashes on the sea. No splashes meant no gunfire, which meant no pursuers.

This reasoning was sound. The pilot Rongcang Yongjie felt more relaxed.

Just as his plane leveled out and was slowly climbing, he suddenly felt the fuselage shaking. As a veteran, the Japanese soldier immediately knew that the plane was being strafed by machine-gun fire.

How familiar this trembling sensation was! It wasn't the first time he had flown a fighter being hit by bullets, but he had never been hit this much before.

Judging from the frequency of the fighter's shaking, the opponent was hitting his plane with every single machine-gun bullet. At this rate, the fighter wouldn't last long. Rongcang Yongjie panicked. He was truly desperate.

His plane was still less than a thousand meters above the sea, offering little room for evasive maneuvers. He could only sway left and right, hoping to shake off the pursuit.

After three consecutive turns failed to evade the machine-gun fire, Rongcang Yongjie, a sergeant, felt his heart turn to ashes. Was there no escape?

Rongcang Yongjie could only resort to his last trick: a rapid descent, even if the altitude was insufficient.

His fighter began to dive towards the sea again, with the same steep angle and rapid descent.

This maneuver stunned Yan Gaofei, who was following him: This Japanese devil's skill is extraordinary!

To be able to perform such a steep dive at such a low altitude was truly admirable!

Admiring and somewhat ashamed, Yan Gaofei could only watch the Japanese fighter dive toward the sea. Knowing that this was the Japanese soldier's attempt to escape his pursuit, he was helpless to do anything about it.

The first time Rongcang Yongjie used this method, he was at an altitude of three thousand meters. Now, he was less than a thousand meters above the sea. Using the same technique produced vastly different results.

When he descended rapidly from three thousand meters, Yan Gaofei immediately followed, chasing him down. At an altitude of less than a thousand meters, Rongcang Yongjie piloted the fighter in a rapid descent, but Yan Gaofei, although also descending in pursuit, dared not follow with the same steep angle.

At this rate, he would definitely lose track of the Japanese fighter.

Ashamed, Yan Gaofei could only watch the Japanese plane dive, continue to dive, and then plunge into the sea, scattering into a pile of debris.

Seeing this result, Yan Gaofei smiled: So, the Japanese devil was doing a suicidal dive. Truly admirable!

Rongcang Yongjie had done it out of desperation. When the plane was less than a hundred meters above the sea, he had tried to pull up the nose and fly level, hoping to escape the danger.

However, the angle of descent was too steep, and the speed was too fast. The nose only managed a slight upward movement before contacting the sea.

It was a perfect high-altitude water entry, except the splash wasn't well suppressed, and a large spray of water erupted.

The fighter couldn't withstand such an angle of entry and immediately broke apart. Sergeant Rongcang Yongjie, though inside the cockpit, was instantly crushed into a pancake by the force of the high-speed impact.

The bright red blood and white bone fragments quickly disappeared without a trace in the churning seawater. The sea remained the same as before, only a few specks of oil floating on the surface proved that Rongcang Yongjie had been submerged.

Pilot Aiba Taiichi had just boasted that he could shoot down four bombers from the Special Operations Brigade if he encountered them.

At that time, the Japanese soldiers of the Nikko Shinnosuke squadron were in high spirits, and no one wanted to spoil the mood. No one asked how many fighters he could shoot down if he encountered a fighter squadron.

Captain Nikko Shinnosuke also intentionally or unintentionally ignored the question and didn't ask.

This was because they all knew that the biggest weakness of the fighter squadron that had crossed the sea was insufficient fuel. The entire Nikko Shinnosuke squadron would crash into the sea after only five minutes of aerial combat.

During the first wave of attacks by Pan Yongshan's squadron, although many fighters of the Japanese Nikko Shinnosuke aviation squadron were destroyed, most of the Japanese soldiers escaped.

Although they had survived the first round of attacks, the situation was not optimistic. Even after paying the price of a dozen or so fighters, the remaining fighters were still in a vulnerable position.

Pan Yongnian's aviation squadron still held the advantage in the ensuing battle. Mencius said: "In war, the time of heaven, the advantages of terrain, and the harmony of people are essential."

Pan Yongnian's aviation squadron now occupied the high ground, which was the advantage of terrain, and they maintained this advantage.

This made the Japanese soldiers of the Nikko Shinnosuke aviation squadron uncomfortable. Their numbers were already reduced, and they had lost the advantage of terrain.

The only thing these Japanese soldiers could do was to exchange time for space, accelerate and flee, and then seize a favorable position in the process of fleeing to launch a counterattack.

The surviving Japanese soldiers understood this plan, and pilot Aiba Taiichi knew it too. So, he steered his fighter slightly downward, accelerated, and headed towards the nearby land on the left.

Pilot Aiba Taiichi thought much more, farther, and more meticulously than Sergeant Rongcang Yongjie: He was now flying his fighter towards the land. If he ran out of fuel, he could still parachute to safety.

Evading pursuit like Rongcang Yongjie, even if he wasn't shot down, he would eventually run out of fuel and drown in the sea.

The clever pilot Aiba Taiichi pushed the throttle to the maximum, wishing the plane could transform into a beam of light in the sky and escape.

Xie Huaqiang was closely pursuing a fighter. This Japanese soldier was very cunning, flying at a high speed and using the "drifting leaf" technique, making the entire plane float left and right in the air, making it impossible to pinpoint its position.

Unable to pinpoint the position, the cannons couldn't be aimed, and he could only use the machine gun to strafe continuously, which was just comforting himself. Seeing that the effect of the machine-gun fire was almost non-existent, Xie Huaqiang stopped firing.

He just followed behind this cunning Japanese plane, neither approaching nor moving away, just following behind it to learn the technique, quietly watching its performance.

Aiba Taiichi succeeded in flying the plane over the land of Wan Island. There was a plane following him at an altitude of six or seven hundred meters, and he still hadn't shaken it off.

This made Aiba Taiichi a little nervous. The fuel gauge on his plane had been at the bottom for a while, and it wouldn't move anymore.

But how long could the fuel last?

With a fighter following behind, Aiba Taiichi dared not reduce his speed. He could only lower his altitude. Under these circumstances, a forced landing was impossible.

If he slowed down for a forced landing, he would be finished by a burst of machine-gun fire from behind.

If he couldn't make a forced landing, how would he survive? Parachute?

Xie Huaqiang, who was closely following the Japanese fighter, saw the propeller of the plane in front of him stop. Had the Japanese engine stalled in the air?

The fuel had finally run out, and the engine finally stopped making a loud noise.

Aiba Taiichi felt the whole world suddenly become quiet, terrifyingly quiet, like hell: "Should I parachute now? Or not?"

The Japanese fighter stalled in the air and finally stopped drifting left and right.

Strike while the iron is hot! This had always been the tradition of the Special Operations Brigade. At this time, talking about fairness and equality was irresponsible to oneself.

Xie Huaqiang easily aimed and pressed the cannon's launch button: "Boom!"

Then he saw the Japanese plane in front of him explode instantly, turning into a ball of fire.

So, Aiba Taiichi really went to hell. He no longer needed to choose whether to parachute or not, because whether he jumped or not, he would eventually go to hell.

Xie Huaqiang blew up the cunning Japanese fighter in front of him and just said in the channel: "The Japanese fighter has stalled in the air."

Immediately, several comrades' voices came from the entire channel: "The Japanese fighters here are the same, they stall in the air while running."

"The same here." "The same here."

…

The Japanese soldiers who were piloting the fighters to escape were different, but their fighters all chose to stall at the same time.

Pan Yongshan immediately reported the situation to Mao Wenxing: "The Japanese fighters are suddenly experiencing widespread engine stalls in the air, suspected of insufficient fuel after flying a long distance."

The fighters of the Kishida Aritomo aviation squadron were similar. In fact, the time when they stalled in the air was one or two minutes earlier. This was because they took off from the Paomaching airport and flew dozens of kilometers more.

This time, the Special Operations Brigade aviation squadron got a big advantage. Both Japanese aviation squadrons ran out of fuel.

But thinking about it carefully, this result was normal.

Weren't the fighters of the Special Operations Brigade aviation squadron the same? They had plenty of fuel when they flew here, which was why they were thinking of replenishing fuel in Quanzhou.

Then they changed to Taoyuan Airport to replenish fuel.

Mao Wenxing said with a smile: "This is normal. You have already added the Japanese fuel twice. Their initial plan must have been to refuel and then fight after arriving here.

A wave of Japanese aviation squadrons has come. I don't know if there will be a second wave. You must pay attention to patrolling."

"Yes!"

"All fighters pay attention to checking fuel. We cannot make the mistakes that the Japanese devils made."

The three fighter aviation squadrons continued to patrol along Wan Island. At this time, more than two hundred bombers from the Special Operations Brigade were also patrolling the skies over Wan Island. They were carefully searching for the Wan Island garrison's troops and camps.

At this time, Quanzhou Airport was facing a fierce bombing raid by a wave of Japanese bomber squadrons. This was a Japanese squadron that took off from Jianqiao Airport.

The Japanese Staff Headquarters believed that the Special Operations Brigade's fighters took off from Quanzhou Airport, so they sent fighters to Wan Island and bombers to bomb Quanzhou Airport.

Ishizu Seiku, the aviation squadron leader, led a team of eighteen bombers and flew to Quanzhou Airport.

There were no planes on the entire airport, and no one was on the runway. Although no grass had grown on the runway, it was clear that it had been carefully maintained.

But this didn't seem like an airport that could support bombing Wan Island!

Moreover, the garrison force of the National Army at this airport was too small! It was completely different from what the intelligence said. The Japanese intelligence personnel had infiltrated the coastal areas very deeply.

They colluded with local merchants and bandits and had already figured out the situation at Quanzhou Airport: There were at least three or four hundred garrison troops here.

The Japanese soldiers of the Ishizu Seiku squadron bombed the entire airport, not only the runway, but also the buildings and oil depots.

It was obvious that the oil depot had been hit by a bomb and caught fire, but the fire was burning too weakly.

Shouldn't an oil depot fire be a raging inferno?

The puzzled squadron leader Ishizu Seiku didn't understand what was going on.

Of course, he didn't know that the entire Quanzhou Airport now had less than fifty personnel left. All the other personnel were busy at Taoyuan Airport at this time.

Even these fifty National Army soldiers who were left behind were gathered together to play just now. When they discovered that enemy planes were attacking, they rushed into the air-raid shelter together.

Then everyone was hoping that the Japanese would blow up the oil depot quickly. There was no oil in the oil depot, which was a not-so-secret secret of the entire airport. The officers ate meat, and the ordinary soldiers also drank a sip of soup.

As long as it was bombed by the Japanese devils, it would be over. No one could find out whether there were two thousand tons or two jins of fuel in the oil depot when it was bombed.

The platoon leader who stayed behind was already assigning tasks: "If the Japanese don't have good aim later, you two go and blow up the oil depot."

"Yes!" The two soldiers who were assigned the task could only agree.

Soon they became happy: "Hit! Hit!"

"The Japanese bomb hit the oil depot!"

Squadron leader Ishizu Seiku looked at Quanzhou Airport being bombed into a blank space and was very satisfied: "This task was completed thoroughly."

Then he led the entire squadron to Taoyuan Airport. Their order was to bomb Quanzhou and then go to Taoyuan Airport.

In fact, this was the plan of the Japanese Navy Headquarters: They knew that all the planes on Wan Island had been annihilated. These bombers and the fighters that were sent over would stay and guard Wan Island after the battle.

The Japanese soldiers of the Ishizu Seiku squadron were excitedly discussing the battle scenes just now as they crossed the strait.

In fact, the bombing raids by these Japanese bomber squadrons on the mainland were mostly like this. The National Army and the people on the ground could only endure it silently.

Sometimes, National Army soldiers used machine guns and rifles to shoot at the bombers. This was as ridiculous and useless as poking the moon with a bamboo pole.

The only regret for the Ishizu Seiku squadron when they bombed Quanzhou Airport was that they didn't see the embarrassing image of the National Army soldiers running around in panic.

They flew from Quanzhou to Taoyuan in a straight line of nearly three hundred kilometers, which took about fifty minutes to fly. During this journey, these Japanese devils talked about the situation during the bombing just now.

They didn't know that the two aviation squadrons that bombed Quanzhou Airport had been wiped out, and more than two hundred naval fighters were fighting fiercely over Wan Island as they were flying to Taoyuan.

These two hundred and more Japanese naval fighters all took off from the warships and airports in the northern and southern ports of Okinawa. Their mission was the same as the fighter squadron that was annihilated earlier.

Ohnishi Ryosuke, the aviation squadron leader, temporarily served as the commander-in-chief of the Okinawa North Port Fleet Aviation Corps. This time, there were too many fighters dispatched, a total of one hundred and twenty-three.

Three aviation squadrons launched together, requiring a unified commander. Squadron leader Ohnishi Ryosuke was pushed to this position. In fact, there were not many orders that this commander needed to issue while flying on the sea.

However, it was just the word: "Follow!"

However, not long after this aviation squadron took off, it encountered the Kumiki Ken aviation squadron. The Kumiki Ken aviation squadron flew from Okinawa South Port in a hurry. The fighter squadron he led had one hundred and twenty-seven fighters.

The two aviation squadrons together totaled two hundred and fifty planes. This was basically all of the Japanese devils' air power deployed in the East China Sea.

With such a powerful force, what kind of tactics were needed? When encountering the Special Operations Brigade's aviation squadron, just charge directly at them.

Therefore, during the entire flight, the commanders of the two squadrons did not issue any orders regarding combat. They just let the entire squadron follow.

Lei Wenshan was patrolling in the air with five fighters. Their squadron didn't catch up with the battle just now, which made Squadron Leader Zhu Qingmao a little regretful.

The pilots of the entire squadron felt it was a bit uneconomical. Such an opportunity was rare and unattainable. Now they could only continue to patrol in the air, widening their eyes, preparing for the Japanese squadron that might appear at any time.

With Taoyuan Airport providing fuel supply in the rear, the Special Operations Brigade's entire fighter squadron didn't have to worry about insufficient fuel, so they didn't need to save fuel.

The result was that they could patrol at high altitude all the time. Although this wasted fuel, they could fly higher in the air than economic navigation, allowing them to spot the Japanese planes earlier and making it less likely to be spotted by the Japanese devils.

This was how Yan Gaofei discovered the first wave of Japanese fighters. This was also how Lei Wenshan discovered the Japanese fighter squadron flying from Okinawa.

He was in the air with five fighters when he saw a squadron flying from the air three thousand meters away in the due east direction of Wan Island, and immediately reported: "More than a hundred enemy planes are approaching me in the due east direction of Wan Island.

The enemy planes have not yet spotted us."