Start as a young leader, grow bigger and stronger, and create more glory

The one-way flight from Shanxi Province to Tokyo is about 2500 kilometers. At about 11:30 in the morning, the two H-6 squadrons arrived at Linhai, Shandong Province on their return journey, met with the two J-5 squadrons as scheduled, and returned to Shanxi Province.

Since the news of the Tokyo bombing had reached the Japanese Qingdao Fleet in Shandong Province, the fleet strengthened its air reconnaissance, and the large flight scale of the four squadrons did not escape detection.

However, in order to deal with the Pacific War, the Japanese transferred all their main warships. What remained in the fleet were mainly coastal defense forces and a small number of small-displacement ships. They were unable to conduct air interception, so they could only watch the planes fly over their heads.

Koga Mineichi, the then commander-in-chief of the Tang Fleet, immediately reported the matter to the Japanese headquarters.

Hideki Tojo and others at the headquarters, based on a brief discussion and analysis of the types of air force aircraft that had appeared before the 88th Army, quickly concluded that the first wave of bombing of Tokyo was the work of the 88th Army.

Although he knew the culprit, Hideki Tojo did not pass the news on. Instead, he telegraphed Koga Mineichi to keep it secret and instructed his fleet members not to reveal any details and to pretend that they had not seen anything.

To the outside world, Hideki Tojo attributed both bombings to the United States and told Isoroku Yamamoto that the United States must be dealt a fatal blow in the Pacific.

In fact, Hideki Tojo was now very afraid of the 88th Army. The 88th Army's jurisdiction was in Shanxi Province. If he wanted to complete the bombing of Tokyo, the aircraft would need to have a range of at least 6000 kilometers.

The fact that the 88th Army was able to produce bombers with such powerful capabilities showed that its military strength was beyond his imagination.

However, the stronger the 88th Army was, the more he could not let the cabinet and the front-line troops know about this, otherwise it would seriously affect the morale of the army.

He did not even tell Emperor Showa, but instead issued several orders in succession to strengthen the production capacity of various military factories and speed up the production of tanks and fighter jets.

.....

At 12:30 noon, Xu Le finally waited for the triumphant First Bomber Squadron returning from Yuncheng Airport.

Xu Le also fulfilled the promise he made when he set out. All participating flight team members were promoted one level and became official pilots from that moment on.

Except for Wang Yuji, this guy has been promoted to colonel as an exception and cannot be promoted again in a short period of time.

That afternoon, Xu Le telegraphed the Shancheng Military Commission to report the bombing mission and announced the official establishment of the 88th Army Air Force.

Of course, the Military Commission had known since the Battle of Taiyuan that the 88th Army had an air force, but they did not expect that Xu Le had the ability to bomb the Japanese mainland.

This move shocked the entire Military Commission, including Commander Jiang. The next day, the Military Commission held a full-day high-level meeting.

The meeting was highly confidential and no one knew what the senior executives discussed, but they quickly responded to Xu Le.

The 88th Army was approved to establish an air force and was given the right to assign its own numbers, but the Military Commission stated that it would only be responsible for half of the air force's pay, with Xu Le having to pay for the other half.

Xu Le had never expected the Military Commission to provide him with military pay; he specifically reported this just to see how they would respond.

But judging from the right to grant numbers on one's own, this result was within Xu Le's expectations.

Thus, the Air Force officially started operations and the first aviation brigade of the Tang Dynasty was established, namely Aviation Brigade 1.

It is temporarily under the command of three fighter squadrons, each with 12 J-5 fighter jets.

An attack aircraft brigade, each brigade has 12 Q-5 attack aircraft under its command.

A light bomber brigade, each brigade has 12 H-5 light bombers.

A heavy bomber brigade, each brigade has 12 H-6 heavy bombers.

In addition to the six air brigades, it also has one guard battalion, one air defense battalion, one maintenance battalion, one support battalion, one medical battalion and one communications battalion.

The entire brigade includes 72 aircraft, as well as high- and low-altitude anti-aircraft guns and Type 66 152mm howitzers and other equipment. It can be said that it has all the weapons equipped by the 88th Army, forming a comprehensive strike and defense capability.

The brigade commander is Colonel Wang Yuji, the deputy brigade commander is Lieutenant Colonel Zhou Bingyan, and the base is Yuncheng Airport.

As for Taiyuan Airport, it will serve as a backup airport.

After that, the bombing of Japan will be carried out in cycles of about 7 days, and a heavy bomber brigade will be dispatched from time to time.

As most of the previous pilots have been formally incorporated into the army, the recruitment of new pilots has also officially begun. However, pilots are the most difficult to train and have the highest requirements among all branches of the military, so the earliest new trainees will graduate will be by the end of the year.

After completing all the work in the Air Force, Xu Le finally arrived at the naval base at Fengling Ferry.

The construction work here was completed half a month ago, but Xu Le has been busy with air force affairs, so he has not come to see it.

"Commander!"

At the training camp, the highest naval officer, Rear Admiral Bai Shiyi, saluted Xu Le.

"Not bad!"

Looking at the naval personnel wearing the same snow-white naval uniforms provided by the 88th Army, Xu Le smiled with satisfaction.

This is naturally a copy of the army of the previous life.

The Army is green, the Air Force is blue, and the Navy is white.

"Captain, the brothers have been training for several months. Now that the base has been repaired, when will we have our ships? We can't keep training like the army!"

Xu Le nodded with satisfaction and said, "The ship will be available soon. I have a reason to let you do physical training. I don't want your men to get seasick after they get on board. That would be embarrassing!"

As if being looked down upon, Bai Shiyi showed an unconvinced look and said, "What are you talking about, Commander? We are originally from the Tang Dynasty Navy. We have never fallen behind in physical training. Most of us have experienced actual combat and fought the devils to the death!"

"Then what? What was the result?" Xu Le hurriedly interrupted the other party.

Bai Shiyi was stunned for a moment, then said: "The result...the result...ah..."

Although the words were not spoken, Xu Le could guess what Bai Shiyi wanted to express.

Just like the Tang Dynasty Air Force in the past, there are many capable and courageous naval soldiers, but without excellent ships, they have no room to display their abilities when facing the Japanese.

The ships that self-destructed in the Yangtze River were the last face of the Tang Dynasty Navy and were the source of great regret for all naval officers and soldiers.

Xu Le shook his head slightly and encouraged: "The past is the past, believe me! With me, you can regain the lost dignity for our Tang Dynasty, and you can also regain the lost glory for yourselves!"

As if he remembered the air force in the army, Bai Shiyi suddenly felt confident.

When he first came to the 88th Army, he was completely disheartened. No matter how powerful the 88th Army was, how could it possibly be capable of building a navy?

However, it was not until the establishment of the Air Force and dozens or hundreds of fighter jets took to the sky that he realized that the position of army commander was far from as simple as he had imagined.

Perhaps the Tang Dynasty Navy will really rise one day.

Afterwards, under Bai Shiyi's guidance, Xu Le formally got to know these ten thousand senior naval officers.

The only major general is Bai Shiyi, who was once the commander-in-chief of the Second Fleet of the Tang Dynasty Navy.

There are also nine colonels who were once captains of cruisers or destroyers.

There were also several officers from the Coast Guard and gunboats, and the rest were crew members, non-commissioned officers and soldiers.

According to Bai Shiyi's explanation, eight complete ship officers and soldiers can be organized at present, and they only need to adapt for a period of time to form effective combat effectiveness.

“Commander, the capacity of Fenglingdu Naval Base is about 5 tons, with a total of 5 ship berths, each of which can accommodate warships with a maximum displacement of 2000 tons.

"Captain, when will our warships arrive? What are they?"