Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

The bullet accurately hit the engine and cockpit of the Army's Type 97 fighter jet.

The fighter jet jolted violently, its nose plunging downwards, leaving a trail of thick black smoke in its tail. The pilot showed no signs of ejecting.

The plane spun around and plummeted into the Yangtze River below like a withered leaf, eventually exploding into a huge column of water near Yanziji.

Kobayashi had no time to confirm the results of the battle; he had to disengage immediately because another Army Type 95 fighter plane had its eyes on him.

The aerial combat turned into a chaotic, one-on-one duel.

The sky was filled with the shrill roar of fighter jet engines, the hiss of machine guns, and the ear-piercing sound of bullets hitting the fuselage.

Fighter jets continued to crash, trailing black smoke, some exploding in mid-air and turning into fireballs.

Some spun and crashed to the ground, shattering in the fields or on the riverbanks; occasionally one or two white parachutes could be seen blooming in the air, but they immediately became moving targets in the air, chased and strafed by the bloodthirsty pilots of both sides.

Just as the fighter jets were still locked in combat, and the naval pilots, with their superior skills and aircraft performance, were gaining a slight advantage and gradually pushing the remaining army aircraft to the southwest, a deep and powerful engine roar came from the clouds in the east.

The voice grew even heavier, foreshadowing an even greater killing intent.

Below the clouds, two massive three-plane "V" formations appeared.

These are sixteen Mitsubishi Type 96 land-based attack aircraft belonging to the Third Fleet's shore-based air wing.

These twin-engine medium bombers were massive in size, with broad wings and a stable flight attitude. Under the cover of fighter jets, they approached the skies over Nanjing like aerial fortresses.

Their bomb bays were fully loaded with 60-kilogram and 250-kilogram aerial bombs for use against ground fortifications.

Clearly, the Navy had meticulously planned this operation.

The fighter jets cleared the area first, gaining local air superiority, and then the bombers took advantage of the opportunity to enter and carry out precision strikes on key ground targets.

The bombers' targets were clear: key nodes controlled by the Central China Expeditionary Army in Nanjing, the Central China Expeditionary Army headquarters in the north of the city, the former Ministry of Railways building, the communications center in the west of the city, and several marked army artillery positions and supply depots.

The lead bomber pilot saw the ongoing air battle below, as well as the "airspace under control" signal from the naval fighters waving their wings.

He calmly gestured to the bombardier behind him.

The bombardiers began carefully searching for ground targets using the Type 92 bombardment sight.

On the ground, the officers and soldiers of the Central China Expeditionary Force, who were commanding their troops in a difficult resistance against the "rebel" ground offensive, saw the deadly bomber formation in the air and felt utterly desperate.

"It's a naval attack plane! They're heading for headquarters!" a 10th Army officer lying in the rubble exclaimed in shock.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

While the aerial battle raged fiercely, several destroyers and other gunboats belonging to the Third Fleet on the Yangtze River, following orders from the Navy, also aimed their cannons at the Wulongshan Fort on the north bank.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The fleet's Type 14 120mm naval guns and Type 89 127mm anti-aircraft guns, which adopted the direct-fire mode, roared.

The shells pierced the air and landed accurately on the army artillery positions on Wulong Mountain, exploding into towering columns of smoke and flames.

This scene is full of irony.

Just half a month earlier, during the Battle of Nanjing, naval vessels worked closely with the army observation post at Wulong Mountain. Naval observers even moved into the fort to assist the army's heavy artillery in calibrating its firing range and bombarding the river defense fortifications of the Chinese defenders.

At this moment, former comrades-in-arms unleashed deadly artillery fire upon their enemy.

The army's Type 38 75mm field gun and Type 4 150mm howitzer positions on Wulong Mountain were caught completely off guard and were subjected to a fierce attack from the river. The artillerymen suffered heavy casualties and many guns were destroyed.

The remaining army soldiers on the gun emplacement stared in terror and anger at the naval vessels raging in the river. They could not understand why their own navy would fire on them.

After reaching their designated positions, the bomb bay doors of the naval Type 96 land-based attack aircraft in the air slowly opened.

Led by the lead aircraft, the first wave of bombs was dropped. The black bombs fell vertically to the ground with a deathly shriek.

A series of violent explosions rang out around the headquarters of the Central China Expeditionary Army. The huge shockwaves shattered the remaining glass, and flames and thick smoke engulfed the entire block.

Precise horizontal bombardment, coupled with continuous naval gunfire, dealt a devastating blow to the already struggling ground defenses of the Central China Expeditionary Army.

Communication was cut off, command failed, artillery positions were destroyed, and the morale of the defending troops completely collapsed.

Some surviving artillerymen attempted to operate anti-aircraft guns to fire at the air, but this immediately provoked even more intense strafing by naval aircraft.

On the ground, whether it was the soldiers of the Central China Expeditionary Army trapped in the city or the "rebel" soldiers who were attacking the city, they would often look up at the sky and see the fierce infighting taking place.

They watched as planes painted with the same markings chased each other in the air, fired at each other, and crashed, leaving them with mixed feelings.

For the defenders inside the city, air support was their only hope, but that hope was being ruthlessly crushed by their own people.

For the siege forces, although the naval air force was theoretically supporting them, a sense of absurdity and sorrow was spreading as they watched the Empire's precious warplanes being wasted in this way.

The air battle and bombing lasted for about half an hour. Over the Yangtze River, it was as if a deathly rain of steel and fire was falling.

Ultimately, the Army Aviation Corps suffered a complete defeat.

They lost more than twenty fighter jets, and the remaining planes fled in panic to the southwest.

The navy also lost more than ten aircraft, but successfully covered the bombers as they completed their mission. With little ammunition and fuel left, the navy aircraft did not pursue them, but circled in the sky for a few weeks before escorting the bombers back eastward.

The sky gradually returned to calm, leaving only thick smoke and burning flames rising from various parts of Nanjing, a testament to the air raid that had just taken place.

On the river, the wreckage and oil slicks of fighter jets floated, along with a few pilots struggling in the water.

Burning airplane wreckage is scattered across the fields and mountains along the Yangtze River, like tombstones erected for this absurd infighting.

Naval aviator Sumio Kobayashi piloted his heavily damaged Type 96 carrier-based fighter jet as the fleet returned to port.

Looking through my goggles at the war-torn city of Nanjing receding into the distance, I felt no joy of victory, only endless exhaustion and an indescribable sense of emptiness.

He shot down a plane that might have been piloted by his former "alumni" or even "senior," all because of an unpredictable power struggle at the top.

This aerial battle over Nanjing was a lose-lose situation for the Japanese army.

It consumed Japan's precious air force resources, tore apart the unity within the military, and exposed the deep-seated internal divisions.

This was merely an aerial microcosm of the much larger and bloodier "fratricide" that occurred in Nanjing.

The icy river water silently swallowed the wreckage of steel and the pilot's blood, as if mourning this man-made tragedy.