With Yang Qiu nodding, the most important battle in 1941 kicked off.

In the afternoon of the same day, the new Chief of Staff Chu Nan announced the beginning of the "Typhoon" operation and appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Chen Honglie as the commander-in-chief of the operation.

On March 23, 7 o'clock in the morning, a signal flag that could take off was hung on the navigation tower of the Nanjing base of the Air Force. On the runway, eight J-8 "Tianquan" fighters were arranged in two columns and slowly headed towards the takeoff line of the backup runway. Next to them, an aerodynamic shape was similar to a double-headed dragon, but it was two circles wide. There was also a pair of slender gliders with a streamlined appearance, and the black "Night Owl" high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft also entered the main runway at the same time. "Night Owl", military number reconnaissance-1 1. It is a dual-engine long-range high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft designed and manufactured by Meteor Company. To meet the large range and high speed proposed by the Air Force, two 2,000-horsepower turboprop engines are used, with four crew members and a maximum speed of 670 kilometers per hour. It can fly for ten hours in a row and continue to detect targets within a radius of 10,000 meters. It is equipped with a navigation radar, two high-power reconnaissance periscopes and three automatic camera guns. The self-defense weapon is three 12.7mm machine guns.

This type of reconnaissance aircraft is expensive and rare. Because it has strategic value, it is directly affiliated with the aviation reconnaissance squadron of the General Staff, with the squadron code-named "Owl".

An Qingru is the captain of the "Owl" squadron. He is 42 years old this year with two thousand hours of flight experience. He has handled multiple air dangers, including jets, and has turned to the reconnaissance plane due to age and other issues. Just like before each takeoff, he carefully checked the plane, then took out a rag and wiped the "Owl" aircraft emblem to ensure that it was spotless, and then drilled into the cabin from the belly of the aircraft. "The tower said that the weather in the Seto Inland Sea today should be good." When the navigator saw him, he immediately handed over the weather and flight route chart. He also took out a large cup of strong tea: "It was freshly brewed, so it will be relieved."

"It's good every day, but it's a waste of seven days." An Qingru took the thick tea and checked the instrument, and was very dissatisfied with the meteorological data provided by the tower. In order to investigate the Seto Inland Sea and locate the specific location of the Tokuyama underground oil depot, he had already flew seven times in two weeks. But every time he arrived at the Seto Inland Sea, he found that either the fog or the clouds were too thick, or the predetermined ground signal was not found, resulting in a return without success.

The deputy captain smiled and said, "Don't complain. Those boys from the bomber are in trouble. I heard that Commander Xu made a forced regulation that as long as we don't return, they must sit in the plane and are not allowed to come down for dinner." Their mission during this period was to determine the specific coordinates of the Deshan oil depot, so according to the plan, as long as they set out, the subsequent bombers must be ready to set off. So during these reconnaissances, the bomber squadrons were on standby on the ground, which was very hard.

"I hope you will have good luck this time." An Qingru took a breath. Put on her helmet and turned off the radio: "The tower is Owl 3, and this is Owl 3, and I request to take off."

“It can take off anytime.”

Get the signal. An Qingru took off to everyone, and then pushed the engine throttle forward with the deputy captain. After a harsh roar, the two Chongqing Heavy Industry's five-leaf turboprop engines made a harsh roar, pushing the "Ye Owl" to slowly drill into the blue sky. Because it is necessary to ensure a long range and altitude, a glider with a large lift coefficient is used. Therefore, the climbing speed of the "Ye Owl" is very slow. Before entering the predetermined cruise altitude, the eight escort "Tian Quan" was like a group of cheerful carrier pigeons passing by it at high speed. "These little bastards!" The spiraling airflow made Ye Owl tremble slightly. An Qingru laughed and scolded, as if he saw his youth. After entering the 8,000-meter cruise altitude, he turned on the radio and adjusted to the Tokyo Radio Channel. After a moment of rustling, a familiar and sweet radio sound came from the speaker.

"It sounds so nice, it's worthy of being the flower of Tokyo." When the observation and optical controller heard the sound, they immediately threw down their work and squeezed in front of them, and looked fascinated: "When the war is over, I must go and see what she looks like."

"You kid, I'm afraid you want to marry home as a wife."

"Ha ha......"

Amidst the joyful laughter, the "Night Owl" began to turn around and flew towards Tokuyama in the Seto Inland Sea under the protection of the escort.

------

"Zakazuo, is this your wedding gift? It's so happy!"

On the hillside behind Tokuyama Port, two soldiers helped Akihito Ono to pull up the hemp rope and prepare to "dry" the quilt. The cold winter of several months finally ended, and there were a lot of things to wash and dry, so this action was not noticeable. "Let me get it, help me hold up the bamboo pole, be higher, don't drag it to the ground, it's very difficult to wash." Ono was worried that someone would see what was in the quilt, so he asked the soldiers to set up the bamboo pole and then spread the quilt himself. Others didn't know, but he knew very well that there were several special dry smoke agents wrapped in rubber in the two quilts. As long as the quilt was lit, the smoke agent would emit a large amount of yellow smoke.

"Thank you, this is a little careful." After putting the quilt, Ono took out a pack of camel cigarettes: "Come on, try it, this is seized from the warehouse of the rice cattle in Wake Island." The Battle of Wake Island has been blown to the sky by Japan, and even the most ordinary people are familiar with it. So when they heard it was the US military supplies on Wake Island, two oil depot soldiers who helped immediately surrounded him.

"Baga! Who asked you to smoke? You are still drying the quilt here!" As soon as he lit the cigarette, two gendarmes suddenly came over from the side. "It's Yamaguchi Jun, it's been a long time since we saw it. Didn't they say you were transferred to Okinawa?" Seeing this, Ono hurriedly went forward and took out the cigarette and handed it to the two of them: "One winter, the quilt is very wet. Please rest assured, I will stay here and take it away immediately after it is dried."

"It turned out to be Ono Nakasa."

Ono is Nakazo, who manages the oil house. He is usually enthusiastic and often takes out the gadgets brought to him by the fleet for everyone to share. So when the military police saw it, they were embarrassed to be too embarrassed. Moreover, the oil depot is deep underground, smoking a cigarette and drying the quilt, even if the fire catches, it will not affect the following. However, the two still reminded: "Nakazo, please forgive me. You know, there are no open flames here."

"Don't worry, I will snatch it out." Ono made a squeezing cigarette butts, and the two gendarmes put away the cigarette. After they walked away, Ono then relaxed and sat on the stone next to him, smoking and bragging with the soldiers while staring at the eastern sky.

From his position, you can clearly see the entire picture of Toyama.

The farthest end is the naval anchorage. The entire anchorage is surrounded by a circle of small islands and is very hidden. However, there are only some small warships and oil tankers in the harbor. On the left are the Tokuyama Fuel Research Institute and the refinery, and on the right are a row of high-grey giant oil barrels, which are the naval oil storage tanks. Seventeen oil storage tanks store 150,000 tons of heavy oil. But don’t think that it is Japan’s entire oil reserves. The real oil depot is actually where he stands at this moment. He goes deep into the mountain, twelve meters from the surface, divided into seven extra-large independent oil storage areas, all wrapped in mountain rocks and reinforced with cement. After continuous combat consumption, there are also three million tons of heavy oil and gasoline stored inside, accounting for 70% of Japan’s remaining oil reserves! There are not only complete fire protection facilities inside, but also oil pipelines leading directly to the docks and refineries.

After the raid of Sasebo and Ryukyu, the air defense facilities here have been strengthened several times. At least two hundred anti-aircraft artillery of various caliber were deployed in the surrounding dense forests, docks, urban buildings and islands, and several aviation brigades were deployed in Xiaguan and Songshan. More importantly, because it is backed by mountains and the surface vegetation is kept intact, it is difficult to locate from the sky and ground means must be assisted.

"Nakasa, I heard that the fleet suffered a great loss. Is that true?" Ono thought about how to light the cup and informed the reconnaissance plane of the spot, the soldiers next to him had already asked about the battle situation.

Although newspapers and radio publicize great victories every day, and say that they have recovered North Korea and invaded China's inland China, these news can fool ordinary people, but they can't fool them, such soldiers. Because everyone can detect the subtle changes in the number of refueling and the number of docking ships in the anchorage. At least in the past six months, everyone can no longer see the four Fuso-class battleships and Ise-class battleships that used to come here to refuel four Akagi and Kaga, not even the small aircraft carriers of the Dragon and Phoenix. Although it is said that they have been sent to Nanyang and Rabaul forever, all kinds of rumors have never stopped.

"I don't know, but everyone should be confident that the Joint Fleet came to refuel a few days ago?" More than ten years of lurking have made Ono accustomed to various temptations. Even if the soldiers' questions are not intent to spy, he will never speak up any uneasy words.

The two Japanese soldiers were smoking silently. Although Nakazo did not say it clearly, they could still understand the matter of the Ruihe aircraft carrier when the joint fleet came to refuel after Wake Island.

"Nakasa, we'll go to work first, and we'll help you later." After smoking the cigarette, the two soldiers bowed to Ono and left one after another. Shortly after they left, several black spots quickly appeared on the east side of the bay. "Enemy plane! Pull the alarm! Woo......" A harsh and shrill alarm sounded from the city and the docks. The Japanese soldiers of the brigade rushed out of the barracks, and each anti-aircraft cannon was quickly pulled out of the camouflage. The soldiers in the oil house immediately closed all the oil pipelines that might have been discovered, closed the thick underground oil depot gate, and opened the sluice gate to prepare for air strikes and set fire.

"It's finally here." After seeing the four "Tianquan" fighters with obvious flag signs under the wings, Xiao Ao was excited. He immediately pulled out the signal gun and stuffed two incendiary bullets as thick as a thumb into the chamber.

But at this moment, a scream suddenly sounded from behind: "Ono-kun! What are you doing?"

.(To be continued...)
Chapter completed!