After discovering the presence of the cadet army in the battle to attack Zamboanga, Koizumi Minichiro had the feeling that the biggest obstacle to their occupation of the Philippine Islands would no longer be the Americans, but the cadet army. The cadet army went on an expedition to the Philippines and It did not surprise Koizumi. The strategic position of the Philippines is too important. It can attack Hainan Island to the north and Tainan to the east. Moreover, if Taiwan is recovered, it will be able to complete the naval blockade of the Xuebing Army. Doubtless, after the Western Expedition Fleet captured the Philippines, with the return of the United Fleet, it will definitely use troops against Tainan and Hainan. This is naturally not what Ouyang Yun wants to see. It is reasonable for him to send troops to help. After Koizumi captured Labazon and Siaton, the reason why he was not in a hurry to advance in depth, but spent a lot of energy on "goodwill", was to be able to conquer the Philippines when most of Taiwan was occupied by the cadet army. The archipelago has developed into an unsinkable "aircraft carrier" and a bridgehead for attacking the student army, so that it can continue to use Luzon Island as a springboard to launch attacks on Tainan and Hainan Island.
When the Ryujo aircraft carrier fleet showed goodwill to the Filipinos and carried out goodwill activities, the Marine Corps commanded by Sawada Shigeru also made targeted military arrangements. After the Osaka Fourth Division integrated about one division of the Indonesian National Independence Army, The troops were divided into two groups, one group blocked the Liyi Line, and the other group captured the important military town of Pagadian, which was about 30 kilometers away from Kapatagan in a straight line, and relied on the special geographical location of Pagadian to establish three He wanted to attack the U.S. Army and cadet troops who were besieged in the northwest peninsula and win a great victory to show the Filipinos the martial arts of the imperial army.
As a time traveler, Koizumi was very aware of the nature of the Fourth Division of Osaka, but he did not discriminate against the division because of this. Instead, he adopted a series of targeted measures to transform it. The Fourth Division did not disappoint him, not only He performed well during the attack on Sibuco, and did not collapse even when faced with a surprise attack by the cadet army. Therefore, when the 14th Brigade broke through from Ipil, Koizumi did not get angry and blame the garrison at Ipil. Instead of the defenders, he sent an order to Sawada Shigeru, asking him to guard the camp, as long as the enemy troops were not allowed to break through from Pagadian.
In Koizumi's plan, the 14th Brigade must be annihilated, and he decided to hand over the task of annihilating the cadets to Yamabekawa Sankey. Just that night when news of the defeat came from Ipil, He called Yamabe over and gave him instructions: "I admit that the fourth division's combat effectiveness is indeed not good, but if the Chinese think that they can jump out of the encirclement, they are totally wrong. In modern warfare, the infantry's Its role has been greatly weakened. The aviation force is the trump card. Yamabe-kun, I will leave the task of annihilating the students of this department to you. The Chinese do not have an aviation force. Even if they have air defense capability, it is very limited. We will use high pressure. The tactics will consume them alive."
Yamabe understood the idea and immediately expressed his position: "Your Excellency, you can rest assured that as soon as daybreak, we will immediately launch a combat operation to search and annihilate the student army of the Ministry. We have fourteen hours to launch this operation, which is enough to The students of this unit were dealt a devastating blow."
The Western Expedition Fleet has absolute air superiority in the Mindanao area. This is Koizumi's confidence to implement high-pressure tactics. In theory, as long as the Fourth Division can firmly hold the Pagadian Defense Line, then the 14th Brigade will be able to If a forcible breakout fails, there seems to be a real danger of being chased by the Japanese air force and then annihilated step by step.
So what is the real situation?
The next day, the genius became clear. All the thirty-odd fighters of the Kisarazu Air Force took off from the "Ryujo" aircraft carrier. Yamabe personally piloted a Zero Fighter and divided his fighters into six groups in the air, each group of four. Zero battle, two bombers flew towards Ipil in a net shape,
Regardless of the fact that the Kisarazu Air Force performed poorly when escorting Zhou Fohai to the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Army Asia Tour Camp" preparatory meeting. It was even inferior to the amateur pilots in the jungle special warfare. In fact, the true level of the air force of this air force was It's still quite high. Just like now, including Yamabe, they immediately lowered their flight altitude after arriving in Ipil, and then maintained an altitude of five to six hundred meters and began a dragnet-style search flight.
Although the mountains in the northwest peninsula of Mindanao are not high, they are undulating. It requires considerable skill for pilots to always maintain a certain altitude. Judging from the performance of the twenty-six zero-fighters, the Japanese Air Force can maintain this very well. From the flying attitude, it can be seen that it is not an accident that Kisarazu Air Force has a place in Japan's Hainan Airlines.
Yamabe led a combat formation of his own. The zero-fight flying altitude he controlled was lower, just over three hundred meters. After flying from Ipil to Wood Lake for about a quarter of an hour, he found that there was no enemy information on the walkie-talkie. report, his brows could not help but frown.
The 14th Brigade's attack from Ipil happened around 11 o'clock last night. They stayed up all night to break through the Bakongan area where the mountains are relatively complex. At this time, they could only go about 30 kilometers at most. They were still in front of them. Within the search range, and there are about 2,000 people in the unit, it is not easy to hide them all, so why are they not found? He thought carefully and ordered each formation to further distance themselves. , then the plane turned right and flew towards Oludanga Island,
Half an hour later, Yamabe and other Japanese soldiers had already visited the places within a fifty-kilometer radius around Ipil twice, but they still could not find any trace of the 14th Brigade. At this time, not only Yamabe was confused , even Koizumi found it incredible. Koizumi was smarter than Yamabe and gave a suggestion: Maybe the Chinese people were hiding in a Filipino village? Let Yamabe and the others focus on searching nearby Filipino villages.
Yamabe complied, so dozens of Japanese planes under his command visited more than a dozen nearby villages, but the result was only a shock to the Filipino villages, and still no trace of discovery was found. Including Koizumi, the Japanese couldn't help but feel collectively confused.
"The cooked duck has flown away." Koizumi said to his adjutant Hatano Shaotoshi,
Jiuye didn't dare to answer at all,
"Eight grids." Koizumi cursed, and had no choice but to order Yamabe and the others to come back first.
Yamabe was persistent. He asked his men to go back first, and then he flew the Zero Fighter around Yipil again. He really didn't find any valuable targets. Then he stepped on the accelerator hard and flew The fighter plane pulled up and flew towards the "Ryuxiang" aircraft carrier.