The straight-line distance between Liberty City and Fortaleza is nearly four thousand kilometers. This should be the reason why Vassis paid great attention to it but did not imagine the matter too seriously. After all, compared to most countries, Paratroopers and airborne operations are still two completely unfamiliar terms. In Vassis's view, even if China is really willing to risk the world's injustice and take Fortaleza by force, it can only use its navy. Then, as long as Brazil releases its weapons in the South Atlantic, With enough warning ships, the enemy will definitely be able to discover it first and prepare for war. Militarily, he is self-aware and knows that his own army is definitely no match for the Chinese army. However, because Standinius promised that as long as they resist for a while, , the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet could arrive quickly, so he did not fall into a state of complete pessimism and disappointment. "Persevere and persist. This is what I ask of you. Please remember that the entire Brazilian people is standing behind you." "On the phone, he said this to Army Brigadier General Costa, who was ordered to command the defense of Fortaleza.
Compared with Vassis, Costa, as a professional, knew about paratroopers and airborne operations. However, misled by Vassis and lack of intelligence, he also thought that the Chinese army would launch an attack from the sea. Therefore, he focused his defense on Fortaleza's only port, concentrating more than 20,000 troops here without establishing any defense depth. If the attack really came from the sea, Costa's arrangement is understandable, but What if the attack comes not from the sea but from the air? There is no doubt that by doing this, Costa has completely sold his back door to the opponent.
In fact, after post-war review, it was not that Costa had no chance to make changes, because at about 11 o'clock that morning, sailors on a Brazilian Navy patrol ship detected China's flying fortress cluster. According to the first discovery The Brazilian sailor who was unusual in the air said afterwards that when he was startled by the muffled thunder above his head and looked up, he was immediately stunned, "...I counted them at the time. There were twelve in total. These twelve planes It is a bit similar to the US Air Force's super bomber, very huge..."
Relevant information was quickly sent to Vassis, and then immediately conveyed to Costa. What made Vassis and Costa sad afterwards was that they both judged that this was a Chinese long-range bomber. The mission was a bombing mission. At that time, Vassis's order to Costa was to preserve as many troops as possible, saying: "...It doesn't matter if Fortaleza is bombed into ruins, but the coastal defense line must not be lost. , try to preserve the troops, the hard battle is still ahead."
Costa carried out the order very thoroughly, and what is commendable is that at that time, he was still thinking about the safety of the civilians in the city. As the air defense sirens sounded, the Brazilians in Fortaleza either ran out of the city or ran out of the city. Instead, they hid in a place they thought was safe, while Costa and his men cleverly hid in the cement piers and cement buildings in the Port of Fortaleza.
Therefore, when China's air fortress cluster appeared in the sky over Fortaleza, what the Chinese air force pilots saw was not the rows of anti-aircraft artillery (Brazil already lacks air defense forces) nor the prepared defensive formations, but a seemingly deserted building. A crowded city.
The Chinese government's choice of Fortaleza as the transit point for evacuation was also a temporary decision, and Chu Tiange's decision to raid Fortaleza was even more hasty. Therefore, before launching the operation, Chu Meng also Not much valuable information about Fortaleza was obtained.
Unexpectedly, Fortaleza would be so deserted. Chu Meng's first impression was that he had flown to the wrong place. "Did you get the wrong direction? Where are the ground signs? Did you find any ground signs?" said Air Force Major Chen Shao, who was commanding the operation. When the country reported to him that it had reached the target, he kept asking the other party questions.
According to the prior agreement with the CIA officer in charge of the evacuation operation, the ground mark will be composed of three smoke pillars. Because it was daytime, the mark composed of these three smoke pillars was not very obvious. Chu Meng happened to not see it, so he There would be so many questions, and if he knew that the person responsible for the given ground markings was a Japanese agent instigated by the CIA to instigate rebellion, he would probably persist in his suspicions even if he saw the plume of smoke.
Chu Meng's over-sensitivity did not cause Chen Shaoguo's displeasure. He replied calmly: "The sign has been confirmed. It's right there. Sir, can we carry out the airborne landing?"
Following the direction of his finger, Chu Meng also saw the three smoke plumes. He took a deep breath, suppressed the doubts that still existed in his heart, and said, "Okay, from now on, we will keep in touch by radio." Then, he left. into the cab.
When the Chinese paratroopers began to prepare for parachuting, on the ground, standing under a trestle, Costa was spreading knowledge about long-range bombers to his men: "...as far as I know, the maximum bomb load of the same type of bombers in the United States is It can exceed ten tons. China's long-range bombers use the technology of the same type of American bombers. In other words, the actual bomb load of these twelve aircraft may exceed one hundred tons... Although the long-range bomber has a large bomb load, its attack But it is not as efficient as medium or even light bombers, because it can only carry out horizontal bombing... Oops, the Chinese planes have begun to lower their flying altitude, hurry up, remind everyone, the Chinese are going to drop bombs."
A few minutes later, as one of his subordinates said something like "Why do Chinese aerial bombs carry parachutes?" Costa stuck his head out to take a look. The next moment, his pupils enlarged and he screamed: "No! , we were fooled. The Chinese planes were not loaded with bombs, but with people. Hurry, hurry, gather your team immediately and deal with the paratroopers. The best time is when they are about to land on the ground."
Costa's reaction ability is not weak. However, because Chu Meng and the others chose the airdrop location in the suburbs outside the city, which is a little far away from the port, so even though he assembled the team as quickly as possible, it was impossible to do so. Achieve the good wish of giving the Chinese paratroopers a head-on attack at the best time.
The special operations brigade of the Middle East Expeditionary Force is not simple. This is an elite special operations brigade created by Chu Tiange after the Langya. Although the quality of its individual soldiers is not as good as the Langya, but compared with the Brazilian soldiers, one is more than ten.
So, about a quarter of an hour later, when Costa arrived at the airdrop site with about 5,000 people, the first thing he saw was a group of more than 5,000 soldiers from his own family. What made him stunned was that these soldiers he had once The heroic subordinates who promised to beat the Chinese to a pulp were sitting cross-legged with their hands on their heads. In an instant, they completed the identity transformation from heroic Brazilian soldiers to prisoners of war of the Chinese army. The transformation was so fast that Not a trace of sloppiness.