Empire Conquest
Chapter 126 - 122 Luck

Chapter 126: Chapter 122 Luck

Seeing the cluster of enemy planes ahead, or more precisely, below, and the aircraft carrier sailing into the wind on the sea surface, Zhu Huasheng suddenly felt that Lady Luck wasn’t so hateful after all.

In fact, his luck had been very good all the way here.

Around ten thirty, which was about an hour after takeoff, the navigator noticed a trail appearing in the clouds below.

A straight line formed by condensed water vapor, clearly the trace left by an airplane that had passed by.

Moreover, that plane had come from the east, flying below an altitude of one thousand meters, and must have decreased its flight altitude after entering the cloud.

As expected, it should be a seaplane.

Of course, it could also be a low-flying reconnaissance aircraft.

After all, to get a clear view of the sea surface, reconnaissance planes usually fly below the clouds, and it’s rare for them to fly above them.

The key point was that the plane hadn’t detected Zhu Huasheng’s "Flying Fish."

Since he needed to search for the Mobile Fleet and then command the battle, Zhu Huasheng had kept his flying altitude above four thousand meters after departure.

Flying that high was to save fuel.

According to the plan, they weren’t scheduled to reach the area where the Mobile Fleet was spotted until ten fifty when they would need to descend below the cloud layer.

That trail practically pointed Zhu Huasheng in the right direction.

Once the direction was ascertained, everything else was easy to negotiate.

He called up the nearby squadron leader and deputy squadron leader, instructing them to lead their Plane Group to follow, then Zhu Huasheng lowered his flying altitude to two thousand meters.

As he flew eastward, the thickness of the clouds became thinner, so Zhu Huasheng was not hasty in descending to below the clouds.

Soon, Zhu Huasheng’s judgment was confirmed and it was critically important.

Just ten minutes past eleven, Zhu Huasheng glimpsed through the gaps in the clouds below and immediately recognized a few enemy planes as the Saiyi Navy’s 97 ship attack.

The crucial point was that these enemy planes were flying south.

Zhu Huasheng didn’t think twice before following them.

Then, he found himself as if guided by some ghostly providence, slipping through the outer anti-air net of the Mobile Fleet and appearing above a huge Fleet carrier.

To be precise, nearby.

By the size of it, that was the "Jiahe!"

Those 97 ship attack planes didn’t land on the "Jiahe," but continued flying in the southeast direction, indicating that there was another carrier over there.

Faced with the juicy prize that had fallen into his lap, Zhu Huasheng did not get carried away.

Since he hadn’t encountered any anti-air fighters along the way, Zhu Huasheng felt that the Mobile Fleet might not have detected the approaching Attack Aircraft Group!

Radar?

Forget the Saiyi Navy, even the Newland Navy and the Bulan Royal Navy didn’t have it. Up to now, radar was still an exclusive trick of the Empire Navy.

Furthermore, there might not be any fighters patrolling the skies.

After calming down, Zhu Huasheng immediately called the Plane Group behind him and made arrangements for the attack.

The First Squadron, to be precise, the squadron from the "Mo River" continued to fly southeast, searching and attacking another Fleet carrier. The squadron from the "Longjiang" stayed behind, following Zhu Huasheng to launch an attack on the "Jiahe," which was retrieving its ship-borne aircraft.

"Squadron leader!"

"Seen it, let’s get ready to start!"

Before the navigator reminded him, Zhu Huasheng had already spotted four "Typhoon" Fighters diving down from the front, which were the escort fighters.

Without encountering enemy anti-air fighters and with dozens of enemy planes ahead, the escort fighters’ pilots couldn’t resist the urge.

Flying at the very front was Lieutenant Wei Chengwen.

Only last night, after returning to Foot Island, did he find out that he had become a hero heavily promoted by the Navy for strafing a carrier with his fighter.

To be precise, the Navy’s propaganda agency was preparing to make him a war hero.

According to the plan, he should have stayed on Foot Island and taken a transport plane to the Southern Fleet Headquarter after dawn.

As expected, he would return to the Imperial Capital in a few days to receive commendation from the Navy Commander and might even have the chance to be received and rewarded by the Emperor. In the following months, he would travel with the propaganda team to all major cities, attending at least two military-sponsored events each day, such as recruitment promotions and fundraisers for constructing new battleships, and speak to the public about the valiant combat of Navy soldiers at the front lines.

In short, he had to temporarily leave the front-line combat troops.

As for when he would return, that depended on how long the public would remember him, or when the next war hero emerged.

However, Wei Chengwen didn’t want to be a hero in the spotlight, nor did he want to face those honey-tongued, back-stabbing reporters with their cameras.

Then, in the middle of the night, he quietly climbed aboard a fighter plane.

Although he was severely reprimanded by Li Hengjia after arriving on the "Longjiang," Li Hengjia’s words belied his true feelings since what they needed now was experienced pilots.

Besides, neither Southern Fleet Headquarter nor Navy Headquarter had sent transfer orders for the Special Mixed Group.

Propaganda institutions?

Those were civilian departments, not qualified to point fingers at combat troops.

To minimize trouble, Li Hengjia arranged for Wei Chengwen to participate in the first round of offensive operations.

Once he flew the fighter into the sky, even if the Commander-in-chief sent a telegram, it would have to wait until the battle was over and he returned to the carrier before taking effect.

After taking off, it took Wei Chengwen an hour to catch up with the Attack Aircraft Group.

When Zhu Huasheng sent out the message to gather the Plane Group for the attack, Wei Chengwen was right behind Zhu Huasheng’s tail, about ten kilometers apart.

Actually, it was also good luck.

If Wei Chengwen hadn’t been following Zhu Huasheng, he would have had no way to strike first no matter what.

What made an ace pilot was not only the skill but also a high-performance fighter, and the ever-essential luck at any given time.

This guy’s luck was simply incredible!

As he dove from high altitude, Wei Chengwen spotted the 97 ship attack aircraft with its tail fin painted red and three yellow stripes, flying southeastward.

Whose mount was that?

Yes, it belonged to Colonel Genda of the First Air Corps!

Pilots from the Imperial Navy all recognized this highly conspicuous emblem.

It was this man who led his Plane Group to sink the "Ling River," resulting in hundreds of Imperial Navy officers and soldiers killed, many of whom were Wei Chengwen’s friends and comrades-in-arms.

Yes, that was Colonel Genda’s mount!

Wei Chengwen didn’t think twice; he directly pounced on that 97 ship attack aircraft.

Approaching at four hundred meters, right when the opposing pilot realized the threat and prepared to evade, Wei Chengwen pressed the switch on the control stick.

Six 13mm aircraft machine guns burst into flames simultaneously.

A sustained burst of several seconds targeted the cockpit.

However, just as Wei Chengwen fired, the 97 ship attack aircraft started to roll.

Clearly, Genda had seen the diving fighter from high above long ago.

Unfortunately, he didn’t expect that the other side would fire several hundred bullets in one breath.

The sudden roll maneuver allowed the cockpit to avoid the bullets, but the aircraft didn’t. The fuselage and wings were hit in several places, even the engine was struck.

Watching the 97 ship attack aircraft tug black smoke towards the sea, Wei Chengwen was somewhat discontent.

However, now was not the time to be distracted.

The battle had already begun. The torpedo bomber group led by Zhu Huasheng was lowering their altitude while searching for an opportunity to approach the carrier and launch an attack.

In the high skies, fourteen "Wasp" Dive Bombers from two squadrons had already arrived.

Nearby enemy ships had all reacted, with the closest cruiser already firing. However, their target was Saiyi Navy’s fighter planes.

The scene was extremely chaotic, but this was indeed the perfect opportunity to launch an attack.