Empire Conquest
Chapter 82 - 78: One Falls, Another Presses On

Chapter 82: Chapter 78: One Falls, Another Presses On

"No.3 Dragonfly, pull up quickly, pull up quickly!"

"Maintain the original course, do not turn!"

"Third squad, keep up, don’t fall behind!"

"Watch that fighter, turn right quickly."

"Upper left, ten o’clock direction, it’s a Zero Fighter."

"Watch out for the High-altitude Gun, accelerate into the barrage area."

"Squadron leader, don’t worry about us, don’t worry about us. Long live the Navy, may the Empire endure forever!"

...

The headset had already been filled with deafening noise, and the entire world had become dim and unclear.

Zhu Huasheng wasn’t injured; it was lubricating oil spraying from a bullet hole in the nose of the plane, smearing the cockpit windshield and blocking his view.

To see outside, Zhu Huasheng opened the cockpit canopy.

A fierce wind blew directly in his face, but he could see the giant ship ahead.

There were still about ten kilometers, at least two more minutes, before he could close the distance to within two thousand meters, which was the maximum range of the Air Torpedo. To increase the hit rate, it was best to reduce the drop distance to within one thousand meters, with around eight hundred meters being optimal.

Could he hold on for two minutes?

On the sea ahead, two parallel splashes appeared.

A sharp whistling sound followed immediately.

In the air, a Zero Fighter dived down, firing directly at the "Flying Fish" flying close to the sea surface, aiming at the cockpit.

Zhu Huasheng looked up, then quickly closed the cockpit canopy.

Several machine gun bullets were stuck in the canopy, the thick glass only cracked but not penetrated, indicating it could block 7.7mm machine gun bullets. Since the front windshield was the thickest in facing the High-altitude Gun, it could definitely block the bullets fired by the Zero Fighter.

Actually, he needed to worry about the engine.

There was already oil leaking; the engine would soon overheat. If hit by bullets again, there was no telling when it might stall.

"Dang dang dang—"

The sound of bullets hitting the windshield rang out, and Zhu Huasheng shivered uncontrollably.

It was an instinctive reaction, unrelated to training experience.

However, almost in the blink of an eye, the torpedo bomber violently jolted a few times, and black smoke emitted from the front engine compartment at the same time.

It was over!

When the control stick suddenly started shaking violently, Zhu Huasheng knew something terrible had happened.

It happened too fast; even though Zhu Huasheng realized what was happening, he didn’t react in time.

At that moment, five thousand meters up.

In the cockpit of the "Wasp" dive bomber painted with squadron leader insignias, Captain Jiang Haiyang clearly saw, under a strafing run by a Zero Fighter, Major Zhu Huasheng’s plane plunged into the ocean. Before the splash dissipated, the cumbersome torpedo bomber was submerged by the seawater.

The fate of the other torpedo bombers was similar.

Within just three minutes, a dozen "Flying Fish" torpedo bombers that had penetrated from extremely low altitude were all shot down, all outside of ten kilometers from the enemy ship.

Since the distance was too far, not a single "Flying Fish" managed to drop an Air Torpedo.

At such a distance, deploying torpedoes was pointless anyway.

Probably because they were so far away and felt no threat, the nearby enemy ships did not fire at the torpedo bombers, almost entirely spectating the battle.

A squadron, accurately speaking, half a section of twelve torpedo bombers was completely wiped out.

Still, the fight was far from over.

"First squad, follow me in from the enemy ship’s right side, second squad circle around to the enemy ship’s left side, fifteen-second intervals, maintain a thirty-degree angle with the enemy ship’s course."

"Squadron two, received!"

"Three Squadron will act according to the situation."

"Three Squadron received."

After giving the instructions, Jiang Haiyang shut off the transceiver.

He had never been fond of Zhu Huasheng for a simple reason. Jiang followed Li Yunxiang to join the Navy, previously serving as a fighter pilot in the Army Air Force. Although he never became an ace, he had shot down three enemy planes during the great war, making him one of the elites of the Army Aviation. But after joining the Navy, not only had he switched from piloting fighters to bombers, he also had to obey the commands of an officer who had entered the Navy midway through his career.

Jiang had always believed that Zhu Huasheng had climbed the ranks through connections.

It was no secret that Zhu Huasheng was Bai Zhizhan’s classmate and a close friend from the same dormitory.

Watching Zhu Huasheng, braving fierce enemy fire, charging toward the enemy battleship undeterred and getting shot down, Jiang’s eyes moistened.

In the face of righteousness, what do personal gains, losses, or honor amount to!?

However, now was not the time to mourn for a brother in arms.

The sacrifice made by Zhu Huasheng and the others wasn’t in vain, as the bold assault by a dozen torpedo bombers had drawn all nearby Zero Fighters to low altitudes.

Climbing from sea level to an altitude of five thousand meters would take at least eight minutes, even for an agile fighter.

The Zero Fighter’s maximum rate of climb was merely thirteen meters per second, which definitely could not be achieved in actual combat, ten meters per second would be impressive.

A dozen dive bombers chased after the fleeing enemy battleship, and it would take at most three minutes.

In fact, two minutes was enough.

The dive bombers were naturally faster than the torpedo attack aircraft and flew even faster at the lower drag of higher altitudes.

"Bang—Bang—Bang..."

Accompanied by the crisp sounds of explosions, plumes of black smoke appeared around, those were the fixed shells fired from the large-caliber high-altitude guns of the enemy battleship.

Antiaircraft shells incorporated time delay fuzes to control the height of explosion, optimizing combat efficiency.

However, the effects were not very promising.

At that moment, Jiang Haiyang saw a massive battleship maneuvering behind the carrier, trying to move to the carrier’s left side to block enemy planes coming from the west.

Crucially, it was a Main Battle Ship.

Judging from the distance between the two rear main gun turrets, it was definitely an upgraded "Jingang" class Fast Battleship.

Moreover, the speed of that battleship was almost that of a carrier, which confirmed it as a Fast Battleship.

He had not expected to encounter such a big fish!

Actually, Jiang had already spotted the battleship earlier, but it was too far away, and he had been focusing on the low-altitude attacking plane group, so he hadn’t closely observed it, assuming it was a Heavy Cruiser providing close-range air defense for the carrier.

Another key point was that prior intelligence had not mentioned the Saiyi Navy using Fast Battleships as carrier escorts.

Globally, only the Imperial Navy did this, and that too only during fleet exercises.

The Fast Battleships usually belonged to Combat Fleets for the sake of secrecy, having no contact with the directly subordinate Aviation Mixed Fleet of the Navy headquarter, rarely conducting joint training.

The Saiyi Navy certainly got their hands on some exercise intelligence and was secretly mimicking the Imperial Navy.

In terms of equipment development, hasn’t the Saiyi Navy always looked up to the Imperial Navy as a model?

But since they had encountered it, they couldn’t let it go.

In terms of value, the Fast Battleship was second only to a carrier.

The Saiyi Navy had six fleet carriers and three small carriers, but a meager four Fast Battleships.

Moreover, Jiang had prepared for unexpected situations.

"Three Squadron, take down that Main Battle Ship!"

"Three Squadron received!"

"One and Two Squadrons, spread out and bypass the Main Battle Ship, attacking the carrier from both sides."

"Two Squadron received."

Jiang Haiyang glanced back, the four dive bombers of the first squadron were following behind, and the third squadron’s five dive bombers led by the deputy squadron leader were rapidly catching up.