Black Flag Army

Outside the dilapidated gray pavilion, beside the ancient road, there was a lot of fragrant grass. Under the setting sun, with the evening breeze blowing, Zhang Shaozeng, along with Wang Fangting, Shi Jingting and dozens of others, rode on horses and protected their families' carriages, and galloped along the ancient road to the south in a hurry.

Zhang Zhenyang, wearing the uniform of a brigade commander and riding a tall horse, blocked the way and shouted, "General Zhang, please stay!"

Zhang Shaozeng quickly stopped his horse and asked, "Why did Brigade Commander Zhang stop me?"

Zhang Zhenyang pointed at the long pavilion and said, "Commander Di wants to see General Zhang off!"

Zhang Shaozeng looked towards the pavilion and saw a table with two dishes and a pot of wine on it. Di Xiong was sitting beside the table and waving at Zhang Shaozeng with a smile.

Zhang Shaozeng hesitated for a moment, greeted the lady in the carriage canopy, then dismounted and walked towards the pavilion.

Di Xiong poured a glass of wine, handed it to Zhang Shaozeng, and sighed, "General Zhang is leaving now, without even seeing me?"

Zhang Shaozeng raised his cup and drank it all, then sighed, "I, Old Zhang, feel so ashamed of Brother Di! I am too embarrassed to see you, so I can only leave without saying goodbye. Brother Di actually came to see me off in person, which shows how deep our friendship is!"

Di Xiong said, "General Zhang's parents and children are all in Beijing. I understand your difficulties. Without your help, I, Di Xiong, would not be where I am today. It is my duty to send you off. I heard that the new Suiyuan Commander-in-Chief and General is Pan Juying. This Pan Juying used to be your subordinate. I would like to learn more about Pan Juying."

Zhang Shaozeng said: "Pan Juying is 31 years old this year. He graduated from the Japanese Army Academy in his early years. He is cunning and greedy for money, but he is not a fool general like Wang Huaiqing. He is still good at fighting. When I, Lan Tianwei and Wu Luzhen planned to revolt against the Qing Dynasty, it was he who informed Yuan Shikai, which led to the failure of the uprising. Wu Luzhen was assassinated by Yuan Shikai for this. He will come to Suiyuan this time, most likely with the 20th Beiyang Division. The 20th Division has a cavalry brigade, two infantry brigades, and a division with a heavy artillery regiment. You must be especially careful of the heavy artillery regiment. Among the 36 cannons, there are four 150mm Krupp heavy artillery."

Di Xiong said: "It seems that he is a person who is not easy to get along with. I am afraid it will be difficult for me to cooperate with him, but I can't anger him easily. After all, his strength should not be underestimated."

Zhang Shaozeng sighed and said, "Yes, Brother Di, Pan Juying relied on his relationship with Yuan Shikai to seize my military power. Naturally, he has nothing to fear. Even if your troops and mine are combined, it is difficult to compete with the 20th Division. What's more, the strength of the Beiyang Army is far more than just this one division. So even though I know that Yuan Shikai is deliberately making things difficult for me, I have to give up my military power. You can only be more careful about things in Suiyuan."

Di Xiong said: "General Zhang has done nothing wrong to me. Although Pan Juying is powerful, I will not compromise easily. If he wants to seize the territory, he will have to fight under guns."

Zhang Shaozeng said, "Your opponent is not just Pan Juying. I heard that Yan Xishan suffered a loss last time because of the plane, so he spent 500,000 yuan to buy 30 planes from the Japanese. He has hired Japanese instructors to train for several months. Be careful that they will come to retaliate."

The two of them then drank a few more glasses and basically finished the two dishes. Then Zhang Shaozeng and his party went to Beijing.

After Zhang Shaozeng left, his army was in chaos, and many officers left the barracks. Most of Shi Jingting and Zhang Shusheng's troops were reorganized from captured horse bandits and security brigades. Knowing that Zhang Shaozeng had been transferred, they also scattered and became rioters. Zhang Shusheng gathered two battalions and went to Baotou to join Di Xiong. Zhang Zhijiang's troops had the strictest discipline, so he basically led a whole regiment to find Feng Jishan. As for Lu Zhankui, who had just been recruited by Zhang Shaozeng, when he heard that Zhang Shaozeng's army had collapsed and the new commander was Zhang Shaozeng's enemy, he was afraid of being retaliated against, so he immediately took his old men back to the grassland to do his old business as a horse bandit. Before leaving, he robbed several wealthy families. Other rioters also started robbing and setting fires after hearing the news, and a few rioters shot and killed people. Police Chief Zhang Peisong personally led the patrol brigade to quell the riot, but the combat effectiveness of these trained rioters was no worse than that of the police. The huge Guisui city fell into chaos. Fortunately, Di Xiong, who received an urgent telegram, sent Zhang Zhenyang to lead a cavalry battalion to Guisui. Zhang Shusheng also led his troops back to help Zhang Peisong quell the rebellion. The Beiyang 20th Division, which was originally scheduled to arrive today, did not arrive as scheduled for some reason. The local security immediately fell into chaos, and many people had to flee Guisui.

In fact, the reason why the 20th Division did not arrive in time was, on the one hand, because Pan Juying brought too much unnecessary luggage. He had a lot of cannons, and before he came, he brought a lot of military supplies, weapons and ammunition, and civilian personnel, so that the army moved slowly. On the other hand, Pan Juying was delayed in Beijing for a very long time. His batch of weapons and ammunition was obtained by currying favor with many Beiyang dignitaries, so before leaving, Pan Juying held a banquet for several days in a row, gave many gifts to his superiors, and also received many gifts. Many people who were related to Pan Juying heard that he had become a high-ranking official and came to surrender, including frustrated officers, down-and-out literati, and people from all walks of life. As a result, Zhang Shaozeng was about to report to Beijing, while Pan Juying's 20th Division had only gone halfway.

However, even though Pan Juying was so procrastinating, he did not delay in causing trouble for Di Xiong. As early as the second day after Zhang Shaozeng left, Di Xiong met the messenger sent by Pan Juying and presented Pan Juying's handwritten letter. Apart from some unnecessary nonsense, the general idea was to ask Mr. Di Congmo to prepare 100,000 silver dollars for him as military pay, and to give him 100,000 silver dollars every month in the future. At the same time, he would send his cousin Pan Dadong to be the director of the aircraft factory in Baotou. Obviously, he wanted to control the aircraft gang in his own hands. If Di Congmo could do it, then he would not move the position of Baotou's garrison commander. After reading the letter, Di Xiong sneered a few times, threw the letter aside, and asked the messenger to wait at the hotel.

Wu Zhong who was standing by picked up the letter and looked at it carefully before asking, "This Pan wants to show us a warning. Besides, the aircraft factory here seems to be too ostentatious. We don't know how many eyes are watching it. Before it was the Japanese, now it's the Beiyang, and the previous Jin Army probably won't let it go either."

Di Xiong replied, "Pan Juying has his eyes on it, so should I give it to him? He has a good plan, but he met me, Di. I will not give him the aircraft factory, and he can't even think of taking a penny for free! Want money? If you have the guts, let him bring his army to get it. Old Wu, write back immediately. The aircraft factory was destroyed by Japanese ronin and it is difficult to deliver it for the time being. At the same time, it was said that this place was looted by the Outer Mongolian army some time ago, so one hundred thousand oceans cannot be taken out for the time being. Anyway, we can just delay for a while. What I lack most is time. Now I only have twelve aluminum planes. I have to protect Baotou and Beihai Company, and I also have to guard against the Shanxi Army and the Ma family army in Ningxia. If I could have twenty-four planes, I could destroy his 20th Division."

Wu Zhong nodded and went to the office to write a reply. However, as soon as Wu Zhong left, Wu Chunfeng ran in hurriedly and said to Di Xiong with a nervous face: "Boss, there is an emergency. The observation post in Tokto sent a message that the Jin army has sent a large group of planes towards us, probably to blow up our aircraft factory"!

Di Xiong replied: "Sound the air defense alarm in Baotou, and let all the troops and civilians be prepared for air raids. At the same time, send someone to notify Feng Ru to send all twelve aluminum aircraft of the aircraft factory's Black Hawk Squadron to fight, and try to intercept all the Jin-affiliated aircraft outside Baotou and destroy them."

After Li Fei received the order and left, Di Xiong also began to worry. He began to feel that the aircraft factory was indeed easy to be targeted. It had been attacked by three forces in just one month. It was necessary to find a suitable opportunity to move the aircraft factory. He was also ready to spread the news that the aircraft factory was destroyed by fire. However, whether this news was true or false depended on whether the twelve new aircraft worked hard enough.

Soon, in Feng Ru's aircraft factory, twelve pilots were ready to go. Their captain was called Gu Yuan, a young man in his twenties, and a distant cousin of the supervisory team leader Gu Xingzhi. However, the one with the best flying skills among this group of people was a middle-aged man named Ouyang Qian. He was an old soldier of the Jin faction. He had been to Europe, where he had flown old-style aircraft. Later, he was captured in a battle with Di Xiong's army. Because of his flying experience, he was selected by Feng Ru as a pilot, but because of his identity and background, he could not be the captain. Ouyang Qian also disliked Gu Yuan, thinking that he had poor flying skills and was just a relative of Gu Yuan. Therefore, he often disobeyed Gu Yuan's orders during flight training and had quarreled many times over technical issues. Therefore, the relationship between the two was not harmonious.

For the Black Hawk Squadron's first battle, Gu Yuan did not give the surrendered soldier specific orders, but only asked him to follow one of the teams for cover. This time, Gu Yuan divided the twelve planes into two formations. One team was responsible for concentrating firepower to destroy the enemy's main force, and the other team was the cover force mentioned earlier. They kept a certain distance from the front formation, provided cover support from behind, and paid attention to whether there were any enemy planes acting alone.

After the order was given, twelve planes quickly attacked. The observation post in the nearby town had already reported the enemy's movements again. The Jin planes were only a dozen kilometers away from Baotou.

The captain of the Jin Flying Team was Yan Xibao, a distant cousin of Yan Xishan. He learned to fly a plane while studying in Japan. When the Jin Army established the Air Force, he naturally became the captain. He painted a yellow tiger head on his plane to distinguish it from other planes.

In a sky full of smoke and dust, 24 wooden planes were flying, four of which were bombers loaded with bombs, and the rest were fighters. They kept flying at low altitudes and occasionally strafed the ground, hoping to avoid exposing the air raid. Of course, such strafing had long been meaningless, because Di Xiong's air defense observation posts were basically covered by mountains and forests, and were not noticed by these planes at all. Seeing that the low-altitude strafing did not achieve much effect, the Jin army gradually let the planes rise. Just as more than 20 planes were collectively rising, a glittering object appeared about 500 meters in front of their left, like a grain of dust in the air. When one of the pilots was concentrating on observing, the shiny gray grain suddenly became the size of a sesame seed. The Jin army's planes realized that it was an enemy plane, about five or six of them.

Since the Jin army had a numerical advantage and their flight training was very rough, sixteen of the twenty fighters rushed up in a swarm. However, the performance of the two sides' aircraft was not at the same level, and the flight speeds of the sixteen aircraft were different. The machine guns of the fighters of both sides opened fire almost at the same time, and a fierce exchange of fire began. Due to the Jin army's almost "refueling tactic" charge, four aircraft were hit one after another. One of the aircraft was hit by the fuel tank and exploded directly dozens of meters to the left of Gu Yuan. The other three also began to make an emergency landing. At this time, the machine guns of the Black Hawk flight team's cover formation opened fire at low altitude, shooting down all three descending aircraft, and even a parachuting pilot was killed.

The battle between the planes on the front battlefield continued. Although the Jin army had the advantage in firepower and two of the Black Hawks were hit in the wings, they were aluminum planes after all, so they could still fly. The situation of the Jin army's wooden planes was not so good. Four planes were hit and forced to land in succession. The morale of the Jin army was greatly hit. One of the planes fled and collided with another plane of its own and exploded.

The eight planes behind the Jin army seemed to be aware of the problem. Their captain Yan Xibao was sitting in a tiger-head fighter, planning to go all out. While the fighters in front were still holding on, he used flags to signal nearby planes, asking them to do their best to cover their bombers to fly to Baotou. Yan Xibao was a pilot who studied abroad after all. With his superb flying skills, he began to bypass the interception of the Black Hawk Squadron's planes. Four fighters also began to cover him. Two of them were hit by Ouyang Qian's plane and exploded directly, but the tiger-head plane began to leave the front battlefield with this wave of cover. Gu Yuan discovered the tiger-head plane and realized that it was not good. He quickly drove at full speed to bite it. Facing the interception of two enemy fighters, he had no time to take care of it. Now he just wanted to shoot down the bomber quickly. If it flew to Baotou, it would be a big deal.

With the speed advantage of aluminum aircraft over wooden aircraft, Gu Yuan finally caught up with the Tiger-head aircraft and fired at it frantically. Yan Xibao also turned around and fired. At the same time, two fighters of the Jin army also caught up with Gu Yuan's plane and opened fire at the same time. After a round of exchange of fire, the Tiger-head aircraft exploded in mid-air. At the same time, a fighter of the Jin army and the Black Hawk exploded at the same time. However, after the exchange of fire, Gu Yuan found that although his plane was shot and wounded, it could still fly. He was ready to sacrifice when he was chased just now, but he was still alive. After Gu Yuan calmed down, he found that the wing of the remaining enemy plane had also been shot, so he quickly shot it down. At the same time, he saw a piece of debris from the previous plane of his own side. The number on it showed that it was Ouyang's plane. It turned out that Ouyang sacrificed himself to save him. Why did someone who had always had a bad relationship with him save himself? Gu Yuan didn't figure this out until the end of the battle.

Soon, all the planes of the Jin army were shot down. Of the 24 planes, 15 exploded and crashed, and 9 made forced landings. The pilots were captured by the Baotou ground forces, and one of them escaped and was shot dead. Three of the Black Hawk planes also exploded, and two made forced landings.