Bright Sword Military System

Naosaburo Okabe is quite rational. He is not as chaotic as Meijiro Umezu.

This is not to say that Umezu Yoshijiro does not have a worse general style than Okabe Naosaburo, but the pressure between the two is different... Okabe Naosaburo is outside the encirclement and has the most abundant fuel supply in the entire empire, while Umezu Yoshijiro has already It was beaten so badly that it was necessary to use the sea of ​​​​people to pile it up.

Naosaburo Okabe did not directly reject Umezu Mijiro's request. He calmly said to Umezu Mijiro: "Umezu-kun, if our fighter planes have the ability to contain the enemy's fighter planes, I will definitely do it! Then... the disparity between the enemy and us is too great, and our fighter planes Facing the Eighth Route Army fighter planes, there is no chance of survival at all, and combating them will basically have no containment effect! Continuing to fight in the Xinjing airspace will only increase losses!"

Then Naosaburo Okabe sent the report of the last air battle to Meijiro Umezu.

The entire air battle lasted only 7 minutes, and a fully equipped "Wind" team of forty fighters was beaten down to only eleven surviving ones, and five of them were injured and required weeks of repairs to recover.

In other words, in those 7 minutes, a "Wind" team was crippled.

Umezu Meijiro became silent when he saw this result.

If this report is true, then there is indeed no sense of restraint... The empire only has one "Wind" team left, which can only be enough for the Eighth Route Army to fight for another 7 minutes.

And what does 7 minutes mean to the Army?
Even if the Eighth Route Army didn't fire to let them go, they could only advance a few hundred meters!
In fact, this is because Umezu Yoshijiro, a typical army officer who graduated from the Army Sergeant School and Army University, knows too little about air combat. A mature jet fighter like the "J-2" is separated from the "Hayate" by generations. In the face of the generation gap, Are you still thinking about containing him?

The "J-2" can completely ignore the existence of the "Blaster" and do whatever it wants. The "Blaster" doesn't even have a chance to fire.

However, there is no generational difference in the fighter aircraft of this era. At the same time, Umezu Yoshijiro has not studied air combat, so he does not understand or understand these at all. He is using the thinking of land warfare to imagine air combat.

Umezu Yoshijiro was still unwilling to give in. He made another request: "Okabe-kun, are our fighter planes unable to avoid fighting because of the Eighth Route Army's new fighter planes? Then what is the meaning of the existence of our fighter planes?"

This question is so critical that even Naosaburo Okabe doesn’t know how to answer it.

If we can't fight, we won't fight. Then what are these aircraft produced for?
Now that these aircraft have been produced, does it mean that sooner or later they will have to fly into the sky to face the Eighth Route Army's new fighters?

If we have to face it sooner or later, now is the critical moment to occupy Ping'an Village and seize oil. Why not fight now?

After thinking for a while, Naosaburo Okabe replied: "As a member of the Empire, of course our army will not avoid fighting, but it does not mean that I will waste these hard-won Imperial fighter planes pointlessly!"

After saying that, he disappeared when Umezu Yoshijiro came.

Okabe Naosaburo knew that he could not convince Umezu Meijiro... He knew nothing about air combat, and even now he still doubts whether the Eighth Route Army has this 1000 kilometers per hour fighter.

In this case, all negotiations with him are invalid. No matter what he says, he will only say one sentence in the end: go to war to contain!
Naosaburo Okabe did not want to waste time and saliva in this regard, nor did he want his thoughts to be interfered with by any external factors.He stared at the map and thought for a while before squeezing out a sentence through his teeth: "Do you know the range of the Eighth Route Army's new fighter plane?"

Oshiro Sanji and Kono Shinta, who were standing nearby, looked at each other. They had just learned that the Eighth Route Army had this fighter plane, and of course they could not know its range.

Naosaburo Okabe actually knew this, so he analyzed it without waiting for the two people to answer: "This new fighter of the Eighth Route Army uses the engine of the 'Meteor' fighter jet on which the sun never sets, but the speed of the 'Meteor' fighter jet is said to be only 650 kilometers per hour. kilometers, but its speed can reach 1000 kilometers per hour... With the same engine, in order to reach higher speeds, in addition to the aerodynamic layout, the fuel consumption will also increase dramatically!"

After hearing this, Shinta Kono immediately understood the meaning of Naosaburo Okabe's words: "What do you mean, General, that the Eighth Route Army's new fighter aircraft may still have a problem of insufficient range?"

Naosaburo Okabe nodded: "It is said that the 'Meteor' fighter jet has a range of only 1600 kilometers. Does that mean... we can estimate that the Eighth Route Army's new fighter jet has a range of only 1000 kilometers?"

Objectively speaking, Okabe Naosaburo's estimate is reasonable.

The "Meteor" and the "J-2" use the same engine. From the appearance, the "Meteor" is slightly larger... This can be compared with the estimated size given by intelligence personnel.

(Note: The "Meteor" fuselage and wingspan are each about 2 meters longer than the "J-3", and the empty weight of the two is almost the same)
From these details, it can be estimated that the fuel carried by the two should be about the same, and the "Meteor" may even have more fuel.

If the fuel is almost the same and the engine is of the same type, does the one that flies faster necessarily consume more fuel and therefore have a shorter range?
The more Shinta Kono thought about it, the more it made sense. He said: "In order to pursue high speed, Hans's jet fighter also made compromises in its range. Its range is only one thousand kilometers. From this, it is estimated that the range of the Eighth Route Army's new fighter is about About a thousand kilometers! In addition, the Eighth Route Army probably only has a few new fighters..."

At this point, Kono Shinta stopped. He knew that if the Eighth Route Army's new fighter planes had these weaknesses, the Imperial Air Force would still be able to fight, but he didn't know how to operate it.

Naosaburo Okabe said in a low voice: "Do you still remember our previous battle plan to attack along the coastline?"

So Shinta Kono understood that Naosaburo Okabe planned to restart the plan that had been rejected by Tokyo.

The same plan may not have made sense before, but it may make sense at another time.

Previously, Naosaburo Okabe used "Hayate" fighters and the combined fleet to coordinate attacks along the coastline. His strategic goal was to capture coastal towns, ports, and shipyards. This goal was judged by Tokyo to be of no practical significance.

But now if it is to contain the Eighth Route Army Air Force and transfer its main force to the coastline to reduce the pressure on the Kwantung Army, then it makes sense and is possible to achieve it!
The most important thing is that this is the tactic that can really contain the Eighth Route Army aviation... This tactic takes advantage of the short range and small number of the Eighth Route Army's new fighter aircraft, and the warships have strong anti-aircraft firepower. Just destroy a few of them to disrupt the Eighth Route Army aviation. One arm.

But Naosaburo Okabe didn't know that the range he estimated for the Eighth Route Army's new fighter aircraft was inaccurate!