He climbed out of the turret, jumped to the ground, and approached a Guardian Army soldier who was tightly clutching a Smoke Bomb.
Wang Zhong remembered this young man. Before the enemy attack, Wang Zhong had ordered him to wait for Monk to spot incoming enemy planes and then throw the Smoke Bomb on the now-empty bunker to lure the enemy planes into a dive bombing run on it.
Unexpectedly, the enemy’s Stukas didn’t come; instead, it was Xu Jin’s barrage and infantry.
Wang Zhong took off his hat and bowed his head in silence before the young man.
A commander’s wrong judgment could cost the lives of many, Wang Zhong once again deeply realized this fact.
At that moment, the ear-piercing air raid alarm resounded through the entire city.
Wang Zhong looked up, Brother Peter probably couldn’t get ahold of Wang Zhong on the phone, so he had only reported the situation to the Air Force.
Wang Zhong climbed back onto the tank, stood on it and looked up into the sky, and without changing his perspective, he saw the enemy formation at the horizon.
After switching his view, Wang Zhong was astonished to find that there were as many as 20 Do 215 bombers and 30 Stuka dive bombers!
It was evident that the enemy really wished to capture Loktov before the 63rd Army Group did!
Wang Zhong ended his overview, shouting at the people around, “Enemy planes incoming! Hide in the cellar! Quick, into the cellars! Don’t bother with the bodies, just leave them in the streets! Hurry to the cellars!”
Alexandria and the others had also climbed out of the tanks.
The door of the nearby building opened, and an old lady shouted, “Young man, come inside! There’s still room in my cellar!”
The members of tank number 422 immediately rushed through the door.
Wang Zhong took one last look at the formation in the sky.
In that instant, he saw something reflecting the sunlight higher than the formation.
It was an airplane!
Fifteen MiG-3s jettisoned their auxiliary fuel tanks and dove from high altitude, charging at the enemy planes,
In the first round of fire, five Do 215s were hit and plummeted to the ground trailing thick smoke.
Soon after, the formation circled and came back, plunging again into the midst of the bomber fleet.
Tracer rounds from the machine guns crisscrossed in the sky.
The enemy probably never expected to encounter a formal intercept by the Ant Air Force, having not even sent escort fighters, and so the aerial battle quickly turned into a one-sided slaughterhouse.
By then, the ground air raid alarms had stopped, and the people who had been scrambling to the cellars were now all out on the streets, watching the fierce battle in the sky as if observing a fireworks display.
Each time an enemy plane was hit and long plumes of smoke billowed out, the people on the ground let out deafening cheers.
Some mischievous children, in order to watch this spectacular showing, had climbed directly onto the rooftops.
The battle in the sky quickly neared its end.
The surviving enemy planes jettisoned their bombs outside the city and dove to low altitude, attempting to gather speed for escape.
The intercepting MiG-3 formation chased beyond the line of sight of those watching.
The entire scene quietened down.
Wang Zhong heard a child asking, “Mommy, did we win?”
His mother responded, “We won, the enemy planes were driven away.”
The child asked again, “Then why didn’t our planes come earlier? That way, grandma, grandpa, and my other grandparents wouldn’t have died.”
The woman just silently embraced the child, gently stroking his hair.
At that moment, the Ante Fighters that had chased the enemy returned, flying in a V-formation over the city.
Wang Zhong recognized it, the leading plane was the one that had shot down the enemy’s reconnaissance plane yesterday!
Then, through the overview perspective, he clearly saw the pilot pull out a smoke stick, bite the head of the smoke canister with his teeth, and light the fuse.
So the smoke stick emitted colored gas and, as the planes advanced, a long trail of colored smoke was drawn through the sky.
The other planes did the same, and the fifteen MiG-3s, trailing colorful streaks, flew over the ruins of Loktov streets.
The crowd let out a deafening cheer, throwing whatever they could grab into the sky.
In that instant, Wang Zhong suddenly felt a sensation of victory.
At the same time, a child on the rooftop suddenly shouted down, “General! There are troops coming from the northeast!”
Wang Zhong hurriedly looked toward the northeast and indeed saw a large formation of infantry troops march in columns of fours along the main road.
The main force of the 63rd Army Group had finally arrived.