Chapter 22: The Grand Military Review

  "I heard that this afternoon, the Commander-in-Chief and Commander Chen are going to welcome the fleet at Guangzhou Port together? Is this true?" A young lieutenant who was in charge of operating radar and other electronic equipment asked his partner, while also tidying up his uniform, striving to present his best side to the people.

  "It seems so! From the establishment of the Navy, we have always been mysterious. After serving as a soldier for so many years, it's the first time I'm wearing casual clothes on a warship!" The third-class officer said this and snatched the small mirror from the lieutenant's hand, took a look at himself, was his beard shaved clean? Was his hat worn correctly? Was he handsome enough? After admiring himself for a long time, he returned the mirror to the lieutenant.

  "Seeing you like that reminds me of a true saying!"

  "What? If you have something to say, just say it straight out! I'm in a particularly good mood today!"

  "A true warrior dares to face his own unadorned face." The lieutenant looked at the white officer's appearance, shook his head and said: "Originally this sentence was meant for women to hear, but seeing your stinky beautiful look, I suddenly found that this sentence is quite suitable for you!"

  "Yes, how can I compare to you? They say that beauty fades with age and heroes go bald, it's the greatest tragedy in life." Old White chuckled and glanced at Second Lieutenant twice, taking advantage of his distraction to flip off his hat and said: "Your tragedy lies here!" After finishing speaking, he ran away with a clang.

  "Humble appearance, concealing the inner pervert!" As he said this, the lieutenant wiped his almost bald head and shook it, leaving only a sigh. In terms of professional skills, he was not the most successful, as a warrant officer who could become a junior lieutenant in the navy or even the entire People's Army were few and far between. However, the result of studying too hard was premature baldness. But that was okay, when did soldiers ever not wear hats? Wearing military uniforms and donning military caps, the lieutenant was still a big shot.

  The warship is sailing at the Pearl River estuary and will soon arrive at Guangzhou Port. The officers and soldiers participating in the ceremony are adjusting their uniforms, with the white naval uniform, snow-white gloves, shoes and socks matching their robust physique after long and arduous training. Their upright posture and handsome appearance are very pleasing to the eye. However, the naval officers and soldiers have been trained hard, and their yellow skin has turned dark brown, but against the backdrop of a snowy white uniform, they look particularly spirited and handsome.

  August 11, 1928 was a sunny day with clear skies. On that day, Guangzhou welcomed the highest military commander of the People's Autonomous Government for the first time. Zhang Yu took off from the air force base in Liuzhou at 9:00 am and arrived directly in Guangzhou. After inspecting the garrison of the Fourth Division of the Fourth Army in Foshan and Dongguan, he had a brief rest at the People's Armed Forces Department of Guangdong Province at noon and held a small symposium with local party and government officials. Of course, the content after 3:00 pm was the main purpose of this trip to Guangzhou.

  At 15:02 on the 11th, the sparkling Pearl River welcomed the first batch of naval vessels. The North Sea No. 1 frigate, which arrived at Guangzhou Port in advance, saluted the incoming fleet with a whistle before leading the main force of the combat fleet into Guangzhou Port. At this moment, all warships began to hang full flags.

  According to international convention, the time and order of hoisting full flags are strictly regulated. The timing of hoisting full flags generally includes welcoming government officials, major holidays, welcoming foreign warships, departing from the pier before visiting fleets, arriving at the port of the visited country, and when anchored abroad. Today's hoisting of full flags is naturally because entering Guangzhou Port is a grand festival for the navy.

  The full flag is suspended between the two horizontal beams of the mast, and is connected to the bow and stern flagpoles. A red flag is hung at the top of each mast, and a naval flag is hung on the bow and stern flagpoles. The arrangement of the full flag is in the shape of a square and a triangle, with the square flag being a rectangular flag and the triangular flag being a triangular flag. The swallow-tailed flag can be used as a square flag, and the trapezoidal flag is also called a long pennant flag, which can be used as a triangular flag. From the top of the bow flagpole to the top of the main mast, from the top of the main mast to the top of the rear mast, and from the top of the rear mast to the top of the stern flagpole, there are three thin steel wires. After receiving the command to hoist the full flag, the signalman uses an electric winch to slowly raise the full flag along the thin steel wire.

  The city is within sight, and the fleet is getting closer to the port. As the first ship of the entering fleet, the Haikou destroyer, gets closer, just before it enters the range of vision of the crowd on shore, officers and men in white uniforms come onto the deck, form up, rush to their stations, line up on both sides, with officers and non-commissioned officers standing at the bow, all crew members facing outwards, hands clasped behind their backs, legs spread apart, chest out, abdomen in, eyes fixed forward. The People's Liberation Army Navy fleet is presenting itself to the people for the first time, showing respect.

  At this time, the Guangzhou port was already bustling with people, and when a large gray-painted warship and a bright red flag appeared in the crowd's line of sight, it had already started to boil. After the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the Chinese Navy was thoroughly eliminated from the ocean, but now the warships in view were proudly sailing in, and the past shame and today's hope suddenly collided violently. People couldn't hold back their enthusiasm and waved their hands vigorously towards the warship, which made the naval infantry officers maintaining order very proud, standing even more upright with their guns at attention. Those who couldn't face the warship also knew from the colorful expressions of the crowd on the other side of the safety line that the warships were slowly sailing into or had already started anchoring in the river behind them.

  "Attention!"

  A loud and clear command came through the huge loudspeakers on both sides of the welcoming platform, and the naval soldiers at the port immediately turned around, stood at attention and looked forward with their chests out. The warships entering Guangzhou Port had all taken their positions, with the tall Nanning and Wuzhou cruisers in the center, and the Haikou and Sanya ships on either side. Among the officers and men standing on the deck of the warship, a small number quickly left their posts - they were the officers and men who controlled the salute cannons, waiting for the order to fire after taking their positions.

  "Twenty-one gun salute. Ready, first shot, fire!!" From Haikou on the far left to Sanya on the far right, every warship had a salute cannon, and under the command of the commander-in-chief, they fired together in unison, firing 21 shots according to the highest naval etiquette.

  After the salute was fired, General Zhang Yu and Navy Commander Chen Shaokuan got into two open-top Huai cars from both sides. When they drove to the middle, the two cars stopped 10 meters apart. Commander Chen Shaokuan shouted loudly through the car's loudspeaker: "Commander-in-Chief, the naval fleet has anchored, please review!!" After finishing speaking, he gave another standard military salute.

  At this moment, a buzzing sound came from the right side of the harbor in the sky. Just as people looked up at the silver light flashing in the sky, Zhang Yu's inspection car had arrived at the dock on the right side, led by Chen Shaokuan's car, in front of the Sanya No. 1 destroyer, accompanied by the high-pitched naval march. The first and temporary "military parade" organized by the navy officially kicked off as Zhang Yu's inspection car slowly drove towards the last warship.

  "Waaa... Waaa...!"

  Zhang Yu's inspection vehicle had not yet arrived in front of the Sanya destroyer when the signalman on board blew a long whistle according to the captain's order. At this time, the crew members on board changed their posture from at ease to attention. After the captain's command "Eyes right" came, the officers and men all saluted with their eyes fixed on the inspection vehicle until it left its parking position. The second warship following closely was the Wuzhou cruiser, blowing whistles, standing at attention, saluting...

  As the escort music played, when the reviewing car was about to arrive at the berth of Nanning, twelve F-01 fighter jets from the naval aviation special mission group had already flown over the berthed warships in a V-shaped formation with three planes in each row. Three aircraft began to release colored smoke canisters and flew low over the fleet, leaving behind red, yellow and white smoke trails.

  The sudden arrival of the plane left many people in the audience stunned, especially on the specially set up foreign guest viewing platform, where many foreigners were shocked to the point of almost being able to fit an egg in their mouths. The four warships docked not far away had no intimidating effect on them at all, even though the Nanning and Wuzhou's 203mm large-caliber naval guns were raised high. Except for the fact that many places on the two ships were covered with canvas, making it impossible to see what was underneath, which piqued the interest of the foreigners a bit. However, compared to their own country's warships with tens of thousands of tons of displacement, the People's Liberation Army Navy's cruisers were still not worthy of their attention. Although the tens of thousands of people around them were all excited to tears, they remained unmoved.

  But things are hard to predict, after the buzzing plane appeared in the sky, their expressions began to plummet, everyone stood up from their seats, scrambling to grab binoculars to take a look at what was happening. The single-wing metal plane shining brightly in the sunlight was so beautiful, the naval aviation unit's specially prepared unpainted fighter had a great "dazzling" effect. Later, it flew over the warship at ultra-low altitude.

  When everyone thought the planes were going to scrape against the cruiser's mast, but what made them different was that three of the twelve planes suddenly started emitting beautiful smoke trails. The high-speed flight quickly formed a series of extremely beautiful smoke columns, and none of the twelve planes crashed into the warship. This ultra-low-altitude flight not only showcased the naval aviation troops' aircraft, but also perfectly demonstrated the pilots' excellent qualities.

  Those planes were all brand new, not yet painted or equipped with weapons. After hastily installing smoke bombs, they were handed over to the pilots from Hainan Airlines. After a two-day adaptation flight at China Aviation's second group, they rushed to Hainan Airlines' base in Guangzhou, while preparing for flight performances. Of course, only unpainted planes could let audiences know of their arrival from afar, and the golden sunlight shining on the metal skin would emit a particularly dazzling light, which would strongly stimulate the eyes of foreigners and thoroughly sublimate the enthusiasm of the Chinese people.

  After flying low over the fleet, the smoke performance also came to an end. The twelve fighter jets immediately pulled up high and split into two small formations at 3,000 meters. One formation flew forward while the other quickly returned to the starting point. All of this was unnoticed by the onshore spectators, whose attention had already returned to the naval review. Only foreigners were still holding binoculars, constantly looking out.

  When Zhang Yu's car drove past the Haikou destroyer and returned to the center of the parking lot, the two small formations of performing aircraft had already prepared on both sides not far away. Through airborne wireless equipment unified action, they quickly made a move that made foreigners feel eerie. The aircraft on both sides lowered their flight altitude, and when they were less than 100 meters above the river surface, all fighter jets in both small formations changed to level flight at the same time. The six aircraft in each small formation formed an arrow shape, with the aircraft on both sides quickly approaching the center at extremely high speeds, and the lead aircraft of the arrow-shaped formation pulling out red smoke.

  In the eyes of everyone on the shore, looking up at the sky was like two silver arrowheads with red arrow bodies flying at an extremely fast speed and about to collide head-on. However, very quickly, the two arrows suddenly stood upright, that is, the planes changed to side flight. The audience could see the left plane flying over from the left side of the body and the right plane flying over from the right side of the abdomen. Two high-speed small formations intersected above the Nanning cruiser in Guangzhou Port, almost causing a tragic mid-air collision. The fly-by performance of the planes made the onshore audience completely stunned. For a moment, the entire Guangzhou Port was silent, with only the two red smoke trails that had merged and the humming sound of the aircraft engines proving that what had just happened was real.

  Then, the 12 fighter jets performed a series of mid-air and high-altitude stunts. The most thrilling one was the collective slide-turn performance, which made it seem like the pilots were drunk, making unimaginable moves in the air. The single-plane multiple roll performances were even more breathtaking, not to mention the corkscrew, rising inverted and other stunts. Tens of thousands of people had become a screaming ocean, not because they were afraid that the planes would suddenly lose speed and fall from the sky, but because they were cheering for the pilots' brilliant performances, among them blond-haired and blue-eyed foreigners. The high-flying stunts had completely eliminated their racial prejudices, and at this moment, people were fully enjoying the dazzling display brought by the sons of heaven.

  Shortly after the brilliant aerobatic performance of the fighter jets, a louder humming noise came from the right side of the sky, and this time many people saw a group of large birds flying in without using binoculars. They were called big birds because these planes were much larger than the fighter jets earlier, and those fighter jets had become loyal guards waiting around those big birds. The leaders were four warplanes that performed solo aerobatics, leading the flight team in an arrowhead formation, looking like a trident-shaped lead team, followed closely by seven naval bombers in a pyramid formation, with three fighters on each side of the fleet, and two fighter jets at the end of the fleet, which pulled out blue smoke trails, whose symbolic meaning is self-evident.

  After the bomber fleet flew over the harbor area, they returned to their respective bases. Ten of the twelve fighter jets would be stationed at a hastily completed naval aviation base, while the other two would escort the bombers back to their airbase in Guangxi Province. The temporary base could allow these planes to take off and land, but it was not yet able to provide ground support for them, so they had to fly back to their old base.

  Shortly after the flight performance of the warplanes, the entry ceremony of the four naval vessels entered the final stage. Under the escort of a team of marines, the cordon was lifted. The ships had already set up gangways, and some government officials from Guangdong Province, citizen representatives, business people, especially distinguished guests invited by the autonomous region from Nanyang, boarded the Nanning or Wuzhou for a visit.

  While the other two destroyers have opened all the gangways, allowing visitors to visit some areas, but taking pictures is restricted in some places, and the content of conversations with officers and men is specified, prohibiting intentionally removing certain parts of the cover. Within an hour, Nanning and Wuzhou were also open, and the visiting regulations are the same for these two ships, and some parts are guarded by armed naval infantry soldiers, no one can approach.

  After returning to the rest area, when only Navy Commander Chen Shaokuan and Zhang Yu were left in the rest room, Zhang Yu first opened his mouth and said after taking a sip of iced black tea: "August 11th is a good day! From now on, let's make this day the Navy's National Defense Open Day, timely show off our strong muscles, the effect is pretty good. Today the young men performed well, especially the naval aviation troops, they are worthy of encouragement."

  Chen Shaokuan, who was standing beside him, had a stiff face for half a day and finally showed a hearty smile. He had always been serious, solemn, lively and positive, especially during the entry ceremony, in front of the Sino-British Hong Kong negotiating team and tens of thousands of Guangzhou people, his seriousness felt a bit excessive. Now, when he smiled, he suddenly found that smiling was also a kind of pain, and the stiff muscles only felt better after being relieved by the smile.

  "Sichuan's Chongqing, Guangdong's Guangzhou, Hunan's Changsha, Hubei's Wuhan, these four major cities are incredibly hot! Chen Shaokuan's white uniform was already soaked with sweat. In August, Guangzhou is scorching, the temperature hasn't reached 32 degrees Celsius but it feels like 28 or 29, plus the overly enthusiastic sunshine and Chen Shaokuan's excessive seriousness, he was soon sweating profusely. Zhang Yu wasn't much better off either. After returning to the rest room, what they wanted most was ice-cold tea. Only after resting and cooling down did they drink two large cups to feel relieved."

  "It's so hot today, let the marines on guard duty change shifts quickly. It's not easy for the officers and soldiers either, don't all warships have air conditioning? Don't try to save money, turn on the air conditioning, if we get sick from the heat it won't be good!" Zhang Yu said, pointing at Chen Shaokuan and then at his own phone, telling him to hurry up and give the order. However, Chen Shaokuan just smiled on the side, meaning that it was unnecessary for Zhang Yu to say that the air conditioning on the warship should also be turned on."

  The crowd on the scene was very enthusiastic, and it can be seen that they will have great expectations for the navy from now on. Especially when watching the flight performance, the enthusiasm of the crowd almost raised the temperature of the scene by tens of degrees, quickly surpassing the enthusiasm of the four warships. I estimate that the pilots who returned to the base at this moment are the happiest and most proud. Today's exercise was not scheduled, but they still succeeded again, and the naval officers and soldiers must have been blown away. In future exercises, don't expect them to show mercy, although they never did.

  Zhang Yu became interested in this conversation, walked over and sat down on the chair beside Chen Shaokuan, smiling and saying: "What do you mean by this? Are you asking me to show up and let them laugh away their grudges? The price of letting them laugh away their grudges is a bit too high, have you guys already made preparations?"

  "Since its establishment, the naval aviation has undergone countless large and small training exercises. The naval aviation base on the shores of Dongting Lake is a base for our torpedo bombers, dive bombers and other aircraft to conduct coordinated attacks at sea, and there are more bases in Beihai Bay for fighter pilots. According to the requirements of the aircraft carrier, we first set up a mock flight deck on land, requiring all fighter pilots to take off and land within a predetermined distance. Later, the shipyard also built a training ship for us, with a main body that is a 200-meter-long and 25-meter-wide flight deck, which has allowed our pilots to adapt from land to sea!"

  "Has there been an idea of developing aircraft carriers?" Zhang Yu asked very directly.

  "Think, even in dreams!" Chen Shaokuan stood up and bowed to Zhang Yu, saying: "In order to enable the naval fleet to have air defense combat capabilities, and the naval aviation troops to have air-to-air and air-to-sea combat capabilities, we have lost 10 aircraft and 3 precious pilots' lives. I...I...I hope our efforts can be rewarded, even if it's just a try!!!"

  Chen Shaokuan's last words were somewhat agitated, and it was clear that the People's Liberation Army Navy was indeed very weak, to the point of being unable to withstand any turmoil, and compared to the navies of the great powers, they were nothing. It was difficult for them to match up with the magnificent Chinese nation's rejuvenation cause.

  "The naval forces of the People's Army started from scratch, and every attempt and effort is valuable because they had nothing to begin with. It's precisely because of this that every gain is cherished by the sailors. We love the ocean, but we love that vast blue sky even more!" Chen Shaokuan said, then saluted Zhang Yu again, his arm still raised.

  He stood up, walked to his briefcase, and pulled out the document inside. The top-secret file with a red header, Chen Shaokuan had handed it over to him more than a month ago, but Zhang Yu only browsed the title of the report and never touched it again. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but he didn't dare to, in other words, it was easy to get into the cave, but hard to get out. Lifting his head, Zhang Yu looked at Chen Shaokuan who was still standing there with tears in his eyes and saluting, shook his head helplessly, pulled out the document without looking at its content, signed his name directly on the last page's commander signature column, and then threw it back to Chen Shaokuan, along with a fierce roar - "Get out!"

  He sat down listlessly, staring at the slightly blood-colored iced tea, the chill of which quickly seeped into his heart, calming his restless and agitated mind. After closing his eyes and drinking the entire cup of iced tea in one gulp, Zhang Yu stood up again and went to open the door of the rest room. He knew Chen Shaokuan would be waiting at the door, and indeed he was. Looking at Chen Shaokuan's wronged face, Zhang Yu suddenly felt like laughing, patted him on the shoulder, and smiled faintly: "Come in, I have something to discuss with you, you little devil!"

  "What about Hong Kong?"

  "Ah!"