After the Military Commission made a specific retreat plan, Li Xiaofeng did not get too entangled with military issues, because a certain immortal was still self-aware, so he asked him to propose a general strategy without any problem, but asked him to set specific details, especially those trivial tactics, which was purely an outsider to guide his experts.

Li Xiaofeng believes that a qualified leader does not have to take care of everything, nor does he have to do everything himself, otherwise nine lives will not be enough to squander. What's more, you have to do everything by yourself, so what do those subordinates do?

Leaders must have the art of leadership, just manage the things they should manage well. If you have to point fingers at everything, it will be hard on the one hand, and on the other hand it will also hit the subjective initiative of subordinates. Some people will make subordinates feel that you don’t trust them. Over time, they will be disinterested.

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng did not intend to learn the empty-handed approach, and used orders to govern the military and the country, creating jokes like "President Chiang Zhongzheng consulted President Chiang Zhongzheng to order Minister Chiang Zhongzheng to transfer Governor Chiang Zhongzheng to transfer to President Chiang Zhongzheng's official documents."

So Li Xiaofeng only plans to grasp the main problems within his capacity, such as the problem of military production. As mentioned earlier, he basically solved the problem of tanks and armored vehicles. Next, as the war became more and more cruel, he needed to consider the air force issues more.

The Air Force's problems include three aspects: fighter jets, bombers and attack aircraft. Yes, you read that right, the main combat aircraft group of the Red Army has problems. Let's start with fighters. The full metal Jacques-1/2 faces mainly engine problems. The vk-100 series, such as vk-100, vk103, and vk105, must be equipped with fighter jets, attack aircraft and bombers at the same time. The production capacity is really a big problem.

How to solve the problem of several fighter, attack aircraft and bomber grabbing engines is enough for Li Xiaofeng to worry about. In addition to building a new production line to expand production capacity, Li Xiaofeng felt that it was necessary to introduce some foreign engines to emergency response. For example, he appreciates the Merlin series liquid-cooled engines of Rolls and Rolls.

It seems like a good choice to install Merlin on Jacques, and with the outbreak of the Patriotic War, Britain and the Soviet Union also had the intention to carry out military cooperation. For example, the British were forced to breathe by German submarines and urgently needed a Type 36b frigate. Can we make an engine-for-frigate plan?

When Li Xiaofeng made this suggestion in the Political Bureau, Trotsky received active response. This is probably the first time since the outbreak of the Patriotic War, both sides have reached a consensus on a problem. It is quite difficult to be honest.

Livinov quickly and happily went to Britain with relevant suggestions. At the same time, Li Xiaofeng's personal representative Natalia also found the US Department of the Army and North American Airlines, and clearly stated that he wanted to purchase a batch of military aircraft for the Soviet government.

What military aircraft? Naturally, it was the famous Mustang that later became famous. Of course, the initial Mustang was not as popular as it later. For the US Army, North American Airlines and Mustang were both "little Erbiao". At that time, the Mustang was completely unattracted by the US Department of War and believed that it was a "foreign" fighter jet that did not meet the US military specifications (the first user of the Mustang was the Royal Air Force). Of course, there were also shady details. Some bureaucrats in the Department of War asked North American Airlines President Jindberg to bribe in exchange for a production contract, but were rejected by Jindberg.

Of course. These were in 1940. Because the Royal Air Force believed that the Mustang was the best fighter that the United States could produce at that time, it placed a lot of orders, which in turn stimulated the US Department of the Army to begin to pay attention to the Mustang.

Especially after the Lease Bill was passed, the Mustang lived a more prosperous life. While stepping up improvements, it could fully cope with Soviet orders. The only question was whether the US Congress and the government could agree to the sale.

You should know that since 1939, the Americans have looked at the Soviet Union differently. On the one hand, they exported a large amount of oil and scrap steel to Japan, but on the other hand, they drastically cut off military cooperation with the Soviet Union, and even set a lot of obstacles to the export of aviation aluminum. At one point, the relationship between the two countries fell to a low point.

It was the outbreak of the Patriotic War that temporarily lifted certain restrictions on the Americans, allowing American companies to export primary raw materials and mechanical accessories to the Soviet Union, but even civilian trucks were restricted from exporting to the Soviet Union, let alone fighter jets.

Anyway, Natalia was ready to be turned away, but to her surprise, the Americans became a little more generous this time. US Army Secretary Stinson personally met her, expressing her willingness to sell the Mustang, and even hinting that the Soviet Union could be included in the Lease Act.

This news surprised Natalia and almost thought that the sun had come out to the west, but Li Xiaofeng was not surprised. For the Americans, it was normal to balance the war. The Soviet Union was too strong before, and the Americans were worried that Germany would not be the opponent of the Soviet Union, and that after the war, Europe would become the Soviet Union's dominant power, so this tightened its policy toward the Soviet Union.

Now, the Soviet Union is in a passive state of fighting on both sides, and the situation on the battlefield is quite unfavorable to the Soviet Union. Once the Soviet Union is defeated by Germany, this result is not something that the Americans want to see. Therefore, the best choice is to transfusion blood for the Soviet Union, let the polar bears fight Hans more rounds, and let both sides shed as much blood as possible.

Of course, the Americans are not living Lei Feng. Similarly, they have some desires. Stimson was very interested in the German weapons seized by the Soviet Union on the battlefield. He hoped that the Soviet Union could provide a batch of B-109, -190, Stuka and the physical objects of the No. 3 and No. 4 tanks.

Such a requirement could naturally be met by the Soviet Union. Anyway, when the Americans join the war, they will get it sooner or later, and it is not worth it to keep it secret. However, the Americans immediately put forward a second requirement, and they also developed a strong interest in the new Red Army tanks, hoping to purchase a batch, the amount is not too large, ten vehicles are enough!

This request made the Political Bureau vigilant. What are the Americans trying to do? Thinking about it at the best, this is also preparing to copy the Red Army's tank technology, and even maliciously speculate whether the Americans are making some preparations to regard the Soviet Union as their future enemy?

A debate broke out in the political bureau around this issue, among which Derrensky's attitude was the clearest: "The Americans' intention is not to drink. We cannot serve the weapons developed by the Red Army at a huge cost. I am quite suspicious. The Americans have bad intentions!"

Trotsky bared his teeth. To be honest, he also knew that Americans were indeed bad-minded, but the relationship between major powers was always bad-minded. If you want to be as harmonious as brothers, unless the Soviet Union is weak and the United States is strong, or if it is reversed, as long as the strength between the two countries is almost the same, you have to be bad-minded.

Trotsky believes that the most important problem facing the Soviet Union today is to win the aggressive war of German fascism. It is to defend the country and everything must be followed. Yes, the Americans have bad intentions, but the Soviet Union does need more aid.

"I think that war should be the most important thing for the time being. Using a few tanks to exchange for US aid is still very cost-effective," Trotsky said earnestly, "What's more, our new tanks are still developing. Didn't the General Equipment Department have launched a series of improvement plans before? So even if you give some tanks in the United States, it's a thing of the past. There is no need to worry too much!"

Derrensky was still a little dissatisfied, but this time Li Xiaofeng stood on Trotsky's side: "I think it can be given, not to mention that the Americans did not specify which tank to use, right? We can show them some less advanced models, such as the t-34-76, the t-70 tank, and even the t-35."

Why did Li Xiaofeng have such confidence? The reason is very simple. The Americans have not yet learned about the tanks or how to use armored troops. Before the Torch Operation in 1942, they were full of confidence in the m3 Grant/Li, thinking that this garbage could handle the battle, but once they went to the battlefield, they realized that this thing was really useless, so they quickly stepped up the production of m4.

Even the early model of m4 was not very good. The famous Langsen lighter was it (it was a hit, every hit). After landing in France, if Britain and the United States had not firmly controlled air supremacy, the tanks of m4 and others would have been beaten by the German tanks trained in the armored cemetery of the Eastern Front. In fact, even with huge air superiority, the exchange ratio between British and American tanks and German tanks would be quite ugly. If the same situation was replaced to the Eastern Front, the Russians would have been sprayed out.

Even Li Xiaofeng felt that even if the T-34 was shown to the Americans, the US Army Department, which had a serious bureaucratic atmosphere, might not attract too much attention. Moreover, Americans could not handle reliable diesel engines for a while, so they could show them to the Americans and intuitively show the Soviet armor muscles.

Li Xiaofeng was on the side of Trotsky, so naturally Derzhinsky's opposition was ineffective. Soon, about 4 T-34s, 4 T-36s and two T-70s were packaged and shipped to the United States. After receiving this batch of gifts, the US Department of the United States immediately agreed to the Soviet Union's request to buy Mustangs.

According to Li Xiaofeng's instructions, the Red Army immediately placed an order of 200 Mustang 1s. In fact, they had to order more Mustang 1s, but North American airlines had limited production capacity and it was really too busy to meet orders from Britain and the Soviet Union.

Some comrades may not understand why they buy Mustang 1 as a garbage? As we all know, the maximum speed of Mustang 1 is only 615 kilometers per hour, which is faster than Jacques-1 and Jacques-7, but much slower than Jacques-2, Jacques-3 and MiG-3. There is no absolute advantage compared to the La-5 that just started production (the La-5 is a wooden plane, and it uses an air-cooled star engine, which is cheap and durable!).

What's more, Allison's v-1710-3r(39) engine has a rated power of only 1,100 horsepower, and is not equipped with a supercharger, making its performance at high altitudes awkward. According to the Royal Air Force test, the Mustang 1 is better at low altitude speed and maneuverability than p-40 and p-39, and is even better than any of the current fighter jets in the Royal Air Force. In addition, the rolling speed and turning radius are also excellent.

At a height below 4572 meters (15,000 feet), Mustang 1 is 40 to 70 kilometers per hour faster than Fire Spitfire 5. However, once it exceeds 4572 meters, as the height increases, the performance of Mustang 1 will also plummet. Fire Spitfire can climb to 6096 meters in 7 minutes, while Mustang 1 takes 11 minutes!

Could it be that Li Xiaofeng was shaking the performance of the P-51b of the Merlin 60 series engine of the Roll-Royce Company and the future models before purchasing such a useless man? It is certainly not. In fact, Li Xiaofeng is well aware of the high-altitude performance of Mustang 1. But he thinks this is not a big problem.

Because the main task of the Mustang 1 he purchased was not to compete with German aircraft for air supremacy at mid-to-high altitudes, but to cover Il-2 for battlefield cleaning. For the Red Army, it is enough to have Jacques-3, MiG-3, La-5 and Pe-2 in medium-to-high altitudes. Anyway, Il-2 flew at an altitude of less than 5,000 meters, and at this altitude, Mustang 1 was enough to make the Germans suffer.

Let Mustang 1 cover Il-2, and naturally free the Jacques and La series of fighters from this mission, and can perform more aerial hunts and slowly play happily with the German pilots.

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng was quite satisfied with the Mustang 1, and using it for emergency response was the best choice. However, what he didn't expect was that Natalia and the test pilot who accompanied her to purchase the plane in the United States also brought him a little despised gift.

"Although the P-39 fighter has poor performance at high altitudes, its maximum flight speed is no less than that of Mustang 1, and there is no problem with the production capacity of this fighter. The US government is happy to sell it to us in large quantities!"

This report made Li Xiaofeng feel loud. Of course, the US government is willing to sell the P-39 because American pilots don't like this damn flying snake at all. The unique engine rear side causes the aircraft to be quite backward, and the pitch operation is so beautiful that it is comparable to the MiG-1. Moreover, the hatch cover it uses is unique and cannot be opened as a whole, but two small doors are opened on both sides. To parachute, what ordinary fighter pilots need to do is to untie the seat belt, pull the hatch cover, kick the rudder and let the plane fly backwards. Then it falls naturally.

The unique hatch door design of the p-39 allows the pilot to open one side of the hatch door and climb out to parachute. If there is a slight mistake, it will be cut by the plane's flat tail, which makes the pilot fear it like a tiger.

Historically, the United States produced more than 9,000 flying snakes, but most of them were sent to the Soviet Union through the loan loan bill, and most of those who remained in the army were doing odd jobs on the second line.

For Li Xiaofeng, the p-39 is naturally not a good aircraft, so he never thought about introducing it at the beginning. But who would have thought that what should come will always come? He did not take the initiative to introduce it, but the Red Army's test pilots made Alxnis interested. What do you think this is?

Why is Alxnis also interested in P-39? The reason is very simple. For Americans, flying snakes are full of complaints, but judging from the group of pilots trained by the Red Army from the I-16, MiG-1, and MiG-3, the P-39 is not that bad.

The pitch performance is not good, what is this? The pitch performance of Yi-16, MiG-1, MiG-3 is even worse. Even the latter Soviet pilots can fly happily. What is the problem of flying snakes? As for parachute jumping, for the Red Army's aerial tractor drivers, it is normal to be killed by their own fighter jets. Just pay attention to the small problems of parachute jumping. If it really doesn't work, I won't jump and sacrifice my honor for the country!

Of course, the Red Army also has opinions on some of the flies, such as the climbing performance. The flying snake's wings are relatively small and the wing load is very high, which directly leads to the aircraft's climbing and maneuverability being worse than the Mustang 1. Objectively speaking, the flying snake is only suitable for staying at low altitudes.

However, this is still not a big problem. Anyway, whether it is Mustang 1 or Flying Snake, the Red Army did not intend to use it as the main force. Its mission is to cover the Red Army's Il-2 and Ti-2, and there is no need to stay at high altitudes.

And as Natalia said, Flying Snake has no production capacity problem, and the engine he uses is exactly the same as Mustang 1, and the logistics support is also convenient. What's more, compared with the Red Army fighter with a range of only 700 to 800 kilometers, Flying Snake's range is almost twice as large, which is great news for the Il-2 and Tu-2 who are suffering from lack of escort.

After some thought, Li Xiaofeng agreed to introduce the flying snakes and immediately placed an order of 500 aircraft. What Li Xiaofeng did not expect was that the Americans seemed to be full of enthusiasm for getting rid of the flying snakes and immediately transferred about 200 packed ships from the active troops. This gave Alxnis and Trotsky a happy one, without saying a word, and immediately added 500 orders.

This incident made Li Xiaofeng feel deeply moved. The more advanced the emotional weapon, the better, but the more suitable the better. For the Soviet Union in 1941, the flying snake was the most suitable one. Of course, it can also be said that the Russians are the life of **silk and cannot be rich at all.

Don't worry, what's more interesting is still behind. After testing Mustang 1 and Flying Snake, the Red Army expressed satisfaction with the two fighters, and even became very interested in Allison's v-1710-3r(39) engine. It was not used to install it for Jacques 1, 2, and 3. After all, compared with the new VK-100 series with two-stage supercharged, the v-1710-3r(39) engine has too bad high-altitude performance, and can only drag the hind legs of Jacques 1, 2, and 3 when installed.

But don't forget that the Jacques series not only have high-end 1, 2, and 3 series, but also 7 and 9 that have been modified from trainers. The Jacques-7 and Jacques-9 also need to use the VK-100 engine, which is equivalent to low-end engines robbing the share of high-end engines. If they are replaced with Allison's v-1710-3r(39) engines, will this problem be solved?

Yes, Allison's v-1710-3r(39) engine has poor performance at high altitudes, but its maximum power is also greater than that of vk-105p. If you change the dress to Jacques-7, let Jacques-7 accompany the Mustang and the Flying Snake, isn't that good?

Just do it, the Soviet Union quickly placed a massive engine order for Allison. If it were not for the restrictions of the US government, I would have to purchase three or two thousand units at once. Of course, I also purchased 1,500 units in the end, and instructed Allison to develop a new model with greater power and higher altitude performance to improve certainly... (To be continued...)

ps: The comrades were too fierce yesterday, and more than 20 more pictures were added. I didn’t record a considerable number of comrades who voted earlier. I can only say thank you everyone!
Chapter completed!