(Movie "Ji Hongchang")
During the Battle of the Central Plains, Yang Yongtai suggested that Chiang Kai-shek adopt a "double-bomb tactic" against the anti-Chiang kai-shek coalition forces. Double bullets, one is a "silver bullet" and the other is an "empty bullet". The so-called "empty bomb" means using the air force to deter the anti-Chiang Kai-shek coalition forces and achieve the goal of psychologically shaking and disintegrating the other side.
The Third Aviation Detachment of the Central Army stationed at Luohe not only served as a reconnaissance and bombing mission on the Western Front, but also coordinated with the Army to attack Fan Zhongxiu's troops stationed in Xuchang. Fan Zhongxiu was also a miscellaneous card in the Northwest Army, which was characterized by "soldiers without discipline, officials with accumulated habits, and unable to fight." In the Order of the Southern Route Army, Fan Bu was used as a forward, but after Fan Zhongxiu arrived in Xuchang, he began to support himself and restrain himself.
Fan Zhongxiu had fought with the Northwest Army before, and Feng Yuxiang did not trust him and put Fan Bu in the forefront, which was for this reason. Seeing that Fan Zhongxiu refused to push forward, Feng Yuxiang did not dare to put Zhang Weixi's main force of the Southern Route Army in front of Fan Bu, for fear that Fan Zhongxiu would oppose him. Fan Zhongxiu saw that Zhang Weixi was not on, and there was a reason not to enter.
So there was a very strange phenomenon on the Pinghan Line, that is, although the Southern Route Army had the advantage of the scene, there was no big war between the two sides, only small-scale contact, and the obstacle was actually one more Fan Zhongxiu.
Fan Zhongxiu became a veritable chicken rib in the Southern Route Army—Zhang Weixi's other troops did not dare to go ahead of them, nor did they want to stay behind, so they had to follow Fan Bu and "confront" the Three Corps. In fact, if they had abandoned FanBu and directly swung south, Hankou might have taken it down long ago.
Xu Yongchang sarcastically said that the Southern Route Army was more appropriate than confronting the enemy on the Pinghan Line as it was with friendly forces.
Fan Bu avoided ground combat, but could not avoid air strikes. They were bombarded several times by aircraft almost every day, and the damage was still secondary, and more importantly, the officers and men had never seen an airplane before, and suddenly saw a big bird in the air that would dive and drop bombs at them.
Feng Yuxiang personally inspected it after learning this, and made an analogy in his concentrated words to Fan Bu: "Which of the planes and crows do you see?" ”
The crowd replied, "There are many crows." ”
Feng Yuxiang asked again, "When the crow urinates, does it pee on your head?" ”
The crowd laughed, "Never." ”
Feng Yuxiang concluded from this: "Since this is the case, then when the plane drops bombs, there is less chance of hitting you." ”
The crowd seemed to make sense, so they all cheered, and their fear of the plane bombing was greatly reduced.
On June 4, the Third Aviation Corps once again bombed Fanbu, and the officers and men of Fanbu used the theory of "planes and crows" as a spiritual weapon, and did not even bother to hide.
As a result, fanbu was blown up more than half dead and injured, and Fan Zhongxiu was also killed on the spot - Feng Yuxiang's analogy sounds interesting, but he may have forgotten that crows do not deliberately spill urine on people's heads, but the plane bomb is specially run to the crowd.
(Excerpt from Guanhe Fifty Prefectures "Central Plains War")