Chapter 1 "This is what flying is!" Although the heat from the engine, transmitted through the bulkhead to the cockpit, was slightly unpleasant, and the rather cramped cockpit didn't seem quite suitable for a large man like him, he would have been more comfortable if he could have lowered the seat even by an inch. However, lowering it by that inch would also mean a slightly narrower field of vision. Compared to airships, the downward visibility of airplanes was very poor. Xu Jin immediately judged that airplanes were likely to be a sharp weapon against airships for a long time to come. Attacking from the horizontal direction or from above, the airships had absolutely no ability to counterattack. And the relatively slow speed of the airships also made evasion meaningless. The airships in Dongping would probably focus more on ground attacks. Although fixed-wing aircraft were very fast, their loiter time was relatively poor, and the logistical requirements were also higher. Although Xu Jin now particularly liked this feeling of rapid flight, he understood very well that airfields had to be deployed on the front lines for airplanes to take off and land, but airships only required the simplest facilities. The difference between these two alone was enough for the commanders on the front lines to make a decision. Perhaps, other than dealing with airships, it would be difficult to use airplanes. But, did the enemy have airships? Xu Jin couldn't help but think more about it, and his hand subconsciously twisted the control stick, and the airplane made a very dashing turn, beginning to perform a series of figure-eight maneuvers in the air. Xu Jin immediately realized that if it wasn't to deal with Chunnan in the long run, then Beiliao was also about to master airship technology.

"Heh heh, wait till I shoot you all down," Xu Jin muttered to himself again. After flying the figure-eight maneuvers, he did a few spirals at different altitudes at will, and tried rapid ascents and dives. Then he leisurely landed. This test flight only used less than half of the airplane's fuel. Although Xu Jin saw that the pointer on the fuel gauge hadn't approached the red area yet, he still landed. After all, there were plenty of opportunities for test flights, and there was no need to be so impatient.

"Old Xu, how does it feel?" As soon as Xu Jin landed, the test pilots and technicians swarmed forward. The technicians quickly opened the engine cover to observe the engine's operation, while the test pilots surrounded Xu Jin to learn about the flying experience. When it came to technology, none of them had much experience. Airships and airplanes were completely different things. Xu Jin didn't dare to make too many rapid ascents and descents just now, but only slightly increased the amplitude based on his previous experience.

Another airplane was also test-flown, and Xu Jin and the other test pilots found out. It turned out that two airplanes that looked identical on the outside were very different on the inside. The red airplane that Xu Jin had just flown emphasized speed, while the blue airplane focused very much on fuel economy, and didn't have crossbow cannons or other things that took up a lot of weight. The flight control system was also simplified to the greatest extent, and the freed-up payload was used to install a larger fuel tank. The blue airplane, when fully fueled, had a flight distance and loiter time that were about three times that of the red one. Naturally, this was the difference between the most basic reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and liaison airplane and a fighter.

Later, when he got the report, Ye Tao also smiled mischievously, thinking that if these two types of airplanes were released to the public at a certain airshow in the future, they would also have very postmodern advantages: the parts common to both accounted for a percentage of such and such. Although Ye's Workshop wasn't able to develop many such products yet, reducing the number of parts as much as possible and increasing the common parts as much as possible had become the instinctive thinking of many technicians. Wasn't this a kind of achievement? Only after the level of craftsmanship and the scale of manufacturing both broke through a certain amount would production efficiency and ease of later maintenance become content that had to be considered from the very beginning of the design. Now, whether it was Chunnan, Xiling, or Beiliao, no matter what they were trying to imitate from Dongping, they were all complacent about constantly enriching functions and designs, but Ye's Workshop had gradually developed a taste for returning to simplicity. This made Ye Tao feel particularly accomplished. Think about it, how many years had it taken him to bring the manufacturing of the entire country to a somewhat modern style, from playing with fancy gadgets at the beginning? Of course, Ye Tao also knew very well that this was still for the sake of war. Only in war would the requirements for practicality and the consideration for easy maintenance outweigh all fancy things. If it weren't for Dongping's repeated wars in recent years, which had given the military an increasingly clear idea of what kind of equipment they needed, the progress in this area wouldn't have been so unbelievably fast.

After the test flights of the two basic types of airplanes were carried out on the first day, all the test pilots carried out test flights one after another. Different people would have different feelings about the same projects, and the test pilots gradually explored the airplane's ultimate performance. Now the airplane's maximum ceiling was more than three hundred chi higher than that of an airship. Of course, this was because the current airships were all hot air airships. When Ye's Workshop could reduce the production cost of inert gases to a more reasonable level, this situation might change. Before that, airplanes would undoubtedly be the king of flying height in this space-time. As for speed, that goes without saying. Even if the airships turned on rocket boosters to accelerate, they wouldn't have the exaggerated speed in the movies. The airship's maneuverability came more from being able to fly comfortably and stably for a long time. But airplanes were different. The speed of the combat models easily broke through six hundred li per shichen, and the reconnaissance models also achieved more than four hundred li. But the problem was that the loiter time of these two models of airplanes was slightly insufficient. With a full load of fuel, the combat model had a range of less than one thousand li, and the reconnaissance model reached one thousand seven hundred li. In fact, the only one who was dissatisfied with this data was probably Ye Tao, who was used to the afterworld's aircraft with transfer ranges of thousands of kilometers at every turn. Now the takeoff and landing distance of these two types of airplanes was less than one li. With Dongping's engineering capabilities, airfields could be built directly dozens of li away from the battle location. Moreover, as an air superiority weapon, facing enemies with extremely weak air power, they would probably be lucky to get one or two chances to sortie in a war of national scale. The future of airplanes was promising, but now, there was really no need to consider too much.

After these tests were completed, although the completely closed state of Ye's Workshop Research Institute ended, these test pilots and some technicians did not reappear in front of everyone. People who had been expecting some new discoveries were a little disappointed, but they immediately understood that this time, they must have come up with something at the secret weapon level.

Although there were only two airplanes, the Yunzhou Fourth Air Squadron was still established. After verifying the airplane's performance, the first batch would produce twenty-two airplanes, as well as sufficient spare parts. The Fourth Air Squadron would also have four airships and an assigned engineering team. They would now be stationed and trained near Suiyuan. After all the equipment was in place, and the team members had gained experience in airplane operations, the air squadron would move to the Central Army Garrison and conduct training under close supervision. They had to remain hidden until they faced the Beiliao airship fleet.

Drawing away so few people wouldn't have much impact on Dai Yun's attack operations. After a period of secret preparation, the Garrison Battalion launched an attack. Although she knew that the Garrison Battalion was not known for its tactical command, and that temporary, last-minute tactical command training might only be counterproductive, Dai Yun mainly focused on having the staff officers quickly integrate into each unit during this short period of preparation. She also encouraged those talented mid-level officers who had not joined the main battle battalion for various reasons to play a greater role in assisting the main officers. To be honest, there were quite a few such people. Many people joined the Garrison Battalion sequence, which had lighter combat duties, in order to take care of elderly family members nearby. Some people might be slightly inferior in physical or other conditions. Still others might come from areas with lower population density, and the conscription quota for the main battle battalion was extremely limited in order not to affect local stability and production. But these people might have their own insights on combat. Mining potential from within was easier for everyone to accept than parachuting commanders down. After this adjustment, the mental outlook of the Garrison Battalion when it launched the attack had changed significantly from before.

And Dai Yun didn't give Xiling a chance at all. In order to give full play to the characteristics of her side's strong mobility, her first target was the enemy's concentrated cavalry force. One hundred and fifty airships sortied across the board, dropping thousands of fire oil bombs in one night, engulfing all of the enemy's cavalry camps in a sea of fire. Dongping hadn't used airships in such a big way for a very long time. After the surprise attack on Xiling, airships had been used as a tactical force and distributed across various battlefields. The premise of this method of use was that the Dongping army was strong enough, and the effect of airships used for reconnaissance and auxiliary attacks was enough to reap victory. However, unexpectedly, Dongping now brought out this trick again, but it was more powerful and more skillful than before. It only took three and a half shichen for the airships to assemble, set off, complete the attack, and return to the camp.

Subsequently, six battalions of troops took advantage of the chaos to bypass Xiling's frontal defenses and advanced straight towards Taizhou. Another six battalions of troops launched a strong harassment operation on the front, firmly holding back the enemy forces closest to the bypassing troops, preventing them from freeing up their hands. After a full day and a half, the Xiling army organized a force of about 60,000 men from the front to pursue. The gap left by drawing away these troops was taken down by Dai Yun in less than a day. One battalion after another quickly drilled into that gap, seemingly completely ignoring the Xiling defenders in front and recklessly突击ing towards the depths.