Chapter 1 The Next Day

The next morning, many of Danyang's important officials, after finishing the morning court, came to Ye Tao's residence and took an airship directly to the vast drill ground outside Iron City. Although it had been bombarded by kerosene bombs countless times, due to proper maintenance, or perhaps because the earth was nourished by various nutrient-rich liquids, although many of the trees had been destroyed, the entire drill ground was still sparsely scattered with many plants, appearing lush and green. Perhaps, it was partly because the drill ground had not been used for live-fire exercises with kerosene bombs and spark bombs for a long time. The Blood Kirin Army and the Forbidden Army now looked down on these exercises, and except for two exercises each year after the completion of the new recruits' training, most of the time they preferred to conduct various professional training programs in the camp and on the drill ground. The part of the Forbidden Army in Iron City even took turns with Danyang's troops to familiarize themselves with various situations in Danyang, just in case, and also to cultivate familiarity with various logistics services, so that these services would be firmly imprinted in their bones. The Blood Kirin Army went even further. They now frequently conducted partial mobilizations without prior notice, conducting long-distance marches with a scale of about a battalion, deploying and gathering at the target location, and then returning with a rapid march. This highly targeted training method was being popularized throughout Dongping, because it was indeed very effective in improving the combat effectiveness of the troops. Presumably, Yunzhou was the exception. Almost all the troops in Yunzhou were constantly on the move except when they were resting. The area to be controlled by the Northern Frontier Pacification Headquarters was too large, and even though the army had begun to expand, there were still too few troops. Naturally, these training methods of the Blood Kirin Army also gradually made the officials of other departments in Dongping a little headache, because the consumption of grain had greatly increased.

Since only a simple notification was given to Iron City to vacate the drill ground for the demonstration of the new airship and to compare it with the old model, Iron City only notified the several battalions that were originally scheduled to use the drill ground today to suspend training. However, when the airship team carrying Tan Xiaopei, Tan Weiming, Ye Tao, Zhuo Mang, Chi Xianping, Chi Yun and others landed at the airship mooring site next to the drill ground, they saw the entire Blood Kirin Army officer corps and many officers from the Forbidden Army who were eagerly watching. Since they were all their own people, the private demonstration originally intended only for Tan Xiaopei and others naturally became a collective demonstration for these officers who had many expectations for the new equipment.

Tan Xiaopei and others simply sat together in the viewing cabin of Yunzhou One, observing the Snow Owl airship up close. In the blazing sunlight, the entire Snow Owl airship looked as if it was glowing. According to the requirements of the demonstration, the airship crew was doing its best to show the various extreme performances of the airship. These airship crew members who were able to escort Ye Tao were all top-notch pilots, at least half of whom had tried these beautiful behemoths when the Snow Owl airship was being tested, and had also contributed to the many improvements of the airship. The actions that these pilots played with the Snow Owl airship, such as rapidly starting up and taking off from a stationary state, somersaulting, and vertically figure-eight looping, were all impossible for early airships to do. The most important point was the rigid frame of the Snow Owl airship and the mechanism that did not directly heat the air with an open flame. If an early airship rolled to a certain inclination, whether in the vertical or horizontal direction, the flames would lick the airship's gasbag.

These elegant and dangerous actions, seen by the pilots of the airship team stationed in Iron City, made them envious. Flying did indeed make everyone's minds run wild, especially since, for the time being, there were no enemies to encounter in the air. The most interesting thing was to challenge one's own limits and do things that were previously impossible. However, it was precisely these kinds of attempts that made the pilots realize that they were a kind of soldier too limited by the weapons in their hands. If it worked, it worked; if it didn't work, it didn't work. It wasn't as if one could create miracles just by wanting to. The Snow Owl airship, on the other hand, allowed them to see a possibility.

"Your Majesty, now you should believe it, right? Do you think that if I specialize in producing some Snow Owl airships for air combat, I can get rid of the old airships?" Ye Tao asked with a smile.

Tan Xiaopei didn't say much, he said with a smile, "Try bombing."

Ye Tao ordered it through the copper speaking tube in the viewing cabin, and the signalman immediately gave the signal. Four Snow Owl airships formed a diamond shape in the air and lowered their altitude together. The four bombardiers almost simultaneously opened the bomb bays and dropped kerosene bombs. The bombing instrument, which had been improved many times, was no longer the first-generation product that could only measure the simplest data, but could measure data including flight speed, air pressure, wind speed, and so on, providing it to the bombardier for reference. The bombardier could then use four copper buttons to finely tune according to the specific situation, fully utilize the transparent glass aiming plate with scales to overlap the target, and then release the button. Moving the bombardier's position to the bottom of the pod not only provided a wide field of vision, but also made it much easier and more natural for the bombardiers to operate the bombing aiming plate. And with the first bombing, four kerosene bombs neatly covered a patch of grass. Looking at the red flag stuck on the ground, although it didn't hit the target with the first shot, it was still close enough.

"Can all bombardiers be so accurate, or are there only these few?" Zhuo Mang asked, making things difficult.

Ye Tao chuckled and said, "They are escort pilots, and they don't have many opportunities to attack the ground at all. The reserve of kerosene bombs and the like for the escort Snow Owls is reduced by more than half. How could I bring the best bombardiers over again? Most of the escort airship team are people who are relatively balanced in several aspects, and can fill in any vacancy in case anything happens. Although I can't say that every bombardier can be so accurate, there must be those who are more accurate than these few. Later, I will summon the ace bombardiers and pilots on the roster to Danyang to perform for everyone, and by the way, train the pilots and other crew members here."

Zhuo Mang nodded and said, "That would be great."

After thinking carefully, Tan Xiaopei finally nodded and said, "Ye Tao, when can Snow Owl airships like this, and the kind you said that can fight in the air, be put in place? … I mean, to meet the needs of the entire Dongping, the first batch, about two hundred airships."

Zhuo Mang's eyes lit up and he asked, "Your Majesty, you've finally figured it out?"

Tan Xiaopei smiled and said, "The airship team must have a sufficient number to be useful. Speaking of which, it is indeed a bit too expensive. Here in Iron City, two teams were organized with twenty airships per team. The pilots and ground crew add up to only three hundred people per team, but the money spent is not much different from that of a battalion. Ye Tao himself has always suggested that I wait a little longer, until the airship is improved a bit more. Now, I think it should be time. Ten airship teams, one team in Danyang, two teams in Iron City, two teams at the Grand Canal Governor's Office, two teams in Yicheng, and three teams at Zhenbei Pass, let's start like this first, at least everyone can get familiar with it first. How many airships of various types are there now?"

Zhuo Mang was very familiar with the situation of the airships. He was now the most powerful advocate for expanding the airship combat force, and he knew all kinds of situations like the back of his hand. He immediately replied, "Including the airships we usually use to travel to various places, there are a total of one hundred and seven. However, looking at the current Yunzhou One, the original airships are really not comfortable enough, and I don't want to sit in them anymore."

Tan Xiaopei said with a smile, "Then let's do this. Gradually replace them. For the oldest batch, Ye Tao, you can go negotiate and find a way to sell them to Chunnan at a good price. As for the newer batch, we will set up the framework of Dongping Aviation. Since Chunnan's spies are so interested in airships, they will probably contribute a lot of money, right?"

Ye Tao said with a smile, "That's good too, let them see."

Tan Xiaopei was now truly relieved, not only because he was watching the airship performance on the exceptionally comfortable airship, but also because the details of the Yunzhou One and the Snow Owl airship were so beautiful in every aspect. Although Tan Xiaopei was the ruler of a country, as the ruler of Dongping, which had a huge technological lead, and with a son-in-law like Ye Tao who was good at explaining complex principles clearly, he was at least not unfamiliar with technology. He naturally knew that these beautiful details, these extremely industrial designs and manufacturing processes, were indeed impossible for Chunnan to imitate. Without those special formula metal materials, without hydraulic stamping machines, without those high-speed machine tools driven by electricity, how long would it take Chunnan's craftsmen to make the same thing by hand? Even if Ye Tao gave the airship drawings to Chunnan, they probably wouldn't be able to make it.

Since this was the case, then why not earn more money from this "ally" of his? Tan Xiaopei also knew that this kind of opportunity was actually not much anymore. Chunnan's appetite for military procurement had become larger and larger in recent years, and they had already set their sights on Dongping's heaviest crossbow cannons, the most solid armor, and those various pieces of equipment that had always been tightly controlled. If they couldn't get them openly, the means of seizing them by trickery and force had gradually become more pressing. Some officers had already reported that their binoculars had been snatched by "thieves" when they were carrying them out, and the situation of workshops being spied on also seemed to be increasing. Tan Xiaopei had gradually recalled the Dongping military officer corps stationed in Chunnan, and this time, Lian Fei Chang Ling's involvement in instigating Wang Fangpin to provoke internal strife among the brothers and disrupt the Dongping court had touched a nerve in Tan Xiaopei. This could not go on. Chunnan could not be allowed to continue tossing around under the guise of being an ally.

"Don't worry about the airship matter. Although the Snow Owl airship's craftsmanship is complicated, I will personally oversee the manufacturing process. I guarantee that two hundred airships can be replaced within half a year. As for the matter of selling airships, I will summon the Chunnan envoy tomorrow. What's that guy's name again?" Ye Tao readily accepted this job, which seemed to be outside his original authority. In fact, dealing with those people was, to some extent, a bit interesting.