Chapter 1 The Most Depressed

Among all those who set off, starting to prepare for revenge in full swing, the most depressed was Xie Bo. Others were simply going to kill, set fires, and cause destruction, but although he shouldered a huge responsibility, being the most dazzling part of the entire operation, he still had to set his airship squadron on fire. He believed the Jinglue Mansion would have excellent arrangements for withdrawing the personnel, but his entire airship squadron, including the ground crew, now totaled nearly three thousand people. He really didn't want to experience the feeling of being a commander without any airships for a while.

But Xie Bo didn't say much. After the airship fleet gathered at Dongjiaji, he began to repeatedly study the sand table and maps, analyzing the airships' load capacity, and carefully studying the various local climate data of Xiling that had already been piled up at Dongjiaji, especially the wind direction. Finally, he came up with a possibility. Although it was dangerous, he felt it was worth it compared to risking the entire airship squadron.

Originally, he was supposed to burn the airships because the straight-line distance from Xunshan Pass to the main altar of the Daoming Sect was more than three hundred *li*. Since they couldn't give the enemy warning time, they had to take off after dusk and proceed in the night, guided by the ground. After bombing the target, the airships would inevitably run out of fuel. Because the wind direction was unpredictable, it would be difficult for them to float back naturally. Moreover, they were not rigid airships; they were filled with hydrogen or inert gas. Their airships were just airship-like hot air balloons. Without fuel, they couldn't fly at all. Xie Bo estimated that after the bombing, if they wanted to maintain flight, they could only stay in the air for a maximum of one and a half hours, which was indeed not enough to fly back. After the bombing, the eighty-five airships would inevitably be under the enemy's attention. Although the airships were highly maneuverable, as soon as they landed, the enemy would quickly arrive. It was too vast an undertaking to land, refuel, and take off eighty-five airships in a limited area, and it would take too long. No one could guarantee that nothing would go wrong during the whole process and that the enemy wouldn't arrive.

The new plan that Xie Bo came up with was very risky. He didn't adopt the plan of attacking in a straight line, crossing two mountain ranges in the middle, but instead prepared to go through Zuifeng Gorge (Drunken Wind Gorge). Zuifeng Gorge was an extremely long canyon. Although there were other canyons intersecting it, the main canyon of the entire Zuifeng Gorge was more than three hundred *li* long, resembling a snake shape. Zuifeng Gorge was characterized by the fact that, no matter what day of the year, there was a wind blowing in the same direction, from east to west, endlessly, and the wind was very strong.

Xie Bo wanted to avoid going from Xunshan Pass and instead go to the southwestern corner of Yunzhou, directly cross the mountains into Zuifeng Gorge, and then rely on the strong wind to rush through the entire Zuifeng Gorge, only maintaining the airship's altitude in the canyon and turning at key moments. In this way, the fuel consumption for the entire journey should be compressed to less than half of the original journey. However, because the route was a bit longer, they should arrive at the main altar of the Daoming Sect not in the middle of the night, but sometime before dawn. They would be returning in broad daylight. Xie Bo thought that for the return trip, they could take the shortest route. Since the load was lighter and the fuel consumption was lower on the return trip, there should be no problem in directly returning to Xunshan Pass. If Xie Bo calculated correctly, then when they returned to Xunshan Pass, all the airships should still have about ten percent of their fuel left in their tanks, and the new airships might have even more. However, traveling in the turbulent Zuifeng Gorge for several hours was really very dangerous and tested their skills. They also had to choose a slightly better day with a moon, otherwise, if it was completely dark, they wouldn't even be able to see the situation in the canyon, and they shouldn't even bother.

However, Xie Bo's plan was sought after within the airship squadron. Everyone felt that the risk was worth taking. And everyone was actually quite confident in their technology for turning and maneuvering in strong winds. Indeed, this was the number one airship squadron in the world, and many of the technical guidelines were explored by themselves. Especially in harsh weather conditions, everyone had their own set of methods, and the atmosphere of internal learning and exchange was very strong. Since the establishment of the airship squadron, although there had been countless accidents and failures, no one had ever died. This was also something they were very proud of. This was due to the powerful performance and excellent design of the airships, as well as their own superb operating skills.

As for the danger of the return journey, they could only rely on identifying ground markers to return to Xunshan Pass, and no one could navigate for them. However, they were not worried about this either. Thanks to the excellent work of the intelligence bureau, the sand tables of these Xiling territories closer to Dongping were updated extremely quickly. Even if a slightly noticeable building was repainted and the color changed slightly, it would be updated on the sand tables in Danyang, Ningyuan, Thunderclap Cliff, Dongjiaji, and other places within ten days.

After thinking and carefully considering, Xie Bo submitted his entire new plan. Two days later, he received a reply: Fly directly to Yunhai Mountain Villa to prepare. Indeed, according to Xie Bo's idea, Yunhai Mountain Villa was indeed the most suitable departure point, but that was the Dai family's residence, and it used to be the Dai family's last retreat. Xie Bo didn't dare to think that he could really use the mountain villa. He felt that using a nearby Iron Cloud Cavalry military camp would be enough. And Xie Bo noticed that the approver of his plan was: Ye Tao.

Ye Tao woke up. In fact, he woke up less than two hours after the meeting to discuss revenge ended. His always strong women couldn't hold back at that moment. Tan Weixin was still as indifferent as ever, turning her head to quietly wipe away tears. Sophie lay on Ye Tao's back and wailed. Tan Weishi and Dai Yun, who had already become mothers, were even more exaggerated. Tan Weishi burrowed into Ye Tao's arms, hitting Ye Tao while crying. And Dai Yun was even more exaggerated. She shook Ye Tao's collar back and forth. Her tear-streaked face didn't show much grief or excitement, but a kind of gnashing of teeth...

The mountain villa slowly recovered from this inexplicable, strong, yet strangely expressed joy until late at night. The most surprising thing in the whole process was the two children. They had never seen their mothers cry. Most of the time, whether it was Tan Weishi or Dai Yun, they were always calm and happy. The children opened their eyes wide, curiously looking at their mothers crying, obviously not because they were uncomfortable or unhappy. That curious expression was very cute.

Because he had not eaten for a while, Ye Tao only ate some porridge and dried meat floss, and drank some medicinal juice to nourish his body. However, Ye Tao's mind almost immediately fully recovered. He asked about the casualties of the guards and the subsequent arrangements, asked about the case in Yaning, and also asked if Tan Weixin, Dai Yun, and Tan Weishi, these women with great power, had caused any major troubles.

The compensation for those loyal guards was entirely based on the standards of the Yunzhou military. This was justice, and it couldn't be different because they were protecting Ye Tao. But what they received was indeed different. Those families would be gradually arranged to live in Ye Tao's or the Inner Mansion's directly affiliated manors. The children of those fallen guards, who were mostly seven or eight or ten years old, would also enjoy a full education at the Ye Clan School. The Ye Clan School was now mostly filled with the children of Ye's employees working in various workshops, and some were the collateral descendants of related households and closer aristocratic families who had been stuffed in. Although the Ye Clan School was by no means a noble school, the first batch of graduates two years later had already been divided up by the major workshops. These young descendants, who had received a full set of systematic basic physics, alchemy, workshop equipment operation and use, and manufacturing technology courses, had considerable advantages over most of the older generation of technicians and engineers in the workshops who had started halfway and then made up for their lessons. Since they were only sixteen years old after graduation, it was up to this group of people to break the record for the youngest technician maintained by Ye Tao. The Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War of Dongping also had people staring at this group of people. Now, the increasingly technical Dongping had a demand gap for professional and technical talents that the Ye Clan School could not fill at all.

As for the case in Yaning, the circuit court had just arrived in Yaning and had just begun to take over a series of files from the officials of the Third Civil Affairs Office and the Command Headquarters. Because the case involved a relatively wide range, Dai Shijin, after careful consideration, called Dai Shizong, who had been handling miscellaneous affairs beside Dai Yun and was now a capable assistant in assisting Dai Yun in handling internal affairs of the Dai family, to Yaning as the representative of the Dai family to pay attention to the matter. And this time, the Dongping Ministry of Justice also sent an official at the level of Vice Minister to attend the hearing. That guy was already on the road and would arrive in a few days. Very strangely, Dai Shijin sent Dai Shizong to Yaning because he was worried that the court would be concerned about the Dai family's face and would not be willing to handle the case impartially. However, Tan Xiaopei hurriedly sent an official from the Ministry of Justice to keep an eye on the case so that it would not be sentenced too heavily. Although this case would inevitably mean that the judicial system linking Yunzhou and Zhenzhou would be tested for fairness and procedurality, in fact, many people in the Dongping court were quite surprised by Yunzhou's determination to deal with this kind of thing, which they regarded as unacceptable, but also commonplace and human nature. If Censor-in-Chief Qu Yan hadn't been busy arguing in court, he would have even wanted to be there in person to see how Yunzhou's judiciary was executed.

All of this was expected. Ye Tao, Tan Weixin, and others had worked hard for many years for just such a rational, law-abiding, and always common-sense governance system. But when Tan Weixin talked about the problems she had when she broke up the neat and tidy team on the high platform, Ye Tao smiled at Tan Weixin. That smile was full of tacit understanding and joy. Tan Weixin, whose health was getting better and better, was now showing her seasoned and sharp side more and more.