After a period of negotiations, Ron and Miss Kong Er came to an agreement. The two parties will first build the first airport in Guanghan, and according to the agreement, the airport will be handed over to Miss Kong Er's company to build. In the construction cost, except for some necessary materials that need to be purchased from the United States, the freight rate or something else, other prices, except for labor, are completely compared to the United States, and the labor price is paid at one-half of the same price in the United States. In this way, although the cost of the airport is not low, it will not be a sky-high price of 300 million US dollars for five airports.

For Miss Kong Er, of course, this is not as much as directly settling in fiat currency and then converting it into US dollars at the official exchange rate. However, since the Americans have noticed this trap, Miss Kong Er also understands that the Americans are not those small people in the country who can use force to force others to comply. If you really want to make people unhappy, you won't be able to earn a penny if you shoot it or break up. And according to the current plan, Miss Kong Er can still make a lot of money.

To say that in this project, Miss Kong Er, or KMT, showed really good efficiency, just after the two sides signed the agreement, but within a week, the construction of the airport was in full swing. According to the agreement, the construction of the airport should be completed within five months. Looking at Miss Kong's efficiency, it shouldn't be a big problem to complete it on schedule.

According to the design, Guanghan Airport will have two runways, the main runway is 2,600 meters long and 60 meters wide. The sub-runway is 1,400 meters long and 45 meters wide. The entire airport covers an area of 6,000 acres. In order to be able to take off and land heavy bombers weighing up to 60 tons, the runway of this airport is of a high standard. According to the design, the airport runway should first be paved with large pebbles, then paved with gravel, repeatedly rolled and solid, then poured with cement, rolled firmly, then paved with gravel, and then poured cement, if reciprocating, the entire runway will finally have a concrete layer up to 0.6 meters thick.

Compared to the United States, China has a severe shortage of heavy machinery. Therefore, the construction of the entire airport is almost entirely dependent on manpower. This even includes the crushing of stones and the ramming and rolling of runways. However, in China, manpower is very abundant. The KMT government directly requisitioned nearly 100,000 farmers for the construction of the airport. Thanks to the use of conscription, there is no need to pay wages for the use of these people, only food and drink. Of course, Miss Kong Er will not report like this when she reports to the Americans.

Ron went to see the airport a few times after it started. That scene reminded him of the scene he had seen in the documentary when Li Shishi overhauled water conservancy:

On the huge construction site, there are crowds of people everywhere. Countless people are dividing into groups, some are busy bulldozing the land, some are carrying burdens to carry the excavated soil to other places, and there are dozens of people in small groups, they are pulling huge stone grinders dragged by ropes made of bamboo, to crush and level the land. These huge stone mills, which are taller than people, were chiseled out by local stonemasons who worked overtime for this project. The Chinese do not have giant rollers, so they can only rely on this way to solve the problem. And these huge stone grinders, after the completion of the airport, basically have no other role, after they have completed their historical mission, they are often abandoned near the airport at will. Before the crossing, Ron had seen such a large stone mill near many airports in Sichuan.

On the other side, countless people pushing wheelbarrows are transporting truckloads of pebbles from the banks of the Min River here. Since what little cars there are are used in some more important places. Therefore, all the pebbles required for the foundation of the two runways have to be pushed by wheelbarrows, carts and carts.

Next to the runway, a huge hangar is being built. At the same time as the hangar, several huge factories with mysterious purposes were built, as well as large housing estates. At that time, some Chinese personnel asked why there was a need for so much housing near the airport. But only one answer was received from the Americans: "military secrets, no comment." In fact, these factories will be the assembly plant of incendiary bombs in the future, where micro incendiary bombs will be glued to bats and then loaded into dispensers. As for the housing, it was for the workers.

The construction of the airport is quite fast. In spite of the lack of heavy machinery, the fact that most of the requisitioned laborers were malnourished, and the fact that their due remuneration was deducted, these simple Chinese peasants, with the purest loyalty and love for their motherland, though they do not necessarily know how to use the word, carried up the huge project with their wizened hands and with their weak but steely shoulders, and made it advance at a speed faster than mechanized construction.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Ron remembered a conversation he had with General Stilwell a few months ago when he had come to China for the first time in this era.

During that conversation, General Stilwell, while scolding the KMT government, spoke highly of the Chinese soldiers.

"The Chinese soldiers are the best soldiers I have ever seen. They are determined, tenacious, and love their motherland. If you can get proper leadership, advanced equipment, and reliable logistics support. They can be compared to any Allied force. It is hard to imagine the circumstances under which these soldiers persisted in resisting the Japanese for many years. Their salaries have been embezzled, their logistics can't even ensure that they are well fed, more than half of them are severely malnourished, running more than a kilometer can directly cause death, they have not undergone any decent training before going to war, and some have not even fired a single shot before going to war! Countless soldiers died in battle, firing less bullets than American recruits could shoot in a week's training time. If you change the soldiers of many countries, they will definitely collapse directly, such as France, such as many countries in Europe. It's just a pity that their government has been wasting their loyalty and blood! ”

In fact, where in China there are only the best soldiers, they also have the loveliest people! As Mudan said:

"How many dynasties have risen and fallen beside him

And put hope and disappointment on him,"

"How many times on the road the pleasant singing flowed,

How many times have they been followed by grief that has come upon him; ”

Our people have experienced countless unspeakable sufferings, but our people have never given up hope, never stopped yearning for a better tomorrow, never stopped fighting, and never feared sacrifice.

"On the highway people speak, shout, rejoice,

But he didn't, he only laid down the ancient hoe,

Once again, I believe in the noun and dissolve into the love of the public,

Firmly, he watched himself dissolve into death.

And such a road is infinitely long

And he can't shed tears,

He did not shed tears, for a nation had risen. ”

Believe in the people of the motherland and rely on the people of the motherland! Only by fusing with them can we be extremely firm and tenacious, and can we have the real power of "daring to change the sun and the moon into a new sky".

However, Ron couldn't stay here, he couldn't stay in China for five months, so when most things were on track, he had to go back to the United States again. First, there are still people to keep an eye on the scientific research there, and second, the "reverse cross" flight team is about to face another big change.

When the "Reverse Cross" was first established, it was a relatively simple air combat training unit. The main task is to adapt the pilots to all kinds of air combat. But with the development of warfare, the form of air combat has become more and more complex, and the army has more and more requirements for air power. As far as fighter units are concerned, in addition to the traditional escort and interception, safari has become an extremely important combat method, but in the previous "reverse cross" training subjects, there was not much content about safari. Moreover, with the weakening of German power, especially the Luftwaffe, the opportunities for conventional air combat of fighter units were greatly reduced, but the opportunities for attacking ground targets were greatly increased. Coupled with the second theater of operations, which is still under consideration, it is already an inevitable trend that more and more air power will be used for direct fire support. It is also imperative to strengthen training in this area.

In addition, new requirements were put forward for bomber and attack aircraft units. Previously, the bomber unit was only required to train the aircraft group on how to resist enemy interception and how to cooperate with its own fighter force. And now, they are asking for more.

Medium and light bomber attack aircraft units have put forward training requirements for increasing the training requirements for cooperating with fighter units to break through enemy air interception and suppress ground antiaircraft artillery fire when carrying out low-altitude and ultra-low-altitude direct fire support sweeping tasks. On the South Pacific side, the B-25s under the gray wolf were not satisfied with bombing the ground targets of the Japanese, and after taking advantage of the ricocheting bombs in March 43, they actually strongly demanded that the training content include attacks on warships and submarines, so as to compete with the navy for business.

Under these requirements, the expansion of the scope of the "reverse cross" mission and the expansion of personnel have become inevitable. At present, the "reverse cross" is only two squadrons of combat planes and flight personnel directly under it, and all of them are fighter units.

With such a scale and establishment, it is impossible to fulfill so many of the requirements mentioned above. Therefore, the expansion of the "reverse cross" is imperative. While Ron was negotiating with Miss Kong Er, General Arnold sent a telegram, asking Ron to draw up a corresponding plan as soon as possible.

According to Ron's idea, the "Reverse Cross" should be expanded to the wing level, and the formation should include two fighter squadrons, an attack aircraft squadron, and a medium bomber squadron. In addition, the "Reverse Cross" must also have its own ground forces directly under it. These units include ground-based target units and simulated enemy air defense units. Ground-based target units should have their own armored vehicles and ships, while air defense units simulating enemy forces should be equipped with enemy anti-aircraft weapons and fight in accordance with the enemy's combat style. At the same time, the training base for the "reverse cross" should also be enriched. It was supposed to include a variety of common terrain, the simplest plains, mountains and forests where anti-aircraft weapons could be hidden, as well as beaches.

There are two fighter squadrons, and now there is a "reverse cross", but some adjustments in personnel are still necessary. Some pilots may leave the "Reverse Cross" for other units, or temporarily support from fighter squadrons to other squadrons, while others who have made a name for themselves in the war will join them. Still, this number will not be too large, and in general, the fighter squadron will remain stable.

As for the other two squadrons, they basically had to be rebuilt. This is a difficult problem, and the US Army Aviation still lacks experience in this area, and does not have many trump cards in the true sense. The Navy is strong in this, however, let the Army Air go to the Navy for help? Forget it, although the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy have not yet made trouble to the point where they are as incompatible as the Japanese Army and Navy, the Army Aviation will definitely not be able to do such a humiliating thing. It seems that the selection of pilots can only temporarily adopt the method of picking the eldest son among the short.

Compared to the selection of pilots, the syllabus of the new squadron will probably be a bigger problem. Although I got a lot of information from the Soviets, the second-hand materials are second-hand after all, and they are still different from my own experience. I am afraid that the new syllabus will have many, many loopholes. However, this is also something that cannot be helped, and can only be improved step by step in practice.

There are also air defense forces, the importance of their construction is probably no less than that of other fighter squadrons.

It's a real nuisance.