The 4th Infantry Division and the 15th Infantry Regiment remained in the camp. The 15th Infantry Regiment was the first infantry regiment to be transformed into a flying unit. The main thing is that the soldiers of this regiment are highly motivated to study. There are 3,500 people in the group, who know more than 2,000 words and can write reports independently. There are more than 2,700 people, and the rest are basically more than 1,500 words. Knowing words means that their learning ability is very high. To know. Able to recognize words and write reports. In most armies, it is still very difficult and difficult.

It was precisely because the 15th Infantry Regiment had such an ability that this infantry regiment was left behind, and they only fought the strength of one infantry battalion, and the two battalions, as well as the regimental headquarters and logistics support units, were all left in a place fifty miles west of Lijiazhuang, which was the secret training base of the Republican Army. Not too many people know that a lot of new equipment is equipped here.

Shang Wu and Jia Xu came here to inspect the unit, and the unit was conducting relevant parachute training. There are also attempts to learn some aerial flights.

"This regiment may be the first to be transformed into a flying regiment. Although at the moment we only have three types of flying machines. The total number of aircraft is only five. But all the flying machines were equipped on this regiment. The effect will be very large. Shang Wu said to Jia Xu.

There are three types of flying machines, namely, hydrogen airships. By electrolysis, or by chemical substitution. Of course. The best way to do this is to make hydrogen from calcium hydroxide. These are some chemical methods, and most of the officers in the entire flight regiment know such chemical formulas, because they have to learn everything. If you don't study, you will have to transfer out of the 15th Infantry Regiment. The officers were reluctant to do that.

This type of airship is the most expensive to manufacture, because the airbag sealing of the airship is not very good. Plus the dangers of hydrogen. The only thing that can be used is pig urine bubbles. A large amount of hydrogen gas is transferred into small pig urine bubbles one by one, and then several form large hydrogen balloons. It is then concentrated into the balloon. The airship is initially built using a drilled wooden frame, or a bamboo frame. And artificial propellers were also used to propel forward.

The cost of such an airship is too high. A lot of the materials are hard to find. So, the Republican Army currently has only such an airship, codename, hydrogen **. This airship flies high. The crew can reach up to three people. The rear loading has rudders. The flight speed is not very fast. The flight altitude was first flown to an altitude of about 350 zhang.

This airship is not suitable for combat, for the simple reason that there is a lot of training, which needs to be done here.

The other two are hot air airships and hot air balloons. The simplest is a hot air balloon. Hot air ballooning is mainly used for beginner competitions, and the operation is relatively simple, mainly for parachuting and controlling flights. Because they lack enough motivation, they can only drift with the wind. This is extremely detrimental to reconnaissance activities. However, the advantage is that he can be manufactured on a large scale. But the actual combat value is not too great, the main thing is that he is not motivated. But the recruits loved it. Because they feel the sensation of flying. The 15th Infantry Regiment is the proudest unit. Other regiments also organize officers to parachute training. The 15th Infantry Regiment was always the most bullish one.

And between the hydrogen airship and the hot air balloon is the hot air airship, the hot air airship absorbs the advantages of the hydrogen airship and the hot air balloon, and creates a new product.

At the moment the Republican Army has two such hot airships, the first of which can only carry one person, which is an early experimental model. One person is very flustered, and he needs to control the fuel valve. Also turn the propeller by hand. At the same time, it depends on the various situations below, after all, he needs to conduct reconnaissance. It's a bit of a scramble to do such a thing alone. The first airship was actually not too successful and, so to speak, very immature. But the second one. Hot Gas Two, which has been greatly improved. His amplitude has increased dramatically. The crew became two, and the take-off altitude of the three people, as well as the load, were a bit larger. The propellers were also changed to foot-pedal. This frees up your hands to look at the fuel valve and control the altitude. And the other person, can conduct reconnaissance. At the same time control the rudder. Hot air airships can basically meet their flying needs. As well as reconnaissance needs.

The high-tech stuff needed on an airship is special. For example, the cable that controls the rudder. It requires more than five points and five inches of iron wire to be wound with each other. There are also wooden frames, which need to be perforated, which is to reduce the weight of the airship. In addition, there is a large amount of import of fierce fire oil, and the refining of fierce fire oil. The fuel valve uses a screw port. In order to control the valve. and preliminary pressurization. They also need to use some special equipment, which also requires their special customization, and even the use of some pipes. It takes sacrifice to make multiple barrels to complete. Without that, a lot of things would be hard to do.

Shangwu came here to send something new. Pressure gauge. Mainly, the 15th Infantry Regiment has a special number of support detachments, such as meteorology, transportation, and maintenance. Many soldiers, especially the engineering units, have a lot to learn, and they have to constantly organize a large number of people to go to the factory to study. They recorded more than three notebooks, which was very rare among other troops. It can be seen that the education level of the 15th Infantry Regiment is still very high.

The pressure gauge has two main uses, first, to equip the meteorological detachment, and all localities have begun to use the military to set up weather stations, they mainly record the weather conditions, and record them every half an hour. Tedious. But I don't dare to slack off, because I have to keep checking it. But it's the best way to keep track of the climate, and there's a lot of meteorological data, which measures precipitation, weather changes, the number of sunny days, and so on. But these are not enough to predict the weather.

Pressure gauges can solve such problems. But many soldiers don't know what pressure is all about. Shang Wu could only teach them how to record, to look at the pressure gauge.

The second is that the pressure gauge can be used in the air, and by observing the change in pressure, you can determine the specific altitude at which they are. This is a very effective means. Because the previous flights were basically taught by experienced veterans. Thumb measurement methods have become widespread. The height is calculated by the measurement of an experienced veteran. This is very inaccurate, and with the pressure gauge, it can be measured. One of the biggest prerequisites for pressure gauges is that they must have plenty of glass.

It should be pointed out that the weather stations in various places are equipped with telegraph communications, so as to transmit the latest meteorological data in a timely manner. It can be seen that Shangwu still attaches great importance to this.

"In addition to the military, the most important use of meteorology is to provide us with more meteorological information. Meteorological forecasting, after all, we also need agriculture at the moment, a firm agricultural foundation, without meteorological support, many of our things cannot be carried out. Shang Wu said.

"Well, but I think we should build more water projects, so that our situation can at least be much better. You say, don't you? Jia Xu said to Shang Wu.

"Well, I agree. However, we need to note that there are actually a lot of things that are a little different from what we think. Jia Xu said.

"In the past, neither the imperial court nor local officials made improvements in this area, and specialized in categorization." Jia Xu said.

"Hmm. However, we are now on an unprecedented path, so we need to take more of the roads that we thought were impassable before. It may be a dead end, it may also be a living road, no matter what, we should try it, otherwise, it would be a shame that we just give up. Shang Wu said.

"Well, in that case, I agree with you. Some of these ideas will be of great help to us, and this kind of help will make our situation more favorable. Jia Xu said.

The reason why Shang Wu and Jia Xu came here was because they had to mobilize two airships and related logistics personnel to participate in the battle of Hedong. The Arsenal dedicated a split workshop to build brand new airships. They have already been produced. Brand new airship, many improvements have been made. For example, where the foot is pedaling, a chain was used before, and the chain and other things are completely handmade, and they make a creaking sound when they are driven. But now. The latest airships use propeller shafts. And more gears were used to drive. In this way, it is more labor-saving. However, at this time, there is still no relevant gear control, which has to be said, it will take some time to improve.

There are still opportunities for improvement in the products in the rear, but there is not so much time in the front line. Ma Heng sent a telegram saying that he still couldn't figure out what was going on in Hedong, and that the reports sent by the observers he had sent before were intermittent and too slow to be transmitted, and that by the time he figured out what was going on, it was too late. This is a very troublesome thing for them.

So, in order to improve the intelligence situation at the front. Shang Wu had to mobilize air power to join them as soon as possible.

At this time, the air power was still only providing battlefield reconnaissance, and such a thing as participating in a ground attack was not yet mature, and they still needed time, and at the same time needed to improve more motivation and the effectiveness of reconnaissance. In short, the airship was just a small step.