Chapter 470: Shot down

This time his target was Dalun Mountain. Geographically speaking, Dalun Mountain is not so critical, but the careful cultivation of Northern Liao for many years has made this place important. Without uprooting the fortress of Dalun Mountain, the Yunzhou army will definitely not be able to continue to advance. And now, Dalun Mountain is more like a thorn in the middle of Dai Yun's attack.

Xie Bo is extremely proficient in airship-related business, as the commander-in-chief of a total of four air teams in Yunzhou, and as the "flyer" of Yunzhou and even the No. 1 in Dongping, it is really not so easy for him to suppress the boys below whose temperament is gradually becoming wild with the flight. Everyone's starting point is about the same, he is just one of the first pilots, and he doesn't fly many more times than the younger ones. Especially in the new airship, the experience may be less. Xie Bo has been in this position, of course, because he is willing to study and practice, and he is still at the top in airship operation technology, and in addition, it is also because of his understanding of various tactical uses of airships. He knew that due to the congenital deficiency of the airship, the carrying weight was too limited, although the airship team was pinned on high hopes, but Ye Tao, who also knew the strengths and weaknesses of the airship team, had never regarded the airship as the master of the war except for that long-distance flight and the attack on the Mixed Yuan Palace. The current airship team is, at best, an important participant in the campaign. Xie Bo's "Airship Ground Attack Strategy" and the manual of each airship, as well as the "Communications Implementation Manual" written by Ye Tao himself, are known as the three major canons of the air force.

This time, Xie Bo personally led the air force to carry out this attack, on the one hand, because this attack was indeed important, within half an hour after their air attack, Cheng Chi would personally lead the army to besiege Dalun Mountain, and the effect of their attack directly determined the subsequent attack process; On the one hand, it is also because the air fleet in Yunzhou has never been so concentrated. Not only the military's air force, but also the airships of the Communication Bureau were seconded a lot this time, and the troops sent by Danyang to Yunzhou to receive the new airships also happily participated in the attack. Xie Bo does not only focus on quantity, but at present, for airship air strikes, because the bomb load of a single airship is really limited, the quantity is indeed directly linked to the effect. As for the uneven level of pilot quality, this is a secondary consideration, after all, now everyone feels that the airship is very safe in the sky.

Xie Bo is not so optimistic. The technology for shooting down airships objectively already exists, and it is not something advanced. In the Ye Clan's Workshop, there are already at least four things that can pose a threat to airships, and the simplest is the modified Divine Arm Bow. With a single modification of the gun mount, it can have a fire height that can threaten the airship. Secondly, it is similar to an airship, which is tied into balloons with leather, tied to the bottom of the fire, and released in batches...... Although only Dongping is more mature in airship technology now, and Chunnan has only mastered a little bit of the surface, Xiling and Beiliao have somewhat mastered the principle of hot airship, and it is not difficult to release this kind of balloon. The third method is rockets, more complex rockets, now only Ye's workshop can be made in small quantities, the accuracy is quite high, the flight speed is amazingly fast, it is the best weapon to fight the airship at present, but simple rockets, as long as you understand the principle, a little bit of the foundation of the craftsman can make a prototype. And the last one, which I don't have much to worry about others mastering, is artillery. This time on the front line, there were already artillery units involved, and due to the headache of the artillery troops, all of them were assigned to Dai Yun's frontal attack troops. The anti-aircraft guns that were specially developed in the workshop were converted to deal with airships, but now the accuracy of anti-aircraft guns is not very ideal, and the rate of fire is relatively low, and the manufacturing cost of anti-aircraft guns is unbearable, in general, this is not a method that can be matured in a short time.

Even though the threats are already there, the attack will still be carried out. Xie Bo checked the map every quarter of an hour, marked his current position, recorded the positions of each formation reported by the signalman, and counted the status of the entire airship unit...... This is the first time in history that operational command from the air has been conducted.

After a whole morning's flight, when Dalun Mountain finally came into view, Xie Bo was already exhausted by the complicated statistics and management work, he put Dalun Mountain into the field of vision of the telescope in his hand, and ordered: "Signalman, herald, attack separately according to the pre-formation." Pay attention to order, we have plenty of time. ”

There is an essential difference between a ground attack today and a bombing by fixed-wing aircraft in the future. The bomb load of the airship is small, and the ammunition used is also the effect of burning and explosion, and it is also because of the problem of bomb load, the number of attacks per airship is also limited. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the attack, but also to take into account the safety issue, the attack height of the airship is generally around 300 feet. Although the sky is very large, when so many airships are crowded in the sky above Dalun Mountain, three hundred feet, it is not so easy to mobilize.

For this attack, Xie Bo sent airship reconnaissance in all possible weather without interruption when the plan was just in shape, he studied the top view and model over and over again, and sent down the detailed attack plan long ago, so that the captains of each detachment could deploy separately without mistakes. And now he saw that the entire air force, although a little cramped, was still moving in an orderly manner. When the first batch of fire oil bombs was dropped, Xie Bo breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, the bombardier of the airship that Xie Bo was in reported through the brass pipe, "Captain, something seems wrong. ”

Xie Bo's airship, because of the task of air command, actually carried three signalmen, and the bomb load was reduced to a minimum, because it was basically impossible to enter the attack sequence, the bombardier was now actually in the bilge of the excellent position to observe. And the careful bombardier discovered that the layout of the top of Dalun Mountain was actually different from the results of previous reconnaissance.

Xie Bo's heart tightened, and he hurriedly looked at the model that he had memorized in his heart, and sure enough, up and down Dalun Mountain, there were a lot of things in several places, which looked green, no different from the surrounding woods, but if he looked closely, he could still see some clues.

Before Xie Bo could send an order to remind everyone, a change occurred. Pieces of camouflage nets were lifted, and groups of divine arm bows were pushed out and placed in front. The Northern Liao side was obviously well prepared for the air attack, and these divine arm bows were all triple, and three spear-like arrows were shot on top of each other. Even these arrows have been specially treated, and there is nothing tied to the top of the arrows, so they burn directly, and they are killed towards the airship with the power of the flames.

In the next second, Xie Bo saw the clue, I am afraid that the Northern Liao also uses a very basic phosphorus fire incendiary, but on the Northern Liao side, even if the Western Route Army is so invested, the gap in technology is still too big, and only one-third of these arrows can be successfully ignited in a hurry.

However, this was enough for the airship team that was not prepared to be attacked, and the Northern Liao side concentrated several firing positions and fired intensively at the airship team that was attacking the main body of the fortress on the top of the mountain, and in this first batch of attacks, three airships were hit by arrows, two of which directly pierced the airbags of the airships. What's even worse is that with such an attack, the formation of the airship team was chaotic, and the originally smooth attack rhythm was disrupted.

Although the airships that were concentrated were panicked, the training that these pilots usually received was not fake, and they also had experience in dealing with various situations. Quickly extinguished the fire, increased the rate of inflation and heating of the airship airbags, and then turned his head to the rear, staggering, and dangerously evacuated the war zone. Suddenly, an airship exploded in the air, and the fuel bombs loaded in the airship mixed with the airship's fuel, turning into a huge orange-red fireball in the air. Then, the flames that flew in all directions caused the entire airship team to dodge in a mess, and the explosion made this usually simple action extremely difficult. On Dalun Mountain, it is obvious that the soldiers of Northern Liao can be seen cheering there.

"Send someone to pick it up, notify the ground forces to help, and don't let the airship fall into the hands of the enemy." Xie Bo commanded the signalman directly. There are also two airships, which are very clever enough to turn on the rocket boosters at the beginning, and they rely on their extremely fast speed to escape far away, and the impact is small.

"Order, all units are free to attack, and the original target remains the same." Xie Bo said categorically. At this moment, at best, it can only be regarded as a little harassment, and the withdrawal of the three airships from the battle is only a small damage for the entire airship team, but the airship team has finally suffered combat casualties, and for everyone, the psychological impact is relatively large.

"Order the 1st Air Force and the 2nd Air Force to concentrate on attacking the position of the Divine Arm Bow." Xie Bo ordered again. Only now, the air raids have finally become a bit of a war, and it is not a drill in which the soldiers enjoy the same treatment as the gods and do not worry about fighting back. Xie Bo wasn't worried that the fighters wouldn't be able to adapt, and after the initial shock had passed, they would definitely make the right move. He is confident in his training. Before this, the airship team had never had an enemy that could threaten itself, but the Ye's workshop, the headquarters of the Jingluo Mansion, and the airship team themselves had actively studied various methods to deal with ground threats, and arranged targeted training one by one. And the fighters who were able to enter the air force were all the elite of the elite, and they didn't even have the courage to deal with casualties, how could it be?

Sure enough, soon Xie Bo saw two airships rowing out of the queue sideways, they were doing a small radius arc maneuver, the speed was more than twice as fast as when they usually attacked the ground, they were not arrogant, diving, dropping bombs, and then dropping bombs, making full use of the slow reloading speed of the triple god arm bow, and also taking advantage of the opponent's first hit to seek effect, shooting in all directions, without the advantage of leaving a backhand, with four heavy fire oil bombs, directly covering an anti-aircraft god arm bow position......

Seeing the effect, those daring pilots also began to try various attacks, they increased their speed, but reduced their altitude, and there were more and more tricks in the flight, so many of them were suspected of showing off their skills, although there were still airships that were injured in the opponent's attack and retreated or disintegrated in the air, but one by one the anti-aircraft god arm bow positions were completely removed...... Xie Bo approached the battlefield and flew to the top of Dalun Mountain, he didn't see everyone's fear, on the contrary, this kind of fight seemed to be what the soldiers loved. The entire space was filled with the excited shouts of the pilots. Hey, there's actually a crew member on an airship who, while howling a noisy war song, is diveting, dropping bombs, and pulling up ...... Their dive angle far exceeds the safety standards of airships......