[I'm sorry, I can't add more tonight, I went out today, and it's been more than two o'clock when I came back, so it's eight o'clock tonight, and there is one more after ten o'clock]

In the sea off Zhejiang, a huge fleet composed of nearly 50 warships chopped the waves, sailing south, from the "Han" flag hanging on the battleship, this is the fleet of the Han Kingdom, more precisely, it is formed by the merger of the two main fleets of the Han Kingdom, the Beiyang Fleet and the Nanyang Fleet, let's call him the Pacific Fleet of the Han Kingdom. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Pacific Fleet's southward movement was not a simple cruising mission, but an opportunity to annihilate the combined Anglo-French fleet.

The Anglo-French combined fleet is a behemoth, with nearly 80 warships alone and a total tonnage of nearly 100,000 tons, which is almost twice that of the Pacific Fleet of the Han Kingdom, and the Pacific Fleet is invincible.

What's more, the Pacific Fleet has been established for a relatively short time, and compared with the rich experience of the British and French combined fleets in naval warfare, the Pacific Fleet has almost no chance of winning.

The commander of the Beiyang Fleet was Ding Ruchang (born in 1836), and the commander of the Nanyang Fleet was Zhang Zhidong (born in 1837), which became the Pacific Fleet after the convergence of the two fleets, with Ding Ruchang as the commander of the fleet and Zhang Zhidong as the deputy commander of the fleet.

It is mentioned here that during the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the commander of the Nanyang Fleet was the Governor of Liangjiang, in 1888, Zhang Zhidong served as the Governor of Liangjiang, Zhang Zhidong was the commander of the Nanyang Fleet, when the Han army was like a tiger out of the slaughter, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was defeated, Shanhaiguan had been lost, and could only be trapped in Yanjing City, and it was difficult to escape the destruction, and finally Zhang Zhidong agreed to return to the Han Kingdom, and the Han army was more relaxed when it entered the three provinces of Su, Puhui and Xixi under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Liangjiang.

Of course, Ding Ruchang and Zhang Zhidong knew the strength of the Pacific Fleet, and they also knew better the strength of the Anglo-French Combined Fleet, and the Pacific Fleet had only a dead end in the face of the Anglo-French Combined Fleet Fleet.

However, when the two saw the behemoth flying in the sky, the two understood that this was the main force fighting against the combined British and French fleet, and the Pacific Fleet was just a starter.

That's right, the behemoth that Ding Ruchang and Zhang Zhidong saw was an airship.

The Yuanhe City Arsenal began to study and manufacture airships in 1879, and it has been ten years since 1888.

In ten years, from the very beginning of the small airship powered by steam engines with a load of only a few hundred kilograms, to the super-large airships powered by diesel engines and with a load of more than 50 tons serving the Han army, the airship technology of the Han Kingdom far exceeds that of Western countries.

At present, there are three types of airships serving the Han Kingdom, namely the Kunpeng-6, Kunpeng-7, and Kunpeng-8, with a maximum flight speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

The Kunpeng-6 airship has a load of eight tons and is a light airship; The Kunpeng-7 airship has a load of 26 tons and is a medium-sized airship; The Kunpeng-8 has a load of 65 tons, which is a heavy airship, but this division is only temporary, and the Yuanhe City Arsenal is still developing a giant airship with a load of more than 100 tons, which is the real behemoth.

(Note: The Hindenburg airship, which appeared on March 4, 1936, weighed 100 tons and carried 363 tons, making it the largest airship in the world, with a maximum speed of 135 kilometers per hour.)

It is also important to note that the airships of the Han Kingdom are all filled with helium, not flammable hydrogen.

At present, the only countries that can produce helium in large quantities are the Han Kingdom and the United States, the United States extracts helium from natural gas with high helium, and the Han Kingdom proposes helium from neon and helium mixtures by fractionation method from liquid air, but the cost of producing helium in this method of the Han Kingdom is very high, and even Yan Xueyi is very painful when he sees the cost of producing helium.

On July 23, 1888, the Air Force of the Han Kingdom was formally established, and the first Air Force Commander was Yan Di, who was only 28 years old, with a total of more than 5,500 Air Force personnel.

Yan Ji is a descendant of the Yan family and a student of Yan Xueyi, from the day the airship appeared in Yuanhe City, Yan Ji and the airship formed an indissoluble bond, and now he has become the first commander of the air force of the Han Kingdom.

At present, there are 15 Kunpeng-6 light airships, 23 Kunpeng-7 medium airships, and 9 Kunpeng-8 heavy airships in the Han Kingdom, totaling 47 airships, all of which belong to the Air Force.

The Kunpeng-6 light airship has a low cost but a small load, while the Kunpeng-8 heavy airship has a large load but a high cost, so the Kunpeng-7 medium-sized airship with moderate cost and load is the airship with the largest number of airships built.

When the Han Kingdom Air Force was established on the day it was established, the Air Force was busy, and their task was to use airships to transport a large number of supplies to all parts of the country, starting from Yuanhe City, basically a little more than a day to send them to the Han army stationed in the northwest or northeast border area, so that the problem of supply difficulties for all departments of the Han army was completely solved.

However, the number of airships owned by the Air Force is still too small, and basically every airship is not idle, except for being able to make contact with the earth when delivering cargo to the airship during landing or unloading cargo, the rest of the time is flying around in the air.

The Yuanhe Arsenal Airship Branch is speeding up the construction of airships, and the problem of raw materials that previously restricted the construction of airships has been initially solved, and it was necessary to purchase natural rubber through various methods to transport it to Yuanhe City, but now synthetic rubber can be obtained through the petroleum industry.

The Air Force was busy completing various transportation tasks, but not long after, a more important task was sent to Yan Di, who ordered Yan Di to lead the Air Force to destroy the combined British and French fleet!

Yes, destroy the steel battleships sailing in the sea with airships flying in the sky, which will be the first clash between the air force and the navy.

Yan Xueyi is here, when shooting and building airships, it was taken into account that airships had to carry out bombing missions, so each type of airship is divided into two types: transportation and bombing, and 14 Kunpeng-7 medium airships and six Kunpeng-8 heavy airships are bombing types among the 23 Kunpeng-7 medium airships and nine Kunpeng-8 heavy airships.

Although there are two types of transportation and bombing, the load of the airship has not changed, but some changes have been made in the airship cabin, so that the bomber airship can carry out bombing missions, but the bombing airship can already perform the task of transporting supplies.

The bombing target of a bombing airship should actually be a fixed target on the ground, such as the enemy's city, position, etc., rather than a warship sailing on the sea.

However, the airship was the first time to enter the arena of war, and the Anglo-French combined fleet could not believe that it would face the enemy flying in the air, and the ships of the British and French combined fleets were not equipped with anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns at all, and the only weapons they could damage the airship were rifles, but unfortunately the rifles did not have much lethality against airships filled with multiple airbags or helium.

When the airship of the Air Force of the Han Kingdom appeared above the head of the combined Anglo-French fleet, it was the time when the combined Anglo-French fleet was destroyed. (To be continued.) )