On the first day of the second month of the tenth year of the Great Qing Dynasty Kang Mazi, this is another notorious saying -- of course, for the mite relics, in this good day of wind and beauty, and the blue sky, in the area of Bajia Village in the southwest of Xinxing Prefecture in Yunnan, it was just dawn, and thousands of elite Wu Sangui troops suddenly surrounded this small village that had long been abandoned in the war. The tense posture of criminal acts such as great rebellion.

Just after the hour, dozens of mysterious carriages pulled by two war horses arrived at Bajia Village under the close supervision of a team of heavily armed Wu Sangui soldiers, stopped in a flat and open place on the west side of Bajia Village, and quickly removed from the carriage a large pile of black silk cloth, a large pile of ropes, a huge boat-shaped rattan basket and hundreds of glass jars, and some strange things, which were carefully installed and tied up under the command of a big fat man.

After more than four hours, the assembly was almost finished, and what appeared in front of everyone was a huge black fish sleeping on the ground, and the body of the fish was densely packed with ropes - a super-sturdy boat cable carefully coated with tung oil, and below the rope was a rattan boat with a strange wind wheel, and the rattan was also repeatedly soaked in tung oil, very light, but unusually strong. The ship was loaded with countless pieces of ancient monsters, and it was not known what it was used for - the only thing that was certain was that it was definitely not for good purposes.

At this time, in the south of Bajia Village, there was a cavalry of the Wu Sangui Army that was also fully armed, led by no one else, it was the notorious super Han Wu Sangui Wu Lao Han Jian, followed by him, the top jackals, tigers and leopards in the Pingxi Palace, what Hu Guozhu, Xia Guoxiang, Wu Yingqi, Wu Guogui, Wu Yingjing, Zu Shushun, Ma Bao, Liu Xuanchu, Fang Guangchen, Wang Shirong, Gao Dejie, Wu Sanmei, Liu Yi, Qiu Kesun and Yang Shanzi, etc., all of them were excited and excited. It's like you're going to come here to do something immoral.

After the team stopped outside Bajia Village, Wu Sangui threw off the saddle and dismounted, ran away without any prestige, ran until he reached the huge black fish, and asked impatiently at the big fat man who hurriedly came up to salute, "Success?" That's what you call an airship? Can you fly? ”

"Back to the prince, thanks to the prince, the humble post is finally completed." Lu Fatzi's forehead was on the ground, and he said excitedly: "Half a month ago, it was completely completed, but Nule Peak was too closely watched by the imperial court, and he was afraid of revealing secrets, so he changed the first test flight test here, and by the way, I asked the prince to witness the first flight of my Pingxi Wangfu Air Force!" ”

"Good, good, good!" Wu Sangui's whole body trembled, and he could only stand firm by holding on to his own soldiers, and ordered continuously: "Quick, get up quickly, tell this king, how does it fly?" ”

"Obedience." Fat Lu agreed, got up and led Wu Sangui to the rattan boat, pointed to the four round pipes with iron plates at the tail and said: "Lord Wang, please see, the reason why this airship can fly into the sky is because of the chemical reaction between dilute sulfuric acid and iron slag to produce hydrogen, and then pour the collected hydrogen into the balloon, and the airship can fly into the sky." These tubes are used to collect and remove hydrogen, which is the heart of the airship. ”

"This disc with small holes is made of wrought iron, coated with guta glue to prevent air leakage, can be fixed with Western screws, and the sealing lid is also coated with guta glue, and after being fixed up and down, hydrogen leakage can be minimized."

"Lord Wang, please see, these four things similar to bellows are hand-cranked exhaust machines, with bolts on the air extraction port, which can also be fixed with Western screws, and if necessary, the sealing cover on the gas pipeline can be removed and connected to the air extractor, so that the hydrogen can be quickly discharged, so that the airship can land quickly."

"These tubes cost the most menial effort, and their characteristics are softness, toughness, and sealing, and it can be said that the lowly people racked their brains in order to create them. In the end, he finally came up with a way to weave a fine net of fine copper and iron wire, sew silk on both sides of the inner and outer sides of the fine net, and finally seal it with guta glue, and it took countless hours and silver to finally make these damn hoses. Suffice it to say, half of the reason why it took more than a month to cause the airship was caused by these damn pipes. ”

"And this damn airbag, in order to make it, I chose more than 100 kinds of silk cloth to find the most suitable silk cloth, and the top of it is a double layer, because this position is the most stressed, and there are silk threads, and I also repeatedly selected hundreds of silk threads to find the most suitable silk thread to sew this balloon."

"After sealing the rear airbag with guta glue, he deliberately painted it black to make it easy for it to attract sunlight heat and heat hydrogen. There is also the top of this balloon, in order to prevent accidents, a valve is specially designed and installed, and in a critical moment, the airship soldier can climb to the top with a rope ladder to open the valve to quickly expel the air, so as to protect the balloon. ”

"This damn valve is also a big problem, and it took almost two months to finally design ............."

"Enough, enough, I'll explain later." Wu Sangui interrupted Lu Fatzi's rambling and ordered: "Quick, quickly fly it up, let Gu see how this airship flies into the sky." ”

"Back to the prince, this humble position can't be done right away." Lu Fatzi explained in embarrassment: "To use sulfuric acid and iron slag to react to fill this balloon with hydrogen, it will take at least one night, and the prince can only ask him to rest in Xinxing City for a night, and then come to visit the test flight tomorrow." ”

"No, this king is waiting here tonight!" Wu Sangui yelled, "Quick, fill me up immediately, don't say wait all night, even if you wait for a day and a night, this king will also wait!" ”

"Obedience." Lu Fatzi had no choice but to be under the watchful eyes of the jackals and hungry tigers in Pingxi Palace, commanding soldiers and craftsmen to quickly build wooden frames, and then use pulleys to lift the air bag, and then pour dilute sulfuric acid and iron slag into a barrel that can be sealed, connect the gas pipeline to inject hydrogen into the air bag, with the gradual injection of hydrogen, the air bag with a volume of more than 300 cubic meters gradually bulged.

After a night of non-stop hydrogen injection, and a lot of dilute sulfuric acid and scrap iron, the next morning, when the sun rose in the sky again, the black air bag covered by the net was already floating above the gondola, shaking majestically like a giant fish in the air, and the gondola was loaded with a large number of sandbags, and was firmly fixed by the cable, so as not to fly into the sky and never fly back. It was also at this moment that Fat Lu finally ordered in a trembling voice: "Okay, stop injecting hydrogen and seal the gas port." ”

After everything was ready, the six warriors of Wu Sangui's army, who had already written a suicide note, carried a parachute bag, and after listening to Lu Fatzi's instructions again, under the gaze of the generals of the Pingxi Palace, with a nervous and excited mood, they took the lead in boarding the airship and preparing to take off. But at this moment, Wu Yingqi suddenly shouted, "Slow, I'm going to get on the boat too!" I'm going to fly to the sky too! ”

"Second prince, this is the first test flight, it's very dangerous, aren't you afraid?" Fat Lu asked in surprise.

"If you are afraid of death, you are not the prince of Pingxi." Wu Yingqi patted his chest and said, "I want to be the first prince in this world to fly to the sky." ”

"Well, it's my son!" Wu Sangui was overjoyed and said: "Then let Ying Qi also get on the airship, didn't you say that Yifeng, even if the airship has a problem in the sky, they can also parachute." ”

"I haven't tested the parachute, so I can't guarantee if there will be a problem." Fat Lu was a little dumbfounded. But what made Lu Fatzi even more unexpected was that Ma Bao, Wu Yingjing, Wu Guogui, Zu Shushun and Gao Dejie These generals actually jumped out together, scrambling to be the first batch of generals to fly into the sky, and even Fang Guangchen and Wang Shirong These literati also stood up and expressed their willingness to risk their lives to be the first scholar to eat crabs - but it is not surprising that there has never been a shortage of outlaws in the Pingxi Palace, and with great trust in Lu Fatzi's attainments in this area, he naturally rushed to get this honor.

"No, no, I can't go up again." Lu Fatzi panicked, and hurriedly waved his hand to explain: "Generals, gentlemen, it's not that you don't have to give face. The key is that according to my estimates, this airship can only carry about 2,000 catties, and the six airship operators plus the second prince already have more than 1,000 catties, plus some test equipment, it is almost overweight. ”

To put it mildly, Fat Lu finally appeased these interested Wu Sangui lackeys, and after putting on a parachute designed by himself for Wu Yingqi, Wu Yingqi and six warriors went up to the airship together, threw the ballast sandbags on the airship out of the airship, and as the airship became lighter and lighter, the cabin in the lower part of the airship gradually floated. When the airship suddenly flew more than one meter high, Wu Yingqi and the others on the airship were all shaken, and the cheers of Wu Sangui's lackeys also sounded like thunder, "Fly!" Fly! It's really flying! ”

"Untie the rope!" Fat Lu himself roared, and the four cables that fixed the airship were untied at the same time.

"Second Prince, speed up the sandbag!" Lu Fatzi roared again, Wu Yingxiong and the others on the airship sped up throwing sandbags according to the order, and the huge black airship also flew higher and higher, and at this time, the soldiers of Wu Sangui's army in all directions also roared madly, "Fly!" Look, the thing just flew up! The second prince, the second prince is still on it! ”

In the midst of the roars, there were countless Wu Sangui soldiers kneeling down on their knees and kowtowing to the airship, while the generals of Wu Sangui's army present either opened their mouths or knelt on their knees, completely forgetting to restrain the army. Liu Xuanchu and Wang Shirong, the old rivals in front of Wu Sangui, simply hugged each other tightly and cried loudly together, bursting into tears.

"It's worth it! Fat Lu also burst into tears, knelt down on his knees and cried, crying bitterly while yelling, "It's worth it, more than a year of hard work!" It's worth it! Long live the prince! Long live the prince! Banzai! Banzai! Hooray! ”

"Long live the prince! Banzai! Driven by Fat Lu, the hardcore lackeys around Wu Sangui rushed to kneel down to Wu Sangui, kowtowing and shouting desperately, "Long live the prince!" Banzai! Banzai! Hooray! ”

Wu Sangui didn't move, as if he hadn't heard the dogs' rebellious words, a pair of cloudy old eyes full of fishtail wrinkles but still extremely sharp, just staring at the fish-shaped airship in mid-air, surging in his chest, a long-hidden thought also churned wildly in Wu Sangui's chest, "With such a thing, under the whole world, who do you need to be afraid of?" Who do you need to be afraid of?! Can that position in the Forbidden City really be taller than my airship? ”

In fact, the most excited thing was Wu Yingqi on the airship and the six warriors who had already written a suicide note, when they flew more than 100 meters high, these warriors were so nervous at first, and even so nervous that they forgot the essentials of Lu Fatzi's repeated instructions countless times - but fortunately, because they were too nervous, these people completely forgot to continue to throw away the sandbag, which allowed the airship to levitate at a low altitude for a period of time, and also allowed them to get used to the feeling of floating in the air in relative safety.

As the nervous mood gradually subsided, it was replaced by incomparable excitement, the six warriors all shed tears, and Wu Yingqi jumped and jumped, laughing wildly, "It's successful!" It worked! I am the first prince in the world to fly into the sky, the first prince to fly to the sky! ”

After finally remembering the flight test that had to be performed, the six warriors took the distant hill as a reference, continued to throw ballast sandbags, raised the airship to a height of more than 200 meters, and then tested the propeller propulsion designed by Lu Fatzi, tested the high-altitude throwing of explosives, experimented with the cluster bomb invented by Lu Fatzi, and threw a dummy puppet off the airship and tested the reliable surname of the parachute.

But at this time, as the airship became lighter and lighter, flying higher and higher, Wu Yingqi and the six warriors finally discovered the mistake that Lu Fatzi had forgotten - forgetting to ask them to fly into the sky in cotton clothes, and they were frozen by the cold in the sky, and their faces were white and they sneezed into the sky.

The first flight test lasted more than two hours, and it was not until after noon that the six warriors and Wu Yingqi, who had had had enough of playing and were also frozen, opened the sealing cover, connected the trachea to the extractor, and exhausted and landed. At the same time, in view of the success of using dolls to test parachute landing, a bold warrior also stepped forward and volunteered to test the world's first parachute parachute test - although Lu Fatzi explained this test, he did not require them to carry it out, but just let them decide whether to parachute into the air or not. And there has always been no shortage of outlaws in the Pingxi Palace, and a warrior walked to the airship with a parachute on his back when it was obvious that he could land safely............

"Second prince, brothers, if I fall to my death, tell the prince that I died for his loyalty, and ask him to take care of my family. Long live the prince! ”

Roaring, the parachuting warrior jumped off the airship, which also caused a thunderous exclamation from the soldiers of the Pingxi Wangfu below, but fortunately, after falling more than 20 meters, the white parachute was successfully opened, dragging the warrior to slowly fall, like a beautiful white flower, floating and blooming on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau for the first time. Immediately afterwards, the neat cheers of the soldiers of the Pingxi Royal Mansion on the ground also rose to the sky, "Long live the prince!" Banzai! Banzai! Hooray! Banzai! Banzai! Hooray! ”

"Lord Wang, Weichen is brave, please reward this first warrior who parachutes! Reward! Lu Fatzi turned to Wu Sangui, clenched his fists and said loudly: "Because of his bravery, let our Pingxi Wangfu experiment with the reliable surname of parachute, and also let the air force of Pingxi Wangfu have no worries from now on and can fight with all their might, which is of great significance!" Humble and courageous, please reward this person! ”

"Reward, reward, reward!" Wu Sangui came back to his senses after a while, and shouted: "Of course, there are heavy rewards!" But the first one worth rewarding is you Lu Yifeng! Say, "What do you want?" ”

"Thank you, Lord Wang." Lu Fatzi was about to open his mouth, but he didn't think that Hu Guozhu next to him rushed over, pulled Lu Fatzi and said: "Yifeng, after the airship lands, you must have someone print the words on the airship, and it should be the four big characters of Pingxi Palace!" ”

"General Jinwu, do you think it's better to print the word 'Wu'?" Lu Fatzi was reminded by Hu Guozhu, and hurriedly said: "Just print a 'Wu' character, which is not only conspicuous, but also sets off the identity of the prince and is easy to identify, and it will save the effort of changing the word in the future, isn't it better?" ”

"Save the effort of changing words in the future?" Hu Guozhu was a little confused at first, but after coming back to his senses, Hu Guozhu immediately nodded again and again, and said: "Yes, it's good to print a 'Wu' character, which is conspicuous and easy to recognize, and there is no need to change it in the future." ”

"General Jinwu, what color do you think is better for the Wu character of the prince?" Fat Lu asked again, "How about white?" ”

"White? Rajah? Hu Guozhu was not stupid at all, he immediately came to his senses, turned to Wu Sangui and said: "Old Taishan, my son-in-law also thinks that white is better - adding a white on your head is very appropriate, I don't know what Lao Taishan thinks?" ”

"What do you mean? What colors are different? As long as it's visible, isn't it? Wu Sangui didn't wake up for a while, but asked in wonder.

"The white on the prince's head is too suitable." Wang Shirong also stood up and bowed his hand to Wu Sangui and said, "Lord Wang, the students are also brave and beg the Lord to add a white." ”

"The ministers are brave, please add white." Wu Sangui's henchmen present knelt down together and pleaded with Wu Sangui in unison.

"What do you mean?" Wu Sangui was still a little confused, but seeing the serious and serious looks of many henchmen and lackeys, Wu Sangui also began to ponder, "My head is white?" The king added white ....... ”

Thinking about this, Wu Sangui finally suddenly realized, and said lightly: "Very good, then print a white 'Wu' character, and it is quite appropriate to add a white character on the king's head." ”

"The ministers obey." Hu Guozhu, Fang Guangchen and Xia Guoxiang and a large group of Wu Sangui's sworn friends agreed in unison, and kowtowed together and said: "The prince is heroic, the destiny of heaven returns, and the white characters are indeed very suitable." Hooray, hooray, hooray. ”

Wu Sangui smiled and waved his hand to the lackeys to excuse themselves - but although this old man looked like an understatement, his body was actually trembling slightly.

At this time, the airship finally descended to a height of seventy or eighty meters, and the cable was thrown down on the boat, and the soldiers of Wu Jun hurriedly stepped forward to catch the cable and pulled the airship down to fix it, and after Wu Yingqi jumped off the airship for the first time, the first thing was to rush to Lu Fatzi, choke Lu Fatzi's neck, and roared while sneezing, "You guy, why didn't you tell me earlier, it would be so cold in the sky?" Almost didn't freeze me to death! You're not going to tell me to wear a cotton coat to go up? Did you do it on purpose? ”

"Humbling and forgetting ......." Fat Lu smiled bitterly and wanted to say that he had forgotten that it was colder in the sky, but only halfway through the words, Fat Lu changed his words and said: "Don't blame the second prince, he has never flown to the sky, I don't know that it will be so cold in the sky, it is definitely not intentional." ”

"Forget it, even if you did it on purpose, I'll spare you." Wu Yingqi was joking with Fat Lu, and after letting go quickly, he hugged Fat Lu in his arms again, laughed and said: "Yifeng, you didn't disgrace me, you didn't disappoint me, our people from Pingxi Wangfu really flew into the sky, they can really fly into the sky!" From now on, if anyone dares to go against our Pingxi Palace, we will immediately fly to the sky, throw explosives on his head, and see how he dies! ”

"Second Prince, if the airship is to be put into battle, it will take some time to perfect." Lu Fatzi said with a wry smile: "The most important thing at the moment is to solve the problem of the airship in the sky, so that you can fly there if you want to fly on the battlefield." ”

"Then you're still going to do it?!" Wu Yingqi grabbed Fat Lu's neck again and shouted: "Get it out quickly, I will personally command our air force in the future and blow up those bastards who dare to go against us!" If you get it out, I'll ask my father to marry you right away, if you can't get it, you just wait to be a bachelor for the rest of your life! ”

Wu Yingqi's words reminded Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui smiled, turned to Wu Guogui, who was already full of embarrassment, and said: "Guogui, my father promised that once Yifeng helped my father make an airship that could take our Pingxi Wangfu soldiers to the sky, he would make the decision to give Xiao Su to him, and now he has completed the task I assigned, look at it, Xiao Su ......." ”

"Lord Wang! Rajah! At this moment, an anxious shout suddenly came from a distance and interrupted the discussion between Wu Sangui and Wu Guogui. Immediately afterwards, a fast horse from the Pingxi Palace, stopped thirty steps away from Wu Sangui and others, immediately the knight whipped off the horse, sweated and rushed to Wu Sangui to kneel, presented a letter to Wu Sangui, and said loudly: "Lord Qiqi, the general Guo Zhuangtu received an urgent report from the capital, and there is a major event in the capital. ”

"What's the big deal?" Everyone was curious, and Wu Sangui couldn't wait to grab the letter, but when he opened it, he only saw it twice, and Wu Lao Hanjian stayed on the spot.

"Father-in-law, what's wrong?" Hu Guozhu suddenly had a bad premonition - his father-in-law is not a person who is so easily frightened.

Sure enough, Wu Sangui's words made everyone stunned on the spot, "The emperor issued an edict on the second day of the first lunar month, promoted Wang Fuchen to the governor of Shaanxi, and promoted Shi Yugui to the general army of Haining, and transferred out of Yunnan together. Ascending to a peak for Daxingzhi County, it is also transferred out of Yunnan. ”

"Me? Transferred out of Yunnan? Fat Lu spun around for a while, sat on the ground, and knew that the worst situation had finally happened.

(To be continued)