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Chapter 54: Elephants in the Sky Over Baghdad

Although Rashid Street, a central part of the city of Baghdad, planned and built by Kari Pasha, has not yet been built, some of the new buildings have been built on both sides of the road, and the new buildings are a mixture of Arabic and Turkish architectural styles, most of which were built by Arab dignitaries, wealthy Jewish merchants, and Turkish magnates, who rented the buildings to the merchants after the buildings were completed, so that on both sides of the street were all kinds of shops, mostly two- or three-story buildings. The ground floor frontage is all about huge round pillars, which are very distinctive. ＂＂

In contrast to the other narrow and cluttered streets of Baghdad, the restructured and remodeled Rashid Avenue is the main street and commercial center of Baghdad, with banks and shops concentrated in the area, and the unique Arab market is an unforgettable place to linger. Among the shops on the street, there are many copperware shops, and all kinds of Arabic-style copper plates, copper kettles and copper cups are very finely made.

There are also a number of cafes on Rashid Street. Although it was only morning, inside the café, customers were sipping coffee while playing Pai Gow, which is unique to the Arabs, and a few customers were smoking shisha in the open-air seating outside the café.

For these Arabs, it seems that everything in the world has nothing to do with them, they just quietly live their lives, whether it is the disputes of the Allies or the Entente, it is really too far away from them, although in the south, the Chinese army has landed, although the military boots of those infidels have set foot on the Arab soil, but for them, this is nothing new.

The glory of Arabia has long since faded into the history of the past few hundred years, when the Arabs were merely vassals to the Turks, and the pagans had already set foot in the land a hundred years ago.

At this time, there are many elderly Arabic literati and scholars who come here every day to spend a few copper coins, smoke hookahs, drink a cup or two of coffee or black tea, and remember the good times of those Arabs who only exist in history, perhaps this is the only thing they can do, and the only past they can remember.

“…… That year......"

While a few elderly Arabs were there reminiscing about the glory of the past, a voice from the air interrupted their conversation, and they looked into the air, only to see a few white clouds scattered in the clear sky, it was a good day, but the roar in the air was a little strange.

"Maybe it's an airplane!"

An old Arab man said that people in Baghdad, the capital of Baghdad province, are no strangers to airplanes, and since five years ago, when airplanes first appeared in the skies of Baghdad, they have already known that people can fly into the sky, and the machines that fly in the sky are called airplanes.

"Tell the big guy to get ready, and use my plane as a benchmark!"

When the green space of the Baghdad Provincial Governor's Palace was reflected in sight, Xu Huansheng shouted behind him, Song Ming hurriedly took out a blackboard, wrote orders in chalk on the blackboard, and then unfolded it through the porthole to the friendly plane, and at the same time, Xu Huansheng waved the wings again.

At this time, the first to appear over Baghdad was a group of bombers, and under the front of the bombers, clinging to a thin cloud, was the group of fighters escorting. The clouds were below them, shining brightly from the sun. As the bomber began to descend in altitude, Ma Mingxiao, who had risen to combat altitude, looked ahead, observing any possible enemy appearance.

With such a big city and just a dozen planes, what's the point of bombing?

Looking at the city on the ground, Ma Mingxiao muttered in his heart, in the army air force, fighters have also been trained in bombing, but their target is not the city, but to bomb the enemy's fortifications and artillery positions.

It's a waste of resources!

Ma Mingxiao thought so, but did not prevent the bomber unit from making the final preparations for the bombing, when the plane began to dive, Song Ming, who wore many hats in the cabin, began to be busy, although the plane carried 200 bombs, but it was hung in the bomb bay according to the way of every ten bunches, in order to fix the bombs as much as possible, each bunch of bombs were additionally fixed with straps, before the bombs were dropped, the bombers had to take off the straps, otherwise the bombs would be thrown out as a whole in a bundle of ten. …,

"Da ......"

When untying the strap, Song Ming stared at the small propeller on the head of the bomb from time to time, unlike the first generation of bombs used by the air force that were modified with mortar shells, these bombs are now redesigned aerial bombs. The bomb is triggered, disarmed during free fall and then explodes when it hits the ground. After the bomb is thrown out of the hatch in the bilge, a small propeller on the bomb will spin and fall off the bomb in the air flow of the bomb falling to the ground, thus disarming the insurance. Once the small propeller is out of the bomb, even the slightest collision can cause the bomb to explode.

"As long as the small propeller is still on the bomb, the bomb is not dangerous."

But even so, Song Ming did not dare to be careless, and after taking nearly a minute to free all twenty straps, Song Ming hurriedly returned to his position - the nose of the aircraft, which is both the aiming position and the machine gun position, sat on the seat, and began to use a simple bombing sight to aim at the ground target, which is extremely simple like a bombing sight composed of a degree ruler and an aiming ruler, although it is simple, it is very effective, especially when bombing at low altitude, the accuracy is very high.

When the plane descended to an altitude of 500 meters, Song Ming, aiming at the ground target, felt that he could see the citizens of Baghdad, and the streets were soon bustling again, crowded with people shopping and playing, and even some people could be seen looking up at the sky curiously, they were obviously stunned by the behemoth in the air.

"Pasha-sama, Pasha-sama......"

An officer rushed to the balcony in horror, only to see Karipasa looking at the sky in confusion, and a dozen black dots in the sky were arranged in a V-shape.

"It's a Chinese plane!"

Karipasa muttered to herself, and said as she spoke.

"Oh, what a huge plane!"

In fact, that's what everyone thinks.

When these planes fly by in the air, the shadows they cast on the ground can make people feel like clouds.

"Why did they fly here?"

"Bombing, this is a Chinese bomber!"

"Bombardier, prepare to bomb!"

Xu Huansheng shouted at the nose of the plane, and his voice was transmitted through the copper microphone.

"Understood!"

Song Ming, who was aiming, replied loudly.

"Bombardier, be sure to aim carefully, the whole group will follow us to drop bombs!"

"Understood!"

Although he tried his best to calm down, Song Ming still felt that his palm seemed to be sweating, and the short seconds were as long as several years, he moved his left hand, perhaps because of some nervousness, his left hand seemed a little stiff, so that the reaction was a little sluggish, at this time, even if it was dull for a second, it was possible to miss the target, Xu Zhiwei moved hard, and after feeling that his hand was not as stiff as before, he pressed the bomb safety and pulled the bomb stick.

At this time, the Governor's Palace, which was the target, was reflected in the shadows of the three points and one line.

At the moment when the Governor's Mansion and the sight formed three points, Song Ming began to count down, sweat flowing from his forehead, and his right hand pushed a connecting rod, which was the connecting rod that controlled the bomb pylon.

"Enter the target, 3, 2、...... Bombing! ”

The moment the voice fell, he took the bomb stick hard......

There was no resistance, there was no resistance, when the bomb was dropped, Li Xiaoquan and An Ming, who were operating the belly machine guns, looked at the ground curiously when they were sure that there were no enemy planes in the air, this bombing was different from the past training, the past training bombed the target drawn by the lime, but this time, they wanted to bomb a city and the people living in the city.

One by one, 10-kilogram bombs in groups of 15 were dropped from the bombing hatches, and each time the small propellers in front of the bombs began to rotate and then disengaged. About 16 seconds after being thrown, the bomb hit the ground, and fire and smoke could be seen.

At this time, under the belly of the 12 "elephant" bombers in the air, black spots were constantly dropped, and the bombs fell with a whistling and landed in the urban area of Baghdad, first with an explosion, followed by countless explosions, the fire flashed, and a thick column of smoke rose, and orange flames flashed on the ground below the plane, and black smoke and dust rose one after another, and the black smoke and dust continued to rise in the ancient city of Baghdad. …,

On a side street, a woman in an Arabic robe with her son was looking up at the sky with a group of citizens as the roar of airplanes could be heard. Most of them looked at the sky with curiosity, and when they looked at the huge plane in the sky, they would always let out a cry of amazement.

"What a big plane......"

As soon as the words fell, they heard the whistling sound of the bomb falling, and almost at the moment when the black dot fell in the air, the woman hurriedly hugged her son and lay on the ground. A bomb landed near them, and the blast knocked many people to the ground, followed by several violent explosions, which rained down on them with dirt and rubble. The woman picked up her son and began to run down the street. After she heard the whistling sound of the bomb falling again, she quickly lay down again, protected her son in her arms and rolled down. Rolling into a large crater, dodging a puff of dirt and wood chips, the woman raised her head at the cries of her son. She looked at her son, who had a broken spot on his head, and some blood was leaking.

The woman looked around, but only saw the flames mixed with black smoke, rising into the sky, after seeing the plane flying overhead, the woman hurriedly hugged her crying son, and walked forward, but when she walked forward, she only saw a scene that made her scream in horror.

A bomb landed right on Bronze Street, with bloody thighs lying across the street; There are piles of intestines that are still wriggling; There was a half of the face with the long messy hair that looked at him hideously; There is a delicate bag in the palm of the hand with a broken arm, and the fingers that grasp the bag are still shaking slightly...... The further up she went, the more and more such scenes appeared, the heavier the smell of blood and heat in the air, the more the woman felt like hell on earth, and she held her son tightly in her arms, for fear that he would see this scene.

Sartre, who was carrying a bag of flour in his hand, only heard a 'hum' in the sky. A bomb exploded in the alley where his family lived, and when he rushed home, he saw that two houses had been blown down, one of which was his empty house, and the family was buried in the rubble......

When the neighbors around him were digging between two wooden stakes in the ruins, Sartre only saw his younger brother crying and shouting:

"Help me, I'm scared!"

And the fragments of the clothes of relatives hanging on the awnings around and the severed feet, severed hands and severed heads picked up on the ground, this scene in front of him only made Sartre, a young man who once claimed to be a man, throw away the flour in his hand and sit on the ground and cry hoarsely.

At this time, the bombing was still going on, thousands of bombs, a steady stream of falling from the sky, because the bombing was aimed at the Governor's Palace, so most of the bombs exploded in the center of the populous city of Baghdad, and each explosion often collapsed one or two houses, burying the people in the house in the rubble, and if the bomb fell on the street, it would set off a bloody storm.

For Song Ming in the air, he didn't know how much damage the bombing had caused to the city, he just dutifully aimed, dropped bombs, every time he pulled the bomb stick, he would drop ten bombs, ten bombs would often fall in a small area densely, just a few minutes later, after dropping the last bunch of bombs, the bombing was over, at this time, the bomber had completed the turn and began to return.

After the bombers in the air left, Ali Pasha, who had been lying on the balcony, stood up with the support of the servants, and at this time the air was filled with a thick smell of gunsmoke, and the governor's palace was hit by a bomb, and the side building on the east side of the governor's palace was blown up by the bomb, and in the governor's palace, there were guards and servants running everywhere.

Standing on the balcony and looking at the city of Baghdad, only the thick black smoke was reflected in Ali Pasha's eyes, the bombardment did not cause a fire in the city, but the thick smoke was still in the air, and the streets were full of civilians running with dead and wounded relatives.

"Yes, yes, that's it, that's it, it's a massacre of the infidels against the cultists, we're going to start a holy war, we're going to start a holy war, we're going to stop the infidels from trampling on this sacred land, and tell everyone that the heretics from the east are going to bomb the Holy Land, to bomb Mecca! All the cultists are to be armed to stop them! ”

*J@b