Eradicated a major tumor in China, Chen Shao's mood is mostly happy. At least one thing can be dusted down, and it will feel a little more relaxed to let it go.

However, the next day, when his own secret radio station received a telegram with the highest encryption, he was in a mood that was not good or bad. Because this matter was already expected by Chen Shao.

The Second World War was the greatest catastrophe in human history. The number of people killed, the number of houses destroyed exceeds that of previous and future wars. It has brought fear and death to tens of millions of civilians, women, children and the elderly, and tens of millions of fighters have died in their teens and twenties.

It is with air supremacy that it is so destructive. Air supremacy is due to the technological advancement of aircraft. Conversely, it was the result of the desire to escape the carnage during the First World War in order to cross the trenches on the Western Front. Thus, by the end of World War II, air supremacy had caused more destruction and more deaths than anyone had ever experienced before.

HG Wells predicts something similar will happen. In his book War in the Air (1908), he wrote about what he saw in his nightmares, and that the might of the air force would in the future be both a fruit of Western civilization and a collapse of an open civilization. He painted a picture of air combat "with momentary devastation and complete uncertainty." Wells was only half right.

Air combat, while incomparably destructive, also has complete certainty. It is still very far from destroying civilization, and its greatest victory is that war saves democracy. Tens of millions of people in different countries of the world have taken up all kinds of weapons to fight wars, but no one has contributed more to this outcome than the air force.

At the end of the First World War, one of the inventors of the airplane, Orville. Wright expressed his opinion, "Airplanes make war so terrible, I believe that any country would be cautious about starting another war." "He was also wrong.

It is inconceivable that the aircraft prompted the outbreak of war. Rifles, machine guns, and artillery played a decisive role in the First World War, and the decisive role of aircraft was not yet apparent. Four years of stalemate in the trenches are impressive, decisive and difficult to change.

Without the advantage of air supremacy, it is not enough to break this situation. The warring nations strive to win the war by dropping bombs on their planes. In the first weeks of the war, the Germans dropped several bombs over Paris, however, a month after the start of the conflict, the British attacked the hangar of the German Zeppelin. In 1915, a zeppelin bombed England. The Austrians and Italians also bombed each other's cities. The French attacked German military and industrial targets from the air. By the end of the war, bombs had hit the capitals of every warring country except Rome.

In the course of the war at that time, this destruction had not yet had a noticeable effect and could not break the deadlock of terror. Just like the Italian warrior and strategist Giglio who predicted air supremacy. Dohat argues that even a rare attack on the ground exhausts the victors, often "the side that wins most military victories is also the losing side." ”

Therefore, this shows the charm of air combat. Dohat was the initiator. In his widely translated book Aerial View (1921), he discovered that heavy bombers were a way to cross trenches and achieve decisive results in a short, palpitating time.

He believed that a large fleet of bombers could reduce enemy cities to rubble in a matter of days, prompting the people to immediately demand peace. B.H. Lindell-Hart, like Dohat, was a World War I veteran and later military critic and historian.

In his book Paris, the Future of War (1925), he explained, "The airplane allows us to pass past the government, the industrial establishments, and the people's armies guarding the enemy, and strike directly and quickly at the will and policy of resistance." ”

William of the United States. Billy. General Mitchell tried to popularize the subject, having been court-martialed for his attempt to turn the Army Aviation Corps into the nation's main armed force, and his appeal was undoubtedly profound in its significance.

Just like Michael. In his masterpiece The Rise of the U.S. Air Force, Shelley wrote, "Unlike other weapons in modern arsenals, air combat satisfies the thirst for blood and punishment for those who have suffered the wounds of war and lost their decisive victory." ”

When Chen Shao decided to drop 20 tons of incendiary bombs into the Japanese mainland, he was mentally prepared for the retaliatory actions that the Allies would take in a short period of time.

Chances are for both sides. War itself is not a very pleasant thing, and without a certain psychological quality, it is impossible to face war head-on.

"Someone, pass on my order, order the Northeast Theater, the Southern Theater, the East China Sea Fleet, the Royal Pacific Fleet, the Beijing Division Garrison, the shore-based air defense base, and the radar department to implement the S-class air defense plan."

Looking at the back of Wang Jie's departure, Chen Shao could only say to himself in his heart: "I hope the result is not too bad." ”

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To be a great success, there must be at least three elements: imagination, judgment, determination and perseverance.

China's Djinn and Globemaster, as well as General Dynamics' Convair's B-36 Peacemaker, are examples. Of course, Boeing's Super Flying Fortress B-29 is also an example.

Priestley. Whitney's eyes narrowed into a line. Joyfully watched the huge B-36 with a silver fuselage dragged out of the final assembly workshop. Slowly pass through the road of the factory.

Even though its weight of hundreds of tons was distributed among the eighteen wheels, it was still too heavy and heavy, and the ground trembled slightly.

Named the Peacemaker, this bomber is a bomber of a completely new concept. In addition to speed. All of its performance and data are world-class.

Wingspan 70.2 meters. The length is 49.4 meters, the height is 14.26 meters, and the weight is 186,140 kg. The maximum speed is 700 km / h (for a short time). The cruising speed is 504 km / h, the range is 16090 km (single layer), and the practical ceiling is 20747 meters (the speed will be very slow).

To this day, the B-36 remains the largest combat aircraft ever built in the world. Before the B-52 entered service, the B-36 also maintained the title of champion in many fields such as take-off weight, bomb load, endurance and air time. Although not many people remember it today, in the period from the 40s to the mid-50s of the 20th century, the B-36 was famous, and its limelight was no less than that of today's B-2 stealth bomber.

Although China's Kunpeng transport aircraft is not inferior to it in terms of data, the Kunpeng transport aircraft is not a weapon directly used in attack operations. And China's Global Overlord, compared to it, in terms of practicality. Much higher than the other side.

Even if the bomb load of the peacemaker reached thirty-six tons. And the combat radius also reached eight thousand kilometers. It has already reached the standards of an intercontinental strategic bomber. China's Global Overlord, although it has a bomb load of only about 30 tons, is twice as fast as the Peacemaker, and its range is 6,000 kilometers higher than that of the Peacemaker. The take-off weight is also thirty tons higher than that of the Peacemaker. That's the difference between the two.

But. The aircraft itself is the pride of the United States. Because the Super Flying Fortress can no longer meet the needs of the war. This new intercontinental strategic bomber, which is more than a little more powerful than the Super Flying Fortress, is a booster in itself.

At the beginning of World War II, Nazi Germany's blitzkrieg operations defeated the Polish army in 20 days. This was followed by a rapid occupation of France and other countries. By the autumn of 1940, Britain was already looking unsafe. Once Britain falls, the United States will have no allies in Europe and no forward operating bases, which will require a long-range bomber to take off from the American mainland to bomb Germany. The success of Germany's initial attack on the Soviet Union intensified the need for such long-range bombers in the United States.

The development of the B-36 dates back to the early days of World War II in the 40 years of the twentieth century, when Germany had occupied the entire Western European continent and Britain was in danger under the indiscriminate bombardment of the Luftwaffe. To this end, the U.S. military needs an intercontinental bomber with a large bomb load and the ability to fly at high altitudes to cope with the coming war. In October 41 of the twentieth century, the U.S. Army Air Corps screened the ideas put forward by several aircraft companies such as Convair, Boeing and Northrop, and finally decided to develop an intercontinental bomber by Convair, and the new aircraft was numbered B-36.

The U.S. military top brass has high hopes for the B-36, and the leaders of the Army Air Corps, in particular, believe that only by equipping a heavy bomber with a truly intercontinental endurance capability can it effectively deter and strike at an adversary far away in the other hemisphere, and at the same time avoid suffering another heavy loss like the Pacific Campaign. Moreover, the United States also needed an intercontinental strategic bomber to deal with China's expansion trend, and in a complex situation, a peacemaker was born.

This intercontinental strategic bomber, which is composed of a combination of a semi-jet engine and a propeller engine, has become a killer weapon in the US air.

In the sky above the world at this moment, the B-36 is an absolute "air giant", and the public relations department of Convair once published an article "Believe it or not" to describe its huge size to the public: the maximum take-off weight is as high as 186 tons, which is equivalent to three B-29s. It can carry 39 tons of bombs, which is equivalent to lifting a B-24 and a P-47 at the same time. Its 10 engines produce 44,000 horsepower, the equivalent of nine locomotives or 400 military trucks. It is loaded with enough fuel for the nose of an internal combustion engine locomotive to travel 10 times around the earth. Its high-altitude de-icing system provides enough heating for a 600-room hotel. The wingspan is twice as long as the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903!

Gaidar approached from the other side, and he had already noticed Whitney's pretentious and obsessive expression. The human awe of complex and massive machinery, combined with the paternal love of a designer and investor for his work.

Gaidar whispered: "It's such a formidable Herkris! ”

"Hehe, he's about to complete the 12 great tasks given to him by King Eurystheus of Michenai. The last and greatest thing is this: to use its extraordinary heart, wings, and carcass to sow the fire of death throughout that sinful land, and finally destroy the empire. Whitney Road.

Air. One after another B-36s are conducting test flights in various subjects, and in the blue sky, sometimes a large plane will pull out seven or eight white fog trails. Su Lian shuttled, the sound of the machine rumbled, so lively.

Gaidar nodded with satisfaction and said, "Now, at this moment, Douglas in Santa Monica, California, Martin in Omaha, Nebraska, and North America in Kansas City. Bell Corporation in Marietta, Georgia, and our company's new facility in Wichita, Kansas. According to our drawings, the production of B-36 in large quantities has already exceeded a hundred, and it is estimated that in half a year, the monthly production will reach five hundred. And even more. It's enough for those Chinese to drink a pot. According to the survey. A bomber codenamed Globemaster in China. The monthly output is only a few dozen. They are too meticulous and more precise than the Germans, so we can completely overwhelm each other with numbers. When the time comes. The sky is our world. ”

"Oh!" Whitney took a sip of the Coke in his hand, "Now jet fighters have entered full mass production, and thirty or forty jet fighters are being shipped to the front line every day. At our Dakwe training ground and the Eggie-Oud arsenal test site, M-47 single-shot incendiary bombs and M-69 cluster incendiary bombs are being tested. I think they have a huge destructive effect on China's factories and airports, and although China is not a bamboo and wood structure like Japan, if the fire breaks out, China will definitely lose a lot. When China takes away the homes of Japanese civilians, we will also deprive them of their homes. This can also be a little comforting to Japan and establish our position. ”

Gaidar had a whim: "Will those of us who shoot and make murderous weapons be judged by our own conscience and history one day?" While the Peacemaker has a sophisticated gyrobomber and calculator on it, I'm willing to bet that nine out of ten people it kills are civilians, and that at most one of the ten houses it destroys is a munitions factory with machinery. ”

"Don't discuss these philosophical questions! From Plato to Spinoza, this question has been discussed for thousands of years and has been entangled. For the Pacific War, our choice can only be victory or defeat, if the Chinese army landed on the west coast of the United States, then they would not be so pitiful, and all Americans would become Jews. The industrial machine of the United States will be controlled by a group of demons, and the slaved Americans, including the two of us, will turn the whole world into a feast of human flesh and human brains, without any freedom, justice, equality, and fraternity. Humans will regress into beasts, like the alien villains Campbell writes about in his science fiction novels. Europe fell into the hands of Hitler, and you can see the prospect.

We must fight the Chinese fiercely, and the sooner the war ends, the fewer the four, including the Chinese. Therefore, we used all the power of the United States and all the power that God had given us to create the B-36, and the peacemakers were there to restore peace to the world. Use the power of steel to build a world of freedom, justice, equality and fraternity.

I've heard that there is also a group of physicists in Los Alamos, New Mexico, who are engaged in some kind of "Manhattan Project", using the chain fission reaction of uranium to weave a "pressure bomb", and the theory is that the famous formula E=mc squared. If it can really be done, then the peacemaker will bring one, and it will be enough to wipe out China's big cities. ”

Say this, Priestley. Whitney didn't feel guilty at all.

"Dude, I went to the bookstall the other day to buy a magazine, and you know I love science fiction, so I picked one up and took it home, and I read one of the novels called 'The Deadline.' Hey, the article brings the atomic bomb to life, and I don't think there's any need to wonder what the gentlemen of Los Alamos are up to. May they succeed, God, humanity has once again stolen the heavenly fire from you. Gaidar said.

"Gaidar, we don't need to repent of anything, it's the Chinese who should repent, it's their damned imperial expansion, which has turned into conflicts and wars. And we almost stunned us. The bitter wine is brewed by the Chinese themselves, so we should drink it ourselves. We and our allies have lost almost 20 million people, and we must step up. "Whitney is a Grus-Saxon man, and his philosophy is also very British, to put it bluntly, stubborn.

"Gaidar, toast to the success of the peacemakers." Whitney held up the Coke bottle in his hand.

"Cheers."

In the blue sky, the fleet of aircraft swept over the factory area. The sound of the engine shook the surface of the Coke in the bottle.

"Lovely B-36, God is with us to witness the birth of the peacemaker." Gaidar said softly.

Whether it is China's global hegemon or the United States' peacemaker, the advent of the intercontinental strategic bomber is the astonishing result of the combination of imagination, judgment, and action.

Rome wasn't built in one day. In more than 30 years, strategic bombers hatched, emerged, grew up, and matured. The improvement of the equipment, as well as the automobiles, ships, and radio equipment, shows the excellence of human navigation in the sea of technology.

As early as the 15th year of the twentieth century, by Raymond. Lieutenant Colonel Frede's early strategic bomber group, including the Zeppelin Giant Airship and the Gotha Bomber, bombed Britain across the sea. The British army retaliated with an eye for an eye, and Colonel Doron commanded the Hhandal Betsy bombers to storm the German industrial cities. Dropped bombs 540 tons.

This time a South African Yan. General Shi Huangz imagined a vision of a strategic bomber: "It will destroy the great industrial centers and populous cities of the empire with this." It deprives them of their ability and morale to fight, so as to play the leading role in the war...... The old style of land and sea warfare will be reduced to secondary, or auxiliary combat. ”

Any fantasy is full of unrealistic fog. All have been blamed by the reality and the old-fashioned.

And it's no wonder. Human inertia is human self-preservation. Or "feedback". Otherwise, humanity would have been ruined in the "self-oscillation" that is said in electronic mathematics.

However, there are some eloquent characters who see the light of wisdom in fantasy. Fantasy, with its characteristic frequency, causes oscillations in the minds of wise decision-makers.

At the beginning, a 36-year-old Brigadier General of the U.S. Army, William Brown. Billy. Mitchell. When he was the commander of the Air Force of the US Expeditionary Force in France, he strongly advocated the establishment of a large air force independent of the land and navy.

However, during the war, the ideas of innovation were buried in the mud and sand of secular opinions, and after the war, they were even more filthy and uncared for.

After the war, the American brigadier general made a surprising move by sailing several captured German warships toward the Chesapeake Bay, and then using his own Army Air Force Martin bombers to sink them one by one. 、

Immediately, public opinion was in an uproar.

At the very least, he made a deep impression on the hearts of a Japanese, who was 36-year-old Isoroku Yamamoto, who had just finished his life as a student studying at Havard, the son of a spoof middle school principal and the future commander of Japan's Combined Fleet. Of course, this commander has already died in the sea.

The advice of the young and handsome Brigadier General Billy failed to catch up in the U.S. Army because he had a large group of medal-laden, pot-bellied, egotistical, and rigid Army generals, represented by the commander of the U.S. Expeditionary Force, John Murphy. Marshal Pershing.

Three years later, Pershing retired from the post of army chief of staff, still claiming in his report: "The aviation units are only auxiliary forces of the army, and can only be most effective if they cooperate closely with the ground forces." Twenty years have passed, and the United States has missed a good opportunity.

People whose thoughts are ahead of their time often bring a lot of troubles to themselves, and people who are considered normal in later generations will be considered crazy in previous lives.

Billy. Mitchell could not escape this tragic fate, and he repeatedly stated that he offended many of his friends, and later died with a sense of resentment.

Great undertakings have been accomplished in the hands of many generations, and ideals and truths can inspire one person and a group of people. Mitchell's baton was handed over to his protégé, Henry. Harp. Lieutenant Colonel Arnold. Arnold was lucky enough to make it to the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Air Force alive.

By the time of the Spanish Civil War, Hitler's bombers used the city of Guernica as a testing ground for bombers. Picasso angrily painted his masterpiece, and every politician and soldier in the world saw that the fate of future wars would be decided by the sky.

Roosevelt, Hopskin, and Marshall all fully supported the development of the Air Force, and Roosevelt claimed a few years ago that "the Air Force is the only branch of the military that can make Hitler and Chen Shao understand the United States." ”

Lippmann, the Pulitzer Prize-winning card, put it more concretely: "If the enemy's powerful air force could attack Washington, New York, Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Chicago in less than an hour, and more than 100,000 lives could be killed and injured in a single air raid, the American people would not be indifferent!" ”

As early as the 38th year of the twentieth century, the timetable was getting tighter and tighter, the war clouds were in all directions, and the thunder was coming. At this time, more things are decided in one day than in peacetime, in years. Roosevelt also eventually defeated the isolationist bloc and passed a budget of $3 billion for the Army, with only one role in developing better aircraft.

Hard work pays off, at least in many cases. The peacemaker is the result of the efforts of the United States, and the global overlord is the result of the efforts of China. The two have a lot in common. (To be continued......)