Dozens of kilometers away from the front line, in a heavily guarded mountain pass, heavily armed gendarmes watched vigilantly. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info In the woods on the hillside, you can also see some mobile sentry posts, and even on the top of the mountain, there are also sentry posts, and the guards are engrossed in walking back and forth.

In this open mountain col, there are several mooring towers up to tens of meters high, at one end of the mooring tower floated in the air as many as 15 behemoths, the longest of the huge cigar smoke-shaped silver airbag is more than 100 meters, even the shortest is sixty or seventy meters long, in addition to the bow buckled to the mooring tower, under the airship cabin, there are more than ten thick ropes fixed to the ground like an anchor, which seems to prevent the floating objects from getting out of control, occasionally under the blowing of the breeze, the white floating objects shake slightly.

In the past few days, the airship unit has built this airship field on the front line, and in order to protect the airship, as many as one regiment of infantry units have been stationed around the airship field to provide them with security protection.

On the day of the outbreak of the war, after the "Twin Cities Surprise Attack," the world's first airborne operation, the airship unit seemed to have disappeared, and in the war of attacking Vladivostok, they were no longer there, but in fact they were never idle, and instead of being idle, they were still preparing for a new battle -- the airships of the navy and the army were all transferred to the front line, to this temporary airship yard.

"Airship!"

Looking at the big monster in front of him, Shang De couldn't help but be stunned.

He is no stranger to airships, and even as a senior general, he has the experience of riding airships, and there are as many as five small motorized airships in the staff of the Northeast Army, which are not large in size. The load capacity is only 1.5 tons. It can be said that it can be used as air freight unless there are special circumstances. Most of the time, such small airships are not very useful at all, but this is not necessarily the case.

For the General Staff, this small airship with a speed of 130 kilometers per hour was undoubtedly the fastest means of transportation in this era, and it only took a few hours to send the general from Dalian to any part of the northeast. But it has always been in the hands of the General Staff for the "transportation of VIPs". Even, those small airships were not included in the sequence of the air boat forces of the Northeast Army and Navy.

It is precisely because of the experience of taking an airship, coupled with the "Shuangchengzi Airborne Operation" that Shang Dequan has a deep impression of the airship, and now when he sees the airship, his face inevitably looks a little shocked, and he almost instinctively meets the airborne operation on the day of the outbreak of the war.

"Are you going to prepare for an airborne landing on Vladivostok?"

After realizing this, Shang Dequan's face suddenly became ugly, because the Shuangchengzi surprise attack was not carried out by the army, although after that battle, the staff had already planned to set up an airborne force of the army. And began to draw elite infantry for training, but now if Vladivostok is still captured by the marines. So the reputation of the Army......

However, as the commander of the theater of operations, Shang Dequan seemed extremely stable, so he turned his eyes to the young major beside him, waiting for his answer.

"Your Excellency Commander, these airships are all the 23 airships currently in the Northeast Mastery, including the VIP boats in the hands of the General Staff and the Canglong Boat that has just been built, in order to implement this plan, we plan to invest all our air power!"

This was the most powerful air power in the world in 1901, as Major Lee Cheuk-ran explained. He walked under a large airship, opened the door of the cabin, and invited the commander to enter the cabin with him, pointing and continuing to explain.

"For airships, I believe Your Excellency is no stranger, for example, like the lightest VIP boat, its speed is the fastest, can reach 130 kilometers, and the speed of the largest Canglong 3 is only 102 kilometers, and their ceilings are also different, but Your Excellency, the implementation of airborne missions is only one of the tasks that airships can perform, and Your Excellency Commander should be very clear about this......"

Major Li Zhuoran obviously knew a lot about these airships, but his answer did not solve the doubts in Shang De's heart.

"Your Excellency, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. According to the orders of the marshal. You'll know everything about the airship, and you should know what to do next. ”

Looking at the confused expression on the face of the theater commander in front of him, Major Li Zhuoran immediately stopped explaining and said with a smile.

"Major, what can these airships do? Is it intended to be used for aerial reconnaissance, or is it to carry out airborne landing? ”

In Shang Dequan's opinion, the effect of aerial reconnaissance in the current offensive and defensive battle of Vladivostok is not much different from that on the ground, and even if some aerial photos are obtained, at most they can only distinguish the blow to the fortress. However, aerial reconnaissance of Vladivostok was carried out by those pocket airships as early as the outbreak of war, and those airships with two to four people on board were directly controlled by the theater of operations, and like the airships of important personnel, they did not belong to the airship unit.

"Of course, it's not just for reconnaissance, as for the airship, even if we concentrate all the airships, we can't airborne enough troops, and when the time comes, not only will it not have any effect, but it may lead to the sacrifice of the soldiers in vain, considering the requirements of the entire strategic goal, the commander agreed to this operation."

Major Li Zhuoran squatted in the position of the hanging barn, gestured with his hand to a freely movable baseplate, and continued to explain:

"This exit is a bomb delivery port, and in addition to one captain, four operators and related necessary items, the airship can also carry several bombardiers and bombs weighing up to 8,000 kilograms. According to the results of our past exercises, when the altimeter is pointed at an altitude of 800 meters, that is, the maximum shooting height of a rifle sniper, the airship can effectively hit targets within 100 * 100 square meters on the ground. Of course, all bombardiers must be specially trained bombardiers with the help of new bombsights. ”

"8000 kg!"

Shang Dequan's eyes opened suddenly, and while he let out a sigh of admiration, he continued to estimate the power of the airship in his heart. 8,000 kg is equivalent to the firepower of 17 305 mm siege guns fired at one time. And that's just one. Not to mention. The airship is at an altitude of 800 meters. The artillery on the fort could not pose an effective threat to it, and even ground riflemen could not attack airships at this altitude.

Of course, based on his understanding of the airship, he knew very well that the bombs dropped by the airship seemed to be powerful, but in fact, they could not penetrate the heavy steel reinforced concrete like the siege artillery.

"Major! So our bombs can blow up their fortresses? ”

Hearing Major Li Zhuoran's explanation, Shang Dequan was also very happy, but he was more concerned about whether he could blow up the fortress. If not, he still needs to use siege artillery, but now there are still 2 days before the end of the year, only a short 2 days.

Enter Vladivostok for the New Year!

This is an order issued by the commander, and now all the mission objectives of the entire Primorsky Theater are centered on the capture of the Vladivostok fortress, and all tasks must be compromised to them.

"Your Excellency, please come here!"

Major Li Zhuoran invited General Shang Dequan into his command post. His makeshift command post was built in tents, like other buildings. It is covered with a white camouflage suit.

As soon as he walked into the command post, Shang Dequan stared at the corner of the tent and placed more than a dozen shells. They are neatly arranged in three categories. Compared with other countries that pay more attention to howitzers, the Northeast Army prefers to use high-explosive shells, and the former is the most widely used green, while the latter is gray. As for the other type of shell, it has about the same appearance as the first two. However, it was evident that it was a little larger, similar to flares, and he naturally did not know the purpose of such white-painted shells.

Seeing that Shang Dequan was a little curious, Major Li Zhuoran just said with a smile.

"The first two are the most widely used artillery shells on the battlefield: high-explosive grenades and shrapnel shells, well, as for special shells such as flares, and this one also has chemical shells."

"Chemical bombs?"

Shang Dequan's brows suddenly furrowed, as a senior general of the Northeast Army, he is no stranger to chemical weapons, in fact, as early as five years ago, when the Northeast Army carried out the first chlorine attack, he had witnessed the lethality of chlorine gas, the result shocked everyone, and the results of the test contributed to the generals' approval of the comprehensive promotion of the development of chemical weapons.

However, in the next few years, the results of the tests were always unsatisfactory, whether it was chlorine or phosgene, they were always subject to such and such application conditions, and even more fatally, they had to be cast with poison gas cylinders, and then blown at the enemy by the wind, but this could lead to an accident -- in an exercise two years ago, because of the change in wind direction, hundreds of officers and soldiers participating in the exercise died. It was precisely because of that exercise accident that the Northeast Army had various conditions and restrictions on the use of poison gas. Compared to the release of poison gas cylinders, the use of poison gas by artillery shells is always somewhat unsatisfactory - the shells are too small and carry a limited amount of poison gas.

And as the commander of the theater of operations, he considered poison gas from the beginning, which is why he sent weather observers to the front line, but the terrain limited the use of poison gas, unlike hydrogen that is lighter than air, whether it is chlorine or phosgene, they are heavier than air, and the fortress of the Russian army is located on the top of the mountain. It is almost impossible for the heavier gas to float to the top of the mountain after the gas is applied. And limited by the power of chemical shells, hitting the fortress on the top of the mountain is also a dream, its power is too small.

Don't......

"Throwing gas cylinders with an airship?"

Suddenly, looking at the airship in the distance, Shang Dequan immediately understood the other party's thoughts.

"Is it safe?"

Shang Dequan no longer cared about any such and such treaty restrictions, after all, he was just a standard army general, and for him, what he cared about was not whether the use of poison gas violated international conventions, but how to conquer Vladivostok as soon as possible was the top priority. As for the rest. To hell with them! Even, because of this, he asked the commandos to use hydrocyanic acid gas in order to try to break down the Russian defenses in the shortest possible time.

"Absolutely! Your Excellency, we plan to use the latest new chemicals in the Vladivostok fortress, and in our arsenal, there is no poison gas, only some chemicals! ”

It's a simple play on words, like the Army's use of the Hydrocyanic Acid Grenade, which is numbered "Chemical Grenade No. 3" in the Army, not a poison gas grenade.

"Major!" Looking at Li Zhuoran, Shang Dequan continued:

"There are no outsiders here, my concern is very simple, is whether I can take Vladivostok! And then let the warriors go there for the New Year! ”

"Of course, Your Excellency!"

Li Zhuoran looked at the general and said.

"However, in the implementation of the mission, we need your cooperation, that is, ......"

His words paused slightly, and he pointed to the chemical shells on the table.

"Hopefully you'll be able to fire this chemical shell at the fortress."

"What is this?"

Shang Dequan asked Major Li Zhuoran beside him in surprise.

"It's just a very ordinary chemical shell, which after the explosion produces irritating gases that make people cough and cry......"

"You mean, it's about the same pepper bomb?"

Shang Dequan's tone seemed a little puzzled, the army has always used a special kind of artillery shells - pepper bombs, which are borrowed from the technology of smoke bombs, mixed with a large number of shells made of peppers, and the enemy will cough and cry in the pepper smoke, so as to break through the troops

"Almost! But this kind of shell is just a cover, a cover for the weapons that really work......"

"So what chemicals are we using?"

Now it's reduced to Shang Dequan's curiosity,

"Chemical Gas One? No. 2 chemical gas? Well, or the number three chemical gas? The effect of chemical gas No. 3 is good, and my suggestion is that the corresponding chemical shells should be developed as soon as possible, is it chemical gas No. 3? ”

"According to the regulations, the level of the theater commander has the right to obtain such information!"

Major Li Zhuoran's answer was very direct.

"Chemical No. 4, the latest development!"

"Chemical Four?"

Although he was very curious in his heart, Shang Dequan did not continue to ask, thinking of the disparity in the lethality of the first three poisonous gases, he immediately realized that this was an extremely powerful poisonous gas.

"Can it help us end this campaign?"

The chief's question made Li Zhuoran hesitate for a while, feeling that he had made a lot of determination.

"Whether the war will be ended, I don't know, but I believe that under the attack of Chemical Four, the resistance of the fortress will be weak, but the attacking troops need to be well protected, General!"

At this moment, a captain in a black uniform walked over, and Li Zhuoran ordered the captain.

"Captain Sun! Please explain to the commander for yourself how to use the new protective equipment! (To be continued.) )