On the afternoon of September 6, in the eastern Indian Ocean, above the messy sea of clouds, a flying fortress composed of cigar-shaped buoys on both sides and a square cabin in the middle was breaking through the sky with great oppression.

It is not an exaggeration to call this object, which is beyond the common sense of mankind, a fortress, because the length of the floating bodies on both sides of it is 270 meters, which is more than any ship sailing on the sea at that time, and the diameter of each floating body is 33 meters, and the cabin sandwiched between the two floating bodies looks much smaller than either buoy, the total length is only 150 meters, the height is about 10 meters, and the width is about 30 meters—that is, the full width of the entire floating object is close to 100 meters. The overall rectangular cabin protrudes a large piece of wedge-shaped fluid at the front and rear, and the upper and lower parts of the whole fluid are equipped with portholes, and the small barrels and barrels that are densely protruding from the cabin like hedgehogs are clearly visible on the front and rear of the cabin and the lower sides.

The 16 Taipei Ocean Heavy Industries HK10A 250-horsepower engines suspended on both sides drive eight pairs of large propellers with a diameter of more than three meters, pushing this behemoth at an altitude of 3,000 meters at a speed of nearly 100 kilometers per hour......

The head of the floating body on both sides is painted with a golden dragon more than ten meters long, and at the tail of the floating body, two ink-black Chinese characters with a width of five or six meters each stand out - Penglai.

The upper part of the middle capsule is a flat deck with hardwood planks that runs through the end and the end, and the surface is painted with white paint with different longitudinal and oblique indicator lines, and there is a square iron plate at the front and back of the deck that seems to be movable and full of holes, maybe this is the door to the inside of the cabin?

Suddenly, the iron plate at the front clicked, hummed inward, and the huge deck suddenly recessed into a black hole about ** meters wide.

However, in two or three minutes, holding a small plane with a single engine, two wings, and three seats, the iron plate slowly rose back to the position level with the deck.

Both sides of the plane. A handful of tightly wrapped goggles-wearing workers inspect hemp ropes tied around their waists—the other end of which is tied to a hole in an iron plate. The wind was howling and rushing towards you. The corners of the scarves around their necks were so whirling that they had to hold on to the ropes in their hands, while keeping an eye out for the much thicker wire ropes that had left the plane on the iron plates - in the wind on the deck at speeds of more than 100 kilometers per hour. Even if the plane doesn't start its engine, just a slight deflection of the flaps is enough to take off. Of course, if the engine is not yet started at this time. Aircraft that have just left the deck will inevitably crash headlong on the deck again.

A whistle sounded, and a small mast was erected on the right side of the deck. A triangular signal flag was raised to the top of the mast. Soon, with the help of a worker who used a metal crankshaft, the plane's engine started abruptly, and the black smoke from the engine dispersed, and the pilot, who was also tightly wrapped, made some kind of gesture to the worker below.

The engine became louder and happier, the propeller turned more and more dizzy, and the workers gestured to each other to confirm that it was correct. A staff member waved a small red flag at a slightly raised glass cover on the right side of the deck.

Another whistle sounded. A second signal flag was raised, and the workers reconfirmed the situation with each other. Under the order of one of them, "one, two, three", at the same time reached out and opened the fixed lock tied to the plane, and immediately reflexively grabbed the steel cable and squatted back, six or seven meters long, with a wingspan of ** meters, the plane was suddenly ejected by something, the wheels did not even touch the deck, and it flew into the air with a hula, in the eyes of the people on the deck, the plane that had just left the deck was moving so slowly, it seemed that it had tried its best to eat milk so as not to be thrown behind by the mothership- It took two puffs of smoke before it was completely out of the confines of the mothership's deck.

This was the 12th sortie of the "Dongfeng Bite" reconnaissance plane released by the "Penglai" flight carrier of the Imperial Chinese Navy on the same day.

It's safe and sound, that's it—said the captain of the ship, Major Rolikorn, who had witnessed the whole process in the glass cover on the left side of the deck.

As the newly promoted grassroots commander of the Navy's floating forces, Raleigh, who was not outstanding in terms of qualifications and routine evaluation, did not know anything about the "latest air ship" he was going to take over when he received the appointment to be transferred to the captain of the "Penglai."

When the first jaw dislocation had passed, the ensuing stress kept him awake for days, he never thought that he would encounter such a thing, and he was completely unsure that he would be able to handle this monster that was "almost like two first-class battleships doubled in length and a first-class cruiser".

However...... It's Her Majesty the Empress! Her Majesty the Empress gave him confidence!

Luo Likong still clearly remembers that shortly after taking office, Her Majesty the Empress drove the "Penglai", in the face of cramped and uneasy, and even repeatedly issued the wrong password, he was so tolerant and peaceful, the gentle and lovely young lady's smile, the sentence "It's okay, take your time", instantly healed his tense nerves that were about to tear.

In the following six months, with the cooperation of the 91st Special Service Wing of the HNA stationed on this ship, Raleighon forced himself to squeeze out the most potential in a limited time, and not only mastered the control essentials of the "Penglai", but also presided over the compilation of the army's first flight carrier operation manual from scratch, and made the use of this new weapon detailed and standardized.

It is precisely for this reason that the "Penglai" was able to be incorporated into the combat unit nine months after its completion, and as a member of the forces directly under the Third Air Fleet, it participated in the Indian offensive operations, and on 6 September, it received the task of cruising east of Ceylon Island and coordinating with the mobile unit to search for the enemy fleet.

Luo Likong knows very well what the advantages and disadvantages of this air carrier in his hand, which can fly above the sea of clouds by relying on the buoyancy of hydrogen.

The total number of 24 aircraft carried by the "Penglai" is indeed inferior to that of the fleet aircraft carrier on the water, but because the carrier-based aircraft of the "Penglai" are directly released from a high altitude, the consumption of taxiing, take-off and climbing is omitted, and the range is farther than that of the same type of aircraft on the aircraft carrier, but this is not the key.

Compared with the aircraft carrier on the surface, the "Penglai" does not need to worry about encountering the enemy's surface ships, let alone the secret calculations of the submarines, so the "Penglai" does not need escort troops and can act alone, which greatly reduces the probability of being discovered by the enemy.

However, in the face of a small number of enemy planes, the "Penglai" can rely on its own planes and the machine guns and machine guns and machine guns on the ship to resist it; if it encounters a large number of enemy planes, the "Penglai" can throw away the ballast, and in an emergency, it can also abandon the fuel, ammunition, and even aircraft in the aviation cabin, so as to quickly float to an altitude of more than 6,000 meters beyond the reach of ordinary enemy planes, or dive into the sea of clouds, and then wait for an opportunity to get out of the threatened area.

However, if the enemy develops a fighter that can easily climb above 6,000 meters......

Damn, how can you think like this, for the sake of Her Majesty the Empress, no, for that gentle smile...... Be sure to ......

"Captain, just received the report from Aircraft 7."