On May 1, 1898, in Manila Bay, Luzon Island, the United States, under the command of Brigadier General George Dewey, annihilated the Spanish Far East Fleet led by Rear Admiral Patricio Montejo in one fell swoop, destroying five junk-like wooden light cruisers and three gunboats with a little bit of protection. Later, the main American fleet, consisting of five battleships, two armored cruisers, and a large number of auxiliary ships, under the command of Rear Admiral Sampson, successfully blockaded the pitifully weak Spanish fleet led by Admiral Pasla Servera in the port of Santiago de Cuba, and then on 22 June, 16,000 American expeditionary forces landed in Santiago and surrounded the 36,000 Spanish colonial troops hiding in the fortifications together with the local rebels in Cuba. On 1 July, the U.S. forces won the Battle of San Juan Hill and began to erect large-caliber siege guns around the port of Santiago in preparation for the destruction of the Spanish fleet. Admiral Servera was forced to lead his troops to break through the siege, but was pursued by the overwhelmingly superior American fleet outside the harbor, and all four armored cruisers and three torpedo boat destroyers were destroyed, and the American fleet paid the price for this, one dead and one wounded sailor on the armored cruiser "Brooklyn". Cuba soon fell into the hands of the Americans, and for decades afterward, Cuba existed as a de facto colony of the United States – even though it bore the name of a republic.

The Chinese Empire, which had helped the United States in its attack on the Philippines, naturally made a good impression on American politicians, and the US Congress passed a bill in August 1898 to repeal the immigration laws against China.

Marshal Liu Yun, chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Chinese Armed Forces, was not very interested in this, and before the arrival of the autumn exercises, he called General Zhong Xiahuo, commander-in-chief of the Praetorian Guards, General Hu Ke, director of the Operations Division of the General Staff Department, and General Xiao Ruhai, director of the Equipment Division, as well as a group of attendant officers and staff officers, to take more than a dozen black cars to the National Defense Grade A Equipment Research Institute in Xiaotangshan. The so-called first-class equipment is actually a secret weapon, including all weapons items that are in the pre-research stage and need to be restricted in the regulations.

"Director Xiao, I can see the tank now." As soon as he got out of the car, Zhong Xiahuo immediately made an extremely non-centrific request to Xiao Ruhai.

"Okay, wait a minute, I'll ask someone to wrap your car in an iron sheet, put a bucket on top, plug in a water pipe, and paint it with three-color camouflage, it's definitely a super-first-class main battle tank that the M1A2 can't match." Xiao Ruhai replied with extreme seriousness.

"Okay, you Xiao Ruhai, entertain me."

"I don't know who is the first to entertain whom."

Liu Yun's tall marshal hat leaned over: "I'm here to see the plane today." ”

Xiao Ruhai turned his head and replied, "Lord Marshal, it is a flying machine, including military balloons, airships and airplanes. ”

"Is it necessary to develop airships?"

"Helium airships are still very promising, please take a look first."

The institute is surrounded by a ring of tall brick walls, along which are densely covered with stilted buildings for observation and vigilance, upstairs guarded by armed guards, sentry and machine-gun emplacements next to the two gates, and on the inside of the gates there are barracks for the guard troops, and a reinforced guard battalion directly under the Ministry of Defense is responsible for security here. The living quarters of the staff of the institute are independent of the institute and are self-contained, with a special security company to protect them. Rows of brick houses and sheds are neatly laid out, and the green lawn is added to it, but not a single tree is missing, and two hard-ground runways, hundreds of meters long, intersecting each other spread out on one side of the institute, and on the other side is an open meadow with a few thick poles erected.

Liu Yun saw that the runway was empty, so he turned his head and asked Lei Yutian, the director of the research institute who was accompanying him: "Where is the plane?" ”

"Your Excellency, for the sake of secrecy, the prototype aircraft is usually stored in the warehouse, and it will only be moved to the runway when outdoor experiments are needed."

"How many prototypes are there?"

"Since the first prototype was made in March this year, six have been completed, one of which has been consumed as a structural strength test machine, and the remaining five have been tested for flight, and the sixth aircraft is now capable of flying 49.3 kilometers continuously."

Liu Yun nodded with satisfaction, and then raised his chin: "Let's go, go and see our plane." ”

Everyone was led into a tall warehouse by Lei Yutian, where two big birds with double wings and two wooden paddles hung on their buttocks were lying quietly, Liu Yun's subordinates were amazed, but Zhong Xiahuo pouted and whispered: "This is also called an airplane?" Not even a toy, it's just a big garbage made of rotten wood and scrap wire. ”

"Save it, this is the first batch of heavier-than-air aircraft in the world." Xiao Ruhai glared at him.

Zhong Xiahuo unceremoniously pointed to the big bird painted with white paint and commented: "Look at its wooden skeleton, canvas skin, as well as the clumsy internal combustion engine, stupid wooden propeller, I could have saved one myself in that era......

"If you can't move all the factories of our time, you can fart less, you kind of feel like it's good, it's 1898."

"How could there be a helicopter equipped with an LCD in 1898? Where did our helicopter go? If it is not sealed......"

Liu Yun couldn't stand their noise, so he turned around and interjected: "That helicopter is not mothballed. ”

"And where is it?"

"Right here, it's just broken down into parts. After telling you a few times, you will understand that with the current industrial level, it is impossible for us to mass-produce technically complex weapons and equipment, and the helicopters of our time consisted of tens of thousands of parts, produced by factories of dozens of specialized departments, and most of them did not exist in this era, and it will take a long time to build and perfect these specialized departments. Keeping that helicopter can only cause us trouble, we don't have the corresponding parts to maintain it, as a separate helicopter it can't play any role, and once its technical secrets are leaked, it will be effectively used by those countries with a more developed industrial base than us, which will be bad for us. Without further ado, I brought you here to make you think about how to effectively use these primitive aircraft to serve our military in the future. ”

Zhong Xiahuo nodded yes, closed his mouth for a while, but muttered in his heart: "Can this garbage be used?" Let's make it look like it. ”

"My lord, do you want to do a flight demonstration?" Lei Yutian respectfully stepped forward to ask Liu Yun.

"Well, if the weather is right, let's fly it once. By the way, does the prototype have a name? ”

Lei Yutian said: "Yes, it's called the Young Eagle, and today the Young Eagle 6 will conduct a demonstration flight." ”

Under the command of Lei Yutian, the staff filled up the young eagle No. 6 with gasoline, adjusted the engine, and after checking the parts, they pushed out of the warehouse and placed it on the hard soil runway facing northwest according to the wind direction, so that the aircraft could take off against the northwest wind that day.

Before the pilot in a black leather suit got on the pilot's seat of the plane (note, it was lying down, not sitting), Liu Yun asked Lei Yutian to call him over for questioning.

"What's your name?"

"Praetorian Infantry Lieutenant Fang Yongyang."

"How many times have you flown over?"

"Twenty-six airships, thirty-two airplanes."

"What's it like to fly a plane?"

"It's comfortable when you're in the air, it's totally bird-like. Not only do you have to control the flaps on the wings and the rudder on the tail by hand, but you also have to adjust the position of your body from time to time so that you can maintain the balance of the flight, but it is difficult to grasp when landing, and it will be very dangerous when encountering crosswinds, and on two occasions I almost fell due to the sudden crosswind......"

"Was there an incident of a plane going down?"

"Yes, during a landing, it was also because of crosswinds, but the pilot was only slightly injured, and the plane was quickly repaired, this kind of thing has a simple structure and is easy to repair, but it is also because it is too thin to withstand a slightly stronger wind."

"Well, I haven't seen the airship you're developing, but since you've flown an airship, let's compare your airplane with an airship."

"There are three kinds of airships under development, one is a single-person experimental type, called 'Feitian Jia', the other is a two-person experimental type, called 'Feitian B', and the other is a combat practical type, called 'Feiyun', which can carry five crew members, or two crew members plus a load of 160 kilograms. I have flown all three kinds of airships, and I feel that the airship flies relatively smoothly, it is easier to maneuver than an airplane, and working in the pod is much more comfortable than lying on the fuselage to operate, and the endurance of the airship is also much stronger than that of an airplane......

The airship is also much safer than the airplane when it lands, because it is lighter than air, it does not have to rely entirely on the power of the engine and the wind, but there must be enough people on the ground to pull the tethering rope of the airship......"

"If you were to be sent on a reconnaissance mission, would you choose a plane or an airship?"

"Now, of course, it's an airship, but if it can be built more comfortably, with a larger load and a longer range, I'd rather use an airplane, after all, airships fly too slowly."

"Alright, go ahead, we're all looking forward to your performance."

"Yes, my lord." Lieutenant Fang Yongyang saluted, put on a yellow cowhide flight cap, and walked towards Eagle 6 with natural steps.

The five-horsepower Beiyang Heavy Industry 97C gasoline engine creaked, and the double-bladed propeller spun rapidly, quickly creating an unnatural strong wind behind the plane. As soon as they let go, the plane began to glide forward, its wings shaking a little at first, but quickly calmed down, and in the blink of an eye, the plane slowly raised its head and leaned along a low diagonal line towards the distant white clouds.

"It's so fast, it only took less than thirty or forty meters to fly, and that long runway is a waste at all." Zhong Xiahuo sighed that it is reasonable for people like him, who often fail the middle school history exam, to make some inexplicable exclamations.

Eagle Six, equipped with double-layered wooden skeleton canvas wings, hovers slowly in the air, it does not chase the wind, does not climb the clouds, but only flies because of itself, although it is not free compared to the birds for the time being, but the pilot of the plane can really feel the joy of the birds—although he did not think that the wild birds do not have to serve the war of mankind.

"In terms of airplanes, there are plans for improvement, right?" Liu Yun asked Lei Yutian beside him.

"Yes, the plan is to develop and experiment with four types of military aircraft in the next three years, one is a two-person training aircraft, the other is a two-person reconnaissance aircraft, the other is a two-person artillery school firing aircraft, and there is also a two-person liaison aircraft with a semi-enclosed fuselage.......

"Well, it seems that you still need to strengthen the technical reserves of the aircraft, pay special attention to secrecy, and we will ask for mass production of the aircraft in due course - it is an aircraft capable of combat needs, not a toy like the current one.

Although the naivety of the young eagle is understandable, if it does not grow up, it is completely unforgivable. ”

Lei Yutian nodded again and again in fear: "Yes, yes, the whole office will do our best to live up to the trust and care of the marshal......

"It should be said that it is the citizens of the empire who do not pay taxes according to the law, without the taxes of the vast number of imperial citizens, how can you get generous food and clothing?"

"Yes, yes, yes......"

A few minutes later, the Eagle 6 began to descend in the crisp cool breeze of early autumn, and the small wheels on the nose - in fact, it should be said that the several beams extending forward in the middle of the wing - touched the ground first, and then the two tail wheels on the extended tail boom were smoothly grounded, and the plane taxied along the hard dirt runway for about 50 meters before stopping.

As soon as the pilot, Lieutenant Fang Yongyang, jumped off the plane, he learned from the attendant officer of the Imperial Marshal that he had been promoted to captain, and the order took effect on the same day.

"Go and see our airship, it must be a little more mature than the eaglet." Liu Yun said that Lei Yutian hurriedly led the way in front, leading everyone to a workshop that was a lot higher than the aircraft warehouse just now, more than a dozen blue-uniformed staff opened the huge wooden door, and a giant white monster in the shape of a shuttle was sleeping in it, and under its belly hung a semi-enclosed long cylindrical gondola with an open top, the front half of the gondola was the driver's seat and four crew seats, and the second half was placed in the ten-horsepower gasoline engine and double-leaf wooden propeller of Beiyang Heavy Industry.

"Painting this thing to look like a monster can be used to scare people." Zhong Xiahuo muttered, and was glanced at by Xiao Ruhai again.

"Do you know that in the history of our time and space, before 1937, the farthest range, the most passengers, and the most luxurious and comfortable aircraft in the world was the German Zepberin airship, which carried out air shipping missions from Europe to the Americas, and was a fashionable means of transportation admired by dignitaries and dignitaries at that time."

"Then why will it be eliminated?"

"Because its sac is loaded with a dangerous gas, hydrogen, a little spark inside the sac can burn up the entire airship in an instant, and in fact, if the Zeppelin had used more expensive and less lift-efficient helium, it would not have crashed in 1937 and would not have been eliminated so soon. Helium is lighter than air, but it does not burn like hydrogen, in fact, helium also has the effect of extinguishing fire, the amount of helium loaded in the airship airbag is very large, even if the surface is punched out of a few holes, it can still be left empty for a long time, enough to get out of the danger zone and protect the safety of the occupants. The airship itself is lighter than air, so it can remain empty even if the engine fails, and it can land safely by slowly deflating the airbag. Because the engine of the airship only needs to provide thrust, unlike the airplane, which has to provide both thrust and lift, the airship has a longer time to stay in the air than the airplane...... In this era, small airships capable of front-line observation and artillery firing should be better suited than airplanes, and larger airships could perform long-range bombers and heavy transport aircraft missions......"

Liu Yun's big head leaned over and interjected: "You two, don't be wordy, does anyone want to go to heaven with me." ”

"Heavens? Be a god? Zhong Xiahuo, who was frightened by the purge once, easily forgot the past, and even in front of Liu Yun, he revealed his true nature without restraint.

"Don't be poor, take an airship to the sky, stay on the ground for a long time, a little nostalgic for the feeling of heaven."

"Of course, after eight years, from a high-headed horse to a four-wheeled carriage, and then to a coffin-like weird car, it has finally evolved, although it is still a little primitive, and it will be enough."

More than a dozen staff members dragged the tethering ropes on the four sides of the airship, pulled the airship to the vast grass, and first fixed the head of the airship to a tall wooden stake so that the pilot and crew could board the boat.

As before watching the plane show, Liu Yun wanted to ask the pilot a few questions.

"What's your name?"

"Navy Lieutenant Qin Feiye."

"Navy?"

Liu Yun paused, turned his head and asked Lei Yutian: "How did you choose the pilot?" ”

"Officers who are secretly screened throughout the army and meet physical and cultural conditions will be subjected to intensive testing and training, and after further elimination, regular and reserve pilots will be selected ......"

"I see......"

Liu Yun then asked Qin Feiye: "How many times have you flown up?" ”

"Below is a specialized airship pilot, a total of fifty-six flights, one hundred and thirty-nine hours."

"Well, this time Marshal Ben is going to take the airship you drove to the sky, accompanied by two Imperial Army generals and the director of your research institute, it is all up to you."

"Your Excellency, please rest assured, the subordinates are very comfortable with the control of this airship, besides, this Feiyun No. 1 has never had an accident, I believe that in the hands of his subordinates, this flight will be as good as usual."

While speaking, Zhong Xiahuo and Xiao Ruhai had already climbed into the airship gondola first, and the two impatient army generals later saw that their Imperial Marshal walked into the gondola with graceful steps along the special boarding ladder that had been erected, and couldn't help but stare wide-eyed, regretting that they had made such a loss of grace and face.

Beiyang Heavy Industry's engine began to start, the propeller fanned out of the wind, the tail of the airship began to rise, the ground personnel hurriedly pulled the tethered pile and the rope on the body of the airship, in order to make the bow of the ship face the wind, when the wind direction and engine power reached a perfect coordination, the staff let go of the airship, under the combined action of the lift of helium and the thrust of the engine, the airship slowly rose along the steep curve, and its huge body cast a large gray shadow on the turquoise grass.

By controlling the tail of the four pieces of wood and bone canvas, Feiyun 1 moved its bloated body little by little, and began to hover over the institute, and its pure white livery made the people on the ground see a large fusiform cloud, which was riding the wind between the clear blue sky and the colorful earth.

On the airship, Zhong Xiahuo excitedly looked at the chessboard-like research institute building on the ground, the carpet-like lawn, and the ant-like humans, and shouted into Liu Yun's ear in the seat in front of him: "Lord Marshal, mass production, mass production!" Assemble a floating force! Build a monster a hundred times bigger than this, load ten tons of bombs at a time, a team of a hundred, and fly to Moscow to blow up the Tsar's lair! ”

"The tsar lived in St. Petersburg, at least for more than ten years." Xiao Ruhai immediately corrected his mistake by the side.

"It doesn't matter where he lives, it's okay to bomb it, by the way, when the time comes, just build a hard airship with a flight deck on it, load that kind of toy-like plane, form an air carrier force that combines offense and defense, and cooperate with the super airship to carry out tasks, then it will be invincible in the world!"

"Oh, you still know what a hard airship is, congratulations."

"The surname is Xiao, you entertain me again......"

In the front crew cabin of the airship, Liu Yun didn't bother to pay attention to the boring actions of the two close subordinates, and while looking down at the miniature landscape below, he told Lei Yutian beside him: "...... In addition, it is necessary to speed up the development of large airships, which are required to be able to carry more than one ton of bombs to carry out air strike missions...... You've done a good job, and I'll recommend you another day in front of the Imperial Chancellor......"

"Master Xie's cultivation ......"

The swirling clouds, flying with the real white clouds, are freer than the clouds that move with the wind and cannot move on their own, because they are made by human beings—omnipotent human beings!