Episode 131 Stuka! Stuka!!

A week after Xiang Xiaoqiang inspected Taipingji, on July 1, he received an invitation from Jiuselu Aviation Instrument Company and asked him to inspect the prototype performance at Jiuselu Head Office.

What kind of prototype? It is the Stuka dive bomber, the domestic version of the Ming Dynasty.

Originally, he told Xiaoqiang that the Nine Colored Deer Company would develop a land-based dive bomber to replace the Osprey, but later Xiang Xiaoqiang got the production line, engineers, production rights, and "after-sales service" of the later version upgrade from Germany. Therefore, the previous plan to develop a land-based dive bomber was temporarily shelved, and the Nine Colored Deer Company made every effort to copy Stuka.

I have to say that the aviation industry of Daming is still very strong in the production of single-engine small aircraft. Although the drawings are ready-made, the equipment is ready-made, and the technicians are ready-made, it is not easy to get a prototype in just two months. Because the kingfisher and osprey used by the Ming army now are all nine-colored deer things, and they are all good things, and the output is also very large. Therefore, Xiang Xiaoqiang estimates that there are kingfishers and ospreys as the base, and it is easier for the nine-colored deer to engage in Stuka.

However, Xiang Xiaoqiang believes that Daming's current aviation industry is a bit deformed, and the single-engine small aircraft has been very good, especially the single-wing and single-engine, which can even be said to have gone to the forefront of the world. Just look at the kingfisher. However, twin-engine aircraft, especially larger ones, are still copying off-the-shelf foreign models. The most representative is the German Junkers-52. Now the larger American DC-3, later known as the C-47, has begun to be introduced.

Xiang Xiaoqiang felt that this was not the level of the aviation industry of the Ming Dynasty, but it might be due to coincidence. Because it has not been many years since the appearance of aircraft, how the aviation industry should develop, countries have not found a mature way. He once talked to Li Guoliang, and Li Guoliang said that Daming took the road of pragmatism: there is nothing too outstanding in the world of monoplane single-engine aircraft at present, so Daming did it himself. However, in the case of single-wing, twin-engine, and three-engine large aircraft, there are many very successful ready-made models in the world. In addition, Daming's international popularity is also relatively good, and it is relatively easy to introduce. Therefore, probably the top level of the Ming government thinks that it is more cost-effective to directly introduce ready-made ones instead of developing them themselves.

Xiang Xiaoqiang knows that this does not mean that Daming will not engage in big planes. The R&D and production capacity of Daming's monoplane and single-engine aircraft has been placed here, which means that Daming's aviation industry capacity is not low. This time, the nine-colored deer quickly got started with Stuka, which is a good proof. I believe that with this bottom, once you really plan to develop your own twin-engine large aircraft, it will definitely not be inferior to those successful models in the world.

……

The next day, July 2, Xiang Xiaoqiang flew to Sichuan again with a few of his cronies, several experts related to the aircraft, and most importantly, a few pilots of the German official regiment. This time there were a lot of people, so I got a DC-3.

The difference is that last time Taipingji's base was near Chongqing, and this time the base of the nine-colored deer was near Chengdu. There are still some small mountain ranges near Chongqing, but Chengdu is a standard large plain, Chengdu Plain, and a flat river. There are many airports here, and a large part of Daming's aviation industry base is also here.

Chengdu is at the westernmost tip of the Sichuan Basin, and dozens of kilometers to the west are the towering Minshan Mountain, Qionglai Mountain, and Daxue Mountain, and then to the west is the lofty mountains of the Hengduan Mountains. And these large mountain ranges are also the dividing line of the Ming and Qing dynasties in this section.

It is said that Chengdu is far from Us-Tibet (referring to the West-Tibet region in later generations. The Ming called it "Wusizang", and the Qing called it "Weizang". "Wei" refers to the front of Tibet, "Tibet" refers to the back of Tibet) is very close, the other side of the mountain is Aba, and after the fall of the Northern Ming Dynasty, Wusizang became the sphere of influence of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. However, the Manchu government never built an airfield in Wusizang and threatened the Ming Sichuan Basin from the air.

The general view in the Ming Dynasty is:

First, Uszang is now only the sphere of influence of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, nominal territory, but the Qing government has a relatively low degree of control over it, and there are not many garrisons. (Of course, the Qing government had absolute jurisdiction over Weizang, but the specific local affairs were still managed by local governments such as living Buddhas, princes, and Tusi.) The Qing army did not have many garrisons not because they were afraid of the local government, but because it was useless to have too many garrisons. Although the southwestern hinterland of the Ming Dynasty is very close here, the Qing government knew that there was such a section of lofty mountains and abyssal canyons blocking it, and the Ming army's mountain defense line was impregnable, and it could not be defeated no matter how many garrisons there were. ）

Second, it is precisely because of the Qing government's low overall control over Wusizang that Wusizang does not have an inch of railway and the roads are very sparse, at least not leading here. It is not impossible to build an airport and other large-scale military facilities in this long distance, low oxygen and high cold, and there are no roads, but at least in the current state of the Manchu government, it is relatively difficult to do so. Besides, the use of aircraft in warfare is only a matter of more than 20 years. And everyone realized that aircraft can influence the course of the ground war, but it was only at the beginning of this year, during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Even if the Manchu Qing Dynasty wakes up now and makes every effort to build roads and airports in the Aba area, it will not be possible to complete it without a few years of effort.

Third, that's what Xiang Xiaoqiang knew. That is, even if the Manchu Qing Dynasty built an airfield in the Aba area on the other side of the mountain, it would be impossible to rely on a few small bombers at this time to cause any damage to the strategic industrial base of the Ming Dynasty. That's in the category of strategic bombing. And there are a large number of four-engine strategic bombers (such as the "Flying Fortress"), plus a complete fighter plane escort throughout the "strategic bombing", that...... That was 10 years later. It has to be a country like the United States.

……

When he arrived at Chengdu Jiuselu Company, to Xiang Xiaoqiang's surprise, Stuka's prototype was not only made, but also more than one, and three had already been made.

On the endless test ground, Xiang Xiaoqiang and his party stood next to the car, looking up at the sky. On a summer afternoon in July, the sun was so dazzling that people were sweating so hard that the whole sky seemed to be turned gray and white.

Just near the halo of the sun, three small black dots faintly appeared. The three little black dots kept an equal distance and moved slowly across the pale sky, like three little ants.

But suddenly, they quickly grew larger, and at the same time, everyone on the ground faintly heard a strange chirping sound that resembled the flapping of mosquitoes' wings.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked up at the sky, letting the sweat continue to stay along his neck, and the blood all over his body boiled.

He heard a voice he hadn't seen in a long time. This kind of voice was heard at the German air base when he was on a mission to Germany. However, he had been expecting this voice to appear in Daming for a long time.

Stuka!! Stuka !!

In later World War II movies and games, whenever this kind of sound appeared in the air, the Allied soldiers on the ground would scream in fear and run in all directions.

Right now, the three black dots in the sky quickly appeared in large outlines, and the terrible screams became louder and louder, even if Xiang Xiaoqiang had already heard it once, he felt straight into his heart. The three Stukas almost slammed down on top of their heads, and at the same time six wings began to spit tongues of fire. In addition to the howling, the piercing sound of machine guns reached the ground.

The group next to the convoy was shocked and exclaimed, some people squatted, some people held the car, and at the same time, the sound of screams, machine guns, and engines in their ears was deafening, almost bursting their eardrums.

By the time everyone reacted, the three Stukas had been pulled into the sky far away. In the circular bombing area more than 100 meters away, three white smoke and dust rose up.

Those were three training bombs dropped by Stuka.

Finding that the real target of the other plane's plane was still far away from them, everyone slowly straightened up, breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled awkwardly at each other. Even Xiang Xiaoqiang, who had experienced it once in Germany, has not been able to escape this group fear now, and he almost squatted down just now.

That's the benefit of a dive bomber. The real dive target may be a little narrower, but the fear it brings can cover a considerable area.

The nine-colored deer representative present smiled and immediately distributed a cold drink to everyone to relieve the heat, which was actually shocked, and then took the group to the car and drove to the bomb drop area.

Everyone got out of the car and saw that three large pits had been smashed out one after another in the circular target with a diameter of about 100 meters drawn on the ground, and three 100-kilogram training bullets were straight into the pit. The technicians of the nine-colored deer pulled out the tape measure on the spot, pulled it from the bullseye to the landing point, and measured the distances of 13 meters, 20 meters, and 28 meters respectively.

This can be said to be quite accurate. The Xiang Xiaoqiang delegation present was very surprised. Anyway, Daming's own osprey can't be so accurate, that's for sure.