3-44 Airship

The airship brought a lot of panic to the Qing army under the city, because this thing is very strange, everyone always has an inexplicable fear of unknown things, tens of thousands of horses and horses can't care about attacking the city, and they looked up at the airship stupidly, as if all the nosebleeds, the drummers also knocked out the tune, and the officers of the supervision team also raised their whips and couldn't pull down, everyone was wondering: Could it be that the gods in the heavenly palace have descended to earth?

The people on the city wall don't have the leisure to care about whether it's from the heavenly palace or the underworld, they are only concerned about the enemy in front of them, both sides are elite soldiers, the exchange ratio has almost reached one to one, many iron guards and soldiers of the death battalion have fallen on the south gate tower, the last reserve has not been used, Li Yan does not dare to send it, the follow-up strength of the Qing army does not know how many, except for the south gate, the other three gates have Qing army troops attacking, can not slack off, can not free up manpower to support.

The ground was covered with slippery blood and internal organs, brains, stumps and broken arms, and hot "wax juice" dumped on the ground, the soldiers fought hard, the sound of gold and iron and the sound of sharp weapons entering the flesh came and went, Liu Ziguang saw that his people were getting fewer and fewer, Anthony and Duncan were still fighting hard, but the movements were not as neat as before, the Qing army gradually occupied the surface of the city wall, and gradually forced Liu Ziguang and others into the enemy building, and the only remaining soldiers of the death battalion formed a small phalanx with iron shields, Blocking the red-eyed Qing army outside, the two panting company commanders wiped the blood on their faces and asked each other, "How many did you kill?" ”

"I killed sixteen." Duncan said.

"Then I'm better than you, I'll kill twenty." Anthony said.

"I've killed forty-five, more than you two combined." Liu Ziguang did not forget to PK the results.

Seeing that there were more and more Qing troops outside, Liu Ziguang shouted upstairs: "Li Yan, what are you waiting for!" ”

What Li Yan was waiting for was the situation where the Qing army occupied the city, and saw that his people had withdrawn into the enemy tower. Two black barrels stretched out from the second floor, the barrel of the cannon was raised, the muzzle of the cannon was lowered, and it was facing the dense Qing soldiers below. The Qing army covered by the iron rain suddenly fell a large area, due to the relationship between the shooting angle, many people were shot in the head and chest, and they died at that time, and those who were lucky not to die were also blinded, and their hands covered their heads and hit them in pain.

"Rush! Drive the Tartars down. ”

Liu Ziguang roared, led the remnants of the soldiers out of the enemy building, and killed the remaining Qing soldiers in one go, and the Qing soldiers who ran down from the horse roads on both sides to try to open the city gate were also shot by the crossbows of the ambush, leaving only the corpses like sugar gourds all over the ground. Thick crossbow arrows often pierced a person and nailed the person behind them, and the crossbow, which was used to guard the city gates, which was used to guard the city gates, came in handy now.

The two steam cannons changed the situation in an instant, and the defending side seemed to be reversing again, but there were still thousands of cloud ladder soldiers waiting to climb the city below, and there were only a hundred and ten people on the city wall, and the ground was full of corpses and wounded soldiers, and they couldn't take a step when they walked.

The airship in the sky flew slowly, and no gods descended, this fast-produced airship was not equipped with any weapons, the propulsion device was also driven by human power, and the only commendable thing was that the gas used to provide buoyancy was not hot air but more advanced hydrogen.

Originally, Addison planned to make a hot air balloon in the form of an enlarged Kong Ming lantern, and the resources of the iron factory were indeed abundant, and even the airbags were ready-made, and these were semi-finished products used to make gas storage bags. He first found a round airbag filled with gas, hung a large basket underneath, put an oil-burning stove in the basket, and then heated the air after the airbag was fully equipped with a manual exhaust fan, and the airbag floated up slowly, like a large Kong Ming lantern.

However, such a hot air balloon can not control the direction of flight at all, and can only flutter with the wind under the control of the ground rope, and control the balloon up and down through the production of hot gas through the stove, at most it can be a high-altitude reconnaissance tool, and it is still far from Liu Ziguang's requirements, but the genius Edison immediately came up with a countermeasure, and found another oblong airbag, which is lined with bamboo pieces as a bracket, and props out a fixed oblong oval shape, so that the aerodynamic shape is suitable for flying.

The problems of power and control are not difficult for Addison, he imitated the rudder of the ship in the back of the addition of a wire-controlled wooden rudder, originally wanted to install an alcohol internal combustion engine in the bamboo basket as the power source of the propeller, but the weight of the internal combustion engine is too large, in order to put the machine must strengthen the overall strength of the cabin, so that the weight is several times larger, and the buoyancy of the liftoff is not enough, so I had to use a pair of pedal propellers on the power parafoil instead, which could have been done so perfectly, However, Addison Tuqi wanted to try a more buoyant gas, and he had no time to study the knowledge of gases, so he had to find it from the ready-made gas of the iron factory, the important by-product of the coking workshop of the iron factory is coal gas, the specific gravity of this gas seems to be heavier than ordinary air, which is obviously not suitable, and there is also a gas that is the exhaust gas discharged from the chimney of the coke oven, although it is mixed with some particles of dust such as coal ash, but after a simple filtration, the test effect is wonderful. The air bag is much more buoyant than the hot air heated by the stove, and the excited Addison immediately named this gas "hydrogen"

。

The airbags are ready-made, the hydrogen is ready-made, the thrusters are ready-made, and the only thing that needs to be processed is the cockpit and rudders. With the direct intervention of the eldest lady, it took only one day for the skilled craftsmen of the ironworks to get the cockpit and steering system right. The cockpit is made of wicker and wood, the key parts are reinforced with iron sheets, the rudder is made of wood and thin iron sheets, and four wires connect the rudder and two joysticks, and the steering stick can be pushed back and forth to control the rudder board to swing left and right, affecting the horizontal direction of progress. Some sandbags were placed in the cabin as ballast, which could be thrown away if necessary to increase buoyancy.

The last problem is that the armament of the airship, the ballista and the steam cannon all require a large space and a lot of related fuel or ammunition, and it is difficult to hit the target on the ground when flying so high, so it is only equipped with the swords and bows of the flight personnel.

The main tasks of the airship were reconnaissance, battlefield observation, and the transmission of military information, and the wireless telegraph dismantled from the submarine of the Song State was installed, and the radio receiver was left on the ground to receive information and dispatch troops.

Addison took a few bold assistants to personally test the flight, the effect was very good, but the temperature and wind in the sky were really unbearable, after coming down, he let people make a leather coat and hat, as well as the crystal windproof goggles on the eyes, and 6 continued to test the flight a few times, in the case of tailwind and no wind, the degree of the airship is still very considerable, the eldest lady is worried about Liu Ziguang's safety on the front line, and decided to take the newly developed airship and radio to the front line to help the war. After a few days of training, the talented Peng Jingrong has become a so-so radio receiver, if there can be an airship to help reconnoiter the various dispatches of the Qing army, and then pass it to the ground command in time, it will definitely be able to help Liu Ziguang and help the iron factory to get a lot of credit.

The owner of the Peng factory couldn't resist his daughter, so he had to send five hundred men and horses to escort them to the front line, called the ironworks airship brigade, it was not easy for the airship to replenish hydrogen, so it could only be loaded with a lot of ballast and floated in the sky, and the ground dragged it forward with ropes, in addition to this airship, it also brought three uninflated hot air balloons.

The airship team walked for two days and came to Yanzhou, and asked the remaining personnel in the camp, it turned out that the battle line had moved north, so the eldest lady continued to move forward with the airship, until she met the rear team of the Ming army, Yuan Chonghuan met with the ironworks airship team in his busy schedule, and only during the conversation did he know that the Ming army had lost contact with Liu Ziguang's men and horses, and hundreds of thousands of troops in front were fighting, and it was not safe for a small force of five hundred people to act alone, so the airship team temporarily served Yuan Chonghuan, and several hot air balloons rose into the sky as a fixed lookout post, The soldiers with good eyesight took the clairvoyant mirror and sat on it to guard, and the troop movements within a radius of dozens of miles could be seen, while the airship flew directly to Jinan to reconnoiter the movements of the Qing army, and there were two members on the boat, one was an intelligence officer of the Ming army who was familiar with the terrain, and the other was the pilot and radio operator Addison, and the two sat face to face in the gondola, pedaling to drive the propeller to rotate, and at the same time observing the situation below with the clairvoyant.

The airship quickly came to the sky over Jinan Mansion by the south wind, and unexpectedly Jinan City has been occupied, and the Qing army is desperately attacking the city, Addison, who served as a newspaper clerk, picked up the clairvoyant mirror and looked over, the city was fluttering on the top of the iron guard and the banner of the death camp, the desperate struggle was unfolding, and even the air could see a tragic blood red on the south gate of Jinan.

Addison was shocked, the number of troops in the city was already very small, but the Qing army under the city was still preparing to attack in a whole team, with seven or eight thousand troops, and even the military intelligence officer on the airship couldn't help but sigh: "The city of Jinan is broken in an instant." ”

Addison hurriedly rushed to the telegraph and frantically started a telegram, and according to the pre-agreed telegraph signal, the message sent had two contents: 100,000 rush to march! Now Liu Ziguang.

Su Ke Saha looked at it with a clairvoyant mirror for a while, and judged that this big pumpkin-like thing in the sky was a military equipment of the Ming army, and it was not surprising that the Southern Dynasty had many strange and ingenious skills, and it was not surprising that he could make something that could fly into the sky. He immediately ordered the archers to shoot arrows together, and shot down this thing that affected the morale of the army. In addition, the siege of the city must be stepped up, and the city of Jinan must be taken down before the Ming army rushes over.

Some strong archers took out the courage to shoot eagle eagles with curved bows, riding war horses chasing airships and shooting, the composite bow of the Qing army was very powerful, plus such a large target was easy to hit, more than a dozen feather arrows pierced the air bag, hydrogen gas was bubbling out, the flight altitude of the airship gradually decreased with the leakage of hydrogen, Addison and the intelligence officer desperately pedaled, threw all the sandbags of the ballast out of the cockpit, hoping to make a forced landing in Jinan City, but the south wind didn't know when it had stopped, and the progress of the human-driven airship was far less fast than that of the war horse. With the drop in height, the bows and arrows of the Qing army are more and more, more and more accurate, the proud archer wants to shoot the Ming army who controls the airship to death, the tricky and fierce arrows are specially shot at the hanging basket, the intelligence officer picks up the bow and arrow and shoots back, and he is killed by several arrows, Addison and a scholar can still keep a calm mood when encountering such a thrilling situation, the airship can not be saved, but the precious radio must be saved, fortunately he has been prepared, and a new type of powered flight parachute is installed above the gondola, which just comes in handy at this moment.

Addison used his shield to resist the flying arrows, while taking off the radio and carrying it on his back, climbed onto the seat of the power parafoil, pulled the release handle, and the taut rubber band attached to the parawing in advance suddenly loosened, and the parachute popped forward.

Liu Ziguang on the city wall had also appeared airship, he knew that this must be something developed by the iron factory, but at this moment he had no ability to assist the attacked airship, because the Qing army under the city began to climb up again......

The hydrogen airship that lost power was stranded in the air, and the Qing army shot arrows indiscriminately, and the benefits of hydrogen leakage gradually fell to the ground, and a large number of curious Qing soldiers came to watch.

"Monster! Don't go close! ”

An accompanying shaman shouted, frightened at the sight of a complex, strange machine as if he had seen a devil. When the Qing soldiers heard this, they hurriedly retreated, but their horror was still no match for curiosity, and they had the courage to surround them, touching the propulsion devices of the air bags, propellers, rudders, and chain pedal transmissions made of thin sheepskin, and exclaimed victoriously: "The things of the Southern Barbarians are really exquisite." ”

"This is a monster, hurry up and burn him!" The shaman who accompanied the army recited a spell for a while, and it was the shaman's duty not to let the soldiers have a good impression of everything in the Ming Dynasty.

Qing Jun took out a match and lit the pine oil torch he carried with him and threw it over, hydrogen itself is a very explosive gas, although it has leaked a lot, the air bag is no longer a completely sealed space, but there are still many residual hydrogen in it, the air content can reach the minimum explosion when it reaches four percent, the concentration near the airship has reached at least ten percent, and some corners can even reach as much as eighty percent.

Another unexpected explosion was inadvertently ignited by the Qing soldiers, and the shaman wanted to burn the airship, but he didn't want to put his life into it, and the hundreds of soldiers around the airship were not spared. The centaurs who were far away were also swept away by the blast of the explosion. Fortunately, it was daytime, and the Qing army did not trample and scatter in all directions, but lost a lot of men and horses.

Suke Saha and Aobai, who were watching from afar, looked at each other, why are Han people's things so easy to explode?