Chapter 306 Forming an Air Force

At this time, the countries were in trouble, if the cost of using helium airships was too high, but if they did not use airships, they were very unwilling, especially three months ago, after the Yaman Empire advanced to the Mali River line in the territory of the Nantes Empire, both sides were caught in a stalemate of trench warfare, although there were occasional small-scale chariot battles, but the battle line had basically stabilized.

At this time, the airship showed its superiority, the airship can cross the opponent's position, go to the opponent's rear to reconnoitre, can be used for artillery shooting, and of course can also bomb and air combat, but now all countries are somewhat unable to fight air battles.

Just when countries were worried about the high cost and high mortality rate of airships, Fang Xiaoyu was doing a very meaningful thing.

Under the auspices of Fang Xiaoyu, the first air force division of the Chinese Empire was established, and when choosing pilots, Fang Xiaoyu found another advantage of elves, with a very strong sense of direction, which is a necessary condition for pilots, so the air force began to recruit a large number of elves into the army, and the number of elves in the first air division soon exceeded one-third, so Al was transferred from the special operations army to the first air division as a division commander.

At first glance, it seems that Al has been demoted, but Fang Xiaoyu stipulates that the Air Force is one level higher than the Army, and half a level higher than the Navy, but in fact, Al has changed from the deputy military level to the regular army level, and has been promoted by half a level.

With regard to the establishment of the Air Force, Fang Xiaoyu intends to adopt a wing system similar to that of Western countries. The reason for the establishment of such an oriental-style air force division is to distinguish it from the air force units in the future.

In addition, Fang Xiaoyu established the world's first aviation school in Zhili County, which was specially used to train pilots, and the principal of this Zhili Aviation School was Chen Qingfeng, the chief pilot of the aircraft experiment.

In Fang Xiaoyu's plan, the training process of new pilots is like this, they will study in the aviation school for three years, learn basic flight skills and tactics, and after graduation, they will enter the First Air Force Division for further study, learn actual combat experience, and then be incorporated into the active army.

Of course, all this is just a preliminary idea, and the current aviation school and the 1st Air Force Division are not so much training pilots as learning from each other in exploration, but fortunately, Fang Xiaoyu directly created the more mature flight regulations and operating procedures, saving a lot of time for exploration.

The lack of naval talents has always been a pain in Fang Xiaoyu's heart, even if the active naval personnel, plus those retired soldiers under the conscription system, do not exceed 300,000. Now is the initial stage of the Air Force, and he must prepare personnel in advance so as not to be blinded temporarily.

Due to the low performance of the current aircraft, even the active aircraft can be used as a primary training aircraft, so Fang Xiaoyu used the same kind of aircraft in the aviation school and the First Air Division, the Golden Eagle 1 fighter of the Chinese Empire, of course, the two-seater version of this aircraft is also under development.

The Golden Eagle 1 fighter is a single-engine, single-seat three-wing fighter, equipped with a Benz water-cooled in-line engine, with a maximum power of 110 horsepower, an aircraft width of 7.8 meters, a length of 5.8 meters, a height of 3 meters, a wing area of 18.66 square meters, a dead weight of 405 kilograms, a maximum speed of 185 kilometers per hour, and a practical ceiling of 6,100 meters.

Of course, even Fang Xiaoyu, a person who doesn't know much about airplanes, knows that early airplanes used the shooting interrupter based on the principle of camshaft to solve the problem of machine guns firing from the middle of the propeller, so the Golden Eagle 1 was also equipped with a shooting interrupter, and it also installed two seven-mm machine guns with bullet chains in the nose. With this kind of aircraft, the Chinese Empire became the first country in the world to have a truly modern air force.

Just when the countries of the Western Continent were worried about the survivability of the airship, Fang Xiaoyu knew that the time had come to make money, and he immediately sent commercial representatives to the countries, saying that the Chinese consortium was willing to sell a safe flying machine.

The commercial representative of the China Consortium claimed that although this kind of aircraft can only be used for artillery firing and reconnaissance, and cannot conduct air combat, and has a short range, it is very safe, fast, and much cheaper than a helium airship. After receiving this news, governments around the world ordered this new weapon, called the aircraft, from the Chinese Empire.

In this way, the first foreign trade aircraft of the Chinese Empire, the Eagle 1, officially began mass production, and Fang Xiaoyu naturally would not sell advanced weapons to the countries of the Western Continent.

The Eagle 1 is a biplane twin-engine aircraft, it is a wooden structure with canvas skin, the aircraft is equipped with only two early 20 horsepower air-cooled engines, the flight speed is very slow, and the ceiling is not high, but this kind of aircraft has already surprised the countries of the Western Continent.

Fang Xiaoyu sold the Eagle 1 aircraft at a sky-high price, 100,000 Chinese yuan each, but it is already very cheap for an airship of up to 2 million Chinese yuan, Fang Xiaoyu in order to let countries buy more aircraft, he also gave supporting services, sent personnel to help countries train pilots and ground crew, and at the same time opened aircraft repair factories in various countries to provide paid repair and maintenance services to various governments. Now that the China Consortium has solved their worries about logistics maintenance and use, governments around the world have begun to buy with confidence.

The investment in aircraft has made great progress in the aviation strength of various countries, and each country has set up its own army air force one after another, and used Eagle 1 aircraft to conduct calibrations and reconnaissance for ground artillery, and the role of the air force seems to have returned to its original state, except for the use of airships to intercept aircraft, the planes of various countries have become friendly with each other.

The speed of the airship is slow, the ceiling is low, and it is almost useless against aircraft, so countries have begun to think about allowing aircraft to participate in air combat. In the beginning, pilots were equipped with pistols or throwing knives, and some even equipped their planes with bricks, but these weapons were almost ineffective in high-speed flights.

After several experiments, the pilots of the Saar Empire tried to add machine guns to the nose, because the Eagle 1 aircraft engine was on both sides of the wings, and there was no propeller in the nose, there was no danger of machine gun bullets breaking the propeller, so this design quickly became popular, and countries soon followed suit, and the real air war began.

This result was deliberately done by Fang Xiaoyu, the reason why he sold them this kind of plane was for this reason, there would be losses in air battles, so that he could sell more planes.

The war has lasted for eight months, and several countries participating in the war thought that their side could end the war within three months before the war, but after the war began, they found that the strength of the two sides was very close, and it was not possible to distinguish the winner in a short period of time, but since the war had begun, it could not be stopped, so the countries had to grit their teeth and insist.

In addition to the new air warfare, the ground battle took on a stalemate, with the armies of the Yaman Empire and the Grand Duchy of Sardinia facing off against the forces of the Nantes Empire and the Saar Empire on three fronts, both bogged down in long-lasting trenches.

In this ongoing confrontation, the small number of tanks in each ** has become an ornament, and after each country is quite aware of the performance of each other's vehicles, all sides have deployed countermeasures.

Even if the chariot is assaulted at a certain point, it is impossible to avoid the prepared parties, using a large number of artillery covered attacks, after a large number of losses, the chariots of various countries are temporarily shelved and no longer used, but the competition for the air force is becoming more and more fierce.

The Western Front entered a stalemate, and the Allies could only look for opportunities on the Eastern Front, and after high-level coordination between the two sides, the armies of the Yaman Empire and the Kingdom of HaBufsburg broke into the territory of the Cossack Empire.

The Cossack Empire tried their best to defend their positions, and they were no longer able to fight against the Stanya Alliance, so they had to let their younger brother Kokand take action, so in the territory of the Stanya Alliance, the battle line was still facing each other on the Amu Darya line.

In the confrontation at sea, the Entente still had a relatively strong advantage, firstly, the name of the first navy of the Sahr Empire was not called in vain, and on the other hand, the coasts of several countries of the Allied countries were relatively closed, which was very unfavorable to the garrison of the Grand Fleet, which caused passivity to the countries.

As the war continued, the governments of the world had problems with their material reserves, which had not intended to fight for such a long time, the material preparations were not sufficient, and the large number of conscripts in the army had a great impact on domestic production, so countries began to buy supplies from neutral countries in case of emergency.

The Boston Empire has taken a big advantage in this matter, their territory is relatively close to the Western Continent, and the transportation is convenient, not to mention that the industrial output value of the Boston Empire has always been the first in the world, plus its total tonnage of up to four million tons of freighters, so the transportation is still very fast.

As early as two years before the start of the war, he began to build a large number of warehouses in the Saint-Martin Empire and the mainland to store products, and at this time, it was naturally very easy to rely on the total tonnage of cargo ships that were two million tons higher than the Boston Empire.

Due to the Saar Empire's use of its superior forces to send a large number of surface ships to blockade the western continent, the materials of the Chinese Empire and the Boston Empire could not be directly transported to the territory of the Central Powers, and the Boston Empire had no way to do this, they could only supply products to the Entente countries and only make a profit.

The Chinese Empire is different from the Boston Empire, and giving up the profits that should be received has never been Fang Xiaoyu's style. The sea was blocked by the Entente, and you can't block it on land, so he began to lobby the Iranian Empire, which had already lifted the military alliance, to allow his own convoys loaded with supplies to enter the Kingdom of Habushburg through the territory of the Iranian Empire.