Roland slept in the cabin of the "Dawn" for two hours, and when he woke up, it was already dark, and when he opened the lightshield of the airship's porthole, the fiery red glow shone on his body, and it was very warm and pleasant. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Outside the window, the sky was almost transparent, and the airship seemed to sail in the reflection of the meteorite ocean, and below it was a vast sea of white clouds, and the clouds were like neatly arranged sheep, and like rows of snow-covered ridges that stretched out towards infinity.

Standing in front of the window, Roland couldn't help but feel a trance of time reversal, as if he had returned to the world before he had traveled back to the world, and was taking a flying flight.

After settling down, he realized that this was the cabin of the "Dawn", and that he was not flying on a passenger plane on Earth, but an airship powered by steam and magic, and the reason why he had the illusion was that the "Dawn" had risen to the stratosphere, where ultraviolet rays were strong and the air flow was relatively gentle. The "Dawn" cruises in such an environment with little resistance to the air current, which can maintain stability and save magic crystal fuel, while the small airship "Dawn" he was on before could not rise into the stratosphere as high as 8,000 meters above sea level, and could only sail at a low altitude with strong convection, which was easily affected by the wind, and the landscape outside the porthole was also different from what was seen at the moment.

Another important advantage of airships sailing in the stratosphere is that they are safer, most birds cannot fly so high, and there is no need to worry about crashing into people who do not obey the traffic rules during the airship voyage. Of course, pirate scouts like the Flying Shark, who can only fly at low altitudes, will not be able to ascend to the stratosphere, so the Dawn can ensure the secrecy of the operation.

At a height of 10,000 yards, through thick clouds, Roland could not see the sea below, and could not determine where he was at the moment. Fortunately, it doesn't matter if he doesn't know, the crystal ball in the cockpit can penetrate the clouds to monitor the surface conditions at all times, and can see every grass and tree clearly, so as to accurately grasp the trajectory of the voyage, which is not inferior to the satellite navigation system on the earth, and the cost is even lower, which can be described as the best example of magic applied to aviation.

Roland opened the bedside drawer, took out a military ration wrapped in tin foil, which was commonly known as an "energy bar" by local sailors, and peeled off the tin foil to see a milky yellow thing, the texture was a bit like soap, it smelled good, and the rich milky aroma made him appetite.

Roland broke a piece and threw it into his mouth and chewed it slowly, confirming that the ration was mainly made up of cheese and peanut butter. Compressed and dehydrated, high in fat, calories, and shelf-stable, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more palatable military ration in a region like Baiou Harbor, which is located on the northern coast and where chocolate is scarce.

After swallowing an "energy bar" in two or three bites, Roland walked out of the cabin quickly, and met a young man in a military uniform hurrying along the way.

Roland, who was not an active officer in the Bend League, returned the salute with a nod in lieu of a military salute.

Pushing open the cockpit door, Roland saw Jennifer sitting alone in the driver's seat and concentrating on her work, with the navigator's seat vacant next to her, so he sat down next to her.

"Where have we been?"

Jennifer glanced at the crystal ball, quickly reported a string of latitude and longitude coordinates, and then further explained to him: "The 'Dawn' has a cruising speed of 100 knots, we took off from Baiou Harbor, crossed Cape Niujiao Military Port and walked straight to the battlefield, compared with sailing along the coastline, we can save 300 nautical miles, and we are expected to arrive in the Pearl Island sea area in 20 minutes to meet the main fleet." ”

Roland sighed: "The greatest convenience of air navigation is that you can cross the mountains and mountains and choose the shortest route, which is an efficiency that cannot be compared with sea ships in any case." ”

Jennifer smiled slightly: "Well said! But then again, the cost of aviation is not comparable to that of navigation, take this 400-ton displacement 'Dawn' as an example, the construction cost alone is equivalent to 10 magic crystal ferries of the same tonnage, not to mention the re-enchantment of all floating plates every ten days, the operating cost is frighteningly high! Teacher Sukhoi once proposed to Ms. Lyubov to form an air force consisting of 5 Dawn-class airships and 10 Dawn-class airships, but Ms. Lyubov was so frightened that she rejected it on the spot after reading the budget, even if she concentrated all the wealth of Baigull Harbor, she could not afford such a grand plan. ”

"It's really unrealistic now, but the establishment of a new air force with airships as the core is an inevitable trend in the future, and when we talked about geopolitics in the past, we mainly focused on land territory and sea power, and in the future we will add an air supremacy." Roland was moved.

"Are you sure airships are really that important?" Jennifer looked at him in amazement.

As a pilot, of course, she was confident in the future of the airship, but even a radical like her did not dare to expect ethereal air supremacy to be on a par with real land and sea power.

The bard traces the great kings in history, often using the "opening up of the territory" to praise their achievements, the power of the monarch is on the earth, the inherent "royal land" theory, occupy the land in order to plant, graze and reproduce the population, in order to open mines and logs to obtain resources; In coastal areas where arable land is relatively scarce and mineral resources are poor, people are forced to march to the unpredictable seas in search of food and wealth, and then develop ocean-going trade and mercantilist traditions, on the basis of which modern theories of sea power are summarized.

In an era when the concept of sea power was just emerging and could not compete with continental hegemony, Roland concocted a strange new word, what "air supremacy"? Jennifer scratched her head when she heard this, "If we drive the airship to the sky over the Giant Demon Island, will we occupy the air supremacy?" If you can't land on the land that you actually control, people don't bother to look up at it, how they should live their lives, and it seems that you can't bring practical benefits by proposing this so-called 'air supremacy'! ”

Roland was amused by this outspoken girl, patted her on the shoulder and smiled: "Jennifer, we have air supremacy, we can monitor the every move of the islanders, if they refuse to surrender, we will drop bombs on their heads, drive them into the hole to be moles, and endure the lingering threats above their heads all the time, this kind of life is definitely not comfortable, it won't last long before we have to surrender obediently?" ”

Jennifer suddenly realized: "It turns out that 'air supremacy' means that we can do whatever we want above the enemy's head, and the other party can only hold his head and be beaten, which is really evil, but I like it!" Hey, hey, hey! ”