6th year of Daoguang, November 11.

In the early morning, when the first rays of sunlight dispelled the chill around the camp on the south bank of the Amu Darya River, Zhuge Weidao had already put on the uniform of the Dajin Navy - a blue cloth robe with cotton, a yellow coat with suede, a dogskin hat with ear protection, and a "disposable Suppilon knife" in his waist, yawning and walking out of a barracks in the Amu Darya camp.

The so-called camp of the Amu Darya River consisted of a castle built in an oasis in the wilderness on the south bank of the Amu Darya River, plus several camps around the castle. Although the camp was located on the southern edge of the Samarkand Governorate, it had always been under the direct jurisdiction of the Dajin court in the Infinite Valley. The entire oasis was garrisoned by the Eight Banners sent by Wuji Valley, and even a large area of land around it was a military forbidden area.

However, this piece of land, which was regarded as a large stronghold for Dajin to the south, has been idle for many years, and since it was built, there has never been a large army stationed, and it was not until three months ago that a large number of heavily armed Dajin Eight Banners suddenly came. Unlike those "acting school" Eight Banners stationed in Kunduz, the Eight Banners soldiers stationed in the Amu Darya battalion are not so comfortable, except for drills and busy construction. The "naval base" where Zhuge Weidao now lives is the Eight Banners of the Amu Darya Battalion spent half a month to build, and at the same time, an airship yard was built, as well as various supporting warehouses and maintenance workshops.

The ground support of this airship is very troublesome, hydrogen cylinders, gasoline, ammunition, and various parts must be stored separately, especially the cylinders filled with compressed hydrogen must be stored in multiple warehouses in small batches, and each small warehouse must be surrounded by sandbags to build explosion-proof fortifications, so as not to affect the surrounding facilities when the hydrogen explosion.

In addition, each airship base must be equipped with a maintenance plant, which must be maintained and overhauled immediately after each flight, and an inspection must be carried out before the flight to ensure that the cylinders, airbags and gas pipelines are in good condition before they can be released.

It is no exaggeration to say that without strong industrial strength and a reliable team of skilled workers and engineers, the hundreds of airships of the Ming Navy will be more dangerous to the enemy to their own people!

Today is "Double 11", and it is also the time when the Daikin Navy makes its first sortie!

When Zhuge Weidao walked out of his barracks and arrived at the airship take-off and landing field, twelve "Feilong III" hard hydrogen airships were already lined up in the open field. Ye Wuzheng was directing dozens of ground workers to push the cart and carefully load hydrogen cylinders and bombs on the airship...... It's a dangerous thing to do! Fortunately, Ye Wu and the Daming Navy technical advisers he brought are very professional and responsible, so in the past few months, the Dajin Naval Airship Unit has not had a single major safety accident (parachuting and falling to death is not counted).

Seeing Zhuge Weidao appear on the airship field, Ye Wu quickly suspended the work at hand, walked quickly to him, stood up and then gave a military salute and said: "Report to the commander, the routine inspection and equipment attachment of the airship troops before taking off are about to be completed, and ten of the twelve airships are ready!" ”

There were originally only ten airships that arrived in Jin with Zhuge Weidao, but after the Ming Admiralty and the War Department received the report of Zhuge Weidao and Zheng Guoxian, they sent three more airships, and along with these three airships, there were two colonels of the Naval Staff Training Bureau and the Army Staff Training Bureau - although the Ming Navy was equipped with a large number of airships, they did not think of using airships for airborne operations, they just used airships for reconnaissance, mine-laying, and air raids. So now the Navy and Army Training Bureaus have sent people over, wanting to see with their own eyes how airship airborneing is played?

And among these two colonels, there is also an "old acquaintance" named Guan Tianpei! He is the deputy chief of the operations department of the Navy Training Bureau, and he is also one of the few senior officers in the navy with a civilian background, and he is also very likely to be promoted to the rank of general or even vice admiral!

Guan Tianpei got up earlier than Zhuge Weidao today, and a few of them changed into the military uniform of the Dajin Navy an hour in advance (the airship may be shot down, so he can't wear the military uniform of the Ming Army) and went to the airship field, and at this time he was talking to Wu Chuanzhen, who also got up early in the morning, next to an airship.

Zhuge Weidao also saw the two of them, so he said to Ye Wu: "Wencheng, you are busy, remember...... We must check carefully, we are going to run a long distance this time, coming and going for more than 3,000 miles, and we have to fly at night, but there can be no mistakes! ”

After explaining a few words, Zhuge Weidao strode towards Guan Tianpei and Wu Fax, both of whom looked like famous generals, but Wu Fax may use small milk as water to drink, so it has developed into a very big one, Guan Tianpei is one size smaller, but he can also be regarded as a big man, with a big face with Chinese characters, a beard, and he is not angry and arrogant.

Wang Wen had already told him before that this "Master Guan" was notoriously harsh, and he wouldn't give anyone face when he scolded people.

In front of this "Master Guan", Zhuge didn't dare to make a mistake for the Tao, and after walking over quickly, he stood up and saluted respectfully.

Guan Tianpei also returned a military salute, and said calmly: "Major Daozi, can you attack on time today?" ”

"There is no problem," said Zhuge Weidao, "I have just received a telegram from Boat No. 1 that the weather conditions in the western foothills of the Hindu Kush are good and you can fly. ”

The crew of this airship is the best and most skilled of all thirteen airships, and it has carried out reconnaissance missions deep into the veins of the Hindu Kush many times before, and has flown as far as the Khyber Valley.

This time, the route of the airborne operation deep behind enemy lines was also flown out by them.

Last night, Ling Zongjun and Wang Wen set off in their No. 1 boat at night, bypassing the peaks of the central and eastern Hindu Kush Mountains and detouring from the lower altitude of the western foothills of the Hindu Kush Mountains to determine whether the weather along the route was suitable for flying.

Guan Tianpei nodded, and then asked, "Then when can we leave?" ”

Zhuge replied: "According to the plan, the No. 2 boat in charge of the pilot mission will take off on time at six o'clock, and the No. 1 boat in command will take off three minutes later, and then one airship will be lifted off every three minutes...... At 6:33 a.m., all the airships were lifted off! After a maximum of 10 hours, we will be able to reach Peshawar for parachute or abseiling. ”

There are two options for airborne, one is parachute - if the Anglo-Indian army in Peshawar finds the enemy in the sky and resists, then the airship cannot fly too low, and the naval paratroopers can only parachute.

The second is the rappelling - if the Anglo-Indian army in Peshawar is defenseless, then let the airship lower the altitude, or even fly directly over the Peshawar fortress to perform the rappelling!

Guan Tianpei asked again: "Do you know the situation in Peshawar?" ”

Wu Fax, who was standing beside Guan Tianpei, took the question and said, "I know, of course I know!" Two infantry regiments of the Anglo-Indian Army were stationed there, as well as a logistics command, the city defense unit and the logistics command was led by Major General Elstonefen, whose command was in the Peshawar fortress...... It was also the place where the Anglo-Indian army logistics supplies were stored, and in addition to the headquarters personnel, two companies of Anglo-Indian troops were stationed in the fort. One of the companies was mainly made up of Celestial Christians, and the other was made up of Hindus. So the relationship between these two companies on weekdays is very bad! ”

Guan Tianpei was taken aback, "Do you know so much?" ”

"Of course," Wu said with a smile, "the civil officials in Peshawar are all sent from Kabul...... In fact, they are all our people! ”

"I see!" Guan Tianpei nodded.

At this moment, a "woo" alarm suddenly sounded in the airship field.

Zhuge Weidao said to Guan Tianpei: "Sir Guan, this is the signal for the Navy paratroopers to board the boat...... In ten minutes, we're going to strike! ”

Wu Fax said to Guan Tianpei with a smile: "Colonel Guan, this officer will take the No. 4 boat to serve as the airborne pioneer!" Then he clenched his fist again, "Say goodbye!" ”

Guan Tianpei saluted again: "I wish you a victory!" ”