February 25, Republic 2752 (1911), St. Petersburg.

It's still cold in St. Petersburg in February, when snow and ice are everywhere. Today's temperature is no exception, minus 12 degrees, well, not too exaggerated. In general, St. Petersburgers at this time are mostly staying at home, and rarely go out unless necessary.

But today is a bit special, at least half of the people of St. Petersburg have left the warm houses and run outside the city. It is not uncommon for the citizens of St. Petersburg to see the world, but who has ever seen a flying fleet? Such a strange thing must be seen, so today they braved the bitter cold to run to the airship take-off and landing field outside the city to be a crowd of onlookers.

And not only ordinary citizens came, but even Tsar Nicholas II couldn't help but run out with curiosity. Of course, His Majesty the Tsar Xià will not huddle with those fart people, he and the royal family and a group of powerful people are all on the VIP building of the airship field with the best location and the best view.

At this time, six huge airships were slowly descending, and the signature shark mouth livery and sickle hammer five-pointed star clearly informed their identity - the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force airship unit. These six airships are all the most advanced and largest professionally armed airships in the world today - the Cloud Ray class.

This is a diplomatic team sent by the Chinese government, and they will make an unprecedented round-the-world visit. The air flotilla was led by the Air Force Technical Brigadier General Xie Zhantai, and they flew from Wuhan Air Base for 81 hours and more than 68oo kilometers to St. Petersburg, the first stop on their visit to Wèn.

The large and small hairy bears on the ground looked up at their mighty figures with envious, jealous and hateful eyes, and kept exclaiming and cheering. The crowd was mixed with some Chinese diplomats, students, and businessmen, who waved the five-star red flag in their hands, and they couldn't help but be excited.

"Oh...... Oh...... It's big! it's big!" Nicholas II held up his binoculars, looked at the descending airship with feverish eyes, and muttered: "...... That's right, that's it! That's it! That's what I want!

Then he put down his binoculars, looked at Stolypin, chairman of the Council of Ministers, and said a little impatiently: "Peter, the progress of our own airship is too slow! I have bought a full set of drawings and process materials from the Chinese, and as a result, they have only built a few airships that are a little larger so far!" He made a "small" gesture with his hand, emphasizing his dissatisfaction.

"Look at the Germans and the French, they have built 3o tons of airships! Not to mention comparing them with the Chinese! What are the guys in the Airship Bureau doing? This is dereliction of duty! Yes, this is dereliction of duty!" complained Nicholas II in the tone of a child who could not get a toy.

Stoly was stunned for a moment, then pondered his tone and replied, "My Majesty." The French and Germans have been working on airships for a long time, they have a solid foundation in this, so they are making rapid progress. And we have very little experience in this area before, and even with the drawings and materials of the Chinese, it is not something that can be solved in a short time. Majesty, Semenov They are also working very hard, please give them more time......"

"Okay, Peter, for your sake, I'll give them another half a year, and if they can't build a big airship of 3o tons, get me out of the airship bureau! The airship is the future, a weapon that can change the war! Great Russia must not be left behind, we must also build such a big airship, no, we want to be bigger!" said Nicholas II waving his fist.

A group of naval officers watched from a corner of the VIP building, most of them were colonels and lieutenants, and they could only watch from the sidelines. Among the group was a young man with a Chinese appearance, less than twenty years old, but wearing a warrant officer uniform of the Russian Navy.

"Ziyu, your Chinese airships are amazing! they look bigger than dreadnoughts...... one of the colonels said to him in fluent Chinese.

"Indeed, Uncle Alexander. As far as I know, their length is 225 meters, and the width is 45 meters, which is longer than the largest dreadnoughts now. It's the largest air warship in the world......" replied the boy.

At this moment, a second lieutenant officer came running over, gave a military salute to the colonel, and said: "Colonel Aleksandr Vasilyevich Kolchak, General Berinenko, please go ......"

Kolchak said: "Okay, I'll go to ...... right away" and turned to the Chinese young man and said: "Ziyu, I'll be busy these days, you can go back to the naval school by yourself, don't wait for me......"

"Okay, Uncle Alexander......" the young man smiled and nodded.

His name is Ye Muyi, the word Ziyu, his ancestral home is Tengzhou, Shandong, he was born in Liaoning in 1892 and is 19 years old this year. Ye Muyi was born in a comprador family, because his father admired Muyi (Sima Ziyu), the minister of the Song State in the Spring and Autumn Period, so he gave his son exactly the same name. Although Lao Ye is a comprador, he was also an adventure lover when he was young. Probably because of their common hobbies, he and Lao Gao knew each other a long time ago, and they helped Lao Gao a little during the Russo-Japanese War, so the two had a good relationship. Ye Muyi is also very interested in Lao Gao's previous adventures, and when he was a child, he often pestered Lao Gao, who came to his house as a guest, to tell stories, which can be regarded as a friendship for many years.

Later, Ye Muyi saw "Materialist China" in 19o7, which was where the teenagers in the second middle school could bear the content of the book, and since then they have become the brain-dead fans of Mr. Wen, and in 19o9, when Wen Desi recruited international students for the fourth time to the country, the 17-year-old Ye Muyi ran to register. Because some time ago, Boss Ye contacted Kolchak and was going to send his son to study in Russia, and Lao Gao also agreed, expressing his willingness to help Ye Muyi go to school activities.

After Ye Mu Yi passed the exam, he explained the situation to the person in charge of the star department. So it just so happened that Xingke arranged him to Russia. Under the activities of Xingke's branch in Russia, coupled with Lao Gao's recommendation, Ye Muyi entered the Petersburg Naval Academy very smoothly. According to Lao Gao's arrangement, after he graduates next year, he will be assigned to the Baltic Fleet for implementation.

At that time, the Russian military academy paid attention to the aristocratic tradition, and basically only accepted the children of the nobility, although in the face of the invincible "silver bullet", what so-called bullshit aristocratic tradition had to kneel, but it was always a troublesome matter.

As for the nobility or something, it's not a problem for Xingke. As long as the money is scattered, the company will serve you wholeheartedly. The gold content of the title of the Qing court is relatively low, not to mention the territory of the wood, but also inherited a downgrade, which is worth a little money above the earl, and the viscount and baron below are all empty titles, and they can't be sold. If you only use an empty title of nobility abroad, it is not a big deal to buy a viscount or baron. For example, a certain Qing court mission to Europe gave a bunch of people in the mission a noble title.

So in order to spend less money, Xingke sent very few military academy students to Russia, up to now, Wen Desi has sent more than 20,000 students, but to study in Russia's ** school, both hands are clear.

However, Ye Muyi's classmate saved this identity problem, because his father was a comprador in Sino-Russian border trade, and in order to facilitate his work, he used to spend money to buy a noble title of lieutenant in the Qing court. Even in order to facilitate trading in Russia, he bribed the court minister in Tsarist Russia and obtained a knighthood. Because at that time, foreign devils were just like this, and whether they had a noble title or not was completely two treatments. Before Ye Muyi studied abroad, Boss Ye also bought him the title of lieutenant of the light car. At that time, the Qing court was about to hang up, and all kinds of officials and lords were completely disposed of at a loss, and Ye Muyi, the "light car captain", only spent 8oo to get it.

Therefore, Ye Muyi is now called "Lord Lord" by the woolly bears in the Russian social circle (my Qing Dynasty's light car lieutenant is equivalent to a European lord). However, in the circle of international students, he got the nickname of "800 yuan".

No, some people call him "Lord Lord" now. A royal attendant came over, bowed to him, and said, "Your Excellency, Archduchess Maria, please come over for a moment, she has some questions about China that she would like to consult you......"

"Okay......" Ye Muyi immediately tidied up his appearance, and under the countless envious, jealous and hateful eyes around him, he left this corner with the attendant.

..................................................................

Due to Nikolai's personal hobbies, Russia set high standards for the visit of the Chinese air fleet, and although the leader of the team, Xie Zhantai, was only a brigadier general, but he was personally greeted by the chairman of the Council of Ministers (minister) Stolypin.

The next day, Nikolai invited Xie Zhantai to the palace for a banquet. After the banquet, Nikolai and Xie Chantai talked for several hours, expressing their keen interest in the airship. Xie Zhantai, who had been secretly instructed by Mr. Wen before coming, also invited Nikolai to visit the airship.

Nikolai was overjoyed, and not only went happily himself, but also brought a large family and many powerful people. And, of course, a group of technicians and scientists.

For some reason, the internal layout of the cloud ray-class airship is very sci-fi, according to Wen Desi, that is, "how to come to science fiction, it is best to let laymen be shocked stupid at a glance, and let insiders see that although they are not very clear, but they think it is so powerful...... "To say how to make people feel science fiction, this world has never known better than the people of the Socialist Party, and the arrangement they made shocked the turtles of this time and space.

For example, Nicholas was shocked for a long time and didn't come back to his senses, looking at the sci-fi main control room, Tsar's eyes were red: "It's amazing! It's great! This is what I want!

As he spoke, he turned around and interrupted Xie Zhantai, who was introducing the airship to everyone, and asked eagerly: "Your Excellency General, can you sell this kind of airship in your country......

"Uh, sell?" Xie Zhantai was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Your Majesty the Tsar, this is not my purview, so I don't know if it can be sold abroad." If you want to buy it, you need to contact the relevant department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ......"

"Oh......" Nikolai immediately ordered the Foreign Minister who came with him: "Do you hear that? Immediately confirm to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the arms sales of this airship......

"Yes, my Majesty......," the Foreign Secretary hurriedly ordered.

Nikolai thought for a moment and said: "Oh, and, from now on, raise the diplomatic relations between our country and China to the level of ambassadorial ......"

He also said to Xie Zhantai: "Your Excellency, you are the best military engineer in your country and the best airship expert in the world, and I would like to invite you to give a lecture at Petersburg University and tell my subjects about airships......

"I'm honored to accept your invitation!" Xie Zhantai immediately agreed.

Later, Xie gave a one-day lecture at St. Petersburg University, on the topic of "The Theory of the Victory of the Air Fleet", and he boasted about how airships can be forked, especially emphasizing the theory that only "airships can fight airships". His speech aroused a great response in Russia, and the airship formation was open to the Russian public for 3 consecutive days, which made the airship controllers of the hairy bear rise exponentially.

Three days later, the Chinese air fleet left Petersburg to the cheers of the crowd and headed for its next stop, Dublin, Germany. After that, they will visit Vienna, Rome, Paris, and London, then cross the Atlantic, visit Washington, D.C., and then travel south from the United States to visit the three South American powers, then to Australia, and then return to China after a circle in the South Seas.

Just like the prediction of the General Staff, wherever Xie Zhantai's fleet went, it would arouse thousands of onlookers and tease people's feelings to the extreme. Everywhere he went, Comrade Xie Zhantai, an "expert on airships in the world," was invited to give a public speech, blowing the airship to the fullest, and praising the airship as "a cross-century weapon that changes the mode of warfare."

Subsequently, after the news spread that Russia had ordered a cloud ray-class strategic airship from China for 8o million pounds, the countries could no longer hold back. Public opinion has asked one after another: "Why do the Chinese have strategic airships, but our Weiguangzheng XX country does not?" This is a dereliction of duty!"

Not to mention that the middle and lower classes are crazy about this airship craze, even many of the upper classes are also very enthusiastic. For example, the British Foreign Secretary, Austin Chamberlain, was a fanatical airship controller, who claimed that the British Empire had the strongest naval fleet and the strongest air fleet. Under the impetus of the top and bottom, the European and American powers immediately increased their investment in airships, and airships were being built all over the world, and countless human and financial resources were invested in it, which was almost comparable to the dreadnought race.

However, China, as the initiator of this trend, has not built itself another such so-called "strategic airship," but has instead made great efforts to build a transport airship.

This trend lasted until the outbreak of World War I a few years later, and after the test of war, countries realized that they had been fooled and stupid, clicked on the wrong technology tree, and regretted it one after another.

Exactly: why did you point the wrong technology tree?

Tips: The new domain name "biquge.info" has been launched by Biquge, and the original domain name is about to be discontinued. Please tell each other, thank you!