The endless Mongolian grasslands, the long river sunset, and the lonely smoke on the curtain.

In this rare place, there is the world's most mysterious military base, called the Royal Guard Area, which is never made public.

People here are allowed to enter but not leave, and even the top leaders of the military headquarters do not know what this military base is for.

A week ago, Li Weiguo brought the Minister of the Land, Navy and Air Force into the base and showed them one of the army's trump card weapons, 90 main battle tanks.

Although the 90 main battle tank is still under test, it is basically equipped with combat effectiveness. Under the wise guidance of Li Weiguo, relevant experts and engineers from the Imperial Academy of Sciences do not have to take detours and directly design and develop according to the real tank structure and appearance.

You should know that the first tank appeared in history was in the middle and late stages of World War I, and was first invented by the British. But that was not a tank in the true sense. At most, it was a mobile RV equipped with artillery. The internal structure of various tanks was very backward and the actual combat effect was too poor. It was purely a strategic weapon to scare the enemy and shock the enemy's psychology.

Li Weiguo directly told the experts the main concept and tactical purpose of the tank, so that they had a clear goal when developing tanks, that is, attack weapons and mass destruction infantry weapons.

With the purpose clear, it is much easier to develop a tank. Coupled with the epoch-making tank design concept, the development of tanks has avoided many detours and avoided many misunderstandings.

Although there are still some technical difficulties in crawler systems, suspension systems, gyroscope stability systems, fire control systems, etc., as long as the research and development direction is correct, it will be developed sooner or later.

The officials of the Army Department were so happy that they knew that once the 90s main battle tank was in service, they would definitely beat the children of Europe and the United States.

Just imagine, what a great feat it would be torrent of steel composed of tens of thousands of 90 main battle tanks that directly swept across the European and American continents!

The Army was happy. This time they were more confident in the future decisive battle with the Allies on land and were more confident in victory.

Navy Minister Lin Jiyun and Air Force Minister Zhuang Jiuxia can only be envious and envious, and they are looking forward to the Navy and Air Force also having great killer weapons and killer equipment.

"Don't be envious, the Air Force will have a share!"

Li Weiguo said with a smile, his expression made people feel so mysterious.

Zhuang Jiuxia was immediately happy, and Zhang Xiaoliu was surprised. He thought it was just the army's only US, but he didn't expect that the Air Force would have a share.

Could it be that there is still a Navy?

Zhang Xiaoliu glanced at Lin Jiyun. Although the navy and army's fighting for power was stopped by Li Weiguo, it could not stop them from competing with each other.

Lin Jiyun's eyes lit up and he hurriedly asked: "Your Majesty, our Navy"

Li Weiguo suddenly glared, Lin Jiyun's voice stopped abruptly, and his expression suddenly became dull.

Soon, Li Weiguo and his group arrived at an empty square.

This is an airport dedicated to aircraft test flights. For others, it is also a new thing. Without Li Weiguo's reminder, Hua Hengfang explained it to everyone one by one.

airplane?

Everyone heard the new term again, but with previous experience with tanks, everyone was not too surprised this time, and just listened to Hua Hengfang's explanation attentively.

The project was not very long. Just when the Chinese Empire began to develop airships, Li Weiguo thought of the airship and immediately ordered the mobilization of experts and engineers from the Imperial Academy of Sciences to start the development of aircraft.

It’s just that the development of aircraft is much more difficult than tanks, which is something Li Weiguo didn’t expect.

Originally, Li Weiguo thought that developing an aircraft should be relatively simple, after all, Chinese farmers in the 21st century could research and build it themselves.

But that is based on mature aircraft structure theory and perfect aircraft parts production process. It is said that it is made by itself, but in fact it can only be considered as buying parts by itself and then assembling them.

However, in the late 1880s, let alone aircraft parts, there was no theory of aircraft structure and no aerodynamic discipline. Li Weiguo needed to establish it and find relevant scientists to perform deduction operations.

Compared with tanks, the tank's tracked chassis, armor protection, artillery system and engine are all land theories. Experts took a look at the sketches of Li Wei's Chinese paintings and listened to Li Weiguo's explanation of the principles and quickly understood them.

But the plane is not good. Experts can build an airplane in a short time based on the sketches and principles of Li Wei's Chinese paintings.

But the question is, what should the pilot do? The tank pilot can handle it easily, and there is no danger, but it is difficult for the pilot to have it. Each factor is enough to cause the pilot to die.

Although people of this era dream of becoming birdmen flying, they will be frightened when they really fly into the sky, even if they only fly a few dozen meters high.

Therefore, developing an aircraft is not as simple as imagined.

Whenever Li Weiguo thinks of this, he has to admire the Wright brothers. Why did the Wright brothers test the plane for the first time, only flying more than ten meters high or hundreds of meters away, shocking the whole world. In the past, Li Weiguo always looked down on the Wright brothers and believed that the engine technology was mature, and as long as he made an airplane rack, anyone could fly the plane.

It was not until Li Weiguo began to preside over the aircraft development and test flight that he truly understood the difficulty.

However, hard work pays off. With the strong support of Li Weiguo, the plane has now taken shape and can fly.

Of course, this is still quite primitive when flying, but the plane can only be five or six meters away from the ground. If it flies for one or two hundred meters, it will hit the ground once, and then it will then rise again after sliding. This will be repeated.

It is not that the newly developed aircraft cannot fly higher, but just for the safety of the pilot. Every flight is training and accumulation of experience for the pilot. From the beginning, it moves back and forth on the airport runway like a car, and then adapts to the altitude one or two meters away from the ground. When the altitude is fully adapted, the pilot accumulates enough experience to take off, taxi and land safely, and then gradually increase the flight altitude and flight distance.

This looks so stupid, but in fact it is quite good for people of this era.

Li Weiguo took everyone to watch the plane flying back and forth in the distance. Although the plane only flew five or six meters at an altitude, it still shocked everyone with him, even more shocked than when he was watching the tank before.

After all, that's flying!

The dream of mankind for countless years!

How can you not be shocked!

"Airplane refers to this flying machine!"

Everyone seemed to have figured out the definition of the plane by themselves. Li Weiguo smiled slightly, without explanation, just understood it.

"This is the fourth prototype aircraft we developed and the first aircraft that can fly. We take the first letter of the pinyin of the character "Fly" and number it as 4."

The 4-type aircraft adopts the earliest biwing structure.

Li Weiguo also wanted to use a single-wing aircraft structure, but unfortunately the concept was too advanced, the technology could not keep up, and the engineers' thinking and knowledge reserves could not keep up. After several experiments, he found that the lift was not enough, so he could only use a double-wing wing structure with a larger wingspan area and greater lift.

The fixed landing gear is equipped with the simplest elevator and horizontal rudder, and uses an 80 gasoline engine, 80 horsepower, and a twin-blade propeller, which just can pull a 200 kilogram aircraft off the ground.

In fact, the current engine technology of the Chinese Empire is very developed and can provide higher horsepower engines, but it was not adopted in the end because the engine power is too high and the aircraft speed is too fast, which is too dangerous for novice pilots. After several accidents in a row, experts decided to start taking it slowly, increasing the engine power bit by bit, allowing the pilot to accumulate experience from slow to faster.

This is actually similar to learning to drive. When a novice starts practicing driving, the speed must be very slow, just like a snail. Even if you are careful, you often hit the benchmark? What's more, you're driving a plane! Then there's no coach to accompany you, you're just trying to get your life!

"Your Majesty, what is the purpose of this plane? Don't we have airships?"

Seeing that Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun didn't dare to speak easily, Wu Yong asked for them.

"Now, the plane seems to fly very slowly and very low, but as we continue to improve the structure and performance of the plane, pilots can swim in the sky when they learn to actually fly the plane. Compared with airships, the plane's future speed will be very fast, hundreds of kilometers per hour, and it can be used to detect the ground in the air, and know the enemy's bases and movements with all their hearts. If you install machine guns and bullets on the plane and directly attack the enemy on the ground from the air, what will happen?"

A rhetorical question surprised Wu Yong, and other military personnel instantly realized the huge role of the plane.

"That's true. The airship is too slow. If the aircraft can fly hundreds of kilometers per hour, the effect will be too great!"

"Yes! As long as you can fly in the air for an hour, it will be a distance of hundreds of kilometers. Think about it, on the battlefield, we can discover all the movements of the enemy within hundreds of kilometers, so it would be too easy to attack the enemy!"

"This is just the function of reconnaissance! As Your Majesty said, machine guns and bullets will be installed in the future. Think about how spectacular it would be when tens of thousands of enemy troops on the ground launched a charge when our plane suddenly came over and used a heavy machine gun to rush the enemy on the ground!"

"Drop bombs from the air and blow up any enemy with more pieces. One piece of them will be blown up, it's so cool!"

The officials of the Army Department whispered and became excited.

Lin Jiyun couldn't help it and snorted coldly: "What are you excited about? This plane is obviously not from your army! Didn't your Majesty say that this is the killer equipment prepared for the Air Force!"

Zhang Xiaoliu suddenly glared at Lin Jiyun fiercely and wanted to reply to him, but suddenly he remembered that the bag on his head had not yet swelled yet. He suddenly felt excited and secretly glanced at Li Weiguo and swallowed what he wanted to say.

Zhuang Jiuxia immediately said excitedly: "Your Majesty, is this plane really the killer equipment prepared for our Air Force?"

Li Weiguo smiled slightly and nodded, "That's right! The plane is the equipment that flies in the air, so it will naturally be assigned to your Air Force!"

Zhuang Jiuxia and other Air Force officials were immediately excited, as if they were instantly proud.

You know, the Air Force is very angry. When you see the Army and Navy, you have to nod and bow, and your momentum will be three points weaker.

Although under the strong constraints of Li Weiguo, the Air Force is also one of the three major armies, at the same level as the Army and Navy, in fact, the Air Force is still a secret department and has never appeared in front of the world. Its status and prestige are naturally inferior to those of the Navy and Army.

Zhang Xiaoliu, Lin Jiyun and others immediately looked envious and wished they could take the Air Force into their pockets.

Of course, I just thought about it in my heart, but I didn’t dare to do it!

However, Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun looked at each other, and the two guys reached an agreement in an instant.

"Your Majesty, since our army also has airship troops for reconnaissance missions, can we also set up a reconnaissance unit that specializes in using aircraft?"

Zhang Xiaoliu asked first, and then Lin Jiyun also spoke.

"Your Majesty, our navy uses airships to conduct artillery shell shooting and sea area reconnaissance, and we urgently need such aircraft. We should also establish an aircraft unit under the jurisdiction of the navy, which will have an important role in future naval warfare."

These two guys started to make the air force again, and even directly proposed to set up an aircraft unit specifically affiliated with the Navy and Army.

Isn’t this the concept of Army Aviation and Naval Aviation?

Li Weiguo immediately smiled bitterly and wanted to scold them, but there was no reason to speak. After all, what they both said made sense.

"Naval Aviation and Army Aviation will be established in the future. You two are happy now, right?"

"Thank you for your grace!"

Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun were suddenly very happy, while Zhuang Jiuxia was stunned.

Damn it still has to divide my air force!

He looked at Li Weiguo pitifully and asked, "Your Majesty, then there is no need for our Air Force to exist!"

Li Weiguo smiled and said, "Don't worry, even if the army has an army aviation force, it will still have a small number. If it is replaced with all aircraft, it will still use ground tanks. What are the infantry? The same is true for the navy. Even if it has a naval aviation force, it will still have a small number of reconnaissance forces, and the main force must be warships. As for the air force, it depends on the future air supremacy, and the existence of your air force is the most important."

When Zhuang Jiuxia heard Li Weiguo say this, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief, as long as it was not abolished the Air Force. Since he became the Air Force Minister, he has already developed feelings for the Air Force and naturally does not want to be divided by the Navy and Army.

The most important thing is the Air Force? It is above the Army and the Navy?

Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun were stunned. The happiness that had just passed flew away instantly, and looked at Li Weiguo with confusion.

Li Weiguo smiled and said, "Think about it? When there is no navy, the army is the main force that overrides everything! When there is a navy, sea control will become one of the key factors in the war. Without sea control, it will be difficult for the army to persist. Similarly, in the future, if there is aircraft reconnaissance in the sky, when aircraft attacks the ground or sea targets, it is equivalent to air control. If one army does not have air control, then their actions are controlled by the hostile parties, and they will be attacked by the hostile parties at any time. Is it easy to be defeated? Therefore, air control over sea control over, and finally land control over! "

Zhuang Jiuxia immediately asked happily: "Your Majesty, what do you mean is that the Air Force will become the key to the outcome of the war in the future? It is above the navy and army?"

Li Weiguo smiled but said nothing, not saying anything.

Zhuang Jiuxia and other Air Force officials were immediately happy and finally proud.
Chapter completed!