"Baga, it's the airship of the Ming Army!"
The one-eyed dragon Xixiang raised his telescope and took a look, and immediately exclaimed. And the warriors on the airship where he was were all looking frightened.
Xixiang put down the telescope and saw faces that were afraid of death. He immediately said angrily: "Baga, why are you afraid? As a samurai, you are not afraid of committing seppuku. Are you still afraid of fighting the enemy in the sky?"
Yamamoto, who was driving the airship, heard this and asked helplessly: "Captain Saigo, what are we going to use to fight the enemy's airship? Our airship does not have weapons installed on it that can be used to attack other airships!"
It turns out that the original function of the British Armstrong II airship was only for reconnaissance, patrol and mine laying. It mainly served as the eyes of the fleet and fortress. If it could fly to the enemy's doorstep and drop a few mines, it would have overfulfilled its mission. Not to mention air combat, even the bombing function was added later. Because this type of airship originally has a mine rack and can drop mines in the air, it is relatively simple to convert it into a bombing airship, which is nothing more than turning a mine into a bomb.
But it is difficult to install a machine gun in the narrow cabin of an airship for air combat. There are no air-cooled machine guns now. The machine guns are all bulky water-cooled ones, weighing tens of kilograms. And according to standards, they cannot be operated by one person for a long time. They must With a ammunition supply hand, two people can operate a machine gun for a while. For a large boat like the Dragon III, the cabin space is enough to accommodate two machine gun groups, and there are enough personnel to serve as ammunition feeders in the event of a battle. However, the cabin of the narrow Armstrong Type II boat did not have extra space for a machine gun, and its crew was relatively small. There were only a driver, a co-pilot, a navigator and bombardier, a total of three people.
So according to the British idea, if the Armstrong II airship encounters a hostile Flying Dragon III airship in the air, it can just run away. Although the top speed of the Armstrong II airship is not as fast as the Dragon III airship, how fast can the airship go no matter how fast it is? And as long as it flies lower, it can also take advantage of the complicated wind direction and terrain at ultra-low altitude to break away from the terrain - because the Flying Dragon III boat is too big, it is definitely not very flexible when flying at ultra-low altitude.
But now...can Xixiang and the others run away?
Saigo Yoshibei Takamori raised his telescope again and looked towards the bay beside Jueying Island in the distance. There was peace in the bay. Except for a Lushun-class cruiser sailing slowly in the bay, the remaining more than 20 white ships were lying beside the port pier, and they were also arranged in two neat columns, including at least four battleships. (Including one Great Emperor class, three Prince class), five cruisers (all Lushun class) and a dozen destroyers of about one thousand tons. Except for the Port Arthur-class ship that was sailing slowly, there was no smoke from the chimneys of these ships!
In other words, none of these ships have any maneuverability!
In theory, as long as the airship can fly over the heads of these ships, hover, and then slowly descend to a low enough altitude, it can ensure that the bomb hits the target.
And it doesn't matter even if these airships are shot down over the ship, because even if the airship hovering above the warship with bombs is exploded with a hydrogen bag, there is a high probability of falling vertically and directly hitting the head of the warship below with the bomb. !
The one-boat-for-one deal...was worth it!
Then Xixiang looked around with his telescope. There was a Ming Army airship in the sky. It should be an airship performing patrol missions. And the airship is not something that can just fly... it has to undergo routine inspections, and it takes a long time to add gas and ammunition.
"My Healing Game"
So as long as you block this airship and don't let it attack the Armstrong II boats that are slowing down and preparing to hover over the battleship, then the surprise attack on Jueying Island will be won!
Thinking of this, Saigo Yoshihei Takamori pulled out his ribs (the airship cabin was too narrow to dare to play with swords), then pointed at the Ming Army airship in the distance, and said loudly: "We are samurai, and samurai only need swords." With it in hand, we can defeat any enemy... Although we don’t have machine guns, we do have knives!”
Use a knife to... chop up the airship?
Yamamoto and several other flying samurai were speechless.
Seeing the stunned expressions on Yamamoto and others' faces, Saigo shouted angrily and pointed a knife at the Ming Army's airship: "Target, the Ming Army's airship... hit me!"
It's a hit, not a cut!
Yamamoto and others also knew the consequences of the airship collision, but they still shouted together: "Hayin!"
...
"Whose airship is this? Why are there so many of them?"
"Sir Guan, those are British Armstrong boats... they should belong to the Japanese Nagasaki rebels!"
"Nagasaki rebels? Then they come to Jueying Island...ah, sneak attack! Quick, send a telegram quickly, there are enemy airships attacking, more than ten in number!"
"Yes, sir!"
The crew on the Ming army's airship also discovered the incoming Japanese airship at this time, and Guan Tianpei, the admiral of the Ming Navy's aviation force, happened to be on this Feilong three-type airship... He was flying on it Well, as an admiral of the naval aviation force, he must be able to fly an airship, right? So he took advantage of the opportunity to sit at the Jueying Island airship base and arranged an airship driving lesson for himself. If there was nothing important that day, he would fly with the airship on a security mission for six hours. Unexpectedly, as I was about to finish my flight and go back for dinner today, I encountered an incoming Japanese airship!
This made Guan Tianpei extremely anxious!
Because the anti-aircraft firepower on the current Ming Navy ships is very weak. In addition to the machine guns, 50mm rapid-fire cannons, and 155mm rapid-fire cannons that can be used to attack airships, there is only a 13mm caliber anti-aircraft gun!
Well, just raise the gun!
It sounds very backward, but as long as it is built and used properly, it is still very powerful.
In fact, the gun-carrying was not unique to the Qing Dynasty in history. European countries also had weapons similar to the gun-carrying, and some people in Japan enlarged the matchlock gun and used it as a small cannon, which was actually a gun-carrying. In the new Ming Dynasty, the gun-carrying gun was "invented" by King Zhuge Wuzhong, and it was a rifled version and equipped with "Mine bullets". When King Wuzhong followed Zheng Chenggong in the northern expedition to Nanjing, this "Mine gun" "Bian Liangqiang" once showed its prowess on the battlefield, causing heavy casualties to the Qing army's artillery and elite white-armored soldiers.
After King Wuzhong came to power, the "Minie version of the gun" became a sharp weapon for the Ming army's sniper soldiers. It was equipped with a large number of weapons and was capable of killing all directions. Later, the Ming Dynasty did not fight for more than a hundred years, so there was no reason to eliminate the ancestral treasure like the gun. However, the gun was still upgraded and a 13 mm caliber breech was developed. The gun is carried continuously, and no one is needed to carry it. Instead, a tripod gun stand is used to support it.
Because this kind of gun has a long range, great power, high accuracy, and it also has tracer bullets that can be used to ignite hydrogen (this kind of gun actually uses the same ammunition as the 13mm heavy machine gun, so the tracer bullets of the machine gun can also be used) , so it was issued to the Navy for use in flying airships.
It is a pity that the airships of the Ming Navy Air Force are not equipped with anti-aircraft guns. They can only use 7.5mm water-cooled machine guns installed on both sides. The effective range of this machine gun is only more than a thousand meters, and it cannot move forward or backward. Shooting - The purpose of the Ming Dynasty naval aviation force to install machine guns on airships is actually to strike down on small ships on the sea, not for air combat.
"Boom boom boom..."
At this moment, several explosions suddenly came from the sea. It turned out that the airship Xixiang was riding in had thrown away the bombs it carried so that it could go into the air collision battle lightly.
After throwing away the bomb, the Armstrong boat suddenly became very light, and it was in a downwind position. After turning on full power, the speed became faster. It aimed at the airship Guan Tianpei was riding and rushed over.
This shocked Ling Zongjun, who was teaching Guan Tianpei how to fly an airship, and shouted: "It, is it going to hit us?"
Guan Tianpei, who was still sitting next to him, reacted quickly and immediately ordered: "Quickly, go up quickly and hit it with a machine gun from above!"
"Yes, sir......"
