1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3946

In Chen Pingliao's past combat experience, siege operations typically require about a month of advance planning. If the target is a fortified city or strategic pass, the preparation time may be even longer.

However, the instructors have only given the students three days to develop their battle plan, and these three days are also packed with other courses. The students can only use their free time to complete this important assignment.

Students are not allowed to leave the school during the short training course, so they don't have to worry about having nothing to do after class.

Considering that this assignment was very likely to become part of the final assessment score, the trainees took it very seriously. After having dinner in the cafeteria, the two groups that had already been divided returned to their dormitories and began to discuss preliminary action plans by referring to the map of Nanchang City that had been distributed.

Being grouped with Shi Chengxin would undoubtedly be a greater advantage, because his elder brother Shi Chengwu was the commander-in-chief of this battle, and Shi Chengxin might know more about the details of the battle than the lecturer who was explaining the battle case today.

However, Chen Pingliao was not fortunate enough to be assigned to the same group as Shi Chengxin, so he couldn't take advantage of the situation. Fortunately, the members of his group were all officers who had seen real battles and could offer many insightful suggestions on how to command this battle.

Only after lights out did everyone reluctantly go to bed to rest.

Chen Pingliao did not fall asleep immediately. After listening to the explanation of the battle examples today, he couldn't help but feel excited and even wanted to immediately throw himself into a battle and try out the tactics and methods he had learned today.

Since the 6th Division of the Army attacked Shanhaiguan a few years ago, the garrison troops in the northern region seem to have never fought a large-scale offensive battle again.

For the 5th and 6th Army Divisions stationed in the north, Liaodong and Shandong were already under their control, and there were basically no major cities in these two regions that could be used as attack targets. The closest enemy major city to the northern region's jurisdiction was probably only Beijing.

However, the Executive Committee is not in a hurry to take action against Beijing; instead, it is more interested in the uninhabited areas of the far north. Therefore, learning siege warfare has a vague sense of unreality for Chen Pingliao, like learning a dragon-slaying technique.

Chen Pingliao didn't know when there would be new combat missions in the northern region. As an ambitious imperial officer, he was unwilling to wait for opportunities in his hometown and wanted to actively participate in the war effort.

Chen Pingliao drifted off to sleep, but it seemed he hadn't slept for long before he heard the reveille outside the window.

The daily schedule at the National Defense University is basically the same as that of the military. The only difference is that students do not need to take shifts or stand guard at night, and can devote all their time to studying.

The trainees went downstairs to assemble for morning exercises, then washed up and ate. After a short rest, they went to the teaching building together, to the same classroom as yesterday.

Today's lesson will not be about battle examples, but it is closely related to yesterday's content.

The instructor wasn't a soldier; he introduced himself as an engineer from a military industrial unit in Sanya. Today, he would be teaching the students about the principles, performance, operating environments, and methods of using hot air balloons.

This was undoubtedly a timely help for the trainees who, after yesterday's explanation of the battle case, still had only a vague understanding of this new type of equipment, the hot air balloon.

Without this information, trainees would struggle to determine how to deploy this equipment in their siege plans, and it might even be deemed an "ineffective deployment," leading to the loss of all their previous efforts. Chen Pingliao quickly took out paper and pen and began to carefully record the engineer's explanation.

Trying to cram all the knowledge about hot air balloons into these trainees within a half-day course is somewhat like rote learning, as there are too many technical terms that these officers cannot understand at the moment.

However, the teaching pace of short training courses is just that fast; a subject often only has half a day, or at most a day, of teaching time.

Students may not fully understand the instructor's lecture content, and instructors do not have enough time to answer students' questions one by one.

In such situations, the mind is often not as effective as the pen. Students who can't keep up can only write down all the content without thinking twice, and then find time to digest it slowly later.

Chen Pingliao considered himself quite talented in military affairs, but even he couldn't help but feel dizzy and confused by this teaching method.

However, the lecturer's concluding remarks offered them some comfort: "If you feel you haven't fully grasped this new subject yet, don't be too nervous, because the specific operations will be carried out by specially trained personnel. These operators have been trained for more than three months, and under normal circumstances, you won't need to go to space yourself. Of course, if anyone is brave enough and wants to go to space to take a look, they can try to seize the opportunity themselves."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The thought of flying into the sky was extremely dangerous, and most people would not be interested in it.

Chen Pingliao raised his hand and asked, "When will this equipment be widely deployed?"

The lecturer replied, "Currently, due to limited production capacity, we can only pilot the equipment in a small number of units, collecting information on problems encountered during use while improving the product. As for large-scale deployment, it may take another year or two, at which time we can equip each army division with three to five sets of hot air balloon equipment."

Another person raised their hand and asked, "Is it possible to make this thing bigger? I mean, to carry more people, or bombs?"

The lecturer nodded and said, "Actually, we are also developing another aircraft with a similar structure, which has the characteristics you mentioned. However, there are still some related engineering problems that have not been solved, and it will probably take a few more years before we see results."

Although the lecturer's answer was somewhat vague, Chen Pingliao knew what the other type of aircraft he was referring to was. Among the aircraft that Chen Yixin had drawn, there was a device called an airship that undoubtedly matched what the lecturer was talking about.

It's said that this thing is much larger than a hot air balloon. Its principle is to increase the payload by using a much larger airbag volume, which requires building a lightweight yet sturdy frame inside the airbag. As the manufacturing process becomes more complex, the cost is naturally much higher than that of a simpler hot air balloon.

However, Chen Yixin believes that its role on the battlefield can only be mainly reconnaissance, because its take-off and landing require a flatter area than hot air balloons, and its flight speed and payload are very limited, at most it can only transport small units at the platoon level.

Even so, these aircraft were undoubtedly groundbreaking new equipment, capable of having an extraordinary impact on the battlefield. For example, the tens of thousands of Ming soldiers trapped in Nanchang were helpless against the hot air balloons flying overhead, forced to watch as they dropped leaflets and bombs, severely damaging morale.

Another new year has arrived. I wish all my fellow book lovers a safe and prosperous 2026!