1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3947

The latest issue of the Haihan Times has finally come to an end with its serialized report on the battle in Jiangxi, which has brought a new wave of subscriptions to the newspaper.

The newspaper anticipated the readers' enthusiasm, so it not only allocated a valuable front page to the final issue, but also unusually used woodblock printing to illustrate the article, with the aim of showing readers the new equipment used by the Haihan Army in the Battle of Nanchang—hot air balloons that could fly in the air.

This naturally became a key point for newsboys to promote and sell their products, and many people became interested in taking a look when they heard that new military equipment had been revealed.

Meng Jinfeng, the current diplomatic ambassador of the Ming Dynasty to Hangzhou, was no exception. Today, he had just come out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when he heard a newsboy hawking a newspaper. He quickly took out his money to buy a newspaper, then found a bench in Victory Square to sit down and start reading. He planned to read the newspaper before returning to the embassy.

Meng Jinfeng examined the newspaper from all angles for a long time, but still couldn't understand how that round, upturned thing in the picture flew into the sky. Could it be like a soap bubble, just floating up there? But soap bubbles burst after flying for a while, let alone being tied with a rope to carry people into the sky. Obviously, it couldn't be used as a weapon by the Haihan Army.

Meng Jinfeng couldn't figure it out at all. He angrily threw the newspaper aside, thinking to himself that this was clearly just the government making up excuses to deceive these ignorant people. There was no such thing as a hot air balloon or cold air balloon that could fly into the sky.

Through Meng Jinfeng's continuous efforts, the ceasefire negotiations with the Haihan government have finally made some progress recently. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made it clear that as long as the Ming Dynasty does not launch a pointless counterattack, Haihan will voluntarily cease further military operations and will not continue to launch offensives against other areas still under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Haihan made no further concessions on other matters, and even Ning Qi's demand that the Ming emperor voluntarily abdicate and relinquish the throne remained unchanged. As for voluntarily withdrawing troops and returning the recently occupied Jiangxi region to the Ming Dynasty, that was out of the question and not even within the scope of negotiations.

However, Haihan's expression of willingness to cease hostilities was already a cause for celebration and could be reported to the court for commendation.

In his memorial, Meng Jinfeng lavishly boasted about himself, claiming that it was precisely because he was unafraid of powerful figures and constantly negotiated with the Haihan Executive Committee that he was finally able to dissuade the ambitious Haihan people from launching further offensives.

A lasting peace is impossible, of course, and Meng Jinfeng understands that the conflict between the two countries cannot be completely eliminated. As for how long this ceasefire will last, that is beyond Meng Jinfeng's prediction.

He only hoped that when the two countries went to war again, he would have been transferred back to Beijing and left the overly stressful position of diplomatic ambassador.

Although this matter was considered closed, Meng Jinfeng was still very interested in how the Haihan Army had swept through the local garrison and captured the vast Jiangxi region. His primary source of information was the battle reports recently published in newspapers. In particular, the battle reports published in official newspapers, which were more detailed and credible, were usually of great reference value.

But seeing the illustrations displayed in the Haihan Times today, Meng Jinfeng couldn't help but wonder if he had overestimated the official newspaper. What kind of nonsense is this? The person who drew it probably didn't even understand it before trying to fool the readers.

Just as he was dismissing the contents of the newspaper, he suddenly heard someone next to him exclaim, "Look! Look! What's that flying in the sky!"

Meng Jinfeng looked up in the direction the man pointed, and was immediately dumbfounded and greatly surprised.

Above Gem Hill on the west side of Victory Square, a red and blue spherical object could be seen floating in the air, with a basket suspended by ropes below it. Meng Jinfeng, sensing something, quickly grabbed the newspaper he had just tossed aside, looked down at it, then up at the spherical object floating in the sky—it really was exactly the same!

At this moment, Meng Jinfeng wasn't thinking about the flying principle of this thing, but rather how panicked and helpless he would feel if he were in Nanchang City and saw this thing flying overhead and dropping surrender leaflets.

However, the people of Haihan around him were clearly not in a state of panic; most of them were excited and discussing the flying object in the sky.

Meng Jinfeng wasn't the only one who could connect this flying object with the picture published in the newspaper. Soon, someone shouted out the scientific name of the flying object—a hot air balloon.

Some people hadn't even seen the newspaper and didn't know what a hot air balloon was, so a kind-hearted person immediately explained it to them: "The newspaper said that this time our army broke through the fortified city of Nanchang, and it was these hot air balloons in the sky that made great contributions!"

"Yes, think about it. With this thing, can your two or three zhang high city wall stop it? Even if you build a ten zhang high city wall, it still won't be able to reach it!"

"The Executive Committee is wise! The Haihan Army is mighty! Our dynasty's unification of the world is just around the corner!"

Various discussions reached Meng Jinfeng's ears, leaving him with mixed feelings. Clearly, the people of Haihan were highly receptive to new things and didn't perceive any danger in the hot air balloon—even if there was, it would be Haihan's enemies who would feel threatened.

Meng Jinfeng looked up again at the altitude of the hot air balloon. It was even higher than the spire of the Baochu Pagoda on Baoshi Mountain. At this altitude, neither bows and crossbows nor muskets could reach it.

People on the ground can only watch helplessly; there's really nothing they can do to stop it from flying around in the sky.

Meng Jinfeng recalled reading in the newspaper that this thing could fly in the sky for two hours, meaning the garrison in Nanchang would be completely exposed from above. Their troop deployments would be no secret to the Haihan army outside the city. How could they possibly fight a war like that? No wonder the city's defenses were breached after only a few days.

Thinking about this, he suddenly realized that the area around Gem Mountain was where the Haihan National Defense University was located. It was said that this academy was specifically for training generals for the Haihan Army. Now that this thing was appearing in the sky above Gem Mountain, it was most likely that the National Defense University was demonstrating this new equipment to its officer cadets.

The report said that the hot air balloon was a new piece of equipment that had just been developed and was beginning to be tested in the military. With the successful example of the Battle of Nanchang, this thing would probably soon be officially equipped in the Haihan Army.

Meng Jinfeng's prediction was correct; the hot air balloon flying over Baoshi Mountain was indeed demonstrating its use to the trainees. However, for safety reasons, the trainees were not arranged to fly with the balloons; instead, they were allowed to observe the entire process from the ground to understand the environmental requirements for using this equipment.

(End of this chapter)