The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

The cows in Seoul were slaughtered all over the place. The unskilled Song soldiers were good at killing, but they were novice skinners, destroying the integrity of many cowhide. Su Jinqi cursed endlessly.

By noon the next day, more than 30 huge cowhide balloons had been sewn, and the giant bamboo basket hanging below was still being made. Su Jin took a hundred soldiers selected from the guard battalion to teach them how to operate the hot air balloon Speaking of manipulation, there is actually nothing to manipulate, because apart from manipulating the rise or fall of the balloon by controlling the size of the brazier, the rest can only be assisted by the wind, because the course of the balloon cannot be controlled at all.

There is only one condition for selecting soldiers, which is not bravery and fierceness, but weight; thin soldiers are discriminated against in the army, but unexpectedly, salted fish suddenly turn into sweet pastries, and soldiers as thin as monkeys become In the enviable eyes of everyone, he was selected by the commander-in-chief to join the balloon aviation team.

Ma Han, Zhao Hu and others were directly ignored by Su Jin because of their overly strong physique, which made them very depressed. With a slap in the face, he scolded: "If the matter is not handled well, I will peel your skin."

In the late afternoon, the production of the balloon was finally completed. Su Jin tested the wind direction with a bamboo pole tied with cloth strips on the roof. It may not be easy to find a good weather, and time waits for no one, because the scouts sent out have already discovered the scouts of Yelu Chongyuan's army who returned to defend the capital, that is to say, Yelu Chongyuan's army is already on the way. The boundary to the west of Taizhou is two hundred miles away. With the speed of the cavalry, even if it snows heavily, it can be reached in four or five days at most. By then, the imperial city must be captured.

"Load the car and leave the city." Su Jin ordered.

Pan Jiang led [-] soldiers to escort Su Jin and hundreds of people out of the city. They were going to the open space north of the imperial city to let the hot air balloon fly into the sky with the help of the wind; each bamboo basket was equipped with three Soldiers, fifty kerosene sacs converted from water sacs, and a barrel of kerosene used as fuel, with a total weight of less than [-] catties.

After everything was ready, the first hot air balloon that Su Jin took started to ignite. The soldiers held the opening at the lower end of the cowhide ball, and let the heat generated by the combustion of kerosene pour into the cowhide ball. The cowhide quickly expanded and stood upright, driving the hanging basket Rising slowly, Su Jin shouted: "Cut off the rope."

The four pulling cables were cut at the same time, and the balloon staggered up into the gray sky, higher and higher.

Su Jin stretched out his thumb and made a good gesture. The soldiers below cheered and started to ignite into the sky. For a while, more than 30 giant lanterns rose slowly in the sky north of Beijing. Borrowing the wind from the north, they floated Flying to the sky above the imperial city.

The balloon's flight was not stable, and the high-altitude wind was so fast that it was difficult to control the balloon. The flame of the brazier burning below was also swaying to one side. Su Jin regretted not adding a fire shield around the brazier, which would be much better; While regretting, I saw a balloon behind suddenly caught fire and crashed down on the ice sheet with a ball of fire, igniting billowing flames and thick smoke.

Su Jin cursed angrily: "Idiot, idiot." At the same time, he ordered the guards around him to take out the flag and play the semaphore to signal to lower the altitude.

The airflow at the low altitude has stabilized a lot, and the balloon has gradually stabilized. However, this height of only a few dozen feet is extremely easy to be shot by the archers on the top of the city. However, the bed crossbow cannot be aimed at the air. The power is limited, and the risk is worth taking.

The sky was gradually getting dark, and more than 30 red monsters flew up to the top of the imperial city. The soldiers guarding the city had already seen the monsters floating in the sky. They felt strange at first, and then felt frightened. It's not a bird or a cloud, it's hard to predict whether it's a disaster or a blessing.

The news quickly spread throughout the imperial city, and everyone stepped out of their homes and looked up to the sky to see these floating visitors. Some even thought it was the arrival of gods, so they knelt in the snow and kowtowed to worship.

The news was also received in the west building of the palace. The Queen Mother and the prince Yelu Hongji were talking. After hearing the news, they also came out with the help of the maids to watch the vision. They saw more than 30 monsters coming from the north and slowly drifting to the The sky above the palace suddenly descended slowly, from a height of more than twenty feet to a height of more than ten feet. The more Yelu Hongji looked at it, the more strange it became, because he had already seen that it was not a descending god, but the bottom of a huge balloon. There is a bamboo basket hanging, and someone inside the bamboo basket is looking down.

"No! It's the Song army." Yelu Hongji suddenly realized that the armor was exactly the Song army's standard, and it was the Song army descending from the sky to attack.

"Protect the Empress Dowager and enter the palace! Guard the Empress Dowager, and quickly order General Yelu to bring troops to help." Yelu Hongji issued a series of orders, his immature face turned pale with fright, and he stretched out his hand to pull out the scimitar on his waist.

He thought that the Song army was going to fall to the ground to attack, but what happened next caught him off guard. The Song army in the sky blew sharp whistles, and the whistles echoed in the night sky one after another. In the next moment, dozens of regiments Fireballs fell from the sky, and the ignited skin burst in the air, and a rain of flames fell from the sky, falling on the roof of the temple, treetops, and grass, and everything that was combustible was set ablaze; the maids and maids screamed, They fled indiscriminately, and the rain of flames fell on them, immediately turning them into fire men, running around in the palace, igniting more places.

Su Jin held a bamboo flute in his mouth, and every time he played it, more than 30 kerosene sacs were ignited and thrown into the palace below. The palace people on fire ran and shouted, the guards frantically put out the fire in vain, and all the harem concubines, princes and queens were running like pigs and wolves.

At the same time, soldiers of the Liao army on the ground also came from all directions, and Su Jin hurriedly ordered: "Evacuate in the air." It is extremely dangerous at a height of more than ten feet. Once shot by a cowhide ball, it will crash here.

The soldiers increased the fire of the brazier, and the hot air balloon quickly rose into the sky, taking advantage of the wind to slowly cross the entire imperial city and reach the sky above Seoul; He could only look and sigh; while the Liao army stationed on the city wall and on the enemy towers shot arrows in the air in vain, but the height was too high, and they could only pretend.

When landing, another three hot air balloons accidentally crashed, causing a fire in the residential area of ​​Seoul, which made Su Jin very depressed, but he also knew that these things were inevitable, and only he was forced to do this simple device. If you dare to take risks, if you are in later generations, you will definitely be called a lunatic; but with this successful air raid and personal operation, Su Jin has many ways to improve, such as adding a windproof cover to the brazier, and adding a windshield to the brazier. Adding foldable windshields on the side can increase or decrease speed and so on.

What makes Su Jin even more proud is that the kerosene he worked so hard to refine finally appeared in this era as a power fuel for the first time. Su Jin tried many times to recall the structure of later steam engines or diesel engines, but he knew that with his own ability With the technology of this era, it may be difficult to realize this dream. He can only write down his thoughts and ideas and tell the people around him. Maybe there will be a genius who can understand this idea and create a power machine in the near future.

As a product of the super era that can soar into the sky, hot air balloons are shocking to the world, but when life and death are at stake, Su Jin really can't care less. At this time, let alone a hot air balloon, as long as conditions permit, Su Jin even dared to drop an atomic bomb.

Su Jin has no doubts about the impact this air strike will have in this era. No one has ever attacked the enemy from the air, and he is not worried that it will change the course of this era, because in the final analysis, this simple hot air balloon still needs There are a lot of technologies and materials to support it. The refining of kerosene is a big problem. If there is no power and completely relying on wind power, this thing will have great limitations. It can change the situation of the battle, but it cannot change the situation. This is what Su Jin dared to use s reason.

And another thing that Su Jin has secretly developed, but Su Jin refuses to show it. That is the steel pipe gun equipped by Su Ji's ocean-going fleet. It is the prototype of a musket. In the world, Su Jin is also limited to the equipment of a small number of cronies in the ocean-going fleet or his own personal guards. Su Jin does not want to be the initiator of this massacre weapon.

After this successful air raid, the Shangjing Palace of the Liao Kingdom in the imperial city was burned into rubble, but this was only the beginning. In the next two days, hot air balloons were dispatched frequently, and the targets of the attack were all over the imperial city. In the past two days, it has never been extinguished. A large number of houses have been burned, and there is almost no shelter.