The Red Chamber: Starting from Saving Xue Baochai

Chapter 68: First Manned Spaceflight Test Success

New Army Guard Office.

Shen Yuan discussed new military matters with Feng Ziying and others.

After a few days of recruitment, the quota of 5,000 soldiers has been filled, of which 100 are from the Beijing camp, 2,000 are from the Five Cities Military Department, and most of the rest are recruited from the public.

They were much better than Shen Yuan had expected. Nearly half of them were veterans. These people had been through the test of blood and fire and had relatively rich practical experience. It was a perfect mix of old and new to shorten the formation time of the new recruits.

The five thousand people were divided into five thousand-household offices. Feng Ziying was temporarily in charge of two of them, Jiang Fan was temporarily in charge of one, and Liu Xianglian and Zhao Huan were in charge of one each.

"The new army is now short of officers, which puts an extreme test on the soldiers' sense of discipline. We must emphasize obedience and strict marching. Only in this way can we enforce discipline and ensure that orders are carried out consistently in the future." Shen Yuan reminded again.

What he cared most about for this new army was discipline. Throughout history, both at home and abroad, troops with strong discipline would always have good combat effectiveness, which is the foundation of a strong army.

Of course, with the exception of the Mongolian cavalry, who rely on burning, killing and looting to motivate their soldiers, Shen Yuan does not want to train a cold killing machine. What he wants is a group of flesh-and-blood soldiers.

Jiang Fan patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, sir. Everything is being carried out in accordance with the new military drill manual. If anyone violates the rules, they will be severely punished."

Feng Ziying said: "The lack of officers is not necessarily a bad thing. At present, there are a large number of vacancies in the new army, from the thousand-man rank, deputy thousand-man rank, hundred-man rank, trial hundred-man rank, and the general flag and small flag below. This is a great opportunity for the soldiers. They are training harder than we thought."

Shen Yuan nodded. This was within expectations.

And another point is that the new army guards are highly valued by the emperor, and the food and wages of the Ministry of War are distributed on time. New recruits can receive half a month's wages as soon as they enter the camp.

In this way, the combination of these two factors, sufficient military pay and enough room for advancement, greatly increased the enthusiasm of the soldiers.

But this stimulating effect will eventually pass, and gradually, people will take food and wages for granted, and the number of officers will gradually be replenished, entering a stable period.

Shen Yuan wanted to cultivate the discipline of the new military guards during this period.

"Put on training. I will go into the camp every day and check on the soldiers according to the new military drill manual."

Shen Yuan also has to train the soldiers personally. On the one hand, he can demonstrate in various subjects, which can also accumulate personal prestige. On the other hand, he can also directly understand the problems faced by the front-line soldiers.

The so-called new military drill manual, in addition to the development of discipline, also includes training in physical endurance, stabbing and fighting, swords, guns, bows and arrows, and other subjects.

After discussing the military training, Feng Ziying and others went to the Nanjiao military camp, while Shen Yuan went to the Military Equipment Bureau.

Arms Inspectorate, Workshop.

An independent courtyard was set aside here, which was specifically used for the development of hot air balloons and telescopes, and soldiers were stationed outside the courtyard to guard it.

Shen Yuan entered the yard and saw eight craftsmen, divided into two groups, busy with their own work. Perhaps because they were too focused, no one noticed him coming.

He did not rush to interrupt them, but waited in the yard for a while. When they were a little free, he asked, "How is the progress?"

"Master Shen." The craftsmen looked up and saw that it was Shen Yuan, and they all saluted.

"The telescope has taken shape, but the vision is still a little blurry and needs to be adjusted and tested," reported craftsman Wu Liu.

This man was the foreman of the group of craftsmen who made the telescope. As he spoke, he took out a monocular telescope and handed it to Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan took it and looked at it. It already had a telephoto effect, but it was not focused enough.

"Very good, success is not far away, and I will celebrate for you then." He handed the telescope back to Wu Liu and encouraged him.

After saying that, Shen Yuan turned his gaze to Lou Wu, the foreman of the craftsmen who made the hot air balloons.

Lou Wu said: "Your Excellency, we have already made a sample of the hot air balloon."

Shen Yuan was somewhat surprised when he heard this. Although the principle of the hot air balloon was not complicated, the fact that it could be made in such a short time showed that the craftsmen of the Great Zhou were not lacking in wisdom, but just lacked vision and ideas.

"Bring it and let me see it!"

"Sir, it's in the west corner of the yard."

Shen Yuan looked in the direction Lou Wu pointed, and indeed saw a bamboo basket with a piece of cloth scattered next to it.

He walked forward to take a closer look and touched the cloth on the ground. It was much harder than ordinary cloth.

The core of a hot air balloon is a flamethrower and high-temperature resistant cloth.

With the fierce fire oil tank as the basis, it is not difficult to make a flamethrower, but the fabric is difficult to find.

"This is fireproof cloth. It has a good sealing effect and is fireproof." Lou Wu explained. "Is this cloth common in the market?"

"Your Excellency, it is rarely seen in the market."

"Oh?"

"Fire-proof cloth is from the Western Regions. Occasionally, merchants will bring some from there to sell, but there aren't many people who need it, so it rarely circulates."

Shen Yuan was silent for a moment. This meant that key components were uncontrollable and production could not be guaranteed.

Lou Wu saw what Shen Yuan was worried about and added, "The Military Equipment Bureau purchased a batch earlier, which is probably enough to make more than a hundred hot air balloons like this."

More than a hundred are enough for a short period of time. In the long run, we still need to send people to the Western Regions to buy some more. In addition, we need to purchase the fire-proof cloth in the market as soon as possible.

Shen Yuan put aside his thoughts and asked, "Have you tried it?"

"Not yet. We just made it yesterday." Lou Wu said, "And if we test it here, I'm afraid it will make a lot of noise."

Indeed, if such a large hot air balloon were to take off in this courtyard, let alone the sound, the sight of the cloth bag in the air would be enough to shock the entire Ordnance Bureau, so how could it be kept secret?

"Go find a secluded place on the outskirts of the city."

After saying that, several craftsmen made preparations and followed Shen Yuan out of the Military Equipment Bureau.

After finding a remote mountain foot on the outskirts of the city, Shen Yuan looked around and found that there was almost no one living there.

"let's start."

"Yes, my lord."

Lou Wu directed several craftsmen to unfold the hot air balloon and ignite it to preheat it.

After a short while, the airbag was inflated and gradually floated up from the ground.

Shen Yuan took another careful look at the structure of the entire hot air balloon, which was similar to the picture he had drawn before.

The basket below is made of green bamboo, more than half a person's height, about half a meter long and wide, and is hung on the air bag with ropes around it.

In the middle of the basket is a flamethrower cabinet with a small blower to control the size of the flame.

When the basket was about to be dragged off the ground by the hot air balloon, a craftsman stepped forward and prepared to stand in it.

"Be careful!" Shen Yuan frowned slightly and reminded.

It is extremely risky to carry people on the first flight.

"It's okay, sir, there's a rope below." The craftsman said and walked in.

After a while, the hot air balloon rose completely. For safety reasons, a rope was fixed to the ground under the basket, and the basket stopped when it was ten feet above the ground.

The height was very low and there was not much wind, so the stability was good and the hanging basket did not shake noticeably.

Thinking of the wind, some thoughts flashed through Shen Yuan's mind.

The hot air balloon itself can only rely on gas expansion to generate vertical power, but cannot control the direction of flight. If it is only used for sightseeing, it is fine, but if used in combat, this may be a fatal weakness.

Moreover, the wind is also stratified, with different wind directions and wind speeds at different altitudes.

wind direction?

风.
Shen Yuan suddenly had an idea and after thinking about it carefully, he felt that this method was feasible.

He looked at Lou Wu and said, "Not bad, but there is one thing that needs improvement. I'll draw a picture for you later."

The improvement that Shen Yuan mentioned is actually to install a hand-cranked fan on the hot air balloon to convert manpower into horizontal power of the balloon, thereby adjusting the direction of the hot air balloon.

This method actually has disadvantages. The thrust generated by manually shaking the fan is limited. If the natural wind is strong, it is difficult to move against the wind. Only when the wind is very small or there is no wind can the direction be changed at will.

But this is the only solution I can think of right now.

Putting these thoughts aside, Shen Yuan looked at the hot air balloon at a height of ten feet, feeling a myriad of emotions in his heart.

I didn’t expect that manned flight would be realized so soon. I wonder what kind of shock it will bring to the world and what kind of surprise it will bring to the enemy in the future?
(End of this chapter)