The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 521 Emperor Wuding's War Theory
"When you find yourself unable to bomb accurately, increasing the explosive load will often be effective."

North of Pyongyang, outside the bombing radius of the Kunpeng, the dragon flag of Emperor Wuding was raised in the wilderness.

The retired emperor, who had just returned from the battlefield after slaying the enemy, stood under the banner with his entourage.

Holding binoculars, everyone looked at the hot air balloon on the top of Qixingmen City two miles away and watched the flying soldiers' bombing performance.

The commander of the 11th Corps, Lu Xiangsheng, the chief eunuch Dongfang Zhu, the commander of the Imperial Guard Pei Dahu, the chief instructor Sen Ti, the chief civil affairs officer Xie Yang, the high priest Francisco and others gathered around Emperor Wu Ding. Each of them held a pair of telescopes and followed the emperor to look at the sky.

Liu Zhaosun smiled, his face full of longing for future technology.

"The era of hot air balloons has arrived. How far away are armored airships equipped with larger caliber guns?"

No one knew what an armored airship was, so of course no one agreed with the emperor's sigh.

On the top of Qixing City, two hot air balloons floated in the air three or four hundred meters high like shivering doves.

Every time the wind blew, the earthy brown turtledoves would tremble violently, dropping a few bubbling, sparking bird droppings from their hanging baskets. Beep, bang, bang, a few flashes of fire appeared inside and outside the city walls, mixed with the panicked cries of Smecta, and the city walls were in chaos.

"Okay, okay. To attack Pyongyang, we only need to deploy the First Corps."

Emperor Wuding danced with joy. It was rare to see the retired emperor so excited.

Several confidants hurried forward and flattered the emperor, comparing Liu Zhaosun to the greatest emperor of all time. They said that Emperor Gaozu of Tang and Emperor Hanzu of Han, as well as Genghis Khan, were no match for the emperor of Qi.

Emperor Wu Ding narrowed his eyes and smiled as he looked at the large turtledove that kept defecating in the air. In order to support the workshop to develop hot air balloons, Da Qi had invested no less than one million taels of silver in the past three years. Among the "combat volunteers" (Jianzhou captives represented by Du Du), more than a thousand people were frozen to death, starved to death, or fell to death in the hot air balloons.

After paying such a huge price, it finally succeeded. Today, he could finally witness the combat power of the hot air balloon with his own eyes and witness how this powerful weapon crushed the enemy. How could Emperor Wu Ding not be excited?

"My dear ministers, foreign wars will be boring in the future. Bomb, bomb ...

Sen Ti took the lead and said:

"Your Majesty is wise and wise. You went against all odds and spent a large sum of money to research this hot air balloon. This is truly a far-sighted plan."

Hou Xun secondly echoed, "The emperor's military strategy is like a lion fighting a rabbit. The army is attacking fiercely with all its might, and they also have this flying attack. In my opinion, even if Sun Wu and Wu Qi were reborn, they would not be able to..."

Before Hou Xun could finish his words, he heard a cry of surprise from the front. Liu Zhaosun hurriedly raised his telescope and looked towards the Qixing Gate. He saw a large arrow flying towards the sky along the hot air balloon. The soldiers waiting to cross the river discovered the counterattack of the Korean army and all screamed.

"It's a crossbow. I didn't expect Pyongyang to have such a lethal weapon!"

"Left behind by the Mongols when they withdrew,"

Everyone was chattering and talking. The defenders had fired arrows again, and the balloon was hit directly by the heavy arrows. Amidst exclamations, the hot air balloon slowly fell towards the Taedong River.

There was a cheer from the top of the city wall. Under the command of Yu Hou, more crossbows were pushed onto the top of the city wall. The giant crossbows flexibly rotated their arrows and aimed at the hot air balloon in the sky, shooting.

The flag bearer of the north shore artillery kept waving command flags, ordering the flying soldiers to return as soon as possible.

The surviving hot air balloons did not dare to stay on the top of the city any longer. They hurriedly dropped a few incendiary bombs, then pulled up the balloons and fled north on the cold current.

A raging fire broke out in the city, mixed with the screams of the people, and those whose houses were burned down ran around like rats.

The defenders were frightened by the burning human bodies. Some of them knelt on the top of the city wall and bowed to the hot air balloon that was moving further and further away, muttering something.

"Sibala, have you become stupid from eating kimchi?"

Yu Hou swung his whip and whipped the kneeling Korean soldiers.

"Keep shooting! Don't let them get away! Hit one... one ball, and you'll be rewarded with 100 taels of silver!"

With the incentive of silver rewards, even the most superstitious Korean soldiers were no longer timid.

More crossbows were set up and aimed at the swaying hot air balloon that was almost level with the city wall, continuously attacking the injured turtledove until its life was exhausted and it plunged into the freezing cold Taedong River.

~~~~~
The first real air battle in the history of the Qi Air Force ended here.

Our side lost two pilots and a hot air balloon, and dozens of North Korean soldiers were killed or injured...
Calculations show that only about 10% of the bombs and grenades landed on the city wall targets, and the actual casualties caused to the defenders would not exceed 100.

The remaining airdrops all landed accurately in the Taedong River north of the city, splashing water. Occasionally, a few of them landed in the city wall, killing several civilians.

Because the bombing accuracy was so outrageous in this air raid, more fish were killed than enemy soldiers, much more.

The surviving hot air balloons gradually flew out of the attack range of Pyongyang City. They lowered their altitude and slowly flew towards the camp on the north bank.

To prevent accidental injuries, Han Zhenyi ordered the artillery to suspend the bombardment.

This went on for more than half an hour. As tens of thousands of people looked up, one of the two hot air balloons was dead and the other was injured. They fled back in a panic and landed on their own position. The surviving one was seriously damaged. Xie Yang looked at the arrow wound on the silk balloon with concern, estimating that it would cost at least several thousand taels of silver to repair it.

However, the damage caused by the hot air balloon to the defenders was minimal.

"Lu Xiangsheng, when you find yourself unable to bomb accurately, increasing the explosive load will often be effective."

Perhaps because he was too angry or because he had forgotten what he had just said, the emperor repeated what he had just said.

He put down the telescope, and the excitement on his face disappeared, replaced by a cold murderous look.

Dongfang Zhu winked at Lu Xiangsheng, signaling the chief flying corps officer to hurry up and explain. According to the general steward's understanding of the emperor's temper, there might be a glimmer of hope if he explained before he got angry.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me!" Lu Xiangsheng finally plucked up the courage, stepped forward, and took the blame.

"Each Kunpeng gondola can currently carry two pilots, plus 150 kilograms of gunpowder, or 80 grenades. The baskets are too high above the ground. We have conducted repeated tests in the wilderness, and at this altitude, the bombing accuracy is less than 10%. Furthermore, there's wind in Pyongyang right now, and the baskets are shaking violently."

"That's not a reason."

Liu Zhaosun was filled with murderous intent and pointed at Lu Xiangsheng's nose and cursed:
"How much silver did I give the workshop? We'll talk about the workshop later. How has the flight regiment been training these days? I asked you to select pilots from the entire army and give them time to train. How many Koreans did you kill in half an hour of bombing? And you even got yourself killed there."

Emperor Wu Ding had anticipated such an outcome. In the 17th century, when there were no bomb-aiming devices, standing at an altitude of three or four hundred meters and throwing a bomb with the naked eye alone was about as difficult as shooting a basketball from thirty meters away.

"Your Majesty, the workshop said that they can increase the ammunition capacity to 200 kilograms next month and will also produce a more accurate sight."

Lu Xiangsheng explained carefully, he did not dare to look up at Emperor Wuding's eyes.

This Jinshi during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty never imagined that one day he would be able to command a hot air balloon to take off and fight.

Life is like a dream, everything is so unreal.

Liu Zhaosun shook his head. "One more thing. I want to remind you. Before killing the enemy, it is best not to bomb ordinary people. Kunpeng should improve the accuracy of bombing, rather than let Da Qi be involved in an endless people's war."

Kunpeng is the name given by Emperor Wu Ding to the first generation of military hot air balloons. It is said that it was inspired by Xiaoyaoyou:
There is a fish in the North Sea, named Kun. Kun is so big that no one knows how many thousand miles it is. It changes into a bird, named Peng. Peng's back is so big that no one knows how many thousand miles it is. When it flies in anger, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky.

The time traveler hopes that his hot air balloon can soar up to 90,000 miles like the Dapeng described by Zhuang Zhou, and enter a wider world.

I have to say, this is still a beautiful fantasy.

Thanks to the long-term brainwashing by the Qi State's propaganda machine, in the perception of the people in the surrounding countries, the Qi Army is a benevolent and righteous army, completely different from other soldiers, bandits and soldiers. The Qi Army has strict military discipline and is in harmony with the people.

The Qi army would not take a single needle or thread from the people, nor would they massacre civilians or torture prisoners of war.

The Jiannu slaughtered Han people, and the Rakshasas ate people, but the army of Emperor Wuding, as the instructors (usually some kind and amiable scholars) said, would rather starve themselves and suffer than harm civilians.

Of course, unless it is an accidental injury that is unavoidable.

After the Wanggongchang explosion, the empire changed its propaganda strategy, and the personal worship of the retired emperor reached its peak.

One country, one monarch, all under heaven belongs to the king. As the army of the Great Qi continues to expand, more and more vast territories are occupied by the Qi army. The purpose of the Qi army's killing and fighting is to protect the people on the territory.

At least that's what the books say, and that's how it's sung in storytelling, ditties, and shadow puppetry.

The book also says that the Qi army is a benevolent and righteous army, everyone in the army is a gentleman, and they will never kill innocent people indiscriminately.

But are all the soldiers of Qi really humble gentlemen?

They faithfully carried out all the orders of Emperor Wuding, but if they were modest gentlemen, they would have started bombarding the walls of Pyongyang by now.

Of course, the eloquent instructors around Emperor Wuding would not order the Qi army to massacre the Korean people.

Of course, it is not just Qi. Any other country would say that they would never massacre civilians, including Nazi Germany during World War II and Japan under the rule of the emperor.

Even the United States, which has only been at peace for 243 of its 16 years and has experienced more than 200 wars during this period, claims to be peace-loving.

"Lu Xiangsheng, you must know," Emperor Wuding scolded loudly:

"Avoiding the killing of civilians is not only to show the world that we are a benevolent and righteous army, but also to let the people know that I am a benevolent ruler."

“There’s a deeper meaning!”

"What is the military's mission? The military has only two missions: to plunder the enemy's resources and to protect its own civilians."

Liu Zhaosun didn't care whether Lu Xiangsheng could understand or not, and shouted loudly:
"If the Qi army hasn't yet crushed the enemy, then you, as the commander of the 11th Corps and someone I can trust, must be strict with your men. Military law is ruthless. Always remember that your soldiers are meant to kill the enemy's soldiers, not their civilians."

Liu Zhaosun witnessed today with his own eyes that when the hot air balloon had the upper hand, it actually dropped bombs into the city and incendiary bombs on people's houses.

"Fighting requires concentration! You can't have your soldiers attacking enemy civilians one moment and attacking enemy troops the next. Otherwise, you'll easily be wiped out by your opponent, just like today!"

Lu Xiangsheng's face was full of shame. He was just a Jinshi and didn't know much about leading troops in battle. He had only commanded cavalry before.

"The pilots are all chosen by the gods, so it's natural for them to be arrogant. Therefore, I want you to carefully cultivate their character! Never again fight like today, without organization and discipline, and then slaughter civilians!"

Liu Zhaosun continued, "I'm not pitying the people. Slaughtering them will not weaken the enemy's strength, but will instead unite the enemy and inflame their military, doing us no good at all!"

"I will follow the instructions of the Supreme Emperor!"

Lu Xiangsheng prostrated himself on the ground and knelt for a long time without getting up.

Emperor Wu Ding saw that his goal of cracking down on the flying group had been achieved, so he stopped blaming Lu Xiangsheng and said in a gentle tone:

"Lu Xiangsheng, after we capture Pyongyang and the army returns home, you should personally go to the homes of your two subordinates and provide generous compensation to their families..."

Lu Xiangsheng retreated in tears.

Liu Zhaosun looked at the silk fragments floating in the Taedong River, his rage burning. He raised the black flag in his hand and shouted to several officers of the combat battalion:

"Alright, now it's your turn. Reinforce the pontoon bridge, drive the prisoners across the river to fill the trenches, and the First Corps will attack the city with all their might."

(End of this chapter)