Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 87 Wave-class combat airship

In the queue of nearly 10,000 people, a large group of people immediately stood up.

Following closely behind were the voices of more young people.

"Artillery Department! Everyone!"

"Cavalry Division! Everyone!"

"Communications Department! Everyone!!"

"Those who are not afraid of death! Step out!"

Several voices were heard, accompanied by a vibration that almost crushed the ground, and almost all of these young warrant officers took a big step forward.

As for those who are not listed.

Ryan could tell from their uniforms and identification badges that they were basically logistics professionals working in special forces.

He was not surprised by this kind of thing.

After all, the most important thing for soldiers and officers is not fear of death, but self-knowledge.

Only those who have self-knowledge and understand what they can and cannot do can become a qualified officer.

But there was still a group of young people who gave Ryan a little surprise.

Over there are the guys from the communications department.

As mentioned before, the foundation of the empire is a communications force centered around ennobled nobles, capable of transmitting visible light signals for honorary communications.

These signalmen built an indestructible, fast and efficient intelligence highway for the empire.

Therefore, almost all those who can enter the communications department are the best among the same batch of trainees.

Those who were admitted to the communications department naturally became the first group of military academy students to obtain noble status.

But this title is not a reward.

As they must sacrifice their own precise location in exchange for completely transmitting intelligence to friendly forces within a radius of 100 kilometers, among all the branches of the empire, the signalmen have the highest probability of being killed.

To use the words of Ryan's hometown long ago, the signalman was the brightest star in the whole field.

Once honor communication is activated, even if you don't die, you will be chased and skinned alive.

Ryan had seen before how the Farlanes sent out four airships to chase him.

It's absolutely crazy.

He also vaguely remembered that Brinkman had said afterwards that because she had activated the honor communication, she had to go to the hospital for checkups for several days in a row to ensure that there was no excess magic power remaining in her body.

Ryan didn't know what the residual magic was or what side effects it had, but it definitely didn't sound like a good thing.

But he was immediately relieved.

After all, those kids who choose communications must have made sufficient mental preparations.

Otherwise, they would not want to become the military branch with the highest death rate in the world today.

at the same time.

On the other side of the podium.

Those who previously thought that Ryan was not here to recruit officers at all, but wanted to recruit suicide squads from the military academy, as well as the heads of military academies and senior officers, all wanted to rush to Ryan's side.

The leading Major General Mueller had even started swinging his fists, but he and the others were completely stopped by Brinkmann.

Mueller's voice was not loud, but it was loud enough for Ryan to hear. He deliberately cursed at Brinkman: "Lieutenant Brinkman! Do you know what he is doing now?"

"This is an order from the General Staff and the Prince." Brinkmann remained unmoved.

She clearly remembered the lesson Ryan had taught her before: "Whenever you encounter someone with a higher rank than you who wants to order you around, immediately find someone more powerful than that person to take the blame."

Such a statement obviously had a great impact on a major general like Mueller who could not enter the command level of the Imperial Army.

He swung his fist several times, but each time it was aimed at the sky, not at Ryan, not even in the direction of Brinkman.

Lane heard the noises coming from there, and he agreed with Mueller, but he would never let anyone know.

More importantly, Ryan didn't actually use this group of passionate pillars of the empire as a suicide squad.

They are too unskilled and not worthy.

Of course, identity is also a factor.

On the podium, Ryan, with his hands behind his back and his head held high, looked at the young people who stepped out with a scrutinizing gaze.

"I admire your courage and determination."

Ryan's voice was clearly picked up by the microphone and rang out again over the playground.

"But, for some people, what I'm about to say may be a blow to them."

He recalled what Hellingen had told him a few hours ago.

[Those bastards at the military academy are all hot-blooded fools. I don't know how many of them you can trick, but you must remember not to capture them all!]

Ryan's voice paused, which made everyone's heart jump.

"There is indeed no application limit for this recruitment, but there is a limit on the number of people!"

"Therefore, you can only be deployed to my troops on a rotational basis."

"I can't guarantee that everyone can become an airborne soldier right away, but you will definitely be able to in the future."

He stood there, his eyes turning to Brinkman beside him: "Second Lieutenant."

"To!"

Brinkmann immediately turned around and appeared behind Ryan's left.

She looked at Ryan, wondering why he called her.

Then Ryan said, "Lieutenant Brinkman and I will stay here until the day after tomorrow."

"All those who wish to serve in my unit, please submit your resume to Lieutenant Brinkman before noon the day after tomorrow."

"We will randomly select all volunteers who have passed the review in four batches."

After saying that, Ryan breathed a sigh of relief.

This is finally an explanation to Commander Hellingen, he thought.

Old Deng probably heard that some boy or girl in the General Staff or the General Headquarters wanted to go to the front line, so he came to say a few words before leaving.

Now, the task of selecting personnel can be handed over to the people in the General Staff Headquarters.

Anyway, they were the ones who proposed the matter, and I was just going along with it.

Naturally, Ryan's statement did not cause dissatisfaction among these young people.

They stood there quietly, but their expressions were extremely excited.

Ryan was not going to waste any more time here.

His military uniform was completely soaked by the rain. If this continued, he would probably catch a cold soon.

Therefore, Ryan had no intention of delaying any further.

He simply raised his hand and gave the most standard Imperial Army salute①.

"Disband!"

------------

Later.

Inside the guesthouse of the Army Officers University.

After finally getting rid of the group of old stubborn people headed by Muller, Ryan and Brinkmann took a quick shower, changed into a spare uniform, and sat face to face in the reception room of the guesthouse.

"These little guys are really cruel."

Even though several hours had passed, Ryan still saw those young reserve officers stepping forward voluntarily in response to the call from the head of the discipline.

Whether it is the communications department, which has had the highest casualty rate for a hundred years, or the infantry and artillery departments, which have contributed the most generals to the empire.

These young men and women are almost determined to leave here, rush to the front line, and avenge their comrades and fellow citizens who died on the first day of the war.

Ryan leaned back on the sofa and twisted his waist and buttocks so that he could sink into the sofa. "What did the person in charge of the military academy say?"

Brinkman, wearing an army green robe and holding a cup of hot milk, bypassed the air conditioning blowing down from the ceiling and sat across from Ryan. "If it weren't for you, Captain, keeping the situation under control, I'm afraid they would have been ready to riot."

This made Ryan feel a little surprised, but he immediately guessed the identity of the person who said it: "That Major General Mueller?"

"Yes."

Brinkmann was accustomed to Ryan's somewhat accurate guessing skills. "Major General Mueller was actually against you at first. After all, for them, throwing these little guys into the enemy's rear would bring far more harm than good."

Ryan snorted coldly: "You're talking as if dragging students out to a rainstorm for half a day at a military academy would do them any good."

"After all, those are two different things."

Brinkmann knew that Ryan was angry because he had to give a speech in the rain, but Mueller was a major general after all, and they couldn't curse him on someone else's territory, so they had to quickly change the subject.

"And here's the thing," Brinkman said, sitting in the booth across from Ryan. He put down the hot milk in his hand and took out a telegram from his briefcase on the coffee table. "It was just sent from the North Sea half an hour ago. They said it was delayed due to communication problems. I don't know if it will be in time."

The North Sea refers to a military base on the northern border of the Empire, which is affiliated with the Air Force. Although it is called the North Sea, it is actually far from the sea. It is equivalent to using the name as a cover.

Ryan took the document familiarly and found that it was the deployment information of the airship.

"Is the airship assigned to us by General Draven coming?"

He actually didn't have high expectations for the airship that General Draven was going to assign to him.

To be honest, in Ryan's opinion, it would be OK even if Draven gave himself a few hot air balloons.

After all, those guys flying in the sky and swimming in the sea look down on the army.

Not to mention that their military ranks are often extremely high.

Ryan is only a captain. Even if he is promoted, the highest he can become is a lieutenant colonel, just as Ms. Catherine said.

The captains of the Air Force and Navy ships are often colonels. If you are unlucky, you may encounter a fleet of four ships, and the captain of each ship is an admiral.

But he soon put his mind at ease.

"Beihai sent us an old acquaintance."

"Who?" Brinkman didn't read the telegram, but he knew where it was sent from.

Ryan: "Lieutenant Perris, whom I met before."

"Second Lieutenant?" Brinkman was puzzled. "She received her certificate of passing the assessment for the 14th Regiment of the Seventh Army. Is she now a full-fledged officer?"

"It seems so."

Ryan nodded, already thinking about what he would do when the airship arrived. "Lieutenant Perris will arrive in the imperial capital tomorrow, and the airship will arrive around evening due to weather conditions."

"Hopefully it'll clear up soon."

Brinkman looked at the gray sky outside with a unhappy expression.

the next day.

It rains continuously.

As a reconnaissance officer of the Second Fleet of the Air Force, Lieutenant Soma Perris was recognized by Brian and the commanders of the troops in the seventh episode after completing his first battle in the Alsace region and was successfully promoted to second lieutenant.

Later, at the request of Lieutenant General Draven, she became a bridge of communication between the Air Force and Ryan.

Just now, she drove from the imperial capital to the Military Academy in the suburbs and told Ryan that General Draven had prepared an airship for him.

Ryan, who had learned the news as early as yesterday, had actually been looking out the window for quite a while.

But the rain outside the window showed no sign of stopping. If Ryan had not caught a glimpse of the small gray dots on the horizon when he was about to leave, he would have gone to bed quickly.

After all, there are no mobile phones or chat software in this place, and communication depends on shouting or sending letters. Once you forget to bring a book when you go out, the only entertainment activities left are those two unspeakable activities.

the other side.

This was not the first time Ryan had come into contact with the Empire's airship, but he couldn't help but hesitate after seeing those gray dots.

As for airships, he had seen them several times when he was in Stuttgart and also when he was in Strasbourg.

But what Ryan saw at that time were almost all traditional hydrogen buoyancy airships, not the lunchbox-shaped airships that exploded with magic power used by the Farlans.

After getting Draven's promise, Ryan has been wondering what the Empire's airship should look like.

After all, what Draven said at the time was the same model and specifications.

This at least shows that the Empire actually has airships similar to the Republic-class, with a speed of hundreds of kilometers and the ability to carry several tons of supplies.

"No? They're going to enter the port at this time?"

Through the rain that was almost turning into a curtain of water, Ryan looked at the gray dots in the distance and asked Lieutenant Soma Perris who was holding a cup of hot milk.

"probably."

Lieutenant Perris stared at the airship with his gray eyes and said, "If the rain gets any heavier, it will be dangerous, but the current level is not that serious. Entering the port should not be a problem."

During the conversation, Ryan noticed that the four gray dots were rapidly enlarging and soon arrived right above the playground.

It was not until this moment that Ryan fully understood this airship belonging to the Empire.

The huge hull looked at least two hundred meters long, and it also had the shape of a lunch box, but it did not have the deployable armor of the Farlans.

The color of the airship is not the metallic polished color of the Farlans, but a very special two-color color with a matte feel.

The upper half of the airship is gray-green, probably because it is worried that it will be discovered by enemies at higher positions, while the lower half is sky blue with a hint of gray, obviously trying to imitate the color of the sky.

What’s even more interesting is that the designer thoughtfully installed a set of small-caliber three-barrel revolver cannons on the belly of the airship.

This special design immediately caught Ryan's interest.

After all, for equipment like airships, the biggest threat is often enemies hiding on the ground.

This lowered cannon design, which resembles the B17's belly anti-aircraft machine gun turret, obviously solves the problem of the airship's lack of firepower suppression on the ground.

Ok?
wrong.

Ryan suddenly discovered a strange problem.

[What is the rotary cannon on the belly of this airship used to shoot?]

In theory, weapons are designed with a purpose most of the time.

For example, airplanes did not have weapons when they were first militarized.

Then a smart man with a pistol single-handedly accelerated the evolution of human aerial weapons.

In order to avoid being killed by the enemy, everyone first installed machine guns on the plane and stuffed machine gunners in, then fixed the machine guns, and finally machine cannons and missiles.

The same is true for airships.

The original airships had no combat capabilities, but the Germans later used them for bombing, and...

Ok?
Ryan's head twitched again, and he realized that he was wrong again.

Unlike weapons like airplanes, airships have two uses after being militarized: reconnaissance and transportation, and offensive bombing.

This led the airship to take an active offensive path that was completely different from that of aircraft.

This means that airships in this world are treated almost identically to bombers in later generations.

Ryan, realizing this, suddenly woke up: "General Draven actually sent an airship with offensive capabilities!"

His words immediately surprised Lieutenant Perris who was standing beside him: "Captain, do you know about airships too?"

"It's just so-so," Ryan shook his head.

Perris didn't have much contact with Ryan, but that didn't prevent her from hearing about Ryan's deeds from the soldiers and officers in episode 7.

The Esco Explosion Wall, a groundbreaking three-man squad battle plan used during the attack on Belfort.

Each one is enough to prove Ryan's strength.

Not to mention that before the Battle of Belfort he was a poor officer with only one adjutant and eight subordinates, but after the Battle of Belfort, he was directly promoted from the commander of a mixed force to a senior cadre at the level of a regimental commander.

This is a direct promise from the imperial marshals and generals, which is almost like riding a rocket.

The issue is……

"Speak of it."

Lieutenant Perris, who had long been surprised that Ryan, a mere captain, could command a fleet, turned his gaze away from the incoming airship and asked Ryan, "Why did General Draven assign you, Captain, four Wave-class destroyers?"

"Tide-class destroyer?"

Ryan was a little confused by Perris's words, but this did not affect the conversation: "Oh, you mean the four airships."

He looked at the airships in the sky that were being deflated one by one, spewing out clouds of gas in the heavy rain and then starting to land, and said.

"If you're a second lieutenant, you should have received airborne training, right?"

"Airborne?" Lieutenant Perris raised an eyebrow. "You mean parachute escape training?"

"Correct."

"Then you've asked the right person."

Perris's shoulders broadened, her uniform bulging on the left side of her chest. "Do you see this gold medal? It's awarded personally by His Majesty. Only officers with parachute instructor qualifications and serving in the airship unit can receive it."

Her words really surprised Ryan a little.

Because he never thought that Perris had such ability.

But now it's easier to talk about.

He first applauded Perris to express his appreciation, and then said, "The General Staff wants me to train an airborne infantry regiment."

Perris: “?”

A visible question mark almost appeared on her forehead.

But Ryan added.

"Specifically, within a month, we need to train them to the point where they can calmly jump from an airship, land behind enemy lines, and carry out decapitation and sabotage missions."

(End of this chapter)