Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 56, The Gourd Incendiary Bomb, and the Chemical Talent Huo Duanyang
After the first day of adjustment, Ning Hangsheng's troops launched a series of anti-bandit operations.

He left 300 soldiers to guard the airport to protect Fang Wen upon his return, while the rest of the troops headed towards Chaiji.

Under Fang Wen's aerial command, the troops accurately grasped the bandits' movements and carried out encirclement and annihilation operations one by one.

The bandits entrenched in Chaiji never imagined they would face such a bizarre situation.

No matter how he hid, he was always discovered by the government troops.

It wasn't until later that they realized the planes in the sky were the eyes of the government troops.

But by then it was too late. As the bandit suppression campaign deepened, the bandits hiding in several villages near Chaiji were all defeated and eliminated.

Later, realizing that the bandits were no longer as domineering as before, the people of Chaiji spontaneously cooperated to capture them. With the help of the locals, this group of bandits who had plagued the area for many years was completely wiped out.

Then came the deserter groups from Fangji and Gongqiao areas.

Those deserters were originally a regiment of the National Army, but under the leadership of their regimental commander, they mutinied and became outlaws.

Their combat strength is much stronger than that of ordinary bandits; they can even rival Ning Hangsheng's infantry regiment.

Although Ning Hangsheng took the initiative to send a letter of surrender, promising to restore their unit number, make them an independent regiment, and arrange for them to be stationed elsewhere.

But the other party did not accept, and instead clamored to devour Ninghangsheng and then take over Fuyang.

This is unacceptable; therefore, a real ground war is about to begin.

A week has passed, and it seems that Nanjing is about to negotiate the tung oil deal with American businessmen, which will affect whether the Boeing 80 can be delivered on time.

Fang Wen was also a little anxious about this.

He took the initiative to communicate with Ning Hangsheng, who had returned to the airport to rest and recuperate.

"Are you confident you can defeat them in your attack?"

"It's hard to say. We are about the same in number, but they have a lot of cavalry, which are more mobile. If we are outmaneuvered by their cavalry in a head-on battle, we will be at a great disadvantage."

Are cavalrymen afraid of fire?

"Even though warhorses are trained, they still instinctively fear fire."

Fang Wen seemed to be deep in thought. If they could defeat the bandits' cavalry, the bandit suppression would be basically over, and he could leave.

But how can we defeat the cavalry?

He thought of the auxiliary fuel tank.

That thing can help with long-distance flights, but it has to be jettisoned when it encounters enemy aircraft to avoid affecting maneuverability.

The aviation gasoline of this era is different from the aviation kerosene of the future; it has a high flammability and explosiveness.

Hundreds of liters of aviation fuel falling to the ground could very well explode upon impact.

Isn't it just a standard incendiary bomb?

But just throwing it down like that isn't reliable; what if it doesn't explode?
Some changes need to be made.

Fang Wen suddenly blurted out a sentence.

Are there any chemistry teachers in schools in Fuyang?

"Ah? I'll send someone to ask." Ning Hangsheng summoned his adjutant and ordered him to go into the city.

After a while, a young man in a long robe, with short hair and glasses, came from the city.

He introduced himself: "I am Huo Duanyang, a math and physics teacher at Fuyang Middle School. I also teach chemistry, and I studied chemistry when I was a student."

Ning Hangsheng scratched the back of his head: "Manager Fang asked you to come. You two talk. If you need anything from us, just let us know."

Fang Wen spoke up: "I have a question. If a sealed fuel tank filled with flammable and explosive gasoline is dropped from a height of 2000 meters, how can we guarantee that it will explode?"

Huo Duanyang adjusted his glasses, thought for a moment, and then replied.

"Even if a sealed fuel tank containing flammable and explosive gasoline falls from a height of 2000 meters, it will not necessarily deflagrate. Deflagration requires certain conditions to occur, such as an ignition source and an appropriate oxygen concentration."

"Therefore, if a sealed fuel tank falls from a great height to the ground, at most it will cause the tank to rupture, partially burn, and then gradually ignite the entire tank. It will not cause a full-scale combustion and explosion reaction."

Fang Wen looked at the thin, young man with glasses in surprise.

In this era, there are very few people with such knowledge, and it is a real pity that he was relegated to Fuyang Middle School.

He then asked, "I have three hundred liters of aviation fuel and want to make it into incendiary bombs to be dropped from airplanes to attack bandits. In your opinion, what methods are available to do this?"

Huo Duanyang looked at Fang Wen in surprise: "You want me to do it?"

“Yes, the infantry regiment will be fighting the bandits in a couple of days, and they might not win. The only way we can help them is to use aviation fuel to make incendiary bombs to attack the bandits from the air,” Fang Wen explained.

"Isn't this a fighter jet? It can use machine guns." Huo Duanyang didn't understand.

"It used to be a fighter jet, which I later bought, but the terms of the deal didn't include ammunition," Fang Wen said helplessly. The officers from the Northeast Army had clearly stated that the number of bullets the Potez 25 brought from the Northeast was limited and they wouldn't sell them. "So, only incendiary bombs are used as airdropped weapons? I understand," Huo Duanyang said, lost in thought again.

His chemical knowledge, which he hadn't used for many years, finally came in handy.

“We had envisioned this at school, but never actually put it into practice. If it were fuel oil, it would need a wooden outer shell with two layers inside. The upper layer would contain the accelerant and ignition device, and the lower layer would contain the fuel oil. The upper layer would also need an external fuse.”

In Huo Duanyang's description, he designed a gourd-shaped wooden incendiary bomb, which was ignited by an extended fuse and dropped from a high altitude.

Upon landing, the calculated fuse ignites the white phosphorus used for combustion, thus igniting the gasoline in the lower layer.

This design is simple, but it can solve Fang Wen's current problem.

All that's left is to manufacture this batch of incendiary bombs.

A group of carpenters came from Fuyang City and handcrafted gourd-shaped shells, hollowing them out and leaving only a small hole at the connection between the upper and lower layers.

The fuse is made by local fireworks and firecracker craftsmen who create the appropriate fuse based on the time the incendiary bomb will land.

After these things are done, as usual, a bombing test will be conducted on the aircraft.

Fang Wen then took Huo Duanyang onto the plane.

In the rear cockpit of the plane, Huo Duanyang was very nervous, sitting upright and holding a box of gourd-shaped incendiary bombs.

To calm the other party down, Fang Wen said, "Don't be nervous. All you have to do is light the fuse and drop the incendiary bomb after you hear my command. If you're scared, you can have someone else do it."

"No need, I can do it." Huo Duanyang nodded vigorously.

"That's good, let's begin."

Fang Wen piloted the plane into the air, circling to find a bombing spot. Once he identified it, he announced, "Begin bombing."

With his mind highly focused, Huo Duanyang immediately used Ning Hangsheng's windproof kerosene lighter to light the fuse and dropped the incendiary bomb off the plane.

"Keep going, don't stop."

Immediately afterwards, Huo Duanyang lit and threw the projectiles one after another.

As the incendiary bomb fell, a discontinuous zone of explosive combustion appeared on the ground.

Sun Debiao waved the flag in the distance.

This means the bombing was substandard.

After thinking for a moment, Fang Wen roughly understood why.

Wooden-cased incendiary bombs can drift due to wind resistance, and this factor must be taken into account.

Therefore, he returned to the starting point and continued testing.

The bombing was very successful, landing accurately in the designated area and creating large burning zones.

This burning effect would only cause temporary confusion for humans, but it would be different for horses.

The test horses in the bombing area panicked and broke free of their reins tied to the stakes, fleeing the bombing area.

The results look promising; let's see how it goes in actual combat.

Two days later, an army of several thousand men assembled in Fangji.

Neither side intended to wage positional warfare; instead, they exchanged fire on the plains.

From an aerial perspective, Ninghangsheng's forces, relying on their superior weaponry, continued to advance.

The bandits retreated.

But further away, a cavalry force of around 400 men circled around and launched an attack from behind Ning Hangsheng's troops.

If the enemy breaks through, and with the bandits attacking from both sides, Ning Hangsheng's troops might be defeated.

"Attention Jackals, there's a cavalry attack on your rear, slightly to the west. I'm heading to the airdrop; you all need to be on guard."

Fang Wen reminded Ning Hangsheng, and the plane swooped down.

He gave the command as he descended to an altitude of 1500 meters and was about to cross paths with the ground cavalry.

"Drop the bomb immediately."

After preparing for a long time, Huo Duanyang threw incendiary bombs one by one downwards.

A dozen seconds later, the incendiary bomb exploded in the cavalry.

Large swathes of flame soared into the air, causing the warhorses to panic. They reared up, throwing their masters to the ground, and then ran off in all directions.

This chaos rendered the bandits' most powerful cavalry unit harmless, allowing Ning Hangsheng's forces to launch a full-scale attack.

(End of this chapter)