Master Yuan, start!

When the 6th Regiment of the Jiashen Right Army was formed, it was formed as a half-military and half-farmer public security reserve force, and actual combat issues were not considered in the short term.

It is precisely because of this nature that Yuan Xiangcheng promoted Duan Zhigui, who performed outstandingly in public security and defense, as the commander of the 6th Regiment.

At the moment, Duan Zhigui probably felt that he did not have the ability to lead troops in battle alone, so he remained silent.

Wang Zhanyuan was hesitant to speak at first. Like Sheng Fei, he wanted to ask Yuan Xiangcheng for advice, but after seeing his glance, he shut his mouth after observing his expression.

As for Jin Weidong, he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead without making any expression.

Jin Weidong is half Korean. His mother is the illegitimate daughter of a fallen yangban in Korea, and his father is a Qing Dynasty merchant who traveled to Korea.

When Jin's father was selling goods in Seoul, he fell in love with Jin's mother, so he married her for the third time and settled down in Korea. However, after going out to sea to deliver goods in the fifth year of Guangxu, Jin's father disappeared, leaving Jin's mother to take care of Jin Weidong in Seoul to make a living.

Until I met Yuan Xiangcheng.

Because of his special status, Jin Weidong never expresses his opinions proactively, and always does what Yuan Xiangcheng says.

"Let's use a hot air balloon," Yuan Xiangcheng said without any intention of keeping the secret and went straight to the point:

"The Incheon Machinery Bureau was able to produce the woven fabric needed to wrap the balloon last year. Plus, the military had previously experimented with wrapping it with leather and improved several manned hot air balloons, so I thought it was worth a try!"

Hot air balloons were already used in actual combat during the French Revolution. Napoleon even considered establishing an army of more than a thousand hot air balloons to transport supplies across the ocean for the expedition to Britain.

However, due to cost issues, Napoleon eventually gave up this idea.

After establishing the Incheon Machinery Bureau, Yuan Shikai not only ordered the development of army and naval weapons, but also started research on air force equipment in advance.

Yuan Shikai felt that if he had been able to control an air force by the end of the 19th century, he could have saved 10 years of time in his bid to dominate East Asia.

But unfortunately, reality poured a bucket of cold water on Yuan Xiangcheng, although the reality is not like Hearts of Iron, where there will be a time penalty for upgrading technology in advance.

But the Incheon Machinery Bureau had no experience in researching small internal combustion engines. They couldn't use a steam boiler to lift a warship weighing hundreds of kilograms into the sky, right?

The Mercedes-Benz car was invented less than five years ago, and flying an internal combustion engine into space was still just a luxury.

So Yuan Shikai had no choice but to settle for the second best. Since there was no sign of airplanes, he would study airships. If airships didn't work, he would study hot air balloons.

What? You don't know what a hot air balloon is?

You must know how to make Kongming lanterns, right? Just follow the instructions and make them bigger and rounder.

In this way, after Yuan Xiangcheng's repeated concern and continuous support for research and development funds, the hot air balloon project finally achieved certain results in the middle of last year.

8 I am guilty

I was cutting an article on a typing software, and because of my shaking hands I pressed ctrl x a little too much, which caused continuous cutting and overwrote the previous one.

4 I tried all the methods but nothing worked. The Windows clipboard is not turned on, and the Sogou Input Method computer version does not have a clipboard.

I'm so upset. I won't go to work tomorrow.

Three stay up late tonight!

0My saved drafts, my inspiration, my brain cells!

Chapter 141 I Just Want to Win the Battle Standing Up

Hot air balloons before the 20th century were made of a mixture of silk and paper. Their advantages were good softness and shock absorption, but their disadvantages were also obvious.

After taking off, due to the characteristics of silk, it is easily affected by moisture and absorbs water very seriously. It often cannot last long before it has to fall to the ground due to the increase in moisture and weight.

Last fall, by chance, Xu Huafeng, a researcher at the Incheon Machinery Bureau, accidentally placed dog skin on the silk paper of a hot air balloon while conducting research, and was immediately called out for a drink by a friend.

The assemblers did not notice anything wrong and thought the dog skin and silk paper were together, so they sewed up the silk paper stained with dog skin.

The test pilot didn't notice it until he lowered the balloon after the launch. He then saw a piece of dog skin inside the balloon and reported it.

When Incheon Machinery Bureau Director Kuang Chunhua learned about this, he was naturally furious. He immediately grabbed Xu Huafeng and scolded him harshly.

When Xu Huafeng was found, there was still dog meat residue on his mouth. He was naturally surprised to find that a hot air balloon with dog skin sewn on it could still take off smoothly.

Finally, after careful inspection, he discovered a surprising phenomenon: the piece of silk covered with dog skin did not absorb much water, and was much lighter than the other silk papers.

In other words, even though the weight of the dog skin is added, the silk paper + dog skin is still much lighter than the silk paper that has absorbed water and become damp.

After discovering this situation, Xu Huafeng immediately made a small hot air balloon covered entirely with dog skin, and found that it could take off much longer than the previous one.

So this phenomenon was reported to higher authorities and finally ended up on Yuan Xiangcheng's desk. Yuan Xiangcheng naturally expressed his willingness to make additional investments and vigorously carry out research and development.

After many experiments and comparisons, it was finally discovered that fish skin is a material that is both waterproof and light.

However, as North Korea has entered winter, large-scale fishing is difficult, so only 8 new hot air balloons were finally produced.

After Yuan Xiangcheng learned about these two things, he could only sigh that a considerable part of scientific inventions were indeed the result of coincidences, such as X-rays, penicillin, and today's seam-covered hot air balloons.

Xu Huafeng was more like a chemist in the original time and space. Influenced by his father, he had been studying the properties of metals since he was a child.

The term "electroplating" was first coined by him in the late Qing Dynasty. It later became an official name for chemical production and has been used until the 21st century.

However, Xu Huafeng has not made any achievements in chemistry, but has made great progress in the military industry, which makes Yuan Xiangcheng feel that fate is really fickle.

Yuan Xiangcheng was ordered to take all eight new hot air balloons with him, so he decided to try them out in air combat.

"What do you think of having the balloonists take yellow explosives and drop them into Shanhaiguan from a hot air balloon?"

Yuan Xiangcheng's words shocked the eight people in the tent and left them stunned.

They had seen hot air balloons in Seoul, but they were always tied with ropes and raised into the air to scout the enemy. When could they be used as grenade launchers?

The eight people in the tent were taught the extremely traditional 8th-century classical combat concept. Whether it was a land battle or a naval battle, everything was fought on the same plane.

The ordinary people’s understanding of combat in the 19th century could not be transformed from 2D to 3D.

Hot air balloons were not gradually developed for harmful military purposes until the 20th century. Even in Europe today, they are mostly used for intelligence gathering.

In fact, every major innovation in combat theory throughout history is attributed to the geniuses in the history of military warfare. Without them, humans would probably still be fighting with sticks.

It is because of people like Sun Wu, Alexander, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Guderian that military tactics are constantly being innovated.

The 36 strategies of "Deceiving the Heaven and Crossing the Sea," "Besieging Wei to Save Zhao," and "Killing with a Borrowed Knife"; the Macedonian phalanx's combination of infantry and cavalry; the Mongol "Ofu" tactic of a large roundabout; Napoleon's philosophy of concentrating forces and defeating each one separately, which defeated the anti-French coalition seven times; and the German army's blitzkrieg.

This is like putting people who have never seen a mobile phone in the 19th century into the 21st century. They will definitely not be able to understand how two people thousands of miles apart can talk to each other and even see each other's faces with just a small iron box.

You can’t figure it out no matter how hard you try. If you haven’t seen it, you haven’t seen it. If you can’t imagine it, you can’t imagine it.

Sometimes the development of the times is often the result of a flash of inspiration from a few geniuses, rather than the repetition of millions of people.

Yuan Shikai came from 120 years later, and his mind was born with a way of fighting that was beyond that of this era, even though he was not a professional military commander.

But he is still very good at borrowing the combat methods of famous generals in history.

Yuan Xiangcheng looked quietly at the expressions of the other people, trying to grasp something from them.

At first, everyone was still immersed in surprise, wondering how the chief instructor could come up with such a weird yet seemingly effective method?

But after a moment, several people with combat experience frowned.

Sheng Fei was a man who couldn't hold back his words. His fingers turned pale from pressing the map on the battle table, and he was the first to ask:

"Chief Instructor, I've seen hot air balloon drills in North Korea before, but they often rise 6-70 meters. At such a distance, it's difficult to see people and objects visually, let alone dropping explosives.

Moreover, Shanhaiguan is a strategically important fortress in the world. Even yellow explosives could not bring down the city walls. At most, they would kill a few hundred Qing soldiers. If they really wanted to capture Shanhaiguan, they would have to send 4 national defense troops to charge.

Although Shanhaiguan doesn't have many artillery pieces, the South China Sea Fleet is still watching closely. If we attack with all our forces, there's no way we can win. I'm afraid we'll end up charging while standing and winning while lying down."

Yuan Xiangcheng did not respond to Sheng Fei's words, but looked at the people in the tent with a smile.

Wang Zhanyuan couldn't help himself this time and tried to dissuade him, saying, "Chief Instructor, why do we have to fight to the death at Shanhaiguan? Leave one town behind to guard the Jiashen Fourth Army.

How about the rest of us rush to Xifengkou to help the First Town?

Even if we can't take Xifengkou and Gubeikou, the worst that can happen is that we can retreat to the Northeast and live freely. But can that old witch still break out of the Great Wall?"

Wang Zhanyuan had some small peasant ideas, and Yuan Xiangcheng made a judgment in his heart, but still did not speak out against it.

Even Duan Zhigui, who considered himself incompetent in combat, could not help but offer a word of advice: "Chief Instructor, I am not very experienced in warfare, but from what I have heard from you all, it seems that a forced attack on Shanhaiguan would result in heavy casualties.

Isn't the first priority for this invasion the capital? If the 4 national defense troops were to suffer heavy losses at Shanhaiguan, it would be difficult to suppress the local forces after they enter the pass."

You are worthy of being an expert in farming in the rear. You can consider things from a hindsight perspective. In the future, I will let you be in charge of the General Logistics Department or the General Armament Department, Yuan Xiangcheng thought to himself.

Only Jin Weidong remained calm, leaning against the war table, and seemed not to intend to say anything.

Wang Shizhen, a staff officer of the General Staff Department who was also in the tent, became restless. He looked around and saw that Yuan Xiangcheng still said nothing. However, no one seemed to dissuade him. He stood up and said:

"That's right, Chief Instructor, you just said yesterday that we shouldn't just follow the tactics in the military manual.

But why today, are you forcing the brothers of the National Defense Army to risk their lives to fill the Shanhai Pass?"

I didn't expect the boomerang to come back so quickly. Yuan Xiangcheng was shocked when he heard it.

You kid, I just taught you a lesson with these words yesterday, and now you’re using them on me, right?

He is truly worthy of being the Beiyang Dragon born in Hejian. Perhaps it was because he ate too much donkey meat hotpot when he was a child, and when his donkey temper came up, he even dared to contradict the chief instructor.

However, Yuan Shikai was not angry, because this was the effect he had always wanted to create. If the National Defense Army was just his personal one-man show, it would be hard to guarantee that it would not become a bargaining chip for warlords after his death.

Now a staff officer from the General Staff Department dared to question him to his face, which showed that his previous words were listened to and implemented.

The purpose of a meeting is to debate and argue. What’s the point of having a meeting without arguing?

Although the atmosphere in the central military tent was far from the point of quarreling, it was okay for the six commanders, but a staff officer dared to question Yuan Xiangcheng. In the eyes of others, it was undoubtedly a bit chaotic.

Novel? County? 8607380?

However, Yuan Xiangcheng still had a smile on his face, without a trace of anger, and he was very happy in his heart.

Yes, there should be disputes and debates. If we are always friendly, we might as well elect a neighborhood committee lady.

The purpose of holding a meeting is to make things clear, analyze the interests thoroughly, and finally vote by raising hands, and listen to whoever's opinion is most popular.

This is the characteristic of democratic centralism. During meetings, there is complete democracy and you can point fingers and scold people, but it must be put into practice and you cannot make random personal attacks.

However, once the meeting is over and the vote is taken, only one voice must be formed to the outside world. This is what is called concentration.

It has the benefits of democracy and the efficiency of centralization, which is also the advantage of democratic centralism.

Of course, there are people who observe the mood and try to change their stance according to the situation when voting, but that is also part of political life. Under any system, there will always be people who take advantage of the situation. It is human nature.

However, the centralized system among the people can easily develop into a completely centralized system, which requires Yuan Shikai to cultivate a certain number of political talents and create a relaxed political atmosphere.

Only when everyone from the bottom to the top dares to speak at the meeting can the democratic part of the central system of the people truly take root in the hearts of the people.

This is why Yuan Xiangcheng has always weakened the difference in ranks between officers and soldiers in the National Defense Army, emphasizing that there is only a difference in rank, and has spared no effort to promote the "three members"

His purpose was to enable middle and low-level soldiers to speak and dare to speak. Only in this way could the soldiers retired from the National Defense Force take on the responsibility of transforming society.

These soldiers are like flames that will help Yuan Shikai spread the seeds of equality across the land of China.