I want to be emperor

Chapter 1176 Air Force in Europe

In August of the 54th year of Chengshun, this season was very hot in East Asia, it was the time of the autumn tiger, but Berlin in the German region was a little north, so the weather was relatively cool, with the daytime temperature of about 20 degrees and a little cooler at night to only more than 10 degrees.

It is a relatively pleasant time in the autumn when the weather is clear and cool. Normally, you can just wear a coat when going out.

Berlin at that time was not considered a big city even in Europe, but the capital of the Duchy of Prussia.

When the Chu people marched into Europe, the Duchy of Prussia had already joined the Chu people at an early stage, and rose rapidly by acting as a guide for the Chu people and conquering other states in the Holy Roman Empire, and then became one of the representatives of the Chu people's interests in the German region.

This series of processes allowed the Duchy of Prussia to grow and acquire a large territory.

In fact, not only the Duchy of Prussia grew stronger in this process, but more than a dozen other states of the Holy Roman Empire also took the opportunity to rise.

Eventually, the former Holy Roman Empire evolved into the current fourteen kingdoms and principalities.

But it is worth noting that the Chu people did not actually split the Holy Roman Empire...it seemed so on the surface, but it was not actually so.

Because before the Chu people entered Europe, the Holy Roman Empire was already in name only. There were more than 300 states in the entire empire, which made the Chu people who came to Europe to do business feel overwhelmed...

Moreover, with so many states, it was difficult for the Chu people to manage them. For example, when rebels appeared, they attacked the Chu people in state A and then turned around and ran to state B. Then the government army of state A could not chase them. If the Chu people wanted to fight, they could only do it themselves...

Therefore, in the first few years after the Chu people took control of Europe, although they liked to dismember all the major European countries, they were particularly dissatisfied with the super-large division of the Holy Roman Empire... In order to facilitate subsequent management, the Chu people simply supported a dozen promising agents to annex and unify through various means.

Eventually, more than a dozen slightly larger states emerged in the German region.

In this way, colonial management becomes much smoother.

The Duchy of Prussia is one of them. Because it surrendered to the Chu people early and fought hard in the subsequent wars, the Chu people are quite satisfied with the ruling class of the Duchy of Prussia and have given it considerable support over the years.

But even so, the numerous states in the German region in the early years and the years of war made this area relatively unstable. The Duchy of Prussia was under great pressure to rule and often had to seek help from the Chu foreign legions.

For example, in recent years, several rebel groups have emerged in the principality. After the attacks in the early years, these rebels have become smarter and rarely attack big cities. Instead, they stay in remote areas and retreat into the mountains and forests when something happens, causing the Prussian army that came to encircle and suppress them to return empty-handed.

Even the foreign legions helped with the encirclement and suppression several times, but the results were not very effective.

If they were just simple rebels, even the Chu army would not care too much. However, these rebels not only rebelled against the ruling class in the Duchy of Prussia, they also shouted slogans such as expelling the Chu people and taking back German rights, and caused sabotage from time to time.

Even the railways have been destroyed by them many times.

This naturally angered the Chu people. Without the Duchy of Prussia asking for help, the Chu people increased the number of foreign legion troops stationed in the area.

Not to mention other regions, there is an entire Foreign Legion Infantry Division stationed in Berlin and its surrounding areas alone: ​​the 63rd Foreign Legion Division. The troops of this division were recruited from Persia, with a total strength of approximately 13,000 people.

Then there were two other divisions stationed in other parts of the Duchy of Prussia, which were also foreign legions recruited from the West Asia region, namely the 64th Division and the 75th Division.

There are three foreign legion divisions stationed in this small principality, with a total strength of about 40,000 troops. In addition, there is the 107th Infantry Regiment of the 27th Division of the Great Chu Imperial Army, as well as corresponding artillery and supplies, stationed in Berlin to intimidate the entire Duchy of Prussia.

It formed a mixed regiment-level battle group that was more common among the Chu army in overseas areas. This temporary mixed regiment usually temporarily drew an infantry regiment, an artillery battalion, a baggage battalion, a cavalry company or an armored vehicle company to form a mixed force with independent combat capabilities. It was usually led by a deputy division commander at the brigadier general level, with a strength of between 5,000 and 6,000 people, equipped with more than a dozen 75mm artillery, multiple 70mm mountain cannons, 80mm and 60mm mortars, and at least a dozen and as many as twenty or thirty armored vehicles.

  It is mainly used as a strategic deterrent force in a certain critical area!

The reason why it is called a strategic deterrent force is that the Chu army generally does not use regular troops for security operations with the indigenous people, small-scale operations, etc., nor will they be stationed too dispersedly. They are often concentrated together in a certain place to serve as strategic pillars when military operations are carried out.

Daily patrols, public security operations, small-scale sporadic combat and other tasks are all undertaken by the foreign legion.

However, although the foreign legions are stronger than the indigenous people, they are not invincible. In a head-on battle, they will definitely defeat the indigenous rebels. But the indigenous rebels are not stupid. They will never engage in a head-on battle with you. They will engage in small-scale harassment operations, especially small-scale operations in complex terrain. Occasionally, they will send a small team to sneak in and ambush your patrols, outposts and the like.

When your large group of people chase after them, they will run away in minutes and go directly into the mountains and forests, leaving you helplessly watching.

If you chase them into the mountains and forests, even if you move with a large group of people, they will still avoid you. Although your large group of people entering the mountains may seem to be a grand show, it is actually useless. You won't see even a single person after entering the mountains for several days.

If you disperse and conduct a search-style expedition into the mountains, then they will use their familiarity with the terrain to shoot you from behind.

You said you didn't want to chase them anymore and went back, but two days later they came out again to ambush your patrol and shot your sentry from a distance...

Unless you are willing to give up control of remote small towns and actively withdraw your troops to large cities...even so, there will occasionally be rebels who sneak into these cities, secretly fire a gun, plant explosives, or something like that.

This is disgusting.

You say you want to fight, but you can’t find anyone, and it’s disgusting if you don’t fight.

Therefore, even a strong army like the Chu Army had a headache dealing with these flexible rebels.

This is also the reason why the Great Chu Empire has continued to strengthen its support for the armies of its proxy countries in recent years, liberalized the export rights of single-shot rifles, and further armed the military strength of the proxy countries.

To put it bluntly, the people of Chu were confused by these scattered and endless rebels, and they wanted to arm their lackeys and let them fight against the rebels.

To be honest, there were some results. In some areas, the effects were quite good. For example, in England, this policy of the Chu people was very effective. Many rebel forces that were active in the early years were successively wiped out.

However, in some areas with more complicated situations, the effect was not significant, and it might even have a counterproductive effect: the proxy army armed by the Chu people became the transport captain, allowing the rebels to obtain the single-shot rifles exported by the Chu people through battlefield seizures, black market smuggling, and other means.

This is very embarrassing! And the dozen or so states in the German region are the hardest hit areas.

This place was already in chaos before, and later the Chu people forcibly supported the integration of thirteen states, but even so, they were unable to completely change the chaotic situation in these places, with numerous mountaintops and various rebels emerging one after another.

Moreover, many rebels were not actually against the Chu people at the beginning, but due to internal conflicts of interest. However, as the fighting went on, they gradually began to attack the Chu people... Especially some of the more intelligent rebel leaders, they were able to see the essence of things, and knew that the local chaos and economic backwardness, and the reasons why the people were oppressed were not only the local ruling class, but also inseparable from the Chu people.

  Because these ruling classes are all lackeys of the Chu people!

If you beat the lackeys of the Chu people, the Chu people will definitely support the lackeys... So it is not enough to just beat the lackeys, you also have to beat the lackeys' masters, so that the lackeys' masters feel the pain and become afraid, and will finally retreat.

Unfortunately, so far there has been no example of the Chu people withdrawing from any indigenous vassal state.

Faced with the attacks of these rebels, the Chu people would take a very strong stance to retaliate and encircle them.

Just like what is happening now in the Duchy of Prussia, the local situation has deteriorated rapidly since last year, resulting in thousands of Foreign Legion troops stationed in the area being forced to retreat to several major cities, and the rebels have captured many small and medium-sized cities.

But what did the Chu people do?

The Chu people dispatched three foreign legion infantry divisions and a regular army of the size of a mixed regiment in one go!

Then the army marched forward, and in less than a month, they had recaptured all the cities previously captured by the rebels and drove the rebels back into the deep mountains and forests.

Even so, the Chu people did not intend to give up. Instead, they adopted a strict blockade and a dragnet-style advancement model, gradually squeezing the living space of these rebels.

And now, the Chu army has even dispatched air force planes to conduct aerial reconnaissance, find the lairs of these rebel groups, and then directly wipe them out.

In particular, according to reliable intelligence, these rebel groups are equipped with a considerable number of homemade single-shot rifles. It is very likely that they obtained smuggled mechanical equipment and then secretly hid somewhere to manufacture weapons.

Whether it is the rebels who have angered the Chu people or the potential illegal arsenals, they are targets that the Chu army must eliminate.

However, it is not easy to find these rebels in the deep mountains and forests, and it is also not easy to find the illegal arsenal where they are hiding.

Simply sending ground scouts from the foreign legion to conduct reconnaissance would be ineffective.

The combat effectiveness of the King's army of the Duchy of Prussia was so poor that before the large-scale attack of the Chu army, they had even lost more than 80% of their territory. They could only hide behind the Chu people and huddle in a limited number of medium and large cities.

Instead of asking them to go into the mountains to search for those elusive indigenous rebels, it would be better to let them die. This way, there would be no need to worry about weapons, equipment, food and other supplies falling into the hands of those indigenous rebels.

The weak combat power of the King of Prussia's army also made the high-ranking officials and generals of the Great Chu Empire stationed in Europe very helpless... In fact, there was a lot of equipment and even material support, but the tactical level and morale were really not good.

In order to maintain long-term stability in the Duchy of Prussia, the Chu Army even selected some foreign officers from the Foreign Legion to serve as instructors in the King's Army of the Duchy of Prussia, teaching these damn natives how to fight with single-shot rifles.

But military training is not a short-term thing. It will take at least one or two years to see results.

As for now, the Chu army was determined to go into battle personally, and the indigenous troops were just acting as guides and cannon fodder. Now all kinds of troops were ready, and they were just waiting for the reconnaissance intelligence from the air force.

After the more than 30 Black Swallow aircraft, pilots and ground crew of the 3rd Squadron of the 2nd Flying Regiment arrived in Berlin, they rested for a few days and maintained the aircraft before starting combat deployment, with several squadrons taking off in turns to conduct intensive aerial reconnaissance in the designated directions.

The twelve aircraft of the first squadron were deployed further forward, directly to the base of the 191st Infantry Regiment of the 64th Division of the Foreign Legion, which was close to the front line.

This is a small town. About ten kilometers ahead is a hilly area where rebels often appear. Although the mountains there are not very high, the forests are dense. The 191st Infantry Regiment has sent troops to clear them out many times. Although many sporadic battles have occurred, they have not been able to catch the main force of the rebels.

The mission of the First Squadron now is to find out the main force of the bandit army hidden in the mountains through aerial reconnaissance, guide the 191st Infantry Regiment to encircle and suppress them, and provide certain air support.

On August 17, after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the 1st Squadron completed its repairs and replenishment, mainly after waiting for a batch of fuel and ammunition transported by the logistics troops, and then sent an aircraft into the air for the first time to perform a reconnaissance mission.

Just as the sun rose in the morning, a team of four planes took off one after another and flew towards the north.

When the plane took off, many West Asian soldiers of the Foreign Legion stared at the big iron birds in the sky in amazement. Many local natives in the town and nearby areas also saw the four big iron birds flying in the sky. Many people panicked, and some even fell to the ground and shouted nonsense about ghosts and gods.

Air Force Second Lieutenant Qian Linwei looked at the ignorant natives on the ground below from the plane, shook his head slightly, and then ignored these ignorant natives. After slightly adjusting the direction, he followed the captain's car in front and flew towards the jungle in the north.

And his luck seemed to be very good. Just half an hour later, the reconnaissance pilot and machine gunner in the back seat said that he saw a team of about dozens of people on the ground, and they were armed.

There is no doubt that the indigenous troops who were able to appear in the mountains at this time were all rebels.

Now that he had discovered the rebels' traces, he did not hesitate. After shaking his wings to notify the surrounding friendly aircraft, he turned right, left the formation, and flew towards the rebels in front.

As the distance got closer, the indigenous rebels seemed to have noticed something unusual in the air and looked a little panicked, but they did not try to evade... They had never seen a plane, and they didn't know there was an 8mm machine gun on it.

Qian Linwei controlled the plane to fly over the enemy and lowered it to an altitude of about 200 to 300 meters. He maintained the speed at about 80 kilometers per hour and began to circle steadily. At the same time, he shouted to the scout and machine gunner in the rear: "Leave it to you!"

The scout and machine gunner in the back seat did not answer, but instead controlled the heavy machine gun and aimed at the indigenous rebel column below and to the side and pulled the trigger.

As the sound of bullets was heard, dense bullets fired by the 8mm aviation machine gun fell into the ranks of the indigenous rebels, instantly causing the rebel soldiers to fall to the ground and causing heavy casualties!

  The first air-to-ground strafing operation in human history has occurred!

(End of this chapter)