"...The god of death came just like that. The 150,000 troops led by Prince Gaston, the scythe of death, fell from the sky, and the highway turned into a hell.
When everything was over, thousands of carriages on the road were burning in flames. The exploding shells shattered the carriages into pieces. Within a few hundred meters of the road, there were corpses of people and horses everywhere. No one counted them.
How many people died, but in the end, less than a third of them fled to Sao Paulo. For Brazilians, this is a "road of death."
Overnight, the name of the "Death Road" became famous with the news report of the "New York Times", which of course also intensified Americans' fear of airships.
The airship, as a weapon that was born only a few years ago, has shown amazing power. Although it has not destroyed the world, it still plunged Americans into the "airship panic". After all, the Ming Dynasty... that
But the potential enemy of the United States!
…
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, USA.
At this time, a special armament meeting was being held.
"The role of large-scale long-range airships is very, very, very important! Everything proves this. Since the Ming army invaded Brazil, the Brazilian army was not so much defeated by the Ming army as it was defeated by the Ming army.
The airship troops destroyed it! From the outbreak of the war until now, except for the fierce land battle between the Ming army and the Brazilian army in Montevideo, their tactic more often than not is bombing!"
General Grant, as Secretary of War, emphasized in a particularly emphatic tone.
"Bombing! Bombing, bombing, and finally, before their infantry entered the battlefield, the Brazilian army actually suffered heavy losses!"
"etc,"
President Hayes suddenly interrupted,
"General, I remember you said before that an airship is a very fragile weapon."
"Yes, Mr. President."
Grant explained.
"It is fragile because it uses hydrogen. As long as we can ignite it, it will be vulnerable. But as long as we can't hit it, it will not fall from the sky on its own! What will fall will only be bombs!"
The whole world knows that airships are fragile, but the whole world knows that airships are difficult to attack because cannonballs will not explode when they hit the airbag, and bullets will just make a small hole when they hit the airbag.
"If we can't defeat him, how can we resist the airships? Even if we build a lot of airships, what's the point?"
"Mr. President, at least if we have airships, we will not be beaten passively. When they use airships to bomb us, we can also use airships to fight back against them. Well... maybe, this is the balance of terror, of course.
, and it’s not just that. We will develop combat airships. Like the people of the Ming Dynasty, they use machine guns to penetrate the airbags, and then use flare guns to ignite the airships. Of course, we are discussing with arms dealers the design of a special high-speed flare.
Not only can it penetrate the air bag, but it can also ignite the hydrogen."
Grant's words made President Hayes frown. He looked at the report on the construction of 300 airships that was about to be submitted to Congress for consideration, and then said.
"Since we have this kind of weapon, do we still need to build an airship?"
"Balance, Mr. President, we not only need combat airships that can intercept airships, but also airships that can bomb. After all, the Brazilian battlefield has proven this. Any army without airships is destined to fail! We can
I saw that the Ming people turned airships into air cruisers. They searched for ground targets everywhere and bombed them. They were like a pack of wolves. After discovering the target, they pounced on them from all directions and killed them. This is how Prince Gaston failed.
.”
After thinking for a while, Grant said again.
"And I have a guess, an educated guess!"
"Oh? What's your guess? General"
President Hayes asked rhetorically.
"In the past few days, I have been thinking...maybe the people of the Ming Dynasty already have a new telegraph machine, a telegraph machine that does not require cables!"
"A telegraph that doesn't require cables?"
President Hayes was stunned.
"Is it possible to send a telegram without using cables?"
"Mr. President!" Secretary of State William Maxwell Evarts answered, taking the question.
"This is not impossible. Of course, from our perspective, it seems like a fantasy. However, considering the existence of Ming Dynasty's "Imperial Central Laboratory", which has been leading the world's scientific frontiers in the past ten years,
It is very likely that they have developed a telegraph machine that does not require cables! It may even have been used for several years. Otherwise, there would not be so many coincidences - how did the Ming Dynasty know immediately about events happening overseas?
and dispatch their fleet quickly."
"Yes, Mr. President, once is a coincidence, then twice can never be a coincidence!"
Before the Prime Minister realized the seriousness of the problem, Grant further explained:
"Mr. President, as we all know, large rigid airships have a very long air control time and a very long flight distance. Large airships can fly continuously for hundreds of hours and the flight distance can reach thousands of miles! If they have this kind of telegraph machine
, the location of the discovered target can be promptly reported to the air patrol airship and the rear base... This is also the situation faced by the Brazilians... Every move of the Brazilians is always under the surveillance of the Ming airship! As they march
When I was there, I suffered a devastating blow!”
How did the Highway of Death become the Highway of Death?
That's how it became the Highway of Death - spotted by an airship, rallied by telegraph, and bombed by a group!
But for the world at this time, all this is just their speculation, and even Grant is not sure that this speculation is true.
"Of course, this is just our speculation, but other than that, is there any other better explanation?"
Apart from this, of course there is no other better explanation, but just speculation is not enough. After thinking for a while, President Hayes asked.
"Are there any scientists who can confirm this? I mean scientists who know enough about Ming Dynasty, not scientists who know nothing about Ming Dynasty."
The reason why President Hayes emphasizes so much is because the vast majority of people in the United States do not know the Ming Dynasty. It can even be said that apart from the name and the crimes they committed, they do not have much clear understanding of this empire. That way
Scientists certainly cannot give an accurate answer.
"I do know a person who may be able to give us an accurate answer."