() After a period of negotiation, Ron and Miss Kong Er reached an agreement. The two parties will first build the first airport in Guanghan. According to the agreement, the airport will be built by Miss Kong Er's company. The construction cost includes

Some necessary supplies that need to be purchased from the United States also need to add shipping costs. Other prices, except for labor, are completely comparable to those in the United States. The labor price is one-half of the same price in the United States. Calculated in this way, the airport’s

Although the cost is not low, it is not as high as the sky-high price of US$300 million for five airports.

For Miss Kong Er, this is of course not as profitable as directly settling with legal currency first and then converting it into U.S. dollars according to the official exchange rate. However, since Americans have noticed this trap, Miss Kong Er also understands that Americans are not domestic.

Those low-level people can use force to force others to submit. If they really make people unhappy, if they break up, they won't make a penny. But according to the current plan, Miss Kong Er can still make a lot of money.

For less money.

It must be said that in this project, Miss Kong Er, or kmt, showed really good efficiency. Just one week after the two parties signed the agreement, the construction of the airport started in full swing. According to the agreement, the construction of the airport

It should be completed within 5 months. Judging from Ms. Kong Er’s efficiency, it should not be a big problem to complete it as scheduled.

According to the design, Guanghan Airport will have two runways. The main runway is 2,600 meters long and 60 meters wide. The secondary runway is 1,400 meters long and 45 meters wide. The entire airport covers an area of ​​6,000 acres. In order to be able to take off and land heavy bombers weighing 60 tons

, the runway of this airport is even more of a high standard.

According to the design, the airport runway should first be paved with large cobblestones, then paved with gravel, repeatedly rolled and solidified, then poured with cement, rolled and solidified, then paved with gravel, then poured with cement, and so on.

, the entire runway will eventually have a concrete layer up to 0.6 meters thick.

Compared with the United States, China seriously lacks heavy machinery. Therefore, the construction of the entire airport relies almost entirely on manpower. This even includes the crushing of stones and the ramming and rolling of the runway. However, in China, manpower is very abundant. The kmt government directly

Nearly 100,000 farmers were requisitioned for the construction of the airport. Due to the recruitment method, these people did not need to be paid for use, and they only needed to provide food. Of course, Miss Kong Er will not reimburse the Americans when the time comes.

This is how it was reported.

After the airport started construction, Ron went to see it several times. The scene reminded him of the scene he had seen in the documentary during the Li Shitou era's water conservancy overhaul:

On the huge construction site, there are crowds of heads everywhere. Countless people are divided into groups. Some are busy shoveling the land, and some are carrying burdens to transport the excavated soil to other places.

There are also groups of dozens of people, who pull huge stone rollers dragged by ropes twisted out of moso bamboo to flatten the land. These huge stone rollers, which are taller than people, are all local masons. For this purpose

Engineering, professional

Workers worked overtime to chisel it out, chisel after chisel. The Chinese did not have giant rollers, so they had to rely on this method to solve the problem. And these huge stone rollers, after the airport was built, basically there were no other

After they have completed their historical mission, they are often randomly abandoned near the airport. Before traveling, Ron had seen such large stone rollers near many airports in Sichuan.

On the other side, countless people pushing wheelbarrows were transporting carloads of cobblestones from the shore of the Minjiang River. Since the few cars were used in more important places, the two

All the cobblestones needed to pave the runway had to be pushed in with one wheelbarrow and one cart.

Next to the runway, a huge hangar is under construction. Also built at the same time as the hangar are several huge factories with mysterious purposes, as well as large tracts of housing. At that time, some Chinese personnel asked why so many buildings were needed near the airport.

Housing. But they only got an answer from the Americans: "Military secrets, no comment." In fact, these factories are the future incendiary bomb assembly plants, where micro incendiary bombs will be glued to bats and then loaded into the dispersal

utensils. As for those houses, they were prepared for workers at that time.

The construction speed of the airport is quite fast. Although there is a lack of heavy machinery, although most of the requisitioned migrant workers are malnourished, and although their due wages are completely deducted, these simple Chinese farmers still rely on their devotion to the motherland - although they

I may not use this word - the purest loyalty and love, with their skinny hands full of cracks, and their weak but steel-strong shoulders, carried this huge project and made it faster than mechanized construction.

The speed is rapid and rapid.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Ron remembered a conversation he had with General Stilwell a few months ago when he first came to China in this era.

In that conversation, while General Stilwell scolded the KMT government, he also spoke highly of the Chinese soldiers.

"Chinese soldiers are the best soldiers I have ever seen. They are determined, tenacious, and love the motherland. If they can get proper leadership, advanced equipment, and reliable logistics support, they can compete with any Allied force. You are very good.

It is hard to imagine the circumstances under which these soldiers persisted in resisting the Japanese for several years. Their military salaries were embezzled, and their logistics could not even ensure that they had enough to eat. More than half of them were seriously injured.

Malnutrition, kilometers

The above running may directly cause death. They did not receive any decent training before going to the battlefield. Some of them had not even fired a shot before going to the battlefield! Countless soldiers died in battle, and they fired more bullets than American recruits.

They fought a lot in a week of training. If they change soldiers from many countries, they will definitely collapse immediately, such as France and many countries in Europe. It's a pity that their governments have been wasting their loyalty and blood!"

In fact, China not only has the best soldiers, but they also have the loveliest people! Just as Mu Dan said:

"How many dynasties rose and fell around him

And put hope and despair on him,"

"How many times have happy songs flowed by on the road,

How many times have sorrows come upon him;"

Our people have experienced countless unspeakable sufferings, but our people have never given up hope, never stopped yearning for a better tomorrow, never stopped fighting, and have never been afraid of sacrifice.

“On the road people were speaking, shouting, and merry,

But he didn't, he just put down the ancient hoe,

Believe in nouns again and melt into the love of the public,

Determined, he watched himself dissolve into death.

And this road is infinitely long

And he cannot shed tears,

He did not shed tears because a nation had risen."

Believe in the people of the motherland, rely on the people of the motherland! Only by integrating with them can we be extremely determined and tenacious, and have the real power of "dare to make the sun and the moon change the sky".

However, Ron has no way to stay here. He cannot stay in China for five months. Therefore, when most things are on track, he will return to the United States again. Firstly, it is for scientific research there.

Someone still has to keep an eye on it, and secondly, the "Reverse Cross" flying team is about to face another big change.

When the "Reverse Cross" was first established, it was a relatively simple air combat training unit. Its main task was to adapt the pilots to various air combats. However, with the development of the war, the forms of air combat became more and more complex, and the military's air combat

There are also more and more requirements for strength. As far as fighter units are concerned, in addition to traditional escort and interception, safari has become an extremely important way of combat. Previously, the "reverse cross"

"There is not much content about safari in the training subjects. Moreover, with the weakening of Germany's power, especially the weakening of the Luftwaffe, the opportunities for conventional air combat for fighter units have been greatly reduced, but the opportunities for attacking ground targets have been greatly reduced.

Increased. With the second battlefield still under consideration, it is an inevitable trend that more and more air power will be used for direct fire support. It is also imperative to strengthen training in this area.

In addition, the bomber and attack aircraft units have also put forward new requirements. In the past, the bomber unit's requirements were only to train the fleet on how to resist enemy interception and how to cooperate with its own fighter units. But now, they have put forward more requirements.

The medium and light bomber attack aircraft units have proposed increasing training requirements for cooperating with fighter units to defeat enemy air interceptions and suppress ground anti-aircraft fire when performing low-altitude and ultra-low-altitude direct fire support ground clearing missions. Over in the South Pacific, Gray Wolf's men

Those B-25s were not satisfied with just bombing the Japanese ground targets. After taking advantage of the ricochet bombs in March 1943, they actually strongly demanded that the training contents include attacking warships and attacking submarines.

, so as to compete for business with the navy.

Under these various requirements, the expansion of the mission scope and personnel of the "Reverse Cross" has become inevitable. At present, the "Reverse Cross" only has two squadrons of combat aircraft and flight personnel directly under its control, and there are also

They are all fighter units.

With such a scale and organization, it is impossible to fulfill so many of the requirements mentioned above. Therefore, the expansion of the "Reverse Cross" is imperative. While Ron and Miss Kong Er were negotiating, General Arnold

A telegram was sent, asking Ron to formulate a corresponding plan as soon as possible.

According to Ron's idea, the "Reverse Cross" should be expanded to the wing level, and the organization should include two fighter squadrons, an attack aircraft squadron and a medium bomber squadron. In addition, the "Reverse Cross" must also have its own direct subordinate

Ground forces. These forces include ground target forces and air defense forces that simulate enemy forces. Ground target forces should

It should have its own armored vehicles and ships, and the anti-aircraft force that simulates the enemy's army should be equipped with the enemy's anti-aircraft weapons and fight according to the enemy's combat methods. At the same time, the "Reverse Cross" training base should also be enriched. It should include various common

The terrain is the simplest plains, mountains and forests where anti-aircraft weapons can be hidden, and beaches.

The two fighter squadrons now have the "Reverse Cross", but some adjustments in personnel are still necessary. Some pilots may leave the "Reverse Cross" to go to other units, or temporarily support from the fighter squadron to other squadrons, and

Other pilots who have distinguished themselves in the war will join them. However, this number will not be too large, and in general, the fighter squadron will remain stable.

As for the other two squadrons, they basically need to be rebuilt. This is a difficult problem. The U.S. Army Aviation still lacks experience in this area and does not have many real aces. The Navy is very strong in this aspect, but let the Army

The aviation industry went to the navy for help? Forget it, although the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy have not yet reached the point where they are as incompatible as the Japanese army and navy, it is absolutely impossible for the Army Aviation Group to do such a shameful thing. It seems that the selection of pilots

, we can only temporarily adopt the method of choosing the eldest son among the short ones.

Compared with the selection of pilots, the teaching syllabus of the new squadron may be a bigger problem. Although I have obtained a lot of information from the Soviets, the second-hand information is second-hand after all, and it is still different from my own experience. New

I'm afraid there will be many, many loopholes in the syllabus. However, there is nothing we can do about it. We can only improve it step by step in practice.

There is also the air defense force, and its construction is probably no less important than other fighter squadrons.
Chapter completed!