Castle of Black Iron

“Whether the air cavalries trained by pilot academies in the 4 provinces could attend battle now?”

“I could only say they have mastered the basic combat skills by airplanes. However, the real fighters couldn’t be trained by pilot academies; instead, they could only be trained on the battlefields!”

“How many air cavalries could be trained by the end of this year?”

“There’re total 341 pilot academies within the 4 provinces. By the end of this year, these pilot academies could train over 1 million air cavalries in total. We’ve already produced an equal number of airplanes. In the next year, the number of pilot academies within the 4 provinces could even increase by two times. Some excellent flight students could become coaches. Therefore, over 2 million air cavalries could be trained in the 4 provinces by next year…”

“Besides those in the theater of operations, whether Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory has established other pilot academies across Taixia Country?”

“Starting from two years ago, Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory has started to train a batch of air cavalries for Black Armor Army. Later on, we trained a batch of air cavalries for Lord Guangnan’s Mansion and Heavenly Fortune Sect. Last year, Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory also accepted the requests from some major clans who got along well with us and helped them train a batch of air cavalries. As of now, the air cavalries trained by Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory have started to spread over the country. Many air cavalries of Fire-Dragon Corps have been assigned to establish pilot academies across the country at the request of provincial governors and prefectural governors and major clans. Up to now, the number of pilot academies across the country has been over 3,000. Additionally, the figure is also increasing day by day…”

Those pilot academies in Taixia Country were the silent achievements of Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory in the past 2 years. Since commander Cheng Honglie assigned soldiers to learn airplane driving skills and usages of Fiery Oil weapons in Fire-Dragon Corps, the number of pilot academies had experienced explosive growth in the past 2 years. Any slightly far-sighted local officials or clan heads and elders of major clans and sects would understand the great prospect of Fiery Oil on the battlefield; especially the significance of the appearance of large batches of air cavalry troops. Therefore, after Commander Cheng Honglie’s action, those people who wanted to learn airplane driving skills and the usages of Fiery Oil weaponry almost wore out the doorstep of Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory.

Provincial and prefectural governors, clan heads and elders of major clans, their relatives or special envoys almost wore out the doorstep of Zhang family.

Zhang Tie knew them all. He had turned over the management of Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory to the Iron Heart Palace. Under the management of his wives, Zhang family won an increasingly greater sphere of influence with the opportunity brought by Fiery Oil, Fiery Oil weaponry and pilot academies.

After Zhang Tie left Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory for less than 1 year, the entire Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory had become the holy land for cultivating air cavalries in Taixia Country. It could be said without exaggeration that all the people who could drive airplanes in Taixia Country were basically trained by Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory.

As of now, there had been 16 pilot academies within Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory; however, the great demand for training air cavalries still couldn’t be met. Therefore, Fire-Dragon Corps could only assign fighters who had grasped airplane driving skills to help the other prefectures, provinces and major clans to establish pilot academies. The batch of fighters who learned airplane driving skills from Zhang Tie were almost headmasters and coaches of those new pilot academies. According to the tradition of the succession of teachings of Taixia Country, those air cavalries cultivated by these people were Zhang Tie’s disciples’ disciples.

The person who won the reputation of “the first air cavalry in Selnes Theater of Operations” had already been an instructor all over the country and become the forebear of all the air cavalries in Taixia Country. Zhang Tie was definitely the authoritarian in the realm of air cavalry being widely accepted by Taixia Country as a whole.

“In your opinion, whether these fresh air cavalries should be separated under the leadership of each corps or be arranged into an independent army?” Zuoqiu Mingyue inquired Zhang Tie about air cavalries. Given the performance of Zuoqiu Mingyue, he might have considered this question for a long time; however, he had not made the final decision. It’s concerning about the stability of the theater of operations and the frontline of Taixia Country as well as the life or death situation of hundreds of millions of people. Even at such a high position, Zuoqiu Mingyue should also pay special attention to it.

It’s not strange for air cavalries to be an independent armed service. It’s actually a tradition of human countries before the Catastrophe. The air force among the three services before the catastrophe referred to air cavalry troop. However, after the Catastrophe, because humans could only make airships instead of high-performance aircraft, whose combat capability couldn’t match that of airplanes, human countries don’t establish independent air force anymore. In this age, all the airship troops were almost the auxiliary armed services of the ground corps and were under the leadership of each corps leader. In emergencies, airship troops might be gathered to coordinate with the airship troops. However, if air cavalries became an army independently, it would be utterly different.

Zhang Tie had also considered about this question seriously. Therefore, the moment he heard Zuoqiu Mingyue’s question, Zhang Tie had answered him, “The new air cavalry troops are different than the previous airship troops on both weaponry and battle strength. If such a troop was completely commanded by a ground troop, it would not fully exert its battle strength. According to the experience of human air force before the Catastrophe, the air force was always more effective than ground troop in many cases…”

“Do you agree to make air cavalry an independent armed service?” Zuoqiu Mingyue asked solemnly.

“It’s very necessary to make air cavalry an independent armed service; however, we don’t need to be that anxious. Given the situation facing the theater of operations, each corps was matched with airship troops; all the air cavalry students in the theater of operations come from each corps. The ground corps have been accustomed to the coordination of air troops when in fight and have developed the corresponding combat and guidance system and concluded combat experience. This custom and system couldn’t be altered within a short period. I think that the first batch of air cavalries in the theater of operations will still be affiliated to the ground corps. As the subsidiary combat unit of ground corps, they should follow the order of ground corps so that the air cavalries could rapidly respond to the combat demand of the ground corps in some areas when maintaining the original combat and battlefield guidance system of those ground corps. In this way, the overall battle strength and morale of ground corps would not be weakened too much due to adjustments!”

Zhang Tie became silent for a few seconds before continuing, “Meanwhile, we should see many shortcomings from ground troops’ command of air cavalries. The air cavalries that are affiliated to ground corps would play their advantages in some areas; however, as long as the battlefield covers one province even many provinces, single air cavalry troops being affiliated to ground corps would become sparse and hard to coordinate with. As long as a large-scale encounter or battle being involved with dozens of even over 100 corps happens, the air cavalry troops that are fully commanded by the ground corps would barely form a powerful punch due to excessive decentralized strength or meet the overall strategic demand of the entire theater of operations. Therefore, it’s urgent to establish an independent air cavalry troop that is especially governed by the commander-in-chief which could take into account the overall situation facing the theater of operations!”

“You mean our air cavalry troops should be divided into two parts. One part could form an independent armed service which could take into account the overall situation facing the theater of operations and fight demons independently; the other part is still affiliated to the ground corps!” Zuoqiu Mingyue relieved his frown as he asked calmly.

“Yes!”

Zuoqiu Mingyue finally revealed a faint smile as Zhang Tie’s answer was as same as the system of air cavalries of Taixia Country in the future that he had conceived. Because this issue was of great importance, although Zuoqiu Mingyue had already got the idea, he didn’t make a decision urgently. Now that Zhang Tie was a “top expert” in this issue, Zuoqiu Mingyue inquired Zhang Tie about his opinion by hand in order to confirm whether his idea had any loopholes or somewhere to fix. Zhang Tie’s answer made Zuoqiu Mingyue reassured completely. At the same time, he had a greater comment on Zhang Tie inside. As the commander-in-chief of Taixia Country, Zuoqiu Mingyue should have such a judgment. However, Zhang Tie shared the same opinion with him on this issue. This indicated that Zhang Tie was already qualified to rule the overall situation. What was more, Zhang Tie was selfless about the solution to this issue. In some sense, it implied that Zhang Tie was sincere and loyal to Taixia Country very much.

Squinting his eyes, Zuoqiu Mingyue watched Zhang Tie as he found that Zhang Tie was more and more favorable. He realized that Zhang Tie could stabilize the overall situation facing the rear end and diffuse his concerns in the theater of operations. If Zhang Tie stayed on Zuoqiu Mingyue’s side, he could give Zuoqiu Mingyue advice; even if Zhang Tie was on the battlefield, he could also be responsible for the security of an area by slaughtering and threatening demons. What a rare hero in Taixia Country!

“Qianji Hermit really has a well-deserved reputation. Zhang Huaiyuan really has a good successor. I couldn’t match you at your age…” Zuoqiu Mingyue let out a deep sigh.

It was a bit excessive for the Military God to praise Zhang Tie’s alias. Therefore, Zhang Tie hurriedly bowed after hearing it…

After feeling Zhang Tie’s silence, Zuoqiu Mingyue suddenly said, “I’ve got a junior at home. She’s beautiful and talented, able and virtuous. Given her look, she could ensure her husband to have a bright future. She’s the pearl of Biyong Palace of Zuoqiu Clan. As she’s not married yet, I intend to marry her to you, what do you think about it?”

After hearing Zuoqiu Mingyue’s suggestion, Zhang Tie became dumbfounded as he had never imagined that…

‘What…what the hell…’