Munitions Empire

Chapter 600: 559 Accidental Fall

Above the sky, the Stuka Dive Bombers of the Great Tang Kingdom were howling towards the ground. Then, without any attempt to pull up, they slammed into the earth and became a dazzling blaze of fire.

There was no warning, nor any interference from anti-aircraft fire. This was the second aircraft the Air Force troops of the Great Tang Kingdom had lost in these days.

The first aircraft crashed on the runway on its return flight due to improper operation; it was an FW-190 fighter. The pilot, with broken bones, was pulled out from the slightly deformed cockpit by ground personnel and sent to the hospital.

This time, the two pilots aboard the crashed Stuka Dive Bomber were not so lucky. They were unable to parachute out in time, crashing with the aircraft and exploding in a fiery blast.

It wasn’t only encounters with enemy interceptors or being hit by ground artillery that could result in aircraft losses.

Even in peacetime, it wasn’t so unthinkable for a commercial airliner, which had been subjected to countless inspections, to suddenly experience a mechanical failure.

Moreover, this was a time of war. All aircraft, even if they had minor issues, wouldn’t affect their deployment.

Some pilots would even volunteer, preferring to fly into battle with an aircraft that had a minor malfunction. This was considered a sign of bravery.

Now, the Great Tang Group had lost their first aircraft in war, along with two heroic and fearless pilots.

The remaining covering aircraft circled in the sky for a long time, as if it had lost its partner, not reluctantly leaving until its fuel ran low.

On the ground, surrounded by parts scattered from the explosion around the still not fully extinguished flames, the charred bodies of the Tang pilots were utterly beyond recognition. Outside the severely deformed cockpit, countless Qi Country soldiers timidly surrounded the wreckage.

They observed the devil that had fallen from the sky with terror, clueless about how the thing could have flown into the heavens.

They looked at the thin, burnt, and deformed sheet metal, the half of the propeller that had been blown off, and the engine that was now unrecognizable.

To them, these items, including the broken wings, the snapped long-wave radio antenna, and the twisted metal bars on the cockpit canopy, were beyond their comprehension.

They viewed this object in much the same way as a group of Earthlings would gather around to observe a UFO. Their meager knowledge made it impossible for them to understand what lay before their eyes.

Imagine, if you will, a person from the year 1980 encountering an iPhone 13 — they might not even have the courage to disassemble it for study.

Engineers would not recognize the battery that’s about the size of a piece of chewing gum, nor would they comprehend the mysterious vibrating module, or the CPU—about the size of a little fingernail—whose processing power rivals that of a massive computer…

But in front of these soldiers from Qi Country was a Stuka Dive Bomber! Just a minute ago, it had been soaring through the sky, ready to drop a 500-kilogram bomb on the heads of these very soldiers from Qi Country!

“There’s someone inside that!” pointed out one of the Qi Country soldiers who had first gathered around the unrecognizable cockpit, saying to the officer who had arrived.

“There is another one behind! I saw it very clearly when it was burning, I saw his face! A face covered in blood!” Another soldier also chimed in, their curiosity about the crashed aircraft evident.

“This is something from that aircraft!” Holding out a small piece of metal as if offering treasure, a Qi Country soldier handed it to the Qi Country officer who had approached, nervously beginning to explain.

The Qi Country officer, looking baffled, took the nondescript piece of metal from the soldier, with its two rivet holes, not knowing what to say.@@novelbin@@

The aircraft had been unrecognizable from the moment it crashed, the entire frame already damaged, with parts already detached.

Since it crashed directly while diving, the explosion was particularly fierce, and the aviation fuel that hadn’t completely burned up evaporated most of the aircraft’s skin.

And because the entire incident was so severe, other Tang pilots, after confirming that this plane had crashed, didn’t bother with a coup de grâce using bombs to destroy the remains of the aircraft.

The first reason was that bombing was inaccurate, and the results would not be very good—the current bombs didn’t have a hit rate for targets the size of an aircraft. It was easy to destroy a cannon; shrapnel could damage the gun carriage or kill personnel, but to expect shrapnel to destroy an already scrapped aircraft was unrealistic.

The second reason was that it wasn’t necessary, as the crashed aircraft had been destroyed in the explosion, and the technology worth studying had been nearly obliterated. Only a box was probably left of the radio communication device, while the bombing sight was gone without a trace, and the engine had likely been reduced to a frame.

The delicate and precious transmission systems and cable arrangements had been completely destroyed by the explosion and fire, and even the aircraft’s overall frame had been severely damaged— even if the wreckage was transported back for study, it was unlikely to hold any value.

Even so, the people of Qi Country still believed that the object had value. At least the soldiers of Qi Country thought that the thing was evil and powerful and that one could acquire some special powers by getting a touch of its demonic aura.

No one knows who first came up with this idea, or perhaps these naive soldiers of Qi Country just wanted to keep some valuable battlefield souvenirs.

Therefore, nearly all the parts scattered around the airplane were picked up by the onlookers and pocketed.

Some took a rivet, others a piece of sheet metal… Once other people who were late to the idea caught on, the wreckage of the airplane, which had only just stopped burning, gradually “evaporated,” losing much of itself.

By the time Shireck’s men arrived at the scene, all that was left was something resembling a skeleton and an immovable, scrapped engine.

But even this scrapped engine had all its pistons emptied, and the spark plugs and connecting rods inside had been burned away or taken by someone.

“What about the other parts?” asked an advisor from Shireck, turning his head in annoyance to inquire of the Qi Country officer who had followed them.

The officer from Qi Country wore an apologetic face and began to explain, “We also didn’t have the equipment to put out the fire, so many parts burned.”

“Was this also burned?” the advisor from Shireck asked, pointing to a screw hole clearly missing a portion, indicating it had been removed, “It doesn’t show any signs of having been burned around it! It is obvious it was dismantled by someone!”

“I don’t know about that,” the officer from Qi Country shrugged off the responsibility, showing an attitude of ‘I’ve done all I can’.

Meanwhile, another advisor from Shireck was continuously snapping photos of the scant remains of the airplane, not sparing his film at all.

In his hand was a camera produced by the Great Tang Group, compact and precise, clearly very valuable.

“Do you see the perforations here? They’ve made progress in materials science…” While photographing the wreckage of the Stuka Dive Bomber, the advisor from Shireck remarked.

“Yes, and the machining precision has improved as well… Even though it’s burned like this… The perforations are uniform, the sheet metal that’s left… We probably couldn’t manufacture it, it’s too thin,” the other advisor from Shireck, who had just been glaring at the Qi Country officer, agreed.

Despite the wreckage being only a shadow of its former self, these experts, who have been studying this field for years, could instantly spot certain advancements.

It was a shame that most of Shireck’s advisors were focused on military command, so these two technical experts had been temporarily brought in from a distant location.

It was precisely because they were waiting for their arrival that two days were delayed, during which the wreckage of the Stuka Dive Bomber suffered unimaginable destruction.

“And the weapons? There should have been weapons!” Knowing from previous reports that this type of aircraft was obviously armed, the photographer advisor from Shireck suddenly realized something and asked.

“During the dive, there should have been two 20mm caliber autocannons! We have collected their bullets!” Another expert from Shireck turned again toward the Qi Country officer, filled with dissatisfaction.

They might have arrived two days late, but those parts would only be of use in their hands—what use could Qi Country make of similar wreckage fragments? After all, they couldn’t even manage their own basic industry, let alone copy an airplane; they couldn’t even produce a car.

The current industry in Qi Country was at a level where they could produce some bullets and shells and repair cars made by countries like Shireck.

“This… I really don’t know,” said the Qi Country officer, who in fact knew exactly what was going on but still pretended ignorance.

He was of course aware of where the two autocannons that had been burned on the plane and the similarly burned and deformed MG-34 machine gun had gone, but he could not say.

Some of these weapons had been ordered to be taken to King City, and one of the autocannons seemed to be desired by some dignitaries from the Dahua Empire, along with some fragments and parts, all of which were being prepared to go to the Dahua Empire.

In short, there were too many people in Qi Country whom they could not afford to offend; many coveted the military technology of Great Tang, even if it was just a glimmer of hope, even if it was just an ephemeral wish, they wanted it! They wanted it badly!

“…” Although frustrated, the advisor expert from Shireck still held back from losing his temper because he needed the cooperation of the others, to somehow transport all the wreckage to Beiyuan City.

These items would then be shipped from there to Shen Country, transported from Shen Country back to the south controlled by Shireck, with the final destination being Flame Castle.

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