Sun Cannon's escape made the entire command center fall into an inexplicable atmosphere, and one after another, under Yan Xishan's order, a series of orders were issued, involving many troops.

For any army, it is very difficult to find three or four people in the vast area of more than a few tens of kilometers at night, unless it has been besieged before, otherwise there are roads everywhere and holes everywhere.

The elite troops of the Northwest Army such as the Third Army, at night and in a complex field environment, it is impossible to search an area of tens or even hundreds of square kilometers, which is not something that can be achieved by manpower, but now, this time Yan Xishan arrived in Nanjing, in addition to the Third Army, he also controls other forces.

In Yan Xishan's hands, there is something that can help find Sun Cannon, and this thing is none other than the Air Force.

Since Yang Yuanzhao entered the northwest, he has always attached more importance to the air force, and with the help of the all-in-one machine, in the forward-looking eyes of later generations, the air force in the northwest is not only the largest air force in this era, but also the air force with the most extensive occupational distribution.

In terms of functions, there are fighters, attack planes, light bombers, strategic bombers, and, of course, reconnaissance planes.

In the historical facts, in the early days of the First World War, the reconnaissance of both sides was still very friendly, and the two sides met in the air, and even greeted each other, but with the escalation of the conflict, the hatred between the two sides intensified, and the first air battle broke out, when only the pilot fired with a pistol for self-defense, hundreds of meters in the air, or even longer. A pistol is basically an ornament.

However, since then, rifles and machine guns have been moved to airplanes one after another, and the gradual development of the aircraft family has begun to appear a series of special types of aircraft, but bombers and fighters are the mainstay. There are very few dedicated detectives.

Yang Yuanzhao is a traverser, and he knows very well the importance of reconnaissance aircraft, since the 20 th century, every change in military affairs is related to the progress of weapons, but any weapon must always find an opponent before it can start attacking.

The guns of the battleships are strong. Most of the artillery above 15 inches can easily shoot 20,000 meters, or even more, and the firing range of some extreme guns even reaches more than 30 kilometers, but what is the use of this, because of the optical sight, even if it is expected to be long-range, the killing distance of the artillery. It also starts from 10,000 meters, and the German ones even stick to the rules. Even from 6000 meters, this is a great waste of the power of large-caliber artillery.

A specially developed reconnaissance aircraft that focuses on reconnaissance must not only take into account the unique characteristics of the reconnaissance aircraft, but must also have a certain focus in reconnaissance. For example, all kinds of reconnaissance equipment, such as radio communication capabilities, and for example, stronger survivability. At the request of Yang Yuanzhao. After several rounds of research at the Northwest Aircraft Research Institute, in the end, the reconnaissance aircraft was finalized and produced.

However, in the early days, there were not many productions, a total of 30 aircraft, all of which were arranged on the front line, in more sensitive places, and the racing circuit outside Nanjing happened to be arranged.

Because it was already night, the plane took off and was not leaked, in the hangar, there were 3 reconnaissance planes pushed out of the hangar, the scouts were with infrared telescopes, not enough to show the overall situation, if the other party is still in the carriage, as long as the height is lowered, things like the carriage can not escape, which has also become a sharp weapon to capture Sun Cannon.

After all, in order to catch Sun Cannon, this is the fastest and most appropriate way, no one expected that there would be such a secret passage in Sun Cannon's room, which has not been leaked out in the previous investigation, otherwise, as early as when the battle started, they would have forcibly attacked the Sun family.

The three reconnaissance planes were quickly pushed out of the hangar, compared with the bombers and transport planes, the reconnaissance planes, more, light and small, but on the basis of the original Northwest No. 1, the engine was strengthened, and the original engine was replaced with a larger and more sophisticated engine, which not only had a longer range, but also had more space to install reconnaissance tools.

A reconnaissance aircraft, what speed, altitude, flight time, etc., are only auxiliary, can not replace the most important role of the reconnaissance aircraft, the most important role of the reconnaissance aircraft is reconnaissance, the early reconnaissance aircraft, even in the Second World War period, were only able to use manpower, at most with a telescope, but after the Second World War, reconnaissance aircraft, accompanied by the use of various machines and electronic components.

After all, people have certain limitations, and the machine also has shortcomings, but the combination of the two, is a perfect combination, some large-scale observation tools that can only be used on the ground, moved on the reconnaissance aircraft, it can be said that this aircraft, is a separate reconnaissance role, no other role, in terms of independent application performance, has exceeded this era, and even the later World War II period, reached the standard of the late World War II.

In history, even in World War II, there was no special reconnaissance aircraft, or rather, just relying on the naked eye and telescopes and other observations, will report news, similar to the northwest so professional, there is no such thing, everything, can be converted into wireless point signals, and then transmitted to the headquarters, as for reconnaissance, there are all kinds of machines, radar or something, has not yet been miniaturized to the aircraft, some of the most basic radio equipment and large optical detection equipment, all on the aircraft, greatly enhance the use of the aircraft, In particular, the infrared imaging instrument, the larger the thing, the clearer it is, and the effect is good, and because of this machine, the reconnaissance aircraft has the ability to conduct reconnaissance at night in this era.

Since the decision of the northwest to let the Third Army send troops, it has always been the transport planes that have been used, and now, the reconnaissance planes are useful, and at the stall where the pilots boarded the plane, the commander of the paratrooper regiment suddenly made a suggestion, that is, let the paratroopers get on the plane.

This makes the captain of the reconnaissance plane a little embarrassed, there is space on the reconnaissance plane, but those spaces are for equipment, and with the weight of infrared equipment now, the take-off weight of the reconnaissance plane has reached the limit, after all, it is a special reconnaissance plane, and it is not manned.

The weight of the paratroopers is a little larger than that of the special forces, and the umbrellas necessary for everyone occupy a lot of weight, plus the paratroopers are not defensive services, and they must be brought with them if they go deep behind enemy lines, and they must bring all the weapons and equipment, almost 12 kilograms more than the special forces, so that 3 people are almost half a ton, maybe this weight is nothing for a transport aircraft, but for a reconnaissance aircraft that has to be carefully prepared for each weight, it is a bit much.

Yan Xishan was about to refuse the paratrooper commander, but the paratrooper commander's remarks made Yan Xishan tempted, the paratrooper commander, the purpose of letting the troops get on the plane was nothing else, that is, to parachute.

Paratroopers, to put it bluntly, are the arms that are airborne with the help of airplanes when the aircraft has developed to a certain extent, because they do not need anything from the airport, they can be dropped anytime and anywhere, and they can land on the ground in a few minutes at most.

The idea of army building in the northwest is very different from that of this era, whether it is a paratrooper or a special force, they all have strong characteristics of later generations, and paratroopers are even more so, this is a branch of the army that was developed only after the performance of the aircraft has developed to a certain extent, mainly in the hinterland of the other side, or the key node of retreat and attack, landing down, used to fight tough battles, it can be said that the paratroopers are a branch of troops developed only after being tested in iron and fire.

Yan Xishan's heart moved, if there is no paratrooper participation, the reconnaissance plane may be able to find the traces of Sun Cannon with the help of infrared imaging, but after finding it, it is also necessary to use radio to communicate with the base camp, waiting for the troops to come, at this time, Sun Cannon will not have run away elsewhere a long time ago, which is not conducive to arrest, if it really drags on the time, God knows what will happen, don't find Sun Cannon, the pursuit is not timely, but Sun Cannon ran away.

It is not the same with the participation of paratroopers, after the reconnaissance plane discovers Sun Artillery, it can drop the paratroopers in a suitable place, as long as the distance between them is close enough, the paratroopers can directly attack, or even capture Sun Artillery, which is the most correct choice.

When Yan Xishan asked the reconnaissance plane to think of a way, he thought about it for a long time, and the reconnaissance plane had to cut down on the scouts, and only 3 of the 6 that were originally equipped as standard were up, and because of the close distance, the fuel was also reduced by a part, although it would reduce the cruising range of the reconnaissance plane a lot, but it was enough to install three fully armed displays.

After that, on each reconnaissance plane, stuffed with 3 paratroopers, without carrying a full tank of fuel on the premise, three people easily got on the plane, as long as the reconnaissance plane found each other, the paratroopers can successfully parachute down, no matter how the other side is only 3 people, including a completely incapable Sun cannon, although the remaining two are countless masters, but not at all 9 After several years of training, almost with reference to the standards of the special forces, the trained paratrooper unit is basically stable.

There were a little twists and turns, but it did not affect the overall situation, but after a delay of about 5 minutes, the reconnaissance plane completed the preparations for takeoff, on the three runways, three light guys, slowly flew over, under the cover of night, slowly flew into the sky, in the small cabin, stragglers with a full set of umbrellas, curled up in a corner, 6 scouts, 3 on top, because only looking for the traces of the carriage, only three infrared observation ports.

From the location of the velodrome to the Purple Mountain, less than 500 kilometers, the speed of the reconnaissance plane was about 400 kilometers, and it only took a few minutes to fly over the Purple Mountain, and then the speed was lowered. (To be continued.) )