My Imperial Advisor is ChatGPT

Chapter 116 Flying Cigars: Rigid Airships

Xianyang Palace, Qilin Hall.

A huge map of the Qin Dynasty's territory was laid out on the ground, as large as half a basketball court. This was already the latest survey version, but Ying Zheng was still not satisfied.

He was barefoot, standing on the "map," holding a pointer in his hand, his brow furrowed.

"Here," Ying Zheng pointed to a green area in Lingnan, "Wang Jianguo, tell me, how long is this mountain range exactly? Why did Zhao Tuo describe it as 'lofty mountains and steep ridges' in the report sent last month, while Meng Tian's scouts said there was a 'passable road' here?"

Wang Jianguo squatted down beside him, pushed up his reading glasses, and sighed helplessly.

"Your Majesty, you can't blame them. Mapping on the ground is like 'blind men touching an elephant.' Mountains block their view, rivers obstruct their path, and the resulting maps are seven parts measurement and three parts guesswork."

"Then there's no way to see it clearly?" Ying Zheng asked, somewhat agitated. "I've built straight roads, laid railways, and erected telegraph lines. But if I can't even see what my own empire looks like, it's like a blind man riding a blind horse, approaching a deep pool in the middle of the night."

"I have a way." Wang Jianguo stood up and pointed to the caisson ceiling painted with stars above his head.

"Only by standing tall can one see far. If we could hover like a bird in the clouds and look down... mountains and rivers would be spread out before our eyes. The resulting picture would be a 'God's-eye view'."

"Birds?" Ying Zheng pondered. "I've tried that hot air balloon; Xiang Yu went up in it. But that thing is too capricious; it drifts whichever way the wind blows. Last time, it almost hung Xiang Yu on the flagpole in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, scaring the Temple Master into thinking the Overlord had appeared in spirit."

"A hot air balloon is like a passive floating duckweed." A glint of light flashed in Wang Jianguo's eyes. "Your Majesty, what we want to build is a 'whale' that can swim freely in the sea (sky). It has a skeleton, a power source, and a rudder. It doesn't listen to the wind; it only listens to me."

"It's called a rigid airship."

Three months later. Western suburbs of Xianyang.

The once spacious royal racecourse is now completely surrounded by crowds.

A giant scaffold, ten zhang (about 30 meters) high, stood in the center of the site, surrounded by a dense crowd of busy Mohist disciples and craftsmen.

And nestled within the scaffolding lay a colossal, suffocating creature.

It is 150 meters long and has a streamlined cigar shape.

This isn't the flimsy GG airship of later generations; this is a true "tough guy."

Due to insufficient aluminum alloy production (due to high electricity costs), Wang Jianguo adopted a unique alternative solution from Daqin – a “bamboo-wood-steel wire composite frame”.

The main beams are made of century-old nanmu wood grown in Sichuan and specially treated bamboo, which are lightweight and extremely tough. The joints are riveted with high-quality steel stamping parts. On the outside of this huge frame, a special silk (Daqin Aviation Silk) coated with multiple layers of rubber and tung oil is covered.

From a distance, it looks like a giant silver dragon, sleeping soundly.

Zhao Gao, the first director of the "Qin Aerospace Bureau" (and a reserve test pilot), was now standing in the shadow of this monster, trembling with fear.

"Chancellor Wang..." Zhao Gao swallowed hard, gazing up at the enormous belly. "Are you sure this thing... can fly? This thing, over a hundred meters long, must weigh hundreds of thousands of kilograms, right? Even a god couldn't lift it."

"It's not heavy, it's very 'light'." Wang Jianguo patted the taut skin. "It's not filled with air, it's filled with 'light gas' (hydrogen)."

To fill this behemoth, the madmen at the Institute of Chemistry (see Chapter 111) created a massive "gas-generating array".

Hundreds of huge ceramic reactors were lined up in a row, filled with scrap iron and dilute sulfuric acid.

"Glug glug..."

The reactor was bubbling, and hydrogen was being continuously pumped through pipes into more than a dozen independent gasbags (made of a composite of bovine intestine membrane and rubber) inside the airship.

"Old Zhao, remember this." Wang Jianguo's expression suddenly turned extremely serious, even somewhat ferocious. "What's inside this belly is the most violent 'dragon's breath' in all of Qin. Just a tiny spark, even the static electricity from your clothes..."

Wang Jianguo made an explosion gesture: "Boom! All of us, along with this area within a five-mile radius, will ascend directly to heaven to meet Duke Mu of Qin."

Zhao Gao was so frightened that his legs went weak and he almost knelt down: "Then...then can I not go up?"

"No way." Wang Jianguo smiled slightly. "You're the bureau chief. If you don't go up there, who will believe this thing is safe?"

On the day of the maiden flight.

The city of Xianyang was deserted as everyone flocked to the city. Hearing that His Majesty was going to "personally lead the army" to conquer the heavens, the people brought out benches from their homes and crowded outside the police cordon to watch the spectacle.

Next to the gondola below the airship, the most stringent security check in human history is underway.

"stop!"

A guard from the Black Ice Platform, dressed in a specially made anti-static cotton suit, expressionlessly stopped Zhao Gao, who was about to board the ship.

"What are you doing? I'm the bureau chief!" Zhao Gao puffed out his chest.

"Not even the bureau chief," the guard said coldly. "Chief Wang has ordered that fire and explosion prevention be carried out without exception, regardless of family ties. Search him!"

"Search then!" Zhao Gao opened his arms wide.

The guard searched around for a while and suddenly pulled out a delicate little box from Zhao Gao's sleeve.

"What is this?"

"This...this is lip balm!" Zhao Gao exclaimed anxiously, "It's windy here, my lips get dry easily..."

"Confiscate it." The guard casually tossed it into a bucket of water nearby. "Oil-based products are flammable."

Immediately afterwards, the guard pulled a small comb out of Zhao Gao's boot.

"What is this?"

"This is a rhinoceros horn comb! A mediocre hairstyle can't be messed up!"

"Confiscate it." The guard was cold and ruthless. "It generates static electricity through friction."

Finally, the guards stared at Zhao Gao's bright and shiny silk official robe embroidered with gold thread.

"Take it off."

"What?!" Zhao Gao shrieked, his delicate fingers trembling. "This is a 'plane suit' bestowed by His Majesty! Although it's made of silk, but..."

"Silk is most prone to static electricity." At this moment, Wang Jianguo walked over, holding a set of khaki cotton overcoats. "Old Zhao, don't force me to do it. Do you want to go up there naked, or wear this?"

Under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands of people, Zhao Gao, the powerful official in charge of the Imperial Carriage Office, the Marquis of Rubber, and the Director of the Aviation Bureau of the Great Qin Dynasty, tearfully took off his embroidered official robe and put on a rustic cotton gown, along with a pair of specially made conductive straw sandals.

"At this moment, I don't feel like a bureau chief," Zhao Gao said to Wang Jianguo with grief and indignation. "I feel like a convict who has just been released from prison."

"It's good that you're alive." Wang Jianguo patted him on the shoulder. "Remember, once you're on the boat, you have to hold your farts in, because the marsh gas is flammable."

The auspicious time has arrived.

Wearing a specially made black cotton dragon robe (without gold thread, pure black, making him appear even more profound), Ying Zheng boarded the luxurious gondola of the airship, surrounded by important ministers such as Li Si and Meng Tian.

The pod has two levels. The upper level contains the driver's cab and observation deck, while the lower level contains the power room and crew compartment.

"set sail!"

With a command from Ying Zheng.

The winch on the ground loosened, and hundreds of cables fell off at the same time.

There was no roaring sound or vibration.

This colossal object, measuring 150 meters in length, lifted off the ground as lightly and silently as a feather.

"Get...get up!"

The people on the ground gasped in alarm.

As the airship slowly ascended, its massive body blocked out the sunlight.

A huge, cigar-shaped shadow, like an invisible hand, slowly covered the land in the western suburbs of Xianyang and then moved toward the city of Xianyang.

At that moment, a vendor selling roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) in Xianyang City suddenly felt it getting dark. He looked up and saw that the roujiamo in his hand had fallen to the ground.

"Kun! It's the Kun that Zhuangzi spoke of!"

"Heavens above! The Dragon King has appeared!"

Countless people knelt on the ground, kowtowing and worshipping the silver behemoth floating in the air. In their minds, only a god could create something so enormous that it could fly without wings.

Inside the pod.

Li Si gripped the handrail tightly, his face pale and his legs trembling. Through the glass window (tempered glass), he looked down at the houses that seemed to grow smaller and smaller and the crowds that looked like ants.

"Your Majesty...this...this is too high..." Li Si felt a wave of nausea. "I'm afraid of heights...I feel like throwing up..."

"Hold it back," Ying Zheng said coldly, but his hands gripped the railing tightly, his knuckles turning slightly white.

Although he had experienced flying in Xiao G's VR, this was his first time actually flying in the sky.

The feeling of weightlessness, with his feet dangling in mid-air and his life hanging in the balance, made the First Emperor's heart race. But as an emperor, he had to remain calm.

"Altitude 500 meters! Air pressure stable!" the Mo family disciple reported loudly from the cockpit.

"Start the engine!"

"boom--"

Behind the pod, two specially modified V4 internal combustion engines (a product of Chapter 99, made to reduce weight) began to roar. Huge wooden propellers began to spin, stirring up the airflow.

The airship shuddered slightly, then began to move forward.

It is no longer a drifting duckweed; it is a cruiser in the sky.

When the airship flew directly above Xianyang City, its altitude stabilized at 600 meters.

Ying Zheng stood in front of the observation platform, looking down at his capital city through a telescope.

This is the first time in human history that an emperor has examined his territory from this perspective.

Previously, when he looked at Xianyang, he saw towering city walls, majestic palaces, and bustling streets. That was a level view, a partial view.

Now, what he sees is a chessboard.

The Wei River, like a jade belt, meanders through the plains; Xianyang City resembles a regular square; and the straight Qin Straight Road, like a sharp sword, points into the distance.

"Little G," Ying Zheng whispered in his mind.

[Hey, Zheng-ge. How's the scenery?]

"Too small," Ying Zheng muttered to himself.

What's small?

"Xianyang is too small." Ying Zheng put down the telescope. "On the ground, I feel that Xianyang is boundless, and it would take half a day to ride a horse there. But here, I can cover it with one hand."

He looked into the distance again.

That's the Qinling Mountains. On the ground, the Qinling Mountains are an insurmountable natural barrier, a barrier that obstructs the view. But from 600 meters above the ground, those majestic peaks are nothing more than undulating folds.

"The mountains and rivers have shrunk, but my heart has grown bigger." Ying Zheng took a deep breath. Although the air was thin at high altitude, he felt an unprecedented sense of openness in his chest.

"Li Si, come and see."

Ying Zheng dragged Li Si, who was still vomiting, to the window.

"Look at that Wei River Bridge over there," Ying Zheng pointed down. "You said you wanted to build a new bridge, and you debated the location for three months. Now, look up there, isn't it clear where the water flows slowly and where the road network is efficient?"

Li Si forced himself to endure the dizziness and glanced down.

Sure enough. From this angle, the city's layout is clearly visible. Where there are traffic jams (horse-drawn carriages), where there is open space, where roads need repair, where canals need to be dug—it's like looking at a living map.

"Your Majesty is wise!" Li Si stopped spitting out, his eyes filled with shock. "This...is this the perspective of a god? With this, governing the world is as easy as reading the lines on the palm of one's hand!"

"It's not just about governance."

Meng Tian (the Great General) looked down, his eyes filled with undisguised murderous intent.

"Your Majesty, if the two armies were to clash, with this device suspended overhead, wouldn't we be able to see exactly where the enemy's supplies are hidden, where their ambushes are laid, and where their central command tent is?"

"Even..." Meng Tian pointed to several sandbags (ballast used to adjust weight) hanging below the airship, "If we replaced these sandbags with explosive charges and threw them directly onto the enemy's city walls..."

A deathly silence fell over the gondola.

Everyone was astonished by Meng Tian's bold idea.

Only Wang Jianguo stood silently wiping his sweat: "General Meng, calm down. Hydrogen is highly explosive, and our airship itself is a giant bomb. Before we even kill the enemy, we'll self-destruct."

Just as the emperor and his ministers were contemplating the future, an alarm suddenly sounded in the driver's cab.

"Oh no! Airbag number three has abnormal pressure! Suspected leak!"

Everyone's heart jumped into their throat.

"What's going on?" Wang Jianguo rushed into the driver's seat.

"It's probably because we ascended too quickly; the airbag skin was slightly torn by the internal support!" The Mo family disciple was covered in sweat. "We must repair it immediately! Otherwise, if the hydrogen leaks and comes into contact with sparks from the engine..."

"Who will fix it?" Ying Zheng asked in a deep voice.

The repair port is located in the maintenance passage inside the airship. You have to climb into that narrow, dark "whale belly" filled with hydrogen gas and ready to explode at any moment to plug the leaks with glue and patches.

This requires extremely high psychological qualities, and... fearlessness.

All eyes turned to Zhao Gao, who was huddled in a corner.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Zhao Gao pulled his cotton-padded coat tighter around himself. "I'm a civil official! I'm afraid of heights! And I have chronic leg pain!"

"Prefect Zhao," Meng Tian drew his sword and said with a smile, "you're the Rubber King, you're a professional at fixing leaks. Besides, you don't carry any kind of fire, so you're the safest."

"I'm not going! I'd rather die than go!"

"Go, and I will bestow upon you the title of 'Marquis of the Flying Heaven,'" Ying Zheng said calmly. "If you don't go, I will throw you out of this window right now. You choose."

Ten minutes later.

With a safety rope around his waist, a plastic bucket and patches in his hands, Zhao Gao crawled into the keel passage of the airship with a mournful face.

It was pitch black inside, with only a faint light filtering through. Around it were enormous air sacs, emitting a slight grinding sound. That was the breath of death.

"May God protect me... May my ancestors protect me..." Zhao Gao muttered as he crawled, "If I make it back alive, I'll definitely make a golden statue of Laozi... no, a rubber one..."

He found the leak. It was a small hole in the number three airbag, making a hissing sound.

Zhao Gao held his breath (even though he was wearing a mask), his hands trembling as he applied special rubber glue, attached the patch, and then pressed it down firmly with his hands.

One minute. Two minutes.

The hissing sound disappeared.

"It's...it's fixed!" Zhao Gao collapsed onto the dragon bone, feeling as if he had died once.

When he climbed back into the gondola, covered in dust, he was greeted with enthusiastic applause.

"Well done, Lao Zhao!" Wang Jianguo handed him a glass of water. "You saved the Qin Air Force."

Zhao Gao took the water, his hands trembling so badly that he spilled water all over himself.

"Master Wang," Zhao Gao said, his voice trembling with tears, "could you please find someone else for this kind of task next time? My heart really can't take it..."

"Okay." Wang Jianguo smiled. "Next time we'll build an automatic leak-repairing robot. But until then, we'll have to rely on you."

At dusk.

After completing a flight around the city and conducting an exercise of dropping leaflets from the air (the message being: "Great Qin is mighty, long live Your Majesty"), the "First Emperor" airship slowly landed at the test site.

When Ying Zheng stepped out of the gondola and onto solid ground again, he felt as if he had been transported to another world.

Although he had only flown for an hour, he felt that his soul had changed.

He was no longer the king trapped on the ground.

"Little G".

[Hey, Zheng-ge. How are you feeling?]

"I think things on the ground are no longer a problem." Ying Zheng turned around and looked at the giant airship that was gleaming with golden light in the setting sun.

"I used to want to build the Great Wall to stop the nomadic tribes. Now it seems the Great Wall is too short."

"I want to build a fleet. Not in the sea, but in the sky."

"I will let the dragon banner of Great Qin fly high in the clouds. Let every inch of this land be under my shadow... no, under my protection."

"Brother Zheng, this idea is dangerous, but also very promising," Little G joked. "It's called 'air power theory.' However, we need to solve the problem of hydrogen's explosiveness first. Otherwise, your air force will be a fleet of 'suicide trucks.'"

"That's Wang Jianguo's business." Ying Zheng waved his sleeve, in high spirits. "Zhao Gao!"

"This servant...this servant is here." Zhao Gao hadn't recovered yet; his legs were still weak.

"You've done a good job fixing this mess. I keep my word, so I'm bestowing upon you the title of 'Marquis of the Flying Skies.'" Ying Zheng patted Zhao Gao on the shoulder. "Furthermore, I grant you permission to wear silk underwear on airships from now on. This is a privilege."

Zhao Gao was stunned for a moment, then burst into tears of gratitude: "Thank you for your great favor, Your Majesty! Long live the Emperor!"

Although he didn't know that the silk underwear, when rubbed together in the dry high air, might explode even louder.

Amidst the cheers of the surrounding populace, the first airship of the Great Qin Dynasty rested quietly on the tower.

It was like a giant, flying cigar; though simple and dangerous, it ignited the first spark of humanity's conquest of the skies.

For Ying Zheng, this was just the beginning.

His gaze had pierced through the atmosphere, looking towards the more distant stars and the vast ocean.