He pushed open the window, looked at the snow remnants in the yard, stretched lazily, and felt that even the air had become incredibly fresh.
The stench that had previously drifted over from the Ice Cold Empire was so unpleasant that even breathing was uncomfortable.
Now, a blanket of snow had covered those foul odors, and they could finally breathe some fresh air properly.
Almost every country in the world was industrializing, desperately absorbing technology that leached from the Great Tang Group, not wanting to fall behind in the race.
Even their small kingdom had purchased power generation equipment to supply electricity to the city and the surrounding new factories, embarking on their own path of industrialization.
However, compared to the profound heritage of larger nations, a small kingdom like theirs was still lacking maturity and could only follow tentatively, imitating their steps.
Despite that, they had tasted the sweetness of industrialization—the various iron tools they had previously been reluctant to use had now become incredibly cheap and affordable for the general public.
With advanced business models coming from Brunas and increasingly convenient sea and land trade, life in the Dwarf Kingdom was getting better and better.
If it weren't for the sudden overcast skies and the increasingly thick atmosphere of war, perhaps everyone's mood could be even better.
"If only we didn't have to go to war, that would be truly wonderful," the dwarf who stretched lamented, then suddenly froze.
Because he saw in the sky a gigantic eye that overlooked the earth with unmatched murderous intent.
When he finally shifted his gaze away from that huge eye, he heard frantic screams from the street: "Ahh!"
He saw the huge, slender airship painted with that eye, and also the propellers on its side spinning non-stop.
Then, he saw the terrifying emblem of Furnace Fortress on the airship—a symbol once used by the Dwarf Kingdom!
"We've reached the target area!" In the airship's cockpit, the deputy stood upright next to the captain, saluted, and reported loudly.
"Lucky for us, with ground guidance we didn't veer off course! Open the bomb bay! Prepare to commence bombing!" the captain breathed a sigh of relief, smiling as he gave the order to his deputy.
They had finally reached the target area, and now it was their time to perform! As the world's air force was being put into combat for the first time (excluding the Dongwan Island incident since no bombs were dropped), they had to put on a good show.
This was the first time in history that the air force was dropping bombs on the enemy's head, and also the first time the original inhabitants of the world had to run more than two hundred kilometers overnight to strike the strategic depth of the enemy forces.
Amidst mechanical friction sounds, gears turned, rolling up the bomb bay doors. The light reflected from the ground shone into the dim interior of the airship's bomb bay, illuminating the bombs hanging on the ammo racks one by one.
"Commence bombing!" the captain commanded with mighty bravado.
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As commanded, the first bomb detached from the rack, plunging headfirst towards the ground, its fins cutting through the air with a sharp whirring, puncturing the roof of a building.
The next second, the bomb exploded within the building, a massive shockwave instantly tearing the structure apart, even affecting the surrounding buildings and causing an entire area to collapse in a blink of an eye.
"Adjust course! Continue forward! Drop a bomb every 10 seconds!" the captain peered through the porthole and saw another airship's bomb explode in the distance, billowing up a magnificent black cloud.
Unlike the bombing tactics of bombers, it was impossible for airships to open their bays and release all their bombs at once.
Because of the airship's slow speed, if it dropped all its bombs at once, that would essentially amount to concentrated bombing of a fixed target.
Unable to use the inertia scattering principle for carpet bombing, they had to rely on higher bomb drop intervals to compensate for the limited bomb spread.
However, in terms of bomb drop accuracy, airships were indeed superior to bombers—because it was almost like they were stationary above the target, so naturally, the attack precision was astonishingly high.
At this moment, on the ground in the city below the airship, civilian panic had spread. Everyone noticed those terrible war machines hovering overhead, and screams and cries were unceasing.
No one had expected that their city, far from the border, would become the first target attacked just as the war broke out.
Those who thought they were safe were suddenly thrown into chaos and frenzy. Streets were filled with fleeing people, children separated from parents were knocked down, and scattered luggage was trampled everywhere.
Ancient buildings, unable to withstand the frenzy of the explosions, fell one after another. Debris flew everywhere, people affected lay on the ground, and blood flowed along the cracks in the trembling roads.
On the city walls, soldiers equipped with flintlock guns futilely reloaded and fired frantically at the huge targets in the sky.
However, the flintlock guns, with a range of only a hundred meters or so, couldn't even slightly damage the airships. The reserve troops that hadn't been reequipped with new weapons due to their distance from the frontlines were now helpless against this sudden onslaught of war machines.