“Do you want to come and see?” Jin Feng asked.
“You are going to meet your little sweetheart in secret. It would not be good for me to follow, would it?” Tang Xiaobei teased deliberately.
“Forget it then!” Jin Feng turned and left straight away.
“Wait for me!”
Tang Xiaobei quickly threw on her own cloak and trotted to catch up with Jin Feng.
It was already early winter, but because of the La Niña effect, it was exceptionally cold and gloomy.
Tang Xiaobei could not help wrapping her cloak tighter.
“Da Liu, are Old Eagle and the others all prepared?” Jin Feng asked.
“They are ready. They are just waiting for you, sir.” Da Liu nodded.
“Then let us go!” Jin Feng mounted his horse, then pulled Tang Xiaobei up behind him.
The mounted team followed a small path for half an hour. Tang Xiaobei saw two bonfires appear on the wasteland.
A group of escort guards were busily moving about on the open ground. Beside them were piled several bundles of black cloth and a few large baskets.
“Husband, what are they doing?” Tang Xiaobei asked.
“You will know in a moment. I guarantee it will astonish you!” Jin Feng said with a smile.
“You are keeping me in suspense now?”
Tang Xiaobei pouted. “Your sister here is now the chief manager of the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce. What scene have I not witnessed? To astonish me, husband, you are boasting.”
“Oh ho, the toad yawns, what a big tone!”
Jin Feng raised an eyebrow. Too lazy to argue with Tang Xiaobei, he beckoned over an escort guard nicknamed Old Eagle.
The two spoke as they walked away.
With nothing to do, Tang Xiaobei went to a bundle of black cloth and reached out to touch it.
The Tang family were generations of textile merchants, and Tang Xiaobei had dealt with all kinds of fabrics since childhood.
But she had never seen this kind of material before.
She wanted to ask what it was, but Jin Feng had walked off.
Although Tang Xiaobei had a lively personality, she knew when she could fool around and when she should not disturb Jin Feng.
Seeing him talking with Old Eagle, she held back her curiosity and went to a large basket.
The basket was woven from rattan and very large. The bottom and sides were also wrapped in black cloth.
Inside the basket was a strangely shaped stove. She had no idea what it was for.
While she was puzzled, she suddenly heard Old Eagle shout, “Everyone come and help. Pull open the canopy and point the mouth towards the west.”
Then Tang Xiaobei saw a group of escort guards run over and unfold a bundle of black cloth.
Only then did she realise that this bundle of black cloth was actually a huge bag.
It was simply enormous. When spread on the ground, it covered several zhang in length and width.
Two escort guards held the mouth of the bag open, pointing it slightly north of west.
That was the current wind direction.
Cold wind poured into the mouth of the bag, gradually inflating it.
Old Eagle and another escort guard lifted a stove and placed it at the bag’s mouth, then poured a ladle of kerosene into the stove.
Whoosh!
Fierce flames roared up. The hot air was blown into the bag by the cold wind.
One ladle of kerosene would not burn for long. After a while, Old Eagle poured another.
The huge bag slowly swelled, growing larger and larger.
What shocked Tang Xiaobei most was that as the hot air filled it, the enormous bag actually began to float upwards bit by bit.
Without a blower, the entire inflation process took nearly twenty minutes.
By now, the large bag had fully risen.
If not for several ropes tethering it, it would probably have flown away.
Tang Xiaobei looked up at the sky, completely stunned.
Once fully inflated, the bag was truly massive.
Like a small mountain.
Standing beneath it, Tang Xiaobei felt extraordinarily tiny.
“Well, chief manager, have you ever seen this before?”
Jin Feng came to Tang Xiaobei’s side, smiling as he bumped her shoulder.
“No!”
Tang Xiaobei shook her head in shock. “Husband, what is this thing? What is it for?”
“This is called a hot air balloon. It can carry people up into the sky!” Jin Feng explained.
In fact, the principle of a hot air balloon is very simple, and the manufacturing process is not difficult.
The only trouble was making the fireproof fabric for the balloon, which did not exist in the Great Kang.
Jin Feng had spent a lot of effort on it, but hard work paid off, and he eventually produced fireproof cloth.
Though not as light and durable as the fabrics used for hot air balloons in his previous life, it could still be used normally.
Then Jin Feng had secretly produced a batch of fireproof fabric and sewn several hot air balloons.
But the hot air balloon was one of his trump cards. Jin Feng had not revealed it to anyone, so even Tang Xiaobei knew nothing about it.
Jin Feng had found a remote, uninhabited valley and arranged for Old Eagle to lead a group of escort guards there under the pretext of a mission to train secretly.
When heading to Xichuan, since Jin Feng had no absolute confidence of victory, he had Old Eagle bring the hot air balloons along.
Back at Big Python Slope, the reason Jin Feng dared to stay behind was that the hot air balloon was his greatest assurance.
If they truly could not hold out, he could have taken the Ninth Princess and escaped on a hot air balloon.
“Husband, can this thing really carry people into the sky?” Tang Xiaobei asked nervously, clutching Jin Feng’s sleeve.
“Just keep watching and you will see,” Jin Feng said with a smile.
Old Eagle and several escort guards jumped into the large basket, checked the ropes and stove.
Then they had the tethering ropes released while pouring another ladle of kerosene onto the stove.
Freed from the ropes, the hot air balloon immediately began to rise slowly.
The banner of the Zhenyuan Escort Agency was black, and the hot air balloon was mainly black too.
When close to the ground, it could still be seen faintly.
Once high in the air, it blended completely into the pitch-black night.
Only the flames in the stove were visible.
Old Eagle reached out and pulled something beside the basket. Several curtains fell, covering the basket.
Ordinary hot air balloons did not have this cover, but Jin Feng, fearing others might spot the balloon’s flames, had specially added it.
In this era, possessing hot air balloons meant having an air force.
A trump card was most effective when the enemy knew nothing about it.
The hot air balloon was not only Jin Feng’s means of victory but also his lifesaver.
Even in the dangers of Xichuan, he had not revealed it.
This time, if not to rescue the captured escort guards as quickly as possible, Jin Feng would not have brought it out.
But he was unwilling to expose his greatest trump card just like that.
So he had come up with this solution.
Fortunately, the effect was ideal. The flames were almost completely concealed, visible only from directly below.
“Hahaha, success!”
Jin Feng clapped his hands in excitement.
Who, under normal circumstances, would look up at the sky in the middle of the night?
If the operation went smoothly, the hot air balloon could continue to be kept secret as a trump card.
Old Eagle and the others had trained for a long time at Xihe Bay and were now proficient in controlling the hot air balloons.
However, wind speeds and terrain differed greatly between the seaside and mountains, so Old Eagle conducted several more experiments to confirm how many people each balloon could carry at the coast.
They worked almost until dawn, testing all the hot air balloons and confirming there were no problems before finishing.
“Da Liu, tomorrow gather all our men at the naval camp and conduct joint training with the navy.”
Jin Feng turned his head towards the direction of Crab Pincer Island and said slowly, “Once training is complete, it will be time to suppress the bandits!”
