Did he trick the young marshal into becoming sworn brothers and then go south to Huangpu Military Ac

The lecture hall, which Lin Qi had arranged to be built overnight, was packed with hundreds of seats.

A whole night has passed since yesterday's announcement that "the Northeast Army already has sixty fighter jets."

The atmosphere in the classroom was as stifling as a sponge soaked with water.

More than 400 students sat behind long wooden tables, their faces no longer displaying the arrogance and haughtiness they had shown when they had just touched the cannon.

The cold water that Lin Qi poured on them yesterday really chilled them to the bone.

The suffocating feeling brought about by the industrial gap is stuck in the throats of these privileged individuals.

The familiar sound of military boots hitting the ground echoed down the corridor.

Lin Qi strode into the classroom, not holding any chalk, but instead slamming a thick file heavily onto the lectern.

A muffled thud made the students in the front row flinch.

"What? Scared out of your wits by those sixty wooden kites from the Northeast Army?"

Lin Qi placed his hands on the podium, his gaze sharp as a knife, sweeping across every face in the room: "Yesterday, when I brought up air superiority with you, some of you thought that the birds in the sky couldn't determine the outcome of battles on the ground, and that as long as the trenches were dug deep enough and the bayonets were sharpened enough, you could just tough it out."

As he spoke, he pulled a black-and-white battlefield photograph from the file and held it up in the air with one hand.

Although the photo is blurry, it is still clear that it is a deep canyon, with the bottom of the canyon filled with twisted and charred wreckage of horse-drawn carriages and piles of corpses.

"Today, I won't talk about theory; I'll tell you about two real-world battles."

His voice was cold and hard, carrying an inescapable sense of oppression.

"Six years ago. September 21, 1918, in the Wadi Fara Valley, Palestine."

As Lin Qi announced the location, Gu Mosan and Qian Muyin, who were sitting in the back row listening, sat up straight.

They were veterans from the Baoding Military Academy, and they knew the history of the European theater of World War I by heart, but very few people in China knew the details of the Middle East theater.

"The Ottoman Empire's Seventh Army, a force of tens of thousands of elite troops, equipped with a large number of field artillery pieces and supply wagons, is conducting a well-organized tactical retreat northward."

Lin Qi's speech quickened, forcefully unfolding a hellish picture: "The British didn't send infantry to pursue them across the mountains and fields. They deployed the Royal Flying Corps."

Lin Qi slapped the photo hard.

"Swarms of light bombers, in close formation of two every three minutes, relentlessly pursued the large army in the canyon. The canyon's narrow and long terrain made it impossible for the Turks to deploy their formations."

"Air raid begins."

The classroom was so quiet that only heavy breathing could be heard.

"A twenty-pound high-explosive bomb crashed directly into the center of the narrow valley road. The lead supply wagons were overturned, and the frightened warhorses trampled wildly among the crowd. The destroyed vehicles completely blocked the road, leaving tens of thousands of people trapped in the canyon, unable to move forward or backward."

A chilling glint appeared in Lin Qi's eyes.

"After dropping the bombs, the planes didn't return. The British pilots dove to an altitude of less than fifty feet above the ground, practically touching the Turks' scalps! They then unleashed a relentless barrage of machine gun fire on the densely packed marching column!"

Jiang Wushan's pen slammed onto the paper, the ink spreading widely.

My mind is frantically rehearsing this battle scenario.

If his troops encounter this terrain, they have no means of countermeasures other than waiting to die.

"That wasn't a battle; it was a one-sided massacre."

Lin Qi coldly reported the results: "The Turkish rifles couldn't shoot down those fast-moving machines. In one day, this main force of tens of thousands of men was completely wiped out. Eighty-seven field artillery pieces were abandoned intact by the roadside. When the British ground troops arrived at the valley, they didn't fire a single shot, but only saw a river stained red with blood."

Sitting in the front row, Chen Chuanjin swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with difficulty.

"On August 8th of the same year, the Battle of Amiens took place, which the Germans called Black Day."

Lin Qi threw away the photo and pulled out a troop deployment map.

"The Germans, relying on the Hindenburg Line, deployed dense anti-tank gun positions and deep barbed wire. How did the Allies fight back? Eight hundred planes blotted out the sky! The moment the fog dissipated, bomber formations crossed the line of fire and flew directly behind the German positions!"

"They dropped bombs precisely on the German artillery positions, destroying communications hubs. The German reserves were pinned down by machine guns from the planes at their assembly points more than ten kilometers away, unable to move an inch. The infantry at the front could not wait for a single bullet or hear orders from their superiors. The seemingly impregnable defenses collapsed completely within hours."

Lin Qi clenched his fists, his voice booming like thunder in the classroom.

"This is the modern warfare you will face in the future! It's not just the sixty planes of the Northeast Army. When you reach the Yangtze River and the north, the planes of the great powers will be circling overhead! Your army, from the air force's God-like perspective, is a transparent joke!"

Dead silence.

A deathly silence weighed on the hearts of the young talents of the first cohort of Huangpu Military Academy.

These future stars are experiencing a brutal mental storm.

The two bloody real-world examples presented by Lin Qi completely shattered their blind confidence in the army, and the fear of "air superiority" was deeply ingrained in their bones.

"Damn it!"

In the third row by the window, Chen Chuanjin kicked open the desk in front of him and stood up abruptly.

His gray military cap was tilted to one side, and his eyes, instead of showing fear, gleamed with a fanatical and fierce light, as if he had been driven to the brink of despair.

This is the indomitable spirit inherent in the bones of top-tier generals.

"We absolutely cannot allow others to shit on our heads!"

Chen Chuanjin, speaking with a heavy Xiangxiang accent, slammed his fist heavily on the broken table: "Principal Lin! This battle can't be fought on foot! Once we've conquered the land and wiped out all those old warlords, even if it means selling everything we own, we must build the largest air force in all of Asia! We'll fill the skies for us!"

Guan Yudong, who was standing next to him, also stood up, the veins on his neck bulging and his eyes wide open.

"Chuanjin is right! Anyone who dares to fly over our heads and act arrogantly will be smashed to pieces by our planes! We're not even afraid of mud pits, and our pilots are even less afraid of death!"

The fervent emotions spread rapidly through the lecture hall like wildfire.

Fear was transformed into extreme desire.

These future commanders had an infinite longing for that blue sky burning in their eyes.

They vowed never to let their soldiers repeat the mistake of the Turkish 7th Army being unilaterally slaughtered in the canyon.

At this moment when everyone was filled with excitement and high spirits,

In the middle seat of the front row, a person was standing ramrod straight.

Du Guangting.

He didn't join the others in their enthusiastic cheers; instead, he remained rooted to the spot like a thick nail cast from cast iron. His square face revealed the pragmatism and stubbornness characteristic of men from Northwest China.

"Chuanjin! Yudong! You've got it all under your belt! You think you can build an air force just by talking?"

Du Guangting turned his head, his voice booming, and poured a bucket of icy, chilling reality over his head, mercilessly tearing away the most helpless fig leaf of the Southern regime.

"Even if we conquer the world, where will we get so much cash in a short time! Right now, we have to beg and plead with the Finance Bureau at headquarters to provide even a few dollars for rations or manufacture a few bullets! Buying a foreign plane costs tens of thousands of dollars, plus expensive aviation fuel, hangar repairs, and pilot training. It's a bottomless pit that can never be filled!"

Du Guangting stared directly at Lin Qi on the podium, gritting his teeth, his eyes reddening with excitement.

"Principal Lin, let me reiterate what I said yesterday: we're so poor right now that we can't even afford a full complement of heavy machine guns. We haven't even secured our own livelihoods yet, so how can we possibly achieve air superiority?"

These words were so hurtful, and so true.

The deafening roar in the classroom instantly subsided.

Everyone looked down at their patched, faded single-layer military uniforms, and then thought about the perpetually depleted treasury at headquarters. Their fervent minds were forced to cool, replaced by a deep sense of powerlessness locked in by poverty.

Lin Qi did not lose his temper, nor did he reprimand Du Guangting for his direct defiance.

That's exactly the effect he wanted.

First, use brutal real-world examples to completely shatter their perceptions, instilling in them an extreme fear and desire for air supremacy.

Then, pragmatists like Du Guangting laid bare the harsh economic realities, driving them into a corner.

Only after experiencing this psychological shift from fervor to despair will his subsequent promises carry true divine weight and completely bind these people to his cause.

Lin Qi strode down from the podium, his military boots making a steady, powerful sound as they stepped onto the wooden floor.

He walked straight to Du Guangting's desk, leaned forward slightly, and looked directly at the stubborn man from Shaanxi.

"Money is none of your business."

Lin Qi raised his voice, which echoed in every corner of the classroom, carrying an undeniable domineering and absolute confidence.

"The base camp won't stay poor forever; the current difficulties are only temporary."

Lin Qi straightened up, his piercing gaze sweeping over the more than four hundred pairs of eyes in the room, and gave a promise that carried immense weight.

"As long as you have the money, I, Lin Tuozhi, guarantee it with my life! I will personally build the most powerful air force in all of Asia for you! I will take care of setting up heavy industry, manufacturing airplanes and artillery, and handling logistics and supplies. You, just focus on winning battles for me!"