My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 154
"Fly... fly up!"

As the hanging basket was lifted off the ground, the surrounding people screamed in shock, and even caused a riot.

Zhu Di and the others at the top of the city were also dumbfounded as they watched the hot air balloon rise slowly, even the air bag had already surpassed the city wall, and even the hanging basket below was even with the city wall.

The elders such as Liu Huang who were originally sitting in the city stood up excitedly at this moment, then threw themselves on the ground and cried loudly.

At the beginning, their mentor Tao Chengdao fought desperately in his later years, hoping to achieve the dream of flying into the sky, but instead of succeeding, he became the laughing stock of the world.

From then on, Liu Huang and others made a vow to rectify the name of their mentor and wash away the shame borne by their mentor. For this, Tao Qiong's father also paid the price with his life, and today Tao Qiong finally bears the legacy of his grandfather and father. , successfully achieved the dream of flying!
The hot air balloon rose steadily, and Tao Qiong in the hanging basket was already level with Zhu Di and others at the top of the city.

At this moment, Tao Qiong suddenly knelt down to Zhu Di at the head of the city, and shouted heartbreakingly: "Your Majesty, three generations of my Tao family are determined to fly to the sky, and I have been ridiculed by countless people, but today I want to prove it to everyone. , my grandfather is definitely not the laughing stock of the world, and my Tao family is definitely not crazy!"

After Tao Qiong finished speaking, he fell down in the hanging basket and wept loudly, as if he wanted to vent all the grievances suffered by the three generations of the Tao family.

Tao Qiong was originally a guilty body, but now he shouted at Zhu Di, if this happened in normal times, he would definitely be punished for a crime of disrespect.

But Zhu Di didn't mean to blame at this time. Instead, he sympathized with the Tao family's experience. Not to mention others, Zhu Di also regarded Tao Chengdao as a joke before, but now Tao Qiong proved to him that Fei Tian was really can be realised.

Hundreds of officials on the top of the city, and countless people outside the city opened their mouths wide and stared wide-eyed at the hot air balloon rising higher and higher. Finally, the cables below were exhausted, and it was finally fixed at a height of tens of feet.

This height is actually quite astonishing, about as high as twenty or thirty stories of buildings in later generations. If a person who is afraid of heights stands on it, I am afraid that he will not even have the courage to look down.

Zhu Zhanhe also entered the imperial city at this time, then climbed to the top of the city and came to Zhu Di, saluted with a smile: "Grandfather, grandson has sent Tao Qiong to the sky as promised!"

"Good job!"

Zhu Di could afford to lose, so he nodded approvingly and said, if people don't know, they think he already knew the result.

"According to my will, a marriage between the son of the King of Han and the niece of Marquis Navigator Chang!"

Zhu Di ordered again that an official would record the decree immediately, and it would be written into a formal imperial decree afterwards.

"Thank you, grandpa, for your kindness!"

Zhu Zhanhe thanked him happily.

"Zhan He, what is the name of this thing that can send people to the sky, and how high can it fly?"

Zhu Di asked Zhu Zhanhe, and Zhu Gaochi, Jin Zhong and others were also curiously waiting for his answer.

"Grandpa Emperor, this thing is called a hot air balloon. If it is not pulled by the cable below, it is estimated that it can fly to a height of thousands of feet."

Zhu Zhanhe replied.

Regarding the maximum altitude of a hot air balloon, Zhu Zhanhe has no idea. It is said that the hot air balloons of later generations can even rise to tens of thousands of meters in the air, but whether his humble and humble hot air balloon can fly as high as There is a question mark for a few kilometers.

"Thousands of feet! Isn't this higher than ordinary mountains!"

Zhu Di said in shock again.

He thought that it would take at least a few days to cross a high mountain during the march, but if he took this hot air balloon, it would be much easier to cross the mountain.

"Zhan He, what is the cost of this hot air balloon, can it be used in the military?"

Thinking of the army, Zhu Di immediately asked Zhu Zhanhe eagerly.

"The cost of a hot air balloon is not high, and it can also be used in the army, but its load is limited, and it can only carry one to three people at a time, so its role in the army is only to detect the enemy's situation, or small Large-scale raids."

Zhu Zhanhe thought for a while before replying.

Zhu Di also showed disappointment when he heard that he could bring up to three people at a time. The picture he envisioned of marching thousands of troops in a hot air balloon must be impossible.

However, Zhu Di's eyes lit up when he heard about enemy investigation and small-scale raids. As one of the few emperors in history who personally led troops to fight, Zhu Di immediately thought of some applications for hot air balloons.

For example, the detection of the enemy's situation alone can be of great help in the northern grasslands. He has already frightened the Tatars and Oalas a few times before on the northern expeditions.

Now the prairie people hid when they saw Zhu Di's army, so he couldn't find any trace of these prairie people at all, and finally had to return to the court when the food and grass ran out.

But if there is a hot air balloon, you can go up to the sky to check the enemy's situation. At that time, you can see the movements of the grassland people at a glance, and see where they are going?
Thinking of this, Zhu Di immediately slapped his hands and said: "This hot air balloon is very useful, let the Military Weapons Bureau build it immediately. As for Tao Qiong, let him take the blame and make meritorious service, and temporarily restore his post!"

Tao Qiong was originally promoted by the Military Weapons Bureau, and now he and Zhu Zhanhe invented the hot air balloon, so naturally it is most suitable for him to supervise the construction.

"The grandson thanked Grandpa Huang on Tao Qiong's behalf, and I will tell him to come down right away!"

Zhu Zhanhe walked forward a few steps as he spoke, trying to keep himself as close as possible to the hot air balloon in the air, and then said loudly to the top: "Tao Qiong, put out the flamethrower, Grandpa Huang has other arrangements for you!"

Zhu Zhanhe originally thought that Tao Qiong from above would immediately agree, but he didn't expect that there was no answer from above.

After a while, Tao Qiong poked his head out of the hanging basket and said in a loud voice, "Your Highness, forgive me, I'm afraid I won't be able to follow my orders!"

"what are you going to do?"

Zhu Zhanhe asked puzzledly.

During this period of time, he and Tao Qiong worked together to make hot air balloons, and the other party had always been very honest and obedient, so Zhu Zhanhe did not expect that at this critical moment, the other party would actually disobey his orders.

Seeing this, Zhu Di and others in the back also looked at each other in blank dismay. They didn't expect that the matter was about to end, but there were twists and turns again.

Tao Qiong reached out and took out a short knife from his pocket at this moment, Zhu Zhanhe didn't even know that he was carrying a weapon.

"Your Highness, in order to fly into the sky, my grandfather and father were blown to pieces, and I inherited their behest, and managed to fly into the sky with great difficulty, not just to get off the ground by dozens of feet!"

Tao Qiong shouted down again.

"Tao Qiong, don't go crazy!"

Seeing the dagger in Tao Qiong's hand, Zhu Zhanhe immediately guessed what he was going to do, and immediately shouted eagerly.

But Tao Qiong turned a deaf ear to it, and instead said loudly again: "I want to fly to the nine heavens and meet the legendary gods. I want to fly to the moon and meet the fairies in the moon palace for a while. Maybe I can even meet the fairies." Fate, thus becoming a fairy and attaining the Tao!"

At the end of Tao Qiong's speech, fanaticism appeared on his face, and then he raised the knife and cut the cable connecting the hanging basket in two. The hot air balloon was not restrained, and it flew into the sky in the blink of an eye.

(End of this chapter)