At the airport located at the border junction between the Federation and Mariluo, nine very special planes are undergoing final inspections.

These planes are larger than Lynch’s planes, equipped with five engines, with bigger and wider wings, and a longer fuselage.

In front of these large planes, the plane Lynch just brought over looks like it’s one size smaller, like a... little brother!

The pilots of those planes seem to look down on the pilots here as well, not even bothering to give them proper glances, often looking this way while chatting and laughing with their companions.

Even from a distance, people can guess what they are probably saying from their mouth shapes and expressions.

However, no one is angry at their attitude because it’s not worth it.

At 8:30 AM, all inspections are completed, and these large planes start taking off. Their acceleration distance for take-off is longer, delaying a day’s time.

To enable their proper take-off, the temporary airport here has expanded the runway a bit.

Watching these large planes continuously take to the sky, the pilots on the ground all returned to their tents.

Until further news arrives, they are ready to deploy at any time.

Meanwhile, in a forest beside the bombing area, a group of soldiers, distinct from the local Mariluo warlord’s troops, are setting up two anti-aircraft positions.

The anti-aircraft guns they use are somewhat different from the ones Gafura sold to these warlords.

These guns have a larger caliber, a slightly slower firing rate, and a different targeting system.

However, they are much easier to operate, unlike Gafura’s anti-aircraft machine guns, which require four joysticks to adjust the direction of the anti-aircraft gun.

With this anti-aircraft gun model, users can achieve fast directional adjustments by moving the handles back and forth through sophisticated mechanical structures.

Its only drawback is that it cannot perform a 360-degree adjustment, only suitable for a 120-degree range, but it’s not a problem.

Because it has a base that allows for additional angle adjustment, overcoming its slight inability to cover all directions.

Its response speed is faster, requires less personal ability from the gunner, offers more fierce firepower, and a stronger aiming mechanism. This is one of Lynch’s ground defense measures against aerial weapons.

They now wait quietly, waiting for those costly planes to fly over, and then shoot them down.

Mark’s newly registered company in a small country has just been established, and he has yet to persuade the Mariluo warlords to purchase those weapons. He needs some time to figure out how to infiltrate their ranks.

Lynch can’t wait that long, so he covertly arranged for some reliable people to transport two anti-aircraft guns over.

Lynch possesses the forward-thinking awareness that people of this era do not. He understands the importance of components better than anyone.

The convenience of being easily disassembled and replaceable parts offers advantages in maintenance, assembly, and transport that intact parts do not possess.

Once disassembled, these anti-aircraft guns amount to what a small truck can carry, stealthily transported here without drawing any attention.

These personnel were also specifically selected, personally chosen by the Senior Soldier; in a sense, they are all "defectors."

They have fully sided with the company rather than continuing to stand with the Ministry of Defense, so they have no discomfort with such missions, but rather a sense of excitement.

At 10:15, a buzzing sound emerged from the distant sky, like flies perpetually hovering by one’s ear, and two trained employees took their positions at the controls. Simply by grabbing the handles with both hands and slightly adjusting the direction, with minimal movement required, the anti-aircraft guns began functioning.

The 32mm ammunition looks quite terrifying; the anti-aircraft guns designed by Lynch are capable of not only anti-aircraft actions but also flat firing...

Figuring out how to mount them on armored vehicles is the next project plan.

The bombing formation approached from a distance, and the military observers on the ground carefully monitored those planes.

They immediately noted that these planes were bigger, wider, and longer than those of Darkstone Airlines, which elicited low exclamations from the crowd.

At this time, larger signifies strength, just like how a cannon is a scaled-up version of a gun; people have a peculiar enthusiasm for bigger things.

Watching those planes fly over the forward camp and above the city, the next second, the sound of intensive machine gunfire erupted suddenly from more than ten locations.

These sounds were orderly and possessed a kind of intimidation, giving people a profound shock.

As the planes reached the designated area, they began to drop bombs.

The bombing method of these planes differs from those of Lynch’s bombers, with an additional person in the cabin who specifically observes the ground situation before releasing bombs.

As the lever was pushed, the cabin opened, and bombs dropped one by one from the sky.

These bombs were somewhat different from those of Lynch’s side; they appeared fatter and not as slender as shells.

While falling through the air, some of them wobbled slightly, looking... a bit cute.

"This proves that ours is the best!" The manufacturer’s representative of these planes wore a proud smile.

So far, their planes seemed not to have been hit, causing some military observers’ perspectives to change.

Whoever’s military equipment is stronger, everyone turns to their side, which is quite normal for these small countries.

A few days ago, Lynch’s plane was shot down, and they thought these anti-aircraft machine guns were better.

Now that these anti-aircraft machine guns can’t shoot down these planes, they feel that these planes are better, but only these planes, not those of Darkstone Airlines.

People keep chasing the path to victory, blind, foolish, and impulsive.

At this moment, one plane suddenly emits black smoke and wobbles briefly; however, it seems not significantly affected, even making a turn in the distant sky.

Once more, people marveled at its stability, and the military industry representative started to introduce its performance advantages, such as how its five engines, besides providing substantial thrust, offered stable outputs.

Even if one or two engines were hit and caused trouble, simply disposing of excess bombs and debris would allow it to continue flying with the remaining engines.

This made people more favorable towards it.

The Gafura military observer shook his nail and asked, "Doesn’t it have any weaknesses?"

He posed a sharp question, which could be considered very impolite, but this time in such a setting, it was like highlighting the extraordinary qualities of these planes.

The industry representative smiled, "Of course, its weakness is its cost, as well as its performance."

"In pursuit of ultimate performance, we’ve made it a product of the future."

He smiled arrogantly, "In the next three... no, five years, no one, no model, will be able to surpass it. It’s the best!"

At this moment, different sounds compared to other anti-aircraft guns rang out in the distance—thumping, with a weightier tone, yet it gave a sensation of being choked up.

A plane in the sky suddenly burst into flames and plunged down with black smoke.

This sudden change caught everyone off guard, but fortune seemed not to pause, as the next plane, followed by the third one...

Even in the sky, the bombing formation could not effectively maintain their formation, and the pilots began to evade in terror.

One by one, planes crashed onto the ground until those thumping sounds ceased.

The soldiers who had just enjoyed shooting planes took a glance at the last cartridge slot of the ammo belt, licking their lips somewhat unsatisfactorily, "This thing should be designed with more ammo. If there were enough ammo, I’d have been able to shoot them all down."

Another soldier nodded, faces filled with a kind of indescribable excitement, beginning to dismantle the weapons that had just proven their worth, packing them into large boxes, putting them onto the trucks, and winding their way down the mountain path away from the site.

On the ground, the military industry representative’s eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at the remaining four planes in the sky, with one trailing thick black smoke heading for the airport, frantically questioning anyone near him.

"What was that?"

"What was that?"

"What shot them down?!"

No one knew, as people merely looked in awe at the enduring flames in the distant city where the planes crashed.

For small countries, their stance changes very quickly.

Ten minutes ago, they marveled at the Federation’s strength, but now, they deemed these expensive toys of no practical value.

Just some anti-aircraft guns can shoot down such expensive planes; these small countries simply cannot afford this kind of play.

They can’t risk taking out large batches of planes for destruction; rather, they prefer deploying more anti-aircraft guns than a fleet of planes.

As long as they prevent the opposing planes from entering the industrial cities deep within their territory to bomb, they are content.

Compared to expensive planes, ground combat is what they favor the most.

Because human life, in this world, at this time, is the least valuable.

The news quickly reached the Federation, and when Lynch heard the result, he merely smiled without speaking.

However, the Ministry of Defense and the airplane manufacturing company that failed Lynch became agitated. A higher crash rate means their planes are less reliable than Lynch’s!

The Ministry of Defense’s orders haven’t been fully delivered, and if they shirk at this time...

This is terrible!