Canteen System Assistance Notes

When he said this, Zhu Dunzhong's eyes were almost radiating light.

Furthermore, an artillery scout can now call on not only his own artillery group but also artillery groups from other units, allowing for flexible deployment of firepower. This effectively means that frontline soldiers have a whole bunch of artillery in their pockets.

"Also, right now, our observers still report data by voice, and then the artillery staff inputs that data into a calculator to calculate the various parameters. I wonder if in the future, if artillery observers report data in a way that can be recognized by machines, can we directly obtain the firing parameters? Or, even further, if the artillery is equipped with an automatic mechanism, the artillery will automatically move the gun to the correct position with just the artilleryman's confirmation to fire.

"In this way, in the future, we may be able to reduce the reaction time of artillery to 5 minutes, allowing this 'God of War' to truly hit wherever it is pointed.

"Even in the more distant future, can we just fire the cannon and equip the shell with eyes, so that it can hit the target under the guidance of the observer?" He looked into Liu Helian's eyes excitedly: "Comrade Liu Helian, what you said, is it possible for us to do this in the future?"

Chapter 501: Discussion on the Air Force

Zhu Dunzhong was discussing his vision for the future of artillery with Liu Helian, while Commander Nie Heting of the Eighth Route Army Air Force was holding a seminar on air power. Commander Nie's first words were, "First of all, let me congratulate you all on your complete victory in the air control portion of the Battle of Western Inner Mongolia!"

The air force officers and soldiers in the audience burst into applause, and the applause lasted a long time. Indeed, in this battle, the Eighth Route Army Air Force—or rather, the Air Force—performed the air control mission remarkably well. First, the Air Force not only quickly seized several Japanese "airfields" and installed mobile fuel depots, navigation control towers, and ammunition loading stations, perfecting them for combat use by our aircraft.

Secondly, the Eighth Route Army Air Force successfully achieved the task of "seizing local air superiority in the war zone" and shot down two waves of Japanese combat aircraft taking off from Sijiucheng and Zhangyuan.

Light bomber fleet; Finally, the air force fighters also maintained 5

The continuous air control patrols of 12 aircraft in the sky targeted and shot down several Japanese reconnaissance aircraft that tried to sneak into the war zone, but they suffered minimal losses themselves.

After waiting for the applause to subside, Commander Nie lowered his hands to quiet down the group of air force members in shirts.

"Those who do well should be praised, and those who do poorly should be corrected! While we have achieved victory in air control operations, we still have much room for improvement in supporting our army comrades in their operations!"

Due to the actual situation, the Eighth Route Army's air force had a strong army flavor.

But this was also a characteristic of the time. Ever since airplanes first officially entered the battlefield, the armies and navies of major military powers gradually developed into two distinct aviation lines, with many countries not establishing their air forces as independent armies.

Given the objective situation that the Eighth Route Army Air Force is small in size, has a short history and little accumulated experience, the Eighth Route Army Air Force has carried obvious army markings since its inception, and is required to serve the air defense needs of the army and border areas.

Therefore, the most basic tasks of the Air Force were to "protect the border areas from being bombed by the Japanese" and "prevent the Japanese planes from laying eggs on our heads", plus training aviation personnel. These two different tasks also divided the few aircraft in the Eighth Route Army's pocket into two combat groups: "intercepting aviation" and "tactical aviation", as well as a "training aviation" dedicated to training.

The first two groups completed their mission successfully, preventing the Japanese from dropping a single bomb on the frontline troops during this battle. However, Commander Nie was not entirely satisfied with the result. He continued, "In addition to fighters, we also have sixty or seventy attack aircraft participating in this battle." All Guardians were dispatched, and DB7s were also deployed.

"What happened? After the Wildcat comrades gained air superiority, we simply paralyzed the Japanese 51st Division (formerly the 2nd Independent Division) and destroyed the cavalry group.

In the battle of the 26th Division, we had only a few anti-artillery reconnaissance and aerial reconnaissance

Apart from the investigation, there were no results."

Speaking of this, most of the people who had just been beaming with joy over their victory blushed. Compared to the smooth air superiority campaign, the Eighth Route Army Air Force's ground support was indeed not very good, and they even made a lot of jokes.

In the first phase of the battle, the DB7 bombers responsible for anti-artillery operations, apart from successfully assisting in countering a Japanese field artillery attack, basically circled in the sky. The pilots found that after the battlefield situation changed, the army comrades on the ground rushed forward at a rapid speed, and in an instant, the originally relatively neat battle line became a jagged one. In addition, the ground was full of fire and smoke. Even if the D87 took the risk of lowering its altitude, it was difficult to visually confirm whether the troops running below were our pursuing troops or the defeated Japanese and puppet troops.

These pilots are basically selected from the army: they can't drop bombs on their comrades!

The SB2U formation originally intended to attack the Japanese reinforcements also encountered problems. After "shaking hands" with the Army signalmen on the ground, the dive bombers repeatedly lost sight of their target area. Looking down from their aircraft, the signal flares fired by the Army comrades were difficult to spot against the vast yellow landscape. Finally, after repeated communication, the small attack formation realized they had overshot the enemy and, naturally, could not see the signal smoke screen. As they hurriedly turned back, the exasperated Army soldiers informed the pilots that they had already called in artillery fire to blow the Japanese back, and that their assistance was unnecessary.

What's worse is that because landing with bombs is too dangerous, the SB2U cannot fly back with the bombs in the sky hanging on it. The SB2U can only find an uninhabited hill to drop the bombs down and then fly back.

Thanks to intelligence reports during the third phase of the battle that the Japanese 51st Division was reinforcing along the railway, the Air Force was able to deploy all its dive bombers, along with fighters, in a massive sortie. Seizing this opportunity, the Air Force worked tirelessly: 48 SB2Us and 24 Wildcats bombed back and forth, destroying a tenth of the 51st Division's combat personnel.

Incidentally, all their heavy weapons were destroyed, and then the DB7 came to review the bombing results.

He also had a belly full of "small sweet potato" anti-personnel bombs and "butterfly" anti-personnel mines, which he scattered at the fleeing Japanese army.

Because of the formation, this kind of bombing did not cause much damage to the Japanese army's manpower, but it dealt a huge blow to the Japanese's mental state - this decadent mental state saved the army a lot of effort when it surrounded and annihilated the 51st Division.

It was not until this time that the Air Force felt that it had regained some ground.

Problems must be solved, and the Air Force's discussion quickly turned into a large-scale brainstorming session. Everyone formed several groups and began to discuss intensely.

How to improve the operational efficiency of the Air Force in ground support missions.

A variety of opinions and suggestions were quickly summarized on the spot.

Some have suggested that during joint command, coordination could be conducted to establish a daily "attack end line" for ground forces. This line would identify friendly forces on one side and enemy forces on the other. This would allow the Air Force's hunting formations to freely hunt down enemy troop clusters, artillery, logistics, and transport units on the enemy side.

This argument was quickly refuted, and didn't even make it out of the group discussion. Regardless of our army's expertise in flanking maneuvers and deep operations, the motorized units alone, capable of continuous attacks covering dozens of kilometers in a single day, were highly likely to exceed the previous day's agreement and charge into "the enemy's flank." This was to say nothing of the local main forces, guerrillas, and armed work teams already active behind enemy lines. Furthermore, sending formations out for hunting was essentially a "flooding" exercise, trading quantity for effectiveness under conditions of absolute air superiority, and was unsuitable for the Eighth Route Army.

Some have also proposed emulating the Soviet model and integrating aircraft into artillery firepower, using them as "flying artillery." By participating in the artillery preparation process, the Air Force can penetrate deep into enemy lines and strike high-value targets in designated areas. In this scenario, the distance between the enemy and friendly forces is more clearly defined, making identification easier and contributing more effectively to the ground advance.

However, this often meant that the ground attack formations would often have to launch attacks before air superiority was fully established, potentially facing severe losses. The Eighth Route Army Air Force was still small and could not withstand such attrition.

This idea led to a new perspective: for the Eighth Route Army, with its smaller air force, ground attacks were more about quality than quantity. The Eighth Route Army must forgo seemingly large-scale group attacks and the advantages of winning by sheer numbers. Most of the time, missions like bombing the 51st Division were rare, and the Eighth Route Army's air force must achieve the greatest value with the fewest flights possible.

"Priority is the Japanese aircraft parked on the ground, their command structures, and their logistics centers. Next is their technical weapons, baggage trains, and marching columns. Finally, there are the strong firepower points, Japanese infantry, tanks, and other items that the army comrades cannot handle."

Commander Nie Heting concluded, "For quite a long time, I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to become the firepower that our army comrades can carry in their pockets, like artillery: so it is better to focus on areas that artillery cannot reach." His opinion was agreed by everyone. Now that the coordination between the Eighth Route Army's infantry and artillery is becoming increasingly close, it is also a good thing to make a good distinction between tasks and ground artillery.

"I think there's a misunderstanding in everyone's discussion just now."

An Army representative at the meeting raised his hand. "The Air Force comrades are all discussing how to cooperate with the Army in combat, but coordination is inherently relative! You cooperate with me, and I cooperate with you, just like infantry and artillery—they are inherently interconnected and dialectically unified."

"Aircraft are flying cannons, but they can't be simply understood as flying artillery. They have their own unique aspects, but they also share similarities with the army." He stroked his chin. "When the army's artillery conducts indirect fire, they can't see the target themselves and need artillery spotters to guide them. Does the Air Force also need a role similar to artillery spotters, guiding aircraft strikes just like they guide artillery bombardments?"

The army comrade gestured with his hands: "When a plane is flying in the sky, it can see a large area; but on the ground, everything is small, and it's hard to distinguish targets. So, wouldn't it be safer to have an extra pair of eyes on the ground to help see?

The Army could organize such an observation team and send them to the Air Force for training, learning the knowledge and skills of aircraft flight and bombing. After passing the Air Force exam, they would return to the Army. During combat, they would work with the Air Force's communications staff to scout targets behind enemy lines. Army scouts and guerrillas from the base areas could also assist. Once they located enemy artillery, headquarters, or other targets, they could shout through the walkie-talkie and have planes come over to bomb.

"With comrades on the ground and in the air coordinating with each other, I think achieving effective air-ground coordination shouldn't be that difficult."

Chapter 502: The Fantastic Journey of the Cash Register Computer () Cyber ​​Dog Trainer

(Black technology chapter, involving technical details)

Hou Dajian put on shoe covers, walked into the computer room, and sat in front of a monitor.

He pulled a basket of materials from the table toward him, looked at the pile of photos, several USB flash drives, and SD cards with numbered tags, and nodded. He poured hot water into his teacup and dropped a few tea leaves into it to soothe his dark circles.

The cup is a "bug cup," and the operating system is a modified version of "Linix": Communism 0S.0.1.4. The computer is a "smart cash register" that cannot be purchased in bulk and is disassembled from cafeterias and supermarkets - this thing uses a 200GE CPU from a certain future A factory and a 4G memory stick. No more than 20 of them can be disassembled from the entire cafeteria branch.

This expensive and rare machine boasts computing power far exceeding that of the Raspberry Pi computers available for bulk purchase and accessed through the supplier's system. It's truly "black technology" that even if copied, no one would understand it. But in this office, there's only one such "magic machine."

After all, this is an office of the Eighth Route Army's "Industrialization and Standardization Department."

He tapped the keyboard, and the computer quickly came out of sleep mode, the monitor lighting up. "Welcome back, comrade."

Normally, all computers in the Eighth Route Army were subject to very strict management regulations. Rooms had to be dustproof, equipment had to be grounded, computer room floors had to be elevated to prevent rats, and machine usage had schedules and management methods. Behaviors like Hou Dajian's, leaving his computer running all night without turning it off, would generally result in disciplinary action.

But the project team in this office was clearly "not normal": the computer was constantly running, lights flickering, fans whirring, and a blue "compute stick" plugged into a port on the back, quietly working. Researcher Hou Dajian took a deep breath, clasped his hands together, and then clicked on the operating interface.

Great, no red error message indicating a complete failure. Hou Dajian breathed a sigh of relief. At least all his work last night wasn't in vain.

He tapped the keyboard and manipulated the mouse, first stopping the continuously scrolling lines of code. Then, the computer paused for a moment as it began to gradually summarize the results of over ten thousand runs that night: a slowly rising water column popped up on the screen, starting to run percentages.

That looks like a while, he thought.

During this time, Hou Dajian shifted his position and began processing the contents of his file basket. He first pulled out several USB drives and loaded the files onto his computer—all of them images and videos that had been scanned, photographed, or directly digitized. These photos and videos were taken at various times, angles, and environments. Some were transcribed from military reconnaissance film taken from the air, some were videos superimposed on digital recordings using a cannon telescope, and even infrared photos taken at night with an active infrared camera.

The only thing in common is that there is a tank in all these photos.

Ah, yes, the confidential researcher of the Black Technology Group, Comrade Hou Dajian, is training a new Alo

The Eighth Route Army's first contact with actual AI was actually in the monitoring module of the cafeteria system.

This system, inherited from the city's security monitoring system, is somewhat like "Skynet". Multiple cameras inside and outside the cafeteria building are basically linked to the powerful desktop computer in the cafeteria's central control room. Considering that it is impossible for cloud computing centers to provide services for equipment in the 20th century, the cafeteria also thoughtfully stuffed a server chassis full of commercial graphics computing cards into the room to provide services.

It’s a pity that this thing is not included in the supplier’s system. Like the cash register computer, it is limited in quantity, with only one unit in each cafeteria branch.

The intelligence department under the Party Committee discovered that this device could lock onto a person's face from a kilometer away and even analyze the person's identity. All it needed to do was collect everyone's photos and identities in an empty database (naturally, it couldn't be connected to the public security system). Then, if they pointed the camera at someone, even if they wore makeup or disguised themselves, they would be recognized by the system.

Later, everyone discovered that the thermal sensor temperature station at the entrance of the cafeteria seemed to have this function. The only difference was that instead of identifying the person, the device would turn the person's image into colorful blocks of color, and then put a cross on the forehead to show the person's body temperature. If the temperature exceeded 37.5 degrees, an alarm would be sounded.

So, since this thing can recognize people and hot foreheads, can it recognize other things? For example, planes, tanks, vehicles, or even ships?

After reading a large number of information and computer teaching books, Feng Zhongyun, a former commander of the Anti-Japanese United Army and a rare mathematics college student in the Communist Party, volunteered to join the black technology department of the Industrial Standards Bureau and led a new project team to start training using existing frameworks, equipment and materials for AI modification.

He brought six science and mathematics students who had joined the Party, erased the data in the existing A-frame, and began training new AIs for the Eighth Route Army. To maintain confidentiality and to "describe himself" to a certain extent, the fashionable Feng Zhongyun even gave his project team a strange nickname, "Dog Training Team," and gave the AIs to be trained all kinds of strange names: "Retriever," "Sled Dog," "Shepherd Dog..."

One, one, one, one, one, one—

Hou Dajian is in charge of the training of "sled dogs", that is, "AI for identifying armored vehicles in the environment."

During the Battle of Western Mengxi, the Air Force, Field Army, Armored Forces, Artillery, and even journalists provided the Black Technology Team with numerous tank images, which served as training material for the "sled dogs." These included both the Eighth Route Army's own tanks and those of the Japanese. Some of these tanks were on the march, some were parked and firing, and some, seen from the air, lay shattered and smoking.

After completing the initial development phase, Hou Dajian and another team member needed to sift through the digitized photos, identify the objects the "sled dog" needed to identify, mark them, and enter them into the program's library. Finally, the "sled dog" would identify the tanks in the images. The "sled dog" would output the XY coordinates it determined the tanks were in, along with a corresponding status assessment. The program's backend would then score the "sled dog" based on the standard answers Hou Dajian had marked. The more accurate the assessment, the higher the score.

But even after a long training run, the "sled dog," at version O_6_9, still couldn't distinguish tanks against complex backgrounds. This well-trained dog could already distinguish tanks with long gun barrels like the T2 and BT5, tanks moving along the road kicking up dust, and tanks on fire and smoking. In theory, A would scan the entire image and then highlight any tanks in the photo with a red box.

However, all of this needs to be done in a clean, open field, and the tank shouldn't have too many complicated or broken items on its surface, nor too many other things around it. Otherwise, you'll end up with something like this: "Test error 0017, mistook a power-assisted cart for a tank—let me see, maybe I mistook the exhaust pipe for a gun barrel?"

"Test 0131's deviation is ridiculous... Huh? How could they mistake this thing for a tank? ... I guess the kitchen staff laid out a row of cabbages here, and there's an upside-down iron pot over there with a broom on top." "Test 2183, this one is accurate, but it recognized the shadow of a tank, not the tank itself. You idiot, how can a shadow be the same as a tank?..."

The results of today's test are still not very ideal.

—―-———-—

As a student lost during the school's westward relocation, Hou Dajian's grades weren't exactly top-tier, but they were above average. Even so, he felt a certain sense of powerlessness—the newly added mathematical functions and differential geometry algorithms he'd designed seemed completely ineffective against his "dog brain." After several iterations, the results were still unsightly.

He couldn't help but envy the "trainers" who used the other two sets of samples.

"Retriever" was tested using infrared laser photography, requiring the ability to discern a bright spot flickering at a specific frequency in complete darkness. Their A has long since achieved stable operation, quickly distinguishing specific light spots against dark backgrounds like black and light gray. I heard the project team has been transferred to a military factory to conduct practical work.

"Shepherd Dog" was tested using maritime photographs, similar to "Sled Dog," except that its target was ships. Feeding it with numerous photos provided by New Fourth Army comrades, "Shepherd Dog" has been able to consistently identify over 15 ships on the ocean surface and successfully locate the largest of them. "Shepherd Dog" has now reportedly been compiled into a working program and is being tested in a real-world environment.

Other people's dogs are so well behaved, so why don't you obey?

Why not "converge"?

Hou Dajian always felt that there was a silly "sled dog" squatting in the computer in front of him, panting and grinning at him.

But I became a miserable dog trainer, who could neither beat nor scold the dog.

No, we have to find a way to continue training - or simply write a report saying that this direction is not feasible - this is not the first time that such a "shooting" incident has occurred in the black technology team.

I don't know what this thing can do after training...

Thinking this way, he started today's data injection and parameter adjustment work.

Chapter 503: Mr. Ruilong's Fantastic Journey (2) Flying Red Geek

(Black technology chapter, involving some technical details)

Apart from Al, who looks like a product of magic, almost everyone who has read Xiao Liu's information and listened to him talk about future wars will be deeply interested in the "drones" in the future world.

Drones, ranging from small enough to be easily dropped or large enough to cruise across the ocean, are highly versatile, capable of performing a wide range of tasks, including reconnaissance, surveillance, relay, and strike missions. However, these unmanned aerial vehicles are poised to change the very nature of future warfare. The ever-fashionable A Bie expressed a desire to try one out.

Unfortunately, Liu Helian searched the cafeteria's supply list several times and tried dozens of times at counters such as the ⒄ Internship Counter and the Y Electronics Counter, but he couldn't find any commercial drones like the *Xinjiang, let alone regular military drones like the "Wing Loong" and "Rainbow".

After all, Xinjiang is "certified by the former Russian Chief of General Staff as the true symbol of modern warfare," so it seems reasonable that places like university supermarkets and purchasing counters do not provide such commercial drones for "warfare"?

But, isn't it just not giving out finished products?

"So don't be nervous, don't be nervous, really don't be nervous. Just imagine that someone is playing a movie for you through these glasses, and you're the character in the movie. You've learned the controls before, right? You've flown the indoor unit, right?"

"Yeah... I've learned it, and I've flown it..." "That's fine, don't be too nervous."

Zhou Lifan pressed a remote control into the young man's hand and helped him put on a pair of oversized glasses. He had once been a geodesist in the Red Army, with a solid foundation in science and engineering. He later became the first generation of ground mechanics in the Eighth Route Army Air Force, accumulating extensive experience with electromechanical equipment.

Zhou Lifan was very experienced in teaching. He tightened the strap behind the student's glasses and asked, "Have you ever flown a large roller in aviation school? What kind of aircraft did you fly? Have you ever flown a solo?" "Reporting to the commander, I have flown a large roller, both a Boeing 2 and a Tiger Moth, but I have never flown a solo..."

Oh... but don't worry, the controls on this thing are very different from those on a plane—the plane inside is fake, so don't worry if it gets damaged." Zhou Lifan finally pointed to the enamel bowl on the other side. "Finally, spit here, don't spit on the machine."

"Oh, oh, okay..."

After putting the "first-person perspective glasses" on the new student and asking the other students to watch from the side, Zhou Lifan opened the "Flying Drone Simulator" software. The cash register equipped with a 200CE chip, four 2G memory sticks, and a built-in Vega3 core graphics card began to whirr strangely as it struggled to run the program.

The awful 3D graphics, like those in "Counter-Strike 1.5," were projected simultaneously onto the students' glasses and computer screens: only textured grass, highly abstract paper trees, a motionless skybox of clouds, and the streaky noise of a simulated drone's image transmission system...

"Oh oh oh oh! Wow wow wow!" The students who were observing the actual performance screamed in surprise. They were more excited than seeing the martial arts scenes of the opera troupe.

Don't be nervous, don't be nervous! Think about the steps for visual flight: takeoff, hovering... That's right! Follow the arrows here, and if you can fly two rounds without blowing up, you've passed the first stage!" Zhou Lifan dragged an oversized red button over and placed it in front of everyone. "If the plane crashes, you faint, or vomit, just press this button and you can start over immediately. It's no big deal!"

The fuselage frame, ESC module, brushless motor... and the versatile lithium battery pack. The Eighth Route Army soldiers in charge of the cafeteria successfully pulled out a large pile of miscellaneous multi-rotor aircraft components from the internship counter and laid them out on a table covered with cutting boards.

The Eighth Route Army finally chose the flexible and DIY-style assembly of the "cross-country drone".

If there's no ready-to-fly drone, then assemble it yourself and learn how to repair it. If there's no mature commercially available "point-and-shoot flight control," then use open source data frameworks for self-training, supplemented by manual pilot control. If there's no advanced, off-the-shelf digital image transmission module, then use analog image transmission instead, which also offers the advantages of low latency and high frame rates.

Since 1938, countless time-travel machines that looked like toothpicks, doughnuts, and toys have been assembled by explorers of the Eighth Route Army according to tutorials and textbooks.

Complete parameter adjustment and remote control matching, and finally test indoors, outdoors and on the training ground.

The flight often ends in a crash, fire or even explosion.

Because there were no wind tunnels to test aerodynamic models at the time, these "cross-country drones" almost all featured the most common X-shaped quadcopter layout. Furthermore, considering practical operational requirements, the Eighth Route Army assembled almost all "long-range" aircraft, reducing speed and maneuverability to focus on improving image transmission, flight safety, and stable endurance.

After dozens of drones, which required hundreds to thousands of yuan in foreign currency to purchase and assemble, were "crashed," the "Eighth Route Army Remote Controlled Quadcopter Unmanned Reconnaissance Vehicle Construction, Assembly, Use, and Maintenance Manual" and the "Eighth Route Army Remote Controlled Quadcopter Unmanned Reconnaissance Vehicle Pilot Training Outline" were finally compiled and finalized. Three technically stable quadcopter drones finally passed the Central Military Commission's design approval process.

"Yaozhen-1A" and "Yaozhen-1B" are used for indoor flight training and outdoor flight training respectively. The former is smaller in size and not easily damaged. It only has a mini camera to transmit images. It is mainly used for beginners to familiarize themselves with the operation and train their sense of space. The latter has a larger structure and its rotor is equipped with a protective duct ring, which has a certain impact resistance. It is mainly used for training outdoor flight control.