Chapter 90

Lin Yuan confidently said to Emperor Guangxu, "With a wave of my hand, I can blow off the top of a mountain."

Emperor Guangxu thought to himself, "If this is true, he could kill thousands of Russians and Japanese invaders. Given his expertise in Western learning and the profound knowledge of Westerners, what he says might be true."

So Emperor Guangxu said, "Very well, tomorrow you will perform this feat at the northern mountain of the Summer Palace for the Empress Dowager and me!"

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Alright, first give me a map of the Summer Palace."

Of course, Lin Yuan did not have the ability to blow off the top of a mountain with a wave of his hand. What he truly relied on was the powerful air strike capability of the Beijing warship. Lin Yuan thought, "Everyone who travels through time has various superpowers. If I had them, I wouldn't have to go through all this trouble now."

The first thing Lin Yuan needed to do was to find out where this northern mountain was. After that, he needed to transmit the location information back to the Beijing warship. He took a map of the Summer Palace and returned to the Ryukyu embassy, a quiet place suitable for intelligence work. Ancient maps were very different from modern ones; this map did not have latitude and longitude coordinates, and it was not made to scale, making it difficult to obtain useful information from it.

Lin Yuan used a communicator to contact the Beijing warship to see if they knew the location of the northern mountain. In modern China, maps with a certain scale, such as 1:25,000 or 1:50,000, are classified as confidential by the state because such precise maps could threaten national security if they fell into the wrong hands. However, the Beijing warship had many maps with even smaller scales.

To Lin Yuan's disappointment, they searched through all the maps on the Beijing warship but could not find the location of the northern mountain. This was not surprising, as changes in place names have always been a key point in historical geography, indicating the complexity of such changes. It seemed that to find the location of the northern mountain, he would have to seek help from the locals.

Lin Yuan immediately thought of Shen Tao, who had once lived in Beijing. He might know about the northern mountain. When Lin Yuan mentioned it to Shen Tao, Shen Tao said without hesitation, "That northern mountain? Many people know about it. It's a desolate hill in the northwest corner of the Summer Palace. They originally planned to develop it, but the court ran out of money, so they abandoned the plan."

Lin Yuan asked, "Can we go there?"

Shen Tao smiled and said, "Of course, it's very desolate, and no one guards it."

Lin Yuan's mind raced. If he could go to the northern mountain, he could measure its latitude and longitude. He silently recalled the method for measuring latitude and longitude, and he immediately thought of a sextant. A sextant can measure the latitude and longitude of a place, but where could he find one?

Without a sextant, he would have to use another method to measure it. He immediately thought of the method of equal altitude observations of multiple stars. This method involves measuring the times when a set of stars pass through a fixed altitude circle, and then using the measured data in a formula to determine the latitude and longitude. Unfortunately, Lin Yuan had forgotten the formula, but that wasn't a big problem; the formula could be transmitted from the Beijing warship. The issue was that he lacked the necessary instruments, such as a prismatic astrolabe.

Lin Yuan silently recalled the definition of latitude and longitude, hoping to find some useful information. Latitude can be measured by the height of the sun. By placing a stick on the ground at noon and measuring the length of its shadow, one can use trigonometric functions to determine the sun's altitude. However, this method is very rough, and if the bomb doesn't land accurately on the northern mountain, the results could be disastrous. Inaccurate latitude measurement would render even the most precise longitude measurement useless.

At that moment, Zhang Hua walked in with a cigarette in his mouth. Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Old Zhang, I heard that you special agents don't smoke because the smell can give you away."

Zhang Hua smiled and said, "I never smoke the same brand, so my smell is not fixed. This is actually my cover."

Watching the smoke rise from Zhang Hua's cigarette, Lin Yuan suddenly thought that if the target could emit a signal, the pilots could find it. He immediately thought of the use of smoke generators in the army to call for air strikes. The smoke generators emit a thick, colored smoke to indicate the target to the air force. There were no smoke generators here, but there was a better option.

So Lin Yuan asked Zhang Hua, "Old Zhang, do you have any radio communication devices?"

Zhang Hua said, "Of course, I have several."

Lin Yuan asked, "Do you know the frequencies they use?"

Zhang Hua laughed and said, "Asking me this is like asking you if you know the altitude of your plane while you're flying it! How could we not know the frequencies our communication devices use!"

Lin Yuan smiled awkwardly and said, "Can I use one?"

Zhang Hua casually pulled one out and said, "Sure, here you go. You don't need to return it. The frequency is marked on the back. I have to go meet a guest, the president of a Beijing chamber of commerce. We need money for the war, and I'll make sure he gives us whatever we need."

Lin Yuan asked, "How did you get in touch with him?"

Zhang Hua smiled and said, "Shen Tao introduced me. The guy is a big smoker." He held up two fingers proudly and said, "I used two packs of soft Zhonghua cigarettes to make him consider me a lifelong friend. He comes to me every day for cigarettes."

They both laughed, and Zhang Hua left. Lin Yuan gave the communication device to Shen Tao and said, "Before tonight, place this communication device on the northern mountain and press this button. After placing it, cover it with stones to avoid discovery. Go as soon as possible; I'm afraid the area might be sealed off later."

Shen Tao curiously asked, "What is this for?"

Lin Yuan knew that Shen Tao was very interested in modern technology. He thought that explaining it would take days, so he said, "Go first, and I'll tell you when you return."

Shen Tao rode off on a fast horse. As soon as he left, Lin Yuan contacted the Beijing warship, which quickly prepared. Yang Yu asked, "Captain, what kind of bomb should we use?"

Lin Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Use an incendiary bomb; it looks more impressive."

An hour later, the reconnaissance aircraft from the Beijing warship locked onto the location of the communication device. This was a piece of cake for the Beijing warship. The next morning, Lin Yuan entered the palace and set off with Emperor Guangxu. Empress Dowager Cixi was already at the Summer Palace.

When Lin Yuan arrived, he was shocked to see a high platform built at the foot of the northern mountain, with two chairs on it, surrounded by many palace ladies, eunuchs, and guards. Lin Yuan knew that the two chairs were for Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi. He was afraid because the platform was too close to the mountain top.

If they were injured, it would be a big problem. So Lin Yuan told Emperor Guangxu, who immediately ordered the platform to be moved back 500 meters. Lin Yuan was relieved. When everything was ready, Empress Dowager Cixi arrived, surrounded by a retinue.

After the preparations, the aircraft from the Beijing warship approached the target. Of course, the aircraft stayed far enough away to avoid detection. An incendiary bomb accurately hit the top of the northern mountain, creating a massive red fireball and a deafening explosion that left everyone present in shock!

Lin Yuan thought, "This is a perfect performance!" But when he turned around, he saw a worried look on Empress Dowager Cixi's face.

Next episode preview: Why is Empress Dowager Cixi worried? What challenges will Lin Yuan's plan face? Stay tuned.

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