Chapter XVII. Transactions
Led by Chicherin, the crowd went to the restaurant, and not far from the Red Square showed off its style under the huge floor-to-ceiling windows.
Lunch is a traditional Russian meal, starting with smoked salmon with caviar, jelly and pickled cucumbers, along with vodka, which is indispensable for ethnic Russians, and kvass for non-drinkers.
Then there is the Russian-style mushroom soup and the famous borscht, this borscht is based on red cabbage, so the whole soup looks blood-red, which is also the most authentic borscht.
Next up is the main course, which is a large lieba, a variety of pickled fish, salted bacon and pilaf.
The dishes are hearty and traditional Russian cuisine, but one thing is that it's too traditional β all the meat is raw, just pickled.
Leon and Sophia didn't have the same stomach as the others, and the two of them just took some big leba and pilaf to eat, and Chicherin was happy eating all kinds of raw fish and cured meat on this vodka, and he couldn't help but be a little puzzled when he saw that the two of them barely ate vegetables, and he asked Rathenau, who was also eating happily next to him, and said, "Why don't you two eat vegetables, is it not to your taste?" β
Ratnau glanced at the plates of the two, only ordering staple foods such as pilaf and big leba, and was busy glancing at the two, disliking their traditional food on the master's territory, and not afraid of people taking advantage of the opportunity.
Leon and Sophia understood what Ratnau meant, so they smiled wryly and picked up the raw meat from the plate, closed their eyes and put it in their mouths.
The lunch made Leon and Sophia feel like a century had passed, but it had finally passed.
After lunch, everyone returned to their rooms for a brief rest, and then returned to the conference hall to continue the morning discussion.
Perhaps it was Germany's concessions in the morning, or perhaps it was the terrible amount of alcohol that Ratnau had at the wine table that made the afternoon negotiations unexpectedly smooth, and the two sides quickly made rapid progress in international relations and economic trade between the two countries, signing a series of memorandums and trade agreements.
As a representative of the military, Leon sat on the side and listened to the conversation between the two sides boringly, thinking about the future development methods of the Air Force and the armored forces, the problem of the armored forces is that the scale cannot be too large, otherwise even if the two sides of the Military Supervision Bureau want to win over Germany, they will definitely not sit idly by and watch Germany break the contract so unscrupulously, but the armored forces, as a group force, cannot exert their power at all if they are not large-scale. And compared to the problem of armored forces, the development of the air force is more difficult, tanks can still be hidden, and planes can't help but fly into the sky, right? However, Lyon thought about it for a day and had some ideas: the armored forces could allow the army to train in batches secretly, and the air force could only rely on civilian flying clubs and civil aviation to train pilots. While both methods are extremely inefficient, they are now the best way to do so.
"We will start cooperation with your country as soon as possible, then our economic exchanges will end for the time being, and we will have people from other relevant fields to contact your country." Chicherin sorted out a series of documents signed by the two sides just now, stood up and said goodbye to Ratnau and the others with a smile.
Rathenau also stood up with a smile and said: "I am very happy to communicate with people like you, and I hope that the friendship between you and me will always exist in the future!" Then the group walked out of the conference hall and returned to the room where they were resting.
On the way, Rathenau looked very happy, and with Germany's current international status, it has to be said that Rathenau has performed very well.
"Colonel Lyon, the task of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been successfully carried out, and the demands of the Wehrmacht will be discussed with you tomorrow by someone from the side of the Soviet Army." Rathenau said to Leon.
Leon nodded, and before coming, Lieutenant General Strauss and Leon said that the Wehrmacht had no clear requirements for the visit. Lyon also understood that the technology mastered by the Soviet army was not as advanced as that mastered by Germany, and there was indeed nothing worth trading with the Wehrmacht, so it could be said that the current Soviet Union had nothing but land.
Land! It suddenly occurred to Leon that the current Wehrmacht was just short of space. Perhaps the Wehrmacht could borrow Soviet land to train its own soldiers!
This method made Leon excited, and he quickly ran back to the room to jot down his thoughts, and then began to think about how to convince the Soviets to agree to this seemingly harmful plan tomorrow.
The next day, Lyon finished breakfast early and took a sleepy Sophia and several other Wehrmacht representatives to a Soviet aircraft factory on the outskirts of Moscow, where the Soviet military representatives had informed Lyon and others last night that the meeting place was located.
When everyone arrived at the factory, a colonel of the Soviet Red Army was already waiting for Lyon.
"Hello! I'm Colonel Evgeny. The colonel's officer greeted him with a smile.
"I am Colonel Leon AndrΓ©s, the plenipotentiary of the Wehrmacht at this meeting." Leon smiled and shook Yevgeny's hand.
"Colonel Leon, I'll show you around our aircraft factory, we don't have anything to talk about anyway." Yevgeny said while walking with Leon and others that in fact, not only did the German military top brass think that there was no good deal with the Soviet Union, but also the Soviet Union also thought that the German Wehrmacht, which had only 100,000, could not get any good bargaining chips.
"No, no, no, we're not here to visit, we have a good project to work with you, I wonder if you'd like to?" Leon replied to Yevgeny.
"Haha! Your army only has 100,000 people, and your military technology is more advanced than ours, what do you need from us? Could it be these planes? Yevgeny joked with a smile, pointing to the unassembled aircraft in the factory.
"I'm afraid so!" Leon said earnestly.
Yevgeny gradually became serious: "Colonel Leon, do you understand what you are talking about? The Treaty of Versailles clearly states that your country cannot be equipped with aircraft, I don't know what you mean by that? β
"Of course, of course I understand the Treaty of Versailles, but it doesn't say that we can't have pilots." Leon said slowly.
Yevgeny thought for a long time, and then replied to Leon: "I'm sorry, I'm afraid this is not something I can decide, I'll take you to the conference room of this factory, and someone who can make a decision will come to see you later." Then he paused, and continued, "Man, in my opinion, you really shouldn't do this, it's dangerous! β
Leon smiled: "Thanks for the reminder, please take us to the conference room." β
Yevgeny shook his head and stopped talking, and then led Leon and his party to the conference room.
Not long after, a man in the uniform of a Soviet marshal walked into the conference room with several high-ranking generals: "Mr. Colonel, I am Tukhachevsky, the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR!" β