In early spring, the northern harbor is breezy and rippling, and the smell of damp sea is blowing in your face. The empty docks of the military port are piled up with many iron anchors and steel cables that have been dismantled from ships. Now, instead of feeling desolate, Admiral Reinhardt Schell is full of infinite longing for the new Union Navy. In the past few days, in addition to actively cooperating with Admiral Hipper's shipbuilding supervision, he also began to focus on the preparation for the establishment of the Navy's William Noncommissioned Officer College according to Eric's deployment years ago.

The United States, Britain and other countries took advantage of the opportunity of German surface ships being intercepted in the North Sea to rampage through the English Channel, as if entering a no-man's land, and millions of British and American troops and heavy weapons and equipment frequently landed on the west coast of the European continent, causing great pressure and losses on the German Western Front. Therefore, when ordinary people heard that the Federal Navy wanted to build the Naval William Noncommissioned Officer College in the northern port, they immediately took the initiative to cede a large area of hilly land ready for reclamation.

At this time, Berlin was still warm and cold, the work of building and developing the federal navy had been fully rolled out, the national marine berthing experts and the navy's top brass were in full swing, the ports of Williams, Cucks, Kiel, and Venice in the south were shining with lightning and bright lights, and workers were working overtime to build advanced warships. Eric was full of ambition and patrolled all over the country to cheer for the construction unit.

Finally returning to the Hansafelt Palace, Eric wanted to take a hot bath to wash away the dust and fatigue of the way, and was untying his clothes, when he heard that Max, the chief of the house, had asked to see him, and he did not care about tidying up his clothes, so he hurried to the parlor again.

After listening to Max's report and suggestions, Eric immediately woke up to himself, and it was true that he was only interested in building ships, but he forgot about this unit that used and operated advanced warships.

"The reminder from the chief caretaker is very timely and the idea is very good! Otherwise, you will almost miss the best time to recruit, and if you are a little later, you may miss the enrollment season and delay the effect of a year in vain. Eric praised Max's idea.

Admiral Reinhardt Schell lived up to Eric's expectations, and in the last few days of the first month of the new year, he succeeded in bringing back two important admirals, Tirpitz and Henin von Holdendorff.

Knock Knock Knock –

A knock on the door made Eric stop what he was doing.

"Mr. President, Minister Brauchitsch has arrived." Annata's voice came from outside the door.

"Invite him in, Director Anata." Eric tidied up the messy table and commanded.

After Brauchitsch opened the door and entered, he walked up to Eric respectfully: "Dear Mr. President, Defense Minister Brauchitsch has come to receive orders. ”

"What's wrong with your Excellency my minister today, I've never seen you so restrained in front of me before, please take a seat." Eric looked at Brauchitsch quizzically, and pointed to the sofa behind him, which he preferred to have his subordinates sit at that angle, so that he could clearly observe the expressions of his subordinates as they spoke.

After the two sat down, Eric asked straight to the point: "How did His Excellency the Minister arrange this year's huge military budget?" ”

"Dear Mr. President, according to the plans of the Presidential Office, the Cabinet and the Ministry of National Defense last year, this year's budget is mainly divided into three parts, the first part is the construction of strike weapons and military infrastructure; the second part is the research and deployment of defense systems; The third part is the salary and operating expenses of the soldiers; The specifics are that everything in the Navy will start from scratch, and Marshal Hipper's ship-building order plan and General Scheer's military academy will use twenty percent of the total budget; Although the cost of the Air Force has increased compared with previous years, the magnitude is not obvious, mainly because the proportion of research and development of new fighters is relatively large, accounting for 10 percent of the total budget; Since the reduction of the Army's personnel, the pace of motorized infantry has been greatly accelerated, and in particular, the popularization and development of offensive weapons require more expenses, accounting for 12 percent of the total. In addition, I would like to include the National Guard as part of the national armed forces, and all expenditures will be treated on an equal footing with the Defence Forces and the Army, with the exception of the unified procurement of heavy equipment, and light weapons will be mainly in the form of miniature submachine guns and cold blades, combined with small and capable naval and air support equipment. Beginning at the beginning of the year, the salaries and subsidies of officers and men at all levels have been increased by 2 percent on the original basis, so as to encourage the will of the whole army to defend the territory and protect the frontier. The remaining 60 percent of the total budget will be used for the study and reunified procurement of defense systems for all services and arms. Brauchitsch gave a basic report to Eric in one breath.

"I have no objection that the National Guard enjoy the same treatment as the Wehrmacht, and I would like to redefine the functions of this force in order to maximize its role." Eric basically agreed to Brauchitsch's distribution scheme.

"In line with Mr. President's idea, the Ministry of Defense will use part of the funds to give special awards to military units based on their annual and quarterly performance, and to compete fiercely among the three services." Brauchitsch said.

"It's a good idea, but it needs to be organized in a variety of ways, and if necessary, I will personally participate in such competitions so that all branches of the armed forces can reach their maximum potential. Also, have you communicated with Toth about HNA and Lu Airlines? Eric gets back to business.

Brauchitsch put down the report in his hand, adjusted his mood for a moment, and then said anxiously: "Mr. Toth is very annoyed by this matter, and the president may need to talk to him personally." Toth was occasionally petty, but Brauchitsch didn't want to deal with him.

"You have worked hard Minister Brauchitsch, although Toth is arrogant, I forgive him for not daring to talk nonsense in private, so that his term of office can end early." Eric was speaking lightly, but Brauchitsch clearly felt the harbingers of the coming rain.

Eric picked up a cigar and looked at Brauchitsch with an inquiring eye: "Do you think there are too many German field marshals?" Without waiting for Brauchitsch to speak, Eric continued: "There are seven field marshals alone, and the four army groups plus three who were promoted after the war. There are also three in the Air Force. There are also four in the Navy. ”

Brauchitsch's military rank is still lieutenant general, too far from the marshal, although he is the minister of defense, it can only mean that his position is higher, at this time, he knows very well in his heart that it will not be his turn to intervene in any case. Brauchitsch sat on the sofa and listened attentively to Eric's words, his body trembling slightly involuntarily, the president in front of him was a ruthless character, and he might do something unexpected.

Although the rank of lieutenant general is not low, Brauchitsch knows the water, in the early days of the federal state, in order to cultivate "his own people", Eric gave such an important position as Minister of Defense to "his own people", which did not have the intention of making up for his lack of qualifications, therefore, a group of young "war room officers" such as Rundstedt were promoted at a speed like a plane, which once attracted strong dissatisfaction from conservatives and also brought a small passivity in work.

"This aspect of the position must be strictly controlled in the future, and the title of marshal is not so easy to obtain." Eric looked at Brauchitsch's somewhat frightened face, worried about the reaction of the object, and then added: "Forget the previous one, you must strictly control it in the future, you can let the people from the Military Intelligence Bureau cooperate in handling the matter of Toth, and first demote and demote it, and if you don't cooperate......"

Eric stopped at this point, he couldn't be directly involved in the details, and he had to let Brauchitsch understand it himself.

Brauchitsch nodded knowingly, then took his leave.

After the "cabinet reshuffle meeting" after the National Day on November 6 last year, the president no longer allowed the people below him to do their own thing, and from arranging for the opposition parties to enter the cabinet, Erick could feel that he was afraid of the Federalist Party's control of the cabinet.

Shortly after Brauchitsch went out, Ananta pushed the door open.

"Mr. President, the time has come to meet President Kemal, and at the state guest reception, the self-righteous president may ask to talk to you about something that is of more interest to Turkey." Ananta was a little embarrassed, because the next person to meet was the Minister of Agriculture, but Brauchitsch had delayed it for too long and was squeezed out.

"What does he want to talk to me about? Isn't he interested in everything in Germany? Has the earth party communicated with us beforehand? Eric asked, confused.

"Please forgive Mr. President, the suddenness of the incident, and Mr. Kemal's constant secretiveness, so the clerks of both countries do not know what medicine is sold in his gourd, so I will go and find out the situation now." Ananta said with some embarrassment.

"Forget Anata, the meeting between the two heads of state will go ahead as usual, but President Kemal should be informed in advance, and this meeting will probably be a long story short, because my work schedule is very tight." Eric didn't know what Kemal was talking about, but he couldn't get to the bottom of it beforehand, after all, there weren't many people who could be called allies of Germany now, and Kemal was a rarity.

Kemal visited the German Confederation for the second time, and under the leadership of Annata, he was very happy as soon as he entered the door.

"Your Excellency President Eric Adrian! We'll see each other again soon! Kemal was not polite, and after a little courtesy, Kemal sat down on the sofa.

Eric was stupid, Nana said yes, thinking that this guy really didn't treat himself as an outsider.

After the two had some communication on international affairs, Kemal interrupted Eric's conversation several times and tried to start talking about something he was interested in.

"I don't know ...... Mr. President" Eric very politely called Kemal's position, but Kemal stopped him and added with a smile: "The German Confederation and Turkey are brothers, you and I are like brothers, call me Mustafa." ”

Eric was very embarrassed, thinking to himself that this was the second time we had met, why did we have to worship so soon, but this guy was real, as long as he didn't dig a hole for Germany. So, he quickly changed his tone and asked: "Mustafa, I don't know if there is anything else in Germany that can help you, just say it." ”

"You know Eric, I'm not a person who likes to ask for help, but when I visited your naval headquarters yesterday, I saw something good that intrigued me very much!" Kemal patted Eric's box of cigars, "If you promise me, such a Cuban cigar, I will personally send you a large box!" ”

"Huh? Let's not talk about the cigars, Mustafa, tell me what you see? Eric wondered what was so intriguing about Kemal.

"The kind of big ship that can park a lot of planes!" Kemal couldn't remember the explanation in German, so he had to describe it in this way.

"You're talking about aircraft carriers, right?" Eric replied in English to Kemal's observations.

"If you don't have anything else to say, it's an aircraft carrier!" Kemal thought about it, and it was still very accurate, and he thought it was right.

Eric is embarrassed, not because he doesn't want to sell, but because Turkey's current capabilities simply can't make aircraft carriers play much role, and to put it mildly, he can't afford to raise it and can't play well.

"So, do you still want those tanks that were ordered before?" Eric was worried that Kemal would abandon the order for tanks in order to get an aircraft carrier.

"Absolutely! That's a good weapon too! Orders from Turkey will not be reduced by a single one! As soon as he finished saying this, Kemal clearly felt that Eric's eyes revealed a meaning of "you have no money", and he was immediately a little angry, "Turkey will not owe Germany a penny of loans, my president." Kemal was indeed angry and went straight back to the title of position.

Eric was really worried that Turkey wouldn't be able to pay, but thinking that they still had chromium on their soil, he thought of a solution.

Chromium has a wide range of uses, especially after the emergence of stainless steel, the amount of chromium has increased dramatically, and a large amount of this metal is needed for warships, engines, aviation, civil products, precision machinery, etc.

Previously, Germany has been developing this metal, and recently began to import large quantities from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries to solve the urgent need, if you use a number to express the amount of chromium that can be mined in Turkey, then, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, including the Dutch colonies, all add up to 1, Turkey is 100.

This ratio is not exaggerated, and at times, Eric is even very jealous of the richness of mineral deposits in these countries.

"Mustafa, aircraft carriers are not cheap, and they need a large number of carrier-based aircraft, pilots and logistics support personnel, etc." Eric didn't lie to him, aircraft carriers as a new type of weapons, even Germany is still in the exploration stage, a lot of hardware and training are not complete, let alone help Turkey "However, if your country insists on buying one, we can sell one, and help you train personnel, including assigning officers in this area to Turkey for on-site guidance." Eric continued: "The premise is that our country is allowed to help you increase the level of chromium mining. ”

Kemal rolled his eyes, to put it bluntly, he was afraid that Turkey would not be able to pay for the aircraft carrier, and Eric said that he would help Turkey improve the level of chromium mining, but in fact, he also wanted to make some money?