As Clark had anticipated, Captain George Fox had no intention of shirking John's "little request," and soon he put a thick stack of "Popper's incriminating evidence of manipulating the media and embezzling the merits of others" on General McNair's desk. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

As is customary, General McNair usually arrives at the office by 7:30 a.m. and has breakfast while reviewing the paperwork that needs to be processed for the day. George Fox would sort out the papers in order of priority ahead of time and bring them to him along with breakfast.

This morning, McNair was enjoying a delicious bacon sandwich as he flipped through the thick stack of papers on his desk. The top one is the inspection report sent back by Clark on the training of recruits in the 82nd Division.

In the report, Clark specifically mentioned the positive role of recent media reports in improving the morale of the recruits of the 82nd Division, and attached more than 20 media articles to the end, all of which touted Pop's more explicit blows.

At the beginning, McNair was very happy to see that the "All-American House" program he advocated had achieved remarkable results and that the training of recruits for the 82nd Division was progressing smoothly. But when he flipped through the media articles, his face gradually became less pretty.

"George, you call Clark and ask what's going on with all those media reports? How is it all about Pop, and there is no Omar for them? ”

After a while, Captain Fox came back and reported: "I asked, and Lieutenant Colonel Clark said that Colonel Pope was personally in charge of all the media coverage on the 82nd Division, and he had not seen any reports about Division Commander Bradley recently. ”

McNair frowned, this was a bit of a problem. Bradley is also the division commander no matter what he says, even if Pop goes to be interviewed on behalf of the 82nd Division, the article can't say a word about him. "You go to the news photo office and ask them to sort out all the news reports about the 82nd Division in the last two weeks."

Once again, the results that Captain Fox brought back disappointed McNair. With the exception of the two days when Sergeant York visited the 82nd Division in early April, more than 200 media reports in the period that followed were all about Pope. After only half a month in office, Pope has built himself into an iconic figure of the 82nd Division.

"Does this Pop have a brain, what does he want to do?" McNair angrily threw the reports to the ground.

"Leslie, don't be angry. I think Pope may be in a hurry. When George Fox stepped forward to help clean up, he duly added a knife to Pope: "He's on the promotion review list in the second half of the year." ”

If John had been there, he would have applauded Fawkes's divine mending. A fluttering guess and a statement induced McNair to make up the motive for Pop's move in his own brain, and by the way, he picked up John's suspicion. It's really a "little fox".

"Promotion? This kind of guy who is blind and stupid still wants to be a general! McNair was even angrier. He was very disappointed that Pop acted for his own selfish interests and disregarded the overall situation.

It is no longer 1939, when the two factions are fighting to the death. Whether it's Marshall or they're conservative

The top brass knew very well that the U.S. Army was about to be involved in a world war of unprecedented proportions.

In the face of this unprecedented and great test, the gains and losses of any faction and individual are insignificant. The two factions joining forces to do everything possible to strengthen the Army and win the coming war have gradually become the mainstream voice in the US Army.

At the end of last year, the veteran General Pershing, who had not appeared for a long time, personally dragged his sick body out of the mountain to coordinate the relationship between the two factions, and finally prompted the two factions to reach a series of cooperation agreements.

For example, the conservatives ceded the position of commander of the Third Army to Brigadier General Kruger (the U.S. Army currently has only four armies), giving the Marshallists their own roots in the field. Marshall, on the other hand, handed over the responsibility for the personnel, establishment, and training of the Army to McNair, the new standard-bearer of the conservatives, and intended to make him the commander of the ground forces after the reorganization of the Army.

In fact, even Pope's successful appointment as chief of staff of the 82nd Infantry Division this time is itself part of many cooperation agreements between the two factions. It was through constant communication, coordination, compromise and exchange that the relationship between the two factions gradually eased. To say that the two factions are like a family from now on, sharing honor and disgrace, it is pure nonsense. But at least it's no longer tense, and it's clear.

Against this backdrop, Popper's recent actions are all too anachronistic. Originally, the headquarters of the 82nd Division were all about to be cleared, but now in order to cooperate with the overall situation, the Marshall faction took the initiative to give up the position of chief of staff. McNair: Wasn't the reason why they chose Pope for the position in the first place because he and Bradley were old colleagues and should be able to "work together"?

Who would have thought that Pope had only been there for a few days, and he would start making small moves to rob his old colleagues of credit (McNair never dreamed that this was John's trick behind him). Originally, this kind of "shameless act" has committed a taboo in the military, not to mention that it will seriously affect the future cooperation.

Don't look at the "reconciliation" between the two factions now, secretly there are still more efforts in many places. Years of political experience made it natural for McNair to assume that the reason Bradley and others had remained silent about what Popper had done was to use this matter to force the conservatives to make more concessions in a subsequent collaboration.

McNair, who had always been decisive and resolute, immediately made a decision that he had to act immediately, and he couldn't let Pope continue to mess around like this. Those media and ordinary people don't know that no one in the army knows what the situation of the 82nd Division is. Bradley: They have worked hard for half a year, and you Pope has only been there for less than a month, and you dare to take all the credit for yourself.

What's more, the "National House" program, which is the most touted by the media, was initiated by his own students. McNair not only personally participated in the revision and arrangement, but also highly recommended it in front of Marshall and other high-ranking staff officials. Now it has become Colonel Pope's "innovative move", which makes him embarrassed.

If action is not taken as soon as possible, once this matter spreads and is known to the outside world, the conservatives will not only lose profits, but also ruin the good image that they have worked hard to build for many years.

"Gris, it's me, Leslie." General McNair called the office of the commander of the Fourth Army, Gris Wald. "I need you to go to the 82nd Division......"

Hearing General McNair tell the story of what happened, General Wald gasped. Pope is too under-conceived. Or does he think that very few people pay attention to that kind of multimedia at once, and that he may not be noticed if he does so?

"Rilis, could there be any misunderstanding here?" General Wald still wanted to fight for his old colleagues back then, "I'll go to the 82nd Division in the afternoon to find out about the situation, in case the media report is wrong." ”

"If the report is wrong, will more than 100 media outlets make mistakes for two weeks together!" McNair didn't believe the reason Wald came up with.

"It's such a big thing, you have to let me investigate it first." Wald patiently did McNair's job.

"That's fine, but hold on. At the latest, the day after tomorrow, I want to know the result. McNair ended up giving Wald some face. Promised to wait for the results of his investigation to come back before deciding what to do with Pop.