With the arrival of Elizabeth, the "festive" atmosphere in Bradley's house became more and more intense. Even Bradley smiled and joined in the preparations for the dinner, cooking his hometown famous Toasted-Ravioli (Missouri's national snack).

There was no need for a happy atmosphere in Bradley's house, but there was some embarrassment between John, Ridgway, and Milley, who came in the same car.

In the four or five days since Milley took office, he spent most of his time in the company of Li Qiwei getting acquainted with the work of the 503rd Regiment. I had only met with John a few times, and I didn't say a few serious words.

In fact, both John and Milley knew very well in their hearts that no matter what happened before, they would be grasshoppers on a rope for the next period of time, and they should abandon their previous suspicions, unite as one, and cooperate sincerely.

However, both have their own pride. As a prefect, John naturally did not surrender his identity and took the initiative to befriend Milley. As for Milley, not only is he more than ten years older than John, but his military experience is much deeper than John's. Let him take the initiative to slap John, a "little young man", he can't pull this face for a while.

What John and Milley need most now is someone who can help them mediate, so that both sides have steps down.

This work was originally supposed to be done by division commander Li Qiwei. But Ridgway was so focused on training that he was a little slow to react.

He had no idea that there were so many secrets behind Milley's arrival. If Bradley hadn't called to ask, he wouldn't have even noticed anything wrong with John and Milley.

But listening to Bradley talk about the situation on the phone, Li Qiwei also felt that his head was big. If John really didn't deal with Milley, it would be difficult for him, the division commander, to do it.

Although he had not worked with John for a long time, Ridgway knew how powerful this young man was. Identity background, work ability, and so on are put aside, and political skills alone are not comparable to ordinary people.

When he was still the deputy chief of staff, John was able to get rid of his immediate boss Pope without hurting himself. Now that he has become the deputy division commander, it is really not difficult to make a little stumbling block for Milley, a subordinate.

For the sake of the overall situation of the 82nd Division, Li Qiwei felt that this hidden danger must be solved as soon as possible no matter what. But he had gone to the 503rd Regiment many times before to give Milley a platform, which was undoubtedly tantamount to declaring his support for Milley in front of John. The butt is already sitting crookedly, and it is inevitable that there will be suspicion of pulling the bias when you come to be a middleman again.

Therefore, Ridgway had no choice but to bring the "teacher" Bradley back to Alexander from Livingston to act as this mediator. Bradley, of course, didn't want to see the 82nd Division fall into needless internal friction, so there was today's birthday party.

In order to get acquainted with John and Milley as soon as possible, before leaving, Li Qiwei also took the initiative to pull them both into his car. Along the way, everyone consciously avoided talking about the work of the division, and the topic of small talk always revolved around Bradley, a mutual friend.

However, Li Qiwei had a good idea, but there was a big problem in practice. John had only known Bradley for a short time, but only two years. There's no better place than Ridgway and Milley knowing Bradley.

Not to mention Ridgway, the West Point students, who are two years younger than Bradley, have been teammates on the school baseball team more than 30 years ago. And Bard Milley, a guy John hadn't heard much of in his previous life, also has a lot to do with Bradley.

They were not only colleagues at West Point, but also the backbone of the teaching staff of the Fort Benning Infantry School, the "World War II General Kindergarten" (although the Fort Benning Infantry School trained middle and low-ranking officers, because Marshall was the principal of the school, more than 200 of his students and old subordinates later became generals). In other words, Milley, like Ridgway and Bradley, is a Marshall descendant with good roots, not the peripheral personnel that John had imagined.

So, as he chatted, John found himself gradually reduced to a "listener" and couldn't interject at all.

For example, when Ridgway and Milley spoke with gusto, John was completely speechless when they talked about how the three of them had gone on to battle together at the Army's annual golf tournament.

God, he'd never played golf with Bradley before, or even talked about it. He didn't even think that Bradley, who looked rustic, was a golfer and had won second place in the Army Championship.

And when the two reminisce about how they were in the "Walter French affair" (Walter French was a baseball star among the West Point students of the class of 1920, but his homework was extremely poor. Bradley and a group of other instructors once jointly asked the school to remove him, but he was strongly opposed by the president MacArthur, who was very interested in sports. Having never been to West Point, he knew nothing about the people and events in the story.

Their conversation only gave John the feeling that he and Bradley were not as familiar as he thought. Compared to Ridgway and Milley, he is just an outsider.

What made John feel even more disappointed was that from the chat between Ridgway and Milley, he learned that Bradley's attention to the Airborne Forces was much earlier than he thought. It turned out that long before William Lee's "Airborne Infantry Program", Bradley became interested in the new tactic of airborne operations. He also had a keen interest in the tactics to help Milley (then an instructor in the tactics department of the Fort Benning's infantry school) form a 48-man paratrooper test team at Fort Benning.

According to Milley, most of the training facilities used by the paratrooper school today were built by Bradley with his help. It is no wonder that the 82nd Division became the first airborne division of the US Army in history. After doing it for a long time, Bradley can be regarded as one of the founders of the Airborne Forces, which has a deep relationship with the Airborne Forces.

Originally, John thought that this time the 82nd Division competed for the reorganization quota, and he contributed the most, and Bradley was the hero behind the scenes after a long time. This discovery really discouraged John.

What made him even more depressed was that Ridgway and Milley were getting more and more engaged in talking, and seemed to have completely forgotten that there was a John in the car.

Yes, I haven't been to West Point, and I have a generation gap with you, but I can't be if I don't exist. No matter how good John's temper was, he was a little unhappy in his heart. Even on an occasion like the Atlantic Conference, he had never been so ignored. Could it be that he has worked hard for so long, and he is still excluded by these "orthodox officers"?

It's not that John is overly sensitive. A "non-mainstream" commander like him is most concerned about not being recognized by his colleagues and subordinates. Because relying only on superficial "respect" cannot smoothly command troops to fight on the battlefield.

Fortunately, Ridgway was not completely blind to sight, and finally noticed John's silence before the car arrived at Bradley's house.

"I'm sorry, John." Li Qiwei explained with a little embarrassment, "At this age, people like to recall the past. ”

"You're only 46 years old, Matthew, and you're still far from old age." John "graciously" let the matter go.

On the side just now, he had already figured it out. Dealing with a rectal "martial artist" like Ridgway, the one used on Bradley and Eisenhower doesn't seem to work, and it has to be done in a different way.