Richmond, the capital of Virginia, was the capital of the American Confederate during the Civil War. Washington D.C. is only 109 miles (a little over 175 kilometers) from Richmond and can be reached in about 4 days on foot. But back then, the Northern Army "walked" on this road for 4 years.

Today, Richmond is dotted with battlefield sites, cemeteries and memorials. Although more than 70 years have passed since the deadliest war in American history, a large number of descendants of soldiers from the North and South still come to remember their ancestors on Memorial Day each year.

Today, however, John and a host of celebrities from Washington hurried through the city to the Kaiser shipyard on the banks of the James River. They are all here today to attend the launching ceremony of the "Patrick Henry".

Although historically, this 10,000-ton freighter, numbered EC2-S-C1 by the US Maritime Commission, has become an industrial miracle widely praised by the world because it "brought freedom to the European continent". But at this time, the simple structure, hastily built, and ugly appearance of it did not have a good reputation among the people. In a speech announcing an emergency wartime shipbuilding program, President Roosevelt even called it "something that looks bad," while media outlets like Time magazine called it an "ugly duckling."

John knew in his heart that this wave of rhythm was first set off by shipbuilding bosses who were suffering from "pink eye". Don't look at the fact that they are busy grabbing orders from the military at this time, and they can't take care of civilian freighters for the time being, but such a big piece of fat has fallen into the mouth of Henry Kaiser, a "layman", and these people are somewhat unbalanced in their hearts.

Even the insiders know that such ships are completely expendable, and if they can complete a transatlantic voyage without being sunk, they can successfully deliver a cargo to Europe. It doesn't matter if the knot is strong or not, let alone whether the appearance is beautiful or not. These people do this purely to find an excuse to disgust Kaiser, and by the way, to flaunt their "professionalism".

Fortunately, Washington has already discovered that something is wrong, and the White House has publicized the launch of the "Patrick Henry" with such fanfare, and Roosevelt even personally attended and delivered a speech, in order to improve the public's impression of this kind of freighter.

When John arrived at the Keiser shipyard, it was already crowded. Attending the launching ceremony today are not only President Roosevelt, the White House ministers, the Senate and House of Representatives, the generals of the Army and Navy, but also representatives of Whitehall and the Procurement Committee in London, as well as business celebrities and social elites from all walks of life, nearly 1,000 people. Combined with the local citizens who came to see the bustle and the reporters who took advantage of the ceremony to take pictures and interviews, the dock where the "Patrick Henry" was located was already flooded.

As a shareholder in the Richmond shipyard, John was placed very far ahead, about 50 yards behind President Roosevelt. Next to him were two Mr. Somerville. To John's left was the target of his trip, the engineer boss, General Somerville, who was about to become commander of the Army Logistics Command. On the right, his old friend from the Operations Planning Division, Lieutenant Colonel Somerville, an RAF officer in charge of the assistance flight.

"Good morning, gentlemen." John stepped forward to greet them. He secretly speculated that this arrangement was most likely not a coincidence. For he had greeted the shipyard manager who was in charge of today's ceremonies, and asked him to give him a place next to General Somerville. The manager probably couldn't figure out which Somerville it was, so he placed both of them next to him.

"Good morning, John." The first to respond to John was Lieutenant Colonel Somerville, "I heard you're out of the army?" I thought I wouldn't see you until I returned home. ”

"Returning home? You're going to be elevated. John replied with a smile. Somerville has been in the United States for more than a year and has sent a large amount of fly and supplies back and forth. When he returned to China at this time, he must have gone to receive merit and reward.

"Captain of the 12th Combat Brigade, Gao Sheng can't talk about it. But I was finally able to fly. "Rather than dealing with reports in Washington, Somerville clearly prefers to go back to the sky and fight the Germans for real.

"The 12th Combat Brigade?" John remembers that the 121st Squadron, which appears to have historically consisted of American volunteer pilots, was part of this combat group.

"It was just reorganized in May this year. Thanks to the group of mustangs that you Hughes flew to fight. By the way, there is also a squadron in our brigade that is full of American volunteer pilots. As soon as he talked about returning home to fight, Somerville became a little excited.

"That's congratulations." John coped with Somerville somewhat perfunctorily. In a few days, Hitler would have launched the Barbarossa Plan, and Britain had long ceased to be the focus of war in Europe. It is estimated that Somerville will not even be able to catch up with the tail of the British air battle when he goes back this time, and he is left to escort the Nordic route.

"Hello, General. I didn't expect to see you here. Taking a moment's time, John took the initiative to strike up a conversation with General Somerville on his left.

"It's you, John." Somerville lowered his telescope and turned his attention from the giant slipway at the Kaiser shipyard to John.

As the first military general to take a fancy to John, General Somerville has always wanted to recruit John, a logistics expert, to the quartermaster supply unit, but has never been able to do so.

After a few failures, Somerville also saw that John had little interest in becoming a pure logistics officer. But Somerville did not give up, and he always believed that John's single-minded commander had been led by the men of the Battle Planning Division. In his opinion, after John has been in the Army for a few years, sooner or later he will recognize what is the most suitable development path for him.

"The logistics reform pilot you did recently was very good. When are you free, come to me and teach those boys? ”

"You're complimenting. I'm embarrassed to come to your lecture. John said modestly.

"Don't be modest, others don't know, I don't know. Let's not talk about the rest, let's just talk about the shipyard in front of me, I think the doorway inside is not small. Somerville looked at John meaningfully.

"Look at what you say." John was a little furious by Somerville's eyes. He knew that many of Kaiser's industries, such as Kaiser Steel, Kaiser Aluminum, Kaiser Cement and Stucco Board, were closely linked to the military. His own stake in Kaiser Shipbuilding is estimated to be impossible to hide from Somerville. So he could only avoid the important and said: "This modular shipbuilding method is Mr. Kaiser's idea, and I just use FedEx to help them transport parts." ”

Somerville smiled, "Don't worry, I know you are reluctant to leave the 82nd Division, Stimson called me yesterday." How about I'll play with you, and you will lend me those experts from FedEx? ”

"Who?" John didn't feel relieved at all, but became more alert.

"The one named McNamara, and that Leas is not bad. I've heard that the British admire him. ”

John heard these two names and almost didn't get a mouthful of blood in Somerville's face. This is too ruthless, it's like digging into John's heart with a knife. "No, absolutely not."

But as soon as the words came out, John realized that he might not be able to escape the fate of being dug up this time. Both McNamara and Lees are young people of school age, and if Somerville really moves a little bit, John really can't stop him from poaching people. I think he was also in the army like this?

What's more, after the United States entered the war at the end of the year, as soon as domestic sentiment stirred up, McNamara and Leith really might not refuse the military's solicitation. Historically, these two men volunteered to join the Army Aviation Statistics Control Office as teachers at Harvard Business School and served the country.

The lesser of two powers, John quickly made a choice in his mind. "One, I can only give you one. I won't stop you if you want to dig Lis, but McNamara can't move anyway, and he's gone FedEx and it's messed up. ”

"Leith, he's the one who helped you train the logistics officers of the 82nd Division, right?" Somerville rubbed his chin and smiled like an old fox.

"That's right, it's him. He also helped me draw up the reform pilot program. He was very familiar with the British shipping process, and if I hadn't been tight, he would have been almost robbed by Ernest Bevan. ”

"Okay, that's him." Somerville certainly knows how important it is to familiarise themselves with the UK shipping process for what they do next. "I'll let people contact him when I turn around, you can't obstruct him behind your back."

"Look at what you say." John accompanied the smiling face, and his heart was dripping blood. Who did he provoke, why did Stimson and them take advantage of the Hayes family, but in the end they made themselves pay such a heavy price. But at this point, John could only pray secretly that Leith would be stronger-willed and not be fooled by the Somerville people.