On March 26, the London Four-Power Conference on Earnest Talks and Promotions initiated by British Prime Minister Lloyd George was held at 11 a.m. at No. 10 Chinatown as scheduled.

The representatives of the four countries all put on a positive and friendly attitude of promoting peace, and the atmosphere was warmer than expected, but because the demands of all sides for interests were far apart, the reality became relatively cruel.

France demanded that Germany immediately cease its annexation and that the Yugoslav states, which had been incorporated into the territory of the Federal States of Germany, be separated from the German system, and that the Yugoslav states be merged with Serbia to form the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and that the four countries jointly guarantee its permanent independence and regional neutrality.

In response to France's request, German Deputy Foreign Minister Rathenau unsurprisingly rejected it sternly. Although Rathenau did not have a favorable opinion of Eric himself and the Federalist Party led by Eric, and even complained that Eric used the incident as a gunman, he was not willing to agree to such conditions against the interests of the country.

Otherwise, he and his Democratic Party would have been spurned by the German nations and regarded as traitors to Germany. Rathenau's statement was not at all surprising to the current French Prime Minister Poiancarré, who originally proposed such a condition in order to create a difficult problem for Germany and gain more room for maneuver in France.

Representatives of the Italian royal family hurried to the meeting after being commissioned by King Vittorio Emanuele III, where he had only to support the French proposal, and the question of war reparations remained out of date for the time being.

Therefore, the strategy of subordination to France was largely adopted. Britain wanted everyone to stop the war, and although in a sense they did not oppose the French proposal, Lloyd George did not want to go to war because of this, otherwise the original purpose of the peace conference would be lost.

France's request has set up an invisible obstacle to the meeting to promote peace, and this opportunity for equal exchanges between the four parties has become a joke. After only an hour of sitting down, Rathenau left the table angrily, and immediately returned to his hotel to call President Eric, who was far away in Berlin, Germany, and reported the details of the meeting to promote peace, without even worrying whether his phone had been monitored.

After listening to Ratnow's report, Eric first affirmed the significance of Ratnau's trip to London, greeted the hardships of the trip, and then approved him to end the earnest talks and return home early.

At 12 o'clock in the morning of 26 March, the Rosenheim Air Force Base outside Munich suddenly sounded a rapid alarm bell, which was an order for all fighters on duty to enter a state of combat readiness, and both combatants and ground crews must immediately put down all their work and rush to the airport.

In the daily exercises, the ground crew ensured that the planes were ready to fly and let the pilots appear and circle around, but now they immediately disassembled and packed the field maintenance equipment and followed the ground crews to the Western Front.

Rosenheim Air Base is one of the three major German air bases, where the 1st Army of the German Air Force is stationed, but only the ground crew and pilots are complete, and the combat aircraft are still not replaced, Fokker triplane fighters, Junkers J1 attack aircraft and other old fighters are still in use, and albatross biplane fighters have been converted into two-seat trainer aircraft.

The German Federal Air Force's main air superiority aircraft, the BF-1, currently has only four in service, and the BF-10 improved aircraft is only 38 in service, for a total of 42 aircraft.

The HS20 biplane dive bomber built by the Henschel Aircraft Plant for the Air Force has only just entered the testing stage, and it is still a long time before it enters service.

The largest number of equipment is 12 F-200C reconnaissance planes and 32 F-220C bombers, which first entered service with the Air Force, and 48 F-200F large transport planes assigned to airborne divisions.

The sudden order to go into battle made it impossible for the command organs to come up with practical equipment, and the Air Force Command had to dispatch air units from two other air bases for emergency support, and as a result, the command system was suddenly disorganized.

The 1st Army of the German Federal Air Force hurriedly prepared for battle, and at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the first batch of 42 BF fighters to rush to the Western Front was finally ready to go. There is also a transfer aircraft group of 12 F-200Cs and 32 F-220Cs, which have been dismantled except for the equipment that cannot be dismantled in order to save fuel, and delivered to the land for transshipment, and the empty aircraft are flown to the temporary field airfield in Strasbourg.

Large aircraft without a large load are easier to take off and land at temporary field airfields, and the Wehrmacht Air Force has to work flying less and carrying less in order to save money, which shows the degree of fuel shortage in Germany.

After the ground crew screened and re-inspected the aircraft several times, the fighters were divided into three groups and successively drove into the two take-off runways and the waiting lane, and then took off in the air after waiting for an order.

The first temporary formation consisted of 14 BF-10 fighters with heavy ammunition, consisting of seven two-plane formations, which were responsible for the vigilance mission around the transfer formation that was about to take off after takeoff.

The second temporary formation consisted of 24 BF-10 and 4 BF-1 fighters that did not carry weapons at full capacity, and the reason for not being able to carry weapons at full load was also to save ......

The third temporary formation is a large fleet of transport aircraft.

At 1:05 p.m., the large transport fleet was all ready, waiting for the tower command to take off. The long fleet of planes was lined up in an orderly manner, and the commander stood on the 15-meter-high tower and watched the dense fleet of planes rumbling, and couldn't help but boil his blood.

"Snort - A101 is ready to take off at any time, please give instructions from the tower." The intercom at the tower sounded a password requesting takeoff.

Wilhelm Keitel, commander of the 1st German Air Corps, immediately replied into the microphone: "You can take off." "At this time, the F-101C reconnaissance aircraft with the number A200 began to accelerate, because there was no excess load, and soon increased the speed to the take-off requirements. The pilot pulled the nose of the plane steadily, and in the blink of an eye, the plane rushed into the blue sky like a sharp arrow, and then, deflected in front of the left side of the airport.

After receiving the command from the tower, the second plane followed closely, and at the same time as the A101 pulled up the nose, it also began to accelerate, one after another flew into the blue sky, and when the planes of the third temporary transfer group were about to be all lifted into the air.

The first temporary fighter formation only began to enter the runway, ready to take off. Large groups of aircraft were arranged to take off in front of the BF-10 fighters, and after taking off in turn, they formed a long-flight formation and flew westward.

The BF-10 fighters that finally took off flew in pairs on the wings of large transport aircraft, escorting the large transport aircraft cluster.

After the second transition fighter group took off, all the remaining staff at Rosenheim Airport greeted these blue sky fighters with warm applause.

Considering that this was peacetime, the outbreak of war was unlikely, and the Air Force received orders only to transfer, so the large transport aircraft group was escorted by only 14 fighters.

This is all due to Keitel's cautious nature and does not want accidents, in fact, Keitel himself knows that 14 BF-10 fighters with a speed of 463 kilometers per hour are more than enough.

The engineering company of the 1st Armored Division, which arrived in Strasbourg by train in the early stage, did not have time to rest, and rushed to work overnight, quickly expanding two temporary runways on the basis of the lawn next to the civilian airport, and placing 500-meter aviation signs with debris clearly colored in the background for the air force group at the Rosenheim base to land accurately.

Manstein, commander of the 1st Panzer Division, waited early at the airport with his headquarters officers after receiving that the planes of the 1st Aviation Bureau had left Rosenheim Airport.

At 3 p.m., General Manstein received a report from the reconnaissance unit that a large group of aircraft was rapidly approaching Strasbourg, and the white-edged black-bottom cross markings on both sides of the wing proved to be the identity of the German military aircraft.

In a short time, black dots in the sky of clusters of aircraft appeared in the field of view of people on the ground.

Guderian, who was beside him, looked at the cluster of planes that were getting closer and closer, and said to himself: "Is this all the planes at Rosenheim Air Base?" ”

Hearing this, Manstein first laughed a little, and then replied: "The planes of the 1st German Aviation Corps that are currently in service and can be sent are here. ”

"That's too little, it's shabby." Guderian behaved with some displeasure, as if the Air Force was perfunctory to them.

"That's a lot, I should say that the Rosenheim base is generous enough, you see, this time it's all new planes, and it is said that one of them is equipped with 10 MG20 machine guns." Manstein is not an Air Force and does not know the details, but he also got a general idea of what happened to the BF-10's service through the military briefing.

As the two men talked, the group circled over the airport for a week before determining the situation at the airport, and then began to land one after another and taxi to the tarmac. Unlike taking off from Rosenheim Airport, 14 heavily armed BF-10 fighter jets landed last and remained in the air on alert.

As the last 14 fighters glided across the runway, the officers of the 1st Panzer Division clearly saw the BF-10 with 10 machine guns. Two of the machine guns were placed in the nose, slightly revealing a vicious barrel, and four machine guns were also arranged under the wings, which were also exposed, but they could not be seen if they were not careful.

The army officers, who had previously questioned that these planes were too few, finally got a little comfort, and such terrifying firepower dispelled everyone's doubts that the planes were not combat-effective enough.

The commander-in-chief of this transfer was Air Force Colonel Richthofen, and Manstein, as a lieutenant general, had to deal with him on an equal footing with the aristocratic officer and the celebrity.

"Mr. Colonel, hard work." Manstein politely shook Richthofen's hand and said.

"Yes, what is the general's next arrangement?" Richthofen's question baffled Manstein a little, because the Air Force and Army were not a chain of command, and he had no right to move.

"Oh! Sorry for forgetting to say. Richthofen scratched his head in embarrassment and hurriedly added: "Commander Keitel instructed that the fighters who have been equipped with weapons can be familiar with the environment first, and the specific arrangements for the next are still up to the army." "The last sentence is actually asking the Army where it wants the Air Force to go.

Manstein smiled, it seems that the Air Force is trying to be in the limelight and steal life with the Army.