John chatted with Stilwell and Weidemeyer, and mentally guessed why Stilwell was here. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 In his opinion, Stilwell is likely to be coming for the "legacy" of Weidemeyer's father-in-law, Lieutenant General Stanley Embick Sr.

Everyone knows that although the elder Stanley left the Third Army, which he had painstakingly managed for 8 years, due to physical reasons (the scale of the US Army is far less than that of World War II, and the commander of a lieutenant general's group army still has a great say in the army, almost equivalent to a prince all the way), his influence in the military and political circles in Washington should not be underestimated. Whether in front of President Roosevelt or General Pershing, the first man in the U.S. Army, the elder Stanley was able to speak.

From Marshall's point of view, although in the past two years, with the support of Roosevelt and the cooperation of Stilwell, he has driven a group of mediocre and incompetent veterans out of the core of the army, and successfully grasped the right to speak in the upper echelons of the army. But the conservatives weren't all incompetent, and soon they had a new group of talented standard-bearers and kept most of the fighting force firmly in their hands.

If Marshall wants to achieve his goal of reforming and strengthening the army, it is not enough to control the general staff, he will inevitably have to start a new round of struggle with the conservatives for control of the combat forces. Recently, Marshall took the opportunity of the expansion of the army to systematically arrange for a group of his cronies and subordinates to serve in combat units, and Bradley, Stilwell, and Ridgway were the beneficiaries of this plan.

However, Marshall's foundation is too shallow after all, and he himself has only been a lieutenant colonel for 5 years, and there are not many people available in his hands. Moreover, most of these people have low military ranks, and those who are qualified to serve as divisional commanders are already rare, let alone at the group army level.

Now, the elder Stanley's recuperation due to illness just provided a breakthrough for Marshall. John estimated that Marshall not only fell in love with the position of commander of the Third Army this time, but also probably had the intention of packing up the old Stanley's group of men and horses.

And from the old Stanley's point of view, he now has to leave the military because of a heart problem, and he also needs to think about his subordinates and entrust them to a suitable person. If Marshall's price is right, it is also a good choice for old Stanley to attach his own line to the other party's banner.

Anyway, the elder Stanley's two sons are not in the military circles, and his son-in-law Weidemeyer, although he has a bright future, is still young and has no qualifications to take over for the time being. Moreover, Marshall, after receiving his "inheritance", could not treat Weidemeyer badly in any way. If done well, Weidemeyer may be able to go further than him in the future (historically, Weidemeyer was promoted to four-star general before retiring, barely a little better than his father-in-law).

Perhaps, Stilwell had come all the way to Mrs. Weidemeyer's business banquet to show goodwill to old Stanley on behalf of Marshall. John speculated that Marshall arranged this to imply to Lieutenant General Embick that he, the old regimental commander, had not forgotten the little company commander under him. In the future, we will definitely focus on cultivating Weidemeyer, so that old Stanley can feel at ease.

With this in mind, John's ears were not idle, and he heard a lot about China from the chats of Stilwell, Pearl See, and Weidemeyer.

Don't look at John as a Chinese in his previous life, but he really knows what Chinese society was like in the thirties and forties of the twentieth century, and he really doesn't know as much as Stilwell and Pearl Sai. Moreover, most of the "history" in his head has been summarized and revised by others, and most of the things are macroscopic and abstract, lacking intuitive feelings.

Stilwell, on the other hand, is different. In particular, he and Pearl Sai have lived and worked in China for at least 20 years. Although as "foreigners", what they see and hear will inevitably be a little one-sided, and their understanding may not be correct, it still opened John's eyes.

For example, Stilwell, who is a big problem with China's urban traffic conditions, also described his experience in a traffic jam in Wuhan for him: "Once, I drove to Hankou and drove less than 15 kilometers for almost two hours. On the streets of China, pedestrians, sedan chairs, wheelbarrows, cattle and rickshaws do not actively avoid cars. ”

"That's right." Weidemeyer, who also has driving in China, said: "They always walk casually on the street ignoring your horn, and they are used to a slow and laid-back lifestyle. You have to look ahead with your eyes wide open all the time, as if you were on a boat through the fog, and keep honking your horn without interruption and regularity......"

Hearing their "complaints", John suddenly remembered that in his previous life, he had seen an article on the Internet saying that the reason why Chinese are as accustomed to driving on the right as Americans is that the "culprit" is Weidemeyer. At that time, because the vehicles aided by the United States were all driving on the right-hand side, he suggested that Chiang order this to be set as a traffic regulation. For this reason, the British ambassador to China at that time also issued an article criticizing Weidemeyer, saying that he conspired to drive British cars out of the Chinese market.

Although life in China is not all satisfactory, Stilwell still has a good impression of China, especially the Chinese. What surprised John the most was that all four of them thought that Chinese had the same sense of humor as Americans. This is very different from John's perception in his previous life. In the previous life, most Americans thought that the Chinese were more rigid and serious, and they could generally admit that they had a sense of humor, and it seemed that there was only one Yao Ming.

However, when John raised the slightest question about this, it was unanimously refuted by all four of them.

"John, we really didn't lie to you. Real Chinese are not quite the same as the ones you see in Chinatown. They are as much a fan of jokes as we are. Just as we like to joke about the Irish, China likes to joke about the Hunanese. Hunan is a province of China, and the people of Hunan are the Irish of China. Ambik, the hostess of today's party, was the first to respond. (As for why he is from Hunan, the author does not know.) This is what was written in the "Must-Read Handbook for U.S. Officers and Soldiers in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations" triggered by the U.S. military during World War II. ）

"That's right, they also like to laugh at stingy people, at rednecks and burghers. Their conversations are full of wit and humor, and they also love comedic characters, whether they are their own or ours. Stilwell also said: "I watch Char in a Chinese cinema? Chaplin, or was it Harold? When it's a comedy movie with Lloyd or Laurel and Hardy, they laugh exactly like us. ”

John Xin said that Chaplin's comedy movie, which focuses on physical humor, should have similar jokes all over the world. Moreover, the Chinese who have spare money to go to the cinema to watch foreign movies in these years still have a little spiritual and cultural pursuit, and they will certainly not be at the bottom of society, and they cannot represent all Chinese in this era.

Weidemeyer's reason is just as strange, he tells John that Chinese love to laugh. "Really, Ambick and I once hired a Chinese servant, and he laughed at anything you told him. He laughed even when I reprimanded him for doing something wrong. ”

However, in John's opinion, it is likely that the Chinese servant did not understand what Weidemeyer was saying, so he giggled in embarrassment. However, Pearl Race found an example on the spot, which John couldn't refute for a while.

The "corroboration" found by Pearl Race is also a guest who came to Ambick's birthday party tonight. John hadn't even noticed that there was also a middle-aged Asian with black hair and yellow skin in the room.