Now that Kruger has taken the initiative to mention Van Vliet, John certainly can't ignore his "old classmate". After coming out of Kruger, John inquired with Eisenhower and learned that Van Vliet was now stationed at Army Group Headquarters. So he said hello to Eisenhower and excitedly went to find his "old classmates" to catch up.

After half a year, I saw Van Vliet again, and this old man was immersed in his room and was working hard to write. "Long time no see, James! What are you doing? John asked.

"Oh, it's you, John." Seeing the star on John's shoulder, Van Vliet visibly froze for a moment, and then said with a smile, "Congratulations, where have you been to the top again." ”

"Didn't Omar transfer away, Matthew took his shift, and I took Matthew's shift." John pointed to the eagle on Van Vliet's shoulder, "I just came out of General Kruger, and I heard him say that you have done a good job lately, and you have returned to the Fifth Division." ”

"It's okay, it's not comparable to you." Van Vliet had a reserved smile on his face. In half a year, from a squeezed deputy regiment commander to a division chief of staff who was highly valued by his superiors, Van Vliet did have the capital to be proud of. Of course, he wasn't wrong. This is still a little worse than John's double jump in a row, from deputy chief of staff to brigadier general and deputy division commander.

However, Van Vliet's promotion relied on real skills, and John had nothing to be proud of in front of him: "You don't know how many pounds and taels I have." At the beginning, Omar was going to ask you to be the chief of staff of the 82nd Division. If it weren't for your commander not letting him go, you would have been the one who hung the star at this time. ”

After hearing his words, Van Vliet's face suddenly changed slightly, he didn't speak again, and his smile became embarrassed. John was stunned for a moment, and then realized that he might have said the wrong thing, and this stall should not mention it.

The commanders of the four army groups are secretly competing with each other over the reorganization of the airborne division, and this matter is now a semi-open secret within the army. What is good at the top will be very bad at the bottom. The four bosses opened up the shelf, and in order to use this to divide the superiority, the four divisions representing the main battle of each group army naturally became more and more gunpowder.

Now, the 82nd Division and the "Red Devil" are competitors, and John reiterated that he wanted Van Vliet to go to the 82nd Division, how could he pick it up? Will the other party suspect that he has something to say and has another intention behind it?

"By the way, Omar, they just left, and you, the newly appointed deputy division commander, are not staying in the 82nd Division, why did you come to me?" After an awkward silence, Van Vliet finally opened his mouth to change the subject.

"I'm here to sit in on tomorrow's final analysis meeting." John quickly picked up the topic, "I heard Ike say that you have a keynote speech at the conference tomorrow, what is it about?" ”

"I'm worried. Ikefei asked me to talk at the meeting about the problem of step-tank coordination that arose during the exercise. Just give me a day to prepare, where is the time. Van Vliet pointed to the pile of manuscript papers and statistical charts on the table, and said with a wry smile.

John knew that Eisenhower was actually helping Van Vliet by arranging this. They are the classmates of West Point, and they have the opportunity to show their faces in front of the top leaders of the group army, so of course they must give priority to taking care of their own people.

Since Van Vliet had something to do, John didn't want to bother any more. After a casual chat, the better it would be to have lunch with Eisenhower at noon tomorrow, John took his leave and left.

It's a mess! Coming out of Van Vliet, John's mood was a little low. When he was at Fort Leavenworth Military Academy, he had a good relationship with Van Vliet, otherwise he would not have thought about getting Van Vliet to be his top boss in the 82nd Division. Unexpectedly, the competition between the two troops has made the relationship between the two people a little awkward.

Previously, when Kruger talked about the performance of Van Vliet and the "Red Magician" in this exercise, he didn't pay much attention to it. I thought the veteran was just trying to show off his troops to him. In retrospect, I'm afraid that wasn't the case.

John pondered for a long time before he could barely understand Kruger's brain circuit. Unlike him, a businessman who always thinks about how to weaken his rivals, Kruger is a pure military man, and the stronger his opponents, the more excited he becomes. What Kruger wanted was to prove that the Third Army's units were the most elite in the army through a real contest. In his opinion, if the 82nd Division took the initiative to give up the competition because of the change of commander, then even if the Third Army won this time, it would be meaningless.

Therefore, Krueger is deliberately using Van Vliet and the "Red Magician" to stimulate John, wanting to arouse his competitive spirit and add some motivation to him and the 82nd Division. It's a pity that Kruger's hard work was all in vain. For John, this trick was like playing the harp to a cow, and it had no effect at all.

That's right, in the eyes of outsiders, Bradley and their departure, the 82nd Division will definitely be in a hurry for a while. Compared with the standing division of the "Red Devil Division", it was not advantageous in the first place, but now that there is such a thing, the 82nd Division has basically been out of the game in advance.

But John knew that neither he nor Ridgway had ever thought of giving up. Without Kruger's stimulus, they don't plan to put water on the competition. How well did the "Red Devils" perform in this exercise? For this adaptation, whether it is inside or outside the plate, John has prepared a lot of big moves. In his opinion, instead of worrying that the 82nd Division is not enough to set off the strength of the "Red Devils", Kruger should think carefully about how to end up after the defeat.

As for using Van Vliet, a classmate, to provoke John, it was even more useless. Indeed, in the U.S. Army, where the academy is dominant, the classmates in the military academy are not only comrades-in-arms who support each other, but also competitors who compete for resources. Everyone starts from the same starting line, and only the one who runs at the front can get the most resources, which naturally includes the resources of classmates.

Take Eisenhower and Bradley as examples of their West Point "star class". Now, Bradley is at the front for the time being, and is naturally seen as the leader by most of his classmates, thus taking the lead in this network of 168 graduates in the class. Correspondingly, when Eisenhower becomes the commander of the US forces in the European theater next year, most of the student resources will also be transferred to him.

But John wasn't an ordinary army officer, and according to his layout, it wasn't a matter of minutes to be in charge of those classmates. What's more, he already has a lot of great gods in his network, such as Eisenhower, Bradley, Ridgway, Taylor, etc., and that classmate relationship is just the icing on the cake, and it is nothing to him at all.

Therefore, the only effect of Kruger's "kind reminder" is to make John realize that his way of thinking is sometimes very different from that of a purely professional officer.

To put it bluntly, it's really a matter of values. Just like Van Vliet today, since the 82nd Division and the 5th Division are now opponents, he will first consider John from the opponent's point of view. In his way of thinking, an opponent is an opponent, and it has nothing to do with personal relationships. When the competition is over, everyone will naturally be good friends.

Thinking about this, John's psychological burden is gone. That's fine, since it's an opponent, let's let it go and fight according to their abilities.