.“ Ha? 250 stone DDs, including 100 for Type A and 50 each for Type B, C, and D! I read that right! ”

In front of the sunlit desk, a middle-aged soldier in a gray military uniform and a gold collar badge on a red background shouted out in a gaffe, holding a document paper full of lists in his hand.

Standing in front of him, a much younger captain officer, he told his superior, with a little embarrassment:

"General, I have checked with the Army General Staff and the Jiji Arms Company with the General Staff of the Army, and I am indeed not mistaken! All of these weapons on the list will be sent to Turkey within the month! ”

"Oh my God, I can't believe my eyes!" The middle-aged soldier sighed, then sat back in his chair.

His name is Wilhelm Greiner, 49 years old, a major general in the German Army, former head of the transportation department of the German General Staff, who was in charge of troop and baggage transportation during the war, and turned to German military production after the war. Perhaps the biggest difference between this general and other German soldiers was that he had to deal with merchants every day.

Two weeks ago, Glener was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Arms Management under the German High Command and took up the post of minister. The so-called Foreign Arms Management Department is actually a department set up to co-ordinate, supervise, and inspect the arms exported by various German arms companies, and the purpose of setting up this department is very simple and clear, that is, to let the German industry export as much as possible the weapons that can be exported, and never export any weapons that should not be exported, so that the German industry will be full of vitality and at the same time ensure that Germany's national security is not threatened by the export of its own weapons.

Prior to this, Germany's military industry administration was only responsible for allocating the resources and production of arms companies under the wartime mechanism to meet Germany's war needs, but when it came to exports, it was usually the arms companies themselves that looked for buyers and only reported to the government and customs before exporting weapons. Under this ordinary model, foreign governments could import many kinds of weapons from Germany, such as Krupp's cannons, which could be found in many countries on the four continents. And there are many varieties and models, and even some of them are not equipped by the German ** team.

After the victory of the war, Chen Tian and the German government were faced with large colonies, and these colonies taken from Britain and France would bring rich resources and overseas benefits to the entire German team, but they would have a certain adverse effect on the local German industry, just as Britain and France had before the war, and people shifted most of their attention from the local industry to the wealth obtained from the colonies. As a result, the industrial output of Britain and France was only barely comparable to that of Germany.

In 1916, after the end of the war, Europe's total industrial production accounted for only 25% of the world's industrial output, and in two years the United States continued to rise, accounting for more than 40% of the world's total industrial output, a phenomenon that forced the German rulers to face up to their own disadvantages.

European integration, or just economic integration, is still a very distant idea for Chentian, and the most important thing at the moment is how to narrow the economic and industrial gap between Germany and the United States.

In such a context. Chentian and other local governments began to support local industries in terms of policy. Incentives for civilian industry include incentives, tax breaks, and government propaganda, and in the arms industry, the German government has launched a very American path of "world arms dealers."

In this case. At the end of 1915, Kaiser Wilhelm III ordered the formation of a Department of Foreign Arms Management under the German High Command, headed by Lieutenant General Ludendorff, First Quartermaster General.

General Glenner, the new officer, did not expect to encounter such an important big deal.

Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of the former ministers, the department is now functioning, with many weapons specialists, others weapons inspectors drawn from the army, law enforcement officers and work clerks, and nearly 3,000 personnel under its jurisdiction, as well as offices in major German ports.

This is the responsibility of the Department of Foreign Arms Management. First of all, the arms exported by the German arms companies have been strictly evaluated, and some of the weapons with high technological content that may pose a threat to the German army in the foreseeable future have been included in the ban list. Second, the German government's diplomatic orders can be negotiated directly by arms dealers or by the Ministry of Foreign Arms Management, at the request of the other side. In this way, it will not only strengthen the state's control over the arms industry while expanding arms exports, but also prevent the leakage of classified technology. It can also play a supporting role in some small and medium-sized arms industries.

In fact, this time, Turkey's purchase of large quantities of arms and materials from Germany is based on the latter model, in which the orders are first received by the Ministry of Foreign Arms Management, and then the production tasks are assigned to various domestic arms companies, and finally all the finished products are loaded into trucks or ships. Of course, that was done when Ludendorff was also the head of the department, which is why Glenner seemed so surprised.

What surprised the major general, who had worked in the army's logistics and transportation department for many years, was not only the number of weapons exported, as far as he knew, Germany had previously exported only one type of tank of the "Stone D" type, and it was only exported to allied countries. This should be the first time that Germany has exported tanks of the "Stone DD" series abroad, which is why Glenner was so nervous at the beginning.

In addition to 250 tanks, the list contains 100,000 Mauser rifles, 800 Maxim heavy machine guns, 40 240 mm fortress guns, 100 152 mm howitzers, 200 105 mm howitzers, and 2 million rounds of ammunition and 100,000 shells.

"Worth hundreds of millions of marks!" Glener could not help but sigh that he had never found the Turks so rich before. In fact, the Turks did not provide money, but labor, and in exchange for the arms, the Turkish expeditionary force of 100,000 would enter Pakistan and India with the German expeditionary force. After Canada, India has become the second largest stronghold of the British government in exile, and the Indian army is said to have trained as many as a million troops.

Obviously, this was a batch of strategic supportive goods, that is, weapons that the German government had given to the Turkish government for strategic reasons. According to the agreement between Germany and Turkey, Germany will also send a group of special fortress engineers to Turkey to help them build coastal defense forts in the Dardanelles Strait and border forts in the northwestern border with Russia.

As for the cases where these involve national politics. Glenner doesn't know, and his assistant won't. Young Captain says:

"General, the person in charge of the Gigi Arms Company said that this batch of goods will be loaded in the port of Königsberg next week, and I hope we will send someone to check it as soon as possible! If you don't have any other instructions, I'll arrange it! ”

Glenner waved his hand and motioned for the captain to make arrangements as soon as possible. After such a large order, he will not sit back for a while. Because there is an even more troublesome "business" next, because it is not the list of weapons that will come to him, but a group of old men, old men who are difficult to serve.

At the weapons test site outside Berlin, the test demonstration of the last weapons continues.

After the Mauser company removed their semi-automatic rifles, it was the turn of Krupp, Gigi Arms, and Bergmann Arsenal to show off their "individual light machine guns".

From the appearance alone, the new guns of these three companies are very different - Krupp's MG1916 is actually an improved and reduced version of the American-made Lewis light machine gun, with a thick and long barrel, 1 meter from the butt to the muzzle, and a two-legged bracket at the front end. The rear part received a wooden butt. A small round cartridge disc is located above the gun; Bergman's MP1916 is much shorter, measuring just 0.8 meters long and with many small holes for extinguishing flames in its thick, short barrel. The strange snail-shaped magazine is located on the left side of the gun ground; The length of the Gigi Munition MP16 is the shortest of the three weapons, with a total length of less than 0.7 meters, and it is surprising that it not only does not have a stock, but also has a thin and short barrel, and the ammunition feeding system uses a long straight magazine located in the lower part of the gun.

Let people who are accustomed to seeing ordinary heavy machine guns and light machine guns evaluate that these three machine guns are alternatives, especially the latter two, just from the appearance is enough to subvert people's habitual views of machine guns.

After the gunshots rang out, the testers of the three weapons fired 24, 32 and 32 rounds respectively in a matter of seconds, and the crisp and dense gurgling sound of the machine gun fire had just fallen. The audience burst into warm applause.

Looking at the target 50 meters away from the firing point, there are irregular bullet holes like honeycombs, and these bullet holes are scattered over a fairly large area.

After spending the same amount of time changing magazines, the testers then performed a slow-fire demonstration. The intermittent gurgling sound came and went, and it didn't end until more than 10 seconds later, when I looked at the target 50 meters away, and the bullet holes on it were obviously much more concentrated.

Once again, the entire stands burst into warm applause.

However, Chen Tian was not happy because of these applause, because most of the people present were either arms dealers in the cannon business. Either the officers in the army who are in charge of procuring artillery are now displaying firearms that have little to do with them, and they can of course give them unreserved applause.

A truly outstanding weapon is bound to be recognized and praised by peers and competitors.

Subsequently, Chen Tian asked the semi-automatic/automatic firearms master next to him for advice, Browning thought for a while, and then told Chen Tian that he thought these three weapons were very good, although their shooting accuracy was not high, but the high speed of shooting can greatly improve melee firepower, and the combination of rifles and machine guns should be able to produce good results.

"How does it compare to a semi-automatic rifle in your design?" Chen Tian asked further.

"Those are two very different concepts!" Browning confidently mentioned the products in his design, "I just found that the following three guns use pistol cartridges, and the range should not exceed 300 meters, while my semi-automatic rifle is used to make up for the hollow area between the rifle and the machine gun fire, that is, to strengthen the fire intensity at a distance of 300 meters to 800 meters!" ”

Chen Tian just said "yes", his heart was actually full of expectations, although the firepower of rifles, submachine guns and machine guns was good, but as Browning said, the lack of firepower density at medium distances was a fatal wound for the powerful Third Reich Army in another world.

After a while, Chentian's attendant came over again and whispered that the technical officers and generals were unanimously optimistic about the 9mm buttless direct magazine "individual light machine gun" of Jiji Arms, and hoped that this weapon would be installed in the troops as soon as possible.

"Count them still a little discerning!" Perhaps because of the disappointing choices of technical experts and generals in field artillery before, Chen Tian is still a little indignant now, a big difference between the so-called great men and mortals is whether their views on a certain matter are forward-looking. You must know that this kind of "individual light machine gun" of Jiji Arms can take a lot of effort from Chentian, at the beginning. He could only describe his impression of the MP38/40 to the gun designers, and then select the more ideal five from the dozens of design schemes of the designers for trial production, such a process of continuous failure and continuous improvement lasted from the winter of 1914 to the spring of 1916, even now, the MP16 that Jiji Munitions took out for testing was not completely satisfactory to Chentian, especially when tested under harsh conditions, the reliability of this weapon needs to be improved.

Either way, something is better than nothing. Chen Tian had already instructed the Gigi Arms Company to produce 1,000 of these individual weapons within a month, so that the German Army could test their actual combat performance in the second operation against France, which was about to begin, and after they were finalized and put into mass production, they would be captivated by the name of the submachine gun.

After the new weapon test exhibition, Chen Tian gathered the heads of the Army's logistics and equipment department, as well as the old people with the title of royal technical experts. At the beginning of the meeting, Chen Tian did not directly mention several new 75mm field guns as candidates, but asked the ages of those present.

As a result, the youngest of these people was 52 years old and the oldest was 71 years old. On average, they are in their 60s. Almost twice the age of Chentian. Although they are not exactly useless antiques, many traditional ideas have been ingrained in their minds, such as artillery. They are increasingly leaning towards two extremes: power and rate of fire. Since the glorious victory of the 420 mm siege cannon in Gibraltar, many artillery experts have been exploring the possibility of developing a larger caliber and longer range artillery; On the other hand, some generals suffered losses from the French 75-mm rapid-fire guns in the last war, hoping that their rapid-fire guns would achieve an astonishing rate of fire of 20-30 rounds per minute of the French M1897 guns, but they ignored the shortcomings of this French gun.

Wanting to send these old people home for retirement is just a matter of words for Chentian, but after all, they are a group of loyal and patriotic people who have contributed their lives to the development of the German Army and have made outstanding contributions in various periods. Looking at the flaws of those who have been injured and maimed by weapons tests, and depriving them of the right to continue serving their country is not only unacceptable to them, but also chilling to the world.

However, it is true that their land has become an obstacle to technological development, and in the long run, they will become sinners of the country, the nation, and even history.

Therefore, Chen Tian assigned a very important task to the new Minister of Foreign Arms Management, General Greiner, that is, to hire the experts here who are already outdated but still famous and in status with double the salary. As for the generals who are responsible for the procurement of army equipment, Chen Tian looks at them one by one, and knows that they have not made a lot of oil and water over the years, but because of their family background and backers, he did not directly kick them out of the army logistics and equipment department, but secretly demoted the backbone personnel among them to the supreme command, and then put the people he trusted in their original positions.

Of course, this will be a gradual process that may encounter a lot of resistance, but for the sake of the future of the German Army, Chentian must do so.

"Next, I want to talk about the 10,000-millimeter field guns just now, I think everyone has seen it very clearly, and they have all selected the best guns in their minds. Now there are still 2 months before the official bidding for this field artillery, and there will be better products in the future, but what I want to tell you is that on the battlefield in the future, the scene of infantry charging intensively in the wilderness is probably not rare, and attacks without the cover of aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery are also rare. ”

As soon as Chen Tian said this, everyone suddenly returned to reality from the conjecture just now.

"I hope you think about my words!"

Chen Tian said that he brushed his sleeves and left, no matter whether these old men wearing monocles could figure it out or not, they didn't have much time to stay in the army's logistics equipment department.

In April and May 1916, the German War Department successively determined the refitting plan of various standard weapons, among which the siege gun used the KS16 240mm heavy mortar gun of the Skoda Arsenal, and the number of purchases was 50, which was expected to be delivered to the troops before 1918, mainly equipped with the artillery group of the army group; The large-caliber howitzer adopts Krupp's HK16 105 mm howitzer, the number of purchases is 600, and it is expected to complete the troop installation before 1920, mainly equipped with artillery groups and independent artillery regiments above the division level of the army; The small-caliber infantry support gun adopts the FG16 75 mm rapid-fire gun of Jiji Arms, the number of purchases is 900 pieces, and the main equipment is the artillery unit of the division and regiment, at the same time, the War Department will also purchase 500 Erha's vehicle-mounted rapid-fire guns with arms, provided that Erhart improves their FA16 type, and the improved vehicle-mounted rapid-fire gun must have air defense capabilities, and the caliber is changed to 75 mm consistent with the FG16 type, and a certain amount of armor protection is added; In terms of semi-automatic rifles, the War Department temporarily ordered only 1,000 M1916 from Mauser for trial; The "individual light machine gun" is the MP16 9mm submachine gun using Jiji munitions, with a purchase quantity of 20,000 units, which is expected to be delivered to the German Army in 1917, and each infantry squad will be equipped with one or two units in the initial stage.