On September 29, 1924, Germany, Mexico, Japan, and the United States signed the Treaty of Atlanta, which aimed to end the war, which forced the Americans to place half of their coastline and many important ports** in the custody of the Central Powers, and to pay huge war reparations to Mexico. In addition, the Americans can only have an army of no more than 200,000 people, the size of the National Guard must be controlled to less than 300,000 people, and the navy must not have battleships of more than 30,000 tons, aircraft carriers and submarines of more than 1,600 tons.

The Americans lost that war outright, and the signing of the Treaty of Atlanta looked set to put them on the defensive for the next half-century, at least as their sworn enemies, the Mexicans, had hoped.

What are the facts?

San Francisco, March 1929.

This is the first city visited by Chen Tian and his entourage after arriving in the United States, and the reason why it is San Francisco instead of Washington is actually very simple - it is the largest and most prosperous port city on the west coast of the United States, and it is also the most important shipbuilding center of the United States Navy and the first home port of the United States Pacific Fleet.

Before the plane landed in San Francisco, Chen Tian deliberately let the pilot fly the plane around the port area. Four years and five months ago, it was bombed into ruins by the mighty Luftwaffe, and four years and five months ago, it was a brand new city in front of Chentian, with new high-rise buildings rising from the ground, new streets wide and neat, new docks well-equipped, bustling with passers-by, and vigorous vitality at a glance, as if the war had brought San Francisco not pain and sorrow, but an excellent opportunity to tear down and rebuild. Chen Tian can say without any subjectivity: San Francisco at this time is more beautiful and prosperous than before.

When the plane flew over the U.S. Navy base on the side of San Francisco Harbor, Chen Tian took out his binoculars and took a closer look, and the layout there was basically the same as when the German troops withdrew a few months ago, except that there were many fewer warships anchored here - Germany's decision to withdraw from the United States seemed to be in exchange for the United States to participate in the war against Japan, but this was not the essence of the matter, the reason why Germany withdrew its troops. First, it is necessary to adjust its overseas strategic deployment in light of the development of the international situation, and second, it is also necessary to see the inevitability of the economic, social, and even military recovery of the United States. Although it has reaped a lot of benefits from the Americans through economic plundering and capital aggression in recent years, and has controlled a considerable part of American enterprises, including oil, steel, and even the arms industry, the German government is still unable to prevent this recovery by conventional economic means, and the continued presence of troops in the United States will inevitably lead to conflict with the Americans in the foreseeable future. Rather than sit idly by and watch this conflict eventually lead to a new German-American war, a temporary withdrawal of military force should be exchanged for a balance of power in the region – between Americans and Mexicans. In this way, Germany can improve its current allocation of troops and military spending. Even if the Americans and Mexicans fight, Germany only needs to come out at the last moment to coordinate and mediate, and as long as it continues to maintain the role and status of German capital in the American economy, Germany does not need to worry that the Americans will "bottom out."

After landing at the U.S. military airfield on the outskirts of San Francisco, Chen Tian and his entourage drove to the Washington Hotel in the city, which is a 350-meter-high, city-iconic building that took nearly three years to complete, and is currently the tallest building in the United States (the Empire State Building in New York was built in 1930). When it was completed, many Americans saw it as a sign of America's social and economic recovery. As everyone knows, this building was nominally funded by an American company. The ownership of its 173 was controlled by the Germans.

Located on the 80th floor of the building, the Deluxe Suites are not the highest point of the building, but on a clear day they overlook the city and the port.

When the sun sets.

Looking at the still-busy port, the cars coming and going on the streets below, and the many pedestrians rushing home, Chen Tian couldn't help but recall what he saw a week ago when he visited Manzanillo, the largest city on Mexico's west coast. As the victorious country in the war against the United States, Mexico received a huge war reparations of 3.2 billion US dollars, a debt that the US government is still repaying at a rate of 27 million US dollars per month, and at the same time, the Mexican government can also receive a lot of aid funds and materials from the German government every year, but the current Manzanillo is far less large and imposing than San Francisco - no fewer ships enter and leave Manzanillo every day than those that enter and leave San Francisco, but how does it look like a dirty, messy, There is no well-governed secondary commodity distribution center, or a super-large-scale county town. The port area is a mixed area, where the streets are lined with ox carts and cars, and the high-rise buildings are often surrounded by a large cluster of dilapidated houses......

Despite a change of environment, Chen Tian slept soundly on his first night in San Francisco. Early the next morning, the group drove to the San Francisco Naval Base, which had just been taken over by the US Pacific Fleet Command.

In this naval base, which caused serious damage in the German-American war and was later renovated by the German garrison, the warships that Chen Tian saw from the plane yesterday were all lined up. These warships are moored in several mooring areas according to their type, and although their hulls are mostly freshly painted, they do not hide their lack of tonnage and combat effectiveness - only three of them have a displacement of more than 10,000 tons. There are also two 7,000-ton new cruisers, and the rest are destroyers of less than 3,000 tons and offshore patrol ships of several hundred tons, and a considerable number of ships are old, not only backward in performance, but can only stay in the harbor honestly in bad weather.

Rear Admiral Stockfola, deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet, was escorted by the United States, a veteran who was 20 years older than Chentian, who had participated in the round-the-world voyage of the American Great White Fleet and had retired several years at the time of the outbreak of the German-American war.

Chen Tian originally thought that such an old man was not corrupt but also a little stereotypical, and it was difficult to keep up with the world trend even if he did not think stereotypically, but after a few words, Chen Tian's idea changed greatly, because the other party's thinking was quite agile, and he answered some sensitive questions without leakage.

However, Chen Tian did not feel unhappy because of this, on the contrary, having a good opponent will make the game more exciting, and today's game has just begun.

"Flagship Oklahoma?" Chen Tian asked, pointing to the largest warship in the base.

"Yes, the flagship of our Pacific Fleet, the USS Oklahoma!" Although the warship looked quite imposing, Old Man Fora did not have a trace of pride in his tone when he said this. The USS Oklahoma is a Nevada-class, built and commissioned in 1916, 13 years old, one of the only three battleships of the United States in the war, with a displacement of 27,500 tons, which was retained because it was lower than the tonnage limit of the Treaty of Atlanta (the other two, the "Washington" and "California", were dismantled without repair), suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Cuba and raised the white flag to the German fleet, After the war, it took eight and a half months of restoration to rejoin the U.S. Navy, and although its combat effectiveness was acceptable, its surrender (although it was a decision made by the commander, people still remembered its name) made most Americans feel disdainful.

"The Pensacola?" Chen Tian pointed to the battleship next to the "Oklahoma", but deliberately said a name that made the Americans sad.

Although the old man Fora did not say anything on his face, he felt a cramp in his heart.

"No, it's the USS Salt Lake City, the sister ship of the Sappenkora!"

"Salt Lake City", the second of the Sappencra-class heavy cruisers, is also one of the few medium warships of the United States Navy that was not seriously damaged in the war, and its sister ship "Sopenrla" was completed in 1920-1921, when the war broke out, it was still two newly built, and its configuration of 10 203 mm guns was not out of fashion, but the shortcomings of the U.S. Navy's contempt for defense also existed in them, just in the second week of the outbreak of the war, the "Sappenlac" that went to sea to carry out patrol missions The incident was easily sunk by a torpedo fired by the German submarine U77, which not only made a new German naval ace, but also brought the Sappencera class into disrepute, and the "Salt Lake City" was a blessing in disguise and remained safe and secure in Norfolk Military Port until the end of the war. Although it underwent a major modification after the war to strengthen anti-aircraft fire and armored defense, and its displacement also increased from 9,000 tons to 12,000 tons, the Americans clearly did not expect it to be able to play a role in a live battle.

"Oh, the Salt Lake City!" Chen Tian nodded, he obviously wouldn't care about such a cruiser that had fallen into a serious "disease" in the design stage, and what could make him care about it was actually the large battleship other than the "Oklahoma" and "Salt Lake City". For this 22,000-ton new ship commissioned in November 1928, the German intelligence department has already mastered quite detailed information, and according to the assessment of German naval experts, although the Americans included this class of battleships in the heavy cruiser, because they have learned a series of lessons from the war and integrated the relatively advanced radar, fire control and armor technology into it, its combat effectiveness should not be underestimated, and it can even be said that the US Navy has tried its courage after the war!