November 7, 1917, the date of voting for the U.S. presidential election.

When Marshall walked into the conference room, he saw his staff members sitting in their seats with serious expressions, as if they had been informed of the defeat in the general election.

"Hey guys, what's wrong with you guys? Take some courage, is that Warren so terrible? Marshall waved his fist, but the reaction of the crowd was so cold that he felt a little chilled.

The election campaign has just begun, but Marshall, who is running as a Democratic candidate and former vice president, has already lost the competition with Republican candidate Warren Gamelil Harding, and there is not much suspense in the minds of most Americans as to who will become the new president.

Looking at the posture of everyone's unintentional war, Marshall had no choice but to sit in a chair, and his last days in the White House could begin to count down.

If Woodrow and Wilson were still around, then the Democratic Party would not have lost so badly in this year's election anyway, because his expansionist and idealistic political ideas are still accepted by many Americans, and even his posthumous work, the Washington Naval Treaty, is also called a treaty that brought sustained peace to the United States. However, Wilson himself was killed in the bombing that shocked the world, and his partner and successor, Marshall, subsequently took over as president, but the former vice president had less luck in comparison. During Marshall's tenure, the U.S. government saw Germany invade Austria-Hungary and rule most of Europe without doing anything, and ordered Pershing to lead an expeditionary force into Mexico only to be beaten to the ground, which was not the worst.

Shortly after the 1917 election began, the Japanese and Germans poured salt on Marshall's wounds in quick succession. In June, the Japanese Navy's Tahiti naval fortress was completed. The huge project began at the end of 1914 and was delayed for financial reasons, but it was completed three years and seven months after the signing of the German-German Polynesian Treaty. The 50 million yen (US$25 million at the time) military project was more than just an expansion of the forts and harbors left behind by the French. Considering that Tahiti is more than 4,000 nautical miles away from the Japanese mainland and is the farthest naval base and port of the Japanese government overseas, the Tahiti naval fortress was designed to be able to hold out for at least a month under the enemy's strong offensive, so that the main Japanese naval force can complete the assembly and trek across the ocean to come for reinforcements.

Under this line of thinking, Tahiti was designed as a stronger steel fortress than Lushun and Qingdao, with an astonishing number of large and small fortress guns, the largest caliber being 4 356 mm fortress guns jointly manufactured by the Wu Navy Factory and Nippon Steel, which had a maximum range of 25 kilometers and could be. Firing 637.5 kg of armor-piercing or 625 kg of high-explosive shells at a rate of 1.35 rounds per minute, the giant cannon hidden under concrete fortifications and armoured turrets is undoubtedly a nightmare for any invading ship, and the backbone of the fortress defense system is undoubtedly the 16 280 mm fortified guns purchased from the German Krupp factory, these armoured turret-guarded single guns are deployed in seven batteries overlooking the sea, enough to withstand the attack of a powerful battlefleet. In addition to the two large-caliber fortress guns, the Tahiti fortress also had numerous 203 mm, 150 mm and 120 mm fort guns, as well as 105 mm and 40 mm rapid-fire guns and hundreds of heavy machine guns.

The entire fortress system has coastal defense batteries, land defense batteries and infantry fortress lines, and the total number of troops stationed in the interior in peacetime, including the navy, has reached 900, and food and materials can be stored for 10,000 people to hold on for half a year. There are many well-appointed berths in the harbor, as well as three repair docks and a small shipyard built by the French colonists, which can be rebuilt and expanded by the Japanese army to maintain and repair all kinds of ships in the interior, including battleships. Furthermore. The Japanese also built a large airfield and two small hidden airfields behind the port. There are more than 20 aircraft stationed in peacetime, of which 12 torpedo planes are purchased from Germany.

For the U.S. government and their Navy, the bad summer of 1917 didn't end there.

August. The German Navy was completed at the Cap à la Pitre fortress in Guadeloupe. The fort began to be built in May 1916, lasted 15 months, cost 40 million Reichsmarks (10 million US dollars at the time), although the scale is far less than the Japanese Tahiti fortress, but the port was renovated, ready to accommodate the entire German Atlantic Fleet, three new large batteries were built on the islands outside the port, 8 280 mm fortress guns and more than 40 small and medium-caliber guns can cover the southern end of the Sarai Strait, and there are large airfields and 3 hidden small airfields built east of the port area, There is one air force wing and more than 120 aircraft. There are more than 2,000 pilots and crew members.

After the completion of the two naval bases and forts, the unique peaceful environment surrounding the United States is gone.

Although Tahiti and Cape Pitre had been French colonies before the war, and the French had a sizable port and defense system in both places, the construction of large fortifications by Japan and Germany was anything but significant. Geographically speaking, the Polynesian Islands, where Tahiti is located, are located in the east-central Pacific Ocean, and the distance to Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, the Panama Canal and South America is no more than 2,700 nautical miles. Guadeloupe is located on the edge of the Caribbean Sea at the western end of the Atlantic Ocean. It is very convenient to reach the Gulf of Mexico in the north, the Panama Canal in the west, and Brazil in the south, and it is only more than 1,000 nautical miles away from the continental United States.

What really made the U.S. government and navy nervous was that the navies of the two countries successively stationed a sizable fleet to the newly built base -- the Japanese task force with two battleships, four cruisers, and four destroyers, which was stationed in Tahiti on September 1 and will be stationed there for a long time; The German Atlantic 2nd Fleet, with 3 battleships, 1 aircraft carrier, 7 cruisers, 9 destroyers, 2 seaplane carriers, and 31 submarines, entered the Cape Pitre base on 23 September and used it as a base to begin a large-scale naval operation to strangle British and Canadian ships.

At this point, the American people's trust in the Marshall administration has fallen to a freezing point, and many groups and individuals have demanded that the Marshall administration step down early. Under these circumstances, the Republican Party and their candidate Warren Harding timely put forward a policy program for establishing a strong cabinet and taking a tough stance to deal with any challenge, and promised that once he became the new president, he would vigorously promote the reform of the armed forces and build the US military into a powerful armed force in the navy, land, and air. So much so that in a poll a month before the election, 60 percent of voters supported Warren, much higher than Marshall's 12 percent.

In contrast to Marshall's frustration with his staff, in the live room of the Washington Broadcasting Center, Republican candidate Warren Harding was speaking impassionedly to voters across the country:

“…… In the next 3 years, we will aspire to build a fully modern navy, and the most advanced warships will ride the wind and waves under the Star and Stripes! The Army will develop and procure the latest equipment and weapons on its own, so that anyone who dares to peep at the United States of America will be discouraged! In the near future. You will see that our air battlefleet occupies the entire sky, and no one dares to challenge us......"

At the German listening post in Washington, intelligence officers meticulously collected and summarized all kinds of information and sent it back to China. Two days later, the translation of Warren Harding's speech lay quietly on the desk of the German Emperor.

"Sky Battlearm? Interesting, very interesting! ”

After putting down this document, Chen Tian looked at the generals with different expressions in front of him. The German Imperial Cabinet elections were far less noisy than those of the Americans, and the German Cabinet was much more stable than in Japanese politics, which frequently changed cabinets. Since the founding of the German Empire, Feng Nianzhong has only changed five cabinet ministers, namely Bismarck in 1871-1890 and Leo in 1890-1894. Feng. Count Caprivey, Hornlohe in 1894-1900, von Von in 1900-1915. Billlow and von from 1915 to the present. Bateman.

"It's obvious. They are modeled after us to build a massive airship force! "Air Force Minister von Zekzhi is still wearing his monocle. At the age of 51, he is much older than when Chen Tian used him 3 years ago, but he also looks more mature and stable. He is wearing a light blue Air Force lieutenant general uniform today, and he wears a Red Eagle medal on his chest — it's not just a combat medal. It is also usually awarded to military, civilian, and even civilian personnel who have contributed to major military victories.

"That doesn't have to be a bad thing for us, is it?" Field Marshal Karl. Feng. Billo expressed his opinion in a calm tone.

"Not only is it not a bad thing, it's very good for us!" Admiral Pol, Admiral and Admiral Pol, said a little gloatingly, "Even if it is built in large quantities, the cost of an ordinary Zeppelin airship is no less than 2 million Reichsmarks, which is converted into 250,000 European marks!" The same funds could be used to build 40 Hummingbirds or 15 Vultures, or three Race-class destroyers, or a Schliefen-class cruiser, and five airships for a Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier! Ladies and gentlemen, a Schliefen-class cruiser can't be sunk with a few dozen bullets! ”

"Marshal Pol is right!" Zechter agrees: "After our calculations and many tests. Mixing high-explosive bullets and white phosphorus bullets in one bullet chain, such special bullets have a huge damage for hydrogen airships, and can also get twice the result with half the effort against skin aircraft! ”

"So the technology of special bullets and helium airships needs to be kept strictly secret!" Chen Tian told everyone very seriously.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured, we will not let these confidential technologies leak out!" Everyone replied resolutely.

Chen Tian glanced at the document on the table and said, "Then in my own name, I wish this Mr. Warren Harding a smooth victory in the US election!" ”

As most Americans expected and expected, Republican candidate Warren Harding was elected the 30th president of the United States in the 1917 presidential election by overwhelmingly defeating Marshall.

On January 20, 1918, Warren Harding was sworn in in Washington and appointed Calvin Coolidge as vice president, and Charles Hughes as secretary of state. After taking office. Warren Harding, unlike in his campaign speech, "took a tough stance on threats from Europe and Asia," but he made some effort to reform the military.

In the Army, he appointed the unruly General Leonard Wood as Secretary of the Army, General Peyton March, who had participated in the war in the Philippines and the expedition to Mexico, as Chief of Army Staff, and John Pershing, who had been punished for the unfavorable war in Mexico, was reactivated and was responsible for the reorganization of the Army and the National Guard.

On the naval side, the reformist Admiral William Benson remained as Secretary of the Navy, and Admiral William Sims became the new Chief of Staff of the Navy, and the Admiralty quickly began the shipbuilding program under the treaty after receiving strong support from the White House. By the end of 1918, the four battleships of Connecticut, Kansas, Vermont, and Leisiana, which were launched before 1910, had all entered the dock to complete overhaul and equipment renewal, and the cruisers, destroyers, and submarines launched before 1910 were successively replaced by new ships, and the total tonnage of these three ships reached the upper limit of the treaty scope, and together with the new ships under construction, the number of cruisers reached 251,000 tons, a total of 33 cruisers, 125,000 tons, and 52,000 tons, a total of 63 submarines.

In addition, Warren Harding fulfilled another of his commitments - to build an American air battleship fleet, and under his leadership, the US Congress in May 1918 built on the Marshall Airship Program to build an additional budget for 400 military hydrogen airships, all of which were completed in four years, and the US Navy would have more than 900 military airships, a number that would be nearly twice the current German (410) and Japanese (170) military airships combined. Of course, the U.S. government also allocated more than $400 million for these airships, while the total expenditure of the U.S. Navy during the same period was only $700 million.