For this day's luncheon, Chen Tian can only be described as boring.

He roughly estimated that since the banquet began, the chubby mayor of New York City has introduced nearly ten "patriotic businessmen with a net worth of billions" to himself, and there are even more politicians who are called "young and promising future stars", and in the end this seems to have become a business banquet specially prepared for American politicians and wealthy businessmen!

The smell of politics and copper in the audience was disgusted by Chentian, and seeing that the German interior officials who accompanied him seemed to be able to deal with it, poor Bohr and the other admirals only had a bitter look on their faces and even pretended to be deaf and dumb. Looking at Lisa, she was surrounded by a group of "patriotic women of patriotic merchants", these noble ladies had the momentum of more than 10,000 ducks talking, all of them were full of jewels and envy and compliments, and they even brought a German spine ......

Chen Tian's most urgent wish at this time is to end this banquet and get away from this group of sophisticated and sleek guys with interests in their heads. In contrast, the German expatriates who chanted long live along the way were so cute, but it was a pity that Chen Tian could not stand and salute them, because there were so many people in this world who wanted to assassinate him, enemies, neighbors, and even friends. According to the latest information from domestic intelligence, the Japanese seem to be secretly carrying out certain deployments with the aim of disrupting this international naval conference. As for the specific goals and means, Chen Tian is still unknown.

At 1:30 p.m., the tiresome banquet finally ended. Chen Tian suddenly understood the reason why the US government arranged the itinerary of the delegations of various countries in this way -- politically trying to win over and economically looking for business opportunities, and perhaps secretly using some shady means, its business politics is indeed worthy of its name.

At this time, Chen Tian became more and more aware of the terrible nature of the Americans, which was not only in the military potential, but also in all aspects of society, and it was no wonder that the United States in another world would become a superpower that dominated the world in just a few decades.

After the banquet, Chen Tian and his entourage drove non-stop to the second and last stop of today's visit - the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Although it was only a few minutes away from the banquet venue, the Americans did not dare to slack off, and there were still a large number of police and gendarmes along the way.

In order to receive these German dignitaries. The museum is closed to the public for one day. The small square in front of the museum, where even the steps were filled with people, looked deserted, surrounded only by hundreds of New York police officers in black uniforms and some military police officers with rifles on their backs.

As soon as the Chentian couple got out of the car, Qiao Na couldn't wait to come up and introduce to them:

"Your Majesty, this is the Museum of Urban Art in New York, built in 1873, the main body of the Gothic building, divided into three floors! It covers an area of 80,000 square meters, with an exhibition area of more than 200,000 square meters and nearly 300,000 collections! ”

For some such boring figures. Chen Tian and the others didn't feel anything special for the time being, but soon they would realize that this was an unusual visit. Around these German dignitaries, the guards from Germany followed closely, and the American guards formed a larger protective circle a little farther away.

All this, a scumbag man located a hundred meters away silently watched, when the Kaiser and his entourage entered the museum, he walked away quietly.

In the same afternoon, Max Hoffmann, Chentian's chief military staff member and one of the key figures in the German Army's General Staff, was leading a special delegation to visit the Springfield Arsenal on the outskirts of Boston, where the U.S. Army's standard rifle, the M1903 Springfield rifle, is now produced.

Spacious and bright production workshop. Rows and rows of lathes. With busy workers and piles of finished products, this place seems to be no different from other regular arsenals in the world.

"An imitation Mauser rifle!" A German major next to Hoffman casually picked up a rifle that was about to be finished and fiddled with it only a few times. The origin of this gun was revealed.

The American firearms engineer who accompanied him did not seem to be shy about it, and he immediately explained to the German delegation: "Indeed, this is the case that our factory developed and produced after obtaining the license of your country's Mauser Arsenal, and it is the same manual bolt magazine rifle as your country's Mauser Model 1898!" The caliber is 7.62 mm, the built-in magazine has a capacity of 5 rounds, and the total weight is almost 4 kg! ”

In fact, Hoffman and others had conducted a detailed investigation of this standard weapon of the US Army long before coming to the United States, and the M1903 was very similar to Mauser 1898 in technology, but it was slightly deficient in power and penetration, and in general, there would be almost no obvious technical gap between the armies that used these two weapons on the battlefield.

"Is this the main production hall at the Springfield Arsenal?" Hoffman casually asked the engineer just now.

"Yes. At present, most of the firearms in our factory are produced and assembled here! The engineer in charge of the presentation appears to have received permission from the military, so there is little reservation about the German delegation's questions.

Hoffmann nodded with satisfaction, sometimes politicians are still able to assist the soldiers very well, and it is the repeated efforts of the German Foreign Office that make Hoffmann's trip quite smooth.

It was not difficult for the German experts accompanying Hoffmann to speculate on the normal production of such an arsenal, and they finally came to the conclusion that once the war broke out, the current production capacity of this arsenal would be far from meeting the needs of the US Army!

"General, it's still early, can we go around the neighborhood? I heard you also have an army training camp near Boston? Hoffman suddenly made an unplanned request to Brigadier General Stwater, who accompanied them on the tour.

"It's ......," Stwatert seemed hesitant. He thought about it for a while before the interpreter conveyed his meaning: "Of course there is no problem in going, but it is only a small training camp, and less than two thousand recruits are trained there every year!" ”

"That's okay! As long as it can promote exchanges between our German and American armies, we should do it! Hoffman made a serious and serious expression, and this sentence is also one of his killer tactics recently used today - under the banner of "military exchanges", he asked Brigadier General Steward to take them to some military important places to visit.

"Alright then!" Although Stevort's face was very reluctant, he did not dare to offend these Germans, who had been specially told by their superiors to be "as satisfied as possible". In the eyes of the U.S. Department of the Army, the German Army, which is recognized as the world's No. 1, has no need to learn anything from itself, so it has made the scope of the tour relatively wide.

Hoffmann glanced at the officers behind him, signaling them not to waste any more energy on these rifles, even to ask the Americans for sample guns, after all, there were several of them in the warehouse of the firearms research room of the German intelligence service.

"It's wonderful...... "It's wonderful" starts with stepping into the sculpture gallery. Lisa whispered in admiration. There are sculptures and reliefs from ancient Greece, as well as statues of Egyptian and Assyrian gods that are half human and half beasts, works by Michelangelo, and sculptures by unknown authors. They are beautiful, they are amazing, and there are more secrets hidden behind them, they turned out to be ornaments, or sacrifices. Or are they with some special significance, and they leave the visitor with a lot of questions.

Unfortunately, for most of the sculptures here, even a guide like Jona can only briefly explain their provenance and origin. Here, Jona's voice was much quieter, as if she was worried about disturbing the slumber of these thousand-year-old sculptures.

The statues and reliefs tell their own history in their own postures, and there are only less than 40 people in the hall, so it makes people feel more mysterious and curious.

Like most of the officials and generals who accompanied him, Chen Tian just walked around this exhibition hall with the mood of watching. 20,000 square meters, which is not a very large place in the concept of ordinary people, this museum covers a small area. But the exhibition area is twice that of the Palace Museum in Beijing! It took a whole day to visit the Palace Museum. And it's just a rough look, so now Chen Tian doesn't plan to take a closer look at one of the exhibits, but to see as many things as possible.

It's a pity that Chen Tian ignores Lisa's appreciation of artworks. From time to time, the German queen stopped by one of the exhibits, either to ask Joanna carefully or to take a closer look. Although Chen Tian has limited interests, he still participates in discussions with Lisa from time to time, although such discussions are not even academic in nature, and can even be said to be based on curiosity and superficial understanding.

In this way, the group stopped and walked, and it took more than half an hour to visit the first exhibition hall.

"In front is the military exhibition hall, which contains the European and Asian weapons and armor exhibition hall and the modern firearms exhibition hall!"

Hearing Qiao Na say this introduction, Chentian's spirit suddenly lifted up. You must know that collecting weapons and armor from all eras, especially ancient times, is one of his great hobbies.

Sure enough, he saw a large pile of silver gleaming things in the distance, it was a small group of medieval cavalry in full armor, and they were trotting forward with the horses under their hips, giving people the illusion that the other party was rapidly approaching.

"Sure enough, it's a boutique!"

Chentian finally let out his first words of admiration after entering the museum, these cavalrymen were wrapped in finely crafted armor, and the surface was as smooth as a mirror, as if it had just been finely polished. Their helmets are slightly ugly, with two tops with white ground feathers on top. Each of the four knights carried a long flag spear. The banner indicates that they are noble knights "from" different nations of all ages.

Standing in front of them, Chen Tian could still feel a thousand-year-old murderous aura in the gap between their helmets and eyes, and the four war horses wearing hideous masks all raised their left front feet, as if they were leading their masters to a distant battlefield.

These are the museum's high-priced private acquisitions, originally owned by an Austrian whose grandfather and father were said to have been keen collectors of medieval armor and weapons, and who later had to move to the United States because of political persecution. In order to get the protection of the U.S. government, they sold these four sets of armor to the U.S. government at a very low price, and the government later sent them to this museum! ”

After listening to Qiao Na's introduction, Chen Tian regretted but also realized the attraction of the United States, once there is a political event or war, people's first reaction is to flee to the United States, which I don't know how many talents, funds and priceless treasures have been brought to the United States.

Four ancient cavalry occupy the most prominent position in the center of the pavilion, surrounded by armor and weapons in glass display cases, where you can see Spanish axemen, French cavalry, English infantry, French Revolution-era infantry, and of course Crusaders and Teutonic knights.

In front of a pair of bronze armor, Chen Tian was reluctant to leave for a long time, this was a particularly beautiful pair of ancient armor he had ever seen. The owner of the armor seems to be a high-spirited person, so he has a beautiful copper-colored pattern all over the armor, and if he wears it, he must be very temperamental. If you don't remember where you are. Chen Tian almost blurted out: "Boss, I bought this armor!" ”

"The best soldier is not in whether he has the best equipment, nor in how many combat experiences he has, but in his quality and spirit! The biggest difference between a qualified soldier and a civilian is that he is well-trained, fearless and courageous! Brigadier General Stevort was proud to present the most famous instructions of the training camp to his German counterparts.

"Very good, this speaks to the essence of a soldier!" Hoffmann approvingly said that there is a very similar clause in the German War Office's regulations for local soldiers.

The forty-five-year-old American brigadier general carefully introduced to the German delegation: "After every recruit comes here. For the first 2 months, they need to undergo physical reinforcement training and discipline training, which is an important process to transform their body and consciousness from civilian to military! ”

The German officers had no objection to this, and their recruits almost had to undergo such a stage of training. The only difference is that the first three months after enlistment of ordinary recruits in the German Army receive basic comprehensive training, that is, physical training, platoon training, weapon shooting training, alert training and primary tactical training are combined.

"The second stage of recruit training is professional training after the assignment of troops! U.S. Army soldiers can currently be divided into ordinary infantry, cavalry, engineers, artillery, signal troops, scouts, transport troops, aviation troops, quartermaster logistics troops, and medical troops! As he walked, Stevert said that by this time a large group of people had arrived at the training camp grounds, where only about 500 soldiers were being trained. There were few sounds on the playground other than the sound of passwords and footsteps, and it seemed that the recruits were still in the first stage of their training.

While most of the German officers looked to the playground, Brigadier Steworth would continue to introduce the training of recruits in the US Army:

"Normally. We divide professional training into infantry training and non-infantry training. Among them, infantry ground training includes rifle and machine gun shooting, tactical training, reconnaissance training, and marching training, while the training of non-infantry arms is carried out separately according to the needs of their respective arms! ”

At this time, Hoffman was a little surprised. "How come there is no training in the excavation of fortifications and bunkers?"

After listening to the question conveyed by the translator, Sttwater was stunned for a few seconds, and then told Hoffman with certainty that there was no content in the training of U.S. Army soldiers to dig trenches and build fortifications.

"Oh!" Hoffman did not pursue the question, as he had seen in a previous investigative report — that the U.S. Army was still training on the experience of the American Civil War. In addition, Hoffman has noticed that the US Army does not have an armored corps, but this does not mean that the Americans do not have armored vehicles and tanks. According to German intelligence, armored vehicles were introduced to the U.S. Army several years ago, and the first tank made by the Americans themselves appeared in July 1915.

"We also have army aviation. Of course, we also have a separate Air Ministry! Hoffman was kind enough to introduce this characteristic of the German team to Stewater, and this is obviously a fact that everyone knows.

Although he did not fully understand what the Germans were trying to say, Stevordt replied to him with the same kindness: "Our country does not divide aviation units into army and navy, and it seems that there is no need for that for the time being!" ”

"Is it because you don't have enough planes on the ground?" Hoffman continued his friendliness.

"Not as many as yours!" Stewater gave a vague answer.

"Airplanes are a weapon that changes history!" Hoffman's words sounded a bit clueless, making it impossible for others to understand his true intentions.

"Indeed!" That's all Sttwater could answer.

"And tanks! You know this kind of thing, right? ”

The German's question didn't seem to surprise Sttwater, and he didn't seem to want to answer it head-on.

"I don't think there is anyone in this world who doesn't know this terrible weapon of the German Empire!"

Hoffman nodded, knowing that there was no way to learn more from Stewater on the subject. If there is any regret about his trip, it is that he could not get a glimpse of the true face of American tanks. Because the US side previously denied that it had a tank as a weapon, the delegation headed by Hoffman had no way to do so, and the efforts made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were ineffective, it seems that the US side is determined to keep this secret.

"These are works of art from the East, and any one of them is priceless!" Jona, as she had done before, introduced the museum's collections, noticing the dramatic change in the Kaiser's eyes.

The statues and murals of the Mogao Grottoes, the treasures and jade of the Old Summer Palace, and those national treasure-level paintings, each of them here is indeed a rare treasure that is unique in the world!