Chapter 588: When the negotiations are underway

Seeing Hitler's question, Bai Chongxi did not rush to answer, but asked rhetorically, "Your Excellency, I would like to ask you, why did Napoleon, the emperor of the First French Empire, fail in his expedition to Russia?" ”

"Naturally, it's because of the damn weather in Russia, General Bai Chongxi, are you testing me?" Hitler was somewhat displeased.

"Of course not, Your Excellency the Führer." Bai Chongxi's expression began to become solemn, "Your Excellency, we Chinese people have an old saying: "If you don't win, you will lose first." This means that a good commander must consider the consequences from the worst perspective before going to war, and formulate the right countermeasures in advance. It would be nice if the war went the way you envisioned it, but what if we couldn't immediately defeat the Russian regime in three months? Will it even be delayed until the onset of winter? What should we do when the time comes, we must think through these things in advance and make a detailed plan, otherwise our government will not be able to guarantee that we will participate in this war. ”

"Well, I admit that there is still some truth in what you said, I will ask the staff to revise the plan again, and then re-discuss it with you when the time comes." Although Hitler was a little displeased, in his heart he had to admit that what the chief of the general staff from the Republic of China said was very reasonable.

"General Bai, now I want to talk to you about the Navy." Hitler, who was "as good as a streamer", quickly turned the topic to another problem that the Germans were eager to solve, "General Bai, first of all, I would like to congratulate your country's navy on its rapid development in the past few years, I have no intention of inquiring into your country's military secrets, but I am very interested in your country's newly equipped navy's "Zhenyuan-class" battleship, if you can, can your country help our empire build two." ”

The German Navy has always been a defensive navy, and apart from German submarines, the surface ship forces of the German Navy have hardly achieved any results, which is also the scar of Hitler and the German Navy all the time. The sudden rise of the Chinese Navy in recent years has made Hitler see hope, especially the appearance of the two battleships of "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" made Hitler ecstatic, when the 460 mm caliber guns of the "Zhenyuan" appeared in front of Hitler, Hitler's love for this battleship was almost incomparable, in the view of Hitler, who had always believed in the sharp guns of giant ships, if Germany also had this battleship, then Germany would reverse the previous decline in one fell swoop in the sea competition with the British.

Hitler did not think of building a super battleship by himself, but it was impossible to build a super battleship without more than five years from design to completion, and what Hitler lacked most now was time, so he thought of buying ready-made battleships from the Chinese.

"The Germans want to buy the 'Zhenyuan-class' battleships" Bai Chongxi couldn't help but tighten up when he heard the news, and before leaving, Su Tong's words to him couldn't help but appear in his mind: "Brother Jiansheng, if you go to Germany this time, I estimate that Hitler will ask you to buy the 'Zhenyuan-class' battleships, you can agree to him, but the price must not be low, as long as there are no more than two, we can hand them over in March next year." ”

Although Bai Chongxi and Su Tong have partnered for several years, although they cannot be said to be close to each other, they can be regarded as heart-to-heart. However, he still doesn't know what the reason is for Su Tong's ability to come up with some new warships and weapons from time to time. Now the three major fleets in Huaxia are almost made by Su Tong by himself, and no one knows the source of these warships, every time it seems to fall from the sky, and Su Tong, the only one who knows about this matter, always shirks this matter and says that it was purchased from abroad, but the people of the earth know that there is no country in the world that can arm a country's navy so quickly. In order to find out this news, the United States, Britain, Japan and other countries lost hundreds of spies in China, but they still found nothing, which also added to the mysterious aura of our Su Chief.

"Absolutely." As soon as Bai Chongxi heard this, a smile appeared on his face, and this smile fell in Hitler's eyes, which could not help but make the always domineering Führer feel a trace of being ripped off in his heart.

"Your Excellency, I can't hide it, our country will have two new battleships to be launched at the beginning of next year, and if your country needs it, we can sell these two battleships to your navy first."

"What, you have two new battleships to launch, are they also the same battleships as your 'Zhenyuan'?" Hitler was taken aback.

"Yes, it is the same and exactly the same battleship as the 'Zhenyuan' battleship we are equipped with, and its performance is absolutely excellent." At this time, Bai Chongxi was like a promoter praising his products.

"That's great, are you willing to sell these two battleships to our empire?" Hitler said, with a look of anticipation in his eyes.

"Of course," Bai Chongxi smiled, "As long as the price is right, we can deliver these two battleships to you in two months." ”

"Well, very good" Hitler needs time now, although the British are suppressed by the Germans, but the main naval force of the British is still intact, due to the lack of the main surface ships, the Germans can only rely on submarines to wreak havoc on the lines of communication in the Atlantic, this kind of behavior was once called a thief by the British, which makes Hitler, who has always been arrogant, how can he bear it. It just so happened that after the Germans occupied France, they looted a lot of war booty, which can be regarded as a foreign fortune, which happened to be used to buy warships.

"Your Excellency, you can sail these two battleships away for only 160 million dollars." A number fluttered out of Bai Chongxi's mouth.

"$160 million?" After hearing this, Hitler calculated in his heart, according to the data reported by the German admirals before, the manufacturing cost of these two battleships should be about 120 million US dollars, and now the Chinese asking for 160 million US dollars is not outrageous, people must make some hard-earned money, right?

"General Bai, are you sure that you can deliver the goods around March next year?" Hitler, who came to his senses, asked again.

"Of course, I can be sure." Bai Chongxi solemnly assured.

After some deliberation in their offices, the two men made a preliminary agreement that the Huaxia government would pay the German government two 'Zhenyuan-class' battleships at a time next year, that is, from late February to early March 1941. After receiving the goods, the German government will remit 160 million US dollars to the account designated by the Chinese government within a month.

In the next few days, Bai Chongxi led the members of the delegation, accompanied by various German generals, to visit the training and combat readiness of the active units of the German army, navy, and air force, and to exchange views with German officers.

During this exchange, the officers of the Chinese country spoke highly of the quality of the German army, saying that most of the German officers had graduated from universities and had also received many years of training in military academies, and their overall quality was far higher than that of the Chinese officers, and that their military discipline was strict, and their emphasis on and pursuit of honor was also worthy of study by the Chinese officers.

In their report to Hitler, the German officers also benefited a lot from the exchanges, saying: "We have also seen many fine traditions from the Chinese officers, such as their hardships and hard work, and some of their new tactics and flexible combat methods, which the German officers admire very much." ”

Training base in Hampsburg, Berlin

More than 30 Chinese officers wearing Huaxia training uniforms, armed with Suomi submachine guns and Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, were conducting confrontation exercises with the Blue Army, which was composed of dozens of soldiers selected by the German side.

Dozens of German marshals and generals were standing on the viewing platform to observe, because the Barbarossa plan was under intense preparation, and the German side also needed to understand the actual combat effectiveness of the Chinese army. At Brauchitsch's suggestion, the exercise was held with the participation of both China and Germany.

In this exercise, the Germans played the defensive side, attacking from the Chinese side. Because the honor of both sides was at stake, the exercise began to heat up, and from time to time soldiers and officers who were shot were ordered to leave the venue by the referee team on the field.

On the exercise ground, the German MG42 machine gun fire was very fierce, and the rubber bullets hit the ground with a dull sound.

"Zhao Quanyou, you immediately lead the sniper team to suppress the opponent's machine gun, Wu Chengfeng, you immediately lead the first team to the right to make a detour, Fan Bingbing, you kid is stupid when he drives a tank, won't he take a gun? Immediately take the second group to the left and detour to the left to attract enemy fire, and the rest will attack head-on with me. This time he led the team by Major General Ren Ran, the commander of the Second Marine Division, who had just been expanded to the rank of captain, and who was now directing a group of "soldiers" with at least the rank of captain to attack the fortifications defended by the Germans.

Rubber bullets draw a piercing sound in the sky, although rubber bullets can't kill people, but after being hit, it is inevitable that there will be blue and purple marks on the body.

Feng. Field Marshal Brauchitsch, Guderian, Rommel, and other senior German generals could not help but look gloomy when they looked at the Chinese side's flowing offensive posture and commanding like an arm's finger; although the German side defended well in this exercise, the Chinese side's tactics such as unreasonable cards and offensive routines and the use of snipers to suppress the enemy's machine gunners also caught the German side by surprise, and as soon as the exercise went on for half an hour, six machine gunners had already "fallen" under the opponent's blocking men. The German defense was thrown into disarray for a while.