The next day, the first day of April.
The spring rain in mid-spring comes and goes quietly. When the most diligent citizens wake up from their sleep, they realize that it rained for half the night last night.
Although the air is fresh, the streets are extremely humid. Some areas with poor infrastructure have puddles of water, and the delicate bamboo shoots seem to have grown half a fist in height overnight.
"At 6 o'clock in Nanjing time, there are convective clouds slowly moving northward in the western and southern airspace of Gaoqiao Airport. The cloud top is 4 to 6 kilometers high, and there are sparse clouds at an altitude of 600 meters. The surface wind direction is 280 degrees, the wind speed is 4.3 meters per second, and the visibility is 17 Kilometers, approaching flights must pay attention to the influence of airflow fluctuations, the runway is slippery..."
Due to the rapid development of civil aviation in various countries around the world in the past two years, the growth momentum of domestic and international flights is very impressive. It is no longer possible to land only two flights a day as before.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty Air Force has reduced the prescribed interval of reporting weather conditions every two hours by half to cope with increasingly busy air traffic.
Two Junkers Ju-52 passenger planes carrying more than two dozen diplomats from the German Press Agency emerged from the clouds, slowly descended in altitude, aligned with the runway, and landed in a landing attitude with their noses slightly raised.
In addition to the regular turnover of embassy staff, the Germans also plan to negotiate trade issues.
The sudden drop in imports of rare metals has significantly affected the industrial production of Deshe, and some factories have had to apply for the use of strategic reserves of rare metal stocks in order to maintain production.
Except for a few people who shouldered heavy responsibilities, the remaining fourteen men and five women were all assigned to the German Society's Embassy in the Ming Dynasty for rotation, which was considered an ordinary routine.
Among the military attachés, the chief military attache is Major General Justus Kohler. The Stasi Reconnaissance Directorate changed Chris Richter's identity to a financial professional and technical major of the Army General Staff, and came with him as a technical attache.
Of course, the actual task is naturally to collect, summarize and organize intelligence.
Even though everyone knows the principle of "making friends at a distance and attacking at a close distance", ideological differences still allow these Germans to receive special treatment - as soon as the plane landed, the agents from the Foreign Intelligence Factory got close to them and did not allow them to move around without authorization.
For native speakers of Germanic languages, it is almost impossible to quickly learn Chinese in a few months.
Looking at the huge Chinese characters on the signboard, Chris's identification mode was basically trying to recall the meaning of each word in her mind, and then piecing it together one by one.
Thanks to the simplicity and directness of the basic grammar of Chinese, otherwise it would be more difficult to recognize - because if you cannot skillfully combine word meanings in grammatical order, you will also not be able to figure out the meaning of words or sentences.
I don’t know whether it is to save money or trouble, but the German Society Legation still uses the building of the legation during the German Empire.
This is a Renaissance architectural style courtyard with three houses, one large and one small. The main color is gray and white, and the structure has a unique symmetrical and geometric beauty; the black, red and yellow tricolor flag with a hammer and compass in the upper left corner is Blowing in the breeze.
"... During the handover, important documents must be signed and photographed for files. Confidential documents to be destroyed must be taken to the shredder by the custodian."
Looking at the mountain of documents and excerpted notes, Chris couldn't help but be speechless - isn't this too much?
If I had known that coming here would be subject to restrictions and paperwork, I might as well have gone to Wellington or Santiago.
At that time, I wanted to have some fun after work, but now it seems that I undoubtedly made a wrong decision.
Because the German society was in a hurry, the Foreign Affairs Department of the Ministry of Rites and the Commerce Department of the Ministry of Industry quickly sent officials to participate in the talks, and the Ministry of War and the Metropolitan Governor's Office were no exception.
Reasonable use of loopholes in the terms to exploit loopholes is far different in nature from malicious violation of the agreement. For the Ming Dynasty, which generally paid attention to national credibility, exploiting loopholes was almost the upper limit of what was acceptable.
The Germans roughly predicted what Akito wanted, and this time they brought along many videos and individual objects of weapons, technology, and equipment. The film alone was packed into two large special safes.
The first to bear the brunt is the DB600 V-shaped liquid-cooled engine produced by the state-owned Stuttgart First Automobile Group (Daimler-Benz).
The left and right double exhaust cylinders are arranged in a V-shaped 60° angle, with a displacement of 33.9L, a weight of 575kg, a bore of 150mm, and a stroke of 160mm. Each cylinder has two inlets and two rows of four valves in total, including one stage and one speed. It has a supercharger and four carburetors, with a maximum output of 1,000 horsepower.
If you do not consider the British Rolls-Royce Company, this liquid-cooled engine from Mercedes-Benz is definitely a first-class thing today.
Liquid-cooled engines and air-cooled engines each have their own advantages and disadvantages, and there is no distinction between high and low overall performance - the former has a smaller front area and lower wind resistance, but is very difficult to maintain; the latter is just the opposite, because it is air-cooled. To ensure the contact area with the air, the cylinder should be laid flat on the front, so the appearance is rounded and blunt.
The Ming Air Force does not want to go all the way with air-cooled engines. Some people have proposed that it may still need to have a suitable liquid-cooled engine, so that it can more easily build top-performing fighters, even if its reliability and attendance rate are not good. how.
Therefore, the Air Force is currently preparing another path, which is to seek technological sources for liquid-cooled engines.
Naturally, the British would not agree. In addition to the air-cooled engines of Wright and Pratt & Whitney, only Allison had liquid-cooled inline engines, but they could not be called excellent.
Since everyone has chosen to introduce foreign technology to save trouble, they must try to get the best quality possible, otherwise it is better to develop it on their own.
Therefore, the Air Force has taken a liking to the 12Y-21 liquid-cooled engine of the French company Hispano-Suza (which is actually a Spanish company) and is already preparing to issue a production license application.
However, this costs money.
In comparison, the chips provided by the Germans are obviously of great weight - they are of good quality and do not require the expenditure of real money.
The two parties quickly reached a consensus on this point and the process was very smooth.
As for other weapons and equipment, the Germans did not hide it, and generously displayed the various weapons equipped by the People's Army. They even showed off new gadgets that were still in the experimental stage.
New 7.92mm heavy machine gun, new 20mm anti-aircraft gun, new 13mm aviation machine gun, new 533mm hydrogen peroxide torpedo, new 20t infantry support tank...
A large array of weapons, these videos, drawings, and scale models were placed in front of the Ming Dynasty negotiators.
However, most of these gadgets are nothing rare, and the only ones that can attract Akito's attention are hydrogen peroxide torpedoes.
Although there was no Versailles Peace Treaty restricting the Germans from developing heavy machine guns, the general-purpose machine gun was still born.
Treaty restrictions are only one factor that promotes the development of general-purpose machine guns. People's exploration of the application of "machine guns" is also an important factor - I just want to have the best of both worlds, and want a machine gun that can be used for both light and heavy purposes. , suitable for infantry tactics, how about you give it a try?
Therefore, after the Germans developed the traditional heavy machine gun MG28, they still toyed with the MG34 general-purpose machine gun based on the MG31 (historical MG13) and MG30.
Because the Germans kept the MG34 highly confidential, the military expedition team sent by the Ming Dynasty to Spain did not obtain samples. They only collected oral descriptions and some photos based on hearsay.
On the contrary, the International Brigade used it because it received a batch of weapons directly assisted by the German Society. A report written by someone in Qixia Military Prison specifically elaborated on his evaluation, thinking that this was a meaningful and groundbreaking weapon, but it was not suitable for the country. national conditions.
The military personnel who reviewed the report accepted his opinion, but now after watching the video, several military personnel present were a little shaken - nothing but sharp ears!
With a high rate of fire of 900 rounds per minute and a weight of 12kg, it can quickly switch between light machine gun status on a bipod, heavy machine gun status on a tripod, and anti-aircraft anti-aircraft mode. It is really excellent in terms of usability.
However, after asking about the technical details, they "changed their minds".
The raw material utilization rate is only 25%. It takes about 50kg of high-quality steel to manufacture each rod?
The total number of parts of the entire gun is as high as 200, which is more than 20% more than the Type 37 heavy machine gun.
The failure rate of continuous shooting is close to 1.5%, which is far from the 0.2% standard stipulated by the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War.
Are the Germans making guns or craft toys?
The MG34 failed to catch the eye of military personnel, but they felt that the design idea of a light and heavy dual-purpose machine gun had value.
As for hydrogen peroxide torpedoes, Chinese representatives clearly expressed their intention - the navy has been struggling with this for many years and the progress is not going well.
Although the proposal to establish basic defense cooperation was rejected, the idea of exchanging technology and machines for resources reached a consensus. This win-win situation made both sides feel good.
This day was at noon on the fifth day of April. After the meeting, the two parties in a harmonious atmosphere had a low-key luncheon.
"Today's report has been approved, but it must be accompanied by security personnel."
"okay, I get it."
It is recognized around the world that embassy attachés are military intelligence personnel disguised as diplomats.
Although the personal freedom of diplomats was not restricted on the surface, the imperial court obviously could not tolerate foreign military attachés wandering around the capital. Therefore, they were forced to be accompanied by agents from the Foreign Enforcement Factory before going out, and the travel route must be reported in advance and could not be changed without authorization.
Because of this, Chris now regrets it endlessly.
The application route included military garrison, which was rejected; it passed through combat readiness warehouse, which was rejected; it passed through air defense positions, which was rejected; it may overlook the security deployment of the Forbidden City, which was rejected.
You can't go anywhere if you co-author it, right? Why didn't you inquire carefully at first? Fortunately, I happily chose to come to China.
Even if they protested, the officials of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Ministry of Rites still ignored them, and their reply was always:
And this thing?
It's none of our business.
Wait a minute, the bosses are still studying.
Your request is inappropriate and not allowed.
Fortunately, her application was approved yesterday - she can visit the other party, but she must be accompanied by someone.
Yesterday was the last day of Zhou Changfeng's leave. He planned to take a flight to Tokyo tonight, but was informed that an uninvited guest was about to arrive.
Shen Yu called, "Do you know this woman?"
Zhou Changfeng was stunned when he heard this, "Huh? From the embassy? German? Female?"
On the side, Xia Xiaoshi was walking over with a plate of purple-red mulberries, and she stopped immediately when she heard the sound.
"Anyway, please prepare yourself. After all, you are also a foreign affairs official, so you should be treated politely. I will be there later."
"OK."
Foreign intelligence agents visit our country's military officers by name? And he is a guy with a "criminal record" like Zhou.
Considering that ordinary agents might not be able to handle it, Shen Yu decided to come in person.
"Xiao Shi, don't look at me like that. I really don't know."
"Hmph!" Xia Xiaoshi waved her hand with an "I knew it" look, "Oh, people are coming to the door, and you still say you don't recognize them?"
"It's so unfair. I really have no impression."
Less than half an hour later.
There was a knock on the door. Zhou Changfeng, who had been wandering in the front yard for a long time, glanced at Xia Xiaoshi and then stepped forward to open the door.
Blue eyes, golden hair, tall stature...
In an instant, Zhou Changfeng's memory was dragged back to Talavera. In the headquarters of the 50th Brigade, he was one of the two captains who came by liaison plane to deliver the order.
"Is that you?" he asked tentatively: "In Talavera?"
(End of chapter)
