In Limerick at the end of September, the summer heat gradually faded and autumn was full of autumn. On a terrace in the "Forest Palace", Xia Shu was wearing military casual clothes and sitting in the sun with a peaceful expression. In addition to the fragrant tea cups, there was a shiny rifle and two rows of yellow bullets on the wooden table in front of him.

Springfield M19o3 rifle, also known as the famous "Springfield Rifle", is a manual rear-pull rifle made by the Americans introduced the German Mauser 1898 technology. The Springfield rifle placed in front of Xia Shu is a 19o6 A3 model. It is said that more than 40,000 units have been produced so far. In addition to being equipped with the US ** team, it is also provided to the Commonwealth army. As early as the Battle of Yar, soldiers of the Allied Power had fully understood the advantages of this weapon in shooting accuracy. In the later battles of the Bahamas and Cuba and the Florida Den 6, the Allied Forces won a devastating victory with their superior naval and air strength and armored forces. The battle between small troops was also easy to suppress the US military with semi-automatic and automatic weapons, but they were still deeply affected by this manual rifle.

This time, the three Americans sitting opposite the Xia tree were wearing military uniforms seriously, leading the old acquaintance General Pratt, and the other two were officers of the 6th Army of the United States. After signing a military loan agreement with Ireland, General Pratt did not fight for the government, but instead visited the political brains of the alliance as the special representative of the United States to Europe, urging the allied camp to maintain a good-will neutral position in the US-Japan Pacific War. After more than half a month, he visited the King of Ireland again for official matters that needed to be secretly operated.

Half a cup of tea, Xia Shu reached out to pick up the rifle on the table, skillfully pulled the gun away, looked carefully at the sun, then loaded a row of bullets into the gun, repeatedly pulled the bolts, allowing the unstripped bullets to jump out of the chamber one by one, jumping and rolling on the wooden floor with a pleasant sound.

"Have you ever killed anyone on the battlefield?" Xia Shu suddenly asked.

This question obviously surprised the other party. Two US 6th Army officers looked at each other, and the older one replied cautiously: "In fact, the rifle we brought to you was only three or four months old. It was previously assigned to the 27th National Guard Division. This unit has never been on the battlefield, so this rifle has never been on the battlefield, let alone killed people on the battlefield. "

Xia Shu asked casually, and what the answer was was not important to him at all. Over the past three years, the Irish army has killed 140,000 people on various fronts and disabled 170,000 people. More than 50,000 people have recovered after being injured. Most of these casualties were given by the US military, and a considerable number of the casualties caused by the US military were caused by the Springfield rifle. In this way, Xia Shu should be disgusted with the rifle in his hand. However, on the battlefield, it is not weapons but people that kill people. It is the infinite greed of human nature that provokes disputes between national interests, which leads to war disasters, and ultimately leads to the life of killing.

Weapons can kill people or save people. Ireland certainly does not need these outdated manual rifles, but those countries that are invading Japanese invaders need them, those warriors who are using their flesh and blood to defend their country, and those who are facing the life and death of the nation!

Ireland's military products are mainly engaged in the international market, so the price of various weapons before and during the war in the international arms market is well known. A Springfield rifle with a thousand bullets is around US$455o. According to the conventional profit margin of exported arms, the manufacturing cost of m19o3a3 is about US$25. Of course, these used rifles cannot be calculated based on the price of new guns, and the Americans intend to use them to compensate for some war reparations, and their value should be lower than the cost price. If the price is deliberately reduced, it is not unreasonable to buy at a lower price.

Xia Shu did not test the rifle, nor would he test fire any weapon in his "Forest Palace". He put it on the table and slowly said: "For European countries, this war has ended. Everyone is busy reducing the size of the army. No one will purchase rifles at this time. So the only destination of one million rifles and one billion bullets is China. You also know that with the current situation of the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese government will not be able to pay for these rifles in a short period of time, and it is basically a free gift.?

?”

When the Armistice Treaty in Berlin was signed, the size of the US ** team reached its historical peak. The 6th Army alone had 470,000 active personnel and 590,000 National Guards. According to the terms of the armistice agreement between the two sides, the US side must reduce the active personnel of the 6th Army to 1.75 million by the end of 1935 and the National Guards to 850,000. After the US military struggled to win the victory of the Eastern Pacific Battle, large-scale layoffs of the 6th Army soldiers became possible. With the large reduction of troops, a large number of weapons and equipment were faced. After repeated negotiations, the Armistice Supervision Committee, which dominated by the Germans, agreed that the United States would seal two million rifles, 400,000 machine guns, 150,000 artillery and 4.5 million tons of ammunition and drug resources as national defense reserves. The remaining weapons and ammunition could be delivered to the Allies to repay some of the war reparations, or destroyed them under the supervision of the Armistice Supervision Committee.

It was against this background that Pratt and his party came to Limerick to sell one million second-hand springfield rifles to the Irish government. The Irish army, which ranks among the best in Europe at the equipment level, certainly did not need these manual rifles, but since the Japanese invasion of China in the 20s, Ireland has almost never interrupted military aid to the Chinese government. These million 700% of the new springfield rifles, plus one billion 7.62 mm caliber standard rifles, are a timely help for the Chinese team, which lacks weapons. For the Irish government, which has made great gains in this war, only writing off a small part of the war reparations, which not only gave the US government a favor and helped a friendly country a lot, is definitely not a loss-making deal.

Although Ireland did not enter the battlefield at the end of the war, the number of troops put into the battlefield was not as good as Austro-Hungary and Italy, it participated in the war much longer than other allied countries outside Germany. The military casualties and material consumption during the war were second only to Germany, so it directly obtained 59.7 billion from the total war reparation of 668.3 billion marks. After that, the military purchase funds were liquidated, and the German government transferred the 30.5 billion marks of war reparation to its own country to Ireland. In this way, the United States' war reparation due to Ireland reached 90.2 billion marks, which is equivalent to Ireland's GDP for more than three years!

"Since Japan invaded China, many countries have provided assistance to the Chinese government, including the United States. Our current situation should be very clear about our current situation. We really have no way to uphold justice when we are in crisis." Pratt expressed the US's difficulties with a difficult face.

Xia Shu picked up the teacup without hesitation.

The Americans didn't know how this double-winning champion thought, so they had to lower their heads and drink tea silently.

A moment later, Xia Shu asked, "But after buying these million rifles and one billion bullets, how can we transport them to the Chinese government forces?"

This is not something that Americans should worry about, but with the early meeting, Pratt is very clear about the real purpose of the transaction. He slowly said: "If your country is willing to bear the corresponding freight on the basis of the transaction price, we can find a way to send these firearms and ammunition to China, but we will not bear the losses caused during transportation."

"You already have a specific transportation plan?" Natsuki looked at Pratt.

Prat hesitated for a moment and answered truthfully: "We will come up with a solution."

Xia Shu shook his head. One million springfield rifles weigh 35oo tons, plus the wooden box packaging is 5oo tons, and one billion bullets weigh 25oo tons. Including the packaging is about 3oooo tons, a large ocean freighter can be loaded. It does not take much effort to transport it to China in peacetime. But the problem is that the Japanese army has now occupied all ports along China's coast. Whether it is carrying out the six-speed shipping transportation in the name of allies or neutral countries, the probability of such a large number of arms not being discovered is basically zero. If the ship is sunk during transportation, the ordnance on the ship will be wasted out of thin air at most. If it is intercepted by the Japanese army, it will become a weapon to deal with the Chinese team and massacre the Chinese people. This is Xia Shu's biggest concern at the moment.

"It seems that it's hard for you to help." Natsuki said in a low tone. "Then we can only accept a total price of 35oo dollars, and all the funds are written off from the war reparations that your country should pay our country."

Prat spread his hands and said with great regret: "But this is not a pure business transaction, but a mutually beneficial cooperation."

Xia Shu put down the teacup and said quickly: "If it is calculated based on the weapons and equipment actually transported to the Chinese team within a year, one million rifles and one billion bullets, I can accept the price of 7ooo million US dollars."

The two officers of the 6th Army of the United States were very surprised when they heard this, but Pratt's expression was very calm. As a senior general of the US Navy, he served as the principal of the Naval War Academy, commander-in-chief of the fleet, and the Secretary of the Military Order. With his experience and vision, he naturally knew the difficulties of transporting bulk military supplies to the enemy blockade areas. Apart from the extremely risky sea transportation, there are two feasible paths, one is to enter northwest China through the Soviet Union, and the other is to enter western China through the turbulent West Asia. These two paths have a considerable mileage without railways and modern highways, which has caused a high transportation cost and low efficiency. It is not surprising that the transportation cost is equivalent to or even the price of goods.

After a moment of silence, Prat asked back, "Maybe with His Majesty's intelligence and intelligence, he has already thought of a solution to the problem?"

Natsuki said vaguely: "If I were a god, these problems would not be difficult for me at all, but unfortunately I was not. So, there is no better way to solve this difficult problem except for political and diplomatic strategies."

Prat looked at Xia Shu with confusion. Now both the Soviet Union and the Ottomans have territory to border with China. It may be a bit troublesome to borrow from the Soviet Union, but there should be no problem for Ireland from the Ottoman border. If you choose sea routes, even if the cargo ship is under the banner of the Germans, it is impossible for the Japanese to let the Japanese pass without checking. What a mysterious method is the so-called political and diplomatic strategy of this double crown?

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