. "Ha? 250 stone dd, of which 100 are A, 50 are b, c, and d! I'm not wrong!"

At the sun-filled desk, a middle-aged soldier in a gray military uniform and red gold-printed collar shouted out in a daze. He was holding a document paper full of the list in his hand.

A much younger captain officer standing in front of him told his boss a little embarrassedly:

"General, I have verified the weapons and quantity in it with the Army General Staff and Jiji Arms Company, and I have not made any mistakes! All of these weapons on the list will be sent to Türkiye within the month!"

"Oh, my God, I can't believe my eyes!" The middle-aged soldier sighed, then sat back on his chair.

His name is William Grener. He is 49 years old. He is a major general of the German Army and former director of the Transportation Department of the German General Staff. During the war, he was responsible for the transportation of troops and baggage. After the war, he turned to be responsible for the military production in Germany. The biggest difference between this general and other German soldiers is probably that he has to deal with merchants every day.

Two weeks ago, Grenarong transferred the Foreign Weapons Management Department under the Supreme Command of Germany and served as minister. The so-called Foreign Weapons Management Department is actually a department established to coordinate, supervise and inspect the export of weapons by various German arms companies. The purpose of establishing this department is very simple and clear, which is to allow the German military industry to export weapons that can be exported as much as possible, and never export any weapon that should not be exported, so that the German military industry is vibrant while ensuring that Germany's national security is not threatened by exporting its own weapons.

Before this, the German military management department was only responsible for allocating the resources and production of arms companies under the wartime mechanism to meet Germany's war needs. However, in terms of exports, arms companies usually look for buyers themselves and report to the government and customs only before exporting weapons. Under this normal model, foreign governments can import many types of weapons from Germany, such as Krupp's cannons, which can be seen in many countries on four continents. Moreover, there are many varieties and models, and some are even not equipped by the German army.

After the victory of the war, Chen Tian and the German government were large areas of colonies. These colonies seized from Britain and France would bring rich resources and overseas benefits to the entire German team, but it would have a certain adverse impact on the local industry. Just like the situation in Britain and France before the war, people shifted most of their attention from local industry to obtaining wealth from the colonies. So much so that the industrial output of Britain and France was only barely comparable to that of Germany.

The brutal war created great victories and destroyed the homes of losers. In 1916, after the war, Europe's total industrial production accounted for only 25% of the world's industrial production. In two years, the United States' industrial production continued to rise, and at this time it had accounted for more than 40% of the global industrial production. This phenomenon forced the German rulers to face their own disadvantages.

European integration, or just economic integration, is just a very distant idea for Chen Tian. The most important thing at present is how to narrow the economic and industrial gap between Germany and the United States.

In this context, Chen Tian and other local governments began to support local industries in policies. Encouragement measures for civil industry include rewards, tax reductions and government propaganda. In the arms industry, the German government launched a "world arms dealer" path with very American characteristics.

In this case, German Emperor William III ordered the establishment of an external weapons management department under the Supreme German Command in late 1915, with the first minister being Lieutenant General Rudendolf, the First Military Chief of the Army.

General Grena took office and unexpectedly encountered such an important big deal.

Fortunately, with the efforts of the former minister, this department is now operating normally. Many of the departments are weapons experts, while others are weapon inspectors drawn from the army, including law enforcement personnel and working clerks. The entire department has nearly 3,000 personnel under its jurisdiction, and offices have been set up in major German ports.

The responsibilities of this foreign weapons management department. First, it is to conduct a strict assessment of the weapons exported by German arms companies at present, and put some of the weapons that are highly technical and may threaten the German army in the forbidden future on the list of prohibited sales. After that, each arms company launches a new product, it needs to report to this department; secondly, the German government's diplomatic orders can be based on the other party's requirements, either directly negotiated by the arms dealer, or the foreign weapons management department is fully responsible. In this way, while expanding arms exports, it can strengthen the country's control over the arms industry, and prevent the leakage of confidential technologies. It can also play a role in supporting some small and medium-sized arms industries.

In fact, this time, the bulk arms materials purchased by Turkey from Germany were implemented in the latter model. The orders were first accepted by the Foreign Weapons Management Department, and then the production tasks were assigned to various domestic arms companies, and finally all the finished products were loaded or shipped together. Of course, it was carried out when Ludendolf was also the minister of this department, so Greener seemed so surprised.

The major general who had worked in the Army Logistics and Transport Department for many years was surprised not only the number of exported weapons. As far as he knew, the tanks exported by Germany were only "Stone D" type, and only exported to allied countries. This should be the first time Germany exported the "Stone DD" series of tanks abroad, so Grena seemed so nervous at the beginning.

In addition to 250 tanks, this list clearly lists 100,000 Maxime rifles, 800 Maxim heavy machine guns, 40 240mm caliber fortress guns, 100 152mm howitzers, 200 105mm howitzers, 2 million bullets, and 100,000 shells.

"It's worth hundreds of millions of marks!" Grena couldn't help but sigh that he had never found the Turks so rich before. In fact, what the Turks paid was not funds, but labor. In exchange for the remuneration of this batch of arms, Turkey's 100,000 expeditionary force would enter Pakistan and India with the German expeditionary force. In addition to Canada, India has become the second largest stronghold of the British government in exile. It is said that the Indian army trained has reached one million people. Although the morale and equipment are not optimistic, the number of people alone is surprising enough.

Obviously, this is a batch of supportive strategic materials, that is, weapons that the German government supports to the Turkish government for strategic considerations. According to the agreement between Germany and Turkey, Germany will also send a group of special fortress engineers to Turkey to help them build coastal defense fortresses in the Dardanelles Strait and build border fortresses in the northwest border with Russia.

As for these situations involving national politics, Grena was not clear, and his assistant would not know. The young captain said:

"General, the person in charge of Jiji's arms company said that this batch of goods will be loaded in the Port of Cornisburg next week. I hope we will send someone to check it out sooner! If you don't have any other instructions, I will make arrangements now!"

Grena waved his hand and signaled the captain to arrange it as soon as possible. After such a large order, he would not be idle for the time being. Because there was another "business" that was even more troublesome, because what was coming to him was not a list of weapons, but a group of old men who were difficult to serve.

The test display of the last several weapons continues on the weapons test ground outside Berlin.

After Mauser removed their semi-automatic rifles, it was Krupp, Gigi's Arms and Bergman Arsenal to showcase their "single-soldier light machine guns".

From the appearance alone, the new guns of these three companies are very different - Krupp's mg1916 is actually an improved and reduced size of the American Lewis light machine gun. The barrel is thick and long, with a foot from the buttstock to the muzzle, and a two-legged bracket at the front. The rear is made of a wooden buttstock. The round small bullet disk is located above the gun; Bergman's mp1916 is much shorter than that. It is only 0.8 meters long, and there are many small holes for flame removal on the thick and short barrel. The strange snail-shaped magazine is located on the left side of the gun; the Gigi's mp16 is the shortest of the three weapons, and the total length is less than 0.7 meters. What is surprising is that it not only does not have a stock, but the barrel is also thin and short. The ammunition supply system uses a long straight magazine located at the bottom of the gun.

Those who are used to seeing ordinary heavy machine guns and light machine guns are all alternatives, especially the latter two, which are enough to subvert people's habitual views on machine guns in terms of appearance.

After the gunshot, the testers of the three weapons fired 24 rounds, 32 rounds and 32 rounds in just a few seconds. The crisp and dense giggle of the machine gun fired. The audience suddenly burst into warm applause.

Looking at the target 50 meters away from the shooting point, there were irregular bullet holes like honeycombs on it, and the area of ​​spreading these bullet holes is quite large.

After spending the same time changing the magazine, the testers then performed a slow-firing display. Intermittent gurgling sounds came one after another, and it didn't end until more than 10 seconds later. At this time, looking at the target 50 meters away, the bullet holes on it were obviously concentrated.

The whole stands once again heard warm applause.

However, Chen Tian was not happy with these applauses, because most of the people present were either arms dealers doing artillery business or officers in the army were responsible for purchasing artillery. Now they were showing guns that were not closely related to them, and of course they could give applause without reservation.

A truly outstanding weapon will inevitably be recognized and praised by peers and competitors.

Then, Chen Tian asked the semi-automatic/automatic gun master beside him for advice. Browning thought for a while, and then told Chen Tian that he thought these three weapons were very good. Although their shooting accuracy was not high, the high speed in shooting could greatly improve melee firepower. Cooperating with rifles and machine guns should produce good results.

"What about compared to the semi-automatic rifle you designed?" Chen Tian asked further.

"Those are two very different concepts!" Browning mentioned the products he designed confidently. "I just discovered that the following three guns use pistol bullets, and the range should not exceed 300 meters. My semi-automatic rifle is used to make up for the hollow area between the rifle and the machine gun fire, that is, to strengthen the firepower intensity at a distance of 300 meters to 800 meters!"

Chen Tian just said "Indeed", and he was actually full of expectations. Although the firepower of rifles, submachine guns and machine guns is good, as Browning said, lacking the medium-distance fire density is a fatal injury to another world's powerful Third Reich Army.

After a while, Chen Tian's attendant came over again and whispered. The technical officials and generals were unanimously optimistic about the 9-mm stockless straight magazine "single-soldier light machine gun" of Jiji's arms, and hoped to put this weapon into the army as soon as possible.

"They still have some vision!" Perhaps because of the disappointing choices of technical experts and generals in field artillery, Chen Tian is still a little angry now. The so-called great man and mortal man is whether their views on certain matters are forward-looking. You should know that this "single-soldier light machine gun" of Jiji's arms took Chen Tian a lot of effort. At the beginning, he could only describe his impression of mp38/40 to the gun designers, and then selected five more ideal types from dozens of design plans for sample gun trial production. This process of continuous failure and improvement lasted from the winter of 1914 to the spring of 1916. Even now, the mp16 tested by Jiji's arms cannot completely satisfy Chen Tian, ​​especially when tested under harsh conditions, the reliability of this weapon needs to be improved.

In any case, it is better than not. Chen Tian has already instructed Jiji Arms to produce 1,000 such individual weapons within a month so that the German army can test their actual combat performance in the upcoming second battle against France. After it is finalized and put into mass production, they will be fascinated by the name of submachine guns.

After the new weapon test exhibition, Chen Tian gathered the leaders of the Army Logistics Equipment Department, and the elderly people with the title of Royal Technical Expert were also present. At the beginning of the meeting, Chen Tian did not directly talk about the alternative new 75mm field guns, but asked the age of the people present.

As a result, the youngest of these people was 52 years old and the oldest was 71 years old. On average, they were over 60 years old. Almost twice that of Chen Tian. Although they were not completely useless old antiques, the traditional ideas were already deeply rooted in their minds, taking artillery as an example. They were increasingly inclined toward two extremes: power and rate of fire. Since the 420mm siege cannon won a brilliant victory in Gibraltar, many artillery experts have been exploring the possibility of developing artillery with larger caliber and longer ranges. On the other hand, some generals lost the French 75mm rapid-fire gun in the last war. They hoped that their troops' rapid-fire guns could obtain an astonishing rate of fire of no less than the French m1897 guns, which was 20-30 rounds per minute, but ignored the various shortcomings of this French gun.

It is only a matter of one word for Chen Tian to send these elderly people home to retire. However, after all, they are a group of people who are loyal to the emperor and patriotic, contributed their lives to the development of the German army and made outstanding contributions in various periods. Look at their weather-beaten faces, and look at the symbolic medals on their chests. Look at the defects of those who are injured and disabled due to weapon tests, and depriving them of their power to continue serving the country will not only make them unacceptable, but will also make the world feel heartbroken.

However, their land has indeed posed a certain obstacle to technological development. In the long run, they will become sinners of the country, nation and even history.

Therefore, Chen Tian appointed a very important task to General Grena, the new minister of the Foreign Weapons Management Department, which is to hire outdated but famous and status experts here with double treatment. As for the generals responsible for the procurement of army equipment, Chen Tian also knew that they had gained a lot of money over the years. It was just that due to their family background and backers, he did not kick them out of the Army Logistics Equipment Department directly, but instead promoted the backbone of them to the Supreme Command and then placed the people he trusted in his original position.

Of course, this will be a gradual process and may encounter a lot of resistance, but for the future of the German Army, Chen Tian must do so.

"Next, I want to talk about the 10,000 mm field guns we just carried out. I think everyone can see it very clearly and have also selected the best guns in their minds. Now there are still two months before the official bid for this field gun, and there will be better products later. But what I want to tell you is that in the future battlefield, the scenes of infantry charging in the wilderness will probably not be common. Without planes, tanks and heavy artillery cover are also rare. The view of using high-fire field guns to kill and kill the opponent's infantry in large quantities, in my personal opinion, I can no longer keep up with the times!"

As soon as Chen Tian said this, everyone suddenly came from the shock of returning to reality from their imagination.

"I hope everyone thinks about what I say!"

After Chen Tian said that, he left. No matter how hard the old men wearing monocle glasses could understand, they didn't have much time left in the Army Logistics Equipment Department.

In April and May 1916, the German Army Department successively determined the replacement plan for various standard weapons. Among them, the siege guns were made of KS16 240mm heavy mortars from the Skoda Arsenal, and the number of purchases was 50. It is expected that all of them would be delivered to the troops before 1918, and it is mainly equipped with artillery groups of the army group; the large-caliber howitzers used Krupp's HK16 105mm howitzers were purchased, and the number of purchases was 600. The unit was expected to be equipped before 1920, and the number of installations was mainly equipped with artillery groups and independent artillery groups at the division level and above; the small-caliber infantry support guns used the FG16 75mm rapid-fire gun of Gigi's arms, and the number of purchases was 900.

The equipment division belongs to the artillery unit. At the same time, the Army Department will also purchase 500 Vehicle-mounted Rapid-air cannons with Arhat, provided that Erhat improves their Fa16 type. The improved Vehicle-mounted Rapid-air cannons must have air defense capabilities, change the caliber to 75mm that is consistent with the FG16 type, and add a certain amount of armor protection; in terms of semi-automatic rifles, the Army Department temporarily only orders 1,000 M1916 from Mauser Company for trial use; the "single-soldier light machine gun" means that the submachine gun uses Gigi's MP16 9mm submachine gun, and purchases 20,000 units. It is expected that all of them will be delivered to the German Army for use in 1917. In the early days, each infantry squad will be equipped with one or two units.
Chapter completed!