.On September 29, 1924, Germany, Mexico, Japan and the United States signed the Treaty of Atlanta at the negotiating table, which forced the Americans to custody half of the coastline and many important ports by the Allies and paid huge war reparations to Mexico. In addition, the Americans could only have an army of no more than 200,000 people, the size of the National Guard must be controlled below 300,000 people, and the Navy must not have more than 300,000 battleships, nor shall it build aircraft carriers and more than 1,600 tons of submarines.

The Americans completely lost that war, and the signing of the Treaty of Atlanta would seem to have left them on the defensive for the next half century, at least their arch-enemy, the Mexicans, expected it.

What is the truth?

March 1929, San Francisco.

This is the first city Chen Tian visited after arriving in the United States. The reason why it was San Francisco instead of Washington is actually very simple. It is the largest and most prosperous port city on the west coast of the United States, the most important shipbuilding center of the U.S. Navy and the first home port of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Moreover, looking at the United States from west to east today is also one of the important purposes of Chen Tian's trip.

Before the plane landed in San Francisco, Chentian specially asked the pilot to fly the pilot around the port area. Four years and five months ago, it was blown into ruins by the powerful Luftwaffe. Four years and five months ago, what was presented to Chentian was a brand new city. New high-rise buildings rose up, new streets were wide and straight and neat, new dock facilities were complete, and visitors were bustling with people. The vigorous vitality was fully visible here, as if the war brought not pain and sorrow to San Francisco, but an excellent opportunity for downs and reconstruction. Chentian could say without any subjective color: San Francisco was more beautiful and prosperous than before.

When the plane flew past the US Naval Base on the San Francisco port, Chen Tian took out his telescope and observed it carefully. The arrangement there was basically the same as when the German army withdrew a few months ago, but there were fewer warships anchored here. Germany's decision to withdraw troops from the United States seemed to be in exchange for the United States to participate in the war against Japan, but this was not the essence of the matter. The reason why Germany withdrew troops was to adjust its overseas strategic deployment according to the development of the international situation, and to see the inevitability of the recovery of the US economy, society and even military. Although in recent years, it has gained a lot of benefits from the Americans through economic plunder and capital aggression and controlled a considerable number of American companies, including oil, steel and even arms industries, the German government still cannot use conventional economic means to prevent this recovery.

Continuing to maintain the scale of the US garrison will inevitably conflict with the Americans in the foreseeable future. Instead of sitting on the verge of this conflict, it is better to temporarily withdraw military force in exchange for the balance of power in this area - the balance between the Americans and the Mexicans. In this way, Germany can not only improve its existing allocation in terms of military strength and military expenditure. It can also balance the Mexicans through the Americans, restrict the Americans through the Mexicans, but also make a fortune from the confrontation between the two sides in all aspects. Even if the Americans and the Mexicans fight, Germany only needs to come out to coordinate and mediate at the last moment. As long as the role and status of German capital in the US economy continue to maintain, Germany does not need to worry that the Americans will "bottom up."

After landing at a US military airport in the suburbs of San Francisco, Chen Tian and his party drove to the Washington Hotel in the downtown area. It was a city-state with a height of 350 meters and took nearly three years. It is also the tallest building in the United States (historically, the Empire State Building in New York was built in 1930). When it was completed, many Americans regarded it as a landmark of American social and economic recovery. However, they did not know that the building was nominally built by an American company. Its ownership of 173 was controlled by the Germans.

The luxurious suite where Chentian stays is located on the 80th floor of the building. Although it is not the highest point of the building, it is enough to overlook the entire city and the port when the weather is clear.

When the sun sets.

Looking at the still busy port, looking at the vehicles coming and going on the streets below and the many pedestrians rushing home, Chen Tian couldn't help but recall what he saw when he visited Manzanillo, the largest city on the west coast of Mexico, a week ago. As a victorious country in the war against the United States, Mexico received a huge war reparation of $3.2 billion. The debt of the U.S. government is still repaying it at a rate of $27 million per month. At the same time, the Mexican government can also get from the German government every year.

There are a lot of aid funds and materials, but now Manzanillo is far less than San Francisco's scale and momentum. The ships entering and leaving Manzanillo every day are no less than those entering and leaving San Francisco. However, no matter how you look at it, it looks like a dirty, messy, and poorly managed secondary commodity distribution center, or a super-large county town. There are mixed port areas, there are ox carts and cars parallel to the streets, and tall buildings are often surrounded by a large area of ​​dilapidated houses...

Despite changing the environment, Chen Tian still slept very peacefully on the first night of his arrival in San Francisco. Early the next morning, the group drove to the San Francisco Naval Base, which was just taken over by the US Pacific Fleet Command not long ago. Although the Americans were reluctant, they did not dare to refuse.

In this naval base that was severely damaged in the German-US war and was later renovated by the German garrison, the warships that Chen Tian saw on the plane were lined up one by one. These warships were anchored in several berths according to their ship type. Although most of their hulls were painted, they could not hide their shortcomings in tonnage and combat effectiveness at all. Among them, only three ships had displacements of more than 10,000 tons. There were also two new cruisers of 7,000 tons, and the rest were destroyers below 3,000 tons and offshore patrol ships of hundreds of tons. Moreover, a considerable number of ships were old and not only lagging behind in performance, but they could even stay in the harbor in bad weather.

The US sent to accompany him throughout the journey Major General Stockfora, the deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet, was a veteran who was twenty years older than Chen Tian, ​​who had participated in the US Great White Fleet's voyage around the world and had been retired for several years when the German-US war broke out. Like some other senior generals, Fora was also recalled to the army at the end of the war.

Chen Tian originally thought that such an old man was neither corrupt nor a bit rigid. He was not rigid in thinking and it was difficult to keep up with the world trend. However, after a few words, Chen Tian's idea changed greatly because the other party's thinking was quite agile and he answered some sensitive questions without missing a trace.

However, Chen Tian did not feel unhappy about this. On the contrary, having a good opponent would make the game more exciting, and today's game has just begun.

"The flagship 'Oklahoma'?" Chen Tian asked, pointing to the largest warship in the base.

"Yes, our Pacific Fleet flagship, the Oklahoma!" Although the warship looked quite powerful, there was no pride in his tone when Old Man Fola said this. The Oklahoma was of the Nevada class and was built and put into service in 1916. Its 13-year-old ship is not long or short. It is one of the three remaining battleships in the United States in the war. Its displacement is 27,500 tons, because it is lower than the Atlanta Treaty limit.

The tonnage was retained (the other two were the "Washington" and the "California" were dismantled without repair), and were severely damaged in the Cuban naval battle and raised a white flag to the German fleet. After eight and a half months of restoration, it was able to rejoin the US Navy combat sequence. Although its combat effectiveness was still good, its surrender (although it was a decision made by the commander, people still remembered its ship name more) made most Americans disgusted.

"'Pensacola'?" Chen Tian pointed to the warship next to the "Oklahoma", but deliberately said a name that made the Americans sad.

Although the old man Fula had no expression on his face, he felt a pain in his heart.

"No, it is the sister ship of the Saponkola!"

The "Salt Lake City" is the second Sapencla class heavy cruiser. It is also one of the few medium-sized warships in the U.S. Navy's warships have not been seriously damaged in the war. Its sister ship "Sapenclair" was completed between 1920 and 1921. When the war broke out, it was considered two new ships. The configuration of its 10 203mm main guns did not go down. However, the shortcomings of the US Navy's despise of defense also existed in them. Just the second week after the war broke out, the "Sa" who went to sea to perform patrol missions was "Sa" in the second week after the war broke out.

The Penlake was easily sunk by a torpedo launched by the German submarine U77. This incident not only made a new German naval ace, but also ruined the reputation of the Sapencla class. The Salt Lake City was a blessing in disguise and stayed in the Norfolk military port until the end of the war. Although it carried out major modifications to strengthen air defense firepower and armor defense after the war, and its displacement increased from 9,000 tons to 12,000 tons, the Americans obviously did not expect it to play any role in real guns and live ammunition.
Chapter completed!