Although he won the exercise, Chentian was very dissatisfied with the process of the exercise. It relied on very advanced weapons to get a tragic victory. Many problems were exposed in it, the problems of the East Prussian Army itself.
The commander of the First Army who was defeated in the exercise, General Prit Sustain, is 63 years old and is the emperor's favorite. His fame is to win the favor of the Kaiser with funny and obscene stories at the dining table. He has a big belly and is known as "fat". He has no interest in using his brain or doing military affairs. Chentian has been trying to get rid of him for many years, but the emperor always speaks for him, and in the end, he had to give up. During the exercise, this guy started to retreat after a fierce shelling from the opponent. The unknown soldiers then retreated, and the opponent broke the army with little effort.
The Second Army of the East Prussian Army is currently under the command of General Augustus von Makeyan. Chen Tian still appreciates this veteran who participated in the 1870 War. In fact, he is indeed the most capable German army. One of the commanders. The third and fourth reserve armies are respectively commanded by General Francois and Ollie. They usually serve as deputy commanders of the first and second armies.
In view of the fact that Pritt maintained that the general was "fighting bravely and tenaciously" in the exercise, Chentian promoted him to the deputy commander of the East Prussian Army and asked him to stay in the headquarters and tell his jokes. Because of Ollie's junior qualifications, Chentian appointed General Francois to be the commander of the First Army, and Matthew, the Chief of Staff of the Armored Army, to the Deputy Commander of the First Army and Commander of the Fourth Army in the Reserve.
General Francois, like most of the soldiers of the First Army, was a native of East Prussia. He was very brave in combat and was very much loved by his subordinates.
"General Francois, please sit down!"
In front of Chentian, the Prussian general was not tall, but his face was very fierce. Almost all the people on earth think that the Germans are the most obedient to orders, but this generally is not. His unruly character makes him always oppose orders that are inconsistent with his opinions. When he is deputy commander, he often contradicts the generals. Ritter maintained. During the exercise, he also strongly opposed the retreat of the First Army, but Pritt remained weak and incompetent. In the end, he was unable to turn the tide.
"His Royal Highness, it is an honor to meet you!" Francois saluted a standard military salute and then sat down on the chair in front of Chentian.
"General François, I will give you the most precious first army of the East Prussian Army! I hope this army can exert the greatest combat effectiveness under your hands!"
"It is incumbent!" Francois stood up with a serious face, without joy or gratitude.
"Sit down, please! I invite you to come today just for a casual chat, and no one else will know the conversation between us!" Chen Tian motioned to him to sit down and talk.
"I want to know what do you think of your predecessor?"
François was a little surprised, but he gave his answer without thinking:
"His Royal Highness, I'm sorry! I don't like to make comments on others, but I think that the maintenance of General Prit will be more suitable for political or diplomatic work!"
Fortunately, it seems that he is not a particularly reckless guy. Chen Tian discovered that he didn't know much about the officers of the East Prussian Army, except for his classmates and friends.
"You are an East Prussian, right! If the powerful Russians invade East Prussia and I order you to retreat with the First Army, will you obey my order?"
A look of surprise and disdain appeared on François's face.
"No, never! I will never give up my homeland until I die in battle. I believe my soldiers are the same!"
Hearing his answer, Chen Tian showed a worried look, it seemed that he had to brainwash this guy well.
"If you resist desperately and don't let the enemy move forward, the end result will be the annihilation of the entire army; if you temporarily retreat, lure the enemy deep, and wait for reinforcements to outflank the enemy's back, you can wipe out the enemy in one fell swoop. In that case, you choose to withdraw or not. "After healed Tirpitz's melancholy towards a powerful enemy, and now he has to heal the straight brain of this great man, Chen Tian feels that he has come to this world to be a psychiatrist, and he doesn't charge any fees.
"This..." Francois began to fall into contemplation, the scene was the same as the last time he talked with Tirpitz.
"If you order one of your regiment leaders to attack the enemy's high ground, but this regiment commander does not obey your orders but goes around to attack the enemy's back according to his own ideas, what will happen to you?"
"How can this be? I will definitely shoot this regimental commander, but I didn't obey orders on the battlefield!" Francois began to get into Chentian's trap.
"Then going back to the original question, if I order you to retreat and temporarily cede East Prussia to the Russians, will you obey the order?" If people think about things in another position, Chentian doesn't need to play a god or a psychologist here. The role of helping these innocent guys solve problems.
"His Royal Highness..." François seemed to be confused at this time.
"Go back and think about it! Tell me if you figure it out!" Chen Tian felt that if this guy couldn't get out of this circle, Ollie or Matthew would have to take his place in the future.
"Yes, Your Highness!" François stood up and saluted blankly. When he was about to leave the office, he turned and walked back.
"I figured it out?" Seeing his face full of joy, Chen Tian knew that this guy had finally gotten around, then he would become a sharp sword in his hand.
"His Royal Highness! I see! Going forward is a warrior, but I don't know if I turn a corner, I will become a fool!" Francois smiled honestly.
After that, Chentian often invited Francois, Mackenyan, Ollie, Olger, and Matthew to dinner. At dinner, they discussed the coordination of aircraft, artillery, armored units, and infantry, how to boost the morale of soldiers, discussed tactical issues in a certain battle, listened to Oli talk about his experience in Turkey, or talked about their own experiences or anecdotes. These issues that everyone is not disgusted with make them familiar and trust each other.
At this time, the East Prussian Regiment has established a direct air force of the regiment, with a total of more than 300 aircraft, including 15 new monoplane reconnaissance aircraft "Homing Pigeon", 32 new monoplane fighter "Hummingbirds", and biplane reconnaissance aircraft "Sky III" 37 There are 55 biplane attack aircraft "Sky X", 42 new biplane bombers "Ostrich I", 71 old biplane bombers "Sky IV", 43 "Sky I" and "Sky II" trainers, and water biplanes. 21 reconnaissance/attack aircraft "Flying Fish III".
After more than a year of research, the engineers in the aircraft factory finally developed a synchronous coordinator for machine gun shooting and propeller rotation, that is, using a cam system to connect the shaft of the propeller and the launching device of the machine gun, so as to ensure that only the muzzle and the propeller blades When it was not in a straight line, the bullet came out from the muzzle. After completely solving the problem of bullets passing through the rotating surface of the propeller without hitting the blades, the combat effectiveness of the aircraft has been greatly improved. The small and flexible "Hummingbird" has only one pilot, and two machine guns are installed on the front of the fighter, which can shoot air and ground. All "Sky IV" and "Sky X" aircraft are also equipped with 1-2 machine guns on the front of the aircraft based on this technology. One machine gun in the back seat is retained. The co-pilot is responsible for ground observation and bombing. "Ostrich I" has a special magazine and simple sight. There is no machine gun installed on the front, but a rotatable twin machine gun is installed in the co-pilot position. "Flying Fish III" is specially used for coastal and lake patrols. Its aircraft results are basically the same as "Sky III". The weapon is a machine gun located in the position of the co-pilot.
In addition, the aircraft factory is testing the first heavy bomber "Owl" that can be used for night bombing. The prototype of this bomber comes from the British Handley-Petti bomber in Chentian's memory. The "Owl" uses a traditional wooden structure with a fabric skin. Its main wings with dihedral angles can be folded back. The fuselage is rectangular in cross-section. Each set of main landing gear includes two wheels, and the tail is mounted There are skid-type landing gear. The aircraft uses a 300-horsepower Sunshine engine, which is installed in an armored engine nacelle. The crew members are located in the open cockpit, the pilot and the navigator/mechanic sit side by side, the shooter/dropper is located in the nose, and the aircraft is equipped with a new radiator for the water-cooled engine. The aircraft has a wingspan of 35 meters, a length of 23 meters, a fuselage weight of 2.5 tons, and a maximum take-off weight of 6.5 tons.
Chentian's East Prussian Regiment has spread the transmitter to the infantry regiment, and established the Legion Aviation Support Office, which is responsible for handling air support requests from various troops, and then relaying these requests to the General Staff, which will decide whether to send aviation The team provides support.
Take a deep breath, Chentian's war preparations are ready, waiting...