Chapter 2243
After discussing several topics, they failed to reach a consensus, which also made Thomas slightly frustrated. Although he also expected that it would not be easy to convince Schneider, the differences between the two sides on these issues were so big that it was indeed a bit beyond the realm of possibility. Exceeded his expectations.
However, Thomas does not think that these differences of opinion will affect the relationship between the two countries. After all, the current cooperation between the two parties is in a state of mutual benefit. No one will take the initiative to destroy this state unless necessary. As long as common interests outweigh differences, the cooperative relations between the two countries will not deteriorate.
In order to restore the atmosphere of the meeting, Thomas decided to talk a few more topics on which both parties could reach consensus before ending the conversation.
"Mr. Schneider, I read the newspaper before I went out today. The contest for foreign military students your country is going to hold this time seems to be a little different from previous years."
Schneider nodded after hearing this: "The Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense attach great importance to this year's activities. We hope that through such a competition, we can demonstrate the effectiveness of our country's military assistance to our allies and let more countries understand the role and necessity of military alliances." Sex.”
"It seems that this year's competition will have many more guests than in previous years..." Thomas responded thoughtfully. If Heihan expands the scope of invited guests, it is unknown whether the Dutch will also be included in the invitees.
As if seeing through Thomas's thoughts, Schneider took the initiative and said: "Yes, this time we plan to invite some guests who have not participated in this event in the past, such as the representatives of the East India Company in Sanya... They should be very interested in participating in this event. Activities.”
"It seems that your country is planning to use this opportunity to show its force to the outside world." Although he did not completely agree with Haihan's approach, Thomas could still roughly understand why Haihan would make such an arrangement.
"It is to show the strength of the allies!" Schneider corrected slowly: "We want the outside world to realize that every member of this military alliance has a strength that cannot be ignored!"
"I will look forward to seeing the outstanding performance of military personnel from various countries at this event." Thomas responded with a smile.
Portugal has no arrangements to send military personnel to Haihan for training. On the contrary, after establishing military cooperation with Haihan, Portugal has sent soldiers to Sanya for a long time to assist Haihan in training musketeers. and artillery.
Although Haihan's military technology was far ahead of Portugal's, the Portuguese's help did play a certain role in the early days when weapons, equipment and training levels were relatively primitive.
Of course, such help is not provided free of charge. Haihan's military manufacturing capabilities can just make up for the Portuguese's inability to mass-produce standard weapons in East Asia. For the standard weapons that the Portuguese want to order, only Haihan has enough industrial capacity to take the order, and even has the spare capacity to produce larger quantities for the Portuguese to transport back to the country to supply their own military equipment.
Therefore, Portugal has always had a special status among Haihan's allies. Although it is impossible to gain Haihan's complete trust due to various reasons, the cooperation between Portugal and Haihan in certain military projects has reached a level that is difficult for other allies to achieve. extent. As for the understanding of Haihan's military strength, the Portuguese are undoubtedly the number one among Haihan's allies.
Haihan would not deliberately hide events like competitions between foreign military cadets from the Portuguese. Basically every time such an event was held, the Haihan military would take the initiative to send invitations to the Portuguese to observe. Of course, the situation this year is slightly different, because the scope of invitations will be expanded compared with previous years, so this year's invitation letters will probably no longer be handled exclusively by the military, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also be involved.
The official in charge of this matter at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is Tian Zheng from the Department of Foreign Affairs. Since this is a new job for the Department of Foreign Affairs, the list of invitees still needs to be discussed with the Ministry of National Defense. Tian Zheng had to take the initiative to visit the Ministry of National Defense in order to do something about it. Good communication work.
Tian Zheng has actually been working as an official in the government for a long time, but this is his first time working in the Ministry of National Defense. In order to avoid unnecessary complications, Tian Zheng also specifically asked Gai Liangcai, the army captain who accompanied the Prince of Korea on his island tour last year, to ask him to inquire about the specific departments and personnel responsible for the matter.
Gai Liangcai's participation in the island survey mission last year was inherently gold-plated. Although there were some twists and turns during the mission, fortunately, he dealt with it safely and finally successfully escorted Li Xie and his party to complete the survey trip. After the mission, Gai Liangcai was quickly arranged to go to the military academy for further training. After completing the two-month training, he received a transfer order and became a combat staff officer in the Ministry of National Defense, which was regarded as a successful promotion.
At that time, Tian Zheng, Gai Liangcai and others who were performing the mission together also formed a friendship because of this trip, and they often interacted with each other later. Therefore, when Tian Zheng approached Gai Liangcai for help, he did not hesitate. The ground agreed.
When Tian Zheng arrived at the Ministry of National Defense at the agreed time, Gai Liangcai was already waiting outside the gate in advance. When he saw him arriving, he greeted him: "Master Tian!"
"Sir Gai!" Tian Zheng bowed in return. In fact, the two of them are not that close, and they treat each other like brothers in private. However, there are people coming and going in the Ministry of National Defense, and if the two of them appear to be too close, they may cause gossip, so they all adopt a business-like attitude.
After a brief greeting, Gai Liangcai took Tian Zheng into the Ministry of National Defense. On the way, he lowered his voice and said to Tian Zheng: "I have already asked, and the person in charge of this matter is Major Lu Ting from the Political Propaganda Department. This person is eloquent and good at communication. Brother Tian Don’t worry about anything going wrong.”
Tian Zheng quickly thanked him in a low voice. In fact, there is nothing particularly tricky about his task. The list of invitees is mainly based on the opinions of the military. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is only responsible for checking for leaks and filling vacancies, and is responsible for contacting non-military invitees. Tian Zheng asked Gai Liangcai to help inquire about the information in advance, just for stability. Now that he heard that the other party was an easy person to deal with, he immediately felt more at ease.
Lu Ting joined the army much earlier than Gai Liangcai. When the Haihan Army was still in the Haihan Militia period, Lu Ting had already served as a clerk in the army. Later, because he had a certain cultural foundation, he was transferred to the political propaganda department. Although the promotion speed of civilian officials is not as fast as that of military attachés in combat units, Lu Ting joined the army early after all. He has worked his way up step by step with his qualifications over the years, and has now been promoted to major, which is one level higher than Gai Liangcai.
Lu Ting's job is more leisurely than that of most officials of the Ministry of National Defense. He does not need to spend too much time studying various training plans, exercise plans and combat cases. He only needs to handle the various propaganda tasks arranged above.
These propaganda tasks are not limited to within the military, but are equally important for civilians and external propaganda. In the early years, there were only a few civilian officers responsible for this area of affairs, and everyone had to write various promotional materials themselves.
However, now the army has also recruited many educated young people. Lu Ting even has two scholars under him who were admitted as scholars in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, most of the time, he does not need to write the pen himself. He only needs to arrange the work. Just review the manuscript. There may only be four or five matters that really require his hands-on handling in a month. The invitations to arrange the competition this time are one of the few four or five tasks.
In fact, Lu Ting was responsible for handling the invitation list and related invitation letters for this event in previous years, so this matter was familiar to him. However, we want to make some changes this year and increase the intensity of external publicity of this event, so we can no longer copy the plans from previous years. Moreover, this year’s invitations need to be discussed and drafted together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which means that more work must be done to complete this task.
However, Lu Ting is not in a hurry. As long as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not send a sharp head to coordinate this matter, then everyone can sit down and drink tea to complete the work, and the invitation letters can be sent to the invited people before the time limit. object in hand.
While Lu Ting was thinking about this, visitors arrived. They were Captain Gai Liangcai, a staff officer, and Tian Zheng, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It was not surprising that an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was introduced when he came to visit, but the person who introduced him was actually a captain's staff officer, which made Lu Ting a little surprised.
Gai Liangcai probably anticipated Lu Ting's confusion, so he took the initiative to explain to him where his friendship with Tian Zheng came from.
"After the Danzhou attack was solved last year, the relevant articles published in newspapers were all written by Major Lu Ting. At that time, thanks to the major's article, we publicized it, otherwise I might not have had the opportunity to be transferred to the Ministry of National Defense." Since he mentioned his original experience, Gai Liangcai did not forget to mention Lu Ting's related deeds to Tian Zheng.
"That's it! I also read the major's article at that time. He is indeed a pen of the Ministry of National Defense. He wrote about his experience in that mission so wonderfully!" Tian Zheng also cooperated with knowledge and interest and gave Lu Ting a top hat. .
"You two are really overrated!" Lu Ting was also very happy when he heard this. As a literati, it is indeed a special compliment to be remembered by others for his works.
At that time, the Ministry of National Defense published an article in the Haihan Times explaining the situation of the Danzhou attack. Of course, it was not the whole truth. The part where the Ministry of Security participated in the investigation was deliberately omitted to prevent the public from focusing on the mysterious agency. On the head.
Although Lu Ting did not personally participate in the investigation of the case, it was not too difficult to write a report based on the detailed reports provided by the intelligence agencies and operational personnel afterwards. But more than half a year later, he did not immediately remember that the name Tian Zheng had appeared in a propaganda article he wrote. It was not until Gai Liang took the initiative to mention the inspection that he remembered the two people in front of him. The man had been a partner in that operation.
In this way, the three of them have had the experience of dealing with each other from a distance, and their relationship has suddenly become much closer. Lu Ting ordered the orderly to make a pot of good tea and planned to talk about work slowly.
However, Gai Liangcai had something to do, so he didn't sit there for long. Since the purpose of the introduction had been achieved, he quickly stood up and left, leaving the two of them to discuss business.
After Gai Liangcai left, Tian Zheng took the initiative and said: "This is my first time coming into contact with this matter. There are still many things I don't know about. I heard that the majors have been organizing the activities in the past few years. Please give me some advice!"
"This activity is actually organized by the Training Department. I am only responsible for publicity matters. It is equivalent to helping the Training Department, but it is not as glamorous as Mr. Tian said." Lu Ting responded with a smile: "It's just a subordinate. There are also advantages, that is, it is not so tiring. We only need to draw up a list of invitees, write an invitation letter, and write a few articles to praise the event. By the way, after your Ministry of Foreign Affairs joins this year, it will probably receive work. I will do it more carefully, that is your task, Mr. Tian.”
Tian Zhengdao: "I came to visit the major today to ask for advice on drawing up the invitation list. I hope the major will give you some advice."
"If you don't take it seriously, let me briefly discuss this matter with Mr. Tian!" When Lu Ting said this, the orderly brought in tea, so he stopped talking and poured a cup of tea for Tian Zheng himself.
After Tian Zheng thanked him, he continued: "This competition has been held several times in the past years, but it has never been made public, so there are not many outsiders invited to the scene to observe. Master Tian can probably think of them." People.”
Lu Ting stopped talking again and looked at Tian Zheng. Tian Zheng knew that this was probably because the other party wanted to test his knowledge, so he responded thoughtfully: "The Xu family of Fujian must be one of the invitees, and the Zheng family of Annan should be indispensable... But the approximate date for this year's event has been It’s decided, will it be too late to send the invitation letter at this time?”
Lu Ting said: "There is no need to worry. The two families Mr. Tian mentioned are considered old friends of our country. There are people receiving military training provided by our country in Sanya all year round, so if we want to hold such an event, we will inform them in advance."
Tian Zheng said: "Looking at it this way, there should be a few more people who have been invited in advance."
Lu Ting nodded and said: "As long as there are personnel currently receiving military training in Sanya, we will invite them. For those who are far away, we will send a message in advance or invite their representatives to be stationed in Sanya. In short, we will not let our partners miss it. Such an important activity.”
Tian Zhengdao: "In this case, the scope of invitations will be expanded this year, which means we will also invite some forces that have not sent people to Sanya for training?"
"Your understanding is correct." Lu Ting affirmed: "The superiors hope to expand the international influence of this event, so we have to invite some people with a certain status. This is what we will do next. .”
(End of chapter)