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Text Chapter 777 The Beloved of the Empire (5)

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    Voroshilov's march south moved the needle of world war forward one notch.  Ice and Fire! Chinese At the same time, the war in Southeast Asia is still fierce.  Siam and Indonesia successively defected to Japan, allowing Britain to hear the footsteps of the end of the colonial era in Asia.  In order to save face, Downing Street and Whitehall began to recruit troops from India, Canada, Australia and other places to Burma and Bangladesh, trying to drag the Japanese army into the quagmire of the tropical rain forest.  At the same time, the British House of Commons also passed emergency military expenditures of up to 1.5 billion pounds (approximately 7.1 billion U.S. dollars), which also means that the United Kingdom has become the sixth country to officially prepare for war after Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan, and China.

    After learning of London¡¯s decision, France also quickly passed a military budget of 30 billion francs (approximately US$6 billion).  While the two old empires in Europe sounded the clarion call to prepare for war, the Chinese government, whose total national industrial and agricultural output officially exceeded the 400 billion yuan (approximately US$200 billion) mark in 1938, also quickly passed a single special military budget of 43 billion yuan.  On the day it was passed by Congress, President and Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed Forces Yang Qiu also signed the top-secret "Military Production Plan" with Senate Speaker Chen Guofu, House Speaker Hu Weide, Prime Minister Wang Zhengting, Independent Chief of Staff Huang Yuansheng and others in the presidential palace.  Book".  According to the plan, the army, navy and air force of the Republic of China will order 300,000 aircraft of various types, 12 aircraft carriers, 4 heavy cruisers, 22 light cruisers, 220 destroyers/frigates, 160 submarines, 10 million tons of other ships, 35,000  tanks of various types, 350,000 armored vehicles, 25 million firearms of various types, 200,000 artillery pieces of various types, 8 million tons of ammunition of various types, 350,000 radio stations, 2 million trucks, 550,000 jeeps, 650,000 vehicles  Motorcycles, as well as large orders for military supplies such as morphine, tobacco, grain, cans, cotton yarn and medicines.

    According to this plan, from the effective date, all domestic enterprises will officially enter the war-ready economic system in accordance with the list listed in this agreement. Before the quantity reaches the required level and the country does not require suspension, any factory will stop/slow down without reason.  The military has the authority to take over and continue production until the end of the war or until the inventory is completed.

    Similarly, the news of preparations for a major war in Eurasia has also made the United States outside Eurasia uneasy, and has quietly increased military expenditures from US$1.2 billion last year to US$3.5 billion.

    When preparations for a global military war begin, Japan, which is limited in local resources and lacks economic and manufacturing capabilities, is extremely anxious.  Although Kuroshima Kameto's westward expansion plan failed to pass, it made Japan's top brass aware of the crisis of insufficient shipping, and even made them worry about the speed at which Southeast Asian spoils of war could be returned home.  Especially after learning that Britain would sell and lease a full 2 ??million tons of ships to Beijing, I became furious.  However, its shipbuilding capacity is only 600,000 tons per year.  Moreover, most of the shipbuilding tonnage was occupied by the navy, and only 1.3 million tons were seized during this trip south. Therefore, Japanese senior officials realized that reducing shipping distance became the only effective and quick way to solve the shortage of shipping capacity.

    Japan¡¯s top leaders began to gradually turn their attention to Guam, the Philippines and Taiwan, hoping to completely conquer Southeast Asia as soon as possible and prepare for a larger and more brutal war later.  The Battle of Singapore officially begins.

    After Yamashita swept across the Malay Peninsula, he announced that he would attack Siam and Burma. However, after forcing Siam to surrender with a false shot, he led the 5th Division, the 18th Division and the Guards Division to quickly turn around and attack southward, which had become an isolated island.  of Singapore Fortress.  Since the Singapore fortress was strong and the front was almost impenetrable, the Japanese army placed their main attack point in the Strait of Johor.

    After receiving Yang Qiu's reminder and Chinese tanks and heavy artillery, Percival blew up the more than 1,000-meter-long strait dam connecting Johor Bahru to Singapore on April 21, and deployed simultaneously along the Singapore side of the strait in the direction of Pulau Ubin and Nga Seng.  Three 210mm heavy artillery batteries and a large number of 105mm howitzers provided by China.  Dozens of Maxim heavy machine guns were also deployed in areas where Japan might land.

    In the early morning of April 22, the Japanese army launched a general offensive, with the 3rd and 18th Field Heavy Artillery Regiments, the 2nd Independent Heavy Artillery Battalion, and the 18th Division as the main forces, cooperating with bombers from Palembang to launch a fierce attack.  The fierce artillery fire once caused the Anglo-Dutch coalition to collapse.  But when the Japanese army tried to swim across the strait, artillery units urgently mobilized from the harbor fortress launched a fierce counterattack using the 210mm long-range heavy artillery provided by China. At the same time, the British Air Force once again defeated the Japanese Air Force and launched a counterattack against the Japanese headquarters in Skudai in the afternoon.  bombing.

    The Anglo-Dutch forces, which had no retreat, were initially demoralized.  However, morale gradually recovered after defeating several Japanese attacks.  However, the Japanese army was stunned by the sudden appearance of a large number of artillery fire and machine guns. They did not expect that the British army, which was reduced to a lost dog, still had so many long-range artillery.  Caught off guard, the attack in the first two days alone resulted in thousands of casualties.

    On the 24th, the Japanese army changed their tactics of concentrated attack and tried to land separately. However, when crossing the strait, they were once again attacked by British artillery fire.  The 18th Division, which was responsible for attacking Highland 255 on the east side of Tima Fang, was attacked by dozens of heavy machine guns and more than thirty artillery pieces. Just when they gritted their teeth against the dense artillery shells and saw that they were about to take over the high ground, the side of the highland  But suddenly rushed out more than a dozen cars that had been painted?The Type 26 tank with the British Army logo.  Lacking anti-tank weapons and unprepared, the 18th Division's landing troops encountered a massacre. After the war, more than 800 Japanese infantrymen were killed and more than 1,000 were injured.

    Because the Japanese army lacked heavy weapons, most of them were equipped with 75mm field guns, and tanks could not directly cross the strait, so the war situation remained in a stalemate from the 24th to early May.  This made the Japanese army, which swept across Malaya and encountered little resistance, nervous.  Especially the appearance of the Type 26 tank made Japan nervous.  You must know that the British army did not have a single tank in Southeast Asia before, because the British believed that tanks could not be used in the tropical rainforest, so Morishima immediately asked Beijing and got the answer: "It will not change its neutral position. The tank was sold to the British before Japan declared war."  "Answer.

    This reply made the Japanese military leaders furious, but there was nothing they could do.  Yamashita Fengwen was even more angry and ordered to continue the attack.

    Under his order, the Japanese bombers and fighter jets taking off from Palembang placed their main attack targets on the water source in the south of the island. In order to capture Singapore as soon as possible, the Japanese even dropped a large number of poison gas bombs and bacterial bombs on the water source.  By May 7, under the relentless attack of the Japanese army, Percival and more than 70,000 allied troops gradually became exhausted. A large number of Indian soldiers deserted and the water sources were polluted, which plunged the British army and the city of Singapore into turmoil.  Confused.

    ?¡­

    Changi Airport is full of deep craters left by bombs.  On the runway, five KC5 passenger planes with eye-catching red crosses painted on their fuselages were undergoing takeoff inspections.  The cabin was crowded with Chinese people waiting to leave. Many people were still complaining about the delay in taking off, but more eyes were following the pilots who were checking eagerly, wishing they could catch them immediately and get on the plane to leave.

    With the start of the Battle of Singapore, the Nanyang evacuation operation had to come to an end. After consultation with the Japanese government, the Japanese army agreed to ban the attack this morning and allow the last batch of planes to pick up people and leave.  Despite all efforts, more than 600 ships of various types and more than 200 aircraft participated in the evacuation.  It also caused a situation where shipping in the area south of Shanghai was almost interrupted.  But in the face of millions of compatriots in Malaya, Siam and Singapore, we can only evacuate major Chinese-funded institutions, banks, important enterprises, Chinese businessmen, students, women and children, totaling more than one million, and more  The Chinese had to stay there and face the war.

    "Why haven't you taken off yet?"

    "Yes, fly quickly. If it's too late, the Japanese shells will come again."

    "Wait a moment. There are still people who haven't arrived yet."

    "Who is it? How long has this happened? It's still staged!"

    When anxious passengers urged to take off, three belated black cars parked next to the plane.  When the passengers saw the person coming down clearly, they all shouted: "Look, it's Mr. Tan Kah Kee."

    "Yes, it turns out it's Boss Chen. We should wait."

    "Why didn't he leave? Didn't someone say that their whole family went to Beijing?"

    ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????:  Tan Kah Kee, who is well-known in the Chinese community in Singapore and Malaya, and Lim Bo Seng, a thirty-year-old bespectacled man, walked to the plane together.  Since the two were very well-known in the local Chinese circles and were local Chinese leaders, the navy lieutenant commander in charge of evacuation liaison immediately greeted them: "Mr. Chen, please board the plane as soon as possible." "Okay." Tan Kah Kee thanked them.  He looked back at the scene around him, pulled Lin Mousheng up and smiled bitterly: "I don't know when I will come back after leaving. I have worked hard for generations, and I am really reluctant to part with it."

    Lin Mousheng smiled and said: "Don't worry, Mr. Jiageng. Maybe he will be back in a year or two."

    "Haha, you can be open-minded. Let alone one or two years, even if we can come back within five years, we people don't have to worry so much about leaving. Mou Sheng goes up first, and I will take another look." Tan Kah Kee pulled Lin Mou Sheng to let him  Boarding the plane first, when he was about to take another look at Singapore, the latter suddenly took a few steps back, pushed his glasses with his hands, and said with a smile: "Mr. Jiageng, let's go quickly."

    "Mousheng, you are" Tan Kah Kee was stunned.

    The major who knew the inside story saw the two chattering, and was unwilling to waste any more time to interrupt: "Mr. Chen, don't worry, Colonel Lin is from the Military Intelligence Agency, and he still has a mission."

    "Colonel? Military Intelligence! Mousheng, youwhen did you put on the military uniform?" No wonder Tan Kah Kee was shocked.  Although he knew that Lin Bosheng returned to China to study when he was eighteen and did not return to Malaya until he was twenty-four, he always thought that he just returned to China to study at university.  I never expected that this young man, who has become famous in recent years, is not only good at business, but also famous for his kindness to his compatriots and his willingness to help others. In just a few years, he has become a Nanyang Chinese leader as famous as himself, Zhuang Meisheng, Du Yuesheng and others.  He was actually a colonel from the Military Intelligence Agency.

    "Don't worry, Mr. Jiageng. It could be one year at the earliest or two years at the earliest. Mousheng will still be at this airport to welcome you back."

    Tan Kah Kee is inherently shrewdThe businessman's eyes lit up after hearing these words, and the melancholy and reluctance to leave were instantly wiped away: "Needless to say, Mousheng, although Chen is a businessman, he also knows that he must first retract his fist when hitting someone.  The truth. The president is indeed well-intentioned. He wants to seek eternal peace for the future of the Chinese people like us! Okay, great! Why don't I just shed some blood? Why don't I stay too?  "

    "No, no, sir, you must go. The president is waiting for you in Shanghai. I have important matters to discuss with you." Seeing that Tan Kah Kee actually wanted to stay, Lin Bosheng quickly pushed him up the gangway, and the navy lieutenant commander also grabbed him anxiously.  : "Don't worry, Mr. Chen, there are Colonel Lin and others here in Malaya and Singapore."

    Tan Kah Kee was dragged so hard that he couldn't leave, so he had no choice but to nod: "Okay. To seek prosperity, please remember that if you don't seek to kill the enemy and make meritorious deeds, but to save the lives of the compatriots on this side, that is the greatest victory."

    "I will remember it, sir, don't worry." Lin Mousheng nodded solemnly.

    As the Navy Major who contacted the evacuation personnel closed the cabin door, after the five KC5 passenger planes took off, the six Navy Lifeng fighter jets that had been cruising nearby quickly threw away their auxiliary fuel tanks and followed them to protect them.  When the plane gradually disappeared from the sky, Lim got into the car and said: "Go to Bukit Timah Hill." Twenty minutes later, when he arrived at Bukit Timah Hill, another rumble of explosions was heard from the direction of the Johor Strait.

    "General, this Chinese colonel wants to see you."

    Inside the Commander-in-Chief of the Singapore Fortress deep in the Bukit Timah Mountains, Lin Bosheng met Percival, who had led the British army to resist for almost half a month.  The tall, thin lieutenant general looked very tired and his eyes were bloodshot.  Looking at the sudden arrival of Lin Mousheng, he was a little surprised: "Are you an official of the Central Government?"

    "Yes." Lin Mousheng took out his ID and glanced around a few times.  Almost every officer and soldier had nervousness and uneasiness on their faces. It could be seen that after most of the air force was consumed and the water sources were bombed, these people had no intention of continuing to fight.  So after he received the documents, he immediately said without any delay: "General, let me make a long story short. I was ordered to pick you up and leave. I know this is hard to accept, but you should know the current situation better than me."

    "Leave? How to leave? Take a plane?" Percival didn't want to leave the soldiers behind. Moreover, even if he wanted to leave, Singapore was surrounded on all sides and there were Japanese planes circling in the sky. There was no chance.  As for taking evacuation ships and planes, it is even more impossible. Since Japan has sent specialized diplomats to supervise the evacuation, even if he wants to hide in, China will not cause the evacuation to fail for him.

    Percival didn¡¯t want to leave, but many officers pricked up their ears, especially those whose families were there, and their eyes were eager.  This kind of look was exactly what Lin Mousheng wanted to see. He raised his head slightly: "General, I do have a way to send you and everyone away, but before leaving, your army must hold on until tomorrow night, and please  You are immediately ready to blow up the fortress and all its weapons and equipment."
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