Standing on the soft muddy beach, watching the sea gradually return to its pure liquid state, two veterans from Germany, 53-year-old Wilhelm Brown. Feng. Lieutenant General Loeb and 68-year-old Maximilian, von Loeb. Admiral Spee had a thoughtful expression, but their eyes flashed with different things.

During the long winter that had just passed, the Soya Strait, which separated the Japanese archipelago from the island of Kuya, was filled with erratic drift ice, which restricted even the passage of Spee's fleet to the port of Korsakov, and it was this drift ice that prevented the Japanese from landing operations. In the fierce air battle in January, not only did the Japanese not gain the air supremacy they expected, but the loss of a large number of fighters and skilled pilots was even more unbearable for them, so in the past two months, the Japanese army's attack on Kuye Island was basically carried out by a small number of special forces through night airborne landing and small boat landing, but everyone knows how big waves are hidden behind this relative calm.

After a long time, Admiral Spee spit out a few words in a deep voice: "The big war is imminent!" The situation is dire! ”

General Loeb nodded slightly, as the commander of the defense command of Kuye Island, he was well aware of the current situation. The Japanese Navy had already formed the 3rd Fleet of the Navy, which had been annihilated by the Spee fleet, and ships that accounted for nearly one-third of the current strength of the Japanese Navy could enter the Soya Strait in eight hours after gathering in Ishikari Bay on the west coast of Hokkaido. In addition, reports from reconnaissance planes and spy personnel indicate that the number of ships that can be used to cross the sea, such as transport ships and sailboats, continues to increase in Hokkaido's large and small ports, and there are signs of large-scale military movements in both Hokkaido and Honshu.

On the German side, on the other hand, because Kuye Island was actually surrounded by Russia and Japan, it was impossible for transport ships to reach Kuye Island through the Sea of Japan or the waters of the Kuril Islands under the dual obstacles of man and nature in these months. Therefore, in addition to the pre-war reserves, the German army could only rely on limited supplies airlifted from Qingdao throughout the winter. The German Army and Navy were victorious in the Pacific, but the Hawaiian Islands were not strong enough to be a direct threat to the Japanese mainland and support Kuyo Island.

"I'm afraid this battle is more fierce and difficult than the battle of Vladivostok! General, I thought it would be better for you to take a navigable warship to the port of Kholmsk for a while! Once the Japanese begin to force their way across the Soya Strait, Korsakov will be their first target! ”

"I also considered the general's suggestion!" There was a hint of melancholy on Spena's vicissitudes of life, "The only thing that can move fast at the moment is the 'Scharnhorst' and a few destroyers. 'Caesar Barbarossa' will be difficult to repair within the year, 'Thessaloniki' and 'Georg' will only become prey to the Japanese fleet and submarines when they sail with injuries, and as far as I know, Terooka Heigo is not a greedy and reckless person like Tachino Tokujiro! ”

The destruction of the main forces of Tachino Tokujiro and the first fleet made Speidi famous and disgraced the Japanese Navy, and it was for this reason that the Japanese Admiralty appointed the veteran Teraoka Heigo, who was known for his composure, as commander of the new 3rd Fleet, and transferred the super battleship "Owari" and the battleships "Yamashiro", "Aki", "Kawachi", the battlecruiser "Hiei", the heavy aircraft carrier "Iyu", and up to four escort carriers. It can be said that this 3rd Fleet is comparable to the previous Tachino Fleet.

Loeb no longer persuaded Spee that this fleet was not under his jurisdiction in the first place, and that the qualifications and merits of the other party were far superior to his own. However, the situation was as Speese feared, even if the heavy cruiser "Scharnhorst" left the port with an intact destroyer fleet, it was very likely that it would be intercepted by superior Japanese ships on the way, and the strategic location of the port of Kholmsk in the southwest of Kuye Island was not necessarily much better than that of Korsakov, and once the Japanese successfully landed, it was only a matter of time before it was attacked.

"If only the ice period lasted two more months!" Spee said with a gloomy expression that in two months, Oceania, the Philippines, the Mariana and the Ryukyu Islands. The change of hands of these strategic positions will completely deprive the Japanese of the initiative.

However, now time can only be bought in battle.

Not far away, a small group of silver-gray fighters was flying from Kuye Island to the depths of the Soya Strait, and it was these heroic fighter pilots who thwarted the Japanese army's attempt to seize air supremacy. It also makes this upcoming landing and anti-landing operation full of variables - if the Japanese bombers can continue to bomb Kuya Island for more than two months, the landing of the Japanese army will become easy, but now the Japanese fighters deployed in the Hokkaido area can only barely protect their own coastal ports, although there is news that the Japanese army is ready to invest seventy percent of the country's aviation force when the Battle of Kuya Island is launched, and can face the experienced German pilots and more than 400 German fighters with excellent performance, Even the Japanese Army base camp, which has always been arrogant, did not dare to boast about Haikou this time.

"Even if there is no drift ice, our torpedoes and mines will be able to break the heads of the Japanese in this strait! General, isn't it? Loeb, who had a slightly slender face, narrowed his eyes.

Spee set his eyes on the calm sea ahead, and beneath that dozens of submarines on both sides were secretly fighting. Although the German submarine forces still have a technical and numerical advantage here, Spee knows his opponent too well - a large number of small and medium-sized boats will greatly reduce the efficiency of German submarines, as for mines, the other side has prepared hundreds of improvised wooden minesweepers, and the Germans will use submarines and aircraft to replenish mines in time, all of which are destined to be a tug-of-war with incredible consumption.

At this time, in the Berlin High Command, the Supreme Commanders and Marshals of the German Army also focused their main attention on the Far East, and no one dared to underestimate the position of Kuye Island in the Far East strategy, and the German bombers currently visiting the Japanese archipelago flew 2,000 to 3,000 sorties a week. Eighty percent of them took off from various airfields on Kuyo Island, and Qingdao was also one of the air bases for attacking the Japanese mainland, but it was obviously inferior to Kuya Island in terms of distance. On the other hand, if Kuye Island changed hands, the Japanese navy could divert its main efforts from the periphery of the mainland, and they could either concentrate on attacking Jiaozhou Bay with all their might, or strengthen the defense in the direction of the Philippines, a situation that the German high command was very unwilling to see.

"Okay guys, whether it's airlifting troops from Qingdao or sending a fleet from the Hawaiian Islands to break through the Kuril Islands, it's only a palliative solution at present! In order to completely solve the problem, first, it is necessary to approach the Japanese mainland from the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible, and second. Solve the Russian pseudo-democratic regime in the Far East! ”

Ludendorff and others proposed to use transport planes to airlift 7,000 to 9,000 soldiers and a large amount of ammunition from Qingdao to Kuye Island to strengthen the defense, but another group of army generals led by Hoffman believed that greatly weakening the defense of Jiaozhou Bay would allow the Japanese army to find an opportunity in this direction, although the Chinese government accepted Germany's request to send three additional infantry divisions to the Shandong Peninsula to Lianyungang, However, this number of troops was obviously insignificant compared to the long defensive zone, and the main forces of the Nanjing government were all inland, and the main forces of the Nanking government were in the interior to fight with Gui, Feng. , the Yan warlord warlord battle, once the Japanese army repeated the landing operation of 1914 with the cooperation of the 1st Fleet, or the Kwantung Army broke through the defense line of the Great Wall and marched south. The situation in Jiaozhou Bay is very dangerous.

On the other hand, Raeder and other admirals also debated whether to reinforce Kuye Island from the sea, some people believed that a fleet should be organized to escort transport ships to forcibly break through the relatively weak defense chain of the Japanese Kuril Islands, so as to deliver the most needed war materials to the defenders of Kuye Island before the defensive battle began, while opponents believed that this move was too risky and weakened the main attack on the Marshall Islands and the Mariana Islands. In Russia, after a winter of recuperation, the confrontational revolutionary government and the democratic government were gearing up to fight the winner, and this gave the puppet democratic government of Far East Russia, which had defected to Japan, a respite. It also gave the Japanese Kwantung Army no worries. In addition to holding part of the army in Vladivostok, the main forces of the Kwantung military and ground began to assemble again on the front line north of the Great Wall.

The crowd was pondering when a voice came from the back row:

"If the China-Myanmar communication line is opened within two weeks. If we support the Chinese government in defeating the southern warlords once and for all, our troops will be able to send them to Kuye Island by air! ”

The generals turned their heads one after another, only to see Ollie, the youngest non-aristocratic field marshal in German history, and Kahn walked briskly into the battle hall from the outside.

"Your Majesty!"

As he walked before him, Karn gave a military salute, followed by a noble salute—not long before the decorated warrior was awarded the hereditary title of Count of the Empire—and as time passed, the East Prussian generals began to reach the pinnacle of their careers.

"Oh! Count Ollie is back! What is the situation on the Indian side? ”

Although the confidant was still on the Indian front yesterday, Chen Tian was obviously not surprised by his "sudden appearance", New Delhi-Tehran-Istanbul-Berlin is currently only a dedicated military route, but the Imperial Transport Department has long been planning to establish a civilian Eurasian route - "The power of the empire is constantly expanding. Berlin is getting closer and closer."

"The strategic air raid has ended, and the aviation forces are cooperating with the ground forces to launch an offensive! The 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 6th armies of the Combined Expeditionary Force have already been put into operation, the 3rd and 5th armies and the Turkish Guards are also moving towards the frontline area, and in the first wave of attack forces, we have a total of 3 armored divisions and 12 separate heavy tank battalions! However......" O'Lieb paused, "despite the loss of air supremacy, about 160,000 people from 7 divisions of the Japanese army resisted to the death by taking advantage of the difficult terrain, but fortunately, the Japanese Indian colonial army that retreated into Burma had no morale at all, and there were often entire companies and battalions of Indian soldiers on the front line who surrendered to our army!" ”

There was a buzz in the hall.

"In this case, two weeks should be able to end the battle......" Chen Tian stared at the sand table for a few seconds.

Raising his head, "But in order to resist the Japanese invasion, the squadron has destroyed a large number of roads in the southwest near the border, and it seems that it is not so easy to rebuild them and use them for us!" ”

"The Chinese government will not refuse to provide these roads, but it will take a lot of precious time to repair them, and Nanjing will definitely use this as an excuse to demand more military supplies!" Max, Hoffman was quick to add.

"That's a bunch of greedy guys!" Ludendorff also had an indignant expression.

"As I said, the supplies themselves are not a problem, once the Japanese army moves south, we also need a squadron that can resist the opponent's attack!" Chen Tian didn't continue to say this, omitting the content of the words, and the senior generals present were very clear.

"It's still a matter of time!" Ollie didn't hesitate to point out the point.

"If necessary, we can use Indian prisoners of war to build roads, and we can recruit a large number of local laborers!" Chen Tian thought as he said, "Do everything you can to win this time race!" ”

At this moment, near Mandalay in central Myanmar, the race against the clock is underway.

"General, the vanguard reported that the Japanese fire on the east bank of Pingli Town was very fierce, and our army failed to force the crossing three times in a row!"

In a makeshift headquarters consisting of camp tents and armoured communications vehicles, a communications officer reports to a middle-aged army major general.

"Damn the Japanese! Damn the river! The burly major general slammed his fist on the wooden table, and the surrounding staff officers suddenly stopped what they were doing. It is no wonder that the commander was so depressed, according to the predetermined plan, his vanguard should have crossed the small river across the town of Pingli two hours ago, but the Japanese not only blew up the only bridge within a radius of ten miles, but also deployed two hidden artillery positions on the opposite bank, and when the German vanguard resisted and crossed the river by kayak, these artillery that had escaped the air attack opened fire, due to the Japanese army's use of camouflage measures and continuous transfer of artillery positions, The next few air raids by German fighters failed to completely destroy the Japanese artillery.

"Tell Kittel that if he still can't stand on the other side of the river in half an hour, then transfer me to the reserves!"

The major general angrily gave the order to the front commander to die, but he also knew in his heart that after the defeat of the Indian campaign, the Japanese commander began to change the previous hard-hitting strategy, and after a period of rectification, the Japanese officers and soldiers were not as afraid of the German dive bombers as before, coupled with the complex terrain of Burma, the German-Turkish joint expeditionary force in the beginning of this stage of the campaign was indeed much slower than before.

"Yes!" The communications officer hurriedly turned and left, and when he reached the door of the tent, several officers happened to walk in from outside, and when he didn't notice that he collided with the young officer in the lead, but the military situation was urgent, and he didn't have time to look at the other party, apologized, saluted, and ran towards the armored communication vehicle not far away.

The young officer at the head did not get angry, and looked at the major general who was carefully studying the map inside, and he called out in a medium voice: "General! ”

"What's the matter?" The major general asked without raising his head.

"Lieutenant General asked me to come to you to see the situation!" The young officer said unhurriedly.

"Lieutenant General? Which lieutenant general? I don't see that I'm busy now......" At this, the major general was stunned, because he had just seen the face of the comer, heroic and a little young, 17 and a half years old tall but a little thin, and the rank of lieutenant could not hide his extraordinary temperament.

"Ah, ah, it's Your Highness...... How did you get here? The major general was a little overwhelmed all of a sudden, but the other party's face was still so calm.