What Gan Yongxing gave Tan Renhao was a rather incomplete battle plan, and he also included a map. When Tan Renhao saw the map, he knew what Gan Yongxing meant, which was a map of Central America, a map of the Panama Canal.

It was not the Americans who first proposed the construction of the Panama Canal, but the Tang Empire. More than 200 years ago, before the independence of the United States, the Tang Empire proposed to build a canal connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea on the Isthmus of Central America, so that ships would not have to detour through South America, and the route from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean could be shortened by thousands of nautical miles. But it was the Americans who actually built the canal. For the Tang Empire, it didn't matter much whether the Panama Canal was repaired or not, the fleet departed from the Tang Empire proper, went east into the Pacific Ocean, and went west to the Atlantic, and there was no need to go to the Atlantic Ocean after crossing the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, the American War of Independence soon broke out, and the colonies of South America also became independent.16

Construction of the Panama Canal began more than 50 years before the outbreak of the First Global War, and it was not until 1899 AD that the canal was officially opened to navigation in 1284 AD. At this time, the United States was not strong enough to be on an equal footing with the Tang Empire, or even strong enough to become the hegemon of the Americas. Most importantly, at this time, the Tang Empire still had a strong influence in Central America, and even the Panamanian government was inextricably linked to the Tang Empire. Nor did the other powers want to see the canal run entirely by the United States. Eventually, the United States compromised with the powers on the issue of jurisdiction over the canal and signed an indefinite treaty with the Panamanian government. The main content of the agreement is that the Panama Canal is an international condominium and will be managed by a joint company established between Meiguo and Panama. The cost of the canal is split equally between the United States and Panama, with the United States responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the canal and Panama providing assistance and support.

The international agreement, known as the Lomé Treaty, fundamentally defined the Panama Canal agreement, but there was a huge loophole in it, that is, the treaty did not set a date. That is, before there is no other supplementary agreement. The United States will always manage the Panama Canal, and the Panamanian government will actually have little to play. This would lead to many conflicts in the future, and during the war, the actual control of the canal was in the hands of the United States.

It was also through the Panama Canal that the United States finally gave it a convenient sea passage between the east and west banks. More importantly, through the Panama Canal, the United States gradually expanded its influence throughout the Americas, especially South America. Before the outbreak of the first global war. The United States has become the de facto hegemon of the Americas. The "Monroe Doctrine" is all the rage in the United States, and in the hearts of almost every American, America is the America of the United States, and it is the backyard of the United States that no other country can interfere in. At that time, the Tang Empire basically acquiesced to this, after all, for the Tang Empire, the Americas were on the other side of the earth, and in the case of constant troubles in other regions, how could the Tang Empire have the energy to meddle in the affairs of the Americas? And the European powers basically acquiesced in the hegemony of the United States in the Americas, because they needed the support of the United States to counter the Tang Empire.

Ultimately. It was the rumors created by the European powers that led the United States to intervene in the first global war. Then. The Tang Empire did not think of burning the flames of war to the Americas, even if Mexico has always been dissatisfied with the United States, tens of millions of Mexicans are dreaming of recovering the lost territory. But the Tang Empire simply did not have the energy to manage Mexico. As a result, after several spy incidents carefully planned by the European powers were exposed, the United States believed that if the Tang Empire won the war, it would inevitably intervene in the affairs of the Americas, and would also instigate Mexico to challenge the United States, which would inevitably affect the fundamental interests of the United States. It was also under this circumstance that the United States brazenly intervened in the first global war, forcing the Tang Empire to sign an armistice treaty under extremely disgraceful circumstances, and losing a large amount of overseas interests.

Ultimately. The United States wants to dominate the Americas and thus dominate the world, and in the end, even if the Tang Empire can endure and allow it, it will inevitably fight with the United States because of conflicts of interest. The second global war was the war in which the United States challenged the Tang Empire, a war in which two of the world's most powerful countries competed for global supremacy. Relatively speaking, the geographical advantage of the United States was incomparable to that of the Tang Empire.

With the exception of a weakened Mexico to the south, the United States has few threats on land. And even Mexico is not much of a threat to the United States. And being close to the world's two oceans allows the U.S. Navy to shoot its bow left and right, galloping across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, without worrying about deploying troops. These geographical advantages are not possessed by the Tang Empire, and they are also what the Tang Empire dreams of having. Coupled with abundant resources, a solid human base, a developed industrial system, advanced science and technology, etc., it took only 200 years for the United States to accomplish a feat that other countries have failed to accomplish in thousands of years, and has become the only first-class power that can compete with the Tang Empire in terms of comprehensive strength.

The biggest shortcoming of the United States is that its domestic development is unbalanced and the gap between the East and the West is huge, and this is caused by the history of the United States.

Fundamentally, the United States is a predominantly white country, especially Anglo-Saxon. The thirteen states that initially declared independence were all on the East Coast of the United States, all of which had previously been British colonies. In the subsequent development, the United States absorbed a large number of European immigrants, and the British, Irish, French, Germanic, Italian, Spanish and other white ethnic groups poured into the United States, which not only brought productivity and new technology, but also established the basic racial structure of the United States, that is, the white majority national structure. Even when the United States later expanded eastward, Indians, Mexicans, and even a large number of Latinos poured into the United States, as well as Africans who entered the United States in the slave trade, but these did not fundamentally change the predominantly white ethnic structure of the United States, and by the eve of World War II, the United States had a total population of nearly 200 million, of which 68% were white, 21% were blacks, 9% were Mexicans, and 2% were other ethnic groups.

The ethnic structure of the United States determines the basic population distribution of the United States. Before the outbreak of World War II, 65 percent of the population of the United States was concentrated in the 18 eastern states, and the eight western states accounted for only 12 percent of the total population. And this population distribution actually determines the structure of the U.S. economy.

At that time, the U.S. government had a set of survey data, and the population of the 13 states on the eastern coast accounted for 37% of the total population of the country. Its economy is 52% of the country's total. The nine states of the Great Lakes region account for 31 percent of the country's population and 39 percent of the country's economy. In terms of industry, the 13 states on the eastern coast account for 54 percent of the country's total industrial output, and the nine states in the Great Lakes region account for 38 percent. In terms of heavy industry and military industry, the 13 states on the eastern coast account for 32 percent, and the nine states in the Great Lakes region account for 47 percent. In terms of the 18 most important industrial outputs, the 13 states on the eastern coast account for 46 per cent. Nine states in the Great Lakes region account for 37 percent.

From these data, a rather obvious problem can be found that the population, economy, industry, heavy industry, military industry of the United States are almost all concentrated on the eastern seaboard, as well as in the Great Lakes region. This is a fatal flaw of the United States. During the Great War, almost all battleships, tanks, aircraft, artillery. Ammunition and other critically important munitions are produced in the eastern United States and the Great Lakes region. And these weapons and equipment, ammunition and materials must be shipped from the ports in the eastern United States, and then transported to the front battlefield. Delivered to the hands of the front-line troops. The same is true for the fleet, where almost all capital warships are built in shipyards along the eastern coast of the United States before being sent to the Pacific theater.

This kind of relative concentration of industry exists in any country, for example, at that time, the land industry of the Tang Empire was mainly concentrated on the eastern coast, as well as several provinces in the southern coastal area. But for the United States, the concentration of almost all military industry in the east is quite serious. Moreover, this brings up a new problem, which is that the Panama Canal has become a choke point for the United States. For the U.S. Navy, the Panama Canal is their dead end!

When I saw that map of Panama. Tan Renhao knew what Gan Yongxing meant, if it can control or destroy the Panama Canal, then the United States will be completely finished, at least, the United States will lose its strategic flexibility, and the US Navy will lose its strategic flexibility. At that time, the Pacific Ocean will become a cage for the US Navy, and those warships launched off the east coast of the United States will not be able to enter the Pacific Ocean. It would be impossible for the US Navy to throw up wind and waves in the Pacific Ocean, and the United States would have to abandon the Pacific Ocean and eventually retreat to the American continent.

As early as a year ago, that is, when planning to attack the Australian mainland, someone proposed to Tan Renhao the idea of capturing the Panama Canal, but Tan Renhao didn't care at that time, and he didn't even take down the Hawaiian Islands, and when there were still a large number of US troops stationed on the Australian mainland, why should he attack the Panama Canal? But now, the conditions are basically ripe, Australia is no longer a problem, the Hawaiian Islands are also at your fingertips, as long as the Panama Canal is laid, the battle on the ground in the Pacific theater is basically over. More importantly, as long as the Panama Canal is captured, the United States can be forced to choose to surrender, which is exactly the strategic direction advocated by the Navy. The question is, is it that easy to get the Panama Canal?

Tan Renhao flipped out a map of the Pacific region, and after only one glance, he found that even if he now controlled the Hawaiian Islands, it would be extremely difficult to enter the Panama Canal. And the biggest problem is distance.

The Panama Canal is thousands of nautical miles away from the Hawaiian Islands, and there are few stops for the fleet to dock along the way. The problem of replenishing the fleet should be relatively easy to solve, and arranging a few quick combat support fleets will be enough to carry the fuel needed for dinner on the fleet, as well as the ammunition needed for combat. But the problem is that it is impossible to take down the Panama Canal by sending a fleet alone, and it is even difficult to completely destroy the canal. To strangle the United States, it is necessary to mobilize the Marine Corps and take control of the Panama Canal Zone!

Tan Renhao found an intelligence in the document, which was a general analysis of the strength of the American army in the Panama Canal Zone by the imperial intelligence service. Even if the U.S. military did not increase its forces in the Panama Canal Zone after the Battle of Kauai, the number of U.S. troops stationed in the Panama Canal now is between 30,000 and 50,000. And it is impossible for the United States not to send additional troops to the Panama Canal Zone. The intelligence also described the capacity of the main military bases in the region, and if the United States wanted to, at least one force of about 100,000 troops could be deployed in the Panama Canal Zone. Therefore, the number of Marines invested must be calculated according to this criterion.

There are many other issues to consider, such as the number of air forces deployed by the US military in the region, whether a large area of defensive positions in depth has been built, and the attitude of the Panamanian government and civilians towards the war. Combining these factors, Tan Renhao came to a conclusion that the difficulty of attacking the Panama Canal is no less than attacking the Hawaiian Islands, this is an expedition similar to Jiang Zhongmin's expedition on the other side of the Atlantic, and the difficulty will only be great, not small!

In the same way, Tan Renhao noticed another important part. The basic purpose of attacking the Panama Canal was not to occupy it, but to cut it off. Therefore, it is enough to control only a small section of the canal zone to make the canal lose its ability to go along. Even as long as the canal zone is ignited with war and a fleet is kept operating on this side of the Pacific, then the United States will not be able to use the canal, which is equivalent to choking the throat of the US military. From this point of view, there are not many marines that need to be invested, and the size of the fleet is not very large. So, is it possible to achieve this goal?

All night, Tan Renhao was thinking about this problem and how to complete this task. There is no doubt that Gan Yongxing will definitely support the attack on the Panama Canal, and even this may be the intention of the principal, otherwise, Gan Yongxing will not hand over this matter to Tan Renhao to deal with. But the problem is that attacking the Panama Canal is very difficult, there are many uncertainties, and there are even many problems that Tan Renhao cannot take into account at all. In addition, there are problems in the organization of troops, the build-up of fleets, material support, and intelligence gathering.

After thinking about it blindly for several hours, in the middle of the night, Tan Renhao decided not to worry about this problem anymore, he now lacks information, lacks intelligence, and even lacks some basic conditions, and it is not too late to think about it after returning to the naval headquarters. Tan Renhao slipped into the bedroom in the middle of the night, but his wife had already fallen asleep, so he could only secretly climb into bed, lie honestly on the window, and soon snore.