When the plan was revealed, Alexander did not make up for it, but openly and directly told Stilwell and the Chinese Expeditionary Force that they no longer intended to defend Burma, but to withdraw to India.

Alexander did not wait for a reply from China and the United States, but made an open and meticulous comprehensive retreat, exposing the right flank of the Chinese expeditionary force to the Japanese army, and the British retreated much faster without having to hide it.

The day before the 200th Division arrived in Lashio, the British expatriate, journalists, missionaries, and British troops, all of whom were ready for a full retreat, were ordered by Stilvert to cover the British retreat.

On April 23, Alexander, Slim, who had been released by the new 38th Division, was the supreme commander of the encircled 7,000 British troops, Stilwell, and Luo Zhuoying held a joint meeting in Chokse. At the meeting, Alexander stressed that the Anglo-Burmese army must withdraw across the Irrawaddy River and then go to India, otherwise they would be surrounded by a Japanese commando force that was trying to advance in Mandalay. That night, the vanguard of the British First Army crossed the Irrawaddy River.

On April 24, the new 38th Division crossed the Irrawaddy River with all its grievances, occupied Winde, and covered the retreat of the British rearguard. By 26 April, the British had largely crossed the Irrawaddy River, and at the same time blew up the Ava Bridge, the largest bridge on the Irrawaddy River south of Mandalay.

After crossing the river, the Anglo-Burmese army retreated northwest along the winding Tiedun River. Everywhere you look, refugees in rags, military vehicles running out of fuel, and wounded soldiers. Along the way, the Japanese air raids continued, and they also constantly organized commando assaults, interspersed in depth, and frantically attacked the British and Burmese troops, in an attempt to cut off the retreat of the British and Burmese troops, and the British and Burmese troops were bent on escaping back to India and had no intention of fighting at all, so they were beaten everywhere and suffered heavy casualties.

Half a month later, the first retreating force of the British-Burmese army arrived in Davout, Assam, India, with 12,000 officers and soldiers arriving, more than 13,000 killed during the retreat, and 750,000 refugees died in the retreat.

And the military supplies abandoned by the British are even more innumerable, and even the British themselves do not know how many.

On April 24, at the Chiang Mansion in Chongqing, Lao Chiang looked at the telegram of thousands of words sent by Dai Anlan, and the first sentence was that he hoped that Chairman Chiang would send troops to support Lashio.

Chiang Kai-shek thought about it and sent the 36th Division directly under the Commander's Department from Dali in Yunnan to rush to Lashio, which was not a big problem for Chiang Kai-shek, Dai Anlan had already said in the telegram that the advantages of sending troops to support could enhance the strength of Lashio, even if they did not hold Burma, they could also ensure the retreat of the expeditionary force, and second, if they held Burma, they could also strengthen the local troops.

Chiang Kai-shek looked at the telegram sent by the brought, and asked the adjutant to summon his staff, this kind of situation in which the British had abandoned Burma and the squadron had to face the powerful Japanese offensive alone, he could not make up his mind.

As far as Chiang Kai-shek is concerned, he does not want to use his strategic reserve army to spend with the devils in Burma, because the original strategic goal has been failed and there is no goal to be achieved, but the telegram sent by Dai Anlan clearly pointed out that if he abandoned Burma, the consequences would make Chiang Kai-shek hesitate, so he needed to gather his staff and his capable students to discuss.

At 6:30 p.m., when the officers of the military department arrived, Chiang Kai-shek asked them to read the telegram sent by Dai Anlan one by one, and a full hour passed, and everyone looked at it carefully, and then discussed it privately.

Chiang Kai-shek said: "Everyone has read it, this telegram was sent by Dai Anlan, and the consequences of receiving Burma and not defending Burma have been said, and the future war situation has also been predicted. ”

About two minutes later, Gu Zhutong said: "If the battle situation is really according to what General Dai said, we should indeed defend Burma, and I have also thought about it, if we have strategic materials without foreign aid, they will be consumed in three months at most, which means that we will have no weapons and ammunition replenishment at that time, and the brothers on the front line will wish you to fight with well-equipped devils with burning sticks." ”

Chiang Kai-shek nodded and said, "Wenbai, talk about it!" ”

Zhang Zhizhong thought for a moment and said: "Look at General Dai's analysis report, we should indeed defend Burma, if Burma is really occupied by the Japanese army, then their next move is naturally to attack Yunnan in the north, and then attack India in the west." At the same time, Burma is occupied, and we have to really cut off foreign aid, so we can only use it by airlift as General Dai said, and Tibet is a plateau and the Himalayas, so the air force can only go to the China-Burma-India border as General Dai said, and in this case, we will be attacked by the Japanese air force, and the loss will definitely be not small. However, if we defend it, we will have very few troops, and if we can't hold Burma and we run out of troops, then the Japanese will occupy Burma and then attack Yunnan, and we will have no troops to defend. ”

Chiang Kai-shek's sixth King Kong Qian Dajun said: "I think it is better to avoid the Japanese invaders for the time being, pull the main force with little loss, and withdraw to the country, otherwise the situation is critical, and when the time comes, it is likely to miss the opportunity to return to China." ”

Gu Zhutong said again: "Commission, I think so, in fact, General Dai's telegram mentioned the supplies of the Americans, I see whether we can hold Burma, it still depends on what kind of support the Americans give, if the Americans fully support, then we should hold Burma, and at the appropriate time, drive the Japanese out of Burma, if the Americans can't fully support us, then according to our current situation, we simply don't have enough materials to support the hundreds of thousands of troops in Burma to fight, so we can only take the defensive." ”

Zhang Zhizhong said: "I agree with Mo San's opinion, but we must do it as soon as possible, the situation on the front line is changing rapidly, if the Americans are there, we will withdraw the troops, save our strength, in order to fight again, and now we should actively mobilize troops to send troops to the Sino-Burmese border, if we defend Burma, then directly enter Burma, if we don't defend the time, we can fight against the Japanese invaders in Yunnan then." ”

Chiang Kai-shek thought about it, in fact, as long as the Americans' foreign aid was sufficient, then he would have made up his mind to dare to fight the devils in Burma, but if the Americans did not pay enough attention, even if they knew the consequences, they would have to withdraw the expeditionary force, otherwise the Fifth Army and the Sixth Army of the Strategic Reserve Army would be exhausted, and if the Japanese attacked again, he would have no elite soldiers to resist, and China might really have to surrender, and this is naturally not what the Americans want to see.

After the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek immediately consulted with his wife Soong Meiling, who had many acquaintances in the United States and was now familiar with the President of the United States.

Soong Meiling made an appointment with Chennault the next day, analyzed the situation with him, and hoped that they would also communicate with the President of the United States, Chennault was not as powerful as Stilwell, and he really wanted to help China resist invasion, not with the purpose of exploitation, so he immediately agreed.

At the same time, Soong Meiling also met with Gauss, the U.S. ambassador plenipotentiary to China, to discuss further support from the United States, and Soong Meiling analyzed all the possible consequences of abandoning Burma with Gauss, but Gauss could not make the decision, he could only report to the U.S. government.

On 25 April, the day when the 200th Division's search detachment made contact with the Japanese outposts, the US White House and Roosevelt received telegrams from Chennault, US Ambassador to China Gauss, and the Chinese Government.

Roosevelt, as always, approached Marshall, chief of the Army General Staff, the "trustee" of the United States, because he knew that China was really in a hurry this time and really wanted to fight a good war with the Japanese.

Roosevelt said, "Dear Marshall, look at this," he said, taking out the analysis of the Chinese war situation sent by the Chinese ambassador to the United States, because this is the most detailed.

Marshall took it and looked at it carefully, he was clear about the general situation in China, and thought for a while: "If the Chinese government really intends to continue fighting with the Japanese in Burma, we can support supplies for them." ”

Roosevelt said, "Marshall, do you think the situation would deteriorate to that extent if China did withdraw from Burma?" ”

Marshall said: "It should be, this report analyzes in detail, if Burma is occupied by Japan, then Japan can attack Yunnan, force China to surrender, and attack India at any time, it is said that India is very unstable now, if the Japanese really fight over, then the British may not be able to hold it, so it is better to spend more materials, let the Chinese at least contain the Japanese army in Burma, so that the Japanese do not have the energy to attack India, otherwise the British who lost India will need more things for our support, In addition, Britain without India may soon collapse, and we will have to face the Germans alone in the Atlantic. And the Chinese government, which has lost its material supply, will not be able to support it for a long time before it will surrender, and then only Soviet Russia and our country will confront each other, I am afraid that the situation will deteriorate even more, especially Soviet Russia, without Britain to contain it, Germany can concentrate more manpower and material resources to attack Soviet Russia, and Japan may also take advantage of the fire at this time to rob, and the fall of Soviet Russia is not far away. I don't think we have to let the situation develop to such an uncontrollable point as a last resort, so that we may not be able to stand alone, the Atlantic and Pacific are certainly natural dangers, but they are no longer enough to protect us, you must know that those countries in South America are pro-German, and if the war is a little bad for the United States, they are likely to fall to the Axis countries. ”

Roosevelt thought for a moment and said: "Then agree, this matter will be left to you, it is extremely difficult for the Chinese to drag the Japanese as much as possible, the damned British have never had a big picture, if they were not so selfish, the situation would be better." ”

Marshall said: "Your Excellency the President is angry, the British don't care about them, now the problem is the key, we have to train soldiers for only half a year, so we still need Chinese, British, and Soviet people to drag the Japanese and Germans in the next six months, and when this year is over, we have to finish the training of soldiers, then there will be the Axis countries." ”