With MacArthur's help, the Australian political axe now lobbied on Capitol Hill and promoted the idea of "Pacific First" in the American press. When MacArthur arrived in Australia from the Philippines, he was welcomed as a hero—but he discovered that the Allied Army and Air Forces, which he had expected to assemble and which he was waiting to command in the campaign to defeat him, did not exist. Eager to regain the Philippines, he established his headquarters at the Menzies Hotel in Melbourne. He didn't have an army, but he was very popular: Congressional pressure forced the president to award him the Medal of Honor, and across the United States, streets, dams, public buildings, children, and even a dance move were named after the general, and polls showed that most Americans considered him a war hero. Polls also indicate that Americans want him back to the Department of the Army, and some have asked him to be the Republican presidential nominee. MacArthur shrewdly exploited that support by holding press conferences, addressing the Australian Parliament, and speaking on radio as a sign of his strong desire for promotion. He demanded "enough troops and enough supplies" to launch an attack on him. For an entire month, the sullen general — whom Time magazine aptly called "a hero on the cold bench" — waited for a joint meeting of the Chiefs of Staff in Washington to resolve their strategic differences.

MacArthur was even more chagrined when he learned that Washington had decided to stick to the strategic priority of "Europe first" and would not appoint a supreme commander in command of the war in the Pacific. Like most Americans, he believed that he had been transferred back from Corregidor to take on that important position, but conflict between the Army and Navy made the appointment impossible. Admiral King refused to accept an army general giving orders to his admiral, on the grounds that since the navy's operations would determine the course of the war against Ben, Nimitz must have been the natural choice.

After a bitter dispute, command of the operation was to be divided equally between the army and navy, with Nimitz as commander-in-chief of the Pacific region, which included New Zealand, Samoa, and Fiji, and reached west to the 160-degree ecliptic circle, which was the eastern limit of the jurisdiction of General MacArthur, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Southwest Pacific. Sumatra, Malaya, Burma, and the Indian Ocean remained under British control. MacArthur immediately found himself in the position of "Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Army, Navy, and Air Force of Solomon and the Philippines in New Guinea, Australia (equivalent to Nimitz)." He remains convinced that "of all the wrong decisions about this war, the most inexplicable is probably the absence of a unified command in the Pacific." He had a deep grudge against Washington's "naval cabal," which he once accused of exploiting his reinforcements in the Philippines, and now he is even more jealous of it. He believed that it was this small group that prevented him from being the supreme commander in chief of the Pacific. He was dismayed to find that he had been deprived of his commanding authority by an order from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which had retained a large part of the command in the hands of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to avoid a later rivalry among several jurisdictions in the Pacific. MacArthur thus had to report to General Marshall and receive orders from him. Nimitz will receive instructions through Admiral King, and any disagreements between them will be resolved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

What annoyed MacArthur the most was that he found that he could not "directly command the forces of any one country" and could not dictate strategy. Conductor Bleimai; U.S. Fleet Naval Commander Herbert? Admiral Leary was in charge of naval operations. The Allied Air Force was originally led by George? General Brett commanded – and MacArthur later managed to remove him and replace him with someone from his own "Bataan Gang", who had established a command in Australia. MacArthur's protests were not enough to convince General Marshall, who insisted that General Wainwright be promoted to four-star general so that he could command all American forces, including the guerrillas, still fighting in the Philippines.

On the same day that Bataan fell, the British Royal Navy faced the same humiliation of being forced to give the western Indian Ocean to himself. Weeks after the tragic sinking of the Prince of Wales and Counter-Attack, Britain's situation in the Far East was already precarious, and Churchill had to plead with China for help in securing Ceylon and India. The Chinese Navy provided active support, and the "Indian Ocean Task Force" consisting of four battle cruisers and three aircraft carriers set off from Cam Ranh Bay and urgently sailed to Ceylon to defend India's sea lanes and Burma's shipping lanes. After the collapse of the Allied Command in the United States, Britain and Australia, Churchill specifically asked China to send a brave and warlike admiral to command the fleet. Vice Admiral Wang Yonggang, who had participated in the First War of Resistance and the Battle of the Celtic Sea, was selected and was now an excellent fleet commander. The fleet that was waiting for him at the Cam Ranh Bay Naval Base was a formidable front-line fighting force. The three World War I battlecruisers, led by the battlecruiser USS Glorious, were modernized and used to fight with the two fastest new aircraft carriers of the Dragon King class and the escort aircraft carrier USS Vostok. The fleet, consisting of eight cruisers, 16 destroyers and six submarines, would join the British Eastern Fleet in the task of defending the entire Indian Ocean (from Australia's western sea passage to the Cape of Good Hope) and the convoy shipping lanes to the Suez Canal and India.

However, the Allies were preparing for a large-scale operation to pre-emptively prevent a pre-emptive invasion of Madagascar, otherwise the Allies would monopolize the Indian Ocean and cut off oil supplies to Britain from India and the Middle East, as well as the Persian Gulf. On 28 July, Wang Yonggang raised his flag on the "Glorious" and immediately received an urgent report from the intelligence organs, saying that it seemed that such a strategic disaster was really possible: A powerful aircraft carrier attack group was sailing into the Indian Ocean. In order to prevent this unimaginable catastrophe, he immediately left the port and went to sea, correctly estimating that the enemy was heading to Ceylon to attack the British Royal Navy base and warships there, and he intended to lure him into a night battle, because after nightfall, the aircraft carriers could not dispatch aircraft, and his battleships had a firepower advantage over the enemy's aircraft carrier attack team. After three days of futile searching, he was forced to refuel at the forward base of Addu Island on the Maldives archipelago near the southern tip of India, and after refueling, he dispatched the light aircraft carrier "Vostok" and two cruisers to set off first.

Wang Yonggang estimated that this fleet was still in the Indian Ocean, but this proved to be a great mistake. In the afternoon of the same day, the pilot of a Bison water patrol plane, before being shot down by a Gale fighter, reported that the enemy's aircraft carrier was about 350 miles south of Ceylon. Wang Yonggang's forces were scattered and too far away from the enemy to intercept him, and all he could do was try to cover as quickly as possible to the 600-mile sea surface of Ceylon.

Vice Admiral Keno Kurita, who commanded the fleet, had no information on the whereabouts of the Chinese fleet from his patrol submarine, and similarly miscalculated that it must be anchored in Colombo harbor, and he planned another Pearl Harbor-style attack the next morning to annihilate the Chinese fleet in one fell swoop.

As the church bell rang for the worshippers in Colombo, radar spotted the approaching plane. At nearly 8 a.m., RAF Hurricane fighter jets roared off from a runway converted airstrip. However, the first British aircraft to encounter enemy aircraft were a squad of Swordfish torpedo bombers returning from Trincomalee to the aircraft carrier Athletic (which had been withdrawn from port along with two cruisers). All twelve wooden biplanes were shot down into the sea, and the first attack wave continued to fly. Frustrated by the fact that there were few ships in the harbor, he ordered his bombers to do what they had not done at Pearl Harbor: to concentrate on destroying the port facilities. Heavy anti-aircraft artillery fire and heavy attacks by RAF Hurricane fighters after finally spotting the enemy aircraft resulted in the downing of 16 Galewind fighters and the loss of 54 RAF aircraft due to their outnumbering. He said that he had failed to achieve the goal of destroying the port facilities and retreated in embarrassment.

Two small British naval ships were sunk, and a merchant ship caught fire. This is by no means a heavy blow to the British fleet or the Chinese fleet. At noon, when the plane was returning to the aircraft carrier, a seaplane of a heavy cruiser reported two cruisers to the southwest. Kurita now ordered the planes of the second attack wave to take off, and the planes remained on board because there were reports that there were no more targets to bomb in Colombo. They finally found the Chinese fleet, and their hopes were greatly increased. The anxious pilots found only two British heavy cruisers, meandering across the Indian Ocean in an attempt to evade the bombs of much more powerful enemy aircraft. The 10,000-ton "Dorsetshire" was hit by 32 bombs in quick succession, and a series of explosions lifted it out of the water. Twelve minutes later, its sister ship, the USS Cornwall, was hit by eight bombs and caught fire, and at nearly 2 p.m. it capsized and sank to the bottom of the sea, leaving more than 1,100 people on both ships to be rescued by the Chinese destroyers who arrived later.

When Wang Yonggang learned the news, he immediately led his fleet out to sea to look for the enemy, and later that afternoon, one of his aircraft carrier reconnaissance planes spotted the "Gale" fighter about 300 miles south of Ceylon. Kurita was unwilling to engage his aircraft carrier task force in an unfavorable night battle, so he accelerated eastward. The next day, when he searched west again, he found that the Chinese plane appeared above him. Because Wang Yonggang once again deployed the fleet to intercept the fleet heading for the Maldives Islands.

Although the fleet was warned in time, Kurita was confident that his fleet would be able to destroy the Chinese, so he did not choose to dodge. On the morning of the next day, about 100 Chinese planes swarmed and dropped bombs on the squadron, and 42 fighters took off to meet them. The two sides engaged in fierce fighting, and with no more fighters to deploy, the aircraft carrier Ruifeng became an easy target for Chinese pilots. At nearly 11 a.m., 12 bombs sank it; At the same time, the destroyers "Akebosake" and "Tide", which were guarding it, were sunk. This was the first time that the navy had encountered an opponent of equal strength since the start of the war in the Pacific, and Kurita decisively ordered to withdraw from the battle, avoiding further losses. Of course, his quick retreat was seen by many as an escape, and he did not complete the intended task of destroying the enemy.

While Kurita's attack fleet was engaged in a fierce battle with the Chinese fleet in the waters off Ceylon, Vice Admiral Jizaburo Ozawa's cruiser was also attacked by Chinese aircraft in the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean, and one light cruiser and four transport ships were sunk. These Chinese planes took off from Chinese light aircraft carriers escorting merchant ships. Although the Allies lost nearly 100,000 tons of ships in the Indian Ocean, they also suffered considerable losses. He realized that unless the Chinese navy active in the Pacific Ocean was defeated and eliminated, it would be impossible to achieve a real victory. The outcome of the Battle of Ceylon greatly shocked the Imperial General Staff Headquarters, forcing them to use various methods to achieve the goal of destroying the Chinese navy, and the course of the Pacific War was changed.

"This is the latest intelligence analysis, and all kinds of indications show that the Chinese army may take large-scale offensive actions against our base in the near future."

Looking at the intelligence analysis report on the table, Vice Admiral Wen Xuezhong, commander of the Truk Naval Base of the Chinese Navy, only nodded with a smile on his face and did not attract much attention.

"Our base is now the biggest nail they've hit in the Pacific, and of course they're going to pull it out as soon as possible." Wen Xuezhong said, "Is there any news from the submarine force?" ”

From the time after the Pearl Harbor incident to the present, in order to prevent itself from "copying" in Truk, the Chinese Navy has comprehensively strengthened its vigilance, not only has it set up additional radar stations, but it has also sent out a vigilance fleet composed of light aircraft carriers and destroyers in the waters around the base, and many ocean-going submarines have also been dispatched. In this case, Wen Xuezhong is confident that if the military fleet comes to attack, the Chinese Navy will definitely be able to detect and counterattack at the first time.

"Not yet." The intelligence officer replied.

"The ship that sank a few days ago, are you sure it's the transport ship?"

"Yes, although the ship does not have any nationality identification markings, from the analysis of the wreckage fragments, there is no doubt that the ship is the same ship."

"But why did the ship sink, but no human corpses were found?"

"Maybe the ship sank too fast, and I said I couldn't escape."

"By the way, haven't those murders been solved yet?" Wen Xuezhong remembered the recent attack and murder of a local indigenous woman, and somehow felt a little uneasy in his heart.

"Not yet." After listening to the commander's question, Li Shicheng was silent for a while and replied.

"And what about the homicide on the 'Republic'? Still no clue at all? Wen Xuezhong asked with some annoyance.

"It's not like there's no clue at all." Li Shicheng hesitated for a moment and said, "It's just...... The current conclusions are somewhat counterintuitive......"

"Unconscionable? Could it be that some non-human did it? Wen Xuezhong looked at Li Shicheng's hesitant look, and couldn't help but wonder, "What's going on?" ”

"I'm afraid it's just like you say, General......"

"What? The experts from Beijing have been checking for so many days and have come to such a conclusion? ”

"It's not just this case, it's also the case of the women who were killed and killed." Li Shicheng seemed to have made up his mind and said to the commander, "The murderer is not a person, and he is different from ordinary people in terms of physique and mental intelligence. ”

"Do you think it's going to be me?" Wen Xuezhong saw that his subordinate looked solemn and did not have the slightest intention of joking, and noticed the abnormality of the matter, and immediately asked.

"There is no evidence of that yet." Li Shicheng said, "But this kind of case has never happened before, but now that it comes out, I think there is something strange, I am afraid that it is related to some sabotage activities of myself." ”

"That means I'm probably sneaking in." Wen Xuezhong said with some annoyance, "And we haven't caught them yet!" ”

"Our people have been sent out, the situation has been reported, and Kyori said that someone will be sent over immediately......

"Don't wait for them, check me now! I'll ask the Marines to send a regiment over to help, and you arrange it to find those guys!" Wen Xuezhong waved his hand and said in an unquestionable tone, "Pass my order, once you find a suspicious person, you can kill it directly!" ”

"Yes!" Li Shicheng hurriedly got up and said.

"Love attacks young women, it's really terrible." Wen Xuezhong said to himself, "The feminists in Congress are still demanding the passage of a bill that allows women to serve on combat ships, but fortunately, there are no female soldiers here now, otherwise someone would have had an accident, and it would be really troublesome." ”

"Yes, this time it was a local woman who had an accident, and the impact was not too great, if it was a female soldier, the news would be transmitted back to China, and it would definitely cause an uproar." Li Shicheng said, "I think we should send a telegram to the upper side, euphemistically explain the situation, and don't let those rich daughters come here to 'gild'." ”

Wen Xuezhong nodded, and at this moment, a shrill "woo" alarm suddenly sounded outside.

"What's going on?" Wen Xuezhong got up and came to the window, looked out, and saw that a large group of planes suddenly appeared in the sky.

"It's my own plane...... Li Shicheng just finished speaking, when he saw a "Gale" fighter roaring down, followed by a Chinese "Skylark" fighter.

(To be continued)