833 The Pacific Rebellion was an accident

February 13, 1939, Truk Atoll, South Pacific.

Amid the dull sound of a whistle in the distance, a tense and busy atmosphere arose on the docks inside the Truk Lagoon. Trucks run back and forth between the docks and the warehouses on the four small islands of spring, summer, autumn and bamboo. Boxes of ammunition, food, canned food, compressed biscuits, military uniforms, raincoats, gun parts, fodder, vehicles and horses...... All sorts of unexpected supplies are transported like flowing water from several Chinese-flagged ships docked at the docks to carefully camouflaged warehouses. The Korean laborers, who were so tired that they could not even stand on their feet, were carried into warehouses by sorts under the supervision of Japanese soldiers shouting and cursing with rifles.

Next to the warehouse, at the entrance of the temporarily built barracks, there were neatly arranged Japanese army soldiers under the command of the officers, and they were constantly entering the barracks from the direction of the wharf. The air throughout Truk Atoll was filled with excitement, tension and anxiety about the coming of the great war.

This is the foundation of the Japanese Empire's foothold in the South Pacific, the Truk Atoll. It is the most important anchorage of the Japanese Combined Fleet in the South Pacific and the location of the Southern Front Command of the Japanese Army. Since last November, all the materials related to the war have been stored in factories and warehouses from all over Japan, and ships of heavily armed Japanese soldiers have arrived here from far away. Of course, some of them did not make it to the end and were sent into the Pacific Ocean by the British fleet and the American submarines to feed the fish! However, most of the Japanese devils still arrived without any problems.

By December, after Japan had officially joined the Iron Alliance, China had begun to provide supplies for Japan's southward advance, albeit reluctantly...... However, in order to coax the Japanese devils to attack the Americas, Luo Yaoguo still pinched his nose and transported a shipload of supplies to Pearl Harbor and this Truk Atoll. And along with these Chinese-produced military supplies, of course, Chinese ships and crews arrived.

The sound of tapping leather shoes disrupted the busy rhythm on the docks, and the Japanese soldiers and Korean coolies turned their heads to see a big fat major general in the summer uniform of the Chinese Defense Forces and a lieutenant colonel of the Chinese Navy with delicate eyebrows walking slowly, and behind them there was a group of Chinese Defense Force Navy soldiers wearing sea soul shirts.

"Stand upright...... Salute! ”

Several Japanese petty officers who supervised the unloading of goods knew that these Chinese were specifically responsible for transporting military supplies to Japan! Without them, the war machine of the Japanese Empire would have been extinguished in less than a month. Therefore, although he was not very convinced, he still shouted out the password of "stand upright and salute".

One of the people who came was Major General Wu Chong, deputy director of the Maritime Bureau of the Joint Logistics General Headquarters of the Chinese National Defense Forces, and the other was Lieutenant Colonel Hu Dingxin, deputy chief of staff of the National Defense Forces' Naval Transport Command. The two high-ranking lieutenant officers responded to each of Japan's friendly officers and soldiers with the most sincere smiles. After dealing with these hypocritical diplomatic etiquette, the eyes of the two lieutenant officers, one large and one small, began to "scan" over and over again in this lagoon large enough to accommodate the entire Japanese Combined Fleet.

And when they found two Japanese battleships being replenished in the middle of a pile of large and small Japanese warships, a trace of imperceptible excitement involuntarily climbed into their brows.

"Dingxin brother, they are...... Battleships, right? That's huge! Wu Fatzi pointed to the two giant ships and asked Lieutenant Colonel Hu Dingxin beside him in a low voice.

"Wei Gong (Wu Chong), that's the Japanese battle cruisers Hiei and Haruna." Hu Dingxin recognized at first glance the two British-style Japanese battlecruisers, two sister ships that had run aground in the Bohai Bay during the September 18 War eight years earlier, which also sparked controversy between China, Japan and the Soviet Union. At that time, Hu Dingxin was still a student at the Naval Academy, and he had seen the "King Kong" and "Kirishima" more than once in newspapers and various video materials published by the school.

"The two battlecruisers are nothing, but it's a little unusual that the transports are stuck here." Hu Dingxin pointed to the dense fleet of ships in the lagoon, and said: "It seems that the Japanese will soon launch a southward attack, otherwise these ships will not stay here, and the Japanese are still very tight on their capacity!" ”

"So, this Truk Atoll is the general logistics base for Japan to go south to Australia?" Wu Zhong twisted his eyebrows and asked again. His real identity is still a high-ranking agent of the Military Intelligence Bureau, and he came to Truk in the name of the director of the Maritime Transport Bureau of the Joint Logistics Command, of course, to collect intelligence. In addition, the MIA has set up an office in the Truk Atoll under the name of the Maritime Authority. This is Japan's most important forward base in the South Pacific, which is under its own close surveillance.

"Not just a general logistics base, but a fundamental powerhouse!" Hu Dingxin pointed to the two large docks on the edge of the pier and said: "Of all the islands in the South Pacific, only Truk Atoll has a large dock that can accommodate aircraft carriers and battleships. Ships damaged in naval battles can be repaired here as long as they are not heavily damaged, which is very important for Japan to fight for sea supremacy in the South Pacific. If there is no dock here, the damaged warship will have to go back to the mainland for repairs, and once and again, it will take a month on the road, and what kind of battle will there be. ”

Fat Wu nodded meaningfully, and muttered in a low voice: "It seems that these little Japanese pondering going south will not be a day or two, and such a fundamental land cannot be built at once...... If only we could have a forward base like this. ”

"Alright! That's not something we think about. At this time, Hu Dingxin saw two Japanese adjutants walking briskly towards his side, and hurriedly pulled Wu Chong. Wei Gong, look, the two of them are here. ”

"Oh, it's these two 'turtle dukes' again, and I don't know if the comfort women will ...... this time" A trace of annoyance flashed on Wu Chong's face, but in a blink of an eye, he changed to a smiling face and strode up to meet it.

……

South Pacific, 150 nautical miles north of New Ireland Island. At this time, a huge fleet is rapidly heading north!

2 Prestige-class battlecruisers, 5 Tejas class aircraft carriers, 1 Ark Royal-class aircraft carrier, 3 Kent-class heavy cruisers, 2 London-class heavy cruisers, 4 Cali-class light cruisers, 5 Southampton-class light cruisers, as well as 22 destroyers and 3 fast tankers.

A full 47 ships sailed on the endless blue sea with billowing smoke that almost obscured the sky. Although the scene was so spectacular, in this large fleet, from the commander-in-chief Cunningham, down to every ordinary sailor, they were all in a state of apprehension at the moment. At present, all the capital ships of the British Imperial Navy have been concentrated here, and such a naval scale is very remarkable for those second- and third-rate powers, but it is really a bit shabby for the British Royal Navy, which not long ago thought that it could dominate the seas.

If there is another slip of the day, it will not be the ships here, but the entire empire that will be sunk! Thinking of this, every officer and sailor of the British Royal Navy couldn't help but feel a burst of heartache and unease.

But inside the flagship aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, Admiral Cunningham was not as pessimistic as the officers and sailors. It is also possible that he deliberately hid his worries, and the British admiral was leisurely drinking afternoon tea. It's as if this trip was not a trip to find a Japanese devil, but a heart-warming trip.

To be honest, he is not particularly confident in his "glow-in-the-dark" plan for a night attack on Truk. However, the current situation could not allow him to wait and hesitate any longer. Because Chinese have seized Singapore, Sumatra, the Andaman Islands...... The passage to India in the west and Australia in the south has been largely cleared! If you wait any longer, maybe the 6 aircraft carriers of the Chinese should attack the port of Darwin.

So, after receiving the news of the fall of Singapore, Admiral Cunningham gave the order to "attack all in one" without any hesitation! In order to defend Australia, he had to destroy Truk Atoll, the stronghold of the Japanese navy south, before the Chinese could recuperate and launch a new attack.

However, this battle was not completely uncertain, and because of the "Anglo-Japanese cooperation" in the past few years, Britain had grasped quite a bit of the development of the Japanese army and navy aviation, and knew that they would not have the ability to fight at night due to problems in equipment and training. And Japan has so far also not had an air defense alert radar, and the anti-aircraft artillery units were not equipped with a sufficient number of searchlights...... As a matter of fact, at present, all countries in the world are still in the stage of exploring night bombing and air defense, and although many countries can send bombers at night, they do not have many methods for night air warfare. Except for Britain and Germany, which are developing special night fighters, other countries are still basically blank in this regard, not to mention Japan, which does not have a strong air force.

"Lieutenant General, this is the weather forecast for today and tomorrow." At this time, the communications staff officer handed a translated message to Lieutenant General Phillips, who was drinking coffee with Cunningham.

"Hehe, the night of the 13th and 14th is a good cloudless day, and our lad will surely find Truk Atoll with the help of moonlight." Lieutenant General Phillips looked at the weather forecast and laughed happily.

The biggest difficulty in the night attack on Truk is actually to find this small atoll in the vast darkness, as long as it is found, it will definitely be able to teach the Japanese devils a painful lesson! And in order to find Truk Atoll at night, Admiral Cunningham and Lieutenant General Phillips used a lot of brains. First, they chose the days around February 15, when the moon was relatively round, to launch their raid. Secondly, they also arranged for several submarines equipped with high-power transmitters to ambush near Truk Island, and on the night of the raid, they were to provide navigation to the aircraft with radio signals; In the end, of course, the British intelligence system was ordered to make every effort to find out the weather conditions on Truk Island around February 15.

"Where are we now? How far is it from Truk Island? Admiral Cunningham put down the cup containing the Indian tea and looked up to ask Phillips.

Phillips took a chart showing the position of the fleet from the hand of a lieutenant of the Qinghai Army beside him, looked at it, and said: "We are 150 nautical miles north of the island of New Britain, about 450 nautical miles from Truk Atoll, and about 330 nautical miles from point X, and we have about 430 nautical miles (taking a zigzag course to avoid submarines) and at a speed of 17.2 knots, the fleet will be able to reach its designated position in 25 hours." As he spoke, he looked down at his watch again. It's 6 p.m. on Feb. 13 and 25 hours later at 7 p.m. on Feb. 14, about 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. ”

"February 14 at 7 p.m." Admiral Cunningham repeated in a low voice, took a breath, and said, "Well, there are still 25 hours left to decide the fate of the British Empire, and God will bless the Empire and the Royal Navy!" ”

……

"When will Singapore's airport and port facilities be restored? When will the Nanyang Fleet be able to strike again? ”

Luo Yaoguo gently put down the document in his hand and asked Chen Si, the Minister of the Navy opposite, with a smile. But in my heart, I was muttering, this time I was a bit of a waste of ammunition to fight Singapore, thousands of tons of aerial bombs plus more than 80,000 naval artillery shells of various calibers! This Singapore must not be razed to the ground, if a good Singapore is destroyed, it will be time-consuming and laborious to repair it.

"It won't take too long." Chen Si replied: "Although we dropped thousands of bombs, we did not blow up the docks and docks, those bombs mainly blew up the forts and forts. So at present, Singapore's Zhangyi Naval Base is basically usable, and the airport is more damaged, but it won't take too much time to repair. As for the Navy's Nanyang Fleet, after all, they have been fighting continuously for 2 months, and although there is no damage, they still need to rest for more than ten days...... They only returned to the Zhanjiang military port on February 5, and they were scheduled to rest until February 20, which means that they could attack again in six days. ”

After Chen Si finished talking about the rest plan, he looked at Luo Yaoguo with a blank eye, for fear that he would cancel the rest of the Nanyang Fleet with a wave of his hand. Luo Yaoguo just smiled and said, "It's necessary to rest for half a month, and besides, the direction of our next attack has not yet been determined." Hualong, Brother Jiansheng, what do you suggest? ”

"I don't understand the big strategy, let's listen to Deputy Chief of General Staff Bai and Minister He." Chen Si waved his hand and let the question out.

"Singapore and Sumatra are in hand, and the door to Southeast Asia is closed, but French Indochina has not moved." Bai Chongxi shook his head and asked rhetorically, "Brother Fuwen, do you have any other thoughts about French Indochina?" ”

"It's some ideas." Luo Yaoguo frowned, "I'm wondering if we should completely annex the three countries of Vietnam, Khmer, and Laos?" Vietnam, in particular, has long established its own culture and history, and the Vietnamese independence movement has always been relatively strong. Are we going to think about keeping a kingdom of Annam attached to China? ”

In Luo Yaoguo's memory in his previous life, Vietnam was a small overlord in Southeast Asia, and it seemed that even the United States had suffered from it, and it seemed that it should be handled carefully. As he spoke, he asked Natalie to find a map of Southeast Asia and spread it out on his desk.

"You see, the kingdom of Vietnam has been dismembered by the French Indochina authorities into three parts: Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. Among them, the Vietnamese king Bao Dai nominally ruled only the central region of Vietnam, centered on Hue. We can incorporate the Tokyo area into China, and in addition, the Kunlun Island in Cochinchina and the area around Cam Ranh Bay into China...... The Tokyo area, Kunlun Island, and Cam Ranh Bay could be merged to form a Quang Viet province. What do you think of the remaining parts of Annam and Cochinchina that could be merged to form a single kingdom of Annam? ”

"It's not good to distribute it this way." Bai Chongxi shook his head, he pointed to the Cochinchina on the map and said with a smile: "I heard that the southern region of Vietnam was seized from the Khmer, it is better to return Saigon and the Mekong Delta, Phu Quoc Island and other areas to the Khmer Kingdom, and annex the remaining Cochinchina region to Vietnam." ”

"Brother Jiansheng's method is good." As soon as He Yingqin heard Bai Chongxi's plan, he shouted loudly: "Brother Fuwen, after we swallow Tokyo, those Vietnamese will inevitably be hostile to us, and the Khmer people will definitely be grateful to us for recovering their homeland." Moreover, the Khmer and Vietnam have had a territorial dispute since then, and they will never unite against us again. And we can reap the benefits by inciting the two countries to fight each other. ”

"Well, it's better to do it this way!" Luo Yaoguo tapped the map lightly, "In this way, the strength of the three countries of Khmer, Vietnam and Laos is more balanced, and this area is controlled by these three countries, and it should not be out of our control." As he spoke, he pointed to the island of Jawa at the bottom of the map and said, "The Ranyin book is for Japan...... Now that we have taken Sumatra and South Borneo, it is not good to take the rest directly, why don't we support a national independence activist there or something? What is the name of that Lanyin revolutionary? ”

"It's called Sukarno." Natalie reminded on the side.

"Well, that's him, let the Military Intelligence find a way to find him and ask him if he wants to do it. If you are willing to do it...... Just support it. As he spoke, Luo Yaoguo's finger pointed to British Burma on the map again. The ethnic groups in northern Myanmar have something to do with our China, so they will be directly incorporated into Yunnan Province. Southern Myanmar followed Siam's example in establishing a Dominion, and the next step is to seek to be incorporated into China. Finally, he pointed to the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. The Malay Peninsula, the Andaman Islands, and Sumatra form the province of Singapore, and Borneo, Palawan, and the Kalamian Islands merge to form Hainan Province, with the capital of the province in Brunei. ”

In this way, in just a few words, Luo Yaoguo arbitrarily distributed most of Southeast Asia's belonging. Just when Bai Chongxi, He Yingqin, and Chen Si were about to brag about it, a rapid knock suddenly sounded outside the door. "Auxiliary, the Admiralty reports that Truk Atoll has been suddenly attacked!"

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