The Third Battle of Changsha ended with the victory of the Chinese army, during which the Japanese suffered more than 56,000 Japanese casualties and nearly 200 prisoners. When the troops of the 27th Group Army of the Chinese army were cleaning up the battlefield in the area under their jurisdiction, because there were too many Japanese corpses to deal with, they ordered Pingjiang, Changsha, and Xiangyin counties to dispatch a number of civilian workers to dig three large earth pits and bury the Japanese corpses in a concentrated manner, and thousands of corpses were buried in one pit. The troops also sent people to erect a stone monument next to the pit, which was engraved with the words "mass grave" as a mark.

The victory in the Battle of Changsha was the first great victory of the Allied forces since Pearl Harbor. The Japanese army intended to create a miracle of victory on the continent in the Third Battle of Changsha, comparable to the miracle of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in the Pacific, but it backfired, and "stealing chickens does not make rice" and suffered a crushing defeat instead.

After learning the news of the great victory of the Chinese army on the Changsha front, the media of the Allied countries spoke highly of the significance of this victory.

The British newspaper The Times commented: "Since December 7, the only decisive victory of the Allied forces has been the great victory of the Chinese army in Changsha. ”

London's Daily Telegraph published: "In the fog of the Far East, only the clouds over Changsha are dazzling. ”

After covering the battlefield in northern Hunan on the spot, American journalist Formen wrote: "China's third victory in Changsha proved the principle that if the Chinese army was equipped with the same equipment as the Japanese army, they could easily defeat the Japanese army. ”

The Japanese Central High Command was very frustrated by the defeat of this campaign, believing that this crushing defeat would shake the belief of some soldiers in victory, and it would take a long time and more victories to recover.

Commander Anan Yuiki, commander of the Japanese 11th Army, who organized and commanded the Third Battle of Changsha, expressed his guilt and criticism to the Japanese high command for his arbitrary attack on Changsha, the loss of troops and the consequences of such a fiasco.

The excellent fighting of the Chinese army on the Changsha front raised China's position among the Central Powers and changed the perception of the vulnerability of the Chinese army on the Chinese battlefield. When the Battle of Changsha was still in full swing, US President Roosevelt immediately sent a telegram to China's supreme military authorities, suggesting that China, British Burma, and French Indochina be designated as the Chinese theater of operations, and that the supreme command of the Chinese theater be established and that the Chinese leaders be appointed as the supreme commanders of the allied forces in the Chinese theater.

On 3 January, the Allies announced the decision of the Chinese leader to assume the post of supreme commander in the Chinese theater and appointed US Army Lieutenant General Stilwell as chief of staff of the United Nations Forces Planning and Staff and concurrently the US military representative in China to assist in commanding the troops in the Chinese theater.

Twenty-two days after the victory in Changsha, the U.S. government announced a huge amount of aid, and they generously gave China a loan of $500 million to aid China's war of resistance.

The main reason why the United States has so generously contributed money to China is that more than four years of war have proved that the Chinese are especially capable of fighting. This is of great significance to holding back the southward advance of the Japanese army, relieving the pressure on the US forces in the western and southern Pacific, and fulfilling the Allied military plan of "Europe first and then Asia."

On the same day that the U.S. government announced that it would lend a huge amount of money to China, Roosevelt called China. In the telegram he said:

"The resistance of the Chinese army to the brutal aggressor evokes the highest praise from the American people and all other freedom-loving peoples. The indomitable spirit of the armed and unarmed peoples of China, who have put up resolute resistance for nearly five years against an enemy who is far superior in terms of equipment, in the face of great disparities, has inspired all the combatants and peoples of the other United States......"

At that time, the Japanese army's plan to advance south was progressing smoothly, and it was winning on the battlefield one after another.

On January 21, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo delivered a policy speech in the Diet and put forward the idea of building Greater East Asia. Then, as the Japanese army continued to sweep through the Pacific island countries, Prime Minister Tojo issued an intimidating statement to the countries on the Pacific coast that had not yet been "swept away": "If Burma, India, the Dutch East Indies, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries voluntarily participate in the construction of Greater East Asia seized by Japan and seek independence, Japan will assist them." The implication is that

If these countries rise up against the Western overlords who rule them, Japan will not only refrain from attacking them, but will also vigorously assist them in their "national revolutionary struggle" to drive out the colonizers and allow them to "gain independence."

At this time, a major event of great significance took place in the international arena.

New Year's Day 1942. Twenty-six countries, including the United States, Britain, China, and the Soviet Union, issued a "Joint Declaration" in Washington opposing fascist aggression, and the participating countries resolved to fight together against the Axis powers and never make peace alone.

The adoption and promulgation of the "Joint Declaration" marked the formal formation of the anti-fascist world forces into a solid combat entity and an alliance to defend against the enemy. Since then, the anti-fascist armies of various countries have supported each other, closely cooperated, coordinated operations, made unified arrangements, and gradually gained and expanded the campaign and strategic initiative, until finally won a complete victory in World War II.

On the Yangtze River in March, although it has been more than a month since spring, the cold wind is still cold. In the Yangtze River opposite Jiujiang City, in the desolate Caijiazhou Einsatzgruppen base camp, Xiao Xiong briefed all the officers and men on a series of recent international and domestic events.

Since the Japanese army launched the Pacific War on 8 December last year, the devils have used the navy, land, and air force to easily cut off the South Asian island countries that the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands have painstakingly managed for many years, and the colonies of the Western powers in the past have been turned into Japan's strategic material supply areas. Immediately afterwards, the Japanese army launched a frenzied attack on Hong Kong and the countries of Southeast Asia that had not yet been occupied.

On December 25, 1941, tens of thousands of British troops in Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese 23rd Army after a little resistance;

On January 2, 1942, the Japanese army effortlessly occupied Manila, the capital of the Philippines;

On January 23, the Japanese Nanhai detachment landed at Rabaul and easily occupied the city;

On January 24, the Japanese captured Bahoupapan;

On 30 January, the Japanese Eastern Detachment occupied the island of Anti-Timor without much resistance;

On 4 February, the Japanese naval air force attacked the Dutch East Indies Fleet off the coast of Java;

On 9 February, the Japanese occupied Makassar;

On February 10, the Japanese occupied Machen;

On February 14, Japanese airborne troops occupied Sumatra;

On 15 February, the Japanese captured Singapore, the headquarters of the British Far East Army. The commander of the British forces, General Bai Xihua, surrendered to the Japanese 25th Army. When the Japanese captured Singapore, they captured more than 300 mountain guns of various kinds; a hundred anti-aircraft guns; Fortress cannon fifty-four

Door; more than 60,000 rifles; There were more than 10,000 automobiles, which was more than double the number of cars in China at that time, and more than 100,000 British generals and soldiers at all levels surrendered to the Japanese army.

The Japanese captured Singapore, a maritime point connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and in fact broke through the key to the southern region.

At this time, in accordance with the "Sino-British Agreement on the Joint Defense of the Yunnan-Burma Road" signed in December 1941, China organized an expeditionary force, and the 5th, 6th, and 66th armies led by General Du Yuming entered Burma to fight.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese army invested about 100,000 men in four divisions and with the support of 250 combat planes to attack Burma in three ways, in an attempt to cut off the Yunnan-Burma highway and block the military aid of Britain and the United States to China, in a vain attempt to cut off China's lifeline of obtaining strategic materials from overseas, and then invade Yunnan from Burma.

The Japanese attack on Burma was even worse for the British. The British army suffered successive defeats in the European theater, and its military strength in Asia was weak, and the British army in Burma had only two divisions, which were unable to stop the Japanese offensive. Fortunately, the British army was not isolated in Asia, and the Sino-British Agreement on the Joint Defense of the Yunnan-Burma Road signed in Chongqing on December 23, 1941, announced the establishment of a Sino-British military alliance.

Originally, the Chinese army was willing and able to help the British army hold back the Japanese army in Burma, but the British army, which was under-armed, was overconfident at first and actually blocked the Chinese army from entering Burma, resulting in the rapid rout of the British army, and they withdrew to southern Burma in disarray, thus delaying the best opportunity to fight against Japan.

On March 8, the Japanese captured Rangoon. The British changed their minds and desperately hoped that the Chinese army would enter Burma as soon as possible to fight the Japanese army.

On March 12, the First Route Commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was established, with Wei Lihuang as the commander and Du Yuming as the deputy commander. It has three armies, namely the Fifth Army, which Du Yuming is also the commander, the Sixth Army of Gan Lichu, and the 66th Army, which is temporarily absent as a commander. The expeditionary force numbered 100,000 men and was well equipped and part of Chiang Kai-shek's elite troops.

The Chinese Expeditionary Force marched day and night into Burma, but what they did not expect was that the British army easily abandoned Rangoon, which made the Chinese army enter Burma and immediately fell into a predicament.

Xiao Xiong believes that although China has formed an alliance with the United States and Europe and other countries, the current Japanese offensive is on the front, and all parts of Southeast Asia have fallen into the hands of the Japanese army. The war has entered a very difficult and critical moment. In Chinese mainland, the Japanese army moved a large number of elite troops to fight in the south, although it was ostensibly unable to organize a large-scale offensive. But we must be ready to fight big battles, bad battles.

Some time ago, because he was ordered to cooperate with the operations on the Changsha front, he did not take action against the secret intelligence team of the Japanese army in northern Jiangxi. However, they are, after all, the henchmen of our Einsatzgruppen, and we must always avoid them in our actions.

Xiao Xiong asked Li Ran:

"How is your intelligence team doing with the investigation of the devil's spy team?"

Li Ran paused and said:

"Now, our bait has been sprinkled abundantly enough, the fish seem to smell something, and recently, there has been an electronic reconnaissance vehicle of devils near Miaozhipu."

"That's fine, it looks like the fish is about to take the bait."