In the last days of 1940, the smoke of gunfire that lasted for a year seemed to have faded considerably. However, as the Axis accelerated the deployment of troops, the German-Italian seizure of Malta and the Japanese Navy's battleship Yamato was officially commissioned, the blood cloud that spread across the world not only did not disappear, but became thicker and thicker.

The Yamato, which started construction 12 months earlier than history, injected a shot in the arm for Japan, and even the Japanese Army launched new offensives on the Sumatra, Borneo, and Mekong fronts. However, North Korea, which is the main theater of operations, continues to stalemate due to heavy snowfall for several weeks. Moreover, the low temperatures that swept across Siberia and the entire north also ruined the Air Force's plan to bomb the Yamato, although it was a pity, but the news that the battleship Shandong of the Chinese Navy had also joined the First Fleet five days later dispelled the depression of being crushed by the Yamato. In addition, with the efforts of the workers day and night, the third and fourth Guangdong and Guangxi ships of the Liaoning-class aircraft carrier also joined the Second Fleet two months ahead of schedule, and after the commissioning ceremony, they immediately went to Guam to take over the Liaoning formation of the XN21 battle group with the Xi'an-class Nanning, the Yarlung Zangbo-class light cruiser Lancangjiang, and the First Fleet's Shanghai and Chongqing battleships.

So far, the XN21 battle group has two Liaoning-class fleet aircraft carriers, three Mingjiang-class escort carriers, two Xi'an-class heavy cruisers, two Taiwan-class heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, 22 destroyers, 20 frigates, and 30 submarines, making it the most powerful aircraft carrier battle group in the southwest Pacific at present. With the aircraft carrier Guizhou, the battleships Ninghai and Dinghai, which were injured in the Battle of the Ryukyus, and the two French Dunkirk-class air defense refits nearing completion, the Navy reunited its forces in just four months.

In the world, the successive commissioning of cutting-edge warships of China and Japan has also given a great shock to Europe and the United States. If the Shandong-class, with a full load displacement of 72600 tons and 12 406 mm / L50 naval guns, let them speak sourly, then. The 460 mm/L45 naval guns used by the battleship Yamato directly caused the US Navy to worry about whether to re-study whether to build Montana-class battleships.

However, Yang Qiu has no time to take care of this, there is still more than a month before the Lunar New Year, in order to make everyone happy to have a good year, he must complete the adjustment of the army and the awarding of titles before the New Year. When the cabinet was adjusted, Yang Qiu wanted to adjust the army at the same time, but at that time, because the war was tight, there was no chance. Now it is freezing in several major theaters. The most powerful Central Asia and Siberia have already cooled by more than 30 degrees below zero, and the General Staff does not want to launch a large-scale campaign at the cost of casualties in such weather, so it is the best opportunity.

After a year of continuous fighting, both the country and the army need to adjust, especially the army. Promotion, reward, supplement, and promotion may seem vain, but they directly affect the unity and morale of the troops, and are related to the more difficult wars that follow. Therefore, after some consideration and referring to the military's suggestions, the military finally awarded the rank of marshal to Yue Peng, Chief of the General Staff, Chen Shaokuan, Commander of the Navy, He Ning, Commander of the Air Force, Fang Wei, Commander of the Army, Xu Shuzheng, Commander-in-Chief of the Central Asian Theater, Zhang Xiaozhun, Commander of the Northeast Theater, Qin Zhangshu, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and Qiu Wenbin, Commander of the Southwest Theater! Twenty-seven people, including Yu Lei, Xu Huansheng, Bingwen of the Navy, Shen Honglie, Zhu Binhou, Bai Yutang, Chu Nan, Liu Mingzhao, Long Yun, Zhu Peide, Bai Chongxi, Li Zongren, He Xifan, Sun Chuanfang, Mei Sheng, and Xue Yue, were promoted to generals (including the first and second grades), Du Yuming, Ye Weixun, and more than 30 army, navy, and air force generals were promoted to lieutenant generals, and Zhuo Fan became one of the more than 80 officers promoted to major general. Two years from the school level to the legend of the lieutenant general. Broke the record for the speed of promotion in the army. A total of 150,000 soldiers were awarded various promotions and decorations, as were the Congressional Medals for thousands of technicians, workers and peasant deputies who contributed to the war.

According to the military regulations, the marshal is transcendent and does not hold actual positions. Therefore, Yue Peng, who has been in charge of the chief of general staff of the three armed services for more than 30 years, and eight marshals have stepped down one after another. However, it is wartime, so they will remain in the General Staff and continue to serve in the war.

In the end, Chu Nan, a former first-class general of the army, became the chief of the general staff of the three services, Yu Lei took over as the commander of the air force and deputy chief of the general staff of the three services, Zhao Meihang, commander of the air force of the Persian theater, as the chief of staff of the air force, and Xu Huansheng became the deputy chief of staff. Bingwen served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Three Services. Shen Honglie was appointed deputy commander-in-chief, Bai Yutang was appointed chief of staff of the Navy and commander of the First Fleet, and Chen Shiying was appointed commander of the Second Fleet. The commander of the army was succeeded by Long Yun. Chen Meng served as deputy commander-in-chief, Liu Mingzhao served as chief of staff of the army, Bai Chongxi and Zhu Peide served as deputy chiefs of staff, and as the national defense forces completed the replacement of the old and new cores of the second generation, the front-line generals also underwent major adjustments, Mei Sheng became the commander-in-chief of the Central Asian Theater, Sun Chuanfang was appointed deputy commander-in-chief, Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren continued to serve as commanders of the Persian Gulf and Indian theaters, Chen Meng took over as commander of the Northeast Theater, Ouyang Nan took over as commander of the Southwest Theater, and the Marine Corps remained unchanged.

The completion of the replacement of the old and the new in the army also means that in the later war, the third-generation national defense force officers and soldiers represented by Zhuo Fan, Li Jin, Ye Weixun, Zhang Peng, Pan Duheng and others officially provoked the front-line pillars. In addition to internal adjustments, due to the entry of the United States into the war, China, the United States, Britain, and France urgently hoped to establish a joint command of the Asian European Forces, so Brigadier General Zhang Xiao went to London to serve as the top Chinese officer of the Allied European Theater Command, and Qiu Wenbin was appointed commander-in-chief of the Allied Asian Theater, with the headquarters in Hong Kong.

While Yang Qiu made drastic adjustments to the army, the most fierce North African battlefield was still surging. On December 8, the British commander-in-chief of North Africa, Wavell, launched Operation Compass, in which 30,000 Anglo-Australian troops under the command of Lieutenant General O'Connor suddenly drilled out of the Sidi Barani corridor and launched a counteroffensive against the Italian 10th Army in Libya. Only five hours after the battle began, the Italian army began to flee, the Italian commander General Peter Maletti was killed, and more than 4,000 Italian troops were killed or captured.

Over the next three days, the Italian army lost a total of 237 artillery pieces, 73 tanks destroyed or captured, and nearly 40,000 soldiers killed or captured. The British advanced west along the Victoria Highway and captured Fort Kaptso in Libya through the Hafaya Pass. For the speed of O'Connor's attack, the Italian 10th Army Corps was caught off guard, and the equipment and supplies were inferior, especially the Italian army, which was in a mess of tactical organization, was defeated one after another, and one after another troops laid down their arms and surrendered. By January 5, 1941, O'Connor had occupied Badia, and on January 15, eleven days before the Chinese Chinese New Year's Eve, he officially captured Tubrug.

In just over a month, the Italian 10th Legion, which had 150,000 troops, was disabled. In total, 110,000 soldiers were captured. But just as O'Connor was trying to make further efforts to take the Villanian city of Benghazi, he was suddenly attacked by a German armored battalion that landed there. It turned out that Mussolini saw that his navy was basically finished, Malta also had to rely on the Luftwaffe, and the 10th Army Corps was losing and retreating, so he had to promise Hitler that he could send "a small number of troops" to participate in the North African operation. Hitler was very happy to hear the news, and immediately landed Rommel in North Africa, and O'Connor was attacked by the German troops who had been involved in North Africa in advance. However, the Germans did not expect O'Connor to be so fast, so Rommel's main force had not yet arrived. Benghazi has only one armored battalion and one infantry regiment. But it was such an armored battalion of only thirty or so No. 4 tanks that broke O'Connor's plan to quickly take Benghazi.

The news of the German invasion of North Africa made Churchill uneasy and demanded that Roosevelt immediately send land forces to North Africa in an attempt to drive the Germans out of the sea and retake the crucial island of Malta before they could gain a foothold. Meantime. Churchill and Wavell also appealed to the Chinese Persian Army for help. However, at this time, even if Bai Chongxi had the heart, he couldn't take out his troops at all, because the battle in the Horn of North Africa also entered **.

In order to control the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait after the war, Bai Chongxi launched the East African offensive before the sneak attack on Taranto. With the return of Zhu Binhou's victory, he again sent three additional infantry divisions to Djibouti, and for the first time, two Saudi infantry divisions and an armored brigade equipped with Type 31 tanks were mobilized. He also made Zhu Jiande the commander of the East African Alliance, and finally asked Zhu Binhou to send a fleet to protect the landing of the army from the port of Sava in Eritrea. A total of seven divisions and nearly 100,000 soldiers were under the command of Zhu Jiande. Taking advantage of the superiority, the armored corps continued to penetrate and outflank, and in the face of all Type 31 tanks, the Italian East African Army led by the Duke of Aosta was defeated and retreated one after another, until the end of December. The East African coalition led by Zhu Jiande occupied all of Eritrea and declared it to be under Chinese trusteeship for the time being.

Because after the war, Djibouti was to be returned to France. Therefore, the conditions were good, and the port of Assab, which directly faced the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, was favored by Zhu Binhou and decided to immediately dredge the harbor as a new naval base after the war. This plan was also approved by the General Staff of the General Staff, and Yang Qiu also put the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in contact with the local tribes, preparing to learn from Djibouti, and plan to divide the Assab region after the war, and establish a state on its own for better control.

Upon learning that Eritrea was under Chinese trusteeship, King Haile Selassie I, who was in Cairo, immediately went to Djibouti and held talks with Bai Chongxi, commander of the Chinese Persian Gulf Army, and Liao Zhongkai, the Chinese minister of industry and commerce who had returned from Turkey. Immediately after the talks, Haile Selassie I asked the Ethiopian army under his leadership to fully cooperate with the Chinese army, and with the help of these local guerrillas, Zhu Jiande attacked faster. By Chinese New Year's Eve, 24 January, two mechanized infantry divisions breaking through from the middle of Djibouti captured Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and declared a military trusteeship for Ethiopia.

In this battle, the East African coalition army led by Zhu Jiande killed and wounded more than 10,000 Italian soldiers at the cost of less than 3,000 casualties, and captured as many as 100,000 people! A large amount of supplies and equipment was also seized, forcing the Duke of Osseta to retreat to southern Ethiopia and Mogadishu with the remnants of his 170,000 main forces.

The successive defeats of the 10th Army Corps and the East African Army finally woke up Musonieri's hope of not letting Germany intervene and dominate North Africa from then on, and began to actively cooperate with the German Rommel army to enter North Africa.

Wavell immediately decided to storm Benghazi after learning of Zhu Jiande's resounding victory and dismantling the threat behind Egypt. But before O'Connor could go on the offensive, the situation in Greece began to deteriorate. Considering the importance of Greece and the Balkans, Marshal Alexander could only suspend the offensive and negotiate with the United States to reinforce Greece.

"It's 18 inches, not the 16 inches we predicted, and it's very powerful."

In the Oval Office of the White House, Secretary of the Navy Stark introduced Roosevelt to the battleship Yamato. As a naval conservative, he still hoped to immediately build a new class of battleships to fight China and Japan.

Roosevelt, however, had no interest in this, and was more concerned with what to do with the Southwest Pacific.

Secretary of State Hull, who is in charge of foreign communications, leaned on the table and conveyed the information brought by Gu Weijun and Chen Shaokuan's visit to the United States to Marshall and others: "Beijing asked us to attack Rabaul and the Coral Sea as soon as possible to open up sea routes between the two countries. In addition, it is hoped that assistance will be received as soon as possible, and at least 100 large generator sets, 2,000 B17 bombers, 500,000 trucks, and 400,000 tons of aluminum will be needed. ”

A series of exaggerated figures made everyone here gasp vigorously, which is to help. It's simply taking advantage of the opportunity to blackmail. Even Roosevelt pinched his nose and pretended not to hear. China's aid must be given, but he is not yet going to be blackmailed, so he asked Hull: "What did Britain say about the matter of command?" ”

Prime Minister Churchill had categorically refused, saying that the Cairo Declaration and the subsequent distribution of command had already been adopted by the British Parliament and that it was a matter of diplomatic relations with Beijing. He believes that we should abide by the agreement, and that all Allied ships entering the Southwest Pacific should be at the mercy of Beijing. He expressed his readiness to hand over command of Australia and the South-East Pacific to us. ”

"Did he really say that?"

"Really."

"This cunning fat man!" Roosevelt was.

Churchill, this old fox! Obviously, after using himself to trap Yang Qiu once, he was worried about being too angry, so he helped Yang Qiu to trap himself again. In the end, the good guy let the fat man do it! And he is obviously too selfish, because Britain will definitely benefit the most from doing so. At that time, all the military power of the United States will be used in Europe. That means that Europe can get hundreds of ships, tens of thousands of aircraft, tens of thousands of tanks and other military supplies every year.

Roosevelt was secretly angry with Churchill, but he didn't complain much, and there was nothing wrong with standing on the British side. So he went on to ask, "George, how long do you think North Africa can hold out?" ”

"Unpredictable." George Marshall frowned and stirred the coffee gently: "The loss of Malta has made the Mediterranean Sea cut in half. From Sicily to Tripoli, there is absolutely no obstruction. So the Germans were sending troops to Italy by rail, and they were also collecting a lot of French ships to go to Rome. If it is fast, it will be more than five divisions in a month. And we're in some trouble. The French seemed reluctant to cooperate, and the Governor-General of West Africa had already driven the British away and refused our request to land from Casablanca. Spanish Morocco also refused to let us through, believing that it would be a pretext for Germany to attack Spain. So the UK thinks. It should be decided as soon as possible, while the Italian Navy is now at its weakest. Attack Tunisia, otherwise Germany will preempt Tunisia first, and we will not be able to land on the coast of North Africa even if we make a decision! ”

"If the decision is made to land, it will be necessary to immediately deploy enough B17 bombers in Gibraltar to ensure that more air support is available for landing. Eisenhower and I calculated the number of troops needed, and if Britain would provide four divisions, then we would need to deliver ten divisions at a time. Troop strength is not a problem, transport capacity can also be achieved, but adequate air support is a big problem! The Yorktown needs three months of repairs, and we have only four aircraft carriers left, plus the British, for a total of seven. Britain could only send one to support, and their carriers were understocked. Beijing has also refused to send aircraft carriers to land in North Africa, and its Indian fleet needs to cooperate with the army to attack East Africa and ensure India's security. ”

"Attack Tunisia then the French." Roosevelt frowned, after Operation Trebuchet, the relationship between Vichy France and England was extremely bad, and it would have been good if he did not participate in the Axis. This incident made Marshall scratch his head and said, "There is no other way!" However, General de Gaulle said that if we landed, he would be willing to take Tunisia ahead of schedule to reduce diplomatic disputes if we landed. ”

"Churchill has complained several times that we are too slow. If the Germans complete the landing and transport, and they are unable to draw troops from India, then the connection between Greece and the Balkans will be broken, and the whole of Europe will be theirs! Hull added in due course.

The words of the two men unequivocally told Roosevelt that with the United States entering the war, all the pressure had shifted to their side. Don't think that both China and Britain have won major victories in the Northeast African theater, but this also provoked Germany in advance. Coupled with the accidental loss of Malta, if the American army could not land in North Africa immediately, the tens of thousands of British troops in Egypt would soon be wiped out by the German-Italian forces! If Egypt is lost, the Suez Canal will be cut off, and no matter how much he asks Beijing, Yang Qiu will not make a move.

So Roosevelt listened and asked, "Has China attacked Saipan?" ”

"Nope."

"Why? Could it be that Guam's seaport function has not been restored? ”

"The seaport has been restored and expansion and dredging works have begun. China has also built field airfields and seaport facilities in Palau and Yap, and deployed a five-carrier battle group in Guam. However, I think they will attack Saipan, because it is already blockaded and it is impossible for the Japanese army on the island to get supplies. Marshall put down his coffee, walked to the map and analyzed: "Beijing's next step must be to attack the Ryukyu Islands and Singapore, seeking to completely encircle the Japanese mainland and open up the Strait of Malacca." Prior to the war, they had placed 50 landing ships and about 70 freighters in the Persian Gulf, and recently sent about six or seven additional divisions to the Persian Gulf, many of which were practicing landing tactics in Doha. Their South Sea Fleet (Second Fleet) also has one aircraft carrier, and one aircraft carrier and two battleships lost in the Battle of the Ryukyus are also about to be repaired, and two more French Dunkirk-class ships can be called. So I think that by early April at the latest, their Indian fleet and the South Sea fleet will flank both the Andaman and Singapore. ”

"It should be emphasized that Japan is also aware of this information. So both Kimmel and Eisenhower thought that before that, our Wake Island would be attacked at any moment...... So two aircraft carriers must be left for Halsey. ”

"Why?" Hull wondered.

Stark explained: "The Japanese also know that Beijing is going to attack Ryukyu and Malacca next, so they need to cut us off from China before they do that." Wake Island is our only foothold deep into the Southwest Pacific, and if we occupy it and defeat Halsey, we will not be able to cooperate with China in flanking them for at least half a year. ”

"But we didn't plan to fight them." Hull just wanted to say that the United States did not intend to flank Japan with China, but then he remembered that from Japan's point of view, China and the United States are now allies.

Marshall pointed to Wake Island, the corners of his mouth bitter: "We are facing a game of chess that cannot be cracked!" Either Halsey blocks Japan at Wake Island, or Wake Island becomes a second Guam. And we can't give up or retreat yet! ”