Yangon, Reuters Myanmar office.

As a war correspondent, Avril had just returned from Singapore, and she had just experienced the whole process of the Allied army's recovery of Singapore, and she was fortunate to see the strong combat effectiveness of the squadron, but the Japanese troops trapped in Singapore seemed vulnerable, compared to the strength of six years ago.

In the bright light, Avril was rushing to write a newsletter.

Picking up the pen, Avril rustled on the manuscript paper and wrote "The Awakened Sleeping Lion".

Soon Avril began to write the text: more than a century ago, Napoleon once said that China is a sleeping lion, and once it wakes up, the whole world will tremble for it, and it is sleeping, thank God, let it sleep.

Today, however, I am very sure that the sleeping lion has woken up and that it has shown its claws to the world!

A century ago, the British Empire could easily capture the capital of the Eastern Empire with only a 3,000-strong foreign rifle team.

Half a century ago, Japan, which had just completed the Meiji Restoration, was far from being a military power, but it easily defeated the Beiyang Fleet, which was known as the "strongest navy in Asia" at that time, in the First Sino-Japanese Naval War!

Six years ago, 128 Japanese cavalry could scare off more than 100,000 squadrons and easily capture a city!

At that time, China was indeed asleep, and this lion, who had ruled the entire East for more than 20 centuries, was indeed asleep.

But today, I am very sure that the male lion has awakened.

Just a few days ago, I witnessed this male lion show its claws, and the Japanese were its first prey!

In the Battle of Singapore, the once arrogant Japanese army appeared vulnerable, but the squadron that was once backward and weak had powerful modern weapons and equipment, and showed strong combat effectiveness.

The current squadron is no longer the squadron of six years ago.

Six years ago, even dozens of Jīng sharp divisions were facing half of the Japanese army's divisions, and they seemed to have no confidence.

However, six years later, dozens of Chinese soldiers can capture thousands of Japanese officers and soldiers, this is not a myth, but a real thing, before the official start of the Battle of Singapore, a 60-strong Jīng Rui Advance Brigade, under the guidance of the Japanese anti-war personnel, swam through the Straits of Johor and forced the landing of more than 2,000 Japanese officers and soldiers on the opposite Woodlands position!

I can't help but rejoice that the British Empire is now an ally of China, not an enemy!

At the same time, I am a little worried, if the British Empire becomes an enemy of China one day, will our British army be able to withstand the teeth and claws of this lion? China not only has a vast territory, but also a huge population base, and once this lion fully awakens, the whole world will be under its rule.

Is the British Empire, which once ruled most of the world, mentally ready to be ruled by it?

…………

The day after Avril sent back a telegram with a "warning" meaning to Britain, the newly awakened lion of China once again showed its strong teeth and claws, but this time the prey was the Japanese army in Xiangxi!

In Singapore, the squadron adopted the tactics of a long siege.

But in Xiangxi, the squadron adopted a diametrically opposite tactic - a strong attack!

In the 32nd year of the Republic of China (the 6th Division of the 2nd Army all entered the designated position, and General Yue Weihan, the commander-in-chief of the four fields who had just returned to the front line, immediately issued an order for a general attack!)

…………

After the battle, a veteran told reporters about the night.

At four o'clock in the morning, three red signal flares rose into the air on time, and in an instant, the artillery deployed several kilometers or even more than ten kilometers away began shelling at the same time, two heavy artillery divisions, 10 artillery regiments, and artillery battalions of various infantry regiments, more than 3,000 mén guns of various calibers and types opened fire at the same time, and the whole sky was on fire.

From a distance, it was a sea of fire on the Japanese position, ploughed over and over again.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the shelling of the Japanese forward positions finally ended, and the artillery began to attack the Japanese troops in depth, and I estimated through the telescope that the elevation of the main Japanese position on the opposite side was at least two meters lower, and the field fortifications built in the hurry by the devil soldiers were completely destroyed, and the devil soldiers were basically invisible on the Japanese positions.

At 8:05 a.m., a huge roar of engines sounded in the dense forests on both sides of the river valley, and in just a few moments, more than 600 tanks of the 2nd Panzer Division slowly drove out of the dense forest, and immediately set up an attack formation in the open river valley.

Not long after, our planes also appeared in the sky, throwing bombs and diving to sweep shè.

We quickly crossed the Japanese cordon, and the figure of the devil soldiers finally appeared on the Japanese position, which was still as silent as death just now, I really dare not think, how did these devil soldiers survive the saturated artillery bombardment that lasted for a full four xiǎo hours? These dog-day xiǎo devils, their lives are harder than cockroaches.

The devils began to fire back one after another, but the devil's rifle could not threaten us hiding behind the tank at all, although the machine gun had a certain threat, but it was quickly killed by the main gun that guided the tank, and the devil also had 37 battle defense guns, which destroyed more than a dozen of our tanks, but the devil's battle defense gun was quickly killed by the tank group and the heavenly machine group.

The xiǎo devil couldn't resist it, so he began to send death squads to rush up with the fried yào bag, trying to blow up our tank.

This is really thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi, in the Songhu battlefield, we had no choice but to send daredevils to carry the yào bag to rush up to blow up, at that time, often dozens of brothers died, and they may not be able to blow up even a tank, but now it is the turn of the xiǎo devil, the relief in my heart!

Old brothers who died on the battlefield of Songhu back then, brothers have avenged you today!

The defense line of the xiǎo devils was quickly torn apart, and the hundreds or so devils who resisted were all killed.

On the way, we found a bunker of the Japanese army, a few devils hid in it and refused to surrender, and threw grenades outside, and the soldier "Lao Mao" sprayed a tube inside, and when we rushed in again, several devil soldiers had all been burned to charcoal, and the smell was actually similar to that of animals.

After tearing through the first line of defense of the Japanese army, we followed the tank group for a long time.

At about two o'clock in the afternoon, we eliminated the Japanese headquarters, and our 6th platoon was the first to rush into the Japanese headquarters, killing more than a dozen Japanese officers in the middle, and one of them seemed to be still a big sa.

After scanning more than a dozen rooms in a row, there was a sudden scream of an NV person in front of him.

My deputy platoon commander and two soldiers rushed forward at that time, kicked open the room, and there was an old devil in it who was chasing and killing two Japanese girls with a saber, the two Japanese girls were naked, the white skin, big, the buttocks were round and warped, and they looked more handsome, and my deputy platoon commander and the two soldiers looked stupid at that time.

If I hadn't been quick to shoot down the old devil, the deputy platoon commander would have been reimbursed at the time.

Later, I found out that it was the old devil Okabe who was killed by me at that time, and I really regretted that my intestines were green, and I was almost able to become the first person to capture the Japanese general's level, but it's a pity. However, Soza still gave me the treasure knife of the old devil Okabe, and I will have to let my son pass it on as an heirloom in the future.

In the first battle of Xiangxi, our Siye really played with majesty and confidence!

At that time, there were captives of devils all over the mountains, and I will never forget that scene in my life.

The group army that Sanye rushed to help was stupid, six divisions and four other mixed brigades, a full 150,000 people, let us Siye annihilate all in one day, killing more than 20,000 enemies and capturing 130,000 people, which was something that I couldn't think of before, and in turn, it was often eaten by more than 100,000 people in one go.

In the end, the veteran said to the reporter with great emotion: "It's worth it, it's worth dying to be able to catch up with such a hearty victory in this life." ”

…………

The great victory in Xiangxi made the whole country rejoice.

Chairman Máo and Mr. Zhu sent commendation orders from Xi'an, and President Roosevelt also sent congratulatory messages from the other side of the ocean, praising the squadron's active offensive in Xiangxi, and hoping that the squadron would make persistent efforts to launch a full-scale counteroffensive, drive the Japanese invaders out of China, and make meritorious contributions to the world anti-fascist war.

However, Yue Weihan was somewhat dissatisfied with the Xiangxi Campaign.

In the Battle of Xiangxi, Siye relied on a strong tank cluster and air superiority to annihilate Okabe Naosaburo's 150,000 army in a very short period of time, but it also exposed several serious problems, first of all, infantry and artillery coordination, and then air-ground coordination, all of which were negligent in injuring friendly troops.

This shows that all units in the four fields still need to strengthen combat drills.

In any case, this was the first time that the squadron had annihilated a unit above the size of the Japanese army corps in a structured manner, and it also laid the foundation for launching a larger-scale campaign in the future.

…………

Tokyo, the base camp of the Japanese army.

After the news of the victory in Xiangxi spread, the Chinese people were certainly jubilant, but the whole country of Japan was shrouded in an atmosphere of despair and sorrow, and now, even the most stubborn militarists have understood that unless a miracle occurs or a decisive strategic weapon appears, Japan's defeat is inevitable.

In the conference room of the General Staff of the Japanese Army, the atmosphere was even more solemn.

Both Imperial Prime Minister and Chief of Staff Hideki Tojo and War Minister Anami Yuki, who attended the meeting as observers, all seemed worried, and in less than half a month, the Japanese army suffered heavy losses in Singapore and Xiangxi, and nearly 200,000 Japanese troops were annihilated by the squadron.

With the destruction of the main force of the Japanese army in central China, the loss of Shanghai and Nanjing seemed inevitable.

Just now, Anami Yuji had formally proposed to Hideki Tojo to withdraw troops from Shanghai and Nanjing, but he was sternly rejected by Hideki Tojo.

Anan's considerations are not unreasonable, the situation has developed to the present, with less than 100,000 Japanese troops in central China, it is obviously unrealistic to want to hold Shanghai, Nanjing, and the military strongholds on the periphery, and the wisest way for the Japanese army base camp is to comprehensively reduce the number of troops to ensure the security of North China and Manchuria!

However, Hideki Tojo insisted that Shanghai and Nanjing must be defended.

The reason why Tojo Hideki wanted the Japanese army in Central China to stick to Nanjing, Shanghai and the military strongholds on the periphery was that one day after reaching a reconciliation with Russia, the mechanized heavy army group in the Far East would be able to move south from North China, reopen the mainland Jiāo line, and bring back more than 700,000 Japanese troops in the South Seas!

With the loss of most of Central China, the more than 700,000 Japanese troops in Southeast Asia were already in a dilemma.

With the destruction of the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy and the loss of most of Central China, Southeast Asia has completely become an enclave hanging in the sea, even if the islands in Southeast Asia have more and more abundant strategic resources, it is impossible to transport them back to the mainland, what is the benefit of defending?

However, it was impossible for the more than 700,000 Japanese troops in Southeast Asia to retreat on their own.

There are only two ways to withdraw troops from Southeast Asia, one is by sea and the other is by land, but no matter which way, it is a dead end for the Japanese army in Nanyang.

Not to mention whether there are so many large transport ships by sea, and even if there is no naval escort, once discovered by the US Navy, more than 700,000 officers and men will have to be buried in the ocean.

Once the Nanyang Japanese army abandons the permanent fortifications of the Indochina Peninsula and enters the Liangguang region, not to mention whether the squadron in Central China will intercept it in the front, the Chinese expeditionary forces in Burma and Siam alone will be able to tear the retreating Nanyang Japanese troops to pieces, and the results of the Battle of Xiangxi have fully proved that the armored clusters of the Chinese expeditionary forces are by no means vegetarian.

The only possibility for rescuing the more than 700,000 Japanese troops in Southeast Asia is to quickly reach an understanding with Russia in a short period of time, and then order the 1.5 million mechanized heavy army group in the Far East to drive south through Manchuria and North China, and open up the mainland Jiāo line with a thunderous momentum, and rescue the more than 700,000 Japanese troops trapped in Southeast Asia.

The squadron's armored cluster is powerful, but the Japanese army also has an armored cluster, and the scale is even larger!

The Japanese army's tanks and heavy artillery may not be as good as the American tanks and heavy artillery equipped by the squadron, but it has an absolute advantage in quantity, since the collapse of the combined fleet, the resources of the Japanese army began to tilt towards the army, so far, the Japanese army has formed 10 tank divisions and 20 heavy artillery brigades, with more than 3,000 tanks of various types, and more than 2,000 heavy howitzers of 150mm caliber!

It's just that due to the strong pressure of 2 million Russian troops, most of the 10 tank divisions and 20 heavy artillery brigades were incorporated into the Far Eastern Front, and a small number were incorporated into the Kwantung Army.

However, the North China Front, the Central China Front, and the Southern Army were not equipped.

Now, it depends on the results of Okamura's meeting with Germany and Russia, if everything goes well, the 1.5 million mechanized heavy army group that was pinned down by the Russian army in the Far East can be completely liberated and forcefully thrown into the Chinese battlefield; with these 1.5 million mechanized heavy army group, it will not be able to completely defeat China, but it will definitely not be a problem to hold North China and Manchuria