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Chapter 1464 Southward in the Great Changes

The 26th year of the Republic of China, December 20, 1937. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The Supreme Council of National Defense of the Republic of China announced that General An Yi would resign from the post of deputy chief of the General Staff and his post as deputy commander of the Third Theater of Operations with immediate effect due to "illness caused by years of hard work" and return to Syria to recuperate. In order to consolidate the hard-won victories of the Third Theater against Japan, General Zhu Shaoliang, commander of the Ninth Group Army, temporarily assumed the position of deputy commander of the theater, and the Ninth Army was officially stationed in Songhu and Zhejiang.

At the same time, the Military Commission said that in order to strengthen the first-line defense of Songhu, elite troops were specially selected from various theaters to be stationed in Shanghai, including the 81st Army of the Gui Army, the New 27th Division of the Jinsui Army, the New 36th Division of Pang Bingxun's Third Army, and the instructor of Sun Lianzhong's First Army.

Many international military observers believe that this is a means for An Yi to shock the master and Chiang Kai-shek to eliminate dissidents, and they have predicted that An Yi's forces will disappear from the central stage.

On 21 July, the Nanjing Nationalist Government issued another circular, stating that in order to show that the central government attaches great importance to the Mongolian issue, General Yin Jinan (with the rank of lieutenant general and general) was appointed chairman of the Mongolian provincial government. After returning to China, he successively served as the chief of the General Staff of the First Theater and the director of the Nanchang Battalion.

This has further aggravated people's incomprehension and suspicion, Mongolia's problems are complicated, involving Japan, the Far East, Moscow and Manchuria, no one is optimistic about Yin Jinan, who is only in office, most people think that this is the central government's deliberate suppression of the Anjia army lineage, Yin Jinan is clearly exiled.

The international situation in the past few days has also been dazzling.

On the 17th, the Far Eastern Republican Army unexpectedly defeated the Moscow Red Army in the Armageddon in Western Siberia, and on the 19th, after collecting the troops trapped in the encirclement, quickly moved forward, and occupied Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) and other important cities on the front line of the Ural Mountains before the reinforcements sent by Moscow.

After consolidating the fortifications, on the 23rd, the long-arid Siberia, the Far East, Kazakhstan, the Russian plain and the Ukrainian plain, there was goose feather snow, affected by this wave of cold air, China's Mongolia, China, Northeast China and North China, the temperature dropped sharply by 20 degrees, even the south of the Yangtze River, the two lakes, the Sichuan Basin and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, there were snowflakes fluttering, winter is finally coming.

During this period, the indigenous riots in the Dutch East Indies intensified, and on the densely populated island of Java, after the natives successfully robbed the arsenal of the Dutch garrison, they drove into the major cities, killing the colonial officials and the white policemen who maintained law and order, at least thousands of whites died in the riots, and the Japanese expatriates also suffered widespread casualties again.

The Japanese Government issued a circular on 18 July, expressing dissatisfaction with the ability of the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies to control the situation, and demanding that the Dutch authorities dispatch troops to suppress it as soon as possible, otherwise the Japanese Government and the military will take resolute measures to defend the rights and interests of its nationals.

The relationship between the Netherlands and Germany is still relatively good, and the Kaiser fled to the neutral country of the Netherlands during the last European war, where the German emperor was sheltered. Later, at the Versailles Conference, Britain, France, the United States and other countries wanted to try the Kaiser for war crimes, but the Dutch government refused. Coupled with the Kaiser and the Dauphin's support for Hitler and the Nazi Party's rise to power, the Netherlands and Germany seem to be more connected.

The Nazi government had always preached the great friendship between the Netherlands and Germany, believing that the two countries had a common understanding on many international affairs, and that the German government was willing to conclude a long-term alliance with the Dutch government. However, the Dutch government, which feared an allergic reaction in Britain, France, and the United States, politely declined the proposal.

Therefore, the Dutch government, which was not very worried about the security of the homeland, warned the Japanese government on the one hand that the riots in the Dutch East Indies were purely an internal affair of the Netherlands, and that if it was dissatisfied with the killing of the expatriates, it should not have emigrated to the Dutch East Indies in the first place. A mixed fleet of 50,000 native troops, led by the cruiser Ruyt, sailed to the Dutch East Indies to quell the rebellion.

Just when the Netherlands decisively chose to send troops, the colonial officials of British India were provoked to lose their cool by a series of provocations such as the assassination of the governor, the killing of a large number of local officials, and the poisoning of the army.

On the 16th, a demonstration movement broke out throughout India against the colonial government's unwarranted detention of the leaders of the Congress Party and more than 200,000 party members, and soon the military and police who were ordered to suppress clashed with the first team, and in the chaos, nearly 1,000 military and police officers across the country were attacked by cold guns and stray bullets, and died.

After a brief meeting, colonial officials, survivors of the major chaebols in Europe and the United States, and monopoly trusts in India made the decision to send troops to suppress them.

On the 18th, the British troops and British and Indian troops in India were all sent out, and with the help of aircraft, artillery and tanks, they carried out bloody massacres and suppression of the first teams in various places, and on the 18th alone, there were more than 200,000 casualties in the whole territory of India, and a large number of families lost their loved ones in almost every region.

The bloody repression of the colonial government made the Indians finally realize the cruelty of British colonial rule, the radical Indian Youth Union, the Indian Workers' and Peasants' Party and the Hindustan Republican Army successively issued proclamations, calling on the people to unite and respond to the violence of the colonizers with revolutionary violence, a large-scale armed uprising broke out throughout India, and the workers of the steel mills and military factories, after killing the senior managers of the factories who came to stop them, worked overtime to produce weapons and ammunition, which were supplied to the rebels free of charge, Ethnic self-governments with the leaders of the rebel army as the main body were set up in various places, but this further stimulated the colonial officials, and immediately promulgated the "Emergency Powers Act", "Suppression Act", "Illegal Sedition Order", "Illegal Assembly Order" and "General Rules for Suppressing Disorder and Banditry", and the whole territory of India was plunged into a war.

The situation in Myanmar and Malaya is also not encouraging.

The problem is that the colonial government adopted the decision to use Indian officials and troops to govern the two places, and the wave of armed uprisings that swept across the territory of India soon spread to both places, and the British officials of the colonial government, fearing that the Indian army would be demagogized by the nationalists, ordered white soldiers to surround the Indian barracks and demand that all Indian soldiers lay down their arms and return to their posts after the incident subsided.

However, among the Indian soldiers, there was a terrible rumor that the British wanted to shoot or bury all the Indian soldiers alive and solve the problem once and for all, so the situation appeared, almost all the Indian soldiers raised their guns and resolutely resisted by force, and the Indian soldiers, who had an absolute advantage in numbers, soon beat the British soldiers who surrounded them and fled, and then the Indian soldiers rushed out of the barracks, killed the British *** team, killed all the British soldiers, and then rushed to the official residence of the colonial government and officials, panicked colonial officials, fled in disguise, and social order and public order were immediately in chaos.

During this period, only the Chinese enterprises and communities that had been mobilized in advance suffered no losses under the protection of the powerful firepower built by the Hung Hing Society and the militia self-defense forces, and other people, including whites, blacks and local Burmese, were all looted by the rebels, and the entire British colonial system was almost in a collapsed situation.

Comparatively speaking, the situation in the Philippines is somewhat better.

In June of '33, the American Democrat Frank . As Governor General of the Philippines, Murphy is a devout Catholic who has struggled to undo the disastrous effects of the global economic crisis. At this time, American public opinion tried its best to favor Philippine independence, because if the Philippines were a direct colony of the United States, Filipinos would be free to immigrate to the United States and seize jobs that were already very scarce, and at the same time, the Philippines' cheap agricultural products and sugar products would also seize the American market, so public opinion overwhelmingly agreed with Philippine independence, so that the Philippines would no longer enjoy the right to free trade with the United States, but would be completely treated as a foreign country.

On March 24, 34, President Roosevelt signed the "Tydings-McDuffie Act," stipulating that the Republic of the Philippines would be formally established on 4 July 36, and that Filipino immigration to the United States would be restricted thereafter and the Philippines' right to free trade would be revoked, but the Philippines' foreign affairs and defense would still be in the hands of the United States, and the President of the United States would retain the right to ratify and veto the constitution formulated by the Philippine Government, and the right to approve or veto the bills on currency, coinage, and import and export trade, and the United States would also retain the right to interfere in the internal affairs of the PhilippinesIn short, the Philippines will emerge as a satellite nation of the United States.

On May 14, 35, a constitution similar to the U.S. Constitution was ratified by all citizens in the Philippines and officially promulgated and implemented in Manila that year. Murphy became the first U.S. High Commissioner to the Philippines. Quezon was elected as the first president, and Osimena as vice president.

After Quezon was elected president of the Philippines, he appointed General MacArthur, former chief of staff of the US Army and current commander of the Manila Military Region of the US Army, as a military adviser to the government to formally form the Philippine army. By December of this year, six Filipino divisions had been organized, and because of the skin of the national self-government, the Philippine government was much better in terms of control than the British and Dutch colonial governments.

However, the contradictions in the Philippines have not improved because of the formation of the Quezon regime, because the United States began to impose high tariffs on Philippine industrial and agricultural products, which caused industrial and agricultural products to lose their competitiveness in the American market, many farmers and factory owners went bankrupt, and a large number of workers lost their jobs and became beggars.

At the same time, because the big landlords and magnates in the rural areas openly occupied the land, or used usury and other forms to seize the land, the situation of land annexation became more and more rampant; in the second half of the 37th century, the vast majority of the peasants lost their land and were reduced to tenant farmers and hired peasants; if they were unable to pay rent, they would be unconditionally leased and would be punished by the government in the form of hard labor and fines.

The uprising in the Philippines was launched simultaneously in many parts of the Philippines on 16 December under the impetus of well-intentioned people, and left-wing parties and organizations such as the "Philippine Workers' Association," the "Tang Oo Lan," and the "Saldar Party" led workers and peasants in tandem in advance to seize the arsenals and police stations, and then gathered in government buildings, killed local officials and parliamentarians, and seized the fortifications of the city. Advocate equality for all.

The Quezon regime was based on the landlords, the bourgeoisie, and the intellectuals, and the revolt of the workers and peasants would shake the stability of the current government's rule.

After all, he was a man who had served as chief of the general staff, and MacArthur commanded the troops in a good way, and the Philippine army, which was equipped and trained in the American style, with the help of the US troops stationed in the Philippines, concentrated its forces and broke them one by one, and pounced on all parts of the country from Manila, the capital of the Philippines, by boat or on foot, and along the way the momentum was like a bamboo, the workers' and peasants' regimes failed one after another, and the blood of revolutionaries stained the earth red.

Although the whole of the Philippines is still in a state of chaos and disorder, due to the effective measures of the government and the strong combat effectiveness of the army, it is only a matter of time before the rebellion is finally put down when the revolutionary regimes are scattered.

Unlike the Dutch, British colonies and the Philippines, the situation in French Annan was unusually stable.

On the 16th, although some people deliberately provoked a certain degree of riots in various parts of Annam, but under the strong suppression of the French army and the Annam army, everything returned to calm, people went about their work as usual, order was in order everywhere, and the situation was so good that the French colonial officials who heard about the riots and riots in other colonies developed to smash, loot, burn and kill people at will, also felt incredible, and finally thought about it, it can only be attributed to the fact that Annam is mostly devout Buddhists, not easy to be tempted and bewitched, and can't help but feel the experience of British and Dutch colonial officials. Gloat.

......

Under these circumstances, the Japanese Navy and Army began to secretly carry out the "Thunder and Lightning Plan" formulated by Ishihara Wanji, who had already served as the chief of staff of the Japanese Army.

Because Emperor Hirohito was worried that after the failure of Japan's southward expansion, the British, French, American, and Dutch parliaments would liquidate themselves and the imperial family's guilt, so he issued an edict to let Prince Kanin Palace and Prince Fushimi Palace resign from their posts as chief of staff and chief of military command to show their innocence. Subsequently, at the suggestion of the two princes, Ishihara was unexpectedly promoted to the position of chief of staff by the emperor and in charge of the army's operations.

At the same time, the head of the military command was Admiral Shusei Nagano, a former commander of the Combined Fleet, and became the supreme commander of the Navy. In the contest with Mitsumasa Yonechi and Gengo Hyakutake, who advocated compromise with the United States, Britain and France, he wrote "The Attitude of the Imperial Navy in the Current Situation" based on Ishihara's theory, expounding his views on the theory of a one-year absence of oil and the theory of a two-year war, and advocating that the Dutch East Indies should go south to seize the oil and industrial bases of the Dutch East Indies, and even to fight with the United States if necessary. Seeing that there were people in the navy who shared the same views as Ishihara Wanji, who was touted as the god of war in the world, Emperor Hirohito appointed Nagano Shufu among the three contenders.

After consulting with Ishihara, Nagano appointed Isoroku Yamamoto as commander of the Combined Fleet, promoted from rear admiral to senior general, and was fully responsible for matters related to the south. Admiral Mitsumasa Yoneuchi, the prime minister of the sea, who had formed an alliance with Isoroku Yamamoto, felt that he had been deceived and resigned angrily, and Vice Admiral Shiro Kawako, the principal of the naval academy, the head of the naval aviation headquarters and the commander of the Yokosuka town guard, was appointed as the minister of the sea, and Mitsumasa Yonechi was transferred to the reserve.

In order to ensure that the orders of the General Staff Headquarters were carried out in an unerring manner, Ishihara also transferred his supporter, Seishiro Itagaki, to the post of Minister of Land, and Kenji Dohihara to serve as Deputy Chief of Staff and Principal of the Army Noncommissioned Officer School.

On the night of the 17th, taking advantage of the attention of the European and American powers, all of them were drawn to the rebellion in the colonies, a convoy of 24 10,000-ton merchant ships quietly crossed the Strait of Malacca and entered the Indian Ocean.

The fleet went all the way north, and after reaching Kutachara (Aceh) at the northern tip of Sumatra Island, it turned south and continued to send troops to important coastal points on the west coast of Sumatra.

The Japanese army still adopted the tactics adopted during the operation in eastern Zhejiang, all the troops, all the troops, are dressed in the military uniforms of the indigenous army formed by the Dutch colonial government, and the Indonesian Japanese brigade who are proficient in various local dialects deceives the attention of the garrison or blends into the town to suddenly attack, and the Japanese army that is ready to attack quickly breaks through, and after entering the town, it gives priority to occupying the barracks, telephone offices and telegraph offices.

By the night of the 21st, the Japanese army had successively taken control of the important oil-producing areas of Sumatra, and Palembang, the capital of Sumatra, which had a complete oil industry chain from oil wells to oil refineries and chemical plants, also fell under the covert and sudden attack of the Japanese army.

After successfully taking control of Sumatra, the Japanese army once again used the same method and used a mysterious special operation method to successfully take almost all the oil fields, oil refining centers and port cities in Borneo (present-day Kalimantan), and ignored the rest of the country.

At 8 o'clock on the morning of 24 July, just as the dignitaries of Britain, France, the Netherlands, and the United States were gathering their minds and preparing for Christmas, Kenji Kobayashi, the Japanese government's ambassador to the Netherlands in Amsterdam, officially presented his credentials to the Dutch government:

In view of the fact that the Dutch government could not properly solve the massacre of Japanese nationals by the indigenous people of the Lanyin Islands, the Japanese government decided to send troops to launch punitive attacks on the above areas to safeguard the personal and property safety of Japanese nationals. The Japanese government and the Dutch government were at war from this moment on.

Japan's sudden declaration of war on the Netherlands shocked the whole world, especially Britain, France, the United States and other countries, and they felt even more incredulous, and a question mark flashed in their minds: Are the Japanese crazy?

The Japanese did not go crazy, and the Combined Fleet, under the command of Yamamoto Isoroku, had already moved south from Hainan Island, taking advantage of the attention of European and American countries to turn their attention to the Soviet Union's civil war on the Urals and the rebellion of the Nanyang natives, and concealed their whereabouts all the way, crossing the South China Sea and entering the Java Sea.

The Japanese government had just declared war on the Netherlands, and more than 200 warplanes from four aircraft carriers had already arrived over the island of Java and carried out heavy bombing of port cities and important military targets such as Batavia (Jakarta), Anrita, Krachien, and Surabaya.

The center of the Dutch East Indies is the island of Java, 50 million of the 70 million people live on the island of Java, and the remaining 20 million people, including more than 10 million Chinese immigrants, are scattered on the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and Sulawesi.

There are about 5 million Chinese on Java Island, and unlike the Chinese on other islands, they have settled in Java for several generations, and they generally have their own industries, and there are not a few who are worth millions or tens of millions.

The Governor's Palace, commerce, culture and other institutions representing the colonial rule of the Dutch East Indies were concentrated on the island of Java. The island was about one-third the size of the Japanese mainland, and 90 percent of the Dutch troops and the colonies were concentrated here, and if the garrison in Java was eliminated, the East Indies would fall under Japanese control.

Japanese naval aviation carried out non-stop saturation bombing of the island of Java, destroying only ninety-two Dutch Air Force fighters stationed in Java, as well as a large number of unattended batteries. Although the island of Java was still in a state of disorder of indigenous unrest, the main cities had returned to calm due to the bloody suppression of the Dutch army and the colonial army, and the religious Dutch officers and soldiers had begun to prepare for Christmas, the airfields, batteries and positions were deserted, and the defenses were incredibly lax.

Carrying 72 transport ships (100 transport ships in total, and 28 other ships were assigned to other locations for landing) carrying five divisions and eight independent mixed brigades of the Japanese Army to the south, they broke into Banten Bay (Jakarta Bay) and prepared for the landing.

Under the powerful artillery fire of the Japanese navy's destroyers and cruisers, the Dutch navy sent a death squad of 22 torpedo boats to break through the arch of the battleship and sink four transport ships, including the ship of the commander Koichi Ishikawa.

The ship tilted under the second torpedo attack, throwing Koichi Ishikawa on deck into the sea, and the heavy oil that had spilled from the capsizing of the ship floated on the surface of the sea, covering his entire body in black oil.

Fortunately, the rescue boat rescued in time, and Ishikawa Kokazu turned the corner and changed ships to continue to command the landing operation.

As early as the fighter planes were carrying out the covering bombing of Java Island, the six Dutch destroyers docked in the harbor, feeling that the situation was not good, rushed out of the port area and fled, joining up with their main fleet cruising outside.

Without the threat of Dutch warships, the attack went very smoothly, and Koichi Ishikawa commanded his troops, quickly seized the beachhead in Banten Bay, consolidated his defense, and quickly launched an attack on the city of Batavia.

At the same time, the Japanese landing operation in the rest of Java was also extremely smooth and did not encounter any resistance. The safe landing of more than 200,000 troops was a result that even the most optimistic person could not have dreamed of before departure.

By sunset on the 24th, the central cluster composed of five elite divisions and two independent mixed brigades of the Japanese army successfully captured Batavia, but Stahower, the governor of Landin, and the commander-in-chief of the Dutch army and the colonial army, Lieutenant General Prutian, fled to Bandung with the defeated army and colonial officials, trying to rely on the comprehensive fortress positions in Bandung and the artillery positions scattered among the hills to build a solid defensive system, waiting for the arrival of reinforcements from the Netherlands.

The situation in the South Seas was turbulent, which created favorable conditions for the An Jiajun to move south.