Thailand, the only country in Southeast Asia at this time, is not independent because it has enough strength to protect itself like Japan or because it has too many people like China, the land is too big, and the history is too long to annex, but its independence is caused by its unique historical and geographical environment. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

After entering the 19th century, Southeast Asia was gradually divided and colonized by Britain and France, among which Britain continued to take Burma and Malaysia along India to the east because of its occupation of India, while France occupied Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other places, and even went to war with China because of Vietnam.

After the occupation of the two countries, when they turned back and found that the other side was already very close to themselves, Thailand had woken up to the fact that King Rama IV had carried out a series of Westernization reforms on the country and began to keep in touch with the two countries, hoping to resolve the crisis of its demise through diplomatic means. The two countries also happened to feel that if the colonies of the two countries were closely connected, there would be contradictions, and at this time, on the European continent, Prussia had risen, and the two countries hit it off, and decided to let Thailand go, so that Thailand became a buffer zone between the two countries, and Thailand was thus preserved its independent sovereignty.

In 1941, the king of Thailand became Rama VIII, the king ascended the throne as early as 1935, when he was nine years old, but he had been studying in Switzerland, and he did not return to Thailand until 1939, or in the form of a visit, he did not stay long and returned to Switzerland to continue his studies.

The real power holder in Thailand at this time was Luang Phibun. Song Kham, a Chinese born in Nonthaburi Province in 1987, studied military affairs in France and returned to China to participate in the 1932 Thai military coup. In 1938, when Phraya Phaephon retired, he took over as prime minister and concurrently served as minister of defense, minister of the interior, and commander-in-chief of the army. Although he was of Chinese origin, he pursued the policy of Great Thai nationality in Thailand, provoked border disputes externally, instigated ethnic estrangement between the Thai and Chinese internally, made diplomatic friendships with the Japanese, German, and other fascist regimes, and implemented a strategy of distant friendship and close attack.

At this time, he saw the defeat of France in Europe, and immediately became interested in the vast French colonies around him, but he also understood the national strength of Thailand, and he did not dare to do it before he obtained a backer.

Half a month later, the location is Tokyo, Japan.

Konoe's second cabinet formation can be said to be full of ambition, the defeat of France made him feel that he had come to a critical point in history, he spent two months, from the inside to the outside of Japan to reorganize and reform, the party, government, military, economic and other aspects of the strengthening of power, so that Japan's last vitality was also injected into the expansion of the military state, it can be said that this is already the biggest gamble.

- Tokyo Imperial Council

The Konoe cabinet and some of the elders sat in two rows, and this was an enlarged meeting, mainly because it would determine Japan's next strategic moves.

"Since the time of His Majesty Meiji, the empire has always been aimed at going north." Ishihara became a lecturer of strategic history, and he continued: "From the Sino-Japanese War to the Nichino War, we successively occupied Korea, Lushun, Dalian and other places, and it can be said that these battles were the basis for the empire's take-off, and then from the intervention in the White Russian War to the Manchurian Incident, it was also for the purpose of going north, Manchuria was defined at the beginning as to become the empire's military station and supply base when it went north to attack the Soviet Union, and until today, Manchuria has also developed into the most important sphere of influence of the empire after the mainland. After saying that, Ishihara sat down, he just wanted to talk about history, and was not asked to give an opinion on the strategy that followed.

In April 1936, the Navy officially submitted a document hoping that the defense of the north and the attack on the south could be changed to a national policy, indicating that it was necessary to ensure the status of the empire on the East Asian continent while also developing to the southern sea. At that cabinet meeting, the strategic policy of "advancing the north and the south in parallel" was finally decided, but the specific steps and agenda of the "southward advance" were not mentioned.

Among the Japanese army, such as Hideki Tojo, Ishihara and others unanimously believed that the Soviet Union's eastward expansion policy was its national policy for 300 years and would not change, therefore, the Soviet Union was Japan's biggest enemy, but there were differences, Tojo Hideki and others believed that in order to deal with the Soviet Union, China must be solved first, but Ishihara and others thought that Manchuria was enough, and China as long as it did not become a friend of the Soviet Union, it can be said that the entire war of aggression against China was just a prelude to the war against the Soviet Union in the eyes of the Japanese army. It's just that no one expected that this prelude would be so long and difficult to end.

The quagmire of the war in China and the temptation on the Nomenkan all told the Japanese army that it was impossible for the Japanese army to go north now, coupled with the fact that Germany swept through Europe, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and other countries were either defeated or surrendered, Britain was trapped in the three islands, and there was a power vacuum in the entire Nanyang region, and the argument of going south suddenly rose sharply, and even some newspapers openly declared that "you must not miss the bus, this is a rare opportunity for the empire for a thousand years, and it is the opportunity to liberate Asia." ”

Konoe waited for Ishihara to sit down and said, "Now that the international situation is obvious, Germany has an absolute advantage in Western Europe, and is about to strike the final blow against Britain, and we must make a decision as to where we go." ”

Hideki Tojo stood up, and at this time he was co-opted by the guards to become the new Minister of War, and he said loudly, "It's already obvious, what else needs to be discussed?" What the empire has to do now is to go south, and the South Seas are already like lambs to the slaughter, and if they don't do it again, once the war in Europe is over, the South Seas will become the world of the white race again. ”

Admiral Minister Yoshida Zengo said with some doubts: "Britain and France are no longer afraid, but the United States has to think about it, if the United States also enters the war, are we ready?" ”

Hideki Tojo snorted, "Americans are a bunch of people who are greedy for pleasure, greedy for life and afraid of death, do they dare to risk sacrificing millions of people to fight the Empire?" If whoever is economically strong can win, will the Song Dynasty still be destroyed? ”

Finance Minister Kawada Lie got up and said, "No matter how you fight, you need money, the empire's financial resources are already in jeopardy in the war in China, if the Nanyang storm rises again, I'm afraid that in less than half a year, the empire will be completely bankrupt, and when the time comes, the army on the front line may not even be able to eat a rice ball." ”

Hideki Tojo said disapprovingly, "Then let the war end in three months, besides, Nanyang is rich, and there is so much rice there that it will rot in the fields, so what is there to worry about?" ”

Hearing Hideki Tojo say that the war would end in three months, Hirohito couldn't help but remember that these people also said the same thing back then, and he was dissatisfied in his heart, and snorted coldly, and Hideki Tojo also reacted that he might have said the wrong thing, and sat down with his head down.

Seeing that Hirohito was dissatisfied with Hideki Tojo, Ishihara was proud in his heart, stood up and said, "If the empire wants to go south, it should first ensure two things, the first is that the Soviet Union will not take the opportunity to start a war against the empire, and the second is that the United States will not launch a surprise attack on the empire. Otherwise, once the empire is caught in a situation of fighting on three sides, it will be too difficult to win. ”

Hirohito sensed that he was justified and looked at Foreign Minister Matsuoka.

Matsuoka stood up and said, "Wechen is willing to make contact with the European and American powers, including the Soviet Union, to determine the attitude of each country towards our country's southward movement. ”

Hirohito hummed and said, "Good."

Hideki Tojo suddenly felt unhappy in his heart, this trip down, it will not take more than half a year, and then prepare again, it will be next year, or even the year after tomorrow, God knows what will happen for such a long time, he rolled his eyes and said, "Gentlemen, I think we should test the attitude of the European countries towards the South Seas." ”

Konoe asked, "How to tempt?" ”

Hideki Tojo smiled, "Thailand is located in the South Seas, don't you understand the situation at this time?" Could they be without ideas? I think Thailand can do it first, and then depending on the attitude of each country, if after Thailand attacks, the rest of the countries do not fiercely oppose it, the empire is a hundred times stronger than Thailand, and naturally it can be even less worried. ”

Hideki Tojo's idea of throwing stones to ask for directions suddenly made everyone nod their heads, even Ishihara Waner couldn't say anything wrong with this plan, after all, no matter what the final outcome of this matter is in Thailand, it will not have an impact on Japan, and if Thailand perishes because of this, it will be time to liberate another Thailand when it goes south.

Hirohito was also extremely satisfied with this plan, and nodded, "Good! ”

This is settled again.

Hideki Tojo struck while the iron was hot and said, "Gentlemen, once you go south, the deployment of the empire's strategic forces must change, and you should be prepared now to prevent you from rushing and missing the opportunity." ”

This sentence brought everyone back to reality, because this strategic force adjustment will involve an issue that everyone has deliberately avoided just now -- the war in China.

Konoe also knew that this matter could not be avoided, and he was the first to speak, "The war in China cannot continue like this, changes must be made, if the army can guarantee that it will defeat China within half a year, then continue to fight, if not, then let's make peace." ”

As soon as he talked about peace talks, Hideki Tojo was about to blow up, and he jumped up and shouted, "Peace talks? We have been in contact with Jiang Agent, don't you know his conditions? He wants us to withdraw from China and Manchuria, and if this is the case, the empire will not have to go south, wait for death! ”

Suddenly the whole venue was in chaos, you said that there should be peace talks, I said that we should fight resolutely, this one said that you could return to Manchuria, and the other said that you were disloyal to the empire, and it was a mess.

"Smack" Hirohito gently knocked on the table with Ruyi, and suddenly everyone fell silent.

"Ishihara, tell me what you think." Hirohito said to Ishihara Waner, in fact, Ishihara Waner had already told Hirohito his thoughts, and now he was just saying it to the outside world, but this also showed that Hirohito agreed with Ishihara's idea.

Ishihara nodded to Hirohito and said, "Gentlemen, it has been almost four years since the beginning of the Beiping Incident between the Empire and China, and it has been almost ten years since the Manchurian Incident. ”

Everyone nodded their heads and expressed their understanding, indeed, whoever really wants to sign a contract to withdraw from the whole territory of China and even Manchuria under the strategy that is still dominant now may be punished by the crazy soldiers the next day.

"But ladies and gentlemen, the situation in the world has changed, and it is impossible for the Empire to continue to fight the war in China with all its might, and now we cannot completely defeat China in a short period of time. Ishihara sighed and said, "But you should also see that in the entire China War, the empire's big defeat was not lost to the Chiang intermediary government in Chongqing, but the Chinese Red Party forces in Yan'an, Shanxi, Suiyuan, and even Shandong and Taihang Mountain, where we fought, the Chinese Red Party forces followed, and it can be said that the Chinese Red Party forces were our biggest threat in the China War." ”

Ishihara continued, "But I believe that Chiang must have seen it as well, so I think that there is no need for the empire to withdraw from China, as long as the red and white parties in China can fight in full battle, then the empire can sit back and relax in China." ”

"We have also thought of a lot of ways, but although there is friction between the Red Party and the White Party in China, there is also a consensus, they are not fools, they will not be so easily fooled." Hideki Tojo shouted.

Ishihara nodded and said, "Indeed, but the contradictions between their two parties have been around for a long time, and I already have evidence that there are other forces behind China besides the Soviet Union that are supporting them, and even people in the empire are supporting them, and these people are very powerful, I will say one thing, in the battle in South China, someone secretly put a large amount of arms ashore from Guangzhou and sent them to Hengyang City, that is not a little bit, but tens of thousands of arms, do you think there will be no internal ghosts?" ”

"What?"

"Impossible, right?"

"How could this be?"

If it is said that the Soviet Union is supporting the Chinese Red Party, it is easy to say, but if there are people in Japan who support the Chinese Red Party, then it is possible, after all, the Red Party is not divided into regions, but if there is a strong force in Japan supporting China, or even the Chinese Red Party, it is incredible, you must know that Japan is a single nation state, and the education with the emperor as the spiritual pillar has been decades, it is difficult to believe that a large number of Japanese have defected. - This idea did not change until the war with the United States.

"That's not right! In this way, those people support Chongqing Jiang intermediary? Hideki Tojo immediately found the problem and said, "But Chongqing's strength hasn't become much stronger, right?" ”

Ishihara nodded and said, "This matter will be investigated again, but what can be said is that this force is not only supporting the Chiang intermediary government in Chongqing, but also the Red Party armed forces in northern China, and even the so-called anti-Japanese alliance in Manchuria, have their shadows!" The purpose of this is to tell you that you should not think that the enemies of the empire are only these people in front of you, and there are people who are waiting for us in the dark! Therefore, the empire can no longer scruple about this, scruple about that, and must give up what should be given, and be willing to give up, for example, in the current Shandong, General Okamura Ninji gave up a large amount of land and villages, but strengthened the supervision of large cities, and now the situation has gradually stabilized, this is the truth. ”

Konoe said suspiciously, "Do you think you want to give up most of Shina?" ”

Ishihara did not dare to say this, as long as he said that he would give up China, I was afraid that in a few days he would receive a friendly visit with bullets and samurai swords, he said, "I said at the beginning, of course this is not the case, but in another way, the empire can return some places that are at the junction with the Red Party forces to the Chiang intermediary government in Chongqing, and even give up some big cities, so that the situation can be changed from the Chinese Red and White Party Armed Forces jointly dealing with the Empire to the White Party under the attack of the Empire and the Red Party Forces. Then we shouted the slogan of joining forces with Chiang to resist the Red Army, and even allowed some troops to support Chiang's anti-Red forces, not afraid that the Red and White parties would not go to war. ”

"Shhh Everyone gasped, this move can be said to be extremely vicious, if it really succeeds, the Japanese army can swagger in the rear to watch the show.

Ishihara said with a smile, "In fact, this strategy has been used in China's Warring States Period, in the past, Zhang Yi, Su and Qin were vertically and horizontally, and they used to use land to induce Qi and Chu to fight, Your Majesty, although this strategy will make the empire occupy a part of the land, but it can also reduce the loss of troops, and from an economic point of view, it is also cost-effective." ”

Hirohito understood what Ishihara meant, in fact, meant that he had to release the plan, otherwise anyone who released it might be condemned by those fanatical militarists.

Hirohito then got up and said, "The purpose of the empire is for the peace of the world and the freedom of the yellow race, and for this purpose to be achieved, all the sacrifices are worth it." ”

Ishihara let out a long breath, it was finally possible to drag Japan out of the big quagmire of China, and he vaguely felt in his heart that if Japan went south, sooner or later it would confront the United States head-on, and if Japan was still pulled back by China, would Japan still have enough strength to defeat the United States? He didn't believe it, so he wanted to do everything he could to concentrate Japan's forces, he understood that the war between Japan and the United States was a war between a child and an adult, although this child was holding a knife and had experience in fighting, but once he fell into a long-term battle, sooner or later he would be defeated by an adult with a musket, and the only chance was to start at the beginning, before the adults could react to make a lore blow - there was only one chance.

- Bangkok

Luang Phibun. Song Kan strode to the conference room, saw the Japanese envoy Kaneda, and took the initiative to stretch out his hand and said, "Mr. Kanemoto, it is a pleasure to meet you, and I wish His Majesty the Emperor good health." ”

Thankfully, Kanehonda said, "I also wish His Majesty Rama VIII good health." It's a pleasure to meet you. ”

After the two took their seats, they talked in detail for half an hour. Song Kan happily sent Jin Honda away, and said to the cronies next to him, "Great, Japan is willing to help us deal with the French and British, this is really great." ”

Next to him Sheni Bhamo said, "Although France was defeated in Europe, but its strength is not to be underestimated, the foundation of our Thai state is to win the living space among the various powers, and now we have to join the game of the great powers, if the victory is naturally good, but if it fails, I am afraid that Thailand will fall into a desperate situation." ”

Luang Phibun. Song Kan said dissatisfiedly, "I see that you are too cowardly, the French have been defeated, their army in Asia must be terrified, as long as they see us, they will probably surrender, and the local people hate the French to death, as long as we send an army, they will rebel against the French together, what is there to worry about?" ”

Sheni Bhamo shook his head and said that he was still not optimistic about Luang Phibun. Song Kan said impatiently, "You will not understand the matter of the army and the war. "Then the preparations for war began.

The Thai army was quickly dispatched, in the case of complete unpreparedness, the French defense line was broken at once, the Thai army invaded Cambodia, the French governor Jean Degu after receiving the order of Petain, immediately began a full-scale counterattack, due to the small number of French troops, he decided to win with the navy, on April 9, Degu appointed the captain of the light cruiser "La Motte Biget" Colonel Bélange as the commander of the French combat formation, looking for an opportunity to attack the Thai Navy.

Although Thailand is not big, but because of years of peace, there are also some achievements in naval construction, the French army aimed at the Thai Navy's base camp - Kochang Island, where the Thai army gathered 2 Japanese-made armored shore defense ships, 10 torpedo boats, 2 alert ships, 1 submarine and 2 minelayers, with a strength of more than 4,000 people and a total tonnage of 30,000 warships. In contrast, the French army had only 5 ships capable of participating in the battle, namely 1 light cruiser, 2 frigates, and 2 vigilance ships, with a strength of 600 men and a total tonnage of 12,500 tons.

Subsequently, an interesting war began, although the French Navy was small, but the Thai Navy began to divide its forces, which gave the French Navy a chance to break through, the French Navy first rushed to the place 12 kilometers outside Kochang Island at 6 o'clock in the morning, and the Thai two torpedo boats engaged, the torpedo boats had no artillery, only small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, but the French army was 155 mm naval guns, it took less than ten minutes, the battle ended, and then looked for fighters, sank and damaged a number of Thai warships, After a full day of fighting, the French army did not die a single person, while the Thai army suffered more than 500 casualties, of which more than 300 were killed, and a quarter of the ships were lost.

What's even more interesting is that the Thai army after getting the battle report, Luang Phibun. Song Kan was also unwilling to admit defeat, and said that this was a victorious battle, repelling the French fleet, so that the strategic conspiracy of the French landing did not succeed, God knows how many people this French fleet of only 600 people was going to send to land in Thailand and then take Bangkok.

- Yan'an

Chairman Mao looked at the telegram and waved the telegram to Zhou Guansheng, "Come, let's take a look, our Xiao Jiang is doing a good job overseas, the French are really disgusted with us there, instigating the local aborigines to riot, Xiao Jiang found an opportunity to unite the local Red Party to fight back, not only suppressed the riot, but also besieged those French people, in the name of the local aborigines, hehe, what a trick." By the way, this little ginger only said in the telegram that it was indigenous, what kind of ethnic group is this? They are all oppressed proletariat, and it is not appropriate to use a discriminatory word like native! ”

Zhou Guansheng took the telegram and said, "I didn't expect Xiao Jiang to be a general, I also specially consulted some professors in our university, this Polynesian is actually a mixed race of the Australian native race and the Mongolian race, and there are also some special people of our yellow race, there are various ethnic groups in the local area, it is difficult to say clearly, this is probably why Xiao Jiang is said to be indigenous." ”

Chairman Mao took out a cigarette and said, "Mongol race? Aren't these Mongolians Chinese! In that case, are these people still our cousins? ”

Zhou Guansheng said with a smile, "You can also say this, in fact, from the perspective of race, Southeast Asia has some relationship with us, but it is not exactly the same, it is difficult to explain the things of this race, I am afraid I have to consult those experts." ”

Saying that, Zhou Guansheng himself used his brain, due to some reasons, many things in later generations, Jiang Cheng told Chairman Mao, Zhou Guansheng, Mr. Zhu and others respectively, for example, Chairman Mao didn't know about Lan Ping, but Zhou Guansheng knew some, such as the ten-year catastrophe, Chairman Mao knew less, and some details Zhou Guansheng and Mr. Zhu knew more. For example, Chairman Mao only knew some general information about the exclusion of Chinese in Southeast Asia, but Zhou Guansheng and Jiang Cheng had some discussions and ideas.

In history, because of the proletariat of the whole world united in this sentence, China's older generation of cabinet masters often really believe that the Red Party of other countries is their own brother party, when some parties purge people close to China, so that later suffered a lot of obstacles in the world, Zhou Guansheng understood that after understanding the later generations, although he understood that it was also out of helplessness at that time, China was poor and white, and really did not have much strength to meddle in international affairs, but he was not willing to suffer that anger, so he said to Chairman Mao, "Chairman, I think I can let historians study it, I heard Xiao Jiang say before that the indigenous Indians in the Americas are likely to be the descendants of our Shang Dynasty in China, and the people on Polynesia may also be the descendants of our Chinese. If so, I wonder if we can unite them and become our overseas Chinese? ”

Chairman Mao suddenly felt something, he looked at Zhou Guansheng and wanted to say something, but finally held back, and said after a while, "This is still too far, don't force it." ”

Zhou Guansheng smiled and said, "Then let's talk about it closer, Xiao Jiang is so big in Polynesia, I'm afraid France will also know about it, and I don't know what the reaction will be." ”

Chairman Mao was not worried and said, "Xiao Jiang is very steady, he must have considered this matter, this will be subject to the foreign monarch's order, let's not interfere with his good, but we have to hurry up this drought matter." A few days ago, Mr. Zhu came to tell me that the troops had almost repaired during this time, especially the troops in Suiyuan and Shanxi, which could launch a large-scale battle at any time, and I knew that Mr. Zhu always saw an opportunity. ”

Zhou Guansheng nodded and said, "Zhu Lao is always a military strategist, the military sense of smell has always been very good, once there is a drought, the Japanese occupation area will definitely be surging in the people's hearts, if we have enough food, then it will be easy to surrender without a fight, after all, the number of puppet troops is now more and more, if there is a drought, they must not be able to eat, and the imperial army needs their support, I don't believe that Okamura Ninji will let the Japanese starve, and let the puppet army be full." ”

Chairman Mao nodded and said, "Reasonably!" It's just that according to Xiao Jiang, I'm afraid that this drought will be unprecedented, even with Xiao Jiang's support, I'm afraid it will be difficult to fill the stomach of the entire disaster area. ”

Of course, you can't fill it up, you must know that the population affected by the drought is nearly 100 million, and later generations talk about the 1942 drought, only Henan, in fact, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and other places at that time have been affected by large and small influences, just because Henan is located in the Yellow Flood area and the most heavy losses from military disasters and man-made disasters, at that time, the whole country because of the drought that was relieved from the year alone is no less than seven or eight million, and Henan, alone in 1941, starved to death million, and in 1942, it was between three million and five million. Even in the Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan anti-Japanese base areas led by the Red Party, the number of people who died of starvation was also 100,000, and there were scenes of Deng Xianxian eating locusts in the Taihang Mountain base area in later films, which is talking about this period, which is much more serious than the movie in history, due to the blockade of the Japanese army, the people in the base area can only find ways to save themselves, and later even Mr. Peng and others held a meeting because they were too hungry and could only lie in bed and talk. If we really want to find a way to help the disaster, then at least enough food for 10 million people to eat for a year, how much? That would be at least 16.7 million tons of grain, and that would be 2 million cubic meters smaller, and such a large quantity, not to mention that the price alone would be 7 billion yuan smaller.

Zhou Guansheng said: "Chairman, the real key is for us to save ourselves, we now have tens of millions of people in the base area, if we can ensure that our base area can survive without Xiao Jiang's assistance, then the food transported by Xiao Jiang is enough for us to operate." ”

Chairman Mao took a puff of cigarette and said, "We have to discuss this matter and come up with a way, you are right, self-help is the key, this big production movement cannot be stopped for a moment!" (To be continued.) )

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