“…… Sink the aircraft carrier Indefatigable, severely damage the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, severely damage the aircraft carrier Radiance, severely damage the battlecruiser Counterattack, and severely damage the heavy cruiser ......"

At the headquarters of Truk Atoll, a staff officer of a Combined Fleet Command was reading the battle report he had just received in the most cheerful mood of the holiday. The unhappiness caused by the night attack of the British was swept away.

"Ugaki-kun, what do you think?"

"Your Excellency, another unprecedented victory comparable to Pearl Harbor! As long as Vice Admiral Nagumo launches another round of attacks, the British and Australian Grand Fleet will lose at least three motherships and one battle cruiser! Vice Admiral Ugaki, Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet, looked at Commander Yamamoto, who was asking, and replied.

"What about the loss of a mothership after a battle patrol?" Yamamoto asked lightly.

"Then Britain will lose the ability to take the initiative in the South Pacific, and the initiative in the South Pacific will belong to our Combined Fleet." Ugaki pointed to the Bismarck Islands on the nautical chart and said: "Your Excellency, the next step is to launch the Battle of the Bismarck Islands, strive to seize the New Island of Ireland and New Britain, and open the passage south to the Solomon Islands. We can then land at Lae in the eastern part of the island of New Guinea and occupy the Solomon Islands in search of an island where an airfield can be built, and after taking control of the Solomon Islands, Australia and the Americas will be completely cut off......"

"But we have lost 200,000 tons of transport ships in the Truk Lagoon, and there are still 100,000 tons of merchant ships to dock for repairs, and it will take at least a few months to repair! The underground oil depot on Truk Island was also partially destroyed in the bombing. Yamamoto pointed to Singapore and said, "According to investigation, Singapore's port facilities and dockyards are all in good condition, and the Chinese will turn it into a bridgehead for them to advance into Australia within a month." ”

"Your Excellency means ......"

"Nagumo's Second Air Fleet also suffered heavy losses in the air bombardment that just ended, and it should be time for them to return to rest and recuperate." Yamamoto smiled at Ugaki and said, "In addition, the attack on Bismarck Island and New Guinea Island has been postponed, and the current priority is to drive the Dutch colonists out of Asia!" It was the only way for China to go south...... The second is the consolidation of the Truk Atoll. This is the foundation of the empire's southward movement, and there is no room for error. He thought for a moment as he spoke. In addition, the two weapons of night combat aircraft and air defense early warning radar were necessary for the Reich to fight against the United States, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Navy should be spared from negotiating with Germany and China. ”

Ugaki was stunned for a moment, and soon understood the meaning of Yamamoto's words. "Your Excellency. Should we discontinue the Panama Raiders? ”

"Nope! It cannot be discontinued. Yamamoto Fifty-six's eyes flashed with coldness, and he said in a deep voice: "We have already formed a mortal enmity with the United States, and even if we return Hawaii now, it will not be possible to exchange for the understanding of the United States." Moreover, China and Germany also desperately want us to contain the United States, and if we let them down on this issue, I am afraid that in the future, not a drop of oil and a piece of steel will be shipped into Japan, so we must fight this United States! I just don't want to fight. It's too late now. ”

"I understand that this Pacific War is an open and covert struggle between friends and foes. We must not only defend against Britain and the United States, but also against China! ”

Yamamoto fifty-six squinted his eyes, looked at Australia on the map and sneered: "Why is this not the case on the British and American side?" ”

……

At this moment, in the turquoise South Pacific, the capital ships of the British and Australian Grand Fleet, which had been majestic and high-spirited not long ago, seemed to be blown away by a "divine wind" from the Sea of Japan.

The front half of the deck of the flagship aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was charred and blackened. There was a terrible hole near the bow, and a puff of blue-black smoke was pouring out of the hole. The black half of the battlecruiser Counterattack looked as if it had just been burned by fire. There was a puff of smoke, and at the rudder, there was a hole the size of a door. Tons of seawater were rushing in, and the entire hull was noticeably tilted. The situation of the aircraft carrier Guanghui was not much better, and this carrier was also the focus of the attack by Japanese suicide planes, an IL-190 plane loaded with 300 kilograms of high explosives crashed into the middle of the rebuilt island, and the fire caused by the explosion burned almost half of the island. But the worst was the Indefatigable, the aircraft carrier was hit by five kamikaze aircraft. The entire flight deck and ship island were almost completely destroyed. After losing power, the captain had already given the order to abandon the ship. Only a handful of damage management team members are making their last efforts.

"Let the destroyers fire torpedoes!" After hesitating for a long time, Cunningham finally shouted tears and gave the order to abandon the Indefatigable.

"Admiral, try again."

Phillips reluctantly advised: "The fire of the Indefatigable will soon be extinguished, although it has lost power, the hull is still intact, and it will take a year at most to repair it after towing it back to Port Jackson." ”

"But the fleet can't stay here. Carry out the order, abandon the Indefatigable, and retreat to the Solomon Islands. Cunningham let out a long sigh and shook his head lightly at the Indefatigable. The night attack on the Truk Islands ended up unlucky and ended up losing both Japan and Japan. An aircraft carrier is sunk (tireless), a combat cruiser and two aircraft carriers are heavily damaged, and it will not be able to restore combat effectiveness without three months. In other words, in the next three months, the Australian Grand Fleet will only be able to support the situation with three motherships and one battle cruiser. If Chinese invade WA at this time......

"Admiral, should we launch a counterattack? And three more aircraft carriers to fight? ”

"Fight back? Do you really want to die with the Japanese? Cunningham smiled bitterly: "There are four players in this gamble in the Pacific!" Cunningham narrowed his eyes and stared at the northern sky for a long time before he sneered a few times: "Before I left England, the Secretary of the Admiralty once said to me: between Japan and China, between us and the United States, in fact, it is the same...... There are no eternal friends, only eternal interests, and in the Pacific, apart from the Australian Grand Fleet and God, the only thing that we British are best at balancing is the art of balance. ”

"Do the Japanese understand this art of balancing?"

Cunningham smiled mysteriously as he whispered to Phillips, "Someone will tell them." Then, he regained his solemn expression and said in a deep voice: "Send a telegram to Commander-in-Chief Whitehall and Wavell, and tell them about our gains and losses." Furthermore. In the name of the command of the Australian Grand Fleet, it was proposed that the next stage of the threat to Australia would come from the north-west direction, so the focus of the British defense should also be on the north-west of Australia...... As for the Japanese, leave it to the United States for the time being! ”

……

"Hualong (Chen Si), what do you think?"

"Auxiliary commander, humble opinion. Both the British and the Japanese seem to have some room to spare. In the Wuhan General Staff, looking at the battle report provided by the Japanese side just received, Chen Si said to Luo Yaoguo: "Britain and Japan mobilized a total of 10 aircraft carriers and hundreds of aircraft, but only one 'Intreplent' aircraft carrier was sunk, one 'counterattack' battlecruiser was heavily damaged, and the remaining five British aircraft carriers were unscathed!" And the British did not prevent the counterattack either. And they fled, you say, what kind of battle are they fighting? ”

"They're all guarding against us!" Luo Yaoguo smiled, as if he could understand the hardships of Britain and Japan.

While the two countries are desperately trying to pull out valuable aircraft carriers in the Pacific, China is gulping down chunks of fat territory and brandishing knives and forks at Australia's fattest piece of meat. Britain and Japan, no matter how sluggish they are, should know that something is wrong. Although they also have to fight for Australia. But they didn't dare to do their best...... The British were only thinking of delaying the Japanese attack for the time being, so that they could free up their hands to deal with the Chinese threat; As long as Japan finds itself unable to go south to Australia in a short period of time. That would not weaken the British and Australian Grand Fleet too much.

The current relationship between China, Japan, Britain and the United States in the Pacific Ocean is a bit like that between the two parties and Japan during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in history. They all want to use the enemy to weaken their allies so that they can grow stronger in this war.

"It's better to have Britain and Japan face off in the South Pacific for a while." Bai Chongxi shrugged his shoulders. said with a smile: "Now the situation in Australia has become a tripartite containment between China, Britain (the United States), and Japan, and no one is willing to make the first move." However, such a situation is still more favorable to us, after all, we still have French Indochina, India, and the Middle East in three directions to expand, and on the European side, Hitler's offensive is also ready, as long as Japan starts on the Panama side. The Germans would then begin to attack Belgium and the Netherlands. When the time comes. We will attack the Middle East, India, and French Indochina at the same time, and purge the Anglo-French forces from Asia at the same time as the Anglo-French alliance on the European continent collapses! ”

"Brother Jiansheng. Mu Han, Hua Long. What do you propose for the Middle East campaign and the Indian campaign? Luo Yaoguo suddenly wrinkled his brows, at present, China's core strategy is still Southeast Asia and Australia, as long as these two territories are swallowed, a world empire belonging to China will be formed. As for the Middle East and India, Luo Yaoguo certainly wants to get involved, but he doesn't have the idea of investing too much strength. After all, in order to secure a sufficiently secure strategic environment for the future Chinese Empire, China must devote its main forces to the Pacific Ocean to ensure that it will seize control of the Western Pacific before the end of the war!

"Brother Fuwen, Brother Yu thinks that my country should adopt a strategy of grasping the near and letting go of the two sides in the Middle East and India. That is, to temporarily abandon the Middle East and concentrate on firmly controlling the Indian countries and making them a barrier to the southwest of our country. At present, India is preparing for the election of an autonomous government, a new government has not yet been formed, and the prestige of the Indian Viceroy has been greatly reduced, and it is difficult to concentrate India's financial and material resources to resist our attack.

Although the British Indian Theater currently boasts 1 million troops, according to the information we have, the actual strength will not exceed 700,000, and the main ones are the British and Indian troops with extremely poor combat effectiveness. Its officers were mainly third-rate officers and non-commissioned officers who had been eliminated from the British Army, and although they had received a certain amount of military training, they lacked the determination to dedicate themselves to defending India, while the soldiers of the British and Indian Army were Indian civilians hired for money and had no will to fight at all. Only the Gurkha mercenaries, numbering about 100,000 people, have a certain combat effectiveness.

In addition, the British and Indian armies were also extremely short of heavy weapons and equipment, and although India itself had a certain industrial base, it still lacked a strong enough heavy industry. While it was capable of producing rifles, machine guns, mortars and light artillery, it did not have the capacity to produce heavy artillery, tanks and aircraft. The British Air Force and heavy artillery units that were previously deployed in India have now been redeployed to the Middle East and Australia. So we only need to send two armored divisions and one air division to India, plus an infantry corps that should be able to conquer the whole of India. ”

Bai Chongxi's proposal is obviously contrary to Luo Yaoguo's strategic vision, but there are many similar voices in the National Defense Force. After all, from the perspective of this era, India is far richer than the Middle East. And oil is nowhere near as precious as liquid gold. Moreover, after the discovery of the Daqing oil field and the Karamay oil field, and the control of the oil fields in Borneo and Sumatra, excluding the Maoming oil shale, China's annual oil production has reached 13 million tons! Enough to cope with the current war and China's fast-growing economy, so the desire for oil fields in the Persian Gulf is less urgent.

"I don't agree with Brother Jiansheng." Zeng Qi, who had been listening, suddenly interrupted Bai Chongxi's words. He said: "Now we have arranged for Ma Jiajun and GCD to enter India from the north and south, and the Indian Ocean islands such as the Andaman Islands, Ceylon, and Maldives will soon fall into the hands of the navy." At that time, the whole of India will be like an apple in our pockets, and we can eat it whenever we want. But the situation in the Middle East is just the opposite, not only Britain and France have deployed heavy troops there, but even Germany and Italy are salivating over the oil in the Middle East! Recently, news broke that Hitler had secretly sent a small air force and some military advisers to Iraq. And Rashid, who controls the Iraqi government. Ali. Agrani has always been suspected of being pro-German...... Moreover, the Iranian king Reza Khan, who had fled to Tbilisi, had been in constant contact with the Germans. If we are slow, the whole Middle East is likely to be laid after the situation of the Western European war is laid. Fall into German control! ”

"Of course, the Middle East cannot be left to Hitler." Luo Yaoguo took a sip of the coffee on the table, lifted his mind, and then pointed to the map and said: "Although my country is not short of oil at present, oil resources will be crucial to the future development of my country's economy. However, if we want to monopolize this oil sea, we will probably be angry, and Middle Eastern oil can get Hitler's hands on some of it. But we also have to get our fair share! When we have captured Ceylon and the Maldives, we are ready to send another large army to the Middle East! Take control of Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Muscat, the Islamic Empire of Oman, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, etc...... And then several vassals were established there. At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek's expeditionary force was ordered to attack Persia. Oust Stalin from there and restore the Pahlavi dynasty. As for Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, etc., they could be considered for Hitler. That's right. There is also a Jewish state to be established in Palestine, and we have the same as Ben. Gurion has an agreement, and he can't afford to do things after taking money from those Jews. ”

"As for India, let's do it according to the original plan, support a few more countries, and let the forces of various factions slowly consume there! Anyway, the Indian Ocean is in our hands. Are you still afraid that India will turn the sky upside down? ”

At this time. Outside the door came the "tapping" of high-heeled shoes against the floor, followed by a creak. Natalie walked in with a folder in her arms.

"According to the information from Warsaw, the Polish Embassy in Panama reported that a mixed U.S.-French fleet had been spotted in the Gulf of Panama, including three large aircraft carriers flying the French flag, two American heavy cruisers, four American light cruisers, and twelve American destroyers."

"Oh?" Luo Yaoguo raised his eyebrows slightly, took the document from Natalie's hand, swept it through the ten lines, groaned, and slowly spoke: "What does Nimitz want to do?" Put an aircraft carrier on display on the edge of Panama City? Didn't he know that Panama had diplomatic relations with Poland, Italy, Spain? ”

"Hehe, isn't this just for us!" Bai Chongxi took the document from Luo Yaoguo's hand, looked at it twice, and sneered. "It is estimated that these three French aircraft carriers are a bait, how can these Yankees also like to play the trick of sacrificing friendly troops?"

"It's not exactly at the expense of allies, either." Chen Si explained with a smile: "The design idea of the French aircraft carrier is very strange, there are not many carrier-based aircraft, but the defense and firepower are extremely powerful, and they are even equipped with torpedo tubes. This kind of strange-looking aircraft carrier has no other advantages except for being beaten, who should be the bait if they are not bait? ”

"Well, in that case, Natalie, let's inform the Japanese side of this information. But don't say that it was reported by the Polish embassy, just that it was detected by our intelligence agents lurking in Panama. Luo Yaoguo tapped lightly on the table and said with a light smile: "Now the ** of the Pacific War is coming!" I'm really looking forward to a battle between Japan and the United States. As he spoke, he turned to Chen Si again: "Hualong, tell me who will win and who will lose in the Panama battle this time?" ”

"It's hard to say, it's hard to say." Chen Si waved his hand, winked at Luo Yaoguo, and said with a smile: "The Japanese are expected to dispatch four motherships, while the Americans have six, but in terms of the number of carrier-based aircraft, the two are comparable, and it is estimated that it will be a lose-lose game." ”

"Hahaha. I hope so......"