A transport plane in desert camouflage landed steadily at Dusan Air Base in Ahvaz, Iran. The base, which was destroyed during the landing in the Persian Gulf, has not only been restored to its original appearance, but has also expanded much with the help of China. In order to achieve the grand strategic goal of mastering the Persian Gulf after the war and realizing the settlement of the people's yuan, following Saudi Arabia, China and Iran signed an agreement on the settlement of the people's yuan of oil last year, and officially used it as a joint military base shared by the two countries. Coupled with the fact that quasi-states such as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have signed similar agreements with Beijing, the entire Persian Gulf region is dotted with Chinese bases, except for Oman, which holds the Strait of Holmts, which is still in British hands. This new method of non-colonization, rent-only military bases, has extended from the Persian Gulf to the Pacific, the South China Sea, the Red Sea, and Central Asia.

After Bai Chongxi got off the plane, the officers who had been waiting at the airport came forward to greet him. "Commander-in-chief, it's been hard all the way, how are you at home?" Chief of Staff Li Mingrui stepped forward and asked with concern. Not long ago, Bai Chongxi had something at home, so he took the opportunity to return to China to report on his work and rest for a while. "Thank you Mingrui and everyone for your concern, everything is fine." After Bai Chongxi thanked everyone, he got in the car and drove to the headquarters, asking about the latest situation on the way.

"A few days ago, Du Yuming captured the northern province of Golestan and captured the port of Tolkaleman, and began to build a dock as planned, preparing to assemble gunboats there. I have also ordered the 34th Army to prepare for an attack on Qom, and strive to take Qom next month and encircle Tehran. Progress is also good on the East African side, where Zhu Jiande's vanguard has crossed the Shabelle River and is less than 200 kilometers from Mogadishu. The situation is now in trouble for Egypt and Turkey, with Guderian's vanguard approaching the outskirts of Madrid, and a massive battle broke out yesterday. Let Rommel turn east for the second time, to take advantage of the Anglo-American trap in Spain and North Africa to attack Egypt, Wavell has already transferred most of the Middle East troops to Egypt to prepare to fight him. There has also been a sudden change in the wind in Turkey recently. After Greece's successive defeats, the voices of support for Germany have gained the upper hand, and yesterday the Turkish government officially recalled us and banned our and British and American transport planes from continuing to transit to support Greece and Yugoslavia. ”

"So, the Battle of Madrid has already broken out?"

"Well, it should be said that it has already begun, so recently the attention of Britain and the United States has been all on Spain and Egypt, and they have to promise Turkey a moratorium on cross-border flights."

Bai Chongxi was not surprised after hearing this, Turkey's swing had long been expected. So he asked, "What do you say about Crete?" ”

The geographical location of Crete is very crucial. It can support Greece and deter Romania's Ploiesti oil fields, while also holding the Bosphorus. Yang Qiu had always hoped to deploy naval and air forces on the island to prevent another historical defeat. You know, the world war is different, no matter whether the Soviet Union and Germany will really join forces in the end, at least Yang Qiu must master an Aegean passage to prevent Turkey from getting involved in the war, and the Soviet Army and the Black Sea Fleet enter the Mediterranean Sea and land in Egypt. But Li Mingrui still shook his head: "The Greek provisional government has retreated to the island. They welcomed us in. But the British were still very stubborn, insisting on linking the entry into the island with the sending of troops, and asked us to provide at least 4 infantry divisions to Greece. ”

"Think beautifully." Bai Chongxi snorted coldly. There are forces, the Persian Gulf Army has a total of 5 corps. Combined with the controlled Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Muslim League, the total number of troops is close to one million. Excluding the transfer of troops to India and East Africa, the transfer of four infantry divisions is not a big problem. But first, Yang Qiu did not want to get involved in the ground war in Europe, and second, logistics were always a big trouble. To know. The Persian Gulf Army has been fighting petty battles for the past year, all because of poor logistics. As long as the navy did not retake the Strait of Malacca for a day, he would never let go. So he waved his hand and said, "You can ask people to contact you again about this matter." In a word, it is absolutely not okay to send the army. ”

Li Mingrui nodded, and said, "Don't worry, commander, I know this in my heart." But what about the Pahlavi and Mossad side? They have come several times to urge Tehran, all hoping to retake Tehran sooner rather than later. By the way, Mossadegh also said that he had already been contacted by someone from the Iraqi side. ”

"Oh?"

"After Germany attacked Greece, it promised a lot of benefits to Prime Minister Rashid and the Golden Phalanx in Iraq, but the British army and we were here, and we did not dare to make a mistake. Recently, however, they have been involved with the Soviets, and according to Mossadegh, he has received definite information that Soviet Foreign Minister Motorov had secretly contacted representatives of the "Fourth Colonel" in Mosul, and the details are not yet known. But for sure, there were representatives of the Kurdish partisans at the talks! Zhang Zhidan also found that there were many Soviet Muslim soldiers secretly joining the Kurdish guerrillas, numbering about a few thousand, and the Soviet Union also provided a lot of military assistance, with more than 200 tanks alone, all of which were T26 and T37/76 types. Now that Britain is anxious to protect Egypt and move all the troops here in the Middle East to the east of Suez, if I think Stalin will certainly take advantage of this opportunity to flank us. As soon as Iraq becomes independent, Germany and the Soviet Union will definitely enter together, and the pressure on us will be great. ”

Germany's infiltration into the Middle East is not a secret, and there are many supporters, among which the Sharif faction of four colonel-level officers, also known as the "Four Colonels" or the "Golden Phalanx" group, formed within the Iraqi army, is the most famous. After the Persian Gulf campaign, the Soviet Union also accelerated its infiltration into this area, the most famous of which were the Kurdish partisans. However, due to the long-term unpopularity of the Kurds, there is basically no contact between the Golden Phalanx and the Kurdish partisans. As for Stalin's secret arrangement for Muslim soldiers in the country to join the Kurdish forces, it has long been discovered by the Ministry of Intelligence. But Li Mingrui's words made Bai Chongxi vigilant, if the Soviet Union persuaded him, would it promote a temporary alliance between the Kurds and the Golden Phalanx? He is not afraid of the two camps joining forces, the Kurdish guerrillas and the Iraqi army combined, are not as good as his army, but will the Soviet Union and Germany send troops directly? Especially Germany! You know, they have already occupied Yugoslavia, and as long as the Soviet Union acquiesces, they can easily force Turkey to surrender and then cross the Black Sea into the Middle East.

Seeing him pondering, Li Mingrui said: "I have ordered someone to send this news back to China, and I believe that the General Staff and the President already know about it." ”

"Well done." Bai Chongxi did not dare to slack off and said: "Although the president has never said whether to take care of Iraq, Turkey is a key link. If Greece is occupied by Germany and Iraq is occupied by the Soviet Union, Turkey will be surrounded, so we still have to be prepared. Now that the president is speeding up the cleanup of Japan, and the major events in the north are about to be launched, we cannot afford to delay at this time. The officers nodded. This half year is a critical moment for the decisive victory between China and Japan and the referendum in the north. The former is related to whether or not the trouble of the two-front war can be resolved in advance, not to mention the latter, China's largest "territorial expansion" since the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which is of incomparable significance. These troops outside have already received orders to ensure that they hold out for half a year.

Bai Chongxi stretched his waist, the bumps of the day made him a little sleepy, and he was just about to go to rest after discussing the plan, when the staff officer walked in: "Commander, the king of Iran invites you to go to the banquet tonight." ”

"Huh. Keep an eye on it. Bai Chongxi raised the corners of his mouth with a wry smile and waved his hand: "Got it, tell the Pahlavi king, I will be there on time." ”

====

The news of the gradual changes in the Middle East has not yet reached the battlefield on the peninsula. In the face of the long-standing onslaught of the Sino-Korean coalition forces, the pressure on Seishiro Itagaki and the Japanese and Korean forces was increasing. In particular, the Zhuo Fan cluster has become a sharp knife inserted into the heart of the peninsula! When Itagaki transferred two divisions from Wonsan in an attempt to block the 104th and 177th Divisions, the 37th and 72nd Divisions led by Cho Teng-woo captured southeast of Pyongyang respectively. It is located in Sui'an and Xinping in the middle of the Afeihuling Mountains. After Zhuo Fan received the news, he immediately contacted the headquarters, and with the support of Liu Mingzhao and the headquarters, a large number of tactical transport planes were mobilized. The 147th and 166th infantry divisions were transported to the two places in three days, and then Zhao Dengyu was strictly ordered to put the armored troops behind, and the 147th Infantry Division was used as the arrow to attack Ruixing in the starry night. Cut off the Pyongyang-Seoul railway.

On May 26, the 104th and 177th Divisions, which had made a feint attack on Wonsan, also suddenly retreated to Yangdeok, and after resting for the night, they turned around again. Advance to the south of the immortal rock, and form a southward arrow that is only forty kilometers away from Zhao Dengyu's department.

On May 30, Zhuo Fan struck again, and with the help of a mechanized infantry regiment of the 37th Armored Division moving south from Sui'an, he airdropped the 2nd Airborne Division to Ruixing between Pyongyang and Kaesong. After 15,000 airborne troops captured the city of Seoheung without bloodshed, it not only meant that the passage from Suian to Kaesong was opened, but also blocked the passage from Pyongyang to Seoul. In order to take advantage of this large gap, the next morning, the main force of the 37th Armored Division and the 147th Infantry Division, which had come from the support, also quickly moved south and forced Kaesong through the Ruixing troops. On the same day, the three infantry divisions rushing from Dalian, under the protection of the naval cruiser formation, avoided the well-defended Taedong River estuary and Incheon, and chose to land and land from Haizhou, north of Yeonpyeong Island. Subsequently, with the support of the naval and air forces, and in cooperation with the 37th and 147th Divisions, they launched a general attack on Kaesong. After two days and two nights of fierce fighting, by the afternoon of June 2, the Japanese 104th Division had lost nearly 20,000 men and had to abandon Kaesong and retreat to Seoul.

In just a few days of Anju, Suncheon, Pyongyang, and Nampo, Banhuan and the Japanese army's plan to take Pyongyang as the core and try to fight a decisive battle along the railway line in North Pyongan Province and South Hwanghae Province was all in vain. Under the command of Zhuo Fan, the entire Eighth Division and various garrison brigades, a total of 300,000 Japanese troops, were left behind by him, and the troops pointed directly at Seoul, which was less than 60 kilometers away from Kaesong! With the liberation of Kaesong, three encirclements were rapidly formed on the Korean Peninsula. The first is the northern mountainous area, the second is North Hwanghae Province centered on Pyongyang, and the third is Seoul, and there are hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops in each encirclement.

Zhuo Fan's quick interspersion gave Yang Qiu the opportunity to solve the peninsula campaign early, but it also made Stalin realize that he had to act immediately.

On 3 June, the day after the Battle of Castile (Battle of Madrid), Stalin's long-planned spring-summer 1941 counteroffensive officially began. A total of 250 divisions and 3.7 million Soviet troops, under the cover of more than 10,000 tanks, 50,000 artillery pieces, and 3,000 battles, launched a simultaneous counteroffensive from Chelyabinsk, Transural and Aktobe.

At the same time as the dawn of victory in the war against Japan appeared, Yang Qiu ushered in the biggest challenge in this war.

====

ps: After the year, my sister-in-law went to Sao Paulo on a business trip, and before leaving, she said that she wanted to surprise me. Then on a business trip, he hooked up with me through ** and talked about the second child. I thought she just had an idea, but I didn't expect that when I picked up the airport yesterday, my sister-in-law actually raided and told me that the second hippopotamus had been confirmed in her stomach.

As a result, I went to the hospital at the airport and my mother's house from the hospital, and I had a happy and busy weekend. (To be continued......)