"You say the British want to raid Aleppo?" Chen Zuyin, commander of the 17th Group Army of the Chinese Army, said with some surprise that he is currently leading two armies and a group army department specifically responsible for protecting Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, and that if the plane is to be airlifted to Istanbul, the plane must take off from this area, otherwise it will not be able to meet the fuel supply of the plane to and from the plane, after all, Istanbul has not only cut off the supply of arms, but also the supply of oil.

"Yes, the special battalion caught a British spy and pried it out of his mouth with coercive medicine, not only Aleppo, but what the British wanted to play was what we did in Japan back then, using landing ships to land on the coast to destroy our airfields and then retreating, at present almost all of our airfields are less than 100 kilometers away from the coast, and even many of them are directly on the coast, and we only have two armies, and it is impossible to guard the coastline of six or seven hundred kilometers." His chief of staff said.

"Is that really a problem?" Chen Zuyin frowned and pondered. In fact, if the British did this, it would be a big trouble for him, now with the number of landing ships of the British, they were fully capable of launching a landing operation at the division level, and the ports along the Mediterranean coast were completely within the range of their naval guns, and the Ottomans did not even lay mines. That is to say, they can raid a port with landing ships, and then use transport ships to transport all the heavy weapons, while their troops are scattered in more than a dozen cities such as Aleppo, Homs, Damascus, Jerusalem, etc., it is difficult to stop their attack alone, and if they are assembled, it is impossible to determine where they will land, after all, they can choose any port on this long coastline.

Air patrols could provide early warning, but they were of little use at night, and the British could have set out from the island of Cyprus, with enough time to get to wherever they wanted to go in one night, and the Mediterranean Sea was so familiar to them that they could move with their eyes closed.

"However, the special battalion also seized the British's code book during the operation." The chief of staff suddenly said with a smile.

"You mean let's pick a target for them?" Chen Zuyin immediately understood what he meant.

The chief of staff nodded.

"And there is another point that the British dare to play like this. They had more than a dozen landing ships in their hands, and these landing ships were usually protected by a naval fleet, and after the Battle of Helgoland Bay, the British had installed a large number of anti-aircraft guns on the battleships, and our bombers were vulnerable to these anti-aircraft artillery threats when they directly ventured to attack. But if these landing ships rush to the coast, they will not get any protection at that time, except for a small number of antiaircraft guns on the ships, and we will concentrate our bombers on standby and blow them all up on the coast in one fell swoop. This basically solves the problem once and for all. Then the chief of staff said.

"And where?" Chen Zuyin stared at the map for a while and said with a smile: "How about Beirut, there is one of our airports, more than 100 transport planes, and another division is stationed, the Russian army has captured Konya, at this time, we seem to be able to provide support for the Ottoman army there, for example, it is very reasonable to transfer an army to the north." ”

Two days later, a British battleship in charge of the blockade of the Aegean Sea received a telegram from Aleppo that the 71st Army of the Chinese Army had gone north to reinforce the Ottoman Army and was stationed in Beirut. All three divisions of Homs and Aleppo were transferred, and a regiment of the 72nd Army in Damascus temporarily took over the defense of Beirut until reinforcements from the Chinese mainland arrived with reinforcements from the Nineteenth Army.

The telegram was then sent to London. The British General Staff immediately realized the value of this precious slot, because of the presence of the Chinese Army, they were actually the only spy left in the area, Reilly, but this guy was already the ace of British intelligence before the war. So the British did not have the slightest doubt that he would be able to survive and work normally under the high pressure of the Chinese. And some bits and pieces of information received from other places later did confirm that the Chinese began to reinforce the Ottoman Sixth Army in the south after the defeat in Konya.

This army group still has less than 100,000 men. Driven by a Russian army group in the Adana area, barely sustained by the surrounding mountains, if they were wiped out again, then the Russians would definitely continue to attack Aleppo, so they had no doubt about this information, and their spies in the Ottoman General Staff also confirmed that Hamid II had asked for reinforcements from the Chinese Seventeenth Army.

A landing operation plan was immediately drawn up, with all eighteen British landing ships carrying one infantry division from the island of Cyprus, to seize the port of Beirut by means of a beach landing, and then troop carriers and ro-ro ships transporting combat vehicles to land at the port and continue to raid Damascus as quickly as possible, and it is best to capture Damascus, if not possible, it can destroy the Beirut airport and the surrounding material and oil storage warehouses, and deal a huge blow to the Chinese's air transport to Istanbul.

After the plan was decided, a marine division belonging to the British Navy, an infantry division belonging to the army, and a tank brigade immediately began to be transported to the island of Cyprus, and at the same time, a large number of warships in the Mediterranean Sea also flocked here, because they were worried that they would be attacked by Chinese bombers during the landing, so they specially confirmed to Aleppo again, and after learning that the Chinese bomber group based at the Aleppo airport had taken off to carry out the transport mission, the huge attack fleet immediately set off in a mighty way.

Unfortunately, what they didn't know was that all five divisions, including the main forces of the 71st and 72nd armies, had moved around Damascus and were waiting for the British to get into their pockets, and the bomber group at the Aleppo airfield, of course, would not fly away, but was actually loaded with bombs waiting for them to come to the door.

The voyage of more than 200 kilometers at sea was nothing more than a night for the British attack fleet, and when the landing ships full of soldiers rushed to the beach in Beirut in the morning sun, they could even hear the sirens sounding in the city, and then they could see a small number of Chinese soldiers rushing to the beach, setting up their small-caliber guns and firing at the sea, but unfortunately the 305mm shells on the British battleships arrived immediately after, The frightened Chinese soldiers did not hesitate to rout towards the city of Beirut, and at the same time, the transport planes at the Beirut airport were busy taking off.

Of course, this is very regrettable, but the British also knew very well that they could not land and destroy these planes, they had enough time to take off, but after destroying the airfield and blowing up the supply and fuel depots, these planes would be of little use.

Pushing the defeated Chinese, eighteen landing ships rushed to the beach in Beirut, and then the hatch opened, and a whole division of British troops rushed out.

The ensuing battle was unbelievably easy, the Chinese who fled to the city put up only a slight resistance, and then routed to the Lebanese mountains outside the city, but this is understandable, after all, they only have a regiment, and the British not only have a whole army, but also a large fleet at sea, fighting in Beirut, which is completely covered by naval artillery, is tantamount to suicide, and the Chinese airport in Beirut is also on the other side of the Lebanese mountains.

The landed British troops did not pursue, but quickly took control of the port, and then the troop carriers at sea, the ro-ro ships drove over, and another division and chariot brigade also quickly landed at the dock, and in Beirut they also got a surprise, because the railway only leads to Damascus, so the transportation to Beirut is all by road, there is not only a direct asphalt hardened road to Guò, but also a large number of trucks, and even dozens of tons of super-heavy trucks, a car is easy to stuff a company, Now they even had the means of transport for the raid, and then the British marched towards Damascus with chariot trucks.

In the Lebanese mountains, they were again blocked by the Chinese, but immediately after the British battleships that sailed into the port of Beirut fired the 305 shells, these blocking Chinese were once again routed, and under the impact of the British tanks, they were not routed to Damascus, but directly scattered, looking at the Chinese who were scattered and fleeing in front of him, Lieutenant General Allenby, who commanded this British army, couldn't help but laugh wildly, the bull really didn't expect victory to be so simple, you know, this is the first time he fought with the Chinese.

"But so, without the advantage of firepower, these Chinese will not fight at all." The guy said proudly to Wavell, the adjutant next to him.

"General, I always feel a little abnormal." Wavell said with a somewhat unnatural smile.

"Captain, maybe you're too nervous, Damascus will be trampled under our feet in two hours, there's nothing out of the ordinary!" Allenby said with a smile.

Indeed, as he said, in the next two hours, they did not encounter any real resistance, even the Chinese stationed at the airport fled in a hurry, but not a single plane remained, and several warehouses did not have much material and oil reserves, of course, the British did not have time to study these, after leaving some people to destroy the airport, the rest continued to rush towards Damascus. It was nothing more than a few tens of kilometers, and they were soon on the outskirts of the city in a large number of trucks, and at this time the defenders of Damascus were also organizing a defensive line outside the city.

"Attack, rush with the most ferocious attack," Allenby was cheering up his men with his saber when suddenly a signal soldier stumbled in front of him.

"General, General, we are surrounded!" The signal soldier said breathlessly. (To be continued......)