Japan's first attack on French Indochina had been a month earlier, when France had surrendered and signed an armistice with Nazi Germany, establishing the Vichy government in the unoccupied areas of France, which controlled a large number of French overseas colonies, including the Indochina Peninsula, which was the last area that China had contact with the outside world outside of the Burma Highway.

Before the Japanese invasion of French Indochina, the road had been blocked, but there was still a railway line that allowed supplies to be transported from Haiphong to Yunnan, China: the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. At that time, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway could directly receive supplies from the United States to aid China, and the few remaining naval warships of the Nationalist Government were also used as temporary naval bases, and through the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway between Haiphong and Yunnan, the Nationalist Government could obtain more than 10,000 tons of munitions, fuel, and other materials every month. Despite repeated bombing by the Japanese army, the railway line was still open.

In order to force the Nationalist Government to surrender and cut off the Nationalist Government's foreign aid, Japan began to put pressure on the 'Vichy Government' to close the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. After being rejected by the French, the Japanese 'South China Front' moved quickly and formed the 'Indochina Dispatch Army' to invade Indochina, under the command of the Japanese commander Nishimura Takuma, with a fleet, carrier-based aircraft on aircraft carriers, and Japanese shore-based aircraft stationed on Hainan Island in China providing air support.

The Japanese army took only four days and forced the colonial authorities of French Indochina to surrender after paying less than 200 casualties.

With such a precedent, the Japanese government did not have any burden on the victory of the war. They were convinced that it would not be much more difficult to move into the southern part of French Indochina than in the northern part of French Indochina. But given the large number of British troops stationed on the Malay Peninsula near the southern part of French Indochina, the Japanese base camp decided to go all out.

In preparation for the entry into southern French Indochina, the Army ordered the formation of the 25th Army on 29 September. The 25th Army was based on the Guards Division and the 21st Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, with Lieutenant General Jiro Sakata as the commander. As for the navy, the southern detachment fleet was formed after being stationed.

However, at this time, the vast majority of the 25th Army's forces were still in China, and some were stationed in Tokyo, Japan, and it would take at least 20 days to assemble them all. In order to stabilize the French army in French Indochina and the French Foreign Legion, the Japanese side decided to talk to the French first.

Negotiations with France began on 3 October and were conducted directly between Ambassador Kato to France and the Vichy government. Germany was initially entrusted with mediation, but Germany refused on the grounds that it would not be possible to exert pressure on the Vichy government. Because this negotiation was originally carried out to stabilize the French. So the attitude of the Japanese is tough. The Japanese Government telegraphed Ambassador Kato to request a reply from the Vichy Government by 12 p.m. on 8 October.

Japan's idea was simple: if the French government agreed to a series of conditions proposed by Japan, then Japan did not mind the continued existence of the French colonial authorities. After getting what you want, you don't have to bear the notoriety of aggression. There is probably no better deal in the world.

But if the French government does not know how to raise it. The Imperial Japanese Army did not mind sending troops directly to pacify French Indochina, and the government had already agreed to use force against French Indochina anyway.

Perhaps it was the intransigence of the Japanese that frightened the French, or perhaps Japan's status as an ally of Germany played a role. Whatever the reason, it turned out that the French were cowardly.

On 5 October, French Indochina accepted the vast majority of Japan's demands. At this point, an understanding was reached on the issue of mutual defense of French Indochina. First of all, strict respect for French territory and sovereignty. Secondly, the understanding reached by the two sides is not offensive, it is a defensive alliance. Thirdly, the Government of Japan would like to emphasize the purpose of the first paragraph. This statement was also necessary to order the local resistance of French Indochina. In the end, when there is no longer a need for the garrison, the Japanese side is requested to withdraw its troops.

The above-mentioned understanding was formally signed on 5 October as a Japanese-French protocol on the mutual defence of French Indochina. On the basis of this protocol, negotiations began on 7 October between the headquarters of the French Indochina authorities and the French Indochina Government.

At 8 o'clock that night, an agreement was reached, and on October 9, the War Department at the base camp received a report from Ambassador Kato on the completion of the formal exchange of letters, and then issued an order to the commander of the 25th Army to start moving from the port of Sanya on October 10. Thus, on 12 October, Japanese troops took their first steps into southern French Indochina.

The Japanese stationed in the southern part of French Indochina greatly stimulated the Americans and the British, and the strong rise of Japan made the United States and Britain extremely worried, coupled with the fact that Japan also had such an identity as an ally of Germany, and now the Japanese actually attacked France, an ally of Britain, which was undoubtedly a naked provocation in the eyes of the United States and Britain.

In order not to provoke the Americans, the Japanese Government specially instructed Ambassador Nomura to directly notify President Roosevelt of Japan's intention to enter French Indochina before making the announcement. While explaining the reasons for the station, he stressed that Japan will always strive to improve the diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States, which are currently being negotiated. However, on October 15, the United States issued an order to freeze Japan's assets, and Britain and the Netherlands did the same.

On the eve of ordering the freezing of Japanese assets, President Roosevelt made the following speech at the Citizens' Volunteer Committee of the Civil Defense Agency in Washington, D.C.: "Now there is a country called Japan. Leaving aside whether this country and this empire had the aggressive purpose of expanding to the south at this time, they did not have a little bit of oil in the north anyway. So, if we had cut off the oil, Japan might have gone to the Dutch East Indies a year ago, and we might have gone to war. ”

President Roosevelt said that this was clearly for a purpose, and after the speech, the United States announced that it would freeze all Japanese assets in the United States, and the above-mentioned matter of cutting off oil has now become a cold fact because of the asset freeze.

After doing this, the Americans were not satisfied, and at the same time, they sent Ambassador Curry to Chongqing to talk with the Nationalist Government, so that they could send people to the Huaxia Company to find Yan Changxi.

This is the second time that Special Envoy Curry has been ordered to China, having recently held talks with the Nationalist Government in Chongqing, and has succeeded in removing the shadow of the Nationalist Government's connection to the US-Japan talks, and has also announced on behalf of the United States Government a $250 million loan to the Nationalist Government.

Therefore, the Nationalist Government even held a high-level welcome reception for Special Envoy Currie to China, inviting senior military and political officials of the Nationalist Government to attend.

The purpose of Special Envoy Curry's visit to Chongqing this time is very simple: Since the US Government has decided to freeze all Japanese assets in the United States, it means that the US Government has decided to break with the Japanese Government. That being the case, the United States will not forget about China as a pawn against the Japanese. Although it is said that Japan's war of aggression against China broke out with the deliberate connivance and covert support of the Americans, the Americans at this time obviously would not admit that they needed China, China's huge backing forces and war potential, and they needed it to contain the Japanese.

Therefore, the envoy Currie came, and he wanted to make a guarantee to the Chinese government that he would never make peace with the Japanese privately, and to assist the United States, Britain and other countries in strengthening the defense of the Japanese in the next time.

Of course, the Nationalist Government readily agreed, although Lao Chiang received a large amount of weapons assistance from Chen Feng and newly formed more than 20 Japanese mechanic divisions, which performed extremely bravely in the Battle of Changsha, which made Lao Chiang extremely happy. But Lao Jiang still deeply felt that the strength in his hands was weak, especially a large amount of information about the Eighth War Zone was sent back to Chongqing, Lao Jiang has realized that although he is still the military and political head of the Nationalist Government, he is still the supreme leader of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the spiritual leader, but in fact he is no longer the most powerful man in China, and the actual king of China is the young man in the north, the little guy who is about the same age as his son.

This makes Lao Jiang extremely depressed and has some worries at the same time, although Chen Feng has always behaved docile in front of Lao Jiang, at least he did not face the central sabre, but Lao Jiang is very clear about politics, sometimes it is not that you can listen to it if you don't want to do it, especially a powerful leader, you accept a lot of people to rush you to beg for a living, if you are incompetent, your subordinates have to eat chaff, you have the ability to celebrate the New Year every day.

Once the strength of Chen Feng's department surpasses the Central Army, the Eighth Route Army, the Gui Army, the Sichuan Army and the Jin Sui Army, and even exceeds the sum of these forces, even if Chen Feng does not have the idea of being the king and hegemonic, those arrogant soldiers and fierce generals in the Eighth War Zone will probably force him to rebel, after all, Chen Feng's non-progress blocked the way for everyone in the Eighth War Zone to advance, just like the Chen Qiao Mutiny in history.

As the general of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin can be said to be the pillar of the Later Zhou Dynasty, although Zhao Kuangyin himself also has a heart of disobedience, but in the end it was the persecution of those under him who forced him to take that step, and the yellow robe would be taboo by the emperor of the dynasty if he was not the emperor, and the final result was not to think about it, so Zhao Kuangyin had to stand up for himself as the Son of Heaven.

Chen Feng's current situation is so similar to Zhao Kuangyin at that time, Lao Jiang has to guard against it! Moreover, the situation in China at this time was millions of times higher than that of the Later Zhou of that year, and the national strength of the Later Zhou and the foreign enemy Khitan was not much different at that time.

But can China's national strength be compared with the Japanese now, obviously not, except that the army can still compete with the Japanese army, and the navy and air force are not even a fraction of the Japanese, so Lao Jiang is now suffering from internal and external troubles! (To be continued......)