The reason why Japan dared to go to war with China, the United States, Britain, Soho, and Australia at the same time was because of its powerful naval strength. In the eyes of the Japanese leadership, even if Japan cannot achieve a final victory, as long as the navy is preserved, then the great Japanese Empire will be invincible, and neither China nor the United States will have the ability to attack the Japanese mainland.

However, in the 30 years of Hedong and 30 years of Hexi, no one expected that the Chinese navy, which had always been weak, would complete a magnificent rise in a short period of time, and repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese Combined Fleet in frontal naval battles, and this time it was with the cooperation of the naval fleets of other Allied countries, which annihilated the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet in one fell swoop.

After the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Chen Feng, as the supreme commander of the Allied Asian Theater, issued the order for the final battle of the Japanese army against the Philippines.

On 24 February, MacArthur commanded 220,000 U.S. troops who had just been transferred from the continental United States to counterattack Leyte Island. The sudden attack of the U.S. forces on Leyte Island disrupted the entire battle plan of the Japanese army, and it was supposed to start a decisive battle with the U.S. forces in Manila according to the battle plan discussed by Yamashita and the base camp. The fate of the 14th Front Army of the Japanese Army, which had lost the support of the Navy and Air Force, and General Yamashita Fumimi was also decided, and all he could do was delay time.

On March 1, 7 divisions of the Chinese Army, 210,000 men, landed on Mindoro Island, which is adjacent to the southern part of Luzon Island, and together with MacArthur, they flanked the Japanese 14th Front.

In the face of the flanking attack of the Allied army of more than 400,000 troops, not only the 35th Army was in danger of being completely annihilated, but even the entire Fourth and Fourth Front Army was also in danger. Coupled with the fact that the island's food and ammunition supplies were not sufficient, Yamashita decided to stop the battle for Leyte. The 35th Army was allowed to withdraw to the south-central Philippine islands.

At this time, the Allies completely mastered the sea and air supremacy near the Philippines. The Japanese navy's remaining strength could only barely maintain its coastal security, and the domestic supply lines of the Japanese troops stationed in the Dutch East Indies, the Burma battlefield, the Malay Peninsula, and French Indochina were cut off, and there was a severe shortage of food and ammunition.

The supreme commander of the 4th and 4th Front Army stationed in the Philippines, Yamashita Fumi, ordered the daily average of troops in all parts of the Philippines to immediately shrink their forces, and concentrated all their troops on Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, and organized the 310,000 army and navy into three groups.

Yamashita Fengfumi organized a defense along the coast of Lingjiayan Bay with the strength of a division, and formed a Shangwu group with the main force of 150,000 people of the front army. defending the Northern Luzon region; With 30,000 men from the 1st Advance Group and other divisions, the Jianwu Group was formed to guard the area west of Clark in Central Luzon; With 100,000 people from the 8th Division and other units, the Zhenwu Group was formed. Hold the area east of Manila in South Luzon.

The three groups built strong defensive bases in three areas, determined to "resist the war independently and permanently" in order to defend for a long time. Contain and deplete the U.S. military. For this. Trucks come and go in and out of Manila around the clock. Transporting troops, food, weapons and other supplies to designated locations.

In addition to the use of the army, navy, and air force, the submarine forces of the Chinese Navy attacked the Philippines. Quietly enter the waters off the coast of the Japanese mainland, monitor ships bound for the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia, and sink all Japanese-flagged ships, whether military warships or civilian merchant ships.

In less than 10 days, more than 200 Japanese ships were sunk, including more than 10 warships, forcing Japan to send a large number of naval ships to escort merchant ships to and from Southeast Asia.

In addition, as long as the Japanese fleet was detected by the Chinese Air Force, it would be attacked by the air force, and Chen Feng wanted to completely cut off all the passages for the Japanese army to go out.

On March 10, the Allied forces on the Korean battlefield once again achieved a major victory, and after breaking through the Japanese defense line continuously, more than 500,000 troops finally captured Pyongyang, the most important city in North Korea, on the 10th, and eliminated the Japanese puppet army of four divisions.

At the same time, the Japanese army suffered another crushing defeat on the Burma battlefield, although Shozoyoshi Kawabe easily stabilized the battle line in the direction of Tonggu. But unfortunately, Xue Yue's target this time was not just just Burma, after learning that the main force of the Japanese army was all transferred to central Burma, Xue Yue immediately ordered the four divisions stationed on the Sino-Thai border to cross the defensive positions of the Thai army and march towards Bangkok.

The Thai army did not expect that the Chinese Defense Forces would suddenly want them to attack, and they were caught off guard for a while. The one responsible for attacking Thailand was Chen Feng's first few mechanized infantry divisions, and their weapons and equipment were the most sophisticated among the troops in the world today, and they were also the most powerful in battle.

The 80,000 Thai troops stationed on the Sino-Thai border were almost crushed at the touch of a button, and the 80,000 troops were divided and surrounded by Chen Feng's troops in a very short time, including an armored division.

Except for a small number of Thai troops on the front line, the vast majority chose to surrender, and then Chen Feng's minister drove straight in, and by March 9, Chen Feng's vanguard division had driven to the city of Bangkok.

On the 10th, Thailand surrendered, and the only ally of the Japanese army in Asia was defeated by four divisions of the Chinese National Defense Force in just over ten days.

After the surrender of Thailand, the Japanese army was unable to stand alone. Especially the Japanese troops on the Burma battlefield, because almost all of their ammunition and 60% of the food need to be transported from Thailand, and now they have lost Thailand, the first thing the Japanese army on the Burma battlefield has to face is a shortage of food and ammunition.

At this point, the Japanese army was eroded on all fronts in the entire Asian theater, and the war situation was developing in an extremely unfavorable direction for the Japanese army, and there was even a danger of collapse on the entire front.

On March 22, 1944, after more than ten days of arguing in front of the Imperial Palace, the Japanese army headquarters finally issued an order to withdraw troops from the Asian theater. At the same time, the Japanese Government sent ambassadors to China, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain to discuss peace talks.

This time, the Japanese Government lowered its shelf, not only agreeing to immediately withdraw its troops from the entire Asian theater, but also deciding to spit out all the benefits that the Japanese Government has made in the Asian region over the past 100 years, and also agreed to pay $200 million in war reparations to China, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain each of them.

In this regard, Chen Feng's opinion is still very clear and not uncommon. Unless the Japanese Government surrenders unconditionally, China will not hold any form of talks with the Japanese Government. At the same time, it is hoped that the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain will not hold talks with Japan.

The Chinese Government has obstructed this, and Japan's attempt at peace talks has been ruined for a time. The Japanese Government has instructed China to be determined to fight with Japan, and there is absolutely no room for return. Therefore, the Japanese government believes that the most important task at present is not how to achieve a final victory in the war, but to find a way to preserve the Japanese mainland.

Therefore, while withdrawing troops from the entire Asian theater, the Japanese army began to lay out an operational plan for the defense of the Japanese archipelago. Judging from the hostile situation in the Japanese base camp, the Japanese military top brass believed that the Allied forces led by China and the United States wanted to land on the Japanese archipelago and attack the fortress cities on the Japanese mainland, and they had their fundamental weaknesses.

The first is that its long sea supply lines are very fragile, and the second is that the Japanese Empire now has a total of 5 million troops, of which 1 million are in the Korean Peninsula, 800,000 in the Indochina Peninsula, 300,000 in the Malay Peninsula, 300,000 in the Dutch East Indies, 300,000 in the Philippines, 100,000 in Treasure Island and Hong Kong Island, 50,000 in South Sakhalin, and the remaining 2 million are all deployed in Japan itself. As long as these troops stationed overseas are rushed back to China, neither the Chinese nor the Americans will want to take the Japanese archipelago.

Moreover, Japan still has a population of 70 million, and as long as the government orders it, it can raise more than 10 million troops at any time. Coupled with the fact that it is now a land defense operation, there should be no problems in terms of morale.

However, the only thing that worries people now is how to safely withdraw the nearly 3 million troops overseas to the Japanese mainland, knowing that at least 500 large and small ships and an unknown number of submarines of the Allied forces have blockaded the whole of Japan, and how to evade the Allied navy is a very troublesome problem.

However, Ono Jiro Osa, chief of staff of the Naval Operations Department, put forward a relatively stable combat plan. According to Ono's analysis, if the navy's only remaining ships are not counted at present, there are 80,000 military and civilian ships in Japan that can carry out ocean-going transportation, and about 22,000 can be assembled in a short period of time, and the smallest can transport 200 soldiers at a time. In other words, even if it did not use naval warships and relied solely on civilian ships to rush to transport, the Empire of Japan would be able to withdraw all its overseas troops to the country in a very short period of time, and the only thing to worry about now was the interception of Allied naval forces.

However, according to the information from the intelligence department, now the Allied naval ships are concentrated in the Philippines, as long as there is the courage of a strong man to break his wrist, the 14th Front Army of the Philippines is ordered to take the initiative to attack and entangle the main force of the Allied forces.

And the Admiralty is studying special operations, and as long as the newly formed kamikaze forces are ordered to cooperate with the operation, it will definitely cause great confusion to the Allied maritime forces in a short time. In addition, although the main force of the combined fleet has already arrived and suffered heavy losses, there are still many warships that can be used if they are pieced together, and it is a big deal to directly send out those few warships that have not yet been completed, as long as the Allied Navy is delayed for two weeks, the empire can rush back home with three million overseas troops.

But the price to be paid for this battle plan is also extremely heavy, first of all, the 300,000 troops of the Philippines who are responsible for containing the allies will definitely be abandoned, secondly, the casualties of the kamikaze special attack team, to contain the hundreds of search warships of the Allied forces, the price to be paid is certainly not small, and finally the Japanese expatriates and a large number of investments abroad are destined not to be withdrawn to the country together, such a heavy price is not necessarily much stronger than direct surrender, and now Japan is really forced to a dead end. It is difficult to decide whether to break the wrist of a strong man or surrender outright. (To be continued......)