Two massive, half-barren cone-shaped active volcanoes rise northeast of the port of Rabaul, spewing sulphur-rich grayish-yellow smoke.

Such a purgatory-like scene has been repeated in front of the eyes of Marshal Zhang Yiye, commander of the Southeast Front Theater and the Southeast Front Army, for more than two months.

In fact, Rabaul's natural harbor was the result of a prehistoric supervolcanic eruption, and volcanic activity has continued since then, and one of the two iconic volcanoes was formed in the eruption of 17 years.

Another time and space history records two major eruptions of the two volcanoes in 1937 and 1994 respectively, the former forcing the Australian government to relocate the capital of the New Guinea Territory to Lae on the island of New Guinea, and the latter resulting in the destruction of most of the town and airport of Rabaul, and the Papua New Guinea government was forced to build the new capital of the province of New Britain KK 20 kilometers away.

However, at this moment, it is the most important military base of the East Asian coalition forces in the Outer South Seas.

Inside and outside the harbor, ships come and go like shuttles, yards. The head trestle bridge was full of equipment and supplies that had not had time to be transported, and the several large and small barracks built along the bay shore were crowded with people and roaring vehicles, and all kinds of planes taking off and landing from the east and west airports were humming from morning to night......

Zhang Yiye, dressed in pajamas, strolled with his hands behind his back. On the roof of the headquarters, clogs creaked across the teak floor, littered with volcanic ash that could never be swept away.

This spring in Chita into the city style was been. The shin bone broken when sniping the horse has long since healed, but the wound still hurts a little longer with a slightly larger step.

But compared to this, after the coup d'état on August 2, I was in the same stream. The situation of the release is the humiliating pain that really pierced Zhang Yiye's heart.

Humiliation is humiliation, Zhang Yiye also knows that he really has no position to shoot. Chest screams wronged. As the commander of the Praetorian Guard before the coup d'état, although the small actions he made in the Praetorian Guard were only carried out half-heartedly and ready to be cleaned up at any time, judging from the situation in which all the stakeholders and suspects were cleanly cleaned up overnight, it was impossible for Her Majesty the Empress not to be unaware.

Moreover, the other party's method of dealing with the aftermath is also quite benevolent. Instead of expanding the scope of the purge, he enlarged himself to the post of marshal after he was promoted to marshal, which appeared to be appeasement on the surface, but in fact shocked and frightened those who knew the inside story.

The biggest mistake I made was to underestimate that woman......

Zhang Yiye smiled bitterly. head, his eyes turned to the newly arrived transport ships in the harbor.

It's finally here...... Obviously, everyone has not abandoned themselves, and the fate of humiliation and inaction may start from these boats and completely reverse the washing.

Since the empire entered the war, the Southeast Front Army, which was responsible for operations in the Outer South Seas, has been in constant tragedy, first of all, the troops and equipment on paper could not be in place for a long time, and finally there was a chance to attack Port Moresby directly, but it was intercepted by the British reinforcement fleet that suddenly appeared and had superior strength.

Less than a month after Zhang Yiye took office, the Anglo-Australian coalition took advantage of the opportunity of the East Asian Combined Fleet to go all out into the I operation, and landed Lae, a key point in New Guinea, in one fell swoop.

Once the British and Australian forces take control of the vicinity of Lae and the island of Bougainville, which was seized in advance, they will inevitably more firmly control the passage from the Bismarck Sea to the Solomon Sea, which will seriously affect the planned strategic operations in Port Moresby and the Solomon Islands and Fiji Islands.

However, the existing forces and weapons in the southeastern theater were neither enough to pose a threat to the British and Australian fleets cruising in the Solomon Sea, nor were they able to break through the naval blockade and rush to the aid of the defenders on a large scale.

At the same time, Vice Admiral Matsumura Tatsuo, the commander of the Southeast Front Fleet and the Third Fleet, who was only nominally subordinate to Zhang Yiye, deliberately avoided the war passively in the name of "avoiding unnecessary losses," which aggravated the deterioration of the war situation.

The defenders of Lae City, based on the 452nd Regiment of the 151st Infantry Division, held on for half a month under the fierce attack of the overwhelmingly superior enemy, and the foreign aid was cut off, and it was about to be lost.

On September 24, under the cover of two old Japanese cruisers "Kasuga" and "Nisshin" 4,760 tons, 24 knots, 2 203 mm guns and 150 mm guns and four Congyun-class destroyers of the 11th Japanese Destroyer Squadron 650 tons, 30 knots, 2 75 mm guns and 2 combined 406 mm torpedo tubes, the 6 Yuezi destroyers of the 11th Destroyer Squadron of the Chinese Navy 960 tons, 30 knots, Three 120-mm guns and two triple 406-mm torpedo tubes carried one and a half battalions of the 126th Infantry Division to attack from Rabaul, and the "Full Moon" and "White Moon" of the same team served as the command and alert ship of the transport team.

Vice Admiral Tatsuo Matsumura sat in charge of the Third Fleet's flagship "Asama" with a patrol of 9,900 tons, 22 knots, two combined 203 mm guns and 12 150 mm guns, and led the "Tokiwa" of the same class and two Fuji-class "Iwa" and Yakumo 970 armaments to form a team with the Asama class and serve as a backup.

The convoy cautiously sailed along the southern shore of New Pomerania, that is, the island of New Britain, toward Lae, and sailed through the enemy's naval blockade line at midnight on 26 September to the coast south of Lae, unloading the army units before dawn, and returning to Rabaul on 2 September, greatly boosting the morale of our troops.

On October 3, the side fleet carried out the second armed smuggling with the same force, this time it was not so lucky, the transport team was discovered by enemy water planes during the day on October 4, and then the team was attacked by enemy submarines, and the "Iwate" was hit by a mine, almost sank, and was forced to suspend the operation.

On 6 October, four new submarines joined the Southeast Front Fleet arrived at the port of Rabaul and immediately loaded supplies to aid Lae.

On October 13, radio contact with the Lae defenders was cut off, and Zhang Yiye used expletives in his telegram to the base camp for the first time.

Two days later, "they" finally arrived.

It's not too late, Lae may still be saved, and no matter how bad it is, there is still a chance to take it back before the end of the year.

It's just that the hot newspaper in my pocket didn't come early or late, and it was hard to tell whether it was a coincidence or a deliberate ...... Although it has nothing to do with what was in the telegram.

"Which one is it on......

The more Zhang Yiye pondered deeply, the more he felt that the wound on his leg was inexplicably itchy.

The whistle sounded one after another, and the new ship was about to unload.

……！