Three weeks have passed since the end of the North Atlantic naval battle, and the ups and downs of the naval battle have had little impact on the war in the Far East, except for increasing the number of people at home to talk about the table. The eyes of the General Staff are still only fixed on the South China Sea. Hitler's loss of the navy would inevitably lead to a strengthening of his land forces and a greater emphasis on the Soviet Union, so the situation in the Middle East was becoming more and more dangerous. At this time, it is urgent to completely open up the Strait of Malacca and ensure multiple transportation routes on land and sea. By the beginning of December, the number of ships of various types deployed in Cam Ranh Bay, the Gulf of Siam, Natuna, and the Andaman had exceeded 400, including two "Liaoning" class and three "Sichuan" class fleet aircraft carriers, six "General" class escort aircraft carriers, two "Dunkirk" class battleships, two "Anhai" class battleships, two "Beijing" class battleships, 11 heavy cruisers, and 57 destroyers. 40 submarines and 2,972 naval aircraft of various types.

There are many reasons why the Navy is making such a big fuss, not only to conquer Singapore and the Malay Peninsula as soon as possible, but also to deter the South Seas and explain to the National Assembly and the Cabinet the deep consideration of the importance of the Navy. Because with the destruction of the main forces of the Japanese and German navies one after another, it has aroused criticism for the continued huge naval expenditure of a few remnants of enemy ships. You must know that in the emergency wartime shipbuilding plan formulated at the end of 1939 alone, there were 1,260 planned ships (including low-end torpedo boats and landing craft), including Class 2 aircraft carriers, Class 3 cruisers, Class 3 destroyers, Class 5 escort ships, and Class 4 landing craft/ships. At present, these are at the peak of construction, and if they are to be completed, at least 8 billion yuan will be invested. Therefore, even a cabinet supporting naval construction asked the Admiralty for the first time after the end of the North Atlantic naval war to sort out the fleet and submit a complete report on the ships under construction and the future situation in order to reassess the maritime threat.

Of course, these are only internal problems of the military, and ordinary citizens are not clear at all until they are declassified. Therefore, what they talk about the most is the seemingly lazy but important news that a million troops have gathered in the South China Sea, the official resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, the return of the central government of North Korea to Seoul, and the wedding of the president's eldest son.

In fact, as early as the end of the Ryukyu Campaign, Tojo's prime ministership was already crumbling, but because the Battle of the Peninsula began shortly after, he did not resign until the news of the destruction of Seoul came. Hirohito didn't keep him, and only let him supervise the cabinet for a few days, and then kicked him away to let Koiso Kuniaki reorganize the cabinet. On the first day after the hapless Koiso Kuniaki took office, China and North Korea dispatched 20 ships to escort the Korean wartime government from Sinuiju to Seoul, and North Korean President Choi An-in officially moved into the former Japanese Governor's Office, which means that the north and south of Korea are finally reunifying after decades of partition.

Later that day, against the backdrop of having already divided and surrounded the last hundreds of thousands of Japanese and Korean troops inland, Zhu Peide, commander-in-chief of the Northeast Theater and deputy chief of the general staff of the Chinese National Defense Forces, formally handed over the wartime command of the peninsula to Park Eun-sung, commander-in-chief of the Korean army, in front of dozens of reporters. This is the first time since the beginning of the war that China has handed over the command of the wartime theater to an Asian country, so that the 12 divisions of the National Defense Force, the 15 divisions of the Russian People's Liberation Army, the 50 divisions of the Korean Army, and the 10 mixed wings of the Chinese Air Force remaining on the peninsula will all be under the full command of the DPRK. Of course, the overall command of the entire Southwest Pacific, with the exception of the Indo-Middle East (excluding the Persian Gulf), is still under the jurisdiction of the General Staff in Beijing. Subsequently, on behalf of the Chinese government, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zeng Qi also signed an agreement on another package of military aid loans totaling 500 million yuan to the DPRK. According to the agreement, the loan will include the reconstruction of major cities such as Seoul and Pyongyang, the purchase of heavy cruisers "Changsha", light cruisers "Changjiang", six Changfeng-class destroyers, 220 second-hand "Lifeng" and "Snake B" fighter attack aircraft, 100 H-5 bombers and H-10 attack aircraft, and again 210 U-series armored vehicles and 5 infantry divisions of army equipment free of charge.

In order to get rid of the complicated neighboring countries as soon as possible, the new Minister of the Interior Murong Han also visited Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Afghanistan, and reached an agreement with the leaders of the four countries to immediately start negotiations on border demarcation, provide loans totaling 1.5 billion yuan to the four countries with minerals as collateral, and sign nearly 400 commercial investment projects, including railways, aviation, and a number of heavy industrial facilities such as steelmaking and aluminum plants built in the Soviet era. An agreement on the gradual transfer of civil jurisdiction over the next three years was also ensured. The visit is considered a turning point in Central Asia's transition from war to recovery, not only to accelerate Central Asia's logistical supply capabilities, but also to allow China to establish its northwestern border as soon as possible, and to bring back 400 investment projects for domestic industry and commerce. The most important thing is that Murong Han and the leaders of the four countries have promised to sign the "Central Asia Defense Agreement" as soon as possible, establish the defense status of Central Asia with China as the core, and once again agree to join the Asian League to jointly build peace in Asia.

This visit and the signing of a series of agreements laid the groundwork for the signing of the Talas Declaration that would later stabilize Central Asia.

With the Soviet Union being defeated back to the Urals, Japan losing the Ryukyus, Seoul and Sakhalin Islands, and even the Sea of Okhotsk and the Chiba Islands being breached, Asia is on the threshold of change.

The wharf in Saigon is crowded with people, and the handover ceremony is also taking place here. The Chinese Navy's mine-laying cruisers "Qujiang" and "Oujiang", which were once injured in the Battle of Khana Liangjian, have scraped off their original port numbers, and their radar and other sensitive equipment have also been replaced with the oldest models, and after being replaced with the words "Hanoi" and "Saigon", they have been hoisted with full flags along with four second-hand territorial water-class frigates, waiting for the Vietnamese Navy to accept them.

Bai Ngoc Tang, chief of staff of the navy, and Hu Xuelan, commander-in-chief of the three armed forces of Vietnam, talked and laughed happily, but his heart was far from being as happy as he appeared. As two small high-speed mine-laying cruisers of the "Xin'anjiang" class that have only been in service for 10 years, the Navy is actually reluctant to transfer them. Since the beginning of the war, the navy has lost one "Xiangjiang" class, one "Yangtze River" class, two "Xin'anjiang" class, and five "Tumenjiang" class light cruisers, and recently two "Tumen Jiang" class cruisers have been seriously damaged in the Andaman Sea, and it has basically decided to sell or abandon them. In addition to the "Yangtze River", which has just been sold to the DPRK, there are currently only 7 ships of the "Xiangjiang" class and 10 ships of the "Brahmaputra River" class. There are also only 2 heavy cruisers left of the "Taiwan Island" class, 1 "Wuhan class" and 6 "Xi'an" class. If it weren't for the fact that the Japanese Navy had already been blockaded off the coast, the president would have promised that he would definitely continue to build the remaining six "Brahmaputra" class and two "Xi'an" class ships that had already started, and the navy would not have given them to Vietnam.

The delivery was ostensibly to strengthen the alliance, but in fact it was a reward for the "outstanding" performance of the Vietnamese army in India, so the six warships this time were truly gratuitous assistance. For this reason, there are still some people in China who complain, saying that the presidential palace uses taxpayers' money as favors, but Yang Qiu just laughed at this. What the Vietnamese army "dug up" from India alone was enough for the navy to add an aircraft carrier fleet.

However, because Vietnam only has low-level sailors and lacks corresponding technical troops, the navy needs to send some officers to help train them, as it did to support the North Korean navy.

"Chairman Tran, thank you for your support and help to us in Vietnam and the Vietnamese people, and I believe that we in Asia will definitely defeat the Japanese fascists under his leadership, and I and the Vietnamese government are willing to make greater contributions and send more troops to drive out the colonists in the South Seas." Today, Ho Chi Minh deliberately changed into a Chinese-style Tang costume, took Tran Quo Fu's hand and thanked him repeatedly, and when he spoke, he also called Yang Thu "President, President," as if Yang Thu was the president of Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh was really excited, and the Vietnamese who had endured all the hardships of coastal defense were eager to have their own warships, so many young Vietnamese chose to join the French colonial fleet in the past, but most of them were arranged to serve as low-level sailors. Therefore, when Yang Qiu gave two captured Thai shallow water heavy gunboats to Vietnam as a founding gift, the whole country was very sensational, and even the Emperor Bao Da, who was constitutional, personally attended the delivery ceremony. Although the two "Xin'anjiang" class fast-laying mine-laying cruisers delivered this time are second-hand goods, their performance is very good even in Europe. As long as the reporters and newspapers report it well, it will undoubtedly make his position as prime minister more secure. More importantly, despite the fact that all eight warships together are not as good as a heavy cruiser of the Chinese Navy, they are already the third largest naval force in the South China Sea after China and Japan, and it will also be of great help to the distribution of discourse within the Asian League in the future.

"The Prime Minister is too polite, I will definitely help you convey it." Chen Guofu smiled slightly. He had long heard from Yang Thu that Ho Chi Minh was a man with great ambitions, and after coming to power, he actively promoted the "Cheng Cheng Bill" in Vietnam to strengthen industrial and commercial construction. In particular, after hugging Guoshe's thigh, he regarded himself as China's most important ally in Southeast Asia, and also made territorial claims to Laos (present-day Laos). In less than a year, 30 army divisions were conscripted to join the Allied forces in Asia, and 1 million tons of low-cost grain were sold to China every year by exchanging grain for loans, which were used to purchase machinery and equipment for domestic construction, and they also privately said that they would help China manage the peninsula well. Yang Qiu saw all these things, but now he couldn't see that Ho Chi Minh had other thoughts, so he let him go for the time being. Chen Guofu didn't hear what he just said, and continued: "Thank you for your support to us, but we can't be careless yet, although our navy has basically blocked the coast of Japan, judging from the recent movements in the Japanese political arena, we still don't shed tears when we don't see the coffin. The Japanese Government still has illusions, I am afraid that it is because of the hundreds of thousands of foreign aid troops in the southeast, so the president's intention is that the South China Sea side cannot be delayed any longer, and a long delay will only increase the burden on the people. ”

As the chairman of the National Society and the speaker of the House of Representatives, Chen Guofu has stood silently behind Yang Qiu for decades to help him manage the affairs of the National Society. Therefore, the outside world says that he is actually the real No. 2 person in China at present. Because Yang Qiu's personal appeal and the attraction of reformist capitalism proposed by the Guoshe Society, the Guoshe already has 80 million members in China alone, far higher than the 10 million members of the KMT, more than 5 million in Southeast Asia and Central Asia, and even branches in Europe and the United States, so his every move can affect the political balance of the whole of China and even Asia.

Although Ho Chi Minh is the chairman of the Vietnam National Society, he is too far behind Tran Quo Phu, so he nodded again and again: "Chairman Tran, rest assured, I will definitely obey the president's dispatch and send more troops to cooperate with the operation." ”

His appearance of slapping his chest and gambling made Zhang Zizhong, deputy commander of the Southwest Theater and commander-in-chief of the Borneo Military Region, who was standing not far behind, secretly laugh, and Chen Ce, commander of the Navy Natuna Base and Vice Admiral of the 25th Fleet next to Lala, said with a smile: "Brother Chipshuo, is your navy really willing to give the warship to this person?" ”

After Japan moved south, Zhang Zizhong, a Shandong man, led the 15th Army into Borneo in the name of protecting the Chinese Autonomous Region, ensuring local security and stability. After the Sino-Japanese war, although the Japanese army repeatedly attacked the autonomous region from Sarawak and South Borneo, they were all defeated by him and the local Borneo Chinese Autonomous Army. But since it is not the main war zone, the fame has not been very loud.

Because Chen Ce led the fleet to Natuna, he often traveled back and forth between the two places, and he became good friends. The two of them came to Vietnam this time to participate in the preparatory meeting for the South China Sea Campaign, which was not as good as Central Asia, but the scale was large and wide-ranging, so the General Staff called all the officers from all walks of life in Nanyang to the Kunlun Island base (also translated as Con Dao) for a meeting. It coincided with the delivery ceremony of the warship, so Ho Chi Minh also invited them to cheer them on.

Don't look at Chen Ce's short stature, but he is very capable. He led a detachment of ships, but sank as many as 7 Japanese ships, 13 Japanese submarines and dozens of merchant ships, and thwarted the Japanese plan to attack Natuna several times. Even the General Staff openly praised him, saying that he was a rare member of the Navy. The navy is an iron rooster, and of course Chen Ce is not willing to hand over the two ships to Vietnam, after all, these two light cruisers have also served as the flagships of the 25th Fleet, so he pointed at Bai Yutang and said angrily: "Who thinks?" Didn't you see Chief of Staff Bai frowning? ”

"Hehe, none of these Nanyang people are good. I heard Du Yuesheng say that this guy was still ashamed to say that he would help the president manage the peninsula well. Hum! obviously wants to take the opportunity to be the boss. Zhang Zizhong had a straight temper and was not used to seeing people like Ho Chi Minh, so he simply turned his head and asked about the Nanyang Campaign: "By the way, when you had a meeting in the morning, why didn't you see your 25th fleet participating in the landing?" Didn't someone put the little shoes on you? ”

"How can I be?" Chen Ce shook his head and lowered his voice: "I have a new task. ”

"What new mission, is it for you to fight the Philippines or Batavia?" Zhang Zizhong was stunned, in his opinion, there were only these two places left around Nanyang. Chen Ce glared at him: "If you want to fight the Philippines, you have to let the Americans intervene." Even if I thought, when I was full of food, let me go and fight with Inoue Narumi, but turn around and let the Americans watch a good show? ”

Without waiting for Zhang Zizhong to ask again, Chen Ce had already narrowed his eyes: "Don't guess." Siam, depart tomorrow morning. ”