The old man's inquiry made everyone's eyes in the conference room turn to Chen Feng, for this deputy seat who only rose strongly four years ago, the group of senior generals in the conference room admired it very much, of course, there are also some people who are very envious and jealous of Chen Feng's current power position, but more people know that it is useless to be envious and jealous of Chen Feng's independent development.

Chen Feng looked at the old man, and then said: "It is necessary to fight in Burma in the south, but how to send who to fight needs to be carefully considered!" ”

"Oh, if you have any opinions, please say this, this is about the life and death of the party-state and the entire Chinese nation, please say anything directly!" Old Jiang Dao.

Chen Feng suddenly stood up, looked around, and then said loudly: "This southward battle in Burma is not just a few of us talking here, it is to send tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers to the front line, it can be said that our few words here will decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, so some issues we must say openly and honestly, maybe some words are not good!" ”

"Suyan, you are the vice chairman of the Military Commission, the chairman of Saibei Province, and the commander of the Eighth Theater of Operations, with your status and status, what else makes you unable to speak freely, or that sentence, if you have any opinions, just say it, just for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers!" Old Jiang Dao.

Chen Feng said: "Sending troops south to Burma to fight, we must first figure out what we are going to do? We fought in Burma to protect our access to the outside world, to keep China from isolating, not for the sake of the British devils, if this is not clear. Then you will suffer a big loss! ”

He Yingqin, who advocated fighting in the south, got up and said: "Brother Solemn's words are biased, the anti-Japanese resistance and the support of the British are carried out together, and the resistance against Japan is the aid to the British, and it should not be said separately." Moreover, according to the Sino-British joint defense opinion, in order to secure the port of Yangon, the Chinese and British armies should gather the main forces to build positions in advance in the areas south of Mawlamyine on the Burma-Thai border in the Mawlamyine, the Terlau Mountains and the area south of Gyeongtung to take a decisive defense, and focus on the Mawlamyine side. In addition, a small part of the Sino-Burmese border will serve as a long-term defense in Cheli and between the river, and a part will cooperate with ships to guard Yangon and the sea surface of Yangon. ”

The old man also frowned and said, "Yes, solemnly, we went south to fight in Burma this time because we were invited by the British army. Otherwise, we won't be able to leave the country at all. According to the guiding principles of the two sides, the Chinese and British armies built deep stronghold-type fortress group positions in Cheli, south of Linjiang, south of Genjingdong, south of Kayah State, Myanmar-Thailand, and from Mawlamyine. Attract the enemy in front of our main position, destroy the enemy's attack with powerful firepower, lose no time in diverting the offensive, and encircle and annihilate the enemy in front of our main position. Strike at the enemy in one fell swoop. ”

"The enemy's main force is attacking from the center. I use the established positions to deplete the enemy to a certain extent. The two wings of Jingdong and Mawlamyine broke through the enemy first, surrounded and annihilated them. If the enemy's main force is attacking from the vicinity of Mawlamyine, our army should use the Salween River and stronghold fortifications to attract the enemy in front of our main position. Destroy the enemy's offensive with powerful firepower, cooperate with our left flank troops to break through one enemy, and encircle the enemy's main force near the coast of Mawlamyine and annihilate it. If the enemy's main force is attacked from Jingdong, our army should attract the enemy to the mountainous area, use both regular warfare and guerrilla warfare, and make every effort to delay the enemy, and the main force will attack from the vicinity of Mawlamyine, first defeat one part of the enemy, cut off the enemy's rear route, encircle and annihilate it. All these operational scenarios were formulated on the basis of the common defense of the two armies, and it would not work to leave the British alone! ”

Chen Feng sneered: "We take the British as allies, and those who don't see us also take us as allies, in the eyes of the British, we are just eye-catching sandbags, a burden that can be discarded at any time!" ”

Historically, the British have done much more than Chen Feng said, and at this time, Britain also felt that the appeasement policy in East Asia could not achieve the desired results. The British saw from the Japanese army's march into Vietnam that Japan's appetite was too great to be filled. For Britain, securing India was at stake, but the key to preserving India was to "hold Burma as the last bulwark of India."

At this time, Britain's own strength was pinned down in Europe and North Africa, and there were not many forces that could be mobilized to Asia, while the Indian army, although it had a lot of troops, its combat effectiveness was very loose, and if it fought against the Japanese army, there was little hope. In January 1941, the British government hurriedly appointed Major General Dennis as military attache to the Chongqing Army, and began to discuss Sino-British military issues with China. In order to protect the Yunnan-Burma Highway, the most important international transportation route, and the United Kingdom to protect Burma, India's barrier, the two countries signed the Sino-British Agreement on the Joint Defense of the Yunnan-Burma Road.

With Britain unable to take into account the Japanese challenge, the only way to contain Japan's attack was to rely on China's strength to resist Japan, so as to maintain Britain's balance of power in Asia. This is the purpose of the British, just to use the Chinese to watch the house for him. China has never been regarded as a true friend. Under the leadership of this seemingly dissociative alliance, the Chinese Expeditionary Force's first invasion of Burma seemed destined to be a tragedy from the start.

"How is this possible, calculate what good we have for them???" Chen Cheng and the others were a little incredulous.

"The benefits? If the British really let us be allies, they would not have betrayed the interests of the Chinese like the Japanese to make peace, if the British really took the Chinese as friends, then they did not let us enter Burma in advance to set up defenses, but after the fall of Rangoon urgently asked us to enter Burma to fight, the British did not want the Japanese army to enter Burma, but also feared that our Chinese/army would enter Burma, fearing that our actions would damage their rule over Burma, so they delayed allowing the Chinese army to enter Burma in advance. Chen Feng said coldly.

More than a year after the start of the war, China's weak national strength was exposed, the army suffered more than one million casualties, most of the equipment was destroyed, and the material losses on the battlefield were unable to be compensated for at home. In order to maintain the situation of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in addition to the political, economic, and military factors at that time, the import of a large amount of military supplies from the international community was of great significance for maintaining the collapse of the frontal battlefield of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and stabilizing the economy of the rear. It became the primary strategic target of the war between the enemy and us, but after the Battle of Wuhan, only the southwest international transportation line in China was still unimpeded.

Britain is an old imperialist and colonialist country, and it is very arrogant. It has always been accustomed to using two-faced methods to control the European continent, provoke wars, and profit from them, and this is its forte. Soon after the First World War, Britain gradually supported German fascism and tried in vain to incite Hitler to attack the Soviet Union in order to compete with France for European hegemony.

Hitler did not attack the Soviet Union first, as Chamberlain intended, but instead took out France after annexing a series of small countries. Then the Anglo-French army lost its armor and retreated at Dunkirk, and London was at a loss for a while.

In order to cut off the international transportation line in southwest China and shake the Chinese's determination to resist the war, Japan demanded that the British government cut off the Yunnan-Burma Highway, otherwise it would have a serious impact on Anglo-Japanese relations.

Britain did not accept the lesson of conniving at Germany, and instead of raising its vigilance against the frenzied aggression of the Japanese fascists and actively deploying defenses in Burma, Britain fantasized that it would still use a two-faced method to perfunctory Japan in order to protect its large rear in the Far Eastern colonies and formally establish an agreement with Japan to blockade the Yunnan-Burma Road for three months. However, the Japanese fascists did not stop their ambition to dominate Asia because of Britain's co-optation, but on the contrary, they used this agreement to see through Britain's weakness. Although the British rejected Japan's request to extend the closure of the Burma Road. But in any case, in this respect the British betrayed the Chinese government, and their behavior was chilling and shameless.

Chen Feng continued: "Churchill was a selfish pragmatist, and asking us to fight south was a trick that we had to come up with, and we had to be careful of the British schemes. Moreover, fighting in Burma is not just a matter of talking, where are the means of transportation, where are the supplies, where are the Japanese troops, where are the positions, where are the wounded to be sent, how to deal with relations with the locals, whether there is air support, have you ever thought about these questions, the British said that we need the Chinese to fight south, we rush to go, this is irresponsible to hundreds of thousands of soldiers. ”

"The British colonialists wanted to protect Burma to protect their vested interests in colonialism, but they did not want others to interfere, especially for fear of Chinese troops entering Burma, which would encourage the development of the Burmese national independence movement, which China had historically had a great influence on Burma. I can conclude that if we were to organize an army to fight in Burma in such a hurry, it would inevitably be an unprecedented tragedy! ”

Chen Feng's words were so loud that the entire conference room suddenly became very silent, and everyone, including Lao Jiang Zai, lowered their heads and carefully considered what Chen Feng had just said.

Due to the repeated delays of the British, the Chinese Expeditionary Force has missed the best time to enter Burma to set up defenses, and now that Rangoon has fallen, the Chinese Expeditionary Force has only entered Burma in a hurry at this time, coupled with the lack of sufficient means of transportation and necessary supplies, and the natural environment in Burma is very harsh, the prospect of fighting in the south is indeed worrisome.

In fact, due to the selfishness of the British, the first Chinese expeditionary force entered Burma and ended in failure, with one retreating to western Yunnan and the other retreating to India. The Japanese army not only occupied the entire territory of Burma and cut off the Yunnan-Burma Highway, but also penetrated deep into both sides of the Nu River in western Yunnan, posing a serious threat to Kunming and Chongqing, the rear of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

If the British colonial authorities had had allowed Chinese troops to be stationed in Rangoon and Mawlamyine and had built strong fortifications in advance, Burma might not have fallen entirely, tens of thousands of Chinese troops might not have died in the Savage Mountains of Northern Burma, and the war of resistance in China would not have been extremely difficult because of the smooth Yunnan-Burma Highway. (To be continued......)