Many people think that Qin Wei is fooling around. But there are also many people who see the "deep meaning" behind Qin Wei, even if these so-called "deep meanings" may not even be thought of by Qin Wei himself.

Among them, the commander-in-chief of the Indian Army of the British Empire, Archibald. Percival. Wavell is the one who thinks most of his deep meaning.

Wavell, the future Marshal of the British Army, was a taciturn, loyal, and mild-mannered man, and was considered a better general than Churchill and many other British generals. And he does fit that assessment.

Shortly after the German invasion of Poland, Wavell was sent to Egypt to take over as commander-in-chief of the British Command in the Middle East, commanding only 50,000 British troops in the Middle East. And he had to face the Italian Marshal Rudolfo. Two North African armies led by Grazia, with a total of 250,000 troops, and the Duke of Aosta, with an East African Italian army of 300,000 troops stationed in Abyssinia, later Ethiopia, and Somalia.

With 50,000 against 550,000 enemies, although the number of British troops gradually increased after this, the situation facing Wavell was still brutal. Not only is he small in numbers, but he also has a serious shortage of personnel in the troops under his command, which are under-trained and extremely short of equipment and ammunition. But he had to use these people not only to hold the Middle East, but also to keep the Mediterranean and Red Sea lines of communication open. On top of that, he had to face the blind command of someone from London, and that person was Churchill...... When the battle with the Italians was about to begin, Churchill actually ordered Wavell to transfer some of his already small forces to support the European theater. Grayer. Knowing that Wavell was facing an extremely bad situation, Deere consulted with him, secretly suppressed Churchill's order, and deliberately dragged it out. This ensured that after the war between the two armies, the British army in the Middle East had a certain strength. But in this way, Wavell also offended Churchill.

Later, in the battle in North Africa, Wavell led the LinkedIn army to advance more than 800 kilometers in two months with exquisite command, breaking Rudaoford. Grazia's troops were not only Rudaofu. Grazia forced a retreat to Tripoli, capturing more than 130,000 officers and men of nine divisions of the Italian army, and capturing nearly 400 tanks and 1,290 artillery pieces.

And after the decisive victory in the North African campaign. Wavell did not let his troops recuperate, but moved some of his troops directly to East Africa to support the British forces fighting against Aosta in East Africa. After that, the great battles broke out, and the British army fought so that the Italians could not stop retreating. It liberated Abyssinia and Somalia successively, and achieved a great victory in East Africa.

Pity. Just when the tide of the war was going well. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who Hitler described as "a crappy soldier among politicians and a crappy politician among soldiers," came to intervene in Wavell's actions again, demanding that he transfer the main forces of four divisions to the Greek battlefield, which was under onslaught by the Axis powers. As a result, the British army was undermanned in both theaters, which could not save the Greek theater from the crisis, and left Wavell without enough troops to pursue the Italian army. As a result, Mussolini's reinforcements quickly merged with the routs after landing in North Africa. Gained a foothold and switched to a counteroffensive. And in this battle, the British army lost, although the losses were not large. The tide of the war began to turn against the British. Eventually, Wavell had to withdraw his forces to Egypt and sit back and watch Italy reoccupy Libya.

Then, in order to shirk the blame, Churchill decided to change horses after much consideration. After consulting with the cabinet and relevant military circles, he decided to make Indian Commander-in-Chief Auchinleck the commander-in-chief of the Middle East and Wavell to be the commander-in-chief of the Indian army.

Unexpectedly, not long after, Wavell had to face the crisis of the Japanese attack.

……

From the beginning of World War II, the Middle East and the Soviet Union were given greater prominence in British strategic decision-making, and priority was given to the allocation of manpower and materials. Relative to these two regions, the 300 to 500 fighter force that the Malayan side hoped for was never realized. The British in Malaya also hoped to have enough tanks, but until the Japanese invaded the Philippines, they were unable to get a single tank or even an armored vehicle from the British mainland.

After taking over the post of commander-in-chief of the Indian army, Wavell, through his understanding of the situation in Southeast Asia and South Asia, pointed out that India's military was extremely weak, so the government should also include Burma as the commander-in-chief of the British army in India, that is, under him. But it was not until the Japanese army officially invaded the Philippines that London approved his request, and by the way, handed over the equally troublesome Malaya into his hands.

Afterwards, Wavell quickly followed the British General Brooke Brooke, who was stationed in Singapore. Popham devised a plan for Operation Matador, hoping to lead the LinkedIn Army in a preemptive invasion of southern Siam to preemptively destroy possible Japanese landing sites, so that the Japanese would not be able to gain a pedal south after invading these places. However, this plan was not initially approved by the British government, especially Churchill...... The prime minister, who was always against Wavell, insisted that as long as the Chinese troops stayed in Vietnam and Cambodia for a day, it would be impossible for the Japanese to attack Siam directly. If the Japanese were able to invade Siam, it would be even more beneficial for the British in Southeast Asia...... In any case, the Japanese could not ignore the presence of Chinese troops in French Indochina. If they take Siam, they will inevitably clash with the Chinese forces in Vietnam and Cambodia. In this way, the pressure on the British side will naturally be reduced. They only need to threaten even slightly with the Burma Highway, and the Chinese will need to fight to the death with the Japanese in these three small countries. After all, China cannot afford to lose its lines of communication to the outside world. Without this line of communication, it would be difficult for them to obtain large-scale aid from foreign countries, which was extremely unfavorable to the situation of the entire Chinese War of Resistance.

Although Churchill did not insist on his own views at the end, he also felt that the hopes of the British Empire could not be placed on other countries, and agreed to this "matador plan". But by the time Wavell and others received the order, the Chinese army suddenly withdrew from Cambodia and southern Vietnam.

Wavell and Popam were immediately stunned by this hand.

If the Japanese really get a landing site in Siam and use it as a pedal to go south and cut off the Pacific Ocean from the Indian Ocean, where will the Chinese get help? Didn't they think about the consequences when they did this? And then another trouble came: Churchill sent a telegram to Popham. It was claimed that Popam had been removed from office and that the wartime cabinet would send a much younger man to replace him. So, Popham didn't have the heart to work. I'm going to be laid off, why fight such a battle again? If you win, you will face a fierce attack by hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops, MacArthur is also a famous general, and he has been beaten to the point where he has no power to fight back, can he do it himself? And if it is defeated, the end will definitely be even worse. You can't even beat the Siamese, so are you embarrassed? Anyway, that young man is coming soon. Wait a little longer...... They are already generals, and there is no need to earn the rank of marshal or not, right?

In this way, Rao is Wavell has a good temper and self-cultivation. He was almost by Churchill and Popam. He suspected that these two men were his nemesis, especially Churchill. Always give him trouble at the most critical time. If it weren't for the knowledge of the Dao, it would not have been possible. He even had the heart to duel that guy. Although he was blinded in one eye during the First World War and became a "one-eyed dragon", he was confident that it would not take much effort to clean up that Humpty Dumpty.

However, after the anger, Wavell found that his luck still did not improve. It was as if he had become an outcast of God. After Churchill, he actually faced two big troubles of the Chinese and the Americans.

……

"Military exercises?" Calcutta, the command of the Indian Army, has always been taciturn. The mild-mannered General Wavell finally broke out irrepressibly: "This is simply the biggest joke of all time...... War is on the verge of breaking out, but they still have the leisure to play there? They're just doing it on purpose, on purpose—"

"The Chinese insist on establishing an Asian theater of operations, wanting to be above Britain and the United States on this land. Now that they found it impossible, they leaned slightly towards the Americans...... "Arthur. Percival, a lieutenant general in the British Army, the "young man" sent by Churchill to replace Popham. He is not amazing in appearance and has no unusual manners, but he is considered to have a strong character and superhuman courage. He was trained and taught at the Staff School, and was highly valued by the upper echelons of the British Army. He was also sent to Malaya to study the local defense, and all the plans he drew up were adopted. It was believed that he would inevitably take over the post of Chief of the General Staff of the British Army in the future. Perhaps it was precisely because of his value that Churchill sent him to replace Popam at this moment of great war. But before he arrived in Singapore, the British lieutenant general, who had high hopes, began to have a headache.

"If I were MacArthur, I wouldn't have passed up such a great opportunity. As long as it can win and gain military dominance in Asia, the future United States will be able to gain an advantage in the distribution of postwar interests in most of Asia. ”

"More than that, my friend." Although outraged by Churchill's temporary dismissal of Popham, Wavell did not take this emotion out on Percival, he took a breath and sighed: "The so-called exercise is just an excuse for them to sit back and watch the Japanese attack us." They want to use the strength of the Japanese to reduce our military presence in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia, one step ahead. ”

"They're playing with fire." Percival said in a deep voice, "We are in a serious situation where our defenses in various sectors in Malaya and Singapore are insufficient. Our Air Force has only 158 aircraft, while the Japanese have 560, we have no tanks, and the Japanese have more than 200. …… We have two corps, but the Malay Army has only two brigades, and they are purely local troops, not regular troops; As for the other Indian Third Army, although there were two divisions, they were never trained in jungle warfare. I heard General Popham say in a telegram that these people were reluctant to leave even one of the few roads in Malaya......"

"I can send two divisions to reinforce you, but I hope you can execute the 'Matador Plan' as soon as possible! Only by preemptively seizing the possible landing site of the Japanese army in Siam will we be able to gain the upper hand. Wavell said.

"Thank you, General." Percival saluted Wavell.

"Be careful. The actions of the Japanese have always puzzled me very much. It stands to reason that after encircling MacArthur in the Philippines, they should immediately deploy forces to attack Siam, and then use it as a springboard to attack Singapore and Malaya, and then enter Indonesia...... But now they have seized Indonesia's two major oil fields with airborne troops, and most of the army and navy continue to stay in the Philippines...... They must have some kind of trickery. Wavell said.

"Do you think they want to take advantage of this so-called military exercise to target China and the United States?" Percival asked suddenly.

"You mean ......"

"That's right." Percival nodded heavily, "If it were me, I would definitely not pass up such a great opportunity." After all, just attacking us, Japan could be attacked by the Chinese from behind at any time, and I think this should be the reason why their military operations are always so slow. But if they had defeated the Chinese first, the situation would have been completely different. ”

"......" (To be continued......)