The news that the Chinese Chen family purchased New Guinea and Tasmania from the Australian government with more than 10 billion yuan of funds soon spread throughout the world, and people lamented that the Chen family had money at the same time, but also envied Australia's good fortune. After World War I, while all countries were busy with European affairs, they quickly occupied this colony, which had belonged to Germany.

It's only been a dozen years, and the dilapidated desert island at that time has been sold for tens of billions of dollars, and what is even more enviable is the authorized patent for the penicillin drug, although it is only an authorized patent, but Australia is the second country in the world that can mass-produce pure penicillin drugs.

The value of penicillin drugs is very clear to all countries, with the intensification of the war in the world, this drug that originally belonged to civilian drugs will soon become a war resource that various countries in the world are vying for. In particular, countries such as Germany and the Soviet Union, which have always had close ties with the Chinese government, know the huge role of penicillin drugs in the war. The Australian government was able to get the authorization of the penicillin drug at this time, and it was definitely a sure deal.

In addition, although there are hundreds of thousands of aborigines in New Guinea and Tasmania, the economy is extremely underdeveloped, and the infrastructure is too poor, and the manpower and material resources required to develop these two islands will be astronomical, and the Chen family's hometown of China. With such a large Pacific Ocean in between, it can be said that China has not been of any help to the development of these two islands at all, and if it wants to develop these two islands, it must trade with Australia, which is certainly a big stimulus to Australia's economy, and it is a good thing to kill three birds with one stone.

Although Chen Feng's entrustment of the US Government to train the Navy on his behalf was very secretive, the Japanese had already received information from special channels, and they also learned that the US Government had sold more than 30 naval vessels to Chen Feng. Among them are 2 decommissioned cruisers with a displacement of 8,000 tons and 8 destroyers with a displacement of 5,000 tons.

Despite this strength, Japan really doesn't see it in the eye. However, this is not a good sign, and what Japan is most worried about is that the United States will intervene in the Sino-Japanese war, and if the United States fully supports China, then with the strong economic strength and industrial production capacity of the United States and the huge population of China. Japan's established strategy of attacking and destroying China was simply impossible to accomplish.

Now Chen Feng has bought such a large piece of land in the South Pacific. With the strong and strange rise speed of Chen Feng's department. The Japanese have reason to believe that Chen Feng is likely to build a powerful naval force in a very short time. Therefore, after the Australian government announced the sale of the islands, the Japanese were the first to jump out and oppose it, believing that it was very inappropriate for the Australian government to sell the island of New Guinea to private individuals without authorization. Because the island of New Guinea is not considered Australian land.

At least before Japan launched the Pacific War, major countries such as Britain, France, the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union did not think very highly of Japan, believing that they could only jump on the land of Asia, where there were no giants, and that the above-mentioned powers could wipe out tiny Japan with the help of their fingers. Although Australia does not have this strength, Australia is a major member of the British Commonwealth, and once Australia is attacked, the powerful navy of the British Empire stationed in the Strait of Malacca and the fortress of Singapore will soon arrive, so Australia is not bothered to respond to Japan's opposition at all!

Failure to receive a positive response from the Australian government, which made the Japanese high-level extremely angry, the prison Chen Feng's department of the huge threat, the base camp urgently convened a high-level meeting to discuss the matter, decided to continue to put pressure on Australia, and at the same time sent an elite team to the United States to assassinate Chen Feng's spokesman in the United States Yan Changxi to prevent the transaction.

Apparently the Japanese got the news too late, and by the time their men arrived in the United States, the Australian delegation had already repented on Australia with $14 billion in cash, and the deal was over.

However, the Japanese resolutely decided to continue to assassinate Yan Changxi in order to undermine Chen Feng's layout in the United States and the entire overseas, but this assassination was very unsuccessful, and before their killer action could be done, they were given a pot by the American intelligence department. At the same time, the US Government issued a stern diplomatic protest to the Japanese Government, saying that if the Japanese Government continues to act in such a brazen manner in the United States, it will be necessary for the US Pacific Ocean to go around the Sea of Japan.

The failure of the assassination plan and the fact that they were approached by others made the Japanese government extremely angry, and the Japanese emperor personally issued an edict to reprimand the base camp for its ineffective handling of affairs, and demanded that the incident be put down as soon as possible.

After some diplomatic efforts, the Japanese government quelled the incident, but this made the Japanese government even more jealous of Chen Feng's strength, but he did not expect that Chen Feng had received such strong support from the US government in just over a year, which is obviously not good news for the Japanese government.

Therefore, the Japanese base camp immediately issued the latest instructions to the Japanese troops on the Chinese battlefield, ordering the Central China side to capture Wuhan as soon as possible, end the fighting on the Central China side, and then concentrate all efforts on dealing with Chen Feng's troops in the north of the country to solve this threat.

After receiving the order from the base camp, Lieutenant General Okamura Ninji, commander of the 11th Army, immediately convened a meeting of officers above the division commander, at which it was decided to abandon the plan of encircling and annihilating the main force of the Ninth Theater of Operations in China and instead go all out to capture Wuhan.

After the first Battle of Wuhan, in fact, the Nationalist Government had lost most of the fortresses on the periphery of Wuhan, including Fuchikou Fortress, Madang Fortress and so on. Wuhan had been exposed to the guns of the Japanese army, but Okamura Ninji intended to completely encircle and annihilate the main force of the Ninth Theater, so the purpose of the operation was not to occupy Wuhan. Now it is obviously not possible, and the base camp orders to end the war in Central China as soon as possible.

On October 3, the two main divisions of the Japanese army abandoned the pursuit of the Chinese troops on the periphery of Nanchang and were all transferred to the periphery of Wuhan, and then the Japanese launched the largest attack on the defenders of Wuhan. At this time, the army of the Nationalist Government on the outskirts of Wuhan had gathered 310,000, and the Japanese army in Seiko Wuhan had four divisions, two mixed brigades and one detachment, totaling 120,000 people.

By the afternoon of the 6th, the Japanese army had already approached the wall of Wuhan, and at the same time, the Japanese warships had also approached the Hankou wharf, and the naval guns continued to fire into the city, and the planes also carried out air raids on Wuhan without stopping.

In view of the extremely heavy casualties of the troops and the loss of all strategic points, the Ministry of Military Affairs of the Nationalist Government issued an order requiring all military and political organs in Wuhan to withdraw from Wuhan within two days, and at the same time to appoint Chongqing to guard the capital, and at the same time ordering the troops to withdraw from Wuhan in three days.

On the evening of October 8, all the Wuhan garrison troops of the Nationalist Government withdrew from Wuhan, and the Japanese army immediately occupied this important town in central China, and Wuhan fell.

The Battle of Wuhan lasted one and a half months and ended with the withdrawal of Chinese troops from Wuhan on their own initiative. As far as the campaign is concerned, the Japanese army won the victory by occupying the three towns of Wuhan and taking control of the hinterland of China. However, as far as strategy is concerned, Japan has not been able to realize its strategic intentions and has failed to encircle and annihilate the main forces of the Ninth and Fifth Theaters of the Nationalist Government; more importantly, the Japanese military leadership has always believed that as long as the Nationalist Government captures the big cities of Wuhan and Guangzhou and Nanchang, the Nationalist Government will give in, and the Sino-Japanese War will end with Japan's victory.

However, in fact, the Japanese army did not give in to the Nationalist Government in this battle, and the Nationalist Government decided to move the capital to Chongqing, and all the rear organs and factories were moved to Sichuan, Yunnan and other places to continue to persist in the War of Resistance. Although Wuhan fell, but the second Battle of Wuhan made the Japanese pay a heavy price, compared with the first Battle of Wuhan, this time the Japanese army suffered more heavy losses, its army casualties exceeded 110,000, the naval and air force losses were also extremely heavy, a total of 48 large and small ships of the navy were damaged and sunk, and 240 fighters of the air force were shot down.

After the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army, which already felt that its troops were insufficient, felt that its troops were more and more insufficient with the extension of the battle front, and it was no longer able to organize such large-scale strategic offensives as the battles of Songhu, Xuzhou, and Wuhan with the goal of conquering cities and territories, and was forced to turn to strategic conservatism. As a result, China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression developed from a strategic defensive stage to a strategic stalemate stage, and at the same time, this strategic stalemate stage was greatly shortened because of these two major battles, and the Japanese invading army fell into the quagmire of a protracted war that it was most unwilling to wag, and could not extricate itself.

In addition, the huge casualties of soldiers and the loss of materials made Japan's national strength begin to surface sharply due to excessive losses. Japan is an island country with a lack of strategic materials and mainly relies on imports, and at the same time, Japan's economic strength is not very strong.

At the time of the 77 Incident, Japan's "gold reserves, including reserves for the issuance of banknotes, were no more than 1.35 billion yen." Such an economic situation doomed Japan to not be able to hold out for too long in this war, so while launching the war, Japan did everything possible to "seek an early solution."

In order to sustain the war of aggression against China, "the total amount of military supplies imported from overseas in the 12th year of Showa reached 960 million yen." In order to conduct the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army even took back the rifles used for school instructors and used them to equip the expanded army. Moreover, due to the continuous increase in the number of soldiers, domestic labor, food, and energy are all insufficient. By 1939, Japan's military expenditure had reached 6.156 billion yen, far exceeding Japan's national reserves, thus "Japan's national strength has been sharply impoverished" and it has lost its ability to fully guarantee the supply of military materials to the army, thus "aggravating the pain and pressure of the head of the central command." So much so that its chief of staff and the land minister claimed that "China's strong foreign strength and middle cadres are a portrayal of our country today, and it will not be able to maintain it after a long time." Roughly after the First Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army's establishment, equipment, and combat effectiveness of troops decreased significantly compared with before the war and at the beginning of the war.

Although the Second Battle of Wuhan did not last very long, only one and a half months, the heavy casualties of the Japanese army and the huge consumption of materials were unprecedented. This also made the above problems more prominent in Japan, and it also forced the Japanese army to launch the Pacific War in advance to make up for the consumption of its war resources. (To be continued......)