After a month-long debate in front of the Emperor, the whole of Japan has decided not to hesitate to fight against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands. However, preparations for war had already begun half a year earlier, and troops, supplies, and munitions for fighting in the south had been sent to French Indochina, Hainan Island, South China, Taiwan, Amami Oshima, Palau, Ogasawara, and other places.

In accordance with the decision of the Imperial Council on June 20 to go to war against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands, an order for the battle sequence of the southern combat units was issued on the 24th.

Its battle sequence is: General Terauchi Toshiichi, commander-in-chief of the Southern Army, Lieutenant General Tsukada Tsukada, chief of staff, and Major General Shigesei Aoki, deputy chief of general staff, under the jurisdiction of: the General Headquarters of the Southern Army, the 14th Army (16th Division, 48th Division, 65th Brigade), 15th Army (33rd Division, 55th Division), 16th Army (2nd Division, 38th Division, 56th Mixed Infantry Regiment), 25th Army (Guards Division, 5th Division, 18th Division, 56th Division)

In addition, the Southern Army Command also directly subordinate the 27th Division, the 21st Independent Mixed Brigade, the South China Sea Detachment, the 4th Independent Mixed Wing, the 3rd Flying Group, the 5th Flying Group, and the 21st Independent Flying Group.

As a southern combat unit, in addition to this, there is also the backbone of the 38th Division under the command of the commander of the 23rd Army of the Chinese Dispatch Army, which is designated as the Hong Kong combat unit, and a large number of ship units under the command of the commander of the ship transportation under the chief of staff, of which the required troops are deployed in the Southern Army and the South China Sea Detachment.

On 27 June, the 56th Division of the Western Army was reassigned to the 25th Army, making the army a unit with four divisions as the backbone. The 16th Army was a combat unit against the Dutch East Indies. With the establishment of operations against Hong Kong and the Philippines, preparations were made to withdraw the 38th Division and the 48th Division from the 23rd and 14th armies and transfer them to that army.

On June 28, the War Department of the Japanese Army's base camp issued the above-mentioned battle sequence order and issued the Continental Order No. 556 Operational Readiness Order to the Southern Army.

There are six articles in this order: 1. The base camp is ready to capture important areas in the south. 2. The commander-in-chief of the Southern Army shall, in coordination with the navy, concentrate the main forces in Indochina, South China, Taiwan, the Southwest Islands, and the Nanyang Islands, and prepare to capture important areas in the south. Matters relating to offensive operations shall be ordered separately. 3. The Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Army shall take over the task of strengthening the blockade against China as currently held by the Commander of the 25th Army. 4. If the commander-in-chief of the Southern Army is attacked by the American, British, Dutch or one of the armies, he may counterattack his unit in order to defend himself. When the above happens. It should be addressed locally as much as possible. 5. The Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Dispatch Forces, the Commander-in-Chief of the National Defense, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Taiwan Forces shall support the operational preparations under Item 2. 6. The relevant details shall be instructed by the Chief of Staff.

Then on June 29th. The War Department, the headquarters of the Japanese army, issued an order to the Southern Army regarding the capture of important areas in the south - Continental Order No. 564.

According to this order, the Japanese base camp prepared to capture important areas in the south in order to complete the "self-existence and self-defense" of the Great Japanese Empire and build a new order in Greater East Asia. The commander-in-chief of the Southern Army should coordinate with the navy to quickly capture important areas in the south. The areas to be occupied are the Philippines, British Malay, important areas of the Dutch East Indies, and a part of Burma.

When conducting operations. Stability in Thailand and Indochina should be ensured as much as possible. and imposed a blockade on China from this aspect. If the Thai and Indochinese armies resist. can occupy its important areas.

When conducting operations, propaganda tactics should be implemented mainly to facilitate the completion of operations. In order to restore law and order in the occupied territories. Access to vital defence resources and ensuring the local supply of troops, and the imposition of martial law control over occupied territories. The Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Dispatch Army, the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Army, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Taiwan Army shall provide the necessary assistance to the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Army in the operations.

At this point, all preparations in Japan for the southward movement had been completed, and the implementation of the battle plan submitted by the base camp could begin as soon as the emperor approved it.

While Japan was actively preparing to declare war on the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands, Chen Feng received an urgent telegram from Europe from Moscow signed by Joseph Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union.

The content of the telegram was long, but it could be summed up as a central one, that is, a request for reinforcements from Chen Feng's troops to the Soviet Union, and at the same time a request for Chen Feng's troops to break off any trade with Germany.

After reading the telegram, Chen Feng fell into deep thought, he knew very well that Stalin's current situation was very difficult, very difficult. The Soviet-German war had been going on for almost three months, and the USSR was completely unprepared for this war, so it fell into chaos in the early stages of the war. Just 10 days after the start of the war, the German army broke through 600 kilometers into the Soviet Union. On the first day of fighting, the Soviet Red Army lost 1,200 aircraft, 800 of which were blown up before they could take off.

As in the case of Japan's invasion of China, Hitler made wild statements, openly declaring in the newspapers that he would destroy the Soviet Union within three months. On the North-Western Front, in two weeks the Soviet Red Army retreated 450 kilometers and abandoned the Baltic coast. The 24 divisions of the Soviet Red Army were completely routed, 20 divisions lost 60% of their personnel and equipment, and the Germans soon reached the city of Leningrad.

The Western Front was the key area of the German assault, the German army reached a joint encirclement of the Western Military District of the Soviet Union from the direction of Grodno and Brest Fortresses, the capital of Belarus Minsk fell, the Soviet Red Army retreated 350 kilometers, 30 divisions were annihilated, and 70 divisions lost more than 50% of their personnel. The German army successively carried out three effective assaults in Minsk, Smolensk, Vyazma and other places, encircling and annihilating a large number of Soviet Red Army units.

On the Southwestern Front, the main purpose of the German army was to destroy the Soviet agricultural and industrial base in Ukraine and to obtain the Black Sea ports as supply depots. In front of the Kiev and Odessa Military Districts of the Soviet Union, the Southwestern Front was one of the strongest military districts in the Soviet Union, and in the early days of the war, due to the continuous counterattacks of the Soviet Red Army, the German army made the slowest progress in this direction.

However, due to the fact that Germany's military strength was far superior to that of the Soviet Union at this time, the German army still drove straight to the Dnieper. Due to the excessive losses of the Western Front, the right flank of the Southwestern Front was exposed and did not transfer in time, on June 15, 1941, the German army surrounded the main force of the Soviet Southwestern Front in the Battle of Kiev, and after 10 days of bloody fighting, the Soviet Red Army broke through a small number of people, and more than 660,000 people were annihilated, including 60,000 officers, including the commander of the Southwestern Front, General Kirponos, and the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Tupikov, and many senior generals were killed in the breakout battle, and the German army occupied the entire territory of Ukraine.

From April to June 1941, the Soviet Red Army lost a total of 3 million people, including 2.2 million army losses, and also suffered extremely heavy losses in weapons and equipment, including 4,172,800 light weapons, 15,601 tanks and self-propelled guns, 70,574 artillery pieces of various kinds, and 7,237 combat aircraft.

Such heavy losses could not be sustained even by a country as strong as the Soviet Union. If the fight continues according to this trend, the Soviet Union may not be able to survive this year, so the Soviet Union is in a hurry, really in a hurry.

According to Stalin's telegram to Chen Feng, he asked Chen Feng to support a number of weapons and equipment of the Soviet Union, including light and heavy weapons, as well as various artillery, tanks and aircraft, and most importantly, he hoped that Chen Feng could authorize all tank factories in the Soviet Union to produce T34 tanks on a large scale.

Supporting the Soviet Union, to be honest, Chen Feng is not very interested, why do you say this, because in Chen Feng's view, the Soviet Union and Germany are the same hill, and who wins and who loses has little to do with him. His main aim was to regain the lost territory, and the country that invaded China the most was the Soviet Union.

If the Soviet Union had won the war, then Stalin's character would certainly not have returned these lands to China. However, he also knew that Japan's southward invasion of Southeast Asia was imminent, and that it was imperative for the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain and all countries that were being invaded by fascist forces to form an alliance, and if they did not support the Soviet Union, according to Germany's national and military strength at this time, the Soviet Union would probably not be able to support the support of Western countries.

The most important thing is that if the Soviet Union's power in Europe is crushed by Germany, then Japan is likely to send troops to occupy the Soviet Far East, and he will still not be able to recover all the lost territory, especially Sakhalin, a huge island hanging overseas, which is not good news for Chen Feng.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Chen Feng decided to have a good talk with Stalin, if Stalin is willing to abide by Lenin's last wish and return all the territories occupied by China to China, then it is not impossible to provide assistance to the Soviet Union, anyway, the weapons and equipment in the inventory of the Huaxia Arms Company in the United States are enough to equip tens of millions of troops, and it is not much profit to sell them to Britain and France alone, and the Soviet Union, a tyrant-level customer, is the most worthy of fighting.

On the last day of June, Chen Feng telegraphed back to Stalin, hoping to have a direct dialogue with the supreme leader of the Soviet Union and discuss the possibility of comprehensive cooperation between the two sides.

Stalin was also a decisive man, and after receiving Chen Feng's telegram, he knew that Chen Feng wanted to have face-to-face consultations with him, or rather negotiations. If it had been left in the past, Stalin would not have paid attention to Chen Feng, a petty Chinese general, and even Chiang, the supreme leader of China, was just a gangster who could not be put on the table in Stalin's eyes.

But now it was different, the situation forced the German army to attack more and more fiercely. The great Soviet Union is experiencing the most dangerous national crisis since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and if it is not handled well, it will be a catastrophe of national destruction, so he must pay attention to the Chinese general who has 1 million elite troops, and now this Chinese general still has many things necessary for the Soviet Union.

However, since the German army was now attacking very fiercely, and millions of troops were advancing towards Stalingrad, he did not have time to go to China, so he called Chen Feng, hoping that Chen Feng could come to Moscow as soon as possible to negotiate the highest level of leadership between the two sides. (To be continued......)