On the night of August on the Indochina Peninsula, across a strait, Tang Qiuli and Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe discussed the battle situation between the Japanese army and the American army on Luzon Island.

"Stilwell! The American general who died indirectly at the hands of Chu Tian, "Tang Qiuli's mind, Stilwell's figure suddenly appeared, in all fairness, his impression of Stilwell is quite good, he is more like a pure soldier than MacArthur, although his position is different, there is a fundamental conflict, and he is destined not to become friends, but it does not prevent him from appreciating him, but it is a pity that a generation of famous generals suddenly fell, and in the United States, he did not even have a list of the dead, which can be described as extremely tragic!

Tang Qiuli's gaze was a little confused, and he said leisurely: "Yuhe, if in the Calais Mountains, it is not Whiteman but Stilwell who commands the US Third Army, the result of the two-day battle is definitely not like this, Ito Yanzaburo can't please him, if he doesn't lose more than half of his troops, it won't take more than a month to get through the Calais Mountains, but it's a pity that MacArthur eliminated dissidents, borrowed a knife to kill people, and cut off one of his arms. ”

Zhao Yuhe had never seen Stilwell, Stilwell came to Yangon twice, at that time, Zhao Yuhe, was still the chief of staff of Dongzhi, and he was busy assisting the deputy division commander Liu Tiehan all day long, calculating the Kwantung Army. ”

Tang Qiuli said solemnly: "Although the position is different, my evaluation of Stilwell, whether it is a suitable personality or military command ability, is far higher than MacArthur, if the commander of the US Southwest Pacific Regional Headquarters is Stilwell." The Pacific War launched by the Japanese would never have been the result of today's war on several important islands in less than two weeks, but neither US President Roosevelt nor MacArthur realized this! ”

"On the one hand, I am relieved about Stilwell's death, and on the other hand, I am very sorry, in the strategic pattern of the Pacific. If we want to gain dominance of the Pacific, we will inevitably collide with the United States, and Stilwell will be our biggest adversary, even if it is the price we pay to achieve our goals. It will also increase several times, Chu Tian, this guy. This hidden danger was cleared in advance. Hi, it's all off topic, what are you talking about! ”

Tang Qiuli smiled self-deprecatingly and took the initiative to end the topic, and Zhao Yuhe's gaze flickered a few times. "The American general who can be so admired by the division commander should be an extremely outstanding figure, and it seems that he needs to know this person in depth, although he no longer exists. And get to know him more deeply, a potential adversary, and an adversary! ”

Tang Qiuli looked at Zhao Yuhe with a faint smile in his eyes, he knew that his chief of staff, because of what he had just said, had a mind about the Americans, which was a good thing, so he said: "Yuhe, it's okay now anyway, call Fu Qiang, call Mei Xue, go out for a walk with me!" ”

Zhao Yuhe called Fu Qiang and Mei Xue, and when the two came out, Tang Qiuli asked, "Yuhe, the mountain tiger's injury is almost better, right?" ”

Zhao Yuhe smiled and replied: "In four or five days, it will be time to be discharged, I also received a telegram forwarded by the director of that hospital, Commander Tong Guòtian, yesterday, Captain Huang is clamoring to be discharged from the hospital, if it weren't for the fact that the director was afraid of taking responsibility and stopped him alive or dead, I'm afraid I would have arrived in Yangon at this time!" ”

Tang Qiuli laughed and said: "This guy Shanhu is beaten with iron, he has been in the hospital for more than ten days, and his heart has grown grass, he is a person who can lie down, by the way, how is Chutian?" Isn't it also noisy to be discharged from the hospital? ”

Zhao Yuhe replied: "The injury of the captain of the Chutian detachment still needs to be recuperated for a while, mainly because he is weak, he is not in a hurry to be discharged, but he uses the ward as a training ground, Dean Jin specially sent a telegram to ask you to give an order, prohibiting him from doing strenuous exercise, otherwise, if something goes wrong, the hospital will not be able to bear the responsibility!" ”

Tang Qiuli shook his head with a wry smile and said: "These two guys, it's not worrying to be hospitalized, tomorrow, you will give Chu Tian an order in my name, well, just say this, Chu Tian, if you still want to go back to the special operations detachment, give me a good care of my injuries, otherwise, transfer to my side as a staff officer!" As for the mountain tiger, if the injury is almost healed, let him come back, and it is okay to recuperate in Yangon! ”

Zhao Yuhe wrote it down with a smile, at this time, Mei Xue also walked out of the compound of the Military Management Commission in a military uniform, Zhao Yuhe looked at Mei Xue who came over, and said to Tang Qiuli: "Division commander, Director Mei's military rank should also be promoted to the next level, the directors of the division's direct departments are all colonels, only Director Mei is a major, it is unfair to her!" ”

Tang Qiuli said with a straight face: "Yuhe, there are strict regulations on the promotion of our independent division to the military rank, and we can't make an exception just because Mei Xue is my wife, let's follow the established procedures!" ”

The two were muttering, Mei Xue came over, first said hello to Zhao Yuhe, and then said jokingly: "Master Tang, why are you in the mood to go out for a walk today?" Without waiting for Tang Qiuli to answer, he saw Fu Qiang with more than a dozen special guards driving over a few cars, Tang Qiuli had an idea, waved his hand generously, and said: "Put the car down, I will pay out of my own pocket today, please have a good meal!" ”

The special guards excitedly exchanged glances at each other, eating with the division commander, that is called a enjoyment, and they will be able to hear a lot of new things, so a group of people, under the leadership of Tang Qiuli, directly killed a restaurant not far away!

In the early morning of 12 August, the battle in the Calais Mountains began with fierce Japanese artillery fire.

Commander Whiteman in the command headquarters has constantly received urgent phone calls from various positions, and the telephones have been ringing one after another, all of which are asking for air support; Whiteman has already sent all the planes of the First Air Force into the sky, but today's US pilots are not as handy as they were in the previous two days, and on the ground, the Japanese anti-aircraft fire has been woven into an impermeable fire net, forcing US fighters and bombers to raise the altitude of their shooting and bombing, and the lethal effect on the Japanese troops will immediately be lowered.

Obviously, the Japanese army has found an effective way to deal with the US air raids, and what surprised the US pilots was that the Japanese fighters, which had not shown their face for the past two days, also appeared in the airspace over the Calais Mountains; although the number was small, less than one-fifth of the number of US planes, the Japanese pilots' ferocious fighting style, their crazy vigor of fearless death, and their superb flying skills made the US bombers and fighters and the US infantry immediately taste the bitterness.

Although the Japanese fighters were at a disadvantage in numbers, the frenzied momentum of the attack was a desperate posture as soon as it came up, which made the US pilots dizzy, and they saw with their own eyes that a Japanese fighter plane, under the siege of their own three fighters, was already emitting smoke and flames from the fuselage, and according to the understanding of the US pilots, they should parachute immediately at this time, otherwise, the plane would explode and the pilot would definitely be shattered!

However, the US pilots saw a scene that made them unbelievable, this fireball-like Japanese fighter plane, dragging its tail of thick smoke, staggered straight to the US military position and crashed into it, "boom" with a loud bang, under the stunned gaze of the US pilot, this Japanese fighter plane regarded itself as a huge bomb, and directly blew up a US military firepower point, together with more than 20 US soldiers, into the sky!

At the end of a day of fierce fighting, the First Air Force of the US Southwest Pacific Theater paid the price of losing more than 20 fighters and bombers, and finally relied on its numerical superiority to drive the Japanese fighters out of the engagement area with five or six planes and shoot down 13 Japanese fighters, which can be regarded as a small victory!

However, the ground units of the US Third Army suffered a great deal during the battle on 12 August, and at the end of the day, more than 17,000 people were killed or wounded.

After three days of fighting, the number of casualties of the Third Army has exceeded 40,000, an average of more than 13,000 casualties per day, and the number of casualties has reached more than half of the Third Army, and there are at least four days left before the completion of Commander-in-Chief MacArthur's order.

A group of monotonous numbers fluttered in front of Commander Whiteman's eyes, transformed into a blood-drenched corpse of soldiers, transformed into the hideous faces of Japanese soldiers and cannonballs flying in the sky, he felt stuffy in his chest, a little out of breath, what kind of battle is this fighting, it is to fill in the lives of soldiers, for today's extraordinary casualties, Commander Whiteman is still clear, just because the Japanese army dispatched fighter planes.

Although the number is small, it has broken the situation of the domination of the US planes, and the sky is no longer the world of American planes, just when the fighters of the First Air Force attacked the Japanese planes, the Japanese troops, who had lost their air suppression, launched several attacks in a row that almost broke through the defense line, and huge casualties appeared, it is at that time that it is unimaginable that the Third Army, which has lost air superiority, can hold out for a few days?

There were no reserves left in the Third Army, and all the soldiers were on the front line, replenishing the troops with huge losses, there were many troops, a company, and there were only less than two platoons left, the sweat on Commander Whiteman's face, came down, and after a while, he walked to the telephone with some wandering steps, his hands trembled, and picked up the phone.

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