General MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the US forces in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, was more troubled than anyone else, and a telegram from Tang Qiuli pushed him into a dilemma, and the Japanese fleet and reinforcements, three aircraft carriers, large and small warships plus troop carriers, and hundreds of ships passed through the Strait of Malacca to the battlefield in Yangon, and they were told right under their noses.

From a military point of view, the route of the Japanese reinforcements through the Strait of Malacca was the safest and most effective choice, and the difficulty of the question was, "To fight or not to fight?" "Hit? MacArthur would never do it, not fighting? How to deal with Tang Qiuli's request for assistance, and moreover, the Japanese swaggered through the US military defense area, and the Americans seemed to be blind, pretending not to see it, and I am afraid that even the benevolent and omnipotent God would not believe it, and spreading it would be a great loss to MacArthur himself and to the image of the United States.

MacArthur's hair was almost gray with worry, and he summoned General Stilwell, the chief of staff, and his own staff team, and held a secret meeting for two days in a row, with only one topic, and any matter that tested the wisdom of the Americans was handled with a knife cut tofu on both sides, and it was seamless, and it could not be done to the Japanese, but it could be accepted by the Chinese.

It was so embarrassing that MacArthur and Stilwell were about to cry, and in the end, a senior staff officer with a veteran qualification paid such attention, "Let's just say that the Joint Chiefs of Staff held an emergency secret meeting, and the meeting was held in a completely closed state." Commanders of all major theaters and overseas garrisons of the U.S. military are required to participate. During the meeting, participants cut off any contact with the outside world until the end of the meeting. ”

MacArthur's head shook like a rattle, "No, no, I'm going to the meeting, Chief of Staff Stilwell is still there, according to the regulations of the US Army, during the period when the Supreme Commander leaves office, the Chief of Staff can act on his behalf, and he can't respond to Tang Qiuli's request." ”

The senior staff officer "fluttered" and laughed. He secretly said in his heart: "Say you're stupid, you're the supreme commander, say you're not stupid, your IQ is like a three-year-old child." Usually lie without blinking your eyes, and come with your mouth open, why are you confused now? ”

"Commander-in-Chief, Chief of Staff Stilwell will be with you at the meeting, and the officers who remain behind, without authorization, must be ordered by you or the Chief of Staff to use their troops, isn't that seamless? Even if that Chinese Tang Qiuli asked for it. We can all answer for this reason," said the senior staff officer unhurriedly.

Everyone patronized and analyzed the feasibility of this method, but no one noticed that the mocking look in the eyes of this senior staff officer flashed, oops, a word woke up the dreamer, MacArthur used a Chinese idiom, to summarize this method, "seamless". It was not our heroic American ** team that did not fulfill the alliance ** mutual assistance agreement and did not fire at the Japanese because the troops did not receive the order to open fire.

And the commander and chief of staff, in Washington, attended a secret military meeting. One qiē foreign contact was banned, what happened in Southeast Asia. I don't know anything, and when I come back and want to fight, the Japanese have already run to the Andaman Sea, and it's too late, so I can't blame Tang Qiuli for not fulfilling my obligations? I don't have this chance!

MacArthur's eyebrows fluttered, and the sorrow on his face was swept away, "High, really *** high, even God can't think of such a perfect idea, there are capable people under his own hands!" One move solved the big problem that Tang Qiuli brought to him.

Stilwell smiled bitterly, he didn't approve of MacArthur's approach, what did he say? It was despicable, sublime and shameless, but for the sake of the United States of America, he had to do it, and moreover, he was an important character in this ugly drama.

Therefore, in the name of the General Staff of the US Army Headquarters in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, the contents of the reply to Tang Qiuli have been freshly released: "General Tang Qiuli, deputy commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces in China and Southeast Asia Theater, received the call, and the contents are fully understood, because Commander-in-Chief MacArthur and Chief of Staff Stilwell rushed back to their homeland yesterday to attend a secret military meeting, the content of which is unknown, and our department will inform the Commander-in-Chief and His Excellency the Chief of Staff of your request as much as possible, and reply after receiving the order. ”

Tang Qiuli took the call back from the US Army General Staff, laughed, and said to Tang Qiusheng: "Brother Qiusheng, MacArthur, this old fox, let me play and avoid it, it is very coincidental, the Japanese want to get a pass from under his nose, so he and Stilwell together, ran back to the mainland for a meeting, interesting, this lie is not level, too pretty!" ”

After reading the telegram, Tang Qiusheng was also happy, and said to Tang Qiuli: "Why do you still expect the Americans to help?" I don't think that's what you really meant! ”

Tang Qiuli was very happy, stood up and stretched, and said: "Don't, MacArthur had better not interfere, he wants to say that a few cannons have shocked Hasegawa Qing, and then he will retreat in the same way, and the fat in his mouth will fly, and my plan will be all in soup, and I will do this to give MacArthur, the cunning old fox, a problem, and give him a headache." ”

Tang Qiuli's unscrupulous actions of stretching his waist, yawning, and dancing his teeth and claws made Liu Xinlan anxious, "They are all such big people, and they don't care about their own image, just Brother Qiusheng is good to say, but the staff officers and communication officers in the room are all subordinates of Ling, so what do you think of Ling, the division commander, it is really uncomfortable," thought in his heart, and quietly pulled the corner of Tang Qiuli's clothes.

Tang Qiuli looked back in amazement, and asked completely unconsciously, "Xinlan, is there something wrong?" Liu Xinlan was so angry that she bit her silver teeth, and she couldn't wait to pinch the wood a few times, "No, look at the wrinkles in your military uniform," Liu Xinlan hurriedly lied, Tang Qiuli was very proud, "Well, yes, Liu Mi, I know that I care about the chief, continue to work hard!" ”

Tang Qiuli's words attracted the envious eyes of the room, Liu Xinlan was almost angry, so she had to follow Tang Qiuli's words, carefully sorted out his already very straight military uniform, and pondered in her heart, "Who is this?" When I get back, I'll see how I clean up! And Tang Qiuli, who didn't know that this girl had secretly gritted her teeth, had a happy face.

Solving the problem led by Tang Qiuli, MacArthur was not happy for a day, and began to worry again, this time worrying about whether the Japanese would take the opportunity of crossing the Strait of Malacca to do something to the Americans, he really couldn't bear the capricious and greedy Japanese mind, and although Tang Qiuli did not take advantage of dealing with him, the Chinese were still very disciplined.

The Japanese are different, at the beginning, the Japanese and the British were like crawling out of a mother's womb, and it was the British and Japanese who jointly faced Tang Qiuli, and they set up a military camp in northern Myanmar to prepare for the Terauchi Shouichi troops who climbed out of the savage mountains, and the British gave the port of Singapore to the Japanese for use, what was the result, the Japanese turned their faces faster than they turned, and they belonged to dogs, and they opened their mouths to bite the British who ate in a pot, and drove the British out of the Indochina Peninsula alive, and the remnants of the defeated army ran to India, It also piggybacked on the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

MacArthur was afraid that the Japanese would take the medicine according to the prescription and give himself this hand, and those pampered young master soldiers under his command could not even go for a round under the hands of the Japanese who could fight well. ”

The more MacArthur thought about it, the more bottomless he became, and ordered all the US troops to enter the first level of combat readiness, but in the order, he particularly emphasized a few points, "Without the personal order of the commander-in-chief, all troops must not open fire, and strictly abide by the rules of not fighting back, scolding, and not returning the mouth, even if the Japanese spit in your face, you have to stand up, unless you see that the Japanese really want your life, and they must report to the headquarters and receive the order before they can fight back." ”

This order was unanimously welcomed by all US officers and soldiers, "That bastard only wants to fight, as long as the Japanese do not fix themselves to death, and do not care if he and the Chinese fight to the death, what do we Americans have to do?" MacArthur himself was re-evaluated by US officers and soldiers because of this humane order, and for a time, his personal prestige rose by nearly six percentage points, which was an unexpected gain for MacArthur.

After giving the order, he personally ran to Sumatra and asked the chief of staff, General Stilwell, to sit on Kalimantan Island, not to command the battle, but to discipline those young soldiers who did not abide by military discipline, caused trouble all day long, and did everything except serious things.

The warships and troop carriers of the Japanese Third Fleet were connected end to end, lined up in a long snake formation, and they were on full alert and moving rapidly, and Hasegawa's heart was raised to his throat, and as soon as the Americans' cannons sounded, the entire fleet and troop carriers became moving targets for the Americans.

In the same way, MacArthur's heart was beating a drum, and his hand holding the telescope was trembling, and the black hole in the naval guns on the Japanese warships was, in his eyes, like man-eating beasts, grinding their teeth there, and no one knew when they would pounce on them and bite themselves hard, and if the Japanese warships opened fire at this time, MacArthur would never order to return fire.

In the middle of the long night, the Japanese fleet and troop carriers finally cleared the Strait of Malacca, and there was no such thing as MacArthur feared most, his legs were weak, his whole body seemed to be out of strength, and he almost collapsed, but he felt relaxed, as easy as unloading a thousand pounds of heavy burden, and a smug smile appeared on his face, "The Japanese still understand my painstaking efforts." He thought to himself.

Ahead was the wide sea area of the Andaman Sea, the fleet was free from the threat of American shore artillery, Hasegawa Kiyoi sat down on his chair with a heavy butt, the binoculars fell on the deck of the warship, his sweaty shirt, so tired that he didn't want to lift his eyelids, a mocking smile hung on the corner of his mouth, and looked back at the hazy island of Sumatra, "Americans are just like that, a bunch of cowards," he thought to himself.

(To be continued)