The third largest stock market crash in U.S. history is no small feat, and all morning, Wall Street was in a wail, almost everyone was frantically selling stocks, and after this morning, I didn't know that someone would declare bankruptcy.

Bad news has also been coming one after another, and the news of the air attack on Pearl Harbor was published in yesterday's evening newspaper, and the Japanese naturally deliberately exaggerated the results of the battle, describing the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor as an unprecedented great victory, and even claiming that Japan had completely annihilated the Pacific Fleet. At the same time, Japan officially declared war on the United States and Great Britain.

When the news reached the United States, it happened to be the morning of December 8, US time, and after Wall Street got the news, the stock market, which had already fallen sharply, reacted quickly, and the Dow Jones index suddenly plummeted.

Immediately after that, news also came from Hong Kong and the Philippines that eight hours after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army officially launched an attack on Hong Kong, and the British troops stationed in Hong Kong announced their surrender.

And in Shanghai, the Japanese army also occupied the public concession. British power in China was completely swept away.

After the defeat of France, France had lost control of the French Concession in Shanghai, and in fact the French Concession was already under the de facto control of the Japanese at this time. The British army had already evacuated the public concession of Shanghai, so the Japanese army took control of the entire leased area of Shanghai without much effort.

Two hours after the Japanese occupied Hong Kong, Japanese planes appeared over the Philippines again, bombed the US military base in the Philippines, and then sent troops to land in the Philippines.

At this time, the commander-in-chief of the US military platoon in the Philippines and the commander-in-chief of the US Far East Army was none other than the well-known General Douglas MacArthur.

At this time, MacArthur had two corps under his command, and he had a navy and an air force, although the overall military strength was inferior to the Japanese army, but it was not completely without the strength of a war, and a little defense could still be done. However, MacArthur misjudged the Japanese attack and made a mistake in command, resulting in the destruction of all US fighters in the Philippines by the Japanese army, and the US military lost its air defense capability. The result was a rout of the U.S. military in the Philippines. At that time, MacArthur almost committed suicide with the pistol left by his father, but fortunately, Roosevelt personally ordered MacArthur to evacuate, and finally MacArthur withdrew to Australia.

Future Americans touted MacArthur as a famous general, but looking at MacArthur's poor command in previous wars, it is clear that he was a general with far more seniority than strength. Not to mention being beaten in various ways on the Korean battlefield in the future, when talking about the Philippines alone, it was also all kinds of miscommand and was led by the nose by the Japanese. This guy is a bit like Zeng Guofan, he suffered defeat in three days, and his resume is basically repeated defeats and battles, and he almost committed suicide in various ways, but in the end, he was the one with the most credit at the end of the war.

The news of Japan's attack on the Philippines also quickly spread to the United States, and it was learned that the US military strength in the Far East could not be maintained, and Wall Street was hit hard.

With no one taking over, the Dow Jones index will naturally fall again and again, which is simply an unbearable ordeal for those stockholders, perhaps with every blink of an eye, the stock in their hands will fall by a price.

Finally, at noon, the stock market was closed, and at this time there was also news that US President Roosevelt would give a speech, and this speech would be broadcast live to the whole United States through the radio.

……

In the U.S. Congress, President Roosevelt sat at the podium to deliver a speech, behind him was Vice President Henry Wallace and House Speaker Sam Ray Burne, and in front of Ray Burne was a man in uniform, James Roosevelt, Roosevelt's son, who escorted Roosevelt to Congress.

"Yesterday was an infamous day...... Roosevelt spoke into the microphone and began his speech.

This time the speech was very short, lasting only a little more than 7 minutes, and for Roosevelt, who was very good at speaking, the 7-minute speech was indeed too insignificant.

However, this short seven minutes is the most famous of all political speeches in American history, and Americans call it "infamy-speech". And the influence of this speech has continued into the 21st century, after the outbreak of the incident, President George W. Bush once imitated Roosevelt's speech, and even repeated Roosevelt's theme in the speech. Through this speech, Bush Jr. linked the "911 incident" with the Pearl Harbor incident, perhaps because Bush Jr.'s performance reminded people of Roosevelt, so Bush Jr. won a high approval rating at that time, and this support also allowed Bush Jr. to launch the Iraq War relatively smoothly two years later.

……

After Roosevelt's speech to Congress, only half an hour later, the US Senate passed a bill declaring war on Japan, and the vote was 82 to 0, with every senator voting in favor.

In the ensuing House of Representatives, the bill declaring war on Japan was also passed, with a vote of 388 to 1, and the only one who voted against it was Congressman Janet Rankin.

Janet Rankin is the first female congressman in the history of the United States, she is a pacifist, as early as the First World War, she voted against the declaration of war against Germany, when there were 50 members of the parliament who opposed the declaration of war against Germany, and now she once again opposes the United States declaration of war on Japan, only this time, she is the only one of all the members of the parliament who is against it.

Other members of Congress had already persuaded Janet Rankin before the vote to vote in the hope that she would vote in favor of the bill declaring war on Japan by a unanimous vote, but her persuasion was unsuccessful, and Janet Rankin stubbornly believed that voters would support her because she would oppose the war.

But this is not the case, and voters supporting Janet Rankin may be hoping for peace, but it does not mean that they will not fight back when they are bullied. This vote directly ended Janet Rankin's political career, and she lost the support of voters forever and lost her next re-election campaign. After the Senate vote, she was surrounded by a group of angry reporters in a phone booth before she was escorted by the police.

Janet Rankin may be a true White Lotus, or she may be trying to gain the support of anti-war activists in this way for political gain. But one thing is for sure, she failed. From another point of view, Janet Rankin has become a street rat in the eyes of Americans because of her opposition to the declaration of war on Japan, to the point where everyone shouts and beats her, which also shows that Americans at this time are really eager to seek revenge from Japan!

……

For Roosevelt, it was perhaps the fastest passage of a congressional bill in his presidency.

At noon, Roosevelt came to Congress to give a speech, and at 4:10 p.m., the process of the Senate and the House of Representatives had been completed, and Roosevelt signed his name on the bill declaring war on Japan.

From this moment on, the United States officially declared war on Japan.

Nine hours earlier, Britain had declared war on Japan, and at the same time that Britain had declared war, Australia, New Zealand, and Charles de Gaulle's Free France had also declared war on Japan.

On the same day, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, and Honduras, America's younger brothers in the Americas, also declared war on Japan.

The Japanese side was not accustomed to these countries that declared war on Japan, and the Japanese army launched a direct attack on British Malaya and Siam.

British Malaya could not stop the Japanese offensive and finally chose to surrender to Japan. Siam, the British had already gone to the wall, and without hesitation, they signed the "Japan-Thailand Offensive and Defensive Alliance Treaty" with Japan, announcing their membership in the Axis powers. In the face of Siam's licking dog, Japan also rewarded Siam with a mouthful of dog food, and ceded part of Burma and British Malaya to the northern region. Later, Siam would declare war on Britain and the United States in January 1942, and the day after Japan's surrender, Siamese Roman Shangtian shamelessly said that the declaration of war on Britain and the United States that year was invalid. Then he started to lick the dogs of the Americans.

On Sunday, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and the United States declared war on Germany and Italy.

Japan, Hungary and Romania declared war on the United States, and British India declared war on Japan.

Britain, New Zealand, and South Africa declared war on Bulgaria, and Honduras declared war on Germany and Italy.

In short, in the days after Pearl Harbor, the whole world was in chaos, and the Allied and Axis camps declared war on each other.

It is worth mentioning that after Britain and the United States declared war on Japan one after another, Chongqing finally announced that it would declare war on Japan.

……

Chen Qiang looked at the newspaper in his hand, which was full of news that countries had declared war on each other.

Suddenly, one of the messages declaring war caught Chen Qiang's attention.

"China officially declared war on Japan? I read that right! Chen Qiang blinked subconsciously.

"If we count from the '918' incident, it has been ten years since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Even since the '77 Incident' in 1937, we have been fighting the Japanese for four years, and we have sacrificed so many people and lost so many lands in the past four years, and we have not even declared war with Japan! Chen Qiang shook his head incredulously.

Many people in later generations believed that after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the reason why Chongqing did not immediately declare war on Japan was to obtain foreign aid. Because the laws of many countries at that time generally stipulated that strategic materials or weapons should not be provided to warring countries, such as the United States Neutrality Act. In order to continue to receive international assistance, Chongqing did not declare war on Japan. Some people even said that the Chongqing side did not declare war on Japan, not because the Chongqing side was weak, but because the situation forced it.

But in fact, Roosevelt had already pushed for the revision of the Neutrality Act since 1937, and later lifted the arms ban altogether, which did not affect the supply of materials and weapons to China at all. Moreover, in the early stage of the Anti-Japanese War, in addition to the donations of overseas Chinese, China did not receive assistance from other countries. In the end, I finally borrowed some money from the Americans, and I had to use tung oil, tin ore and tungsten ore as collateral. Therefore, they are worried that they will not be able to receive international assistance after the declaration of war against Japan, and they will not be able to withstand scrutiny at all.

So it's just that Chongqing is too cowardly!

For many years, the bigwig in Chongqing has adhered to the concept of "fighting outside the country must first secure the interior", and he was much more active in fighting the civil war than resisting the invaders; if it were not for the Xi'an Incident that forced him to the anti-Japanese "Liangshan", perhaps when the Japanese hit Nanjing, he still would not choose to resist.

As far as the Chongqing bigwig is concerned, even if half of China has fallen, he still hopes that the international community can put pressure on Japan, hoping that Western countries can help China and drive out the Japanese with the help of Britain and the United States.

Moreover, the bigwig in Chongqing was also very worried that after the official declaration of war against Japan, then he would have no way out, and the war would have to be carried out to the end, and it would be impossible to negotiate peace with Japan at that time.

To put it bluntly, the reason why Chongqing did not declare war on Japan was, first, that the bigwigs were not thinking about resisting Japan at all, second, that the bigwigs pinned their hopes on Western mediation, and third, that the Chongqing bigwigs were worried that if they could not defeat the Japanese after the declaration of war, the peace talks would pay more bargaining chips.

And now, Britain and the United States have declared war on Japan one after another, which has also emboldened Chongqing, with the United States as a big backer, China has been fighting against Japan for ten years, and China, which has been fighting with the Japanese for four years with real guns and real guns, has finally joined the ranks of declaring war on Japan.

Thinking of this, Chen Qiang put down the newspaper a little helplessly, and said to himself: "How do I think that Chongqing is fighting people!" Britain and the United States did not declare war on Japan, you have been beaten by Japan for ten years and have not made any movement, and if Britain and the United States declare war on Japan, you will immediately declare war on Japan the next day! ”

At this time, Chen Qiang couldn't help but think of the third battle of Changsha that was going on in China.

In this battle, the squadron dispatched 300,000 troops, and the Japanese army dispatched 500,000, which ended in a Chinese victory. 300,000 fought 500,000, and finally won, I have to say that the command ability of the commander Xue in the Ninth War Zone is really excellent, and he is worthy of the title of "Famous Anti-Japanese General".

The Ninth War Zone, where Changsha is located, is indeed the essence of the squadron at that time, they have experienced the baptism of the first two Changsha defense battles, and many of them are even veterans of the Songhu Defense War. After the baptism of many wars, all those who can survive are the most elite existences.

"The United States has entered the war, and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is about to usher in a turning point, and if it persists for another four years, the ordeal of the Chinese nation will come to an end." Chen Qiang sighed lightly, he planned to find an opportunity to go to Washington again, and take advantage of this opportunity to donate another sum of money to China.

However, at this moment, there was a commotion outside.

"Sir, this is a private place, you can't enter without permission!" The security guard's voice rang out.

"Is Chen Qiang in there? We are the CIA, the CIA! A mechanical voice said.

Chen Qiang walked out of the room and saw three tall men in suits, who were rushing in.

"What happened?" Chen Qiang asked.

"Are you Chen Qiang?" The man in the suit led by him looked at Chen Qiang with a cold face.

"Yes, I'm Chen Qiang, what's the matter with you?" Chen Qiang asked.

"We are the CIA, the CIA. You need to come with us. The other man's voice was still mechanical and cold.

Chen Qiang frowned slightly, and then he spoke, "I need to call my lawyer first." ”

"There is no need for this, the people we CIA want to arrest, and it is useless for the lawyer to come." The other party spoke.

Chen Qiang sensed that the comer was not good, so his attitude also became tougher, and he said: "Three gentlemen, I don't know what happened, but I think the three of you should know who I am, and I need to remind you that I know a lot of congressmen, and I am also friends with President Roosevelt. If you want to take me away, you'd better give me a reasonable reason, otherwise, I don't think you can explain it in front of your own superiors. ”

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