Chapter 51: The Return of the British Empire (I)

Hainan Island, on the outskirts of Sanya Port, the front headquarters of the Qiongya Column of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army

Listening to the rumbling explosion in the distance, and looking at the raging fire that almost stained the sky, almost all the commanders and fighters of the Red Army led by Commander Feng Baiju were all depressed, and their faces were as black as the bottom of a pot, but they were so worried that they almost pulled off their hair. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

“…… Commander...... Just watching the British blow up the port of Sanya? It's not easy for us to save such a little money! ”

A Red Army commander and fighter shouted unwillingly, "...... So much machinery and equipment, as well as heavy artillery and iron-hulled ships...... It's all over at once! ”

“…… What's the solution? A main regiment originally deployed there was blown up in the night before it could react, and the few batteries left by the Japanese were also plowed by the British guns, and our reinforcements could not go up at all...... I can't fight this battle! ”

Feng Baiju, the commander of the Qiongya Column, took a big puff of his cigarette, and then extinguished the butt of the cigarette, "...... Bear with me for now! They're going to go anyway...... As soon as the British ships are withdrawn, it will be our turn to teach those white dogs who play for the tiger a hard lesson......"

To be honest, if you want to say that you are feeling aggrieved, there is absolutely no one who can compare with Commander Feng Baiju at this moment -- when he first received Yaxian and Sanya Military Port from the Japanese, he was a little worried about the 50,000 American and British prisoners of war in the Tiandu Iron Mine prisoner of war camp near Sanya Military Port, and vaguely felt that this might bring some trouble. Now, the blazing beaches and the bombing ports prove that the fears were not unfounded.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

-- After confirming that there were not only 50,000 American and British prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war camp in Sanya, but that they were held near the coast, and that they had not been transferred by the Red Army, London immediately issued a strict order asking Admiral Fraser, who had just led the Royal Oriental Fleet to Singapore, to set sail again and to China with a new governor who had arrived by seaplane with a letter of appointment to rescue the prisoners of war on Hainan Island.

As a result, although he was very worried about such a lone in-depth adventure, Admiral Fraser, as a soldier whose duty was to obey orders, still took his flagship Prestige Battle Cruise, as well as three cruise converted escort aircraft carriers, and a bunch of light cruisers, destroyers and other "small boats", sailed through the Strait of Malacca into the South China Sea, and accepted the surrender of the Japanese army in Hong Kong with the warm welcome of the Hong Kong Maintenance Association.

Next, despite the limited strength and unfavorable situation, the cunning British gentlemen still gave full play to their diplomatic skills as a thousand-year-old-stirring stick. First, they used negotiations to paralyze the Qiongya Column of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, which had already controlled the entire Hainan Island, and made them mistakenly believe that the British were ready to pay a large sum of money and materials to ransom the prisoners of war. At the same time, he secretly contacted the Kuomintang troops and managed to get a batch of cannon fodder for the landing war.

In the end, the British fleet took advantage of the night to sneak attack Sanya, and easily defeated the coastal defense fortifications left by the Japanese with an overwhelming shell. A black African indigenous special forces took the opportunity to land and infiltrate, killed a small number of guards in the prisoner of war camp, and rescued the American and British prisoners inside.

After dawn, an elite Kuomintang army also successfully landed under the cover of heavy artillery fire, routed the few remaining Workers' and Peasants' Red Army soldiers in the port area, took control of the port wharf in Sanya, and allowed the rescued 50,000 white prisoners of war to board ships from here one after another.

The entire rescue plan is codenamed "Far Eastern Lightning", which means fast in and out, without seeking occupation, like lightning flashing by.

To tell the truth, the Qiongya Column did not care much about the fact that the 50,000 white prisoners of war left behind by the Japanese in Tiandu Iron Mine were rescued by the British army, and even had a sense of relief and relief -- in fact, they had long wanted to get rid of such a large group of hot potatoes that could not be killed or released. Just to make these 50,000 mouths able to eat, it has already made the base area of Hainan Island, which is barren, cry out for a long time.

If the British retreated immediately after saving people, the Qiongya column might have pinched its nose and confessed.

However, the problem was that while arranging for the rescued prisoners of war to board and evacuate one after another, the British army did not forget to blast and destroy all kinds of facilities in the Sanya Military Port -- power plants, waterworks, hospitals, ship repair yards, oil depots, coal bunkers, radio stations, coastal defense batteries, mines and railways, all of which were among the destruction. The Kuomintang troops, who had penetrated deep into the "suppression of bandits," also invaded the nearby county seat of Yaxian and set fire to them everywhere, almost trying to raze everything to the ground.

Such devastating destruction made the entire Qiongya Column really bleed blood in their hearts -- you must know that although these industrial facilities left behind by the Japanese in Sanya are only the standard configuration of small and remote towns in Western countries, they can already be called extremely advanced industrial centers in China, which is poor and white, poor and weak! Before the takeover of Manchukuo, the entire Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army probably did not have so many machines and equipment!

Although after taking over Sanya, in order to spread the risk, the Qiongya Column had already transported some machinery, equipment, and ordnance materials from Sanya and placed them in the inland hinterland of the base area. But after all, the time is short, and there is still quite a lot left in the local area. Moreover, there are many big guys such as ship repair yards, waterworks, mining machinery, iron-making equipment, etc., which are simply not able to be disassembled and transported by the Qiongya Column at present.

Therefore, in order to rescue these precious industrial equipment, Feng Baiju, the commander of the Qiongya Column, had to hastily gather some troops and hurried to Sanya...... Then, these local guerrillas of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, who had not yet departed from their true colors, were first subjected to an indiscriminate bombardment by the British naval aviation, and then were dizzy by the main guns of the battlecruiser Prestige, and before they really came into contact with the enemy, they were already killed or wounded!

It was truly an amazing experience. Although as revolutionaries under the banner of anti-imperialism and patriotism, they often said that the foreigners' strong ships and cannons were very powerful, but they did not have a very intuitive and vivid understanding of how powerful they were. At this moment on the battlefield in Sanya, they have experienced the real "punishment of imperialism" for themselves...... As a result, he was almost beaten half-paralyzed.

-- Compared with the high-spirited Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy and the huge Pacific Fleet of the US Navy, the Eastern Fleet of the British Royal Navy today can indeed be called a fluffy phoenix and inferior to a chicken. Compared with the capital ships, there is only one battlecruiser of Prestige, and there is not one battleship or regular aircraft carrier, so you can only use escort aircraft carriers to make up the number, and the rest are a bunch of cruisers and destroyers of thousands of tons.

But even so, in the eyes of the Qiongya Column of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, even such a "small fleet" with a sloppy phoenix that is inferior to a chicken is already a terrifying and powerful enemy like a thunderbolt and Mount Tai is overwhelming -- even if it is the main gun of a destroyer, it is a real heavy artillery on land, and in the eyes of the Red Army, it can be regarded as a treasure of the town! The main guns of the battlecruiser Prestige are even more incredible, each barrel is more than 20 meters long, and a person can drill into the chamber of the gun! A cannonball hit, with the impact point as the center of the circle, and there were no chickens and dogs within half a football field! With just a few shells, a village can be razed to the ground! Plus these naval guns have a range of up to twenty or thirty kilometers...... In contrast, the mountain artillery bombardment by the Kuomintang army and the Japanese army was almost like setting off fireworks. Not to mention that during the day, the carrier-based bombers of the three escort aircraft carriers also posed a huge threat to the Qiongya column that tried to counterattack, and even forced the Red Army soldiers to march at night.

I have to admit that this kind of situation of being beaten and not fighting back is really unbearable and desperate to the extreme--all the sea forces in the hands of the Qiongya Column are only a few torpedo boats and gunboats left behind when the Japanese withdrew, and they have all been destroyed now.

Not long ago, Commander Feng Baiju had accidentally taken the wrong direction when he was taking advantage of the darkness to hurry, and broke into the range of the British gun's gun, and was discovered by the enemy's reconnaissance sentry. Then he felt for himself how the bombardment of the British fleet shook - almost in a moment, his eardrums were almost bursting, his internal organs were crumbling, and the strings of cannonballs were as dense as machine guns, burning all over the ground and reflecting the sky red, and the cannonballs exploded around him, and the earth raised by the air almost buried him. He had never felt so close to death, every second was so hard, like a lonely boat in a stormy sea, like a chicken under a downpour......

By the time the bombardment of the British fleet stopped temporarily, Commander Feng Baiju's guards and secretaries had been blown apart, and he himself was buried in the void, and he was so dazed that he almost died. Thanks to a few brave Red Women's Army, who rushed to take advantage of the interval between the shelling and desperately dug him out, Commander Feng Baiju was not killed...... But this battle is obviously unflawed.

Although the soldiers of the Red Army were never afraid of sacrifice, the strength of the spirit could not prevail over steel.

As a result, the Red Army soldiers gathered from all over the island could only hide in the coconut groves far from the port, watching as the British army engineers and the Kuomintang reactionaries completely destroyed the industrial facilities left behind by the Japanese, and the county town of Yaxian, which was also near the sea, was bombed into a pile of rubble...... In the end, not only did the British troops and prisoners of war retreat calmly, but the Kuomintang troops who landed also boarded the ships and retreated with the British troops, leaving no chance for the Qiongya column to retaliate. The unrelenting Red Army soldiers carefully cleaned the battlefield again, but except for a few stragglers who fell behind, there was still no result at all.

When I returned to the Sanya Military Port, looking at the rubble and bomb craters everywhere, as well as the coconut trees that burned to the ground, everyone felt very heavy.

“…… Commander, we have just defeated the Japanese imperialist aggressors, and now we have the British imperialist aggressors. If you come back a few more times, I'm afraid that all the pots and jars at home will be smashed! ”

A Red Army commissar said with some dismay, "...... They can't beat the planes and ironclads of foreigners, and they can't even reach them. If you hide, you can hide, and the monk can't hide from the temple. How should this battle be fought? Do you have to give up the county seat again and go back to the mountains to fight guerrillas? ”

“…… What if they were forced to go back to the mountains to fight guerrillas? In the past, we didn't have anything, didn't we still hold the red flag and make a revolution? ”

Although Commander Feng Baiju was also in a bad mood, he still tried his best to encourage, "...... Don't be too pessimistic! The Central Red Army has now reached Guangxi, and it is not far from us! The days when imperialism and reactionaries continue to run rampant in China are no longer the tail of a rabbit......"

It is clear that the British colonizers, who had just made a comeback and achieved miraculous success, would not have agreed with this view......

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

Prime Minister's Residence, 10 Downing Street, London, United Kingdom

To the sound of classical music playing on the gramophone, a cloud of green smoke slowly rises, creating various shapes in mid-air.

Beneath the smoke is the current Prime Minister of the British Empire, and currently the most famous fat man in the whole of Great Britain. Churchill was sitting on the sofa with a cigar in his hand, his chubby round face full of smugness and a big smile. And on the chairs or sofas around Prime Minister Churchill, those core figures in the wartime decision-making level of the British Empire are also in a good mood at the moment - although the wartime British Empire has just passed a harsh winter of lack of coal, food, and electricity, and the whole country is full of complaints, but this still does not affect the good mood of all of you.

At the moment, they are listening to the current head of MI6, nicknamed "Big C", Stuart Brown. The latest report on the military situation in the Far East by Major General Menzies.

“…… So this 'Far East Lightning' operation of the Eastern Fleet of the Imperial Navy has been a complete success? ”

“…… Yes, the whole operation went quite smoothly, and the more than 52,000 Allied prisoners who were held in the Sanya prisoner of war camp were all successfully rescued. At the same time, our army also destroyed the industrial bases of the Bolshevik rebels on Hainan Island, and its own casualties were less than 100 people......"

Stewart. Maj. Gen. Menzies replied, "...... At present, the officers and men of the Eastern Fleet who have completed their mission and the rescued prisoners of war have arrived in Hong Kong for rest. The local government of Guangdong, China, treated us very kindly, and took the initiative to provide our army with a very good amount of food and drink. The wife of China's supreme leader also personally flew to Hong Kong to offer condolences to the prisoners of war......"

In short, after receiving the replenishment of more than 50,000 prisoners of war, the embarrassing situation of the British Empire in the eastern theater of war is expected to be greatly improved, and such a long-lost victory is also an excellent shot in the arm for the long-low morale of the people.

However, compared to another, even greater victory, this small operation in the South China Sea is nothing......

“…… Okay, that's all for now, let's talk about another piece of even more exciting good news! ”

Winston. Churchill reached out and snuffed out the small butt of his cigar, then turned and pointed to the map of India on the wall and announced, "...... Rejoice! Ladies and gentlemen! God bless Britain! Let Hindustan, which was already about to fall, return to our banner again! ”