Alexander's plan of retreat, with perfect flank support and alternate cover, he was indeed a master of retreat, calm and skillful. However, his opponents were already at odds with the Germans, and he did not have the strong naval artillery to support him from the sea. Now, he is alone, and the enemy, in fact, has studied his escape skills.

Shojiro Iida, who suddenly showed his rough and brutal side, concentrated three engineering brigades and built several pontoon bridges on the Irrawaddy River during the dry season in early March, at a speed that the opponent could not predict.

In fact, the contribution of the local Burmese should not be underestimated, and they collected various boats and timber for the Japanese sappers, and even door panels to assume the pontoon.

The 33rd Division gave it a go, and its two wings rushed across the Irrawaddy River in unison, completely ignoring the possibility that the flanks would be attacked by the mobile forces of the Chinese army. While Iida let go of all his meager forces to attack, he was ready to play psychological warfare with Du Yuming, who was suspicious and unfavorable in intelligence gathering. As early as the Battle of Lanfeng, he fought with Du Yuming, and he noticed that Du Yuming was the kind of general who was more than rigorous, but not bold enough, so he would definitely succeed if he occasionally played an empty city plan.

General Alexander's troops were cut into several sections by the enemy during the motorized march, and when he found that the situation was not good, Rangoon behind him had already been captured by the Japanese 55th Division, and now he was in a dilemma, and he organized several strong attacks to try to open the passage, but all of them were repulsed by the Japanese.

As soon as Du Yuming arrived at the front line, he heard that the situation was not secondary, and the British seemed to have suffered again. Ever since he arrived in Burma, almost every few days, the British have staged a hasty retreat, and this time it seems that they can't even retreat.

He and Stilwell waited at Command for news. As the intelligence from all sides gathered, the situation began to become clear, and sure enough, the worst case scenario appeared, the British army was gambled in the unsupported field, although it had not yet been surrounded and killed, but it was no longer able to move forward.

Alexander's distress telegrams were sent every ten minutes to the Chinese Expeditionary Force 40 miles away, to the Royal Navy, which was silent in the Bay of Bengal, and to the newly defeated 7th Panzer Brigade, asking for every possible rescue. Eventually, he sent a telegram to London, asking for authorization for the "final plan".

After Singapore, the British Empire could no longer afford a contingent of tens of thousands of men, surrendered to the Japanese, and was pulled out to parade through the streets. Churchill personally sent a telegram to Chongqing, complimenting the chairman of the committee, asking him to take immediate and decisive action to avoid the forced surrender of his most important general.

Luo Zhuoying uncompromisingly pressed Chiang Kai-shek's order to immediately free the British army to Du Yuming, but Du Yuming was still undecided in the first two hours, and his cautious handling was completely within the opponent's calculations.

In front of the 5th Army was the 18th Division of the Japanese Army, which had just suffered a defeat and was anxiously waiting for revenge. How to divide the forces and travel 90 kilometers to rescue friendly forces besieged in the Irrawaddy Delta? He expected that the Japanese would be deployed accordingly, and that as soon as his troops set out, their intentions would be revealed, and then they would easily be routed by the enemy on the black-eyed rescue route.

As a veteran of the war against the Japanese for many years, he was very averse to sending mobile forces to the rescue of the Allies. Such actions are too passive, and the Japanese are well versed in the Chinese art of war, the principle of going out of their way and attacking what they must save.

Military meetings have been going on in a dreary way, the officers have not had much to say, and the staff officers are constantly updating the new information from the front on a huge map. The British army was blocked in the field, and under the subsequent blows of the Japanese army, the territory was rapidly shrinking, and new information was constantly coming in, informing where and where it was lost.

"I sent the 200th Division, who will guard here? The defensive line here was breached, and the Japanese army drove long to Mandalay. ”

Du Yuming spread his hands after speaking. No one can answer this question, although the new 38th Division has arrived in Tonggu and the headquarters of the 66th Army has arrived in Mandalay, the entire expeditionary force is still in a long snake formation on the railway line, and has not yet had time to launch.

Chu Aiyun sat back, determined not to speak for the first time, waiting for the opportunity.

Before the start of the military meeting. The listening post on the commanding heights in the northwestern mountains of Mandalay began to collect all kinds of telecommunications ahead. Qin Xiaosu was very good at dealing with the Japanese across the airwaves, and he was well aware of the various problems of the Japanese army in using radio communications.

For example, before the battle, there will be a gap in intelligence, which is their tradition of strict radio silence, and during this time, the message will be transmitted through telephone lines or communication troops. But once the battle began, the telephone wiring could not keep up, and it was difficult for the communications corps to find the designated units at the front of the chaos, so all kinds of radio communications poured out at once, most of them unencrypted. And he, he will be able to grasp the movement of troops at the level of the enemy's squadron at the same time as the Japanese command.

Judging from the rapid increase in information within an hour, the Japanese army was actually a mess, and a large number of troops got lost in the field and failed to reach the designated location. This has something to do with the imperfection of the maps prepared by the Japanese army before the war. The Yugoslav authorities have long been engaged in stealthily mapping Burma, and the Thai-Burmese border map is particularly accurate, but it has some drawbacks, often becoming less accurate the further west you go.

Judging from the enemy's situation, the enemy has not formed a complete blockade, some units have been disorganized, and some officers still cannot figure out their own position, because the ethnic composition of the delta has changed, and the help they can get is not as good as before; In the current situation, the Allies are frightened birds, and the Japanese are actually headless snakes.

Chu Aiyun received the text and map information forwarded by Qin Xiaosu in advance, and learned that the team leader seemed to be surrounded. Judging from the situation of the Japanese army, the enemy situation is not the most serious, and there is still a turning point. But the worst-case scenario was that Qin Xiaosu also intercepted a secret telegram sent by General Alexander to London, which implicitly asked for instructions on how to lead his troops to surrender. An hour later, he received a reply informing him that, in his professional judgment, he could surrender to the Japanese when the authorities were irretrievable.

Chu Aiyun knew that he had to stop tens of thousands of allied troops, and surrendered in a daze under the trickery of the Japanese army. The task force's priority in Myanmar remains to prevent the premature fall of northern Myanmar. If the British army retreated on the western route in advance, then the Chinese expeditionary force would not be able to resist continuously.

He knew that the Japanese army was short of troops and was bluffing, but if he said it rashly, I am afraid that no one would believe it. Now there has to be someone with enough weight to cover up.

There was an uproar outside the headquarters, and after a while, Chen Zhiping burst in panting, and he miraculously escaped from the encirclement. Last night, after waiting for a few minutes at the entrance of the British command, he realized that the situation in Yangon was not right, so he immediately drove north and fled all night. Now there is finally a person here who has escaped from the scene.

"Director Chen? How do you ......"

"Commander Du, I learned yesterday that the Indian brigade was going to rebel, and I specially rushed to Yangon to investigate," he gasped after speaking, "but it was still a step late, and a special agent of the southern organ also disguised himself as a staff officer of the 96th Division to carry out work on our warehouse garrison, and I collapsed." ”

"What is the current hostile situation?"

"It's a mess there. I had a face-to-face with the Japanese tank, and I ran back from under the gun, and the driver was all hung up. ”

When he said this, his expression became frightened.

"The road back has not been cut off."

"Not yet, when I came back, the road was clear."

After he finished speaking, an orderly brought water, and he poured a sigh of air.

"So, our path is still open?" 、

Stilwell said.

"But that was only a few hours ago."

"Commander, assign me the automobile regiment, and I can rashly set off the 600th regiment immediately and rush to the battlefield within 5 hours." Dai Anlan got up and said.

"With what troops?"

"Take the motorized infantry battalion as the guide."

Everyone's eyes fell on the new deputy battalion commander, Chu Aiyun. He swished to his feet.

"Our department can follow the route of Director Chen's return at any time to search and advance and open up a channel for the follow-up troops."

"But the enemy situation is unknown, so he rushed to ......"

"I can send my liaison officer to coordinate with the radio," Stilwell snapped, "so that air support can be contacted at any time." If the enemy moves, it will not escape the eyes of the air force. ”

"This ......"

Seeing that Du Yuming was shaken, Stilwell hurriedly summoned the young man behind him to him.

"This is Major Eastbrook, who speaks great Chinese, making us the best liaison officer."

Everyone in the command knew this one, it was Stilwell's son-in-law, and the Chinese language was more slippery than most of the Chinese officers from the south here, and since Lao Mei was out of the way, there seemed to be no room for further shirk.

"I need non-stop aerial reconnaissance. Spot any enemy situation around the advancing troops. ”

"Leave it to me."

Major Brooke said.

Du Yuming turned to Chu Aiyun: "Remember, you are only the pilot search, and the enemy cannot be attacked." ”

"Don't worry, I will pay close attention to every vehicle and artillery, and try to bring the troops back completely."

He knew Du Yuming's mind very well, and said a word to his heart. Du Yuming nodded. Chu Aiyun is clever and naturally lucky, so he should not let himself down.

"Okay, I order, with the motorized infantry battalion as the lead, the 600th Regiment will advance to the east of Bosheng, the enemy's perimeter attack, and the 599th Regiment will support the flank. Liao Yaoxiang's 22nd Division, taking over the position from which the 200th Division had withdrawn, monitored the enemy in front of him. ”

Chu Aiyun returned to the battalion headquarters, and the troops were already on standby. A U.S. military Dodge Jeep followed his command closely, ready to liaise with U.S. and British planes. However, these aerial reconnaissance carried out by the naked eye are actually not very important, the important thing is that as the deputy battalion commander who is in charge alone, Chu Aiyun can already use the high-power radio of the battalion headquarters to communicate with the special group at a longer distance. He now needs the necessary support from the task force to carry out the operation.

In the encirclement, Lin Xiuxuan learned that the regimental headquarters of the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army had followed the artillery across the Irrawaddy River, and the division commander Sakurai decided to go to the front line to command, probably to avoid the confusion caused by the disjointed command. Lin Xiuxuan could not guarantee that the assassination of the enemy officer would have any effect, and he had rarely planned such an operation before, but now that the situation was critical, it seemed that he could give it a try.