The East Indies border northern Myanmar. A battalion of engineers of the US Army was building a pontoon bridge across the Qingdun River, and huge black smoke rose from the temporary incineration site where the corpses of Japanese soldiers were burned in the distance.

By the river, black soldiers followed Chu's troops, and Stilwell revised the original plan, delaying the road plan from Liduo to New Binh Duong, and prioritizing the dispatch of sappers here, because he suddenly saw the possibility of an early counterattack on northern Burma, and began to re-examine the plan that Slim had suggested earlier. Slim's plan saw the British army line up from south to north, and in the spring of '43 they began to seize northern Burma step by step. But now the British plan to seize the departure area near the Qingdun River in the second half of 43 was occupied by the Chinese army, and the British planned to counterattack the troops in northern Burma, which remained on paper and had not yet been formed. He realized that the British's procrastination plan actually concealed the intention of guarding against China, and this rhythm did not fit in with the impatient Washington.

The river was filled with dead Japanese soldiers. A week ago, the Japanese troops, who had no ability to erect pontoon bridges, fled to the river, and they cooperated with the receiving troops on the opposite bank to pull up dozens of ropes hundreds of meters long in the river, and forced the two divisions and tens of thousands of people to cross the turbulent river, of course, many of them were swept away by the river, and all the wounded were abandoned on the west bank. When the Chinese army arrived, at least a few hundred wild dogs were gnawing on the carcasses, which have not been burned to this day.

In fact, even today, the stragglers who lagged behind still ran out of the woods from time to time and tried to sneak across the river, but the soldiers of the 2nd Division and the 31st Division, a large number of inland mountain people and miners, who did not know the nature of the water, were half starved to death, and rushed down to the river, almost never returning.

Due to the sluggishness of the American sappers, about a battalion of Chinese troops had crossed the river by rubber boats. Chief Chu has already established a bridgehead in this place. After several battles with the enemy's 49th Division, which received the remnants of the army, the enemy did not dare to resist and retreated. Of course, the number of people crossing the river is not large at present, because the US military has limited airdrop capabilities, and must wait until the pontoon bridge is repaired. The black troops did not have a deep hatred for the Axis powers, and they were notoriously foreign laborers, and the anxious Chu Tingchang was itching.

Chu is now already expected to return, the U.S. military assessed Chu's jungle outflanking, mechanized troops traveled more than the German Army Group A in 1940, breaking through the Ardennes Forest lock to launch the campaign. Although much smaller, the mountainous environment was more complex, and the Germans faced temperate forests that were easier to cope with than tropical jungles, at least without the variability of the rainy season. Every river in the Ardennes is mapped.

In fact, the Germans had made a long staff trip before the war, and before Manstein proposed his plan, he was not familiar with the terrain in this area, and the situation faced by Chu Tingchang was a blind eye. The most recent map is from 1927, which is now in the hands of the Allies. It is impossible for such a map to accurately depict the rivers in the forest. Every year during the rainy season, new diversions may occur in the rain. However, Chu's army was still the last to strike, that is, to seize the front of the enemy and set up a blocking position in the ideal area.

Stilwell originally planned to personally visit Chu Ting's army to discuss the next step, but an accident occurred at the moment, and Chiang demanded an increase in the equipment of the Nujiang Expeditionary Force under the threat of reducing the number of troops stationed in India. Therefore, he had to go to Chongqing in person, and inevitably slap the table and quarrel again. Before leaving, he sent someone to bring a handwritten letter to Chu Tingchang, in which he expressed his sincere admiration, saying that Chu Tingchang had advanced the counterattack by at least six months.

Xu Chong was promoted to captain because of his outstanding performance, and he had already crossed the river with the vanguard. In the 200th Division, the first thing to look at for promotion is combat merits, so no one accounts for seniority, because all the officers here, including Chu Tingchang himself, have been promoted from grassroots officers. Xu Chong defeated the enemy in the battle just past, and he ran back and forth, which was a great achievement. And he can also draw drawings and ask the commander of the British army in the rear to produce military uniforms that are more suitable for fighting in the tropics, and he can be regarded as a talent.

Chu Ting Changmao was in the command headquarters, constantly analyzing the enemy situation in front of him, and now he needed to spend more time to find out the correct content from the various inexplicable and often contradictory information, and he could not grasp the enemy's overall deployment as comfortably as before.

He noticed that the second mixed brigade appeared in front of him, and ran away after making contact, this unit is not the main force, but it seems to have been cooperating with the actions of the southern organs, before Lin Xiuxuan left, he asked him to pay special attention to this unit, which obviously made sense.

He has been thinking about whether to take the division headquarters across the river, which is conducive to keeping in touch with Xu Chong or Ma Qiang, who have already crossed the river, at any time, because of the lack of UAV relay communication, the current communication distance has been greatly shortened, for now, only these two reconnaissance is reliable. The American pilots passed over the forest, and they could hardly see the hidden Japanese troops, and if they saw the marching column, they were most likely deceived; The information of the Kachin people bought by the British is basically not time-sensitive, and usually can only tell you where a certain unit of the Japanese army you want to know last week. He was now like a blind man trapped in the fog, and the most terrifying thing was that his subordinates all looked at him with a blank look, hoping that he could rely on divination to predict the next move of the Japanese army. In the face of those eager and eager eyes, he could not tell them that his spells had recently been restrained by Japanese mages.

In a hurry, he moved the idea of crossing the river in advance, so that he could get Ma Qiang's first-hand information in time. But she was a little worried about the second mixed brigade.

It was difficult to sort out the way of thinking, he summoned Zhou Youfu and He Bisheng, and wanted to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the division crossing the river in advance, in fact, he wanted to hear what his subordinates said about the disadvantages, but these two felt that it was not the same thing, they were used to the division to anticipate the enemy's opportunities, and they knew everything, and they were all much more confident than Chu Tingchang.

Chu Tingchang shook his head from time to time and began to pace in the tent. Zhou Youfu saw that the boss was hesitant and felt the need to push.

"Master, if you cross the river with an American reporter, you will definitely be in an American magazine again, and then Lao Jiang Ke will not be able to move you." What Zhou Youfu said is not only reasonable, but also very political.

"Yes, Master, you just cross the river and leave it to me later. I stared at those American man-made bridges. "Why bother to win and pluck up.

"So, you're all in favor of me crossing the river first?"

"Yes, the division can be calculated, not to mention a few remnants of the Japanese army, even if the emperor himself led 100,000 Japanese troops, what about it? As long as the key points of the Japanese army are calculated, and when the pontoon bridge is repaired in a few days, I will come over with the tank battalion and destroy them in one fell swoop. He Bisheng said.

"I'm afraid that if the Japanese army comes, there will be a return rifle."

"Bu Yigua looks at where they come from, isn't it over?" Zhou Youfu said lightly.

Chu Tingchang looked at the indifferent appearance of the two guys, and really wanted to reward them with a slap. It's a pity that Tao Mingzhang is not here, he is always more rational.

"Okay, okay, let's all go back." He waved his hand.

"Then you can't cross the river?"

"Hey, of course, you remember, this matter is only known to you, don't leak my whereabouts on the radio."

"Don't worry, as soon as the pontoon bridge is opened, our army will come."

Sittwe, within the headquarters of the 15th Army. Hyotaro Kimura, who is dejected, is deploying a defense plan. A day earlier, the 15th Army had been upgraded to the Burmese Front, but this change in name did not help to increase its strength. Although there were ten divisions below the front army in Tojo's painting, there were only 80,000 men now, and the troops staring at Matsuyama and Ryuling from the east could barely move, and he hated the mess left by Iida, leaving a gap in the west of the natural defense line like the Nu River, dragging down at least one or two divisions.

"Pavilion Chief Chu's troops have crossed the Qingdun River, what do you think?"

"Now that the troops and materials are insufficient, I still say the same thing, only to establish a defense first, the enemy will attack, and our army will retreat south one by one, stretch the enemy's supply line in the mountains, and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack." Said the chief of staff of Tateno.

"That being said, my fear is that if we retreat, the enemy will occupy a port off the coast of Rakhine, so that a steady stream of supplies will come from the sea." Kimura said.

"Then we have to let the Navy figure it out." Guan Ye spread his hands.

"The navy is notoriously ungrateful, hasn't it suffered enough in this East India campaign? From now on, we cannot rely on them for major decisions. ”

Kimura himself blocked all paths. There was a dead silence in the room. He looked around and saw that everyone on both sides of the table had their heads bowed, and only the newcomer, Daisa Kinoshita, was looking at him.

"Kinoshita-kun, what do you want to say?"

"My 2nd Brigade made contact with the enemy's vanguard, and I saw an opportunity to counterattack."

"Fight back?" Kimura's eyes flashed, and everyone was talking about retreat, defense, calling for help, suicide, and only he mentioned fighting back.

"Tell me about it."

"Commander Kagezo has an inner line, which was handed over to us by Germany."

"And that kind of thing?" Kimura turned to Keiji Suzuki and saw him nod.

"To put it simply, the enemy is currently in full swing, at present they are backed by the Chindun River, and several pontoon bridges that are about to be completed are even more indispensable, of course, they would never have expected that there were our people in the American sappers, and we could destroy the pontoon bridges at a critical moment, and these people are experts, and they can destroy the steel cables fastened to the shore of the pontoon bridges, so that all the equipment can be carried down the river, so that it is impossible to repair them simply, but can trap the enemy's vanguard troops on the east bank of the river for at least a week."

"You have such a trump card in your hand, why didn't you say it earlier?"

"Because it's not time yet." Kinoshita said lightly.

"The plan is very good, but you can only destroy the enemy and cross the river?"

"Yes, to be on the safe side, I think it is possible to destroy one or two thousand of them, and if they come in tanks, there is no certainty. But the elimination of one can at least stabilize the situation in northern Myanmar and wait until the reinforcements of the general of the temple arrive. ”

"That's all we can do for now." Kimura sighed, apparently feeling that Kinoshita's plan was too restrictive.

"Sir, maybe there's more to it."

"What is the significance of eliminating more than a thousand people, except for delaying some time?"

"I think that Chief Chu may come to the east coast in person."