The plan submitted by Chief Chu to attack Thailand has made way for Zhang Lingfu and has become a backup plan. Chiang Kai-shek saw a golden opportunity to rebalance power in Burma, and he began to consciously or unconsciously limit the expansion of Chu Tingchang and Sun Liren, and use American aid to cultivate new and reliable descendants. Because the Fifth Army has repeatedly acted on its own, it has been relegated to a separate register and is no longer regarded as a reliable descendant.

However, Chu Tingchang knew very well that the 74th Army, plus American planes and tanks, could not defeat Mandalay. Because the railway from Thailand to Burma had been built a few days earlier, at the cost of about 9,000 Allied prisoners of war who had died in hard labor.

This railway gave Kimura a bottom in his heart. At present, the logistical disadvantage has quietly shifted in favor of the Allies. The winding temporary road left over from the last offensive, crossing the Chin Bang Plateau, could only guarantee the delivery of 200 tons of supplies to the front line per day, while the Japanese increased their capacity to 500 tons per day, which is estimated to be doubled soon. And the fortified cities that the Allies needed to face - Mandalay, Tonggu, and Timinla - were all by the railway. The terrain of Burma is wide in the north and narrow in the south, which also makes it easier for the Japanese army to mobilize troops and materials.

The supplies of the Japanese were disembarked from the Gulf of Thailand and then all the way to Mandalay by rail, while the supplies of the Allies had to be disembarked from distant Mumbai, sent to the East Indies by long railway, and then transferred by truck across the 100,000 mountains to reach the front line. And a large part of them must be transported back to China through the Huitong Bridge.

Chief Chu couldn't understand why these people had to attack the enemy's strongest and most favorable area every time.

Losing domestic trust is a serious crisis, Chu Tingchang feels that a showdown between himself and Chongqing may occur at any time, he will never give up the troops, so he must reach an agreement with the Americans in what way, he can expand the army from the Chinese in northern Burma, and the Americans will provide weapons, so that the dependence on Chongqing does not exist, he only needs to obey Chongqing in name, and is no longer constrained by Chongqing's personnel, so as to obtain the greatest freedom of action in Burma and the Indochina Peninsula. However, this step of breaking with Chongqing still cannot be taken, and an opportunity is still needed to achieve the goal.

Roosevelt's handwritten letter warned the Thai royal family that they could not afford to speculate between the two camps, and that they had to give a clear answer, either on the side of the Allies or on the side of the Axis powers. Apparently after weighing the pros and cons, the royal family made the decision to side with the allies. The Emperor's statement condemned the Japanese invasion of Thailand and the deployment of poison gas in northern Thailand, which resulted in a large number of casualties.

Luang Pi Boon Song Kham's Thai military junta believed that the Allies would not make a big move, and this was the result of information they received from Switzerland, which showed that the Thai emperor was only forced to make a statement under clear threat from the United States, and that the Americans had drawn an ambiguous red line to limit the deployment of Japanese troops in Thailand until the end of 1943.

After the Thai army shrank from northern Burma and separated from the Chinese army, the chief of staff of the Thai army judged that if the Chinese army wanted to attack Thailand, it was possible half a month ago, but now, their main force has gone south to Mandalay, which means that they will not attack Thailand. In particular, Chen Zhiping, the secret history of Chongqing, has just arrived in Bangkok, and the two sides have already launched a series of contacts, and both sides believe that under the current situation, it is unnecessary to establish one more enemy, so the two sides can maintain peace under the noses of the United States and Japan. The two sides of the secret meeting thought that the matter was very secret, and kept it from the Japanese and the Americans, respectively.

Chu Tingchang did not attack Thailand in time, but only waited for two things, one was that the Japanese army's attention returned to Mandalay, and the other was the completion of the railway in Kimura.

The intelligence brought by Xu Chong and Ma Qiang showed that the Thai defense line was still very flawed, and their small team could freely cross the defense line at night. The pro-British guerrillas active in Chiang Rai Province can also provide a great deal of intelligence. And the revolt snobbery in the Khmer-speaking regions of the north is also fighting the Thai army.

Now Chu waited for the determination of the Americans, for Stilwell to turn the focus of supplies to him. Unexpectedly, Stilwell flew to Jingdong in person the day before Christmas, and obviously had something urgent to talk about in person that could not be said on the radio. According to Chu Tingchang's experience, Stilwell is so desperate to beg to see him, most likely because Chongqing is angry with him again, and whenever this kind of moment, the Americans will speed up the wooing of themselves or Sun Liren. He wondered if the opportunity he was looking forward to to parting ways with Chongqing had arrived?

As Stilwell got off the plane, the military band began to play jingle bells, but Chu Tingchang, who was standing nearby, peeked at him with a bad face. He hurried up to meet him and shook Stilwell's hand.

"The chief of staff came to the front line in person during the holiday, and the whole of our 5th Army was greatly encouraged."

"Chu, I'm here to talk to you about your plan, we have to immediately attack Thailand. Mandalay. ”

"Or ...... Eat first and then talk? Today is your country's Christmas Eve, and it is also the winter solstice of my country, I have prepared a hot pot, it is better to ......"

"It's urgent, I don't have the heart to eat." Stilwell jumped into the car in a huff, and Chu Tingchang couldn't guess what was going on. Since 419's departure, he has become less well-informed.

When the two arrived at the headquarters, Chu Ting retreated from the crowd, and the two stood in front of the map together.

"I'm straight to the point, President Roosevelt was very unhappy with your chairman's recent secret contacts with the Axis governments of Thailand."

"And that kind of thing?" Chu Tingchang asked with wide eyes.

"If it weren't for the intelligence of the British, we would have been in the dark. Especially after the president used his influence to get the Thai emperor to make a statement breaking with the Axis powers, Chairman Chiang still sent a special envoy to pacify the Thai military junta. This is a serious betrayal. In fact, the President is considering a meeting with the leaders of the three main allies, including the chairman, at an appropriate time next year. If the meeting had been successfully convened, it would have been a great honor for the chairman, but now he has received such a reward. In your Chinese's words, it's simply ......"

"Kindness as a donkey's liver and lungs?"

"Yes, that's it. The president has no objection, there is some kind of secret channel of contact between China and Thailand, but he is doing this kind of thing at this moment, which is equivalent to slapping the president in the face. ”

Stilwell said huffingly.

"Who are the envoys?"

"Chen Yi and Chen Zhiping."

"I think it's good." Chu Tingchang's words made Stilwell stunned.

"You approve of such a betrayal too?"

"Of course I don't approve of it, but let them talk, it's the best illusion to paralyze the opponent."

Stilwell clasped his hands, pondering Pavilion Chief Chu's words, and slowly paced to the map, he really wanted to hear what Pavilion Chief Chu was famous again.

"Our chairman is most afraid of making too many enemies, so he always has a set of strategies to buy and pacify, and break through each one, but my troops can attack independently."

"Can you really attack on your own?"

"Of course, you also know that Chongqing no longer provides soldiers to our army."

"Your troops are full." Stilwell said tentatively, he knew that Chu Tingchang must have something to say.

"Hundreds of thousands of Chinese in northern Myanmar are looking forward to joining the army, if you use your guns to arm these people, of course, you have to provide military salaries, and the troops are under my command, not to mention Thailand, and it will not be a problem to fight Vietnam."

Stilwell froze in place, and Chu Tingchang bluntly expressed his idea of fighting the Central Chamber, and the step he wanted to take was bigger than he had wanted in a year. Chu Tingchang's reputation is skyrocketing, and he can win battles with equipment, which the corrupt Chongqing government cannot.

"How many people do you want to expand?"

"9 divisions, about 100,000 people."

Chu Tingchang said. He has already analyzed the current situation clearly, even if he continues to hold his tail, he can't escape the suspicion of Lao Chiang, but he has a big tail, and with the capital to fight against the court, as long as the Americans support him, he can quickly recruit troops among the Chinese in northern Burma. From then on, it was no longer under the control of Chongqing's personnel appointments and troop replenishment. According to his speculation about the behavior of the chairman, when the day comes, he will lower his posture to buy himself.

"This thing...... It's going to make him thunderous. ”

"If in northern Myanmar, the chairman of the committee continues to play factional balancing, it will not be good for you in the United States, right? The 74th Army will not listen to you. ”

"Okay, I'll do my best to support you. But in this matter, I have to tell the president, I think he is angry, and it is very good for you. ”

In a dilapidated house in Shibuya, Tokyo, the assembly of * has been completed, and the assassination operation is waiting for dawn to begin. * Packed in a suitcase, they will be searched by the guards of the Guards Division, but their superiors tell them that the guards are their own and that everything will go according to plan.

Saito, who carried out the assassination mission, hid the glass tube containing * in his mouth, and in the worst case, he would bite through the glass and end his life so that he could avoid falling into the hands of the gendarmes.

When everything was ready, they drove out of the garage a car with a license plate from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was unthinkable in the past.

They set off for Keio University and kidnapped the original teacher, Kenichiro Shimizu, who studied South Asian languages, as the first step in the operation.

The car went all the way to the teacher's apartment. The driver honked the horn downstairs, and Shimizu Kenxing hurriedly went downstairs to the car, and sat down next to Kodama, a member of the action team.

As soon as the car started, Shimizu began to talk about the discrimination against small languages that was prevalent in the university, and that he should have become a professor by his qualifications, and he thought that perhaps he was a little carried away by the fact that the driver in front of him had been looking at him through the rearview mirror, so he changed the subject and began to talk about the origins and main grammatical differences between the Burmese and Khmer languages.

Kodama pulled the rope out of his pocket, and the gushing associate professor gave him the urge to do it early, but not yet.

The car drove to a secluded place outside and stopped, and Saito told him that the car seemed to be broken down and needed to be checked. As Shimizu looked out, Kodama strangled him with a rope and dragged him backwards with force. Shimizu was the youngest of the four people in Japan who were proficient in Malay, Thai, and Burmese at the same time, and the first to die.