Under the double pressure of military and psychological, the generals of the Far East Command finally could not hold on.

In the face of the aggressive but unhurried Ming army, a deep sense of powerlessness enveloped their hearts, and some weak-willed people even seemed to have no masters.

Arthur Ted reluctantly ordered a telegram to be sent to Batavia, asking for permission to surrender.

「…… The city is already within range of enemy artillery, and we have only one day's worth of clean water left. Force commanders reported that the soldiers were too tired to defend themselves against a possible attack...... I don't think there's any point in continuing to defend and causing losses and casualties to the city......

Arthur was shrewd in this regard, and he did not ask the London side directly, because the officials would certainly not approve of it.

But John Verrick isn't stupid – if I approve the surrender, won't it be my misfortune to be held accountable by London?

He vetoed the request and replied vaguely, "...... Continue to resist for a long time, without sparing ammunition, until there is no hope before considering armistice negotiations......

But the chaos had given way to the British generals in Singapore, and the given deadline was approaching by the Ming army.

So they decided to prepare for surrender first, and then put an end to this pointless battle as soon as the official order for permission was issued.

Immediately, they sent envoys for preliminary consultations.

As for the nonsense of not sparing ammunition, the generals have chosen to ignore it - wouldn't daring to do this at the moment of surrender be tantamount to provoking the other party?

On the evening of March 12, three British negotiators sat in a limousine made by Humber and slowly drove through the potholed area of engagement toward the unknown.

Headed by Colonel Scott, a staff officer of the headquarters, when they passed through the depth of the Ming army's position, they saw the scene of fetching food in full swing, and each soldier often carried a lunch box of four or five people to the front line.

Further on, there are mules and horses dragging wagons, trucks full of supplies, and huge piles of ammunition, food, medicine, and fuel being unloaded.

After the initial exchange, Qiu Peisheng was slightly dissatisfied - these Britons are already trapped in a state of beast fighting, and they are still pretending to be reserved?

So Qiu Peisheng looked at the Ming army generals on the side, and then glanced at Zhou.

Aren't you kid a doctor of all kinds of disobedience? Let's smash the arrogance of these guys!

"This is not a suggestion, this is an urging. If you still want to continue fighting, then fight, anyway, you will be wiped out in the end. But our patience is limited, and if we delay for a few more days, you may have to go to the jungles of Myanmar to build roads. ”

Zhou Changfeng knew that these people were hard and not soft, so he made his words clear as soon as he came up.

"Uh... We will consider it as soon as possible, but His Excellency the Commander (Arthur) has no authority to order the laying down of arms until the authority is obtained from the superiors. Colonel Scott replied reluctantly.

"What's the use of explaining to me why?" Zhou Changfeng, who looked calm, said lightly: "If you go to the jungle of Burma to build roads at that time, you pampered generals will definitely not live as long as the soldiers." ”

Without waiting for a few Britons to reply, he pretended to raise his hand and look at his watch, then stretched out his index finger and tapped the dial, "Twenty-five hours and forty minutes left, hurry up." ”

The three British negotiators walked away.

The current situation of the Ming army's good morale and good supply situation was told to the generals in the headquarters, which made everyone's already gloomy heart even darker.

The army was in tatters, and so was the colonial authorities.

Knowing that the generals were already considering the expediency of surrender, Governor Roderick issued an executive order to transfer the entire gold reserves of the Singapore branch of the Bank of England; sabotage of radio broadcasting towers; Destroy the banknote printing template.

The urgency of the situation could not be delayed, and everything went on overnight.

Because there were many armed expatriate units active in the city, they attacked the colonial military and police everywhere, and the colonial authorities in the city were very anxious.

So the British even brought in three Bren machine gun cars and two Vickers armored vehicles, as well as two New Zealand infantry platoons, from the already small remaining armored forces.

In the middle of the night, in an apartment building diagonally opposite the Bank of England, several young Chinese people were smoking cigarettes and playing poker to dispel the endless sleepiness.

They had wanted to do something great with the staff agents, but instead of being given a real job of attacking the colonial military police on the streets, they were assigned to spy on the Bank of England.

Bored, they stared at it for several days, and finally had a variable.

"Good guys, look at it!"

"There are so many soldiers and horses, it looks like they're going to move things."

"I'm afraid yes, call quickly!"

After the phone call, they were very excited and reported the current situation truthfully.

Time passed slowly, and the two agents of the Governor's Staff who had been informed arrived about a quarter of an hour later.

The young men arched their hands and said excitedly: "Quick! They seem to be almost done cleaning up! ”

The crowd came to the window and carefully opened a little curtain.

Looking through the gap, I saw that the bank building was brightly lit, and the figures inside were shaking.

"That box weighs so much? Gee! ”

The convoy outside was surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, and under the light of the street lamps, it was clear that people were carrying heavy iron boxes.

It was immediately decided that the chests must have contained gold, and that the British wanted to move Singapore before it was captured!

After a while, they returned to the intelligence station to report the situation.

It was unanimously decided that it would be better to risk being captured by a radio direction finder than to report the news.

In fact, their worries were somewhat unnecessary, because where did the panicked British have time to track them down and eliminate them?

The next morning, by 8:45 a.m., the Far Eastern Command had sent seven telegrams in succession to Batavia and Bandung, all urging orders to surrender.

Admiral John Verrick, who had not slept all night because of excessive anxiety, looked a little terrible at the moment - his hair was disheveled, his eyes were bloodshot, and his lips were chapped.

Eventually, as if he had made a painful decision, he whispered a few words to his adjutant.

It didn't take long for the order that the generals of the Far Eastern Command had in their hearts and minds finally arrived.

「…… When the fighting became meaningless, the British Imperial Army was to cease its struggle in order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, and Air Force Lieutenant General Arthur Ted had the authority to decide to order the cessation of resistance and to negotiate with the opposing side on behalf of the British Armed Forces...... I pay tribute to those who have given their lives in the brave resistance of the army over the past month......

At this moment, many people couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

A sense of relief arose and made them feel as if the world had become a little more glorious again.

While the surrender negotiations were being prepared in an orderly manner, seven bombers of the Second Light Bombardment Detachment of the Ming Air Force flew to the Kallang pier.

"The orientation is correct, but I didn't see the ship."

"Look again."

"Oh! See, west, at the westernmost point of the pier. ”

The British were cunning enough to hide the gold on an ordinary passenger ship, which they thought would be more undetectable—

On the contrary, the Chinese must not have imagined that the precious gold was not only not placed on a warship, but hidden in such a civilian vessel.

The Malayan Star, a passenger ship with a displacement of only 2,000 tonnes and normally operates the Singapore-Pontianak route, has just finished adding coal and water, and the oil-coal boiler has not yet produced enough steam to drive a triple-expansion steam engine.

"Are you right? If it's okay, just throw it away, don't deviate. ”

A single 250kg bomb from the sky was enough to deal a fatal blow to a light cruiser, let alone a passenger ship.

"Whoa—whoa—"

"Boom!"

Poor Star of Malaya was hit hard by four near-misses, and then hit the aft deck directly.

In just four minutes, it capsized sideways in the raging fire, and sank to the bottom of the dock with more than 10,000 ounces of gold.

The move ended in failure, and now the British had no time to find out what had gone wrong.

The slight civilian casualties caused by the Ming airstrikes seem to have become inconsequential, as negotiations are about to begin.

On February 14, the 39th year of Zhichang, there is no doubt that this will be a historic day.

At 7:15 a.m., Lieutenant General John Ted and six Far Eastern Command generals arrived in a sedan at the door of the Lavers Hotel on time.

It is a large, elegantly decorated hotel, and non-whites are not allowed to enter.

Although today's Western scholars have not yet argued whether the Orientals were white, or whether they had the same noble blood as the Romans? But here, at least, the Singaporean authorities still arbitrarily use their own prescribed divisions – not count!

Scold! This is the pride of the empire in the Far East, where the sun never sets, so what's wrong with going my own way?

But this big hotel, which used to be only seen by white people, has to greet the arrival of the Ming generals respectfully.

Yan Chenwu and Zhou Changfeng had a very pleasant conversation in detail in the past two days, and the former's 2nd Marine Brigade performed well, but the 1st Marine Brigade on the Eastern Front was too eye-catching.

When he entered the door, Yan Chenwu, who was always self-contained, stopped and squinted at the manager, "Are we allowed to enter today?" ”

Zhou Changfeng, who couldn't cry and laugh, translated this sentence for him, and then asked seriously: "If the rules are violated, we can start negotiations in another place." ”

You can imagine how embarrassed this manager is now, and he doesn't know what to say.

Qiu Peisheng, who had already entered the Lavers Hotel, looked back and saw this scene, and couldn't help but smile and shake his head: "Two boys, young and vigorous. ”

Immediately after that, he turned his head sideways to the staff officer of the General Military Department beside him and asked, "How is the situation of the Fourth Army?" Haven't arrived yet? ”

The latter replied without hesitation: "I guess I can arrive tonight." ”

Because the progress of the storm to resolve the Malayan Peninsula is faster than expected, the plan to attack Borneo has to be brought forward.

The losses of the Third Army naturally needed to be replenished; At the same time, another army will land directly at Lan Fong, sweep through Borneo, and then attack the island of Java.

The arrival of the British generals became the focus of the scene, and they were immediately surrounded by a group of local newspaper reporters, and countless cameras and video cameras were aimed at them to shoot frantically.

Some people began to squeeze through the crowd after capturing a set of photos, running to the motorcycles and heading straight for the newspaper office.

The Far East Command and the division commanders were dressed in the same way, wearing earth-colored short-sleeved shorts, leather shoes, calf-length white socks, and large-brimmed hats.

Several generals still held small white flags in their hands, and they were really embarrassed to go home in full view, and the strong sense of shame made them lower their heads and speed up their pace.

The lobby on the first floor of the hotel has been emptied, and two rows of tables have been set up in the middle, covered with white cloth, and perforated wooden blocks have been placed for the national flag.

There are a lot of processes for the surrender ceremony, after all, this is the first time that I haven't seen it for many years, and the Ming side attaches great importance to it.

Zhou Changfeng didn't pay attention to these red tapes, and he felt that the only meaningful thing was that the British generals presented their swords to the corresponding Ming generals.

The military band stood neatly on the side of the lobby and played "Fuyao".

In the light and positive music, the expressionless or depressed British generals raised their swords backhanded, pointed the tip of the sword diagonally towards themselves, and the hilt of the sword diagonally towards the opponent.

Qiu Peisheng took over the sword of Lieutenant General Arthur Ted.

On this side, Major General Williams Cliff, commander of the Anglo-Indian 9th Division, also handed over his sword, but Zhou Changfeng and Deng Siquan shirked each other, and finally the latter took it.

In view of the fact that he led the assault group in this battle to cover almost all the results of the Eastern Front, Deng Siquan, who should have been the commander of the Eastern Front, had almost no combat achievements.

The limelight is enough, and the real exploits are also full, so Zhou doesn't plan to snatch away the little bit of false fame that is left.

Deng Siquan himself didn't care about this, he knew that he didn't have to compete with such a promising young man, it was better to be generous.

After all, as long as the relationship is good, why worry about the future? This is the essence of being a human being.

After about an hour, the sound of gunfire on the entire front had gradually thinned out, and then fell silent.

By dusk, the city of Singapore, which had been de-regulated, was once again bustling with its former prosperity.

Citizens were also pleasantly surprised to find that the water supply, which had been interrupted for two days, was restored.

The strategic location, known as one of the world's four major fortresses, changed hands, and the British Empire was no longer in danger of defending the Far East.

The sun never sets, and the glory of the imperial flag will be extinguished, and the mighty glory of the past will be turned into ashes and dissipated in the vast ocean from now on.

In this sharp battle, the three armies of the Ming Dynasty suffered 3,398 wounded and sick wounded and 7,041 wounded, while the total casualties of the British Commonwealth army amounted to 12,000, and about 100,000 were captured.

A rough count alone is enough to prove the abundance of the seizures - 62,000 rifles, 2,375 light and heavy machine guns, 4.1 million rounds of ammunition of various kinds, 10,023 vehicles of various types, 328 armored vehicles and tanks, as well as a large amount of food, medicine, clothing, tents, fuel, cables, explosives and other materials.

The glorious victory was equivalent to an excellent answer sheet for an exam, and the Siamese minister was immediately instructed from Bangkok to begin negotiations on tributary and entry into the war as soon as possible.

It was a symbolic tactical victory, but it was not a strategic victory, as the central objective of the Ming Dynasty was the more generous Nanyang Islands.

To the Borneo oil fields, to the old port, march!

(End of chapter)