On December 27, after arranging the Far East team, Li Junhao returned to Huhai.

He was quite satisfied with this trip to Manila, kicked MacArthur back to China, and let Wainwright take over as commander-in-chief of the US forces in the Far East two years ahead of schedule, plus his current status as acting chief of staff, if he cooperated with Wainwright, he would have two years to prepare, which could strengthen the Philippine defense level and make it impossible for the Japanese army to defeat them easily.

The situation in Huhai is basically the same as when he left, if you want to say something different, it is now entering the New Year's atmosphere before New Year's Day! Under the current governance of the Ministry of Industry and Bureau, no business dares to jump out at this time.

The ability and means of the market management office have been greatly strengthened, and now the control of the market in the concession is very strict.

It was later found out that most of them were the Japanese behind the scenes, but there were also a few things that were done by other forces, but none of them did well, and after the investigation department took action, none of the people who were looking for trouble ran away, and some new labor force was added!

At present, the construction team organized by the Municipal Department under the Ministry of Industry is still busy with the renovation and reconstruction of various dilapidated or even deserted areas in the concession one by one, so that the poor original residents only need to pay a very low price, or even installments, to live in renovated or rebuilt houses.

In addition, in accordance with the latest policies formulated by the Municipal Affairs Department and the Housing Management Office, newly built houses in abandoned areas have been allocated to low-income families in the name of extremely low-rent public rental housing, and nearly 30,000 households have been resettled.

This initiative was warmly welcomed by the poor people in the concession, and many people took the initiative to join in and cooperate with the initiative of the Ministry of Industry and Bureau.

This incident has been widely reported by various newspapers, and even spread all over the world, and has been praised by countless people, who have praised this as what a good government should do.

After Li Junhao returned, he also participated in the board meeting to review the report on the progress of the plan, expressed his satisfaction with it, and did not hesitate to praise the two departments of the municipal administration and the housing management department, and proposed and approved the salary increase for its staff.

Subsequently, he inspected the situation of the various units and police stations, and confirmed that the situation was normal, and after order was established, it was not difficult to solve other matters.

——

During the following New Year's Day, Li Junhao's life was simple and lively, and he had a good New Year, but he did not attend the New Year's reception of the Ministry of Industry Bureau this time. With his current status, such an appearance is no longer necessary, and with this time, it is better to drink tea and read books at home and enjoy the rare calm time at the moment.

With the advent of 1941, the cloud of war grew larger and larger, and soon it was about to envelop the Pacific Ocean.

——

The New Year's Day of 1942 passed, but on the soil of China, a horrific incident broke out, which shook the country and abroad as soon as it was heard.

On January 6, Li Junhao, who worked at the Joint Command, received the latest intelligence summary, and what he was most worried about before still happened - the outbreak of the Jiangnan Incident!

After seven days and nights of fierce fighting, this part of the encircled New Fourth Army was killed except for more than 2,000 people, thousands of people were killed, the rest were captured, and many senior generals below the deputy commander were killed.

Looking at this information, Li Junhao had a sense of powerlessness, everything he had done before seemed to be useless, and things still happened - is the trajectory of history so difficult to change?

It's happened, what else can he do now?

No, you can't just leave it at that! He said through a secret gritted tooth.

——

Also on this day, in the United States, President Roosevelt asked Congress to "authorize and allocate sufficient funds for the manufacture of additional arms and various types of military materiel for the transfer of the countries which are now engaged in actual combat against the aggressor countries." This article was preliminarily approved, which was good news for the anti-fascist front.

For Li Junhao, the immediate good news is that all the heavy equipment requirements mentioned in his previous report have been approved, and the US troops and the Far East troops in the Shanghai Concession will benefit from it.

The three main regiments in the concession will be organized into heavy armored regiments, the main force of the Far Eastern Brigade will be upgraded to armored divisions, the original tank regiments will be strengthened, and the original independent infantry regiments and independent cavalry regiments will be upgraded to light armored regiments......

Another piece of good news is that MacArthur's corruption in the Philippines has been confirmed, and he has been dismissed from the military and kicked out of the army! It is said that if it were not for the intercession of the Secretary of War Stimson, he would have been court-martialed.

——

On 7 January, newspapers and radio stations at home and abroad reported on the "Southern Anhui Incident" and lashed out at the Kuomintang government's shameless acts. But in Li Junhao's view, these are already hindsight practices, and he decided to take a little practical approach.

Early in the morning of the same day, Li Junhao ordered the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to seal up the offices of the Silian Headquarters in the concession, freeze all the accounts of the Nationalist Government in the concession banks, and ask the anti-smuggling department of the police department to seize the cargo ships and cargo from Chongqing at all wharves......

In addition, he sent the Investigation Department to arrest the special commissioners and left-behind personnel of the Kuomintang Party Department and the Ministry of Finance in the concession, and sent them all to a passenger ship to Hong Kong for deportation!

This series of measures dealt a great blow to the Nationalist Government, and after a hasty meeting with Ambassador Jensen, it received the reply that since the Nationalist Government had the right to arrange its own military operations, the Ministry of Industry and Bureau of Industry certainly had the right to handle the affairs of the concession in accordance with its own rules and regulations.

However, Ambassador Jensen immediately contacted Li Junhao and asked him how he wanted to resolve the matter, and Li Junhao made three requests for him to convey to the Nationalist Government:

1. The National Government publicly apologizes;

2. Immediately release all officers and men of the New Fourth Army below Commander Ye Ting;

3. Hand over Gu Zhutong, commander of the Third Theater, Shangguan Yunxiang, commander of the 32nd Group Army, and seven division commanders under them, and conduct an open trial.

Ambassador Jensen was speechless after listening to his words, among the three demands, the first two are easy to say, but how is the third possible, the National Government is impossible to agree!

In this regard, of course Li Junhao knew that he was just making Lao Jiang uncomfortable and letting him know the result of unruly!

Ambassador Jensen could not resist him, so he could only convey these demands to the Nationalist Government and give them a headache!

Chairman Chiang was furious, but the only way to count on Madame to contact a friend in Washington was to give them no answer.

(End of chapter)