Li Junhao's words were obvious, everyone could hear them, the generals of the Chinese Expeditionary Force were very relieved to hear it, and the British generals were all disgraced.

"Yes, sir!" The newly appointed Hutton and Slim took the lead, and Yuen also led the others to follow.

Li Junhao looked at them, nodded, and said, "Everyone, I never thought that the Japanese army was invincible, of course, the premise is that we dare to fight!"

"In terms of strength, the Japanese invasion of Burma only has the 18th, 33rd, 55th, 56th, and 18th divisions, and there are less than 100,000 people in the full battle, while we have 45,000 British and Burmese troops and 140,000 Chinese expeditionary forces, which are also stronger than the Japanese army in terms of weapons and equipment.

Speaking of this, he looked around at the people in the lower room, and said firmly: "In this battle with Gu, my request is to completely annihilate the 55th Division of the Japanese Army and eliminate the main force of the 56th Division that came to reinforce it.

"Before I took over as commander of the Indo-Burma Theater of Operations, I was authorized by US President Mr. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Mr. Winston Churchill, and Chinese leader Chairman Chiang to judge and adjudicate the commanders of the Allied forces, and to dispose of anyone who violated the order on the battlefield.

In the awe-inspiring silence of the participating generals, the meeting was over, and the commanders returned to their troops, at which point they all had to consider what the new commander Pansen had said, which was no joke.

——

After Li Junhao returned to the office, he studied Stilwell's plan for the battle of Tonggu and found that there was still a loophole in it, that is, the problem of the Air Force! Previously, the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-Indian army, Wavell, ordered the Anglo-Burmese army to withdraw all the air units attached to the Anglo-Burmese army to India, although his actions were stopped later, but now there are less than 100 British planes left in Ringanqiang and Mandalay, putting the Allies at a disadvantage in the war against Japan......

Well, this Wavell is a bastard! Li Junhao scolded secretly, now that the war is coming, I don't have time to pay attention to this guy for the time being, and I will definitely clean him up if I have an opportunity in the future!

"Xiaoyu, immediately send a report to transfer the fighter group of the 10th Air Force stationed in India from Imphal to Mandalay and the bomber group to Lashio, and prepare to support the front line......"

After giving the order, he felt that the current air power in Myanmar was still too weak, and asked Xiaoyu to generate electricity, and asked the country to send more air power.

——

While Lee was thinking about strengthening the military in Burma, Lieutenant General Hutton, who had been reinstated as commander of the British-Burmese Army for the third time, and a group of his generals returned to Ringanqiang, the only major oil field in Burma, which was also related to the best interests of Britain in Burma. At present, except for the 17th Division of the British and Indian Army, which is stationed in Magway, 30 kilometers south of Ringanqiang, all other British troops are concentrated here.

Hutton immediately ordered all units to act according to the orders of the Allied Indo-Burma Command - by this time he had already learned from his own channels about the special identity of this General Panson, whether it was his status in the United States or his special British status, which made him decide to carry out Panson's orders unconditionally!

Although the other British generals did not know why, seeing Hutton's resolute attitude, they could only obey their orders and act immediately.

——

On the afternoon of April 20, the new 38th Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force arrived at Mula and assumed the duties of a strategic reserve.

The next day, after the new 38th Division took over the defense of Mula, Li Junhao ordered the Gurkha Gurkha Brigade and the British 7th Armored Brigade and the British and Australian 63rd Brigade to be reorganized.

——

At one o'clock in the afternoon of the 22nd, the time was ripe in all aspects, and under the order of Li Junhao, the 200th Division stationed in Tonggu sent the 598th Armored Regiment, which had been reorganized and run-in, to raid the Japanese position 8 kilometers south of Tonggucheng......

The 55th Wing of the 143rd Division, which was responsible for defending the first and second lines of defense, was completely stunned, leaving thousands of corpses and retreating in a hurry, retreating to the third line of defense more than a thousand meters away!

The 598th Armored Regiment did not fall in love with the battle, and after clearing the remnants of the enemy's first and second lines of defense, it immediately withdrew to the starting position, without giving the Japanese any chance to counterattack.

Two hours later, Lieutenant General Hiroshi Takeuchi, commander of the 55th Division of the Japanese Army, ordered the 112th Infantry Wing to "recapture" two lines of defense, but did not see any enemy shadows!

At a little more than four o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese army was cleaning up the corpses in the defense line, and the 599th Regiment of the 200th Division launched another surprise attack, this time it was the heavy artillery that opened the way and the infantry and Tan cooperated, and in one fell swoop broke through the two defense lines that the Japanese had just withdrawn, killing and wounding more enemies than the last assault of the 598th Regiment!

By the time the Japanese army reacted, the 599th Regiment had already withdrawn, which made the 55th Division angry!

Lieutenant General Takeuchi could no longer hold back the anger in his heart, and ordered the newly completed 144th Wing to launch an attack on the positions of the Chinese defenders in Tonggu under the cover of the 55th Mountain Artillery Brigade......

The 200th Division had long been preparing for it, and heavy artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, and heavy machine guns opened fire together, but the 144th Wing was disabled in just ten minutes, and less than a thousand people ran back to the 3,500-strong Wing!

Several successive blows made Takeuchi stunned, his three main infantry wings had already lost more than half, and if the enemy launched an attack on all fronts at this time, the 55th Division would be in danger! So he immediately ordered the line of defense to be retracted, and the remaining more than 5,000 infantry and more than 3,000 technical units were withdrawn to the third line of defense, and then immediately reported to the military headquarters of the 15th Army and asked for "tactical guidance"!

Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida, commander of the 15th Army, immediately ordered the 56th Division, which had been rested after the landing, to rush to the aid of Tonggu; At the same time, the 18th Division, which had just landed, was required to seize the time to reorganize its ranks and prepare to be the second echelon; The 33rd Division, which had suffered heavy losses in the battle of Degongne, was being reorganized in Yangon at this time, and it was temporarily embarrassed and useful.

——

That afternoon, Li Junhao, who was guiding the unit's reorganization and training in Mula, received a report on the war situation, and after reading it, he happily replied: General Dai Anlan, you fought well! The first step of the battle plan has been achieved, so close the net carefully!

Dai Anlan called back: The pockets have been arranged, just wait for the Japanese 56th Division to come to the door!

Li Junhao did not call back, but ordered all troops to be ready to attack at any time.

He knew very well that under the current circumstances, as long as the Japanese army did not suddenly increase its troops by more than three divisions and could "airborne" southern Burma within two days, the battle situation would have been irreversible -- the fate of the enemy's 55th and 56th divisions had already been decided, and it was to see if the next battle of annihilation would be fought resolutely!

The battle in front of him is a litmus test to test whether he, the commander of the theater, can control his troops well!

(End of chapter)