At 12 o'clock in the afternoon of April 25, the two main regiments of the 200th Division, the New 22nd Division and the 55th Division, together with the new 38th Division, which had been transferred from Mula, launched a general attack on the Japanese troops in the encirclement......

After three hours of fierce fighting, more than 40,000 Chinese expeditionary forces basically wiped out the Japanese 55th and 56th divisions - the only ones who escaped were the baggage troops of more than 1,000 people left by the 56th Division in Mengzhen, who, according to Watanabe's last order, discarded all their baggage and fled to Rangoon!

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the headquarters received a battle report: Tonggu has a great victory! Annihilate the 55th and 56th divisions of the Japanese army!

On the one hand, Li Junhao sent a telegram to commend the troops, and on the other hand, he reported the results of the battle to the Far East General Command, the Chinese theater of operations, and Washington......

The elimination of two divisions of the Japanese army at one time was the first time in the Far Eastern battlefield, and even the first time in the history of the modern Japanese army, which was enough to make the Allies proud!

This great victory is a great good news for all parties and all walks of life, and the telegrams of all parties have flown to the Indo-Burma Theater Command like snowflakes, and the news media of the allied countries have begun to report on the "war of annihilation against the ancient world", and the beautiful words have broken through the sky!

——

On 30 April, the Theater Command convened the second allied military conference in Mula to sum up the results of the battle with Cuba and formulate the operational policy for the next step.

The meeting first announced the commendation telegram of the Allied Far East Commander-in-Chief and the Chinese Theater Commander-in-Chief to the Indo-Burma Theater, commending all the troops participating in the "Tonggu Battle";

The Allied Far East Command applied, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed, and the President signed an order to promote Commander of the Indo-Burma Theater of Operations, Ognyan J. Lee Panson holds the rank of lieutenant general;

The General Headquarters of the Chinese Theater Command conferred a large number of medals at all levels on the participating units and commanders of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, and promoted Dai Anlan, commander of the 200th Division, Liao Yaoxiang, commander of the new 22nd Division, Yu Shao, commander of the 96th Division, and Chen Mianwu, commander of the provisional 55th Division, to the rank of lieutenant general...... The other officers and men of the four divisions were promoted to the first rank - Chairman Chiang attached great importance to the first victory of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma!

Subsequently, according to the order of the Allied Far East Command, the personnel of the Indo-Burma Theater Command were slightly adjusted, Lin Wei and Alvin were removed from their posts as deputy chiefs of staff (in fact, neither of them arrived), Lieutenant General Hutton of the British Army and Lieutenant General Du Yuming of the Chinese Expeditionary Force were appointed as deputy commanders of the theater, and Lieutenant General Sun Liren was appointed as deputy chief of staff.

Next, Lieutenant General Luo Zhuoying, chief of staff of the theater, announced the operational policy and arrangements for the next step in the theater.

In view of the current battlefield situation in Burma, it was decided to temporarily shelve the plan for the counteroffensive in southern Burma, and the strategic policy was determined to be "securing northern Burma and defending central Burma"!

This policy aroused the discussion of the generals attending the meeting, and they expressed different opinions one after another, saying that this strategic policy was too conservative and that under the current favorable situation, it should be carried out in one go to recover southern Burma...... Even the British generals who participated in the meeting were moved!

Luo Zhuoying looked at Pan Sen who was sitting at the top with some helplessness, he knew that his prestige was not enough, and hoped that he could come forward to explain.

Li Junhao is actually a little unhappy, of course he wants to recover southern Myanmar and drive the little devil into the sea, but under the constraints of many factors, he can only retreat to the next best thing and adopt the current strategy.

At this time, I saw that most of the generals had different meanings about this, and as a commander, he could only explain it. So he knocked on the table twice, waited for the room to calm down, and said: "Generals, I am in the same mood as everyone, I really hope to be able to directly recover southern Burma, but according to the current situation, we can only adopt the current strategy. There are three reasons for this:

"First, although two of the four main divisions of the Japanese army entering Burma have been wiped out by us, the remaining two divisions, the 18th and 33rd, are special divisions of the Japanese army, which have been adjusted and strengthened before the southward operation, and have 22,000 and 18,000 men respectively;

"Among them, the 18th Division is the main culprit of the 'Nanjing Incident' after the July 7 Incident!

"The 18th Division was recently subordinated to the Japanese 25th Army, and in cooperation with the 5th Division and the Guards Division, it took only 55 days to occupy the Malay Peninsula and force nearly 100,000 British Commonwealth troops to surrender.

"According to the known intelligence, because of the previous defeat, the former commander of the Japanese 15th Army, Iida Shojiro, has been dismissed from his post and replaced by the former commander of the 18th Division, Mutaguchi Ryoya, who fired the first shot in the Lugou Bridge Incident that year and ignited the war with his own hands, is a typical war maniac, and is also a war criminal that we are determined to eliminate!

However, this Lieutenant General Mu Tiankou is actually a man of great ambition and talent, and his real command ability is at the third-rate level, so you don't need to pay too much attention to it.

"At present, the 18th and 33rd divisions of the Japanese army are retreating to defend in and around Rangoon, and with the Japanese army being able to support them from Thailand and the sea in the east, if we force our attack, the losses will be extremely enormous, and it is not a wise man's doing.

"Second, one of the main operational objectives of our Indo-Burma theater is to ensure the smooth flow of the Yunnan-Burma highway, and in this regard, we can accomplish this task as long as we hold on to central Burma and northern Burma.

"Third, according to the plan of the Allied General Command, the next task in our theater is not only to defend the central Burma region, but also to build an expressway from Port Delai on the west coast to connect to the Magway branch of the Yangman Railway, and open up a new military aid channel, which is essential to support the war of resistance in the Chinese theater!"

When the generals heard this, they hurriedly looked at the large map on the wall, and Luo Zhuoying asked on behalf of the Chinese generals: "Commander Pan Sen, it is 130 kilometers from Delai to Magway, and the rainy season in Myanmar is only a little more than a month, is it too late to build a road?" ”

Li Junhao said: "This involves the deployment and division of labor in the theater in the next step. So saying, he stood up, walked to the large map by the wall, picked up the command post, and began to give orders:

"From now on, the troops under the jurisdiction of the theater will be divided into three routes: western, central, and eastern.

"The Anglo-Burmese Army was the Western Route Army, which was deployed at various points along the Irrawaddy River, and the 17th Division of the Anglo-Indian Army went forward and stationed in Bey and Dragon; The 1st Division of the Anglo-Burmese Army was stationed in Alan Miao as the center of the Western Route Army; The 36th Indian Infantry Division, stationed in Magway, was mainly responsible for the construction of expressways; Other units of the Anglo-Burmese Army are still stationed in Ringanqiang ......"

"Yes, Your Excellency, Commander!" Lieutenant General Hutton took the lead, and Lieutenant General Slim, Major General Youen, and Major General Kruger stood up in response. Several people thought that General Pan Sen was taking care of the Anglo-Burmese army, and their next main job was actually to repair that section of the road, and the Japanese army that had already been beaten should not attack from the west road!

(End of chapter)