At two o'clock in the afternoon, in the No. 1 conference room of the White House, President Roosevelt summoned the White House advisers and the generals of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to hold a meeting on the war situation in the Far East.

At the beginning of the meeting, Li Junhao was designated to report on the war situation in Burma first.

In just ten months, as a special envoy of the president, he visited Burma, took over the post of commander of the Indo-Burma theater, and successfully turned the tide of the war in Burma, commanding two divisions of the Japanese army in the first campaign, and completely annihilating six divisions of the Japanese army invading Burma in the second campaign, a mixed brigade and an air force, and wiped out 180,000 Japanese troops twice before and after, and recovered the entire territory of Burma.

After listening to his report, Roosevelt smiled and said: "Auger, you are now a lieutenant general, and you have made such outstanding military achievements, but you are not yet 30 years old, I can't promote you to a four-star general, right?" ”

Li Junhao saw that Ayers and Leahy were both showing signs of wanting to speak out, and hurriedly said: "Mr. President, I have military ranks in the three armed forces, and the current lieutenant general is only in the army, I think it is best for you to raise my lowest naval and army rank - if you become the first general of the three services in the history of the US military, I think it is much more majestic than a simple army general!" At the very least, the military uniforms of the three services, I can wear whichever I want! ”

"Hahaha......" Everyone was amused by him, but the unanimous thought was: this is the sensible Ogy looking for Mr. President to go down the stairs!

"Oh, you have three military ranks, what are they?" President Roosevelt was interested.

Ayres, who knows Li Junhao best, said: "Franklin, in addition to your promotion to Auger to full lieutenant general a few months ago, he is also a rear admiral and a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps, and he does span three branches of the military. ”

"Well, the lieutenant colonel is a little low." Roosevelt said, "Well, Auger, how about I personally confer on you the rank of Major Admiral of the Marine Corps, and deserve your merit this time?" ”

"Very well, I accept it." Li Junhao immediately said, he knew that his situation was already very out of line, although the generals of the three services said it was like a joke, but they were really unique to the US military, much stronger than a simple army general! What's more, he is indeed too young, a general who is less than thirty years old, and he is indeed too out of place in a normal country and regular army.

However, the Congressional Medal of Honor promised by Roosevelt was actually awarded to him, and he was the only recipient this year — the other being Admiral Nimitz, commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet.

"In this way, Burma has now been recovered, General Pansen, tell me your next plan!" In order to attend the meeting, Admiral Marshall, who rushed back from Australia, said.

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief." Speaking of which, now Li Junhao is the deputy chief of the general staff of the Allied Far East Theater, or a subordinate of Marshall, the commander-in-chief of the Far East, "My original plan was to liberate the western and northern parts of Laos and western Thailand at the same time as recovering Burma, but the current progress speed is somewhat beyond my expectations, so I want to take the entire territory of Thailand in one go, and then after making certain preparations, take the entire Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and liberate all the Southeast Asian parts of the subcontinent......"

Hearing his vision, Roosevelt had a map of South Asia and Southeast Asia hung on the wall of the conference room, and everyone looked at the map......

Marshall's eyes lit up and he said, "This plan is good!" You see, if General Pansen's vision comes true, then we, who control the Southeast Asian part of the South Asian subcontinent, can directly counterattack the Malay Peninsula to the south, and support the Philippines from the nearest sea to the east, so as to revitalize the whole of Southeast Asia! ”

Several military representatives were interested, and even stood up and stepped forward to take a closer look at the map......

Secretary of State Hull said: "However, in this way, there will be some political problems, the Malay Peninsula is a British colony, Thailand is a separate country, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia are all French China's territory, if we occupy it, it will have a series of unpredictable effects after the war...... It's like now, after Pansen has recovered Burma, the British have offered us to take Burma back! ”

Admiral Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, waved his hand and said, "How is this possible?" Britain and France can't hold their own territory, and now we are fighting back, and they want to go back for nothing? Hmph, let them wait! ”

Arnold, Chief of Staff of the Army and Commander of the Air Corps, immediately supported Stark's view, while several others were lost in thought.

Li Junhao didn't expect the British to move so fast and have such a shameless attitude, and they would be able to open their mouths at this time! But this involves political issues, touches on his blind spot, and he doesn't know how to respond for a while.

At this time, Ayres coughed lightly and said: "It doesn't matter what the British think, what we need to consider is what impact this matter has on us in the United States, and everyone should consider it from this aspect." ”

Admiral Leahy, Chief of Staff of the White House, immediately followed: "Nelson is right, neither Britain nor France is capable of leading this war at present, only we in the United States can!" So, the situation now is what we think, not to listen to them! ”

Hearing these words so vigorously that even President Roosevelt nodded, and then said: "Britain and France don't need to think about it first, what I want to know is, is there any chance that Auger's plan will succeed?" ”

"Of course it is!" Marshall immediately replied, "Mr. President, General Pan Sen has laid a very good foundation, especially the Indo-Burma Theater troops that he trained for more than half a year have all been armored, mechanized, and systematized, and it can be seen from the previous campaign process of annihilating more than 100,000 Japanese troops that it is not a problem to sweep across the entire Southeast Asia!" ”

"But I've already received a call from Chairman Chiang of the Chinese government!" "He believes that the fighting in Burma has ended victoriously, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force needs to be withdrawn to the China-Burma border, and the task is to defend the Yunnan-Burma road, and it is not suitable for other wars!" ”

What? Everyone was stunned and looked at Hull, who waved his hands at everyone, meaning: That's it! There was a chill in the conference room.

After a moment, President Roosevelt said, "What do you think, Ouggy? ”

"There is an old Chinese saying: If you are outside, you will not be subject to the king's order!" "I am an ambitious guy who has fully exercised independent command in Myanmar......

(End of chapter)