On March 5, 1939, after more than two months of fighting, all European and American troops in Southeast Asia were finally cleared by the Japanese army.

Among them, the U.S.-Philippine coalition forces in the Philippines were completely wiped out and more than 90,000 people were captured. Commanders Major General Edward King and Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright were both captured by the Japanese army.

The British-Australian coalition forces in Malaya captured more than 100,000 prisoners, including the commander-in-chief of the British Army, Lieutenant General Bai Sihua.

More than 200,000 troops were captured in the entire Southeast Asian theater. The Japanese army occupied all strategic locations at the same time. The US Pacific Fleet was unable to provide support due to its own losses at Pearl Harbor, and the British Royal Navy's Z Fleet was in Pahang and Kuantan.

The outer sea was defeated.

At this point, Thailand, the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, and other Southeast Asian regions all fell into the hands of the Japanese.

Now Southeast Asia, from the sea, territory to airspace, all belongs to the Japanese only. Of course, this is indeed the case if the lurking Nanyang Military Division is not included.

A large number of prisoners of war were sent to mining sites for mining. At the suggestion of local "Japanese overseas Chinese", these prisoners of war were not sent to various places as in history. Of course, this is also due to the fact that their current war in China has not made progress.

relation.

Now these prisoners of war were captured to mine, and some Japanese soldiers were assigned to monitor the mining of these prisoners of war. All the prisoners of war were divided into teams of 300 people, and were escorted by the Japanese army to the mines occupied by the Japanese army.

A large number of Japanese geological personnel were also sent to Southeast Asia, trying to find more oil and minerals. All freighters in Japan were mobilized. They continued to travel to Southeast Asia to transport the captured materials to Japan.

"Long live the Japanese Empire!!" Along the way, people kept cheering and shouting. If you think these people are Japanese overseas, you are wrong. They are all natives of Southeast Asia.

If you think they are not speaking from the heart, then you are wrong. These people are completely crying from the heart.

Big families in Myanmar, Indonesia, Malay, etc. are all willing to cooperate with the Japanese. Why is this happening?! Aren’t the Japanese invaders?! Why are they welcomed?!

"As war engulfed these Southeast Asian enclaves, colonial societies were defeated, killed, and captured. This shattered the myth of European control and changed the way the natives viewed themselves."

"Japan's ensuing occupation inspired a deep-rooted local culture of resistance and shaped the postwar nationalist struggle for independence." Tim Harper in "The Forgotten Army and the Fall of British Asia"

These words may be able to explain this emotion.

This place has been colonized by European and American countries for a long time. They never thought that these people would be defeated or could be defeated. Because in the past hundred years, the only ones who could defeat white people were white people.

The Japanese broke this myth of Europeans and Americans. They ruthlessly tore the "myth of white people" to pieces. Those white people who used to insult and bully the locals were escorted by the Japanese army like lost dogs.

The corpses of dead white people were everywhere. And all the people in Southeast Asia suddenly discovered one thing: these white people can be defeated!

Under this situation, people throughout Southeast Asia began to have other thoughts. They began to consider, if the Japanese have done it, can they do it too?!

Under this idea, the upper class people in the entire Southeast Asia region began to choose to cooperate with the Japanese. Japan also hoped to obtain a stable rear base. Therefore, they did not reject this kind of cooperation.

On the contrary, they began to continuously support local people to do some low-level jobs and let them perform some things they had never done before. For example, they were the overseers of American and British prisoners.

Japan, which was extremely short of resources, took full action at this time. The headquarters and the cabinet formulated a plan to "integrate the economic structure of Asia with Japan as the leader to provide sufficient resource guarantee for the Pacific War."

Under the guidance of this idea, the entire Japanese army adopted a policy as gentle as possible towards Southeast Asia. Anyway, with more than 200,000 prisoners, they did not worry about the manpower for mining.

While Japan's Southeast Asia was "happy", the exercise field outside Washington was in a state of solemnity. A regiment of tank troops was fighting in the designated area of ​​the exercise.

At the same time, the B17 bombers in the sky were assisting in bombing. Looking at this posture, it is obvious that the two sides cooperated a lot. The cooperation between the ground and air forces was very appropriate.

"I want to see how the famous General Tu handles such a situation." Mark Clark, commander of the US 5th Army, said with a sneer, holding up the telescope.

But George Patton, commander of the US 7th Army next to him, shook his head and said: "Don't underestimate this general. My classmate Ike told me that this general is a soldier different from ordinary generals. His strategy and

The tactics will surprise you."

"Oh?! Then I'll wait and see!" Clark still sneered. He obviously couldn't believe how powerful a guy with a background of bandits could be.

Maybe he is good at dealing with the gangsters entrenched in the mountains, but as long as he encounters a real army, he doesn't even have the ability to resist.

Looking at those tanks that were constantly crushing forward, and those fighter planes that were constantly circling in the sky, Clark felt proud from the bottom of his heart! This is the power of the United States, and the bandit general from across the ocean has probably never seen it before?!

The attack seemed to go smoothly. The U.S. tank group broke through the position in a few clicks. The infantry behind them followed directly, and they were entrenched in the position in two or three strokes.

"I don't see what this so-called 'general' is capable of. All I see is that our soldiers successfully occupied the position." Clark shrugged, put down his telescope and said, "I hope we brought him

The embarrassment will not cause any obstacles to his schedule."

Patton said nothing. He would not easily judge the situation on the battlefield until the war was over. Merely occupying a position did not mean much.

Moreover, Patton always felt that this occupation was a bit strange. It seemed that the position was deliberately given up, and there was not even a decent resistance... Perhaps it should be said that they did not achieve the resistance that Patton imagined.

But in the eyes of Clark and others, the resistance this time was already very fierce. Even large-caliber artillery was used, but their troops were brave and still occupied the position.

Watching the troops crossing the mountain, Clark shook his head in boredom and said: "Patton, I'm no longer interested in this boring battle. Just take a look first and let me know if anything happens!"

Clark yawned and was about to turn around and leave. But then he was pulled by Barton. Clark was stunned for a moment before hearing Barton say: "In another fifteen minutes, if nothing happens, you can leave first."

Clark knew Barton's temper, so he mumbled and turned around reluctantly. But as soon as he turned around, he saw a scene that surprised him!

The American soldiers and tanks that rushed to the other side of the mountain began to walk back in despair. The big "x" on the tanks was a sign determined before the exercise. This was a sign that they had been killed and had withdrawn from the exercise.

"God! What the hell is going on?!" Clark's eyes widened when he saw the tanks and infantry retreating. Just now, he was clearly watching these tanks and infantry break through the position with high morale. Why did they retreat in a short time?

Back?!

Then, Clark saw bursts of white smoke starting to appear on the right side of the position. Clark's heart began to sink slowly, and he knew that this was a signal that the attack on the right flank had failed.

Under this situation, Clark couldn't wait for these soldiers to come back before asking again. He rushed out of the exercise director's office with a sullen face, got into his car and rushed towards the returning soldiers.

At this time, a smile appeared on Patton's face. He saw what he wanted to see. This general who smashed the Japanese army to a bloody head in China was indeed well-deserved.

Immediately, Patton walked out of the director's office and jumped into his car.

"Let's go! Let's go see what happened." Button solemnly said to his driver in the car, and then the car suddenly started and rushed forward.

After a while, Patton found the retreating soldiers and tanks. Clark had already arrived one step ahead of him and was asking what was going on.

"The other side used 75mm self-propelled artillery. They lured us to the rear of the position but concealed a large number of 75mm self-propelled artillery on the side." The commander on the tank said helplessly to Clark: "These artillery are fired at close range. We

The 10mm armor of the m3 has no way to resist..."

"Moreover, their artillery is laid flat to fire. Directly bombarding our tracks and weak armor on the sides..."

Clark almost went crazy. He grabbed the collar of an infantry battalion commander and shouted: "What about the infantry?! Why didn't the infantry destroy those artillery pieces?! Were you just watching from the side?!"

The battalion commander was obviously helpless and said to Clark: "General, they not only used self-propelled artillery to deal with them, they also equipped a large number of 12.7mm Browning heavy machine guns."

"We rushed over to the position and were almost unprepared for the other party launching such an attack from the side. We lost more than half of our infantry in the first moment, and were then suppressed on the position by their heavy firepower..."

Patton sighed, walked up and patted Clark on the shoulder and said: "They were suppressed by heavy firepower, and then encountered the shelling of 75mm self-propelled artillery. They have been able to hold on until now, which is pretty good..."

Clark still found it unacceptable and turned to Patton and growled: "What about the right wing?! How did we lose the troops on the right wing?!"
Chapter completed!