Stilwell looked at the telegram at the headquarters, smiled disdainfully and threw it aside.
Wilson must have suffered something bad to speak up for the Chinese. He seems to have forgotten how the Chinese army fled when seeing the Japanese on the domestic battlefield!
The most extreme situation is that a few Japanese cavalry can occupy a city. After such an experience, do you still hope to give him confidence in the Chinese army?
What is the relationship of interest?
Don’t the Japanese have an interest in fighting in China?
Isn't it a life and death war?
Wilson didn't even think about it. The Chinese army couldn't resist the Japanese attack in its own country. How could it fight to the death with the enemy for a road here?
On the contrary, it is the Sun Never Sets Army. They blocked Hans' attack in Africa, and they have a huge manpower and material base in Asan. What reason is there not to believe that the Sun Never Sets but to believe in the Chinese Army?
At this moment, General Alexander, the commander of the Sun Never Sets, walked into Stilwell's office.
"Qiao!" Alexander spread out a map in front of Stilwell and pointed to one of the lines and said: "This is my battle plan. I plan to use this railway line as the boundary. The east of the railway will be defended by the Chinese army.
What do you think, the army to the west will be defended by the Sun Never Sets, retreat to the second-line area in an orderly manner, and then encircle and annihilate the enemy?"
When Stilwell heard this plan, he couldn't help but think of the last telegram from Wilson: "Let the sun never set and the Chinese army stationed alone on a line of defense instead of coordinating left and right."
Why not give it a try?
As soon as he thought about it, Stilwell pretended to look at the map, and then said: "Harold, I have a question, why do you want to cooperate with the Chinese army to defend left and right instead of front and rear? You have always looked down on the Chinese army.
If you think they have poor combat effectiveness and low morale, why would you trust your flanks to the Chinese army?"
"Oh, Joe!" Alexander laughed: "If we are assisting in defense, it means that we have to show our back and safety in front of the Chinese people. I am even less confident!"
Stilwell did not smile. He looked up at Alexander with a straight face and said seriously: "Are you kidding? If you suspect that your friendly forces will be detrimental to you, then you should not let them cooperate with you in the battle."
Alexander was a little embarrassed by these words. Just as he was about to explain, Stilwell interrupted him again.
"There is a saying in China that goes, 'Don't doubt people you don't trust'!" Stilwell said: "This means that if we plan to cooperate with them, we should not be suspicious of them. This will only be a bad thing.
What’s more, I don’t think there’s any difference between showing your back in front of them and showing your flanks in front of them!”
There is nothing wrong with saying this.
If the Chinese army were to attack the Sun Never Sets army, there would be almost no difference between attacking from the flanks and attacking from the back.
Besides, the Chinese army has no reason to do this.
"I know, I know!" Alexander replied: "It's just a joke! I just think that leaving the east to the Chinese army for defense will be closer to China, which is more beneficial to their supplies and reinforcements!"
There is some truth to this, because China's supply line is to the east.
But Stilwell immediately denied Alexander's statement: "You may have forgotten that whether it is the sun never sets or the Chinese army, supplies are provided by us, and they come from the west, not the east. What's more, when the Japanese have no
When hitting the central part, all supplies and reinforcements will come from north to south instead of from east to west. By saying this, do you mean to prepare for the enemy to hit the central part?"
Alexander was speechless.
Then Stilwell expressed his thoughts: "I think that although we strive to cooperate with China and the Sun Never Sets Army to fight the enemy together, there is a gap between ideal and reality. If the same line of defense is garrisoned by two armies,
Problems in communication and coordination are likely to arise. War
There are also weaknesses in strategy. For example, China's combat effectiveness is poor and its equipment is backward. So why doesn't the enemy concentrate its superior forces to attack the Chinese army's defense line? If the Chinese army's defense line collapses, then the flanks where the sun never sets will be exposed. Does that mean that our defense line
Pointless?"
Alexander objected: "What else can be done, Joe? Let our army fight the enemy in the front, while the Chinese army watches from the rear?"
Stilwell immediately objected: "When you retreated, weren't you watching from the rear while the Chinese army was fighting the enemy on the front line?"
Stilwell was speechless. It was not a good thing to have such internal conflicts before the war started.
What surprised Stilwell even more was that he realized that Wilson might be right.
Although Stilwell was sarcastic, he was not stupid.
He knew that if Alexander believed that his army could defeat the enemy and that the Chinese army was just the icing on the cake, then he should not say "We are fighting the enemy in the front while the Chinese army is watching from the rear."
At this time, Alexander should have said with confidence, "No problem, let those Chinese people see what war is."
Only with such a tone can we be confident, look like the most powerful country, and have a victorious attitude.
What Alexander said now shows that he has a mentality of "preserving strength", so he is not willing to fight the enemy in the front while the Chinese army prepares in the rear.
Another way of saying "preserving strength" is to give up, to run away, or even...
Stilwell didn't dare to think any more. He found that he seemed to have jumped into a scam. He found that he had been sent to command a battle that was impossible to win. He found that he had become a tool on which the sun never sets!
In the end, Stilwell could not win over Alexander.
The reason is that the mission of Commander Stilwell is not to command operations, but to unite two forces... Eagle sauce always played such a role during World War II, such as Allied Commander Eisenhower. He also had no combat experience, and his mission was not to command
The Allied Forces fought hard to unite all parts. In other words, they held meetings, mobilized, did ideological work, balanced the interests of various countries, etc.
Stilwell had no experience in commanding operations and did not have much say in this aspect, so in the end he could only let it go.
But there is still a difference.
The difference was that Stilwell read Alexander's mind from his attitude and understood that he had no intention of winning the battle from the beginning.
This is not in the interest of Eagle Sauce.
So……
Stilwell thought for a while and then sent a telegram to Wilson, asking in a very cryptic way: "If what you said is true, what are you going to do?"