Ma Jue asked in a low voice: "Brother Feng, do you think Mr. Zhou can convince Prime Minister Churchill?"
"I'm afraid it's difficult," Wang Rizhang shook his head and smiled bitterly, and then added, "Maybe a miracle will happen. Mr. Zhou is in a very relaxed mood today. He should have a detailed plan."
Ma Jue said: "Yes, Mr. Zhou has always been very capable. What do you think he is telling Churchill?"
Wang Rizhang said: "Perhaps he is conveying President Chiang's secret instructions and preparing to reach some kind of agreement with the British government."
"An agreement to betray China's interests? No way." Ma Jue said in surprise.
Wang Rizhang said with a smile: "What other benefits can China have to sell to Britain? I want to sell it, but only if Churchill sees it. As a special envoy sent by China to visit Britain, the shameful thing is not that you betray your country, but that you have nothing to sell.
."
Ma Jue was speechless for a moment, these words were too direct.
The two of them stood outside for more than ten minutes when the office door suddenly opened.
I saw Churchill personally walking Zhou Hexuan to the door, shaking hands with a smile and saying: "Zhou, if the damn German doesn't bother you, I invite you to come to my house for dinner on Sunday. We can talk about literature and art, as long as you don't mention
Just the Burma Highway."
"Then let's look forward to the German pilots having a holiday on the weekend." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.
"Goodbye, my friend." Churchill waved.
Churchill still attached great importance to Zhou Hexuan. Regardless of his fame and influence, his amazing international analysis ability was enough to amaze him. A few years ago, the two discussed the future situation in Europe, and Zhou Hexuan's "prophecies" all came true.
Really, it was as if Hitler was executing Zhou Hexuan's plan step by step.
In Churchill's eyes, Zhou Hexuan was not a writer, but a great expert on international issues.
Wang Rizhang and Ma Jue followed Zhou Hexuan out of the Prime Minister's Residence. Both of them were full of doubts and wanted to know what happened in the office just now.
Finally, Wang Rizhang couldn't help but ask: "Mr. Zhou, Prime Minister Churchill was very happy just now. Has he promised not to close the Burma Highway?"
"Of course...impossible." Zhou Hexuan said.
Ma Jue rolled her eyes at Zhou Hexuan: "What time has it been, and you still have the guts to make a joke by gasping for air."
Zhou Hexuan explained: "I was just catching up with Churchill just now. We were meeting old friends and we had a lot of fun talking."
Wang Rizhang didn't believe such nonsense and asked tentatively: "Does the chief executive have some secret discussion with Britain?"
Zhou Hexuan said: "You are the supervisor sent by President Chiang. I can't hide any secret discussions from you."
Wang Rizhang couldn't laugh or cry: "Is there a supervisor like me? Until now, I don't know the real plan of you and the commander-in-chief."
Zhou Hexuan suddenly stopped and said to the two of them: "What Churchill and I discussed in the office is not suitable for you to know, so there is no need to ask anymore. Now we just need to wait for news to come from the country and wait for the UK to take action.
.As for whether the negotiation can succeed, it all depends on God’s will. I have made every effort.”
…
Churchill's dinner invitation was not honored after all, because Mussolini gave him a big gift. Hundreds of thousands of Italian troops marched into North and Northeast Africa, while the British garrison in the area was less than 100,000.
The Battle of Britain had just begun, and the North African War had begun again. Faced with the dilapidated house that was leaking everywhere, Mr. Churchill, who did not want to be a paper framer, was so anxious that he had blood blisters on his lips. He held a national defense meeting overnight and argued endlessly for several days. In the end, he
No valuable battle plan was discussed.
Fortunately, we were facing Italy this time, and the subsequent development of the battle would make Churchill laugh his dentures off.
At the beginning of the war, three Italian armies launched an attack with absolute superiority, while the British had only one division deployed on the front line. The British army had to retreat continuously and relied on fortifications to gain a foothold, while the Italian army suffered various setbacks during the attack.
There is something wrong with the chain.
The two sides fought in confusion for several months. The battle turned into a counterattack by the British army, which defeated the Italian army thousands of miles away. Then Rommel made a brilliant appearance as a firefighter.
Perhaps Italy exists to make the brutal World War II comedic.
When Hitler blitzed France, Mussolini was worried that Germany would be defeated, so he very wisely declared to remain neutral. As a result, he found that the French army was weak, and Mussolini immediately mobilized troops to take advantage of the situation. 18 full Italian divisions were destroyed by 6
The broken French divisions fought back home. Even when France surrendered to Germany, the French army still occupied part of Italy.
Just 10 days before Zhou Hexuan arrived in London, Marshal Balbo, who had served as Italy's Minister of Aviation, was shot down by his own navy's anti-aircraft gun. Mussolini felt that this own goal was embarrassing, so he declared that the Marshal was extremely brave and personally flew the plane with him.
The British Air Force fought to the death.
When the North African battlefield reached a stalemate, Italy ignored Hitler's opposition and sent troops to Greece, completely disrupting the German strategic plan. When the war started, 500,000 Greek soldiers were on vacation because they had to go home to busy with the autumn harvest.
Solini believed that with 3 divisions, Greece could be occupied in half a month. As a result, 21 divisions were dispatched to fight for nearly half a year, but they failed to capture it. The Greek army counterattacked into the Italian mainland and successfully forced Greece into the Italian mainland.
Before joining the Allied camp, Greece and Germany had good relations.
Let’s talk about the North African battlefield. 250,000 Italian troops were chased away by 35,000 British troops and entered the Italian colonies. When Churchill asked how many Italian troops were captured, the British commander Auchinleck said proudly: "
Countless, about five acres (acres) of land for officers and 200 acres (acres) of land for soldiers.”
…
In late July, the German army was still carrying out crazy bombing, not only bombing British military facilities, but also blowing up all the ships at sea that were detected.
Chiang Kai-shek's plan was still being implemented, and Japan suddenly came with an assist.
On July 26, Japan proposed the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" concept. In early August, the Konoe Cabinet officially announced the "Basic National Policies", which roughly stated that Japan and China would be the basis for an attempt to dominate the entire East Asia region.
, which included Southeast Asia and the Far Eastern territories of the Soviet Union.
The British government could only pretend not to see this. In fact, Churchill was very worried. He was afraid that the Far East would become the second North African battlefield.
At this moment, even more terrifying news came that the British troops in Hong Kong had intercepted a secret telegram, which was sent by Gao Zongwu to the military commander. The telegram showed that Chiang Kai-shek was preparing to surrender to Japan and promised to cede all of China that the Japanese army had occupied.
Territory, the two sides seem to have entered a substantive negotiation stage.
Churchill was horrified and quickly informed the U.S. government of the situation.
Before Roosevelt had time to react, the French media suddenly reported a news saying that China was negotiating with the German government and was preparing to join the fascist camp as a vassal state of Japan.
Not to mention Churchill, even Roosevelt went crazy and immediately called Hu Shi for questioning.
Hu Shi was extremely angry and sent several telegrams questioning Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek naturally denied it and asked Hu Shi to continue negotiating with the United States, but his tone convinced both Hu Shi and Roosevelt that China was really ready to surrender.
Public opinion in China exploded, and Chang Kaishen had to stand up and explain, saying that those rumors were all Japanese conspiracy and that he would never be able to sue for peace with Japan.