All Zhang Chi could do was to send a few telegrams to the Chinese side, reminding President Chiang that the Japanese were likely to have large-scale operations in the near future, and even Zhang Chi lied that through the intercepted Japanese telegrams, the direction of the Japanese army's large-scale attack was likely to be Henan, Hunan, and Guangxi provinces, which would divide the Chinese defense area into two, and for the Japanese army, it would also open up the sea line of communication on the other side. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

But these telegrams were not answered...... Principal Jiang was very suspicious, and he was unwilling to waste time on people he didn't trust, especially people like Zhang Chi who would become a trouble for him, and Principal Jiang's staff was also very aware of this. Therefore, it is very likely that these telegrams of Zhang Chi will not be placed on President Jiang's desk.

The United States, on the other hand, began to prepare for an attack on the Philippines in a hurry, and at this time the remnants of the Mariana Islands had not even been cleared.

The reason why the United States is so anxious to turn to the Philippines actually has two meanings.

One was the fear that the Japanese would change tactics...... In other words, the United States is telling the Japanese with practical actions: We have been fooled and will not attack the Japanese mainland for the time being, so you can rest assured that you will throw the elite in the direction of China to attack!

In order to reassure the Japanese, the bombing program of the B29 bombers, which the United States had already prepared on the Mariana Islands, was postponed...... Roosevelt's explanation was that the United States needed to gather forces to attack the Philippines, but Zhang Chi knew that Roosevelt was worried that if the Japanese mainland was bombed, Hideki Tojo's regime would soon collapse as a result, and the plan for China would not be implemented.

Facts have also proved that Roosevelt's idea was right...... On the surface, B29's bombing of Japan is just a few bombs, it's not a big deal, the Japanese people are stoic by nature, and they won't be able to withstand a few bombs?

However, as mentioned before, the Japanese people at this time were still living in lies, most of them did not know that the United States had reached their doorstep, and some were still fantasizing about bombing the American mainland. Therefore, once it is bombed by US bombers, it will burst like a soap bubble in an instant, which will lead to the collapse of Hideki Tojo's regime.

Another reason was that the United States knew that the Japanese army was empty in the direction of the Philippines, and at the same time they were unwilling to give the Japanese too much time to prepare, so they thought that the sooner they attacked, the better.

But the U.S. military was wrong about this.

Although Kenri Sato is known as one of the "four fools" in the "Three Traitors and Four Fools", he is actually very strategic.

He knew immediately that the defense of the Philippines could not rely on the Japanese Navy...... At this time, the Japanese Combined Fleet was already in name only, and the few remaining fighters were okay, but if they wanted to fight with American fighters, there would be another tragic situation over the Mariana Islands...... Hundreds of warplanes were senselessly shot down by the U.S. Navy in the air, while the own side shot down only a few dozen enemy fighters.

On the other hand, he clearly knows that the Philippines cannot hold on, and all he can do is drag the Americans in the Philippines to buy time for Japan, and the longer it drags on, the better!

Under this strategic policy, Ken Sato issued two orders.

1. Actively construct fortifications, especially underground fortifications, to minimize our losses in the bombardment of naval artillery and aircraft before the enemy's landing. Our side should be prepared for the absence of any naval and aviation reinforcements, and every soldier and officer should remain calm and take care to take advantage of the gap between enemy bombardments and the terrain.

2. Resolutely put an end to the attack of "jade fragmentation". It is easy to die for one's country, but it is not easy to survive and fight stubbornly against the enemy, and every soldier and officer must rise to the occasion, continue to fight, and be prepared to fight the enemy for a long time, so as to boost the fighting spirit and morale of our army.

From a modern point of view, the first order is actually to preserve the living forces, and the second order is not to make unnecessary sacrifices, but to use the terrain to wage a protracted and guerrilla war against the enemy who has the advantage in equipment.

Facts have also proved that this tactic of Sato Kenri is correct, because it not only delayed the US army's agenda to seize the island, but also increased the casualties of the US army to a great extent, so in the subsequent battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Japanese army firmly carried out these two orders. It was only then that the Americans were shocked to discover that the Japanese were no longer suicidal in their machine guns and artillery as before.

A considerable part of the Japanese forces in the Philippine direction fully understood the spirit of Sato's two orders, and the Japanese troops stationed on Peleliuu Island were one of them.

Commander Nakagawa Daisa immediately used a large number of coral caves and sunken caves to build honeycomb fortifications, and especially built a huge underground network, which is completely different from the tunnels seen by the US military on the Marshall Islands and Kwajalein Islands.

And the US military did not anticipate this.

At this time, the protagonist of the battlefield was MacArthur...... He was finally able to fulfill his wish, which he had said when he fled the Philippines in 1942, saying "I will be back."

This was probably MacArthur's proudest moment, as he was authorized by the president and the U.S. Navy was to cooperate with him in attacking the Philippines...... This is almost a disguised way to put him in command of the U.S. Navy.

So MacArthur's first sights were on the islands of Peleliu, Morotai and Yap...... Because the islands had airfields, MacArthur feared that his flanks would be exposed to the bombardment of warplanes at the islands' airfields during an attack on the Philippines.

This fear turned out to be completely unnecessary, because the Japanese at this time were almost powerless in the air, so that the Japanese pilots could only hopelessly fly the planes loaded with explosives to launch a suicidal attack on the American warship in the Battle of the Philippines.

MacArthur confidently predicted that the battle to take these islands would end in a week or less, and MacArthur even proudly declared: "This operation will be a short operation, a fierce blitzkrieg, which may last for four days, at most five days, and will cause a large number of casualties!" Believe me, we're going to take Peleliu! ”

Of course, when MacArthur refers to "a large number of casualties" here, he is referring to the Japanese army, that is, he can kill and wound a large number of Japanese troops in a short period of time and win the target.

This sentence is indeed true, but it is not only the Japanese army that has suffered "a large number of casualties".

(To be continued.) )