The temporary headquarters is located in a small red-brick bungalow at the Digboi refinery. The refinery is not large, with a capacity of 800 tons of crude oil per day, which is much worse than that of large refineries in various countries, and the machinery and equipment are very old, and can only produce low-grade oil products. Even the supply of trucks and tanks will need to be re-filtered, not to mention the delicate aero engines.

The staff room is on the outermost, and upstairs is the lounge. On the side wall hangs a huge map of the situation in India and Burma, and the conference table is made up of several desks in very rudimentary condition.

Fei Wenhua is the commander of the Northeast Independent Division of India, but in fact, the Bangladeshi guerrillas are also under his supervision and command, and he also has to coordinate the actions of the Burmese guerrillas. In addition, Chandra's people also came, so when the car arrived at the headquarters, you could meet many local officers and guerrilla leaders. The variety of accents and dialects made the headquarters look like a vegetable market, and if it weren't for a few translators and political officers sent by the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Political Department, the coordination would have taken weeks.

"I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing." This scene made Li Zongren mutter, not knowing whether it was right or wrong to come to India this time. After patiently shaking hands with each officer, he sat down in the middle. "I'll tell you." When he sat down, Fei Wenhua took the initiative to take the whip from the staff officer, pointed to the map and began to introduce the battle situation.

"Britain has begun to fight back. According to the news the day before yesterday, two divisions of Lieutenant General Quinan temporarily stabilized the situation in Delhi after defeating Nehru's three vanguard divisions at the Narmada River to the west. However, according to the latest information, four divisions of the Indian Communist Party are heading there, apparently to converge with Nehru's main forces and take Bombay in one fell swoop. There were basically no major battles in the central plains, and the main forces of Nehru and the PKI had already entered Chhattisgarh without encountering resistance all the way. Since last month, the Congress Party and the PKI have been in full swing. As a result, there were large numbers of people rallying and armed riots in Hyderabad and other places. According to our insider, during this time, GC International also organized several large cargo ships to buy arms from places such as Mexico and Brazil to transport them to Calcutta, so the total strength of Nehru and the PKI increased very significantly, and a large number of guerrillas were also organized. Now the progress shows that if there is no containment and resistance, they can occupy Hyderabad in a maximum of ten days, and then flank Mumbai.

The situation on our side is the most complicated, the city of Pokaro Steel has already been occupied by the CPI. After the expulsion of all the local foreign workers, the CPI's GC international technicians have been put on duty, the steel mills and machine factories have all been replaced by their men, and a considerable number of anti-aircraft guns and aircraft have been deployed in the vicinity, and it is said that it has been able to produce light weapons such as rifles and mortars. That's right. Japan had helped Nehru build a small arsenal in Arigal, east of New Delhi, and most of the tanks and weapons he exported were in Nehru's hands. Intelligence says that 1,000 rifles, 10 mortars and other weapons and ammunition can already be produced here every month. Now they have taken control of Odisha, Jharkhand. West Bengal was under the control of the Japanese army, and the three sides were able to support each other by rail.

The three Anglo-Indian divisions that had been in Olissa had suffered heavy losses and had retreated to Eluru and Vijainawada, but yesterday they were shelled by Japanese ships, and it is said that there were less than 15,000 men. After the retreat of the British army. The pressure on us was so great that Chairman Bowes's three divisions had to rely on the Ganges Damnation to garrison Bihar, while although we controlled the four places of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya, the Japanese offensive from Bengal was never interrupted. Analysis from recent signs. Iida Shojiro has been inciting Nehru and the PKI to flank us, preparing to attack Rampur and Darjeeling along the river, cutting off our contact with President Bowes and breaking them one by one.

It should be noted that as the total mileage of Indian railways is close to 50,000 km. If the three parties are genuinely cooperating, then the speed of their troop deployment and coordination will be very fast. That's because of this. Therefore, after Nehru and the PKI suddenly launched, the British army did not have time to prepare, and by the time reinforcements began, the enemy army had already sent more than a dozen divisions to the front line by train. ”

"There are 50,000 kilometers of Indian railways?!" An officer who came with Li Zongren and didn't know about India gasped. You must know that in the past 30 years, the president has continuously increased the construction of railways, built a developed railway network of four horizontal and four vertical railways across the country, and also seized the Trans-Siberian Railway east of Krasnoyarsk and the Turkestan Railway in East Kazakhstan of the Soviet Union. As a colony, India, which has not made much achievements in the industrial field, is actually 50,000 kilometers.

Chandra and the other Indian officers covered their mouths and rolled their eyes at the officer, wanting to laugh but not daring to laugh. Fei Wenhua was very patient and said with a smile: "Major, India is not nothing, in terms of the scale of the railway, it is longer than France and Germany. However, it is relatively partial in terms of infrastructure, railways, bridges and wharves are relatively developed, the highway network is very poor, and the scale of new facilities such as highways, subways, airports, and communications and broadcasting is still small or none, and there is still a big gap with China. However, we can't underestimate this place because of the bias, take the Pokaro Steel City, where the Tata Steel Plant is located, for example, if it is not for some reason, this base, which is larger than the Maoshan Iron Mine, can easily build a steel plant with an annual output of 10 million tons. ”

"Now you know you're sitting in a well and watching the sky, right?" After hearing this, Li Zongren smiled, got up and patted the officer's shoulder, walked to the map and took a closer look. Fei Wenhua was unfamiliar with the place name he just said, and he needed to get familiar with it as soon as possible, so he pointed to Dhaka and asked, "How many Japanese troops are here?" And south of the Ganges, how many troops are there? ”

"The Japanese army has two divisions in Burma, one in Bangladesh, and five naval garrison brigades in West Bengal and Kolkata, which is about the size of a division. The PKI has recently been reinforcing production recovery efforts in the city of Pokaro Steel, with only two divisions in Baharampur and four divisions in Patna, Nehru facing off against Chairman Bose's three divisions across the Ganges. ”

"What about you?" Li Zongren asked again.

"I have a division, less than 20,000. Chairman Bowes had three divisions, totaling more than 55,000. The biggest difficulty now is the lack of trained soldiers and the serious lack of equipment! China's railway has been extended from Dali to Jiangxinpo Myitkyina (Jiangxinpo was lost after 1914, and the Shanghai Communiqué in the book recognized Jiangxinpo as Chinese territory, so from Nankan to Khomalin on the border of Myanmar and India, a straight line, north of which is Chinese. So the Republic of China actually borders India), so at the beginning of the year, Yunnan Province recruited 10,000 workers. It is hoped that a narrow-gauge railway will be built from Myitkyina to get here. However, the construction did not go smoothly, and when it crossed the Savage Mountain, it encountered more than a dozen landslides, killing hundreds of people. At present, the railway is still in Mengguan (today's Maikun, Kachin State), which seems to be only a little over 100 kilometers away. However, the mountains along the way are dense and the actual mileage of the detour will be tripled, and it is expected that it will not be opened until April or May next year at the earliest. ”

Fei Wenhua looked embarrassed and continued: "This generation is all primeval forests, and even the horse gang does not dare to go, and there are small groups of Japanese troops harassing them. So the cars don't work. Some time ago, we had to rely on field airfields to maintain logistics, but fortunately the British gave up the Digboy airfield, otherwise you would have to have to go through a lot of trouble to get here. ”

As a native of Guangxi, Li Zongren knew that the southwest railway network was very developed, and in 1933 it was built to Dali, Lijiang and Xishuangbanna. But he didn't expect it. The environment in Jiangxinpo will be so bad. You must know that military narrow gauge can be built dozens of kilometers in one day and one night in the northwest. What about this side? The straight-line distance is only more than 200 kilometers, and it took five months to get through half of it. Without railways and roads, heavy equipment could not be transported, so it is no wonder that Fei Wenhua and his men could only fight guerrillas.

"Commander, lunch is ready." As he spoke. The orderlies ran in. But this situation made Li Zongren a little difficult to swallow, and decided to go to see the troops first. When he went out, Fei Wenhua deliberately took a few sets of raincoats to the officers who had just arrived, and several officers who had been in the north all the year round laughed when they saw this. Pointing to the big sun overhead: "Master Fei, isn't this the sun?" ”

"Be prepared." Fei Wenhua smiled and didn't say much.

Soon, Li Zongren and his entourage came to the barracks outside the oil refinery. Say it's a barracks. In fact, it is dozens of conjoined wooden houses, which can only shelter from the wind and rain. Wait until all the soldiers have gathered. He secretly praised it in his heart. Because he can see that Fei Wenhua has put a lot of thought into the recruitment. In addition to the guard battalion, which is composed entirely of domestic soldiers, the 1st and 2nd regiments are all Shan people with close ties to the country, as well as local Chinese immigrants, Gurkhas, and a small number of Tibetan compatriots, and the largest three regiments, most of which are Bangladeshi soldiers. Don't look at the Bengali soldiers, there is only one regiment, but the number is comparable to the first and second regiments. This is also a small trick, first, to appease the Bengali soldiers and make the illusion that the number is not biased, and second, because even if the three regiments have more troops, but the establishment is only one regiment, and the number of officers is actually inferior to the former. In case something happens, the first and second regiments can be rapidly expanded, but the third regiment is difficult to expand because of its own overnumber, and even if it is split, the number of officers will be small.

From the soldiers' clothing, they are all the standard rainforest combat uniforms of the Wehrmacht. Light weapons are okay, most of them are aid Minyuan-style rifles, Han II and Han III light and heavy machine guns (ZB26 and self-produced Maxim equipped by the Wehrmacht during the European War) and grenadiers, as well as a lot of SC34 submachine guns (Chinese-made MP40). There are also a lot of mortars, and you can also see 160-mm long-range mortars that have long been eliminated in the country. The artillery regiment had three battalions of 85-mm howitzers and two battalions of 105-mm guns, fewer trucks and jeeps, but many light large-wheeled tractors suitable for muddy ground, and the armor force was still lacking. As for the 155 and 210 mm heavy guns commonly used in the northwest, they are not equipped at all. This cannot be blamed on the fact that China does not attach importance to Fei Wenhua, but the road is impassable, and the throughput of field airports is limited, and even if heavy equipment is transported, follow-up ammunition cannot be guaranteed.

Chandra's troops weren't here, but Fei Wenhua said that most of the equipment was similar to his, with twenty more Serpent fighters. Before the start of the war with Japan, two battalions of Type 25 tanks and a thousand military vehicles were also delivered to him domestically.

After knowing what the army in his hands looked like, Li Zongren began to reorganize on the spot. Both the Chinese and Chandra forces in India were integrated into the Indian Army Group for unity of command. With Chandra's consent, three of his divisions were renamed the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions of the 1st Indian Army, and the two armoured battalions were separated into the 4th Armoured Brigade, with Chandra continuing to be the commander, and he was asked to serve as Chief of Staff of Army Group. Fei Wenhua's Independence Army was changed to the Fifth Infantry Division, and he himself became the deputy chief of staff. Finally, he also told everyone the news of the imminent arrival of reinforcements such as the 153rd and 154th Infantry Divisions of the 32nd Army of the Army, the 109th Division of the 25th Army of the Persian Gulf, the 183rd Division of the 38th Army, the 16th Plateau Mountain Brigade, and a mixed brigade of the Air Force.

As he was talking, the sky suddenly changed color, and within a few minutes, it rained like torrential rain, and the few officers who had taunted Fei Wenhua just now understood why the soldiers here were carrying raincoats.

After the reorganization is completed. Li Zongren sent the situation here to the General Staff. Over the next two days, the 16th Plateau Mountain Brigade arrived from Peshawar via Kashgar and then over the Himalayas. However, this route was too arduous, and it took half a month to transport more than 7,000 highland mountain soldiers to Digboy. After the General Staff agreed to the reorganization plan, considering the slow reinforcement of the mountain troops, and the Southwest Army Group stationed in Kunming to deter Burma, the 166th Division of the 35th Army immediately airlifted to reinforce the Indian Army. The plan was also adjusted so that the 153rd and 154th Infantry Divisions stationed on the border between Afghanistan and India would also fly to Digboy, while the 109th and 183rd Divisions supported by Bai Chongxi would go directly to Bombay to support the British forces later. The Air Force also quickly took over the airfield. Transport planes were used to deliver large quantities of construction materials, aviation gasoline and ammunition, and new navigation towers were built, and a fleet of 24 Thunderbolt fighters, 48 Snake B fighter-attack planes, 16 H-10 bomb trucks and 12 H-5 aircraft were finally dispatched. Finally, at the suggestion of a responsible technical non-commissioned officer, 46 Type 25C tanks adapted for the rainforest were disassembled into pieces and transported by plane to their destination before being assembled. Sent the first directly subordinate armored battalion to Li Zongren.

With this in mind, the Army simply built a vehicle repair base in Digboy, ready to deliver more tanks and heavy equipment.

The commander-in-chief of the British army, Olin Lake, and Lieutenant General Kuinan, who had been dragged in the Middle East by Waveville, were very happy to learn of Li Zongren's arrival, and immediately sent several liaison officers and handed over Colonel Odd-Wingate and his Chindi brigade, which had been operating in Bengal and Burma, to the unified command of the Chinese Indian Army. What made Li Zongren dumbfounded was that Wingate came. They brought with them 3,000 British, Burmese, Indians, and Gurkhas, who were operating behind enemy lines, and they had not been able to get any supplies for a whole month, and many of them had lost their guns, and finally in three days. He ate the food of one of his arrangers.

Hundreds of transport planes flew back and forth between Digboy and Kunming for a week, which made Shojiro Iida realize that China was using its large fleet of transport planes to quickly amass forces to northeastern India. The news is out. It shook the Congress Party, the CPI and Japan, because they didn't expect it. Under the attack of Japan and the Soviet Union, Yang Qiu actually dared to interfere in India's affairs. The most anxious must be the Japanese army, because their territory is right under the nose of China. Therefore, when the commander of the 15th Army of the Japanese Southern Army and Burma, Iida Shojiro, realized the danger, he immediately contacted Nehru and the general secretary of the CPI, Ranadivi.

Speaking of Rannadivi, we have to mention his Vaishyas (translated as layman, farmer, merchant). As we all know, India has a strict caste system, and although the Vaishyas are classified as the third class, they are simply Brahmins and Kshatriyas who do not produce and have no political rights. That's why Ranadivi first joined the Congress Party in the hope of breaking with tradition and becoming a member of the hierarchy of power. However, the conservative forces in the Congress were huge, and in the end they had to withdraw in anger. At this time he met Roy, the Indian representative of GC International, and joined the CPI. After more than ten years of struggle, he finally became a high-level figure in power. Originally, he had many competitors, but for the purpose of defeating China and making India GC, Moscow finally selected him as general secretary. Because of his radical thinking, he has always advocated Greater India, and put forward the idea of completely abolishing the caste system by force and allowing Soviet troops to be stationed directly in India.

After Yabyshev led 150,000 remnants of his army to join the PKI, Stalin tried his best to reinforce them from all over the world. Using the power in his hands, Yabyshev helped Ranadivi to secure his position and purge all the moderate rightists out of it. Ranadivi also fulfilled his promise to reuse the low-level leftist party members who desperately wanted to gain power, called on all Indian party members to launch a revolution, and quickly built the PKI into a behemoth with 20 regular army divisions, dozens of guerrilla units, a total strength of more than 300,000, and more than 5 million party members. Because 180,000 of them were retreating Soviet veterans, international fighters from all over the world, and even a tank division. Therefore, in terms of military strength, it is stronger than Nehru, who claims to be one million, but in fact has only two dozen divisions and is not well equipped.

Shojiro Iida's three divisions and the naval garrison combined were less than 100,000, and they had to take care of the defense of Burma, and there were fewer and fewer ships coming from the country recently, so they became the weakest side. Of course, this weakness refers to the strength on paper, and in terms of combat ability and excellent soldiers, he believes that his troops are superior to those of the other two factions. But he is not a fool either, and is certainly not willing to take on the task of attacking alone, knowing that his supplies and reserves are far inferior to those of the other two factions.

Nehru didn't really want to go to war with China in his heart, and always wanted to concentrate on expelling the British forces first, completing real independence and resolving the conflict with China through negotiations, so he was hesitant to send troops. On the contrary, Lanadivi was eager to try, and the Central Committee of the Soviet Union also sent a telegram, asking the Indian Communist Party to take advantage of China's still gathering forces to break off the claws that penetrated deep into the northeast of India as soon as possible, and then cooperate with Nehru to attack the British army, and finally turn around and attack Iran to reopen the Persian passage. In front of the common enemy, the final tripartite agreement decided that Nehru would send five divisions to hold back the main Chandra force in Bihar and deny the opportunity to support the northeast. At the same time, the Indian Communist Party sent four divisions, and the Japanese army sent one division to flank Lambull from the southwest and flank it, and after taking it, it quickly cut off Darjeeling and blocked the land passage to the northeast and Chandra.

In the face of the encirclement and suppression of a total of ten divisions from the three Indian sides, the first battle between Li Zongren and China officially set foot on the Indian subcontinent began.