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"How can this be justified, how can this be justified!"

Chen Shaokuan came to Yue Peng's office and slapped Darlang's telegram on the table: "Chief of General Staff, look, the French are really too deceitful, and they even said that they want us to leave Djibouti!" ”

The roar caused the passing officers to look around, but when they saw that it was the commander of the navy, everyone immediately retracted their heads and covered their mouths and laughed secretly. Yue Peng picked up the telegram with a headache and pretended to look at it twice, and then continued to pack up and prepare to go out without saying a word. Chen Shaokuan was very depressed, what does this mean? Dissatisfied: "Chief of the General Staff, you should give a word!" It's not enough to let the 22 fleet float in the Indian Ocean, right? No, you can't be so partial, you have to give an accurate word. Otherwise, I'll blow up Djibouti and see what the French can do to me! ”

"Good idea, I support it." Yue Peng's head is very big, and Chen Shaokuan has come to trouble him a lot recently. To put it bluntly, the air and land forces have reaped benefits and achievements in the northwest and the Persian Gulf, and after World War I in Central Asia, they have been promoted a lot, with more than a dozen rear admirals alone, but the navy has nothing to do. Even he, the commander of the navy, felt that his mouth was light, and every day he either inspected those few treasures or ran from one factory to another.

After holding it for a long time, it is natural to explode, so recently everyone in the Admiralty is in danger, and it is said that during the New Year holiday alone, there are more than a dozen officers who have been scolded by the commander. But this can't be blamed, because the Navy is really in a hurry. Seeing that the Japanese Yamato-class battleships were taking shape little by little, and that the Military Intelligence Bureau had recently intercepted information that the Japanese had built a super-large and large Japanese, and that even the important areas in the southwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean had been occupied, the navy did not want to start a war immediately.

However, the strategy of the General Staff Headquarters and Yang Qiu could not be shaken, so they could only vent their grievances with target ships, or increase the number of patrols to let all ships go out and go around, saving them from staying at home all day. Because of this, now everyone is deliberately avoiding the navy. After all, no one wants to block themselves in the first month. But today, Chen Shaokuan came to the door, and Yue Peng naturally couldn't hide, so he had to pat his hat and wave: "Go." ”

"Where are you going?"

"Presidential Palace."

"Don't you need it? By the way, I remembered, and there was something else. Chen Shaokuan wanted to escape, but was grabbed by Yue Peng, who was quick-eyed, and pulled into the car. It's not that he is afraid of going to the presidential palace, but that Rui Yao suddenly became seriously ill a few years ago, and Yang Qiu has to take care of his family and deal with state affairs, and his temper and spirit are very poor. So everyone doesn't want to bother.

It coincides with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month, and the red lanterns hanging at the entrance of the presidential palace look jubilant. Miao Luo even asked people to prepare the rice balls early, and when he saw the two of them, he immediately brought them up. "Thank you, madam, how is the second lady's illness?" Yue Peng took the bowl and asked with concern.

"It's much better. I was going to send her back to Wuhan to recuperate for a period of time after the festival. Speaking of her senior sister's illness, Miao Luo's expression darkened slightly. didn't seem to want to mention more, and said: "You sit down first, and Chenhua will come down immediately." ”

I heard that Rui Yao needed to recuperate for a long time, and the two lost their appetite. After sitting for a while, Yang Qiu and Bing came down from upstairs, and the latter immediately came up to salute when he saw them.

"When did you come back?"

"I just arrived, and I haven't reported to the Admiralty yet. Chief of staff. Commander, let's talk. Bing knew that the three of them had something to talk about, and just as they were about to avoid Gu Yu coming in, Yang Qiu simply let both of them stay: "You two should sit down." I'll eat here later. ”

After a few people sat down, Yang Qiu asked Miao Luo to serve rice balls to himself and Bing, and then he barely lifted his spirits and glanced at Chen Shaokuan and Yue Peng: "What?" Houfu is bothering you again? ”

"No, no." Chen Shaokuan hurriedly waved his hand, how dare he block Yang Qiu at this time. Besides. He just nagged a few words, and the national grand strategy did not dare to undermine. Instead, Yue Peng laughed: "It's not Darlang's telegram that caused the trouble. The 22 fleet saw that the nest was gone, and Houfu was anxious. ”

"Actually, Commander Chen doesn't need to worry." Before Yang Qiu could speak, Gu Yu next to him put down the bowl and interjected first: "We have a conflict with France, but not to this extent, so I think this should be a little trick that Churchill wants to indulge in!" Because the Indian Ocean is inferior to the Mediterranean, the surrounding countries have no industrial capacity, and the dock facilities are rudimentary, only three seaports, Djibouti, Seychelles and Mumbai, can provide a permanent presence for the fleet. As for the Saudi Red Sea shipyard we helped build, it is small in scale, and can only build 5,000-ton ships at most, and all raw materials need to be purchased, so it cannot provide support for capital ships. It was precisely when he saw this that he incited France to drive us out first, in order to tell us that if we wanted to deploy in the Indian Ocean for a long time, it was not possible to leave them without the British. ”

At one point, he immediately guessed Churchill's intentions: "So, Britain has already planned to invite us to intervene in India?" ”

"It should be, otherwise there would be no need to offend us for a detachment that could not cross the Suez Canal." Since the last time Yang Qiu talked to him alone, Gu Yu's self-confidence was obviously higher, and he calmly analyzed: "He is afraid that we will open our mouths after the negotiations start, so I will use this method to let us know the importance of Britain and reduce the price." But my suggestion is that we should be cold first, and now it will do more harm than good for us to move into India. ”

"Oh? Why is that? India is abundant. Yue Peng asked with a smile, obviously wanting to consider Gu Yu.

The latter was unmoved, scratching his hair and continued: "First of all, army pressure! Our current target is still the Soviet Union, and this must not be changed, and the southeast must also reserve strength just in case, plus the Persian Gulf, it is no longer possible to maintain operational supplies to India. Secondly, why isn't the UK worried about the day entry? Just because they know that the population here is very complex, the ethnicity and religion are very complicated, and the supply distance is too far, unless the whole country is exhausted, they don't really want to take it. The same is true of the Soviet army, hundreds of thousands of remnants can only strengthen the Indian G for the time being, and if you want to achieve great things, you must rest for half a year to get a stable source of arms. In the same way, even if we go to help Britain in this war, I am afraid that we will get nothing but a bunch of promises, and we will waste our troops and resources in vain. Because India is different from Nanyang, the Nanyang Chinese have lived here for thousands of years, and now they are occupied by Japan, and we will send troops to liberate them in the future, but Nehru and the Congress Party are still very marketable, not to mention the centuries-old colonial foundation of the British, which is not so easy to dig up. ”

"The United States." Thinking of the US fireship, Chen Shaokuan was worried that Roosevelt would intervene in India first.

Gu Yu shook his head with certainty: "Roosevelt is not so stupid, he would rather go to Europe to wade into troubled waters than to go to India." No matter who fights here, it will be the British who will have the final say in the future! ”

"According to you, we can only watch India being occupied by the British for a long time?" Chen Shaokuan is not reconciled, for any navy that wants to gallop in the Indian Ocean, the absence of India is empty talk.

"That's not it, didn't Jade say it? It's still early, at least until Nehru and India are in the same boat. Besides, Japan is still making trouble over there, once the Congress Party gets the joint support of India and Japan. The strength will inevitably increase greatly, and as long as there is the slightest sign of unfavorability in Europe, I am afraid that Nehru will jump out. ”

As soon as Yang Qiu finished speaking, Gu Yu agreed: "The president is right, Nehru and Soviet-German are different. He was still nominally on the side of the liberation of India, so he would only do it when he saw that Britain was really weak, and he could still get the support of many Indians. That's why Churchill didn't have a chance to take him. Churchill is actually doing this now, in fact, he wants to use us as a knife and sit on the evidence that Nehru colluded with Japan and the Soviet Union. So I think we should continue to wait, even if it doesn't work out in the end, as long as we hold on to the Muslim League, it's worth it. ”

"The 22 fleet also had some days outside. The cruiser and destroyer Saudi shipyards can be maintained, and the capital ship will temporarily come back to rest, retract its fists, and see what Churchill can do. Anyway, the Liaoning aircraft carrier will be delivered at the end of next month. By May, it should be possible to return to the Indian Ocean to continue the Day of Deterrence and ensure the security of the Persian Gulf and Suez. "As the commander of the Second Fleet, Bing is not willing to let the fleet drift abroad for a long time. Anyway, the Indian Ocean is fine now, so it is simply recommended to withdraw it first. Chen Shaokuan also agreed to withdraw. But in his heart, he was very unhappy with the lack of an independent Indian Ocean base, and scolded: "No wonder this old boy Churchill has been so discouraged recently." Dare to be affectionate and want to suppress the price. ”

"It's not necessarily that he wants to stop." As soon as Chen Shaokuan's words fell, Jiang Fangzhen's loud voice sounded at the door. After he entered the door, he immediately grabbed Yue Peng's dumplings and poured a few mouthfuls of noodle soup: "I'm starving, in the end, I don't forgive people because of my age, and I feel uncomfortable in my stomach if I don't eat when I get up early in the morning." ”

"What did you do without eating early in the morning? Hey, leave me two. Yue Peng smiled and joked about grabbing the bowl, Jiang Fangzhen hurriedly blocked it and stuffed a telegram into his hand: "Secretary Yan asked me to bring it in, see for yourself, I'll pad my stomach first." ”

Yue Peng took the telegram, opened it and looked at it, his brows immediately furrowed. With this expression, Yang Qiu hurriedly asked, "What's wrong?" ”

"It was sent back from Oslo by Zeng Qi." Yue Peng read into the telegram: "Finland is finished!" Early yesterday morning local time, Zhukov returned the favor with his own way, mobilizing 5,000 sledders to surround 10,000 Finnish soldiers and Swedish volunteers from the rear of Vyborg. In the afternoon, the Finnish ambassador to Berlin formally requested the German government to intervene. ”

"Vyborg is the throat of the Gulf of Finland, and if you lose it, the entire line of defense will collapse!" When he was studying in Germany, Bing had studied in detail the strategic points and passages of European countries, so he was very aware of the significance of the siege of Vyborg. Jiang Fangzhen added while eating rice balls: "The previous intelligence analysis, Stalin invested a total of 400,000 troops, this time to dispatch 5,000 forwards, and the follow-up is estimated to be 50,000, plus the front, I estimate that the total casualties of the Soviet army this time should be 150,000, considering the weather and the terrain there, it is quite acceptable." ”

Of course, 150,000 can be accepted, but in the future it will be nearly 500,000! Yang Qiu muttered a few words in his heart, seeing that Yue Peng's eyebrows still didn't stretch, he knew that there must be something wrong, so he put down the bowl and quipped, "What?" The Soviets turned around faster than you think? ”

Yue Peng shook his head and handed over the telegram: "Chamberlain resigned as prime minister, and recommended to George VI that Churchill, the secretary of the admiralty, take over. ”

Yang Qiu finally understood why Yue Peng frowned, because Churchill, who had been shouting all day long to take the initiative to attack, had taken the stage in advance! Churchill's early ascension to power was a big disadvantage for Hitler, and it was also prone to uncertainty for the Republic of China, because he always hoped to bring about a British-Soviet hand. Thinking of this, he immediately glanced at Yue Peng, but before he could speak, Jiang Fangzhen next to him also finished eating and stood up: "Zi'an, don't wait." Let Sun Chuanfang immediately go north and join the Tajik garrison to eat Dushanbe. Then cooperate with South Kazakhstan and Andijan to encircle Tashkent and fully implement the spring and summer offensive. In addition, let Bai Chongxi not wait for Mossadegh to come to the door, and go straight to Tabriz from Baghdad and Kirkuk as planned, and surround Pavlov's Persian Front, not afraid that the old bearded man (referring to Mossadegh) will not compromise. ”

Yue Peng took a few steps with his hands behind his back: "All the materials for the spring offensive have been transported to the northwest, but the railway will take at least two months. The recent section from Taraz to Shymkent, Li Liejun told me that it will be at least the middle of next month, and that the first batch of recruits will not be available until May, is it too hasty? ”

"Then surround Tashkent and Tehran first! Anyway, you have to do something to cut off Churchill's thoughts completely! After Jiang Fangzhen finished speaking, he turned his head to look at Yang Qiu and became serious: "President, it's time for you to prepare for the alliance." ”