On the map shown by Yang Zhen, the troop posture of the enemy and us at the end of the battle is marked quite "detailed." Born in a military family and graduated from the Royal Sandchester Military Academy in the United Kingdom, General Wavell, who also walked up from the second lieutenant step by step, and has an unusually solid foundation in military theory, did not need to rely on translation, and understood the contents of the map at a glance.

The content of the military map is universal, and although I can't read the names of the places on it, it is still easy to grasp the intentions on the map with the level of this Admiral Wavell. All he needed to do was translate the names of places on the map for him, and the guò translator's mouth, to convey what he was trying to say.

The words of Admiral Wavell fell, and Yang Zhen couldn't help but secretly give a thumbs up in his heart. It is no wonder that this old man defeated the hundreds of thousands of Italian troops in North Africa in one fell swoop, and his views on the battlefield are more accurate and more old-fashioned than the words of Major General Stilwell, who has never actually commanded an army on the front line.

Regarding the question of Major General Stilwell, who can only talk on paper, has zero experience in commanding large-scale corps operations, and has not even commanded even a platoon on the battlefield until he has been promoted to major general, Yang Zhen asked himself that he could not find Bei who could easily fool him.

He had never commanded a battle, and he did not have a comprehensive grasp of the ever-changing situation on the battlefield. There are things that can only be experienced on the battlefield, and he can't know them at all. For such a general, it is not a very difficult thing to fool around with some things.

But for the man who is now asking questions, he served as a front-line commander in the First World War and lost an eye. During the interwar period, he served as commander and chief of staff of several British Army Corps overseas. Rich experience in actual combat, even more in the experience of working in the high command.

In North Africa, with 50,000 poorly equipped, poorly trained, and poorly organized British troops, they crushed 300,000 Italian troops and captured 130,000 of them. Whether it is actual combat experience or the ability to grasp the battlefield, he is definitely above the Americans, and the British general, who can be called a famous general of the British army in World War II, Yang Zhen knows that he must be full of spirit to deal with it.

In fact, Yang Zhen has always believed that the level of General Montgomery, who almost commanded the ground operations of the British army in the late stage of World War II, is at most the level of commanding a group army. The real ability is much worse than the one in front of him, as well as Auchinleck, who is now the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, and Slim, the chief of staff of the Anglo-Burmese Army, who is also here.

These few people were either unhappy with the pot-bellied leader, or they were transferred to less important battlefields because the responsibility was not entirely on their own defeats. Either they weren't as lucky as Montgomery and never got a chance. If they had been given the opportunity, I am afraid that there would have been nothing to do with the later British field marshal.

If before this General Wavell's words, Yang Zhen, who had always thought that the British army was an unknown general in World War II, and only a monkey like Montgomery called the king, still had a little contempt for this guy. But now, he had to pay attention to the general in front of him.

However, compared to Major General Stilwell's fluent Chinese, the Admiral Wavell could only translate his questions through an accompanying translator. In fact, with Yang Zhen's English level, his words didn't need to be translated at all, so he clearly knew the true intention of the general's words.

Even for some difficult military terms, he can completely translate more than the Chinese with a full Cantonese accent, and even some translated words are Cantonese at all. I'm afraid that he was not a soldier at all, and the British translator of his second lieutenant, whose rank was also quite suspicious, translated the words of this Admiral Wavell more accurately.

At least it won't be forced to come up full of Cantonese, which most of the Chinese who are northerners in the meeting do not understand. The translation of certain military terms is scattered, and the donkey's lips are not said to the horse's mouth. The place names pointed out by Admiral Wavell have been translated in a different way, and Mukden has even been translated by him as a place of God's will.

Except for himself, only he knows where that place is. Even Yang Zhen, who is proficient in English, heard the two unknown place names in the name of God and hot water forming a river in the mouth of the general Wavell who painted the cat and the tiger. After pondering for a long time, I realized that this place was Mukden and Rehe on my map, not some place in the sky that no one had ever seen.

But Yang Zhen, who obviously didn't want these foreign devils to know that he was proficient in English, stumbled after listening to the translation, if he couldn't understand Admiral Wavell's English, I am afraid that he would still be after the translation of Yunshan Mist. Instead of immediately answering Admiral Wavell's question, he put down his baton and glanced at the British Chinese translator who was obviously not up to his job.

Turning to Pearson, who was present at the meeting, he said, "Colonel Pearson, I would like you to make a cameo appearance as an interpreter in the room, or persuade the British delegation to use our interpreter, if they don't have a second interpreter." It is obvious that their translator is obviously very incompetent for his job. ”

"I don't know that this interpreter of the British delegation came out of that corner of Hong Kong, not only can I not understand the military map, but I really can't understand much of his Chinese. Your brother is a Chinese expert, but can you tell me where the place in God's name is? Is it in the Northeast or the United States, or on that small island in their United Kingdom? ”

"Who else can tell me whether a considerable part of the Chinese he translated is Chinese or bird language? Is it the dialect of that part of China? You British are too child's play, right, such an important meeting has found such a translated meaning, Chinese is not Chinese, English is not English, donkey lips are not the translation of the horse's mouth? ”

I don't understand what the British think, or the huge British army really can't find a person who is proficient in Chinese. The interpreter of the previous British Military Observer Corps opened his mouth to speak the Shanghai dialect and half-understood Mandarin.

Now this one is even more ridiculous, with a mouth full of Mandarin mixed with Cantonese. If you speak the Shanghai dialect, there are barely people who can understand it. This one's words are basically not understood. Even if you don't pay attention to it, you can't hear what he's saying.

After Yang Zhen finished speaking, Pearson, who was obviously embarrassed, shook his head and said: "Yang, you should know that the visit of the American and British delegations to Manchuria this time is a very confidential matter. In the British mainland, it is not easy to find a reliable and military-proficient Chinese translator in the army. ”

"For the sake of secrecy, the personnel of the British Embassy in China could not be mobilized, and the time was very tight, and there was no time to search carefully. The British in Moscow had nowhere to find Chinese translators who were proficient in both Chinese and English and had military knowledge, so they could only use translators who were quickly drawn from the Hong Kong garrison. ”

"There are many ethnic groups in China, and the territory is also very large. Each place has a different dialect, and even if it is a nation, the dialect varies from place to place. It is not a surprise that this translator is from Hong Kong and can only speak Cantonese, and I hope you will understand this. ”

"I was a party to the negotiations and a party to the negotiations. It's not appropriate to act as a translator, and I think if the British agree, let your beautiful secretary come. She speaks English, and if I didn't look at myself, I would even think she was a purebred Saxon who grew up in England. She's now your English translator, and I think it's okay for her to do that. ”

After that, Pearson turned his head and explained Yang Zhen's meaning and attitude to Admiral Wavell in detail to the British delegation. After hearing Pearson's translation of Yang Zhen's attitude, that Admiral Wavell did not get angry.

However, he was obviously quite dissatisfied with the former British police officer of the Royal Hong Kong Police, and he accepted Pearson's proposal and agreed that the female translator of the Anti-Japanese Union would serve as a bridge between the two sides. He didn't want the rift between the two sides, who had been a little unhappy at the beginning, to further widen the rift because of inaccurate translations.

After solving the problem of translation, Yang Zhen did not rush to answer General Wavell's question. He put down the baton in his hand, walked to his seat on the negotiating table and sat down before he spoke: "Admiral Wavell, it is true that at least from the map, our situation at that time was relatively favorable. ”

"But you think that after a few months of hard fighting, we still have the ability to follow up on the offensive, and I can't agree with that. Admiral Wavell served as British commander-in-chief in the Middle East and fought against German and Italian forces on many occasions in North Africa. Although the results of the final offensive were not ideal, it was not the fault of the generals. ”

"The previous general, with an absolute disadvantage in his hands, and the troops and equipment that were still being sucked away, completely annihilated the Italian army in North Africa, and those battles can be described as wonderful. As for the failure of the last offensive before the general left the Middle East, the failure of an offensive does not mean that it was a defeat. ”

After praising the British general without a trace to ease the embarrassing atmosphere caused by the unpleasantness with the Major General Stilwell, Yang Zhen began to continue: "As the commander-in-chief of the Middle East Theater who once had several armored brigades, thousands of tanks, and a steady stream of local support. ”

"General Wavell, I think you should understand more than those talkers and theorists what is most needed for the large-scale use of tanks on the battlefield? Here I can responsibly tell you that we couldn't fight anymore. The reason why we were able to hold the current front and not be driven back to the starting point by the Japanese army was because of our luck. ”

"Indeed, by the end of the campaign, we each had an armored brigade in Tongliao and Linxi, a cavalry brigade, and a motorized infantry division equipped with trucks. But Admiral Wavell, as you have a much larger mechanized force at your disposal, you should know that maintaining such an army consumes a lot of supplies, especially fuel, every day. ”

"Faced with the huge daily consumption on the battlefield, we had almost exhausted the pre-war reserves of fuel by the end of the campaign. By the end of the campaign, the oil stocks had bottomed out. All the oil is concentrated together, and there are less than 100 tons left. With such a small amount of fuel, it is almost impossible to sustain an offensive of a tank regiment. ”

"And our army is facing not only the consumption of fuel, but also the consumption of other materials and ammunition such as artillery shells and aerial bombs. With the raw materials already hoarded and the embers had been consumed, by the end of the battle, all the ammunition reserves of our army could only last for a week. ”