The boat-shaped fuselage of a four-engine "Yellow Crane" large water machine slowly leaned against the small pier on the west side of the southern port of Rabaoerping, and the door that doubled as a springboard opened to the bottom, and a strong man with facial muscles as if it was made of metal jumped onto the pier through the door.

A group of officers who had been waiting on the dock for a long time—or rather, General Gu Yingyang, the commander of the Southeast Front, who was surrounded by a group of staff officers with golden spike belts—immediately hurried up to meet them.

"Commander Gu, don't come unharmed?"

Dressed in a gold-trimmed and gold-tasseled uniform, he carried the rank of colonel of the Praetorian Guard, and was about forty years old, but he had no scruples to greet a general who was nearly fifty years old.

"Welcome, Staff, Staff, you've worked hard all the way."

Gu Yingyang stretched out his hand enthusiastically, and his expression did not contain the slightest unnaturalness.

The person who came said with a smile: "Sitting on the plane and watching the scenery, how can it compare to the hard work of Commander Gu." The emperor said that not everyone in the southeast can take care of it, and it is a loss to have Wulinghou to take care of it. ”

After hearing this, Gu Yingyang immediately turned to the direction of the imperial capital, bowed his head and bowed to the distance: "The emperor's grace is mighty, dare not bow to the best." ”

At the moment, he introduced to the staff officers behind him: "This is the imperial attendant military attache Colonel Wu Haisong sent by the emperor to understand the battle situation, according to the words of the previous dynasty, it is the minister of the Qin mission." ”

Wu Haisong waved his hand again and again when he heard this: "Don't dare, don't dare, that is, run errands for the emperor and be a clairvoyant and ears." ”

So they complimented each other and gave in, and in the end, the two of them took a one-ton small truck with a canopy, and the attachés took another two-and-a-half-ton medium-sized truck, and drove all the way inland in the dust.

Rabaul is located at the northeastern tip of New Britain Island, at the northern top of Pingnan Bay (Simpson Bay in another time and space), and the port city faces the Bismarck Sea on three sides. It is 448 miles west to Lae in Chinese New Guinea and 945 miles to Port Morebiz in Australian Papua to the southwest. To the southeast is the port of Kietta on the island of Bougainville, and to the south of the port of Sydney in New Zealand 1844 nautical miles, ~ slightly the base, where the headquarters of the Southeast Front is located.

The Trans-South Seas is a unilateral term for the East Asian Alliance, referring to the islands of New Guinea (Irian) and the Melanesian Islands and the waters in between, including the Bismarck, Solomon and Coral Seas, which the Entente usually refer to as the Southwest Pacific.

Before the outbreak of the European War, the region was divided between the United Kingdom (including the Dominion of Australia), Germany, and France. Among them, Germany occupies the "Kaiser Wilhelm's Territory" located in the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea, which constitutes the Bismarck Islands at the front of the Melanesian island chain. Buka and Bougainville in the northern part of the Solomon Islands, and the western part of the island of New Guinea, formerly part of the Netherlands (i.e., West Irian); Britain occupies most of the Solomon Islands and has conjoined the islands with France since 1906 (Vanuatu in another space); France, on the other hand, occupies New Caledonia in the southwestern part of the New Hebrides, which forms the end of the Melanesian island chain; Australia had taken over the administration of British New Guinea in the southeastern part of the island of New Guinea from its mother country since 1901 and renamed it the Papua Territory in 1906.

After the outbreak of the Sino-European War in 1914, the Chinese army and navy/New Guinea, Bismarck Islands and West Irian, the British and Australian forces in this region only had time to occupy Bougainville and Buka, and the Chinese army also seized the German Northern Marianas, Caroline, and Marshall Islands in the western Pacific.

At the end of 1914, the East Asian Alliance, led by China, was the same as +]. L was divided into the Southeast Theater, and the commander of the Southeast Front, General Gu Yingyang, commanded all the army and naval forces in the theater. Fought against the Commonwealth Army and the French Army.

The army strength in the theater includes the Ninth Army and the West Irian Group, the former should be based on 4 light infantry divisions, and the latter should be based on 1 light infantry division and 5 divisions with about 8 people. Today, the above arrangements are still on paper, with only three divisions that are seriously lacking in strength in place, and the real strength is less than one and a half divisions of the normal establishment, and all the troops that are scheduled to be replenished have been withheld by the base camp for various reasons.

The naval strength of the ground navy in the theater is Vice Admiral Tatsuo Matsumura's Southeast Front Fleet (under the jurisdiction of the Third Fleet and the Sixth Air Force). With 4 .30 aircraft, the strength should be enough to suppress the Australian and New Zealand navies. However, similar to the situation in the Army, the Frontal Fleet has been in existence since January 11 of that year. In addition to carrying out the daily task of protecting and replenishing the shipping in the theater, the main force was suddenly transferred to support the Dutch East Indies Raiders, and was pulled to protect the communication line between the mainland and the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. From time to time, he has to carry out the task of searching for enemy ships, and almost a day can be used by Gu Yingyang as he pleases.

Because of this, when the good news in other theaters was frequent, this hot and humid vast battlefield was relatively silent, and Gu Yingyang, as the commander of the theater, was depressed in his heart, which can be imagined.

At this moment, facing Wu Haisong, who was also a member of the Future People Group, Gu Yingyang only felt mixed feelings in his heart, and unconsciously lowered his voice and said, "I really didn't expect that I would send you." ”

Wu Hai responded with a smile: "Commander Gu, how about talking about business first?" ”

Gu Yingyang sneered: "Okay, business is business, I just want to mention two points: first, when will the 5th division promised to me spit it out?" Second, when will the fleet of the Southeastern Front come under my control? Other than that, there's not much to say. ”

Wu Haisong shrugged: "Commander Gu, please rest easy, according to the deployment of the base camp, at present, the first priority is to open up the connection with Germany and Austria, and we must concentrate as much limited resources as possible on the main battlefield, and other fronts are either mainly defensive, or mainly feint attack and containment, and the required troops can be saved." ”

"Well said, if you can save it, you can save it, this one-and-a-half-division front army is really hard for me, I have to be." Gu Yingyang laughed at himself, and snorted from his nose again, his dissatisfaction overflowing.

Wu Haisong said with a smile: "Commander Gu, you can't say that, the base camp set up the Southeast Front Army, there is a reason, how many troops to place, you have to consider and evaluate according to the specific situation, if it weren't for the British in Kiel to do that vote, the southeast side may not be what it is now."

Gu Yingyang didn't eat his set, and said coldly: "The British have a relationship with some people in the base camp. ”

Wu Haisong changed his pug face with a smile: "Regarding some people in the base camp, let's talk about it in private, how about it?" ”