After capturing Midway Island, the iron-blooded President Roosevelt ordered a counterattack. Under the cover of the naval fleet, the U.S. military headed for the Solomon Islands.
The Solomon Islands is an island country in the South Pacific, located northeast of Australia and east of Papua New Guinea. There are more than 990 islands and a total land area of 28,450 square kilometers.
Due to the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the Japanese army lost its sea and air supremacy in the Pacific in the early days of the war, and also lost its strategic initiative. It was forced to stop its strategic offensive, and gave up or postponed its attacks on Fiji, Samoa and New Calienne.
Attacks in Donia and other places.
However, the Japanese army did not realize that its strength had been greatly weakened, and the strength and morale of the US military had greatly increased, so it still decided to continue its attack on the South Pacific islands.
The Japanese army planned to build an aviation base on Guadalcanal first and send aviation forces forward to cover the attack on Port Moresby on the island of New Guinea. After establishing a foothold on the island of New Guinea, the Japanese army would then gradually advance to the southeast and attack the Allies in the South Pacific.
Australia, an important base in the world, in order to regain the strategic initiative.
Yinlong believed that the US military would win soon, but Hu Zhiyong said disapprovingly: "The naval battle and the island-seizing campaign will take at least four months. Southeast Asia will not change much before 1043."
"Almost all our business in Southeast Asia has stopped. The losses in three years are not small!" During the war years, people were most concerned about their livelihood. They paid special attention to the seven things of oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, firewood, rice and tea!
What Hu Zhiyong built was commerce and industry. If he had not been prepared in advance, he would have been afraid that millions of his people would also go hungry. Yinlong lamented that the best sellers in Hong Kong are weapons and food, and only those with wealthy families and those in peace
Their electronic appliances, plastic products, machinery and other products will be purchased only if they live in a certain area. The only thing that has not changed is that schools are still the most prosperous.
"Don't worry." Hu Zhiyong smiled lightly: "Jeju Island and Myanmar are both food-producing places, and Isabella is enough to maintain the food rations for the 300,000 people in Phoenix City."
The wartime economy of the United States caused Hu Zhiyong to lose the opportunity to import grain. In order to prevent the previously stored grain from rotting, he had to sell a large amount. He suddenly thought of a place - Thailand!
Agriculture is Thailand's traditional economic industry, with an agricultural population of about 15.3 million. The country has a large area of arable land, accounting for 41% of the land area. The main crops are rice, corn, cassava, rubber, sugar cane, mung beans, hemp, tobacco, coffee beans, and cotton.
, palm oil, coconut, etc.
Hu Zhiyong will not send troops to drive away the Japanese army, but he can drive out the locals in Cambodia and Myanmar to secretly do food business there. You must know that Thailand sells more than 7 million tons of rice to foreign countries every year. Since Hu Zhiyong controlled maritime transportation, the island country
People can't transport the food out either.
"Notify Huang Jinshan and Hou Dashun to send people to Thailand to buy grain!" Hu Zhiyong immediately ordered that this matter must be acted upon quickly.
"yes!"
Hou Dashun received the telegram and immediately discussed it with Huang Jinshan. The old regiment leader said with a sad face: "The order given by the young master is unclear. Should our grain purchasing team send troops to protect it?"
"Old commander, it's not that the young master's order was wrong, it was him who gave us the full strength to make our own decisions!" Hou Dashun sneered coldly: "Thailand is an Axis power. Even if we win it, it will be a just war against aggression!"
"Okay, let's send out troops twice, and first occupy the southern grain-producing area of Thailand!" Huang Jinshan was happy. The life was so comfortable that he felt uncomfortable all over.
"If you want to do it, go big. Capture the current king alive and force him to surrender unconditionally!" Hou Dashun made up his mind and took advantage of Hu Zhiyong's lack of opportunity to re-issue orders to continue to expand the territory of the liberated areas!
Burma and Cambodia suddenly sent 600,000 troops, and the Japanese army suddenly panicked. Their total force here was only two brigades, mainly occupying four cities around Bangkok. They saw helicopters, tanks, and Japanese troops swarming in from the sky and underground.
Dismissing their ally, the King of Thailand, they fled towards the northwest and retreated.
Hou Dashun entered Bangkok and said to the king in the palace: "I'm sorry, you colluded with the Japanese army and you can be killed instantly! Now I'll give you a chance to sign the unconditional surrender book."
Hou Dashun's aggressive momentum and eyes like sharp arrows frightened the Thai king. He picked up the surrender letter and looked at it, and his whole body suddenly felt like chaff. The powerful Japanese army did not dare to fight these people, so he had no choice but to surrender.
Lose your head before the little devil!
"The country still belongs to you, we will not station troops or occupy your land!" Hou Dashun raised the surrender letter in his hand: "Remember, be your king well, and we will do business with you fairly!"
The Burmese and Cambodian troops came fiercely and left quickly. The Thai King was surprised: "They are all gone?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, they have all withdrawn from our territory, and only a large number of merchants are buying grain." The Prime Minister took a cunning step forward: "Your Majesty, we must take the initiative to do business with him, and our crops also need to be sold."
"Go ahead, these people are drunkards who don't care about drinking, they just want business!" The king was not a fool and quickly determined the intentions of those people.
Burma was suddenly recovered, and Hu Zhiyong was so depressed that he did not laugh. Fortunately, Hou Dashun withdrew in time, otherwise, his overall plan would have been disrupted. Now that Burma has signed the surrender, new ideas appeared in his mind.
When Hu Zhiyong thought of this, a smile appeared on his face. He doesn't have to do anything now, just treat it coldly! When the opportunity is ripe, he will quickly attack Thailand's mineral deposit development!
After the food problem was solved, Hu Zhiyong and Yinlong were relieved. He hurriedly ordered Liang Chengfu to increase the development and utilization of Hainan Island's food industry. In order to obtain wheat, he also sent Li Hansheng in the United States to Canada to sign a sixty-year wheat contract.
Exclusive contract.
There is no stability without food, no life without business, no wealth without work. Only now did Hu Zhiyong have a deep understanding of the experience summed up by his predecessors.
Although the U.S. military achieved a great victory in the Battle of Midway and stabilized the situation in the Central Pacific, it was still relatively passive in the South Pacific. After the Japanese army occupied Rabaul in January 1942, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral King
In February, it proposed occupying Tulagi Island to prevent the Japanese advance and protect maritime traffic between the United States and Australia.
On July 4, a US military reconnaissance plane discovered that the Japanese army had built an airport on Guadalcanal. If the airport on Guadalcanal was built, Japanese aircraft taking off from this airport could reach Espiritu Santo Island, Efate Island, and New Cali.
The line of Donya Island seriously threatened the maritime communication line from the United States to Australia. The Joint Chiefs of Staff immediately changed the first phase of the "Lookout" operation to Guadalcanal and Tulagi Island.
Lieutenant General Gormley of the US Army launched the attack on August 7. The participating forces were divided into three parts. The first was the landing transport formation commanded by Major General Turner, which consisted of 23 transport ships and 11 destroyers and was responsible for moving the 1st Marine Corps
The division sent troops to Guadalcanal and Tulagi.
The second is the cover formation commanded by Major General Crutchley, consisting of eight cruisers and eight destroyers each, responsible for directly covering the landing transport team. The third is the task force commanded by Lieutenant General Fletcher, with a total of 3 aircraft carriers, 1 battleship, and cruiser
6 ships, 16 destroyers, and 3 oil tankers are responsible for sea and air support and cover. There are also 300 shore-based aircraft in the Southwest Pacific Theater to provide air support.
The real battle for islands in the Pacific finally kicked off according to the historical trajectory. At this time, he received a batch of orders from the German army for three divisions of self-propelled rocket launchers.
At the same time, the German army gave priority to ordering five million pieces of cold-proof clothing. Hu Zhiyong thought from this incident: "The battle for Leningrad is about to take place!"
In Jeju Island, the garment industry is the most prosperous business. Countries have visited them to design military uniform styles and fabrics, and they have won a large number of orders. Since the four 20-story buildings have not yet been completed, the female workers can only temporarily live in the four buildings.
Inside the floor.
Hu Zhiyong visited the underground hangar, fortifications and nuclear attack-proof buildings, and said with great satisfaction: "As long as we have these, no one can think of attacking Jeju Island!"
Su Xiqing sighed at such fortifications. His unit had almost become an engineering unit and had been fighting here for two years. The young master's words of approval made his eyes moist.
"This will be the main battlefield!" How could Hu Zhiyong not understand that the soldiers obeying orders unconditionally does not mean that they have no ideas in their hearts.
"Master, if you sell fishing and commercial transportation to private individuals, will we suffer economic losses by doing so?" The key to Hu Zhiyong's landing on the island was to transfer commerce into private hands.
"I can't monopolize it alone! Not only fisheries, commercial fleets, but also commerce, agricultural and sideline product processing plants, and machinery manufacturing industries all need to be subordinated." When Hu Zhiyong said this, he said to officers at all levels: "After the Anti-Japanese War, you will all be allocated
Become a boss in the company you deserve. Remember, you must take the time to learn business management."
What Hu Zhiyong currently controls is only various research institutions, chemical industry, metal smelting, crude oil, electricity industry, railways, telecommunications, etc. Everything else must be decentralized, and all shares have been drawn up.
All the soldiers in Tianhua are very excited. They will receive shares according to their contribution and position, which is equivalent to getting a lot of financial resources out of thin air. We are not fools. The young masters of large companies are willing to give them to them. How can they not work hard?
At 9:35 on August 24, the reinforcement group arrived in the waters north of Malaita Island and was discovered by US aircraft. Guadalcanal's "Cactus" Air Force immediately took off eight "Dauntless" dive bombers to attack. The Japanese reinforcement group
The main transport ship "Kinryu Maru" was sunk, and the flagship "Shentou" cruiser and another destroyer were damaged.
Soon, B-17 bombers taking off from Espiritu Santo Island also arrived to help and sank the destroyer "Musuki". In view of the lack of air cover and the loss of most of the troops transported, the Japanese troops in Rabaul
The command had no choice but to order it to return.
In this naval battle, the main force comparison between Japan and the United States was: aircraft carrier 3:2, seaplane carrier 1:1, battleship 3:1, cruiser 16:4, destroyer 30:11. The Japanese army was almost half as many as the US military. However,
The Japanese sunk an aircraft carrier, a cruiser, and a destroyer, damaged a seaplane carrier, and a destroyer, and lost 90 aircraft.
Only one US aircraft carrier was damaged and 17 aircraft were lost. Not only did the attempt to annihilate the US aircraft carrier formation fail, but the purpose of reinforcements to Guadalcanal was also not completed. It can be said that the Japanese army completely failed in this naval battle.
Hu Zhiyong, who was on Jeju Island, listened to the reconnaissance section chief's report on the battle. He was secretly thinking: "The US military is about to attack Papua. Should I occupy it before them?"