As an overseas Chinese leader who cares about his homeland, Tan Kah Kee originally decided to return to China for a visit in the near future to learn more about the anti-Japanese war situation in the country. However, the Japanese army suddenly attacked Southeast Asia and arrived in Singapore less than a month later. He was worried about the safety of his family, and it coincided with the Straits Settlements. Governor Thomas hoped to use his influence to organize the Chinese people in Singapore and Malaysia to cooperate with the colonial army to resist the Japanese army, so he had to stay and became the spiritual leader of the Chinese people in Singapore and Malaysia to resist the Japanese invasion.
On the schedule of Tan Kah Kee's return visit, which did not take place, Xuebingjun was ranked first. One was a well-known overseas Chinese leader in Southeast Asia who made great contributions to supporting the motherland in resisting Japanese aggression; the other was a unique anti-Japanese armed leader in the country. Although they have never met each other personally, they have known each other for a long time. In reality, they missed an opportunity to meet. Now they send letters via radio waves to exchange views and discuss countermeasures, but they have established another kind of close connection. In just two days, Phnom Penh and Singapore After more than ten rounds of radio exchanges, two people who had never met, an old man and a young man, actually had a tacit understanding and began to work together.
They both agreed on the direction of the war between Singapore and Malaysia. They both believed that the British allied forces would definitely lose. They also knew that the Japanese army would definitely not let go of the Chinese after occupying Singapore and Malaysia. There were currently nearly 200,000 Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia, and they would all be killed. Evacuation is unrealistic, so we can only evacuate as many as possible, which are more visible and have left a deeper impression on the Japanese. Tan Kah Kee organized the people to make a hasty calculation, and they should evacuate and be able to notify them in a short period of time. The number of people who arrived turned out to be over 60,000. He sent this number to Ouyang Yun. At the end of the telegram, he said with a wry smile: "When raising funds for the domestic anti-Japanese war, I always feel that there are too few compatriots in Southeast Asia. I didn’t contribute much, but now I have to lament that it’s too much.”
Ouyang Yun called back to comfort him: Sixty thousand people may seem like a lot, but if it is a 10,000-ton merchant ship, ten ships will solve the problem. I am thinking of a way. Please gather the people first, and I will definitely pick you out. , and said: You stepped forward and contributed money and efforts when the country was in the most difficult time. Now it is time for the country to help you. Although the Xuebing Army cannot represent the will of the country, it will definitely do so at all costs within its capabilities.
Ouyang Yun's words have weight.
At the same time, all the merchant ships belonging to Xuebingjun Gu's consortium received an urgent telegram from Chairman Gu Lianyun, and the ships in Southeast Asia were required to immediately and unconditionally concentrate on Palawan Island. As for the resulting losses, they will be The group is responsible for this; at the same time, the coastal docks under the jurisdiction of the Xuebing Army, such as Dongshan, Haikou, Pearl River Estuary... Shared privately owned ocean-going ships were also gathered together, under the command of a captain named Zhang Liangfeng designated by Chen Ce Heading towards Manila,
The next day, Li Qingquan, a well-known overseas Chinese leader from the Philippines, and Zhuang Xiyan, a well-known overseas Chinese leader from Indonesia, one in Luzon and the other in Hong Kong, contacted the Chinese shipping companies they were familiar with and asked them to immediately concentrate the ships in Southeast Asia to Palawan Island. , let them contact the shipping representative of the Gu Group who is there to prepare to participate in a rescue operation related to the well-being of the Chinese people in Singapore and Malaysia.
Another day, Gu Lianyun went to the White House to visit President Roosevelt. After an hour and a half of spying, he obtained a letter of authorization.
The Xuebing Army wants to evacuate overseas Chinese, and so do the Americans. Americans have a big reputation and a hard fist, so their words have special weight. The Japanese are not ready to go to war with the United States yet, so if the United States wants to evacuate their overseas Chinese, , No matter what Isoroku Yamamoto thinks in his heart, he will never dare to obstruct it openly. Of course, if this is the case, Ouyang Yun is not completely sure that he can rescue the Chinese people in Singapore and Malaysia by pulling the stars and stripes. To be sure, and to do his best, he sent two Song-class submarines to the Gulf of Thailand.
On December 8, as the Japanese army landed another division of Marines from the Malacca Port of Milaka, and as the aviation force of the British Indian Colonial Army was seriously damaged in the battle, gunpowder smoke began to fill the air in Singapore. However, the U.S. government finally started the evacuation operation after sending more than a dozen notes to the Japanese government.
There are more than 2,000 American expatriates in Singapore, and at least half of them have dual British and American citizenship. Roosevelt really wanted to help the Xuebingjun this time. The US government sent many notes, but there was no A note mentioned the number of expatriates. As a result, when more than thirty large and small merchant ships and cruise ships from the Xuebing Army and Southeast Asian Chinese organizations joined the American evacuation fleet, a Japanese ship supervising the evacuation of American expatriates Although the light cruiser was surprised, he didn't think much about it.
The U.S. government’s evacuation fleet has a total of six ships, a 10,000-ton cruise ship, two 3,000-ton merchant ships, two frigates and a heavy cruiser. The commander of the U.S. evacuation fleet is It was Colonel Grant, the captain of the heavy patrol ship. Grant was the only member of the fleet who knew that the Chinese government wanted to take advantage of the evacuation of Chinese nationals from their own country to evacuate the Chinese from Singapore and Malaysia. However, even so, when there were more than thirty ships The ships joined the fleet he led. He was still shocked and sighed: The Chinese are so united. What a huge battle.
Ouyang Yun and Tan Kah Kee operated secretly to evacuate as many overseas Chinese trapped in Singapore and Malaysia as possible by taking advantage of the Americans' evacuation. They thought they had done this secretly, and they were directly following Roosevelt's path. As long as they were properly prepared, There should be no big trouble. However, when the "American evacuation fleet" was about to arrive in Singapore, an accident occurred.
As mentioned before, after Wavell took over as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in India, he has been planning another Dunkirk evacuation. Just like Ouyang Yun, he also had his mind set on the Americans. Originally, he also wanted to He organized his own commercial fleet or simply rented American ships to accomplish this feat. However, after learning about what the Chinese were secretly planning, the old British man felt bad in his stomach.
The old British man really couldn't bear it. It wasn't until he learned the exact date of the evacuation operation in the United States that he notified Bai Sihua and asked him to withdraw all the British troops on the front line and replace them with Indian troops, Australian troops, and Dutch troops (Indonesia was occupied by the Japanese army). After the occupation, the Dutch East India colonial troops withdrew to the top of Singapore and told them that they must be optimistic about the Sing Hwa Volunteer Army and send heavy troops to protect the Americans in Singapore.
Bai Sihua resolutely carried out this order, so on the day when the United States evacuated overseas Chinese, as many as six divisions of British troops stayed in Singapore. One of the divisions even specially surrounded the training camp of the Xinghua Volunteer Army.