Chapter 471: Republic of China: Starting from the First Class of Whampoa Chapter 481 Today Loses to Japan, Tomorrow Loses to Thailand

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

French Indochina today had already become a volcano on the verge of eruption.

France's defeat in Europe was like a fallen domino tile, completely burying their hegemonic prestige in Southeast Asia.

The Japanese Army's forced stationing poured oil on the fire, leaving the colonial order on this land riddled with holes.

Amid such extreme oppression and chaos, the Zhongnan Yixin Society's organization spread like wild grass.

Take Surizhen for example; after that bloody plundering, the more than eight hundred residents of the town had completely seen through reality.

In just a few days, ninety-six young and strong men joined the armed ranks of the Zhongnan Yixin Society without hesitation.

For these farmers with calloused hands, unifying the Indochina Peninsula might be nothing more than an unattainable political slogan.

But taking up knives and guns to strike down the French soldiers and Oriental devils who robbed grain and killed people, protecting their wives and children, was the most realistic choice.

The Zhongnan Yixin Society not only gave them guns but also promised to protect Surizhen and taught them how to use the jungle for ambushes.

The flames of revenge burned across the lands of French Indochina.

The angry mob coordinated with the Zhongnan Yixin Society's guerrillas, and over a hundred people attacked a checkpoint garrisoned by a Franco-Japanese joint force.

The battle lasted less than half an hour; more than ten French and Japanese soldiers inside the stronghold were wiped out, not a single survivor left.

The news spread, and Hanoi was shocked.

In the Jingji Region, such a violent incident had actually happened!

Governor De Gu and General Nakamura personally went to the scene to guide the work, stunned by the sight before them.

More than thirty corpses of Franco-Japanese joint force soldiers were stripped completely naked and hung naked on several tall rubber trees by the roadside.

On the tree trunks, mixed with blood and paint, the Zhongnan Yixin Society guerrillas wrote one bloody slogan after another:

"The grave of the invaders!"

"The Zhongnan Yixin Society takes responsibility for this incident!"

"Die, Japanese dogs and French bandits!"

General Nakamura had a gloomy face and shouted: "Baka! Cut down all these trees! Immediately!"

Governor De Gu looked at the naked corpses swaying in the wind and was already at his wit's end.

Peasant uprisings smoking everywhere domestically had not yet been pacified, and the western neighbor Thailand was starting to stir again!

Thailand was the only sovereign country in Southeast Asia, always sandwiched between British and French colonies as a buffer zone.

Back when France was strong, they had bullied Thailand plenty.

Now that France had fallen, Thailand's Prime Minister Plaek felt the opportunity to "profit from the fire" had arrived, and was mobilizing heavy troops to prepare to seize part of French Indochina's colonies.

Governor De Gu looked toward General Nakamura; the situation in Thailand had long been explained to the Japanese Army, and he hoped the Fifth Division could send troops to mediate.

"General, Thailand's threat is real; their military strength is very powerful!"

General Nakamura stared at the blood-red characters on the tree trunk, his anger not yet subsided, and casually asked: "Oh? How powerful?"

Governor De Gu answered seriously:

"Their army has sixty thousand men, divided into forty-eight infantry battalions, and even has a complete armored regiment; the tanks and armored vehicles equipped by their army exceed one hundred."

"Their air force also has 140 aircraft, and their navy has more than twenty warships!"

General Nakamura turned back and asked:

"Your Excellency Governor, are you joking with me? When did your Gallic roosters become so timid?"

"First you lost to the Hans State, then you lost to Japan; next, are you going to lose to Xia Guo and Thailand too? Have you no shame?!"

"Thailand's army has sixty thousand men, but your army in Indochina also has fifty thousand, considered evenly matched."

"Your air force also has over a hundred aircraft; although the models are a bit old, the quality of your pilots must be better than the Thais, besides, Thailand's planes are all old biplanes!"

"As for the navy, you have a total of seven or eight ships in Indochina; although the quantity is not as many as Thailand's twenty-plus, your flagship's tonnage reaches over ten thousand tons, while Thailand's largest ship is only two thousand tons; all their ships combined have a tonnage roughly equal to your flagship!"

In Nakamura's view, the reason the French Army felt hard-pressed was not entirely due to equipment, but simply because they were useless to the bone.

Governor De Gu shook his head bitterly and spoke the truth.

"Our weapons and ammunition supply has been cut off; the supplies sent by the Vichy Government are often intercepted by the British Navy; we now have to conserve even gasoline."

"Of our fifty thousand troops, only twelve thousand are truly French; the rest are all local colonial troops."

"As for tanks? We only have twenty, all old Renault tanks."

General Nakamura listened with growing annoyance, the sarcasm in his tone undisguised.

"How the once glorious French Empire has fallen, unable to even handle Thailand."

"If it weren't for Xia Guo eyeing us covetously from the North Side, my Fifth Division's thirty-plus thousand men could directly crush Thailand!"

"Those biplanes of Thailand's air force; I only need to dispatch several dozen Type 96 carrier fighters and Type 97 fighters to wipe out their air power."

Finally, General Nakamura waved his hand, as if dismissing a beggar.

"Go ahead and fight; winning is best, but if you really can't win, just cede a few pieces of worthless border land to them."

Anyway, that was French colonial territory, not the Japanese Army's; General Nakamura didn't care at all.

At this time in Kunming, inside the headquarters of the Youth Expeditionary Army, Lv Muzhi was leisurely drinking local mountain tea.

Sun Liren sat to the side, looking at the stack of logistics lists on the table, full of suspicion in his heart.

In the past two months, Lv Muzhi had used the power in his hands and black market channels to gather a large amount of arms and supplies.

Crate after crate of ammunition and guns, through secret border paths, were transported into the deep mountains and old forests of northern Vietnam.

"Commander Lu, do we have people over there?" Sun Liren tilted his head toward the South Side and asked in a lowered voice.

Lv Muzhi put down his tea cup and said with a smile:

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"The Japanese Army and the Vichy French Army are now our enemies, while the Guerrillas are their enemies."

"Giving away these supplies will let the Guerrillas drag the Franco-Japanese Allied Forces into the quagmire of a people's war."

"When we head south, we will gain one more friend, and also weaken the enemy's strength in advance."

Sun Liren nodded; it was already mid-October.

"Lu Commander, the Expeditionary Force's Training Camp is nearly complete. According to plan, in less than ten days we should head south to fight."

Lv Muzhi shook his head: "No rush, no rush. Wait one more variable. Thailand's Prime Minister Lawan can no longer hold back."

"Present-day French Indochina is just a mess beset by enemies inside and out."

"Internal uprisings never cease, externally it faces the challenge of Thailand, that little tyrant, and in between there is the bullying of the Japanese Army."

"We must wait until the French Colonial Army and Thailand are locked in a fight they cannot extricate themselves from."

"Wait until the Japanese Army and the Guerrillas fight each other to exhaustion."

Sun Liren raised a thumb: "Excellent!"

"We still have time to Accumulate Strength. I heard Chu Yunfei and them say that over the past two months, the Pingjin, Henan, and Shandong Commanders of Defense have each recruited ten thousand troops for the Expeditionary Force, totaling thirty thousand as reserve troops for the Youth Expeditionary Army!"

Lv Muzhi took the supplies list on the desk gifted to the Zhongnan Yixin Society and said: "So, we continue Low Profile, let the Thai fight the French, give guns to the Guerrillas to fight the Japanese, and finally, we make our grand entrance last."