Chapter 201: What? My Plan Is Impossible!

The fog in Chongqing always carries a damp oppression, but at this moment, in the Principal's heart, the sky is clear and boundless.

He sits behind a spacious desk, gazing at the Southeast Asia map in the distance, especially the Myanmar region.

Churchill's phone call, and Churchill's flattering flattery, left him feeling a bit dizzy.

First, he feels proud of his student Dai Anlan and the expeditionary force fighting bloodily abroad; second, he is brimming with confidence in his own adept command—"strategizing from the rear, winning a thousand miles away."

Just as he immerses himself in this illusory glory, the office door is violently thrown open.

Dai Li's face is ashen, even his usually meticulously combed hair is a bit disheveled; he rushes in, clutching a Telegram tightly in his hand.

"Principal!" Dai Li's voice, urgent, wavers, "This is the latest intelligence from the th Division… they… they have already withdrawn from Tonggu!"

The Principal's smile freezes on his face.

Dai Li inhales deeply and, at top speed, delivers even worse news: "Moreover, behind them are the Japanese Army's 33rd Division and the 18th Division, both pursuing simultaneously!"

"What?!"

The Principal leaps up from his seat, his hands slamming onto the rosewood desk with a "bang," sending the tea cups on the table rattling. The disbelief on his face is instantly replaced by a feeling of being cheated—"When did this happen!"

"Principal, we have just received the frontline battle report," Dai Li says, head lowered, avoiding the Principal's eyes. "You know the Tonggu counterattack yesterday cost the th Division heavily. Japanese Army reinforcements have now arrived, so launching another Mandalay Battle and rescuing the British is indeed difficult."

Dai Li is reluctant to say this, but he must; he simply wants the Principal to face reality.

The Principal slowly sits back down, his chest heaving violently.

He calms down, realizing that yesterday, Churchill's plea‑for‑help call had clouded his mind.

He thought himself a master player controlling the whole board, yet he forgot that the pieces on the board are flesh and blood.

In fact, there was no Japanese Army pursuit behind the th Division; everything was arranged by Jiang Anguo and Dai Anlan, which reasonably prevented the two from being sent to a military tribunal after the war.

Now on the battlefield, where the enemy is, the two of them decide, and they truly reclaimed Tonggu, even if only for a dozen hours.

The record of killing Japanese troops is genuine, and there are Japanese heads as proof; Jiang Anguo even photographed them.

At that moment, a Telegram from Myitkyina is urgently delivered to his desk by the secretary.

The Principal picks it up and sees it signed by Du Yuming and Stilwell.

The content of the Telegram is like a bucket of ice water, completely dousing the last spark of his luck.

Stilwell, in his capacity as the Allied Forces' supreme commander of the China‑India‑Myanmar theater, formally rejects the request to launch the Mandalay Battle. He acknowledges the th Division's achievements in Tonggu, but then sharply points out insufficient forces, suggesting the th Division should withdraw from Tonggu and return to Lashu.

The Telegram states that defending Lashu is the priority; if Lashu falls, Huaxia's interior will be directly threatened.

The frontline is already difficult enough; the Principal has few forces to deploy now, making the protection of Yunnan very hard. If the expeditionary force suffers heavy losses and Lashu falls again, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"The newly formed 22nd Division and the newly formed 38th Division… have both entered India," the Principal reads between the lines of the Telegram and finally understands that Du Yuming now has fewer than forty thousand troops at his disposal. None of the expeditionary force's three elite divisions are with him!

At this moment, launching a battle against three Japanese Army divisions is clearly not just unwise, but insane.

"We should deepen cooperation with the United States." From Stilwell's Telegram, the Principal keenly senses a different tone. He sees a signal that the United States wishes to engage more deeply with Huaxia and is willing to provide large‑scale weaponry support for Huaxia's resistance.

The Telegram mentions that the United States plans to raise aid to Huaxia from several thousand tons per month to twenty thousand tons! Yet, considering Yangon's fall to the Japanese Army, the Roosevelt administration is contemplating establishing an air route between Yingpar and Myitkyina, opening a new lifeline.

At present, this route is still under planning and discussion.

American aid to Huaxia is more accurately Chinese assistance to Huaxia; they have not forgotten their roots.

Si Tu Meihua also played a major role, and Roosevelt indeed promised aid to Huaxia, but there are far too many meddlers in the mix.

The British are the first to bear the brunt; aid to Huaxia originally accounted for only ten percent of United States' global aid, and at least half of that ten percent ends up in British pockets.

There's no alternative; these supplies must go through British ports, namely Yangon in Myanmar.

Crucially, Stilwell's Telegram makes no request for the expeditionary force to rescue those captured British.

That's utterly unreliable.

The Principal's fist tightens silently beneath the table. He knows this turning point stems from the th Division's unexpectedly brilliant counterattack in Tonggu.

In truth, no one knows that across the vast Pacific Ocean, the United States has just lost two aircraft carriers, the Lexington and the Yorktown. The United States needs time to restore its naval combat power.

At this critical moment, the Japanese Army must not escape from the China battlefield.

The Americans do not intend to tell this bad news to their allies.

Across the entire Asian theater, the Japanese Army numbers nearly three million; if all those troops appeared in the Pacific, it would be a devastating blow to the Americans.

Precisely for this reason, Roosevelt does not want the Huaxia battlefield to fail. If he surrenders, those millions of devils will become demons, appearing on the Middle East front and the Pacific front. Then the timing and location of battles will no longer be decided by the Americans.

Therefore, the Americans now wish to increase material aid to Huaxia to alleviate pressure on their own battlefields.

What more can the Principal say about this!

He naturally agrees.

He picks up his pen and, on the back of the Telegram, swiftly writes a series of orders:

1. Order the th Division to immediately withdraw to Lashu for rest and resupply.

2. Order Fifth Army commander Du Yuming to hold Myitkyina at all costs, and immediately expand Myitkyina Airport and Bamo Airport for air transport, awaiting American Army aid.

As for Lashu Airport, no further expansion is needed, since Jiang Anguo had already expanded it earlier.

Another reason is that Lashu is somewhat far from Yingpar; for American Army logistics, they certainly won't consider sending supplies to Lashu.

At minimum, they can avoid the Hump Route, flying from Yingpar to Myitkyina; this route is relatively safe.