Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 172 The War is Accelerating

After the great victory, the Malay troops in Kedah were completely upgraded.

Anand's original regimental commander was directly promoted to acting division commander. In the next two to three years, the division will be expanded into a light infantry division with at least 20,000 people.

Although there will be no armored forces such as tanks and armored vehicles, the terrain of the Malay Peninsula is not suitable for these big guys.

But Zheng Yi guaranteed that this division would have a motorcycle brigade, an artillery brigade, and an elite special operations brigade, equipped with a certain number of light machine guns and bulletproof vests.

Of course, recruiting so many people, purchasing weapons, and producing them all takes time. It also takes time to build the enterprises, dormitories, and training grounds that support these soldiers.

To be honest, it is not certain whether this division can be raised before the Japanese attack, and it will definitely not be able to catch up with the upcoming Battle of Pattani.

The entire corps had 5,000 people leaving, and only 4,000 returned. After Anand helped convey Zheng Yi's SAARC ideas and received rewards, only about 2,000 people really decided to stay and accompany Anand to build the army and make contributions to Kedah and the Malays.

After careful consideration, nearly half of the soldiers chose to simply take off their uniforms.

Some of them are veterans from the British Army era, which is quite a pity.

Again, the Malays are a nation that has not yet had time to establish their own national identity and national identity. Many people do not even recognize the concept of Malays.

Everyone has their own aspirations. Most people join the army just to support their families. Anand himself is not so noble, but it is because Zheng Yi clearly told him that he has obtained the status of a SAARC member.

Naturally, they are not the same as ordinary soldiers.

For most Malays, Zheng Yi gave them a large sum of money, Penang identity and arranged jobs, which was already worthy of their previous dedication, and they were really unwilling to continue doing such a risky thing.

Those who are willing to learn Chinese can go to Penang. They will feel uncomfortable living in Penang where there are only Chinese people. Staying in Alor Setar will also be enough to start a small business with the money.
Some people went to Yangon in groups of three or four, planning to open a factory there and start a business as a boss. Some people even chose to take the money back to the village, buy a large piece of land and become landlords.

Everyone has their own aspirations. You cannot hold a group of people who have no sense of national identity or country to a higher moral standard.

As for the families of those who died in the battle, Zheng Yi naturally took care of them. In addition to the relatives taking their place, each family received a full $3,000 in pensions.

The Penang and Alor Setar governments jointly established a martyrs' fund to ensure that their children and parents will always receive money every month as long as they are alive.

When Datuk Onn formed the Alor Setar government, he also gave priority to selecting civil servants from the immediate family members of these victims.

Because of this battle, Zheng Yi and the entire SAARC spent an estimated total of more than 50 million US dollars, including military expansion expenses, bonuses, large-scale investment in Alor Setar, and industrial transfer.

Such a huge amount of money was poured in, which pushed Penang's originally declining construction industry back to its peak.

It was impossible for Zheng Yi to build houses for the Malays in Alor Setar. The real estate industry in Alor Setar was booming in a short time. The profits were even greater than when Penang was developed, and it was much more prosperous.

Zheng Yi's wife Li Jiazhi, after the expansion of Alor Setar was confirmed, went to Alor Setar to live permanently. As the director of the SAARC Labor Bureau, she began to seriously study the insurance, 50-hour work system and minimum wage of industrial enterprises in Alor Setar.

Although the minimum wage is certainly not comparable to that of Penang, according to Li Jiazhi, since the SAARC has been established, at least everyone working for SAARC should not be oppressed and exploited.

Overtime pay is still required.

The whole of Alor Setar suddenly seemed like Penang a few years ago, with construction going on everywhere and Malay populations from other parts of the Malay Peninsula pouring in, especially Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur, which originally had a population of over one million, now has less than 300,000.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Alor Setar’s development potential and Zheng Yi’s emphasis on this city have surpassed Yangon.

Anand and his 5,000 warriors became heroes of the entire Alor Setar and even all Malays. After all, anyone with a little common sense can see that Zheng Yi's huge investment and the rise of Alor Setar's status within the SAARC were due to the battle they fought.

The British tried every possible way to take money from the Malays and exploit them.

Mr. Zheng actually gave them money.

The population of Alor Setar as a whole is also expanding rapidly. The Chinese, Japanese in Penang, and even British and American businessmen have expressed their recognition of the potential of this city, and many of them have followed suit.

However, Tao Jun, Long Yao, and the Chinese soldiers under their command were all getting restless.

How come without realizing it, these Malays seem to be more powerful than them?

He was also unwilling to accept it, especially after this incident, the Japanese military really went crazy and began to send large-scale reinforcements to Thailand. In just two months, they got an entire division to launch a fierce attack on Pattani.

The people under Wu Aihua are really not very useful. This guy and Phraya Paphon originally wanted to make room for the Chinese and Japanese to fight on the battlefield. They were just stupid people.

So in order to prove himself, and also because the Chinese didn't need a reason to fight the Japanese, Tao Jun led his troops and went up, determined to achieve a more dazzling and powerful record than Anand's.

Of course the result is that it cannot be typed out.

Is it just a case of a blind cat catching a dead mouse for Anand?

And objectively speaking, although this group of Chinese were better equipped, they were not as fierce as Anand and his men in fighting.

Tao Jun now has 50,000 people under his command.

However, most of Tao Jun's 50,000 men were not full-time soldiers, but were Chinese on duty in Penang. Although they were numerous, their military quality was actually relatively poor, after all, they all had to go to work.

There is only one reinforced brigade that has truly full-time, professional, and field combat-skilled soldiers. It's not that we don't want more, but the Chinese have received a lot of military training, and there are very few who are willing to be full-time soldiers.

After all, Chinese people have no trouble finding jobs in Penang, and when it comes to patriotism, many people may not consider Penang as their home.

More people may not think that Penang needs to be protected, and they don’t really believe what Mr. Zheng said about the Japanese attacking.

Even if you believe it, you don't actually have to serve in the army.

Everyone has undergone military training and their marksmanship is pretty good. The gun ownership rate among men has exceeded 40%. If the Japanese really invade, it won't be too late to fight them by relying on the urban terrain.

When Zheng Yi first started building Penang, perhaps because of his overly conservative personality, he always adopted a bottom-line mindset. When building the army, he first thought about street fighting, then coastal defense, and just began to think about field combat.

As a result, Penang actually has extremely strong street fighting capabilities, but is now obviously weak when it comes to developing field combat capabilities.

Those who really wanted to join the army and take the initiative to fight the Japanese had already left with He Shilei.

At least from the perspective of the Chinese in Penang, what's the point of going to Pattani and helping the Malays fight the Japanese and Thais?
If I want money, I might as well work. At least I don’t have to risk my life.

If I were to go back to my country, it would be great.

This resulted in the fact that although the Chinese were numerous, most of them were more than capable of street fighting and were decent at positional warfare and defense. However, when asked to take the initiative to attack and fight the Japanese in Pattani, their performance was indeed a bit disappointing.

At least not as good as Anand.

In defensive operations, the exchange ratio between Tao Jun and the Japanese army was almost one to one.

He was so anxious that he even had to borrow people from Long Yao and use the Burmese Legion.

Compared with the domestic anti-Japanese war, it was actually quite good. Zheng Yi was quite satisfied with it, but with Anand's excellent performance in front of him, Tao Jun couldn't help but feel a little sulky about it.

Zheng Yi even had to actively persuade him: "It's already good. After all, the Japanese are all elite soldiers of the army. Not to mention that they are all conscripts, it is a basic fact that conscription is bound to be inferior to recruitment."

"This is actually everyone's first time on the battlefield. They are all rookies. The Japanese, on the other hand, are seasoned warriors who have fought hundreds of battles on the Sino-Japanese battlefield and are very experienced. They had years of training experience before invading China. They even have more heavy firepower than Tao Jun."

"Besides, big brother, are you getting carried away? It was you who came up with the strategic concept of our entry into the Kra Isthmus. Wasn't our strategic goal to take advantage of the terrain and delay the Japanese army through layers of linked camps?"

Zheng Yi really felt that being able to fight like this was already pretty good. There was no need for Anand to just go out and find a dead mouse and bring it back because of a lucky chance.

Just treat it as military training.

However, Zheng Yi did intend to recruit a large number of Thai and Malay soldiers in Pattani to emulate Kedah.

After all, there is no need to recruit so many Chinese troops. By using local materials, the manpower pool will be more abundant, and the military pay will at least be much lower than that of the Chinese.

Besides, there will always be casualties in war, and the Chinese pensions are so high that he feels a little distressed.

At this moment, Zheng Yi understood why the British liked to use Sikh soldiers when they were causing trouble.

He even wanted to spend money to get some of the legendary brave and warlike Sikh soldiers from India to use.

Zheng Yi was also not idle. He made many visits abroad and took advantage of the public opinion offensive to finally make Britain and the United States take some action. They dispatched warships and began irregular cruises in the Gulf of Siam, and even stationed at the former Thai naval base on Emperor Island.

After all, they have already set foot on the Malay Peninsula. If Britain and the United States do not do something, they will never be the world hegemon.

Although there was no direct war, it did deter the Japanese Navy from any reckless behavior and limited the war mode to the Air Force and Army. Moreover, because the Air Force borrowed the airport in Thailand, the number of aircraft was not large.

Taking advantage of the special terrain of the Kra Isthmus, Zheng Yi ordered Tao Jun to build a strong camp and fight a static battle. Anyway, he was not afraid of fighting for consumption and supplies.

While fighting, Zheng Yi was also building Pattani, which was basically a weakened version of Alor Setar. In cooperation with Tan Lark Sye, he built a large rubber deep processing factory, a sugar factory, and some tin ore rough processing and other things that were adapted to local conditions.

Tan Lark Sye's rubber processing industry was originally located in Singapore and Penang, with Singapore as the main location.

The British would definitely not let him touch Singapore now, but after the end of World War II, it is hard to say whether Zheng Yi would let the British touch that place.

Since Tan Lark Sye himself had also joined the SAARC, and considering that Singapore was not yet a member of the SAARC, he moved some of the rubber vulcanization production lines and tire production lines originally in Singapore to Pattani despite the hail of bullets.

And to increase the local rubber price as much as possible. After all, Pattani was not a British colony, so there was no racial divisive strategy such as prohibiting Malays from growing rubber.

Increasing the demand for rubber and the purchase price is to benefit the local Malays, and a rubber processing industry is enough to buy the loyalty of the Malays in the Pattani area.

By the way, they can also seize Thailand’s local rubber and further compete with Japan for strategic resources.

Even if the Japanese invade in the future, even if these factories are unable to fully operate, they are still enough to win the hearts of the local Malays. At least it will not be easy for the Japanese to govern here, and they may even be subjected to guerrilla warfare by these Malays.

After all, Japan is a poor imperialist country that robs wherever it can, and it doesn't behave like a human being. It has no ability to pacify or govern the occupied areas.

However, the rubber processing in Penang has not been moved. Penang no longer makes tires from rubber. After having products such as plastics, Zheng Yi has now developed a rubber emulsification process.

Currently, rubber in Penang is mainly used to make glue, high-grade latex paint, and the best-selling product, condoms.

This thing is actually quite expensive if used as a disposable product now. Zheng Yi and Chen Liushi have high profits, but it does not affect the sales of the products at all. They are all in full production. It is the third most profitable small appliance project in Penang after petrochemical processing and Taiyou Machinery.

By doing this, coupled with the construction team's day and night work to build a joint defense line, it will be enough to achieve the strategic goal of blocking the Japanese army at every level.

After all, the Japanese have not yet made the decision to sweep across Southeast Asia in one fell swoop. They only dare to use one division and have no navy to cooperate with them. It is a dream to want to advance the front line, which will only further consume them.

Tao Jun and Wu Aihua worked together, and although they were able to gain certain advantages in position defense after training, if the soldiers were allowed to charge actively without the cover of artillery fire and positions, the results were often not ideal.

They couldn't beat each other, so they were stuck in a stalemate.

As for the looted heavy battleship, Zheng Yi simply ordered it to be dismantled.

World War II was the final chapter of battleships, and things like the Yamashiro, which were made by Japan, were useless industrial garbage among battleships.

Not only was it moving too slowly, making it a perfect target for airplanes, but because of the need to stack artillery pieces, the battery had to be built as high as a 15-story building. A -ton ship could not withstand the wind and waves because its center of gravity was too high.

Originally, he wanted to build such a high artillery position to look down on others, like a watchtower.

But he did not install an elevator. Soldiers who wanted to go to the watchtower to check the enemy situation had to climb fifteen floors, which made them exhausted.

As a battleship, it used thinner armor to reduce weight, giving up the only advantage of the battleship in this era: its resistance to attack.

What does Zheng Yi want him to do?

It's a bit of a waste to put all those huge cannons on a ship like this.

It just so happened that Zheng Yi did not have such a large coastal defense gun. The coastal defense guns he ordered from Krupp were all 280 mm. They would not sell him any larger ones, and the delivery speed was extremely slow. He had ordered guns, but only were delivered to him in half a year.

Zheng Yi estimated that until the start of World War II, Krupp would not have the spare capacity to complete the order.

The naval guns on the Yamashiro can be used to make up for the shortfall, and the caliber of the six main guns on the Yamashiro are all 356 mm.

Flying to the coastal areas of six oil refineries one by one, the sense of security instantly increased a lot, not to mention the various secondary guns, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns.

Even though the entire project was rushed day and night and involved countless workers and large equipment, it took more than a month to complete the demolition.

During this process, two Japanese air force soldiers actually flew to Penang to surrender.

Zheng Yi's war of public opinion finally saw the dawn of victory.

As for the ships after the guns were removed, Zheng Yi went directly to Britain and met with Brooke and Pound.

"You're going to give that gunless battleship to our British Navy?"

Zheng Yi: "What do you mean by a battleship without guns? That's clearly an aircraft carrier without a runway. These days, battleships are outdated. Aircraft carriers that dominate the sea from the air are the main direction of future naval warfare."

"Besides that battleship, no, that aircraft carrier, I also have several light cruisers and various other ships. I am also a member of the British Navy, so naturally I am willing to make some contribution to our British Empire."

Zheng Yi himself, at least for the time being, was not interested in developing the navy. Penang was still a little too small, and it could not develop a shipbuilding industry, and the ship repair industry was not capable of serving warships well. In the upcoming World War II, having only a few broken ships would be of no use.

Zheng Yi had been to London several times and was quite familiar with Brooke. Brooke also had a rough idea of ​​his personality and said with a smile:
"Mr. Zheng, you've always found ways to make our British military equipment your own. When have you ever sold it back? Mr. Zheng, you're a wealthy man. I don't think it's about money, is it?"

Zheng Yi: "Indeed, we are not short of money. If I really wanted to develop a navy in Penang, I'm afraid you wouldn't be happy about it. So, I want to give you the ship in exchange for something. Don't worry, it's a very small thing, which will be easy for you."

"what?"

"Radar station, I need Professor Robert Watson to lead his team to Penang to build a large radar station for Penang,"

Brooke and Bond jumped up upon hearing this. "Radar? What radar? Do you know what radar is, Bond?"

Pound: "I don't know, Professor Robert? Who is he? Which university is he from?"

Zheng Yi rolled his eyes unconsciously and said, "Since I've already brought it up, is there any need to pretend like this? Don't worry, I have my own secret channels. I assure you, Germany, France, and the United States probably don't know about it."

The radar mentioned by Zheng Yi is naturally the first radar in human history that can be used for air defense, the British Home Chain Radar Base Station.

It is also the first real radar in human history that has truly broken away from primitive radio.

It was successfully developed by Professor Robert Watson Watt in 36, and was immediately secretly protected by the British government to build the first radar base station in human history.

It was this radar base station that gave Britain the upper hand during the Anglo-German air war, especially in the first year after its debut. The Germans had no idea why the British air defense was so good, which directly led to the failure of Operation Sea Lion.

It should be said that this is an invention that has greatly changed human history.

Judging from the time, this radar station should have been built not long ago.

It’s just right to let this team serve me.

Seeing the two men's expressions of shock, disbelief, and bewilderment, Zheng Yi expressed his understanding and said considerately, "Several warships in exchange for a radar base station, the price is about the same for everyone."

"Actually, since I already know everything, there's no need for you to keep it secret from me. Even though I don't have much research in the field of radio, I'm still recognized as the best applied scientist in the world, right?"

"Let Professor Robert come to Penang to work on this radar project. Maybe I can help him improve the project and make the radar technology more advanced, right?"

"Plus, I'm offering you so many good ships in exchange. You won't suffer any loss at all."

The radar base station during World War II was a huge project. It did not use the kind of technology that modern people understand, but rather a radar matrix composed of about thirty huge signal towers.

The amount of work is actually no less than that of shipbuilding.

This matter is quite serious, even Pound and Brooke cannot make the decision. If nothing unexpected happens, the British intelligence agencies will definitely carry out a major purge after today.

Such a top-secret project was actually known to Zheng Yi, a capitalist far away in the Far East.

Is the British Empire's secrecy system a sieve?

Although Zheng Yi vowed that Germany, France and the United States definitely didn't know, how could they dare to believe it?
You, Zheng Yi, are just a capitalist, you just have some money, and you are so far away from them, yet you know everything. Are Germany and France not as good as you?

However, they still agreed with what Zheng Yi said later.

Not only do they recognize it, but the entire cabinet also recognizes it. Zheng Yi is indeed recognized as the most outstanding applied scientist in the world. He is so outstanding that everyone is a little unsure what his major is.

In the field of mechanics, he invented the permanent magnet motor, and the industrialization of the entire Nanyang started with him.

In the field of chemistry, he invented plastics and chemical fibers. In the field of petroleum applications, he is definitely the world's number one and a Nobel Prize winner.

It is said that he was also very capable in the field of geology. He was able to point out the Ghawar oil field with just a flick of his finger, and even helped the British point out the local offshore oil fields in Malaya.

What if they understand the field of radio?

Besides, radar is related to materials and mechanics after all, and we don’t really understand science. Anyway, this thing is a secret weapon and Zheng Yi has already known about it.

The deal of exchanging warships for radar base stations was indeed feasible, so naturally, they agreed to it.

He was able to trick the world's only radar base station team into taking over. The Penang radar base station will also become the second radar base station in the world.

Of course, Zheng Yi was not fooling the British. He could really provide advice on the construction of radar base stations. At least he knew about pulse radar, although it was just a suggestion.
But Professor Robert is a top expert in the world's radio field. He understood everything immediately and made great improvements based on the original British radar.

It greatly increases the radar's detection range and shortens the radar's construction period.

However, before World War II, the British certainly did not have time to wait for the construction of Penang to be completed before building another one.

Two months later.

Early 1939.

Just as the coastal defense artillery and radar stations in Penang were being built in full swing and the situation in Pattani was still at a stalemate, Zheng Yi finally received good news.

Soviet experts, with a group of experts from the Second Central Special Design Bureau, came to exchange rocket artillery technology with him for oil refining technology.

"Did the Japanese fight you? Or was it at Nomonhan?"

(End of this chapter)