Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 177: Declaration of War, Fight to the Death

Zheng Yi gradually learned the details while on the plane: the Japanese army had dispatched an entire battleship formation, and there were planes in the sky, but he didn't know if there were any aircraft carriers.
Or they established an air force base in Siam, came to the west coast of Penang, fired directly at the other side with battleships, and fought with the British Navy and the US Air Force.

Hearing that it was the shelling from the west coast, Zheng Yi felt a little relieved.

Although Penang is crowded, it is not fully developed. Industries and population are concentrated on the east coast, which is close to the Malay Peninsula and separated from Alor Setar by a sea.

Before Zheng Yi took over the administration of Penang, the west coast was a completely undeveloped pristine area with only a few Malay fishing villages. It was just Penang Island, not Penang.

Although a ring road has been built on Penang Island today, the west coast is small, the southwest is a naval base, and the west-central part only has a small fishing industry, farm stays, a large water plant, and some Malay illegal workers who do not have Penang identity living here.

It was precisely for this reason that they had not had time to deploy coastal defense artillery.

Just take two shells, it’s not a big deal. I think although those Japanese soldiers are crazy enough, they still have some brains and didn’t dare to run to the east coast.

After all, the strait on the east coast is not very wide, it is very narrow. If the Japanese battleships dare to enter, they may be attacked by the coastal defense artillery of Penang and Alor Setar.

"What's the situation with the British and American troops?"

You have to know that Penang has both British and American troops. The British navy is located in the north of the city, which is also to the west, which is considered to be in the northwest, while the US military flying brigade is in the southwest, and there are also huge interests. Isn't this a slap in the face?

"There was an exchange of fire. The US Air Force lost three aircraft in the air combat. On the British Navy side, two destroyers were severely damaged, and a cruiser was slightly damaged. The casualties were also not small."

"However, the Japanese did not fight for a long time and fled after just a short fight. After all, they deployed battleships. The British and American naval and air forces actually suffered a bit of a loss and did not dare to approach. They watched them escape."

Zheng Yi: "Okay, I understand."

As he said this, he couldn't help laughing.

It looks like this is another standard naval solo operation.

Since the April 421st Incident, Showa Japan has been a monster with its brain kidnapped by its limbs.

After all, for Japan, if it wants to break the deadlock, it faces a dilemma of either going north or south.

The current timeline is early 1939. Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union were not yet allies. Seeing Japan and the Soviet Union fighting in the East Gobi Province, both countries were happy to see it happen and were even considering whether to lend some money to Japan. They also knew that Japan had no foreign exchange.

I was enjoying the fun, but suddenly he came and hit me!

At this moment, the decision-makers of both countries may be a little confused. After all, this is too crazy strategically. Facing China and the Soviet Union, they feel that the fight is not exciting enough, so they have to add Britain and the United States as opponents to fight together?

It seems difficult for a normal person to understand how this decision was made.

Soon, the plane landed at the airport in southern Penang. Zheng Yi exchanged a few words with his men who came to pick him up, and then took a car to see the bomb craters in the west.

"Is anyone dead?"

"The shells landed in the farmland, and the only people killed were two unlucky Malays, both illegal immigrants. However... not far from here is our Penang Zoo, and it caused quite a bit of chaos. Due to the stampede, four people died and more than 20 were injured."

"zoo?"

Zheng Yi frowned slightly. "If the shell had landed even slightly off target, the casualties wouldn't have been just a few dozen. It seems the west coast defense needs to be further strengthened."

"Yes, I didn't think it through." Tan Kah Kee admitted his mistake quickly.

The Penang Zoo is located next to the British naval base, so Penang did not take this place into consideration when it was developing its coastal defense.

After thinking about it, Zheng Yi simply said, "I think it would be better to demolish the zoo and move it to Alor Setar. Aren't all the entertainment facilities in Penang gradually moving to Alor Setar?
Penang Island’s land resources are already limited, and the zoo is small, making it difficult for tourists to enjoy it.”

"Why not move it to Alor Setar and combine it with an amusement park or botanical garden? It would also boost Kedah's economic development. As for the original land, the flat areas could be used to expand the air force base, and the uneven areas could be hollowed out to make an arsenal."

"Yes, I'll arrange it right away. The zoo relocation and air force expansion will be completed in no more than four months."

Objectively speaking, these naval gun bombardments were actually good things for Zheng Yi. Only a few dozen people died, and those casualties were caused by trampling on each other.

The Japanese army's boldness in attacking Penang, which was jointly protected by Britain and the United States, shocked the Chinese people in Penang and Southeast Asia, and naturally made them admire Zheng Yi's foresight even more.

After all, he has always advocated the Japanese threat theory, believing that Japan will definitely attack Southeast Asia. Even with his prestige, there are still many people who do not believe this.

Not to mention that he insisted on spending so much money every year to build guns and cannons to train the army, the system of universal conscription alone made countless people feel dissatisfied, thinking that Zheng Yi was looking for trouble.

In any industrial city, the people hate military service, and to be honest, it does make people hate it.

The intensity of Zheng Yi's military service was actually higher than that of the Peninsula and Israel in later generations. Naturally, many people were unwilling to serve in the military and scoffed at the so-called Japanese threat theory.

In fact, Penang has become completely petty-bourgeois. Whether it is its connection with the Western world, the degree of invasion of Western culture, the popularity of English, or the average living standard of the people, they are all many times better than Shanghai of the same period.

As for the petty bourgeoisie, it is the same in every era. People are forced to undergo military training. Even factories like Taiyou Machinery have to conduct live-fire shooting for an hour before getting off work every day, which seriously delays everyone's time to drink coffee.

During military training, the middle and lower-level officials naturally couldn't help but utter various impatient and sarcastic remarks: "This is Nanyang, protected by Britain and the United States. If the Japanese were to take a bite out of the ashes, would they dare to come and attack Nanyang?"

"Even if the Japanese are crazy and really dare to attack Southeast Asia, can they really defeat Britain and the United States?"

"This military training is completely useless. Penang is protected by European and American powers. Why do we need guns? We can't point them at the British or Americans one day."

And so on. Zheng Yi is well aware that similar complaints have always existed in society. This is because his prestige is high enough. If it were an ordinary person, he would have been scolded long ago.

Even now he wasn't sure if anyone had dared to curse him behind his back during military training.

Now, the Japanese have proved with concrete actions that they really dare to take action.

[It seems the intensity of military training can be increased]

"Didn't they say they sent planes? Didn't they drop bombs?"

"Thanks to the radar station under construction, these planes were spotted in advance. We notified the US military base, and the bombers were intercepted by the US military, who even shot down four of them."

"They only notified the US military to take off, but didn't let our own air force take off?"

Tan Kah Kee nodded and said, "No, it was my decision. All Penang air groups are prohibited from flying."

"Ah."

Zheng Yi nodded and said, "Well done! It seems the radar is indeed useful. Please speed up. I'll go talk to Professor Robert later."

After all, the radar in Penang is a pulse radar. Although Zheng Yi only has the design concept, for Robert's team, the design concept itself is actually more important than professional knowledge in radio.

Zheng Yi was happy to give money, and unlike the UK, there were no messy administrative departments to hinder it.

Robert's team absolutely loved Zheng Yi. They treated it as a test, so the radar production in Penang was much faster than in the UK. Although it was only a few months and far from a complete radar matrix, its performance was surprisingly comparable to that of London.

"Have the families of the injured and dead been appeased? Give me their addresses so I can personally visit them."

"Yes."

Zheng Yi worked almost non-stop. After getting off the plane, he did not even go home once. He started his blind condolence tour and invited international media from Penang to film it.

At this time, the benefit of Penang having a large number of international media reporters came into play. Long before Zheng Yi even got off the plane, British and American media had already reported on the incident extensively, and almost all of them were front-page headlines.

And almost all of them used similar big-name headlines such as "Japan took the initiative to declare war on Britain and the United States."

There were also numerous reports of children being trampled to death.

Ms. Thomson had even flown back to the United States before Zheng Yi arrived. She stormed into Congress and passionately questioned those congressmen who still insisted on isolationism and opposed the revision of the neutrality treaty, asking them why they were unwilling to defend the national interests of the United States.

You know, Penang is not only making money for American multinational corporations, it has also become a banner of American globalism.

The US government spent far less than it did to colonize the Philippines, but American multinational corporations reaped enormous profits in Penang.

You have to know that throughout the interwar period, the US foreign policy was a process of playing between conservative isolationism and radical globalism.

The reason why isolationism still prevails is largely because colonialism is no longer profitable these days.

It's not just Britain; the United States also loses money when it comes to colonization. After colonizing the Philippines for so many years, it has hardly gained any decent benefits except being scolded. It is a pure losing business.

The reason why this colony is still retained is based on the strategic value of this place. The Philippines itself is really not profitable.

However, Penang is different. After its rise, it actually gave American multinational corporations, imperialist capital, and globalist politicians a very clear benchmark: if you do things the Penang way, you can make a lot of money.

It’s not that globalism is failing, but that the traditional old colonial model based on exploitation and simple plunder of raw materials is failing.

“The United States may not need the Philippines, but it needs a hundred Penangs!”

"Mr. Zheng is America's most important friend and the country's closest partner. Penang is the most important ally of the United States of America, bar none!"

These are all things advocated by the global faction in the United States.

In fact, it is precisely because of Zheng Yi's existence that the United States' global expansion thinking has become increasingly mature. You must know that in history, the United States was determined to use global expansion as a strategy and support multinational capital on a large scale. This was during the period when President Eisen was in power. Zheng Yi was equivalent to bringing this process forward by 20 to 30 years.

Neither Zheng Yi nor Penang has ever been an ally of the United States, but this does not prevent them from thinking so. Even some extreme figures in the country have advocated the inclusion of the Philippines in the SAARC.

After all, Zheng Yi’s Southern Alliance has shares in these British and American multinational companies.

With such long-term publicity, Zheng Yi and Penang are no longer outsiders in the eyes of the Americans. What's more, the Japanese army did engage in an air battle with their American army this time.

"The arrogant Japanese lunatics bombed the country's most important friend."

The policy of isolationism has indeed been seriously shaken.

As for the UK.

That goes without saying.

After all, Penang is still just Penang’s friend, ally and partner.

In name, Penang belongs to Britain.

In name, Zheng Yi was a British naval vice admiral staff officer. In the entire Far East, his official military rank was only second to that of the Governor of Singapore.

Penang is not the jewel in the crown, it is simply the eye of the British Empire.

The Japanese are now pinching the eyes of the British!
Before Zheng Yi finished visiting the victims' families one by one, he received news: General Bonnard invited him to visit Singapore.

"what's up?"

Li Xiaoshi: "It is said that a high-ranking Japanese official has come, probably intending to seek peace. He said that this incident was entirely the result of the Japanese Navy's unilateral actions, and that the General Staff and even the Naval Headquarters were unaware of it."

"Hopefully... they're willing to pay compensation and try to make this matter less serious. General Bonnar means it's up to you."

"hehe."

Zheng Yi laughed upon hearing this and said, "Tell General Bonnard for me that I will not be going to Singapore. The British can take revenge or not, but if they decide to let it go, I will expel the British Navy, invite the American Navy in, and declare Penang independent."

"Tell General Bonnar that I also believe the Navy was the sole operator of this bombardment, and the Cabinet was indeed unaware of it. However, no matter how many conditions the Cabinet agrees to, how can the Cabinet ensure that the Navy will not act alone again?"

"What's the point of talking to a government that can't control its military? If the British still refuse to take the opportunity to declare war on Japan, I don't think I need to continue to seek shelter in this damn British Empire."

"I propose that, effective immediately, the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States, France, and the Netherlands should completely sever all foreign trade ties with Japan and completely cut off all imports and exports from Japan."

"I don't care what Britain and the United States do. From this moment on, I will declare war on Japan on behalf of the Southern Alliance!"

"Except for declaring surrender, SAARC refuses to engage in any bullshit negotiations with Japan!"

What's the point of declaring war?
In fact, it is of no use. At least in modern warfare, fewer and fewer people actually declare war, but it does not delay taking action.

Penang itself is an island country and has no navy. Even if war is declared, it is impossible for it to take the initiative to fight the Japanese.

I don’t have that ability.

At most, we can have a fight in Pattani.

But they were fighting over there too.

In fact, the diplomatic action of declaring war is more internal than external. To put it bluntly, it is for war mobilization.

"From now on, every male in Penang will be required to practice shooting and participate in a two-hour simple military training before leaving get off work."

"All military-industrial enterprises in Penang and Yangon must operate at full capacity. At the same time, all industries and machinery companies that can be converted to military production, including Thai Machinery, must meet with me at City Hall at 4 pm tomorrow."

"Any machinery company that can switch to military production should switch to military production. Bullets, shells, guns, whatever you can make."

"Also, we must thoroughly master the rocket production technology we just inherited from the Soviet Union. Have Li Xiaowu select the best and brightest. Aren't those Soviet experts still here? Set up a project team, and I'll personally participate in the research and development."

"In a word, it doesn't matter if we make less money, or if we make no money at all. Everyone in the Southern Alliance, switch to war mode and fight the Japanese to the death!"

(End of this chapter)