Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 194 Leaving a Rotten Malaya to the Japanese Army
"Did Tao Jun stay behind in Beidanian to cover the retreat? Oh, I see. Let's go."

In the office in Penang, Zheng Yi sighed deeply after learning that Tao Jun had voluntarily committed suicide.

Then he took out a document from the drawer with the cover saying "Investigation Report on General Tao Jun's Embezzlement of Military Supplies" on it, pondered for a while, and burned it with a lighter.

A few minor details cannot hide his heroic character. Don't keep these things to discredit the hero.

"Let the entire army go to Penang to recuperate. Inform Sister Wen and make arrangements to welcome the heroes back triumphantly. Give them shopping vouchers. I'll personally cover all their expenses after they return."

"Tell them to leave other places, including Kuala Lumpur, alone except Alor Setar. This is still British Malaya, and we should not interfere in their affairs."

"As for Alor Setar... notify the City Hall to hold a regular SAARC meeting soon so that everyone can discuss who should replace Tao Junzhi."

"Who should be responsible for leading the first team to Alor Setar to help with the rotation battle?"

The Malay soldiers in Alor Setar imitated the military system of the Northern Song Dynasty, while the military system in Penang is similar to the military system of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Strictly speaking, Penang does not have a real formal standing army except for the police force.

Penang implements a universal conscription system, especially those from outside, who must first go to Perlis for training. Ordinary people also have to train regularly. Now it has become so abnormal that they have to train for a while every day after get off work.

Theoretically, those standing soldiers are rich and busy people who don't want to participate in military training themselves, so they pay some extra money and hire these people to participate in military training on their behalf.

Most of Zheng Yi's military expenses and salaries were paid by wealthy people who wanted to avoid military service.

This is the military policy during peacetime.

And now is obviously not a peaceful time.

Institutionally speaking, at this time, as long as the order is given, all men in Penang will be on "standby".

They can be organized and sent to the battlefield at any time.

Although fighting a field battle may be difficult, fighting a positional battle, especially a defensive positional battle, may not be a problem.

Zheng Yi's idea was to let these veterans who retired from Pattani act as instructors, leading these new recruits to assist Anand's Malay Corps in fighting positional battles and even street fighting in Alor Setar.

They will be rotated every one month, or at most two months, and can continue to work and live in Penang. This can not only ensure the morale of the front line, but also ensure that basic social production and life can continue as much as possible.

Before the Japanese attack Penang directly, try to avoid mobilizing the entire nation.

A nationwide mobilization is essentially a one-time effort and is not conducive to a long-term war of resistance.

For the past two months, Zheng Yi certainly would not waste this precious time. In areas outside Kedah, he established a total of 41 "guerrilla centers" of various sizes throughout the Malaya region, headed by Captain Lai and assisted by Yang Shaomin, mainly composed of Hakka and Qiongzhou people.

The terrain of the Malay Peninsula is characterized by many mountains and jungles, and the deep mountains and forests are actually very suitable for guerrilla warfare.

Because Zheng Yi came here to fight guerrilla warfare from the beginning, he stored as much food, ammunition, etc. as possible in the strongholds. The strongholds themselves were all in secret areas in the mountains and forests, and there were only a dozen people in each stronghold.

Generally there were only three or four families. The men stayed in the stronghold ready to fight the Japanese invaders at any time, while the women and children had already been sent to Penang and given special care.

Because there are not many Chinese left on the Malay Peninsula now, most of them are Malays. When the Japanese come, no one knows whether these people will turn against the Japanese or whether they have the potential for guerrilla warfare.

The task Zheng Yi gave them was to win over as many potential anti-Japanese elements as possible to disrupt and sabotage the Japanese army and learn about the base in the Taihang Mountains.

In short, the only thing left to do is to prevent the Japanese from ruling Malaya from coming to an end.

As long as Penang is still there, Zheng Yi can provide them with support at any time and provide them with additional manpower when necessary.

At least life should be much better than in the Taihang Mountain base in China.

Don't forget, the Malay Peninsula is good in every way except that it cannot be self-sufficient in food.

During the British colonial period, Malaya had to import rice from Siam every year. Now that the Japanese have come, the food production in the Malay Peninsula will certainly be greatly damaged.

Kedah is the largest grain production base in the entire Malay Peninsula, and Kedah is now in Zheng Yi's hands. It will not be so easy for the Japanese army to capture Alor Setar.

He has also ordered that all rice fields in Kedah and even Perlis be harvested early and not planted later.

In other words, Zheng Yi estimated that the food gap in Malaya as a whole will exceed 50% in the next two years at least.

As we all know, Malays don't have much money.

If there is a 50% food gap, the price of food will rise to the point where 50% of people cannot afford it no matter what. However, in any region, once it really reaches the point where 50% of people are about to starve to death, there is no point in ruling it.

Of course, the Japanese army could also buy rice from Thailand, or transport some rice from French India.

But the problem is that the landlord has no surplus food.

One of the important purposes of the Japanese's invasion of Southeast Asia was to seize rice. Japan was waiting for rice, the battlefield in North China was waiting for rice, and the battlefield in Central China was waiting for rice. Even now, after Ma Zhanshan returned to Heilongjiang, even the three northeastern provinces have found it difficult to provide Japan with a stable source of rice.

You must know that although the Japanese army has made smooth progress and crushed the enemy in Southeast Asia recently, its domestic situation has instead risen because of the United States' unconditional loan assistance and the direct participation of its air force in the war.

The Southeast Asian War basically occurred at the same time as the Third Battle of Changsha in China. Xue Yue, who received American aid, taught the arrogant Europeans and Americans a lesson, and China's international status was unprecedentedly improved.

After all, when China was independently resisting Japan, Europe and the United States didn't feel anything and just thought it was a fight between Asian weaklings.

Now, the 100,000-strong coalition force of the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Australia and France was being beaten badly by the Japanese army on Java Island, and their confidence had collapsed, while Xue Yue was showing his great power in Changsha.

The contrast is too strong.

Only then did Europeans and Americans realize that I was actually a newbie?
In order to boost morale, the United States and Britain had to publicize China's war of resistance, especially the Changsha Defense War that was going on at the same time, and told the domestic people: You see, the Japanese are actually not that great, they can't even beat China.

He preached to his soldiers: Look at the Chinese, look at Xue Yue, and then look at you. As civilized white people, aren't you ashamed? Are you embarrassed? Muster up the courage to fight them. Are we inferior to the Chinese army?
Naturally, the aid from Britain and the United States will only increase, as the Yunnan-Burma Railway has not been lost yet.

With the transfer of elite troops to Southeast Asia, it will become increasingly impossible for the Japanese army to break the stalemate on the domestic battlefield. The half of the country occupied by Japan still cannot achieve positive benefits for Japan. On the contrary, it still needs continuous transfusions from the Japanese army.

So in this situation, can the Japanese army really waste precious food to feed the people of the Malay Peninsula?

Why is Zheng Yi so unconvinced?

Currently, there are very few Chinese people on the entire Malay Peninsula, except for Alor Setar and Penang. It is impossible for the Japanese to divert ethnic conflicts as they did in history.

Historically, after Japan occupied Malaya, it ruled Malaya by instigating ethnic conflicts, such as disguising themselves as Chinese to slaughter pigs in Malay temples, and recruiting Malays as puppet soldiers to encircle and suppress Chinese volunteers.

Although there were some conflicts between the Malay and Chinese communities during the British colonial period, they were at most just disliking each other. The Japanese messed things up, and after Japan's surrender, the two communities were almost mortal enemies.

The deep-seated contradiction involved is actually food.

Malaya could not be self-sufficient in food, and the Japanese had to eat it, so naturally the remaining food would be eaten by the Chinese if the Malays ate more, and by the Malays if the Chinese ate more.

In this time and space, there are almost no Chinese people on the Malay Peninsula except in Alor Setar.

See how you divert your conflicts.

He really didn't believe it. Could the Japanese give food to the Malays, or could the Malays be so cheap that they would starve to death and serve as puppet soldiers for the Japanese?
Based on this natural condition and regional characteristics that Malaya could not be self-sufficient in food, Zheng Yi formulated a very simple and crude battle plan for the Malayan guerrillas, which was called the "Rice Operation".

The main task was not to let them take guns and fight the Japanese devils, but to let them take money and collect food from the Malay villagers in the village.

Try to get as much rice as possible, as there is already a shortage of at least half of it, and send it to the base.

Buy grain at high prices!

Of course, they could also attack the Japanese army’s grain warehouses by setting fires, dropping bombs, etc.

In short, the focus of the battle revolved around food and avoiding direct combat with the Japanese army as much as possible.

He really didn't believe it. How could the Japanese rule Malaya under such circumstances? How could the Malays, who were almost starving to death and couldn't afford to eat, not resist?
The second strategic goal was naturally to use the food in the base to recruit soldiers from various Malay villages and destroy the Thai-Malay railway.

In this case, even if the Japanese were willing to spend money to buy food from the Thais to feed the Malays (which should be unlikely), the food could not be transported without the railway.

As for sea transportation.

Penang does have an air force after all.

It is not easy to blow up a warship, but there will definitely be no problem in blowing up a merchant ship.

"Making Malaya another North China" was Zheng Yi's strategic goal, in order to reduce the pressure on the defense of Alor Setar and Penang. Of course, this way of fighting would indeed make the Malays on the Malay Peninsula suffer a bit.

If nothing unexpected happens, some people will indeed starve to death.

But this is not Zheng Yi's fault. If you want to hate someone, hate the Japanese.

If you hate the Japanese, then pick up a crowbar and go tear up the railway with our Hakka brothers!

Perfect closed loop.

In addition, before letting them go into the ravine, Zheng Yi personally ordered both Chinese and Indians to cut the last batch of rubber.

After Patani decided to abandon the city, Zheng Yi ordered all plantations in Malaya to be set on fire.

Any losses will be noted first and Penang will compensate them later.

The Chinese in Southeast Asia have been eating rubber for more than a hundred years. Rubber was originally the biggest reliance of the Chinese in Southeast Asia for survival, the lifeline of countless families, and the rubber forests that were passed down from generation to generation by countless Chinese. But all of them were burned down in less than three days.

Some of the rubber plantations are old forests left over from a hundred or two hundred years ago. They are ancestral properties that people would rather die than sell, and they are the lifeline of countless families.

A big fire destroyed everything.

Fortunately, there is Zheng Yi in Nanyang in this time and space.

Historically, half of the Chinese in Malaysia depended on rubber for their livelihood.

At this time, most of the Malaysian Chinese were concentrated in Penang. Rubber, at least the planting of natural rubber, actually only accounted for a small part of the Chinese industry.

Although burning down all the rubber plantations caused considerable pain to the entire Chinese community, it did not cause serious economic damage.

You should know that if the rubber tree is replanted, it usually takes about 6-8 years before tapping can begin.

After the Japanese army occupied Malaya, they had no chance of getting half a ton of rubber!

There's still a fucking shortage of food.

Apart from a little tin ore, they can't get anything.

No, Zheng Yi also planned to use the bombers in Penang to bomb the main roads in Malaya, so that the Japanese could not even transport the tin ore out.

No one in this world knows the location of tin mines better than the Malay Chinese.

Anyway, Penang can produce its own gunpowder, and the production cost of aerial bombs is not high. My bombers will not bomb any military facilities, not even key civilian facilities. I will bomb the roads. How can you Japanese defend against it?
The Japanese will get nothing on the Malay Peninsula except shit on their hands.

Zheng Yi didn't know how to fight, so he left it all to the soldiers on the front line.

But when it comes to fighting economic battles, Zheng Yi is very good at it.

........................

the other side.

Just when the Japanese army finally broke through Pattani and began to sweep towards the Malay Peninsula, the whole of Southeast Asia was trembling under the iron hoof of the Japanese army.

The 100,000-strong Allied force of the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Australia retreated to the Dutch East Indies. Faced with the brutal Japanese army, they were defeated again and again. In the end, they had no fighting spirit at all. They were completely defeated and surrendered, completely exposing the weakness of the British Empire.

On the Philippine battlefield, General MacArthur could not resist the frenzied attack of the Japanese army and chose to abandon Luzon Island and withdraw from Manila. All US troops retreated to the Bataan Peninsula and continued to fight stubbornly.

Objectively speaking, although General MacArthur could not be considered a famous general, the American army, which had no war experience at that time, was indeed inferior in combat effectiveness when facing the ferocious Japanese army.

But at least General MacArthur really took on the challenge, and the US-Philippines coalition forces really fought, and they fought very hard. There were many battles where one man fought to the last man, and some had the courage to fight the Japanese with bayonets.

Even if they were beaten back step by step and lost all their naval and air superiority, at least they could retreat to the Bataan Peninsula.

This thing is afraid of comparison. Although Marshal Mai’s battle cannot be said to be very beautiful, at least compared with the British army, it can be said that he was possessed by the god of war.

What the hell is that British army?

The women in China are better at fighting than them.

After the fall of Pattani, Yamashita Tomoyuki's opponent was once again the British army, which was leading the Japanese army on bicycles to sweep across the Malay Peninsula except Alor Setar like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

On the other side, Hong Kong Island, the so-called Eastern Macedonia...

None of them are as strong as the hymen.

1.4 British troops were basically just 1.4 pieces of trash in front of Japan.

The Dongjiang Column, composed of local Chinese, fought and retreated, resisting stubbornly until it retreated to the Stanley area, where it was on the verge of its end.

"Whoo~"

Wang Qiaoyun took a long puff of her cigarette, took off her helmet, shook her wet hair, and wiped the sweat off her hair vigorously with a handkerchief.

"We're out of ammunition and food... Haha, it looks like I'll soon be sacrificing my life for my country. Sigh~, I wonder if that damned guy would be sad if he knew I was dead, tsk."

In the end, Wang Qiaoyun still couldn't escape.

In fact, she never thought of escaping.

Why would he run away? To continue being the so-called general manager?

After all, she and Zheng Yi had a relationship that went beyond friendship before she left, and after that she had no intention of going back.

When she goes back, how will she face that dead guy?

Li Jiazhi is her best friend.

She is a rich lady and the daughter of the leader of the overseas Chinese community in Qiongzhou. Could she possibly be his concubine?
What a fucking joke.

It would be better to die.

Give your life for your country and die well.

Also good.

Many people know about her relationship with Zheng Yi. After the organization was destroyed, she relied on this relationship to temporarily act as the backbone of the volunteer army. She even relied on this relationship to seize a lot of military equipment from the British before the British surrendered.

Zheng Yi's reputation is still quite effective among the British, and the Chinese in Hong Kong also recognize him.

This also made Wang Qiaoyun feel that it was more valuable for him to stay in Hong Kong Island than to return to Penang.

When she returned, she was nothing more than a pilot. She knew that Penang had already formed its own air force and did not need a pilot like her.

However, Hong Kong Island really lacks a nominal leader who can connect with Southeast Asia.

She had already made up her mind to stay in Stanley and fight an urban guerrilla war with the Japanese devils, fighting them to the death.

Damn it, he volunteered to serve the National Government, but the government didn't accept female soldiers. Now that the government has run away, he is able to lead soldiers by relying on his identity as Zheng Yi's woman.

"Sister, sister, big sister, someone is looking for you."

"Looking for me? Who is it, and why did you find Stanley?"

As he was speaking, two middle-aged men came forward, each clasping their fists and bowing. "Excuse me, is this Wang Qiaoyun from Penang, Sister Wang?"

Wang Qiaoyun nodded: "Who are you two?"

"I am from the Hongmen clan, Black Bone Ren."

"I am Du Yuesheng from the Qing Gang, but I have something I would like to ask Sister Yun for help with."

(End of this chapter)