The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 661 Zhang Chi: Let the neon burn!

Ryukyu Islands, Naha Port.

The bay that was once filled with blue waves has now completely transformed into a huge, noisy and efficiently operating war hub.

At the dock, the gantry crane is like a giant steel arm, rising and falling tirelessly.

Transport ships weighing tens of thousands of tons are moored tightly at the berths. Thick oil pipelines are like giant pythons, connecting huge oil storage tanks on the shore with the ship's cabins, pumping black and gold fuel into their bellies continuously.

But what is even more eye-catching is another scene.

Thousands of standard military oil drums were neatly stacked by workers like building blocks into small hills, reflecting a dim light in the sun.

These are the blood of the Nanyang Expeditionary Force's continued combat in the future.

Next to these oil drums are boxes of wooden cargo boxes marked with special symbols, which everyone has to be extremely careful when handling.

On the box, the eye-catching flame logo and the words "Napalm - Extremely Dangerous" silently declare their destructive connotations.

"Hurry, move faster. The 'Raging Wave' at berth three is waiting to unload!"

The foreman wearing a red hard hat shouted with a tin horn.

Although his voice was hoarse, he still shouted hard amid the noisy roar of machinery and the clamor of people.

With astonishing efficiency, the engineers and logistics troops in Southeast Asia unloaded and sorted the supplies shipped from the mainland, and then stored some of them locally in underground or semi-underground ammunition and fuel depots that were hastily built along the coastline and covered with camouflage nets.

The other part was directly transferred to landing ships prepared for attacking the Japanese mainland.

This is the first time since Nanyang became an independent country that such a large-scale and fully functional forward military base has been operated thousands of kilometers away from the mainland.

Every link is a new challenge.

In addition to the smell of the sea and fuel, there seemed to be a subtle sense of tension in the air, caused by the strangeness and enormity.

-----

This sense of tension also exists in the War Situation Room of the Ministry of Defense's Operations Department 1 in Yangon.

The Ministry of National Defense building is a newly built four-story reinforced concrete building equipped with central air conditioning. The office conditions can be said to be first-class at this point in time 45 years.

This war room, which had just been renovated, had dense communication lines and various maps and charts covered almost every inch of the wall.

Staff officers walked hurriedly, and the sound of telephones ringing and telegraph machines ticking came one after another.

Several senior staff officers in charge of logistics and operations gathered around the sand table, frowning slightly, and were checking the final material allocation and transportation schedule.

Although carefully planned, the margin for error in carrying out such a long-distance, high-intensity, multi-service joint operation is extremely low, and any omission in any link could lead to catastrophic consequences.

"What's going on? Everyone looks so serious." A relaxed voice broke the solemnity in the command room.

Everyone turned around and saw Zhang Chi walked in at some point.

He was wearing an ordinary summer uniform of the Nanyang Army, with a calm smile on his face that seemed to be able to resolve all difficulties.

"Commander-in-chief." Everyone stood at attention immediately.

"Relax, everyone relax." Zhang Chi waved his hand casually, walked to the sand table, and swept his eyes over the large map that marked the Ryukyu Islands and the southern part of the Japanese mainland.

"It's just the first time we've set up a large logistics base thousands of kilometers away. Everything has a first time, so don't be nervous."

He picked up his baton and gently tapped the area on the map representing Naha Port:

"Our workers can build new cities on the plains, and our engineers can build airports in the rain forest.

Now, it is nothing more than moving this set of skills to the Ryukyu Islands.

I believe in your abilities and the resilience of our Nanyang system."

His relaxed tone seemed as if he was talking about a trivial matter rather than a huge project involving hundreds of thousands of troops and the direction of the entire war.

This calmness, which made light of a heavy task, was like a breeze, quietly blowing away the anxiety that permeated the command center.

Then, Zhang Chi changed the subject and pointed his baton across the blue ocean on the map, landing heavily on the Neon Islands, especially those areas densely marked with cities and industrial areas.

"Since the Japanese don't want to be decent, then we will help them be decent." His voice was steady, and in the tone of discussing what to eat this afternoon, he made the decision to carry out a large-scale bombing of the Japanese homeland.

"I will contact the Air Force General Staff. A large-scale airstrike plan must be immediately followed up and given the highest priority."

He looked around at every general and senior staff officer present, his eyes sharpening:

"Since they chose 'silent killing', we will use fire and explosions to make them hear the noise.

With Ryukyu as our base, our bomber fleet can cover all important targets in the southern part of the Japanese mainland, especially Kyushu and western Honshu."

With Ryukyu as a springboard only 600km away from Kyushu, both B-17 and B-29 can easily bomb the Japanese industrial clusters such as Kyushu, Shikoku, and Osaka Plain.

Zhang Chi paused, a cold smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and his tone even had a hint of joking:

"We can't let General Li May handle the 'cremation' task on Neon Island all by himself.

We in Nanyang should also help out and do our part.”

The darkly humorous term "cremation mission" and the metaphor of the brutal strategic bombing as "helping out" relaxed the solemn atmosphere in the command room. Several generals couldn't help but laugh softly, and then their eyes were filled with a burning desire to fight.

"clear."

The staff officer in charge of arranging the bombing mission immediately straightened his back and responded loudly, "We will immediately complete the fire attack plan, focusing on the Japanese's urban wooden buildings, small and medium-sized military factories and transportation nodes.

Taking advantage of the range of the Ryukyu base, we will make the Japanese night sky brighter than the day."

Zhang Chi nodded with satisfaction.

Rubber, petroleum and sugar are all local specialties of Southeast Asia.

Nanhua Chemical Plant is working at full capacity to produce napalm bombs using these raw materials.

The two strategic bomber divisions of the Nanyang Air Force are making final preparations before transferring.

If there is a limit to this fire attack, Zhang Chi hopes it is "enough".

------

On the coast of Ryukyu, there is a temporary camp of the White Eagle Army consisting of dark green tents.

The afternoon sun was a bit scorching, and the air was filled with a mixture of dust and sweat.

Several White Eagle soldiers who had just been relieved of their duties were sitting around a simple table made of ammunition boxes, playing crumpled playing cards.

The chips were a few packs of Lucky Strike cigarettes and a few Hershey's chocolate bars.

"Call, add another one." The private nicknamed "Big Joe" threw out a piece of chocolate with a smug smile on his face.

"Damn, Joe, you're so damn lucky today." Tom sitting opposite him threw down his cards angrily, stood up and prepared to pour a cup of coffee.