Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 168 Light Infantry Thoughts from the Pearl Party
"Can film change the mode of warfare?"

George, the father of film, looked confused. How could he not know what role film could play in the military field?

All he could think of was some high-performance cameras that could be used for reconnaissance by reconnaissance aircraft.

This thing can't be used to kill enemies.

Zheng Yi explained: "When people pay attention to war, their first reaction is often to focus on weapons, especially the research of new weapons. When they are first unveiled on the battlefield, they often have miraculous effects."

"However, I have always believed that any weapon, as long as you are familiar with its performance, will always have a chance to deal with it. Conversely, people are the key factor that truly determines the direction of war and victory, especially the army."

"people?"

George didn't know much about war, but he felt that what Zheng Yi said made some sense, so he nodded, not quite understanding.

In fact, the development of camera technology had a far greater impact on the war than people imagined. Seeing that they and the Japanese army were likely to engage in close combat at the Kra Isthmus, Zheng Yi's need for a camera became urgent.

Zheng Yi's goal is to have his portable cameras distributed to at least the platoon level.

The camera is off duty, this is the king of modern light infantry that he admired most in his previous life, the tactics of the Pearl Party.

Before 2002, the Pearl Party relied on this trick to drive the arrogant Middle Eastern bully out of Lebanon, and twenty years later became the bully's mortal enemy.

Since the 1980s, when the Pearl Party was short of guns and artillery, it launched an activity to send camera reporters off duty, and almost every combat team was equipped with a camera reporter.

Exclusive interviews with soldiers can be filmed before the battle, and the bravery of the soldiers can be filmed during the battle. After the war, veterans can review and instruct new recruits, which can be used as various training materials.

The simplest thing is that with cameras in the class unit and cameramen specifically responsible for filming, the probability of deserters will be greatly reduced, especially for people like Zheng Yi, who has a child in his family and is usually paid a high salary.

When people face the camera, they will naturally feel more ashamed and behave more bravely. The Pearl Party relied on this trick to become the king of light infantry.

Of course, this trick is not very useful for those able-bodied men who are not paid or who are subject to a conscription system with very low pay, as they can feel at ease to desert.

What many people don’t know is that the salary of the Pearl Party soldiers is generally more than $2000 a month, which is an extremely high salary in Lebanon.

A high salary plus a cameraman, this thing is better than an ordinary political commissar, and it is exactly what Zheng Yi is more suitable to learn.

Being a political commissar is too high-end a job for Zheng Yi.

Secondly, of course, cameras and video cameras can be used to undermine enemy morale, influence international public opinion, and even affect the enemy's strategic deployment.

Public pressure is actually useful, and videos and photos of killing or kidnapping enemy soldiers can also be used for propaganda.

The Pearl Party in the 1980s and 1990s put pressure on Israel by mailing videos and photos of killings, injuries, and kidnappings to Israeli military media, thus hindering the fighting on the front lines.

Especially kidnapping.

Send the videotape directly to the TV station and the soldier's family, and tell them whether you will save him or not.

It is certain that it will be blocked, but it is difficult to block this kind of thing. The soldiers' families will take the initiative to take the bait and look for this kind of thing like crazy.

With Zheng Yi's ability to infiltrate Japanese society, he is at least certain that his photos can be widely circulated within Japanese society.

Of course, video recording is more difficult.

The anti-Japanese strategy Zheng Yi formulated for himself was not to kill them with real swords and guns on the front battlefield. He now made a large-scale calculation and the population he could control and influence was only more than 10 million. Facing a Japan with a population of over 100 million including the Korean Peninsula and Manchukuo, the size gap was too obvious.

And he couldn't bear to see people die.

Instead, they hope to detonate Japan's internal society through economic warfare, political warfare, public opinion warfare, and various pressures.

Militarism is actually a paper tiger, what is the bullshit Bushido spirit? Through the later decryption of Zheng Yi, he clearly knew how great the social pressure in Japan was in the later period.

Zheng Yi believes that the photo offensive and the Voice of Freedom's public opinion offensive will greatly shorten the duration of the battle and even reduce the intensity of the war on the front line.

I heard that the reason why they were able to seize a heavy battleship so smoothly this time was largely due to the fact that some Japanese marines in the Japanese Navy listened to the Voice of Japan's Freedom and turned against them on the spot after hearing that they were going to Penang.

Moreover, based on the experience of the Lebanon-Israel War, this pressure of public opinion will definitely be transferred to the middle-level officers commanding the front lines.

There is no perfect command in this world, and any command will have loopholes. With the video, public opinion will seize the loopholes of those front-line commanders. No matter what the problem is, it will often end up being attributed to the four words "command error."

Even if there is really no command error, you can still try to guide it in this direction. After all, ordinary people don’t know shit about command.

For the families of soldiers who died in battle, would you rather believe that your husband died on the battlefield because he was unlucky and his military skills were not strong enough, or because he had a stupid commander who gave him the wrong combat orders?
There may not necessarily be any substantial punishment, but the huge pressure from public opinion, and even the subordinates' questioning of their superiors' command capabilities, can greatly affect the front-line command. This is where the so-called "no casualties in the IDF" comes from.

Sometimes it is not necessarily that the soldiers are afraid of death, but that the commanders are afraid to let the soldiers take risks. When they really have to take risks, the commander is often the first to go to the front and die first.

Then there’s no point in fighting this war.

Zheng Yi's troops would undoubtedly be primarily light infantry. Zheng Yi had money, but Penang was too small to allow him to produce tanks and armored vehicles on a large scale. Even if he were to buy them, he wouldn't be able to buy too many. Furthermore, he was preparing for a war in which all foreign aid would be cut off.

In addition, the terrain in Malaya is not flat, so it is better to specialize in light infantry. In fact, if the purpose is defense, the effect of light infantry is no worse than that of mechanized troops.

Therefore, we must learn from the advanced experience of the Pearl Party.

Of course, the cost would be too high. After all, it was the film era, and film was very expensive.

That's why Zheng Yi needed to lure Kodak to build a factory in Penang together. He also wanted to use film base materials to invest in the company, so that the cost of film could be greatly reduced.

Those waste films that have little value can be recycled in a unified manner. With a film factory, the waste film recycling rate will definitely be high, which can further reduce the film cost, allowing Zheng Yi to achieve the same effect as the Pearl Party in the 30s in the 80s.

The third reason is, of course, his own selfish desire to leave more materials for future generations and his own children and grandchildren.

Wouldn’t this also be beneficial to Penang and myself, increasing their visibility after the war?

This kind of war theory is indeed a bit new to people of this era, and George really couldn't understand it for a while.

However, replacing traditional film bases with plastic film bases is actually a major trend that anyone can understand. It has great uses, whether for the portability of photography and videography, or for colorization.

Although other parts of the world have begun to gradually produce plastics and chemical fibers, not only have profits begun to decline, but Zheng Yi has also lost his monopoly advantage.

But there is no doubt that Zheng Yi is the scientist who knows the most about plastics in the world, and Penang is the most powerful industrial base for the application of plastic products.

Kodak is a unicorn with no rivals in the film industry, so of course it has to find the best material suppliers to cooperate with.

Zheng Yi's asking price is not high, the tax in Penang is low, the foreign exchange control is almost zero, and it can also open up the Asian market. There is no reason for him not to build a factory in Penang.

I heard that the labor cost in Penang is a bit high now, much higher than that in the United States. However, the production and research and development of film are not labor-intensive industries.

This thing is still absolutely high-tech in this era.

The two of them were very happy at the same time. They were both the absolute authority to make the decision directly, and there was no need to discuss it with the board of directors. The investment was decided on the spot.

Zheng Yi provided technology and land in Penang, and promised George that the new film base material would never be provided to other film manufacturers.

In return, Zheng Yi himself will own 20% of Kodak's shares, and Kodak's total investment in the R&D center and film production plant in Penang will not be less than million US dollars.

In fact, it is not just Kodak. Zheng Yi is also talking to many companies in the United States and the United Kingdom. If he does not take advantage of the current sluggish US economy and the imperfect global trade rules, and use Penang's low taxes and rough foreign exchange controls to lure these multinational companies over, there will not be such a good opportunity since World War II.

The European and American governments are not stupid. The WTO has requirements for basic tax rates for all industries.

Since the deal was done, Zheng Yi and George were naturally in a better mood. They were both in the field of chemistry and business, so after a few drinks, they naturally had more common language and started chatting about all sorts of things.

George: "By the way, Mr. Zheng, do you know Ms. Dorothy Thompson?"

Zheng Yi: "I've heard of her, but I've never been lucky enough to meet her."

“I have good news for you. The Associated Press, the International News Service, and the National Broadcasting Corporation all want to open bureaus in Penang, and even consider making Penang a news hub in Asia.”

Zheng Yi nodded. Of course he knew this, and this was also one of the purposes of his visit to the United States.

Use the media and public opinion to expose the atrocities of the Japanese army and influence US policies.

George smiled and said, "I'm very familiar with Ms. Thomson. She admires you very much. I can introduce you to her. She has some ideas and wants to follow the National Broadcasting Corporation to Penang."

Zheng Yi: "Oh? Ms. Thomson is willing to settle in Penang?"

This should still be just an idea. Maybe she is still hesitating and plans to wait until she finishes the interview with Zheng Yi tomorrow.

But this was enough for Zheng Yi. Even if this woman just had such an idea, he was confident that he could fool her.

Dorothy Thomson, a famous American anchorwoman, news anchor for NBC and ace news commentator for the New York Herald Tribune
In this era, Mrs. Thomson is as famous as the wife of the American disabled man and is considered one of the two most influential women in American politics.

She has also appeared on the cover of Time magazine and is also a public opinion leader in the American feminist movement.

Of course, for Zheng Yi, he was not attracted by the beauty of this so-called beautiful anchor. Beauty had no appeal to him. The most important thing was that this woman, like him, was firmly against Nazism, isolationist policies, and the Neutrality Act.

If she could be tricked into going to Penang... You have to know that in history, after the German blitzkrieg on Poland, this woman actually broadcast non-stop for 15 days and nights in Poland, criticizing the US isolationism and forcing the US government to join the war.

It is highly likely that the Japanese will attack the Isthmus of Kra after he returns. Even if this woman can produce half the strength of what was reported in Poland in history, he can be sure to bring the United States down earlier than in history.

The United States actually has no interests in Eastern Europe, but they do have interests in Asia and Southeast Asia.

"Thank you very much, Mr. George."

(End of this chapter)