Beiyang reactionaries

"Correct."

Wavell nodded.

Looking at Mountbatten's face, he was very surprised.Unexpectedly, this general who came out of the navy has such a vision in politics, and he immediately saw the problem.So Wavell said: "Those earth-states want to establish their own independent countries, rather than being subordinate to India. The kings of the earth-states also want to be the kings of newly independent countries, not kings who obey the orders of the Indian government. Including the whole country The Indian Muslim League, they want to establish an Islamic country. As early as a year and a half ago, their party had already passed the 'Pakistan State-building Program'. There is also the Akali Party, which is a party established by the Sikhs. They believe in Sikhs. The Sikhs are the most warlike nation in India. They originally followed the Congress Party, but recently the Akali Party has also proposed the idea of ​​independent nation building, to establish an independent 'Akali country'. But the Congress Party did not agree with these. The Congress Party demanded the establishment of a unified India. The state, the All India Muslim League, and the Akali Party all stated that as long as we agree with their idea of ​​an independent country, they are willing Send people to fight. These people are very powerful and can provide us with direct troops and a large number of soldiers. So their request makes me very embarrassed."

"They're all white-eyed wolves."

Mountbatten sighed.

Now is the most difficult time for Britain, and these bastards took the opportunity to raise conditions.And the timing of the conditions is really very appropriate.

"But we need the support of these people now. But it still depends on the result of the Imphal battle. If we can hold Imphal, then the situation will be much better. But once we lose on the battlefield, these people don't say they support us , Maybe they will find the Japanese. Just like that Chandra Bose. Once these people fall to the Japanese, it will have a huge blow to the strategy of the empire."

"The issue is indeed complex."

Both of them were helpless.

"Marshal, General."

Lieutenant General Skunas, the commander of the No.11 Army, walked in with an ugly expression on his face.He said directly: "Dhaka was captured by the Japanese army."

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"Dhaka was captured by the Japanese."

"what?"

Both Wavell and Mountbatten were taken aback.

Especially Mountbatten, who has just taken up the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Allied Forces.Mountbatten took over this position when the situation in India and Myanmar was at its most critical, and he came to India to turn the tide.When he came to take office, the Battle of Myitkyina was over, and the British and Indian troops suffered heavy casualties.And Japan has already launched the Battle of Imphal.Together with the Indian National Army, 15 troops rushed into India aggressively.

But even so, how could Dhaka?

Especially Dhaka, where the 11th Division of the 17th Army of the British and Indian Army is stationed.Although the 11th Group Army was established later, the 17th Division has tens of thousands of people, and its weapons and equipment are not too bad.It's only been a few days, and Japan didn't even seriously attack Dhaka before, so why is Dhaka falling so fast here.

"What happened? Could it be that the Japanese army used gas bombs again?"

Mountbatten asked.

"No."

Skunas, the commander of the 11th Army, shook his head and said: "The 11th Army of the British and Indian Army was established relatively late, so the grassroots officers are all native Indians. They are all officers who have received professional training. There is nothing professional about being a grassroots officer. Question. But many of these people are from the Congress Party. This time Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army’s first and second armies to land in Chittagong, and had a great influence in this area. Many local state leaders and tribal leaders have visited Chandra Bose. Many officers of the 17th Division have some relationship with Chandra Bose. Some troops of the 17th Division mutinied this morning, and Japanese troops and Indian nationals outside the city The army cooperated with the outside and hit the 17th Division by surprise. As a result, the 17th Division was beaten out, and the 17th Division has only gathered less than 2000 people. There is no news from the 17th Division Commander Johnson, and he may have been captured by the Japanese army.”

Skunas explained what happened in Dhaka.

Although they are all part of the establishment of the British and Indian Army, the situation is not exactly the same.Like the 14th Army and the 16th Army of the British and Indian Army, they were all troops that began training before Japan and the United Kingdom developed the war.Many of the officers in their troops are directly served by British officers.These British officers have all received rigorous professional training, and their professional capabilities far exceed those of Indian local officers.

While a British officer serves as a troop officer, there will be some running-in issues.In particular, Indian military officers looked down on those Indians and treated Indians differently, resulting in many conflicts.

But these do not affect the professional ability of these British officers.

The fact that the 14th and 16th armies can have such combat effectiveness has something to do with British officers.Of course, in order to appease the Congress Party and other powerful Indian factions, the British also promoted many local Indian officers in the 14th Army and 16th Army.

But the 10th Army and the 11th Army of the British Indian Army are completely different.

Because these two armies were formed in a hurry later, only the high-level officers were British.Most of the junior officers are native Indians.These people, too, are professionally trained, but the more educated they become, the more nationalist they become.This is an unsolvable thing.

These colonial governments hope that the people in the colonies will always be ignorant and always listen to them.But this kind of thing is not what you want to do.Unless the colonial government has not allowed the colony to develop.

As long as the colony is allowed to develop a little bit, education must be the first to develop.And those who are educated will be dissatisfied with the situation of the country and become nationalists.The same is true for these grassroots officers of the British Indian Army.

Young people, educated, many of them became members of the Congress Party, and they all joined the national liberation movement.Because the British and the Congress Party reached a cooperation agreement, the United Kingdom promised the Congress Party to support India's independence after the war, and the Indian Congress Party was willing to support the war between the British and the Japanese army.Therefore, these young members of the National Congress Party are still very brave on the battlefield.

If there was no problem before.But the problem now is that Chandra Bose is here.Chandra Bose returned to India with his troops, which made many people feel loose.After all, Chandra Bose is one of the leaders of the Indian National Liberation Movement and has a high prestige among young members of the Indian National Congress.If not, he would not have become Congress President either.During the election of the Congress Party chairman, Chandra Bose was elected as the Congress Party chairman with a high number of votes, more than 200 votes more than the candidates put forward by Gandhi and others, which is completely crushing.The influence of Chandra Bose in the Congress party at that time can be seen.It's just that Chandra Bose's claim was refuted by the conservatives of the Congress Party.

Especially Gandhi disliked Chandra Bose very much.

In the Central Committee of the Congress Party, that is, the Executive Committee of the Congress Party, most of the people are conservatives headed by Gandhi.Gandhi took the lead against Chandra Bose and threatened to resign.The result was that all but one of the entire Congress executive committee announced their resignations.What they mean is simple, as long as Chandra Bose remains as Congress President, then they will not reinstate him.The result was that Chandra Bose was directly forced to lose the Congress Party chairmanship.

Because the senior members of the Congress Party are all from the so-called Indian elite, and they all belong to a group of people with money and power in their families.They are very opposed to Chandra Bose's radical national liberation ideas, including the reconstruction of India, land reform, and national industrialization policies.

Because of this, Chandra Bose left the Congress Party and formed the Forward Group, and a large number of Congress Party radicals joined the Forward Group.The Congress Party headed by Gandhi also directly expelled Chandra Bose from the Congress Party membership for this crime.

But don't look at Chandra Bose being expelled from the party, but it does not mean that the grassroots members of the Congress Party do not support Chandra Bose.On the contrary, among the youth members of the Congress Party, Chandra Bose has no fewer supporters than Gandhi.That's it this time.

The 17th Division had a large number of Congress Party youth members who supported Chandra Bose.

"This this……"

Wavell couldn't help walking up and down.

The situation is more serious than imagined.With the loss of Dhaka, the troops of the 11th Army of the British and Indian Army were completely separated from east to west.The situation on Imphal's side will be more difficult.

"Chandra Bose is here, this is definitely not a good thing. He was supposed to form the Interim Government of Free India in Singapore, and now he has come to India to form his Interim Government of Free India in India. This affects It's too bad. There will be many people defecting to him, and we must solve this problem as soon as possible."

Wavell has been in India for some time and is well aware of Chandra Bose's influence in India.

Since Chandra Bose formed the Interim Government of Free India, his army has expanded rapidly.At present, the Indian National Army under him has about 11 people, a total of 6 armies.

This time he entered India with the Japanese army and only brought the first and second armies.Now that Dhaka has been captured by the Japanese army, Wavell can fully imagine that the Indian National Army will inevitably flood into India on a large scale.The current situation in India is already unfavorable to Britain. If Chandra Bose floods India with [-] troops, the situation will definitely get worse.I don't know how many young people will go to Chandra Bose.

"Marshal, this is not acceptable."

Mountbatten got serious.

Looking at the map, he frowned and said: "Marshal, the Far East Army can no longer continue to march at this speed. Within half a month, the Far East Army must come to Calcutta within half a month to participate in the counterattack. After the Japanese army occupied Dhaka, It is inevitable that more troops will be sent to Dhaka. We are in Kolkata and only have the 19th and 25th divisions. Since the 17th division has problems, there is no guarantee that they will not have problems. To stabilize the current situation, The Far East Army must come over as soon as possible."

"I immediately sent a telegram to London, asking them to urge the Far East Army again."

Wavell was also angry.

The Far East Army has too many problems.It has been a long time, and the troops have not arrived at the scheduled location.But the battlefield waits for no one, if they procrastinate like this, Wavell must punish them.

"Marshal, are there any troops that can be mobilized at present?"

"Have."

Dhaka was lost, and Wavell was really anxious.So he immediately said: "We have the 2.6th Indian Independent Brigade in Agra, the 5th Indian Independent Brigade in Jhansi, and the 5st Nepalese Division in Nepal. The only troops I can mobilize right now are these three troops, which add up to about It is about [-] people. I will assign them all to you. Five days, within five days, these troops will arrive in Calcutta."

"it is good."

Although there are only 2.6 people, it is enough.

Especially the 19st Division of Nepal, you can tell that it is a Nepalese army just by its name.Although Mountbatten had just arrived in India, he had also heard that the Gurkhas in Nepal were brave and good at fighting, and their combat effectiveness was very strong.Together with the 25th and 11th divisions currently in Calcutta, and the troops directly under the 7th Army, there are about [-] troops under command.

"General Mountbatten, Calcutta will be handed over to you. I will go back and have re-negotiations with various Indian states, as well as the All-India Muslim League and the Akali Party."

Wavell originally wanted to delay for a while.