afterglow

Chapter 356 Gold!glorious victory
Under the dual military and psychological pressure, the generals of the Far East Command finally couldn't hold on.

Facing the aggressive but calm Ming army, a deep sense of powerlessness shrouded their hearts, and some weak-willed people even seemed to have lost their minds.

Arthur Ted reluctantly ordered a telegram to be sent to Batavia requesting permission to surrender.

"...The urban area is already within the range of enemy artillery, and our reserve of clean water only has one day's supply left. The commanders of various units reported that the soldiers are very tired and unable to defend against possible attacks... I think, continue There is no point in holding on to the defense and subjecting the city to losses and casualties..."

Arthur was quite shrewd in this regard. He did not directly ask London for instructions, because the officials would definitely not agree.

However, John Wyrick is not stupid - if I approve the surrender, won't it be bad luck for me if London pursues it?

He rejected the request and replied vaguely: "...continue to resist for a long time without sparing ammunition until there is no hope before considering armistice negotiations..."

But the chaotic situation has allowed the British generals in Singapore to consider it carefully, and the deadline set by the Ming army is approaching minute by minute.

Therefore, they decided to be ready to surrender first, and to end this meaningless battle immediately after the official permission order was issued.

Immediately, they sent envoys for preliminary consultations.

As for the nonsense about not sparing ammunition, the generals selectively ignored it - wouldn't daring to do this at the moment of surrender be tantamount to angering the opponent?

In the evening of March 3, three British negotiators got into a luxury car manufactured by Humber Company. They slowly passed through the rugged war zone and drove towards the unknown front.

The three people were led by Colonel Scott, the staff officer of the headquarters. When they passed through the Ming army's positions, they saw the scene of a busy meal collection. Each soldier was often carrying a lunch box for four or five people and walking towards the front line. .

Further back, there are mules and horses pulling carriages, trucks loaded with supplies, and large piles of ammunition, food, medicine, and fuel are being unloaded.

After the initial exchange, Qiu Peisheng was a little dissatisfied - these British people were already in a desperate situation, and they were still pretending to be reserved?
So Qiu Peisheng looked at the Ming army generals beside him, and then winked at Zhou.

Aren't you a kid who specializes in treating all kinds of dissatisfaction?Let's destroy the arrogance of these guys!

"This is not a suggestion, this is an urging. If you still want to continue fighting, then go ahead. Anyway, you will be wiped out in the end. But our patience is limited. If we delay for a few more days, you might have to go. Building roads in the jungles of Myanmar."

Zhou Changfeng knew very well that these Ziangsa people wanted to be tough, so he made it clear right away.

"Uh... we will consider it as soon as possible, but the Commander (Arthur) has no authority to order the laying down of weapons before obtaining permission from superiors." Colonel Scott replied helplessly.

"What's the point of explaining the reason to me?" Zhou Changfeng, with a calm expression, said lightly: "If you go to build roads in the jungles of Myanmar, you pampered generals will definitely not survive as long as the soldiers."

Before several British people could reply, he pretended to raise his hand to look at his watch, then stretched out his index finger to tap the dial, "There are still 25 hours, four and 10 minutes left, so hurry up."

The three British negotiators left in anger.

They informed the generals in the headquarters that the morale of the Ming army was good and the supply situation was good, which made everyone's already gloomy heart even darker.

The army was in decline, and the colonial authorities were also in constant panic.

Knowing that the generals were already considering surrender, Governor Roderick issued an executive order - to transfer all the gold reserves of the Bank of England's Singapore branch; to destroy the radio tower; and to destroy the printing templates for banknotes.

The situation was so urgent that no delay was allowed, and everything was carried out overnight.

Because there were many groups of armed expatriates active in the city, they attacked colonial military and police everywhere, causing the colonial authorities in the city to be overwhelmed.

Therefore, the British even specially transferred three Bren machine gun vehicles, two Vickers armored vehicles, and two New Zealand infantry platoons from the few remaining armored forces.

In the middle of the night, in an apartment building diagonally across from the Bank of England, several young Chinese people were holding cigarettes and playing poker to dispel the constant sleepiness.

They originally wanted to do a great job with those General Office agents, but in the end they were not assigned the job of attacking colonial soldiers and police on the streets with real swords and guns. They were only assigned to monitor the Bank of England.

Bored, they followed him for several days, and finally something happened.

"Good guy, look, look!"

"There are so many soldiers and horses guarding us, as if they are preparing to move things."

"I'm afraid so, call me quickly!"

After the phone call, they were so excited that they truthfully reported the current situation.

Time passed slowly, and the two agents from the Governor's Staff Office who learned the news arrived about a quarter of an hour later.

The young men cupped their hands and said excitedly: "Hurry! They seem to be finishing up soon!"

Everyone came to the window and carefully opened a little of the curtain.

Looking through the gap, I saw the bank building brightly lit and figures moving inside.

"That box is so heavy? Tsk tsk!"

The convoy outside was surrounded by heavily armed soldiers. Under the illumination of the street lights, one could clearly see people carrying heavy iron boxes.

Everyone immediately judged that those boxes must contain gold, and the British wanted to move it before Singapore was captured!
After a while, they returned to the intelligence station to report the situation.

Everyone unanimously decided that they would rather risk being captured by the radio direction finder than report the news.

In fact, their worries are somewhat unnecessary, because now the panic-stricken British have no time to track and eliminate them?
The next morning, as of 8:45, the Far East Command had sent seven consecutive telegrams to Batavia and Bandung, all of which were urging the issuance of orders to allow surrender.

Admiral John Wyrick, who had been awake all night due to excessive anxiety, looked a little scary at the moment - his hair was messy, his eyes were red and bloodshot, and his lips were chapped.

Finally, as if he had made a painful decision, he whispered a few words to the adjutant.

Not long after, the order that the generals of the Far East Command had been dreaming of finally arrived.

"...When the fighting becomes meaningless, the British Empire forces should cease the struggle to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, and Air Lieutenant General Arthur Ted has the right to decide to order a cessation of resistance and negotiate with the other party on behalf of the British armed forces...I Paying tribute to those who gave their lives in the brave resistance of the army over the past month..."

At this moment, many people couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.

A sense of relief emerged spontaneously, making them feel that the world seemed to become more glorious again.

While the surrender negotiations were being prepared in an orderly manner, seven bombers from the Second Light Bombing Detachment of the Ming Dynasty Air Force flew over Kallang Pier.

"The position is correct, but I didn't see the ship."

"Look again." "Oh! I saw it, west, at the far west of the pier."

The British cleverly hid the gold on an ordinary passenger ship, thinking it would be less likely to be detected -

On the contrary, the Chinese must have never imagined that the precious gold was not only not placed on the warship, but was instead hidden on such a civilian ship.

The Malayan Star passenger ship has a displacement of only [-] tons. It usually operates the route from Singapore to Pontianak. Now it has just completed adding coal and water. The oil-coal mixed-fired boiler has not yet produced enough steam to drive the triple-expansion steam engine. .

"Are you aiming right? Just throw it right away, don't miss it."

Each 250kg aerial bomb dropped from the sky is enough to cause a fatal blow to a light cruiser, let alone a mere passenger ship.

"Wh-wh-"

"boom!"

The poor Malaya Star was severely damaged by four near-misses, followed by a direct hit on the aft deck.

In just 4 minutes, it capsized to one side amid the raging fire, and the more than 1 ounces of gold sank to the seabed under the pier.

The operation to transfer the gold ended in failure, and now the British have no time to trace what went wrong.

The few civilian casualties caused by the Ming army's air strikes seemed to have become insignificant, because the negotiations were about to begin.

February 39, [-] AD, will undoubtedly be a historic day.

At 7:15 in the morning, Lieutenant General John Ted and six Far East Command generals arrived at the entrance of the Raffles Hotel on time in cars.

This is a large, elegantly decorated hotel where non-whites are not allowed to enter.

Although today's Western scholars have not yet debated whether Orientals are white, or do they have the same noble ancestry as the Romans?But at least here, the Singaporean authorities still arbitrarily use their own divisions - not counting!
Ah!This is the pride of the Empire in the Far East where the sun never sets, so what's wrong with going its own way?
But in the past, this grand hotel where only white people could see people, today had to respectfully welcome the arrival of the Ming army generals.

Yan Chenwu and Zhou Changfeng had been chatting happily over the past two days. The former's Second Marine Brigade performed fairly well, but the First Marine Brigade on the eastern front was too outstanding.

When entering, Yan Chenwu, who had always been reserved, stopped and glanced sideways at the manager, "Are we allowed in today?"

Zhou Changfeng, who couldn't laugh or cry, translated this sentence for him, and then asked seriously: "If it violates the regulations, we can start negotiations in another place."

You can imagine how embarrassed the manager is now, hesitating and not knowing what to say.

Qiu Peisheng, who had already entered the Raffles Hotel, turned around and saw this scene. He couldn't help but smiled and shook his head and said: "Two boys, young and energetic."

Immediately afterwards, he turned his head and asked the staff officer of the General Military Department beside him: "How is the situation of the Fourth Army? Isn't it here yet?"

The latter replied without hesitation: "I guess we can arrive tonight."

Because Fengjuanwanyun's progress in solving the Malayan Peninsula was faster than expected, the plan to conquer Borneo had to be advanced accordingly.

The lost soldiers and equipment of the Third Army will naturally need to be replenished; at the same time, the other Army will land directly at Lanfang, sweep across Borneo, and then attack Java Island.

The arrival of the British generals became the focus of the scene. They were immediately surrounded by reporters from local newspapers, and countless cameras and cameras were aimed at them to film frantically.

After taking a group of photos, some people began to squeeze out of the crowd, ran to their motorcycles, and went straight to the newspaper office.

The Far East Command and the commanders of each division were generally dressed in the same style, wearing earth-colored short-sleeved military uniforms, leather shoes, calf-length white socks, and large-brimmed hats.

Several generals still held small white flags in their hands. They were really embarrassed in front of everyone. The strong sense of shame made them lower their heads and speed up their pace.

The lobby on the first floor of the hotel has been cleared. Two rows of tables have been placed in the middle, covered with white cloth, and perforated wooden blocks have been placed for placing the national flag.

The process of the surrender ceremony is a bit complicated. After all, this is the first time we have not seen it in many years, and Ming Dynasty attaches great importance to it.

Zhou Changfeng didn't pay attention to these red tapes. He felt that the only meaningful thing was that the British generals presented their swords to the corresponding Ming generals.

The military band stood neatly on the side of the lobby and played "Fuyao".

Amidst the brisk and positive music, the British generals who were expressionless or depressed raised their swords with their backhands, pointing the sword tip diagonally downward towards themselves and the sword hilt diagonally towards the opponent.

Qiu Peisheng took over the sword of Lieutenant General Arthur Tedder.

Here, Major General Williams-Cliffe, commander of the British-Indian 9th Division, also handed over his sword, but Zhou Changfeng and Deng Siquan pushed each other away for a while, and in the end it was the latter who took it.

In view of the fact that he led the assault group to achieve almost all the results of the Eastern Front in this battle, Deng Siquan, who was supposed to be the commander of the Eastern Front, had almost no military exploits.

The limelight has been enough, and the real military exploits have been earned, so Zhou has no intention of taking away the remaining false fame.

Deng Siquan himself didn't care about this. He knew that he didn't need to compete with such a promising young man for credit, so he might as well be more generous.

After all, as long as the relationship is good, why worry about the future?This is the essence of being a human being.

About an hour later, the sound of gunfire along the entire front gradually became sparse, and then fell into silence.

At dusk, the urban area of ​​Singapore once again regained its former prosperity after the lights were lifted.

Citizens were also surprised to find that the water supply, which had been interrupted for two days, was restored.

The strategic location known as one of the four major fortresses in the world changed hands, and the British Empire was no longer in danger of defending in the Far East.

The brilliance of the Empire's Union Flag has been extinguished. From now on, the majestic glory of the past will turn into ashes and dissipate in the vast ocean.

In this fierce battle, the three armies of the Ming Dynasty suffered 3398 casualties and 7041 injuries, while the British Commonwealth army suffered 1.2 casualties and about 10 others were captured.

仅仅只是粗略的统计就足以证明缴获之丰厚——步枪6.2万支、轻重机枪2375挺、各种子弹410万发、各种汽车10023辆、装甲车和坦克328辆，以及大量的食品、药品、被服、帐篷、燃油、线缆、炸药等等物资。

The glorious victory was equivalent to submitting an excellent answer sheet for an exam. The Siamese minister immediately received instructions from Bangkok to start negotiating tribute and joining the war as soon as possible.

This was a landmark tactical victory, but it was not a strategic victory, because Ming's core goal was the more generous Nanyang Islands.

March towards the Borneo oil fields and the old port!
(End of this chapter)