New Prime Minister Attlee did not see the Chinese Ambassador to the UK with his own eyes. After listening to the white-faced Foreign Secretary recount the meeting, Attlee did not feel annoyed but instead considered whether this matter could be muddled through first.

After carefully considering the demands made by China, Attlee had to give up this possibility. If Britain withdrew all military personnel from Burma, and the administrative civil servants remaining there could not possess weapons, this would be tantamount to throwing the British civil servants to the wolves. Thinking that China would actually make such harsh demands, Attlee finally became a bit unhappy.

Looking at the white-faced Foreign Secretary, Attlee asked, "Secretary, why do you think China insists on colonial independence?"

Attlee came from the Labour Party and was considered a leftist in Britain. But the Labour Party cared about British workers, not colonial people. When safeguarding British colonial interests, Attlee's means were no gentler than Churchill's. So Attlee really couldn't understand why a tough leader like He Rui insisted on sacrificing the lives of Chinese soldiers for the happiness of the colonial people.

The Foreign Secretary actually couldn't quite understand He Rui's thinking either. He could only analyze it from an economic perspective. "The volume of trade between China and former colonial countries is very large. According to the Communist Party's propaganda, it is called common prosperity."

Attlee could understand economics, but he just couldn't understand why China wasn't afraid that former colonies would choose to challenge China after becoming strong. For China, wasn't the example of Japan deep enough? Judging from European standards, Sino-Japanese relations were simply baffling. Two countries so close to each other had not fought many wars in the past two thousand years. Most of the time they lived in peace. In the limited number of wars, it was Japan that took the initiative to attack China.

Japan's invasion of China after being the first to industrialize was something that happened within the last half-century. He Rui had liberated so many colonies, and every independent former colony might challenge China in the future. Was He Rui really not afraid?

But this question was not the most important one at the moment. Facing the imminent war, Attlee couldn't chicken out either. After consulting with the Foreign Secretary, he quickly made a decision. 1. Reject China's demands. 2. Expel the current Chinese Ambassador to the UK. 3. Downgrade diplomatic relations between China and Britain to the ministerial level. 4. Demand that China apologize for the barbaric behavior of its diplomatic personnel. 5. Condemn China's gross interference in Britain's internal affairs. 6. Warn the Chinese government that if China continued to pose military threats to Britain, Britain would definitely take action.

This series of work was completed on October 12. On the same day, the Chinese government, having received the news, expelled the current British Ambassador to China and downgraded Sino-British diplomatic relations. The Chinese government sent a telegram to the British government stating that China had always adhered to humanitarian policies, while Britain's consistent barbaric behavior had indeed broken through the bottom line of civilization recognized by the Chinese government. The Chinese government believed it had the obligation to reserve the right to take further action against such massacres that persecuted humanity.

At noon on October 13, Lower Burma local time, Aung San, the military commander of the "We Burmans Association," inspected the troops of the Burma National Army near Rangoon. These troops were all equipped with China's 1924 standard equipment: 7mm semi-automatic rifles, 7mm light machine guns, 11mm heavy machine guns, and 60mm mortars.

Although these weapons were old equipment, they were all well-maintained. Aung San graduated from Yangon University and later went to the Political Science Department of China's Beiping University of Political Science and Law for further studies. He knew that China's current standard equipment was vastly different from the 1924 standard equipment. Probably the only similarities were the 7mm rifle bullets and the 11mm general-purpose machine gun bullets. And China had as many of these old weapons in its arsenal as one could want.

Such differential treatment did not make Aung San feel unhappy. Aung San had seen China's new weapons; those armored vehicles made of steel required professional training to learn to use. At this stage, no one in the Burma National Army knew how to use them. The current soldiers of the Burma National Army were just ordinary soldiers who had received a few months of military training in the training camps on the border of Upper Burma and could hardly read a few words. These easy-to-operate light weapons and 60mm mortars were actually more suitable for the Burma National Army.

Facing these officers and soldiers of the Burma National Army who were already eager to try, Aung San said loudly through a megaphone, "Comrades, we are about to drive the aggressors out of our homeland. We have all seen with our own eyes what Upper Burma is like. Upper Burma's today is our tomorrow.

"As for the British planes and artillery, we don't need to be afraid. As long as we launch an attack on the British colonialists, the great Chinese comrades will soon send planes and artillery to help us. We are engaged in a just cause, and our cause will definitely succeed!"

These words had the flavor of greenwood heroes, but they completely suited the taste of the Burma National Army. These soldiers of the Burma National Army initially joined the resistance only out of anger at oppression. When training in the training camps, they also heard the ideological education of the political commissars in the army. Regarding discipline and such, the thoughts of the officers and soldiers could be gradually unified. But when talking about a beautiful future, everyone's ideas were widely divergent. Because these officers and soldiers of the Burma National Army came from different backgrounds, their standards for "good days" were completely different.

It was not until they personally visited cities, villages, plantations, and other places that the Burma National Army, amidst their surprise, finally gradually unified on the standard of what "good days" meant. In particular, these visits were not just once, but twice a month. They didn't just look at things casually; they were arranged to live in the homes of fellow villagers in these places and participate in some labor. They even received corresponding remuneration based on their daily labor results.

The standards of the Burma National Army gradually changed during these visits and exchanges with the people of Upper Burma, and gradually formed a relatively unified standard during the discussions and even arguments in the democratic life meetings time and again. for these ordinary Burmese people who had never been to school, if they wanted their families to live such good lives, they had to drive the British colonialists out of Burma.

Aung San's pre-war mobilization resonated with the officers and soldiers of the Burma National Army. When Aung San asked loudly at the end of his speech, "Comrades, do you have the courage to plunge into war and destroy the enemy?"

The officers and soldiers of the Burma National Army shouted in unison, "Yes!"

Aung San continued to shout, "What should we do when facing the enemy?"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

At this time, what the British forces in Burma worried about most was that the Chinese army would suddenly pass through Upper Burma and launch a surprise attack on Britain. Therefore, the main force of the British forces in Burma and the servant army were placed on the border, ready to resist the attack of the Chinese army at any time.

In addition to active defense, Britain used the Burmese spies in their hands to desperately gather information within the Republic of Upper Burma. No matter how the British inquired, the intelligence obtained was "the Chinese army has not entered the Upper Burma region." Because the news was too singular, the British Burma Command even felt that these spies had probably been bought by China and were no longer credible.

In order to obtain accurate news, Britain let many British intelligence personnel personally enter the Upper Burma region as tourists or businessmen to spy on intelligence. They also collected news of Chinese army movements through personnel of British companies in China. No matter which British intelligence channel it was, the intelligence finally obtained turned out to be the same as that of the spies: they did not find any trace of the Chinese army entering Upper Burma.

Such news made the British commander in Burma very distressed, and also made the British War Office very distressed. The performance of the Chinese army was too abnormal and completely inconsistent with basic military theory. Since China had shown such an aggressive diplomatic posture, war should be imminent. But judging from the performance of the Chinese army, it looked more like the stage of mobilizing regular troops. After such a struggle, the Burma Army and the India Army both put forward their views: China might just want to obtain a new sphere of influence through diplomatic blackmail now. Just like what Hitler did at the Munich Conference in 1939.

The British War Office did not think He Rui was such a frivolous person, but they could not explain the current situation, so they could only let the British Burma Army strengthen the defense on the border.

As the British Burma Army deployed more and more troops on the border, the four infantry divisions and two air force groups of the Republic of Upper Burma were also deployed on the border. Previously, British reconnaissance units had penetrated deep into the border of Upper Burma many times for reconnaissance. On October 14, a reconnaissance squad of the British Burma Army penetrated 30 kilometers deep into a new area. Around 10 am, they suddenly encountered a patrol of the Upper Burma People's Army.

Most of the personnel in this reconnaissance squad were British, so there was no way to cover it up. The British reconnaissance squad immediately began to retreat and launched blocking attacks on the pursuing Upper Burma patrol. Although they temporarily blocked the Upper Burma patrol, before long, the distress signal sent by the Upper Burma patrol attracted more Upper Burma troops.

This British reconnaissance squad was elite after all. Fighting and retreating, they shook off several interception teams in succession and arrived near the border between Upper Burma and Lower Burma. But at this time, the Upper Burma Army had already set up an interception in front. This British reconnaissance squad could not escape, so they used the portable radio to call the British forces in Burma on the border to come to their rescue.

The frontline commander of the British Burma Army at this time was Major General William. The Major General was a lieutenant at the end of World War I. Having experienced mountains of corpses and seas of blood, he was quite calm at this time. If that reconnaissance squad was captured, at worst it could be resolved through diplomatic channels. For a reconnaissance unit, at worst, saying they lost their way and strayed into Upper Burma would make sense. But once Britain directly broke out in battle with the Upper Burma Army, things would be hard to wrap up.

Upper Burma had a population of only a few million. This country, which had just been independent for ten years, was nothing in front of Britain. But Upper Burma was a sovereign country after all. If Upper Burma invited Chinese troops to enter Upper Burma after fighting broke out with the British army, this matter would be difficult to handle. Moreover, the military order received by Major General William was to guard the border, and there was no order to attack Upper Burma. Although the Major General was not a politician, after witnessing the Western Front with its mountains of corpses and seas of blood, he was very cautious about starting a war. Therefore, the frontline commander did not respond to the reconnaissance squad's telegram.

Although the radio carried by this British reconnaissance squad did not have high power, this place was not far from Rangoon. The monitoring station of the British Burma Army was on 24 hours a day, searching for possible large-scale radio signals at any time. The British army knew very well that China was very powerful, so once the Chinese army entered Upper Burma on a large scale, it would inevitably be accompanied by a large amount of radio communication.

They didn't wait for China's radio signals but received the British encrypted communication signal of the British reconnaissance squad on the British military channel. Learning that their own army was in battle, the British radio monitor reported while carefully contacting the other party. When Lieutenant General Bella, Commander-in-Chief of the British Burma Army, received the news, more detailed news was also sent. Lieutenant General Bella quickly determined that this matter was not a scam, but the Lieutenant General still called Major General William on the front line to inquire.

Major General William could ignore the reconnaissance unit's distress call, but he couldn't ignore the phone call from his immediate superior. After the exchange, Major General William soon received Lieutenant General Bella's order: "Rescue that reconnaissance team immediately."

"Commander, doing so may trigger a war," Major General William hurriedly reminded.

Lieutenant General Bella's view was different from Major General William's. He asked, "Major General, if this reconnaissance squad is captured, won't it trigger a war?"

Major General William immediately understood what Lieutenant General Bella meant. In the current situation, whether war broke out no longer depended on various military conflicts. If the other party had decided to declare war, the capture of the reconnaissance squad would be enough to constitute a reason for war. If the other party was not prepared to start a war, even if military conflict broke out between the two sides, it would eventually end in negotiation.

Having figured this out, Major General William replied, "I understand, Commander."

Hanging up the phone, Major General William suddenly thought of another possibility. If the British army could deal a head-on blow to the unappreciative Upper Burma troops, it should be able to let this former British colonial country know their place. Recognizing the gap in strength between Upper Burma and Britain might make the Republic of Upper Burma, this former British colony, think more carefully about the result of being an enemy of Britain.

A series of military orders were issued. In addition to sending troops to rescue the besieged British reconnaissance squad, Major General William also directed the Burma Army stationed on the border to prepare for the upcoming battle.