October 30 was a day of great progress for the Coalition, yet also not so great. The fact that they failed to intercept the British Pacific Fleet made the Joint Navy feel very unhappy.

In comparison, the Army was very happy. By nightfall, a floating platform capable of carrying tanks was finally set up at the landing point. At the same time, a brigade of tropical jungle infantry had basically landed. Jungle infantry were light infantry equipped with halftracks. The need to use halftracks as artillery tractors was considered during their design. Now more than 50 halftracks had landed, and more were landing. Although National Defense Force infantry were accustomed to riding in transport vehicles, every National Defense Force unit possessed the ability to march 100 kilometers on foot. Not to mention that the troops were also equipped with mountain bicycles for this campaign.

At 6:00 AM on the 31st, ten Type 59 tanks that had been unloaded with great difficulty started off as the vanguard. Following behind were squads. More than 100 halftracks were located in the center of these squads, towing 105mm light howitzers and carrying 60mm mortars, fuel, and infantry supplies. The infantry rode special mountain bicycles and set off south together.

Above the troops, attack teams of the Chinese Air Force whizzed past. Their target was the British airfields that they failed to destroy yesterday. They provided reconnaissance for the Army along the way. Aircraft that could not be seen were on standby at the airfield. As long as the Army encountered obstacles during the attack, the Air Force would take off immediately and rush over to destroy the solid strongholds among those obstacles.

The mountain bikes used special puncture-proof solid tires. Riding them did not feel as comfortable as pneumatic tires, but they could prevent meaningless straggling.

In just two hours, the troops had moved more than 20 kilometers south. Residents along the way watched this team with strange equipment from a distance. If one didn't pay attention to the officers and soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms, this team looked like a wealthy family with cars coming out for a group outing.

Some bold people crowded to the roadside to watch. The officers and soldiers directing traffic politely but seriously asked these people not to get close to the marching road. These bold people also cooperated and didn't get too close, while being surprised by the politeness of these "masters." In Malaya, anyone who could ride in a car was an official master. If ordinary people approached the masters' vehicles, they would definitely be driven away or even beaten with sticks by the accompanying soldiers. These people just couldn't resist their curiosity and came over to look; they didn't dare to have any intention of affecting the masters' passage from the beginning.

During these two hours, another 6 tanks and 18 halftracks caught up from behind. With the addition of these armored vehicles and carriers, the comrades of the National Defense Force felt much better. The marching speed was also a bit faster.

At this time, the Air Force fighting in southern Malaya was in pain and happiness. As the fleet approached the southern airfield, it immediately encountered the British Air Force coming to intercept. But after fighting for only ten minutes, the aircrew responsible for flank reconnaissance sent new news: a large number of enemy planes were flying towards our army.

Before the sortie, the troops had considered that they might encounter a large British fleet, so the follow-up fleet immediately stepped forward to intercept. But as soon as they met the opponent, they quickly discovered that the opponent's fighters were painted with the emblem of the US Air Force. Hearing the news, the Group Captain shouted loudly on the radio immediately, "No matter who it is, shoot them down immediately if they enter our warning range!"

With this order, the air battle between China and the United States broke out immediately. As soon as the battle started, everyone forgot whether the opposite side was a British or American plane. No matter who the opponent was, they were obviously here to participate in the war. As long as the Chinese Air Force relaxed a little, they would be shot down by the enemy.

Initially, the Chinese Air Force occupied an obvious advantage. But as more and more US Air Force planes joined, the numerical advantage of the Chinese Air Force disappeared. After the air battle had been going on for more than half an hour, the number of Chinese Air Force planes began to be at a disadvantage. Having no choice, the Air Force could only withdraw first.

An hour later, three Air Force groups coming for reinforcements met with the retreating Chinese Air Force. The Group Captains of both sides talked for a while on the radio and immediately combined their forces to fight back.

On this day, October 31, a spectacular scene of a thousand-plane battle appeared in the sky range of thousands of square kilometers in southern Malaya. Six groups of the Chinese Air Force engaged in fierce battles with four US military groups and two cobbled-together British groups.

Such a battle was unexpected by both sides, but no one cowered. Needless to say for the Chinese Air Force and the British Army, after fighting for a few days, both had many comrades shot down by the other side. China naturally could not let the British Army go, and the British Army, seeing so many American reinforcements, had high morale and pounced fiercely trying to take revenge.

The mentality of the US Air Force Group Captains varied. Some really wanted to fight, while others were hesitant. Although they looked down on the Chinese very much and indeed received the order from MacArthur to fight the Chinese Air Force, seeing so many Chinese Air Force planes, they were also quite apprehensive in their hearts.

But these Group Captains didn't know that before they were selected and sent to the Philippines, the US military had "inspected" them. The main content of the inspection was whether these people were "rash" enough and whether their racist sentiments were strong enough. The vast majority of white Americans were racists. Among these pilots who were almost all racists, those with stronger racism were selected. It could basically be determined that this group of people were guys who would take action driven by racist emotions. The reason for choosing this group of people was that they were most likely to go to war with China driven by racist emotions.

The whole situation was similar to the assessment of American psychologists. Although this group of people hesitated when facing the Chinese Air Force, they still commanded the troops to engage in battle. The battle started just like this.

Planes flying all over the sky flew fast, pulled up, dived, and spiraled. Every plane tried hard to bite the enemy plane or tried its best to get rid of the enemy plane's pursuit. Bullets whizzed through the air, like the scythe of the god of death. From time to time, planes emitted black smoke after being hit, and some planes lost control and fell towards the ground. Immediately, the canopy opened, and the pilot began to parachute. White parachutes opened and descended slowly. The slow movement of the parachutes formed a quite contrasting picture with the high-speed flying fighters.

At 9:30, the Chinese Army finally encountered the first stronghold guarded by enemy troops. This was a town with tropical-style houses on both sides of two streets. The National Defense Force immediately sent personnel from the Malayan Communist Party wearing Chinese military uniforms to persuade them to surrender. The garrison commander was a young British captain. Although he was nervous, his expression showed a sense of determination that he believed he was bearing a huge responsibility. The British captain decisively rejected the persuasion to surrender, stating that he would lead the troops to fight to the end.

Since the British army refused to surrender, the Chinese army immediately began the attack. Tanks went around to the back of the town to block the enemy's retreat route, and infantry rode halftracks to the left and right sides. This was the first battle, so naturally, they wanted to annihilate the enemy completely.

After setting up the encirclement, because the fortifications at the entrance of the town were too simple, the troops used three 60mm mortars to fire three rapid rounds at the fortifications. In a moment, the fortifications were literally razed to the ground. Broken wood, sandbags, mud, and stuff that was unknown whether it was human bodies were blown into a mess.

This scene stunned the officers and soldiers of the National Defense Force. Even if the other party was the enemy, Chinese officers and soldiers gave birth to anger unique to well-trained soldiers. Building such simple fortifications was a crime! No commander in China would do this. If a commander really did this, he would likely be dismissed immediately after the battle, criticized in a circular to the whole army, and might even go to a military court.

Although the enemy's town entrance fortifications were razed, the enemy's layout was so trashy that the commander who should have commanded the forward attack was stunned for a moment. He didn't know what he might encounter next for a moment and had to think about a situation he had never encountered.

In this short time, a commotion came from behind the town entrance. The commander hurriedly raised his binoculars to look and saw some short and thin soldiers wearing colonial military uniforms running out of the houses on both sides of the fortifications, jumping up and down along the uneven road in the town and running into the distance.

"Go!" The commander ordered the soldiers around him, and added a sentence after speaking, "Be careful!"

Thirty minutes later, the battle ended. The town was not big. The colonial native soldiers frightened by the shelling left the British captain and a few British soldiers behind, wanting to escape from the other end of the town. Unexpectedly, just as they ran out, they encountered the tanks blocking the back. Although they didn't understand the power of the cannon of the Type 59 tank and the array machine guns next to it, the moment they saw this colossus, they were all stunned. Immediately they heard shouts in Malay asking them to raise their hands and surrender. These native soldiers were stunned for a moment and obediently raised their hands.

The conflict closest to combat occurred in front of the town hall defended by the captain with a few British soldiers and a few native soldiers. If a fierce battle had broken out before, the National Defense Force would have used 60mm mortars to bombard. But no battle happened in front at all. The Chinese army persuaded them to surrender again, and was rejected again. Immediately, they swept the wooden house with an 11mm machine gun for a few bursts, and many big holes were instantly punched in the wooden wall panels.

Because the combat level of this colonial army was too poor, the officers and soldiers of the National Defense Force did not have the urge to kill these ridiculous guys. The shooting position was relatively high. After firing these few bursts, the troops used a megaphone to persuade them to surrender again. And told the other party that if they didn't come out to surrender, they would use cannon bombardment.

Maybe the comrade persuading surrender had studied in Britain; not long after he shouted in that specious London accent, the tattered house door opened. Because the door hinges were broken, the door crashed down as soon as it opened. The British captain walked out with a face of helplessness and embarrassment and asked, "Will you abide by the Geneva Convention?"

The comrade persuading surrender felt that he had simply participated in a farce. Preparing so seriously, he actually fought such a thing. Already very unhappy, hearing the other party posturing and bringing out the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, he stood up angrily and shouted at the other party, "Have you read the Geneva Convention? China is a signatory country!"

Hearing this, the British captain looked at the dark windows surrounding the wooden house. He unbuckled his pistol and said, "Then I surrender. I ask you to treat us in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention."

The comrade persuading surrender stepped forward to take the captain's pistol. Seeing that this guy was still putting on airs at this time, he said angrily in Chinese, "Will you die if you don't act tough?" (*ni bu zhuang b hui si me?*)

The British captain was startled. He subconsciously took a step back and questioned with a mixture of shock and anger, "What? You want to kill surrendered prisoners?"

The comrade persuading surrender was angered by this question. Just as he wanted to scold this guy for talking nonsense, Battalion Commander Lü Fengxian, who walked over from the side, asked first, "You have learned Chinese?"

"I have learned it. You said 'si' (die/kill); doesn't that mean killing people?" the captain answered unhappily.

Hearing this, Lü Fengxian held back his laughter and translated the Chinese of the comrade persuading surrender into English. The British captain, who understood, immediately protested with a red face, "I protest, you cannot insult me!"

The comrade persuading surrender couldn't help shouting, "You have delayed us a lot of time. Call your people out quickly. We are very busy and have to hurry!"

The British captain's face turned redder due to anger. But this time he didn't talk nonsense, just called his subordinates out. After completing the surrender, the British captain said unconvinced, "You are just lucky; we don't have many troops. Wait until you get to Manila and Singapore, then you will know what impregnable walls are."

Hearing this, the comrade persuading surrender wanted to retort angrily. Battalion Commander Lü Fengxian stopped him and said confidently to the surrendered captain, "Mr. Captain, after I lead the troops to experience the impregnable walls, I will write a letter to discuss it with the people in the prisoner-of-war camp."

After speaking, he ignored the British captain. Lü Fengxian commanded the troops to reorganize the offensive formation, handed the prisoners over to the follow-up troops, and continued south.

At this time, the great air battle in southern Malaya also began to end. Although the US Air Force had a cowboy spirit, cowboys would retreat when encountering disadvantages. After the great air battle had gone on for half an hour, the US troops were a bit better; because of the advanced radio system, the troops could barely maintain order. The British Air Force had never fought such a large-scale battle, and the radio system was chaotic.

Seeing that the situation was not good, several US Air Force Group Captains didn't pretend to be heroes; they gathered their troops and began to retreat. And the Chinese Air Force wasn't much better. Although new transistor controllers were adopted and the communication of various units had clear levels, such a large-scale battle was simply not something the troops could control at this stage. Seeing the US Air Force retreat, several Group Captains of the Chinese Air Force also communicated with each other and chose to retreat. Without determining a winner, the unexpected great air battle ended just like this.

In the afternoon, the Air Force Frontline Command did not launch another attack. This thousand-plane battle proved that the US military had participated in the war. This was a diplomatic issue. Whether the US Air Force's participation was the independent action of a part of the US Air Force, or whether the United States had entered the war without declaring it—this needed to be clarified through diplomatic channels.

In addition, although the Air Force had indeed conducted simulations of thousand-plane battles, no one expected such a thing to really happen, and the frontline Air Force had not been trained. So the Air Force immediately sent information about the simulation to the front line urgently to train the frontline Air Force. If it happened next time, at least such a chaotic situation would not appear.

But in addition to quickly building airfields, the Air Force also provided escorts for the Army. The reason why the thousand-plane battle didn't continue was largely because the Chinese Air Force had to depart from airfields in Cambodia, which was a certain distance away and not beneficial to our army. If the Air Force could take off directly from Malaya, very close to the front line, the thousand-plane battle would just be fought.

After receiving the news, He Rui immediately ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to question why the United States participated in the war. The United States gave a reply immediately. "Those fighters were weapons and equipment provided by the United States to Britain under the 'Lend-Lease Act.' Because the British side did not paint over the US Air Force markings immediately, a misunderstanding occurred. The US military did not participate in the battle with China."

He Rui didn't believe this, but there was nothing he could do at this time. Because the air battle was fought in the British-controlled area, China failed to capture prisoners. To date, more than 80 Chinese pilots had not returned after parachuting when their planes lost control. However, their efforts were also rewarded; the Chinese Army had successfully landed. Next, they had to rely on the Army to fight to Manila and Singapore. If there was an air battle then, China would be able to capture prisoners. At that time, as long as US pilots were captured, they could see how the US government would quibble!