Li Runshi was very busy with work, but he still read through the entire plan completely because the core of the plan was to annihilate the effective strength of the US military, specifically the US Air Force which had considerable combat experience. The Chinese National Defense Force regarded its own pilots with rich combat experience as seeds, so it naturally hoped to annihilate the seeds of the US military.

Yamamoto Isoroku did not use a lot of technical terms in his combat plan; it was a report specifically for Li Runshi, who understood strategy but not technical equipment. There was not much content about equipment in the report, only an introduction to the air force equipment of the US military and the National Defense Force.

The National Defense Force now had three main types of fighters. The J-9 belonged to the all-rounder type fighter, executing various military missions including air combat, cruising, reconnaissance, bombing, and torpedo attacks. Therefore, the size of the J-9 was relatively large: length 11.38 meters, wingspan 11.14 meters, height 3.97 meters. Only bombers in the Chinese Air Force were larger than the J-9.

The plane Yamamoto Isoroku used to annihilate US fighters was not the J-9, but the J-10. When designing the J-10 fighter, all combat modes other than air combat were completely ignored. The plane only had weapon systems of machine guns and cannons, radar altimeter and night combat radar search systems, and radio communication. Although the J-10 could also carry bombs for bombing, hanging bombs had a great impact on air combat capability, so this would only be done when necessary.

Such an extreme structure made the J-10 very small: length 8.4 meters, wingspan 7.6 meters, height 3.7 meters. The J-10 used the same engine as the J-9, and with a smaller and lighter fuselage, it maximized high speed and maneuverability in air combat. Taking the climb rate as an example, the climb rate of the J-10 in air combat was 45% higher than that of the J-9.

At this stage, the performance of enemy fighters did not exceed the J-9. All J-10s were equipped to the Navy. After all, lighter fighters had shorter take-off and landing distances and were more suitable for weapon platforms with limited space like aircraft carriers.

In Yamamoto's vision, the plan for the evacuation of US aircraft would be obtained first by deciphering telegrams. If the US Air Force chose to take the South China Sea route, the aircraft carrier formation would move forward and cooperate with the Army Aviation to intercept and kill the US Air Force. This was Plan A.

Plan B was specifically formulated for US aircraft taking the route of the Southeast Asian archipelago. According to intelligence, the US military had no airfields on the southern islands of the Philippines. Going north from Borneo south of the Philippines required passing through the Sulu Sea. The location for intercepting the US Air Force in Plan B was in the Sulu Sea.

Li Runshi agreed with the idea of this plan, but he resolutely opposed Plan B. In the reply sent to Yamamoto, Li Runshi told Yamamoto, "If the United States announces that its air force is departing from Singapore to the Philippines, how should our army respond? In addition, if the battle takes place in the Sulu Sea, it will cause huge political problems, so the headquarters denies Plan B."

The two points raised by Li Runshi were intentionally not explained by Yamamoto. Although Yamamoto believed that He Rui chose Li Runshi because Li Runshi must have excellent strategic ability, Li Runshi had never been a soldier for a day. Yamamoto did this also with the intention of testing Li Runshi.

Seeing that Li Runshi noticed these two points, Yamamoto had no choice. He knew that He Rui had long regarded the United States as a hypothetical enemy for war, but He Rui definitely had not determined when to go to war with the United States at this stage. From China's perspective, the timing for declaring war was not yet ripe.

Yamamoto was Japanese. Once the US military actively declared war, it would definitely attack Japan immediately. Looking at the war from Japan's perspective, declaring war on Britain should be accompanied by declaring war on the United States, and seizing the Philippines immediately to completely solve the US threat to Japan.

But since He Rui didn't say anything, Yamamoto couldn't resist hard. But Yamamoto quickly thought of a solution direction. He ordered Yamaguchi Tamon, who was leading the fleet from Japan, to come and see him immediately.

After the Japanese Revolution, there was no longer a struggle between the Navy and Army, and the command of the three armed services was finally unified. The once complex command system was comprehensively simplified. Nagumo Chuichi served as the Chief of the Ministry of Defense, and Yamaguchi Tamon served as the Commander of the Japanese Navy. At this time, Yamaguchi Tamon was leading five aircraft carrier battle groups south, and the fleet was anchored in Kaohsiung Port, Taiwan. Receiving Yamamoto's telegram, Yamaguchi Tamon immediately got into the operator's seat of a J-9 fighter and flew straight to Cam Ranh Bay under the escort of three J-9s.

The J-9 possessed an ultra-long range and flew to Cam Ranh Bay in more than 7 hours. Seeing that Yamaguchi Tamon looked full of energy, Yamamoto Isoroku felt much more at ease. Asking others to leave, Yamamoto handed the plan to Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi Tamon read it very quickly, his gaze becoming sharper and sharper. After reading the plan, Japanese Navy Commander Yamaguchi Tamon did not speak, but just stared at East Asian Coalition Navy Commander Yamamoto Isoroku with sharp eyes.

Yamamoto handed Li Runshi's reply to Yamaguchi Tamon again. After reading it, Yamaguchi Tamon said, "I think the Sulu Sea is very suitable for ambushing the US Air Force. If the Coalition cannot take action, let the Japanese Combined Fleet do it alone."

This was Yamamoto's expectation. He didn't waste words and asked directly, "What are the odds of winning?"

Yamaguchi Tamon thought for a while before answering, "That depends on whether Yamamoto-kun can accurately provide the passing time of the largest US aircraft group."

Yamamoto agreed very much with this view. It was impossible for the US military to let nearly a thousand fighters form a large group to transfer to the Philippines; they would definitely do it in batches. However, according to the normal process, there was a possibility that several flight groups would transfer together during the transfer process and return to their own airfields separately after arriving in the airspace. If Japan wanted to give the US military the biggest blow, it had to seize this opportunity.

Of course, the US military might also fly only one group a day, or two groups departing with an interval of several hours. To catch the main force of the US Air Force, very accurate intelligence was indispensable.

"Leave the intelligence matters to me, and I'll leave the rest to Yamaguchi-kun." Having said this, Yamamoto Isoroku bowed slightly.

Yamaguchi Tamon smiled. "After I do this, I'm afraid I won't be able to act jointly with the Chinese Navy for a short time."

Yamamoto knew that once Yamaguchi Tamon led the Japanese Navy to succeed in independent combat, he would inevitably incur He Rui's dissatisfaction. But what if He Rui was unhappy? A very solid alliance had been formed between China and Japan, and China must pay attention to Japan's strategic unease. This operation was executed by the Japanese fleet alone; no matter how unhappy He Rui was, he had to endure it.

While considering, Yamamoto heard Yamaguchi Tamon say, "However, I have one thing that I still need Yamamoto-kun to help with."

"Please speak."

"Now the old fossils in the country insist that 35,000-ton battleships are not enough and insist on building 45,000-ton super battleships. Please, Yamamoto-kun, no matter what, stop them from doing stupid things." Mentioning this matter, Yamaguchi Tamon was very unhappy.

"Are they dissatisfied with the current 88 Fleet?" Yamamoto Isoroku was a bit surprised. After the Japanese Revolution, the vision for the 88 Fleet was 8 high-speed battleships + 8 battlecruisers. Under He Rui's pressure, the Navy was finally forced to accept the "88 Fleet" plan of 8 35,000-ton high-speed battleships + 8 35,000-ton aircraft carriers.

When the war started, 8 fast battleships had entered service, 4 35,000-ton aircraft carriers were self-built, and China supplemented Japan with 4 aircraft carriers, completing the new 88 Fleet. But some people in the Japanese Ministry of Defense seemed possessed and insisted on building two 45,000-ton super battleships. If it weren't for Yamaguchi Tamon serving as the Navy Commander, this plan would probably have been passed.

Seeing Yamamoto Isoroku promise this, Yamaguchi Tamon immediately stood up to take his leave. This surprised Yamamoto very much. "Yamaguchi-kun is going back now?"

"I can wait, but the US military won't wait," Yamaguchi Tamon replied.

Although Yamaguchi Tamon didn't need to fly the plane, flying for 15 hours a day was tiring. Yamamoto Isoroku said gratefully, "Thank you for your hard work, Yamaguchi-kun."

MacArthur did not know the actions of the Japanese Navy's upper echelon, but among the several options for the withdrawal plan proposed by MacArthur, the first one was to publicly announce that "US military aircraft are returning to the Philippines from Singapore." This plan had high safety. If the Chinese Air Force launched a surprise attack on the US military, it could also very effectively stimulate the American people's hatred of the enemy.

However, the telegram sent back by the Army General Staff actually rejected this plan and agreed to the plan of detouring to retreat from Singapore. After discussing with trusted staff officers in the Philippines Command, MacArthur believed that the reason for this choice was that they did not want the British side to feel abandoned.

"XX, damn politics." MacArthur cursed in the headquarters. The staff officers did not express their attitude towards this statement but supported it quite a bit in their hearts. MacArthur had an impulsive personality, but his level in the military field was very good. The risk of retreating openly seemed great, but at present when China and the United States were not at war, it was not that dangerous.

The military cannot override politics. Even if the Philippines Command was unhappy in their hearts, they could only obey Washington's orders. Moreover, at this stage, the US military indeed faced great pressure. China and the US had been fighting for a week. The US Air Force failed to gain an advantage in the initial frontal head-on confrontation. Later, the US military designed several new tactics against Chinese Air Force tactics, with limited results. The opposite Chinese Air Force also designed several tactics against the US military, and the US also suffered some losses.

As the two sides became more and more familiar with each other, the competition between the Chinese and American air forces was about the performance of the aircraft and the level of the pilots. The performance advantage of the J-9 was not large, but after the Chinese Air Force brought this advantage into play, the pressure on the US Air Force increased rapidly, and the number of aircraft shot down and damaged every day increased. Yesterday alone, 113 US Air Force planes were damaged or shot down; a whole group of planes was written off just like that.

MacArthur sent 10 groups with 1,000 fighters to reinforce Singapore. Up to now, less than 500 were left. They could be consumed for at most another week. Now was indeed the time to retreat.

British Prime Minister Attlee received the news from Singapore on October 8. He immediately sent a telegram to US President Roosevelt, asking the US military not to leave. Roosevelt replied politely that the US military had done its best. Out of the friendly relationship between Britain and the United States, the US Air Force would leave most of the planes to Britain when leaving to help Britain continue fighting.

After reading Roosevelt's reply, Attlee walked back and forth with his hands behind his back in the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, very angry in his heart. He had been under great pressure recently. After abandoning Churchill who was tough on Germany, the British upper class now began to dislike Attlee for being unable to get full support from the United States.

While depressed, Attlee was also very clear that if Singapore was lost in his hands, even if a wartime Prime Minister would not likely be forced to step down due to the failure of one or two campaigns, the British upper class would prefer someone who could drag the United States into the war to be Prime Minister. After walking with his hands behind his back for a good while, Attlee came up with a way. Since the upper class all believed that Churchill was the person who could communicate with Roosevelt best, and it was said that there was a good personal relationship between the two, he would invite Churchill to serve as a cabinet member. Secretary of State for War or First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill could pick whatever he liked.

After making the decision, Attlee did not delay and sent an invitation directly to Churchill, which was immediately rejected by Churchill directly. This made Attlee feel that things were getting more and more wrong.

On November 10, the US Air Force sent by the Philippines Command to support Singapore evacuated according to the plan. Only one P-47 group left; all other fighters were left to the British army. This gift could not be said to be ungenerous, but it meant little to Britain.

Before the outbreak of the war, Britain had more than 700 fighters in Malaya. After two weeks of fighting, there were less than 300 left now. There were less than 400 pilots. This was the result of relying on the full support of the US Air Force. After the US Air Force retreated, 400 British troops operating more than 700 fighters would not have a problem of shortage of aircraft for the time being. But since the beginning of the battle, the Chinese Air Force had also suffered losses, but there was never any sign of shortage of personnel on the front line. How many days could such a small British Air Force be consumed?

Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, Commander of the Singapore Theater, also knew that the situation was already very bad. He kept asking for mainland support, but the British War Office told Lieutenant General Arthur Percival that Singapore was struggling but at least holding on, while the situation in India had begun to show a trend of being unable to hold on. Now all British troops were invested in India. If the situation in India continued to deteriorate, Britain might even transfer troops from Singapore to India.

This news plunged Lieutenant General Arthur Percival into despair, but he could also understand this matter. The British India region had a population of more than 400 million and was an important market for Britain. Losing India, Britain would immediately lose its status as a hegemon. As long as India could still be held, Britain would have a chance to retake Malacca. Comparing the two, India was obviously more important.

On the same day, the Chinese Air Force continued to exert pressure on Singapore and Manila (Kuala Lumpur?), and the Singapore Theater could only be forced to fight. Also on this day, the British Air Force had 151 fighters shot down or damaged, and 84 pilots lost contact. Originally, the British army thought they could resist for a week, but looking at it now, they were afraid they couldn't even hold on for 3 days.

At sea, the five aircraft carrier battle groups of the Japanese Combined Fleet had arrived in the waters west of the Philippines after two days of sailing. At this time, Yamamoto Isoroku no longer needed to provide intelligence to Navy Commander Yamaguchi Tamon. After getting several deciphered US military codes, Yamaguchi Tamon began to analyze US military telegrams on his own.

The latest deciphered telegram made the Japanese Combined Fleet very excited. Looking at the US withdrawal from Japan's perspective, they thought the US military would take all planes and retreat in batches. But the United States was rich and imposing, with strong industrial production capacity. So the US military left the planes to the British army in Singapore and only used one P-47 group to escort the pilots riding in transport planes. One group was about 100 fighters. Air forces of this scale did not need to evacuate in batches. According to the latest cracked secret telegram, this US flight group would return to the Philippines via the Sulu Sea around November 12. This created excellent conditions for annihilating the US Air Force.

Specific combat was the responsibility of the staff department. Yamaguchi Tamon went to each aircraft carrier in person to have discussions with Japanese officers and soldiers. Instead of taking a small boat, he flew a plane himself to take off and land on the aircraft carrier. As a leading figure of the aircraft carrier faction, Yamaguchi Tamon's skills in taking off and landing on aircraft carriers were quite good. His plane landed on the *Taiho*. Facing the naval officers and soldiers surrounding him, Yamaguchi Tamon called out their names one by one.

Being recognized by the Navy Commander, the Japanese pilots were all surprised, and at the same time felt closer to Yamaguchi Tamon, the Navy Commander. Japanese aircraft carriers adopted the same layout as Chinese aircraft carriers. Chinese aircraft carriers did not consider the so-called "hierarchy" when designing, and all cafeterias were the same.

So in the cafeteria, Yamaguchi Tamon sat together with the pilots and asked them about their views on fighters. The Japanese pilots were also honest and admitted frankly, "Stronger than the Zero fighter."

The Japanese Navy initially expected the advanced fighter designed by itself to win the bid for the Sino-Japanese carrier-based aircraft. The Zero fighter indeed showed very excellent performance. Then the Japanese Naval Design Bureau felt the strength of its Chinese counterparts in the bidding. The fighters of the two sides were no longer a comparison of pros and cons, but a comparison of generational differences. The Japanese side was also straightforward and fully chose Chinese equipment and standards in terms of aircraft carriers.

Yamaguchi Tamon did not feel ashamed at all because of this. Seeing that the pilots were also magnanimous, he emphasized again, "Gentlemen, the biggest gap between China's military equipment and our Japanese military equipment is that China uses technological equipment to achieve functions that Japan has to rely on manpower to achieve.

"I know that many of you can judge the altitude just by glancing at the sea surface, feel subtle changes in wind direction and wind speed just by feeling the slight vibration of the plane, and can make the most suitable choice. Completely believing in human ability and spiritual power is Japan's advantage, but also Japan's disadvantage.

"Being forced to entrust human life to machines for judgment is a situation that our Japanese nation finds hard to endure. But gentlemen, even you may not be able to maintain the best state at all times. Although the accuracy of machines may not be comparable to the reactions you have tempered through thousands of trials, machines are very durable and stable.

"China putting all its strength on making machines more precise and stable determines that China has unlimited room for progress. Although you have reached the limit that humans can achieve, you cannot continue to break through because you have reached the upper limit.

"Therefore, I ask you to use equipment more effectively and focus your energy on more precise judgments. In this way, you will definitely show combat effectiveness that terrifies the British and American brutes."

The Japanese army only obtained new Chinese equipment after 1940. Since the Japanese army before 1940 still followed the slogan of spiritual power being supreme, the training received by Japanese pilots was very different from that of Chinese pilots, and it could not be changed in a short while. In the first year after Japanese pilots received the planes, they always thought that although these devices looked easy to use, they could not exceed human limits. Many pilots actually had resistance. It was not until China equipped the planes with various latest electronic equipment in several upgrades that the Japanese pilots had to be convinced.

Yamaguchi Tamon himself had no obsession; what he longed for most was only to win battles. Under the premise of being able to win battles, he would pay extra attention to reducing his own losses. When there was no advanced equipment, Yamaguchi Tamon emphasized the individual level and spiritual performance of pilots. With advanced equipment, Yamaguchi Tamon would emphasize that his pilots should rely more on equipment to reduce the physical burden on pilots and focus more attention on judgment.

These were all processes that pilots had personally experienced. Listening to Yamaguchi Tamon talk about these, Japanese pilots felt very cordial. The conversation went very well. At the end of the meeting, Yamaguchi Tamon emphasized again, "Gentlemen, winning this war, Japan will obtain a broader raw material production area and commodity sales market. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister and the guidance of Chairman He Rui, everyone in Japan can already eat rice. Winning this war, the Japanese people will have meat to eat and wine to drink every day. For Japan, please fight bravely!"

Hearing such a future, the Japanese officers and soldiers all stood up and shouted loudly, "Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!"

It took Yamaguchi Tamon a day and a half to visit all the aircraft carriers. The time had reached 14:00 on the 11th. The information department monitoring the radio monitored the US military telegram again. Due to the smooth evacuation, the US military had landed at the Borneo airfield. Tomorrow morning at 9:00, that is, 9:00 AM on the 12th, US military aircraft would take off and return to the base in the Philippines.

The intelligence department also learned that the US military would send a squadron of fighters to meet the fleet. The staff officers asked how to deal with this squadron of US fighters.

Yamaguchi Tamon answered without hesitation, "We will launch an attack as much as possible one hour after the US aircraft take off from Borneo, and destroy those US Air Force planes before the US Air Force greeting troops arrive. If the US Air Force greeting troops arrive, we will intercept them. The reason is simple: our unit found British aircraft painted with US markings traveling from Singapore to the Philippines and was ordered to shoot them down!"

The Japanese staff officers all thought this reason was very good. previously, China questioned why a large number of aircraft painted with US Air Force markings were found participating in the battle in Singapore. The answer given by the United States was that the British forgot to paint over the US Air Force markings on the aircraft imported from the United States. The US Air Force did not participate in the war.

Since the US government explained it this way, it was logical for the Japanese Air Force to shoot down these "British aircraft." The feeling of being able to use the opponent's spear to attack the opponent's shield was simply too good!

At 6:00 AM on November 12, Zheng Silang, who had arrived in northern Malaya, issued an attack order. Zheng Silang captured the Kwantung Leased Territory in the Sino-Japanese War and gained the name of a brave general from then on. Zheng Silang also felt that his personality was relatively tough, but Zheng Silang thought he was not rash at all.

Especially after serving as the Minister of General Logistics for several years, although the troops seemed to have made no progress on land for a week in the previous battles, Zheng Silang felt that it should have developed this way.

Similarly, now that the US Air Force had withdrawn and the British Air Force was almost exhausted, Zheng Silang believed that the time to seize Kuala Lumpur and Singapore was ripe.

With the order reaching the front line, three groups of fighters took off first. According to the assessment and interrogation of prisoners, the number of British Air Force pilots was less than 80. If they dared to take off, it would be a matter of one morning for the three groups of Chinese fighters to eliminate them.

The troops attacking Kuala Lumpur had long been prepared. These areas were not suitable for armored forces to fight, and the main attacking force had been replaced by motorized troops using wheeled infantry fighting vehicles.

In the past week, the British ANZAC Corps had built a defense line in the northern position from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, which was suitable for armored troops to break through with the cooperation of the Air Force and Artillery.

As for Singapore, because it was separated from Malaya by the narrow Johore Strait, and only one bridge connected Singapore Island and the Malayan mainland, it probably couldn't be taken today. However, China's H-6 heavy bomber formation had arrived at the airfield in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Each H-6 could carry more than 8 tons of bombs. As long as today's other attacks achieved their goals smoothly, if Singapore did not surrender tomorrow, it would be turned into a sea of fire under the attack of thousands of tons of bombs dropped by bombers.

At that time, not only H-6s would be invested in the bombing, but also H-5 fighters derived from J-9s. Although the H-5's bomb load was not as much as the H-6, its 15 hardpoints could theoretically carry 6 tons of bombs, especially rockets produced in China.

Although the bombs of the H-6 covered the sky and earth, the accuracy was not high. Rockets were very different. Those rockets equipped with laser gyroscopes could directly hit the target if lucky. To say it in Japanese, no matter what kind of fortress it is, it can be "one shot, one soul."

The plan had been distributed to various units. In the frontline headquarters, Zheng Silang sat in front of the sand table, quietly waiting for the battle report to be sent back to the headquarters.