The news that the Soviet Union would not send any official personnel to attend the meeting of Allied heads of state did not surprise Roosevelt. If he were in their shoes, Roosevelt would not send anyone to attend the Allied meeting now either. However, Roosevelt still asked the US State Department to continue probing what the Soviet Union's bottom line of expectation was.

In this turbulent era, all industrial countries in the world except the Soviet Union had entered the arena. From the perspective of the Soviet Union's national interests, the choice not to rush into the war at this time was undoubtedly correct. After all, the Soviet Union had already grabbed huge benefits through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

But whether this choice was a long-term strategy or a short-term choice, Roosevelt could not be sure for the time being. The Soviet Union's industry had developed extremely fast in recent years. In terms of industrial output value, it had surpassed Britain and Germany, becoming the country with the highest industrial output value in Europe. With such strength, the Soviet Union could not be willing to be a follower.

Soon, experts hired by the State Department came to report to President Roosevelt: "...The Eastern and Central European bloc led by Nazi Germany has become the Soviet Union's greatest geopolitical threat... Mr. President, in summary, we believe that the contradiction between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany is extremely deep."

Although Roosevelt knew he could not change Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, he still felt some egoistic unhappiness. Because if the Soviet Union went to war with Nazi Germany, it would be China that gained strategic benefits.

Starting from US interests, the best situation would be for global industrial countries to join hands to attack China. In this situation, the Soviet Union must become the main force attacking China. If the Soviet Union could sacrifice tens of millions of Soviets to fight China, Roosevelt would willingly kiss Stalin's boots. But this situation could only be imagined.

Geographically, the Soviet Union's logistical capabilities could not maintain a long-term war with China. That front line was too close to China's industrial centers and could receive sufficient personnel and material supplies at any time. Only if Stalin went crazy would the Soviet Union fight a war it was bound to lose. Moreover, since the Soviet Union was willing to pay the price of tens of millions of lives, why not seize Eastern and Central Europe, which were closer to the Soviet Union?

Starting from the Soviet Union's national interests, the Soviet Union's best goal was undoubtedly to go to war with Germany. Once the Soviet-German war broke out, among the Allies led by the US, UK, Germany, France, and Italy, only the United States would be left to contend with China in the Pacific region.

The Soviet Union didn't even need to go to war with Germany now; it just had to continue waiting, and the war between China and the United States would definitely produce a result. If China lost, the Soviet Union could go to war with China. If the United States lost, the Soviet Union could go to war with Germany. This was the choice most in line with Soviet interests. No matter how fierce China was, it was impossible to run to conquer Eastern Europe after defeating the United States. No matter what the result, the Soviet Union would make a profit without losing.

After thinking, Roosevelt asked the US State Department to provide the results of the study on the possibility of Germany taking the initiative to attack the Soviet Union. Fortunately, the US State Department was not full of idlers waiting to die. Just two hours after President Roosevelt's order was given, experts arrived at the White House.

"...Mr. President, Hitler is currently desperately trading with countries outside the Asian Alliance. The Asian Alliance may be a very important market for Germany, but Asian Alliance countries have never been Germany's traditional market. Germany's traditional market is still in Europe, so Germany has no strong intention of an expedition against China.

"Judging from the data, Germany is now trying to become the Soviet Union's second-largest trading partner. After all, in the past nearly 20 years, China has always been the Soviet Union's largest trading partner. In these 20 years, the Soviet Union has actually formed a trade dependence on China.

"According to analysis, only by cutting off Germany's trade with countries other than the Soviet Union is it possible to force Germany to go to war with the Soviet Union. But once we force Germany like this, Germany is very likely to attack France and Britain again..."

Roosevelt agreed with the experts' views. After the report ended, Roosevelt sat in the empty Oval Office and fell into thought. Before the war broke out, the US government conducted a large amount of analysis on future strategies, and the conclusion reached was that the US-British alliance had a greater chance of winning.

After the war broke out, Roosevelt was convinced that the direction of US war preparation was not wrong, and the war preparation was also very sufficient. But compared with the United States, China also chose the correct direction of military development and prepared more fully in terms of quantity.

Now the Philippines was in imminent danger, and probably couldn't be held. In the Battle of the Mariana Islands that was beginning, reports from the front-line US troops showed that the coverage of Chinese reconnaissance planes was larger than imagined. Most of these Chinese reconnaissance planes were land-based. The US Navy could not find the position of the Chinese aircraft carrier formation by analyzing the heading of these planes. But the reconnaissance planes of the US aircraft carrier formation had to try every means to fly different routes so that China could not find the position of the US aircraft carriers.

Some reckless officials also believed, "The US aircraft carrier formation is so powerful, just go up and fight." Roosevelt scoffed at the views of this group of people. Only those who couldn't keep up with the times would have thoughts of the era of big ships and heavy cannons, believing that as long as their side had powerful weapons and equipment, they could defeat the opponent with hard power under any circumstances.

There were also some high-level US officials with arrogant prejudices, believing that China's industrial strength was inferior to the United States, and there was no need for the United States to think that China had mastered military equipment and military concepts identical to the United States. Roosevelt believed that the harm this group of people caused to the United States was even higher than those guys who simply rushed up.

Under anxiety, Roosevelt even had an impulse; he really wanted to ask if the US State Department had a plan based on US defeat. Because from the beginning of the war to now, the United States not only failed to gain any upper hand but had always been at a disadvantage. If the situation developed like this, US defeat was only a matter of time.

Although this thought never disappeared, Roosevelt still didn't ask. Because judging from the data, the United States might be at a disadvantage, but it was impossible to be defeated. At least with China's current strength, there was really no possibility of defeating the United States.

At this time, Vice Admiral Nimitz, Commander of the Pacific Fleet Carrier Formation, felt anxious about whether he would be defeated. It had been 5 days since China and the United States officially went to war, and the Philippine Air Force had been basically annihilated. From the latest war report sent from the Philippines, the Chinese Air Force basically destroyed all US airfields in the Philippines. The Philippine Air Force, which had 20 flight groups at its peak, had no fighters capable of taking off.

It would take time for China to completely occupy the Philippines, but the US forces in the Philippines, who were completely passively beaten, could no longer provide the Pacific Fleet with the movements of the Chinese Air Force. The 6 US aircraft carrier battle groups commanded by Vice Admiral Nimitz could only rely on their own reconnaissance planes for search operations. Fighting like this, Vice Admiral Nimitz became less and less optimistic about the combat goal of inflicting heavy losses on the Chinese Navy.

At this time, Yamamoto Isoroku was waiting for the latest round of analysis reports. The Coalition Air Force was relying on computer computing power to deduce the position of the US aircraft carrier formation. This kind of deduction was not particularly difficult, because the travel speed of the aircraft carrier formation was 30 knots, about 50 kilometers per hour. An aircraft carrier formation sailing at full speed for a day could only travel 1,200 kilometers. Moreover, the aircraft carrier formation would only sail like this when a battle broke out; normally, it would sail slowly at a cruising speed of a dozen knots per hour to save fuel and reduce equipment wear and tear.

With such basic parameters, the position of the US aircraft carrier formation could be reverse-inferred through the time and location of the appearance of US aircraft. And based on the previous data, reconnaissance planes were sent to search for possible positions of the US Navy.

The intelligence analyzed recently was getting closer and closer to finding the accurate position of the US aircraft carriers. Yamamoto looked forward incomparably to the data being calculated quickly. Now that there was no US Air Force in the Philippines, it was finally time to fight the US Navy head-on.

Soon, the calculation results came out. Naval staff officers displayed the calculation results in the form of a nautical chart. What appeared in front of the members of the Coalition Navy Command was the approximate position of the US aircraft carriers. This position was on the sea east of the Mariana Islands, not the southwest area of the Mariana Islands originally thought to be most likely.

After reading the nautical chart, Yamamoto immediately ordered, "Order the 6 aircraft carrier battle groups in the Southeast Asia Theater to adopt a dual-carrier formation mode, pass through the waters north of the Philippines, and go all the way east. Circle to the rear of the US aircraft carrier formation, target Guam, and sail west while searching for the enemy. Fight wherever the US military is found. If the US military is not encountered, do everything possible to seize Guam and master the entire Mariana Islands."

Within 12 hours after the order was issued, 6 aircraft carrier battle groups and 12 aircraft carriers passed north of the Philippines. The US troops in the Philippines did not know that such a thing had happened at all. They were quickly leaving Manila, which was easy to attack but hard to defend, and retreating to the Bataan Peninsula, where the terrain was dangerous.

The Chinese Air Force completely grasped the movements of the US military but did not launch any attacks. Admiral Zheng Silang, Commander of the Southeast Asia Theater, believed that since the US military voluntarily gave up the very important city of Manila, there was no need to fight a cruel battle with the US military in Manila. As long as the Chinese Air Force destroyed the US ships in the Philippines, the US troops retreating to Bataan would have only a dead end.

Just as a great naval battle between China and the United States was about to break out, Molotov handed his communication report with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Stalin. Stalin looked at the report and frowned slightly. China's suggestion was full of Chinese style, advocating solving the contradiction between Finland and the Soviet Union through frank diplomatic communication.

Stalin felt that He Rui was a bit too arrogant. While rapidly expanding its sphere of influence, China was actually persuading the Soviet Union not to act rashly. This looked "unethical" no matter how one looked at it. Was He Rui so certain that the powerful Soviet Red Army could not solve Finland by force?

Finland was the only piece of land the Soviet Union had not recovered, and the Communist Party in Finland had very great influence; combining forces from within and without could solve Finland very easily.

While unhappy, Stalin also couldn't help but be a bit puzzled. Now Nazi Germany had expressed a quite tough attitude towards the Soviet Union, stating that Germany had an international obligation to protect Finland's independence. Even if the Soviet Union annexed Finland, leading to the deterioration of Soviet-German relations or even war, China would inevitably be the beneficiary strategically.

At such a time, instead of instigating the Soviet Union to go to war, China expressed opposition. An old fox like He Rui definitely had his own plans. Stalin couldn't figure out what exactly He Rui wanted.

He Rui's idea was actually very simple. Since China hoped to become the leader of the world and establish a peaceful new world order, the Soviet Union's annexation behavior violated China's position. Although China did not have the ability to stop the Soviet Union, China must express views consistent with China's position.

European civilization had double standards, but Chinese civilization had always stressed that words must match deeds. There was no need to destroy China's great power stance for some things that were not even worth considering as petty profits. The stance of a great power was not something to be traded.