Vice Admiral Nimitz, having nervously completed the fleet reorganization work, had just taken a sip of coffee when someone delivered the latest intelligence. The Vice Admiral continued to sip his coffee, his gaze sweeping over the paper. His shoulders trembled slightly once, then he continued sipping his coffee. The surrender of Guam and Luzon did not surprise the Vice Admiral. After witnessing China's technological strength, Vice Admiral Nimitz had adjusted his view of the Asian Allied Forces' naval commanders. Possessing such technology and quantity of troops, yet remaining unhurried and composed, showed that the commanders of the Asian Allied Forces were all very excellent soldiers.

After finishing his coffee, the Vice Admiral sent a telegram to the Commander of the US Pacific Command's 1st Fleet: "Reorganization plan completed. Will immediately send seaplane to deliver it to the flagship *Washington*."

Nimitz acted as if he did not know about the fall of Guam and Luzon, simply continuing to execute the Commander's orders. But Nimitz knew very well that the Commander knew that he knew. The purpose of this telegram was a subtle and polite way to urge the Commander to make a decision quickly.

Sure enough, not long after the telegram was sent, the Commander's latest order was delivered to Nimitz: "In view of the fact that all campaign objectives cannot be achieved, the Command has decided to terminate this operation. The entire fleet will move towards the 2nd Fleet. Maintain combat readiness en route."

Vice Admiral Nimitz had already felt that the Commander was by no means a rash person, and he was now even more certain that the previous arrangements were made to have something to show to superiors. If the Commander were truly a rash person, he would not have reorganized the order of battle, but would have directly ordered the aviation units to launch another attack regardless of losses.

At this time, China had captured Guam. Although the local airfield was likely damaged, Vice Admiral Nimitz was unwilling to take the risk and immediately ordered the carrier formation to sail east. If the Guam airfield had not been destroyed and the Chinese land-based aviation forces dispatched hundreds of fighter planes to join the battle, even if the US fleet air defense system was fierce, it was not without flaws. When the number of Chinese fighter planes exceeded the number of US anti-aircraft guns, the US carrier formation would still be in trouble.

Upon learning that the US carrier formation was retreating, the Asian Allied Forces did not give chase, but instead advanced towards the west of the Mariana Islands. After capturing Guam and Luzon, China had obtained the key points of the maritime defense system in East Asia, and the Asian Allied Forces' situation had shifted from defense to offense. Regarding this engagement with the US aircraft carriers, the Asian Allied Forces had already begun summarizing battle reports and reconstructing the combat situation, striving to find tactics to break through the US fleet air defense system as soon as possible.

Now both the Chinese and US militaries were racing against time. If China could not find a tactic to crack the US fleet air defense, the United States would find corresponding tactics first. Both the Chinese and US militaries were racing against time.

In Washington, Roosevelt did not demand that the Army General Staff be held responsible for the defeat, but instead asked Marshall to propose response strategies for the current war situation.

The map showed that the United States had only one anchorage in the North Pacific: the Hawaiian Islands. In the Central Pacific region, China had already opened the gateway to the Micronesian waters. If the US military could not hold the many archipelagos in this vast sea area, China could cut off the route for the US military to go directly to the South Pacific. If the US military wanted to continue transporting supplies to the South Pacific, they would have to go all the way south along the East Pacific coast, traveling thousands of kilometers more by sea, transporting equipment and supplies from the east of Australia and New Zealand to these two islands that had not yet been lost.

China had already landed on the west coast of Australia at this time. The closest distance from the Chinese mainland to Australia was only 5,000 kilometers; China held a massive advantage in logistics.

Marshall was a commander-type general with very clear strategic perception. Since Roosevelt seemed to be caught up in a numbers game under pressure, Marshall did not go along with Roosevelt, but frankly told him, "Mr. President, I believe Australia can at most serve as a region to delay the Chinese offensive. Whether in terms of population density or industrial level, Australia is inferior to New Zealand. As for the Australians' will to fight, the Army General Staff currently has no way to evaluate it. Just judging from the battles that have already taken place, the combat effectiveness and will to fight of the local Australian troops are inferior to the Chinese troops."

Roosevelt listened quietly to Marshall's introduction and did not speak proactively. Marshall presented the Army General Staff's view: what the US military truly needed to defend to the death was New Zealand. New Zealand was not large in area, but it was rich in iron and coal mines and had its own steel industry. As long as the United States sent engineers to help, New Zealand could provide a portion of the supplies needed for logistics in a relatively short period of time.

Moreover, the New Zealand locals were brave and skillful in battle. When Britain conquered New Zealand, they treated the locals relatively well. Therefore, by deploying a large air force in New Zealand, the US military could also utilize the local New Zealand army to participate in the defense.

As long as New Zealand was built into a solid counter-attack base, the US military could sustain its projection of power in the South Pacific. Conversely, if the US military lost Australia and New Zealand, even if they still occupied some islands in the South and Central Pacific, they would be defeated by the Chinese army relying on numerical superiority.

At this time, only Roosevelt, Marshall, and Secretary of State Hull were in the Oval Office of the White House. Hearing Marshall predict a very bleak future for the United States, Roosevelt finally asked, "General, if China occupies the entire Pacific, what do you think they will do next?"

Marshall had also considered this question and discussed it with his colleagues in the Staff. Since President Roosevelt asked this question, Marshall did not hide his view. "Mr. President, I believe China will continue to invade the US mainland."

Secretary of State Hull sucked in a breath of cold air; he absolutely had not expected Marshall to think China's ambition was so great. If the United States lost all islands in the Pacific, the US President would not be far from stepping down. The newly inaugurated US President was unlikely to be a guy who insisted on fighting China to the end. As long as China took advantage of the situation to negotiate peace with the United States, it was entirely possible for the negotiations to succeed. Given Chinese Chairman He Rui's diplomatic level, it didn't look like there was any necessity to fight the United States to the end.

Roosevelt was also somewhat surprised. He looked at Marshall and asked in puzzlement, "What would be the purpose of China marching into the US mainland?"

"Mr. President. Based on my observations, the war sentiment among the American public is very high. I believe that losses on the battlefield will not affect the American people's enthusiasm to continue fighting. I suspect the Chinese side also understands this. Since the United States cannot possibly surrender or negotiate, China can only choose to continue invading the US mainland. Otherwise, the war will not end."

Hearing Marshall's explanation, Secretary of State Hull was very puzzled. He felt he understood the American public very well. Given the nature of the American public, they didn't look like they would willingly shed blood and sacrifice their lives for the federal government of the United States of America. If they fought to the point where the United States lost the entire Pacific region, at least the US Navy and Air Force would suffer terrible losses. At that time, the American public would very likely not continue to support the war.

Roosevelt had thoughts similar to Secretary of State Hull, but Roosevelt intuitively felt that what Marshall said made more sense. Since the Army General Staff already had plans for what followed, Roosevelt told Marshall to hurry back to work.

After Marshall left, Roosevelt looked at Hull and asked, "Hull, do you know any churches? I want to go hear a sermon."

The US government at this time classified religious groups as "business groups." The He Rui government had specifically sent people to the United States to investigate this policy, earnestly learned a bunch of related US legal content, and established this set of content within China.

Hull knew that it was sermon time right now, and pastors in every church would be explaining religious viewpoints to the people in the community. Although Hull was a believer, he was not a member of the clergy. Having served as Secretary of State for Roosevelt for three terms, Hull knew that Roosevelt himself had no feeling for religion.

In the end, Hull didn't say much. He asked Roosevelt's female secretary to disguise Roosevelt slightly so that he looked quite different from the photos in the newspapers. Only then did he drive Roosevelt to a church in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

At this time, the pastor had already begun preaching to the congregation in the church. The pastor was obviously a Protestant pastor, not a Puritan pastor. In these years, Puritans had begun to decline, and Protestants had begun to rise. However, the biggest difference between Protestantism and Puritanism was actually regarding the social system. Puritans mostly supported a republic rather than a monarchy, while Protestants did not care much about the social system. The United States had practiced a republican system for 200 years, and no one took the monarchy seriously anymore. This actually allowed Protestantism to start overtaking Puritanism.

The pastor before them recognized Hull, so he did not make a fuss but continued preaching. "God gave us a mission to reach the New Continent and build a City upon a Hill."

If these words were spoken in the era of the Inquisition, the pastor would have had to go into the torture chamber and lose a few layers of skin. If this pastor persisted in his views, he would be sent to the stake to be burned to death. If the pastor changed his views and admitted his sins, he would probably still have to be purified by fire.

Because Judaism, Orthodoxy, and Catholicism would not admit that there were still people making covenants with God in modern times. In the eyes of religion, this was blasphemy. The reason Protestantism dared to say this was that in Protestant doctrine, humans communicated directly with God without needing to rely on clergy. That is, "no middlemen earning the price difference." Because once middlemen earned the price difference, they would come up with things like "indulgences."

But this model of Protestantism also led to other results. Ordinary Protestant believers knew that only they could communicate with God, so the only thing they could rely on was "Justification by Faith."

Christianity believes that "man is born sinful." The Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, as middlemen, believe that for a person to receive grace and be saved, in addition to faith, they must also add sufficient good works and penance.

The "Justification" in "Justification by Faith" refers to God's righteousness and sinlessness. According to the Christian theory of "Original Sin," man's original sin prevents him from achieving righteousness and he must rely on the grace of God and the Son, Jesus, to be saved from sin.

The Medieval Roman Curia emphasized achieving justification through "good deeds" and "holy works," while the Reformation proposed the slogan of "Justification by Faith Alone," that is, achieving justification through faith rather than good deeds.

"Justification by Faith" means that a sinner's salvation is solely due to God's grace (gift), relying solely on faith in Jesus Christ rather than on personal actions.

In other words, even a slave trader who killed hundreds of thousands of slaves, as long as this person firmly believed in God—according to the principle of "Justification by Faith"—this person would be sinless before God. As for the hundreds of thousands of slaves killed by the slave trader, their deaths were "God's will" because these people did not have loyal faith in their lives to let God save them from death. It had little to do with the slave trader.

Since Christianity believes that "man is born sinful," that means a newborn baby is also sinful. If a baby dies, it is merely atonement.

Therefore, the hundreds of thousands of slaves killed by the slave trader who firmly believed in God would fall into purgatory or hell after death because of their unfaithful beliefs. The slave trader who killed hundreds of thousands of slaves would enter heaven after death because of his pious belief in God.

Roosevelt was a lawyer by training and understood the internal logic of this stuff very well. He listened quietly as the pastor continued to preach, "...The United States is favored by God, so it must stand up in the war against pagans to defend the honor of the Christian world. Fellow believers, the United States becoming the leader of the world is the continuation of God's building of the City upon a Hill in the New Continent. If the City upon a Hill cannot lead the world, it can only prove that our faith is not pious enough."

Hearing this sermon, Roosevelt was not only surprised but also couldn't help but be somewhat moved. He absolutely had not expected that this war would be combined with God's will in the eyes of religious personnel. Although the US Constitution stipulated that the United States had no state religion, the United States was essentially a religious country. Anything linked to religion could incite the emotions of the American public.

While he was thinking, he heard the pastor finish the explanation of the relationship between US participation in the war and God's City upon a Hill, and instead begin to recite a passage from *Revelation*.

"...And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him... And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness... And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed... And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast... And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God... And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon... And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six..."

After reading this passage, the pastor began to interpret it according to his own understanding. "Ten horns wearing ten crowns signifies the ten countries of the Asian Alliance when they declared war. Each country represents a crown..."

Roosevelt was a bit confused. He could imagine that these pastors would inevitably make far-fetched interpretations, but was it really okay for the pastors to interpret it like this?

However, the pastor didn't care about that much. After all, his audience was not the elite; many people came to church not to really understand some scripture, but to obtain inner peace. So no matter how absurdly the pastor made it up, it wasn't a problem; the believers didn't know if the war could be won.

The pastor had already received orders from above. His molestation of little boys would be overlooked, but he had to do his best to preach in favor of continuing the war. Moreover, the higher-ups had obviously made quite ample preparations, offering a great many suggestions on how to narrate the key points. This thick content was obviously the result of long-term preparation.

After listening for a while, Roosevelt also felt something was amiss. The pastor's explanation looked like a wild distortion of scripture, but the internal logic was very clear. "The dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority... And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." In the pastor's explanation, this passage became: the nations of the world would experience 42 months of suffering in order to resist the offensive launched by China, but after surviving these 42 months, when another beast appeared to establish the world order, the time for counter-attack would arrive.

Although he didn't know how these believers viewed it, Roosevelt completely did not believe that the pastor in his thirties before him could possess strategic thinking through studying the Bible and receiving the Lord's calling. The reason he spoke like this must be that someone was supporting him from behind. And Roosevelt was not in a hurry to find the person behind the instructions right now; for a person in the highest position of power in the United States, it would be impolite for Roosevelt to do so directly.

However, Roosevelt obviously did not expect that these behind-the-scenes instructors were meeting in New York. The US branch of the World Jewish Congress held regular meetings. This meeting was not to discuss how they got together with the American church. A man who looked like he did manual labor said, "China has already sent the Jews within its controlled areas to Madagascar. Now there are two questions. The first question: how did the representative we sent talk with Hitler? The second question: has the Committee's judgment on China come out?"

After the man with the physique of a heavy laborer finished speaking, someone immediately answered respectfully, "Your Excellency Rabbi, the report on the Jews in China has been released. The report believes that China is not a new home for the Jews. The Jews in Kaifeng have never suffered racial persecution, but their extinction was even more thorough than in countries where they suffered racial persecution."

A Rabbi is a special class among Jews, a symbol of a teacher and a wise man. It refers to those who have received formal Jewish education, systematically studied Jewish classics such as the *Tanakh* and the *Talmud*, serve as spiritual leaders of Jewish communities or synagogues, or teach Jewish doctrine in Jewish seminaries, mainly learned scholars.

In the more than one thousand years of wandering of Judaism, Judaism had long become accustomed to hiding the Rabbis. A burly man who seemed uncouth and unlettered, or an inconspicuous thin little old man, could both be Rabbis of Judaism.

Sitting opposite this burly man was a thin little old man who looked unremarkable and was dressed in ordinary worker's clothes. Hearing these words, the burly man asked respectfully, "Rabbi, how do you view this matter?"

The little old man had a look of helplessness in his expression and answered softly, "I think there is no longer any need to consider China. I have read the report. The Kaifeng Jews in the report have lost the most important core of Judaism, which is the pride of being God's Chosen People. Although Jewish blood may flow in their veins, having lost the core concept of Judaism, they are no longer Jews."

The burly man looked regretful but did not refute. Also being a Rabbi, the burly man knew very well that the little old man Rabbi was right. Jews actually did not mind Jewish bloodline that much; the true cohesion of Jews lay in the pride of being God's Chosen People. It was precisely this pride that made many outstanding people convert to Judaism. Because outstanding people inherently possessed arrogance, believing they were born superior to others.

If Christianity and the like were middlemen, the Jews as God's Chosen People were the original shareholders. All were people who believed in Jehovah, so becoming an original shareholder naturally meant possessing the highest status. Moreover, the Jewish financial groups' penetration of the United States was very successful, allowing the Democratic Party to obtain funds from the world. Therefore, many upper-class people of Anglo-Saxon origin joined Judaism, allowing Judaism to quickly gain sufficient influence. Without the addition of this fresh blood, Jews would not be able to stand firm in the United States at all.

The burly Rabbi sighed and asked, "What is the result of the negotiations with Hitler?"

Immediately, a Jewish committee member in a suit and leather shoes, looking quite scholarly, answered, "Hitler agreed to the Jews establishing a state in Madagascar, but he has two conditions. The first condition is that Jews must not return to Europe. The second condition is that Jews must help Germany facilitate engine cooperation between Germany and Britain. Now Hitler has negotiated a framework with Britain, but the British side, constrained by the hardliners led by Churchill, demands that Germany must share Air Force research results now. From a business perspective, the demands of Churchill and his people are too excessive."

The members of the Jewish Committee nodded one after another, expressing their willingness to help facilitate this matter. As for the collaborator being Hitler, who drove the Jews out of Europe, the Jewish Committee did not care much. For thousands of years, Jews had spent their time like this, being driven from one place to another. They constantly lost manpower along the way, but also constantly absorbed new blood.

The only exception was the Chinese Jewish immigrants, who should have multiplied to a population of one hundred thousand or even several hundred thousand over a thousand years, but were completely assimilated. The number of people claiming to be descendants of Jews after assimilation until now was not even as large as the number of Jewish immigrants a thousand years ago.

Compared with the losses of the expelled, the losses in China were the greatest. Therefore, the Jewish Association believed that cooperating with Hitler was more beneficial than cooperating with China.