The tank units of the World People's Liberation Army (WPLA) rumbled toward the coastline, initially expecting one last struggle on the shores of North Africa. However, what they encountered were two corps of the Italian National Defense Force—the last European troops holding out in Africa—already formed up in neat ranks.

All officers and men stood in formation according to their units. Heavy weapons and ammunition were stacked tidily on both sides of the roads the WPLA armored columns were to pass through. The Italian officers guarding these stockpiles had already completed the inventory, with dense rows of precise figures covering their statistical tables.

Flying alongside the Italian national and battle flags were white flags of surrender. The white flag in front of the headquarters, in particular, was made of imported Chinese silk; as it danced in the hot North African wind, it possessed a certain ethereal grace.

Though surprised by the proficiency and professionalism of the Italian army in the art of surrender, the WPLA followed protocol, announcing the prisoner-of-policy to the Italians and quickly completing the surrender formalities and subsequent prisoner relocation.

The Italian troops had every right to hold their heads high as they marched into the POW camps, for they were the last European units left on the continent. The British and German expeditionary forces had completely withdrawn from North Africa by early July. The forces of the Spanish Franco government had met a more tragic end; they were utterly annihilated by WPLA units containing a large number of members from the Spanish International Brigades.

The Spanish Civil War had been so brutal that both sides frequently executed captured enemy troops. Franco’s army faced a bloody reckoning this time. By the time other WPLA units arrived to stop the vendetta, a large number of Francoist officers had already been executed by firing squad. Due to this incident, the two army groups involved in the mass executions were rotated out and barred from entering Spain in the future.

By July 23, no European or American troops remained within the borders of Asia, Africa, or Latin America. By this time, the United States had withdrawn to its own mainland, and Chinese forces in Canada were advancing irresistibly, pushing desperately toward the east.

On July 31, the day before the August 1 Army Day, Hu Xiushan, Commander of the North American Theater, sent a telegram to He Rui: "Chairman, I am now standing on the Atlantic coastline to send you my greetings. Please take care of your health; do not worry about the situation at the front."

A light rain was falling by the Atlantic shore. Hu Xiushan held an umbrella, listening to the pitter-patter of tiny droplets hitting the surface. Hu Xiushan never imagined that seeing the Atlantic would leave him without sentiment; nor did he find the scenery before him particularly breathtaking. Compared to defeating the enemy, Hu Xiushan was more concerned about He Rui’s health.

According to the information available only to someone of Hu Xiushan’s rank, He Rui’s health was already in a very precarious state. The only stroke of luck was that he had not yet collapsed. Hu Xiushan only hoped that when the war ended, he could personally stand behind He Rui to review the troops returning in victory, just as they had done after every previous triumph.

Along the coastline, the North American Theater troops were currently cheering "Long live Chairman He," their voices rising in wave after wave.

China had an ample supply of soldiers, and recruitment was extremely strict. At the time of enlistment, regular soldiers were required to have a junior high school education, technical troops and non-commissioned officer candidates required a high school diploma, and officer candidates were university graduates. Therefore, the vast majority of Chinese servicemen were born after 1924.

Twenty years had passed from 1924 to 1944. These soldiers had heard their elders and older siblings tell stories of how foreigners once threw their weight around in China and how foreign armies had once run rampant. But they had never seen it themselves.

From birth until now, these young people had received compulsory education. Neighborhood and village committees had pressured their elders daily to ensure the children went to school.

In their homes, these young people had watched as their elders shifted from arguing and complaining about not having enough to eat to arguing about not having good enough clothes. After they turned ten, the purchase of a radio, applying for an installment loan for a bicycle, buying a motor vehicle, or adding household goods became the new subjects of contention.

The children learned of the hardships of life and the coldness of the world. Now, their families were struggling over the purchase of a house. They knew that if they wanted a better life, they had to uphold socialism and have a good job.

When the Civilization Party and Chairman He Rui—who had appeared in all forms of propaganda throughout these twenty years—called on everyone to join the army and fight, the young people flocked to enlist, eventually considering themselves lucky to have earned the qualification to serve.

They had experienced life and death and witnessed countless foreign sights. These young soldiers, who had traversed tens of thousands of miles, understood that the war had finally reached a new turning point. As long as they stormed the hornets' nest of the colonialists, the war would end, and everyone could return home.

At some point, it became common belief among the people that Chairman He Rui had promised the Chinese people a bright future. The young soldiers all believed that when they and their comrades returned to their hometowns together, all the hardships of life would be resolved, and the happy life Chairman He Rui had once described would be realized.

Thus, the soldiers shouted the slogan "Long live Chairman He" from the bottom of their hearts to celebrate their arrival at the Atlantic. They truly wanted to dedicate these victories to Chairman He Rui to express their gratitude.

The joy of the Chinese soldiers was, however, the agony of China's enemies. In London, on the other side of the Atlantic, Big Ben tolled with a mournful sound. By this time, the British Empire, which once held territory at every degree of longitude, had lost all its lands outside the British Isles, becoming the three islands once more.

The British didn't even have time to mourn the collapse of their empire; they understood all too well that the British Isles were not safe. The relentlessly pressing Chinese would never stop; they would inevitably set foot on British soil, setting the entire islands ablaze with war.

At 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister Churchill actually felt quite relaxed. Now that both boots had dropped, he no longer had to worry about other possibilities and could focus solely on preparing for the war that would soon erupt on British soil.

As for the outcome of the war, Churchill was largely indifferent. The current British government didn't even need to consider how many people would die; since Britain had already lost millions of troops on the battlefield, what would a few million more matter?

Churchill was not handling state affairs; instead, he was writing his own will. Having set aside all pressure, he was even able to deliberate over his choice of words, just as he had done during his days as a journalist.

With the end so clearly defined, Churchill felt there was nothing left to worry about. Whether he was killed in battle, hanged after being captured by the Chinese, or killed at the hands of domestic radicals, he simply no longer cared.

August 1st was the Army Day of the Chinese Defense Force. Military police on the streets of London found many emaciated civilians in tattered clothes emerging from every side street. The thin crowds were all lethargic; those walking at the front held pieces of cardboard or wooden boards with the words "We want food, we don't want to starve to death."

The British military police were armed, with rounds already in the chambers of their rifles. Even without orders from their superiors, many military police prepared to rack their bolts upon seeing these protesters appearing from all directions.

As an island nation with the North Atlantic Drift passing through, Britain’s winters aren't considered cold. However, due to its high latitude, temperatures remain low; even during the hottest days of summer, they rarely exceed 27 degrees Celsius. In such a climate, the British harvest season generally begins after the autumnal equinox—between September 20th and 22nd.

August was precisely the time when the "old grain was gone and the new was not yet in."

With China liberating Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the Western nations could no longer ship grain from those regions. Although the United States was a major grain exporter, the US government had already banned food exports due to skyrocketing domestic prices. Currently, the British government relied on stockpiles to provide basic rations to the military police, but ordinary British citizens had no such luxury. they could only subsist on the minimum amount of grain provided by the government to sustain life, so British people were starving to death every day.

The British military police knew very well that these people on the streets weren't there to cause trouble; the slogans they carried addressed the most urgent problem they needed to solve. If the situation did not improve, these people would truly starve.

It was because they understood this that the military police became even more nervous. The destructive power of a starving crowd is terrifying; they don't take to the streets for catharsis, but to survive. As long as the agonizing hunger felt by every starving person isn't alleviated, there is no reasoning with them. Anyone who tries to stop them—even military police—cannot intimidate them.

On August 1, 1944, the British civilians on the streets broke into violent clashes with the military police, resulting in countless casualties.

In subsequent investigations, various descriptions emerged. Some said the starving people looted shops, triggering city-wide riots; some said the hungry provoked the police and were met with retaliation; still others said the police attacked first, causing the chaos.

Historians and journalists of later generations recorded various accounts of this Great London Riot, all of which had eyewitnesses. However, depending on the standpoint, the emphasis of these reports differed greatly. The only consistent record was that almost all shops in London were destroyed that day. The military police had received orders from above to fire on anyone suspected of rioting or looting, ultimately resulting in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries.

On August 2nd, London was placed under total martial law. No one was allowed on the streets, leading to the cessation of food distribution. By August 3rd, even the most pro-government research reports had to record this fact: "On August 3rd, a large number of starving London residents knelt in churches or at street corners, pleading for the government to distribute food. Because of the previous riots, the government could not fully trust these crowds who ignored orders and left their homes. Ultimately, the British police began to disperse the crowds, leading to dozens of deaths on the spot and thousands of injuries... If the British public could have been more proactive in communicating with the government, this tragedy could have been avoided..."

The ruthlessness of the British government even shocked King George VI, who finally issued an order allowing British citizens to leave London and head for the countryside.

This order was not regarded as a benevolent act; at least in the eyes of the British government and the plutocrats, George VI was just a well-fed king issuing blind orders for the sake of his own reputation.

To these people, while fleeing to the countryside might temporarily allow the poor to find a bit of food and avoid immediate starvation, everything had a price. The mass exodus of the poor from the city directly caused urban industry to come to a halt, leading to a plunge in the output of all British industrial goods.

Furthermore, in the eyes of the British government and the plutocrats, there were some things that were inconvenient to say out loud, yet they knew them in their hearts: the current supply of grain was indeed very low, which was actually not a bad thing. Only by having some people starve to death could those skilled workers who originally had higher incomes be satisfied with rations that merely kept them from starving.

If all those poor wretches ran to the countryside for food, those skilled workers would no longer be satisfied with a meager daily supply of grain and would choose to leave the city to seek a way to survive.

Of course, these reasons could not be stated publicly. The newspapers began to fiercely attack the British public: "...These short-sighted people do not realize that only by restoring urban order can the distribution of supplies continue, allowing everyone to escape the threat of starvation. These urban populations heading to the countryside do not realize that there is actually no food in the villages either; their move will only disrupt rural order, making it impossible for the government to collect more grain from the countryside, which will in turn cause even more people to starve..."

The British upper class was most adept at shifting blame, and this time was no exception. Britain's catastrophe was the joint result of external enemies and internal, ignorant "unruly people." The British government was innocent and completely without responsibility.

With the situation as it was, Britain was utterly incapable of responding to the Spanish Franco government’s pleas for troops, leaving the Franco regime to face the WPLA’s sea-borne invasion alone.

On August 1st, the WPLA sent only a small scouting force to land in Spain. This force was only a battalion in size; if the Francoist government had sent a single brigade, they certainly could have repelled this landing force.

However, the weaponry and equipment of the Francoist army were truly abysmal, even worse than that of the Italians. Italy at least could manufacture its own planes and artillery; the Spanish government forces had only a few propeller planes and cannons provided as aid by Germany, most of which had been lost in previous battles.

Even the few surviving propeller fighter pilots refused to fly to their deaths, so the Spanish troops on the beaches collapsed under a fierce bombardment.

By the time this battalion reached the shore, they faced only empty positions. The landing force simply moved forward, occupying the trenches abandoned by the enemy.

By August 4th, a full corps had landed in Spain. At this time, German troops were in a standoff at the border with French forces huddled behind the Maginot Line.

Since the Anglo-German compromise and the German withdrawal from Northern France, the French army had focused all its attention on defense. The previous collapse of the Maginot Line had occurred because the Germans passed through the Ardennes Forest to enter the rear of the Anglo-French forces.

The French army had conducted numerous post-mortems and believed that if they held the Maginot Line, they still had the capability to continue fighting the Germans. Thus, the French had reinforced the Maginot Line, laying over ten million anti-tank mines in all dangerous areas.

The German military believed that opening a front against France now would indeed defeat them, but the price of victory would be the loss of over a thousand tanks and hundreds of thousands of casualties. That price was simply too high! Therefore, the German government was currently attempting to resolve the problem through diplomatic means.

However, the French were currently adamant about not allowing German troops to pass through French territory or airspace to reinforce Spain. The French Foreign Minister emphasized to Nazi German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop: "If the German military provides aid to Spain by sea, France will certainly not stop it and would even help the German navy with escorting."

Ribbentrop wanted to curse him out but was helpless. Currently, the range of German jet fighters was insufficient to assist Spain; if they simply sent some jet fighters to Spain, it would have no impact on the battle. The massive Chinese air force would quickly wipe out those German units.

In a fit of exasperation, Ribbentrop asked a question: "Does France believe China will return Algeria to you?"

These words were like a branding iron, causing the French Foreign Minister to snap back in anger: "Does Nazi Germany believe your Nazism will escape China's reckoning?"

At this point, the foreign ministers of the two countries were nearly at blows. For both German Nazism and French Algeria were massive problems both nations currently faced regarding China.

France had always considered Algeria an overseas department and did not view it as a colony. However, China's standards for colonialism were very clear: as long as France recognized that Algerians possessed French citizenship, Algeria would not be treated as a colony.

China's standard was very reasonable; especially in the presence of a powerful military, the justice of China's standard was practically a divine truth.

However, perhaps because the French believed they had a very good relationship with China, a French special envoy had once asked China in a fit of pique whether Algeria was to France what Western China was to China.

The Chinese envoy, seeing the French envoy’s exasperation, couldn't help but be amused. After laughing for a bit, the Chinese envoy solemnly informed the French envoy: "The people of Western China enjoy political rights no different from any other part of China. I can tell you a fact: for hundreds of years, as long as the people of Western China could pass the imperial examinations, they would become officials of China.

Due to China's social system, there was no such thing as a parliament at that time. Being an official meant that the political power of the people in Western China was no different from other regions.

Our Chinese judging criteria are formulated according to France's political characteristics, which is why we proposed citizenship. If France can prove that Algerians can sign up for French civil service examinations at any time and that a certain percentage pass every year, China can also consider Algeria to be French territory and not a colony."

These requirements were certainly standards the French government would not accept. Furthermore, China really wasn't making things difficult for France on purpose; these were standards set after central discussion. If France truly passed laws at this stage to grant Algerians French citizenship, China was prepared to recognize Algeria as part of France.

But just as the Chinese government expected, the French government ultimately didn't even make an attempt, allowing the WPLA to liberate Algeria.