Collecting corpses is cruel work. The feeling of "the fox mourning the death of the hare" is a normal human emotion. Gathering tens of thousands of hideously disfigured corpses is a terrible task. Commander of the Kra Military Region, Zhu Yao, personally went to the front lines. Even though he was truly loyal to the People's Party and Chairman Chen Ke, Commander Zhu Yao felt no joy in the total annihilation of the enemy. Instead, he felt a deep fear and even revulsion towards the most horrific aspects of war.

The Air Force troops had excitedly told Zhu Yao that the Fuel-Air Explosive (FAE) bombs were equipment developed under Chairman Chen Ke's leadership. Like quite a few modern weapons, Chen Ke played a significantly important role in the development of Chinese military equipment. Such intelligence and wisdom were one of the reasons Chen Ke held an unshakable, lofty status in the army. But when the purpose of this equipment was destruction rather than defeating the enemy in combat, even Zhu Yao found it a bit unbearable.

There was no fierce fighting, not even time to see the enemy. They only knew the enemy was in a certain direction. By the time they personally arrived there, the enemy had turned into hideously disfigured corpses. This wasn't just one or a few, or even measured in hundreds. Thousands upon thousands of enemies had turned into corpses just like that. Even knowing they were enemies, Zhu Yao still felt that the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was not fighting, but carrying out a massacre against the enemy.

Of course, Zhu Yao held no resentment towards Chen Ke. Chen Ke didn't develop this equipment for fun; destroying the enemy was to protect their own soldiers. To eliminate so many enemies in battle, the Chinese side would inevitably suffer considerable losses. Relying on two regiments and a light tank battalion to deal with over a hundred thousand enemies, this was the only method of warfare to adopt.

Zhu Yao was slightly relieved that the Military Commission believed they wouldn't encounter guerrilla warfare in the Malaya and Singapore regions, let alone a "People's War." What the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army feared most was the enemy implementing a People's War. The "16-Character Mantra" could be implemented by any army. As Engels said, "A nation that wants to strive for its own independence should not limit itself to ordinary methods of warfare. Mass uprisings, revolutionary wars, organizing guerrilla groups everywhere—this is the only way for a small nation to defeat a large nation, for a not powerful enough army to resist a relatively powerful and well-organized army."

Although he knew the British were colonialists and couldn't possibly mobilize the masses, the People's War Zhu Yao had witnessed in China left too deep an impression on him. The Chinese people, who seemed to have nothing to do with the revolution the day before, would quickly throw themselves into the ranks of the revolution. With a "seek truth from facts" attitude and under the "United Front" strategy, the People's Party's pragmatism could even make a venomous snake take on the responsibility of guarding treasure.

However, the progress of the war proved Zhu Yao's worries were quite superfluous. As the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army marched south, whenever they encountered a heavy concentration of enemy troops, they would use FAE bombs to "wash the ground." Success once or twice made the commanders uneasy; success three or four times left them puzzled. After five or six successes, the commanders and combatants of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army felt a bit angry. They had seen stupid people, but never anyone this stupid. It was clear that gathering together would lead to a devastating strike, yet the British and the colonial troops under their command kept bunching up as if seeking death.

As long as the aircraft carried out ordinary bombing, light tank units harassed, and bicycle units followed up with an encirclement, these enemies would start to gather their forces after suffering ordinary strikes, and then turn into corpses under the saturation attack of FAE bombs.

If it were the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, facing insufficient forces against an enemy, they would immediately disperse to carry out encirclement and flanking attacks. If the enemy's firepower was fierce, the troops would split into multiple small detachments to launch multi-pronged attacks after probing fire. They would strive to achieve the strategy of dividing and surrounding, concentrating superior firepower and forces to solve the enemy in stages. If such tactics didn't work, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army would lure the enemy deep, using the 16-Character Mantra as a combat strategy to pull the enemy out and fight them.

If anyone foolishly gathered together under the enemy's superior forces to be passively beaten, that commander would immediately be removed from office by Party committees at various levels. Attack! Attack! Attack! Attack while advancing, create opportunities for attack while retreating in great strides, and then launch violent attacks. This was the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's specialty.

When the British on the opposite side faced a disadvantage, they immediately gave up attacking and adopted a defensive posture. It was unclear whether their military command level was backward, or if they simply didn't understand what kind of enemy they were facing.

The only thing that could be considered satisfactory was the captives. As long as they were surrounded and shouted at a few times to surrender, the British among the surviving British troops would take the lead in surrendering. With them taking the lead, a group of soldiers of various skin colors and appearances would also immediately hand over their guns and surrender. Moreover, these captives were quite obedient. They would gather wherever they were told. Except for the British-born soldiers, especially British officers, refusing to work when building temporary POW camps, everything else could be said to be orderly.

The "Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention" strictly forbade the mistreatment of captives. The fact that these captured personnel were so cooperative greatly reduced the difficulty of combat operations. It really takes two to tango; on one hand, requiring lenient treatment of captives, and on the other, strictly observing rules after surrendering. This follow-up work of the war felt quite smooth to the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.

As the adversary of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, the commander of the British Singapore Military Region also had unspeakable bitterness. The British were actually quite war-weary, or at least extremely averse to bloody, tough battles. World War I had only been over for 20 years, and the terrible impressions left by WWI still remained in British memories. Moreover, even in WWI, the British didn't face a comprehensive disadvantage. During WWI, the British had overwhelming superiority at sea and no disadvantage on land. Many new weapons, including tanks, were first developed by the British. Even with the poison gas first used by the Germans, the British only lagged behind for a short time before catching up.

Like this time, where they completely lost command of the sea and air, and were even at a complete disadvantage in land warfare, the British had never encountered such a situation. It wasn't that the British wanted to cooperate with the Chinese offensive; contracting the defensive line after encountering a setback wasn't a particularly unreasonable tactic for the British. In the British war mindset, weapons of mass destruction like FAE bombs were completely beyond their imagination. They didn't know there was a weapon that could instantly destroy an army within a range of several square kilometers.

When the troops at the very front suddenly lost contact, and when the layers of defensive troops kept sending news of the enemy's rapid approach, the British had absolutely no idea what kind of enemy they were facing, let alone how many enemies were in front of them.

The British were well aware of the news that China possessed 5.5 million troops. In fact, this was old news. By early 1939, China already had 8 million regular troops, and adding the engineering and railway corps, the total exceeded 12 million. If the British troops in the Singapore Military Region knew this figure, they probably wouldn't defend in place, but would turn around and run for it.

On February 9, 1939, the fifth day after Britain declared war on China, there was no news from the colonial troops serving as cannon fodder in Siam and Malaya. The British commander couldn't even believe that these people had been wiped out by the Chinese army. The latest news was that the Chinese vanguard had already fought to within less than 100 kilometers of Singapore. It had only been three days since the land war with China formally began on the 6th. In three days, one couldn't even walk that far.

Defending Singapore were the core British forces, including British troops, Australian troops, and even brave Portuguese troops who came to help. "More cannons than raisins in a Christmas pudding will hold Singapore," was an Australian newspaper's description of Singapore. Three days ago, British First Lord of the Admiralty Churchill, who had transferred from Singapore to India, said, "Singapore has no land defenses; it is like a battleship without a bottom that can sail!" Singapore's defenses were aimed at attacks from the sea; very few coastal guns could rotate at large angles, so they were useless against landings from the rear. At this time, Singapore still had about 80,000 British, Australian, and Indian coalition troops, with relatively sufficient food and ammunition. The British might not have confidence in colonial troops, but they were quite confident in their own troops.

At this very moment, China sent a telegram to Britain stating that a Chinese warship would carry a Chinese envoy to Singapore to negotiate Britain's surrender. The Governor of Singapore originally wanted to ignore this message, but in the end, he reluctantly agreed to China's request. At 14:00 on March 9, the warship carrying the Chinese special envoy landed at Singapore Harbor under the tight encirclement of the British Navy.

The Chinese special envoy didn't see the Governor of Singapore until 17:00. Upon meeting, the Chinese envoy said hurriedly, "Your Excellency Governor, my purpose this time is to persuade you to surrender. I hope you can make a decision on whether to surrender unconditionally before 6:00 tomorrow morning. Regardless of what decision you make, I will leave before 6:00 tomorrow morning. Just to save myself from losing my life in vain within our saturation attack range if you choose not to surrender unconditionally."

Even if the Chinese envoy had used threats or even abuse to talk to the Governor of Singapore, the Governor wouldn't have felt such extreme anger as he did now. Because the Chinese envoy didn't put Singapore in his eyes at all. That frank attitude, and that hurried energy like a postman rather than a surrender envoy, all indicated one thing to the Singapore Governor: China didn't regard Singapore's army and navy of nearly 100,000 men as anything at all. To the Chinese envoy, these people in Singapore were nothing but bones in a grave. It would be good if they surrendered, but it made no difference if they didn't.

"You Chinese are still hundreds of kilometers away from us, yet you dare to demand our unconditional surrender?" the Singapore Governor asked in a mocking tone.

The Chinese special envoy had witnessed the process and results of the FAE bomb attacks by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army along the way, so he said in a matter-of-fact tone, "That's right. For your own interests, I sincerely suggest you surrender unconditionally immediately. If you don't choose to surrender, I suggest you all write your wills and say your prayers. Anyway, do whatever you can do quickly, don't leave any regrets before you die."

The Chinese envoy's demeanor was sincerely heartfelt; he didn't believe the British had the ability to withstand the saturation attack of FAE bombs in Singapore. If not for being constrained by diplomatic treaties, the Singapore Governor opposite him truly wanted to drag the Chinese envoy out and kill him. The Governor stared with great backbone at the Chinese envoy's face, which bore a look of compassionate sympathy, and said in a haughty tone, "The British Empire's Singapore will absolutely never surrender!"