Just how close was the China Southern Military Region to Burma? The Kra Military Region’s northwest border was right up against Burma’s southeast boundary.

The Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army advanced by both land and sea. On land, the WPRA’s mission was to resolve the British colonial authorities. This included the British military, the British local government, the police, and all such institutions. With the help of the "Dobama Asiayone" (We Burmans Association), this takeover work went very smoothly.

Often, it would take hours or even over a dozen hours to rush to a destination, but once they arrived, the battle to settle the issue might take only ten or twenty minutes, or at most little more than an hour. While the army forces slogged through the narrow strip of southern Burma, the navy headed straight for its destination.

The British attitude toward defending Burma was inconsistent. After China severed the connection between the British home islands and India, the British, who understood the importance of maritime transport well, realized things had reached a desperate state. Dispatching all of the British Empire's fleets to fight in the Indian Ocean could theoretically temporarily open up the communication line between Britain and India.

The problem was, what happened after opening it?

Even the extremely hawkish current British Prime Minister, "Fatty Qiu" [Churchill], dared not give such an order. To maintain the communication line, a large number of warships would have to be scattered across the sea, patrolling back and forth. Compared to China’s "rogue navy," which used submarines and aircraft as its primary means of attack, the British Navy followed the "high-end, grandiose, and classy" route of heavy ships and giant cannons.

China’s rogue navy could sink a battleship or heavy cruiser—which took years to build—using a trivial submarine or even a few even more trivial aircraft. British destroyers and light cruisers did possess anti-submarine equipment. The problem was that these vessels lacked anti-aircraft firepower. China would never be foolish enough to let submarines surround them to settle the fight; submarines and fast surface craft often undertook patrol duties, and once the British Navy was spotted, aircraft would immediately scramble. With the help of Chinese vessels trailing the British Navy, the battle would be concluded.

The British Navy had also tried sending small-scale surface forces to pursue the Chinese surface forces, but the pursuers quickly became the hunted. Mere destroyers and light cruisers became excellent targets. The underwater, surface, and aerial triad hunting system constructed by the Chinese made the British "high-end" navy miserable in the Indian Ocean.

"Learning from painful lessons" was a luxury for the current British; they had to come up with a solution while being thrashed by China. Fatty Qiu was a navy man; the naval conference he personally convened quickly reached a conclusion. Britain lacked a strategic air force in the Indian Ocean. Relying on its powerful industrial strength, China had spared no cost to build its own military system in the Indian Ocean. Britain’s backward technology and traditions meant it simply didn't have the strength to solve this problem.

As for how to curb China’s rampage in the Indian Ocean, Fatty Qiu had no good ideas either. Britain had already united with France to declare war on Germany. France had also once sent troops to attack Germany’s Siegfried Line direction, but after suffering thousands of casualties, the French chose to die down. The First World War had left too deep an impression on France. Casualties of thousands or tens of thousands on any random front—France truly could not bear such losses again. France was unwilling to fight such a war again.

Having blocked France, Germany began operations in Northern Europe. To fight China, Britain had transferred quite a few fleets to the Indian Ocean, which allowed Germany’s few battleships to run wild in Northern Europe. In particular, the German battleship *Bismarck* was simply a devil ship. Britain gathered its navy to try and besiege this battleship, but the siege failed. When the battlecruiser *Hood* intercepted the *Bismarck* in the Denmark Strait, it was blown up by a single salvo and sank completely within two minutes.

British fleets that intercepted the *Bismarck* and the *Prinz Eugen* several times were even lured by the German warships into pre-set submarine ambush zones. Trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice, Britain had two battleships and one battlecruiser sunk by Germany in succession. The British Empire, at war with both China and Germany simultaneously, suffered disastrous losses.

As the world hegemon, Britain’s current destitute situation was displayed before the entire world. Fatty Qiu clearly felt that this was no longer a question of how to defeat the enemy, but a critical moment of life and death for the British Empire. If the war continued like this, once the Chinese and German armies finally linked up in the Middle East, the British Empire would be forever kicked out of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Did Germany only consider seizing Europe? Did Germany and Italy—who wore the same pair of pants—not plan to seize Africa? Would the United States, eyeing them covetously from North America, let Canada go? If Britain only huddled on the British Isles, the British Empire would inevitably enter a track of total collapse. Such a future made the British Cabinet shudder.

Britain had once colonized the Americas, and in the end, the independent colony of the United States emerged. Britain had once set off a frenzy attempting to carve up China, but the Chinese People's Party ultimately defeated all invaders, gaining China’s independence and liberation. As for the Soviet Union, which did not border Britain, Fatty Qiu had once proudly declared that the supreme commander of the siege against the Soviet Union was he himself. It had been less than 20 years since the old score of trying to destroy the Soviet Union when it was first founded.

As for Germany, which was currently at war with Britain... Fatty Qiu didn't even want to discuss the "friendly relations" between Britain and Germany anymore.

After being the world hegemon for hundreds of years, Britain discovered that all the great powers in the world were its enemies, and Britain had deep blood feuds with all these countries. Unlike in the past, these countries did not start fighting among themselves under British provocation.

The back-to-back relationship between China and the Soviet Union allowed both countries to avoid internal friction, resulting in a long, peaceful, and stable border line between two great powers, unprecedented in history. Even though Germany and the Soviet Union had been cursing each other for over a decade, at the critical moment, they still prioritized Britain as their main opponent. With these major powers not attacking each other, Britain was out of luck.

The strategic shift was so terrifying that Fatty Qiu really couldn't come up with any solution. To make matters worse, the rumor that Fatty Qiu’s rise to power was an American conspiracy, that the US was trying to dismantle and swallow Britain, not only didn't disappear but intensified. Originally it was the Irish spreading this rumor, but now even the Scots were joining in. One can imagine Fatty Qiu’s anger at this—not to mention the sinister intentions of these separatists. Did the Scots and Irish even deserve the surname Zhao? Since when was it their turn to butt into the British Empire's affairs?

But the problem now was, if the United States also participated in the frenzy to carve up Britain, the fate of the British Empire might be even more tragic than the fall of the Roman Empire. No matter how one looked at it right now, Britain could not let the US become an enemy too. Even if he was called an American spy, Fatty Qiu still made preparations to visit the United States personally.

However, the collapse of the British Empire was faster than Fatty Qiu imagined. When the Chinese Navy marched into Burma, the first thing that happened was an uprising by the local Burmese troops. Aung San had no intention of simply being a collaborator. After he brought back China’s promise to guarantee Burma’s independence, the "Dobama Asiayone" mobilized its full strength.

As a patriot, before joining the Dobama Asiayone, Aung San was the president of the All-Burma Student Union. Young students were always the standing army of revolutionary forces. In this era, outside of developed industrial nations, the parents behind young students were the backbone of society. Mobilizing the students of Burma was equivalent to mobilizing Burma’s middle class.

Britain had deployed a considerable number of troops in Rangoon, preparing to resist the Chinese fleet's landing. As a result, in the early morning of April 2nd, the British army suddenly received several urgent calls. Without exception, these calls reported the news that Burmese troops were abandoning their positions.

At this moment, the Chinese Air Force formation had already arrived over the British positions. Looking down from above, more than a dozen huge bonfires suddenly appeared on the ground. Each bonfire formed an arrow, and the arrows of fire pointed towards a large area. According to the agreement, this area was the British position.

The British Air Force also took off attempting to resist the Chinese Air Force, but those slow-moving British planes in the air looked more like they were there to throw away their lives. Moreover, the British planes that took off clearly saw the strange situation on the ground, and they turned their noses trying to land. The Chinese Air Force naturally wouldn't give the British planes such a chance; fighters chased them from behind and easily shot down the British planes. The bombers, guided by the fire arrows, carried out a fierce bombing run on the British positions.

Earth-shattering explosions made all of Rangoon tremble. The water in the several rivers flowing through Rangoon churned with strange whirlpools, and frightened schools of fish leaped out of the water. Some simply floated on the surface, stunned by the shockwaves, drifting with the current. Such a "grand spectacle" was something the Chinese Air Force was already accustomed to, but for the Burmese who had never seen modern warfare, this was a scene that looked like the end of the world.

The Burmese were mainly Buddhists. In Rangoon, devout Buddhists one by one held cheap prayer beads exported from China to Burma, mumbling scriptures. The flames of war did not expand to the entirety of Rangoon.

Comrade Aung San first welcomed the Chinese troops ashore, then led the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army straight at the British positions. According to the pre-set plan, the Chinese troops divided into two parts: one attacked the British positions frontally, and the other circled to the rear to outflank the British. The British side never expected a collective defection by the Burmese troops, and the frenzied bombing suffered by the main positions caused Britain to lose its command system.

By April 3rd, Rangoon was liberated.

"All captured weapons are to be handed over to the Burmese side, and the cleaning of the battlefield is also the responsibility of the Burmese side!" The Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army issued a strict order. For the people of the colonies, they had to see with their own eyes the miserable state of the colonizers to realize that the colonizers were not invincible. Having destroyed the British command center in Rangoon, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army continued to advance west. The target was the British army on the Burma-India border.