All Zhang Chi can do is send a few telegrams to China, reminding Principal Jiang that the Japanese will likely have large-scale actions in the near future. Zhang Chi even lied that through the intercepted Japanese telegram, the direction of the Japanese army's large-scale attack is likely to be in the direction of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi provinces, which will divide the Chinese defense zone into two, and for the Japanese army, it can also open up the other side of the maritime traffic line.

However, these telegrams from Zhang Chi were not responded to... Principal Jiang was very suspicious. He was unwilling to waste time for people he distrusts, especially those like Zhang Chi who would become his troubles. Principal Jiang's general staff also knew this very well. Therefore, it is very likely that these telegrams from Zhang Chi would not be placed on Principal Jiang's desk.

The United States, on the other hand, began to prepare to attack the Philippines in a hurry, and the remaining enemies of the Mariana Islands had not even been eliminated.

The reason why the United States is so eager to turn to the Philippines actually has two meanings.

One is worried that the Japanese will change their tactics... In other words, the United States did this to tell the Japanese with practical actions: We have been fooled and will not attack the Japanese mainland for the time being. Don’t worry about throwing the elite into the direction of China to launch an attack!

In order to reassure the Japanese, the United States even prepared the B29 bomber bombing plan on the Mariana Islands was postponed... Roosevelt's explanation was that the United States needed to gather strength to attack the Philippines, but Zhang Chi knew that Roosevelt was worried that if the bombing of Japan was launched, the Hideki Tojo's regime would soon collapse, so his plan for China could not be implemented.

Facts also prove that Roosevelt's idea was correct... On the surface, b29 bombed Japan just to throw a few shots, it's no big deal. The Japanese people are stoic by nature, and they can't stand a few shots?

However, as mentioned before, the Japanese people were still living in lies at this time. Most of them did not know that the United States had hit their doorsteps, and some were still fantasizing about bombing the American mainland. Therefore, once they were bombed by US bombers on a large scale, it would instantly shatter the Japanese people like soap bubbles, which would lead to the collapse of the Tojo Hideki's regime.

Another reason is that the United States knows that the Japanese army is empty in the direction of the Philippines, and they are unwilling to give the Japanese army too much preparation time, so they think that the earlier the attack, the better.

But the US military was wrong about this.

Although Kenya Sato is called one of the "Four Fools" among the "Three Jealousies and Four Fools", he actually has a bit of strategic vision.

He knew at the first time that the defense in the Philippines could not be relied on the Japanese Navy... At this time, the Japanese joint fleet was already dead in name only, and the few remaining fighter jets were OK to act. If you want to fight with American fighter jets, then the tragic situation over the Mariana Islands would appear again... Hundreds of fighter jets were shot down meaninglessly by the US Navy in the air, but their side only shot down dozens of enemy fighter jets.

On the other hand, he knew clearly that the Philippines could not hold on. All he could do was to drag the Americans to the Philippines to buy time for Japan, and the longer the drag, the better!

Under this strategic policy, Kenya Sato issued two orders.

1: Actively build fortifications, especially underground fortifications, to minimize our losses in naval and aircraft bombing before enemy landing. We must be prepared without any naval and aviation reinforcements. Every soldier and officer should remain calm and pay attention to taking advantage of the gaps and terrain of the enemy's bombing.

2: Resolutely eliminate the "jade-breaking" attack. It is easy to die for the country, but it is not easy to survive and fight tenaciously with the enemy. Every soldier and officer must face difficulties, continue to fight, and be prepared to fight against the enemy for a long time, so as to inspire the fighting spirit and morale of our army.

These two commands by Kenya Sato were obviously very wise. From a modern perspective, the first command was actually to preserve the vitality, and the second command was to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, and to use the terrain to carry out protracted wars and guerrilla warfare with the enemy who had the advantage of equipment.

Facts also prove that Kenya Sato's tactic is correct, because it not only delayed the US military's schedule to seize the island, but also greatly increased the casualties of the US military. Therefore, in the subsequent battles on Iwoyu Island and Okinawa, the Japanese army firmly implemented these two orders. It was from this time that the US military was shocked to discover that the Japanese army no longer launched suicide charges at their planes and cannons like before.

A considerable number of Japanese troops in the Philippines fully understood the spirit of these two orders, among which the Japanese troops stationed on Pelelliou Island were one of them.

Commander Colonel Nakagawa immediately used a large number of coral caves and sinkholes to build honeycomb defense fortifications, and in particular established a huge underground network, which was completely incomparable to the tunnels seen by the US military on the Marshall Islands and Kwajalin Island.

But the US military did not expect this.

At this time, the protagonist of the battlefield was MacArthur... He was finally able to fulfill his wish to fulfill his promise, which was the sentence "I will come back" when he fled the Philippines in 1942.

This should be the most proud time for MacArthur, because he received the president's authorization, and the US Navy also had to cooperate with him in attacking the Philippines... This was almost a disguised way for him to command the US Navy.

So MacArthur's first target was Pellio Island, Morrotai Island and Yapu Island... Because there are airports on these islands, MacArthur was worried that the flanks would be exposed to the bombing of fighter jets at these island airports when attacking the Philippines.

This worry was proven to be completely redundant afterwards, because the Japanese at this time had almost no power to fight back in the air, so that the Japanese pilots could only hopelessly fly full fighter planes and rush towards the US warships to launch a suicide attack.

MacArthur confidently expected that the battle to capture these islands would end in a week or even less. MacArthur even proudly declared: "This operation will be a short-term operation, a fierce blitzkrieg, which may last for 4 days, up to 5 days, and will cause a large number of casualties! Please believe that we will capture the Island of Pellio!"

Of course, what MacArthur mentioned here is the "large number of casualties" refers to the Japanese army, which means that he can kill a large number of Japanese troops and win the target in a short period of time.

This sentence is indeed correct, but it is not just the Japanese army who have "large number of casualties".
Chapter completed!