Although Singapore's surrender without a fight was expected by the US authorities, such a result seriously disrupted the US military's combat plan.

On the morning of November 4, after the US ambassador met with the Singapore Prime Minister, he reported to the State Department that the Singapore authorities were very unstable and the Singapore Prime Minister did not issue a preparation order. Based on this situation, Conrad mentioned in his subsequent report to the White House that Singapore is likely to surrender to China at the last moment, and the United States must be prepared to abandon Singapore.

This prediction soon became a reality.

However, it was not until the early morning of November 5, after Singapore surrendered that the Pentagon received the news, not from the White House and the State Department, but from the Third Fleet. US carrier-based early warning aircraft operating south of Sumatra Island found a large number of transport aircraft flying to Singapore, and the Singapore authorities did not resist, indicating that Singapore had surrendered to China before this.

When we learned that the White House and the State Department had already received the news, we can imagine how McCarthy and Jordan felt.

At that time, it was still the afternoon of the fourth day of Eastern Time. McCarthy and Jordan went to the White House and asked Lucas why he didn't tell the news to the Department of Defense. Lucas did not give a reply, but called Conrad over, as if he wanted to prove that the news he had received was not reliable.

Obviously, Lucas's methods were not very clever when dealing with this matter.

Later, many people believed that as president, Lucas should take the initiative to take responsibility, or take the initiative to block the pressure from the military, rather than letting the military conflict face to face with the State Department. Put Conrad out, even if Lucas can win the support of the military, it will cause conflicts between the military and political circles. For the United States, which is mobilizing war, this is definitely not a good thing.

Lucas's disposal method is equivalent to creating a crack between the State Council and the Ministry of Defense.

At that time, McCarthy and Jordan accused Conrad of the fact that the Secretary of State's actions were very wrong, causing the US military to miss the last chance to defend Singapore. The State Department must be responsible for the fall of Singapore and the consequences that arise. This is equivalent to eliminating the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense.

Judging from the situation at that time, McCarthy and Jordan were indeed making a big deal, or deliberately diverting the conflict.

You should know that even if the news was received more than ten hours ago, it would be difficult for the US military to make a difference, because the only one who can support Singapore is the Third Fleet that stayed in the East Indian Ocean, and it is also separated from Sumatra. Before that, the Fourth Fleet had already traveled to the Gulf of Aden. According to the US military's combat deployment, if Russia enters the Transcaucasus region in November, the Fourth Fleet will be responsible for deterring Iran. Obviously, the three aircraft carrier battle groups cannot play a role at all, and Australia is too far from Singapore, so it will be difficult for it to play a role.

To put it bluntly, no matter what choice Singapore makes, the US military will not play a role.

This is also reflected in the US military's combat plan.

According to the information disclosed after the war, the US military did not intend to assist in defense of Singapore at all, but instead used Singapore as an abandoned son to open the way for its combat operations to attack the Western Pacific. To put it simply, the US military had long planned to sacrifice Singapore in exchange for precious time.

The problem now is that Singapore has sacrificed itself but has not produced the value it deserves.

The Chinese army took Singapore without a single shot and bullet, which means that the two land divisions originally placed here can reach any location in the Western Pacific in a few days and strengthen the weakest line of defense. The US offensive operation is expected to be launched until the end of November. Therefore, it is impossible to start before the Chinese army completes its deployment and mobilization, and there is no possibility of catching the Chinese army off guard.

Obviously, the US military's plan has been ruined.

It can be seen that the main purpose of McCarthy and Jordan's big fuss in the White House is not to make the Secretary of State responsible, but to take this opportunity to let the military dominate the White House.

What we need to do next is to adjust the existing combat plan.

It is obviously unlikely to attack Okinawa. The Chinese Marine Corps has deployed two Marine Divisions in Okinawa, and now has two mobile units of Marine Divisions. The US Marine Corps has only prepared four Marine Divisions' forces, so it is impossible to capture Okinawa under this situation.

In Jordan's words, a strong attack on Okinawa will only cause heavy casualties and lose the next offensive ability.

The question is, does the US military need the next offensive capability?

At that time, Lucas raised this question, whether the US military had a plan to continue attacking after capturing the bridgehead in the Western Pacific.

Both McCarthy and Jordan denied this.

According to Jordan, before the war mobilization was completed, the US military was not strong enough to attack China's mainland, or even to sweep Fuso or Taiwan, and could only do small-scale things on the front line. Only after the troops were sufficient could the US military be able to enter China's mainland, and this would have to wait at least until the end of 2053. In other words, within the year before that, the US military's main task was to carry out strategic bombing of China.

Lucas did not lose his mind and immediately proposed that the original plan should be continued.

Obviously, this is exactly what McCarthy and Jordan like.

In front of Conrad, McCarthy made three requirements: First, provide main combat equipment for the two newly established marine divisions as soon as possible, second, requisition of merchant ships to transport combat supplies, and third, approved the acquisition of land on Saipan, Tinian and other islands to build Marine camps.

It was not until this time that McCarthy expressed his intention.

The problem is that none of these three problems are easy to solve.

At that time, the United States' powers for arms procurement, military transportation, land expropriation, etc. were all in the hands of the State Council. The Pentagon was only responsible for making demands, and the specific handling of the situation was decided by the State Council. To put it simply, the American law does not allow the military to directly control administrative power.

Obviously, Conrad was stumped.

The ready-made main combat equipment is indeed able to arm two reserve land divisions, but these equipment is planned to assist Israel to help the Israeli Defense Forces arm six brigades. Israel made a request long before declaring war on China that the six brigades would be used on the Golan Heights. At the end of October, Conrad agreed to the Israeli Prime Minister's request and promised to depart before November 10.

The requisition of merchant ships is also very troublesome, because American ships are all private enterprises. Even if Congress has approved the Wartime Mobilization Act and granted wartime privileges to the US federal government, "private property is sacred and inviolable" is written into the Constitution, and no other bill must violate the Constitution. In this way, if the US federal government wants to requisition merchant ships, it must negotiate with the ship owner.

At that time, negotiations were still in progress and many problems were not resolved.

As for the acquisition of land in the Northern Mariana Islands, the problem is even greater. The reason is very simple. The Northern Mariana Islands are not American territory, but in areas entrusted to the United States for management in World War II, and even overseas territory is not considered a basis for the US government, so the US government has no right to requisition land here.

Now, the contradiction becomes more prominent.

Conrad's negative reply made McCarthy furious and even threatened that the Secretary of State would bear all the consequences. Jordan also added fuel to the fire and repeatedly claimed that there was no sufficient preparation and it was impossible to successfully capture Okinawa Island. If he failed here, the situation would be reversed by the Chinese army.

Although this is a bit alarmist, it is not completely unrealistic.

You should know that the United States has just entered a state of war. The war mobilization work has just begun and it will not be possible to reach its best until at least the end of 2053. Even if the mobilization work in the military field can be completed by the end of March 2053 and three million retired soldiers can be recruited by the end of 2052, the main combat force of the US military is still active-duty forces before the end of June 2053.

In this case, any setback may reverse the military power contrast between the two sides.

More importantly, China has also entered a state of war.

From a time perspective, the United States' advantage can be maintained until mid-2053 at most. After that, as China's war machines accelerate, the gap will quickly narrow. In other words, the United States cannot withstand serious setbacks, and every little failure is likely to affect the overall situation.

However, the quarrel between the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State in front of the president will not have any result.

At that time, in order to appease McCarthy and Jordan, Lucas instructed Conrad to provide the Marines with the main combat equipment needed by the two divisions as soon as possible, sign a requisition agreement with the shipping company as soon as possible, and put pressure on the Symbian authorities.

The problem is, this means nothing is done.

On the morning of November 5, Eastern Time, the Pentagon submitted a revised combat plan to the White House, postponing the landing time to early December, citing that the actual combat capabilities of the Chinese military exceeded expectations and that the US military did not receive enough support.

Now, the contradiction between the Pentagon and the State Council is even more prominent.

Conrad submitted a report to the White House that day, accusing the Pentagon of not choosing a target for attack so far and had no right to blame the State Department.

However, a day later, the Pentagon's judgment was confirmed.

On the night of November 5, China once again used strategic airlift forces to send the 30th Preparatory Land Force returning to Kuantan to Okinawa Island.

Two days later, the Marine Corps, including all the main combat equipment, arrived on Okinawa Island.

Such powerful air transport capabilities really surprised the Pentagon.

The problem is that the Third Marine Division is still in Singapore, responsible for taking over the defense work of ports and airports, and reorganizing the Singapore National Defense Forces.

In fact, Conrad's accusations were confirmed at this time.

Until November 7, McCarthy and Jordan were still hesitant on the main attack issue, that is, whether to attack Okinawa according to the original plan or attack the Philippines. McCarthy advocated attacking Okinawa because the effect was the most obvious and the results were the most valuable. Jordan believed that it should be switched to attack the Philippines, because after Okinawa's defense was strengthened, it had become impregnable and the attack was very difficult.

Of course, the preparations of the US military are going on as usual.

However, what happened next caught the US military off guard again.
Chapter completed!