In fact, the number of cruisers and destroyers in the North and South fleets is about the same, and the real gap is mainly in the aspect of battleships; the North Fleet has six battleships, including two battleships built by the East China Government itself, while the other four are also new ships that are less than five years old; while the South Fleet is only assigned two old battleships that are more than 15 years old.

The reason for such an extremely uneven distribution of battleships was that the Northern Fleet had the task of attracting the expeditionary fleet into the Taiwan Strait. Although the naval battle of the Natuna Islands showed the strong combat power of the KPA Navy, the expeditionary force had an absolute superiority in numbers, so it was not afraid of a decisive battle with the KPA Navy, and what it was really worried about was that the KPA Navy did not engage in a head-on battle with the expeditionary force fleet, but took advantage of the KPA fleet's strong combat strength of a single ship to disperse its forces and take a surprise attack. If the main force of the KPA Navy is discovered, it will certainly not let go of this opportunity. Then the Northern Fleet, which is responsible for luring the enemy, naturally has to put on the appearance of being the main fleet.

In addition, once the battle begins, the Northern Fleet will certainly face the main force of the expeditionary fleet, although there are modern warships pressing the formation, but the pressure is not ordinarily large, not to mention that at the beginning of the war, the expeditionary warships have not been completely introduced into the Taiwan Strait, and the modern warships cannot easily attack, and the Northern Fleet needs to hold on for a while; in contrast, the pressure on the Southern Fleet is much smaller, although the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait is nearly twice as wide as the northern entrance, but there are Penghu Islands in the middle, and it is mainly facing the cruisers of the expeditionary fleet. Destroyers, so it is logical to allocate a large number of cutting-edge battleships to the Northern Fleet.

The distribution of modern warships, on the surface, is 2 in the north and 3 in the south, which does not conform to the setting that the north is strong and the south is weak, but the Kunming ship, the strongest of the 5 modern warships, is assigned to the Northern Fleet, and it can be said that the other 4 warships together are not the opponents of the Kunming ship, so it is actually strong in the north and weak in the south.

In fact, only one Kunming ship in the Northern Fleet is enough, but the Kunming ship can only carry one helicopter, and the Natuna Islands Sea proves that a helicopter has limited control over naval warfare, not to mention that the time of a helicopter is also limited, so it is necessary to take a Xiangyang ship, so that there are two helicopters to rotate out, and always have a helicopter in the air monitoring, and when necessary, there can also be two helicopters in the air monitoring. And in order to ensure that there is sufficient air surveillance force, this time the Kunming carried two helicopters, one parked in the hangar, and the other parked in the open air on the helicopter platform at the stern of the ship.

The three modern warships of the Yugoslav Fleet, the Yueyang and Sanya, are of the same class and have relatively strong combat effectiveness, and the addition of one Huaihua ship is enough to complete the task of blockading the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait.

In the end, Shang Jinfeng said: "If this battle goes out as we expected, then after the end of this war, this time the Far East War will basically end, and the government can consider how to end the fighting and fight for greater benefits for us at the negotiating table." ”

After listening to Shang Jinfeng's speech, Xiao Jianjun said: "Although the Taiwan Strait is suitable for the battlefield, it is not our sphere of influence, and the Chinese mainland side can still make people feel at ease, and it is estimated that it will not be an enemy of us, but the island of Taiwan on the other side is now in the hands of Japan, although Japan does not have a fleet now, but the shore-based firepower can still assist the expeditionary fleet in combat, causing us a certain threat, I wonder if the Admiralty has taken this factor into account?"

Shang Jinfeng said: "We have indeed considered this factor, but we believe that the shore-based firepower of Taiwan Island will be very limited in its assistance to the expeditionary fleet, as well as the threat to us. First of all, the shore-based firepower of the island of Taiwan is not strong, and it is mainly concentrated in the north and south, and the shore-based firepower that is short in the middle is very weak in comparison; second, Japan has no experience in coordinated operations with the fleets of Britain and France, and because it is a coordinated operation between the shore-based firepower and the fleet, it is necessary to cooperate closely, otherwise not only will they not be able to support each other's operations, but they will also be prone to accidental injury, but obviously the fleets of Japan, Britain, France, and other countries do not have this condition; in addition, the shore-based firepower strike distance of this era is limited, generally within 20 kilometers, and the width of the Taiwan Strait is sufficient, and our main striking force is still five modern warships, and their combat distances are all above the shore-based firepower。 For these reasons, we believe that the impact of the shore-based firepower on the island of Taiwan on this war is limited, and there is no need to pay too much attention to it. ”

At this time, Xia Bohai said: "From Cam Ranh Bay to Japan, under normal circumstances, it should go through the sea off Taiwan, and will not pass through the Taiwan Strait, so the focus of this battle is to lure the Far East Fleet into the Taiwan Strait. However, these circumstances are all speculations on our part, and when it comes to the actual battlefield, the expeditionary fleet may not enter the Taiwan Strait and engage in a decisive battle with our main fleet as we hope. If this happens, does the Admiralty have a plan?"

Shang Jinfeng nodded and said: "Of course there is, once the expeditionary fleet does not enter the Taiwan Sea, and goes to the sea off Taiwan, it will definitely enter the East China Sea through the Miyako Strait, and then go to Japan, so the Northern Fleet rushed to the Miyako Strait in advance to intercept the expeditionary fleet, while the Southern Fleet followed the expeditionary fleet and coordinated with the Northern Fleet in the Miyako Strait to flank the expeditionary fleet. However, in this way, it is basically impossible to completely annihilate the expeditionary fleet, and we can only do our best to annihilate as many warships of the expeditionary fleet as possible, but this war is not over, and we must continue to fight, and we must formulate the next battle plan according to the results of the battle. ”

After hearing this, Xia Bohai was also very satisfied, and said: "Okay, just follow the plan of the Admiralty, you can let go and fight, don't worry, whatever result will be the responsibility of the government." When are you going to go? ”

Shang Jinfeng said: "We will depart from Qingdao to Shanghai tomorrow, and we will officially depart from Shanghai the day after tomorrow." After a pause, he said, "I will personally go out with the fleet to supervise the battle." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Okay. He turned to Xiao Jianjun and said: "Old Xiao, I don't have time to go to Shanghai, so you can make a trip, not only on behalf of the Military Commission, but also on behalf of the government to see off the fleet." ”

Xiao Jianjun nodded and said, "Okay, Qian." ”

So the next day, Xiao Jianjun and Shang Jinfeng left Qingdao and rushed to Shanghai. At this time, the commanders of the northern and southern fleets were already ready, and they could set sail for battle just by waiting for an order.

The commander of the Northern Fleet was Han Chao, who was formerly the deputy captain of the Kunming and now served as Deputy Minister of the Navy and Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, while the commander of the Southern Fleet was Wang Hailong. In fact, Shang Jinfeng originally wanted to appoint Wang Hailong as the commander of the Northern Fleet, because although Han Chao concurrently held the position of commander-in-chief of the fleet, he had actually left his combat post and retreated to the second line; while Wang Hailong had always been commanding operations on the front line and was the commander with the most experience in actual combat in the navy at present, Shang Jinfeng had planned to appoint Wang Hailong as the commander-in-chief of the fleet after the end of the Far East War, and therefore it was a matter of course for him to command the commander of the Northern Fleet as the main force.

However, Wang Hailong took the initiative to ask to be the commander of the Southern Fleet, for two reasons: First, he was the captain of the Yueyang ship, commanded operations on the Yueyang ship, and was more familiar with the performance weapons of the warship; in fact, the more advanced the weapon, the better, only if he was completely familiar with the performance of the weapon, and then he could give full play to the combat effectiveness of the weapon; although the comprehensive performance of the Kunming ship was far superior to that of the Yueyang ship, Wang Hailong was not familiar with the performance of the Kunming ship, and of course it was difficult to give full play to the advantages of the Kunming ship, so it was better to command the operation on the Yueyang ship.

Second, Wang Hailong believed that commanding the Southern Fleet was more challenging, because although the Northern Fleet was the main force to meet the expeditionary fleet, because of the two modern warships, the Kunming and the Xiangyang, the battle was not very difficult, while the Southern Fleet was facing the cruisers of the expeditionary fleet. The pressure of fighting on destroyers seems to be less than that of the Northern Fleet, but the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait is nearly twice as wide as the northern entrance, and it is actually much more difficult than the Northern Fleet to block the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait and prevent the warships of the expeditionary fleet from rushing out of the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait and escaping from the battlefield. In addition, once the expeditionary fleet does not enter the Taiwan Strait, the Southern Fleet will not only have to follow the expeditionary fleet, but also, if necessary, take the lead in launching an attack and hold back the expeditionary fleet.

Of course, Wang Hailong also has a personal abacus, because in this battle, Shang Jinfeng, the highest official of the Admiralty, wants to go to the battlefield to supervise the battle, the Northern Fleet is the main force, and Shang Jinfeng is the former captain of the Kunming ship, so Shang Jinfeng will definitely take the Kunming ship and participate in the war with the Northern Fleet, and if he serves as the commander of the Northern Fleet, he will command the battle under Shang Jinfeng's nose, although Shang Jinfeng will not interfere with his own command, but it will inevitably be a little restrained; although the strength of the Southern Fleet is weak, it is up to him to decide, no one controls himself, and he can command the battle without restraint。

Of course, Shang Jinfeng didn't know Wang Hailong's careful thoughts, but the first two reasons put forward by Wang Hailong were quite reasonable, so he respected Wang Hailong's personal opinion and let Wang Hailong serve as the commander of the Southern Fleet.

At 10 o'clock in the morning of the next day, the fleet of the People's Army Navy was divided into two groups and sailed out of the port of Shanghai in turn and headed south. The first battle, which decided the most crucial part of the Far Eastern War, finally kicked off.