The next day, on the morning of November 18, the B-17 bomber in which General Halsey, known as the "Wild Bull", landed on the main runway of Kuah Airport, which had just been completely restored. He was accompanied by a group of reporters on Kuah Island, and of course the pervasive Hailan was among them.

After landing, he was first accompanied by General Van der Grift to the Bloody Ridge, where a major battle had just taken place on October 24 and 25.

Now, the once piled up of Japanese corpses in front of the Blood Ridge has long been cleaned up, and even the weeds that were deliberately burned before the start of the war have regrown. Standing on the top of the mountain, in the wind blowing in front of you, you can no longer feel the strong smell of blood at that time. A flock of colorful parrots are landing on the barbed wire not far away, leisurely combing their feathers, or chirping in a mess.

General Halsey was standing next to a Vulcan 6-barreled anti-aircraft cannon, with his right hand on the barrel, listening to General Vandergrift explain the situation in the Battle of Bloody Ridge. Hailan wasted no time in rushing out and giving Halsey and Vulcan a close-up.

"You mean, when you were chasing later, you found a lot of abandoned artillery on the road?" Halsey asked.

"Yes generals, a lot of them are 150 caliber howitzers and 100 caliber cannons." Vandergravet laughed, "Thankfully, the commander of the other side is a complete idiot, and he actually wants to carry these things over the jungle and mountains. If he had been. One. Root. Read. The novel xstxt chooses a more normal route, and these cannons may cause us a lot of trouble. ”

"Hehe, if only the Japanese commanders were like this......"

Although it was a joke, the importance of preventing the Japanese heavy equipment from landing on the island was conveyed very clearly.

After inspecting the Marine Corps, Halsey visited the Cactus Air Force station. Just yesterday, when Ron knew Halsey was coming, he began to think about how to respond.

Ron has a general idea of the legendary general's experience: Halsey comes from a family of seafarers whose ancestors ate the wind and drank the waves. His father, Father William?? Colonel Halsey was one of the finest captains in the U.S. Navy. Halsey Sr. had a long list of honorable service records in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Caribbean Seas, and completed the round-the-world voyage of the Great White Fleet aboard the cruiser Kansas.

As for Halsey himself, he had worked on torpedo boats, destroyers, and cruisers, climbed from warrant officer to vice admiral, and the admiral's star was only a step away from him now. His bravery, fearlessness, and aggressive spirit made him so popular that the sailors affectionately called him "Halsey the Bull." ”

And one thing is that Ron feels that he and Halsey are most consistent. That is: I don't like or even hate the Japanese. After the Pearl Harbor incident, Halsey saw the U.S. ** ship that had been blown up by Japanese planes. He vowed that after the battle, "you can only hear Japanese in hell." Ron also knew that in history, it was on the island of Kuah that Halsey uttered one of his most famous words: "Kill Little Japan, kill Little Japan, keep killing Little Japan!" ”

Ron remembers this quote from a joke in later generations:

One day, an American teacher asked in class, "Who said 'Freedom or death'?" ”

All the American students didn't say a word. In the end, only one Japanese student timidly replied, "Patrick??" Henry, speaking in a speech to the Virginia Assembly, 1775. ”

The teacher nodded in satisfaction, and then said to the other students, "Don't you feel blush?" As an American, you don't even know this, but a classmate from Japan knows this! ”

At this time, from a corner of the classroom, a murderous sentence suddenly came out: "Kill little Japan!" ”

The teacher was furious: "Who! Who said that! ”

"Five-star admiral of the U.S. Navy, William Jr.?? Frederick?? General Halsey said this in 1942 on the island of Kuah. The voice replied.

Ron laughed at the joke at the time, but now, back in time, Ron not only raised his hands in favor of Halsey's idea, but even raised both feet in support if he could.

When it comes to aviation, Halsey is definitely an insider. Vandergrif was very envious when he was airsick and mentioned to Ron that Halsey, an old fellow, even at the age of fifty-two, went to the Naval Air Force Base in Pasacola, California, to learn how to fly carrier-based aircraft in person.

Today, the legend stands in front of Ron.

"General! Welcome to the Cactus Air Force! Ron raised his hand in salute to Halsey.

Halsey returned the salute and walked over and took the initiative to stretch out his hand to shake Ron's hand, his hand was so strong that Ron could clearly feel the unruly power coming from Halsey's palm.

"Major Ron, this isn't the first time I've heard you mentioned." General Halsey stared at Ron with the eagle-sharp eyes in his sunken eye sockets. Ron looked up and looked at him.

Halsey suddenly laughed: "I've been thinking that such a young guy really has such a skill, which makes both Frye and Spruance praise, and even thinks about poaching you from the army." Let's go, let's go inside and talk,......" Halsey took Ron's hand and walked over to the conference room. "You know what? Fletcher said to me, you're definitely a general. Well...... You've been on Kuah for a while now, what do you think about this battle? Do you think we can win? Halsey turned his head, as if he had been examined for something.

"General, I think, this should not be a problem. Isn't it? We've actually won the battle now. Ron smiled and replied.

"Oh, what do you think?" Halsey dragged a chair over himself and sat down, "Our opponents don't think so. ”

"Our opponents value the names on the map too much, and their appetite is too great to digest. In fact, they have already lost the battle of Kuah Island from the very beginning. The rest of the battles were just about deciding how much they lost, whether they lost the little pocket money they had or simply lost all their pants. ”

"Be specific."

"General" Ron knew that this was a test of himself, and it was also a rare opportunity for himself. "After all, Japan is a small country, and its industrial capacity cannot be compared with that of the United States in any way, and any battle, if it forms a stalemate and attrition, will be a defeat for Japan. What's more, here on Kuah Island, we have countless superior conditions, which will make the exchange ratio of combat extremely beneficial to us, and let us earn the sea. Taking the air force as an example, on Kuah Island, we were able to get an early warning two hours in advance of every air attack by the Japanese, and we knew all the enemy numbers, types of aircraft, and altitude. The Japanese had to fly for three hours to get here. By this point, I think they'd be so exhausted that they wouldn't necessarily have the strength to climb out of the cabin on their own if something went wrong. And we can ambush them in the right place. If we don't have the upper hand in this way, is there any reason for heaven? Anyway, here we cactus lose one plane, the Japanese lose at least ten, we lose one pilot, the Japanese lose at least twenty-thirty. The consequences of the loss of the pilot are much more serious than the loss of the aircraft. Because experienced pilots are not supplemented. In the recent air battles, we have clearly felt the decline in the skill of the Japanese pilots. If Kuah Island can continue to fight like this, it is estimated that the Japanese will have to use rookies with no more than 50 hours of flight time to send them to death. I think the exchange ratio on General Vandergravet's side should be about the same. As it stands, little Japan has already lost their tops to us, and if it were a few more months, they wouldn't even be able to keep their pants. I really don't know what those Japanese people think, they are willing to fight us here for so long. If I were the commander of the Japanese army, I would have given up the bottomless pit of Kuah Island a long time ago. To say that Kuah Island is hard, it is a rare place where Japanese mongrels can be consumed in large quantities. I love it so much. ”

Halsey listened and nodded slightly. Unlike General Spruance, Halsey was no one to hide his thoughts. The smile on his face directly showed that he was satisfied with Ron's answer.

Seeing that Ron had finished answering, Halsey smiled and continued to ask questions. At that moment an orderly came in and offered a cup with a spoon to the general and several other officers in the room.

Halsey took the cup and looked down to see that it was actually a glass of ice cream.

"You're doing a good job," Halsey said with a laugh, "and ice cream." Is there enough electricity on the island for you? ”

"General, we don't have a refrigerator at all." It was Captain Foss, the second ace of the cactus, who spoke, "It turns out that there is a broken refrigerator, which was blown up during the shelling of the Japanese battleships last time. This ice cream is made in a special way. ”

The so-called special method, in fact, is very simple, that is, the auxiliary fuel tank of the plane is filled with the prepared ice cream ingredients, and then the plane takes it to the air at an altitude of 10,000 meters with a very low temperature to take a spin, and after waiting, the ice cream is ready. I hadn't done this since I was short of fuel a few days ago, but now that the blockade has been broken, it's only natural that ice cream can once again be popular in the air force.

After hearing about the ice cream practice, Halsey couldn't help but wonder. The fact that the pilots of Kuah Island were able to invent this also showed the high morale of the flight team from the side. As a "soldier's general", Halsey certainly saw this.

Eating ice cream with the characteristics of Guah Island, Halsey suddenly asked again: "Ron, if you are the commander of the Japanese army, how are you going to fight?" ”

"Needless to say? Send destroyers in the evening to bring back all the Japanese who have not starved to death. The market has fallen like that, and you dare not clear your position? Of course, this has to be agreed by the madmen in the Japanese base camp. ”

"What if the base camp orders you to take Kuah Island?"

"That's right. The only way to do this was to repeatedly use battleships to shell the airfield at night to temporarily paralyze the airfield, and then take the opportunity to launch an air attack to cover the landing of the transport fleet on the island with heavy weapons. ”

"Do you think the Japanese will send battleships again?"

"If they are still delusional about taking Kuah Island, they will." Ron said firmly. (He remembered that in the original history, Japanese battleships did not come once or twice, and two of the four Kongo brothers sank near Kuah Island.) ）

"And what do you think you can do about it?"

"Send warships, preferably new battleships, and the Japanese fleet for night battles. The Japanese, although well trained, have radars and still have a chance to defeat them. Even if we can't beat them, as long as we hold them back, as soon as dawn comes, our air force will be able to send them all to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish. In addition, due to speed limitations, the only four Kongo-class battleships that Japan could use to shell airfields were available. But these are the old ships of the Great War, and if we can send out new battleships, we should have a good chance of defeating them. Although it is dangerous to throw in a battleship in a night battle, I feel that it is completely worth the risk. ”

"Papapa" Halsey applauded, apparently pleased with Ron's answer: "Very good, lad!" You're going to be a general! It's a pity that General Arnold is not there, otherwise he would have been overjoyed. ”

After the inspection, General Halsey held a press conference at the airport. Towards the end of the meeting, La Mer was given a chance to ask questions.

"General, without prejudice to the principle of secrecy, can you tell us what your next goal is?"

"My next step?" The general looked at Hailan, let out a hearty laugh, and then from his wide mouth with bulging masseter muscles, he finally uttered the murderous famous sentence that Ron was already familiar with: "There is no need to keep it secret, it is 'kill little Japan, kill little Japan, keep killing little Japan!'" ’”