The sun slowly sank into the western ridge, and the sky was turned red by the sunset.

Admiral Chen Shiying placed his air fleet about fifty nautical miles northwest of Shinkashima.

On the night of 4 December, the European Fleet, with a fire support formation composed of battleships and cruisers, carried out a heavy artillery bombardment of the weakly defended seaport of New Deer Island (San Juan) for more than three hours, destroying some temporary coastal fortifications built by the Tang Army stationed in this area.

Under the cover of the destroyer fleet, the landing ships, which had a draft of less than 3 meters, first began to rush to the beach, and not far away, on the sea, the landing ships also opened their hatches, released personnel landing craft from their hulls, and sailed towards the beach.

The enemy's landing operation began.

More than 80 kilometers away, Admiral Chen Shiying stood on the bridge of the "Yunling" and kept a close eye on the situation in Xinlu, the situation on the battlefield was very anxious, and the landing European coalition marines encountered fierce resistance from the Tang army.

The morning sun had risen above the sea, and from 3:30 a.m. to 5 a.m., a brigade of more than 7,000 men of the East Francian Marines had successfully landed and was advancing in depth. Engineer units had set up temporary pontoon docks on the beach, and the light armored units of the Marine Corps had begun to land, and the small beach was already crowded with unloaded supplies, and from the sea it looked like a huge garbage dump.

"It's almost dawn, and now it's time to get down to business, knock out a few Frankish warships!" Chen Shiying turned around and said to Tang Jinchao, "Now the air fleet is starting to prepare!" ”

Tang Jinchao nodded, and gave an order to the navigation officer and communication officer: "The fleet turns, sails to the southwest, and the speed is 18!" ”

Chen Shiying and Tang Jinchao, two imperial admirals from naval aviation, are both very sure, and they now have 4 fleet aircraft carriers in their hands, which is the real king of the sea.

The starlight overhead began to dim, and a white appeared in the eastern sky.

"Now the battle alert, the battle alert! All the pilots immediately went into combat duty! ”

The battle alarm of dawn echoed on the flight deck with a cold wind.

The stars were still twinkling in the black sky, and a puffy cloud in the whitening east was pink.

Sailors put on steel helmets and life jackets, and endlessly hugged the hazy deck in the night, some walked to the gun emplacement, some rushed to the plane, and some loosened the fire hose and spread it on the deck.

The fighter pilots of a squadron on reconnaissance missions were already sitting in the cockpit of the aircraft, poking their heads out of the open cockpit cover, waiting for the order to take off.

Most of the pilots were still in the standby room, having already eaten breakfast, just waiting for the order to attack.

There is still no information about the location of the enemy's aircraft carriers.

When the eastern sky began to turn red, at 5:17, a screeching sound sounded from several loudspeakers on the "Jeju Island", "Pilots of the 16th Fighter Squadron, board the plane immediately." ”

"Okay...... The order is coming...... Let's get ready for take-off......"

After receiving the order, the pilots began to increase the throttle, lined up in the standby position, and the speed of the fighter propellers, which were warming up the engines, became a little faster.

The aircraft carrier began to turn, sailing at full speed against the wind, and at this time the flight deck was still pitch black, only a row of take-off lights on the deck lit up. The sea was very windy, and the ships swayed violently in the waves.

After the engine was warmed up, the red navigation lights at the base of the fighter's wings began to light up, and through the rotating propellers, the red light flickered.

"Start taking off!"

The three blue-green signal lights indicated by the flight command post for takeoff were lit at the same time, and the fighters, located in front of the flight deck, began to take off in turn.

Released the brakes, increased the throttle, and with the roar of the engines, the plane began to slowly taxi forward, gradually accelerating on the runway, and when it was about to reach the end of the deck, it leaped into the air and suddenly rose into the air.

"This is a difficult operation, and we need to do everything we can to stop the landing of the Franks. In fact, we still have just over thirty combat aircraft left on Shinshika Island, and the Europeans have completely dominated the air, and we must take great risks early on, and there is a possibility of heavy losses. In the war room on the bridge of the "Yunling," Admiral Chen Shiying looked a little worried in the face of more than a dozen senior commanders and staff officers of the fleet.

"According to reports from land-based sources, the enemy's fleet has turned towards us, and I think their commander is actually looking for us. The current situation is very unfavorable for us, mainly because it is not clear where the enemy is located. The person who said this was Vice Admiral Tang Jinchao, who was sturdy, and his skin looked dark and rough from years of sun and rain, but there was a kind of helplessness in his eyes.

"But this is not in line with our strategic and naval traditions, our opponents have actually been preparing for this war for almost thirty years, they have become stronger and more difficult to deal with than they were in the last world war, but we cannot retreat, and there is no way out for the Tang Dynasty. If the New World is abandoned, our system will collapse. Cunningham's generous speech quickly changed the atmosphere of the entire cabin, and the eyes of his soldiers were eager to fight.

Chen Shiying's large-scale Tang Empire task force formed a circular combat formation, cruising in circles about 50 nautical miles northwest of Xinludao Island.

Now the whole German fleet is in a big circle, the core of the fleet is four aircraft carriers, they are arranged in two rows in the middle position, they are flanked by the inner air defense force composed of two air defense cruisers and two battleships, on the outside of the battleship is the middle air defense fire composed of four light cruisers, the outermost layer of the whole fleet is the outermost air defense and anti-submarine network composed of three destroyer detachments, each destroyer detachment is composed of a 5000-ton light cruiser and four destroyers.

This formation method has also been slowly summed up after years of confrontation practice, and it is also the best combat formation method for aircraft carrier mixed formations.

The combat mode of aircraft carriers is very different from the original one-on-one artillery battle of battleships, which is a bit like a group fight, that is, using the advantage of one's own strength to bully a relatively weak opponent. The owner of an aircraft carrier is like an archer on an ancient battlefield, and a battleship is like a heavily armed heavy swordsman on the battlefield, and in the face of long-range attacks from aircraft carriers, these heavy swordsmen are doomed to a miserable end.

But until it's actually tested, there will still be many people who are skeptical about whether the archers can actually put these heavy swords in their hands.

：。 ：