Now, the two giant ships are leaning against the docks, loaded with supplies and ammunition. A flatbed train loaded with huge 400-millimeter shells was parked by the docks, and the ship's crane was wobbly hoisting shells weighing more than a ton onto the deck and then transported to the ammunition compartment six levels below the main deck.

Standing on the high bridge of the "Qilian Mountain", Senior General Chen Shiying saw that many soldiers of the Imperial 2nd Mountain Division could already be seen on the pier wearing winter combat uniforms, and this elite unit of the Imperial Army could not be more suitable for dealing with the mountainous and complex terrain of Iceland.

In the current "whaling ship operation" operational plan, the first batch of landing troops proposed by Admiral Chen Shiying, commander of the North Atlantic Fleet, will all land on small warships with shallow drafts, such as destroyers and frigates. This would allow the landing force to achieve rapid transport and surprise combat results, but the combat ships could only carry troops and some light weapons. Without the support of heavy weapons, the initial combat operations of the first landing force will be difficult.

Before the start of the landing operation, the Imperial Navy's 2nd Air Task Force under the command of Admiral Xie Zhaokun departed from Xinludagang, and the 4th Air Task Force under the command of Admiral Tang Jinchao departed from Port-au-Prince to intercept the support fleet sent by the European Union Navy from South America.

The landing force, including the 2nd Marine Division and the 9th Army of the Army, has gathered at several important ports on the southeastern coast of North America: Xintanggu, Xinyuzhou, Wilmington, and Xinludagang, and a large number of landing ships have been gradually deployed in place. The port of New Yuzhou has also become much more lively because of the arrival of these landing troops.

On March 12, Republic 307, the fleet began to prepare for action.

Chen Shiying invited General Li Yunyi, commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, who commanded the first batch of landing operations, and Rear Admiral Qin Qin Bangdi, commander of the destroyer detachment transporting the landing force, to the war room of the "Qilianshan" and had a careful discussion on the details of the landing and the coordination of the operation.

According to the operational plan approved by the Supreme High Command, the 6th Air Task Force under the command of Senior General Chen Shiying included the aircraft carriers of the "Jizhou" and "Bingzhou" fleets, the modified aircraft carriers "Jeju Island" and "Kashima", the battleships "Qilian Mountain", "Greater Caucasus Mountain", "Green Ridge" and "Qinling", the heavy cruisers "Beiting" and "Kulen", six state-class air defense cruisers, and four light cruisers of the four destroyer fleets. The transport and fire support fleet, consisting of 16 destroyers and 12 frigates, will be responsible for transporting more than 6,000 officers and men of the 2nd Mountain Division and 2 infantry regiments to land in Iceland.

The landing sites were chosen in the bays of Vupner and Baka in northeastern Iceland, avoiding the heavily fortified peninsulas of Reykjavík and Cape Recha by the West Frankish army. Xie Zhaokun's fleet will be responsible for guarding the perimeter and intercepting the European Combined Fleet in the southeast of Iceland, while Tang Jinchao's fleet will be ambushed in the waters south of Iceland, ready to ambush the enemy's main fleet at any time.

In this whole plan, the Supreme High Command and the Naval Command most wanted to see the landing operation attract the main forces of the enemy's home fleet in Europe, and then rely on the superiority of air power to ambush the enemy's naval fleet. But it was also possible to inflict a blow on the landing force, which, in adverse weather conditions, the enemy's fleet was able to evade the attacks of the air fleet, thereby launching an attack on the landing fleet.

With only a little more than 160 nautical miles from the Faroe Islands, the home fleet of the West Francian Navy arriving from here would take less than a day to pose a huge threat to the Imperial landing fleet.

Another battle plan was that if there was a blizzard during the landing, Xie Zhaokun's air fleet would need to quickly retreat north, while the battlefleet would join up with Chen Shiying's fleet and prepare for an artillery battle with the enemy.

In the course of the landing operation, another uncertain and great danger was the possibility of an attack from the East Franconian fleet. At this moment, Tang Jinchao's fleet had the greatest responsibility, on the one hand, to ensure the ambush of the West Frankish fleet, and on the other hand, it was necessary to intercept the East Frankish fleet.

But the High Command believed that in the current situation, the involvement of the East Franks was not very likely.

West Francia now has nearly 30,000 troops deployed in Iceland. Due to Iceland's special terrain, the campaign will not end anytime soon. This added a lot of uncertainty to the naval battle, and the situation was also very fast-moving, mainly due to the unpredictable weather in the Norwegian and North Atlantic waters.

On the docks, groups of Imperial mountain infantry were boarding the light cruisers, destroyers, and frigates carrying them to Iceland, each carrying between 150 and 300 officers and men, a total of 30 light ships.

By the time night fell, Li Yunyi's troops had already boarded the ship. The convoy led by Senior General Chen Shiying had already left Wilmington Harbor at dusk, while Rear Admiral Qin Bangdi was sitting on the light cruiser "Haizhou" and commanded the destroyer fleet to leave the port one after another. The fleet also includes 4 transport ships for heavy equipment and supplies and 2 icebreakers.

Since the start of the war, the first counteroffensive operations launched by the Imperial Navy in the waters of the North Atlantic have finally begun. Two days before the departure of the landing fleet, Tang Jinchao's fleet and Xie Zhaokun's fleet had already set off ahead of schedule.

What worries Chen Shiying has happened.

After a night's voyage, by noon on the third day, when the fleet sailed to the southeast of Greenland, the weather began to deteriorate, and the fleet kept passing through a dense fog that seemed to be endless. Although this dense fog would reduce the danger of being spotted by West Francian reconnaissance planes, the officers and men of the Imperial Navy were also eagerly anticipating the day of landing in Iceland on 16 March.

But it often backfires.

Since the afternoon of March 13, under the influence of cold air from the North Pole to the south, the weather in the North Atlantic has changed suddenly, dark clouds cover the sun, and heavy snow has fallen on the sea. The sea is not too windy and rough, but the temperature is plummeting.

The weather did not surprise Chen Shiying, because of the proximity to the Arctic Circle and the turn of winter and spring, the climate near the Norwegian sea is already very changeable, and it is even more unpredictable in this season.

This weather was a cover for the landing force, but it was not a good thing for the Imperial fleet, which had air superiority.

It was dark, visibility on the sea was only a few tens of meters, and ships sailing in groups had to rely on navigation lights and radars to determine positions and keep a distance from each other to prevent collisions.