Because of the predominance of carrier-based aviation, the Imperial Navy did not consider developing a twin-engine heavy fighter before the war.

Even after the outbreak of the Great War, the Navy only wanted to extend the range by increasing the internal fuel, and did not think of installing an extra engine for the fighter aircraft.

There is only one reason: the size of the heavy fighter is too large to get on the aircraft carrier.

Strictly speaking, it is impossible to operate on an aircraft carrier.

Tests were made in the Imperial Navy several years ago. It's okay to get a twin-engine plane to take off from an aircraft carrier, but it is very difficult to land on an aircraft carrier. If the aircraft carrier is designed according to the dimensions of a twin-engine aircraft, then the width of the flight deck must be more than 70 meters, which means that the displacement of the aircraft carrier must reach at least 60,000 tons. Not to mention the cost of construction, there is simply no slipway capable of building a 60,000-ton aircraft carrier.

Fortunately, army aviation has twin-engine fighters.

After the comprehensive strategic blockade of the Imperial State of Saoyi, the army aviation force, at the request of the navy, dispatched a long-range aviation unit to Liuhuangdao, and the main force was dozens of specially modified Zhan-7 twin-engine heavy long-range fighters nicknamed "Chitu."

The so-called "modification" is to remove the radar mounted on the nose and install a 30-mm cannon and a drum capable of holding 500 rounds of shells.

Although the performance of this fighter is not very good, the main thing is too bulky, but against patrol aircraft, it is certainly more than enough.

At the time of its design, the "Red Rabbit" was tasked with intercepting enemy bombers at night, not only in the Imperial Army, but also in the world's first night fighter.

When carrying out blockade missions, the main task of the "Red Rabbit" was not to deal with narrow bombers, but to deal with small ships with fast speed.

After discovering the ship, or receiving a call from a patrol aircraft, they rushed to carry out a strike mission.

Because it was faster, and because it had only one pilot, plus it was easier to maintain, the "Red Rabbit" was very popular among the front-line troops.

To deal with small vessels such as fishing boats, it is enough to use an additional 30 mm machine gun.

If the 30-mm cannon and drum are removed and replaced with a soft fuel tank, the combat radius can be increased to more than 1,500 kilometers by relying on hundreds of kilograms of extra fuel.

By September, the Army Air Force had withdrawn all its medium-sized bombers and replaced them with "Red Rabbits."

This arrangement was made to cover naval operations.

At the request of Bai Zhizhan, Li Yunxiang also specially sent Du Kang, who had previously served in the HNA and later returned to the HNA with him, to Liuhuangdao to take command.

It's just that Liuhuang Island is so big.

Although it took several months of construction, the importance of Liuhuang Island gradually decreased as the fighting in the Sayi Imperial Kingdom gradually cooled down.

Much of the planned infrastructure has not been implemented.

At present, there are only more than 40 "Red Rabbits" deployed on Liuhuang Island.

Although more fighters could be placed, there was no place for maintenance, so there was no guarantee of the desired sortie efficiency.

On the charts, the area of activity of these fighters is clearly marked.

In addition, three locations were marked with red pennants.

It was in the morning that the "Red Rabbit," under the guidance and command of the cruiser, intercepted a Nuland patrol plane in each of these three sea areas.

All three are PBM "Mariner", not PBY "Katerina".

Apparently, the Nuland Navy had previously replaced the patrol aircraft deployed on the island of Wai with "sailors" with larger ranges in order to expand the search area.

Although after being intercepted by fighters, especially by warning shots, all three PBMs have turned around and no heavy cruisers have been spotted dozens of kilometers away, but the appearance of so many patrol planes in one morning is not a simple thing in itself.

If more patrol aircraft are coming in this direction, the probability of exposure in the afternoon will increase a lot.

In fact, what Bai Zhizhan is worried about is not whether it will be exposed.

Lofos issued an ultimatum so that even if Task Force 41 was now exposed, the Nuland Navy would not attack.

What Bai Zhizhan was concerned about was actually the whereabouts of the two aircraft carrier task forces of the Nuland Navy.

In the information received in the morning, it was only mentioned that there was a task force mainly aircraft carriers in the vicinity of the transport fleet, and there was no mention of which task force it was.

The point is, which aircraft carriers are not mentioned.

In order to find those carriers, Bai Zhizhan had eight cruisers send all the seaplanes on board.

Here, the 412th detachment that came out was fully utilized.

The ocean-going cruiser's seaplanes flew to the forward heavy cruiser and refueled before setting off on a reconnaissance mission.

In other words, there are six seaplanes in the northeast, east, southeast and south, each carrying out search missions.

With heavy cruisers as springboards, these seaplanes have expanded their search range by at least 200 kilometers and can basically fly to a sea area about 700 kilometers away from the "Imperial Capital."

It's just that the number is still a little less.

To conduct a rigorous search in a vast area of sea, six seaplanes are certainly not enough.

While Bai Zhizhan stared at the sea chart and pondered tactics, Li Mingbo made a suggestion to turn around after 3 p.m. and stay within the cover range of shore-based fighters.

The reason is that the battle will not start until tomorrow at the earliest.

As originally planned, the voyage continued in a southeasterly direction, then it would leave the cover area of shore-based aviation before evening.

In addition, according to Li Mingbo's speculation, after the ultimatum expires, the Nuland fleet will take the initiative to look for opportunities for a decisive battle.

In this case, it is completely possible to withdraw and wait for work.

Of course, Li Mingbo is just talking.

Don't say that the war will stop in vain, even Zhou Yongtao thinks that Li Mingbo's suggestion is more like a joke.

Going back as a shrunken turtle?

Behind it are the Volcanic Islands and the North Horse Islands, and further south will enter the search area of the patrol aircraft on the island, and there is a greater probability of being spotted tomorrow.

If you really want to fight a decisive battle, can you dodge it?

The cover provided by shore-based fighters is also only to repel enemy patrol aircraft. When attacked, shore-based fighters could not provide cover.

The name of "Red Rabbit" is very good, but the air combat performance is not even comparable to that of the "Typhoon". Not to mention the navy, even the army felt that this fighter was too bad, and withdrew its front-line troops shortly after the outbreak of the war. Otherwise, they would not have generously sent dozens of them over for the use of the Navy.

As long as your whereabouts are exposed and you are attacked, it will definitely be a lot of bad luck.

The decisive battle of the aircraft carrier fleet is about striking first and being strong, and there is no such thing as striking later.

If you don't withdraw, how will you fight?

"Wait until it's dark, and then head south at full speed." Zhou Yongtao also expressed his thoughts. "If another task force is on our side, it will definitely be in the northeast direction, focusing on the waters southeast of the Volcanic Islands, that is, the areas where the PBMs have been intercepted. We maneuvered south at full speed during the night, and at the right time turned eastward, and were able to move to its south at dawn tomorrow. ”

When making this explanation, Zhou Yongtao also drew the route map of the enemy and us on the chart.

The point is that the unexposed Nurant Task Force will sail in the direction of the Volcanic Islands at night to ensure that reconnaissance planes can be dispatched tomorrow morning to search the waters southeast of the Volcanic Islands.

"Why do you think Lofos gave an ultimatum to postpone the engagement by one day?"

"What?"

Zhou Yongtao didn't react at once, because he didn't think about this problem at all.