"According to this method, after launching the first round of attacks, in addition to being able to retain enough air defense fighters, a second round of attacks can be launched in time."

When Jiang Wenlong suddenly stopped, Bai Huawei and Liu Zunling didn't react. It wasn't until Jiang Wenlong looked behind them that the two turned around.

The communications staff officer had already walked over, and his expression was serious.

"Any news?" Liu Zunling asked in front of Bai Huawei.

The big war was imminent, and the atmosphere at the fleet headquarters was tense, and Bai Huawei's every move put a lot of pressure on the staff officers, making the atmosphere even more tense.

Although the current fleet commander is Bai Huawei, the officers and men of the fleet headquarters are all brought out by Liu Zunling.

Whether it's good news or bad news, you should take it in stride.

"The first round of reconnaissance operations has ended, almost all patrol aircraft have been intercepted, and it is not possible to determine the exact location of the Nuland fleet for the time being."

When the communications staff officer said this, Jiang Wenlong walked over and took the telegram in his hand.

There are a large stack, but the content of each message is very short, most of them are only one sentence, and a few more complex ones are just a few more sets of data.

Although it is only a few numbers, in the eyes of the staff officers, this is intelligence.

Jiang Wenlong didn't hesitate, and immediately walked to the chart, marked the data, and used different colors of icons to distinguish them.

While he was doing these things, Bai Huawei and Liu Zunling walked over.

This kind of mapping work is a basic skill that staff officers must master.

If a few decades ago, that is, in the era before the White Stop, it was possible to become a fleet commander by virtue of talent and surprisingly good luck, then since then, training fleet commanders has become a specialized science, and there is a fixed routine.

To put it simply, it starts with a staff officer!

If anything, this is also the beginning of the White Stop War.

It is precisely so, at the Imperial Naval Academy, cadets of staff specialties must master a large number of professional skills, and no one is an exception.

In Bai Huawei's words, everyone came over like this.

It didn't take much effort for Jiang Wenlong to mark all the data he received on the chart.

The situation is clear at a glance, and there is no need to make too many introductions at all.

In the northeast of the transit island, there is an oval-shaped sea area with an area of more than 5 million square kilometers as a dark area, and not a single reconnaissance plane has entered this sea area.

Crucially, this sea area presents a narrow east-west trend.

That is, the Nuland fleet is already sailing eastward!

The strongest evidence is that patrol aircraft have reached the northwest of the transit island, and the search mission has been completed, but the Nuland fleet has not been found.

Extrapolating from this, the Nuland fleet had already turned eastward by the afternoon of the 12th at the latest, and it was not slow at all.

Slipped?

Thinking of this, Bai Huawei took out a telegram he received in the afternoon and read it carefully.

Indeed, there is no mistake in remembering that the Nuland marines, who landed on the transit island, have stopped their attack, but have not retreated, to be precise, to the vicinity of the beachhead.

The Nuland army had switched from offensive to defensive, and had begun to strengthen the defenses of the landing grounds.

Judging by the intensity of the investment, there will be no offensive in the next few days.

Obviously, the adjustment of the operational deployment of the landing force must be related to the fleet.

If the fleet had not withdrawn, the landed Nuland Marines would have abandoned the offensive?

By now, the Imperial forces guarding the transit island had retreated to the southwest corner of the airfield, taking control of only a small area near the tower. It was the towers, as well as the nearby hangars and other solid structures, that the defenders were able to withstand the attack of the Nuland Marines. The problem is that when the supplies are about to run out, even if the defending officers and soldiers are not afraid of death, it does not mean that they will not be wiped out by the enemy.

Even according to the most optimistic estimates, the defenders could hold out until the 15th at most.

The reason is also very simple, the last supply was on the night of the 9th. After that, because of the loss of air supremacy, and the coastline was completely controlled by the Nuland army, there was no way to supply the defenders with transport planes and submarines. On the night of the 9th, only 500 kilograms of rations were delivered to the island.

This amount of supplies is enough for a maximum of 3 days.

Even if it is used sparingly, and the combat attrition will reduce the consumption, it can only last for 2 to 3 more days.

Crucially, there is no water source on the transit island!

Although the Imperial Navy dug several deep wells on the island after the Second World War, and later installed a very advanced, solar-powered desalination plant, which made the fresh water supply almost self-sufficient, it was destroyed on the first day of the war, and the defenders relied on the fresh water stored in the underground facilities and the small amount of fresh water obtained from rainwater.

All this fresh water will be used up tomorrow!

Without food, he was able to fight for a few days hungry.

If you don't have water to drink, even a healthy adult can only last 2 to 3 days. In case of high-intensity combat, it is up to 2 days.

Worse still, the transit island is in the subtropics, and the sunshine in autumn is extremely abundant, with the highest temperature during the day always around 30 degrees Celsius.

According to the reports of the defenders, the most scarce thing now is fresh water.

In order to hold out longer, the commanders of the defenders have ordered the centralized management of drinking water and the priority of ensuring combatants. In order to keep the fighters in shape, some of the seriously wounded even refused to receive medical treatment, and the military doctors were asked to use the dextrose water for injection as drinking water.

It's just that it's 3 days at most.

If the freshwater problem cannot be solved by the 15th, the defending officers and soldiers will certainly not be able to see the sun on the 16th.

It can be seen that the transit island is already within reach.

Why, then, did the Nuland army switch from defense to offense?

Let God solve the stubborn defenders?

Obviously, God is very unreliable.

All it took was a light rain for the defending officers and men to hold out for a few more days.

Although the daytime temperatures are high and the skies are often clear, the marine climate itself is unpredictable, not to mention the typhoons on the Guia side have not yet passed. There is no guarantee that the sunny weather will last forever and there will not be a downpour of rain one night.

In fact, in the past few days, there have been several cumulonimbus clouds close to the transit island, but they have not drifted over the transit island.

Obviously, the only plausible explanation is that the Nuland fleet, which had previously operated north of the Transit Island, had been relocated, at least with tactical adjustments.

This means that the commander of the Nuland fleet has already noticed, or perhaps anticipated, that the forty-first task force is about to be killed.

It's just that this sea area is too big.

It is more than 3,000 kilometers long from east to west and more than 1,500 kilometers wide from north to south.

With such a large area, there is definitely no way to launch an attack.

It's not the fear of loss, but the probability of success is almost zero.

Whether it is a carrier-based air force or an air force dispatching bombers, it is necessary to ensure the suddenness of the attack, that is, to use surprise attacks as the main means of attack.

If the suddenness is lost, the attack will certainly fail.

In fact, the raid itself is a major feature of the offense.

The reason is also very simple, compared with the defending side, the attacking side itself has the disadvantages of insufficient troops, poor battlefield control ability, and inaccurate intelligence.

Even now, this comparison has not changed much.

For example, due to performance limitations such as flight speed and range, it is difficult for carrier-based early warning aircraft to accompany attack aircraft groups to perform tasks, and in many cases they cannot fly that far. On the other hand, in defensive operations, early warning aircraft have irreplaceable value. Obviously, the attacking side needs to challenge the air defense fighters supported by AWACS without the assistance of AWACS, and it will be difficult for them to seize the initiative on the battlefield.

In this case, if you can't even make a surprise attack, you will definitely go home.

Obviously, the prerequisite for launching a surprise attack is to know the exact location of the target.

Before, the battle that took place in the heart of the Eastern Continent is the best proof of this.

The key is that the area of the East Continent Heart Sea is less than 1 million square kilometers!

In other words, if the tactics of the Manman Air Force are adopted and the "air-sea tactics" are used to make up for the loopholes of insufficient intelligence, I am afraid that several hundred bombers will be lost.

In addition, there is not enough certainty.

What now?

Although he could only continue to wait, Bai Huawei was a little apprehensive in his heart.

Not for fear of being hit.

In fact, when he decided to bypass the Howai Islands from the east and kill the rear of the Nuland fleet, Bai Huawei expected the worst outcome.

At that time, he was mentally prepared for the worst.

To put it bluntly, if Task Force 41 had been attacked first, it would have been able to find the Nuland fleet. Even if Task Force 41 loses its combat capability, more than 100 bombers of the Air Force will be able to take out the Nuland fleet and sink all five Nuland aircraft carriers to the bottom of the sea.

Even if Task Force 41 is wiped out, there will still be Task Force 61 available.

In addition, a few months later, several aircraft carriers joined the Guia Fleet.

In contrast, the Nuland Navy did not have such a generous background.

If the battle suffers a crushing defeat, the Nuland Navy will not only lose five aircraft carriers, but also tens of thousands of naval officers and sailors on these five aircraft carriers.

Not to mention a few months, even if it takes one year, it may not be able to recover.

It takes a lot of time just to train tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, and even if they do, they are only new recruits who have not been tempered by war.

Obviously, this is the confidence of Bai Huawei to intervene in the war of attrition.

What made Bai Huawei feel worried was that if Stark had made an accurate judgment, he would probably choose to retreat, and he would be able to retreat with his whole body.

Let go of the Nuland fleet, that is really endless trouble.

After the satellite system is finished, it is definitely not an easy task to find a fleet on the vast sea just by relying on patrol aircraft and patrol ships.

Moreover, the Nuland Air Force has enough strategic bombers that can be used to suppress bases where patrol aircraft are deployed.

Fighting a "guerrilla war" with the Nuland fleet in the Guia Ocean will definitely cause the Imperial Navy to suffer, that is, the Imperial Navy needs to protect a wider sea area, and the routes that need to be guarded are longer, so it needs to invest more in escort operations, and it is a more powerful combat force.

In addition, there are widely distributed island bases.

From this point of view, even if it is a lose-lose fight, it must not let go of the Nuland fleet.

However, the most important thing is actually the strategic consideration.

Previously, Bai Huawei had hinted to Jiang Wenlong that the top echelons of the empire did not intend to finish this global war according to the standards of all-out war.

If we want to end this war quickly, the key is to push back the Nuland Republic.

To put it bluntly, it is to make it clear to the Nuland authorities that if they continue to fight, they will only lose the war, so they consider an armistice negotiation with the Empire.

Conspicuously, to achieve this goal, it is necessary to annihilate the Nuland fleet.

According to the pre-war calculations, if the Nuland fleet could not be annihilated after the war, even if the Nuland Navy's combat operation of attacking the Khowaii Islands was crushed, the war would continue. The most likely scenario is that the Nuland Navy retreats to its homeland and relies on it to counter the Imperial Navy. Because there is no way to send troops to the Lonely Continent in the near future, for the Empire, the only way to end the war in the near future is to compromise with the enemy without having absolute superiority, and it will definitely involve the Empire.

If this is the case, it means that the battle has been fought in vain.

In the face of this war, the bottom line of the empire is to defeat the Riman Empire, dominate the World Island, or eliminate the most threatening opponent on the World Island.

In the long run, only after dominating the World Island can the Empire expedition to the Lonely Continent.

Historically, the hegemonic countries on the world island, without exception, were defeated by their opponents before dominating the world island, or to be precise, in the process of dominating the world island.

This opponent is mainly offshore countries such as the Republic of Nuland.

In other words, if there is no way to defeat the Riman Empire, then decades later, when the Great War breaks out again, it will be the Liangxia Empire that will be defeated.

Of course, the new military doctrine will lose the soil for its existence.

In fact, the tactical problem cannot be ignored.

According to the previous war games, after the setback of the first round of the attack, even if it just did not achieve the expected goal, the Nuland Navy could be a turtle with a shrunken head.

So far, there are already signs of this.

For example, the transit island has not been able to be attacked for a long time.

Although the battle plan of the Nuland Navy is not clear, the attack on Transit Island first indicates that the Nuland authorities aim to swallow the entire Howaii Islands.

Then, it will definitely not be too much time on the transit island.

Using the strongest 1st Marine Division to attack a small island is enough to prove that the Nuland Navy wants to take the transit island in one go.

Usually, it's 3 to 5 days.

This is not a few decades ago, because of the lack of weapons suitable for attacking fortifications, landing operations took dozens of days at a time. Relying on a variety of advanced weapons, such as ground-penetrating bombs that can penetrate tens of meters of sand or several meters of concrete, it is no longer a problem to attack the fortified positions.

What's more, the fortifications of the transit island are not strong at all.

Due to the lack of fresh water, the strength of concrete would be much lower if it was replaced by seawater, so the Imperial Navy had not paid much attention to the transit islands for the past few decades. Otherwise, more combat units will definitely be deployed, and more permanent fortifications will be built.

Up to now, it has been more than 5 days.

Although the defenders were able to hold out until the 15th at most, that is, they could hold out for 3 days, but they showed combat effectiveness as if they could hold out for 3 months.

So, is it possible that the Nuland Navy has given up?

If the answer is yes, then it is not necessarily the task force that is sailing east, at least not the main task force with aircraft carriers.

Another imposter who sells dog meat on the head of a sheep!?

If so, where is the task force commanded by Stark, or where is it going?

It was this question that made Bai Huawei uneasy.

If you pounce this time, the consequences will be unimaginable!