At about 5:30, the first reconnaissance aircraft rose from the "Pu".

Unlike in the past, Bai Zhizhan was not worried.

The attack was carried out by Task Force 21, with Task Force 22 behind, ready to attack the Nuland fleet, which could appear at any moment.

As for the air defense of the fleet, the reverse is not a big problem.

The location of the 22nd Task Force is actually north of the 21st Task Force, to be precise, north-west, and the distance is no more than 300 kilometers.

Crucially, the 21st and 22nd Task Forces are both located in the northwest of the transit island.

Because the Imperial Navy's carrier-based aircraft have a maximum combat radius of more than 700 kilometers when performing sea missions, and the Nuland carrier-based aircraft are only 500 kilometers at most, unless the Nuland fleet is directly south of the 21st Task Force, that is, southwest of the transit island, as long as it tries to sneak attack the 21st Task Force, it will enter the strike range of the 22nd Task Force and be attacked by the 22nd Task Force.

Yesterday afternoon, the two fleets went into radio silence.

In order to enhance the deception effect, or to improve concealment, the two full-time flagships, which had been using longwave radios, also broke away from the task force at night.

At this time, the "Qinling" was about 250 kilometers northeast of the "Qinling" and the "Kunlun" was also about 200 kilometers east of the 22nd Task Force.

That is, if the Nuland Navy had radiolocated, it would have found only 2 flagships.

Of course, the Nuland Navy does not necessarily use radio for positioning.

The reason is also very simple, the two flagships have been sending reports all the way, and their whereabouts have long been exposed, and yesterday afternoon they suddenly stopped using long-wave radio.

Obviously, no matter how stupid the intelligence officers of the Nuland Navy are, they will think that they are two warships on a deception mission.

Of course, Bai Zhizhan did not pin all his hopes on deception.

Last night, he asked Li Mingbo to make arrangements and send all the four ocean-going cruisers accompanying him out to form a guard detachment in the northeast and east of the fleet, and each of them formed a guard detachment to take turns using radar to monitor the nearby airspace and report immediately after discovering enemy planes.

These ocean-going cruisers extended the fleet's air defense network by more than 200 kilometers, which is equivalent to providing the fleet with at least 45 minutes of air defense preparation time.

In addition, Task Force 22 is to the north, so there is no need to worry about threats from the north.

Since it comes from the northwest, there is no need to worry about the threat from the northwest and west.

As for the south, unless the Nuland Navy took the initiative, it would not send the fleet there, after all, as long as it was discovered there, it would definitely be doomed.

Of course, the White Stop War was also not taken lightly.

According to his arrangement, when the reconnaissance planes were dispatched, the two fast battleships and four heavy cruisers escorting the convoy had to send out the seaplanes they were carrying to focus on the southern and southwestern seas of the fleet, and the search area was expanded to 600 kilometers, so as to expand the search area as much as possible.

Because there are enough seaplanes, as long as the Nuland fleet is there, it will definitely be able to find it.

In addition, the large warships are equipped with the latest seaplanes.

If you want to say that, it is true that the Imperial Navy did not pay much attention to seaplanes in the past.

For more than a decade, the Imperial Navy had always felt that seaplanes were a chicken rib, and their main value was not to assist carrier-based aircraft in reconnaissance missions, but to rescue pilots who had parachuted overboard after the battle, and to transport personnel and supplies between warships.

As a result, carrier-based seaplanes of the Imperial Navy were always lagging behind.

After the outbreak of the Great War, the Imperial Navy suddenly realized that seaplanes had even greater value, especially for long-range reconnaissance missions.

If you want to say that the two decisive sea battles were the first work of seaplanes.

The most representative is that in the naval battle of the Southwest Fanyan Ocean, the eight seaplanes dispatched used the tactics of landing and floating at night to discover the Nuland fleet and the Bran fleet in the early morning and early morning respectively, and the 11th task force seized the opportunity to attack.

Without seaplanes, it would have been absolutely impossible to sink those 2 Bran aircraft carriers.

In fact, in the Battle of the Northwest Guia, the value of seaplanes was reflected.

It was at that time that the Imperial Navy decided to develop and purchase a seaplane that could fly faster, fly farther, and patrol longer.

Fortunately, the design and production of seaplanes is much less difficult than carrier-based aircraft.

If anything, it is to adopt a better engine, reduce the weight of the structure as much as possible, and extend the flight range by increasing the fuel load.

If there is any difficulty, the main thing is the aerodynamic layout.

None of this bothered the Empire's aircraft designers.

In just a few months, the new seaplane, known as the "Osprey", completed the whole process of design, acceptance and finalization and mass production.

In May, the first production models were officially delivered to the Navy.

Of course, it was first allocated to Task Force XXI and Task Force XXII.

Under normal conditions, the Bald Osprey can fly up to 800 kilometers away for at least half an hour, or 600 kilometers for two hours.

Six escort warships carrying a total of 20 "Bald Ospreys".

Of course, even if you don't find the Nuland fleet, don't worry.

As mentioned earlier, because there are a lot of uncertainties, the scale of the first wave of attacks is not very large, and even if you count the reconnaissance aircraft, a total of 84 carrier-based aircraft will be dispatched, so it will not take up too much deck time, and it will be possible to arrange for fighters to take off immediately after that.

In addition, the "Roaring Sky" has enough range to take off first and stand by.

All in all, before dawn, at least 2 squadrons of fighters took to the skies, and at least 2 more squadrons were on standby above the flight deck.

That is, in the event of an attack, at least 32 fighters can be dispatched for air defense missions.

Taking advantage of the early warning time provided by the ocean-going cruisers, it was even possible to arrange for 2 more squadrons of fighters to rise into the air, increasing the number of air defense fighters to 48 units.

So many fighters, capable of three interceptions of incoming enemy aircraft.

Obviously, it is definitely more than enough to cope with the attack launched by 2 small aircraft carriers.

If anything, there is something else to worry about. The whereabouts of the 2 fleets had already been revealed, allowing the Nuland army to attack first.

In the most extreme case, it is the heavy bombers deployed on the transit island that are the first to strike.

When the air defense fighters intercepted the heavy bombers, the Nuland carrier-based aircraft penetrated from ultra-low altitudes and launched an attack on the unsuspecting warships.

The point is that heavy bombers must always fly at high altitudes, so when intercepting heavy bombers, it is difficult to get caught by enemy planes entering from low altitudes.

In the Battle of the Southwestern and Guia Seas, it was only by concentrating on intercepting enemy planes at high altitudes that a small number of enemy planes were allowed to penetrate from low altitudes.

Because of the need for collaboration, the chances of this happening are slim to none.

By now, the Nuland Navy may have lost its ability to coordinate and be unable to organize a large-scale attack.

The key thing is that the "Qinling" is just ahead, and after entering a state of radio silence, it has been listening carefully to the radio activity around it.

As soon as an anomaly is detected, an alert is issued.

Even Bai Zhizhan felt that his worries were a bit redundant.