Li Yunxiang followed, and had little to do with the combat operation of attacking Shiquan City, and visited the Daiman Kingdom as a representative of the emperor.

The first task was to borrow a military base in the southern region of the Daiman Kingdom.

If long-range aviation can be deployed in advance, even if it is only used to monitor and block the Throat Strait, it will be of great benefit to attack Lion Spring City.

Let Li Yunxiang come over is related to his other identity.

Although he is not a concubine, Li Yunxiang is also a quasi-national relative, and he can be related to the imperial family, and visiting the Daiman Kingdom on behalf of the empire can be regarded as giving enough face. As for whether he could achieve his goal, Li Yunxiang was not too worried, after all, the Daiman Kingdom did not have much bargaining capital.

Considering the above arrangement, Bai Zhizhan did not go with him to join in the fun.

The next day, Li Yunxiang went to the capital of the Daiman Kingdom.

A little later that day, Bai Zhizhan received a telegram from Li Mingbo from the "Accompanying Beijing" that the 41st Task Force had set off from Xuhai and was expected to arrive in the southern waters of Yanhai on 7 January. According to the new establishment system, it was renamed the 11th Task Force after arriving in Yanhai.

The use of alphanumerical numbers is mainly to distinguish it from the enemy's task force.

Because the "Imperial Capital" has not yet been repaired, the 11th Task Force still has only 2 aircraft carriers.

However, considering that the combat aircraft deployed by the Royal Bran Air Force in Lion Springs City are relatively backward and there is no advanced fighter such as the "Spitfire", the two air wings carried by the 11th Task Force have three fighter squadrons each, increasing the number of dive bombers.

In addition, the task force will also take this opportunity to deliver several batches of combat aircraft to the front line.

It was precisely because of this that the 11th Task Force could not participate in the attack on Shiquan City until January 10 at the earliest.

For this reason, the Army tentatively set the time for the offensive on 11 January, with the first five days as the firepower preparation stage, with the Army Air Force and the Navy's shore-based aviation units serving as the main forces.

If all goes well, a landing operation will be launched on January 16.

On 3 January, Bai Zhizhan left the Forward Command and went to Saigon Port in Nam Toe, accompanied by several staff officers arranged by Du Kang.

It is the best port in the entire Toe Peninsula, the southern part of the Yanhai Sea.

Because it was once a military port for the Locke Navy and later one of the main military ports of the Imperial Navy, a lot of infrastructure with military value was built.

When I went to Saigon Port to inspect the situation, I was not for the 11th Task Force, but for the sake of landing operations.

To put it simply, it is to set this as the home port of the landing fleet, to serve as the forward base for landing operations, and to improve the efficiency of logistical support.

As for the situation at the port of Saigon, it did not surprise the White Stop.

To say, it's about the same as that ball port.

Although after the end of the last war, the South Toe area was relegated to the colony of the Rock Republic, but in the next two decades, the center of gravity of the Rock Republic's expansion strategy was not here, and it did not invest too many resources in the South Toe area as in the past.

To say, the port of Saigon is more like Cape Town after the opening of the Shivan Canal.

In addition, there are too many indigenous people in the area, and most of them are engaged in colony-related business activities, and they are highly dependent on the suzerainty in all aspects. More than 10,000 Locke soldiers stationed in the Nam Toe area, about 50,000 colonists, and import and export merchants who frequently traveled between the Nam Toe area and the mainland of the Rok Republic, became the main economic source for the whole of Saigon and even the Nam Toe area.

To put it mildly: more than 30 million people in Nanzhi are in the service of these 100,000 colonists.

The conclusions drawn by the White Stop War are also realistic.

Instead of investing in infrastructure in Saigon, it is better to burn more oil.

Besides, it is only more than 2,000 kilometers from Shiquan City to the mainland of the empire, and there are dozens of military bases along the way, so there is no need to open another military port.

This conclusion is tantamount to putting Saigon Port into the cold.

Because there was really nothing to investigate, Bai Zhizhan only stayed there for two days, and on January 5, he flew back to the front headquarters.

Without a forward base, it would be necessary to make adjustments to the landing operation, using more transport ships and increasing the number of escort warships in the same proportion.

Before leaving the port of Saigon, Bai Zhizhan wrote these into an inspection report and sent them back to the naval command.

In the past two days, Lu Xinhai's situation has changed drastically.

It was only after the departure of Saigon from the port of White Stop that the Imperial Navy Command received the exact information and sent it to the Front Command as soon as possible.

On the night of January 4, about six hours before Bai Zhizhan left Saigon Harbor, the Eastern Continent Heart Sea Squadron of the Royal Navy of Bran attacked the Raleigh fleet, to be precise, it dispatched carrier-based aircraft to bombard the Raleigh battleship anchored in the Taranto military port, sinking 2 battleships and damaging 2 battleships in one fell swoop.

Just one attack paralyzed the mighty Raleigh fleet!

The point is that the attack is launched at night.

Although the Navy Command did not provide more precise information, there is reason to believe that the Royal Navy of Bran used the slower, but more low-altitude "Sailfish" biplane torpedo attack aircraft, and had accurate information and conducted drills in advance.

If anything, only this torpedo machine is suitable for bombing missions at night.

If you switch to a faster monoplane, let alone hit accurately, it would be nice to be able to drop a torpedo over a narrow harbor.

The whole attack operation can be said to be crisp and neat.

It was only after the battleship was bombed that the air defense forces deployed near the port reacted.

After all the Bran fighters dropped their torpedoes and flew away, the Raleigh Air Force fighters arrived, only to have 2 more shot down by their own anti-aircraft guns.

From beginning to end, neither the Raleigh Navy nor the Raleigh Air Force touched the north.

If it weren't for the fact that the two aerial torpedoes dropped by Bran's planes did not detonate and washed up on the beach, the Raleigh Navy would not even have thought of being bombed.

At the time the battleship was torpedoed, the commander of the Raleigh fleet also determined that the ammunition depot had exploded.

At that time, the first order given by the commander of the Lori fleet turned out to be to let the captains maintain order and not let the officers and soldiers panic.

Besides, one thing is certain.

The commander of this raid was definitely Cunningham.

By the night of January 5, a second telegram had been sent from the command of the Navy.

The speculation of the White Stop War was confirmed that it was indeed the Eastern Continent Xinhai Squadron under the direct command of Cunningham who attacked, and Cunningham was in the fleet.

In addition, the detachment has a total of 2 aircraft carriers, one of which is an old aircraft carrier converted from a large cruiser.

In other words, it is very likely that only one aircraft carrier will carry out the attack mission, and less than 30 carrier-based aircraft will be dispatched, maybe only about 20.

It's just that only 1 battleship was sunk, 1 more was heavily damaged, and the other 4 did not lose their combat effectiveness.

Although the losses were not as great as imagined, after this battle, the Raleigh Navy was already a bird of fear.

Not to mention going to sea to fight, even in the port, it was fearful, and even the commander of the fleet left the residence that night. He said that he went to the port to inspect the situation, but in fact, he was worried about being bombed again, so he went to a private estate in the interior and returned to Taranto three days later.

After this battle, I am afraid that in the next few months, the Raleigh Navy will be cowering in the harbor, unable to pose a threat to the Royal Navy of Bran.