In the afternoon, the northwest and the east are looking east.

Bai Zhizhan slept all the way, and when he was called up by He Weigui, the patrol plane flew against the sea and was about to land.

Not far ahead is the "Imperial Capital".

The aircraft carrier was slowing down, and the broadside lift, located behind the port side, had been lowered, on which stood a dozen officers and men.

The leader is Li Mingbo.

Now he is already a commodore in the Navy.

After the Spring Festival, that is, at the end of March, he led an expeditionary fleet to Fanyan Ocean.

By the end of April, shortly after the entry of the Horman Empire into the war, it bypassed the Far Lookout and entered the southern sunset.

Stayed there until June, when he joined up with the breakout of the Homan fleet and supplied fuel to the Riman battleships.

Soon after, because the tankers ran out of fuel, Li Mingbo left all the excess supplies behind, and then returned to the empire with the expeditionary fleet.

Until now, the three armored cruisers were still on the Fanyan Ocean, but they were hiding near a deserted island, and they did not attack the transport ships of the Bran Kingdom again.

It's just that it's impossible to say how long you can hide it.

It's not that there's not enough fuel, it's that the food is running out.

The Royal Navy of Bran previously believed that the three armored cruisers had been refueled in the Nanxi Ocean, bypassed the southernmost point of the Lonely Continent and entered the Guia Ocean, and then operated in the Southeast Guia Ocean, looking for an opportunity to go to the Guia and join the Liang Xia Empire.

To this end, the Royal Navy of Bran focused on the Guia!

At its peak, nearly 100 warships and armed merchant ships were operating in the southeast and east, searching all the deserted islands that were inaccessible.

It wasn't until late last month that the Royal Navy turned its focus to Van Yanyang.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for those three armored cruisers to hide for a few months, after all, there are not many desert islands that can accommodate three large warships.

Because of the successful reception of the Manman fleet, Li Mingbo was promoted after he returned.

After that, he became Chief of Staff of Task Force 41.

Under the new system, the Chief of Staff of the Fleet is the first person under the Fleet Commander and has the same decision-making power as the Fleet Commander.

To put it simply, it is actually a substitute for the commander.

In Bai Zhizhan's words, Li Yunxiang finally came out.

Although Xue Yuanzheng did not approve Liu Changxun's second application for exceptional promotion, after all, Li Mingbo had been promoted several times before this, and went to Nanxi to take over the Man's fleet, which was a duty within his bounds, just like commanding the fleet in the Guia Ocean, it was not a reason to skip the ranks, but to be promoted to brigadier general, to be precise, to leave the special group, and after a turn, he still served on the aircraft carrier, and continued to be the deputy of the White Stop War, Li Mingbo was already very satisfied, not to mention that he had become a genuine chief of staff of the fleet.

After sending Bai Zhizhan to the "Imperial Capital", He Weigui and others also boarded the aircraft carrier.

Then the patrol plane that sent them over sank.

It's not that I don't believe He Weigui and other crew members, but I'm afraid that they will leak out.

For the sake of secrecy, the loss of a patrol aircraft is nothing.

came to greet Bai Zhizhan, as well as Zhou Yongtao.

He is now a major and an operational staff officer of Task Force 41.

In the past few months, to be precise, before the 41st Task Force was deployed, Zhou Yongtao did one thing according to Bai Zhizhan's orders.

Go to the Imperial Naval Academy to squat, select outstanding graduates, and preside over the selection assessment, and then send those who pass the assessment to Naqiu Harbor.

The best of these young officers remained at the fleet headquarters, and the others were stationed on other ships.

In Zhou Yongtao's words, his task was to help Bai Zhizhan form a command team that was mainly composed of young officers and dared to fight.

Of course, this is not to deny the value of an old qualified general like Li Mingbo.

This is just to say that in the future, as the size of the fleet expands, especially with more aircraft carriers in service, the most lacking thing in the Imperial Navy is talent, especially command talent.

Li Mingbo has always felt that Zhou Yongtao's emphasis on "talent" everywhere is actually elevating himself.

Zhou Yongtao is indeed a talent.

In the last deployment cycle, that is, between June and August, because Li Mingbo had not yet returned, it was Zhou Yongtao who exercised the authority of chief of staff.

During those two months, Zhou Yongtao proved by his actions that he was the most talented and enterprising young officer in the Imperial Navy after the White War.

It was only under his command that the 41st Task Force went on a killing spree in the Guia Ocean.

The premise is that Bai Zhizhan let him do it, without too much intervention, without restricting his hands and feet, and came out to take the blame for him at the critical moment.

In the words of other staff officers, Bai Zhizhan was particularly partial to Zhou Yongtao.

If it weren't for the difference of about twenty years, the two of them would have a leg in private.

In fact, it has long been rumored that Zhou Yongtao is Bai Zhizhan's illegitimate son, and Bai Zhizhan has more than 40 couples who are not married, which has something to do with it.

With Bai Zhizhan marrying the little eldest princess, this rumor was self-defeating.

Zhou Yongtao is still Zhou Yongtao, except that his skin is more tanned, he is still the same.

This time, among the staff officers of the fleet command, there was one more striking face.

Wang Jun.

That's right, it's the three princes of the empire!

There are only three people who know his true identity, Bai Zhizhan, Li Mingbo and Zhou Yongtao.

It stands to reason that it only needs to be known by Bai Zhizhan. It's just that Wang Jun came to the headquarters of the 41st Task Force through Zhou Yongtao, and when recruiting him, Zhou Yongtao became suspicious. After returning to the fleet, he asked Bai Zhizhan about it, and Bai Zhizhan did not hide it. As for Lee Myung-bak, it was when Wang Jun came to the 41st Task Force and privately recognized his "uncle", and he happened to bump into him, so he heard it.

It's just that now, Wang Jun's position is not on the "Imperial Capital", but on the "Accompanying Beijing".

This was the arrangement of Bai Zhizhan, so that he went to the "Accompanying Beijing" as a liaison officer of the fleet headquarters, responsible for assisting the commander of the second brigade.

In Bai Zhizhan's words, this is not only a test for him, but also an opportunity for him to exercise.

In fact, Bai Zhizhan didn't want to get too close to the third prince, after all, such a kinship would be unconsciously manifested in many cases.

The key is that Bai Zhizhan's identity as a "colt" is not strong enough.

During the secret talks in the caves, Bai Zhizhan had already rejected the olive branch handed by the eldest prince, and if he was too close to the third prince, it would inevitably lead to misunderstanding.

Although after the constitutional reform, the status of the imperial family has been reduced, and the importance of who will inherit the unification is not as great as before, but the appeal of the imperial family is there, and the imperial throne is still very attractive. Not to mention a new colt, even if it is a royal family, the outcome of being involved in the battle for the throne may not be much better.

Strictly speaking, the colt is not a royal family, but only a royal family, after all, the colt does not have the blood of the royal family.

Besides, the third prince just came out of the Naval Academy, and he really needs to be trained.

First go to the "Accompany Beijing" for a few months, and after figuring out the sophistication of the people, and then return to the "Imperial Capital", it will not be so easy to be seen through.

As for the other officers of the fleet command, and even the officers and men of the fleet, most of them are old faces.

The carrier-based aviation unit is the same, it is still the two brigades of Shenpu and Zhu Huasheng.

In a sense, this is also the most powerful contingent of the Imperial Navy at the moment, at least in terms of staffing!