Preventing the Nuland Federation from suddenly entering the war can be said to be the number one task of the Imperial Navy in the past few months.

At the end of March, Liu Changxun issued an order to divide the original 21st Task Force into two, reorganize the new 21st Task Force and the 41st Task Force, and respectively appointed Liu Xiangzhen and Bai Zhizhan as commanders, and alternately deployed in the Western Guina and the Northwest Guia.

In the next two months, it was deployed in the Northwest and Eastern Guia Ocean, responsible for the implementation of a strategic blockade of the Imperial State, providing air cover for cruisers and patrol aircraft carrying out strategic blockade tasks, and keeping an eye on Guandao and Honu Islands, and the 21st Task Force under the command of Liu Xiangzhen was carrying out the strategic vigilance mission.

Task Force 41, with two "Imperial Capital" class ships as the core, returned to Mastford Harbor for repairs.

In this arrangement, the main reason is that the two "Longjiang" class ships are in better condition.

Although after the end of the combat operations against the permanent fleet, the two "Imperial Capital" class ships returned to the shipyard for the first comprehensive overhaul after their commissioning, due to the limitations of their own design, the condition of the two "Imperial Capital" class ships has not been very good, and there are relatively serious problems.

These problems were later exposed during the battle against the Volcanic Islands.

According to the statistics of the special mixed group, in the combat operation of attacking Liuhuangdao, the sortie rates of the "Imperial Capital" and the "Companion Beijing" were equivalent to 88 percent and 85 percent of those of the "Longjiang." Especially when the sorties continued, it was difficult for the power system and the catapult device to operate stably for a long time.

In addition, the two "Longjiang" class ships carried out mid-term maintenance before attacking the volcanic islands, and solved some old problems by replacing key spare parts, including replacing new valves for hydraulic catapults, which effectively improved reliability and stability and ensured operational efficiency.

In the two months since they were replaced, the two "Imperial Capital" class ships underwent the second maintenance in Puzhou and Thornzhou respectively.

It should be said that this is also the first improvement after entering the service, and the main thing is to solve all kinds of problems exposed in combat operations.

By the end of May, Task Force 41 was officially established at Naqiu Port.

By this time, the Imperial Navy had already clarified the fleet naming conventions.

To put it simply, it depends on the port.

The home port of the Fourth Fleet is Naqiu Harbor, so as long as Naqiu Harbor is used as the home port, no matter where it operates, it will be assigned to the name of the Fourth Fleet.

The home port of the Second Fleet is Guan Dao, but for the time being, the home port of the Home Fleet is Masthead Harbor.

On the last day of May, Bai Zhizhan led the 41st Fleet out of the port.

After that, there is a deployment period of up to three months.

Strictly speaking, it was not until 10 June that Task Force 41 arrived at the Volcanic Islands.

It was delayed for a few more days, mainly to test the two aircraft carriers during the voyage, and also to let the pilots hurry up training so that they could get into the state as soon as possible.

When you go to the battlefield, you don't have time for systematic and comprehensive training.

It was not until 15 June that Task Force 21 was replaced.

The five-day delay was mainly for joint training with the 21st Task Force and for the staff officers of the Fleet Command to exchange combat experience.

After all, this was the first time that the 41st Task Force of the White Commander had carried out a theater patrol mission.

For the next two months, until 25 August, Task Force 41 was active in the northwestern Guiata east of the Volcanic Islands.

There is only one mission: to search for and intercept freighters attempting to and from the Sagai Empire, and to provide cover for cruisers on safari missions.

And, of course, keep an eye on the Nuland Navy's Guia Fleet.

For more than two months, Bai Zhizhan did not sleep soundly at night.

According to his speculation, from June to August, the probability of the Newland Federation sending troops to the war is the highest.

In fact, this is also the key reason for Liu Xiangzhen to take over until mid-June, and Bai Zhizhan will take over on June 15.

In Liu Changxun's words, with Bai Zhizhan commanding the 41st Task Force in front, then when the Nuland Navy tries to launch a surprise attack, it will definitely have some concerns, and may send all five aircraft carriers to deal with Bai Zhizhan, and there will be no way to eliminate the Liang Xia Navy in one fell swoop.

Feelings, Bai Zhizhan is to attract firepower.

Relatively speaking, the strategic blockade of the Narrow Imperial State was a trivial matter.

The main force is the cruisers, especially those with a range of more than 10,000 nautical miles, can operate alone for several months in the open ocean, and are equipped with heavy guns.

These cruisers were converted from fast freighters.

Before the outbreak of the Great War, the Imperial Navy had invested in shipping companies to build a large number of fast freighters for requisitioning in wartime.

After simple modifications, such as the installation of large-caliber naval guns, these fast freighters were transformed into broken cruisers.

Although it can't do real warships, it will definitely be easy to deal with ordinary ships.

The interior space of the freighter is very large, which can carry a large amount of provisions, provide more living and entertainment space for the crew, and obtain super continuous combat capabilities.

For the Liang Xia Navy, which has the right to control the sea, the broken cruiser is a more ideal choice than the submarine.

The point is that there are no political risks caused by "unrestricted submarine warfare".

In a period of more than two months, Task Force 21 returned to Mastford. The two "Longjiang" class ships, which had been at sea for four months, returned to the shipyard for necessary maintenance and overhaul, and the officers and men were also given a rest and recuperation, and they also took this opportunity to replace the carrier-based aircraft.

Only by this time did the "Typhoon" fighters be completely withdrawn from the front-line combat units.

The main thing that has been delayed to change the outfit until now is that there is no time, after all, it will take several months to change the carrier-based aircraft, just for the pilots to carry out acclimatization training.

Fortunately, Task Force 41 did just that after it was formed, and it was replaced with new carrier-based aircraft before it set sail.

Unfortunately, until Task Force 21 returned to change the guard, the Newland Federation did not participate in the war.

Subsequently, Bai Zhizhan returned to the imperial capital.

After more than two months, in addition to losing a lot of weight, I just got darker.

This is also what Bai Zhizhan can't understand the most.

During the strategic blockade mission of Task Force 41, Bai Zhizhan communicated with the naval command many times, which was tantamount to deliberately exposing his whereabouts and trying to lure the Nuland fleet out.

At the end of July, he even commanded the fleet to sail about 1,500 kilometers northwest of the Khowaii Islands, and swaggered to intercept several Nuland freighters, during which he sent cruisers to pursue and shell an escaped freighter, but the result was still no.

Not to mention the fleet, the Nuland Navy did not even send out patrol aircraft, and the 41st Task Force was as if it did not exist.

During the more than two months of patrolling, more than 100 Newland merchant ships were seized and directly sunk by Task Force 41, in addition to hundreds of others. If you count those that were discovered by Task Force 41 and then expelled by long-range patrol aircraft, there must be more than a thousand.

Although the officers and men on the cruiser were very polite when intercepting the merchant ships, and did not cause serious casualties, the intercepted freighters and the materials they carried were worth hundreds of millions, and many of them were directly confiscated and confiscated in accordance with the laws of the empire after they were seized.

This can be endured!?

To use the jokes of the officers and men of the fleet, even if they can endure this, then they can only believe that the officers and men of the Nuland Navy definitely do not believe in God, but in Buddha.

It's just that Bai Zhizhan did not let his guard down.

Danger often comes when you take it lightly.