Cunningham's judgment and speculation were correct, but he seriously overestimated the White Stop.

Of course, it is accurate to overestimate the 11th Task Force.

In the early morning of the 26th, when the expeditionary fleet sent the "Swordfish" on a reconnaissance mission, the 11th Task Force was still about 1,500 kilometers northeast of it, sailing southwest at a maximum cruising speed of 18 knots. Even in the evening, the distance to the expeditionary fleet exceeded 1,000 kilometers.

It's not that the battleship can't run fast, it's that there isn't enough fuel.

The short range has always been the shortcoming of the Imperial warships.

Not to mention the treaty era, even in the post-treaty era, when determining the performance indicators of warships, the first thing the Imperial Navy discarded was endurance.

It was for this reason that the Imperial Navy vigorously built fleet tankers that were fast enough.

According to the general understanding of the Imperial Navy, warships do not need a range of tens of thousands of nautical miles, because no fleet will sail thousands of nautical miles away without stopping, fight the enemy, and after the battle, return to the home port of departure alone without relying on outside help.

Since there is a stopover in the middle of the voyage and there will be a response after the battle, there is not much value in having too long endurance.

If you want to say, the faster the cruise speed, the more combat value.

The point is that most of the time, even when going to the battlefield, the warship mainly sails at cruising speed, and rarely exceeds it.

Only in battle, it is necessary to sail at full speed.

It is precisely because of this that the cruising speed of imperial warships is generally 2 knots higher than that of the warships of the Western powers of the same era, and some even reach 4 knots.

The key is that too high a cruising speed will definitely lead to a decrease in sustainability.

Of course, there will always be surprises.

In order to save fuel, after switching to the southwest, that is, on the afternoon of the 20th, the 11th Task Force reduced its speed to 18 knots.

This speed has already exceeded the cruising speed of destroyers and fleet tankers.

Fortunately, the destroyer's tonnage is small and does not burn much fuel, while the fleet tanker has a range of 12,000 nautical miles, so there is no problem of insufficient fuel.

In addition, it had previously taken most of the day to sail northwest.

At the time of this arrangement, the White Stop War was intended to deceive the Royal Navy of Bran and convince the enemy that the 11th Task Force had bypassed Sumatra and entered the Andaman Sea from the Gretel Strait, and then turned back to blockade the Throat Strait to support and cover the Marines' attack on Lion Springs.

Who would have thought that after entering the Fanyan Ocean, he did not encounter the ships and planes of the Royal Navy of Bran at all.

Anyway, most of the day was wasted.

After reaching the southwest of the Gretel Strait and parting ways with several other detachments, the 11th Task Force headed for the southwest of Fanyanyang.

Such a toss is equivalent to running hundreds of kilometers more.

Of course, even if you don't toss, you will not be able to reach the southwest Fanyanyang until the evening of the 26th.

Because it was impossible to launch an attack at night with carrier-based aircraft, there was no essential difference between arriving on the evening of the 26th and the early morning of the 27th.

The key is that on the 25th, reliable information was received.

After receiving the telegram from the naval headquarters, which was actually a forwarded battle report of the Omnian Navy, the battle of Bai Zhi became angry, and he felt that the commander of the Omnian fleet had no overall view of the overall situation.

Let the "Prime Minister" deliberately expose his whereabouts, not only to determine whether Commander-in-Chief Cunningham's fleet went to the South Sunset and set the ocean, but also to find out the whereabouts of the Nuland fleet.

Make sure that the "Endeavour" is also on the sunset in the ocean!

The latter is the key.

On the 22nd, Zheng Jiangming sent a piece of information with high credibility, following the two fast battleships from the Xifan Canal into the narrow sea, it is very likely that the "Ark Royal" did not enter the port after arriving at the Kibu fortress, and went directly from the Gulf of Aden to the Mua Sea.

If this is the case, then there are two "Brilliant" class ships operating in the south.

If you want to say it, Bai Zhizhan really didn't take these 2 aircraft carriers into account.

Compared with the combat effectiveness of aviation, the two "Brilliant" ships are not as good as the "Endeavour".

It is precisely because of this that Bai Zhizhan hopes that the "Prime Minister" can lead the "Endeavor" out, at least to take this opportunity to determine whether or not to set the ocean in the south sunset.

Where did you think that the "Prime Minister" actually escaped!

Although the officers and men who stayed behind saw the flying reconnaissance plane, concluded that the aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy of Bran was nearby, and sent information in time, they did not find the carrier-based aircraft of the Nuland Navy, and could not indirectly conclude that the Newland fleet was also nearby.

If the Prime Minister hadn't escaped south and gone to the Falkland Islands, and had stayed in a bay somewhere, it would have been bombed. Even if the carrier-based aircraft of the Nuland Navy are painted in the appearance of Bran's carrier-based aircraft, they can make a rough judgment by the intensity of the bombing.

In addition, the Royal Navy did not introduce Torpedo attack aircraft from the Newland Navy.

That is, if there is a TBD in the enemy aircraft, or a TBF that is rumored to have entered service ahead of schedule, it can be concluded that the Nuland fleet is also nearby.

It's a pity that the Rimman Navy cared too much about the battleship.

Now, all the trouble is in the hands of Bai Zhizhan.

On the evening of the 25th, Zhou Yongtao made a comprehensive analysis.

As soon as the morning of the 26th, or at the latest on the morning of the 27th, Cunningham's Bran fleet will enter the Fanyan Ocean, and the Nuland fleet is likely to follow.

It is uncertain whether Bran's fleet will sail directly east, or whether it will turn north as soon as possible.

If you sail east, it is possible to go to the northeast of Fanyanyang and participate in the battle at Lion Springs City.

It is also possible to go to Austria, but it is not in the scope of consideration for the time being, because the only one who wants to go to Austria is the Nuland fleet. The Nuland Navy has no reason to let the "Endeavour" sail around the earth for most of the time, and it can believe that the Nuland fleet will not go to Austria for the time being.

Going north, it is to join the "Ark Royal".

When doing the analysis, Zhou Yongtao did not emphasize which situation is more likely.

If you want to say, you can't emphasize it.

The battle on the side of Lion Spring City can be said to have decided the overall situation. Although the defenders were still fighting in the city, it was only a matter of time before the main forces of the Imperial Army came ashore and took the place of the marines to attack the city, annihilate the recalcitrant Bran army, and capture the entire city of Lion Springs.

According to the telegram sent by Lian Xusheng, it is expected that Shiquan City will be taken in early February.

Of course, the casualties of the army are certainly not small.

The key is to attack.

In order to achieve a quick victory, the top of the empire apparently did not consider the issue of casualties.

From a tactical point of view, Lian Xusheng did not seem to have tried to reduce casualties.

All these made Bai Zhizhan have to believe that the internal struggle of the empire has reached a white-hot level, and it is necessary for the army to achieve a great victory as soon as possible.

If this is the case, the capture of Lion Spring City will definitely be just around the corner.

It can be seen that even if Cunningham rushed over with the fleet, it would be useless.

But the problem is that it doesn't make much sense to go north to join the "Ark Royal".

If Endeavour also came, then Cunningham would have the strength to defeat the 11th Task Force even without the Ark Royal.

On the contrary, if the "Endeavour" did not come over and joined the "Ark Royal", it would not change the balance of forces.

All in all, the key is not the "Ark Royal", but the "Endeavour".

So, where will Cunningham go after entering the Fanyan Ocean?