"Imperial Capital".

I waited all morning without receiving news of the start of the war, and it was not until noon that the telecommunications officer on duty sent a telegram from the naval command.

Not news of war.

At six o'clock in the afternoon local time, Lofos made an ultimatum to the Liangxia Empire on the radio in the Gray Palace.

There's a lot of content, but that's the point.

The Liang Xia Navy must evacuate the sea area within the next 24 hours, starting from the attack on the cargo and ending at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow.

That is, there are less than twenty hours left.

As for the reason: the Liang Xia ship sank the Nuland freighter.

At the time of the incident, the warships of the Liang Xia Navy were intercepting the Newland freighters, and Lofos asserted that the Liang Xia ships had sunk the freighters.

In the telegram, there is also the latest battle report.

In the vicinity of the convoy, there must be a task force, and fighter jets are sent to provide anti-aircraft cover for the convoy and the battleships of the First Fleet.

Task Force 1 also dispatched carrier-based fighters, but their whereabouts were not revealed for the time being.

Threatened by the Nuland fighters, all the seaplanes sent by Task Force returned halfway and did not continue their search to the east.

In addition, Task Force 42 has not retreated, and Task Force 43 has followed.

According to the arrangement, Task Force 43 will speed up to catch up with Task Force 42 after dark, and its specific position will be southwest of Task Force 42, maintaining a distance of about 30 kilometers, so as to ensure that it can accelerate forward to provide support as soon as the battle begins at night.

The key was to prevent the Nuland fleet from striking west at night.

Of course, this problem is not serious.

The battleships of the Nuland Navy were all sailing at about 20 knots, and even if they were sprinting at full speed, they could only sail more than 300 kilometers in one night.

As long as you are well prepared during the day, you don't need to worry about being attacked at night.

To say, the number one problem is the aircraft carrier task force that has not yet been found.

After hurriedly eating lunch, Bai Zhizhan and they returned to the commander's bridge.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the staff officer on duty marked the information received on the chart.

Now, several fleets on both sides are northeast of the Volcanic Islands, and they are sabre-rattling, and it looks like they could start fighting at any moment.

To the southeast of the volcanic archipelago, it was calm.

Although the Northern Horse Islands are located to the south of the Volcanic Islands, and from a geographical point of view, the Northern Horse Islands and the Volcanic Islands are the product of the same geological tectonic belt, which can be regarded as an archipelago. The Northern Horse Islands were occupied by the Narrow Empire in the last war, but in the twenty years after the war, because the ownership was not determined, and in order to avoid conflicts with the Nuland Federation, the Narrow Empire never developed the Northern Horse Islands.

By the time the war broke out, symbolic infrastructure such as lighthouses and docks had been built on a few islands.

In addition, shore-based aviation units deployed in the Volcanic Islands have repeatedly visited the Northern Malaysia Islands and blown up facilities managed by the Narrow-Minded Army.

The real threat is the southernmost island.

It's just that it's almost 2,000 kilometers away.

Not to mention a carrier-based reconnaissance plane, even a patrol plane with a huge range can only patrol for half an hour after taking off from Guandao.

Comparatively speaking, Wai Island is closer to the sea area where the fleet operates.

In all the combat plans formulated before the war, it was indispensable to attack or destroy the island of Wiai, at least to blow up the airfield and seaplane dock.

It's just that, including the White Stop, all the admirals know that before they march into Wei Island, they must first take Guan Island.

On the other hand, as long as Guan Island is taken, then attacking Wei Island will definitely not be a problem.

Because it is a completely isolated island, hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest island, and 2,000 kilometers away from Guan Dao and the westernmost transit island of the Howaii Islands, from a tactical point of view, after Guan Dao is defended, the Nuland Navy will definitely take the initiative to abandon Wei Dao.

If you can't hold it at all, why waste your troops?

It is precisely because of this that the Nuland Navy did not focus on the construction of Wei Island, but only used Wei Island as a transit point from the Howai Islands to Guam, as well as to Nanzhu Kingdom.

Even now, there is only one airport on the island of Wai and a few hangars that can accommodate large aircraft.

According to the latest information, there are less than 1,000 troops stationed on the island, in addition to several hundred service personnel working for private airlines.

Starting from St. Buddha's City on the west coast of the Newland Federation, passing through Hounu Island, Transit Island, Wei Island and Guan Island, and finally arriving at Mara City in the South Pearl Kingdom, the trans-Guia route is the world's first transoceanic passenger aircraft route, and the route is operated by several airlines of the Newland Federation.

However, this does not mean that the island of Wai is not valuable.

A dozen long-range patrol planes over there are a big threat!

When formulating the battle plan, how to avoid those patrol planes was simply a nightmare for the combat staff officers, and it also kept Zhou Yongtao awake for several nights.

The point is that those patrol aircraft have a range of more than 4,000 kilometers.

Whether it is discovered or sent fighter jets to shoot it down, it means that the whereabouts of Task Force 41 are exposed.

Parry?

If the operation had lasted three days, or three days before the battle had begun, to be exact, Task Force 41 would have been discovered.

What's more, the Nuland Navy may send more patrol planes to Wai Island.

What to do?

It must be said that the few nights when Zhou Yongtao lost sleep, and the hundreds of hairs that he lost because of this, must be worth the price.

Not only did he come up with a solution, but he did it very ingeniously.

Let the four "Wuzhou" class ships, accompanied by destroyers, each go out to the front of the fleet, 200 to 250 kilometers apart to carry out air defense alert missions.

The key is to have shore-based aviation dispatch long-range fighters to provide prevention and control cover.

To put it simply, after the "Wuzhou"-class air defense search radar discovered the Nuland patrol plane, it commanded long-range fighters to intercept it.

In this way, even if it is exposed, it is only a heavy cruiser.

After being intercepted by shore-based fighters, the commander of the Nuland's fleet will inevitably be suspicious, believing that this is a suspicious tactic used by Bai Zhiwar.

Are all four directions suspicious?

All in all, it was to make it impossible for the commander of the Nuland fleet to find the north, and to deduce the whereabouts of Task Force 41 based on the findings of patrol aircraft.

Shout "the wolf is coming" a few times, and no one will believe it.

Actually, the key is to deceive, and not really to convince the enemy of the lie that "the wolf is coming".

The four heavy cruisers were distributed in four directions, and the distance between them was 200 and 250 kilometers, forming an air defense warning network that was not very tight.

If nothing else, as long as the patrol aircraft flew at a slightly lower altitude, it was possible to pass between two heavy cruisers.

Fly more than 200 kilometers further ahead and it is possible to spot Task Force 41.

If the Nuland Fleet Commander had decided that the patrol plane's report was unreliable, it was equally likely that Task Force 41 had found it to be a false report. Perhaps at the staff level, these "false" reports are stopped to avoid negative effects on the commander.

Any information is sent to the commander through the staff officer, not directly to the commander.

There's a key issue here.

The support of shore-based aviation is needed, and the range of activities of the fleet cannot exceed the combat area of shore-based aviation, that is, the combat radius of twin-engine long-range fighters. 8)