"All the ships were pulled and set sail, except for the escort fleet, and the rest of the fleet sailed through Malta and turned due west......"

"Due West?" Several staff officers thought they had misheard, and hurriedly said, "Sir, we are returning to China, how to go due west, it should be due east to cross the Suez Canal." Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

"Don't go back to China for the time being, go through the Strait of Gibraltar, go to the Atlantic."

"What?" Everyone in the commander tower looked at each other, and for a moment they didn't understand what Horikichi wanted to do.

Vice Admiral Kusaka, Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet, whispered: "Sir, I understand your wishes, but we have promised to return to the country as soon as possible......"

"I know. will be outside, the king's order is not affected, not to mention that the original scheduled return date is April 15, I have been half a month in advance, and I can fully explain to them in time. ”

"But...... This ......" Cao Lu either found that he couldn't think of words to refute.

"The Strait of Gibraltar is still in the hands of the British, and the passage of the fleet is only afraid of ......," a staff officer hurriedly asked again.

"Don't worry, the battle of Gibraltar is nearing its end, and the German side has promised to open the shipping lane within three days, and we will just drive there."

"What if it doesn't work?"

"If the lockdown is not strict, just go through, if the lockdown is strict, think of other ways. It really doesn't work, and it doesn't matter if you go back. ”

Seeing that the grass deer was still going to persuade each other, Horikichi waved his hand and said: "Issue an order first, if the commanders of each fleet can't figure it out, let them not send a telegram, and directly take a traffic boat to the Nagato to ask." ”

Due to the limited width of the hull, the Musashi could not enter the Suez Canal and stayed on the island of Socotra, where some of the generals, including Nobutake Kondo, also stopped, so Horikichi changed his flagship to the Nagato, which was a slightly smaller tonnage. As a result, except for the commander of the mobile fleet, Tsukahara 243, and the commander of the escort fleet, Keno Kurita, all the other fleet commanders rushed to the place in a hurry.

Tsukahara didn't come because he understood Horikichi's thoughts, and Kurita didn't come because the escort fleet he led was the only one that didn't need to sail west. When the combined fleet was reorganized and personnel were selected to serve as the commander of the escort fleet, Kusaka recommended several candidates one after another, but in the end, Horikichi didn't use anyone, and chose Keno Kurita.

This made the latter puzzled, because although Kurita has always been rooted in the sea (he has not spent a day in the military and political departments) and has rich experience in commanding surface ships, judging from the previous operations, he has a vague reputation of being "conservative and timid" within the Combined Fleet. ”

This reason was so strong that Kusaka had nothing to say, so Kurita Keno took a group of light cruisers and destroyers, and led more than 100 transport ships out of the house to turn left and go directly to Alexandria -- first, the transport ships were moving slowly, and second, the Mediterranean was now full of Axis forces, and the Allies, not to mention warships, could not even mix in planes and submarines.

In the battle conference room of the Nagato, everyone was sitting in a precarious position, and their eyes were all on Horikiyoshi, who was sitting in the center, and everyone did not understand why the chief was so obsessed with heading west. However, because Hori Tsukichi commanded the Combined Fleet for more than half a year, won successive battles and gained great prestige, coupled with his sympathy for his subordinates and generous treatment of officers and men, and because he was able to skillfully negotiate with the German and Italian high-level leaders and seek additional benefits and equipment, Oi and the German fleet went north to wander around and get 5 million marks of pocket money for tens of thousands of officers and men.

"Originally, such an important decision should have been discussed with everyone first, but I was afraid that the news would leak and the soldiers would have other ideas, so I delayed the order until today." Horikichi explained in detail why he did this:

First, I owe the German Führer a favor, he not only gave the fleet a lot of additional supplies, supplies and equipment, but also promised to provide four marine brigades and more than 20,000 men to cooperate with us in attacking India.

Second, the Battle of Gibraltar has been going on for a month, and the opening of the shipping lanes is imminent, and I would like to take you to the Atlantic Ocean to see the world, and perhaps there will be no such opportunity in the future, and this kind of experience can be bragged to our children and grandchildren when we die of old age -- when I was serving in the Combined Fleet, I have traveled all over the world, and I have never been to the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, or the Atlantic. Which one I haven't played?

Third, the Americans are fighting very vigorously in the Aleutian Islands, the army defenders have reached the last moment, and the jade is about to be shattered.

Looking at the chart, Horiyoshi finally said lightly: "The east coast of the United States is more than 2,000 nautical miles long, and more than 50% of the industrial capacity and more than 70% of the shipbuilding capacity of the United States are concentrated. ”

Although he said it lightly, the admirals and junior staff officers who heard it were all enthusiastic and their hearts were swaying: Nima, this is going to fight the east coast of the American ghost animal, this is too exciting! It's more enjoyable than hitting Pearl Harbor!

Before Horikichi spoke, everyone was talking to each other, but after he opened his mouth to explain the three reasons, no one stood up to refute it, and everyone was full of deep understanding. In the end, only Caolu asked stubbornly: "What if the military command department comes to ask?" ”

"They only have the palm-sized place in Nanyang in their eyes, what kind of global pattern do they know?" Horikichi smiled slightly, "In times of war, the radio is silent, and I will tell ......them when the time is right."

All the lieutenant generals stood up together and bowed slightly to Horikichi, and Lang Sheng said, "I am willing to make contributions with the chief!" ”

Horikichi nodded slightly: "Encourage you with you." ”

Kusaka never dreamed that this was the strategy agreed upon by Kohl on his secret visit to Horiyoshi on Hoffmann's orders half a month ago: Germany supported the four Marine Brigades of the Combined Fleet on the condition that the Combined Fleet would do two things, one was to capture the island of Madagascar by sea and land on the way back, and the other was to march westward to cover the "Spring Awakening" campaign. After thinking about it for two days, Horikichi resolutely agreed.

At midnight on April 3, in the Stalingrad operational command, Rokossovsky and Zhukov and others came to Vasilevsky, who had arrived from the direction of Moscow, along with 200 T-34 tanks.

"Comrade Stalin didn't accuse us, did he?" Rokossovsky asked very unconfidently, "Now that the two armies have basically lost, I am afraid that the 63rd Army will also ......."

"You shouldn't have sent that telegram to Moscow in the first place."

"This, I ......" Rokossovsky did not dare to face Vasilevsky's aggressive eyes, so he had to turn his head to Zhukov, but fortunately, the latter relieved him in time.

"When I came, Comrade Stalin was glorified by the Katyn incident and the Polish bourgeois government, and demanded that we launch a counterattack, no matter what the extent of the counterattack, must be able to hit the Germans."

Hearing the word "Poland", Rokossovsky's careful liver "plopped", his face changed greatly, and he cautiously asked: "Comrade Stalin didn't criticize me for not having a firm will to fight, did he?" ”

"Comrade Rokossovsky!" Vasilevsky shouted angrily, "What kind of nonsense is going on in your head? Can you put away your self-proclaimed clever thoughts? You are now the commander of the Front, not a Polish agent! ”

Although being reprimanded on the spot by the junior (Vasilevsky's qualifications were much more tender than those of Rokossovsky and Zhukov) made people unbearable, Rokossovsky was very happy - Comrade Stalin still trusted me. After the Katyn affair was exposed, the first person who feared the Russian top brass the most was Beria (who was the direct executor), and the second was Rokossovsky, because of his Polish ancestry, which he almost died in the era of the Great Purge. Now when he heard that Stalin was not angry with him at all, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and actually nodded again and again: "Yes!" Be! I resolutely obey the instructions of Comrade Stalin! Resolutely strike at the German fascists! ”

Vasilevsky couldn't laugh at this, but now it was obvious that there was no need to dwell on these details, and he turned to Zhukov and said: "To tell you the truth, I still don't quite agree with the operational policy you are considering, and I don't really want to throw Comrade Konev's steppe front into the Don battlefield. ”

"What do you think?"

"I want to throw it in the direction of Moscow, where there are the Western Front and the Kalinin Front, with a total strength of up to 1.8 million, while the strength of Army Group Center in Moder, which is confronting us, is only about 1 million, and if we add the forces of the Steppe Front, we will have an advantage of more than 2:1, and an advantage of more than 3:1 in the main offensive sector. Another favorable factor is the comparison of technology and weapons, in this area we have an absolute superiority in the number of artillery pieces, we also have an advantage in the number of tanks, and the gap in performance with the enemy is quite small -- at least I have not heard their report that Army Group Center has Tiger tanks, and there are also quite a few planes of our army in this area, and the air supremacy is not as great as the loss of air supremacy on the southern front. ”

Zhukov also fell silent, admitting that Vasilevsky had a point: in theory, it would be better to attack in the direction of Moscow than to wait for the Germans to come to the door and launch a counterattack at Stalingrad, where at least it would have an advantage.

But Vasilevsky's next sentence made Zhukov feel a lot better: "However, the deployment of the offensive in the direction of Moscow is too long and does not meet the needs of Comrade Stalin to launch a strike on the enemy as soon as possible......"

In the middle of speaking, the phone rang urgently, and after listening to the report, Zhukov's face was stretched and his face was extremely ugly...... (To be continued.) )