The night was getting thicker and thicker, and there was only the monotonous sound of turbines on the sea. www.biquge.info After confirming that there would be no air raid by enemy planes today, Commander Tari, the flagship of the Mobile Fleet, Shohe, was conducting a tense judgment and analysis of the enemy situation.

"Slow down the engine, 23 knots will do." Tsukahara sighed, "I'm afraid I won't be able to stand it if I drive at the highest speed again......"

"Hello!" A staff officer immediately went to pass the order.

"Sir, judging from the current situation, it seems that the enemy is ready to deal us a fatal blow tomorrow." Kusaka Ryunosuke frowned and said, "I just don't know which part of the fleet to come to." ”

Tsukahara nodded: "The enemy commander should have been replaced, otherwise it would not be so stable, I judge that the Puerto Rico airport has been repaired, but I don't know how many aviation forces are stationed." ”

"It's about the same as Panama or Nicaragua, right? No matter how strong the engineering ability of the Americans is, it will be enough to rush to repair it for two days. Kusaka Ryunosuke asked puzzledly, "Today, the water scouts searched repeatedly and did not report the discovery of the enemy fleet, why do you always judge that the enemy fleet has arrived?" ”

"That's because we're far from the enemy." Tsukahara suddenly laughed, "Originally, I wasn't sure if the enemy fleet had arrived, but today, when the Americans uncharacteristically didn't launch an air attack, I thought they had arrived." ”

"What's the reason for that?"

The basis of Tsukahara's analysis sounds a bit mysterious: Two days ago, the Americans did not hesitate to lose their troops and desperately launched an attack, in order to delay and leave the Axis fleet, but now they actually do not attack themselves, which clearly shows that there is a major change and that this kind of sacrifice is no longer necessary.

Tsukahara's overall analysis is more conjectural than empirical, and Ryunosuke Kusaka will be skeptical, but he has always had trust in the commander's instincts - luck is sometimes more important than logic, and Nagumo Tadaichi is too unlucky, otherwise Midway would not have lost so many aircraft carriers at once.

"So, we're in big trouble tomorrow after dawn?"

"One thing is certain, at least the U.S. planes at the Nicaraguan airport won't come to our trouble, and Panama's enemies shouldn't have time to take advantage of the airport -- that's the only good news."

"Sir, Tsukahara-kun has sent a telegram asking us to continue on our current course, to proceed at maximum speed, and to change to a southeasterly direction after crossing the waters of Aruba in the early hours of the morning." "So that in the early morning we will be near Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, about 815 kilometers away from Puerto Rico, and he estimates that the enemy's main fleet has entered the Caribbean Sea, and the distance from the artillery formation is currently at least more than 600 kilometers." ”

"What is the threat from the Puerto Rican direction to my formation?"

"According to the route of the Tsukahara Army's march, tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock in the morning, the closest distance of this fleet to Puerto Rico is about 770 kilometers, and if the current route of the march is followed, the closest distance is about 620 kilometers."

Horikichi nodded: "He wants to use the distance to minimize the enemy's advantage?" ”

"No, he wants to use the existence of the decoy fleet to make it difficult for the enemy to judge...... "Kusaka Jiji reported Tsukahara's plan, "tomorrow he will place the decoy fleet 820 kilometers from Puerto Rico and about 300 kilometers from the shelling fleet, and then hide the mobile fleet as much as possible, so that the first attack wave of the US army will be mainly borne by the decoy fleet, which is really not possible, and it is also necessary to delay the time for the enemy to obtain clear reconnaissance information - every hour of delay will be quite beneficial to us." ”

Horikichi knew that this was because Tsukahara wanted to stay and cover himself, and the 4 aircraft carriers of the light mobile fleet could easily escape: since the enemy did not attack today, if he really let go of his speed and escape, the enemy would hardly be able to catch up with them tomorrow morning, but he did not only consider his own safety, but still decided to stay and cover the artillery formation, which greatly touched Horiyoshi. After a slight pause, he said: "Agree with the proposal, and the shelling formation will be carried out." ”

After receiving a call back from Horikichi "agreed", Tsukahara breathed a long sigh of relief and relievedness, and Kusaka Ryunosuke complained to him: "Why don't you tell you all the plans and the chief and the plan?" ”

"He's under pressure enough, don't put more pressure on him, there are some responsibilities that we need to take on ourselves." Tsukahara put on a serious look, "This Panama operation is the commander's arbitrary decision to bypass the military command department, although the strategic significance is great, and we have also received the cooperation and support of the German side, but we take a lot of risks, if the combat process achieves the goal and there is no loss, the country can only pinch its nose and postpone, but in case of loss, all the spearheads will eventually point to the commander." Now the fleet has lost Michinoku and Hiei, which is a great loss in the eyes of some people who are not old people, but because of the merit of destroying the Panama Canal, it can barely be explained, but if the battleship losses are too large, the subsequent situation is unimaginable. ”

"With bureaucrats in power and chaebols in power, when will there be hope for Japan?" Kusaka Ryunosuke scolded indignantly a few words, and then lowered his voice and said, "What I saw and heard during this trip to Europe had a great impact on the thinking of the officers and soldiers, and everyone was unhappy with the commander -- if the German admiral had the achievements and vision of the commander, he would have been the number one general under the Führer, would he still be so constrained and restrained?" ”

Tsukahara sighed: "So the chief is reluctant to go back, rather than returning to China to be angry, it is better to be free in Europe, but it's a pity ......"

At 11 o'clock in the evening, the lights were brightly lit in Washington's headquarters, and there were different opinions about the situation and the plan of attack for the next day, but there was a consensus on one thing, the situation must be reversed and the enemy's main fleet force destroyed, otherwise the United States would be completely disgraced.

In addition, he made a request that Washington have a clear mandate on two aspects: First, Puerto Rico's land-based air force is under the direct command of the fleet, and second, in view of the fact that the enemy fleet is distributed in three places with a distance of nearly 700 kilometers, it is difficult to strike at the same time, and he hopes that Washington will clearly determine the order of priority strikes.

The first point is easy to agree on: the aircraft carrier fleet is more than twice as large as Puerto Rico's land-based air force in terms of numbers, and in terms of technology and capability, carrier-based pilots are better than those of the ground pilots temporarily drawn from the central states -- Admiral King was worried that these pilots, who had barely seen the sea, would get lost halfway through, and although Arnold vowed to send the most professional pilots and navigation officers, he was still skeptical. (To be continued.) )