After the first batch of reconnaissance planes came out, Tan Renhao and Lei Shaoqing went to the command cabin. The news of the return of the reconnaissance plane and the intelligence sent by the Navy Command will be summarized here, and Tan Renhao can learn the latest situation here as soon as possible, so that he can issue an attack order as soon as possible.

"A telegram from the command of the Commander Navy!"

Hearing the voice of the staff officer, Lei Shaoqing walked over in three steps and two steps, he hadn't closed his eyes for a day and a night, and he had just started drinking a cup of strong coffee to refresh himself.

Tan Ren Haoxuan scanned the contents of the telegram, and then smashed his fist on the iron table next to him.

"What the hell is this? What the hell is this? Ling Tianxiang gave the telegram to Lei Shaoqing, his hand was a little trembling, and he lit a cigarette, "It's four hours late, don't say it, and don't even have the most important content, the enemy fleet, damn the fleet, didn't even say if there are aircraft carriers, damn the light, what's the use of those battleships?" What we need to know is the location of the enemy's aircraft carriers, and we have to deal with the enemy's aircraft carriers! ”

Lei Shaoqing immediately read the telegram. This is a telegram forwarded by the Navy Command, and the current Japanese fleet is a submarine operating in the waters southeast of Guam. But the problem was that the submarine was present at about one o'clock in the morning, and the Japanese fleet did not send a telegram until five o'clock, and it was already half past five. To make matters worse, the telegram only claimed that a few capital ships had appeared, but did not say whether there were aircraft carriers or not!

"Ren Hao, this should be a very important piece of information." Lei Shaoqing sent the telegram to the staff officer next to him: "The submarine should be the Japanese Combined Fleet, and their aircraft carrier should be in the fleet." ”

Tan Renhao didn't speak, he rubbed his right hand, which was still trembling slightly.

"According to the northward route of the Japanese Combined Fleet, they should take the route east of Guam, are we ......?"

"No, don't you think there's a problem?" Tan Renhao calmed down and leaned on the table next to him at the same time.

"What's the problem?"

Tan Renhao took out another cigarette, but he didn't rush to light it. "In the past, the Japanese Combined Fleet used to separate capital ships and aircraft carriers. The 1st Air Fleet was beaten by us several times. None of them have learned from experience, do you think they will mix aircraft carriers with capital ships this time? ”

Lei Shaoqing didn't open his mouth to talk about Renhao's judgment, which was not unreasonable, but very reasonable.

"The Japanese completed the battleship 'Yamato' after the start of the war, and now this battleship should be the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, probably Yamamoto Sixty-five is on it." Tan Renhao sighed, "According to the information provided by the Naval Intelligence Bureau, Yamamoto Sixty-Five is an out-and-out conservative. I heard that Japan is also preparing to build two Yamato-class battleships, and the second ship will probably be launched by the end of this year. This was all contributed to by Yamamoto Sixty-Five, and at this time they were still frantically building battleships, do you think Yamamoto Sixty-Five would use battleships as bodyguards for aircraft carriers? ”

Lei Shaoqing shook his head. "Naturally, this can't be, probably in the eyes of the Japanese, aircraft carriers are for battleships, right?"

Tan Renhao laughed, then walked to the chart table and marked a route on the chart. "You come and see last night. The submarine should be located about 150 nautical miles southeast of Guam. The degree was about twenty-four knots, which was about the same as we expected. But if the Japanese Combined Fleet sailed to this degree, unless they passed directly through the strait between Guam and Rota. Otherwise, they would not have been able to meet us during the day today. That is, the Japanese fleet arrived four hours later than we expected. What does this mean? ”

Lei Shaoqing frowned. "You mean that the Japanese aircraft carriers are not in the Combined Fleet?"

"For Japan, the 1st Air Fleet is definitely not on the side of the Combined Fleet. Otherwise, they will not be able to meet us until this evening at the earliest, and neither of us will have any chance to attack at this time. Tan Renhao threw away the pencil in his hand, "If you were Yamamoto sixty-five, how would you arrange the position of the First Air Fleet?" ”

"Me!?" Lei Shaoqing glanced at Tan Renhao a little puzzled.

"Yes. If you use battleships as the core to move this naval battle, how will you fight? Tan Renhao lit a cigarette and laughed.

"If I want to focus on battleships, then drag out the battle until the evening, let the aircraft carriers entangle the first task force, and then the battleship formation will increase from noon, and take advantage of the opportunity at night to get closer, and try to settle the battle before dawn!"

Tan Renhao patted Lei Shaoqing on the shoulder. "Yes, that's what Yamamoto Sixty-five thinks. If that's the case. Where do you think the Japanese First Air Fleet is now? ”

Lei Shaoqing glanced at the sea chart quickly, and then looked at Tan Renhao in surprise. "You mean the Japanese First Air Fleet is to the south of us?"

"We already know the direction in which the Japanese First Air Fleet is most likely to appear, but this does not mean that we have grasped the opportunity to find a fleet in the vast ocean, which is not much easier than looking for a needle in a haystack." Tan Renhao hesitated for a moment: "Let the bomber group prepare for takeoff, the pilots will board in advance, and the bombs will be hung first." If there are no accidents, we will know where the Japanese First Air Fleet is in two hours! ”

The battle sirens sounded, and the pilots, who had gathered in the flight room early in the morning, immediately rushed to their landlines. At this time, the bombers on the ground of the three aircraft carriers were parked in the hangars, mainly to make room for the take-off and landing of air defense fighters. After Tan Renhao gave the order to prepare for battle, the aviation service personnel immediately sent the plane to the flight deck. Among them, the "Kingfisher" dive bomber was sent to the flight deck to carry bombs, and the "Osprey" was first torpedoed in the hangar and then sent to the flight deck.

Looking at the busy officers and soldiers on the flight deck, Tan Renhao was also a little puzzled. As time passed, the eastern sky lit up, and he felt more and more uneasy. The reason is very simple: if the Japanese First Air Fleet was to the south of them, it would have sent reconnaissance planes, and at least some of these reconnaissance planes were coming in their direction, so now the air defense fighters on the periphery of the fleet should have appeared, but there is still no news at all, and there is still no news from the reconnaissance planes sent out, and the sea is so calm that it is suffocating.

The 12 reconnaissance planes sent by Wenduo in the southern mountain pass left the airspace over the fleet an hour and 15 minutes before dawn, and these 12 reconnaissance planes were actually the "97 Ship Attack" that served as a reconnaissance mission. Yamaguchi chose twelve reconnaissance lanes to the north and northwest of the fleet. According to his inference, the fleet of the Don Empire is more likely to appear in the northwestern direction. Therefore, he arranged for eight reconnaissance planes in the 45-degree sector to the northwest, while he sent only four reconnaissance planes in the 45-degree sector to the north.

What Yamaguchi has to do next is to wait, but he doesn't know how long he will have to wait. The only difference from Tan Renhao was that Tan Renhao could be sure that the Japanese First Air Fleet was not far to the south. However, Yamaguchi Wenduo could only roughly judge the activities of the Tang Empire's First Task Force within 250 to 350 nautical miles to the north or northwest. And to find a fleet in such a large area, even if Yamaguchi Wenta sends all the fighters out on reconnaissance missions, he may not be able to find the first task force. Moreover, Yamaguchi Wenta only sent twelve reconnaissance planes, instead of the forty-eight reconnaissance planes sent by Tan Renhao, and more than a dozen seaplanes on several cruisers. In this way, if Yamaguchi Wenduo wants to show the first task force in advance, then the hope is even more slim.

Tan Renhao was much more anxious than Yamaguchi Wen, and it was precisely because he knew that the Japanese First Air Fleet was approaching. If you can't show up first. If the enemy attacks first, he will miss the best opportunity. As time goes on, the situation will become more and more unfavorable for Task Force 1! Other than that. The radars on all the air defense warships in the fleet were not turned on, and they could only rely on the 20 or so air defense fighters on the periphery of the fleet, and it was very likely that the Japanese ground reconnaissance planes had slipped in and were hiding over some cloud to get information out.

"Did the radio respond?"

"Commander, we've been monitoring radio activity around the fleet, and there's no unusual reaction."

Tan Renhao nodded. Lei Shaoqing came over and patted him on the shoulder, he felt that Tan Renhao was a little nervous and overdone.

The tense atmosphere also permeated the skies over the fleet, and the officers and men had been at their posts for an hour, and there was still no news, and this tense atmosphere before the battle made everyone breathless. Half an hour after the sun rises. There is still not a single reconnaissance aircraft to hear from it.

Tan Renhao couldn't sit still, as soon as he stood up, Lei Shaoqing walked over.

"The reconnaissance plane should return home, should we send a new reconnaissance plane?"

Tan Renhao hesitated for a moment, which made him feel very embarrassed. If new reconnaissance planes are sent now, the number of bombers left in the fleet will be reduced to only enough for one bombing, and the bombs from the bombers will have to be removed from the bombers first, hung up on the auxiliary fuel tanks, and prepared for at least half an hour. In this half hour, the aircraft carrier could not do anything. If the reconnaissance plane arrives at this time, it will lose at least half an hour or even an hour, and this will mean the survival of the fleet.

Just as Tan Renhao was about to make a decision, a radio suddenly sounded, and everyone in the cabin was startled, and looked at the communications staff officer who was guarding the radio......

To the south of the fleet, an "Osprey" that had completed a reconnaissance mission was returning home. In fact, the "Osprey" numbered 1O27 did not reach the maximum reconnaissance radius, because there was a problem with the fuel tank in the left wing, and the oil pipeline inside was blocked, as a result of which it had to return half an hour early. The second lieutenant pilots and navigators also relaxed at this time. They were all novices who had only been assigned to the First Task Force for less than two months, and according to the rules of the air force, they had to carry out reconnaissance missions first, and only when all the bombers needed to be used against the enemy were they eligible to take part in the bombing operations with torpedoes. Those who carried out the first wave of bombing were veteran pilots.

"Xiao Li, you stare at me and rest for a while!" The second lieutenant pilot yawned, and he slept less than six hours in the night.

"Brother Wang, did you lose playing cards last night?" Pilots do not participate in the usual maintenance of warships, after the fleet goes to sea, as long as there is no task, they can freely arrange their own time, of course, many pilots like to play cards.

"Hey, don't mention the smell of your hands, otherwise you wouldn't be so unlucky today!"

"Who told you not to believe in evil?" The navigator in the back seat laughed.

When the pilot turned on the autopilot, the navigator yawned and raised his head and rubbed his eyes. There was no need to stare at the sea when they returned, because they had passed this route once an hour ago without a target, and now the clouds on the sea were very low, less than a thousand meters. Suddenly, two black dots appeared in the sky and caught the navigator's attention, he rubbed his eyes vigorously, and then reacted, that was not a seabird, there were no seabirds on the nearby islands, where did the seabirds come from? That's two fighters, and certainly not fighters of the Don Empire!

"Brother Wang's enemy plane—"

The sound of the "Zero Battle" diving down came at the same time, and the pilot was startled, and immediately lifted the autopilot, and at the same time pressed the nose of the plane down, this is the method taught to them by the old pilots, and to avoid the "Zero Battle", they had to dive to a height close to the sea surface, and use the excellent low-altitude performance of the "Osprey" to get rid of the "Zero Battle"

As soon as the "Osprey" broke out of the bottom of the clouds about 800 meters above the sea surface, the huge fleet on the sea surface immediately frightened the two pilots and almost jumped up. When the anti-aircraft artillery of the Japanese fleet opened fire, the pilots and navigators saw the three flat-topped aircraft carriers!

"Report it immediately, I can't hold on to it and know more about 111"

The "Osprey" quickly passed through the shells, and the navigator in the back seat quickly turned on the radio and then shot out the radio waves with the code......

All the fleet received was an incomplete telegram, and before the "Osprey" was torn to pieces by artillery fire, the navigator only had time to tell the number of the reconnaissance plane, the size of the Japanese fleet, and the current Japanese aircraft carriers, but he was not able to report the specific location of the Japanese fleet to the fleet!

After reading the telegram, Tan Renhao immediately glanced at the communications officer, and then looked at Lei Shaoqing, another vague telegram!