While Tan Renhao was worried about how to find the first task force, Yan Shiqi asked his subordinates to check the state of the battleship, and even mobilized the gunners to clean the barrels of the battleship's main guns in preparation for the fierce battle at night. At this time, Task Force 3 was operating in the southern part of the New Georgia Strait, only 12o nautical miles from Kuah Island.

Yan Shiqi did not care about the whereabouts of the 31st Task Force of the US Army, and after Tan Renhao determined the battle plan, he had much hope for the Fourth Task Force and the First Task Force, especially after Tan Renhao revised the battle plan and focused the tasks of the two task forces on dealing with the US aircraft carrier fleet, Yan Shiqi did not expect to be able to get help from others.

Like those veterans of the Imperial Navy before, Yan Shiqi is a particularly strong-willed, even tenacious general. In his eyes, there was no difficulty that could not be overcome, even when he knew that the 32nd Task Force had six battleships, more than a dozen cruisers, and more than a dozen destroyers, and its strength was far superior to that of the Third Task Force, he was not afraid, but still a little excited. In his opinion, this is not a difficulty, this is the result of his coming battle. More than 20 years ago, the Imperial Navy had fought more with less several times, and when dealing with the "Z Fleet", he also fought more with less, and he did not lose, but won the victory, then he will also win this time!

As more and more intelligence arrived, the movements of the US military became clearer and clearer. … ap．bsp; "Task Force 32 is now operating about 8o nautical miles south of Indispenser Reef, which is exactly the same as our previous judgment." Gu Zhenyun was not as arrogant as Yan Shiqi, "The 32nd Task Force should start heading north before five o'clock and bypass this reef after dark.

By then, the U.S. convoy had already followed, probably 5o to 8o nautical miles behind.

Task Force 32 is expected to arrive in the waters off Kuah between eleven and one o'clock, while the convoy will arrive around four o'clock. Are we going to split up some of our forces to deal with the U.S. convoy? ”

"There's no need." Yan Shiqi's answer was very brief, "Kill the 32nd Task Force first, as long as we win." Then the U.S. convoy will not dare to come to Kuah Island, and if we lose, even if we divide part of our forces, it will not be able to intercept them, and then the 32nd Task Force will be able to easily clean them up. ”

Gu Zhenyun sighed secretly and said, "But according to General Yan Guozhong's meaning, we should ......"

"This is a naval battle, Yan Guozhong is just a general of the 6th team, what does he know?" Yan Shiqi glanced at his partner. "Moreover, we are already short of troops, those cruisers and destroyers are very important, and if we divide our forces, it will be even more difficult to defeat the opponent."

"So, should we contact General Yan Guozhong and let him ......?"

"Forget it, there's no need for that. Yan Guozhong knows our strength very well, and he still has a batch of warships in his hands, if he has a bit of brains. This fleet should be sent. If our mission is to destroy the 32nd Task Force, then the U.S. convoy has nothing to fear. ”

Gu Zhenyun didn't have much to say, he was just a chief of staff. Moreover, he has already put forward his opinion, and the commander does not adopt it, and the chief of staff cannot make a decision on behalf of the commander.

"The fleet went south at five o'clock, had lunch at noon, and gave everyone a rest in the afternoon, especially the gunners, so that they were refreshed and ready to fight at night."

The officers and men in the fleet are still busy, and wiping the barrels of the battleship's guns on the battleship is normal maintenance. Perhaps these wiping jobs look inconspicuous and can be in battle. Often, some details can lead to big disasters. For example, the "Battle of Hachijojima" that year

, the gunner of an Imperial battleship forgot to close the fire door of the medicine room after removing the projectile (when the battle was too fierce, the gunner would reduce this necessary operation step to speed up the shelling), as a result, the turret was hit, and the main gun in the powder room exploded, destroying almost the entire battleship. to solve this problem.

The barrel of the gun is the most prone to problems, when firing the shell, some of the residue after the combustion of the gunpowder will remain in the barrel, if it is not cleaned for a long time, it will definitely affect the accuracy of the gun, and will seriously reduce the life of the barrel. Therefore, cleaning the barrel of the main gun on the battleship became a necessary work, and even in peacetime, when the main gun of the battleship could not be used several times a year, it was clearly stipulated that the barrel should be wiped every ten days. It is very laborious to wipe the barrel of the main gun, and a dozen people use a long steel pipe with a head wrapped in a cotton cloth dipped in oil, and then wipe the barrel back and forth along the rifling, which is a physical work, which is also regarded as a good way to exercise on the battleship, and at the same time, it also improves the coordination ability of the gun team.

A few hundred nautical miles south of Task Force 3, Rear Admiral Kincaid had already ordered the fleet to conduct anti-submarine evasive voyages. The fleet arrived at the predetermined sea area nearly six hours ahead of schedule, and Kincaid was pleased with the current state of the fleet. After leaving the port of Brisbane, he did not let the fleet advance at a cruising rate of 15 knots as planned, but ordered the fleet to move forward halfway, this time to burn all the boilers on the battleship, so as to make sure that all the boilers were functioning properly, so that there would be no problems in the battle. Second, he wanted to warm up the officers and soldiers and brighten up the atmosphere, and as a result, he completed the planned 14-hour voyage in eight hours. Of course, Kincaid didn't realize that his arrangement actually made all the destroyers in the fleet deaf, and they couldn't see nearby submarines at all!

The convoy was left far behind, and Kincaid, on the one hand, told the officers and men to rest, recuperate, and prepare for the night battle, and on the other hand, sent a seaplane to urge the convoy, hoping that the convoy would arrive early, so that they could go north early. At the very least, they would not encounter the Tang Empire's bombers in the first few hours of their journey north, which would give them a few more hours of time for night operations, and if they encountered the Tang Empire's Third Task Force, he would have a few more hours to deal with this opponent.

This is not the first time that Kincaid has participated in naval battles, in the "Second Battle of the Marianas", he was in charge of the command of the 17th Task Force, and the flagship was placed on the "Enterprise", but fundamentally speaking, he was not the commander of the aircraft carrier. He was more adept at commanding battleships, and at that time, he had four battleships in his hands. But the problem is that in the "Second Battle of the Marianas", the 17th Task Force was destined to be a decoy and sacrifice. Before the battle, Kincaid was hopeful that the four battleships under his command would be able to take out the Tang Empire's aircraft carriers with huge bombs. But in fact, this was not the case at all, and all four battleships were killed by bombs and torpedoes dropped by bombers of the Tang Empire. The Enterprise was also hit hard and barely made it back to Pearl Harbor, while Kincaid miraculously didn't get a single hair hurt!

In the Second Battle of the Marianas, Kincaid was only a minor commander, and he had been acting according to orders without making any major mistakes, and the defeat of Task Force 17 was beyond his control, and he brought the Enterprise back, so he was not punished. Instead, he was rewarded. Then. He was assigned to the Southwest Pacific Theater and served as Halsey's deputy. When Halsey was not in the mood to make a small fight with the Tang Imperial Navy, he organized the "Washington Express" with all his might. Do your best to help MacArthur deliver troops and war supplies to the front.

In commanding the "Washington Express" operation, Kincaid showed the qualities of a good general, he was well aware of the contrast of strength between the two sides, and his tactical command ability was recognized. Although the losses of the "Washington Express" in the later period were quite heavy, the main reason was that the Third Task Force deployed by the Tang Empire in the southwest Pacific was too powerful, and the cruisers and destroyers in Kincaid's hands were almost useless. It was also from this time that Kincaid regarded the Third Task Force as a thorn in his side and a thorn in his flesh. When he learned that six battleships would be dispatched, he immediately offered to take command of Task Force 32. Halsey also needed someone to command Task Force 32, given Kincaid's previous performance. Halsey left the position to him, and reassured himself to Task Force 31 to be his fleet commander.

Kincaid didn't think of anything revenge, he just wanted to get a chance to take out four battleships of the Tang Empire with six battleships. In such a naval battle, Kincaid has a great deal of certainty, he has been dealing with Yan Shiqi for several months, and he knows that opponent very well, when Kincaid has the strength of an opponent, his first thought is not to defeat the opponent. It was how to complete the combat mission, especially the mission of holding Kuah Island, and everything he did in the first few months was actually serving this purpose. At this point, his consciousness is much higher than Halsey, at least he knows very well that Kuah Island is the focus of the entire battlefield, and whether or not he can hold Kuah Island is even more important and critical than whether he can annihilate the Tang Empire's aircraft carrier fleet!

Task Force 32 lingered in the standby area for several hours, and at half-past four in the afternoon the convoy finally caught up and reached a distance of about 5o nautical miles from Task Force 32. Kincaid did not delay any longer, and immediately ordered the fleet to go north, striving to pass through the Indispenser Reef before dark, and reach the waters of Kuah in the first half of the night. Of course, he did not forget to say hello to the convoy behind him, and let the convoy rush to Kuah Island at the fastest speed of 24 knots, striving for four hours before dawn to unload.

At this time, Yan Shiqi also made the fleet begin to turn, and at the same time sounded the alarm of the battle. The officers and men who had rested for the afternoon were all active, and dinner time was advanced to six o'clock, and supper was also provided at eleven o'clock. At five minutes to five o'clock, the 3rd Task Force began to sail south, heading straight for Kuah Island.

Before Yan Shiqi ordered the fleet to go south, he only received a telegram, which was that the 32nd Task Force was still on standby. Therefore, Yan Shiqi judged that the 32nd Task Force would go north at about five o'clock. Because the vicinity of Dispenser Reef is already very close to the Solomon Islands, and it has always been a key search area for US anti-submarine patrol planes, dozens of anti-submarine patrol planes deployed on Rennell Island almost made the submarines of the Tang Empire dare not approach this sea area, so there were no submarines in the US 32nd Task Force later.

Yan Shiqi didn't need more information, he knew very well that Kincaid would go north, and would arrive in the waters near Kuah Island at around twelve o'clock (an hour of error). And he arranged for the fleet to rush to the waters of Kuah Island at half past ten, and then turn on the radar to search the strait to the south, and if Kincaid dared to go north, he would use 4oo mm armor-piercing shells to greet the American general who had caused him trouble for months.

By this time, both sides were on edge, the officers and men of both sides were full of spirits and prepared for a fierce battle at night, both sides polished their barrels and even prepared shells for each other. No one would budge in this battle, and both commanders were confident that they would finish off their opponents at night, and there was no need for bombers to meddle in a duel between battleships. Of course, both sides also recognize that the opponent is very strong, and this is sure to be a battle full of blood.

Naval warfare in the era of artillery warfare is extremely brutal, which is different from aircraft carriers sending bombers to kill the opponent, in artillery battles, both sides can see the opponent, and knock each other down with tons of huge bullets at a very close distance, which is like hand-to-hand combat on the 6 grounds, there is no way back, no choice, there is only steel, fire, and blood. At the same time, it can be said that the artillery battle was a knightly battle at sea. In the battle of aircraft carriers, sneak attacks are commonplace, especially at the tactical level, almost all of them are sneak attacks, without a bit of so-called chivalry. The artillery battle is completely different, after it starts, it is almost a duel between individual ships, a duel between you and me, and it can never be a duel with a one-sided beating!

The calm in the Southwest Pacific is finally about to be broken, and the two sides have been fighting here for months, fighting dozens of small naval battles, large and small, and now they are finally ready to fight a major naval battle of decisive significance, perhaps, the warring sides are waiting for this day to come!