Tan Renhao did not recklessly let the fleet go back to find the Japanese Second Battlefleet, who can guarantee that there is no problem with the radar, and now the Japanese battleships are still killing them? Therefore, Tan Renhao asked the fleet to continue sailing in the northwest direction, and at the same time asked the two escorting heavy cruisers to immediately send out the water reconnaissance planes to determine whether the Japanese fleet had really retreated.

To be honest, the officers and men on the two heavy cruisers, "Gu Yu" and "Lichun", were a little dissatisfied. After the thrilling battle that began, the officers and men of both battleships waited for the chief of staff of the fleet to send bombers to send the Japanese to the bottom of the sea. As a result, the chief of staff of the fleet sent not bombers, but water reconnaissance aircraft. However, the order must be carried out if the dissatisfaction is dissatisfied. The two heavy cruisers temporarily broke away from the formation, still on full sail, and at the same time ejected the two seaplanes they were carrying.

Tan Renhao was also confused at this time, but he finally breathed a sigh of relief. At least for the time being, the Japanese will not go to the trouble of boarding the transport ships in the 6th field. Now the remaining two aircraft carriers are his most valuable treasures, and if all emotional factors are put aside, he has already won after saving these two aircraft carriers and ensuring the safety of the landing for 6 games. The two Yangtze River class aircraft carriers will not be commissioned until at least 5 months later, and the lost heavy cruisers will soon be replaced. Within two months, at least four large air defense cruisers of the "Li Jing" class will join the Imperial Navy, and the last eight "Tsuna" class cruisers will also be renewed for service in the next three months. The shipbuilding strength of the Imperial Navy has begun to explode, and as long as the aircraft carrier is fine, the lost escort warships can be quickly replenished.

Of course, Tan Renhao also asked all the flight personnel on the two aircraft carriers to hurry up at this time, recuperate their spirits, recover their physical strength, and take off before dawn, and the aviation service personnel are also checking the fighters as quickly as possible to replenish the fighters. Hang up the ammo. As soon as it was dawn, he immediately dispatched bombers to take out the Japanese Second Battlefleet and see how arrogant the Japanese were.

However, Tan Renhao soon became even more puzzled, and the four water reconnaissance planes flying in the southeast direction did not show any trace of the Japanese fleet within an hour. Tan Renhao thought that the night was too dark. Moreover, there was no moonlight, so it was possible that the reconnaissance planes were not able to reach the Japanese fleet in time, so he asked those reconnaissance planes to conduct repeated searches on the route of the Japanese fleet returning to the south. Rather than broadening your search. In fact, at that time, the four water reconnaissance planes were indeed unable to expand the search area.

The problem is not on Renhao's side, but near Ryukyu Island. By the time Tan Renhao sent out a water reconnaissance plane, the battle in the Keirama waterway had already exploded. Five heavy cruisers and eight destroyers led by Ji Xiaobing fought against the six heavy cruisers of the Japanese fleet. Six destroyers. The two sides were evenly matched, and the battle was fierce.

The command of the Japanese fleet was transferred to Goro Takasu on the heavy cruiser "Tone". The Japanese vice admiral was not killed when the "6 Ao" was bombed. Instead, he fled to the heavy cruiser "Ligen". At that time, in addition to the heavy cruiser "Tone", the Japanese fleet also included five heavy cruisers: "Chikuma", "Mogami", "Mino", "Suzuya", and "Kumano". However, four of these "Mogami" class heavy cruisers were during the treaty. One Road Network: Japanese-built treaty-type light cruisers, but these four battleships were later quickly converted into heavy cruisers. Originally, all four cruisers were equipped with 155 mm guns, but a year before the outbreak of the war, the Japanese Navy decided to refit all four. One of the most important of these was the replacement of five triple 155 mm guns with five twin 2o3 mm guns with reinforced armor belts. It is required to be able to defend against the attack of 2o3 mm shells. However, this was only able to resist the attack of the Japanese Navy's 2o3 mm shells, and at that time, the armor-piercing shells fired by the heavy cruisers of the Tang Imperial Navy equipped with 2oo mm main guns were more powerful than the Japanese Navy's 2o3 mm main guns, and the ability to penetrate vertical armor was about 3o mm.

Among the five cruisers commanded by Ji Xiaobin, in addition to the "Li Jing", which was equipped with three triple 24o mm main guns (it must have been a caliber installation at that time, but the displacement of the "Li Jing" with a displacement of 15ooo tons and a 24o mm main gun was barely enough), the other four "Temperary" class heavy cruisers ("Qingming", "Spring Equinox", "Stinging", "Rain" Only three twin 2oo mm guns were installed, and during the anti-aircraft transformation, one of the main gun turrets in the stern of these battleships was removed and replaced with two 12o mm anti-aircraft guns and two 4o mm guns!

In addition to the "Li Jing" had an overwhelming advantage over the Japanese battleships in firepower, the other four heavy cruisers under Ji Xiaobin actually had no firepower superiority. In addition, Japan's four "Mogami" class were equipped with torpedo tubes, firing 61o mm "spear" torpedoes, which posed a great threat to the warships of the Tang Empire. However, Ji Xiaobin made good use of one of the trump cards in his hand, that is, the radar on the battleship.

"Li Jing" first opened fire on the Japanese battleship 22 kilometers away. The three main guns were shelled entirely on the data provided by the radar. Then four other heavy cruisers also opened fire. At this distance, 24o mm armor-piercing shells can easily tear through the armor of Japanese battleships, but 2oo mm armor-piercing shells are a bit laborious. However, the grenades fired by the 2oomm main gun were capable of killing and injuring a large number of exposed personnel on Japanese ships, posing a serious threat to places without armored defense.

The officers and men of the Japanese battleship were startled by the sudden arrival of shells. However, none of the previous rounds of salvos accurately hit the target, which can only be blamed on the radar technology at that time, which was indeed not up to par, and could not provide accurate shelling data for artillery. However, this also forced the Japanese fleet to speed up its operations, and Takasu Goro also ordered six destroyers to move forward to attack the Tang Imperial fleet with torpedoes.

The radar immediately showed the six destroyers, which at the time could not fully distinguish between the destroyers and the heavy cruisers, but it was clear that the six battleships were torpedoed. Soon, the guns on the five heavy cruisers all shifted direction, and the eight destroyers of the Tang Empire, which had been operating behind the fleet, immediately joined the battle group, and the battle entered a white-hot stage.

Tan Renhao also soon received a telegram from Ji Xiaobin. Now he seemed even more hesitant. It's obvious. Japan's First Battlefleet was desperately fighting, but he couldn't help it now. The aircraft carrier group has reached the western waters of the East China Sea, and it is only more than 100 nautical miles away from the imperial mainland. Although he had already determined that the Japanese Second Battlefleet had not kept up, it was impossible for him to support the cruiser detachment led by Rear Admiral Ji Xiaobin in time. What made Tan Renhao even more annoyed was that the four water reconnaissance planes still did not have the Japanese Second Battlefleet, and if he rashly moved eastward. And if the two Japanese fleets are joint operations, and the second battle fleet is waiting on the sea in the east, then isn't he going to die?

It's not that Tan Renhao feels a headache alone, Lei Shaoqing also realized this, and in the night. There is no guarantee that there will be a sudden encounter with the Japanese fleet. Chang Zhixin, who sent the news, also knew this, and if they rashly went west, then they would be sent to death if they ran headlong into the guns of the Japanese Second Battlefleet.

What to do? Tan Renhao hesitated a little in his heart, and he glanced at Lei Shaoqing. Said: "Let the two heavy cruisers go forward for five nautical miles, and the radar will be turned on, and we will follow behind." Half an hour before dawn. Our bombers take off, and if the Second Battlefleet appears, let's kill Kondo Takeshin first, and if not, then go and kill Goro Takasu first. ”

Lei Shaoqing did not object this time and immediately conveyed the order to the staff officer. With the current position of the fleet, it is impossible to take off bombers to support Rear Admiral Ji Xiaobin, because they are too far away from Ryukyu Island. out of the range of movement of the fleet bombers. If you keep sailing eastward, then in three hours the bomber will be out and it will be almost dawn, counting the bomber's ground flight time. When we arrived near Ryukyu Island, it was getting dark.

In the heat of battle. Three hours is not too short. Tan Renhao is like an ant on a hot pot, walking around the east and west, but he doesn't mean to stop.

"The chief of staff just received a telegram!" An officer ran over, sweating profusely.

Tan Renhao was stunned for a moment, this time he stopped, but as soon as he saw the officer's expression, he immediately knew in his heart that this was definitely not good news.

"Damn!" Tan Renhao really had the urge to scold.

"What's wrong?"

"See for yourself!" Tan Renhao gave the telegram to Lei Shaoqing, and then lit a cigarette with a trembling hand.

As soon as Lei Shaoqing read the telegram, he was also shocked, he couldn't care so much, he took the cigarette directly from Tan Renhao's hand, and then lit it as well.

This is the information that the Navy Command received fifteen minutes ago, and then it was transferred to Tan Renhao. There was only one piece of information, that is, the Japanese First Air Fleet had left the port of Yokohama two days ago and was heading south. There is no signature source on the intelligence, but it adds a "100,000 urgent".

"it, this must be someone from the intelligence department who is delaying the!" Tan Renhao finally couldn't help but curse loudly, and then said to the staff officer who was staying next to him: "Go and find Colonel Luo Jinming immediately." ”

It was only when the staff officer walked away that Lei Shaoqing said, "Did the Japanese First Air Fleet come to trouble us?" ”

"Did they come out to swim in the sea?" Tan Renhao must have been in a very bad mood, he pulled Lei Shaoqing to the chart table, and then marked the location of the three Japanese fleets before and during the battle. "Don't you think it's strange that the actions of the three Japanese fleets are strange if you look closely?"

Lei Shaoqing looked at it for a while, suddenly raised his head, and looked at Tan Renhao in surprise.

"The target of the three Japanese fleets is not our Deng-6 troops, but us." Tan Renhao slammed his fist on the chart: "From the beginning, the First Battlefleet played the role of a decoy, and then the Second Battlefleet suddenly came out and forced us out of the battlefield, but their main guns were not accurate enough, otherwise we would be finished." However, I'm sure that the aircraft carrier Hiryu of the Japanese First Air Fleet must be operating somewhere in the vicinity and ready to deal a fatal blow to us. ”

Lei Shaoqing nodded slightly, and when he wanted to speak, Tan Renhao had already looked at the chart and pondered, so he didn't bother Tan Renhao.

Not long after, Colonel Luo Jinming trotted into the command headquarters, he was still wearing a flight suit, and it seemed that he was ready to go out at any time while he was sleeping. Lei Shaoqing stopped Luo Jinming and asked him to wait a little and not to disturb Tan Renhao.

"Yes, this is it!" Tan Renhao nodded on the chart, raised his head, saw Luo Jinming, and immediately said, "Colonel, now, can you send me a few reconnaissance planes?" ”

Luo Jinming frowned slightly, then nodded and said, "The pilots of the third batch of reconnaissance planes during the day have already rested and can go out at any time." ”

"It's good for them to fill up all the tanks and hang up the auxiliary tanks so that they need to return after dawn." Tan Renhao beckoned Luo Jinming over, then pointed to the area on the chart and said: "At least 12 reconnaissance planes have been dispatched to repeatedly search this sea area, and if there is any now, report immediately." As soon as Luo Jinming saw the position on the chart, he was a little puzzled at first, but immediately said: "No problem, I'll arrange it." ”

"Colonel" Tan Renhao stopped Luo Jinming: "The other pilots should be ready to take off an hour before dawn, and half an hour before dawn, the first batch of air defense fighters of a squadron will take off, and the other fighters will hang up their bombs and wait for my order to attack." ”

Luo Jinming nodded and immediately left the headquarters. Tan Renhao also breathed a sigh of relief at this time, the cigarette butt in his hand burned to the end, and he shivered.

"Renhao, are you sure?"

"There is no 100% certainty, and there is 80% certainty." Tan Renhao lit the second cigarette again: "Japan's First Air Fleet is our biggest threat. Although Nagumo Yizhong now only has the Flying Dragon as an aircraft carrier in his hands, as long as they seize the opportunity, they can still give us a fatal blow. In our current situation, I am afraid that even the power of self-defense is not enough. ”

"Then do you want to let Air 6 provide us with air defense cover?"

Tan Renhao was stunned for a moment and immediately laughed. At first, he was only excited to arrange attacks and reconnaissance operations, but he forgot that the fleet was more than a hundred nautical miles away from the empire's mainland, and there were many airfields on the big 6 to the west, and there were many 6 fighters on that side!

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