At night, Han Shaofeng sent Tan Renhao the situation of the battle on Gardner Island at a frequency of every two hours. Instead of launching a counterattack at night, the US forces were comprehensively strengthening the defenses of their positions.

Han Shaofeng did not let the Marines attack, but first consolidated the landing field, and dispersed the supplies sent to the beach to various units, sent the wounded to the hospital boats, and mobilized manpower to unload the supplies on the transport ships to the beach as soon as possible.

It was a calm night, and on Gardner Island, more than 30,000 officers and men on both sides were busy on their own side, only scouts from both sides were active on the battlefield, and there were several sporadic battles, all of which ended quickly. It seems that both sides are waiting for a new battle.

The battle situation on Gardner Island is indeed a bit strange, according to the previous tactics of the US army, on the first night of the landing of the Imperial Marines, the US troops will organize a large-scale counterattack, hoping to use the cover of night to repel the Marines, at least to consume the strength of the Imperial Marines, slow down the attack of the Marines, and strive to wait until the support arrives. But this time, not only did the US military not fight back, but it did not even harass shelling.

It is precisely because of this that Tan Renhao made an extremely bold assumption. That is, the commander of the American forces on Gardner Island had received an order from Nimitz that Nimitz did not let the American troops launch a counterattack at night. And Nimitz's decision was actually to make the US military defending the island wait for the support of the Fifth Fleet. In other words, the Fifth Fleet is near Gardner Island, and must be preparing to bomb the Imperial Marines on Gardner Island, and even the landing fleet and transport fleet, and the U.S. forces defending the island will take advantage of the chaos of the Imperial Marines to launch a counterattack after the bombing by the Fifth Fleet. Drive the Marines out to sea in one fell swoop!

Tan Renhao's judgment is not supported by evidence, and he made it based on the battlefield situation. So, that's just a hypothesis. Meantime. This assumption itself does not make much sense, with Gardner Island as the center. A circle with a radius of 250 nautical miles is 200,000 square nautical miles, and if the Fifth Fleet maneuvers at night, it can appear anywhere in the 100,000 square nautical miles. In other words, Tan Renhao could not determine the approximate location of the Fifth Fleet through this assumption, let alone the exact location.

Hao Dongjue determined the reconnaissance mission on the 24th that night. An hour before dawn. Reconnaissance planes took off one after another. In order to be able to monitor the 250 nautical miles around the fleet, especially to the south and east, Hao Dongjue called in a squadron of dive bombers to carry out reconnaissance missions. Among them, the carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft patrolled within a radius of 300 nautical miles and took off at half past five. The patrol radius of the water reconnaissance aircraft was 250 nautical miles, and the departure began at six o'clock. In other words, within a range of 250 nautical miles around the fleet, two groups of reconnaissance planes will pass one after another within half an hour, and if the Fifth Fleet is within this range, it will be almost impossible to evade two groups of reconnaissance planes in a row.

Arranging aviation operations has always been Hao Dongjue's best job, so Tan Renhao didn't have to worry too much. He had enough to think about. To put it bluntly, as long as the Fifth Fleet does not appear, he will not be able to come down easily. And. Prior to that, he had been defeated by Spruance several times, and at best he had barely gained the upper hand. In Tan Renhao's eyes, Spruance is the most difficult enemy to deal with. Bihalsey doesn't know how much smarter. When fighting against Spruance, Tan Renhao has not been very sure, which can be regarded as a piece of his heart.

The Marines launched a Xindi attack at around seven o'clock, and Han Shaofeng immediately sent a telegram.

"The Marines are advancing, but it's a lot slower today." Hao Dongjue didn't sleep all night, but his spirit was still very excited, "The U.S. army strengthened the defensive line last night, and also laid a large number of mines on the front line, Han Shaofeng and they have encountered a lot of trouble, it seems that there is no way to make a decisive breakthrough today." ”

"Han Shaofeng should have considered this threat, and he wouldn't expect to take Gardner Island in one day."

Hao Dongjue shrugged his shoulders with a smile. "At least he still has a division in reserve, and according to Han Shaofeng's judgment, the US military strength on Gardner Island is less than 10,000, even if there is no aviation support, it is only a matter of time before Gardner Island is taken, and most of them will have results in these days."

"Then we don't need to care about the actions of the Marine Corps, if we still can't find the Fifth Fleet today, then we have to think about what to do tomorrow!"

Hao Dongjue sighed, his feelings were the same as Tan Renhao. When facing Halsey, you can clearly grasp Halsey's actions, judge what he is going to do, and then take corresponding countermeasures to win the final victory. But when it comes to the showdown with Spruance, there is no way to know what Spruance wants to do.

This question makes Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue very headaches, which is also the biggest trouble for the two of them when they fight Spruance, if they can't even figure out what the opponent wants to do, then how can they fight? In fact, this is also a manifestation of the ability of a commander, if Halsey is a lion, then Spruance is a fox, a cunning fox who will never let a hunter catch his fox easily.

In order to find Spruance as soon as possible and at the same time ensure that the fleet would not be attacked suddenly, Hao Dongjue mobilized all the reconnaissance planes and dive bombers on the three aircraft carriers, and even the two captains, Yang Qinkai and Qiu Gengbo, began to carry out reconnaissance missions. Two groups of reconnaissance planes took turns patrolling and searching in the vicinity of the fleet to maintain uninterrupted surveillance of the waters around the fleet. At the same time, three fighter squadrons took turns to take to the skies, and at least four squadrons of fighters were carrying out anti-aircraft patrol missions over the fleet at any given time. In addition to the fact that the radar on the battleship was not turned on, Tan Renhao did everything he could to strengthen the security of the fleet itself, and if he wanted to defeat the enemy, he had to protect himself first.

The intensity of the operations of the fleet pilots is very high, and in order to ensure uninterrupted surveillance patrols during the day, the pilots on reconnaissance missions have to fly twice during the day for four hours each, that is, after returning to the aircraft carrier, they have only two hours of rest. In addition, the intensity of the work of the aviation service personnel on the aircraft carrier is also very great, and they not only have to inspect the reconnaissance planes during this period. At the same time, they had to find time to provide maintenance and supply work for air defense fighters. This is also the time to test the officers and men of the fleet, especially the aviation unit, and perhaps Tan Renhao should be most fortunate about it. Task Force 1 had the finest officers and men of the Imperial Navy.

By the afternoon, the Marines had sent new news one after another. A third group of reconnaissance aircraft has reached the edge of the patrolled sea area. Tan Renhao was also a little unable to sit still. By this point, nothing had been discovered, and he even felt that his judgment had been wrong, and he had to think about his next move.

At that time, the 1st Task Force had already maneuvered to the south and west of Gardner Island, about 1 Plat. It was 180 nautical miles from Gardner Island, that is to say, within nearly 500 nautical miles south of Gardner Island, and the reconnaissance planes flew almost less than 150 nautical miles from Johnston Island. If Spruance hadn't gone crazy to bomb Midway, then the Fifth Fleet should have been within the search range of reconnaissance planes. And the fact that nothing was found in the end also shows that the Fifth Fleet is most likely not south of Gardner Island!

When looking at the reconnaissance range clearly marked on the chart, Tan Renhao wondered for the first time, what was this bastard Spruance doing? Could it be that he led the Fifth Fleet to the Southwest Pacific? Tan Renhao quickly dismissed the idea, unless Nimitz was already preparing to transfer his headquarters to San Francisco. Otherwise, the Fifth Fleet would definitely be operating in the Central Pacific, but the question is, where is he?

Tan Renhao thought first. It is quite possible that the Fifth Fleet will be north of Gardner Island. But the problem is that there are long-range reconnaissance planes and long-range patrol planes of the HNA searching here, and the sea area for the Fifth Fleet's activities is very limited, unless Spruance is confident that he will be able to retreat after the bombing is completed.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to get here. Spruance was not sure of this, as long as he did not find the First Task Force, he would inevitably be worried that the First Task Force would cut off his retreat, and if he went to the northern waters of Gardner Island, he would be throwing himself into a dead end!

Then, Tan Renhao's gaze fell on Johnston Island on the tidal flats. If Spruance is determined to go south, will he set the route a little further south? Bypassing Johnston Island and appearing west of Task Force 1?

Thinking of this, Tan Renhao immediately became alert. He first calculated the length of the route, and if the Fifth Fleet maintained a speed of 24 knots, it would have enough time to get around Johnston Island and then head north, appearing behind the ass of the First Task Force. Then, he had to put himself in Spruance's shoes and consider whether it was necessary for the Fifth Fleet to make a detour of thousands of nautical miles to complete the battle.

If there is, then Spruance's purpose must be to take advantage of the unpreparedness of the First Task Force and launch an attack from a direction that Tan Renhao could not have imagined. The possibility is certainly there, and Spruance will certainly be able to maneuver in place before dawn on the 25th. If not, then Spruance's primary purpose was to bomb the landing fleet, and he would not only delay the planes but also kill himself by running so far.

But the question is, what would Spruance think if he hadn't discovered the whereabouts of Task Force 1 and had to rely on guesswork to judge Task Force 1's movements?

Tan Renhao's eyes fell on the chart again, the so-called bystanders are clear, and the authorities are confused, at this time, Tan Renhao felt as if his head was a mess of paste, and there was no complete idea at all. In other words, Tan Renhao didn't know himself very well, and he couldn't summarize his command characteristics from the perspective of others.

Now, Tan Renhao felt a little helpless.

Just when Tan Renhao didn't know how to judge the whereabouts of the Fifth Fleet, Hao Dongjue ran over, holding the telegram in his hand that had just been translated, and his expression looked very flustered.

"Han Shaofeng just sent it, the landing fleet was bombed by the US army!"

"What!?" Tan Renhao couldn't believe his ears, he hesitated for a moment, and immediately snatched the telegram.

"The losses are relatively large, more than a dozen landing ships have been blown and sunk, in addition, there are also a lot of materials that have not had time to evacuate on the beach, and several transport piercings have been blown up and sunk, and the number of injured ships is even greater, and now Han Shaofeng has not counted it." Hao Dongjue gritted his teeth, his expression was very excited, "There are at least hundreds of bombers, this must be the carrier-based bombers of the Fifth Fleet!" ”

Tan Renhao's hand holding the telegram was trembling slightly, it was obvious that the Fifth Fleet had appeared, and it had attacked the landing fleet after slipping through the blockade line of the First Task Force.

Within half an hour, Han Shaofeng sent two other telegrams in succession, one was a specific loss report of the landing fleet, the transport fleet, and the marines. The other is the size of the US bomber group, and the most important of them is the entry and exit direction of this batch of US bombers.

"North?"

Hao Dongjue nodded, he read the telegram first and then gave it to Tan Renhao. "The U.S. bombers entered from the northeast, and when they retreated, they also withdrew from the northeast."

Tan Renhao sat down. "How many reconnaissance planes are there over there?"

"HNA has more than 20 long-range reconnaissance planes, and more than 10 long-range patrol planes are patrolling there, but nothing has been found." Hao Dongjue hesitated, "In addition, judging from the time that the US bombers stayed over the battlefield, the Fifth Fleet was about 200 nautical miles away from the landing site. ”

Tan Renhao walked to the chart table, and he first made a circle with a radius of 200 nautical miles with Gardner Island as the center. This is the sea area where the Fifth Fleet may exist. However, the question is, there have always been long-range reconnaissance planes and long-range patrol planes of the HNA in the northeast direction of Gardner Island, so has the Fifth Fleet avoided these reconnaissance planes and patrol planes?

"Spruance is definitely on the back foot now." Hao Dongjue also walked over, "It should be Nimitz's order to bomb the landing fleet, and now that he has completed this task, the marines have lost a lot of supplies, and the transport ships carrying heavy equipment and not having time to unload the cargo have also been sunk, and Spruance will definitely escape now." ”

"If it were you, how would you arrange the retreat?"

Hao Dongjue hesitated. "It must be to return to the cover range of shore-based fighters on Necke Island first, and then look for an opportunity to fight us."

Tan Renhao didn't rush to speak, he didn't think according to Hao Dongjue's train of thought, because he knew very well that Spruance would not give up.