"Immediately telegraph to Huang Xiaotian, the Fourth Task Force to turn to the northeast, retreat at full speed, and rendezvous with the Third Task Force as soon as possible!"

"Electric Order?" Hao Dongjue was taken aback, and first called out to the communications staff officer, "Ren Hao, this will expose us!" ”

"I know, carry out the order first." Tan Renhao glanced at Hao Dongjue and called the communications staff officer, "Go send a telegram immediately, and in addition, contact the theater command and ask General Yan Guozhong to arrange more night reconnaissance planes, and I will send the specific information back later." ”

Hao Dongjue hesitated for a moment and asked the communications staff officer to send a telegram.

"The fleet is turned to the northwest, the fighters are ready to go, and now the air defense fighters on patrol have how much fuel is left?"

"It took off after one o'clock, and now there's enough fuel."

"Let them immediately go to the skies over the Fourth Task Force, and the fighters of the other two squadrons will take off immediately, leaving one squadron to continue the air defense mission, and the first to take off will immediately rush to the skies over the Fourth Task Force." Tan Renhao touched his forehead, "Tell Huang Xiaotian that the US fleet may be very close to them, and let him send all the fighters out immediately, don't delay time." ”

"Renhao, isn't this too risky?"

"Execute the order first." Tan Renhao glanced at Hao Dongjue.

Hao Dongjue didn't say anything more, and immediately went to arrange for the staff officer to carry out the order given by the fleet commander, and when the fleet turned, the fighters of each squad parked on the flight decks of the three aircraft carriers began to take off, and then, the fighters of another squad that had been stored in the hangar were sent to the flight deck and began to prepare for takeoff. The telegram was also sent immediately, and Huang Xiaotian did not hesitate after receiving the telegram. Immediately ordered the fighters on standby on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier to take off immediately, and the range of the fleet's anti-aircraft patrols was extended to 40 nautical miles. Huang Xiaotian did not reply to the telegram, but sent a seaplane to Task Force 1 to report the situation.

And asked Tan Renhao why he broke the radio silence and why he issued the warning.

His arrangement is very reasonable.

After receiving the news from the Fourth Task Force, Tan Renhao breathed a sigh of relief. Huang Xiaotian didn't get dazed, if he had sent a telegram at that time, he would have been bombed.

"Tell your Commander that Halsey's fleet is most likely west of Task Force 4. Or to the southwest, it should be in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef. Tan Renhao glanced at his watch, it was almost four o'clock, "There is no need to arrange reconnaissance planes, the fourth task force will withdraw to the southern part of the Solomon Sea first, what should I do next, I will make a new deployment place at night." ”

The staff officer of Task Force IV, who received the order, immediately left the aircraft carrier and returned to Task Force 4 on the seaplane that had brought him. Tan Renhao also relaxed at this time, and then called Hao Dongjue outside the command cabin.

"Why break the radio silence? Now our position is certainly exposed, if Halsey is right. He might even know the approximate disposition of us, and it will be difficult for us to raid again. ”

"If I hadn't sent a telegram, I might have started to get news of the bombing of Task Force 4." Tan Renhao looked towards the sea to the west. "In the next few days, Halsey's fleet may appear in any part of the Coral Sea, and we still don't know Halsey's movements, so we only judged it before. Halsey was waiting for the perfect moment to attack. ”

"Yes, I know, but ......"

"Think about it, if Halsey decided to concentrate his forces on one of our carrier task forces, would he choose Task Force 1 or Task Force 4?"

Hao Dongjue frowned, and then took out a cigarette. "Relatively speaking, it's easier to take out Task Force 4."

"In terms of strength, the 4th Task Force is worse than the 1st Task Force, and in terms of reputation, the 4th Task Force is even worse. From our position, Task Force 4 is more vulnerable. If I were Halsey, I would have chosen Task Force 4 first, and after taking out Task Force 4, I would have looked for an opportunity to take out Task Force 1. ”

"But how can he take out Task Force 4?"

"The Great Barrier Reef, I've already mentioned it at the beginning." Tan Renhao looked at his partner, "Before, we always thought that it was impossible for the US fleet to pass through the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, the average water depth there was less than 20 meters, not to mention large warships of tens of thousands of tons, and even patrol boats of several hundred tons were easy to run aground on the reef, and no one wanted to lead a fleet of dozens, or even hundreds of warships, to venture over there, right?" ”

Hao Dongjue nodded, the Great Barrier Reef has always been classified as a forbidden area for the fleet, just because the water depth here is too shallow, and there are reefs everywhere, in previous years, fishing boats often ran aground here and sank, and those warships with a draft of more than ten meters did not dare to enter easily.

"If Halsey had taken this course, and had succeeded, he would have appeared to the southwest of Task Force 4, or even to the west, and it would certainly be within 300 nautical miles. And our reconnaissance planes will hardly enter the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, and Halsey can use shore-based fighters to drive out our reconnaissance planes, so we have not found anything here. Tan Renhao sighed secretly, "Perhaps, there is really a waterway here for American battleships and aircraft carriers to pass through, if this is the case, then Halsey must be letting his bombers hang bombs and torpedoes now." ”

At this moment, Hao Dongjue understood the reason why Tan Renhao wanted the Fourth Task Force to retreat to the northeast at full speed. If the US reconnaissance planes really discovered the Fourth Task Force, then the Fourth Task Force would definitely be in danger now.

Huang Xiaotian had to react a little faster. When he received the telegram from Tan Renhao, he was first puzzled, and then he knew that this was a real warning, and if it was not a warning, then Tan Renhao would never break the radio silence and risk the entire campaign plan being completely destroyed to send the telegram! Therefore, when the fleet was retreating to the west, Huang Xiaotian first asked the "Suzaku" large air defense cruiser to activate the ground radar. Then the radars on several other large air defense cruisers were also activated.

At 3:40 a.m., the "Suzaku" radar was the first to discover the target, and a US reconnaissance plane was hovering about 20 nautical miles southwest of the fleet. And that happens to be the cloud area! The fighter plane quickly shot down the US military ground reconnaissance plane, but judging from the flight path of the US military reconnaissance plane. It must have sent a telegram, and it was outside the range of the fleet's unlimited radio listening stations, and then flew back to continue monitoring the movements of Task Force IV.

Huang Xiaotian didn't hesitate at 3:50. All 40 fighters parked on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier were lifted into the air, and all of these air defense fighters were concentrated in the southwest direction of the fleet, while the group of air defense fighters that had taken off after one o'clock was concentrated in the west of the fleet. At this time, the anti-aircraft fighters of the squadron of the 1st Task Force also flew over and were assigned to patrol 40 nautical miles south of the fleet. In this way, 30 to 40 fighters patrolled in the west, southwest and south directions of the 4th Task Force, and the number of air defense fighters over the fleet had increased to 112!

Before four o'clock, more than two dozen seaplanes in the fleet departed. Patrolled within 90 nautical miles of 250 degrees southwest of the fleet. And 40 "water birds" on the ground on reconnaissance missions

The bombers were all out before 4:10 a.m., and they were patrolling within a radius of 30 nautical miles, and they were also patrolling within 90 degrees southwest of the fleet. Huang Xiaotian also made the other bombers ready to prepare for the departure place at any time. The relevant combat orders were also issued immediately.

The fleet was still sailing westward, but the American bombers still did not appear, and until five o'clock, only Tang Empire fighters were still flying in the sky. By this time, the reconnaissance aircraft had already reached the sea at a distance of 200 nautical miles from the fleet. But there is still nothing to gain. Huang Xiaotian was a little puzzled, could it be that Halsey did not receive a report from the reconnaissance plane, or that the US reconnaissance plane did not send a telegram, or did Halsey have a dizzy head and did not send a bomber group?

The more he thought about it, the more confused Huang Xiaotian became, and by half past five, when all the reconnaissance planes had reached the maximum patrol radius, there was still nothing to be found, and the fighters on the periphery of the fleet (during this period, a group of fighters had already returned to the aircraft carrier to replenish fuel, and all the fighters on the aircraft carrier had already taken off) did not make any discoveries, and the cruiser's radar only detected the air defense fighters, but not the US bombers!

At 5:35 a.m., Huang Xiaotian also broke the radio silence, and the Fourth Task Force had sailed about 60 nautical miles to the northwest, and if it was still within the strike range of the US military before, it should have been out of the strike range of the US bombers now. In addition, it will be dark in less than an hour, and the US bombers will not be able to attack the Fourth Task Force.

When he received the telegram from Huang Xiaotian, Tan Renhao was also surprised: The US military reconnaissance plane had already appeared, and it was confirmed that it was a US aircraft carrier SBD reconnaissance plane, but why did Halsey's bombers not set off, and in addition, why did the dozens of reconnaissance planes sent by Huang Xiaotian not find Halsey's fleet? Could it be that Halsey's warships could hide like submarines in the sea?

"General, telegram from the theater command.

Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue were shocked, and thought that HNA's long-range reconnaissance plane had discovered it. When the two of them read the telegram, they realized that it was a war report from the Pacific Theater. There may have been as many as 160 U.S. bombers attacking Task Force 2, and the captured U.S. pilots confessed that they were aviation units on small aircraft carriers.

"It's strange, does the United States have a new small aircraft carrier in service?"

Tan Renhao shook his head, he hadn't thought about the battle on the side of the Second Task Force before, and his energy was focused on his side. Now, when he received the telegram, he suddenly figured it out a little, and then he walked briskly to the chart table.

"Dongjue, don't you think Spruance is smart?"

"Yes, but he can't conjure up a few small aircraft carriers, he's not a magician."

"Then he can call in bombers on small carriers, right? The bulk of the fight against the second task force was SBD, while the TBD had only 24 aircraft. Small US aircraft carriers cannot carry TBDs, only SBDs. If it is two fleet aircraft carriers, then there are at least 48 TBDs, not just 24, so Zheng Guanhua judged that the US military has many small aircraft carriers. Tan Renhao quickly marked two sea areas on the chart, "If the three small aircraft carriers that bombed Midway Island before immediately went south at full speed, they would only be about 500 to 550 nautical miles away from the fleet aircraft carriers commanded by Spruance this morning." Spruance, on the other hand, first asked all the bombers on the fleet carriers to go, and then had the SBDs on the three small carriers transfer over to bomb the second task force after refueling the fleet carriers. Therefore, the bomber groups of the US military arrived in batches, the number of each batch was not very large, and the various fighters acted in scattered ways. In other words, Spruance didn't have any extra carriers, he just 'borrowed' bombers from three carriers, which is why there were so many bombers attacking Task Force 2. ”

Hao Dongjue thought for a while, then nodded. "If that's the case, then I have to admire Spruance, and I have to admire those aviation crews on American aircraft carriers."

"We don't need to study these details, at least there is no problem with refueling bombers with fleet carriers." Tan Renhao smiled and shook his head, "If it weren't for the fact that I didn't think about it in the first place, I'm afraid I wouldn't have thought that Spruance would use this tactic." It's no wonder that Zheng Guanhua has always been unable to figure it out, if I were in Zheng Guanhua's position, I'm afraid I wouldn't have thought of it. ”

"This at least shows that there is no problem with our judgment of the Third Fleet."

"Yes, the Third Fleet still has a strong enough air strike force, and that's what we should be worried about." Tan Renhao sneered, "Moreover, this is definitely the opportunity that Halsey is waiting for."

Spruance must have sent a telegram, and even if he hadn't, Nimitz would have helped him relay the message to Halsey. Halsey knew that Task Force 2 would think we were in disarray, so he would attack immediately. ”

"But it's past five o'clock now......

Before Hao Dongjue's words were finished, the communications staff officer ran over, and this time it was a telegram from the Fourth Task Force, and the US fleet appeared!