Tan Renhao revised the battle plan, and the most annoyed person was not Yan Shiqi, but Yan Guozhong. In the new command system, Yan Guozhong, as the commander of the theater, naturally first considered the situation in his own theater, and the 6th Squadron had been fighting around these islands east of New Guinea Island for several months, fighting fiercely with the US forces for several months on the Solomon Islands alone, and fighting for three months on 6 Kuah Islands, but it still failed to take Kuah Island. This already made Yan Guozhong very annoyed, and when Tan Renhao told him the news that he was going to annihilate the US Third Task Force, Yan Guozhong almost didn't call Tan Renhao to Buyin, and then did some ideological work for him.

Kuah Island was the most critical island in the Battle of the Solomon Islands and in the entire Southwest Pacific.

Yan Guozhong knew this very well, so he did not hesitate to invest his troops on the battlefield of Kuah Island, and wanted to compete with the US army here. But the problem is that the opponent also knows this, MacArthur is not much less than Yan Guozhong in the troops that he has invested on Kuah Island, and the US military still controls several other islands, and the "Washington Express" continues to dispatch, and it has become very difficult to take Kuah Island. Now that the main fleet of the US army has arrived, if MacArthur is asked to send ammunition, food, medicine, etc., which the defenders of Kuah Island will continue to have, or even let the US troops reinforce Kuah Island again, then the result can be imagined, and Yan Guozhong will have to prepare for the capture of Kuah Island for a few more months.

Yan Guozhong is not without ideological preparation, although the power of the theater commander has increased a lot, but the theater commander is not omnipotent. The commander of the theater of operations can command all the forces in the theater, but the fleet is not included in the theater. The fleet is a dual force, and the fleet is under the direct jurisdiction of the naval command, and only in the event of an operation it is under the command of the theater command. This actually determines that the jurisdiction of the theater commander over the fleet is quite limited, the fleet has a great deal of freedom, and the power of the fleet commander is also enormous. This is also the reason why Tan Renhao can revise the battle plan.

As the general of the 6th Sentai Team, Yan Guozhong was also very content, and he did not think about interfering in the combat operations of the fleet. After all, he is not the one who commands the fleet, but he still has to ensure victory on Kuah Island. In this case, Yan Guozhong used his authority to make some arrangements, and the most important of them was the small fleet that was originally part of the First Task Force that was sent in advance.

This fleet had six cruisers ("Duan Zhixuan", "Chai Shao", "Xiaohan", "Dahan", "Luanhe"). "Fenhe"), and eight more "cities"

class destroyer. The scale of this fleet was not large, and after it arrived in the Southwest Pacific Theater, it was temporarily organized into the Southwest Task Force, and Colonel Wei Dongbei, the captain of the "Duan Zhixuan," was appointed as the commander of the temporary fleet (there was no chief of staff of the fleet). Because it is a theater fleet, it is directly commanded by Yan Guozhong.

This fleet rushed to the theater of operations nearly a month ahead of schedule, and then, under the arrangement of Yan Guozhong, it cooperated with the Third Task Force to intercept the "Washington Express" in the waters near Kuah Island. Although the fleet was small, it was flexible enough and not subject to Yan Shiqi, but instead played a major role in several naval battles.

Mid-December. The Southwestern Task Force took part in the night battle. At that time, Task Force 3 passed through the strait between Savo Island and Florida Island (both north of Kuah Island). Prepare to enter the northeast of Kuah Island to intercept the "Washington Express" carrying supplies to Henderson Airport at night. The fleet commanded by Wei Dongbei stood by in the strait between Savo and Kuah, about 5 nautical miles north of Kuah at Cape Esperance. While shelling Henderson Field, supporting the offensive of the 6 Sentai team, while waiting for the arrival of the "Washington" Express. As a result, Task Force 3 arrived half an hour late and was unable to intercept the "Washington Express," when the fleet's radar had actually seen the US ship and mistook it for the Task Force southwest of Henderson Airport. By half past eleven, the Southwestern Task Force had also appeared as a high-altitude ground fleet, which was initially thought to be the battleships sent back by the Third Task Force. When the two sides approached about three nautical miles, Wei Dongbei felt that something was wrong. Immediately the order was given to fire flares, and at the same time the searchlights were turned on, and then the lookout identified the light cruisers in the opposing fleet, and the artillery battle immediately began. The melee between the two sides reached dawn, under the heavy artillery of the Tang Army's heavy cruisers, the American battleships suffered extremely heavy losses, although the American 155 mm guns could also penetrate the armor of the heavy cruisers, but it was difficult to give the opponent a fatal blow, and the 2oo mm and 24o mm armor-piercing shells could easily destroy the American cruisers and destroyers. In the end, two cruisers of the Southwestern task force suffered heavy losses. Two were slightly wounded, four destroyers were damaged, and four American light cruisers and five destroyers were killed without a single sink, and in the end only three American destroyers escaped. From the beginning to the end of the battle, Task Force 3 did not come to the rescue.

This is just one of many skirmishes in the space of nearly a month.

Almost every naval battle is the same, the battle begins in chaos and ends in chaos. Although both sides had radars, they did not play much role in the island-dense waters, and the warships of both sides were active on the battlefield and could not distinguish between friend and foe at all, so many times the battle was fought at close range. It has to be said that Yan Shiqi is stingy, he rarely uses the battleships of the Third Task Force to participate in night battles, especially close-range night battles, in his words, he is afraid that the battleships will be torpedoed, but in fact, it is Yan Shiqi who does not want to pay attention to the Southwest Task Force and thinks that the Southwest Task Force is not qualified to cooperate with the Third Task Force. If it weren't for the Tang Imperial Navy's superiority in strength, and the fact that the 6th Sentai quickly captured Henderson Airport as the ground battle on Kuah Island advanced, the waters near Kuah Island would have swallowed up the lives of more Imperial Navy soldiers.

Wei Dongbei also didn't have much affection for Yan Shiqi, the Southwest Task Force fought more than a dozen night battles here, although only two destroyers were lost, and they were replenished in time, but these dozen battles were defeated, and the other warships were also scarred, and even his flagship "Duan Zhixuan" suffered several shells. What made Wei Dongbei most angry was that Yan Shiqi didn't take him seriously at all, and almost never provided support for the Southwest Task Force. In the end, Wei Dongbei had to lead the southwest task force to move to the southwest waters of Kuah Island, and simply did not cooperate with the third task force.

This kind of contradiction between fleet commanders is very common, and Yan Guozhong is not easy to coordinate. Since the Southwestern Task Force could take on the task of interdiction in the southwest direction of the island alone, it would be better to use the two fleets separately, and the 6th Squadron also needed to have a surface artillery in this direction at that time.

At the same time, the fleet is also needed to block the "Washington Express" on this side.

When Tan Renhao led the First Task Force to arrive and the US forces were preparing to launch a counterattack in the southwest Pacific, Yan Guozhong transferred the Southwest Task Force back, and he organized a group of engineers to repair the warships that had returned to Buin as soon as possible, and also asked Wei Dongbei to be ready to go out at any time. When discussing the battle plan with Tan Renhao, Yan Guozhong did not mention this small fleet, so he had to keep a hand for himself.

It was the afternoon of the second day. Yan Guozhong had not yet received news from the Third Task Force, and at about two o'clock, a returning reconnaissance plane appeared at the Third Task Force that was hovering in the waters on the back of Kuah Island. Although it is reasonable for the Third Task Force to enter radio silence, Yan Guozhong knows very well that Yan Shiqi is going to deal with the 32nd Task Force, not to intercept the US transport fleet. He had expected this for a long time, Yan Shiqi was the kind of person who regarded the sea battle as more important than anything else, and lacked a global vision and did not know the importance of it.

The Southwest Task Force left behind by Yan Guozhong came in handy, although the Southwest Task Force could not defeat the 32nd Task Force. But it is still more than enough to deal with the convoy of transport ships. Afternoon. Yan Guozhong sent the Southwest Task Force out, and the fleet had only one mission, that is, to go to the southwest waters of Kuah Island. If the 3rd Task Force engages, then take the opportunity to insert itself to the south and kill the dozens of fast transport ships behind the butt of the 32nd Task Force, and never let the US Army send reinforcements and war materials to Kuah Island!

Yan Guozhong's calculation was very shrewd, how could the southwest task force also have six cruisers, four of which were equipped with 24o mm heavy guns with a range of more than 12 nautical miles, and 42 guns of 2oo mm caliber, and eight destroyers with 48 155mm guns. These guns pose a devastating threat to transport ships. And between the 32nd Task Force and the transport fleet, there is probably an opportunity for the third task force to entangle the 32nd task force so that the southwest task force can insert it from the southwest of Kuah Island, block the north of the US transport fleet, and then bombard, even if it can't kill all the transport ships, these transport ships should be able to scare these transport ships back to the port of Brisbane.

Wei Dongbei is also very clear about Yan Guozhong's purpose, he has a good impression of this theater commander, at least much better than Yan Shiqi. After Yan Guozhong gave the order, Wei Dongbei immediately led the fleet out of Buyin. It was about 3:15 a.m. The fleet moved south at 33 knots. Buin was about 3oo nautical miles from the battlefield, and the fleet arrived at the battlefield at about two o'clock in the morning.

As a matter of fact, the situation of the Southwest Task Force at that time was not ideal, and the two large air defense cruisers of the "Li Jing" class were scarred and had not been well repaired for a long time, and there were still many problems in the ship's interior, such as the watertight door of the No. 39 compartment on the port side of the "Duan Zhixuan" could not be closed, and the life of the battleship's main gun barrel was almost to the limit. The two "Trotto" class heavy cruisers and the two "River" class heavy cruisers were also in poor condition, and the eight destroyers were even more problematic, and the torpedo tubes on three of the destroyers could not rotate smoothly. At that time, the biggest trouble for the fleet was the lack of ammunition, and the ammunition for the cruiser's main guns was only about forty percent, and the ammunition for the destroyer's main guns was about fifty percent. Perhaps the only thing that reassured Wei Dongbei was that the torpedoes on the destroyer were still sufficient.

Yan Guozhong didn't take these questions into account, he was not the commander of the fleet in the first place. According to the situation of the Southwest Task Force at that time, these fourteen battleships should all return to port for overhaul, or at least find a way to replenish the battleships with enough ammunition and replace them with new gun barrels. But Yan Guozhong didn't ask in detail, and Wei Dongbei had worked under Tan Renhao for so many years, so he knew very well that there was no reason to talk about it on the battlefield, and the task had to be carried out.

After the departure of the Southwestern Task Force, Yan Guozhong also prepared the reserves of the two divisions that remained in Rabaul. If the 3rd Task Force could repel the 32nd Task Force (Yan Guozhong did not think that Yan Shiqi could perform a miracle), and the Southwest Task Force could intercept the US transport fleet, he would immediately increase his troops on Kuah Island and take advantage of the great demoralization of the defenders on Kuah Island to launch a large-scale attack. Even if the U.S. military then makes a comeback, as long as the situation on Kuah Island is controlled, it will be difficult for the U.S. military to drive his 6th team out of Kuah Island.

In terms of battle arrangement, Yan Guozhong did not have many problems, but in fact, the most critical thing was to see whether Tan Renhao's side could successfully defeat the 31st Task Force commanded by Halsey. If Tan Renhao's side is defeated, he may have to find a way to withdraw the 6 teams on Kuah Island, at least he will have to shrink the defense line and reduce the consumption on the front line. If Tan Renhao wins, even if Yan Shiqi loses the battle, Yan Guozhong still has the ability to continue the offensive by virtue of the sea and air supremacy controlled by the aviation during the day. At that time, Tan Renhao may take the initiative to destroy the US military airfield on the nearby islands, push the battle line to the Coral Sea, and isolate Kuah Island, so that the US military's hold on to Kuah Island will be meaningless.

There are not many people who can realize this, Yan Guozhong was limited to the combat operations of the 6th Squadron and did not think of this, Yan Shiqi only saw the oncoming 32nd Task Force, and Wei Dongbei was thinking about how to intercept the US convoy. In fact, few of the American commanders saw this, MacArthur was agonizing over the bitter battle on Kuah Island, and Kincaid only thought about how to get the fleet to Kuah Island and how to take out Task Force 3 at the same time. Probably only Halsey is conscious, otherwise he would not have risked sailing his fleet to the waters north of the Solomon Islands to find the Tang Empire's aircraft carrier fleet for a decisive battle.