Almost all the captains signed up for the "Death Fleet", and as a result, Yan Yulong had to pick out nine of them. According to Huang Xiaotian's request, each aircraft carrier battle group will dispatch one "River"-class heavy cruiser and two "City"-class destroyers to form a "death fleet." In this way, the remaining warships will still be able to provide sufficient anti-aircraft and anti-submarine cover for the aircraft carrier, and the establishment of the aircraft carrier battle group will exceed the minimum requirements and have a certain margin.

The "Death Fleet" broke away from Task Force 4 before two o'clock and headed southwest alone. The maximum speed of these ships was 33 knots, and at that time the fleet was sailing to the southwest with a smooth sail, and all the ships were overloaded with boilers, and a third of the fuel on the ships had been consumed, and the officers and men threw away all the useless things in order to reduce the weight of the ships as much as possible and increase the speed of the ships. As a result, when it headed south, the maximum speed exceeded 34 knots, and the average speed was close to 33. 5 knots, which is simply a miracle, because the nominal maximum speed of the heavy cruisers of the "River" class was 31 knots, and only during sea trials ran 33. The maximum speed of 4 knots, when the battleship was still lightly loaded.

Within 18 hours, the "Death Fleet" was able to sail about 600 nautical miles, and according to the speed of the US landing fleet at that time and the calculation of its route, between 7 and 7:30 a.m. on the morning of 30 July, the "Death Fleet" was able to intercept the US landing fleet about 150 nautical miles northwest of Lysan Island. This is not much different from Huang Xiaotian's plan, if Spruance wants to attack the "death fleet", then he has to let one of his task forces expose the position, and this is Huang Xiaotian's opportunity, as long as he seizes this US task force, he can replace the opponent's three aircraft carriers with nine warships!

The problem now is that Huang Xiaotian must first roughly determine the approximate location of the two task forces of the Fifth Fleet, so that he can decide which task force to attack first, and thus decide where the Fourth Task Force should be deployed. It's not an easy thing to do. Now Huang Xiaotian only knew that there was a task force in the waters east of Midway, and he probably judged that another task force was near the landing fleet. For most of the day, these two task forces were able to sail hundreds of nautical miles, and it was even more impossible to judge the approximate location of the US fleet.

The only thing Huang Xiaotian could use as a basis for judgment was that Spruance already knew that Task Force 4 had appeared hundreds of nautical miles north of Necker Island, so he had to guard against it. Now that the U.S. military has destroyed the airfield on Midway, Spruance has nothing to worry about shore-based bombers on the island. Therefore, the Fifth Fleet's first priority is not to continue the bombing of Midway. Rather, it ensured that the landing fleet would be able to reach Midway Island safely and soundly, rather than being intercepted by Task Force 4 on the way. Then, both task forces of the Fifth Fleet will definitely appear near the landing fleet!

The problem lies here, each task force has three aircraft carriers, and judging from the intelligence of the Fifth Fleet obtained on these several occasions, the US military has also adopted the fleet formation method of the Tang Imperial Navy, and each aircraft carrier forms a separate aircraft carrier battle group with its escort warships, and it is impossible for the three aircraft carrier battle groups to be concentrated at one point, and dozens of warships are distributed on the sea surface, which needs to occupy a large area of sea. And in order to ensure that the battleship can sail smoothly. And there is enough room to maneuver evasive. Then the two task forces could not be completely together. The two task forces must have been separated, and the distance was 100 nautical miles. This is Huang Xiaotian's chance, if he can let the Fourth Task Force attack one of the task forces. If he stays out of the strike range of another task force and gets at least 3 hours of combat time, he will be able to seize the victory and, after completing the strike mission, withdraw from the battle before the other task force of the United States arrives to avoid being attacked by the United States!

This is an opportunity, but it is also a challenge. In order to maintain an appropriate distance from the two US task forces, it is necessary not only to roughly determine the position of the US fleet, but also to accurately determine the position of the US fleet and make preparations in advance. This is also the biggest problem facing Huang Xiaotian. Before the reconnaissance plane discovered the US fleet, it would be impossible for him to accurately judge the position of the US fleet, still less accurately maintain the distance between him and the US fleet at a distance of 10 nautical miles!

This is not only testing Huang Xiaotian's ability, but to a greater extent, gambling on luck. If the distance of Task Force 4 deviates by 50 nautical miles, it may not be 50 nautical miles, but only 30 nautical miles, or even 20 nautical miles, and the result will be disastrous. Huang Xiaotian repeatedly calculated for an afternoon. The conclusion was that he could only pray to God that the position of Task Force 4 would be impartial and in the best position, which was already more than the strength of any individual, and no one would be able to accurately judge the position of the enemy fleet before the reconnaissance aircraft discovered it!

Just when Huang Xiaotian was worried about this matter, in the evening of the same day, Han Shaofeng sent him another telegram, which greatly affected Huang Xiaotian's mood.

"Both task forces are near Midway?" Yan Yulong also couldn't believe his eyes.

"Yes, I can't believe it, but the information provided by Han Shaofeng must be reliable, within an hour, more than 400 bombers appeared over Midway, and the U.S. military was still bombing Midway Island in the afternoon, what does this mean?"

"But......" Yan Yulong hesitated for a moment, "could this be a deliberate ploy by Spruance, he can completely let the returning bomber fly back again!" ”

"Do you think it's possible? More than 400 bombers dropped bombs, and as far as we know, it is impossible for American bombers to carry two 1000-pound bombs at the same time. Also, Why did Spruance do this? ”

"But Spruance knew we weren't near Midway, so why would he expose his two task forces?"

"Because we're not near Midway, Spruance doesn't have to worry about a surprise attack from us, and there's no need to keep one of the task forces hidden." Huang Xiaotian gave a reasonable explanation, and at the same time he rummaged through the information he had received before.

Yan Yulong also had to admit this possibility, and Spruance asked the two task forces to bombard Midway as best they could during the day, so that they could destroy as many military targets on Midway as possible, clear the way for the Marines, and then withdraw at night. There is no longer a need to worry about the Midway airfield being repaired at night.

Soon, Huang Xiaotian turned out a telegram he had received earlier. "I should have been aware of the problem a few hours ago, this is the telegram we received before nine o'clock in the morning, you take a closer look."

Yan Yulong quickly read the telegram, which was also sent by Han Shaofeng.

"Notice one of the details, how far is that U.S. task force from Midway? With more than 400 nautical miles, the combat radius of SB3C and TBF will not exceed 350 nautical miles. In other words, the reconnaissance plane did not discover the US task force that bombed Midway. It's the task force that was supposed to be hidden, and we all ignored that! Huang Xiaotian clenched his fists, "If we could have judged it at the time......

"But we can't ...... it"

"We can hurry south, bomb the U.S. landing fleet early tomorrow morning, and then leave the battlefield before Spruance has found our opportunity, so that it will be impossible for the U.S. troops to land on Midway!"

Yan Yulong was silent, he could see that Huang Xiaotian was very annoyed, this was the second time he missed the opportunity to defeat the American army.

"We haven't completely failed yet. We certainly didn't fail! ”

"At least. Task Force 4 is still intact now, if we go south now......"

"Now going south, we can only send bombers north of the US landing fleet." Huang Xiaotian marked on the chart the sea area that the Fourth Task Force could reach before 5 a.m. "The U.S. military ended the bombing of Midway at about five o'clock in the afternoon. Even if its bombers need an hour and a half to return home, turn around at this time, and come to cover the landing fleet, then the sea area they can reach before dawn is clear! ”

Seeing that Huang Xiaotian skillfully made the sea area where the US fleet might appear on the chart, Yan Yulong began to wonder if Huang Xiaotian was lazy by letting him take charge of navigation operations, no matter how you look at it, Huang Xiaotian is very familiar with the commander of the operation on the map, not as rumored to say.

"When the time comes. The distance between us and the U.S. fleet is only 150 nautical miles, and the farthest is no more than 300 nautical miles, which means that when we attack the U.S. landing fleet, Spruance has a good chance of finding us and sending bombers to kill us! Huang Xiaotian dropped the pencil and scale. If we had noticed that the Fifth Fleet was concentrated near Midway in the morning, we would have been able to appear east of the U.S. landing fleet at dawn tomorrow, keep at least 400 nautical miles away from the Fifth Fleet, and calmly take out the U.S. landing fleet. We can just get away, and Spruance won't be able to catch up with us even if he knows where we are! ”

"But we didn't know until noon that the U.S. landing fleet had left Necke Island!"

"Does it matter? If we had known in the morning, we would have bombed Necke Island! ”

"Old Huang ......" Yan Yulong hesitated, he felt that it was a bit inappropriate to call Huang Xiaotian like this, but he didn't change his words. We can't think that way, and no one can be sure what will happen in the future. ”

"But it was our negligence, and I missed my chance a second time!" Huang Xiaotian's expression was very nervous.

"What's the use of regret now?" Yan Yulong changed his tone, "What we should do now is to try to win, and we should be happy, not frustrated." ”

"Why?" Huang Xiaotian glanced at Yan Yulong a little puzzled, he didn't know what to be happy about missing a precious opportunity.

"At least Spruance can't do anything about us, and Task Force 4 is intact." Yan Yulong could only try to think on the bright side. "In addition, Spruance already knows very well that we will take the initiative, and we are still fighting actively, not passive resistance, so he will be more cautious and dare not look down on us, right?"

"Spruance must have never underestimated us, otherwise, he wouldn't have kept the two task forces moving together." Huang Xiaotian was suddenly stunned for a moment, and then looked at Yan Yulong with wide eyes. "What did you start saying?"

"What?" Yan Yulong didn't understand.

"What do you start to say in the last sentence? Passive resistance, active attack? ”

Yan Yulong nodded, that's probably what he meant.

"It seems that we really shouldn't be depressed, this is our chance!" Huang Xiaotian suddenly laughed.

"Opportunity?" It was Yan Yulong's turn to figure it out.

"We've all forgotten that the 'Death Fleet' must have been something Spruance didn't expect!" Huang Xiaotian looked at the chart for a while, and then marked the sea area where the "death fleet" would intercept the US landing fleet tomorrow. "If our 'Death Fleet' succeeds, what will Spruance think?"

"This ......," Yan Yulong thought for a moment, "he might think we're there, right?" ”

"Maybe think we're somewhere nearby."

Yan Yulong nodded, this is possible, the scale of the "death fleet" composed of three heavy cruisers and six large destroyers is not small, even if it cannot deal with the Fifth Fleet, it is not even enough for the Fifth Fleet, but for the US landing fleet, this is a huge threat.

"Then, when the time comes, the Fifth Fleet will have only two options, one is to bomb the 'Death Fleet', and the other is to search the surrounding waters, and maybe Spruance will do both at the same time." Huang Xiaotian drew it on the chart, "We can roughly judge the sea area where the Fifth Fleet may appear. If we let the 'death fleet' expand the range of air search, then we will be able to determine the approximate direction of the arrival of the US bombers and the time of arrival, so as to reverse the approximate location of the US fleet. As long as the Fourth Task Force appears in a direction that Spruance did not expect, then we will be able to successfully ambush the Fifth Fleet, at least one of the Fifth Fleet! ”

"What, then, is there in a direction that Spruance can't consider?"

Huang Xiaotian glanced at Yan Yulong, this question is not easy to answer, or rather, he has not thought of which sea area it is more appropriate for the Fourth Task Force to operate for the time being, this is a question that determines the fate of the Fourth Task Force.