While the naval battle south of Kuah Island was still raging, Tan Renhao was worried about the storm. The strong storm caused a serious failure in the communication system on the "Xingkaihu", and although the personnel of the communications department were already working hard to repair it, they could not repair it at all for a while. Therefore, Tan Renhao could only let the "Li Jing" receive the news from the theater command, and then transmit it by light signal. As a result, a telegram of only about 100 words took at least 20 minutes to be transmitted, which made Tan Renhao very annoyed.

At three o'clock, the fleet was still sailing in the storm zone. Although the wind has weakened a lot, the aircraft carrier is still unable to carry out normal aviation operations. In addition, many officers and men on the battleship were unable to rest normally, which greatly affected the combat capability and even had a negative impact on the daytime battle.

"Perhaps, things won't be much better on Halsey's side than we are." Tan Renhao could only find self-comfort, "When will we be able to leave the storm area?" ”

"After six o'clock, I have already asked the aviation service personnel to refuel the reconnaissance plane, and as long as the conditions for take-off can be met, the reconnaissance plane will be sent out immediately!"

Tan Renhao nodded slightly. "When will the seaplanes on the cruiser be sent out?"

"This ......" Hao Dongjue hesitated for a moment, "I'm afraid we will have to wait until after dawn, most of those seaplanes were damaged in the storm, and now they are being repaired, but the progress is not fast at all." ”

According to the regulations, the seaplanes on the cruiser were to leave the cruiser when the storm came and be sent to the shore, because the cruisers of the Tang Empire did not have a separate seaplane hangar, so they could not provide a comfortable shelter for the seaplanes. In a storm, seaplanes tethered to the cruiser were extremely vulnerable, and it was normal for them to be damaged by storms. This is not good news, there are 16 seaplanes on six cruisers, and these 16 seaplanes will be the most important reconnaissance force. With 16 seaplanes missing, Tan Renhao had to consider arranging some bombers to carry out reconnaissance missions.

After thinking about it for a while. Tan Renhao said: "Then arrange for a small team of bombers to carry out reconnaissance missions." In addition, contact the Fourth Task Force as soon as possible, and let Huang Xiaotian and them follow. If Halsey had shown up in the sea we had anticipated, he would have had the reconnaissance plane take off at about half past five, and perhaps he would have appeared before us. Therefore, let the reconnaissance plane out as soon as possible, move forward in all directions, and don't care about the fuel for the return. If the fuel was not enough, he went to the field airfield on Kuah Island to land.

Also, I had to prepare the bombers for takeoff, and I didn't want to wait for an extra half an hour to prepare. ”

Hao Dongjue asked the staff officer to give this series of orders.

Tan Renhao leaned on the chart table and thought. At this time, he was not only worried about the 31st Task Force under the command of Halsey, judging from the several telegrams he had received before, the battle on Kuah Island was not optimistic. Yan Guozhong turned over the telegrams of Wei Dongbei and Yan Shiqi, although it was only a few telegrams, but Tan Renhao already felt that it was impossible for Yan Shiqi to defeat Jin Kaide. At most, you will lose both sides with your opponent. And the possibility of intercepting the US transport fleet by the southwest task force commanded by Wei Dongbei is not very likely. More critically. HNA bombers deployed on Bougainville Island and Rabaul were not capable of bombing Task Force 3rd and Task Force South West at the same time. So. Yan Guozhong is likely to let the First Task Force and the Fourth Task Force strike at a critical moment.

Tan Renhao didn't want to intervene in the fighting in the south, at least until he captured Halsey, and he didn't have any reason to divide his troops to support the fighting on the other side of Kuah Island. But the question is, if Yan Guozhong really made this request and wanted to talk about Renhao and they sent bombers, what would they do?

Thinking of this, Tan Renhao had a little headache, to put it bluntly, he was not even very sure of defeating Halsey now, how could he still have the ability to support the battle in the south? If Task Force 31 is in the waters northeast of Maramasikai Island. Then Halsey can let his reconnaissance planes take off at half past five, and these reconnaissance planes can reach the sea area where the first task force is located between half past six and seven o'clock, and then the first task force will be very likely to be exposed. The result must have been very bad, Halsey's bombers would arrive at about nine o'clock, and Tan Renhao's reconnaissance plane might not find Halsey until half past seven or eight o'clock, and he would send the bombers after half past eight.

"Dongjue, get the fleet ready to turn!" Tan Renhao felt that he had no choice, and he also thought of Spruance's tactics in the last battle. "Let the fleet sail in a southeasterly direction......"

"Southeast? It's going to get us to crash into Halsey's. Hao Dongjue was taken aback. It also means that there is something wrong with Ren Hao's brain. According to the current situation, they should flee the battlefield to the northwest, not to the southeast.

"That's right, it's to duel with Halsey!" Tan Renhao sneered, "We will try to sail 1oo nautical miles southeast before dawn, so that if Halsey sends a reconnaissance plane at half past five, it will pass over our heads at night, and our reconnaissance plane can reach his sky at dawn." When the time comes, it will be our turn to do it first. ”

Hao Dongjue hesitated for a moment and said, "Adopt Spruance's tactics? ”

Tan Renhao smiled and nodded. "Even if we only have two squadrons of bombers, from the telegrams we have received now, most of the cruisers and destroyers of the American army are actually in Task Force 32, and Halsey does not have many escort warships. If the bombardment had come suddenly, Halsey would have had no power to fight back. ”

"Do you want to contact Task Force 4?"

"Send the destroyer over, and besides, let people repair the communication antenna as soon as possible, we can't always rely on the radio on the 'Li Jing' to receive news!"

Under Tan Renhao's arrangement, a destroyer with an order immediately left the fleet and went to look for the fourth task force. The idea of talking about Renhaoha is simple. If the 4th Task Force continued to maintain the northwest position of the 1st Task Force, then when the 1st Task Force found the 31st Task Force, he could immediately notify Huang Xiaotian and ask Huang Xiaotian to send the main bomber group. And the distance between Task Force 4 and Halsey will not exceed 2oo nautical miles, which is completely within the range of bombers. In addition, this will be an attack that completely takes out Task Force 31. If the attack goes well, Task Force 4 will still have the ability to send bombers to support the battle to the south. Of course, this is only an ideal situation, and in reality it may not be like this.

In fact, at this time, Huang Xiaotian and Jiang Zhongmin were also worried about the actions of the fleet. The damn storm made it impossible for them to receive news from the outside world at all, and the resistance of the two aircraft carriers to the wind and waves was much worse than that of the "Lake" class, and more than 20 fighters tethered to the flight deck of the aircraft carrier were destroyed by the storm. Huang Xiaotian had to order the useful parts of these fighters to be dismantled and thrown into the sea, so as not to affect the combat operations that followed. In other words, during the night, the 4th Task Force lost more than two squadrons of combat aircraft!

The crux of the problem is not here, what Huang Xiaotian and Jiang Zhongmin are most worried about is the cooperation between the two task forces.

"General Tan will definitely adopt offensive tactics." Huang Xiaotian has been working under Tan Renhao for more than a year, and he has talked about Renhao's tactics. In particular, the idea of aviation tactics is still relatively well understood. "If Halsey wants to attack us, he will have to move the fleet to the island of Malaita, which is the sea northeast of the island of Maramasikai. According to the current weather conditions, if Halsey moves the fleet to this area, then he will be able to send reconnaissance planes at about half past five. ”

"In other words, there is a good chance that Task Force 1 will move to the southeast, not to the northwest?" Jiang Zhongmin also saw this.

"If it moves to the northwest, then it is to avoid the battle, try to leave Halsey before dawn to send a reconnaissance plane to search the sea area, and then concentrate on attacking the 32nd task force on the side of Kuah Island." Huang Xiaotian circled Kuah Island with a pencil. "That's it. We could delay the decisive battle with Halsey until noon, but the problem is that in the whole plan. Our main target is Task Force 32. According to General Tan's operational arrangement, we will not consider sending bombers to deal with Task Force 32 until we have taken out Task Force 31. ”

Jiang Zhongmin nodded slightly. "Then he will definitely move to the southeast, trying to close the distance before dawn, so that even if Halsey sends a reconnaissance plane at half past five, he will cross the First Task Force at night, and thus lose the opportunity of the current First Task Force."

"It must be like this!" Huang Xiaotian threw away the pencil, and then sighed, "But the problem is. If we continue to follow Task Force 1, then it is very likely that the first wave of reconnaissance planes sent by Halsey will appear. ”

Jiang Zhongmin sighed, according to the route of the current fleet, at dawn, they will reach the sea area where the current first task force is located, and this must be the sea area where the reconnaissance plane sent by Halsey focuses on searching.

"We'll have to modify our course to avoid the reconnaissance planes sent by Halsey as much as possible, and keep up with Task Force 1."

"If the 1st Task Force is not moving southeast, but north-west of the line.

Shall we go east of Task Force 1? Seeing the new course marked by Huang Xiaotian on the chart, Jiang Zhongmin frowned slightly, "The reconnaissance plane sent by Halsey will definitely conduct a large-scale search, if we are found first, it will be impossible to kill the 31st Task Force with only two squadrons of ground bombers of the First Task Force." ”

"Then we'll have to take a risk." Huang Xiaotian glanced at his partner, "Now we only have two choices, either continue to move along the current route, or move to the southeast." If we were to follow our present course, we could send out reconnaissance planes after six o'clock, and by that time we would be between 25o nautical miles and 3oo nautical miles from Task Force 31 in Halsey. If we were to the southeast of the line, we would only be able to send reconnaissance planes around half-past six, but the distance might be reduced to between 15o nautical miles and 2oo nautical miles. In terms of timing, we don't have to lose, and we can get the bombers ready in advance, and as soon as the 31st Task Force is present, we will immediately send bombers to attack before Halsey's bombers arrive. ”

Jiang Zhongmin hesitated for a moment and said, "Let's do it, shortening the attack distance actually shortens the time required for reconnaissance and attack." Of course, we'll have to get in touch with Task Force 1 as soon as possible to find out where they are! ”

A destroyer left Task Force 4 and began to move towards the area where Task Force 1 might exist. At this time, it was already 3:50, and Huang Xiaotian and Jiang Zhongmin didn't know that half an hour ago, Tan Renhao had also arranged a destroyer to contact them. But the problem is that now Task Force 1 is sailing in a southeasterly direction, and the sea area where Task Force 4 is located is actually different from what was planned. That is, the positions of both sides have changed, and the destroyers they sent will most likely not be able to find each other at all!

Perhaps, the only thing the two fleet commanders had in common was that they put the offensive in place, not the defense, and neither of them was shaken by the naval battle south of Kuah Island. In fact, both fleets were sailing in a southeasterly direction at this time, and the course of the first task force was 16o degrees to the course of the fourth task force, which was not very different.

The biggest problem was that Task Force 4 was a little further north from Task Force 1 than Task Force 5 and Task Force 4, so Task Force 4 would have to be out of the storm at least half an hour later. In other words, Task Force 4 sent reconnaissance planes much later. Even if Task Force 1 were able to find Task Force 4 in time, it would not be possible to dispatch bombers later, and the consequences of this time difference were probably not expected by either commander.

The center of the storm is forming to the north, and the fleet is gradually emerging from the storm. Although Task Force 1 and Task Force 4 were a little out of tune after being affected by the storm, they were not the only ones affected by the storm. To the southeast of the battlefield, Task Force 31, commanded by Halsey, was actually affected by the storm, and it was even worse!