It was the 3rd Task Force that came to support the Marines, and before they arrived at the battlefield, they sent seaplanes to guide the battleships, and when they discovered that a large number of American troops were advancing towards the beach position, Chang Jiexin first ordered an artillery bombardment of the American troops, and then sent a telegram to Han Shaofeng.

The first to strike was the six "New Provincial Capital" class battleships, at that time the battleship formation was still nearly ten nautical miles from the coastline, about 15 nautical miles away from the US army, and its main guns were against [20 nautical miles, enough to deal with the US army. Soon, the cruisers that came out also opened fire, and the last ones to speak were the destroyers that had to be close to the coastline to be able to fire. Unlike the support fleet, the accuracy of the shelling of these warships of the third task force is much higher, and at the same time, the continuity of artillery fire is better, as long as the battle begins, before the shells are used up, the artillery can be shelled almost uninterrupted, and the artillery on the fire support ships are eliminated, and the supporting equipment is also quite limited, so it is naturally impossible to compare with regular warships in terms of combat effectiveness.

On the "Hefei", Tan Renhao also witnessed the spectacular scene when the battleship formation was firing a salvo. As the commander of the aircraft carrier fleet, Tan Renhao rarely had the opportunity to see so many battleships firing at the same time. The sudden appearance of cannon flames illuminates almost the entire night sky, and then the battleships are engulfed in darkness, which makes people feel like ghosts on the sea, and when they are revealed, it means that someone will be dealt a terrible blow, and when they disappear into the darkness, it means that a new blow will soon come.

Yan Yulong, who is also from the Naval Academy, was also amazed by this spectacular scene. It was also the first time he had experienced artillery bombardment on a battleship, having previously commanded cruiser formations in battle. But in front of the battleship, the cruiser was not even a fart, especially when it came to a formation salvo, and the scene was even more different.

"This round of salvo can cover at least a million square meters! Even the U.S. military is iron-clad. It will also be blown to pieces! Yan Yulongdi's voice trembled slightly with the vibration of the battleship. After a few rounds of salvos, I'm afraid the US military is almost finished. This time, Chang recommended the new general, and the third task force showed their faces, and Han Shaofeng would not think that we were dispensable in the future. ”

"Han Shaofeng has cooperated with us many times, of course he knows the capabilities of the main fleet, and he never thinks that we are dispensable." Tan Renhao corrected Yan Yulong's statement, "It's just that the task is important, and General Han Shaofeng just doesn't want to hold us back." ”

Yan Yulong secretly stuck out his tongue. His words at the beginning were indeed a bit mean, Han Shaofeng could be regarded as the oldest front-line commander in the Imperial Marine Corps now, and he would definitely not despise the fleet. Considering the relationship between Han Shaofeng and Tan Renhao, then it is even more impossible for Han Shaofeng to look down on the fleet.

"General, a telegram from the Marines!"

Tan Renhao took the telegram and quickly glanced at it. Then it was given to Yan Yulong. "Look, we arrived just in time. It seems that this trip was not in vain. ”

Han Shaofeng sent a telegram of thanks, and mentioned that the Marine Corps was being attacked, and he was also worried that there was no support firepower, and the Third Task Force rushed over at this time, which was not only important, but also extremely critical, and if it was half an hour late, I am afraid that the Marine Corps, which had just landed on the beach, would be driven into the sea by the US troops.

"Call General Han Shaofeng back. We'll wait until the support fleet returns to the battlefield before leaving, so that he can command the Marines in battle. In addition, as soon as possible, the liaison officer should be dispatched to the flagship of the Third Task Force to coordinate with the new general to avoid accidental injuries. Tan Renhao dictated the content of the call back to the communications staff officer, "That's all, we're just here to help, we can't take care of the rest, let Han Shaofeng do it himself." ”

The shelling of the 3rd Task Force continued. At the same time, Han Shaofeng also ordered all the front-line troops to withdraw to the beach positions and reorganize the attack. Of course. He would never forget to send liaison officers to Task Force 3, otherwise Task Force 3's artillery fire would most likely fall on the Marines themselves, which would flood the Temple of the Dragon King.

"It's about seven hours until dawn." Tan Renhao glanced at the navigation clock, "Did Hao Dongjue send any news from there?" ”

"No news has been received from the Third Fleet."

"Well, there's news, come and tell me immediately. Wait......" Tan Renhao stopped the communications staff officer again, "Send a telegram to Zhu Rongzhe, asking him to fully cooperate with the Third Fleet, don't worry about us for the time being, I will call for the support of shore-based aviation before dawn, and I don't need him to provide air defense cover." ”

The communications staff officer waited for a while, and only after making sure that the commander had no other orders went to the communications center.

"Now, we're going to wait patiently for a few hours." Tan Renhao sat down, "Before dawn, we have to stay here, perhaps, Hao Dongjue and Zhu Rongzhe will also gain something before dawn." ”

"That's the only way, but if Spruance dares to make trouble, I believe that the Third Fleet and Zhu Rongzhe will not let Spruance have good fruit to eat." Yan Yulong also sat down.

Both of them laughed, Tan Renhao should have gone to rest at this time, but he didn't feel a little tired, and the continuous shelling couldn't make people fall asleep at all, so it was better to sit and chat for a while.

At that time, only the Third Task Force rushed to support, and it was only in the afternoon that Tan Renhao made the decision to let the Third Task Force break away from the First Fleet, and Zhu Rongzhe would act as the commander of the First Task Force and the Fourth Task Force in the First Fleet, and cooperate with Hao Dongjue's Third Task Force to continue to search for the Atlantic Fleet, while the Third Task Force rushed to the landing ground at night to support the Marine Corps in the operation. What made Tan Renhao make this important decision was a telegram, a telegram sent to him by Lei Shaoqing at noon on the third day.

When Luo Yunchong and Han Shaofeng made a decision, they deployed the combat arrangements of each unit. According to Tan Renhao's instructions, Lei Shaoqing sent the finalized ground battle plan to Tan Renhao. In this set of combat plans, the combined fleet was not required to go to support the Marine Corps, but Tan Renhao discovered one of the serious loopholes, that is, the two support fleets that concentrated their forces to support the landing of the Marine Corps in the afternoon and the first half of the night will leave the battlefield in the second half of the night, and at that time, only shore-based aviation can continue to support the Marine Corps in combat, and Tan Renhao knows very well that in the night battle, the support effectiveness of the air force is far inferior to the artillery fire of the support fleet, especially

area of the fighting. If the U.S. military seized on this loophole and launched a counterattack, Team I would have to pay a heavy price.

After some analysis, Tan Renhao was basically sure that the US military would launch a counterattack in the second half of the night. Regardless of whether the US military discovered a loophole in Han Shaofeng's deployment, it could only organize a counterattack force in the second half of the night, so it was unlikely that a counterattack would be launched in the first half of the night. And the second half of the night is the most vulnerable time for the landing force, the troops that have come ashore have no time to deploy, and the troops attacking on the front line are the troops that have been fighting for several hours, and there are still large quantities of supplies and equipment hoarded on the beach, and the engineering troops have also gone ashore, and the command of the marines will be quite confused. In other words, if the U.S. military seized this opportunity, Han Shaofeng's Marines might even be driven out into the sea before dawn!

After having a premonition that Han Shaofeng would be in trouble, Tan Renhao did not contact Lei Shaoqing, mainly because the fleet was operating in relatively dangerous waters at that time, and there were US military listening stations on the nearby islands, and if a telegram was sent, the fleet's whereabouts would be exposed. He immediately adjusted the deployment of the fleet, preparing to let the Third Fleet stay and continue to search for the Atlantic Fleet, while he led the First Fleet back to the landing site to support Han Shaofeng.

At this time, Yan Yulong made a suggestion. The support fleet supporting the Marine Corps will return to the battlefield after dawn, and the combat effectiveness of the shore-based air forces will also reach its peak by then, and the two aircraft carrier task forces will not be of much use at that time. Rather, it was the artillery support provided by Task Force 3 at night that was crucial, and it was the only ground support the Marines needed at the time. Only Task Force 3 was needed to support the Marines. The other two task forces could stay behind and fight with the Third Fleet.

At that time, Yan Yulong's purpose in making this suggestion was to hope that Tan Renhao would let him command the two task forces to fight, so that he would not have to do some tedious things in the fleet headquarters. Tan Renhao adopted this suggestion, but did not let Yan Yulong leave the fleet headquarters, but let Zhu Rongzhe take over the command of the two aircraft carrier task forces. Cooperate with the Third Fleet to fight, while the Fleet Command follows the Third Task Force back to the landing site. In other words, Yan Yulong was left behind.

It can be said that this set of arrangements is a manifestation of Tan Renhao's flexibility in commanding fleet operations, and proves that Tan Renhao still attaches great importance to the campaign and strategic objectives, but does not attach great importance to small-scale tactical victories and defeats, and the highest purpose of this combat operation is to enable the Marines to successfully go ashore and seize the airfield in the area of Cuba, thus opening the channel for bombing the United States. Opposite. Whether or not the Atlantic Fleet could be defeated was only a secondary tactical purpose. In Tan Renhao's eyes, the secondary task is naturally ranked behind, even if this secondary task is the main task of the combined fleet, he will not lose the overall interests because of this. At the same time, it also gave Yan Yulong a chance to perform. When the 3rd Task Force was designing the route, it arrived at the landing site half an hour early, and originally planned to contact Han Shaofeng first. As a result, the U.S. military began to counterattack, and Chang Jiexin decisively gave the order to open fire.

After receiving artillery support from Task Force 3. Han Shaofeng reorganized the Marines and came to the beach in the early hours of the morning, leaving all the troops with relatively large casualties to build beach defensive positions, while the second group of troops ashore were all concentrated and prepared to advance inland at night. After the connection between the Marine Corps and the fleet was established, Han Shaofeng immediately ordered his troops to launch a new attack.

The artillery bombardment of the 3rd Task Force continued until half past five in the morning, when the battleship formation was close to the shoreline, while the destroyers, who did not have enough range in artillery, withdrew to the outer seas at about four o'clock in the morning, and the cruisers were almost rushing to the beach. 5:40 a.m. The 1st Support Fleet returned to the battlefield, and the 3rd Task Force withdrew from the battle at this time. With the support of Task Force 3, the Marines advanced five kilometers inland in the early morning of the 4th, essentially ensuring the safety of the beach positions. At the same time, two more Marine Divisions landed on the beach before dawn, and the engineers basically cleared the beach of mines and obstacles, allowing large landing ships to go directly to the beach to unload cargo and equipment.

With the withdrawal of the 3rd Task Force from the battle, the most critical twelve hours of the landing operation basically passed, and the speed of the Marine Corps' advance was much better than Han Shaofeng had expected. Of course, four days during the day. The offensive will not stop as more and more marines arrive. Han Shaofeng will definitely seize the time to advance into the interior, and at the same time arrange for troops to attack the port of Santiago. As long as the port of Santiago can be taken quickly, then no force will be able to drive him out of Cuba.

At six o'clock, Tan Renhao sent an order to Chang Jianxin, and the Third Task Force withdrew from the battle as soon as possible and returned to the open sea, while preparing to rendezvous with the First Task Force and the Fourth Task Force. However, until this time, Tan Renhao still did not receive the news from Hao Dongjue and Zhu Rongzhe, that is, the Atlantic Fleet had not appeared by this time, and the reconnaissance planes had not found the Atlantic Fleet at night.

The Atlantic Fleet, which has not appeared for a long time, is what Tan Renhao is most worried about. At that time, he had already received the second telegram from the 558 submarine, knowing that the 558 submarine's sneak attack on the Atlantic Fleet had failed, and he was almost killed. Tan Renhao also deduced that Spruance immediately turned around after knowing that he had been discovered by the submarine and did not continue south, so he was not discovered by a reconnaissance plane on the second day. But the question is, what's next for Spruance? And, if he didn't go south, what other options did he have?

During the day on 3 July, the First Fleet's ground reconnaissance planes focused on searching the Florida Strait, while the Third Fleet's reconnaissance planes continued to search the waters east of the Bahamas. Tan Renhao also judged that Spruance either went to the Florida Strait or wandered in the waters east of the Bahamas. After the Marines landed in Cuba on the evening of the 3rd, Spruance would definitely receive a new order and rush to the battlefield, that is, it was possible to encounter the Atlantic Fleet at night, but until dawn, the reconnaissance planes still did not find it, did Spruance not kill him? Or is he ready to move in other directions to launch a sneak attack?

While Tan Renhao was puzzled, the Third Task Force also began to sail in the northeast direction, and at this time, the reconnaissance planes arranged by the five aircraft carrier task forces before dawn were taking off one after another.