While the battle ahead was still going on, Nie Renfeng and Gan Yongxing were waiting for good news. Unlike front-line commanders like Tan Renhao, Nie Renfeng and Gan Yongxing don't worry about the progress of the battle, what they need is the final result, what the battle will look like!

In order to know the results of the battle as soon as possible, Gan Yongxing also made a special phone call to Yan Guozhong, asking Yan Guozhong to report to the Navy Command as soon as he got the latest situation. Next, Gan Yongxing and Nie Renfeng had to wait patiently for the battle report ahead.

On the 25th, the Second Task Force was dealt a devastating blow to the Fifth Fleet under the command of Spruance, which can be described as an accident within an accident. When Liao Hanxiang sent the report back, Gan Yongxing and Nie Renfeng couldn't believe it at all. It wasn't until the two of them knew that the aircraft carrier that suddenly appeared was the "Franklin" that had escaped back without being sunk in the last "Battle of Midway", that they reacted violently. The U.S. military must have repaired the aircraft carrier in the shortest possible time, and Spruance kept it out of the battlefield and did not participate in the bombing of Wake Island and Midway, until the second task force fell into the trap he had set, and then suddenly attacked, caught the second task force by surprise, and finally eliminated the second task force.

As for how Spruance used a fleet aircraft carrier to eliminate the "Bear Lake" aircraft carrier, which was covered by many escort warships, this Gan Yongxing and Nie Renfeng did not know, and there was no need for the two of them to know, the result was very clear, except for some escort warships of the second task force that escaped the attack of the US military, including the "Bear Lake" aircraft carrier, most of the warships were lost. Moreover, the fleet has lost a large number of officers and pilots, and the second task force has already existed in name only!

By the afternoon of the 25th, the battle situation in the Central Pacific was determined one by one. Both Nie Renfeng and Gan Yongxing realized that the situation in the Pacific Theater was extremely unfavorable to the Imperial Navy. After the destruction of Task Force 2. In the Central Pacific, there is no longer a main fleet that can hold back the US counterattack. Although it is impossible for the US military to hit the Mariana Islands within a few days, in the absence of a fleet, the US military will come sooner or later.

Nie Renfeng and Gan Yongxing both realized that Tan Renhao's command of the ground battle in the southwest Pacific would play a key role. If the US Third Fleet can be eliminated, it will at least inflict heavy damage on the Third Fleet. And if it does not suffer heavy losses, then the Imperial Navy still has enough strength to defend and even continue to advance.

But on the other hand, if the Third Fleet is not destroyed, or if the Third Fleet is destroyed at the same time, its own losses are extremely large, then the result will be extremely bad for the Imperial Navy. At that time, not only will the Central Pacific be tight, but the offensive in the Southwest Pacific will definitely encounter trouble, and Yan Guozhong will even have to postpone the offensive plan, and the plan to land on the Australian mainland will also be delayed. The Imperial Navy will move to the strategic defensive stage, and the situation in the Pacific theater will be extremely unfavorable for the Empire!

In other words, the Imperial Navy had been cornered. One step back is the bottomless abyss, and whether you can block the enemy, whether you can turn the tide of the battle, and whether you can maintain the advantageous situation. All hope lies in the three task forces in the southwest Pacific, and all hope lies in Tan Renhao. Maybe this is a little heavy, but Nie Renfeng and Gan Yongxing both know this, if Tan Renhao can defeat Halsey this time, then the entire battle situation will be revitalized, if he fails, then the Imperial Navy may have to prepare for strategic defense.

Because of this, the two stayed at the Navy Command, and even had dinner delivered to the office. Yan Guozhong also sent a front-line report back every hour as requested.

It's just that Yan Guozhong himself doesn't know much about the activities of the fleet, so the reports he sent are basically the same.

By evening, Task Force 1 broke the radio silence and sounded the alarm, then Task Force 4 fled at full speed and Task Force 3 quickly headed south. When Nie Renfeng and Gan Yongxing received this battle report, they immediately realized that the battle was about to begin, Tan Renhao had seized the opportunity, and Halsey must have appeared, so it was very likely that the battle would take place at night, and the night battle would be fought between the battleship task forces of both sides.

As the two men had expected, the battle did break out during the night, and between Task Force 3 and Task Force 33.

"Perhaps, Chang Zhixin will have a tie with Kincaid at most." Gan Yongxing is not very optimistic about this junior brother. "The situation of the Third Task Force is not ideal now, the training of officers and men, the situation of warships, etc., are not very good. Chang Jianxin is also a newly appointed commander, and he has previously commanded aircraft carrier operations in the Second Task Force, and he has not performed well in artillery battles. Kincaid had a very exciting battle with Yan Shiqi last time, and this time he has four cutting-edge battleships, and it is already very good for Chang Zhixin to be able to withstand the more than ten hours of the night. ”

Nie Renfeng did not make any comments on this. He didn't have a deep impression of Chang Jianxin's student, it can be said that Chang Jianxin was one of the thousands of very ordinary officers who came out of the Imperial Naval Academy, until he went to the Fifth Fleet, and later partnered with Tan Renhao to command the First Task Force, that he had some eye-catching performances, but before he served as the chief of staff of the Second Task Force, he had been shrouded in the light of Tan Renhao, and as a result, there were many people who knew Tan Renhao, but there were very few people who knew Chang Renhao.

Nie Renfeng was not without confidence in his students, when he appointed Chang Zhixin as the commander of the Third Task Force, he carefully read Chang Jianxin's personnel file and knew that he was an excellent commander. In the battle of annihilating the "Z Fleet", Chang Shiqi's performance was very good, although most of the final honors went to Yan Shiqi, but if it weren't for the cruisers and destroyers of the Second Task Force led by Chang Jianxin to block in front of Kimmel in time, I'm afraid Yan Shiqi would not have been able to win the final victory!

In the end, Gan Yongxing's judgment proved to be wrong, and the 3rd Task Force not only defeated the 33rd Task Force, but also won an extremely brilliant victory. In hours of artillery battles. Task Force 3 was like a sharp sword, and it didn't give Task Force 33 much of a chance at all.

Chang Jianxin's years of training in Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 were not in vain, and he caught a fatal mistake made by Kincaid. Moreover, they quickly took advantage of the enemy's mistake and expanded the results of the battle. The final victory was obtained. What made Gan Yongxing even more unbelievable was that in the final stage of the battle, Chang Jianxin not only annihilated the Third Task Force, but also captured two American battleships! This can quite be described as a miracle in naval warfare, since hundreds of years ago. With the exception of the flagship of the British Navy captured in battle, the Imperial Navy never captured an enemy battleship on the battlefield.

"No matter what method is used, no matter how big the loss, we must get those two battleships back at all costs!"

This was an order issued by Nie Renfeng at that time, and the meaning of this order was very clear, even if all the battleships were lost, the two US Navy battleships must be towed back to the empire. Nie Renfeng was well aware of the great significance of capturing the enemy's two battleships. If nothing else, letting the Imperial propaganda agencies use these two battleships for some propaganda can produce a lot of unexpected results on the battlefield!

Nie Renfeng's order was first sent to the Southwest Pacific Theater Command, but when Yan Guozhong got this order. He hesitated. Now the battle had just begun, and none of the strongest opponents had been destroyed, if he had immediately sent the order to the fleet commander. Then the result was that Tan Renhao and Huang Xiaotian immediately led the task force to withdraw from the battle. But the problem is that now Yan Guozhong doesn't even know where the first task force and the fourth task force are, if the two task forces have already entered the sea area where the enemy is fighting. And preparations are underway for battle, and the result of his order is likely to cause heavy losses to both task forces, and the battle will definitely fail!

In addition, in Yan Guozhong's position, and his own reasons, it was impossible for him to immediately see the great significance of capturing two American battleships, and the first thing he wanted to ensure was the victory of the battle, so that his next stage of the combat operation of sweeping Port Moresby and marching into the New Hebrides could begin smoothly. If this results in a defeat, or even a crushing defeat, he will certainly not be able to launch an offensive campaign, and it is even very likely that he will be driven out of the southwest Pacific by the American army in a few months. To be more precise, not only could this campaign fail miserably, but it could not even afford a single defeat. Therefore, Yan Guozhong did not dare to give the order immediately.

Soon after Nie Renfeng asked Gan Yongxing to convey the order, he also reacted, so he called Yan Guozhong directly a few minutes later, asking Yan Guozhong not to rush to give the order first, and wait until the battle during the day had preliminary results before letting the fleet commander carry out this order. This is also the reason why Tan Renhao received orders only after the 32nd Task Force was attacked.

It wasn't until the 32nd Task Force was annihilated by two waves of bombers from the Fourth Task Force, and then the Fourth Task Force was attacked by the U.S. Army, that Nie Renfeng asked Yan Guozhong to send the order. And here, in fact, the limitations of the rear commander's judgment of the battle situation are demonstrated.

Nie Renfeng and Yan Guozhong didn't realize at that time that the biggest threat was not the 32nd Task Force, but the 31st Task Force, and when Yan Guozhong conveyed the order, the 31st Task Force had not yet appeared! If Tan Renhao and Huang Xiaotian had both carried out this order at that time, even the best result would have been to successfully withdraw the 31st Task Force from the battlefield, and the US military would still have a strong enough fleet in the southwest Pacific. The worst result was that the 4th Task Force was devastated, and the Imperial Navy was left with the 1st Task Force alone, and as a result, it moved to the stage of comprehensive strategic defense and lost the ability to attack strategically!

Fortunately, Tan Renhao and Huang Xiaotian are both commanders with extremely personal judgment ability, they did not immediately execute the order after receiving the order, but only after they were sure to kill the 31st Task Force Fleet did they carry out the order issued by the marshal, and finally defeated the counterattack of the American heavy bombers and completed the task assigned by the marshal.

On the evening of the 26th, Nie Renfeng received a battle victory report from Yan Guozhong, and at this point, he and Gan Yongxing relaxed.

"Not only did the Yankees fail to counterattack, but Spruance's hard-earned victory in the Central Pacific was completely undone!"

"It's not that simple, Nimitz will definitely continue to attack, and the question now is what kind of adjustments the U.S. military will make in the southwest Pacific." Nie Renfeng didn't smile until this time, "Nimitz and Spruance won't stop easily, and in addition, MacArthur won't give up easily." We need to speed up preparations for an attack on the Australian continent. In addition, contact Yan Guozhong, if we only leave the Fourth Task Force and the undamaged warships in the Third Task Force, can he launch an offensive operation. If you can, immediately redeploy Task Force 1. ”

"I'll do it immediately, and Tan Renhao definitely wants to come back soon."

"Also, contact Liao Hanxiang and ask him if he can withstand the attack of the US army, and if he can, let him hold on for a while longer." Nie Renfeng hesitated slightly, "Wait until Yan Guozhong has won victory in the Southwest Pacific, and then let him launch a counterattack." Task Force 1 returned directly to Naha, where it rested. ”

Gan Yongxing nodded, and the US military's counterattack in the Central Pacific will definitely continue.

"You've read the information you sent yesterday, right?" Nie Renfeng called Gan Yongxing and walked out of the office, "Let Jiang Zhongmin come to me tomorrow."

Now that the situation in the Pacific theater has been basically decided, we should concentrate on meeting the challenge of the British. ”

"Or according to the previous plan, two small aircraft carriers will be incorporated into the fifth task force?"

Nie Renfeng nodded. "In addition, as soon as possible, the new commander of the second task force will be determined, although the second task force has now existed in name only, but this is the main task force, as long as there is an opportunity, we must restore the combat effectiveness of the second task force as soon as possible, and the batch of warships commissioned at the end of the year will be assigned to the second task force first."

Gan Yongxing wrote down the principal's orders one by one, in fact, all they needed now was to get a good night's sleep!