On the USS Franklin, the flagship of Task Force 51, Spruance waited impatiently. Spruance had planned the operation, but until now, he still had no hope of victory. As Vice Admiral, Spruance knew very well that Nimitz had given him enough opportunities, and if he couldn't get a game-changing victory, then he would leave the Navy, and in disgrace!

One can imagine how much pressure Spruance was at this time. He knew that Nimitz had never doubted his ability, otherwise he would not have tried to protect Spruance in the first place, let alone trust his judgment many times, and at this time he would have given him the last bit of power to command. At the same time, Spruance also knew that Nimitz's trust did not represent the trust of others, and if it wasn't for Nimitz, Halsey and others to guarantee him last time, he would definitely have left the Fifth Fleet. The president won't always believe him, and now Nimitz hasn't sent a war report for the Battle of Midway, and if Spruance loses again, not even need, if he misses the chance to turn the tide of the war again, then the outcome that awaits him is to leave the Navy.

For military personnel, honor is more important than life. Since the birth of the "professional soldier", honor has been with all military personnel. Whether on the battlefield or off the battlefield, a soldier can fight for honor, can duel for honor, and can pay any price for honor. Spruance was also a professional soldier, no matter how cold, high-minded, or whatever, in the eyes of others, he was still a soldier, a professional soldier who valued honor more than life.

Long before returning to Pearl Harbor. Spruance was thinking about what to do next.

The outcome of the Battle of Midway was completely unexpected, with several minor mistakes nearly ruining Task Force 51. If it hadn't been for the "Franklin" running at the front, I'm afraid he would have been doomed. The unexpected result forced Spruance to look for some other way to win. He had to add adventure elements from the campaign planning stage.

This is something that Spruance has never done before. When it comes to commanding operations, Spruance is definitely a very adventurous commander. But when planning a campaign, he tries to make sure that he doesn't take risks, and if he can win in the safest way, then why take risks?

This campaign was risky from the very beginning, whether the aircraft carrier "Franklin" could be repaired. The possibility of success in attacking Wake Island, and every subsequent step, is almost a risk, and if something goes wrong in any link, then the result is a complete loss. Spruance had no other choice, he was too hungry for a victory, a victory that could turn the tide of battle. Perhaps he did not put his personal honor and disgrace into this plan, judging from the situation of the war at that time, it was not only Spruance who needed to win, but also the US Navy.

The assault on Wake Island also did not go well. But this was not planned. Spruance did not underestimate the Tang Empire's land marines, whether in the Mariana Islands or in the Solomon Islands. Later, on Wake Island and Midway, the combat effectiveness shown by the Tang Imperial Marine Corps was admirable enough, and the courage shown by the officers and soldiers of the Tang Imperial Marine Corps was even more worthy of the respect of all opponents.

Attacking Wake Island was Spruance's first inning. As a result, the battle on the island surprised Spruance, and the actions of the Tang Imperial fleet surprised Spruance even more, and the second task force did not rush to the battlefield of Wake Island after leaving Apra Harbor, and it took a few days to reach the waters of the Marshall Islands, and then wandered outside the battlefield, not coming to rescue at all, as if they were not here to participate in the battle, but to watch the fire from the other side! At this point, Spruance had to put on his second inning, which was to bomb Midway.

The bombing of Midway was an extremely risky operation. Both sides have used aircraft carriers to attack airfields on the islands several times, and both warring sides know exactly what to do, but just as the bombers on the islands know how to deal with these threats. For example, the sneak attack on Wake Island almost failed, and the bombers of the Tang Empire took off in time and moved to Kwajalein Atoll after the airfield was destroyed, and not many were destroyed. Spruance would not have found it difficult if he had still had a full Task Force 51 at his disposal, but all he could use at the time was three small carriers, and the USS Franklin carrier battle group had a more important mission.

The sneak attack was quite bold and a reversal of previous tactics. Spruance chose to sneak up in the afternoon rather than in the early morning. This requires the fleet to enter the range of shore-based reconnaissance planes during the day and to bomb airfields at the risk of being attacked by shore-based bombers. Almost all of the staff officers at the time were opposed to this arrangement, but Spruance did not listen to anyone's objections. He was confident enough, because he had studied in detail the deployment of the Tang Empire's reconnaissance planes and confirmed that he had found a loophole, so he was confident of success.

Spruance was indeed a success, the sneak attack was quite perfect, when the shore-based reconnaissance planes returned, the bomber group reached the sky over Midway, and avoided the radar on the island, successfully dropped the bombs, and then the supplementary bombing at dusk completely paralyzed the airfields, and the heavy shelling at night destroyed both airfields. As a result, the US military lost only a dozen fighters.

After completing the sneak attack, Spruance continued to wait, but the result still disappointed him, the second task force did not leave the waters of the Marshall Islands, and did not even mean to come out, as if the commander of the second task force had not received any news, or that he had simply come for sightseeing, not for combat.

At this point, Spruance had to put on the third game he had planned for a long time, which was to lure the second task force into battle with the convoy. And in order to make the commander of the second task force have no doubts, he also chose an extremely clever time for the bombers to bomb Midway Island again, so that the commander of the Tang Empire would definitely think that the 51st task force could not return to Wake Island in time, and the second task force would definitely attack immediately. Intercept the convoy of convoys bound for Wake Island!

Spruance's primary goal was not to capture any island, but to destroy Task Force 2. The reason he gave Nimitz was that the only way to defeat Task Force 2 was to defeat it. Only then can we ensure sea supremacy in the Central Pacific, before the other fleets of the Tang Empire rush back. Only then did they have enough confidence to complete the counterattack. But in reality, Spruance looked at the counterattack from the perspective of the entire battlefield.

Just like Tan Renhao's analysis, if the Second Task Force had been operating in the Central Pacific, the US military would have been afraid to counterattack even if it was overwhelming. This will greatly delay the speed of the U.S. military's counterattack, and win extremely valuable time for the three main fleets of the empire to establish victory in the southwest Pacific, and at the same time win valuable time for counterattack and offensive in the Central Pacific theater. On the contrary, if the second task force is finished, then the Tang Empire will have no aircraft carriers operating in the Central Pacific. When the time came, the Tang Empire had two choices, one was to transfer an aircraft carrier fleet from the southwest Pacific, and the other was to endure the defeat in the Central Pacific. Either way, the final result is likely to cause the Tang Imperial Navy to lose the initiative in the Pacific Ocean and turn from offensive to all-out defense. And the US military's strategic counterattack goal has been achieved. At least until the middle of 26 years, the Navy of the Tang Empire will not be able to save the situation, and when the time comes. It is quite possible that the front will return to the Mariana Islands.

At that time, there were not many people who could realize the importance of the Second Task Force on the battlefield like Tan Renhao and Spruance, and even Zheng Guanhua did not have this understanding. Even the top commanders of both sides probably don't have this understanding. Spruance realized this, so he put the elimination of Task Force 2 on the top priority, and all other actions were set up to annihilate Task Force 2, whether it was landing on Wake Island, bombing Midway, or using the transport fleet as bait, this was a trap for Task Force 2!

If Spruance was a hunter, he was certainly a patient hunter. To be more precise, Spruance is like an angler, in order to catch fish, he prepared a lot of bait, and he was very patient to release these bait one by one. But at the same time, Spruance didn't even tell Nimitz about his intentions, and even Nimitz didn't know what Spruance was going to do. The whole campaign is very well planned, and all parts seem to be connected together, without any drag.

While hiding from Nimitz, Spruance also believes that it can fool his opponents.

As long as the commander of the Tang Empire regards this series of actions of the US military as a normal strategic counterattack, then the second task force will be fooled, and will definitely be fooled!

Even Tan Renhao was finally confused by Spruance's series of actions. When Liao Hanxiang received warnings from Tan Renhao one after another, his vigilance relaxed a lot.

After learning that Midway Island was bombed by nearly 100 bombers again and that the US transport fleet was about to arrive at Wake Island, Liao Hanxiang also quickly calculated that it was impossible for the three small aircraft carriers to return to Wake Island in a short period of time, and therefore could not pose a threat to the Second Task Force.

This order has two key points, one is to intercept the US convoy, and the other is to withdraw safely. When Zheng Guanhua received this order, he quickly made arrangements for the battle. The Second Task Force bypassed south of Wake Island, then sent bombers to bomb the US convoy, and after completing the bombing, immediately returned south, without giving the US troops any chance to strike him. But at the same time, Zheng Guanhua also has two problems.

One is that he can only send bombers to bomb the U.S. convoy. If he wants to use the warships, firstly, they are too far away and may not be able to catch up, and secondly, these warships may not have time to evade the US bombers, and they are very likely to be bombed by the US forces.

Second, he has only one aircraft carrier, and the number of bombers that an aircraft carrier can dispatch is quite limited, and even if all the reconnaissance planes are used as bombers, they cannot meet the requirements, so he must consider letting the fighters carry out bombing missions, and even decide whether it is necessary to carry out supplementary bombing according to the bombing results.

These two problems eventually forced Zheng Guanhua to make a risky decision, that is, the fleet must go out of the sea about 150 to 180 nautical miles southeast of Wake Island, which would leave the fleet out of the cover of shore-based fighters. But at that time, Zheng Guanhua did not have anything to worry about, he had already received clear information that the US fleet was still operating on Midway Island, and it would rush over within a day, and as long as the fleet retreated in the afternoon, it would be able to avoid being bombed by the US troops. In addition, the U.S. military does not yet control the airfield on Wake Island, so he does not need to worry about being attacked by U.S. shore-based bombers.

After this battle plan was determined, the second task force headed for the predetermined area of attack. At this time, it was already the night of the 24th, and no one would have imagined that the second task force was sailing towards the abyss from which it would never recover.

Everyone including Tan Renhao ignored one point, that is, the wounded American aircraft carrier, in fact, they were not wrong, or rather, they did not expect that the US military could repair this aircraft carrier in just three days!

In the "Battle of Midway," the aircraft carrier of the "Franklin" fleet was hit by five shots, which is a certain result. According to the past situation, or extrapolation, five 500-kilogram aviation armor-piercing shells may not be able to sink the "Essex" class aircraft carrier, but they can seriously damage the aircraft carrier, and it is very normal for the US military to spend several months to repair this aircraft carrier. Therefore, when considering the campaign plan, everyone excluded the aircraft carrier from the combat sequence of the US Navy.

No one is to blame for not expecting an additional aircraft carrier for the US military, because before that, no US aircraft carrier was able to quickly enter the battle after being hit by five bullets. This is everyone's idea, but war does not shift or change at the will of one side!