"Orders that arrived a few hours ago."

Hao Dongjue was also very happy to see Tan Renhao rush back so quickly, and when he handed the message to Tan Renhao, he asked curiously, "What are you doing in a hurry to recruit you back this time?" ”

"Something that doesn't concern us."

Tan Renhao replied heartlessly, and at the same time carefully read the contents of the telegram, which was sent after he left the naval headquarters. "Let's go support the Marines?"

"The battle of the Marine Corps has reached a critical point, and it was General Yan Guozhong who made a request, and now the only support force that can be mobilized is us."

Hao Dongjue leaned on the chart table next to him, "Is it really something that has nothing to do with us?" ”

"Are you finished? Won't I tell you something? ”

Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, Yan Guozhong was sent eight hours ago, that is, before Tan Renhao left Zhoushan and had not yet arrived in Ryukyu. "It seems that the victory on the Marine side is near, when will the fleet be able to leave?"

"Ready to go!"

Hao Dongjue was still laughing.

"What are you doing? Go and give the order, let the nautical staff take charge of setting the course, and wait until it comes to me! ”

Tan Renhao glared at Hao Dongjue, and then laughed as well.

After Hao Dongjue went to give the order for the fleet to depart, Tan Renhao greeted several staff officers in the command cabin, and then left the command cabin and returned to his quarters. Hao Dongjue came over ten minutes later, this kid is not stupid, and he knows that Tan Renhao can't say something in front of the staff officer, so he will let him come to the cabin.

"Okay, can you tell me now?"

"Sit, do you have any cigarettes?"

Tan Renhao was about to lose his breath on the plane, and when he went out, he forgot to bring a cigarette.

Hao Dongjue immediately took out a cigarette and lit one for his partner with a quick movement.

"I'll tell you about private matters first, I believe that I have already sent it out for you, and you can seize the opportunity yourself. I'm not going to intervene, can I catch up. It's up to you! ”

"Don't worry, you don't know what I'm capable of?"

As soon as the words came out, Hao Dongjue knew that he had said the wrong thing.

"I'm just worried about your kid's ability!"

Tan Renhao immediately knocked on his partner, "Okay, let's talk about business now." This time I went back, in fact, the last time Taiwan was bombed. ”

Hao Dongjue immediately got serious, he thought for a moment, and said, "The empire wants to take revenge?" ”

Tan Renhao nodded. Then he jerked a few puffs.

"Let's go?"

Hao Dongjue almost jumped up, "What the hell is going on?" Could it be that let's bomb the capital of the enemy country like last time, but this time it's not Tokyo, it's Washington? ”

"Why are you so excited? Did I say we were going? ”

"Then what are you telling you to go back to?"

Hao Dongjue glanced at Tan Renhao in surprise, and then immediately laughed.

"What are you laughing at?"

Now it's Tan Renhao's turn to be puzzled.

"Did you kid take this opportunity to go back and make love to his daughter-in-law?"

"Where did you think of it?"

Tan Renhao smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Yingyu is still in school." And ......"

"Then you must be holding back. Isn't it? ”

"Damn, if I don't give you some color, you don't know who I am!"

Hao Dongjue immediately jumped up. Flashed to the side, he had tasted the taste of Tan Renhao beating people, although Tan Renhao's figure was not very burly, but the taste of being punched was still uncomfortable.

Tan Renhao didn't make any more trouble, the cabin was so small, and if the officers and soldiers outside knew that the captain's and deputies' two leaders were fighting, the joke would be big. "Okay, I won't fix you, sit down, let's get down to business."

Hao Dongjue sat back with a grin. Still looking at the partner meaningfully.

"This time the retaliation mission was undertaken by the Strategic Strike Force......"

"Luo Yunchong? No wonder he didn't come back back to Ryukyu for so long. ”

"Luo Yunchong hasn't come back yet?"

Tan Renhao frowned, it only took two or three days for the troops to change their guards, and most of the things should be the responsibility of the staff officers, Luo Yun rushed over there for several days, and there was no reason to leave his troops in front when the battle on the front line was urgent, and go to the rear to enjoy the happiness by himself.

"Yes, I contacted him yesterday, and he said that it would take a few days to rush back, and now Jiang Shikuan is directing the bombing operation instead of him."

Tan Renhao nodded slightly. This is very abnormal, Jiang Shikuan is just the commander of the first division, and there is no reason for him to replace Luo Yunchong, the army commander.

"Is it really Luo Yun rushing to do it?"

"Probably unlikely."

Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, "This matter is Liao Hanxiang's personal responsibility, and the transfer place is the troops of the Third Army, Luo Yunchong is the commander of the First Army, what reason is there for him to meddle in the affairs of the Third Army?" ”

"That's right, and General Liao Hanxiang should know about this powerful relationship."

Tan Renhao didn't say any more, he didn't believe his own words, and felt that there was something wrong with it. This mission was extremely risky, and it was also extremely important, and the commander of the Third Army had no actual combat experience, which was far worse than Luo Yunchong. Liao Hanxiang only used the bombers of the Third Army, and the pilots were all selected through volunteers, and the pilots of the First Army must have been the most selected. Liao Hanxiang himself has not been on the battlefield for several decades, let alone directly commanded a bombing operation, he is just a commander, and the specific work still has to be handed over to people with actual combat experience and extremely rich experience to organize the group. In this way, Luo Yunchong is undoubtedly the best candidate. In addition, judging from the time when Luo Yunchong left Iwo Jima and returned to Ryukyu Island, even that plan may have been taken up by him!

Thinking of this, Tan Renhao laughed secretly. He knows Luo Yunchong too well, don't look at this kid who is kind and angry all day long, but he really wants to be ruthless, more powerful than anyone else. If nothing else, he did a better job than anyone else when it came to bombing Japan. Now there are few places that Japan can bomb, and he will never let go of the opportunity to make another contribution!

"What do you think?"

Hao Dongjue had been observing Tan Renhao's expression.

"Nothing, the fleet has departed?"

Tan Renhao stood up, he already felt that the battleship was speeding up, "Let's go, let's go to the command cabin, maybe General Yan Guozhong is waiting for us!" ”

The Marines were indeed waiting for Task Force 1 to arrive. Although HNA was able to provide strong fire support to the Marine Corps, the bombers deployed by HNA on Agrihan Island and Aramagan Island were limited, and the energy of the pilots was also limited. Other than that. The artillery support of the fleet is to a large extent irreplaceable by the bombers (especially the durability and timeliness, both of which will not change much in the whole war) Without the support of the artillery fleet, the marines can only rely on their own artillery when they send out the bombers of the navy in many cases. Due to the limitations of supplies, space, and artillery power (the field guns of the Marine Corps were simply not comparable to the power of large-caliber naval guns), it was impossible for the artillery of the Marine Corps to replace the fleet.

Northwest Airfield on Anatahan Island (At that time there was also a field airfield for U.S. troops on the island.) On the east side of the island, the scale is small) has not stopped in the past few days since Tan Renhao returned to the naval headquarters. Within three days, the U.S. military reinforced the airport four times, with more than 7,000 reinforcements, plus the more than 2,000 troops originally deployed at the airport, nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers had been invested. The Tang Imperial Marines are also desperately attacking, even if they blow up the airport, they will take it down. Within three days. Yan Guozhong mobilized six regiments. With more than 15,000 troops and six regiments taking turns, the offensive hardly stopped.

The battle is fought to this extent. is exactly what Yan Guozhong needs. The US defenders on the island were more than 30,000 (actually reached 35,000), and when they landed, the US troops did not waste troops on the beach at all, and it was clear that they wanted to fight a "protracted war". The surprise attack of the "Z Fleet" is proof that the purpose of the US military is to delay time. Therefore, after setting foot on Anatahan Island, Yan Guozhong changed his offensive tactics and chose the northwest airfield as the decisive battle site, and worked hard to pull the US troops out to fight. Rather than fighting for the strongholds of the US military one by one. As long as the defense of the American army is consumed, then victory is in sight.

The Marines' tactic was successful, and the airfield was the key to the island. After capturing the airport, the Tang Army could completely solve the remnants of the American army by besieging it, and it could also use the airport to directly bomb Saipan and use the reserves to launch a campaign to land on Saipan.

After three days of fighting, the casualties on both sides exceeded 12,000 officers and men, including at least 9,000 American troops (many surrendered), and the losses of the Tang Army were also very large, and the first four regiments into battle were reduced by more than 15 percent. The two regiments that were later put into operation were also reduced by nearly 10%. The battle also reached a critical stage, and the US military was still continuously sending reinforcements to the airport (in order to lure the US troops, the Marine Corps deliberately did not surround the airport, but tried to use artillery fire to kill the US troops on the way to reinforcements) According to Yan Guozhong's estimate, after another three days of fighting, the US troops will be almost consumed. By then, there may still be more than 10,000 U.S. troops resisting, but most of the U.S. heavy weapons, especially artillery, have been destroyed in the fierce battle, and the U.S. military's supplies are close to exhaustion. With soldiers, no ammunition, and no food, the U.S. military is not far from being finished.

At this time, letting the fleet participate in the war is naturally to accelerate the defeat of the US army, and in Yan Guozhong's opinion, as long as those escort warships of the First Task Force come over and fire a few shots, the Yankees will almost be completely finished!

After leaving the anchorage at Iwo Jima, the 1st Task Force sailed south for nearly 20 hours at the fastest speed, arriving on the morning of the 12th. Before Tan Renhao returned to the headquarters, he had already arranged for the shelling of the formation. Because the US air force has basically lost the ability to operate in the waters near Anatahan Island, Tan Renhao left only two large air defense cruisers, four destroyers to escort the aircraft carrier, and the other warships were incorporated into the artillery strike formation, which arrived close to the coast and provided the most direct artillery support for the marines.

The arrival of the fleet also made the US military despair. The decisive battle on Anatahan Island broke out on the 13th. The U.S. military concentrated a force of 5,000 troops to reinforce the airport (the largest reinforcement unit of the U.S. army in the past six days of fighting) Yan Guozhong also sent six regiments in his hand, as well as two regiments of reserves, a total of eight regiments, and more than 17,000 Marine officers and soldiers.

The fierce fighting lasted from two hours before dawn until evening, and the shelling of more than a dozen warships that were almost about to rush to the island's beaches barely stopped. HNA flew 1,500 bomber sorties (some of them fighter planes) in that day, and Task Force 1 flew 600 bomber sorties. In total, the fleet and aviation have tilted more than 2,500 tons of ammunition on Anatahan Island, of which the northwestern airfield, which covers an area of eight square kilometers, has withstood at least 1,500 tons of ammunition, with an average of nearly 200 tons per square kilometer!

If the average area ammunition consumption is calculated, during these more than ten hours of fighting, the blows taken by the northwestern airfield of Anatahan Island can be regarded as the first few in the entire war. Such a fierce fire strike destroyed not only the bodies of the American troops, but also their will to resist. In the evening, when the Marines entered the airfield, most of the remaining American troops (who survived were miraculously) had basically surrendered.

The fierce battle, which lasted six days, finally ended with the victory of the Don army. In these six days of fighting, the US army lost more than 5,500 officers and soldiers, and more than 12,000 were captured (some of them were wounded), and the Tang Army lost more than 1,600 officers and soldiers and wounded more than 4,500. And this is just a battle for an airport with an area of eight square kilometers, an unprecedented and tragic battle!

The victory did not come easily, but it also determined the outcome of the battle on Anatahan Island. By this time, there were less than 10,000 American troops left on the island (thousands more had been killed or captured in the days leading up to the battle) and all were retreating to the field airfield on the east side of the island. The Tang Army has basically locked the victory, and the next thing to do is only to complete the sweeping and occupation work, and try to eliminate the American troops who are ready to escape!

Task Force 1 also had a new mission at this time.

"The response of the Navy Command is really timely!"

Tan Renhao shook the telegram for a moment, and then laughed, "Dongjue, arrange for the fleet to turn, we will undertake the interception mission during the day, and let the Navy and the Marine Corps do it at night!" ”

Hao Dongjue laughed, and immediately gave the order for the fleet to turn. After yesterday's fierce battles (basically firing guns and dropping bombs), the enthusiasm of the officers and men of the fleet has been mobilized. After a few days of rest, the officers and men of the fleet also needed to warm up. That's just a warm-up, and the real battle isn't yet to come!