On the night of the 28th, Task Force 4 reached about 400 nautical miles northeast of Midway, 500 nautical miles from Lysan Island, and more than 700 nautical miles from Necker Island. The fleet turned southeast at half past eight in the evening, approaching Necker Island, and maintained a distance of about 500 nautical miles from Lysan Island at all times.

During the day on the 28th, the Fifth Fleet carried out at least three rounds of bombing of Lysan Island, dispatching more than 600 bomber sorties. Judging from the density of the bombardment, it is likely that only one task force is bombing Leysan Island, and the other task force is not participating in the battle. Because the air force on Lysan Island has been withdrawn, only the anti-aircraft guns on the ground and the anti-aircraft machine guns temporarily mounted can deal with the US bombers, and the air defense combat efficiency is very low. In the three bombings by the US military, less than 30 US fighters were shot down, and most of the US fighters made a forced landing on the sea, and the pilots who parachuted were rescued.

Huang Xiaotian has been paying attention to the battle situation on the side of Laisan Island, and after determining that there is only one task force bombing Laisan Island, Huang Xiaotian is more sure of his previous judgment, Spruance used the bombing of Laisan Island as a bait to lure the Fourth Task Force to be fooled, and then used another task force to ambush the Fourth Task Force and catch the Fourth Task Force off guard. Obviously, the US military will not attack the island of Lysan!

"A new telegram has arrived, our submarine has spotted the landing fleet of the American army."

Huang Xiaotian turned around, he hesitated slightly, and then took the telegram from Yan Yulong's hand. A returning submarine spotted the U.S. landing fleet heading to Necker Island as it passed through the waters near Necke Island, coinciding with the departure of the U.S. landing fleet from Pearl Harbor. In addition, the U.S. military has a small pier on Necke Island, although this pier is not large enough to accommodate all the landing ships and transport vessels. But there must be a large anchorage near Necke Island, which should be enough for all the ships to anchor temporarily.

"This proves even more that the U.S. military will not attack Lysan Island!"

Yan Yulong nodded, and when he received this telegram, he also agreed with Huang Xiaotian's judgment. If the U.S. military wants to attack Lysan Island, then the landing fleet of the U.S. Army should not stop at Necke Island, but should go directly to Lysan Island. It will be possible to land on Laisan Island around the 30th, and by then the Fifth Fleet has already bombed Laisan Island for two days, and with direct fire support, the campaign to land on Laisan Island will be easily successful. However, if the US landing fleet stays on Necke Island, it will miss the opportunity to land on Lysan Island, and after the Fifth Fleet continues to bomb Lysan Island for three days, it will need to replenish ammunition, so it will be impossible to provide direct fire support for the landing force. This is a big taboo in landing operations.

"I bet you, tomorrow the Fifth Fleet will leave Lysan Island, maybe Spruance already knows that we won't be fooled, and he's coming to kill us!"

"I'm not going to bet you on this, if Spruance hadn't figured out that we'd seen through his trap, he'd been killed by Task Force 1."

"Then, we have to think about how to avoid the threat of the Fifth Fleet and at the same time send the American landing fleet to the bottom of the sea."

"Just going to bomb Necke Island?"

Huang Xiaotian hesitated: "Let's take a look at the situation first, we don't have to make a decision so quickly." ”

The two came to the chart table, and when Yan Yulong marked the location of the fleet at this time on the chart, Huang Xiaotian immediately realized a problem.

The fleet is still more than 700 nautical miles from Necker Island, and about 9 hours before dawn, and carrier-based bombers can fly up to 350 overseas to bomb targets. Calculate it accordingly. It would also take 350 nautical miles in nine hours, which is obviously not possible. Therefore, the fleet can only bomb Necke Island at about half past nine on the morning of the 29th at the earliest, and at this time, the reconnaissance and patrol planes on Necker Island must have been out for several hours, and the fleet will fight at the risk of being discovered by the US military in advance. This is certainly unacceptable without making it clear in which direction the Fifth Fleet will maneuver at night.

Yan Yulong also recognized this key problem, the fleet can only bomb Necke Island in the morning, that is, when the US military is most heavily guarded, not to mention the Fifth Fleet, those US bombers on Necke Island are not easy to mess with. Moreover, as long as the Fourth Task Force is exposed, it will immediately fall into the heavy encirclement of the US military, and it will be difficult to escape at that time.

Huang Xiaotian looked up at Yan Yulong. "We can only wait outside, but the problem is. If the U.S. forces were to attack Midway, it would take two days for the landing fleet to get there. Therefore. The Fifth Fleet was more than willing to bomb Midway first, and then the landing fleet set off. If that's the case, then we can be sure. ”

"What?" Yan Yulong was still thinking about how to deal with the landing fleet.

"When the time comes, the Fifth Fleet will be at least hundreds of nautical miles away from us, and we won't need to worry about being hit by the Fifth Fleet when we attack the landing fleet."

Yan Yulong nodded slightly. "Unless Spruance knows where we are, and knows we're going to sneak up on the landing fleet."

"He would definitely have thought that we were going to attack the landing fleet, but ......" Huang Xiaotian swallowed back the words that came to his lips, and then his expression became nervous.

Yan Yulong immediately looked at Huang Xiaotian, and when he noticed Huang Xiaotian's sudden change in expression, he immediately knew that the commander had realized the danger.

"If Spruance is using the landing fleet as a decoy, then the Fifth Fleet is now outflanking our retreat." Huang Xiaotian wiped the sweat from his forehead, "In other words, we have fallen into the trap of the Fifth Fleet, but we don't know what the Fifth Fleet is doing yet!" ”

"One night is enough time for the Fifth Fleet to maneuver for hundreds of nautical miles."

Seeing that Yan Yulong had drawn the possible sea area of the Fifth Fleet on the chart, Huang Xiaotian became even more nervous. He made a serious mistake, Spruance used the landing fleet as a decoy, and by bombing Leysan Island, Huang Xiaotian judged that the Fifth Fleet was in the waters near Lysan Island and could not threaten the Fourth Task Force. The question is. It was only one task force that bombed Lysan Island, so where was the other task force? If Spruance expects Task Force 4 to attack the landing fleet, then another task force must be ambushed near Necker Island, and it is likely that Spruance is directly commanding Task Force 51, maybe Spruance is now arranging reconnaissance operations after dawn, and at the same time making all ground bombers ready to leave before dawn,

"The fleet is ready to turn." Huang Xiaotian made the decision within two minutes, "Sail north." The speed was increased to 31 knots. Yulong, you reset the route, and I'll adjust the reconnaissance arrangement. ”

Yan Yulong immediately went to call the navigation staff officer, he also knew that the fleet was in danger now, and the first task was to avoid danger, as for whether to attack the US landing fleet, it would have to be seen whether the Fourth Task Force could avoid the US army's attack.

After rearranging the fleet's reconnaissance mission, Huang Xiaotian's mood still did not calm down. He had mixed feelings at this point. Nervousness is part there, but it's more of a confusion.

After more than ten days of entanglement with the Fifth Fleet, the roles of the Fourth Task Force and the Fifth Fleet have been switching with each other. Perhaps it is not accurate to describe the relationship between the Fifth Fleet and the Fourth Task Force in terms of hunters and prey, more often both are hunters. It's like two hunters with loaded shotguns, looking for each other in the forest, and seeing each other as their prey. The forest is a great place to hide, for both sides. And whoever is exposed first will be the first to be bullet 0 and will be eliminated. These days, what Huang Xiaotian has done is to try not to expose himself and try not to let his opponent find him. But now he found that the forest was not big enough, and the space for him to move was too narrow.

The atmosphere in the fleet was already tense, and the aviation crew began to inspect the aircraft in advance. With the exception of the reconnaissance plane arranged by Huang Xiaotian, all the fighters were inspected and filled with fuel and ammunition in advance. According to the plan. Before dawn, after the reconnaissance planes departed, the fighters would be lifted into the air, and the fleet would also be in combat mode at this time, ready to deal with the strikes of the US bombers at any time.

The pilots were also mobilized, and all three fighter leaders received their assignments, and of the three fighter squadrons, two squadrons were to take to the skies for patrol, and another squadron was on standby on the flight deck. The pilots will all be seated in the cabin, ready to take off. Huang Xiaotian also made the bomber pilots ready to take off. And the bombing mission was arranged in advance, and if it encountered the Fifth Fleet, then the focus would definitely be on those aircraft carriers in the Fifth Fleet.

Time passed minute by minute, and before dawn, Huang Xiaotian drank three cups of strong coffee. In the past, he rarely drank coffee and preferred tea, but these days, he has to drink several cups of coffee almost every day. The tense atmosphere, the disordered state, and the feeling of being in danger at any moment made Huang Xiaotian feel very tired, and if possible, he even wanted to return to Apra Port early, and then lie down on the bed that would not shake and sleep beautifully.

It was getting brighter, all the reconnaissance planes had departed an hour earlier, and even the seaplanes on the cruiser had been sent out to take charge of the inner search mission. The fighters of both squadrons also took off before dawn and are now patrolling within 120 degrees of the south of the fleet. Because it was far enough away from Necker Island, the ground radar of the three "Rui Beast" class cruisers in the fleet had been activated, and they were closely monitoring the surrounding sky.

After a nine-hour voyage in the evening, the fleet avoided about 250 nautical miles to the north. But Huang Xiaotian still felt that this distance was not enough, if the whereabouts of the Fourth Task Force had been exposed, then the Fifth Fleet was very likely to take the initiative to catch up. In addition, after a night's maneuver, the task force that bombed Caisang Island yesterday must have also moved to the waters east of Midway. At present, the only thing Huang Xiaotian can count on is that the ground reconnaissance plane he sent can find the Fifth Fleet as soon as possible, and at the same time, the ground reconnaissance plane that took off from Midway Island can find another task force as soon as possible.

The effect of a highly stressful mental state on the officers and men of the fleet is great, and it is easy to get tired. When Huang Xiaotian noticed the look on the staff officer's face, he also recognized this. If there had been a decision with the Fifth Fleet, perhaps everyone would not have been so stressed, and they would not have been so nervous. It is precisely because he has not fought a decisive battle with the Fifth Fleet that this will make the officers and men very depressed and tired, and for a long time, even Huang Xiaotian does not know whether he can hold out until the day when the First Task Force and the Second Task Force arrive.

"Grab a bite to eat, you didn't have a late-night snack last night?" Yan Yulong was also very nervous, but he didn't put pressure and influence on Huang Xiaotian anymore. "Fill your stomach first, anyway, we still have more than 100 fighters and more than 200 bombers, and if Spruance wants to kill us, then he will have to pay a heavy price."

"Hopefully, our reconnaissance planes will be able to crash into the Fifth Fleet first, which is much better than being discovered by the Fifth Fleet first."

Yan Yulong nodded, and then he nibbled on the bacon bun in his hand, he didn't eat supper, and now he is hungry.

The two of them ate breakfast silently, and their moods were quite complicated. Huang Xiaotian didn't feel as remorse as last time, he knew that sooner or later he would have to break off with the Fifth Fleet, maybe this was the opportunity he was waiting for.

After seven o'clock, the reconnaissance plane still did not send a message, and just when both of them were a little impatient, a message came from Midway, not that the reconnaissance plane had discovered the news of the US fleet, but that Midway Island had been bombed by US carrier-based bombers. At this moment, Huang Xiaotian and Yan Yulong were surprised, could it be that Spruance hadn't thought about dealing with the Fourth Task Force at all, but had been preparing for the attack on Midway?

"Maybe it was done by the same task force, at least judging from the news sent by Han Shaofeng, the first batch of US bombers to arrive was just a task force bomber." Yan Yulong was also puzzled, "So far, we have not found the second task force of the US army, and the danger has not been lifted." ”

"If Spruance leaves the second task force near Necker Island, we'll miss another chance to take out the Fifth Fleet." Huang Xiaotian sighed, "After the reconnaissance planes come back, before letting the second group of reconnaissance planes leave, the fleet turned around and prepared to return to Midway." ”

"But......" Yan Yulong felt a little inappropriate.

"I'll go rest for a few hours first, and I'll replace you in the afternoon." Huang Xiaotian is indeed very tired, he has not closed his eyes for two days and two nights, "If you find anything, come and wake me up immediately." ”

Yan Yulong nodded, and sent Huang Xiaotian out of the command cabin, he also knew that now Huang Xiaotian needed time to recover his energy.