The sky gradually darkened, and as Hao Dongjue had predicted, none of the three groups of reconnaissance planes arranged during the day had achieved anything, and the US fleet was still maneuvering, and did not enter the reconnaissance and search range of the First Task Force during the day. At around seven o'clock, the Fourth Task Force also sent planes to deliver the news, and the three groups of reconnaissance planes arranged by Huang Xiaotian during the day did not yield anything. More news came in the night.

The battle on Port Moresby's side has not yet been decided. Yan Guozhong had already arranged a convoy of transport ships, and on the 22nd sent reinforcements of at least three divisions, as well as a large number of weapons and equipment, ammunition and supplies, and then the Marines would launch a general attack in Port Moresby. If the attack does not go well, it will force the U.S. fleet to reinforce Port Moresby, creating an opportunity for Task Force 4, which is lying in ambush nearby. If the attack goes well, it will force the US fleet to counterattack in the direction of the Solomon Islands, creating an opportunity for the First Task Force to annihilate the enemy. This was a key part of the deployment of the Tan Renhao campaign, and although the departure time of the transport fleet was two days later than scheduled, it was basically within the expected range of Tan Renhao.

HNA long-range reconnaissance planes patrolled the waters northeast of the New Hebrides for a day, and more than a dozen of the submarines that received the news had completed their combat mission of breaking diplomatic relations, and the submarines that were returning to Rabaul also received orders to move to several straits in the New Hebrides to carry out reconnaissance missions. None of these reconnaissance planes, submarines (most of which take two to three days to deploy in place) made no discovery, and the US fleet did not pass through the straits of the New Hebrides and headed for the Central Pacific theater.

In addition, Yan Guozhong also made the marines on Kuah Island ready. The landing fleet is attacking the island of Kuah. After receiving the telegram sent back by Tan Renhao during the day, Yan Guozhong also saw it as a challenge. It's also an opportunity. If the main US fleet leaves for the Central Pacific, then the attack on the New Hebrides will begin in advance. At that time, the 4th Task Force will entangle the other two US task forces in the Coral Sea, and the 1st Task Force and the Naval Heavy Bombers will destroy the US airfields in the New Hebrides first. Task Force 3 provided close artillery support, followed by the landing of the marines.

Wait until the U.S. military reacts. The Marines have already seized the first springboard, then the New Hebrides are in danger.

The most common news was the battle on Wake Island. The U.S. Marines came ashore at about eight o'clock. The US troops did not prepare for artillery fire in the early stage of the landing operation, but only prepared for artillery fire for about two hours before the landing team went ashore. As a result, the landing operation of the American army did not go well. The casualties rate of the first two groups of US Marines who came ashore exceeded 60 percent, and the two sides fought repeatedly for 10 hours on the beach. By daybreak, the Imperial Marines defending Wake Island had suffered heavy losses (at least 4,000 casualties), and with the arrival of the third landing force of the American Army, the Imperial Marines had to retreat to the second line of defense and begin preparations for another counterattack during the night.

During the daytime fighting, the U.S. military bombed Wake Island four times, each with an interval of about two and a half to three hours. Intelligence officers judged that only three small aircraft carriers were bombers taking off to bomb Wake Island in turn. Tan Renhao carefully studied the arrival time and the time taken by these four bombings. Most of all, Tan Renhao came to the conclusion that the U.S. fleet was at most 150 nautical miles away from Wake Island. Maybe only 120 nautical miles, and he had to admire the efficiency of the US military aviation service personnel, as well as the physical strength of the pilots.

Night. The fourth group of U.S. Marines landed on Wake Island before 10 o'clock, the first batch of heavy equipment was delivered in the evening, and the U.S. troops deployed a mortar battalion on the beach position.

The counterattack of the troops defending the island began at half past ten, but the problem was. At this time, there were no more troops on the island to launch a large-scale counterattack. In order to ensure that the second task force arrived, the defending force had to leave enough defensive forces behind. As a result, less than 1,500 Marines took part in the counterattack that night. At this time, the U.S. military on Wake Island has exceeded 12,000 Perhaps, for the officers and men of the Marine Corps, their only advantage is individual combat effectiveness, and the U.S. military has not had time to expand the landing ground, and the depth of defense is less than 300 meters!

Fighting on Wake Island was raging throughout the night. The U.S. military's strong superiority in strength made it hopeless for the Marine Corps to counterattack, but the short depth of the U.S. military also created a lot of trouble for them. Large quantities of ammunition were piled up on the beach, and there was no time to disperse. The combat effectiveness of the 1,500 Marine Corps officers and men should not be underestimated, and while the US troops had not yet set up a solid defensive line, these 1,500 Marine officers and men exchanged their own sacrifices for more than twice the enemy's sacrifices, and also sabotaged the US troops' landing plan. At that time, seventy percent of the war materials sent by the US military to the beach were destroyed, especially the ammunition, which was almost all blown up. And the U.S. military was not able to repair the line of defense all night. It wasn't until dawn that the U.S. artillery fleet returned to the battlefield, and then the bombers arrived again. The counterattack of the Imperial Marines had to be stopped.

Even Spruance did not expect that the Tang Imperial Marines would launch a counterattack of this scale when there were less than half of their strength left, and the total number of officers and men of the Tang Imperial Marines who could fight on the island was less than 5,000, and as a result, the landing plan of the US army was completely disrupted. It was originally planned to advance to the hinterland of the island during the day on the 21st, but as a result, it was not until the 23rd that the US Marines completed the construction of the landing ground, and had to face small-scale harassment by the Tang Imperial Marines for two consecutive nights. In these days of fighting, the US army lost almost half a division of marines!

There was only one reason for the setback of the US landing operation, and that was the insufficient firepower preparation before the war. In landing operations, sea supremacy and air supremacy are the key factors on the surface, but in order for these two factors to play a role, they must ultimately be implemented in terms of firepower; without adequate firepower preparations, landing operations will not go smoothly or will even fail completely. In the early days of the war, the Tang Imperial Marines also suffered a lot in this regard. For example, the combat operation of landing on the island of Ryukyu. Before the Marines came ashore, the ground firepower was extremely poorly prepared, and the end result was the loss of tens of thousands of officers and men. It took months to lay down the island! The Don Imperial Marines quickly learned their lesson, and in later life. Especially when fighting the American forces, almost every landing operation has several days of artillery preparation time in the early stage of the operation, bombing, shelling, etc., before the Marines go ashore. The enemy's defenses were almost crushed, and the landing operation was naturally much easier.

It's not that the U.S. Marine Corps doesn't know this principle. After participating in the war for more than a year, although the US military did not launch a large-scale landing operation in the Pacific Ocean, it fought dozens of anti-landing operations, and in the anti-landing operations, the US military discovered long ago that the greatest threat to him was not the officers and men of the Tang Imperial Marine Corps who went ashore, but the shells fired by those warships and bombs dropped by bombers before the Marine Corps went ashore! In the case of the Saipan landing operation, the artillery preparation before the landing of the Tang Empire marines took more than five days. More than seventy percent of the exposed fortifications were destroyed, and the warships and bombers of the Don Empire dropped more than 20,000 tons of ammunition in these days. As a result, by the time the Tang Imperial Marines came ashore, the American defense forces were almost unable to organize effective resistance.

The problem now is that the American fleet does not have time to prepare for artillery fire. In fact, this is also a huge loophole in the plan, Spruance did not take into account the difficulty of the landing operation, thinking that as long as he seized the supremacy of the sea and the air, and used 40,000 to fight 8,000, it would definitely win. The U.S. military will indeed win, but the price to be paid before victory is something that no one can expect.

The commander of the Imperial Marine Corps on Wake Island would send a telegram every hour to Liao Hanxiang to report on the situation on the battlefield. After receiving two or three telegrams, Liao Hanxiang would send the summary of the ground battle report to Yan Guozhong and the naval headquarters, and then the news would be sent to Tan Renhao. Regarding the tenacious battle of the Marines on Wake Island, Tan Renhao can only sigh. If there were 15,000 Marines on Wake Island, the U.S. landing operation would have been a complete failure. But the problem is that before this, most of the marines originally stationed on Wake Island have been transferred to Midway, and Liao Hanxiang has no extra troops in his hands, and now the entire defense line is tight. If it weren't for the urgent reinforcement of 3,000 troops, Wake Island would have fallen by now.

Tan Renhao is still patiently waiting, at least all the news now proves one thing, that is, Halsey is still active in the Coral Sea, and has not traveled to the Central Pacific. He was busy until twelve o'clock before going to bed, and when he returned to the command cabin at six o'clock in the morning, an important piece of news arrived: the Second Task Force had reached the sea about 500 nautical miles southwest of Wake Island!

At this time, the commander of the second task force was Commodore Zheng Guanhua. He was only slightly wounded in the Battle of Midway, and most of his wounds are now healing. This time the fleet was dispatched urgently, and after receiving the order of General Liao Hanxiang, Zheng Guanhua immediately led the fleet to set off. To be precise, it was the reinforced USS Bear Lake aircraft carrier battle group that set off.

Because the damage of the "Xuanwu" could not be repaired in Apra Harbor, Zheng Guanhua was unable to organize the most powerful air defense warship in the fleet. The "Lake Bell" aircraft carrier was escorted by three large air defense cruisers of the "Li Jing" class, two cruisers of the "Jianghe" class, and eight destroyers. In addition, Zheng Guanhua also brought two "Trotto" class heavy cruisers and twelve other destroyers, which was the entire family of the second task force at that time.

When leaving Apra Harbor, Zheng Guanhua was clearly told that his mission was not to kill the American fleet, but to force the American fleet to leave Wake Island and let the subsequent transport fleet reach Wake Island, so that the defenders of Wake Island could hold on. Therefore, Task Force 2 took the southern route, moving as far as possible under the cover of shore-based fighters in the Caroline Islands to avoid a surprise attack.

This is also the first time that Zheng Guanhua has commanded a fleet to fight alone, even if the second task force is only a strengthened aircraft carrier battle group at most, but he knows very well that this is the only aircraft carrier battle group of the Imperial Navy in the Central Pacific. Liao Hanxiang has already asked the Navy Command to reinforce two small aircraft carriers, but now these two small aircraft carriers are still training outside the Yangtze River, and the Navy Command did not immediately agree to this request. Zheng Guanhua had no other hope, since he was asked to drag the enemy, he could only deal with it carefully.

All day, Zheng Guanhua was thinking about this combat operation. He also received relevant information that the US fleet has three small aircraft carriers, and the aviation strike force of these three small aircraft carriers is comparable to that of the "Lake Bell" aircraft carrier battle group, that is, both sides can deal a fatal blow to the other. But Zheng Guanhua also has a question, that is, the frequency of US bombers on Wake Island is too high, right? Four batches of bombers were dispatched in one day, and each time there were hundreds of them, leaving aside the discussion of whether these bombers had time to be overhauled and whether the physical strength of the American pilots could withstand such high-intensity actions, those service personnel alone would probably have to be half busy to death. At that time, only Task Force 1 had ever dispatched four batches of bombers in one day, while the other fleets were able to make three sorties of bombers in 12 hours during the day.

Zheng Guanhua did not adopt any risky strategy, and he was not even in a hurry to rush to Wake Island. It's not that he doesn't care about the battle on Wake Island, it's that he feels there's something wrong. In any case, the waters near Wake Island are quite dangerous, and to hold off the US fleet, all he has to do is to let the US military know that the second task force has appeared near Wake Island, and perhaps, the US submarines have already helped him with this. Then, he should try to hide within the cover range of shore-based fighters, and then wait for an opportunity, or rather, for Task Force 1 to come from the southwest Pacific.

With this in mind, Zheng Guanhua kept the fleet moving at a speed of 18 knots, and he did not let the fleet go into radio silence prematurely. And throughout the route, during the day, a squadron of shore-based fighters patrols the sky over the fleet at any time, and three squadrons of fighters on the aircraft carrier will also take turns. And for Zheng Guanhua, he must be careful and careful this time!