Tan Renhao's guess is not wrong at all. When the Japanese bombers set out, they were tasked with bombing the airfield on Jeju Island and removing the threat to Japan's Southwest Combined Fleet. And as soon as they arrived near Jeju Island, they received a new mission and turned south to deal with the Tang Empire's Fifth Fleet. And the reason for Nagumo Ichitadashi to give this order was that a Japanese submarine operating in the southern part of Jeju Island discovered the Fifth Fleet.

The bombers carried all high-explosive bombs used to bomb airfields, not aviation armor-piercing shells with time-delay fuses installed. In addition, those torpedo bombers did not carry torpedoes used to attack battleships, but hung bombs and temporarily used as horizontal bombers!

By the time Nagumo received the submarine reconnaissance report from the Nagasaki Command, Japan's Southwest Combined Fleet had already been attacked. Nagumo Kazutaka could only tell the area of activity of the Fifth Fleet of the Tang Empire to Mishio Fuchizu, who commanded this group of bombers, but he did not consider how much of a threat the bombers lacking torpedoes and aviation armor-piercing shells could pose to the Fifth Fleet.

It is precisely for this reason that Tan Renhao saw a rather "amazing" scene, in which Japanese torpedo bombers actually hung bombs and carried out horizontal bombing missions. The threat from these horizontal bombers was small, and the real threat to the Fifth Fleet was the group of dive bombers that had already reached the skies over the fleet.

In order to improve the accuracy of hitting, horizontal bombers should fly at an altitude of about 1,000 meters when carrying out bombing against ships, and they should also try to use dense formations to destroy targets through concentrated bombing. In fact, this put them all within the range of the Fifth Fleet's anti-aircraft fire, and even a 20-mm anti-aircraft gun could easily shred the bomber's fuselage at this height, let alone a 40-mm anti-aircraft gun. More importantly, the anti-aircraft fire on all the heavy cruisers of the Fifth Fleet was strengthened, playing the role of anti-aircraft warships, and those horizontal bombers flying in dense formations became the best targets for anti-aircraft fire strikes.

This serious tactical mistake made by the Japanese bomber group cost them extremely dearly. Before the more than 60 horizontal bombers reached the aircraft carrier, nearly 30 of them were shot down by the air defense warships in the fleet, and the rest of the bombers also dropped their bombs on the escort warships on the periphery of the fleet, and then hurriedly returned home. Obviously, the pilots on these Japanese bombers did not have the spirit of the so-called "bushido" that was not afraid of death.

Tan Renhao is most concerned about the dive bombers above his head. The shortcomings of the anti-aircraft guns installed on the battleships of the Tang Empire were exposed, and the elevation angle was too small to make the air guns on the air defense battleships unable to deal with the bombers on the top of the capital. And by the time the Japanese bombers entered the strike range of the anti-aircraft artillery, they had basically begun to dive. Tan Renhao did not interfere in the work of the captain of the aircraft carrier. At this time, he could not command the aircraft carrier, and it was the captain's task to operate the aircraft carrier to avoid the attack, and the captain of the aircraft carrier knew better what they had to do to avoid the bombs overhead.

The Japanese dive bombers entered the dive channel in a four-plane formation, and the altitude of their bombs was about 800 meters. This is much higher than the minimum dive drop altitude of 700 to 500 meters for the Kingfisher, and it also means that the bomb hit rate is much lower. This is mainly determined by the performance of the D3A "Type 99 shipburst" dive bomber.

The aircraft was originally planned to enter service in 1324 in the Tang calendar, but with the outbreak of war, the Japanese Navy's Southwest Combined Fleet was equipped with the first dive bombers of this type. However, none of these bombers were finalized. It is designed to be able to drop bombs at an altitude of 450 meters, and the final dive speed can reach more than 240 knots, the dive entry height is 4,000 meters, and the dive angle is between 70 and 90 degrees. However, at this time, the 99 ship explosion equipped by the Southwest United Fleet was only the original model, and many designs had not been designed and perfected, as well as the final improvement, and its agility when changing the dive channel was reduced a lot, so the pilot was required to drop bombs at an altitude of 800 meters, so as not to crash into the sea or collide with the attacking warship.

The massive aircraft carrier is like a clumsy monster, dodging the bombs that fall from above. Dive bombers make a sharp whistling sound when they dive, and when a bomb breaks through the air and falls, it also makes a flute-like whistling sound. At the same time, the aircraft carrier "Taizu" was attacked by a squadron of 99 shipblowers, and the aircraft carrier would turn to the left and to the right, constantly avoiding bombs.

In the bridge aviation operations department, all the officers grabbed the handrails next to them, and Tan Renhao and Lei Shaoqing were no exception. The aircraft carrier has reached a maximum speed of 33 knots, and every ten seconds or so it makes a sharp turn, and when the hull is not yet leveled, it turns to the other side. Originally, the aircraft carrier would be very stable when it was moving fast, but now Tan Renhao felt like he was in a crazy taxi, and the driver didn't care whether he would crash into the vehicle next to him, he only knew how to show off his driving skills.

Several bombs fell into the sea on both sides and behind the aircraft carrier, and the water column generated by the explosion was tens of meters high. Every time a bomb exploded, Tan Renhao would be shocked in his heart, but at the same time, he was also relieved. At least one of the bombs carried by the Japanese bombers was missing.

At this time, the busiest thing is the lookout on the mast of the aircraft carrier island. Each aircraft carrier had three lookouts on the mast, and none of them had a walkie-talkie in their hands. The task of these lookouts is to observe the enemy planes in the sky and the bombs that have fallen, and then tell the captain of the ship on the bridge of the navigation ship to avoid the bombs. This method is primitive, but it is the most effective. It takes more than 10 seconds for a bomb to fall, and whether or not the lookout can spot the enemy plane in time and judge the trajectory of the bomb's fall will directly determine whether the aircraft carrier can avoid the attack.

The first batch of 99 ship-blast attacks all failed. At this time, the attacks of the other two groups of bombers on the "Taizong" and "Xuanzong" also ended. All three aircraft carriers dodged the bombs dropped by the Japanese planes, and although a few near-misses caused some damage to the "Taizong" aircraft carrier, they did not affect the safety of the aircraft carrier and did not make the aircraft carrier lose its combat effectiveness. At this time, the officers and men on the aircraft carrier breathed a sigh of relief, and those horizontal bombers were driven away. However, the lookouts made a mistake at this time, they did not pay attention to the situation on the sea!

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