While Chang Jianxin was enduring the bumpy, Tan Renhao was also eagerly waiting for news. In order to provide as much support as possible to Task Force 3, he even risked a reconnaissance plane to fly an additional 50 nautical miles to the south. And these reconnaissance aircraft are also very vulnerable in storms, which is almost risking the pilot's life. In addition, Tan Renhao also asked the weather forecasting officer to make weather forecasts five times a day, so that he could better grasp the situation of weather changes.

On the night of the 28th, the second day of the voyage south, four destroyers and two cruisers in the fleet had returned early due to malfunction. That night, the 3rd Task Force also stopped its southward movement and began to conduct a lateral search along the route between Mauritius and Ruriwang and Madagascar, which was also the sea area where the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet was most likely to appear, which Chang recommended Xin and Tan Renhao had inferred.

According to the information obtained before, if the British and French expeditionary fleets want to intercept the Imperial fleet and avoid the storm at the same time, they must operate in the sea close to the islands, and they must move at any time to stay in a sheltered direction as much as possible. Therefore, the joint Anglo-French expeditionary fleet is most likely to appear near the islands of Mauritius and Ruriwang. Because the wind is blowing from the southeast, it is unlikely to occur in the eastern and southeastern seas of Madagascar. In addition, there are two small ports on the islands of Mauritius and Rurione. Once an overseas colonial stronghold of the Tang Empire, these two small ports were abandoned after the last war. There were no garrisons of the Tang Empire on either island, only some indigenous inhabitants, and a small number of immigrants. If the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet wanted to find a safe haven, these two small ports abandoned by the Tang Imperial Navy were their inevitable choice.

Based on this inference, the Third Task Force was heading south. The route was aimed at the island of Mauritius, and the first thing to search was the waters around the island of Mauritius, and then the island of Ruriwang.

Finally, we sailed to the southeast of the island of Madagascar. In the second half of the night, the reconnaisance ships of the new arrangement made a circle around the island of Mauritius. Nothing was found. As the reconnaissance fleets returned to formation, Task Force 3 headed towards Ruriwang Island.

On the morning of the 29th (30 days in February, in the imperial calendar), the fleet reached the sea near the island of Ruriwang and, according to plan. Chang Jiexin still arranged for several reconnaissance warships to search for traces of the enemy fleet near Reunion Island. But the result still disappointed him, they did not find a shadow of the combined Anglo-French fleet here.

After the departure of the destroyer in charge of reconnaissance, Chang Jianxin also arranged for a group of officers and men of the Marine Corps accompanying the ship to land on Reunion Island, and went to Santani to find a few local residents and inquire about the recent situation. It doesn't matter if you don't ask, this question even scared Chang Jianxin into a cold sweat.

"Judging by the situation reported by local residents, the Anglo-French combined fleet set off on the night of work last night." Gu Zhenyun reported the specific situation, "Moreover, a few days before that. The Anglo-French expeditionary force had been buying food here, and had also bought some medicine from the local population. Someone had seen Anglo-French battleships close to the coast, and there must have been battleships in them. Or a battlecruiser. ”

"Is this reliable?" While Chang Jianxin was surprised, he did not forget to question the reliability of the information.

"Pretty reliable, we paid for the intelligence, and the natives here are not hostile to us."

Chang Jianxin nodded slightly. "It seems. Our judgment is accurate, only late, one step, do those natives know the whereabouts of the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet? ”

"We also asked, but we didn't ask for anything famous. The Anglo-French expeditionary fleet left at night, and it can only be determined that it was sailing in a southwesterly direction when it left, but there is no way to find out the exact direction. ”

Chang Jianxin walked over to the chart table, and by this time the staff officer had already marked an approximate range on the chart. If the combined Anglo-French fleet had not turned around after leaving the offshore waters, it would have been heading towards the southern tip of the island of Madagascar. Because the exact course is not clear, only an approximate range can be determined. This is only a very vague judgment, the fleet can turn at any time during the voyage, and the fleet has been away for more than ten hours, even if it sails at a speed of 14 knots, it is already more than 200 nautical miles away, and it is impossible to make an accurate judgment on where the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet will be at this time.

"Shall we send a message to Task Force 1?"

"No, it is not possible to send a telegram yet, the combined Anglo-French fleet is near us, and if the radio signal we send is received by them, then our approximate location will be exposed." Chang Jiexin gritted his teeth, "The fleet will depart in two hours, and it will still sail in the southwest direction according to the plan!" ”

Gu Zhenyun did not raise any objections, he also believed that he should continue to act according to the plan, after all, the current situation is very unclear, if the plan is temporarily modified, then the first task force must be notified and let the first task force also revise the plan, but now it is impossible to contact the first task force at all.

Chang Jiexin also quickly calmed down, at this time judging the whereabouts of the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet may not be the most important, the most important thing is to know whether there will be danger on their route.

The Anglo-French expeditionary fleet did not leave Ruriwang in a hurry, this has been confirmed. They had been on the side for several days, and had sent troops to the island to buy food and medicine, and apparently the fleet had been at sea for a long time and had not even returned to Cape Town.

If so, then how much fuel is left for the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet? Also, how long can you be at sea? If they did not have a supply fleet, or if the supply fleet could not go north to supply the fleet, then the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet would certainly return to Cape Town.

This is often recommended as the new first judgment. Extrapolating from the time of the fall of Moroni, the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet has been operating outside for more than 20 days, and the maximum continuous activity of a fleet may be able to reach several months, but the problem is that not all warships can continue to operate for so long without supplies, for example, the destroyer can continue to operate for 40 days is already very remarkable. Also, the sea conditions are extremely harsh right now. The fuel consumption rate of the battleships was much higher than normal, and the third task force also had this problem. In peacetime, the fleet is capable of reaching an economic cruising speed of 18 knots. Now, there are only 16 verses at most. Sometimes it's less than 15 knots, and you have to increase the power of the boiler. In other words, if the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet had been at sea for more than 20 days, there would have been a shortage of fuel, or food. Medicine, fresh water are in short supply. Especially the issue of fuel!

Chang Jianxin quickly marked several routes on the chart, and he roughly calculated the distance of the British and French expeditionary fleet from the port of Cape Town to Moroni, and the distance to return to the destination. After adding up the distances of the two routes, he knew what to expect. Even with the shortest route and no detours, the British expeditionary fleet sailed at least 4,000 nautical miles, which, when the weather is factored in, is equivalent to sailing at least 6,000 nautical miles on calm seas! Even the endurance of the warships of the British Navy has always been excellent. But the problem is that almost none of the destroyers of a country have a range of more than 6000 nautical miles! If you add in the voyage that the fleet would have to take to return to Cape Town, then. The fleet will eventually sail more than 5,000 nautical miles, which is equivalent to about 7,500 nautical miles on calm seas, and this is the limit of the range of almost any fleet without receiving refueling en route! And these are the closest routes taken, if you count the halfway maneuver range. There is still the necessary standby time, avoiding storms, etc., then the final total range of the Anglo-French combined fleet will definitely exceed 5,500 nautical miles, or even more than 6,000 nautical miles, which is equivalent to sailing nearly 9,000 nautical miles on calm seas! At that time, the endurance of the warships of the Tang Imperial Navy was also one of the best, and the best battleships could only sail 12,000 nautical miles under ideal conditions, and in most cases, it was already a miracle to be able to sail 8,000 nautical miles without refueling!

When the inference results came out, Chang Jianxin also felt that the situation was gradually becoming clearer. Now there are only two possibilities for the actions of the joint Anglo-French expeditionary fleet. One is to return to Cape Town to refuel the fleet and repair ships damaged in the storm. The second is to find a shelter from the wind, where the supply ships can provide fuel for the fleet and carry out simple repairs to the damaged ships. In other words, the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet had to find a way to get fuel supplies, no matter how good the fleet commander was, it was impossible to command a battleship without fuel to fight, and this problem could not be solved by relying on the ability of the fleet commander!

So, will the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet return to Cape Town, or will it get fuel supplies here? At this time, Chang Jianxin was a little hesitant, or rather, he was not able to make a judgment immediately.

Whether the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet returns to Cape Town should depend on whether Cunningham still adheres to his tactical arrangements, if he insists, then he will not go back, and if he gives up, then the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet will certainly not be in a hurry to return to Cape Town. Relatively speaking, Chang Zhixin preferred the latter scenario, and if Cunningham was the kind of general who would easily retreat when he encountered difficulties, then he would not have won so many victories in the Mediterranean.

Chang Jiexin also quickly made a decision to arrange the actions of the third task force according to the latter possibility. In fact, this is exactly in line with the previous battle arrangement, the 3rd Task Force first had to confirm that the British and French joint expeditionary fleet was not in the waters south of Madagascar, so the 3rd Task Force had to complete the search operation first. This is also in line with the situation at hand.

If the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet did not return to Cape Town, it would have to find a sheltered place to get supplies. Outside of the island of Mauritius, and Reunion, the only place that can meet this condition is at the southern tip of the island of Madagascar, towards some bays on the other side of the Mozambique Channel. This is a leeward area, and there is land shelter, plus the influence of the mountains on the island of Madagascar, the wind will be much less, and there are many bays here, which are ideal anchorage places for warships and supply ships to moor, for replenishment operations.

After thinking about it, Chang ordered the fleet to leave the island of Ruriwang and go directly to Tauranaru at the southern tip of the island of Madagascar. It is a small fishing village with more than 500 indigenous people, and there were several plantations in the past, but they were abandoned decades ago.

In the afternoon, the fleet began to sail southwestward. After Chang Jianxin asked the navigation staff to revise the route, he did not trouble the staff officer again. He was still pondering whether his judgment was correct.

Now, it cannot be completely ruled out that the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet is returning to Cape Town, after all, there are many factors that Chang Zhixin could not take into account, and which he did not know. Even if Cunningham would hold out, if something went wrong with the French, or if the fleet was in too bad condition to continue fighting, Cunningham would have no choice but to retreat.

But this is not the biggest problem, if the Anglo-French Combined Expeditionary Fleet is returning to Cape Town, then there is no threat to the Third Task Force, and as long as the Third Task Force completes the search operation, then the whereabouts of the Anglo-French Combined Expeditionary Fleet can basically be determined, and it is not too late to kill Cape Town at that time.

The big question is, if the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet stayed, why didn't Cunningham choose to resupply on Ruriwang Island, but traveled thousands of miles to Madagascar to resupply? There may be some reason to explain this situation, but Chang Zhixin still feels a little uneasy, after all, it doesn't make sense!

It was about 500 nautical miles from Ruriwang Island to Tauranaru, and the fleet had to sail for about 32 hours at a speed of 16 knots. For more than a day, Chang Jianxin has not slept, but is thinking about the relevant situation. Nor did he make contact with Task Force 1, which had been operating according to plan and had eliminated the time difference by adjusting the speed of the voyage. Task Force 1 also holds the approximate location of Task Force 3 at various points in time.

Gu Zhenyun suggested many times that Chang Jianxin go to rest for a few hours, but Chang Jianxin refused. The farther the fleet sailed west, the more uneasy he felt, and to be honest, he always felt that there was danger, and this was his intuition, and any fleet commander had an intuition, and many times, the intuition was quite accurate.

In other words, intuition is experience. And Chang Jianxin can't be quiet at all because of these uneasiness!