"Gan Yongxing asked you to go back?"

Tan Renhao nodded at his father-in-law, and then touched his forehead. "I didn't go into detail on the phone, but depending on what the chief of staff meant, there would be trouble with the attack on the Hawaiian Islands, otherwise he wouldn't have asked me to return to the Navy Command now."

Liao Hanxiang gritted his teeth. "Didn't he mention any reason?"

"No, it's definitely not convenient to say on the phone." Tan Renhao shook his head, "I'll leave later, and go directly back to the Navy Headquarters." ”

"Remember to tell me more when you have more news, do you want me to send a few people back with you?"

"No, Gan Yongxing pointed out that I just need to go back alone. In addition, after the fleet arrives, I asked Zheng Guanhua to contact you directly. Tan Renhao said as he picked up the documents, "Don't worry, I'll be the first to contact you when there is more news." ”

"Okay, then I'll take you to the airport later, you don't have to worry about the fleet, I'll keep an eye on it myself, and there are Huang Xiaotian and Hao Dongjue here, they will all help."

Tan Renhao nodded, and after seeing that Du Xing was already waiting for him outside with his luggage bag, he didn't delay any longer.

He arrived in Guam in the morning, and in less than six hours, Tan Renhao got on the plane again. The constant flight made him feel very uncomfortable, and perhaps others would not believe that this admiral, who was the first to advocate aviation warfare, did not like to fly in airplanes. This also made Tan Renhao feel a little headache, he has a slight fear of heights, and he is very disgusted by sitting in the cabin for a long time. At first, he would feel a little nervous when he was on a plane, but later, Tan Renhao developed a habit of sleeping after getting on the plane and trying to spend the time of the flight in sleep. This will not only reduce his fears, but also allow him to have enough energy to devote himself to his new job as soon as he arrives at his destination. Therefore. After the plane took off, Tan Renhao immediately went to sleep, perhaps the favorite of the crew members on the plane was also a general like Tan Renhao. It's much better than the generals who always ask this and that during the flight.

When he returned to Zhoushan, it was already the early morning of the 7th, and after sleeping for a few hours, Tan Renhao's spirit had fully recovered, and to his surprise, Gan Yongxing personally came to the airport to greet him. Obviously, Tan Renhao didn't want to go home directly to see his family.

"I'm sorry, I should have let you go home first."

"Chief of Staff, you're too polite." Tan Renhao followed into the car, "Did something happen?" ”

Gan Yongxing nodded, and then motioned for the driver to drive.

"The principal went to the capital in the morning, and you shouldn't have been to Guam at that time, and he asked me to call you back."

"What is the principal doing in the capital?" Tan Renhao immediately realized the seriousness of the problem, "Could it be that this year's government meeting was held ahead of schedule?" ”

"It's not going to a government meeting, it's a special cabinet meeting that will be held first."

This time. No need to ask, Tan Renhao knows what happened. First of all, it is certain that it will be ready to deal with the opposition at home, and before that, the prime minister will certainly enlist the support of the commanders of the army and navy, that is, the support of the army.

"The principal gave us several tasks, the most important of which was to attack the Hawaiian Islands." Gan Yongxing lit a cigarette. His complexion was very bad, and he didn't know how many cigarettes he had smoked during this time. "Liao Hanxiang is also planning a combat operation to attack the Hawaiian Islands, right?"

"Almost, I originally planned to submit my combat intentions on these two items."

"He didn't start the relevant arrangements?" Gan Yongxing looked at Tan Renhao with some disbelief.

Tan Renhao laughed. "Chief of Staff, if I were Liao Hanxiang, then I would definitely deploy the work first, as for when the Navy Command will approve it, it is a matter for the Navy Command, and we can't wait for the Navy Command to approve it before we start arranging it, right?"

Gan Yongxing also laughed. He knew very well that Tan Renhao's words were excusing Liao Hanxiang.

"It's fine. Attacking the Hawaiian Islands is a matter of time, and it is better to be prepared now than to do nothing. Gan Yongxing hesitated, "Renhao, how difficult do you think it is to attack the Hawaiian Islands?" ”

"Combat difficulty?"

"How many ground forces are needed to ensure sufficient fleet input?" Gan Yongxing made his words a little clearer.

"Chief of Staff, the question is, how much fleet is enough?"

"You kid has learned to be sleek, too." Gan Yongxing smiled and shook his head, "Now the First Task Force and the Second Task Force are heading for the Central Pacific, right?" ”

"Task Force 1 is on the way, and Task Force 2 will be repaired in Port Vila first, but it should take about the same time to fight in the Central Pacific."

"Task Force 4 still has two aircraft carriers, right? By September, Task Force 4 should be able to restore to a three-carrier fleet. ”

"Do you want to delay until September?"

Gan Yongxing did not answer Tan Renhao's question, but continued: "The artillery formation of the Fifth Task Force can be strengthened to the Second Task Force or the Fourth Task Force. In addition, I am still trying to form a new artillery formation so that all three task forces in the Central Pacific will be in maximum combat condition. If you were given these three task forces, how many more ground forces would be needed to be able to take down the Hawaiian Islands? ”

"Chief of Staff, I'm not the commander of the Marine Corps, it's best to ask Han Shaofeng this question."

"You roughly estimate that it should be eight or nine and ten."

"This ......" Tan Renhao was a little unsure of how to answer, because he didn't know Gan Yongxing's purpose in asking this question. Maybe 25 divisions, maybe 30 divisions are enough. ”

"So much?"

"The main reason is that the Marine Corps does not have enough support troops, and the area of the eastern islands of the Hawaiian Islands is not small, and it is a key defense area of the US military, and the density of troops is quite large, and the fleet can only play a supporting role. There are a lot of problems. ”

"Then, I'll give you two more fleets......"

"Let Task Force 5 come over too?" Tan Renhao was secretly surprised. He didn't want Jiang Zhongmin to intervene in the Central Pacific Theater.

"No, Task Force 5 will definitely stay in the Southwest Pacific, and now there needs a fleet over there to block the American routes. and continued to support offensive operations of the Army and Marine Corps. Gan Yongxing threw the cigarette butt out of the car window, "I'm talking about the Third Task Force and the theater fleet in Yan Guozhong's hands. ”

"In this case, the theater fleet command will be abolished."

"Rest assured, Lei Shaoqing's position will not change. Now there are many landing fleets here, transport fleets are operating over there, and we will also leave a theater fleet in the southwest Pacific, Lei Shaoqing has a lot of things to do. ”

Tan Renhao nodded, he understood what Gan Yongxing meant, he must be to transfer those warships that were temporarily strengthened to the Third Task Force, and these warships will then be transferred to the South Atlantic with the Fifth Task Force.

"Now that there are five fleets concentrated in the Pacific Ocean, how many troops will be needed to attack the Hawaiian Islands?"

"At least 15 divisions." Tan Renhao no longer beat around the bush, "10 divisions are fighting on the front line. 5 divisions as rotational troops, that is, in fact, only 10 divisions need to be committed. Of course, it is necessary to draw up a more effective battle plan and give full play to the combat effectiveness of all units participating in the battle, and the coordination of all units is also quite important. Maybe we'll have to think about a new theater fleet commander. ”

"This is not in the scope of consideration for the time being, and you should also know that Lei Shaoqing is just a trade-off choice, not a final choice." Gan Yongxing smiled and grabbed Tan Renhao's shoulder, "But you don't need to worry about the fleet command." Some time ago, the principal was very satisfied with Lei Shaoqing's performance, and now the main problem is to continue to use the establishment of the commander of the theater fleet. Or to change the rank of commander of the fleet. The role of the Theater Fleet Commander has already been proven, so we need another practice to prove whether the Fleet Commander-in-Chief is more suitable for the next combat operations. ”

That is to say. Experimenting with the Hawaiian Islands? ”

"Suffice it to say, and you're the only candidate, at least the headmaster has now decided to let Jiang Zhongmin go to the South Atlantic, and no one else will compete with you." Gan Yongxing nodded, and he took out another cigarette. "This is a question that will not be decided until the principal returns. I'm just a reminder not to know how to answer the principal's questions when the time comes. ”

Tan Renhao nodded, he hadn't thought of this before.

"Actually, the main problem now is not with our combat units. It's about our logistical supply capabilities. Ren Hao, with your combat experience, to support 10 marine divisions and 5 fleets fighting on the front line, how many supplies do we have to think about the front line every day? ”

Tan Renhao quickly did the mental calculations. "At least 50,000 tons."

"Even if these supplies are hoarded in Guam first, how many days will it take for the convoy to make a round trip, including the time to load and unload the supplies, or replenish the fleet?"

"At least half a month, maybe 20 days."

"In other words, if we have to transport 1 million tons of supplies to the front line at a time, counting possible contingencies, then we have to prepare at least 3 transport fleets of 50 transport ships and at least 8 fast combat support fleets. Now, does Liao Hanxiang have so many transport ships in his hands, as well as fast combat support ships? ”

"The Rapid Combat Support Fleet should not be a problem, each of our task forces has a fixed set of Rapid Combat Support Fleets, and the Fifth Task Force can operate based in Noumea, there should be no need for a Rapid Combat Support Fleet, and the other two Rapid Combat Support Fleets can be replaced by four ordinary supply fleets. The problem is that there are not enough transport ships in the Pacific theater of operations, let alone forming three fleets with 50 transport ships, and even forming two such fleets will be difficult. ”

"That's the big problem."

"But why can't we pull a convoy from the Southwest Pacific? At least now that Yan Guozhong has reduced the number of marines deployed in Australia, he can deploy the fleet that supplies these marines to the Central Pacific theater. ”

"The Marines have withdrawn, but the Army combat units that have been added to the past do not need to be recharged?"

Tan Renhao was stunned for a moment, only then did he realize that he had overlooked a problem, that is, the Marine Corps was replaced by the Army combat unit equally, so there would be no reduction in the pressure on supplies.

In addition, Yan Dingyu has promised to send another 30 divisions to Australia in September, and in the end, the army is very likely to deploy 1.5 million surface combat troops in Australia, and strive to complete the combat operation of attacking Australia in the first half of next year. And with our current supply capacity, we can support up to 1.5 million troops to fight, and this also includes the limited transport ships in Liao Hanxiang's hands. We can't attack the Hawaiian Islands without enough transport ships. ”

Tan Renhao sighed, this proves that the war is still fought by logistics, and without logistics supplies, no matter how powerful the troops are, it will be difficult to exert their due combat effectiveness on the battlefield.

"The principal has already made a shipbuilding plan for next year. At the end of the year, six more aircraft carriers of the Lake class were in service, while only two were ordered for the next year. ”

"Two? Are we ready to build new aircraft carriers? ”

"This is a reason, the design of the new aircraft carrier has been completed, the construction of which will officially start at the end of this year, and the first batch will be ready for service at the end of next year." Gan Yongxing nodded, "However, the spare shipbuilding capacity, especially materials, will be mainly used to increase the construction of transport ships. Perhaps, we will have to lower the construction standards in order to increase production. That is, in 27 years, our main construction task was to ensure that there were enough transport ships at their disposal. This is extremely crucial for our future combat operations, and perhaps, it will not be long before transport ships will be more important than aircraft carriers. ”

"I hope so, but the United States has not lost its combat effectiveness."

"Then it is all the more necessary for you generals to win more significant victories on the front lines." Gan Yongxing looked at Tan Renhao, "Defeating the U.S. Navy is only the first step, if we want to finally defeat the United States, then what we need is definitely not aircraft carriers, but those transport ships that can carry tens of thousands of tons of cargo and sail to the other side of the world." ”

Tan Renhao had to admit this, after defeating the US Navy, the transport ship will take on the strategic transport task, and this is a task that the aircraft carrier cannot undertake, when the time comes, the transport ship, this kind of non-combat ship is more important than the aircraft carrier, whether it can defeat the United States, it depends on whether the empire's maritime capacity can allow the troops to continue to fight on the other side of the earth, and how many imperial expeditionary forces can be allowed to fight on the American continent.

"You know these questions better than I do, but let's discuss them tomorrow, you're home!"

Tan Renhao was stunned for a moment, only to find that the sedan was heard outside his house, and it turned out that Gan Yongxing was here to take him home. Tan Renhao immediately said goodbye to Gan Yongxing, at least Gan Yongxing was still quite humane, knowing that the first thing Tan Renhao did after coming back was to reunite with his family, instead of plunging headlong into those troubles!