After sending the telegram, Han Shaofeng sent the fleet south, and the speed was not very fast, it was still 16 knots. The speed of the fleet depends on the speed of the slowest ship, and at that time, the large landing ships of the Tang Empire could reach a speed of 22 knots, and some fast transport ships could also get a speed of 24 knots, not to mention the destroyers escorting, the old destroyers of the Tang Empire were all above 35 knots, and even could get 37 knots. Only those transports converted from merchant ships had a speed of about 16 knots, and therefore, the speed of the fleet was only 16 knots.

In fact, Han Shaofeng was still a little dissatisfied with Tan Renhao's arrangement. Originally, it was planned to land on Midway on the 12th, but it was delayed until the 13th because the landing force did not leave in time, and now this toss allows it to be impossible to land on Midway until the 14th. As a Marine Corps general, Han Shaofeng first considered how to take Midway, not the question of landing time.

The most important thing for him is how much time it takes to capture Midway!

When formulating the combat operation for attacking Midway Island, Liao Hanxiang entrusted Han Shaofeng with the responsibility of the landing operation and the planning of the ground combat operation after the landing, and transferred Han Shaofeng back from Wake Island a few months ago and appointed Han Shaofeng as the commander of the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater. This is a promotion of Han Shaofeng, and it is also an appreciation of Fu Shaofeng, although Han Shaofeng was not promoted because of this, but he is already very satisfied. After Liao Hanxiang put forward the battle plan for landing on Midway, Han Shaofeng devoted all his energy to this campaign, and even gave up half a month of family vacation and stayed in Apra Port.

Because it is limited by the delivery capacity. Han Shaofeng could only get a maximum of one and a half divisions of marines. And the time of this operation was very short, and even if the reserves were deployed on Wake Island in advance, it would be difficult to deliver the second batch of ground troops to Midway. In other words. Han Shaofeng had to rely on the first batch of one and a half divisions of the Marine Corps to take Midway. The Marine Corps of one and a half divisions had about 20,000 troops, while the U.S. troops on Midway had at least 12,000. The Marines do not have an absolute superiority in numbers. The time that Liao Hanxiang gave to Han Shaofeng was ten days, and at most fifteen days. With one and a half divisions of marines, it was very difficult to capture the fortified Midway Island in fifteen days.

Therefore, Han Shaofeng initially requested that the landing time be set on the eighth day. But the problem was that at that time there was not a single fleet that could rush over and provide three days of fire readiness before the landing of the marines.

In the end, Liao Hanxiang set the landing time on the 12th. This actually delayed Han Shaofeng for four days. If the landing time continues to be delayed, I am afraid that Han Shaofeng will only have ten days to attack.

Because of this reason, Han Shaofeng was very reluctant to let the fleet turn.

In his opinion, a continued delay would be enough to lead to the failure of the combat operation to attack Midway.

If it weren't for Tan Renhao's status in the navy and the fact that he was Liao Hanxiang's son-in-law, Lei Shaoqing would be replaced, or Huang Xiaotian, no matter which fleet commander he was. Han Shaofeng will argue.

When the fleet went south, Han Shaofeng's mood was very unstable, and he did not realize that the danger was approaching at this time. However, his telegram to Task Force 1 was also received by the Guam Ground Theater Command. The other person was aware of the danger.

Liao Hanxiang was called back to the headquarters by the staff officer before going to bed, and when he knew that Tan Renhao had warned the landing fleet, Han Shaofeng immediately turned south, and Han Shaofeng had already sent the landing fleet south. At the same time, after sending out the telegram, the first thing Liao Hanxiang felt was the great danger.

He knew very well what kind of commander his son-in-law was, and if there were no special circumstances, Tan Renhao would never easily modify the battle plan, let alone arrange a seaplane flight for a few hours to transmit the warning signal to Han Shaofeng.

"Where's Task Force 1 now?"

"We haven't received any news about Task Force 1, and as planned, they're still approaching Midway, presumably entering the attack zone." The staff officer replied quickly.

Liao Hanxiang nodded slightly, and then looked at his watch, it was already half past eleven (Guam's time zone is one hour later than the time zone where the landing fleet is located), that is to say, it has been ten days on the landing fleet's side. He walked back and forth a few steps, then stopped. "Contact Han Shaofeng immediately, let him go south as fast as possible, don't care about the few slow merchant ships, the fleet is scattered south, run as fast as he can."

"Commander, this ......"

"Send a telegram immediately!" Liao Hanxiang did not explain anything to the staff officer.

When the staff officer went to send a telegram, Liao Hanxiang sat down. The only reason that Tan Renhao was able to warn the landing fleet was that the US aircraft carrier fleet had already appeared, and it was definitely near the landing fleet, and the only possible direction for the US fleet was to the north of the landing fleet, so Tan Renhao let the landing fleet go south at full speed and go to Wake Island to avoid the enemy's attack. But the problem is that Tan Renhao did not mention the specific location of the enemy fleet, and the First Task Force did not give up the previous task arrangement, that is to say, Tan Renhao still could not determine the specific location of the enemy fleet, and at the same time, the First Task Force was too far away from the landing fleet to cover the landing fleet at all.

Thinking of this, Liao Hanxiang no longer wanted to go to sleep. The problems posed by the hasty arrangement of the campaign were quite serious. According to the previous method, he should have the landing fleet follow 300 to 500 nautical miles behind the first task force, which would have kept the landing fleet waiting for a day or two in the front, but would have kept the landing fleet safe. This time, however, the arrival of the First Task Force was hasty, and the preparations for the landing fleet were also carried out in a hurry, and the convoy of transport ships carrying heavy equipment and combat materials for the Marine Corps arrived two days later than scheduled. There were many problems of one kind and another in the whole preparation, and these problems eventually led to the fact that the landing fleet could not follow the actions of Task Force 1, and was left alone and became the object of hunting by the enemy.

These problems are actually beyond Liao's personal control. The planning time of the entire campaign is not short, but when the campaign is really determined, the time left for Liao Hanxiang to prepare is very short. Worse. The Pacific Theater has always been a secondary theater, and after the establishment of the Pacific Theater, the Imperial Navy's territorial focus has been in the southwest Pacific direction. Not only is most of the fleet concentrated in the southwest Pacific, but the vast majority of the Marine Corps. The landing fleet and the transport fleet are all performing tasks in the Southwest Pacific Theater, and the forces that can really be allocated to Liao Hanxiang are very limited. Not to mention the attack on Midway, just adjusting the defensive deployment in the theater made Liao Hanxiang spend a lot of effort.

Liao Hanxiang is not the kind of person who doesn't know what is important. After the empire determined the overall strategy, Liao Hanxiang knew that the Pacific theater would not be a key theater until the empire achieved absolute superiority. If the empire can obtain the resources of the Australian continent, then it will surpass the United States in terms of industrial production capacity, so as to gain absolute superiority on the battlefield, and through another year or two of accumulation, the empire can launch a strategic offensive on the United States mainland. Until then, the Southwest Pacific theater of operations is certainly the focus. And after the Australian continent is defeated, it will be the turn of the Pacific theater to sing the leading role. Therefore, in the position of commander of this theater of operations, Liao Hanxiang willingly acted as a green leaf. did not compete with Yan Guozhong for war resources. As a direct result, when Liao Hanxiang planned to attack Midway, he found that he did not have the landing fleet of two Marine Divisions at the same time, which was used in the previous capture of Wake Island. Most of the landing ships were transferred to the Southwest Pacific Theater, and as a result, he had to reapply for more landing ships. This alone delayed Liao Hanxiang for nearly twenty days.

The more he thought about it, the more difficult it became for Liao Hanxiang to calm down. The only thing he could count on now was for Han Shaofeng to realize the danger as soon as possible, let the landing fleet and the transport fleet go south separately, and leave the slow transport ships alone, but let the most important landing ships rush to Wake Island at full speed, leaving the slow transport ships behind. In addition, Liao Hanxiang also believes that since Tan Renhao has realized the danger, he will definitely take measures to believe it, and the first task force did not send a message, it must be to avoid exposing itself, and perhaps, the first task force is already moving to the battlefield.

After smoking a few cigarettes, Liao Hanxiang called the communications staff officer over and gave another order: let all the planes on Wake Island depart an hour before dawn to provide cover for the landing fleet as much as possible. In addition, long-range reconnaissance aircraft all set off to patrol with the maximum search radius. At the same time, all long-range reconnaissance planes on the Mariana Islands were dispatched to search for the US fleet. One o'clock ago, Liao Hanxiang once again asked the communications staff officer to send a telegram out. This telegram was sent to the First Task Force, and it was quite contented, and in addition to mentioning that the landing fleet should move south as quickly as possible, it also included the deployment of the reconnaissance force.

After this series of work last night, Liao Hanxiang can only sit down and wait for news, this night will be very long.

After Han Shaofeng received the first telegram, he was a little puzzled at first, and then found that the wording of the telegram was very harsh, and it was sent by Liao Hanxiang himself. He was not careless, and he quickly realized the danger, the commander of the fleet at the front realized the danger, and the commander of the theater of operations in the rear also realized the danger, then there must be danger. At 12:40, Han Shaofeng issued a new order.

The fastest landing ship formed a separate formation with a fast transport, escorted by eight destroyers, and rushed to Wake Island at a speed of 22 knots. The slower transports, under the cover of four destroyers, followed south at a speed of 16 knots.

Because the distance was too far, the First Task Force did not intercept the telegram sent by Liao Hanxiang to the landing fleet, and it was not until two o'clock that it received the telegram of more than 1,000 words from the theater command.

After Hao Dongjue read the telegram, he gave the telegram to Tan Renhao, and then shook his head with a wry smile.

Before Tan Renhao finished reading the content of the telegram, his expression became grim.

"It seems that we have to suggest to the marshal that there be at least one staff officer in the landing fleet, or even in the transport fleet, who is proficient in naval warfare!" Hao Dongjue lit a cigarette, "If it weren't for General Liao Hanxiang's order, Han Shaofeng would definitely still be heading south at a speed of 16 knots!" ”

Tan Renhao sighed and put down the message. "He's just a Marine general, not a fleet commander. It was all my mistake, and if I had thought about it earlier, I should have made it clear when I gave the warning. ”

"However, the 51st Task Force is not necessarily chasing Han Shaofeng and them."

"What do you think?" Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, "In the afternoon, I was also suspicious of this, but now I am almost certain that Spruance is in our northwest direction, even hundreds of nautical miles to our west. He may have ordered the fleet to speed up and prepare the fleet's reconnaissance planes for takeoff. If he intercepted the telegram sent by Han Shaofeng before that, then Spruance would definitely have asked the bombers to prepare for takeoff in advance, and strive to send the bombers after dawn, and flee for their lives as soon as the bombing is completed! ”

Hao Dongjue also sighed, he did not object to Tan Renhao's analysis, there were too many signs that the 51st Task Force was not in the waters near Midway. At least, it is strange that the First Task Force has not encountered a US reconnaissance plane until now. In terms of battle selection, if Spruance had annihilated the landing fleet, the Marines would still not have been able to land on Midway, even if Task Force 1 had blown Midway into ruins. Then, Spruance is very likely to use Midway Island as a decoy to contain Task Force 1 and use the time of Task Force 1 to bomb Midway Island to take out the landing fleet. This exchange is very cost-effective for the U.S. military, and it also allows Spruance to complete his campaign mission.

"Let's go prepare for the bombing." Tan Renhao didn't think much about it, "The two groups of bombers set off as soon as possible, and at four o'clock, let the pilots gather." What to do, you know better than me, now we can only pray that Han Shaofeng and they can run a little faster. ”

Hao Dongjue threw away his cigarette butt and left the command cabin, he had already made a plan for the bombing operation, and now all he needed to do was to mobilize the pilots and aviation service personnel.