When Tan Renhao came to the command cabin, Zhu Rongzhe and more than a dozen staff officers were busy, and the staff officers who had received orders temporarily were coming one after another.

"The U.S. Fifth Fleet broke the radio silence and our radio stations on Kauai, Nihua Island, Gardner Island, and Midway Island all received signals from U.S. warships."

"Confirm it's the Fifth Fleet?" Tan Renhao looked at Zhu Rongzhe.

"Confirmed, it's a long-wave signal from an aircraft carrier."

Tan Renhao walked towards the chart table and asked, "Have you determined the location of the signal source?" ”

"Here, General, this is a detailed analysis we have made through the superposition of four sets of radios." The communications staff has already marked the approximate location of the signal source on the chart. "The scope can be further narrowed, but now we don't have a way to make more detailed calculations, maybe the theater command will send us more accurate analysis results."

Tan Renhao glanced at the sea area marked on the chart.

"At 340 degrees, it's about 400 nautical miles from us." Zhu Rongzhe gritted his teeth, "Spruance's courage is really small enough, and he went around in such a big circle." ”

Tan Renhao looked at the chart and thought about it, the sea area where the radio signal appeared was completely outside the range he had expected. According to the results of the previous analysis, the US Fifth Fleet will definitely be in a hurry to get refueling or return to San Francisco. For this reason, Tan Renhao and his three task forces maneuvered to the interception area in the afternoon, and the reconnaissance planes flew two rounds, but still no trace of the Fifth Fleet was found. Just when Tan Renhao was puzzled, he received a telegram from the theater command. It turned out that Spruance had set the route farther north, 400 nautical miles away from Tan Renhao, so it was no wonder that the reconnaissance plane had not found anything.

"Did Huang Xiaotian and Hao Dongjue contact us?" Tan Renhao raised his head.

"Not yet, according to the plan, if it is not necessary, it is up to us to contact them first, they will not take the initiative to break the radio silence."

Tan Renhao nodded slightly. "Then contact them. Ask them about it, and it looks like we're going to have to catch up. ”

Zhu Rongzhe immediately looked at the communications staff officer, and the long-awaited opportunity for a decisive battle was finally coming.

Before Hao Dongjue and Huang Xiaotian called back, Tan Renhao was not in a hurry to make a decision. He had two questions in his mind, that is, why did Spruance choose such a northerly route? In addition, why should the US military use long-wave radio stations at this juncture. What about revealing your whereabouts?

Judging by the location of the U.S. radio signal, the U.S. Fifth Fleet will not rush back to the Hawaiian Islands, which is a route to San Francisco. So Spruance was heading back to San Francisco. But the problem is that if the Fifth Fleet wants to return to San Francisco safely, it should not send an airwave signal at this time, which is almost a joke on its own life. Long-wave signals are easily intercepted by enemy radio listening stations and can be easily separated from numerous radio wave signals. At the beginning of the war, the probability of intercepting the radio signal was not very high, but by this time. It was impossible for the Tang Imperial Navy to ignore the radio signals. Spruance is not a. Now that the Fifth Fleet has not left the dangerous sea, why should he take the initiative to expose it?

The more he thought about it, the more serious the doubts in Tan Renhao's heart became. If only this was a necessary contact. What is it that makes the Fifth Fleet actively exposed? If there is no reason, then what is the purpose of Spruance's move? Could it be that Spruance wanted to fight against the main enemy and fight the main fleet of the Imperial Navy here? Tan Renhao felt that there was such a possibility, but the problem was that if Spruance wanted to seek the opportunity for a decisive battle, he would not choose to rely on the northland route so much, and he could go south to deal with the seventh and eighth task forces, or set up an ambush when Tan Renhao and they went north, instead of avoiding the battlefield.

"Talk about the general. Task Force 2 and Task Force 4 sent a call back. ”

Tan Renhao turned around, took the telegram from the communications staff officer, and then quickly read it before handing it over to Zhu Rongzhe, who had rushed back. Hao Dongjue advocated actively facing the battle, while Huang Xiaotian expressed the same worries as Tan Renhao.

"Now we should catch up." Zhu Rongzhe's attitude is much more positive. "Maybe the U.S. Fifth Fleet was ambushed by submarines, and some battleships were damaged or even sunk, so they sent a telegram at this time."

"Where is the main area of activity of our submarines?"

Zhu Rongzhe was stunned for a moment, and then shook his head. The Fifth Fleet appeared north of Oahu. The submarines of the Imperial Navy were basically concentrated on the east and northeast sides of Oahu, and several routes connecting the Hawaiian Islands and the United States mainland passed through this side, but no routes passed through the north of Oahu.

"Maybe the returning submarine did it."

"But we didn't receive a telegram from the submarine, and of course what you said may be true." Tan Renhao held his chin and thought for a while, "It seems that we should really take some action, at least we can't let the Fifth Fleet slip away like this." ”

"Need to reroute?" Seeing that Tan Renhao made a decision, Zhu Rongzhe became even more active.

"I'll be in charge of this matter, you can contact Hao Dongjue as soon as possible, and he will be responsible for planning the aviation combat operations of the three fleets. Come up with a reconnaissance plan as soon as possible, and then deploy the reconnaissance work. Tan Renhao hesitated, "Don't contact Yan Yulong and them for the time being, we don't need to expose ourselves." If the Fifth Fleet wants to escape from the battlefield, then our three task forces will be enough to deal with the Fifth Fleet. ”

Zhu Rongzhe immediately nodded, ready to carry out Tan Renhao's order.

"Also, contact Huang Xiaotian and let the fourth task force catch up, now the three task forces should be concentrated together as much as possible, so that they can cover each other and support each other."

"Is there any other place?"

Tan Renhao smiled. "No, you go and arrange it first, if there are other things, I'll look for you again."

After Zhu Rongzhe walked away, Tan Renhao asked the staff officer to bring him a pen and paper, and then he lay on the chart table and buried his head in the calculation. He still has some scruples about Spruance being exposed. And ensuring that every step is the key to victory, and Tan Renhao doesn't want to capsize in the gutter.

After careful calculations, Tan Renhao found a key problem. Spruance detours the northernmost route. This would add nearly 1,000 nautical miles to its return route to San Francisco, and to keep the fleet sailing and not stop to refuel the destroyers, the fleet would have to sail at a reasonable speed and not run away as fast as it could, or even maintain a speed of more than 24 knots. This is an important finding. Now they still have enough fuel, some of the destroyers that lack fuel have been replenished, and the fleet can catch up at full speed for at least a day. In fact, it was only required to close the distance by 100 nautical miles, and the carrier-based bombers would be able to sort. If the U.S. Fifth Fleet maintains a cruising speed of 16 knots, and Tan Renhao accelerates to 27 knots, then the distance between the two sides will be within 300 nautical miles at dawn.

After calculating this result, Tan Renhao was even more puzzled, Spruance would not know that the danger had not yet left, so why did he make a stupid move? There is only one explanation, that is, Spruance has turned from defense to offense and is ready to fight Tan Renhao. Otherwise. The Fifth Fleet will not show up on its own initiative. In other words, Spruance used himself as bait to lure Tan Renhao to a decisive battle!

"Then you have to be more careful!" Tan Renhao said to himself. He was still measuring on the chart. If Spruance is setting a trap, then how is he going to deal with three powerful task forces?

If Spruance had continued to flee eastward, the fleet would have now sailed northeast, about 40 degrees, and preferably increased its speed to more than 27 knots, so that the distance between the two sides would be about 300 nautical miles before and after daybreak. If Spruance turns south and actively seeks a decisive battle, then the fleet should take the initiative to distance itself. It would be most appropriate to maintain about 300 nautical miles with the U.S. Fifth Fleet, so that the fleet should sail eastward at a speed of less than 18 knots. Tan Renhao quickly marked the overlap on the route with these two situations, the overlap of the strike range of the carrier-based bomber at dawn. But the question is, will Spruance have a third option?

If Spruance still didn't want to fight the Imperial Navy's main fleet, and he didn't want to, or if he couldn't go straight back to San Francisco, he would have to return to Pearl Harbor. And this is when Spruance reveals his position. Could it be to create the illusion that he is heading for San Francisco, rush to intercept him, and then end up behind him and return to Pearl Harbor, or other island ports? This possibility cannot be ruled out, therefore, it is very likely that the Fifth Fleet is heading south, and if Tan Renhao pursues in the direction of San Francisco at full speed, he will miss the best opportunity to annihilate the Fifth Fleet.

After thinking about it for several hours, by about four o'clock in the morning, Tan Renhao did not come to a positive conclusion, mainly because the telegram sent by the Fifth Fleet this time was too abnormal, as if the opponent Tan Renhao was facing now was not Spruance, which made him puzzled and made him feel dangerous. It was also at this time that a new telegram came from the Theater Command.

"This is the location of the re-identified signal source, and in addition, the intelligence services have analyzed the battleship that emitted the radio signal." Zhu Rongzhe put the telegram in Tan Renhao's hand, "It should have been sent from the aircraft carrier 'Qishazhi', and according to the information we obtained before, this should be the flagship of the 53rd Task Force, not the flagship of the Fifth Fleet." ”

Tan Renhao immediately picked up the telegram and read it quickly, and now he felt even more nervous. "That is, it was not Spruance who sent the telegram, but Mitchell?"

Zhu Rongzhe nodded slightly. "This is intelligence from the intelligence services, we can't be sure."

"It seems that Spruance really wants to fight us. If this was indeed Task Force 53, then Spruance would have taken Task Force 53 as bait, while his other two Task Forces were ambushed and ready to launch a sneak attack on us! ”

Zhu Rongzhe nodded again, after receiving this telegram, he also took this into account first.

"Did Huang Xiaotian and Hao Dongjue also receive this telegram?"

"They definitely received this telegram, they just haven't contacted us yet."

Tan Renhao touched his chin and took a few steps back and forth. "Contact Hao Dongjue and ask him to adjust the bombing plan, we must be careful, even if this is a trap, it will cost Spruance the most painful!"

"General, let's continue north?"

"Yes, continue north." Tan Renhao clenched his fists, "We have been waiting for so long, what we are waiting for is a plan for a decisive battle with the Fifth Fleet, since Spruance took the initiative to find us for a decisive battle, then we can't escape, at least, now we already know that this is a trap!" ”

Zhu Rongzhe is obviously a little worried, he is no longer as active as he was at the beginning.

"The reconnaissance plane will take off as soon as possible, maybe we will soon be able to find the enemy fleet, so that the bombers are also ready to take off, as long as the reconnaissance plane sends back a report, the bombers will leave immediately."

"Do you want to turn on the radar?"

Tan Renhao hesitated. "How long is it going to be daylight?"

"An hour at most."

"Then fifteen minutes before dawn, activate the radars on the three 'Rui Beast' class. Arrange at least three radar alert ships to the north of the fleet. Tan Renhao quickly made a decision, "We only need one chance to be enough, and I hope the other two task forces can also be ready!" ”

The officers and men of the First Task Force quickly mobilized, and almost at the same time, Hao Dongjue, Huang Xiao, and Tian also issued an order for combat mobilization. At this time, the closest to the US fleet was not the 1st Task Force, which was running in the front, but the 2nd Task Force, which was southwest of the 1st Task Force. Moreover, the situation is far less complicated than Tan Renhao's consideration, because Tan Renhao did not know that the US Fifth Fleet has undergone major changes.

The reconnaissance planes of the three task forces all took off half an hour before dawn, and these reconnaissance planes focused on searching the north, northwest, northeast, and west directions. These are the four most likely directions in which the US Fifth Fleet will appear. In addition, the seaplanes of the three task forces also departed after him. With the exception of the south, where the enemy could not appear, all seaplanes performed reconnaissance patrols around the fleet. The radar alert ships also quickly left the formation, and around dawn, the air defense cruisers in the three task forces turned on their radars, and the bombers were sent to the flight deck, and the battle was about to break out.