After arriving at the command cabin, Yan Yulong's mood still did not calm down, and even noticed his abnormal state. Not long after, Tan Renhao also came to the command cabin, and the staff officers also found that the commander's expression was a little wrong, and some people even speculated whether the commander and the chief of staff had a conflict.

"Yulong, wait a minute, remember to contact Chang Jianxin and General Hao Dongjue." Tan Renhao walked to Yan Yulong's side, "In addition, finalize the battle plan as soon as possible, and then distribute it to all fleets, and also send it to the two generals, Lei Shaoqing and Luo Yunchong." Before dawn, radio silence was restored to the fleet, and tomorrow morning's bombing operation was canceled and replaced by afternoon. ”

Yan Yulong nodded, and at the same time looked at several staff officers, signaling them to prepare to complete the new work.

"I'll go sleep first, and come back tomorrow morning, and if there's nothing else, don't bother me." Tan Renhao glanced at Yan Yulong, then glanced at the other staff officers, and then turned around and left the command cabin.

Compared with when he became the commander of the task force, Tan Renhao at this time has changed a lot, but one thing has not changed, that is, after the battle plan is determined, he will resolutely implement the battle plan, instead of revising the battle plan because of scruples, which is also one of the major characteristics of Tan Renhao's command. What is different from the past is that he will spend more time considering various factors before making a decision, rather than making a quick decision, which is also one of his biggest changes.

It can be said that the plan proposed by Yan Yulong is very adventurous. is completely in line with his identity, very similar to Tan Renhao two or three years ago, they are the kind of people who don't care too much about the consequences for the sake of victory. At that time, Tan Renhao had this feeling. But he had to admit one thing, that is, the plan proposed by Yan Yulong was very feasible, and after considering all aspects of the problem, Tan Renhao made a decision, if he needed to take risks, then he would not be afraid.

The main reason for Tan Renhao's decision to take the plunge was that he was sure enough to take out the Atlantic Fleet with a main fleet. In terms of combat strength, both the First Fleet and the Third Fleet surpassed the Atlantic Fleet. Moreover, after taking into account the quality of officers and men, especially pilots, this gap is even greater. And whether it is Chang Zhixin or Hao Dongjue, his command ability has improved a lot, especially Hao Dongjue. Its ability to command aviation operations can be said to be unparalleled, coupled with Tan Renhao's remote command. Against the Atlantic Fleet, the Third Fleet can be said to be more than enough.

After determining this, Tan Renhao made a decision to send the Third Fleet to block the Atlantic Fleet, while the First Fleet continued to operate in the waters south of Cuba, continuing to bomb the US forces and luring the Atlantic Fleet into being fooled. Compared to the last combat operation in the waters of the Bahamas, this operation is very different.

First of all, the area of operation is different, so the place of engagement that can be selected by the fleet is also different. The deployment of the fleet is also different. Secondly, the balance of power between the two sides has changed, the Atlantic Fleet has lost its battleships and can only fight with the Third Fleet with aircraft carriers, and aviation operations are precisely the strength of the Third Fleet. In addition, the battlefield environment has changed, the Imperial Navy has achieved most air supremacy, and as more and more tactical air forces are deployed to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, the scope of American air force activities has rapidly decreased, and the ability to provide ground cover and support for the Atlantic Fleet has also been correspondingly weakened. And most importantly, this time the Imperial Navy held the initiative. Spruance is passive, so it will be difficult to gain the upper hand in the confrontation.

With so many favorable conditions. Talking about Renhao's reasons for not taking risks, but in determining specific combat operations, he did not take risks at all.

At that time, Yan Yulong proposed that the Third Fleet maneuver to the northeastern waters of the Bahamas, that is, to go out of the Atlantic Ocean and block the Atlantic Fleet at the greatest distance. This proposal is quite "innovative", but it makes a serious mistake, that is, it is extremely risky, and it leads the Third Fleet to go deep alone, out of the cover of the First Fleet, if the ambush is successful, it will naturally be a complete victory, but if the ambush fails, then the Third Fleet will have no place to bury, and there will not even be a chance to struggle. There is no doubt that Tan Renhao immediately vetoed this proposal.

After ruling out this proposal, there was only one place that could stop the US Atlantic Fleet at that time, and one was the waters southeast of the Bahamas, that is, in the waters of the Turks and Caicos Islands north of Haiti. The other is in the waters off the Cayman Islands to the west.

If the former is chosen, it is to intercept the Atlantic Fleet before it enters the theater of operations, but there is also the problem of excessive risk-taking. In addition, to ensure that the Third Fleet can operate safely in this area, it is necessary to bomb Hispaniola Island and the US airfield in the Bahamas in advance. The difficulty of the bombing campaign is secondary, and the main thing is that as long as the US airfields in these places are bombed, the intentions of the fleet will be exposed. In particular, the bombing of those small field airfields of the US military in the Bahamas will definitely make Spruance feel dangerous, and the Atlantic Fleet will not be easily deceived, and it is even possible to judge the approximate location of the Third Fleet and counterattack the Third Fleet, resulting in the defeat of the campaign.

The advantage of this option is also obvious, that is, it can destroy the Atlantic Fleet before it can take combat action against the landing in Cuba, thus successfully covering the Marine Corps and avoiding the losses of the landing fleet. From the point of view of the main objectives of this campaign, this is undoubtedly the most significant, even if it is of great significance for the Third Fleet to suffer losses as a result.

After thinking about it for a long time, Tan Renhao finally rejected the proposal. The main thing is that the risk is too great, and as long as his intentions are exposed, Spruance will not be easily fooled, which will lead to the failure of the combat operation, and it will be even more impossible to cover the landing combat operation at that time.

All that remains is to deploy the fleet to the waters near the relative safety of the Cayman Islands, and the ultimate goal of this plan is not to intercept the Atlantic Fleet before it enters the war, but to take advantage of the fact that the landing fleet will first feint on Cienfuegos, and the Atlantic Fleet is likely to go to intercept it, and then take advantage of this opportunity to defeat the Atlantic Fleet. That is, if the actions of the Third Fleet are not timely, the landing fleet will most likely suffer losses as a result. This is the biggest drawback of this solution. And the biggest advantage of this program is that the first

It can stay in relatively safe sea areas and be covered by shore-based air forces deployed in Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and even the Central American continent, and is not prone to surprise attacks.

Obviously, Tan Renhao is still quite cautious in the deployment of the campaign, and this raises some inevitable questions, such as how to ensure that the landing fleet is not attacked? In order to solve this problem, the First Fleet must also participate in the operation of encircling and suppressing the Atlantic Fleet. Since the Third Fleet cannot complete the task alone, it should not be limited to the scope of arranging only one main fleet to deal with the Atlantic Fleet, and when necessary, it is an inevitable choice to use the First Fleet to ensure victory.

To this end, the area of activity of the First Fleet will be shifted to the western part of Jamaica Island, not far east of the Third Fleet. In this way, not only would the two fleets support each other, but the First Fleet would be able to continue to support the Marines in their attacks on southeastern Cuba and bombers could be dispatched to blockade the Florida Strait north of Cuba. At that time, the Florida Strait was the most likely area for engagement.

Judging from Tan Renhao's campaign deployment, he made clear a key point, that is, to use the landing operation as much as possible to force the Atlantic Fleet into the theater of operations, so as to seize the opportunity to take out the Atlantic Fleet. And this battle plan has a key premise, that is, the Atlantic Fleet must take the initiative to find the landing fleet and prepare for a sneak attack on the landing fleet. Otherwise, his campaign intentions would not have been realized.

Judging from the local war situation at that time, even if Spruance received an order to defeat the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy, in fact, Spruance would never rashly fight Tan Renhao head-on. Rather, it was a combat operation to defeat the landing of the Marines of the Don Empire in Cuba. This is the judgment made by Tan Renhao, and it can be regarded as his deep understanding of Spruance. It was on the basis of this judgment that Tan Renhao determined the next combat action.

If Spruance were to attack the landing fleet, he would have to get the Atlantic Fleet into the Florida Strait, or the Bahamas. The choice of these two locations will be at Spruance's discretion. If Spruance believed that the Don Marines would land in Cienfuegos, then the Atlantic Fleet would have to go to the Florida Strait in order to be able to send bombers against the landing fleet. Conversely, if Spruance had been convinced that the landing site of the Don Marines was near San Diego, he would have left the fleet in the waters off the Bahamas. Instead of heading to the Florida Strait. In other words, whether or not the campaign deception work deployed by Luo Yunchong can be effective will directly affect the battle between the Combined Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet.

To put it bluntly, no one was sure that Huang Xiaotian's deception method of the ground campaign could produce results, and the deception operation on the 29th had just begun, even if it had been effective. There is no way to judge. Under such circumstances, Tan Renhao had to determine a backup plan in advance, that is, if the Atlantic Fleet did not enter the Florida Strait and did not enter the strike range of the Third Fleet, how should it cover the landing fleet!

The time to determine whether to adopt the backup plan is 24 hours before landfall, that is, when the sea south of Enfuegos moves to the sea of Santiago. In this case, both the First and Third Fleets had to move eastward at the same time. Among them, the First Fleet first entered the waters southwest of the Windward Strait and arranged for reconnaissance planes to focus on searching the waters of the Bahamas. At the same time, the Third Fleet reached the waters north of the island of Jamaica, in addition to participating in search work. It was also responsible for providing proper cover for the First Fleet, as well as the landing fleet, and sending bombers against the Atlantic Fleet if necessary. That is to say, at this time, the positions of the First Fleet and the Third Fleet were reversed, and the First Fleet was in front of the landing fleet, and if Spruance sent reconnaissance planes, it would be the first to discover the First Fleet, so that Spruance would abandon the landing fleet and choose to attack the First Fleet. Can it withstand the bombing of the US military. At the same time, the success of the counterattack depends on the performance of the fleet and aviation.

Arguably. There's no way around it. Tan Renhao didn't want to use the First Fleet as a shield, but he had no other choice. After he put forward this plan, Chang Zhixin asked that when the backup plan was implemented, the Third Task Force should participate in the operation to support the landing operations of the Marine Corps, instead of operating together with the two aircraft carrier task forces, and Chang recommended Xindi on the grounds that the Third Task Force was not of much use in aviation operations, and its powerful artillery could provide strong support for the Marine Corps, and his real purpose was to ensure the safety of Tan Renhao and the security of the Combined Fleet Command.

Soon, the plan was finalized. The closed-door meeting of the four ended at this time, and the specific battle plan was formulated by the Combined Fleet Command, and both Chang Jianxin and Hao Dongjue acted according to the plan. This is also the task that Tan Renhao arranged for Yan Dingyu when he returned to the command cabin.

Before dawn on the 30th, the battle plan was sent to the commanders of the two main fleets: the fleet broke away from the formation and headed northwest, while the First Fleet continued to wander in the southern waters of Jamaica Island, and on the afternoon of the 30th, bombers were dispatched to attack military targets in southeastern Cuba. It was not until the evening of the 30's that the First Fleet began to sail in a northwesterly direction, heading to the new operational sea area.

At this point, the deployment of the campaign was basically completed. Tan Renhao also contacted Chang Jianxin on the evening of the 30th to confirm that everything was normal with the fleet, but the problem was that until this time, Lei Shaoqing still had not sent information on the activities of the Atlantic Fleet, and only one thing was certain, that is, the Atlantic Fleet did not return to Norfolk Military Port, nor did it appear in other large ports that could accommodate the fleet. In other words, the Atlantic Fleet had indeed gone south, but it was not possible to determine exactly where it was and what Spruance wanted to do.

At this time, Tan Renhao gradually calmed down, although he was not sure that Spruance would be fooled, but he was sure of one thing, no matter what the situation was, he must cover the successful landing of the Marine Corps in Cuba and kick off the prelude to the march to the mainland of the United States!