It is not an exaggeration to describe the situation in the Imperial Navy Command in the next two days as "tense" and "busy". This is also Tan Renhao's most appropriate feeling, he not only has to be familiar with the things that should be paid attention to as a fleet operations staff officer from Rear Admiral Ji Xiaobin (who was promoted together with Liao Hanxiang and Wu Xianyu), but also to complete the tasks given to him by General Liao Hanxiang. Therefore, Tan Renhao took Hao Dongjue and Chang Jianxin, two companions who had just been promoted to major, to the Imperial Navy Staff Headquarters to temporarily assist Liao Hanxiang, the chief of naval staff, in formulating a counterattack plan against the Japanese Navy.

When Tan Renhao learned about the current battle situation, he felt a headache about this task in hand.

Within two days, the Japanese navy and army aviation bombed all the imperial military bases and military ports in the South Seas, and the ports of Surabaya, Lampung, Lion City, Pontianak, Tarakan, Manila, Kotabatar, and Lianggang, as well as the air stations of the imperial navy and army, all became the targets of the Japanese bombers. The remnants of the Third Fleet and the Southwest Fleet, which had fled to the Lion City, were urgently evacuated to Colombo and Trincomalee, and the remnants of the Second Fleet, which had just arrived at Lianggang, were urgently evacuated to Haikou and Sanya. The warships of the Imperial Navy disappeared from the waters of the South Sea almost overnight.

The Japanese Army Landing Force (the Japanese Navy has no marines) has already landed in Kuching and Jakarta and is rapidly advancing towards the hinterland of Bo Ni and Java, where Imperial Army units and marines are already preparing to retreat. In addition, a Japanese landing convoy is massing near Luzon in preparation for landing, as well as Mindanao to the south. Another Japanese landing convoy has reached the waters off the Linga Islands and is preparing to land in the Lion City and the Malay Peninsula.

The defeat of the Imperial Navy in the South Sea is already irreparable, and because of the loss of the capital ships of the Third Fleet, the presence of the Imperial Navy in the Indian Ocean has also been greatly weakened, if the Japanese Navy can quickly sweep the South Sea region, then there will be enough strength and strength to enter the Indian Ocean, cut off the sea passage from the port of the Kingdom of Burma to the Persian Empire, and even directly affect the direction of the Indian region in the war.

The situation is most tense in the Ryukyu Islands. This was the focal point of the struggle between the empire and Japan. If Japan wants to control the South Seas region, then it must occupy the Ryukyu Islands, which are the transit points of the sea route from the Japanese mainland to the South Seas, and if Japan cannot seize the Ryukyu Islands, then the Japanese army in the South Seas region will not be able to get sufficient logistical support, and the imperial navy may cut off the logistics supply line at any time. If nothing else, if the empire were able to deploy a few hundred bombers over the Ryukyu Islands, then all of Japan's fleet would be within its threatening range. What's more, the island of Ryukyu was only a few hundred kilometers from the Japanese mainland, and the Imperial Navy's bombers could start from here and bomb Japan's Kyushu, Shikoku, and southwestern areas of Honshu, while the Imperial Army's heavy bombers could bomb almost all of Japan's industrial areas. In a strategic sense, the importance of taking the Ryukyu Islands was far greater than that of the imperial army in the South Seas.

Due to the collapse of the First Fleet, the Imperial Navy was no longer able to secure a maritime connection between the mainland and the Ryukyu Islands, and the air force stationed on the island had been lost. Although the Army Aviation has been organizing support for the Ryukyu Islands, and even sent bomber units to attack Japanese naval warships near the islands, little has been seen. The Japanese Navy has concentrated two powerful fleets, the Southwest Combined Fleet and the Home Fleet, near Ryukyu Island, and in two days, the Japanese Army landing force has occupied the Kerama Islands and several islands north of Ryukyu Island, and is rushing to build airfields, barracks, and so on on these islands. A landing convoy carrying at least 50,000 ground troops has already appeared nearby, ready to send a final landing operation to the Ryukyu Islands.

The ground forces of the Imperial Navy stationed on the island of Ryukyu were less than 20,000 people, and among them were at least 5,000 civilian personnel of the base, as well as ground crews of part of the aviation forces. The loss of the Kerama Islands had rendered the port of Naha defence-worthy, and Major General Sho-jin Sho-in, who commanded the defense of Ryukyu Island, had withdrawn his troops to the vicinity of Kadena Airport, where he had rebuilt a defensive position. However, because a large number of supplies were destroyed, and the defenders did not have much heavy equipment, even ammunition, food, etc., I am afraid that the more than 20,000 imperial soldiers will not be able to hold out for long.

There is also a very important battlefield, and that is Jeju Island. Jeju Island was the territory of the Kingdom of Korea, but it was the most important military base of the empire in the Yellow Sea. Jeju Island is more than 300 kilometers away from Kyushu, Japan, and the bombers deployed on the island can bomb all cities in mainland Japan. Thus, on the first day of the war, the airfield on Jeju Island became the object of focused "care" of Japanese bombers. However, Japan did not immediately draw up troops to launch a landing operation on Jeju Island, mainly because the troops were insufficient, and the ground forces mobilized by Japan had already been spent. However, if Japan can quickly capture Ryukyu Island, Jeju Island will be the next target.

Similarly, Jeju Island was perhaps more important to the empire than Japan. If Jeju Island fell into Japanese hands, then the Japanese bombers deployed on the island would be enough to cover the entire Bohai Bay, and the empire was located in all the industrial towns on the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula, and the military bases were within its strike range, and the Bohai Bay had always been the main area of activity of the imperial navy, and there were large shipyards in Dalian, Qingdao, and Weihai. If these shipyards were threatened and attacked, the strength of the Imperial Navy would inevitably be drastically reduced. And the northern access to the sea of the empire will also be completely blocked.

Judging from the overall situation of the war, the Empire is now in a very passive position, all fronts are tight, and the Fifth Fleet, the only one capable of attacking, is simply unable to take care of every direction, or even turn the tide of the war in one direction. This is not only a difficult problem faced by the Imperial Navy, but also a difficult problem faced by Tan Renhao, where should the Fifth Fleet be placed, and which direction should be launched to launch a counterattack, which makes it difficult for Tan Renhao to make a decision, and he does not have much hope for the counterattack, to create a miracle, it is not as easy as imagined.

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