Tan Renhao couldn't be sure if the combined Anglo-French fleet would go north to attack Moroni, but similarly, when Cunningham received the information from the spies, he was also confused. Moreover, he has more headaches than talking about Renhao, which is like a lion facing a hedgehog, and he doesn't know where to start.

It was when the first telegram was received that Cunningham was a little skeptical. At the time, the combined Anglo-French fleet was sailing south in the storm zone, and according to the previous plan, they were supposed to return to Cape Town to allow the damaged ships to be maintained. Moreover, Godford insisted on returning to Cape Town, and the situation of the battleships in the French fleet was even worse, many of the destroyers and cruisers had problems, and if they were not maintained, they would probably be destroyed by the storm.

Cunningham did think about it, go back to Cape Town to rest, and wait until the weather improves, or after the state of the fleet is restored, and then it is not too late to find the decisive battle of the fleet of the Tang Empire. Moreover, he had already sent the news back, asking the Gold Coast side to send two more supply fleets over as soon as possible, otherwise the fleet's sustained combat capability would be greatly affected. In addition, the Cape Town side is ready to provide emergency maintenance for the fleet. At that time, the engineers of the Anglo-French expeditionary force even managed to repair some infrastructure.

When the Tang Empire Marines withdrew from Cape Town, they blew up all the infrastructure in the port of Cape Town, and even destroyed the docks where battleships could dock. When the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet captured the port of Cape Town, the infrastructure was unusable, so the Anglo-French warships were able to rely on supply ships to supply them. And only a limited number of tools can be used for simple maintenance. It was precisely because of the lack of adequate infrastructure that the three aircraft carriers of the British Navy were repaired in Cape Town for more than 20 days, and the damage to these three aircraft carriers was actually not serious. It only takes up to five days in a normal port to be repaired!

The weather complicates not only the battle between the two sides, but also the situation inside the fleet. Cunningham is also not powerful. Bad weather stopped the march of the Tang Imperial fleet to the south at the same time. It also limited the actions of the joint Anglo-French expeditionary fleet. This doesn't do either side any good. It was precisely because of this that Cunningham decided to return to Cape Town first, and as for the battle, let's wait until the weather improves.

At that time, there was another important factor that made Cunningham decide to return to Cape Town. It was on the night of March 3, after he and Chang Jianxin had missed, that the British Admiralty sent him a secret telegram. The telegram had a major impact on Cunningham's decision-making.

The initial mission of the Anglo-French Combined Expeditionary Fleet was to enter the Indian Ocean after capturing Cape Town, seizing ports and strongholds along the way, and finally threatening the Northern Indian Ocean Route, and at the same time establishing a submarine base at Moroni to wait for the arrival of British and French naval submarines, when the time came, the fleet and submarines would work together to strangle the flotilla on the North Indian Ocean route. This was the final goal of the expedition, which was determined by the British and the French. Then. Both Britain and France were well aware that as long as this route was cut off, then Germany's combat effectiveness would be seriously weakened. As long as Germany does not receive strategic assistance from the Tang Empire and Persia, then Germany will not only not be able to defeat Britain and France, but will also be defeated by Britain and France. Therefore, the blockade of the Northern Indian Ocean route. In particular, the route from Colombo to the Suez Canal Land was the highest goal of Britain and France.

Cunningham is indeed working towards this goal, as can be seen in his actions.

Before the ground battle in Cape Town was over, Cunningham led the LinkedIn expeditionary fleet to kill Moroni and quickly capture the stronghold. At the time, Cunningham was not in a hurry to go north, but to spend energy on building the infrastructure to support the submarine in Moroni. The problem was that just as Cunningham was preparing to make a big move, France was quickly defeated, and the French government had decided to surrender to Germany. This completely undermined Cunningham's operation, and before he could decide whether or not to go north, he had to settle the problem of his own retreat, that is, the problem of the French expeditionary fleet.

It was at this time that the imperial fleet led by Tan Renhao and Chang Jianxin entered the Indian Ocean and soon reached Colombo, while Cunningham had lost the opportunity and had to choose to retreat. This time, the order sent by the British Admiralty was to stop going north, abandon the plan to attack the northern Indian Ocean route, and the new task of the expeditionary fleet was to hold Cape Town, try to maneuver with the Tang Imperial Navy, drag the main fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy, and seek an opportunity to annihilate it.

The order came many days late, and Cunningham had been working toward it even before that.

However, the reason for this order by the British Admiralty was not to take into account the situation in the Indian Ocean, but that the US Navy had already acquired six aircraft carriers and a large number of escort warships in early March, the second batch of four "Iowa"-class battleships will also be completed by the middle of the year, and the construction of new specialized air defense cruisers is also being intensified. That is, the US Navy is rapidly recovering and is about to launch a counterattack in the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. government also immediately contacted the British government and asked the British and French expeditionary fleets to hold the Tang Empire's First Task Force and the Third Task Force as much as possible so that they could not return to the Pacific Theater, so that the U.S. Navy's counterattack would be more promising!

In this order to Cunningham, the British Secretary of the Navy only gave a simple explanation, but did not explain the actions of the US military very clearly, at that time, the US Navy was also planning a counterattack, and had not yet come up with a specific plan, and did not notify the British, so Cunningham could not get specific information. It was this order that finally strengthened Cunningham's determination, since it was a delay, it was all the more necessary to return to Cape Town, and let the fleet of the Tang Empire fight against the storm.

The fleet had only sailed south for more than two days, and Cunningham received new news that the Tang Imperial fleet was preparing to withdraw to Colombo, and the spy personnel were still quite conscientious, explaining that the reason why the Tang Imperial fleet left Moroni was probably because the battleship was in serious condition in the storm and could not be repaired on Moroni's side, so it had to return to Colombo. As a result, it was this telegram that prompted Cunningham to quickly revise his previous decision.

Cunningham immediately contacted Godford and asked him to go north with him, but Goldford's reply was decisive. The condition of the French expeditionary fleet was too bad to continue the operation and had to return to Cape Town. The two almost quarreled, and Cunningham had to let Godford go south. And he himself led the LinkedIn expeditionary fleet back north. Of course, Cunningham did not forget one important thing. It was to inform the commander of the ground forces of the British Expeditionary Force in Cape Town that he should take control of the Cape Town oil depot and never refuel the ships in the French Expeditionary Fleet until the British Expeditionary Fleet returned, so as to prevent the French Expeditionary Fleet from escaping!

That is, in the first half of the night on the sixth day. Cunningham had already led the LinkedIn expeditionary fleet to the north at the fastest speed, and the British expeditionary fleet was about 550 nautical miles from Europa and about 1100 nautical miles from Moroni. At this rate, the British expeditionary fleet could reach about 100 nautical miles south of Moroni around the early morning of the 9th, and if it acted in time, it could quickly defeat Moroni and then pursue the Don Empire fleet, which was retreating to Colombo.

It can be seen that Cunningham's decision was very decisive, and it only took him a short time to make a new decision. This is a characteristic of Cunningham, and the reason he made this decision is simple.

The new order clearly mentions that the main fleet of the Tang Empire cannot be allowed to leave the Indian Ocean, and the purpose of his LinkedIn expeditionary fleet to the north is to be directed. It is to "stay" the main fleet of the Tang Empire!

Under the circumstances, Cunningham did not consider that the fleet of the Don Empire would return to Colombo for repairs, but would return to the Pacific. Perhaps the Tang Empire already knew that the United States was planning a counterattack, and Moroni had already taken it down. The Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet would not be able to threaten the northern Indian Ocean route for a moment and a half. Even by the most conservative estimates, it is very likely that the Tang Empire will transfer the First Task Force back to the Pacific Theater, leaving only the Third Task Force to maneuver with the British and French Combined Expeditionary Fleet. And this is exactly what the British Admiralty did not allow to happen in the new life given to Cunningham. Therefore, Cunningham must take action to force Task Force 1 to stay!

The most effective way is naturally to annihilate Task Force 1 and Task Force 3, but this cannot be done at the moment. The only way to deal with Task Force 1 was to attack Moroni, reoccupy the stronghold, and open access to the North Indian Ocean, so that as long as the North Indian Ocean route was threatened, then Task Force 1 and Task Force 3 could not leave the Indian Ocean. Then, Cunningham can try to deal with the main fleet of the Tang Empire, even if he can't defeat the first task force and the third task force, as long as he is not found by the opponent, and the Tang Empire feels that the northern Indian Ocean shipping route is threatened at all times, then his goal will be achieved.

From this point of view, Cunningham's actions were justified, and he did not think about a decisive battle with the main task force of the Tang Empire so soon. Especially after Goldford no longer followed his advice and led the French expeditionary fleet back to Cape Town, Cunningham had no hope of victory, let alone dealing with the First Task Force, as long as he was caught by the Third Task Force, he was not completely sure of defeating the Third Task Force. Therefore, in Cunningham's plan, he just wanted to shell Moroni, and he didn't even need to occupy Moroni to make the Tang Empire feel like a man.

There is nothing wrong with the plan itself, but the plan never changes quickly. Just when the fleet arrived in the waters near Europa Island at a speed of 28 knots, a new telegram came, the first task force of the Tang Imperial Navy suddenly appeared in Moroni, and it seems that several battleships have been torpedoed, the hull is seriously damaged, and there is a lot of water, the aircraft carrier of the first task force also returned to Morone, but no trace of the third task force, as well as those supply ships and landing ships, was found. And this was the second and last telegram sent by Moroni's spy officers.

Originally, this telegram was not a big problem, but Cunningham had suspicions, those ocean-going submarines were still hiding from the wind and waves in the port of Cape Town, so whose torpedo was the battleship of the First Task Force damaged? It was certainly not a submarine of the British and French navies, but the question was, in the western waters of the Indian Ocean, were there other submarines that posed a threat to Task Force 1? Obviously, the submarines deployed by the United States in Australia are only operating in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean, close to the Australian mainland, and they cannot sail to the western part of the Indian Ocean at all! Unless this was accidentally injured by the Tang Imperial Navy's own submarine, but the possibility of this is almost zero, can't the submarine captain of the Tang Imperial Navy identify his own country's warship?

Originally, Tan Renhao's purpose in acting this play was not to confuse Cunningham, but to get Moroni's enemy spy to send a telegram, so the play was overdone. Cunningham's doubts were understandable, he already sensed the danger. But the problem is, now that Task Force 1 has returned to Moroni, where is Task Force 3? If Task Force 3 returns to Colombo, it will have to take advantage of this opportunity to kill Moroni at night and shell Task Force 1 to deal with the biggest threat, and then it will be more certain to deal with Task Force 3 alone. If Task Force 3 had not returned to Colombo, it would have been hiding somewhere in the Comoros Islands, waiting for the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet to die!

What to do? Cunningham, after analyzing the possibility of these two scenarios, made a new decision, the fleet slowed down its advance, delaying the scheduled arrival time of Moroni by more than ten hours, which not only gave him more time to obtain more information to accurately judge the situation on the battlefield.

In addition, the fleet will reach Moroni in the dark of night, which will avoid being attacked by Task Force 1 bombers, and even if Task Force 3 is nearby, he can use the cover of night to retreat.

After making this new decision, Cunningham ordered the fleet to slow down while setting a new course. In fact, at that time, the Third Task Force was preparing to go south, and it was precisely because of Cunningham's new decision that the British Expeditionary Fleet and the Third Task Force of the Tang Empire encountered each other at two o'clock in the morning on the 9th, about 150 nautical miles south of Moroney, and at this time, the First Task Force was about 70 nautical miles north of the Third Task Force!