Looking at the bow of the ship that was emitting smoke, Yamaguchi's eyes were a little glazed, and he couldn't believe that in less than three hours, the First Air Fleet had become what it is now. The "Xianghe" suffered two more torpedoes, which were already seriously flooded, and the "Zuihe" also ate the torpedo, and the speed was decreasing.

"Commander, Calais Dazuo has been killed, and the battleship can only maintain a speed of 24 knots," the Shaozuo officer who came to report the situation hesitated, "The 'Xianghe' was seriously damaged, three compartments were flooded, and more than 2,000 tons of water were flooded, and Narishima Daisa is organizing personnel to make every effort to rescue ......"

The staff officer couldn't say any more, the "Flying Dragon" sank, the "Xianghe" was heavily damaged, and it was only one step away from sinking, and the "Ruihe" was also seriously injured, although it was still able to dispatch fighters, but there were no fighters in the fleet that could be used at all, so what else could be dispatched? After only three hours of fierce fighting, the fleet was destroyed. In addition to this, two destroyers were accidentally torpedoed and sunk, and the losses of officers and men have already exceeded fifteen hundred.

Yamaguchi was also frightened, he didn't want to give up, but now, he had no chips in his hand. All the bombers were sent out, and even the fighters were hung up with bombs and took part in the bombing operation. Suddenly, Yamaguchi Wenduo shuddered slightly, and he remembered the group of capital ships of the Tang Empire that were still chasing.

"Immediately turn to the southeast and withdraw the whole fleet from the battle!" Yamaguchi was very brave, but not stupid, he knew very well that at the current speed of the fleet at 24 knots, before dark. The capital ships of the Tang Empire will be able to catch up, and if he still doesn't want to find a way to evade the ground, then the whistling shells will replace those bombs and torpedoes, and then the fleet will be completely finished.

As soon as the fleet began to turn, a staff officer in charge of communications ran over and handed a telegram to Yamaguchi Wenta. The staff officer's expression was very ugly. And when Yamaguchi Wenta finished reading the contents of the telegram, his expression changed greatly. And immediately crumpled the newspaper into a ball.

"Commander, what now?"

Yamaguchi hesitated, this was the first time he had shown a hesitant look in battle. The telegram was sent by General Yamamoto 65, and there was only one piece of content in it, so that he had to do everything he could, even if it was a broken jade, to entangle the first task force of the Tang Empire. Wait for the main force of the combined fleet to arrive in the evening and annihilate the first task force of the Tang Empire!

This order seems simple, but Yamaguchi Wenta knows very well that if he wants to complete the mission, he must sacrifice all the warships in the First Air Fleet and take the initiative to meet the capital ships of the Tang Empire that are heading south, so that he can have a chance to entangle his opponent. Of course. As a result, the First Air Fleet was "shattered" and became a combined fleet.

"Commander ......"

"Let the 'Xianghe' formation retreat alone." Yamaguchi Wenduo only hesitated for a few minutes, "The rest of the warships turned around and prepared to go north to meet the main fleet of the Tang Empire. Let's pray, let Amarasu bless us. Loyal to the Emperor! ”

"Loyal to the Emperor!"

Under the tow of a heavy cruiser and under the cover of two destroyers, the "Xianghe" aircraft carrier formation went south alone, while the other warships of the First Air Fleet with "Zuihe" as the core began to turn one after another. Heavy cruisers, destroyers went to the front of the aircraft carrier and formed an artillery formation. At this time, all the Japanese officers and soldiers on the battleship thought of death, and some even secretly wrote suicide notes......

To the north, Tan Renhao was also anxiously waiting for the battle report ahead. When Zhang Naiding sent the news of "sinking" and "severely damaging" each of the Japanese aircraft carriers, the command cabin suddenly boiled. Tan Renhao also smiled at this time. He pulled out his cigarette. After clicking on it, he smoked greedily, and it was three hours. He smoked his first cigarette.

"Go, scatter it for everyone!" Tan Renhao threw the cigarette case to a staff officer, so that those staff officers who could not usually smoke in the command cabin enjoyed a special treatment.

At this time, Tan Renhao did not know that only the "Xianghe" was hit hard again, and the torpedo in the "Ruihe" did not cause much serious damage, so it was not a heavy blow. It's just that the only thing that is certain is that the Japanese First Air Fleet will no longer be able to attack again. Of the last group of Japanese bombers, only four escorted "Zero Battles" escaped back, the rest of the fighters were shot down, and more than a dozen Japanese pilots were taken prisoner.

While everyone was rejoicing, a radio station went on. Lei Shaoqing immediately walked over quickly, it was the radio station that contacted the naval command. As soon as the communications officer translated the telegram, Lei Shaoqing took it, and he was already shocked before he could finish reading the contents of the telegram. The staff officers all noticed the change in the chief of staff's expression, and the cabin suddenly fell silent.

"The Japanese Combined Fleet is just west of us!" Lei Shaoqing's hands trembled twice, and he sent the telegram to Tan Renhao, "It is a radio signal detected by the Navy Command, and there is abnormal radio activity in the sea area southwest of Guam, which is only about 200 nautical miles away from us, and the Navy Command judges that this is a signal from the radio on the 'Yamato'. ”

Tan Renhao quickly glanced at the contents of the telegram, and then glanced at the surrounding officers, who quickly returned to their positions, and a few of them consciously extinguished their cigarette butts.

"What do we do now?" Lei Shaoqing followed Tan Renhao to the chart table.

Tan Renhao didn't speak, he glanced at the navigation clock first, it was already 10:55 in the morning. Then, his gaze fell on the chart.

The approximate position of the Combined Japanese Fleet, as measured by radio surveying devices using triangulation, was within 180 nautical miles to 200 nautical miles southwest of Guam. In other words, the Japanese Combined Fleet killed directly from the south of Guam, not from the strait north of Guam. In this way, the range can be shortened by about 50 nautical miles, that is, it can make contact with Task Force 1 two hours earlier. Yamamoto Sixty-Five must have changed course only after receiving the news from the First Air Fleet, calculated at a speed of 24 knots. Then the Japanese Combined Fleet will probably arrive in this area in the evening. If he had enough attack power, Tan Renhao could send a bomber group to deal with the Japanese Combined Fleet now, but the problem was that he didn't have much capital in his hands.

Tan Renhao glanced at Lei Shaoqing, and then let out a sigh, he had already made a decision.

Zhang Naiding's group returned to the fleet at 11:35 a.m., while the first task force was returning to the northwest. Tan Renhao abandoned the idea of a decisive battle with the Japanese Combined Fleet. The reason is simple, he has less than thirty bombers left in his hands. There are still hundreds of fighters! Unless he was willing to let the fighter jets hang up the bombs and carry out the bombing mission, he would have to give up. As a result, Tan Renhao chose to give up, because he felt that pilots were more precious, he had already destroyed the Japanese First Air Fleet, and it was not worth risking those excellent pilots for the sake of a few battleships.

Of course. Tan Renhao's idea is also very direct. After the end of Japan's First Air Fleet, the Japanese Navy has lost its superiority in the western Pacific, and the First Task Force can enter and leave the western Pacific at any time, and it is only a matter of time before the "turtle ships" in the Japanese Combined Fleet are annihilated. Through this naval battle, the surviving pilots of the First Task Force have actual combat experience, especially the pilots of the "Yangtze River" aircraft carrier have already possessed valuable experience, as long as these pilots are still there, then the First Task Force can easily defeat the Combined Fleet in the next naval battle!

Tan Renhao's idea is not wrong. In fact, it turned out that his decision was completely correct. It was only a matter of time before the Japanese Combined Fleet was annihilated, and with the restoration of the Imperial Navy's strength and the addition of a large number of outstanding officers and men, Japan was at the end of its rope. But it didn't turn out that way. Tan Renhao didn't know that his decision almost pushed him to a military court!

When the fleet retreated, Tan Renhao also ordered the cruiser formation to go south to return with the fleet, abandoning the pursuit of the Japanese First Air Fleet. This is also based on a false piece of information. At that time, Tan Renhao was already convinced that two of the three aircraft carriers in Japan's First Air Fleet had been sunk, and the last "Zuizuru" had also suffered heavy damage and must be evading it to the south. The Caroline Islands to the south were Japan's sphere of influence. It's close to Truk. If they had come within the strike range of Japanese shore-based bombers, those cruisers would have been in danger. Therefore. Tan Renhao felt that there was no value in pursuit, so he gave up the pursuit operation. And he did not know that at that time the Japanese First Air Fleet was heading north, and it was going to the guns of the cruiser formation. What is even more regrettable is that because of the two attacks by Japanese bombers in front, the reconnaissance planes that were originally planned to be sent out have not been dispatched, and as a result, when Tan Renhao decided to retreat, these reconnaissance planes remained in the fleet!

Before retreating, Tan Renhao did not forget a very important thing, that is, to try to save the pilot who fell into the water. By the time the cruiser formation received the news, it had already reached the sea area where the first battle broke out in the early morning, salvaged more than 30 overboard pilots, and captured more than 100 Japanese officers and soldiers who had not been rescued. Only then did the cruiser formation turn around and keep up with the retreat of the aircraft carrier formation.

When Tan Renhao decided to retreat, Yamamoto Sixty-Five was also leading the fleet to kill at full speed. During the fierce battle between Yamaguchi and Task Force 1, he had already received a telegram and ordered the fleet to turn immediately and kill the battlefield with the nearest channel. In fact, Yamamoto Sixty-five had already made arrangements too late at this time, and by the time he felt the battlefield, the First Task Force had already run more than 200 nautical miles, and after dawn, it would enter the cover range of the trench-based air force on Ryukyu Island!

Yamamoto Sixty-Five did not realize his mistake after this painful lesson, but instead thought that the Tang Imperial Navy was too timid to fight him head-on. In the evening of the same day, he also sent a telegram of victory back to Japan, claiming that he had sunk two aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire, severely damaged one aircraft carrier, and severely damaged several capital ships, defeating the First Task Force of the Tang Imperial Navy and winning a great victory in the naval battle. This is a report submitted by Yamaguchi Bunta to Yamamoto Sixty-five based on the pilot's report on the results of the battle, and it is a seriously erroneous battle report. As a matter of fact, only the "Xuanzong" aircraft carrier of the First Task Force was seriously damaged, the "Taizu" aircraft carrier was slightly damaged and could be repaired in half a month, and the "Yangtze River" aircraft carrier was unscathed.

It was on the basis of Yamaguchi's report that Yamamoto continued to insist that the capital ships were still the hegemon in naval battles, and that the Tang Imperial fleet was afraid of a decisive battle with the powerful "Yamato", so it turned around and fled. Later, Yamamoto 65 advocated the construction of the battleships "Musashi" and "Shinano" (the last two ships of the "Yamato" class), and it was based on this judgment!

Yamaguchi Wenta's "suicide" pursuit also stopped at 12 o'clock, and after confirming that the first task force of the Tang Empire had retreated, Yamaguchi Wenta reported the situation to Yamamoto Sixty-five, and then received a new order to lead the fleet back to the Truk base. Yamaguchi smelled a brush with death, but finally succeeded in braking and did not fall into the trap of death.

The aircraft carrier "Zuihe" returned directly to the Truk naval base, where it was repaired, and quickly regained its combat effectiveness, the torpedo did not cause much damage to the aircraft carrier, the hole in the bow was quickly filled, and two months later, a new bow nose was replaced.

The "Xianghe" was not so easy to repair. After struggling to return to the Truk base, he only filled in a few holes in the hull, and because there were not enough repair facilities in the base, he returned to the Japanese mainland a month later and entered Kure Port for repairs. The main repair work lasted four months, and it was more than two months later than the "Zuihe" before returning to the First Air Fleet. In the space of two months, the Japanese Navy had already lost its naval supremacy in the western Pacific.

This naval battle came to be known as the Battle of the Ryukyu Basin, or the Battle of Guam (as it was called by Japan and the West). By the end of the naval battle, the Tang Empire still had one aircraft carrier that could fight, and all the large aircraft carriers of Japan had lost their combat effectiveness. It was also a turning point in the war in the Western Pacific. After these two months, the Tang Imperial Navy already had four fleet carriers, while Japan had only one fleet carrier left at its disposal (two more converted aircraft carriers were later in service, but they were not regular fleet carriers). It was from this time that the Tang Empire gradually mastered the sea control in the western Pacific waters, and with the Tang Empire's new first-class aircraft carriers, battleships, and large cruisers entering service one after another, the balance on the ocean has begun to tilt towards the Tang Empire!