A brutal air defense battle was staged in the skies above the 1st Task Force of the Tang Empire. At first, the Japanese First Air Fleet was under great pressure from air defense operations, and now, it is the officers and men of the Tang Imperial Navy who are fighting bravely to keep three aircraft carriers.

The first group of bombers that penetrated the air defense network of the Tang Imperial fleet, that is, the "99 Ship Explosion" led by Mizu Yusa, Fuchida had less than ten of them, and a large number of bombers had been shot down when they broke through the air defense interception of the "Vultures", while the other dozen or so went to bomb those capital ships (Japanese pilots regarded the tall "Li Jing"-class large air defense cruisers as battleships of the Tang Empire, or battle cruisers. And the three triple 240-mm main gun turrets of the "Li Jing" class really looked like the main gun turrets of battleships in the air), and did not follow Mitsuo Fuchida to bomb the aircraft carriers in the rear. This was the influence of the deep-seated thinking of the Japanese Navy, and it was bound to have an impact on the outcome of the campaign.

The three aircraft carrier formations quickly turned around, and the heavy cruisers and destroyers accompanying the carriers on either side of the aircraft carrier quickly organized a new anti-aircraft fire interception network. At this time, there were still six heavy cruisers in the fleet (one heavy cruiser had returned early the night before due to mechanical problems) and twelve destroyers. That is, each aircraft carrier was still covered by a heavy cruiser of the "Trotto" class on each side, and the destroyers were scattered around the periphery of the three aircraft carrier formations.

Mitsuo Fuchida chose the southernmost aircraft carrier "Xuanzong," and at this time, the "Taizu" was sailing westward in front of the fleet, and the "Yangtze River" aircraft carrier formation was moving to the northwest, and the "Xuanzong" aircraft carrier formation had just completed its turn. Fleeing westward. Nine "99 shipbursts" immediately began to climb after passing through the cruiser's anti-aircraft fire network, preparing to enter the dive into the altitude, and the "Sparrowhawks" that had just arrived at the ground immediately dived down from a high altitude, and the two "99 shipbursts" were immediately hit. Before the other seven "99 shipbursts" entered the air defense fire network of the "Xuanzong" aircraft carrier formation, they were attacked by a group of "sparrowhawks," and in the end, including Mitsuo Fuchida, only four "99 shipbursts" entered the fleet's air defense network. Assault towards the "Xuanzong".

The "Xuanzong" aircraft carrier seemed to feel that it was about to be in a catastrophe, and desperately swayed its huge body on the sea. Let the "hornets" that follow it not be able to aim and attack, and use the delayed time to let the escort warships try to kill these "hornets" as much as possible. Although the speed of 33 knots is already very fast in a large warship, it is indeed much slower than the speed of 200 knots of the "99 ship explosion".

Mitsuo Fuchida was the first to enter the bombing channel, and the three "99 ship explosions" behind also began to dive. "Xuanzong" was already in a catastrophe, and the dive bomber entered the dive channel. As long as the bomb is dropped, its hit rate is about a quarter. If calculated according to this ratio, then at least one bomb will hit the aircraft carrier "Xuanzong".

Tan Renhao turned his head at this time, the "Xuanzong" can be regarded as an aircraft carrier with a great fortune, after several naval battles, there was no fatal injury, can it escape the catastrophe this time?

"Bomber—"

As soon as the staff officer shouted out, the "Taizu" aircraft carrier also began to maneuver to evade. When Tan Renhao grabbed the handrail next to him. Immediately look out the porthole. The four black dots were swooping down towards the "Taizu" aircraft carrier, which was the "99 ship explosion" that had penetrated the fleet's air defense network, and they were killed from the southwest of the fleet, not from the south. The anti-aircraft artillery roared angrily, and a brutal anti-aircraft battle descended on the head of the aircraft carrier "Taizu".

These four "99 ship explosions" were a group of bombers that were scattered after takeoff. Instead of following Mitsuo Fuchida to assault the Tang Empire fleet from the south, they evaded in a northwesterly direction. Subsequently. They searched and advanced to the northeast, only about three minutes later than the group of planes led by Mitsuo Osa, Fuchida and arrived over the Tang Imperial fleet. And the first thing they saw was the "Taizu" aircraft carrier formation, which was at the forefront of the fleet, and immediately launched an attack.

The two heavy cruisers escorting the "Taizu" were both old battleships of the 1st Task Force, and the quality of the gunners on them was the best. Although the engagement was too hasty, they had already found their target and spilled their shells in the first place. The Japanese pilots of the four "99 Ship Bombs" were all rookie level, and they were very familiar with the technique of diving and dropping bombs, but they were not at all familiar with how to avoid anti-aircraft shells fired from the sea when diving and dropping bombs. In the first round of attacks, two "99 ship explosions" were torn apart by shells. And the other two "99 ship explosions" dropped bombs. However, the "Taizu" also avoided these two bombs, and the anti-aircraft artillery fire on the heavy cruiser "Lichun" tore up the two "99 ship explosions" that had sneak attack when they pulled up.

Two bombs fell more than a hundred meters outside the starboard side of the "Taizu". There is no threat to the aircraft carrier. The "Taizu" can be regarded as having passed this level without danger.

Tan Renhao let out a sigh and gave an order loudly: "Strengthen air defense vigilance and be careful of the sudden attack of Japanese bombers." ”

At this point, the battle was basically a melee, and both sides were desperately attacking with bombers, and there was almost no effective organization, and this was not a problem that could be solved by the quality of officers and men.

"Commander, the 'Xuanzong' has been shot!"

Tan Renhao was startled, and immediately ran to the porthole on the left side and looked towards the "Xuanzong" in the left rear. The huge aircraft carrier "Xuanzong" was like a wounded monster of the sea, with thick smoke rising from the deck, huge flames rising from time to time, and violent explosions constantly rang out.

A staff officer put down the phone and ran briskly. "The bomb fell on the rear elevator and exploded in the hangar, detonating a batch of machine gun shells, and the officers and men were working hard to repair it. The speed of the aircraft carrier was not affected. ”

Tan Renhao nodded and wiped the sweat off his forehead, he was already sweating at this time, and even his military uniform was soaked. "Let the 'Xuanzong' formation withdraw from the battle as soon as possible. Let's land the combat planes on the aircraft carriers 'Taizu' and 'Yangtze River' respectively. ”

The staff officer nodded, and just turned around......

"Torpedo bomber—"

Tan Renhao was shocked, and immediately glanced at the officer who was pointing in the direction of the port side, and then looked to the left side of the battleship, where a group of torpedo bombers were approaching the "Taizu" aircraft carrier at a low altitude......

Yamaguchi Wendo did not have a good time here, and two groups of dive bombers caused the "Flying Dragon" to lose its combat effectiveness, and the speed was reduced to 18 knots. Moreover, it had to rely on the left rudder to control the course, and the "Xianghe" also suffered a little damage. But he didn't wait for him to recover. The third and fourth groups of bombers came over again, and Yamaguchi had to wonder where there were so many bombers in the Tang Imperial fleet to launch several rounds of bombing in a row!

The third batch of "Kingfishers" and the "Ospreys" behind them did not act separately, but under the command of Major Zhang Zhitao, they first launched an attack on the "Flying Dragon", which had been heavily damaged.

Major Zhang Zhitao first led the other seven "Ospreys" to form a dense formation and killed the "Flying Dragon" at an ultra-low altitude, and at the same time he called four "Kingfishers" in the sky to carry out a coordinated attack.

The loud roar of the "Kingfisher" during its dive attracted a large number of ground anti-aircraft shells. At this time, most of the anti-aircraft artillery of the Japanese fleet was paying attention to the "Kingfisher" group that arrived first, and not many people noticed the eight "Ospreys" flying almost close to the sea. Zhang Zhitao is a subordinate of Colonel Deng Zichao, when Deng Zichao was the squadron leader, he was the squad leader, and now that Deng Zichao has become the captain, he has been promoted to squadron leader. He was deeply influenced by Deng Zichao, and he almost didn't die when he fought, and his skills were also first-class. Under his leadership, the "Osprey" fleet was at an altitude of less than 50 meters above the sea surface. Speeding at 200 knots.

By the time the officers and men of the "Flying Dragon" and the anti-aircraft gunners of the heavy cruiser "Kinugasa" discovered this group of torpedo bombers, it was already too late. Zhang Zhitao first dropped a torpedo on the sea about 800 meters away from the "Flying Dragon," and then seven other "Ospreys" also dropped torpedoes. By the time the anti-aircraft guns of the Japanese battleships opened fire on them, the eight "Ospreys" had already withdrawn from the battle at a speed of 220 knots, and the "Ospreys" after dropping their torpedoes were much faster.

The Wyvern struggled. However, the right rudder of the aircraft carrier was damaged, and it could only rely on the left rudder to steer, and the flexibility was greatly reduced, and the speed of 18 knots was even more difficult to quickly avoid the incoming torpedo. It was also at this time that three "Kingfishers", which had completed their dive, also dropped bombs. When these three "Kingfishers" were pulled up, they did not forget to use their self-defense machine guns to strafe the "Flying Dragon" Shangshu Island and the anti-aircraft gun emplacement.

The hit rate of 8 torpedoes set a new combat record, 5 of which hit the "Wyvern", and one missed torpedo also hit a Japanese destroyer on the other side of the "Wyvern"! One of the three bombs also landed on the aft deck of the Wyvern. The "Flying Dragon," which had been hit by four bullets and five mines, had no hope. Fifteen minutes later, the remaining captain gave the order to abandon the ship. The rescue of the "Wyvern" was abandoned. It was twenty minutes after Zhang Zhitao and their attack. "Wyvern" after tilting almost thirty degrees to the right, after a violent explosion. Disappeared from the sea.

At the time when the "Flying Dragon" suffered a catastrophe, the "Xianghe" was also undergoing the greatest test. This is a new aircraft carrier, which is a first-class aircraft carrier newly built by Japan after the "Soryu" class aircraft carrier, and its improvement has many points, and its combat effectiveness must also be very strong, and this is also the first battle in which the "Xianghe" class aircraft carrier participated.

The bomb that started with it destroyed the anti-aircraft gun emplacements on the port side of the "Xianghe", because the anti-aircraft fire on the left front of the "Xianghe" was almost zero. This vulnerability was soon discovered by the bomber swarm. Eight "Ospreys" entered directly from this direction, and the eight "Kingfishers" that coordinated their attack also entered from this direction.

At this time, Yamaguchi Wenta had just climbed onto the deck of the "Kinugasa", and he immediately saw the "Wyvern" aircraft carrier twisted and deformed in the fire. Yamaguchi Wendo almost gritted his teeth, it was his flagship, only ten minutes ago, he was still directing the battle there, but now, it was a burning iron coffin. And when he looked at the "Xianghe", he immediately found that the aircraft carrier, which had no time to hide in the cumulonimbus clouds, was being besieged by dozens of bombers of the Tang Empire.

"Commander, a telegram from Daisa Fuchida ......"

Yamaguchi Wenta immediately took the telegram, and after just one glance, he almost fainted without being frightened.

The telegram sent by Mitsuo Fuchida ten minutes earlier changed hands twice before it was delivered to the new flagship, the Kinugasa, and the main point of the telegram was that a huge artillery fleet with five capital ships and several heavy cruisers was rapidly approaching southward!

Yamaguchi's surprise was understandable, five capital ships, that is, five battleships or battle cruisers. At this time, he also knew that the fleet of the Tang Empire was less than 80 nautical miles to the north of them, and these warships would only need less than three hours to kill him. How big the threat of the five capital ships is, Yamaguchi Wenta is very clear, the heavy cruisers of the First Air Fleet probably do not even have the strength to parry, and the remaining two aircraft carriers can only escape.

Yamaguchi's hand holding the telegram was trembling slightly, and the officers around him were paying attention to him. Now the battle has only reached its most tragic stage, should you fight or flee?

"Retreat, give the order immediately, the fleet retreats to the south at full speed and out of the battle!" Yamaguchi Wenta knew that he didn't have the capital to fight hard, "Also, call Commander Yamamoto, and just say...... Let's just say that we have entangled the first task force of the Tang Empire, and are engaged in a fierce battle with it, the Tang fleet has five capital ships, and I hope that the commander will arrive quickly, and in order to annihilate the enemy's main fleet, we will repay the emperor with death...... That's right, that's it, that's it! ”

Yamaguchi Wendo was already panicking, and even his words were blurred a lot. The other officers were relieved, and these Japanese officers knew very well that if they persisted, they would eventually be wiped out by the main fleet of the Tang Empire. Of course, they didn't think of a point, at that time, where did the Tang Empire go to find these five capital ships?

Tan Renhao is also facing the final test, the "Taizu" can be said to be full of dangers, more than a dozen "97 ship attackers" dropped torpedoes one after another, but they were divided into several batches of mines, instead of entering at the same time! This gave the "Taizu" a chance, and the huge aircraft carrier was like an agile dolphin, moving swiftly through the white wake of the torpedo.