In the next 20 days, the Tang Imperial Navy and the U.S. Navy fought fiercely around the small island of Gardner, although the scale of each battle was not large, but each battle was extremely tragic, for both sides of the battle, the battle near Gardner Island brought about no longer a change in the overall battle situation, but a test of the morale, willpower, and confidence of the officers and soldiers on both sides. If the decisive battle between the two carrier fleets was like a dish cooked over a fierce fire, then the battle between the cruisers and destroyers near Gardner Island was like a pot of soup brewed over a simmer, less intense but worth savoring.

In these more than 20 days of battle, Yan Yulong became the protagonist on the battlefield. Huang Xiaotian stayed in Guam, and he did not directly intervene in the fleet's combat operations, but only asked Yan Yulong to send the battle report back as timely as possible. And Yan Yulong's performance basically did not disappoint Huang Xiaotian and Liao Hanxiang, this young general who had only served as the chief of staff of the Fourth Task Force for less than half a year told his opponent on the battlefield that Spruance, who made several outstanding generals of the Imperial Navy have a great headache, Yan Yulong is no worse than anyone else in terms of naval artillery battles!

On July 12, the first battle between the two sides, Yan Yulong commanded nine cruisers and twelve destroyers escorted a convoy to Gardner Island, only to encounter twelve cruisers and fifteen destroyers of the Fifth Fleet that night. The battle lasted from 10 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. the next morning, with the result that both sides withdrew from the battle before dawn despite mutual losses.

In this battle, Yan Yulong has been using his advantages to fight against the US military, and he has two advantages, one is that the detection range of the radar is farther, and the other is that the armor-piercing shells fired by the 240 mm main guns on the "Rui Beast" and "Li Jing" classes can penetrate the armor of US warships at a longer distance. On the surface, the Fifth Fleet has been chasing the Fourth Fleet, but in fact, it is the Fourth Task Force that has been trying to maintain a favorable distance. The fact that it did not engage in close combat with the Fifth Fleet made it difficult for the US warships to effectively bring into play their advantage in firepower. As a result, in the fierce battle that night, Yan Yulong lost only two destroyers, and one cruiser was seriously damaged, while the Fifth Fleet had three cruisers, four destroyers were sunk, and two more cruisers were crippled.

That is, from this battle. Spruance realized that he had another difficult opponent, and that the cruisers and destroyers in Task Force 4 were not as fragile as he had imagined.

On 15 July, three days after the two sides "ceasefire," Yan Yulong received information that the US forces would shell Gardner Island on 16 July, and that his marines were very likely to land on Gardner Island on 17 July. Therefore, in the morning of the same day, he set out with seven cruisers and fourteen destroyers of the Fourth Task Force. This. Yan Yulong needed to face the ten cruisers of the Fifth Fleet. As well as more than twenty destroyers.

The battle began in the second half of the night of the 15th, and this time continued until the early morning of the 16th, when the fighters of both sides had rushed over the battlefield. The warring ships withdrew from the battle. Spruance learned the lessons of the last battle, did not rush his destroyers into battle, and from the very beginning occupied a favorable position, preparing to annihilate the fleet commanded by Yan Yulong in one fell swoop. As a result, Spruance was disappointed again, Yan Yulong did not rest on his laurels, but once again gave full play to the performance of the radar artillery aiming system in the battle, and in the close combat, he lost three cruisers, but sent four American heavy cruisers to the bottom of the sea. When the destroyers of the American army outflanked me. The destroyers left behind by Yan Yulong held the retreating channel, and then the Fourth Task Force fought and retreated, never allowing the US destroyers to have a chance to carry out concentrated torpedo attacks, and also killed at least six destroyers in the battle. And the destroyer formation, which was responsible for intercepting American destroyers, also lost eight destroyers.

On the surface, Yan Yulong fell behind this time, and after this battle, there were only five cruisers left in the Fourth Task Force, three of which still needed to be repaired. There are less than ten destroyers left, and this includes the old-fashioned destroyers that Liao Hanxiang added. And the Fifth Fleet had six more heavy cruisers. Seven light cruisers, as well as almost two dozen destroyers, were at their disposal. In reality, however, it was this battle that prevented the US troops from landing on Gardner Island on 17 July, and Nimitz had to delay the landing again.

In order to keep the Fourth Task Force on the battlefield, Liao Hanxiang sent three engineering ships to Midway, and several transport ships loaded with spare parts necessary for the maintenance of the warships, and these ships were escorted by four cruisers and eight destroyers that had just been deployed to the Pacific Theater, and these brand new warships were all incorporated into the Fourth Task Force.

At the same time, the Fifth Fleet was strengthened, and Nimitz sent the last of his ships to Kauai, providing Spruance with six light cruisers and twelve destroyers. At that time, Nimitz had left less than ten destroyers at Pearl Harbor, and they were all old destroyers, which could barely provide escort cover for a convoy. Apparently, Nimitz was ready to make a desperate gamble in order to be able to land on Gardner Island on time.

While both sides tried to adjust their troop deployment and prepare for the upcoming decisive battle, they did not give up harassing each other. In the days from 18 to 25 July, both sides sent a much smaller squadron of light cruisers and destroyers to Gardner Island, where they fought several skirmishes at sea, winning and losing each other. Neither Yan Yulong nor Spruance directly commanded these skirmishes, both sides knew that the decisive battle was coming, and whoever was better prepared would win the final victory!

On July 25, as if agreed by both sides, Yan Yulong left the Midway anchorage with nine cruisers and sixteen destroyers. Just half an hour later, Spruance also left the Couai anchorage with eighteen cruisers and thirty-two destroyers. Both fleets were aimed at Gardner Island. Subsequently, the US landing fleet, which had been staying at the anchorage of Nihua Island, also lifted anchor. Nimitz had decided to land on Gardner Island on the 27th, and Spruance had to seize sea supremacy before the landing, and shell Gardner Island to provide artillery support to the Marines when they came ashore. Right now. The warships of both sides will fight a duel to the death on Gardner Island!

This is also the battle with the biggest difference in strength between the two sides. The Fifth Fleet was almost dispatched, and Yan Yulong also brought all the warships he could organize. But the difference in strength is still very huge, the US cruiser is twice as large as Yan Yulong, and the destroyer is twice as large as Yan Yulong, and the only thing Yan Yulong can count on is that the guns on the heavy cruiser can hit a little more accurately. Otherwise, he would not have won this battle.

It is precisely because of the huge difference in strength that from the beginning, Yan Yulong never thought of a head-on duel with Spruance, and Huang Xiaotian and Liao Hanxiang also reminded Yan Yulong in time that they should never have a hard encounter with the Fifth Fleet, as long as there were warships of the Fourth Task Force sailing on the sea, then Nimitz would not dare to let go of the attack on Gardner Island. It is also impossible for the Fifth Fleet to fully support the Marine Corps. In this way, the Imperial Marines on Gardner Island will be able to hold a little longer, and the battle on the Australian side has reached a critical period, as long as it can be dragged until the 1st Task Force and the 2nd Task Force arrive, then the American troops who landed on Gardner Island will become a turtle in the urn. Therefore, Yan Yulong's mission is only to create trouble for the Fifth Fleet, so that the Fifth Fleet cannot shell Gardner Island before the US Marines come ashore!

Spruance was also aware of this, and by the time he set off, news had already been received that the ground forces of the Don Empire were besieging Sydney. Maybe they've breached Sydney's perimeter defenses. MacArthur was helpless and could not send reinforcements to Sydney, and the US-Australian forces defending in Sydney were on the verge of despair. The fall of Sydney was a matter of the last few days. Therefore. Whether or not Gardner Island can be taken is also a matter of the past few days. Spruance knew very well that the Tang Imperial fleet would not fight a decisive battle with him, so from the very beginning, he did not expect to fight a real fleet decisive battle with the other party.

The U.S. fleet bombarded Gardner Island on the night of the 25th, and Spruance committed only the smaller fleet, allowing six light cruisers and eight destroyers to lure the enemy at Gardner Island, while he personally led the main fleet on the periphery and waited for the arrival of the Fourth Task Force. As a result, the wait was until the early hours of the morning, and Task Force 4 still did not appear. Spruance was in a hurry first. If he did not devote himself to the main fleet, he would not be able to complete the artillery bombardment mission before the landing, and at this time, the warships of the Fourth Task Force must have arrived near the battlefield and may appear at any time, so he should not take it lightly.

The situation remained stalemate until noon, when the fighters of both sides were operating near Gardner Island, Liao Hanxiang arranged for bombers to deal with the American fleet that shelled Gardner Island, and Nimitz also arranged fighter planes to cover that fleet. And the deadlock was broken by a long-range water patrol plane that spotted the main fleet of Spruance, fifteen minutes later. A long-range reconnaissance plane of the US military also spotted the Fourth Task Force, which had been hovering around the periphery of the battlefield.

What Spruance didn't expect was that Task Force 4 was 50 nautical miles southwest of him. Similarly, Yan Yulong didn't expect that the distance between him and the Fifth Fleet would be so close that he didn't even have a chance to evade. Immediately, the battle began, and Spruance had the fleet shelling Gardner Island quickly outflank the retreat of Task Force 4, while his main fleet pursued it at full speed.

Yan Yulong did not retreat directly, but first avoided it at full speed to the south, and then went around the *** and advanced to the northwest. Yan Yulong only had one idea, that is, to kill the smaller fleet that intercepted him first, and whether to fight Spruance or not depends on whether he can successfully break through.

The pursuit lasted from noon on the 26th to the early morning of the 27th, and the result was not of much benefit to either side. The warships of both warring sides were of similar speed, and it was difficult to catch up quickly and get rid of them immediately. Yan Yulong defeated the American fleet that intercepted him, but Spruance brought the distance closer by 30 nautical miles. But that's not the main problem. On the morning of the 27th, while Yan Yulong was still avoiding at full speed, the US Marines went ashore on Gardner Island. Spruance also stopped the pursuit at this time, and returned to the vicinity of Gardner Island at noon that day to begin artillery support for the Marines.

Yan Yulong was originally going to return to the battlefield, but Liao Hanxiang sent him a telegram that afternoon, asking him to return to Midway Island immediately instead of attacking the Fifth Fleet. At that time, Yan Yulong could only reach Gardner Island in the afternoon at the earliest, and at this time it was impossible to prevent the landing of the US Marines. In addition, Liao Hanxiang received news that the three US aircraft carriers repaired at Pearl Harbor had left the dry dock, and the repair work was completed, and they would soon be able to restore their combat effectiveness. In addition, the repair of the two aircraft carriers of Task Force 4, which was repaired in the port of Apra, will also be completed in the next few days, and it is time for the escort warships to return.

This was also the last time the two sides met, although Yan Yulong was not able to defeat Spruance, but again, he did not give Spruance a chance to defeat him, and twice thwarted the landing of American troops on Gardner Island, delaying the time for the American counterattack. Although the U.S. forces successfully landed on Gardner Island at that time, it was impossible for the U.S. forces to capture Gardner Island before the 1st and 2nd Task Forces rushed over. Moreover, with the Fourth Task Force regaining its combat effectiveness, it will be almost impossible for the Fifth Fleet to control the sea in the Central Pacific. From this point of view, Yan Yulong completed his task very well and withstood this harsh test.

When Yan Yulong galloped across the field, Huang Xiaotian's energy was not focused on the battle, he knew that if Yan Yulong couldn't withstand Spruance's attack in the artillery battle, then it would be impossible for him to do it himself. Moreover, Liao Hanxiang is still supervising Yan Yulong's actions, which does not need Huang Xiaotian to worry about it.

At that time, Huang Xiaotian was most concerned about the maintenance of the aircraft carrier and the progress on the battlefield in Australia. Especially the progress on the battlefield in Australia, when the good news came again and again, Huang Xiaotian's pressure also decreased little by little, and in the end, it was not the Fourth Task Force that had restored its combat effectiveness that could turn the tide of the Central Pacific War, but the First Task Force and the Second Task Force that came to the rescue. As soon as these two fleets arrived, the good times of Spruance and Nimitz would be over.