Before dawn on the 30th, Task Force 3 reached about 50 nautical miles east of Taoranaru. Chang Jiexin still sent reconnaissance warships to Taolanaru to investigate the situation, and arranged for three reconnaissance formations to advance along the coastline, while the main formation sailed south simultaneously in the open sea. If the Anglo-French Expeditionary Fleet were to join up with the supply fleet here, it would be in some leeward bay, and if the reconnaissance formation found the enemy fleet, Task Force 3 could block it in the bay and kill it before it could deploy!

Before the fleet began to sail southwest along the coastline of the island of Madagascar, it was recommended that five battleships advance in columns, destroyers patrol in the southeast direction to prevent attacks by submarines, and cruiser formations sail in front of the fleet to prevent the enemy fleet from suddenly appearing in front. All the work was done before dawn, and then, after the reconnaissance ships that had gone to scout Tauranaru had returned and confirmed that the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet was not there, the 3rd Task Force immediately began to set off in a southwesterly direction. … Mobile station N

The ones responsible for the search are basically destroyers, and it is very troublesome to search all the bays along the way. Fortunately, the Imperial Navy had already surveyed the island of Madagascar in detail and had drawn up a detailed map. Therefore, instead of having a reconnaissance ship search every bay, it was enough to go to those bays that could be used for the fleet to anchor and were large enough. This speeds up the search, but it also takes a lot of time.

By the next morning, the fleet had rounded Cape Sainte-Marie, the southernmost land corner of the island of Madagascar. And the fleet also began to sail westward, entering the Strait of Mozambique. Prior to this, the fleet searched the estuaries of several rivers. It took quite a bit of time. But it wasn't until the afternoon of March 1 that the fleet reached the end of Andreuka. Still nothing to gain. Further north, you enter the shallow waters of the reef-strewn waters, and there are not many bays nearby where warships can anchor!

At this time, Chang Jiexin was a little confused, and he even doubted whether his inference was correct. Perhaps while he was laboriously searching for the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet, Cunningham was on his way back to Cape Town. At that time, Chang Jiexin was almost certain that his speculation was wrong, and that Task Force 3 had deviated from the planned plan and was carrying out unplanned actions.

What's even more troublesome is that Chang Jianxin has not yet informed Tan Renhao of the actions of the Third Task Force, and according to the plan, the Third Task Force should be heading north along the eastern coastline of Madagascar Island at this time, and will not appear at the southern end of the Mozambique Channel at all. If it continues to be delayed. There's definitely going to be a problem on Task Force One's side.

What to do? By the evening of the same day, Chang Jianxin had already thought about returning to the original route. There are already patrol planes in the northern part of the Mozambique Channel, and Jiang Zhongmin is sure to have the destroyers escorting the supply fleet to operate in the northern part of the strait, and Jiang Zhongmin is also establishing a seaplane activity base along the western coastline of the island of Madagascar. Cunningham wouldn't be a.

There was no reason for him to go north along the Mozambique Channel.

Before dinner, Chang Zhixin ordered the fleet to prepare and let the nautical staff determine the return route. The last reconnaissance squadron will return to the fleet at about half-past eight, and after the return of this formation, the fleet will leave the Mozambique Channel and return along the original route, without wasting any more time searching for enemy traces here.

The change occurred within two hours, after eight o'clock to be exact.

Half an hour before the return of the reconnaissance formation, the destroyers, patrolling the perimeter of the fleet, spotted a formation approaching from the north. And this also happened to be the route of the reconnaissance formation's return, so the destroyer believed that the reconnaissance formation had returned ahead of schedule. But then, the lookouts on the destroyer found that it was not a reconnaissance formation that was approaching, but a fleet of more than a dozen ships. Immediately, the relevant report was sent to the novices!

Chang Jiexin did not hesitate, and he immediately gave the battle order. Although the appearance of the ship could not be fully identified in the night, and it was impossible to confirm whether this was the enemy's ship or Jiang Zhongmin's ship, Chang Jiexin didn't think so much at all, Jiang Zhongmin had no reason to send the supply fleet to the southern end of the Mozambique Channel, even if it was to establish a seaplane activity base, there was no need to use more than a dozen ships! This is clearly not a ship of the Imperial Navy, then in this sea area it can only be the enemy's ship! Chang Jiexin did not rush to let the battleship activate the radar, if it was the enemy's fleet, then the sailors on the enemy's ships must not have discovered the battleship to the south, otherwise, they would have turned a long time ago. And the enemy fleet is definitely not nearby, otherwise, there should be escort battleships in front!

When the flotilla approached about 3 nautical miles, several flares were fired, and the flotilla was immediately exposed to the light, and the lookout on the destroyer at the front immediately judged that it was not a supply ship of the Imperial Navy, but a kind of supply ship that had not been seen before, and it must have been a supply ship of the Navy!

The battle began immediately, and Chang Zhixin ordered all the radars on the battleships to be turned on at this time, and at the same time let the destroyers approach the enemy convoy, and ordered the returning reconnaissance formation to flank the enemy convoy from the north.

The battle lasted less than an hour and a half, and more than a dozen supply ships were annihilated. By eleven o'clock, Chang had obtained accurate information, and the captured crew members had given their nationalities and the units in which they were serving. This was the supply fleet of the British Navy's expeditionary fleet, which had supplied the Anglo-French expeditionary fleet in the morning, at the mouth of the Mango River to the north, that is, less than 120 nautical miles north of Task Force 3.

What surprised Chang Jianxin even more was that all the capital ships of the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet were replenished there, and the replenishment work was carried out from dawn to more than twelve o'clock, and there were dozens of large and small warships in the entire fleet!

The situation was completely clear, and Chang Jiexin immediately issued several orders. The first is that the fleet goes into combat condition, and secondly, the fleet advances to Europa Island in the middle of the strait. The second was to transfer to the battle queue, and finally, he did not forget to immediately send a telegram to Task Force 1. Let's report the situation to Tan Renhao, like this. Task Force 1 was able to respond in a timely manner.

Why did Cunningham lead the fleet deep into the Mozambique Channel? Chang Jiexin did not guess the reason, he did not even take the time to guess the intentions of the other party, and now his previous speculation has been proven, the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet did not return to Cape Town, but continued to remain in the waters near the island of Madagascar. But why did Cunningham choose the mouth of the Mango River for resupply? Here has gone deep into the strait. Moreover, there are many bays at the southern end of the strait where the fleet can anchor and receive supplies, so why should he run more than a hundred nautical miles?

Other problems followed, and the British supply fleet had already sent a telegram while it was being shelled, so Cunningham must have known that Task Force 3 was behind them. So where does Cunningham go from here? Fight Task Force 3, or escape? If it's to flee, to the north, or to the south? In addition, the southern end of the Mozambique Channel is 400 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point, and it is simply impossible for Task Force 3 to monitor such a wide sea at night.

If Cunningham wanted to escape, he had many options.

These questions often don't have time to think about, or rather. He didn't need to think about it at all.

Now his question was, how to avoid the shells of the enemy, which had eleven capital ships.

If a fight really breaks out, the Third Task Force will not be able to take advantage of anything. And now the first task force is still operating near the island of Tromland, and it can only maneuver to the sea area to attack the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet at noon tomorrow at the earliest. As long as Cunningham seized the opportunity, in these ten hours, it was enough to knock down the Third Task Force and then fly away, and he didn't have to worry about the bombers of the First Task Force at all!

In case of emergency, Chang Jianxin made an instinctive reaction, let the fleet reach the open sea as soon as possible, and when the time comes, whether to fight or flee, you can choose flexibly, anyway, the third task force can run to a speed of 31 knots in the strait, except for the two French battleships, there are no other warships in the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet that can catch up with the third task force. Therefore, his first order was to send the fleet in the direction of Europa and begin to pick up speed. And Europa Island is located right in the middle of the southern tip of the Mozambique Channel!

Tan Renhao received the telegram at half past eleven, when he was about to go to bed. When he finished reading the telegram, he was also shocked, he didn't expect that Chang Jiexin, who had always been steady, would revise the battle plan and lead the fleet into the Mozambique Channel! But then he understood that Chang Jianxin must have found a clue, and finally proved that the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet was in the Mozambique Channel. And Cunningham must have his big plan, not only is it not wrong to recommend new actions, but also discovered Cunningham's whereabouts in time, then Cunningham will definitely not be able to implement his plan!

Tan Renhao quickly calmed down, and his first thought was how to support the Third Task Force. There were still seven hours before dawn, and during those seven hours, even if the First Task Force was near the Third Task Force, it would not be able to do anything. He quickly set the course and immediately ordered the fleet to move at full speed to the northern part of the Mozambique Channel, aiming to reach Cape Amber, the northernmost point of the island of Madagascar, near dawn. At this time, the fleet is about 350 nautical miles away, and even if it sails at a speed of 30 knots, it will take nearly 12 hours to arrive, that is, it will not arrive until about noon tomorrow.

"What is the extreme combat radius of our fighters?"

"It depends on the length of time spent in operational airspace."

Tan Renhao glanced at Zheng Guanhua. "To perform the most basic fleet air defense tasks, with 20 minutes of air combat fuel remaining, and 15 minutes of fuel remaining on the return voyage, how far can the combat radius of the 'Golden Eagle' reach?"

"If you don't use a drop tank, it's about 300 nautical miles, and if you put a large drop tank, you can get 450 nautical miles."

Tan Renhao immediately depicted it on the chart. He first made a circle with a radius of 200 nautical miles from the center of the current position of the fleet, and then made a circle with a radius of 450 nautical miles with Europa Island as the center. The intersection of these two circles is the area where the fleet must reach at dawn to be able to dispatch fighter jets to cover the 3rd Task Force. When these two circles were completed, Tan Renhao immediately discovered that the fleet could not sail directly to Cape Ambur, but could only sail to the Anthonggul Bay, so that it could reach the sea area where the fighters could take off about an hour before dawn, and when the fighters flew over the third task force, it was already about half past seven in the morning!

Tan Renhao did not hesitate, and immediately called the navigation staff over and asked the navigation staff to adjust the route of the fleet.

"General Tan, the weather in the nearby waters can barely allow fighters to take off, and if we want to intercept the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet, according to the new route, we will have to delay for at least ten hours!" After Tan Renhao gave the order to adjust the route, Zheng Guanhua put forward his opinion.

"Now, we need to secure Task Force 3 first!" Tan Renhao sighed, "Don't forget, there are three more British aircraft carriers." And the wind and waves in the Mozambique Channel are not very strong, and the bombers on the British aircraft carrier can definitely take off. If these three aircraft carriers are also here, then the first thing we need to do is to provide air defense cover for Task Force 3, instead of arranging bombers to deal with the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet! ”

Zheng Guanhua hesitated slightly. "But the problem is that there is no mention of aircraft carriers in the telegram that often recommends the new general."

"I'm afraid, now I don't know the specific scale of the opponent." Tan Renhao sat down, and then asked Zheng Guanhua to sit down as well. "If the Third Task Force is sacrificed, even if we annihilate the Anglo-French Combined Expeditionary Fleet, it will be worth the loss. This can actually be seen from the actions of Task Force 3. Chang Zhixin is not going to face the battle, but trying to find a way to circumvent or try to drag Cunningham as much as possible. ”

Zheng Guanhua didn't give any more opinions, and after arriving at the First Task Force, he put himself in the right position, and more often, he was learning from Tan Renhao, rather than being a partner with Tan Renhao.