For any army participating in combat operations on the battlefield, in addition to its internal factors, the enemy's factors, that is, external factors, will also affect its combat operations. After Lei Shaoqing figured out the situation of the fleet in the southwest Pacific theater, and before he decided on the next move of the fleet, he had to first figure out the situation of the enemy.

As early as when Lei Shaoqing was still undergoing rehabilitation in the hospital, the Empire's intelligence department obtained the latest intelligence of the US Navy from various sources, including the help provided by German intelligence. And this information has two important parts, one is the situation of the new warships in service of the US Navy, and the other is the situation of personnel changes in the US Navy. In addition, at the beginning of '26, the intelligence department of the empire summarized the war strength of the United States in 25 years, and based on the information obtained, made a prediction of the war potential that the United States could continue to exert in 26 years. These are extremely important military intelligences, and these information will fundamentally affect the Empire, as well as the overall strategic arrangement of the Imperial Navy in 26 years. Of course, there is no need to send the information about the overall war strength of the United States to Lei Shaoqing, he is just a front-line commander, and there is no need to understand the general strategic direction, and this is also very important, and it can even be said that how powerful the war strength the United States can exert in 26 years will be directly related to the speed of the imperial navy's advance in the Pacific Ocean and the changes in the war situation in the Pacific.

The war strength that broke out in the United States in 25 years is quite amazing. In terms of overall industrial capacity, the United States almost reached the level of the Tang Empire, and even surpassed the Tang Empire in terms of part of its industrial output. For example, in terms of coal and steel, two important industrial production capacity, the United States slightly surpassed the Tang Empire. Judging from the intelligence obtained by the intelligence department of the Tang Empire at that time, in terms of the fifteen most important industrial production capacity, the biggest gap between the United States and the Tang Empire was electricity, and it was slightly worse than the Tang Empire in special steel, rubber, chemicals, etc., and in oil production (not counting the oil imported by the Tang Empire from Persia). There was more steel, coal, etc., than in the Tang Empire, especially oil production. In other respects, the two sides are basically equal.

This is also a reflection of the terrible nature of the United States. At the same time, the predictions made by the intelligence services of the Don Empire more than two years ago were demonstrated. Before entering the war, the United States had already made large-scale adjustments in several important industrial sectors, adjusting to the standards of war. In other words, the United States had already mobilized economically before entering the war, and had effectively adjusted its industrial base, otherwise the United States would not have been able to burst out with such a powerful industrial force immediately after entering the war. The U.S. economic adjustment before entering the war not only relied on the government's coercive policies, but also increased the proportion of heavy industry and the military industry in industry by providing economic aid and military exports to other warring countries.

Judging from some documents obtained by the Tang Empire in Japan, during the period between the outbreak of the war and the entry of the United States into the war, the United States exported more materials to Japan, especially military materials, as well as military-related materials, than the total output of Japan's domestic industries in the past two years. If the materials lost in transit are also included, the industrial materials exported to Japan alone will be enough for American factories to produce at full capacity for a year! If we take into account the supplies provided by the United States to Britain, France, Russia, Spain, Italy, and other European countries, if the United States does not carry out a major economic restructuring before the war. Then you won't be able to produce so many materials.

Aid to other countries helped the United States complete its pre-war economic mobilization and adjustment, but at the same time, it also brought about two extremely serious problems: First, the growth of the United States' own strength in the past two years was quite limited, which can be seen from the situation of the US Navy when it entered the war. The other is that there is a serious labor shortage in the United States. In fact, this problem existed in any country at that time, and it can even be said that it was quite serious.

Before the war, the labour force in several major countries was dominated by young men, and the employment rate of women was not very high. Especially in the Tang Empire and the United States, because these two countries have the highest industrial production efficiency in the world and have a large number of overseas markets, there is no need for women to participate in production and labor in large quantities, most of the women are housewives, and most of the workers are young and middle-aged men. However, during the war, most of the young adults, especially young men, were conscripted into the army, and the number of men who were able to participate in industrial production was significantly reduced. Taking the Tang Empire as an example, at the end of 25, the size of the Tang Empire's army department had reached 15 million, while before the war was less than 2 million, that is, during the war, the number of soldiers increased by 13 million, if you count the dead and disabled soldiers, then by the end of 25 years, the Tang Empire has at least 15 million young men conscripted into the army. And of these 15 million soldiers in peacetime, at least 13 million should participate in social labor, not join the army. If you include the expansion of industrial production during this period, then the Tang Empire lacked more than 25 million laborers at that time! The labor gap was huge, and the only people who could fill it at the time were young women.

In the case that industrial production efficiency cannot be improved rapidly, the only way to expand production capacity is to expand the scale of production, to put it bluntly, is to build more mines and factories. And this necessitates the expansion of the workforce. When a country enters a state of war, the factory is another military camp, and all the factories are militarized, the working hours are extended, and all holidays are abolished (only a part of the work is reserved, but also in rotation to ensure that the factory does not stop production). The industrial workforce is another "army", and workers also need to be trained and master skilled production skills. To put it bluntly, the army fights in the front, the workers fight in the back, and without the weapons, equipment, ammunition and materials made by the workers, what can the army use to fight the enemy on the front line? The scale of industry on both sides of the war was rapidly expanding, and in the absence of a larger male labor force, almost all countries began to mobilize women for productive work. As early as the end of 21, the Tang Imperial government promulgated the "Women's Labor and Employment Law", which was still a wartime law at that time, and was mainly to protect women's labor status in society. It was from this time that a large number of women's labor skills training courses appeared in the Tang Empire, many of which were directly organized by local governments, and women who had undergone simple training were supplemented to various positions. By the end of 25. The number of young and middle-aged women in the empire who participated in industrial labor production had reached 20 million, and with the extension of working hours, the postponement of retirement, and the lowering of the minimum working age to 16 years, the shortage of labor in the empire was basically solved. At that time, the total industrial strength of the empire was only about 80 million, which means that imperial women had become an indispensable part of the imperial labor force.

Similarly, the United States announced a similar bill to protect women's labor rights in mid-'24, less than half a year after it officially entered the war. American women are also beginning to get out of the house and join the production of social labor. Other countries, such as Britain and Germany, are also encouraging women to participate in social labor production in order to improve the country's industrial production capacity. It was during the war that a large number of women went out of the house to participate in social labor and production, and in order to protect women's rights and interests. Laws were enacted in various countries to protect women's labor rights, and the "women's liberation movement" emerged after the war.

Although a large number of women participate in social labor production, the problem of labor shortage in the United States has not been completely solved. Judging from the intelligence held by the Tang Empire at that time, the social labor gap in the United States was about 23 million, and this gap will continue to expand as the war deepens. At that time, there were only about 18 million women and other laborers mobilized in the United States, and there was a labor force gap of 5 million. If the U.S. government does not come up with a better solution, the gap is likely to continue to widen. This effectively adds up to the overall industrial capacity of the United States. Even though the U.S. government was the first to extend the working day to 12 hours in October '25 and eliminated all leave except Sundays (and later reduced the weekly vacation to half a day), it would still not be enough to solve the labor shortage.

It is precisely on the basis of this situation that the intelligence department of the Tang Empire has made an analysis that in 26 years, the industrial capacity of the United States will not exceed 25 years, at least it will not continue to increase significantly, and it may even shrink. This must have been a good thing for the Tang Empire, and shortly thereafter, in April '26, the Imperial government also extended the daily working day to 12 hours and shortened the weekly vacation time to one and a half days (previously two days). As a result, the total working hours of the empire in 26 years will increase by about 10%, and the industrial capacity will also increase by about 10%. As a result, the gap between the industrial capacity of the two sides will be widened. To put it bluntly, the Tang Empire still had the ability to further tap its industrial potential at this time, while the United States had reached its limit.

The overall industrial capacity of a country directly determines the combat effectiveness of the army. The second global war is the first war in the world that completely relies on a country's industrial strength to measure its combat effectiveness, and the war is fought for industrial strength, and for how many weapons and ammunition a country can manufacture. Perhaps, this description is a bit extreme, but on the battlefield, the ability of industrial power to determine war is manifested everywhere. It is precisely because the industrial potential of the United States is about to be brought into full play that the combat effectiveness of the US Navy has basically reached its peak.

At the beginning of '26, the third major expansion of the U.S. Navy after entering the war began, to be precise, the third major replenishment. From January to early March, the US Navy will successively acquire six fleet aircraft carriers, 18 heavy cruisers, 24 light cruisers, and more than 40 new destroyers. These warships were incorporated into the Pacific Fleet after they entered service. In addition, the U.S. Navy has leased a Tejour-class aircraft carrier from Britain for training missions. In addition to these main combat ships, the US Navy will also have more than 20 escort aircraft carriers that will be incorporated into the Navy's combat sequence, and before, the US Navy's escort aircraft carriers did not participate in combat operations in the Pacific, and when there are no more fleet aircraft carriers, the US Navy has also begun to consider letting these escort aircraft carriers carry out combat missions in the Pacific theater.

Regarding the replenishment of the US Navy, the intelligence services of the Reich confirmed it through a number of channels, and accurate information was provided to the commanders at the front. What Lei Shaoqing obtained was the detailed and complete information provided by the intelligence department after analysis and proof. By late February, the U.S. warships had completed training on the east coast and were officially incorporated into the Pacific Fleet's battle sequence, and would be able to reach the Pacific Theater by the end of March.

In addition to the replenishment of warships, the personnel structure of the US Pacific theater of operations has changed. Mitchell replaced Halsey as commander of the Third Fleet, but no matter how you look at it, Mitchell cannot be as unaffected by MacArthur as Halsey, and letting him be the commander of the Third Fleet is probably a helpless arrangement.

Spruance remained commander of the Fifth Fleet, and Nimitz originally wanted him to be commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, but the US president did not approve it, and Nimitz continued to serve as commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet. In fact, at that time, Nimitz was advancing by retreat, and after the Fifth Fleet was defeated, Spruance was likely to be transferred, and Nimitz proposed to make Spruance the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, on the one hand, he still trusted Spruance, and on the other hand, the president had no reason to transfer Szen Roons. As Nimitz had expected, the U.S. president continued to keep Spruance in the Fifth Fleet after rejecting Nimitz's proposal.

There were some personnel transfers in the US military, but they were not major ones, MacArthur was still in charge of the command of the Southwest Pacific Theater, and Nimitz was still in charge of the Hawaiian Islands. After learning about these situations, Lei Shaoqing also had a further understanding of the changes in the Pacific theater, and as the US Navy recovered its vitality, the Pacific Admiral once again made waves.