When the first returning "Zero Battle" landed on the flight deck of the "Zuihe", the air defense sirens in the fleet sounded. At this time, the bomber group had only been on for fifteen minutes. Yamaguchi was shocked when he heard this, and when he rushed to the porthole, the remaining six "Zero Battles" had already killed the approaching group of Tang Empire bombers.

The other seven "Zero Battles" that did not land were all pulled up, and there were only less than five minutes of fuel left on these seven fighters, but these seven pilots did not think much about it, and they did not have time to think about it, these five minutes will directly decide the survival of the First Air Fleet.

The six "Zero Battles" encountered 12 "Sparrowhawks," and the result can be imagined that the bomber group that came to the scene was not affected much at all, and soon approached the fleet air defense fire network of the "Zuihe" aircraft carrier formation. At this time, the seven "Zero Battles" were also pulled up, but the escorting "Sparrowhawks" were entangled behind. Five of the eight Ospreys of the first batch were shot down and suffered extremely heavy losses, but the other three passed through the fleet's air defense network and dropped torpedoes.

Then, 12 "Kingfishers" swooped down from a high altitude, and the bombers were not intercepted by the "Zero Battle" and penetrated through the gaps in the air defense network. Twelve bombs burst through the sky and fell, with a sharp whistling sound as if death was beckoning to the still fighting battleship.

The Kaais man, who had only been transferred to the "Zuizuru" as the captain two months ago, stood on the bridge of the navigation ship, without a trace of panic in his expression. He stared at the bombers that were swooping down above, calmly and calmly waiting for the final fate. The officers on the bridge all looked at Osa. They all believed that Dazuo would once again lead them out of danger.

As early as the Battle of Ryukyu Island, Calais was the captain of the "Flying Dragon" and commanded the "Flying Dragon" to avoid several bombings by the Tang Empire's bombers, thus winning the trust of Yamaguchi Odora, who was the commander of the "Flying Dragon" aircraft carrier battle group at that time. The Wyvern is also his ship. After Yamaguchi was promoted to commander of the First Air Fleet, he was promoted to commander of the aircraft carrier formation "Zuizuru". At the same time, he also served as the captain of the "Zuihe". Yamaguchi Wendo transferred Calais to this position in order to rely on Calais's ability to make the "Zuizuru", the last aircraft carrier to be serviced, able to form combat effectiveness as quickly as possible.

"Left full rudder!"

With Calais' loud order, the aircraft carrier tilted sharply to the left and began to pass to the left at maximum speed to avoid the bombs falling from above. Four bombs landed on the starboard side of the battleship, and another four bombs landed on the right front of the battleship. The last four all fell on the ship's wake. The huge column of water generated by the explosion almost obscured the "Zuihe" aircraft carrier, and the sea water sprinkled on the deck of the aircraft carrier like a torrential rain.

"Resume course and prepare to turn right!"

The torpedo had already approached the carrier, and Calais had to aim the bow of the carrier in the direction of the torpedo as soon as possible to avoid the torpedo attack. When the aircraft carrier resumed its straight line, it was in line with the torpedoes fired from the left, and the two torpedoes almost brushed the aircraft carrier's hull.

Successfully avoiding the first round of attacks, the officers and men on the bridge of the navigation ship were boiling. Calais gave the most appropriate order at the most opportune time, and once again they avoided danger. Calais wiped the sweat from his forehead, the battle was far from over, the second batch of bombers had already arrived.

In the sky above the fleet, Zhang Naiding couldn't believe his eyes. Like a big bear dancing on the sea, the "Zuihe" managed to escape the bombardment of the first batch of "kingfishers" led by Major Qiu Gengbo. And immediately after avoiding the torpedo attack. Zhang Naiding knew Qiu Gengbo's ability very well, and the twelve bombs fell almost at the same time, so it stands to reason that he had to hit a few!

Zhang Naiding did not hesitate, and immediately took the second batch of "Kingfishers" led by him to pounce on the "Ruihe". Eight "Ospreys" also followed at sea. This time, Zhang Naiding was the first to drop the bomb, and the "Osprey" used the aircraft carrier to turn to evade the bomb and almost dropped the torpedo.

It wasn't until a height of 450 meters that Zhang Naiding dropped the bomb, and while pulling up the "Kingfisher", he pressed the machine gun launch button, and a volley of machine gun bullets fired towards the bridge. Zhang Naiding didn't know. This was one of his biggest successes. This volley of machine-gun bullets swept right across the bridge of the navigation ship, and dozens of bullets knocked down all the more than ten officers inside. And this includes the Calais man. He had just given the order to turn his right rudder when he was hit in the chest by a flying bullet and fell headlong into his position.

When Zhang Naiding pulled up the "Kingfisher", he was also surprised, the huge "Ruihe" was still sailing at full speed, and not a single bomb hit the target. What is even more odious is that two "Kingfishers" were hit by anti-aircraft shells when they were making a dive, and the pilots jumped out the moment the planes hit the sea.

On the sea, eight "Ospreys" also dropped torpedoes. "Zuihe" still continues to turn right. If he had sailed in a straight line at this time, it would have been possible to avoid torpedo attacks, but Calais had already fallen, and he had not given a new order at all, and could not give any more orders. As the aircraft carrier continued to turn right, a "Swordfish" torpedo hit the port side of the carrier's bow.

Twenty-four "Kingfishers" and sixteen "Ospreys" attacked, and only this one torpedo hit the "Zuihe"! This cannot but be said to be a miracle, and it cannot be said that the luck of the Japanese is too good. In fact, it is no wonder, because the pilots who participated in the bombing have been fighting for several hours, and their spirits have been in a state of high tension. The pilots of the 16 "Ospreys" were all novices, and they had only completed their reconnaissance missions, and when they returned to the fleet, they set off again without even eating. Being able to get a torpedo hit is a good result.

On the other side, the six "Ospreys" led by Major Zhang Zhitao locked onto the retreating "Xianghe" aircraft carrier. He did not take part in the attack on the "Ruihe" because he believed that there was Zhang Naiding. Qiu Gengbo was here, and he didn't have a chance to attack at all, so he simply killed the "Xianghe".

It was not until the "Osprey" dropped the torpedo that the "Xianghe" and the officers and men of the battleship escorting it reacted, and it was too late.

The 17 Japanese bombers and 12 "Zero Battles" with bombs on them, and the 16 "Zero Battles" escorting them arrived over the aircraft carrier formation of the First Task Force at 10:30 a.m. Because it was intercepted by the artillery fire of the cruiser formation on the way. The group of bombers made a detour and arrived about ten minutes later than scheduled. And at this time. There were already 24 fighters on air defense patrols over the Tang Imperial fleet, and all of them were concentrated in the south of the fleet, and 12 of them were "vulture" fighters.

In the fleet, fighters on both aircraft carriers are taking off urgently. Because the aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire were equipped with catapults, as long as the aircraft carriers were sailing at full speed, even if there was no wind, they would be able to make fighters take off. without the need to sail against the wind. This is one of the great advantages of installing a catapult, except for the need to sail at full speed against the wind when flying those bulky bombers (which, after the advent of the new catapult, was also solved), there is no need to sail against the wind at other times. Thus, in fleet air defense operations, aircraft carriers can always operate under the protection of escort warships.

In addition, the ground radar of the first task force of the Tang Empire played an extremely critical role at this time. The cruiser that went out after the discovery of the Japanese aircraft group. The alarm was sent back immediately. Then, the radar on the heavy cruiser "Lichun," which was on air defense alert in the fleet, spotted a Japanese aircraft group 20 nautical miles away. This is equivalent to giving the fleet five minutes of air defense preparation time, that is, in these five minutes, two aircraft carriers can send at least twenty fighters (catapults eject one per minute, and each carrier has two catapults). Counting the 24 fighters who are on air defense patrol duty. When the Japanese fleet arrived in the airspace above the fleet, Tan Renhao held a full 44 air defense fighters in his hands. And this time there were only 45 Japanese fighters and bombers!

The 12 Sparrowhawks first entangled the 16 escort "Zeros", and the other 12 "vultures" all pounced on the 17 bombers behind. In order to ensure the safety of the fleet, it is the most basic tactic to use the best fighters to deal with bombers, even if you lose a few "Sparrowhawks", you must intercept the enemy's bombers, and those fighters do not pose much threat to the fleet.

It was also the pilots of the Don Empire who knew the importance of intercepting bombers, and therefore all the pilots ignored the "zero battle" with bombs on the 12 bombs that followed behind the butts of the escort fighters. When some pilots discovered that these "Zero" planes were not hanging under the belly of the auxiliary fuel tank. It's the time of the bomb. It's already too late to intercept.

The first to be killed was 12 "Zero Battles", when breaking through the fire of the fleet's anti-aircraft artillery. Only two "Zeros" were shot down. Then, the gunners on the battleship also discovered that these "zero battles" were going to attack the aircraft carrier, and more and more artillery fire was concentrated on these bomb-mounted fighters.

Tan Renhao also reacted at this time. "Intercept those fighters, **, intercept those fighters!"

It was too late, and ten "Zero Battles" quickly came to the sky over the "Taizu" aircraft carrier, and then dropped bombs. These fighters were deployed horizontally, not by dive. When the bombs fell on the sea outside the starboard side of the "Taizu", Tan Renhao was startled, and then laughed. All ten bombs were dropped, which did not threaten the safety of "Taizu" at all, and three "Zero Battles" were shot down by artillery fire after the bombs were dropped.

These Japanese fighter pilots probably haven't even completed their combat training, and they have not received bombing training at all, they only know how to drop bombs, but they don't know how to drop bombs on battleships, and as a result, ten bombs and five fighters are wasted, and it is also a false alarm to the Tang Imperial fleet.

On the periphery, only 5 of the 17 bombers completed the breakthrough, of which three were "99 ship explosions" and two were "97 ship attacks". None of the fighters who had completed the air defense interception dared to enter the killing range of the air defense vitality of the battleship on the sea, and they did not want to be beaten down by their own shells.

After the initial false alarm, the gunners on the battleship seemed to be enraged. In the first round of firing, four Japanese bombers were beaten down, and only one "97 Ship Attack" approached the "Taizu" aircraft carrier. At this time, the aircraft carrier was also quickly evading, and at the same time, the guns on the battleship were aimed at the enemy plane.

When the "Taizu" was still only 800 meters away, the torpedo on the "97 ship explosion" had not yet been thrown, and it was still passing through the artillery fire, and even Tan Renhao in the commander's bridge was shocked, and if he got closer, he would enter the minimum torpedo range, and even if the torpedo was dropped, the torpedo would not be able to immediately float to the depth of attack, and it was very likely that it would drill under the belly of the battleship.

"The enemy is going to ram the battleship," Lei Shaoqing was the first to react, "There must be something wrong with the mine-throwing device, damn it, turn quickly-"

The "Taizu" did not have time to turn at all, and the "97 Ship Explosion" suddenly pulled up the nose of the aircraft less than 400 meters away from the aircraft carrier, and then crashed into the aircraft carrier. The fighter plunged into the rear of the port side of the aircraft carrier with a torpedo and did not explode until it got into the hangar of the aircraft carrier. The torpedo and the fighter plane turned into a powerful bomb.

Tan Renhao grabbed the handrail next to him, he only felt his feet for a while, and then he was bounced up, and when he got up from the ground, more than a dozen officers in the headquarters were moaning. Thankfully, no one was killed, and most of them suffered only minor injuries.

The explosion exploded underneath the rear hangar lift, and a huge shock wave shook the entire steel plate on the lift. The rear hangar was also a wolf, with more than 20 aviation crews who were busy inside being blown to pieces, and the fuel leaking from the pipes was also burning. The only fortunate thing is that there is no other ammunition in the hangar, and the aviation service personnel have learned the lesson of the "Xuanzong" and have already sent all the ammunition into the ammunition magazine, and there is no parking of the planes, and the planes that should be dispatched have already been dispatched.

Tan Renhao staggered to his feet, his forehead was still bleeding, the military doctor had already rushed in, and a military doctor with a first aid kit on his back immediately arrived at his side.

"Go take care of the seriously injured first, I'm fine!" Tan Renhao pressed the wound with gauze, "Chief of Staff, figure out the damage as soon as possible!" ”

Lei Shaoqing nodded, he didn't even scratch his skin, and his luck was much better than Tan Renhao!