The fleet was in a rapid voyage, and night had fallen. The clouds were pressed low, as if they were just overhead. The officers and men of the fleet entered their respective posts at about seven o'clock, some chatting, others hurrying to check the equipment they had carried, and some finding time to write letters to their families.

When the gray body of Florida Island appeared in the night ahead, Yan Shiqi walked outside the bridge. This time, the fleet will still pass through the strait between Savo Island and Florida Island, and then circle to the southeast side of Kuah Island, where it will set up and wait for the arrival of the U.S. Task Force 32. The sea was not very calm, and the waves rolled up to the bow deck of the battleship from time to time, and the battleship was also slightly undulating. It will be a windy night, and in addition to the cool sea breeze, there will also be a fiery wind that is about to blow from the muzzle of the cannon.

"The reconnaissance plane discovered that the US military was adjusting its deployment on Makila Island, and it is likely that fighters and bombers will be deployed here tonight." Gu Zhenyun walked over, "For the time being, the U.S. fleet has not been discovered, and now that the 32nd Task Force has probably arrived in the waters near Rennell Island, they will probably choose the route to the west of the island, which is a little closer." ”

"How many reconnaissance planes do we have over there?" Yan Shiqi nodded slightly, still with a straight face.

"There are only two night reconnaissance planes, and two long-range patrol planes have been sent from Rabaul, and if the enemy fleet is spotted, we will be contacted immediately."

"Let the cooks deliver the supper to the gun emplacements at half past ten." Yan Shiqi turned around, "Everyone eat well, don't wait for the lack of strength." This time we played four and six, and the situation didn't have much advantage for us, so the play of the gunners was crucial. Also, let the radar start to warm up at 8 o'clock, turn on at 10 o'clock, and focus on searching the sea areas to the south and south. ”

Gu Zhenyun went to give the order, and Yan Shiqi turned around again. The fleet continued to move forward, the sea was dark and oppressive, the clouds obscured the moon and the stars, and there were hardly distant targets to be seen except for the faint reflection of the sea. When the fleet passed through the strait, Yan Shiqi habitually looked in the direction of Gua Island in the south, but he didn't see anything, and then he returned to the commander's bridge. At a time when most of the staff officers were busy, he stood alone at the chart table. The charts have marked the possible ground routes used by the US fleet, as well as the sea areas that may appear.

What gave Yan Shiqi the most headache was how to fight more with less. When he knew that the US battleships this time were the six most advanced battleships, Yan Shiqi had been feeling a little nervous. In the last battle against the "Z Fleet", although he did not have an advantage in strength, the quality of the battleships was much better, especially in terms of firepower. Yan Shiqi took advantage of this very well, kept a good distance in the early stage of the battle, and took advantage of the shortcomings in the power and range of the enemy ship's artillery, and laid the foundation for victory in the first two hours. But this time the situation is completely different.

Whether it's the "North Carolina" class. Or the "South Dakota" class. They are all equipped with 406 mm guns with a diameter of 45 times. The power of this artillery ground was not lower than the 50 times diameter 400 mm main guns of the battleships of the Tang Empire. In terms of artillery manufacturing technology, the Tang Empire has always been very leading, but the United States is not lagging behind in artillery production technology. Judging from the information obtained by Yan Shiqi. The 406 mm armor-piercing projectile has a penetration rate of about 30% against the main armor of the "New Provincial Capital" class at a distance of 14 nautical miles, and at a distance of 12 nautical miles, this proportion will increase to more than 50%, and 10 nautical miles is the ultimate distance for absolute penetration. In other words, within 10 nautical miles, a 406-mm armor-piercing projectile could penetrate any part of the armor of the battleships of the "New Capital" class. The power of the 400-mm armor-piercing projectile is about the same, and the penetration rate of the main armor belt of the "North Carolina" class at a distance of 14 nautical miles is about 40 percent, and the penetration rate of the main armor belt of the "South Dakota" class is more than 30 percent. 10 nautical miles is also the limit distance for absolute breakdown.

Judging from the comparison of artillery and armor on both sides, the advantages of the "new provincial capital" level are not obvious.

No one could stop the armor-piercing shells fired by the other side, and the range of the 406-mm naval guns was not much different from the range of the 400-mm naval guns. The problem is here, when Yan Shiqi can threaten the opponent, the opponent can also threaten him. Perhaps, the only advantage in Yan Shiqi's hands is speed, the fastest speed of the "New Provincial Capital" class reached 31 knots, while the US battleships only had 27 to 28 knots, an extra speed of 3 to 4 knots, maybe this point is worth using.

Yan Shiqi actually has a trump card. That was the cruiser and the destroyer in his hands. The number of heavy cruisers of the 3rd Task Force was not small, and the number of destroyers was no less. Although most of these warships were spectators in naval battles, they were able to exert some unexpected effects when necessary. In particular, torpedoes on destroyers, which in many times posed a much greater threat to battleships than armor-piercing shells.

In addition, Yan Shiqi has another advantage, that is, the new radar on the four battleships. Since the battle with the "Z Fleet", artillery shelling with radar-guided main guns has become a new method of artillery warfare. Especially when visibility is too low and the visual range does not meet the requirements, radar becomes the most important means of guiding artillery strikes. In the beginning, the coordination between the radar and the artillery was not good, because the performance of the radar was not very good, and the second was that there was no proper command method at that time. Subsequently, after the successful development of the Tang Empire's new gun-aiming radar, it was first equipped with battleships (there are also anti-aircraft cruisers, and using radar to guide anti-aircraft gun operations is also a key research direction), and the four "new provincial capital" class battleships of the Third Task Force were all equipped with gun-aiming radars, and the shelling command system on the battleships was also adjusted, and the radar could guide three main guns to shell a target at the same time. Although the accuracy of radar measurement of warships at a distance of 10 nautical miles still reached hundreds of meters in the experiment, this is already acceptable, even with an optical rangefinder, it is about this level, anyway, when the shell hits 10 nautical miles away, its error is more than tens of meters (or even hundreds of meters).

While Yan Shiqi was preparing for the battle, Kincaid was also preparing for the battle. By this time, Task Force 32 had reached the northwest of Rennell Island and was rushing to Kuah Island at full speed, while the transport fleet was about 65 nautical miles behind Task Force 32.

Kincaid has also spent the hours thinking about how to fight this fight. He didn't have any luck in thinking that the Third Task Force would definitely enter the waters south of Kuah Island, and the battle would definitely break out here. But how to fight? Rush straight to the decisive battle? That was Kincaid's initial idea, but he soon discovered that the bad weather at night would be his dead end.

The four "South Dakota" class ships were equipped with second-generation radars, but the US military still did not have artillery sighting radars that could provide accurate shelling parameters for the battleship's main guns. The focus of radar development in the United States is to provide gunsight radar for anti-aircraft guns. This is mainly due to the fact that the bombers of the Tang Empire were too sharp, and the pressure of air defense operations was much higher than that of artillery battles, so the most important thing was to ensure that the artillery sighting radar of anti-aircraft guns was first obtained. Even the second-generation radar only improves the reliability and detection range under adverse meteorological conditions, but in fact there is a large error in the detection accuracy, which limits the ability of artillery to use radar as a guide for combat.

The radars on the two North Carolina-class battleships are still first-generation radars. The two battleships left for the battlefield without catching up with the replacement of the new radar. It was planned to replace Pearl Harbor with a new radar site, but the time was too short. As a result, the new radar had not yet been delivered to Pearl Harbor, and the two battleships rushed to the southwest Pacific. The problem of the first generation of radar is more obvious, not only the reliability rate is low, but also the detection distance is short, and it is more likely to have problems in adverse meteorological conditions.

Kincaid was well aware that in such a harsh meteorological environment, opponents would definitely use radar to look for them, and the Tang Empire had even developed artillery sighting radars that could guide targets for battleships (the Tang Empire's radar technology had always been ahead of other countries, especially in the first two years of the war, when the Tang Empire spent a lot of effort to develop radars). So. The opponent will definitely hit the cannonball from 10 nautical miles away, and by then, maybe they have just detected the battleships of the Tang Empire!

Apparently. If you rush up and fight hard, the benefit to Kincaid is not great, the opponent will fight and retreat, and the battleships of the Tang Empire have a relatively obvious advantage in speed, which will lead to the tragedy of the year repeating again, in the case of not being able to catch up and not being able to hit the opponent, even if he has more battleships, the result will be tragic. What to do?

Kincaid is worthy of being an expert in artillery warfare, since he can't confront it head-on. Then you must first approach the enemy covertly, and in order to approach the enemy covertly, you must make them impossible for the enemy's radar to detect. But how can you make your opponent's radar unable to spot you? Kincaid first felt that there was not much hope, after all, radar is not a human eye, and the detection range will be shortened in bad weather conditions, but it can still detect warships more than ten nautical miles away. But he soon discovered that if he used the cover of the island, maybe he would be able to make the Tang Empire's radar useless!

In the bloody battle of Kuah, both warring sides discovered a problem. That is, the island has a great jamming effect on the radar, and when the battleship is close to the island, the electromagnetic waves emitted by the island will cause the radar to be unable to detect the battleship in time, and even judge the battleship as an island. When Kincaid commanded the "Washington Express", he used this to sail as close to the coastline of the island as possible, and then pass through the blockade of the Tang Imperial fleet at high speed to send troops and supplies to Kuah Island. If this is still used this time, perhaps the radar advantage of the Tang Empire will not be able to be brought into play.

Kuah Island is an island that is long from east to west and narrow from north to south, like a broad bean lying on the sea, and it is slightly offset to the southeast. If the Third Task Force were to intercept Kuah Island to the south of Kuah Island, it would most likely be in the waters south of the eastern part of Kuah Island, and its interception line would be about 20 nautical miles away from Kuah Island. If the Tang Empire's radar detection range is 15 nautical miles, and as insurance, it is counted as 20 nautical miles, then it is necessary to first go around to the northwest direction of Kuah Island, and then sail south-east along the island, that is, to insert it from the longitudinal direction of the Tang Imperial fleet, and then quickly occupy a favorable artillery position, and before the Tang Imperial fleet can react, the distance will be shortened to within 10 nautical miles, and at least half an hour to an hour can be won when the Tang Imperial fleet turns. If you can crush it during this time, and at least inflict heavy damage on the two battleships at the top of the line, then you will be sure to win!

Thinking of this, Kincaid was sure. The key point is to approach covertly, as long as he can approach covertly and strive to shorten the distance to within 10 nautical miles, then he will be sure enough to defeat the third task force and cut off this Tang Empire task force that has threatened Kuah Island for several months! Immediately, Kincaid ordered the fleet to turn, which might have allowed him to arrive at Kuah Island half an hour late, but it didn't matter, the fleet was already sailing several hours ahead of schedule.

When the 32nd Task Force began to turn, the Southwest Task Force under the command of Wei Dongbei was still sailing at high speed in the New Georgia Strait. The cruiser was jolting in a large way, and the disadvantages of the small displacement of the battleship were obvious, and in the same sea conditions, the battleship would not have such a large longitudinal shaking when sailing at full speed, and when the cruiser was sailing at full speed, the bow of the battleship would be lifted out of the sea and then submerged by the sea, as if it were sitting on a seesaw.

The speed of the fleet was not able to reach 33 knots, and 33 knots was only the maximum speed in an ideal state. At this time, the fleet was only 32 knots, and sometimes it was even less than 32 knots. This is already the maximum speed that can be achieved with the boiler outputting 110 percent of the power. This can easily lead to boiler failure, but Wei Dongbei can't shut down so much. Task Force 32 was about to arrive at Kuah Island at about 12 o'clock, while the U.S. convoy arrived three hours late at most, and even if they were to advance at 33 knots, they would not arrive until after 2 o'clock, not counting the time to grab position. In other words, he had to fight every minute, every second, to intercept the convoy before it could close to Task Force 32!

Perhaps, now that Wei Dongbei is cursing Yan Shiqi, if Yan Shiqi sends his plan 1 back earlier, the Southwest Task Force can set off several hours in advance, without the need to rush like now, and can arrive at the battlefield calmly, with enough time to occupy a favorable position.

But this damn Yan Shiqi only thought of the 32nd Task Force, and didn't think about the battle situation at all!