Huang Xiaotian received a telegram from Han Shaofeng at around 9 o'clock, which was exactly the news that the night reconnaissance plane had discovered the US task force. The telegram is not very detailed, but it mentions several important points, namely the size of the fleet, its location, and the situation of aircraft carriers. Among them, Huang Xiaotian paid the most attention not to whether this fleet has aircraft carriers, or how many aircraft carriers there are, the first thing he saw was that the telegram clearly mentioned that there were bombers on the flight decks of the three aircraft carriers!

After careful consideration, Huang Xiaotian felt that this information was not very important. In terms of time, the American bombers who bombed Midway Island have almost returned to the fleet, so there is no big problem for these bombers to stay on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. But Huang Xiaotian also ignored an extremely important issue at this time, that is, the distance between the discovered 52nd Task Force and Midway.

It was precisely because of this telegram that Huang Xiaotian was sure that at least one US task force was in the waters near Midway, and that it was the fleet that bombed Midway. But there is still no way to determine where the other U.S. task force is. It gave him a headache. When Han Shaofeng's telegram came, he was woken up from his bed by his staff officer, and although he lay in bed for several hours, he never fell asleep. Thinking of the US task force that had not yet appeared, Huang Xiaotian couldn't sleep.

For the next two hours, Huang Xiaotian had been nervously waiting for news from the reconnaissance plane. In addition to the two squadrons of dive bombers that remained, he sent out the 72 "waterbirds" in the fleet, as well as all the seaplanes, and conducted several repeated searches within a radius of 300 nautical miles near the fleet, hoping to find the approaching American fleet. Similarly, the radars on the cruisers in the fleet have been activated, closely monitoring the sky around the fleet, but nothing has been found. By ten o'clock, Huang Xiaotian had also sent five destroyers to the south of the fleet. Perform anti-aircraft alert missions 0 and extend the detection range with the radar on these destroyers.

As a result, it was one of the destroyers, while sailing southwest of the fleet, whose radar detected a target, which was not a target in the sky, but a target on the sea, that is, the American submarine that had spotted the fourth task force!

At that time, the submarine was sailing on the surface of the sea. In the direction of the destroyer 20 degrees west-north. It is about 10 nautical miles from the destroyer and about 15 nautical miles from the forward aircraft carrier battle group of the 4th Task Force. The U.S. submarines have no radar installed on them, and they can only rely on a few crew members with binoculars to monitor the surrounding waters. In accordance with the operational requirements of the US military. When the submarine is sailing on the surface of the sea, at least four crew members are required to carry out the duty of vigilance. However, at this time, the captain of the US submarine thought that he had left the search range of the Tang Empire's anti-submarine patrol planes (the most feared thing about the submarine sailing on the sea was the sudden appearance of the anti-submarine patrol plane), and the officers and men on the submarine had been living on the sea for more than two months, and they were extremely tired, and they all wanted to return to Pearl Harbor as soon as possible and get a 15-day vacation. Therefore. At that time, there were only two crew members on the submarine on a vigilance mission, and as a result, one of the two people 1 was dozing off!

The price paid for the negligence of the American submarine was extremely painful, and after the radar on the destroyer detected the suspicious target, the captain immediately raised the combat alarm and quickly headed for the suspicious target. When the lookout on the destroyer saw the submarine floating on the surface of the sea, he thought that he had encountered an imperial submarine that was on its way to the waters of the Hawaiian Islands to carry out a combat mission to break diplomatic relations, but the appearance of the US Navy's "Little Shark" class submarine was very different from that of the Imperial Navy's submarine, and the lookout immediately sounded the antisubmarine alarm. It was 10:50. Five minutes later, the first shells were fired from the front main guns of the destroyer. One of the 155-mm shells hit the submarine directly, and the luck was extreme.

It was no longer possible for the US submarine to dive to evade it, and before the crew could completely withdraw, the unfortunate submarine disappeared from the sea, and the more than 30 US officers and men who had escaped in a hurry also became prisoners. When Huang Xiaotian received the news, he did not forget to commend the commander of the destroyer, but at the same time, he did not ignore one point, that is, the US submarine had already sent a radio signal before it sank, and the submarine was only about 10 nautical miles away from the "Taihu" aircraft carrier battle group of the Fourth Task Force at that time.

Perhaps, there is not much difference between the two. At this point, the Fourth Task Force was completely exposed. Before eleven o'clock, Huang Xiaotian ordered the fleet to turn due north and sail north at full speed, because Spruance's task force was the least likely to appear north of Task Force 4.

All the officers and men of the Fourth Task Force also became nervous, the fleet had been exposed, and the reconnaissance planes sent out by the fleet had not yet found any trace of the US Fleet, so the bombers of the US Fleet would only need an hour at the earliest, and only two hours at the slowest to catch up, dropping bombs and torpedoes sufficient to completely destroy the Fourth Task Force. In addition, the U.S. task force operating near Midway Island will certainly immediately outflank it, blocking the retreat of the Fourth Task Force back to Midway Island, and completely cutting off the hope of the Fourth Task Force for survival.

Huang Xiaotian himself thinks the same way, and the only thing he can do now is to be vigilant and stay away from dangerous sea areas as much as possible. At 11:10 a.m., all the fighters in the fleet took turns to take up the air to carry out combat alert tasks, and the bomber pilots were all concentrated, and as soon as the reconnaissance planes discovered the US fleet, they should immediately set off and attack first. According to Yan Yulong's statement at that time: Even if you want to die, you have to pull a few cushions. This is indeed Huang Xiaotian's idea, even if the Fourth Task Force is destined to be defeated, then he can't let the enemy bomb without making any reaction.

The tense atmosphere lasted until about 1 p.m., and the fourth group of reconnaissance planes had already set off, but the first three groups of reconnaissance planes still did not find anything, and what surprised Huang Xiaotian even more was that the US bombers still did not appear, and he repeatedly asked the staff officer in charge of the fleet's air defense many times, and the radar on none of the warships detected UFOs, nor did the radars on the destroyers that carried out the air defense alert mission find nothing.

This really made Huang Xiaotian feel extremely strange, it stands to reason that the Fourth Task Force has been exposed, and if the other task force of the Fifth Fleet is in the waters near Necker Island, then it should catch up. If Task Force 4 is within the strike range of the US fleet. Then the bomber group of the American army should have arrived. Maybe the American fleet is too far from the 4th task force! Thinking of this possibility, Huang Xiaotian still did not feel relaxed, perhaps the US reconnaissance plane had already reached the south of the Fourth Task Force and was now searching the sea area exposed by the Fourth Task Force. The danger is still not lifted, and at the speed of the 4th task force, it will take at least four hours to leave the search range of the US reconnaissance aircraft, that is. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. to be able to determine whether the fleet is safe or not.

It was at this time that Huang Xiaotian received a telegram from Han Shaofeng, which was a telegram related to the US landing fleet. The U.S. landing fleet had left Necker Island early in the morning. It was now heading in the direction of Midway, and the U.S. landing fleet was discovered by a speedboat that had refueled at Gardner Island and was preparing to return to Midway.

The Imperial Navy's speedboat force was very large, but because of the limitations of the speedboats themselves, the role of speedboats in naval warfare was limited. Many times, speedboats are tasked with patrolling around the islands and transporting people between them. and, when necessary, carry out search and rescue missions. The boats ranged in displacement from 50 to 200 tons, and were equipped with two or four torpedo tubes and several machine guns. None of the firepower is too powerful to be useful in regular naval warfare, so speedboats can come in handy only in places where the main fleet and large warships cannot be used.

At that time, the task of this speedboat was to pick up several important officers on Gardner Island back to Midway, because Midway Island had been blocked, so Han Shaofeng could not send planes over, so he could only use speedboats to pick up people. The boat left Gardner Island at the time. Just as he was about to turn around, he collided with the U.S. landing fleet passing south of Gardner Island. With a speed of more than 45 knots, the speedboat escaped the pursuit of the American escort warship. And immediately sent the news to the garrisons on Gardner Island and Leysang Island, and then the garrison on Lysan Island sent the news to Han Shaofeng, and Han Shaofeng sent the news to the Theater Command and the Fourth Task Force at the same time.

This news originally had nothing to do with the Fifth Fleet, but after receiving this news, Huang Xiaotian finally breathed a sigh of relief. In his opinion, this actually proved that the other task force of the Fifth Fleet was not in the vicinity of the Fourth Task Force. If Spruance was tasked with covering the Marines from attacking Midway, and one of his task forces was bombing Midway, the other task force must be covering the landing fleet. And the US landing fleet is more than 600 nautical miles away from the Fourth Task Force, so the US fleet escorting it must be more than 400 nautical miles away from the Fourth Task Force, which is outside the range of bombers!

"This is our chance!" Yan Yulong saw something different from Huang Xiaotian, and he thought that this was an opportunity to turn defeat into victory. "The US landing fleet will not be able to reach the waters near Midway until tomorrow evening at the earliest, that is, the time for the US military to land on Midway Island is the day after tomorrow, that is, on July 1. And if the two task forces of the Fifth Fleet are separated, then we will have a few hours tomorrow morning to deal with one of the task forces, and even take out the US landing fleet. ”

"Now that our position has been revealed, Spruance will definitely judge that we will go south to intercept the landing fleet, and the American fleet on the Midway side will sail eastward to try to rendezvous with the landing fleet tomorrow morning, and then we will have to deal with two American task forces at the same time." Huang Xiaotian did not agree with Yan Yulong's view.

"But......" Yan Yulong hesitated, "if we go south now, we can intercept the landing fleet in the early hours of tomorrow morning, and even send artillery warships to attack the US landing fleet, and our air force can go all out to deal with the Fifth Fleet!" ”

"Shelling battleships?" Huang Xiaotian was stunned, he really didn't expect this.

The Fourth Task Force originally had a separate artillery group, but after being transferred to the Pacific Theater, this artillery formation was dismantled and the battleships were assigned to other fleets. At that time, no one thought that Task Force 4 needed a separate artillery group, but now, Task Force 4 does need an artillery formation. If the artillery formation moves south at full speed, it will be able to sail at least 630 nautical miles in the early hours of tomorrow morning, that is, around dawn, which will be enough to catch up with the US landing fleet on a shortcut route. As long as the US landing fleet is suddenly intercepted, then the Fifth Fleet must first consider killing the artillery bombardment formation of the Fourth Task Force, and then the Fifth Fleet will be completely exposed, giving the Fourth Task Force a chance to ambush it. If he could replace a task force of the Fifth Fleet with a few artillery warships, then Huang Xiaotian would have made a lot of money. But the problem is that the battleships that go to carry out the artillery bombardment mission must be sent to death, which is certainly unfair to the officers and men on those battleships, but is there fairness on the battlefield?

Huang Xiaotian thought about it for five minutes and made a decision, the decisive battle with the Fifth Fleet would not be a way to drag on for a long time, if he could kill the Fifth Fleet in one fell swoop, even if he only killed a task force of the Fifth Fleet, then the battle situation in the entire Central Pacific Ocean would be completely changed, and it would definitely be worth fighting for a while!

"One cruiser and two destroyers for each aircraft carrier battle group." Huang Xiaotian hesitated for a moment, "Let the captain apply voluntarily, if you don't forcibly arrange the mission, even if the shelling operation is successful, it will definitely be hit hard by the US military, and it is almost a dare to die with no return." ”

Yan Yulong nodded. "I'm going to send a message right now and get the captains to sign up voluntarily."

"Within half an hour, let the shelling formation go south alone." Huang Xiaotian grabbed Yan Yulong's shoulder, "Tell those captains that I will not abandon them, and will do everything I can to cover them, after completing the mission, the shelling battleship does not need to return to the fleet, and will make a direct detour to the south, try to go to a safe port or an island controlled by us, and finally return to Apra Port." ”

Yan Yulong sighed secretly, the battle has come to this point, maybe everyone doesn't want to see it.