During the night artillery battle, Yamamoto 65 sat firmly in the bridge of the commander of the "Yamato", as if he were a statue, and there was no superfluous expression or superfluous movement at all. The staff officer came many times to persuade him to go to a safer cabin, but Yamamoto Sixty-Five refused, he wanted to see the main fleet of the Tang Empire wiped out.

In several hours of fierce fighting, the "Yamato" suffered at least a dozen shells, one of which hit the bridge of the ship, but the 240 mm and 200 mm armor-piercing shells only caused a little skin wound to the "iron turtle", causing damage to the secondary gun emplacement, which was not protected by heavy armor. These shells could not even tear through the side armor of the main gun turret, making it even more difficult to deal with bridges that were protected by heavier armor.

When one after another the battleships of the Tang Empire were hit by cannonballs, caught fire and burned on the gray sea, and exploded and sank, Yamamoto Sixty-Five's expression still did not change much, and only when the staff officer reported the news of the sinking of the enemy ships, a subtle smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. The huge combat effectiveness of the "Yamato" made Yamamoto 65 very satisfied, no matter what kind of battleship it was, when it was hit by those armor-piercing shells weighing more than a ton, there would be no good results. The actual combat also proved this, even those "capital ships" of the Tang Empire, as long as they were hit by the armor-piercing shells fired by the main gun of the "Yamato", they would inevitably be destroyed, and those heavy cruisers might even be directly blown in two by the shells. Of course, Yamamoto Sixty-Five is not clear about one thing, in his opinion, the "capital ship". That is, the armor on the large air defense cruisers of the Tang Empire was not much thicker than the heavy cruisers, and the basic task of these battleships was not to engage in artillery battles with battleships, so they did not need much heavy armor to protect the fragile hulls.

At 4:35, a telegram arrived in Yamamoto's 65. This is a telegram from the naval headquarters, a very important telegram. There was only one item in the telegram, that is, there was unidentified radio activity about 250 nautical miles southwest of the Combined Fleet, and it was suspected that the aircraft carriers of the Tang Imperial Navy were emitting radio waves.

Until this time. Sixty-five Yamamoto hesitated. At this time, there was still a capital ship of the Tang Empire that insisted on fighting and did not retreat. Although one of the three main turrets on this battleship has already been completely destroyed. The hydraulic system of the other main turret also failed, preventing the barrel from rising and effectively losing its combat effectiveness. But the capital ship was still returning fire with the last turret. Is it to fight, or to go?

Yamamoto hesitated for about five minutes before ordering the fleet to continue fighting, and he also gave an order for fighters from all nearby islands to reach the combined fleet before dawn. Provide air defense cover for the combined fleet. Yamamoto Sixty-Five didn't want to let go of this big goal, he had already killed two of the capital ships of the Tang Empire (the lookout on the "Yamato" did not have any actual combat experience, and counted the two retreating battleships in the list of sunks), and also killed several heavy cruisers, so why not hold on for a while and kill the last capital ship of the Tang Empire?

In fact, at this time, only the "Duan Zhixuan" and "Liqiu" in the shelling formation were still insisting on fighting. The only fortunate thing was that the power systems of both ships were intact. It was possible to pull away from the Japanese fleet at a speed of more than 30 knots. In addition, the two battleships did not shell the capital ships of the Japanese Combined Fleet again, but aimed their guns at the Japanese cruisers and the Japanese destroyers that were preparing to carry out "lightning strikes."

In order not to let the Japanese Combined Fleet lose the "hope" of pursuit, both battleships controlled the speed at about 24 knots, and also turned from time to time. Several rounds of shelling. Of course, both battleships had already separated, dodging the falling shells. The 120-mm secondary guns (anti-aircraft artillery) on the battleship could easily be used against Japanese destroyers.

At 4:55, Yamamoto Sixty-Five came to his senses, he encountered not the main fleet of the Tang Empire, but a small fleet acting as a decoy, and the task of this small fleet is to drag the combined fleet, and at dawn, the bombers of the Tang Empire will definitely appear over the fleet. Thinking of this, Yamamoto Sixty-Five did not hesitate any longer. The order to retreat was immediately given.

In the pursuit of several hours. The ground warships of the Combined Fleet have been completely dispersed and spread over a long distance of fifteen nautical miles. Ten nautical miles wide on the sea. By the time Yamamoto 65 gathered the large warships in the fleet and the fleet turned to return home, it was already 5:28 a.m., and by this time, the bombers in the 1st Task Force had already begun to take off. To make matters worse, a 240-mm armor-piercing projectile concentrated the left stern of the "Yamato" under water, breaking the propeller shaft on the left side. That is, the "Yamato" at this time was only able to reach a maximum speed of 22 knots, and not a maximum speed of 24 knots!

In an hour, the bomber group could fly 220 nautical miles (the fastest speed), while the Japanese Combined Fleet could only advance 22 nautical miles. Moreover, the "Duan Zhixuan" and "Liqiu", which were dragging the mutilated "limbs", turned to follow at this time, just like two sheepdogs chasing wolves, they refused to let go of the Japanese Combined Fleet at all, and the main guns at the bow of the ship were still firing shells.

According to the distance between the two sides at that time, the speed. This time, Deng Zichao's group, which set off first, will catch up with the Japanese Combined Fleet at 6:45, that is, about 15 minutes after dawn. If the fighters called by Yamamoto Sixty-Five could arrive at dawn, then there was a glimmer of hope for the Combined Fleet. But Yamamoto sent the telegram at 4:40 a.m., and the fighter units on Iwo Jima, Mother Island, Chichijima, and Brother Island received complete orders at about 4:45 a.m., the pilots assembled at about 5 o'clock, the aviation service personnel prepared the fighters for takeoff at 5:30 p.m., and the first fighters took off from Iwo Jima at 5:45 a.m., and they flew toward the sea where the fleet had fought before, not toward the course where the fleet had retreated. That is, it is unlikely that Japanese fighters will reach the skies over the Combined Fleet before 6:40.

Sixty-five Yamamoto was also quick to realize the problem. But he didn't have time to make adjustments. The sky in the east is already cloudy, and in less than half an hour, the first bombers will appear over the combined fleet.

The first to be killed was not a group of bombers, but a group of escort fighters led by Major Ellsler. After knowing that the Japanese Combined Fleet was going to be bombed, An Shile took the initiative to apply for an escort mission, and it turned out that Tan Renhao also arranged it in this way, with a fighter squadron on the "Taizu" and a fighter squadron on the "Xuanzong" to carry out the escort mission. Jiang Wenhan led other fighters to be responsible for the air defense of the fleet.

After departure, Ellsler flew to the front with more than 30 "vultures". They arrived over the Japanese Combined Fleet at 6:30 a.m. It was thirteen minutes faster than the group of Deng Zichao who was following behind. When Ellsler discovered that there was not a single air defense fighter in the sky over the Japanese Combined Fleet, Ellsler was first shocked, and then greatly disappointed. Although he could fly fighter jets to strafe the warships on the sea, this was not allowed until the bombers arrived. Only when the bombers start dropping bombs can fighters use machine guns to strafe the battleship and cover the bombers for bombing.

The "Vulture" group circled around the periphery of the Japanese fleet for more than ten minutes, and the flying shells could not reach them at all. Until Deng Zichao led a group of bombers appeared in the sky. Only then did Ellsler lead the fighter to rush down first, using the machine gun on the fighter to "open the way" for the bomber.

"Brothers, do you see the giant ship in the middle?" Deng Zichao gave the order at the first time, "That's the 'Yamato', grandma's, what a fat pig." Concentrate on killing that fat pig before you go to deal with other Japanese warships and sink 'Yamato'! ”

"Sink 'Yamato'!"

"Kill the shit!"

The pilots roared. All the pilots saw the world's largest warship for the first time. The Japanese used tens of thousands of tons of steel. It took more than two years to build the world's largest warship. When the "Yamato" was launched, the Japanese side declared that it would be an "unsinkable" warship, and they would never have imagined that now, the "Yamato" would have become a "fat pig" in the eyes of the bomber pilots of the Tang Empire.

When more than 30 "vultures" were frantically strafing the anti-aircraft gun positions of the Japanese warships near the "Yamato," Deng Zichao first led a small team of "Ospreys" to a height of less than 100 meters above the sea surface. Rounding the bend to the "Yamato" pounced. At the same time, Major Qiu Gengbo led a small group of "Kingfishers" and flew directly over the "Yamato". The two of them are the most powerful pilots in the "Taizu" aircraft carrier bomber unit, and the cooperation between the two is quite tacit, and they can quickly understand the meaning of each other's actions, and then immediately take cooperative actions.

When the "Yamato" began to maneuver to evade the ground, the "Kingfisher" group, which was divided into three groups, swooped down. The anti-aircraft guns of the "Yamato" were all firing at the dive bombers overhead. At the same time, the flaws on this battleship were exposed. After the commissioning of the "Yamato", that is, after the "Battle of the Ryukyu Basin", a small-scale modification was carried out, and the main part of the modification was the installation of more than 30 machine guns, and this number was still insufficient. Its anti-aircraft firepower is not even comparable to that of large anti-aircraft cruisers of the "Li Jing" class. This is probably Yamamoto's thoughts. Because he never thought of escorting aircraft carriers with the "Yamato". But in the night battle, at least half of the anti-aircraft gun emplacements on the port side of the "Yamato" were destroyed by shells from the shelling formations. Other words. The anti-aircraft fire in the port direction of the "Yamato" was very weak!

Deng Zichao immediately discovered this fatal flaw. At the time of the "Kingfisher" dive, he had already circled the "Osprey" squadron in the direction of the port side of the "Yamato". Although two "Ospreys" were shot down by the anti-aircraft guns of nearby warships while following him, the other ten "Ospreys" all successfully entered the direct flight path before the bomb was dropped. The altitude of the group decreased again, and it was not until it was less than 50 meters above the surface of the sea that the group began to accelerate in a straight line.

Deng Zichao's "savage" style of play was once again displayed, and he kept close to the distance of less than 800 meters from the "Yamato" before dropping the torpedo, and the other nine "Ospreys" also dropped torpedoes. Then, the 10 Ospreys turned left together, ready to withdraw from the attack.

When Deng Zichao turned his head to look at the "Yamato," the nine "Kingfishers" that had successfully dropped bombs also retreated under the leadership of Qiu Gengbo. At least four bombs with three torpedoes hit the "Yamato".

"Captain, we were hit, ** damn, look at how arrogant the puppy day is!" Qiu Gengbo's voice was very excited, he was the first to drop the bomb, and he watched the bomb drop near the turret at the stern of the "Yamato".

"Don't get too excited, this is the largest warship in the world!"

Deng Zichao's words hit the nail on the head. When the smoke from the "Yamato" cleared, the huge battleship was still continuing to sail north at a speed of more than 20 knots. Although smoke rose from the rear turret of the battleship and the rear of the bridge, and three huge holes appeared on the port side of the hull, the speed of the battleship still did not decrease, and the anti-aircraft guns on the battleship were still shelling.

"**, is this battleship really unsinkable?" Qiu Gengbo exclaimed.

"Fart, there are no unsinkable battleships. On the second squad, don't give the enemy a chance! Deng Zichao didn't mess up, "Give the fatal blow to the dog day, one blow can't sink, then we will blow it up a few more times, Lao Tzu wants to see if it's a powerful bomb, or a powerful battleship on the dog day!" ”

The second group of "Kingfishers" and "Ospreys" that entered quickly killed them. In addition to Deng Zichao, the "Osprey" bombers that began to attack also consciously joined the ranks of strafing the Japanese warships.

Ten more bombs fell on the "Yamato", and the huge battleship writhed its bloated body, clumsily dodging the falling bombs. The wake of twelve torpedoes appeared on the surface of the sea. The bombers, having completed the attack, did not forget to hit some machine-gun bullets into the anti-aircraft gun positions of the "Yamato" when they left the attack course.

Deng Zichao sneered, so many bombs and torpedoes, enough to sink two aircraft carriers, now look at how the "fat pig" is still struggling!