In fact, the Navy of the Tang Empire had a whole set of command terms, and these were mastered by staff officers. When Tan Renhao was a staff officer of the fleet, he was familiar with these terms, but there was a problem, in different fleets, it may be two completely different sets of command terms.

Since the age of artillery, the operation of the Grand Fleet has been a new tactic of naval warfare, and when dozens of warships are participating in the battle at the same time, in order to effectively command the operation, it is necessary to have a set of terminology that can be understood by all the officers and men on the warship. This gave birth to the "language" unique to the navy, such as flag language and lantern language. Before the advent of radio, almost all relied on these two means to command the fleet to fight and direct the fleet's actions, and the information that these two languages could convey was very limited, therefore, the tactics at that time were also very limited, in order to make the fleet effectively cooperate, the fleet commander had to use as few orders as possible, as short as possible to let the captains of other warships understand the meaning of the fleet commander. In the age of sails, it was normal and important to summon the captain to the flagship to discuss combat operations before every naval battle, and the fleet commander consulted the captain. It was from this era that some of the most basic terms of naval warfare appeared.

With the progress of technology and the progress of naval warfare tactics, the terminology of naval warfare has become more and more abundant, and when radio appeared, there was a convenient way of communication between warships that could accommodate a large amount of information, so the command of naval warfare became more and more artistic, and the status of the fleet commander was improved a lot, and the captain was reduced to the "captain", just the length of a ship, in the battle, the status of the captain was reduced, and the real decisive role was the fleet commander. In the same way, because of the expansion of the scale of battles and the acceleration of combat, the personal role of the fleet commander in naval battles is becoming more and more obvious. As a result, a very different style of command was formed, which is the so-called "commander style". Different commanders have different styles, and even in the same battle, different commanders will play different results and have different tactical arrangements.

Another problem posed by the "Commander Style" is the complexity of naval warfare terminology, which inevitably affects the integrity of the fleet in combat. Regardless of the era, the integrity of the fleet's combat ground is the most important, and no matter how powerful a warship is, it is impossible to deal with a group of much weaker warships alone. How to solve this problem? This actually fell to the staff of the fleet. The Fleet Staff Department is also a command organization established when it is difficult for the fleet commander to command the fleet operations alone, and its main job is to assist the fleet commander in directing operations, which naturally includes issuing orders.

In order to make the captains of each warship understand the meaning of the fleet commander as much as possible, after a long run-in, an unwritten rule has been formed in the fleet staff, that is, when the fleet commander's orders are conveyed, some simple and easy-to-understand sentences and some words with very clear meanings should be used uniformly to let the captains of other warships accurately carry out the orders without major mistakes. This can be said to be a very troublesome thing, especially in the era of dreadnoughts. Two different fleet commanders when giving orders of the same sense. For example, when the command "retreat" is given, perhaps one will use the word "retreat" directly, while the other will use the word "evade". "Return", even with the addition of a large list of meaningless modifiers, into a sentence, or even a paragraph. As a result, the meaning of these two orders is indistinguishable, but when they are transmitted to other warships, it is entirely possible that other captains will misunderstand the two orders.

The solution is very simple, that is, directly use the word "retreat", without any modification, without any emotion. It's just a "word". This is what the Fleet Staff Officers have summed up over the decades to convey orders in as short words as possible, and these words are the default neutral words. In this way, when the order is transmitted to other warships, it is not easy to misinterpret the order of the fleet commander.

Later, these basic words were written into the "Staff Manual", which was a must for any staff officer, but it was not a mandatory requirement of the Navy, at least until the problem was really exposed. The Imperial Navy did not fix this approach. What Tan Renhao needs to do now is to finalize this method, and at the same time enrich the vocabulary that can be used when commanding, so that more orders can be conveyed.

This is also a new problem brought about by the change of naval warfare, in the previous era of artillery warfare, there is really no need for too many words to explain the orders of the fleet commander, but after the appearance of aircraft carriers, it is not possible to use only simple words such as "open gun", "advance", "turn left", "turn right", "add", "subtract", and "retreat" to fully express the meaning of the fleet commander. The most important of these is aviation terminology. The aircraft carrier is a new thing, and the staff officers of the aircraft carrier fleet are groping for progress, and have not yet formed a unified command order. The current situation could not be made aware of by the staff officers themselves, and a well-developed set of terminology had to be developed to make it easier and more accurate to command the fleet.

At the same time, this is an extremely troublesome matter. Tan Renhao has not been a staff officer for a long time, and most of it was before the outbreak of the war, and there was no trouble in reading it like this at that time, if the order was not clearly expressed, it could be added, but on the battlefield, there was not so much time at all, and there was no second chance to give orders. After the outbreak of the war, Tan Renhao most of the time stood in the position of the person who gave orders, rather than the position of the person who delivered the order.

This question didn't give Tan Renhao a headache for long, and soon, a person more suitable to do this returned to Zhoushan, he was Lei Shaoqing, the former chief of staff of Tan Renhao, and after the outbreak of the war, he sat in the position of chief of staff of the First Task Force for more than a year.

"What?" After listening to Tan Renhao's words, Lei Shaoqing was very surprised, "Come brother, I'm not here to fight the fire." When I came back this time, I came to inquire about the 'Hulun Lake' aircraft carrier, and now I have an aircraft carrier in my hand, does the principal really want me to be the commander of the light pole? ”

"Don't worry, maybe I'll be the commander of the light pole by then. When are you leaving? ”

"Let's go back in a few days, anyway, it's just a good time to breathe a sigh of relief, and then go back to replace Lao Chang and let him go home to see his son." Lei Shaoqing sat down, still shaking his head.

"Then, you have to work hard a little more these days." Tan Renhao smiled and gave a pack of cigarettes to Lei Shaoqing. "I couldn't find someone better to help me."

"A pack of cigarettes and you want to buy me? Do you think I'm cheap labor? Lei Shaoqing put the cigarette on the table, he was not so easy to buy.

"We're good buddies, what's the matter, you have to help me this time, the principal has already said, let me go back to the fleet after this thing, you don't want to see me suffer in the naval headquarters!"

"Then you're going to make me suffer? Is this still a good brother? ”

"Shaoqing, I can only ask you for help now!" Tan Renhao grabbed Lei Shaoqing's shoulder.

"That's it, at most, I'll invite you to dinner, go to Zhoushan City, whatever you want to eat, you can order whatever you want, I will never frown."

"Zhoushan City? You think I'm a fool, what's there to eat there? Lei Shaoqing rolled his eyes, and he couldn't find a good restaurant in Zhoushan City.

"So, where are you talking about?"

"At least you have to go to Songjiang, I heard that you slaughtered Dongjue last time. This time. Count us all in, it's still the old place. ”

"'Bonaparte'?" Tan Renhao immediately felt a little painful.

Lei Shaoqing smiled and nodded. "Also, bring the bottle of wine you got from the headmaster. I know the headmaster has a few good bottles of wine in his hand. Since it was given to you, it naturally won't be bad. ”

"You're too ruthless, aren't you, why do you want me to bleed?" Tan Renhao almost jumped up, he finally got a bottle of wine from the principal.

"What? If you don't do it, then you can do it yourself, I'll finish my work and go back tomorrow, anyway, there are a lot of things to deal with on the fleet's side, I don't worry about the old man......" Lei Shaoqing said and stood up.

"Okay, that's it!" Tan Renhao immediately grabbed Lei Shaoqing. "A meal, a bottle of wine, when we get together next time, we will go to Songjiang."

"A word?"

"It's a deal!"

After being slaughtered, Tan Renhao also threw this matter to Lei Shaoqing, at least there was one less trouble. And he suddenly realized that he was idle, and as a result, when Lei Shaoqing was busy to the death and had a headache over those cumbersome passwords, Tan Renhao often went to Gan Yongxing's office to drink tea and chat. made Lei Shaoqing regret again and again that he didn't open more, and didn't let Tan Renhao take some benefits.

On the second day after Lei Shaoqing came to Zhoushan, Tan Renhao received a call from Hao Dongjue. The "Xingkaihu" aircraft carrier battle group of the First Task Force has regained its combat effectiveness, but most of the other warships have been transferred to the Southwest Pacific Theater as a temporary fleet to cooperate with the 6th Squadron to attack Kuah Island.

Tan Renhao was not surprised by this, and when he was chatting with Gan Yongxing, he already knew that the offensive in the southwest Pacific had reached a critical period. The 6th Squadron commanded by Yan Guozhong had landed on Kuah Island at the beginning of the year and fought fiercely with tens of thousands of American troops defending the island, and by the end of January, the 6th Squadron had advanced to the airfield in the northwest corner of Kuah Island after paying extremely heavy casualties, and it was only after five days of bloody fighting that it barely took control of the airfield. In addition, the 6th Sentai also occupied Savo Island in the northwest of Kuah Island, built an artillery position on the island, and managed to send several heavy guns removed from the old cruiser to the island, and began to bombard the US military positions on Kuah Island.

The battle has reached the most critical stage, although the Tang Imperial Navy firmly controls the sea supremacy, and the Fourth Task Force is still suppressing the US airfields on other islands, but in fact, this has not achieved the goal of absolutely blocking the waters of Kuah Island. The American "Washington Express" reappeared, and the fast fleet of light cruisers, destroyers, delivered troops, ammunition supplies, evacuated the wounded to Kuah every night. Although the Third Task Force went all out to intercept the "Washington Express" and Yan Shiqi also commanded several beautiful nights and sank more than 10 US warships, the physical strength of the officers and men of the Third Task Force was limited, and the ammunition and fuel on the battleships were also limited.

Under these circumstances, Yan Guozhong asked for more fleets to blockade Kuah Island, so that the 6th Sentai could capture the most important island in the Solomon Islands as soon as possible. As a result, the extra escort warships in the First Task Force were transferred out and a temporary artillery fleet was set up, which was directly commanded by Yan Guozhong and sent to the Southwest Pacific Theater. Gan Yongxing also assured Tan Renhao that when the First Task Force restored two aircraft carriers, or even three aircraft carriers, these warships would be transferred back, and if there were better warships in service at that time, the requirements of the First Task Force would be given priority, and at the same time, he would guarantee that the backbone of the fleet would be left to Tan Renhao.

With Gan Yongxing's assurance, Tan Renhao has nothing to worry about, anyway, those escort warships will not be useful for the time being, and it is also appropriate to let them make some contributions to the Southwest Pacific Theater. The day after Hao Dongjue's call, Lei Shaoqing completed his work and gave Tan Renhao a draft command document, and then Lei Shaoqing rushed back to Guam and continued to command his fleet.

After correcting a few minor mistakes, Tan Renhao handed over the document to Nie Renfeng the next day.

"Yes, I'll have people revise and polish it." Nie Renfeng was very satisfied with this document, "You can also go and say goodbye to the chief of staff." We have just received news that the two US aircraft carriers have been repaired at Pearl Harbor, and they may be repaired by the end of February at the earliest. ”

"End of February?" Tan Renhao was secretly surprised, "This is a little too fast, right?" ”

"This degree is already normal, the 'Essex' class aircraft carrier is also built in large quantities, and the United States has a lot of spare parts, so the repair degree is very fast." Nie Renfeng sat down, "According to our estimates, after the repair of these two aircraft carriers, the US military will plan a counterattack again, and when the time comes, I'm afraid we will have to find a way to make the Americans bleed again." ”

Tan Renhao nodded, he didn't sit down. "Then I'll rush back to the fleet immediately, if the American fleet strikes again, they will have to get it, but they won't have to go back."

"I will let Gan Yongxing keep in touch with you at any time, and when you return to the fleet, get ready immediately!"

Tan Renhao nodded, and then said goodbye to the principal, and trouble came again!