While Tan Renhao was struggling with how to get Yan Guozhong to support his new plan, in Brisbane, the two commanders of the US military were already arguing.

"No, you can't do that!" MacArthur's temper was not small, even if he was usually very gentlemanly, but when he got angry, he was not much worse than the "brute bull" opposite him.

"I will never agree to do this, I must first ensure the safety of Kuah Island, and I will only consider other arrangements after driving the Tang Army away from Kuah Island!"

"Admiral, I have promised that the reinforcements sent to Kuah Island and the war supplies will arrive safely. This is a fleet operation, not a damn ground charge! Halsey didn't look afraid at all in front of the admiral of the 6th Army, "I won't be dissatisfied with your command, but you don't want to come and dictate the fleet either!" ”

"You, I am the commander of the theater of operations, and I have the authority to order you!"

"Admiral, I am obeying the orders of the Commander of the Pacific Fleet, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, and the President!" Halsey won't budge at all, "I've promised that the supplies you need will reach Kuah Island." It's up to me to decide on other things, and that's what we agreed at the beginning! ”

MacArthur gritted his teeth and stared at Halsey on the other side, he was silent for a moment, and then said: "Well, if there is a slight mistake, even if a soldier does not reach Kuah Island, and a bullet is not sent to Kuah Island, you will bear full responsibility!" ”

"I'll take responsibility!" Halsey immediately stood up, "If there are no other problems, then I will take my leave!" ”

Hearing the door slam shut, MacArthur pulled out his cigar with a slight twist of hand. Working with Halsey for a few months made him very uncomfortable, and he hated Nimitz even more in his heart. Nimitz must have understood Halsey's temper very well, so he placed Halsey in the position of commander of Task Force 3 and came to oppose him!

The more he thought about it, the more atmospheric MacArthur became, and he felt that he was simply a clown at the mercy of others in the position of commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater. It's just a puppet, a puppet that can be played with!

Since the battle in the Southwest Pacific began, MacArthur has been very unhappy, to be precise, before the Tang Empire's 6th team attacked Lae, MacArthur felt that he was very unhappy.

Long before the Tang Empire attacked the Southwest Pacific, MacArthur proposed to take the South Seas as the key direction of counterattack, taking advantage of the Tang Empire's recovery of the South Seas region not long after. The opportunity to gain an unstable foothold was to conquer the South Seas in one fell swoop, push the battle line to the southern gate of the Tang Empire, and then land on the 6th Taiwan Island, the latter is Hainan Island, which is pushed along the Tang-Indian Peninsula until the Tang Empire itself. The south has always been the industrial area of the Tang Empire, and if the flames of war are burned there, then the Tang Empire will definitely be finished. MacArthur made a lot of efforts to get this plan, and he even ran back to talk to the president alone, hoping that the president would support his plan. He also spoke with the Chief of the General Staff of the 6th Army, General Marshall. And Marshall was very supportive of his plan. But this is only lip service.

Later, MacArthur's plan to march into the South Seas was shelved, or more precisely rejected.

The president adopted Nimitz's plan. First launch an offensive in the western Pacific, strive to defeat the Tang Empire's naval fleet, seize sea supremacy in the western Pacific, and then capture Iwo Jima and Ogasawara Islands, rearm Japan, save Japan, and then march to the Tang Empire mainland. This became known as the "Battle of the Mariana Islands". But as a result, the U.S. military lost very badly, almost exhausted the old capital of the navy, and still lost the Mariana Islands, allowing the Tang Empire to smoothly close the battle line. Then.

Wake Island was also lost, and the Tang Army successfully attacked the Southwest Pacific, captured Lae, landed on the 6th New Britain Island, and then the Marshall Islands and the Gilbert Islands were lost, and the Don Army attacked the Solomon Islands.

Along the way, MacArthur spent his time on the defensive, and life was difficult, starting with the battle of Lae. MacArthur tried his best to hold almost every island, and sent almost every soldier he could collect to the battlefield, but the Tang army's attack was too fierce, and even if he made his best efforts, he was only steadily retreating, and there was no way to hold the defensive line, let alone organize a counterattack.

At this point, MacArthur has always blamed Nimitz for being too arbitrary, and in the last counterattack, he actually chose Wake Island instead of the Solomon Islands, which resulted in the loss of two aircraft carriers, not to mention, and let the Tang Army gain the upper hand again, and in these months, the Tang Army finally hit Kuah Island, and successfully landed on Kuah Island, and put the muzzle of the gun against MacArthur's back, so that he had no way to retreat.

But he was even more unwilling that what should have been a good situation turned out to be like this.

If the president had taken his advice and fought back in the South Seas instead of the Western Pacific, the outcome would have been completely different. MacArthur, of course, did not go into the deeper causes. For example, whether the U.S. military in the southwest Pacific is strong enough for a large-scale strategic offensive, whether there is no way to successfully defeat the many islands in the South Sea, and whether the Tang Empire's defense in the South China Sea is as weak as it seems. MacArthur only believed that it was Nimitz's strong advocacy of the western Pacific that led to the current fiasco, which led to the current fiasco, which led to the US military being passively beaten for more than a year, and that both fronts were full of dangers and were subject to the opponent everywhere. Of course, MacArthur did not give up, he was a soldier, and a strong soldier, and he would continue to fight as long as there was hope.

After the Second Battle of Wake Island, MacArthur flew back to Washington again and found the president. This time, he did not propose to deploy new warships to the Southwest Pacific theater of operations, he only offered one point to get the president to make good on his promise. This is the same promise that the president promised to make a difference in the Southwest Pacific next time before the "Second Battle of Wake Island." At that time, the president of the United States was also suffering from the fiasco of the "Second Battle of Wake Island", and if it were not for Nimitz and Jindu's efforts to protect Spruance, and Halsey also came forward to vouch for Spruance as an old friend of the president, he was likely to directly dismiss Spruance. After asking MacArthur if it was possible to turn the tide of the war in the Southwest Pacific after acquiring a powerful fleet, and receiving an affirmative reply, the President of the United States agreed to MacArthur's request, saying that he would make good on his previous promise.

MacArthur returned to Brisbane with a satisfactory answer, but he quickly became aware of the problem, and although he was the commander of the theater, he was a general of the 6th Army, and when the Southwest Pacific Theater was established. Nimitz raised the question that the fleet should be under naval command, and eventually arranged for Halsey to come over. The reason why Nimitz arranged Halsey to command the Third Fleet is very simple, Halsey is a guy who is not afraid of the sky and the earth, not to mention MacArthur, he doesn't even give Nimitz face, MacArthur can still submit him? This is obviously impossible.

The president sent the fleet. It was not MacArthur who commanded it, but Halsey, and just as Halsey could not command MacArthur's 6th Army how to fight, MacArthur could not meddle in the fleet's operational arrangements. But the problem is that in order to reverse the defeat in the southwest Pacific, the fleet is the key to the key, and in MacArthur's view, the greatest role of the fleet is to help him protect the shipping routes, support the defenders on Kuah Island, and drive the Don Army out of Kuah Island first. Then go to recover Bougainville. Defeated Rabaul, and finally recovered Lae, completely driving the Tang Empire's army from the southwest Pacific. So. The fleet had to cooperate with the ground forces, but the problem was that Halsey did not agree with MacArthur's point of view, and even ridiculed MacArthur as a landlubber who did not know how to fight at sea!

Halsey's thinking is very clear, the fleet is the key, and what the fleet should do is to seize sea supremacy, without sea supremacy, then the ground forces will be trapped on the islands and will not be able to do anything. And the key to seizing sea supremacy is to defeat the enemy's fleet. Or to drive away the enemy's ground fleet. Therefore, naval warfare is the key, and if the naval battle is won, there will not be much of a problem in fighting on the island.

Halsey's views are understandable, and the centuries of history of maritime warfare have proved this, but MacArthur disagreed. The reason is very simple, he is a general of the 6th Army, although he has also studied naval warfare, but he is not a naval general after all. What's more. There is always a subordinate relationship between the fleet and the ground forces. According to Halsey's point of view, the fleet is the main and the ground forces are the auxiliary, but in MacArthur's eyes, it is completely reversed, the ground forces are the master, and the fleet is nothing more than a force that provides sea transportation for the ground forces and increases the artillery fire at sea.

The differences and contradictions between the two are extremely serious, and even intensified to the point of irreconcilability.

Aside from continuing to fight on the battlefield and continuing to deal with the enemy together, the two had little in common. But the contradictions between the two could not be concealed, and when a large number of warships were sent over, these contradictions all exploded.

What started out was a total explosion, with MacArthur insisting that Halsey leave the carrier in the Coral Sea to secure the route from Brisbane to Kuah Island, while supporting the defenders on Kuah Island with air force.

Perhaps, MacArthur's point of view is correct, after all, at this time, defending Kuah Island is the top priority, and if Kuah Island is lost, the entire Solomon Islands will be finished, and the next will be the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and even Australia's Big 6. Strategically speaking, MacArthur could not afford to lose Kuah Island, and even the entire United States could not afford this defeat.

However, Halsey insisted that only the 32nd Task Force, that is, the fleet consisting of six battleships, escort the fast transport fleet to Kuah Island at night, looking for an opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Tang Empire's Third Task Force, and arrange for fighters on nearby islands to cover the retreat of the 32nd Task Force during the day, and then go north at night. In this way, it is enough to ensure the sea route to Kuah Island, and it is also enough to ensure that the transport fleet will send troops and supplies to Kuah Island. The 31st Task Force, that is, a fleet consisting of two fleet aircraft carriers and three small aircraft carriers, will go to destroy the Tang Empire's Fourth Task Force and the First Task Force that has already rushed over, laying the foundation for the eventual seizure of sea supremacy. Perhaps Halsey's point of view is also correct, after all, the key to seizing sea supremacy is not in the Third Task Force, but in whether it can annihilate the Tang Empire's aircraft carrier task force.

The differences between the two were almost irreconcilable, and to put it bluntly, this was mainly MacArthur's fault. Halsey had promised that the reinforcements of the 6th Army and the war materiel would be safely delivered to Kuah Island, and Task Force 32 was capable of accomplishing this task, and in fact, MacArthur needed to ensure that this was exactly what he needed to do at that time. Halsey had only used his remaining forces to extend the gains after making sure MacArthur's demands were met, and placing five aircraft carriers in the Coral Sea would have done little to no avail.

After some quarrel between the two, MacArthur had to give in, to be precise, no longer making excessive demands. Halsey had made a guarantee, and he knew that Task Force 32 was capable of completing the mission. Of course, Halsey is the commander of the Third Fleet, and the naval battle is commanded by Halsey, which is something that MacArthur has already determined when he was the commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater, and he is only responsible for commanding ground operations and the coordination of the two armies of the Navy and the 6th Army, but not for fleet operations.

When he calmed down, MacArthur laughed. In fact, he knew very well that if he could send the most important batch of ammunition and materials to Kuah Island, and send another batch of troops to Kuah Island, then it would be possible to hold out on Kuah Island for a few months, and even defeat the Tang Empire's Deng 6 troops.

And if Halsey can really defeat the aircraft carrier fleet of the Tang Empire, then the future situation will be more favorable to him, using sea supremacy, not to mention Kuah Island, maybe within a few months, the Tang army can be completely driven out of the southwest Pacific region.

MacArthur's calculations were very fine, and when it came to scheming, Halsey couldn't catch up with him. After some bickering, MacArthur gets what he needs, while Halsey makes a pointless promise. If he wins, it is also the honor of the theater commander, and if he loses, then Halsey is responsible for it. Obviously, at this point, Halsey did not count MacArthur and was put on a side by MacArthur.