When Tan Renhao rushed out of the command cabin, the buzzing sound above his head was already far away.

The roar of the plane's engine was a bit dull in the wind, but it was a reconnaissance plane, and it was flying above the clouds.

"There were three reconnaissance planes flying over our heads, all above the clouds, and we were not visible!" Hao Dongjue came out two minutes late, "It's really *** lucky, don't US pilots dare to fly at low altitude at night?" ”

Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, and then laughed. "Can you tell which direction these planes are coming?"

"Between 13o and 15o, you can only make a rough judgment, and there is no way to accurately determine the direction in which it is coming."

Tan Renhao glanced at his watch. "It's five fifty-five, let's take off our reconnaissance planes, all in this direction, remember, all under the clouds. If Halsey had sent out a reconnaissance plane at half past five, then he would have been very close to us, and perhaps our reconnaissance plane would have reached the skies over Task Force 31 before dawn, so you would have to adjust the degree of the reconnaissance plane. ”

"Then it's better to delay the take-off of the reconnaissance plane for five minutes."

Tan Renhao was stunned for a moment, and immediately nodded, Hao Dongjue's method was more realistic, after all, the pilots of the reconnaissance plane had already boarded the plane, and now it would take more time to modify the reconnaissance mission.

The first reconnaissance plane left the flight deck of the "Xingkai Lake" at six o'clock sharp. Hao Dongjue arranged for 1o reconnaissance planes, each of which was responsible for reconnaissance work within 3 degrees, so that it could cover the range between 125 degrees and 155 degrees in the southeast, which was more than the direction in which the US reconnaissance planes arrived, and the 31st Task Force changed course in the north and south after releasing the reconnaissance planes, and these reconnaissance planes still had a great possibility of finding the 31st Task Force.

Different from Halsey's arrangement, in order to accurately find the 31st Task Force, Hao Dongjue dispatched a group of the most experienced pilots to carry out reconnaissance missions.

There was only one reason why the US reconnaissance plane did not dare to descend below the clouds at night, and the lowest height of the clouds at that time was only about 5oo meters. And before dawn, the sea is pitch black, and the plane flies very well at an altitude of 5oo meters. Pilots can only fly on the altimeter. And at an altitude of several hundred meters, especially when the meteorological conditions are bad, the barometric altimeter is not completely accurate, and it is easy to have serious deviations, which makes it easy for the pilot to drive the plane directly into the sea. Therefore, the US military pilots were on their way to the sea area of the scheduled search.

They all fly above the clouds, at least there are more than a thousand meters of clouds below them, so they won't fall into the sea because of this.

Hao Dongjue's arrangement is much bolder. The pilots of the 10 "Shooting Waterfowl" reconnaissance planes all had flight hours of 2o different hours, and all of them were veterans who had participated in many naval battles. Although in ordinary combat, the "waterfowl" rarely fly at low altitudes, these veteran pilots are experienced enough to know how to advance in the dark at an altitude of several hundred meters without navigational conditions. Of course, for the sake of insurance, these pilots did not fly with the maximum cruising degree, but controlled the degree at about 18o knots. In order to avoid accidents due to carelessness.

The last reconnaissance aircraft left the aircraft carrier at six o'clock and 05 o'clock. Soon, the plane's ground navigation lights disappeared from the darkness. Tan Renhao returned to the command cabin at this time, and the staff officer was busy arranging preparations for the bomber's takeoff. Aircraft carriers are also turning. to get back into the escort formation.

At this time, Tan Renhao was already sure that Halsey's formation was 1oo nautical miles away in his southeast direction. The Halsey side let the reconnaissance planes out at half past five at most, and the maximum degree of the US reconnaissance planes was calculated in the sky over the 2 First Task Force, and these planes were indeed flying at about 2oo knots. Well, Halsey's fleet won't be more than 1oo nautical miles away from Task Force 1!

It's just too close. The reconnaissance planes sent out would be able to locate Task Force 31 at around 6:40 a.m. at the latest. Thinking of this, Tan Renhao now forgot one thing. He immediately sent someone to call the communications staff officer.

"Commander, telegraph now?" The communications staff officers were surprised that they had not yet yet launched the 31st Task Force. At this time, a telegram was issued, and the position of the fleet was undoubtedly revealed.

"Yes, contact the Fourth Task Force immediately and let them ......" Tan Renhao looked at the map for a while, "Let them get close to the sea area where the enemy fleet is most likely to exist as soon as possible, and arrange for the bombers to take off as soon as possible, and we will give them the exact location of the enemy fleet between 6:40." ”

"But ......"

"Don't worry, even if the U.S. military listening radio receives our radio waves, it will take time to gauge our location. It took more time to get the news to Task Force 31, and by the time Halsey received the telegram, our bombers had already taken off. ”

The communications staff officer nodded, and immediately went to prepare the telegram. At this time, Hao Dongjue ran in, and when he saw the communications staff officer going to start the radio, he immediately stopped him, and then walked towards Tan Renhao. "Why expose the position of the fleet at this time?"

"Dude, I've already explained it once." Tan Renhao shook his head with a smile, and then motioned to the communications staff officer to telegraph, and at the same time called Hao Dongjue aside, "It takes a certain amount of time for the US military's command system to respond, according to our standards, half an hour is definitely needed, and after half an hour, our reconnaissance plane must have seen Halsey, and our bomber has also been on the road." When the time comes, we will also get a telegram, and Halsey will roughly calculate the sea area where we are based on the time of the arrival of our reconnaissance plane, and our approximate position will definitely be exposed, and Halsey will not hesitate to arrange for the bomber to take off first, so why don't we seize this half hour? ”

"What if our reconnaissance aircraft does not find the target?"

"That only proves that Halsey is farther away from us!" Tan Renhao glanced at his partner, "At 6:40, if you haven't received a report from the reconnaissance plane, then immediately contact those reconnaissance planes and ask them to continue searching in the southeast direction, and even if Halsey arranges for the bombers to take off in half an hour, these bombers will need more time to reach the top of our heads!"

Now, most critically. We don't know where the Fourth Task Force is, and if the Fourth Task Force can't participate in this combat operation, then even if we attack first, we won't be able to completely defeat Halsey! ”

Hao Dongjue hesitated slightly, then nodded slightly. "Then, what we can count on now is that Huang Xiaotian and them don't stay too far away, otherwise. By the time Task Force 4 arrived, Halsey had already killed us, and even reclaimed the bombers, leaving Task Force 4 alone with the enemy's formidable fleet. ”

"Hopefully they got the news an hour ago!" Tan Renhao sighed secretly, if that destroyer had found the Fourth Task Force, then an hour ago, the Fourth Task Force should have followed them south. "Get the bombers ready as soon as possible, this time, let the two bomber squadrons go out together, and all the fighters will be sent out."

"No air defense fighters?"

"Nope. None of them were left! Tan Renhao glanced at his partner. We have only 3o more fighters, while the opponent has at least two fleet carriers with dozens of fighters. It is entirely possible that Halsey will leave half of its fighters on air defense missions, and if we reduce the number of escort fighters, it will be difficult for the bomber group to achieve good results. If we really want to fight, one for two, we don't have anything that is not cost-effective! ”

"Then, we have to transfer to the 'Li Jing' later, I don't want to wait here to be bombed!"

Tan Renhao smiled and shook his head, and asked Hao Dongjue to arrange the bombing mission. He didn't think about moving to the cruiser as soon as possible, after all, the "Xingkai Lake" was his flagship, and Halsey could not organize a bomber group in time. That's still a problem.

Five minutes later, the telegram was sent out, and the time when Task Force 4 received the telegram was 6:13.

When Huang Xiaotian and Jiang Zhongmin saw the telegram, they were both surprised, they never thought that the First Task Force had gone so far, and Tan Renhao also directly estimated that the First Task Force in Harsidi was within 1oo nautical miles to the southeast.

"Damn, they're running too far!" Huang Xiaotian looked anxious, "We are at least 18o nautical miles away from the First Task Force. If Halsey was talking about the waters that the Admiral had anticipated, then we were 27o nautical miles from Task Force 31! ”

"At least, we don't need to arrange reconnaissance planes!" Jiang Zhongmin was also very anxious, but he didn't show it, "Those reconnaissance planes can be used all, and we can arrange two groups of bombers." ”

Huang Xiaotian nodded slightly, and at the same time forced himself to calm down. "The problem now is that if we continue on this course, we simply won't be able to get the bombers ready for takeoff before 6:40."

"Then let the course deviate to the south 2 and the first bombers are ready for takeoff. And the second batch of bombers will only be able to come out after seven o'clock. ”

Huang Xiaotian hesitated for a moment and said: "Adjust the course of the fleet to 175 degrees, move forward, get out of the storm area as soon as possible, and let the bomber group start to take off at 6:30." If a telegram from Task Force 1 is received before 6:40 a.m., we will inform the bomber group of the exact course of the flight. ”

Jiang Zhongmin did not put forward any opinions, Huang Xiaotian is an expert in aviation operations, and this is also the best way. Of course, the two did not know that the fleet was sailing south at this time, and in fact it collided directly with the flight path of the first batch of reconnaissance planes arranged by Halsey, and these reconnaissance planes probably reached the sky over the Fourth Task Force around dawn, and it was only a matter of time before the Fourth Task Force was exposed.

Halsey on the Valiant wasn't so nervous. At 6:05 a.m., he received news from the "Blaurowwood" that the small aircraft carrier had reached the sea area about 5o nautical miles southeast of the fleet's aircraft carrier formation, and after 6 o'clock, 16 sBd on reconnaissance missions were scheduled to take off.

Although Halsey felt no longer necessary to send a reconnaissance plane to the "Blauwwood", he did not modify his previous order. First, if the telegram was issued, the position of the fleet would be exposed, and second, the pilots on the "Belauwood" were all new and incompetent, and the reliability rate of carrying out bombing missions was not high. There are more than 12o bombers on the two fleet aircraft carriers commanded by Halsey, and as long as the aircraft carrier task force of the Tang Empire exists, he is confident enough to use these 12o bombers piloted by veteran pilots to kill the other party's three aircraft carriers.

In fact, by this point, Halsey had made a mistake that he wasn't even aware of. He had always believed that the two task forces of the Tang Empire were acting together, not separately.

If Halsey had been in command of the two task forces, he would have brought the three aircraft carriers together. In this way, if the enemy is present, the three aircraft carriers can immediately dispatch bombers to deliver a fatal strike, and if the three aircraft carriers are together, the escort force will be much stronger, which is more conducive to protecting the safety of the aircraft carrier.

Halsey ignored the fact that the Tang Imperial Navy did not lack escort warships, and all three aircraft carrier battle groups had enough escort warships. If the other three aircraft carriers are grouped together, the probability of being found will also increase. Of course, Halsey did not understand the establishment of the Tang Imperial Navy's fleet, although Tan Renhao was the commander-in-chief of the two task forces, but he could directly command only the first task force, and the fourth task force was commanded by Huang Xiaotian. Therefore, Tan Renhao had no reason to let Huang Xiaotian act with him.

It was this miscalculation that led Halsey to believe that the three aircraft carriers should be together, not separate. Therefore, when Halsey arranged the reconnaissance plane, he did not think of looking for an additional fleet. Perhaps this is not an obvious mistake in the eyes of many people, but in fact, Halsey's misjudgment will cause him a lot of problems in this fight.

At 6:20 a.m., the reconnaissance plane that had taken off from the "Blaurowwood" was almost overhead of Halsey and headed northwest. 18 sBd reconnaissance aircraft are responsible for searching in a sector of 36 degrees, each of which is responsible for reconnaissance work in a direction of 2 degrees, and its reconnaissance density is not small.