When he was recuperating in Beidaihe, Lei Shaoqing had been paying attention to the situation on the front-line battlefield, when he was able to stand up, and with the help of rehabilitation physicians, he carried out restorative exercises every day, and his body got better day by day. And Tan Renhao returned to Zhoushan at this time, Lei Shaoqing did not call Tan Renhao, he knew that Tan Renhao would not be too easy in Zhoushan, and he also wanted to surprise Tan Renhao after returning to Zhoushan.

At the end of January, Lei Shaoqing's body had basically recovered, and if it weren't for the doctor's request for him to stay in the hospital for a few more days of observation and do some necessary examinations, he would have returned to Zhoushan at this time. Subsequently, the personnel order signed by Gan Yongxing was sent to Beidaihe, and Lei Shaoqing was transferred to the Navy Command and waited for the next arrangement. After completing all the physical examinations and the doctor confirmed that Lei Shaoqing had fully recovered, he took a plane back to Zhoushan in early October, not long after Tan Renhao left the Zhoushan Naval Headquarters and rushed to the Lion City first.

On the day he reported to Gan Yongxing, Lei Shaoqing went to Tan's house with gifts to visit Tan Renhao's parents and wife, and thanked Uncle Tan Jingkang for his help. After seeing "Xiaobao", Lei Shaoqing was also very happy, and no matter how he said it, he had to be the child's godfather, Liao Yingyu agreed, but he had to wait for Tan Renhao to come back before he could decide. At that time, Lei Shaoqing did not have his own villa in the Navy Headquarters, so he refused Tan Jingkang's retention and went back to the hotel to live. He was already very familiar with the naval command, but he was very unfamiliar with his future.

From the next day, Lei Shaoqing returned to the naval headquarters, and Gan Yongxing arranged a temporary office for him, next door to Tan Renhao's office, although it was a little smaller, but the location was also very important, which at least showed that Gan Yongxing attached great importance to this returning lieutenant general. Those who can work on the same floor as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and the Chief of the General Staff are the most important people in the Naval Command. In the afternoon of the same day, after Lei Shaoqing tidied up his office, Gan Yongxing sent someone to call him over.

"You're happy with your new place, aren't you?" Gan Yongxing smiled and invited Lei Shaoqing into the office, and then walked to the side of the cupboard: "I have tea, coffee, and some new weird drinks, Coke, do you want it?" ”

"Chief of Staff, you're too polite."

"Then drink some tea, I gave all those cokes to the staff officers, and the young people like to drink that weird thing." Gan Yongxing made tea. "You smoke, don't you? There is one on the table. Just take it yourself, Tan Renhao, that kid, I don't know what kind of wind he had, he actually quit smoking, I thought he was just five minutes of enthusiasm. Unexpectedly, he really quit smoking. You say, this big man, what's wrong with smoking? Sa Laodu is over 80 years old, he still smokes, and his health is very good, I heard that he still goes fishing every day! ”

Lei Shaoqing smiled and picked up the cigarette, he thought about quitting smoking when he was in the hospital, and he had insisted on it for a while, but this time he returned to the naval headquarters, he would hand him cigarettes to any acquaintance he met, in order not to embarrass others, Lei Shaoqing had to "return to his old business", and his addiction to smoking was obviously more than before.

"Originally, I should have talked to you in the morning, but there were too many things to do at that time, and I couldn't keep busy." Gan Yongxing walked over with a teacup, "I called the hospital, now that you have recovered, what are your plans for your future?" ”

Lei Shaoqing was silent, he had long known that Hao Dongjue had gone to the Second Task Force, and brought Wei Dongbei of the First Task Force over to be his chief of staff, Lei Shaoqing also knew that he would not be able to return to the Second Task Force.

Lei Shaoqing did not have any opinion on the arrangement for Hao Dongjue to be appointed commander of the Second Task Force and Wei Dongbei to be appointed chief of staff of the Second Task Force. Hao Dongjue is his brother, and in terms of aviation combat command, Hao Dongjue can be said to be the first person in the Imperial Navy, and even Huang Xiaotian is a cut below him, in addition to his immature personality, Hao Dongjue has enough ability to serve as the commander of the second task force after training with Tan Renhao for several years. And Wei Dongbei is also a "veteran" in the First Task Force, when Lei Shaoqing served as the chief of staff of the First Task Force, Wei Dongbei was still the captain of a destroyer, and then he was promoted to the captain of a cruiser, and his performance can be said to be very good. Lei Shaoqing also knows a little about Wei Dongbei, and there is no doubt about his command ability in navigation and artillery, of course, Wei Dongdong's temper is also a little weird. The duo of these two should be considered a good combination.

Before coming back, Lei Shaoqing was thinking about this problem, and now he can't go back to the second task force, so where is the right place to go? He didn't know that his physical condition was no longer suitable for serving in the fleet, so when thinking about his future destination, Lei Shaoqing's first thought was to go to the fleet.

"Chief of Staff ......"

"I have a document here, you can take a look at it first." Gan Yongxing didn't seem to hear Lei Shaoqing's words, he went to get a document. "Originally, we planned to let Tan Renhao be in charge of this task, but now that he has gone to the Indian Ocean, and Chang Jianxin has also followed, the situation over there is very complicated, and for a while, I am afraid that the first task force and the third task force will not be able to come back, so we need to arrange another person to carry out this mission."

"What task?" Lei Shaoqing had already frowned when he took the document.

"Look, you take a look first." Gan Yongxing shrugged his shoulders and motioned for Lei Shaoqing to take a look at the contents of the document first.

Lei Shaoqing flipped through the file, and after seeing several key titles on the catalog, he immediately reacted, this is the battle plan for attacking the Australian mainland, and it is the battle plan of the fleet, and then he quickly turned to the last page, and it was "Tan Renhao" on it. Obviously, this was a fleet battle plan formulated by Tan Renhao to attack the Australian mainland. And Gan Yongxing's meaning is to let Tan Renhao be responsible for commanding the fleet to fight, and now, Tan Renhao has gone to the Indian Ocean, so naturally another person is needed to be responsible for this task.

"Originally, according to the principal's intentions, it is very likely that General Weng Yiming will be responsible for commanding the fleet this time, after all, General Weng Yiming is highly respected, has a good popularity in the navy, and his qualifications are enough to undertake this task." When Lei Shaoqing raised his head, Gan Yongxing looked at him. "However, General Weng Yiming's injuries have not yet stabilized. And the principal talked to him once. Presumably, after he recovers, he will return to the South Atlantic theater again. By then, I'm afraid that Tan Renhao and Chang Jianxin will have already returned to the South Atlantic, so we need another person to serve as the commander of the theater fleet. ”

"Isn't Jiang Zhongmin good?" Lei Shaoqing has a number in his heart. This position seems high, but in fact there is not much real power.

"Jiang Zhongmin is still in Colombo, in charge of the aftermath over there, I heard that Tan Renhao has contacted him, and in the next counterattack, he will be responsible for providing support for the first task force and the third task force, so he can't return to the Pacific Ocean for the time being." Gan Yongxing also knew what Lei Shaoqing was thinking, he paused slightly, and then said: "There is another point, Jiang Zhongmin is not suitable to serve as the commander of the theater fleet on this side of the Pacific, you should know very well what the specific reason is." ”

Lei Shaoqing sighed secretly. The reason Gan Yongxing said was very clear to him. The commanders of the two main task forces now operating in the Pacific Ocean are Hao Dongjue and Huang Xiaotian, while the commanders of the two theaters are Liao Hanxiang and Yan Guozhong. Among these four people, in addition to Yan Guozhong and Tan Renhao have no direct relationship, the other three, one is Tan Renhao's father-in-law, one is Tan Renhao's brother-in-law, and the other is Tan Renhao's old subordinate, all three of them have a close relationship with Tan Renhao, even Yan Guozhong has cooperated with Tan Renhao for many years, and the two can be said to be friends who have forgotten their years. Because of this relationship, even if Jiang Zhongmin is transferred back to serve as the commander of the theater fleet, not only will the commanders of the task forces below not be happy to obey his command, but even the commanders of the theater will not have much affection for him, which makes it clear that he is coming back to steal Renhao's job.

On the contrary, it is not a big problem for Lei Shaoqing to be the commander of the theater fleet, Lei Shaoqing is Tan Renhao's iron buddy, and he is also Hao Dongjue's brother, Huang Xiaotian's old superior, and Liao Hanxiang has cooperated for several years, and the relationship is very good, although the relationship with Yan Guozhong is not close, but there are other three layers of relationship, Yan Guozhong will not embarrass Lei Shaoqing. In other words, Lei Shaoqing is more suitable to be the commander of the theater fleet.

If you let others go, you may think that this is a good errand, but in Lei Shaoqing's opinion, this is simply a cold bench, how much real power does the commander of the theater fleet have? In addition, there had never been such a position before, except that during the battle, the commander of a certain task force temporarily served as the commander-in-chief, and the commander of the other task forces was under his command. And now that this new position has been established, not to mention the matter of cooperation with the task force, what is the relationship with the commander of the theater of operations? The status of Yan Guozhong and Liao Hanxiang is something that no one can shake, so the biggest possibility is that the commander of the theater fleet is just another chief of staff of the theater commander, and he is only the chief of staff who is only responsible for the operation of the fleet.

"Think about it." Gan Yongxing also saw Lei Shaoqing's embarrassment, "The principal hasn't arranged the specific things yet, after all, we need someone to be responsible for commanding the many fleets in the theater and coordinating the coordination between the fleet and other combat units." The combat operation that landed in Australia will be the largest multi-service coordinated combat operation in the Pacific, and judging from the scale of the number of troops participating in the battle, this may be regarded as the largest cross-sea landing operation in the entire war. The actions of the fleet are important and critical. Of course, we don't mean to force you to take the position, you think about it yourself, and then we'll talk about it in detail. ”

"Chief of Staff, I don't have anything to think about." Lei Shaoqing smiled reluctantly, "This time I was able to recover and be discharged from the hospital and return to the navy to continue to serve, which is already my greatest honor." Since someone has to be the commander of the theater fleet, and there is no one more suitable than me, then I accept this arrangement. ”

Gan Yongxing nodded slightly, his gaze stayed on Lei Shaoqing for a few seconds, and said: "Okay, then I will convey your meaning to the principal, you take a little more time to understand the situation in the Southwest Pacific Theater, in addition, contact Yan Guozhong, Huang Xiaotian, Hao Dongjue, and in a few days, after the official personnel appointment letter comes down, we will discuss specific issues." ”

Lei Shaoqing didn't say anything more, and after saying goodbye to Gan Yongxing, he left Gan Yongxing's office.

In the following days, Lei Shaoqing spent most of his time reading materials, and he spent several months in the hospital, during which he could only learn about external information, especially the situation on the front line, through some public or semi-public (mainly referring to reference information circulating within the army) channels. And those war situations that were publicly released by the Imperial Government were polished by the Propaganda Department, and the content was certainly not exactly the same as the actual situation. Most of the news circulating within the armed forces is also political, mainly to boost morale and stabilize the morale of the military. And now, after Lei Shaoqing got Gan Yongxing's authorization, he has access to a large number of confidential and top-secret documents, and these documents record the real battle situation.

The fighting in the southwest Pacific is still raging, and the US military has not given up resistance, nor has it lost hope, and it has been replenished many times in a row. After returning to the Southwest Pacific Theater, Yan Guozhong immediately adjusted his offensive arrangements in the Southwest Pacific, leaving behind several secondary targets, and directly pointing his troops at Port Vila and Noumea, striving to lay down these two important ports in March, complete the combat operation of encircling the Australian mainland, and lay the foundation for the eventual landing in Australia.

A few days later, when Lei Shaoqing had a general understanding of the war situation in the Southwest Pacific, the official personnel appointment letter and promotion order were signed by the principal himself. At the same time that Lei Shaoqing was officially appointed as the commander of the Southwest Pacific Seesaw Fleet, he was also promoted to a first-class lieutenant general, that is, the same military rank as Tan Renhao, and at that time, Hao Dongjue and Huang Xiaotian were only second-class lieutenant generals, so Lei Shaoqing's military rank was one-third higher than the two, which was of great benefit in the future command.

After getting the official personnel appointment letter, Lei Shaoqing immediately rushed to Lae City to report to Yan Guozhong, and from then on began his combat operations in the southwest Pacific.