While Huang Xiaotian was hesitating about the Fourth Task Force's actions, Spruance was summoned back to Pearl Harbor by a telegram. It can be said that the most difficult thing at this time was by no means Huang Xiaoda of the Fourth Task Force, but Nimitz and Spruance.

After the Fourth Task Force bombed Wake Island, Spruance adjusted the operations of the Fifth Fleet according to Nimitz's orders, and it can be said that Spruance was very reluctant to let the Fifth Fleet, which had not completed its training, go to the battlefield, but he could not disobey the order, so Spruance was extremely cautious when arranging the operations of the Fifth Fleet.

The biggest headache for Spruance was that when he decided on the Fifth Fleet's action, that is, on the 20th, he didn't even know who the opponent he was facing!

Spruance has complained more than once about the inefficiency of the intelligence services, and how can he fight the enemy if he doesn't even know who he is dealing with? It can be said that Spruance almost made this problem directly to Nimitz, and if the intelligence services could not provide the details of the Tang Empire's task force operating in the Central Pacific, he would not even be willing to lead the Fifth Fleet into battle.

Not to mention Spruance, even Nimitz is very angry. In early June, Nimitz reported intelligence problems to King. Because the Admiralty was not responsible for intelligence gathering, Admiral King could only guarantee that he would help Nimitz as much as possible, but could not give any clear guarantees. If it weren't for King's strenuously objections, Nimitz would have taken the matter to the president. Nimitz can only appease Spruance's complaints, he can't complain with Spruance, this is a major event that shakes the morale of the army.

Complaining is complaining, Spruance still has to bite the bullet. After receiving an order from Nimitz. He immediately consulted with Turner on a course of action, which was a worst-case scenario. That is, the bombing of Wake Island was the 1st Task Force, and it was personally commanded by Tan Renhao, and the purpose of its bombing of Wake Island was to force the Fifth Fleet to fight and finally defeat the Fifth Fleet. Spruance also thought about one thing, but he didn't explain to Turner, that is, Task Force 4 was also operating in the Central Pacific. And it's hidden somewhere near Wake Island. Waiting for the Fifth Fleet to go to the death. In other words, the Tang Imperial Navy used two task forces to deal with the Fifth Fleet, and the two task forces with the strongest combat effectiveness and the most complete organization were used to deal with the Fifth Fleet.

On this basis, Spruance arranged the actions of two task forces of the Fifth Fleet.

Escorting the convoy was Task Force 52 under the command of Turner. As Spruance requested. Task Force 52 will accompany the convoy to Wake Island. and keep a distance of 100 to 150 nautical miles from the convoy and stay behind the convoy as much as possible. And try to arrange reconnaissance planes to search the surrounding sea area.

This is actually Spruance's tentative signal, whether it is the transport fleet or the 52nd Task Force, in Spruance's view, this is to "send to death", and whether or not the opponent can be defeated depends on the actions of the 51st Task Force. Of course, Spruance made it clear to Turner that the fleet was not too far from Oahu. Jean Turner adjusted the structure of the fleet aviation.

By the standards of the U.S. Navy, a fleet aircraft carrier has a total of three groups and one independent squadron. Among them, the fighter group, the bomber group and the attack aircraft group (torpedo bombers) each had 36 fighters, as well as one reserve fighter. There is also an independent squadron of reconnaissance aircraft, which is generally equipped with 8 to 14 reconnaissance aircraft, and these reconnaissance aircraft converted from bombers can also carry out bombing missions. Therefore, an aircraft carrier can carry up to 86 bombers and 37 fighters, which is already the limit of the carrying capacity of the "Essex" class aircraft carrier, of which nearly 40 fighters have to be parked on the flight deck and cannot be stored in the hangar.

This was comparable to the standard equipment of the carrier-based aviation of the Tang Imperial Navy at that time, except that the Tang Imperial Navy generally did not equip aircraft, but would carry some spare parts on the aircraft carrier. Actual combat has also proved that this is the most reasonable way to match, and the two different bombers can be appropriately adjusted according to different operational requirements. For example, in combat operations that focus on carrying out ground bombing, torpedo bombers used to carry out horizontal bombing missions should be brought a little more, while the number of dive bombers can be appropriately reduced; if fighters have a strong ground strike capability, more fighters can also be deployed to reduce the number of bombers. And when carrying out naval operations, the number of dive bombers can be appropriately increased according to the air defense capabilities of the enemy fleet, or the number of fighters can be increased according to the needs of the mission.

This time, Spruance had Task Force 52 increase the number of fighters and reduce the number of torpedo bombers. Task Force 52 made adjustments on the 20th, each carrier carried two more squadrons (12 aircraft per squadron) of F6F fighters, and reduced the TBF of one squadron and the SB3C of one squadron. In addition, the SB3C of one squadron was replaced with an SBD of the reconnaissance model (at that time, it was still 03D that performed reconnaissance missions, and the SB3C of the reconnaissance model had not yet been supplied to combat units in large quantities). As a result, Task Force 52 had 72 more F6F fighters, and the bombers carried by it were enough to form a powerful attack wave, and after arranging enough fleet air defense fighters, there were enough fighters to escort the bomber group.

Spruance's intent in this arrangement is straightforward, that is, if Task Force 52 is hit suddenly, its first task is to keep the three fleet carriers and launch a counterattack if the opportunity arises. And he clearly told Turner that no matter what, if you keep the aircraft carrier, even if you escape, as long as you can keep the aircraft carrier, then you will have no fault. Turner was also quite aware of Spruance's arrangement, Task Force 52 was a shield, not a sword, and the 51st Task Force in Spruance's hands was the blade hidden behind the shield!

Task Force 51 was not adjusted, and more than 240 bombers were enough to form two powerful attack waves. If the Tang Empire's task force attacked the 52nd task force first, then two groups of bombers would be enough to send any task force to the bottom of the sea. Even if the Tang Empire's task force did not attack the 52nd task force first. Then the 52nd Task Force still has a batch of bombers, and three batches of bombing are enough to destroy any task force of the Tang Empire.

This is Spruance's arrangement, and the key to the whole deployment is not how many fighters Task Force 52 needs to carry, but where Task Force 51 should appear and how to design this trap. The bait has been released, so when the fish bites, will the fisherman who is guarding the side by alarm the fish that bites the hook, and whether the harpoon can accurately fork the target. That's the real key.

This is the most troublesome point of the entire deployment. Spruance spends a lot of time trying to figure out what to do with his opponent. Although he believes. The Tang Imperial Navy already knew about the transport fleet, even if it didn't know on the 20th, when the transport fleet left Pearl Harbor on the 22nd, the Tang Imperial submarines operating outside the port would also find the fleet. But Spruance didn't believe it at all. The fleet commander of the Imperial Navy of the Don would have believed that the American army would attack the Marshall Islands.

After much deliberation. Spruance was convinced that his judgment was not wrong. If the opponent is Tan Renhao, then the First Task Force will definitely not be easily fooled. The situation in the Central Pacific is too transparent. Moreover, the strategic intentions of both sides are quite clear, the Marshall Islands is just a piece of chicken ribs, and the strategic value of attacking the Marshall Islands is not great, which will also limit investment in other directions, and Tan Renhao will never easily fall into the trap. Even if he faced an unfamiliar opponent like Huang Xiaotian, Spruance didn't believe that Task Force 4 would be fooled. If Huang Xiaotian was so easily defeated, then in the southwest Pacific, the Fourth Task Force had already made a lot of mistakes, and the Tang Imperial Navy would never use an immature fleet to compete with the Fifth Fleet.

If the task force of the Tang Empire is not fooled. So what will they do? Again, this is a tricky question. As long as the opponent knows unequivocally, the final destination of the convoy is Wake Island. Moreover, if the direction of the U.S. army's counterattack is still Midway, then the Tang Empire's task force will have many opportunities to launch a sneak attack, and while attacking the transport fleet, it will definitely kill the 52nd task force.

This was the core part of Spruance's plan, taking advantage of the Tang Empire's task force to attack the 52nd task force, the 51st task force launched a counterattack and killed the Tang Empire's task force. If the Tang Imperial Navy had only deployed one task force in the Central Pacific, then as long as the attack of the 51st Task Force was successful, even if the 52nd Task Force was lost, the battle would still be won. But the question is, what if the Tang Imperial Navy deploys two task forces in the Central Pacific? Also, if the adversary is not fooled, then the actions of the Fifth Fleet will have to be redeployed.

After arranging the actions of Task Force 52, Spruance had Task Force 51 follow suit that night. Originally, during the training, the 52nd Task Force was to the west of the 51st Task Force, so when the 52nd Task Force was discovered by submarines, the 51st Task Force was still near Hawaii Island, about 200 nautical miles away from the 52nd Task Force, and at that time, Liao Hanxiang and others believed that the two task forces of the Fifth Fleet should be together and not too far away, so they would order all submarines to go to the central waters of the Hawaiian Islands to stand by and look for another task force. No one expected Task Force 51 to be to the east, and none of the submarines spotted Task Force 51, which was following Task Force 52.

According to Spruance's idea, after entering the theater of operations, the 51st Task Force and the 52nd Task Force would maintain a distance of 100 to 150 nautical miles, which was an appropriate distance for mutual support, and it was precisely within the scope of the newly equipped shortwave radio station, so that the two fleets could easily communicate with each other and coordinate operations. In order to avoid simultaneous attacks by both task forces, Task Force 51 should try to avoid the most dangerous areas of the southern seas, and instead operate to the north or northeast of Task Force 52. In this way, if the Tang Empire's task force appeared in the south, then the 52nd task force could sail north at full speed, and the 51st task force could attack the Tang Empire's task force after going south, and even if the returning bombers could not return to the 51st task force, they could still go to the 52nd task force to carry out activities. If the Tang Empire's task force appeared in the north, then both fleets would be able to meet the enemy at the same time and flank the opponent. If the Tang Empire's fleet was still active near Wake Island, it would have to be an evenly matched battle with the enemy, and as long as Task Force 52 attracted the opponent's bombers, then Task Force 51 would not be much of a threat.

Spruance's wishful thinking is still good, but he is not sure what will happen on the battlefield. Ever since he was beaten over by the 1st Task Force in the "Battle of Neck Island", Spruance felt that he was a little unable to keep up with Tan Renhao's speed, and if he really faced Tan Renhao this time, he was not much sure of winning.

On the evening of the 20th, a few hours after Task Force 52 was revealed, a telegram from Nimitz was sent to the aircraft carrier "Hancock". This telegram immediately "solved" many of Spruance's problems, and he left the fleet on a three-seat SB3C bomber and returned to Pearl Harbor.

The telegram has two main points, one is that the Tang Imperial Navy had attacked the Australian mainland a few hours earlier, and had successfully landed, and also captured Tali, and its landing force was rapidly advancing inland. Another major point is that the Tang Imperial Navy concentrated several powerful fleets, including the 1st Task Force, the 2nd Task Force, the 3rd Task Force, and the 5th Task Force, to support the landing operations.

Spruance valued this last point, and it was only then that he realized that he was not against Task Force 1, but Task Force 4, which did not appear in the Southwest Pacific theater. In other words, the opponent he feared the most did not appear in the Central Pacific, and this time he had to face an opponent who was unfamiliar but not far behind. Nimitz sent Spruance and Turner back to Pearl Harbor to renegotiate the Fifth Fleet's operations.