At 10:05 a.m., Task Force 3 reached 25 nautical miles southwest of Anatahan Island, at 15°42' N, 145°8' E. After receiving that Task Force 2 was sailing southwest at a speed of 18 knots 40 nautical miles to the east, a seaplane taking off from Aramagan Island crossed the fleet and staggered south. It was one of the night reconnaissance planes sent by HNA's maritime patrol aircraft force, which was stationed at anchorage, not at the airport. In order to act as the eyes and ears of the Third Task Force, HNA sent a total of more than 30 such seaplanes to find the "Z Fleet" "The fleet is ready to turn around, with a light signal!" ”

Yan Shiqi walked into the commander's bridge, "New course 235, are all warships ready for battle?" ”

"The fleet is ready to turn to ......"

While the navigating officer shouted, the chief of staff of the fleet answered the commander's question. "The order was conveyed three hours ago, the ships are ready for battle, and the situation is normal."

"Very well, when will the enemy fleet arrive?"

Yan Shiqi said as she put on white gloves.

"About an hour later!"

"Well, we have to take advantage of it first."

Yan Shiqi walked to the chart table, looked at it for a while, and said, "The radar will be turned on in twenty minutes, and then contact the Second Task Force, the HNA and the Marine Corps to get the latest news." ”

The Chief of Staff nodded, and immediately looked over to the staff officer in charge of search and intelligence.

On the charts, staff officers have marked the places where the American fleet has been discovered several times, as well as the route, speed and other parameters. Yan Shiqi would not do these things on his own, and like those old-school generals, he was extremely strict with his staff officers, and any slight mistake would be severely criticized and punished.

The first northern discovery of the American fleet was in the northwest of Saipan, in the direction of 340 and at a speed of 21 knots. This should be the maximum speed of the fleet. The second time the north was discovered, it was already two hours later. The position shifted about 40 nautical miles north, and the third time around 8 o'clock, the position moved another 20 nautical miles north. That is, the average maximum speed of the American fleet is likely to be 20 to 21 knots. In addition to the speed that did not change much, the course of the fleet did not change much either. It has been sailing slightly westward north with little change. But this is not the most important intelligence.

Among all the information, Yan Shiqi values the most the part of the scale of the "Z Fleet". All three groups of reconnaissance planes sent back information on the size of the US fleet, and the intelligence officers of the HNA also analyzed the three pieces of information. A more reliable synthesis report was produced. This report was placed on the chart table ten minutes before Yan Shiqi walked into the bridge of the commander's ship.

The size of the "Z fleet" was really not small, eight battleships of four models, at least twelve cruisers, and more than a dozen destroyers. Whether it is in the number of capital ships, the number of main guns, or the number of battleships, the advantage of the "Z fleet" is not small. Yan Shiqi was not afraid, the enemy was very strong, but it was by no means the opponent of the Third Task Force. The reason is simple, those eight battleships are all old old ships. And the third task force was in the six battleships. The two "Dignity" class are the most formidable treaty-type battleships, while the four "Canton" class are now the most powerful battleships in the world. Six new and eight old, Yan Shiqi is absolutely sure that he will kill the "Z Fleet" soon. Yan Shiqi was attracted by a piece of information on the subpage behind the intelligence, he thought for a while, and called the chief of staff over: "This information was just sent?" ”

"It shouldn't be, it seems that more than ten days ago, before we returned to the anchorage of Iwo Jima, I received similar information, let me see ......"

Yan Shiqi frowned slightly, and his expression was not angry and arrogant.

"Yes, it was just delivered, with today's date marker on it."

Although the chief of staff, Brigadier General Gu Yongyun, has been working with Yan Shiqi for more than ten years, he is still a little afraid of this partner. "It's a reinforced message. It seems that this is important! ”

"Of course it's important!"

Yan Shiqi glared at the chief of staff, "We have already experimented, radar is the key to improving the ability of night artillery warfare, the US fleet has only two radars, and the battleships that have been installed with radars have been determined, don't you say it matters?" ”

"Lao Yan, we have noticed this for a long time, and the plan has been written, everyone knows it......"

"I know. A little excited at first. ”

Yan Shiqi let out a sigh, pondered for a while, and said, "Is there any way to judge the location of these two warships?" ”

Gu Yongyun tightened his eyebrows, thought for a while, and then shook his head. "Unless we get closer, and then use searchlights, and if we don't use searchlights, we have to get closer, otherwise we won't be able to identify these ships at all!"

Yan Shiqi walked back and forth in the cabin a few times, and then rushed to the chart table with an arrow step, picked up the information with aerial photos on it, looked at it for a while, and then sighed regretfully.

"I began to look at them carefully, and although the photos are very clear, the order of the battleships in the American fleet has changed in all three sets of photos, so I can't be completely sure of the exact location of a certain battleship."

Gu knew what his partner was looking for.

"The commander of the American fleet or Kimmel?"

Yan Shiqi also had a bit of a headache, if they could knock out the enemy's radar, then they would win half of this artillery battle.

"Yes, there are no substitutions, it's still Admiral Kimmel."

"An old stubborn!"

Yan Shiqi sneered, "You should have read his information, right?" ”

Gu Yongyun nodded, Kimmel can be regarded as a famous general of the US Navy, and his information Imperial Navy Intelligence Department has several sets, which is very complete.

"If you were Kimmmel, how would you command this battle?"

"This ......"

Gu Yongyun thought about it, "The only advantage of the 'Z fleet' is the number, the number of warships, and the number of main guns. In fact, we have a greater advantage in terms of ammunition delivery capabilities, as well as the range and power of the main gun. If I were Kimmel, the only hope would be melee! ”

"But we have an advantage in speed!"

Yan Shiqi and the chief of staff are doing a verbal war game.

"If I can get 10 nautical miles, or even 8 nautical miles, unless you risk losing the vantage point of the 'Ding' prefix, you will have to fight to the end!"

"I can run!"

Yan Shiqi laughed, he and his partner were both experts in artillery warfare.

"Then you don't protect the landing field in the back?"

Gu Yongyun also laughed.

"I can withdraw and take a new position in the west."

Yan Shiqi walked to the chart table and replaced the fleet with a scale. "If the 'Z Fleet' goes north to shell the landing grounds, then its vulnerable left flank will be exposed under my guns, and the closer the distance, the better it will be for us!"

"I can also concentrate my forces, eight ships against six, at such a close distance, the power of the main gun is enough to penetrate the opponent's armor!"

Yan Shiqi nodded slightly. After pondering for a while, he said: "It seems that we can only keep our distance as much as possible and use long-range combat to kill the 'Z Fleet'!" ”

Gu Yongyun nodded. "Our main guns can easily tear through the main armor of the eight American battleships at a distance of 12 nautical miles, and their main guns threaten us at a maximum distance of 8 nautical miles. If we can grasp the distance of four nautical miles, then victory is very certain! ”

"Then we must let the fleet move south, otherwise, we won't have much room to retreat!"

Yan Shiqi drew a line on the chart table, "There should be at least 20 nautical miles of space behind us, even if it will take us an extra hour when we withdraw from the battle." But it's definitely worth it! ”

"Then we'll have to hurry!"

Yan Shiqi nodded. Gu Yongyun immediately went to give the order for the fleet to go south at full speed.

The fleet headed south at full speed, and fifteen minutes later turned on the radar, and then made contact with the cooperating forces. Task Force 2 was also heading south. Moreover, the reconnaissance planes of the HNA that are using radar to search for the "Z Fleet" have not yet sent back a message (the efficiency of night reconnaissance is very low) that the transport ships assembled at the landing site are being evacuated, and according to the plan, these landing ships and transport ships will return to Agrihan Island in the north at night, and send the marines and supplies there to Anatahan Island before dawn to strengthen the strength of the marines on the island. That is to say, when the "Z fleet" came, there were only some small ships left at the anchorage of the Anatahan Island landing ground, and there were no transport ships and landing ships at all!

After a 40-minute voyage south. The fleet turned again. Six battleships, as well as radars on eight heavy cruisers (which had not yet been installed on the destroyers of the Tang Empire at that time) searched the sea, looking for traces of the "Z fleet". The radar of Task Force 2 is doing the same. Because the "Z Fleet" was last spotted two hours ago, it is still more than 90 nautical miles to the south. It is possible that the "Z fleet" will turn around, either to the northwest, to the northeast, or directly to the north. The width of the coverage of the 3rd Task Force was not enough to completely block the "Z Fleet", so the 2nd Task Force would participate in the search operation. It's just a search. No one would have had much hope for the cruisers of the 2nd Task Force.

"No news of the enemy yet?"

Yan Shiqi said while looking at the navigation clock above his head, it was already 10:55, it stands to reason that now the "Z fleet" should have arrived in this sea area, even if the speed slows down, it should be very close, it has long entered the detection range of the radar, but now the radar still has not captured the target!

Gu Yongyun shook his head and said, "I'll contact the other warships again, maybe ......"

"There's no need, if other warships find something, they will report back to us immediately."

Yan Shiqi walked to the porthole in front, "I don't believe that the 'Z Fleet' can escape from the net we have sown!" ”

Both of them laughed, now the distance between the two fleets is about 35 nautical miles, counting the length of the fleet queue, as well as the radar coverage, from east to west, the range of 80 nautical miles is within the monitoring range of the fleet's radar. And if the U.S. fleet sails 40 nautical miles laterally within a distance of 90 nautical miles, it is a wide turn. This is obviously impossible. But the question is, why did the "Z Fleet" come for a long time, did it flee back halfway?

After laughing for a while, Yan Shiqi was suddenly startled. "Lao Gu, you say, could it be that the radar on the American battleship detected us first? And then they turned? ”

"This is impossible, the intelligence services have already assured that the American radar is at most equivalent to the level of our generation radar, and the detection distance of the sea will not exceed 20 nautical miles, while ours is 30 to 35 nautical miles!"

Gu Yongyun paused, "Moreover, even if Kimmel sees us first, then he should kill us now, he won't avoid the battle!" ”

Yan Shiqi tightened his eyebrows, and then nodded slightly. Now the Imperial Navy is already using the third generation radar, not to mention the applause rate has been reduced a lot, and the detection range has also increased a lot. If the first generation radar of the US Navy surpassed the third generation radar of the Imperial Navy, then the engineers who designed the radar were all dry food!

"Perhaps, they had a problem halfway through, so the speed was a lot slower!"

"Even if the 'Z Fleet' stopped moving when we discovered it for the third time, it would still be 70 nautical miles south of us, and it would swim over!"

Yan Shiqi shook his head, he walked slowly to the chart table, a staff officer was marking the latest information on the chart, when the staff officer marked the location of the second task force, Yan Shiqi was startled. "Task Force 2 went ahead of us?"

Gu Yongyun was also taken aback, and immediately walked over. "How did they get ahead of us? Send a telegram to Task Force 2 and tell them to turn around immediately! ”

The communications staff officer immediately ran out, and then back, with a telegram in his hand. "Commander, the second task force is in a hurry, they have just encountered the American fleet, and they are steadily retreating, asking us to ......"

Gu Yongyun snatched the telegram, and after reading it quickly, he gave the telegram to Yan Shiqi. "The 'Z Fleet' has appeared, but there has been no exchange of fire yet, and the second task force is steadily retreating, and will be spotted in about half an hour."

As soon as Yan Shiqi finished reading the telegram, he immediately laughed. "Chang Jianxin, this new neon, seems to know more about artillery warfare, and even knows how to lure the enemy over and create opportunities for us. Now, then, we must seize this opportunity, the fleet immediately turns, full speed ahead, it's time for us to appear! ”

The order was conveyed immediately, and the battle order was quickly transmitted. The U.S. fleet is finally here, the artillery battle that has been waiting for a month is about to begin, and the opportunity that Yan Shiqi has been waiting for for more than ten years is about to come!