After the reconnaissance plane departed, Tan Renhao stayed in the command cabin, and he seemed a little restless, and the staff officers, including Zhu Rongzhe, knew that the commander was thinking about combat operations, so they did not bother him. Until Yang Qinkai's battle report came back, Tan Renhao's expression still hadn't changed much. Perhaps, for others, being able to take out the enemy's two task forces without losing an aircraft carrier is already a complete victory, but for Tan Renhao, he has not yet seen the signs of a complete victory, and all this is the 52nd task force that has never appeared, and the many things that have happened in the past few hours that he can hardly understand.

From the moment he intercepted the telegram of the US fleet, Tan Renhao felt that the US military's actions were too abnormal, and he even suspected that Spruance was not commanding the Fifth Fleet, or that Spruance had suddenly suffered a stroke, otherwise he would not have done such a stupid thing. When he received the reconnaissance report sent back by Shen Guangwei, Tan Renhao noticed many details that Hao Dongjue had not noticed. The most important of these is the location of Task Force 53.

On the night before, it was the flagship of Task Force 53 that sent a telegram, and according to Tan Renhao's understanding of Spruance, he believed that Spruance deliberately let Task Force 53 reveal its position and use Task Force 53 as a decoy to lure Tan Renhao to attack, and then the other two American fleets launched a surprise attack to defeat Tan Renhao. In Tan Renhao's eyes, this is the only reasonable explanation, and if the bait of Task Force 53 is to work and the ambush is successful, then the best way is to let Task Force 53 continue to sail in the direction of San Francisco, and the other two American fleets remain in the southwest direction. As long as Tan Renhao leads the fleet to catch up, then it is very likely that he will be the first to be discovered by the US reconnaissance planes and be attacked first, and in the end, even if Spruance is difficult to turn the tide of the war, he will at least be able to have an advantage at the tactical level.

When arranging the actions of the fleet, Tan Renhao made it on the basis of this assumption. Therefore. He sent the fleet to the northwest, rather than directly north. In this way, he will be able to avoid the trap set by the US military. In terms of arranging reconnaissance planes, Hao Dongjue also made this assumption on the basis of this assumption, so the reconnaissance planes of the Second Task Force and the First Task Force focused on searching the northwest and north. As a result, two U.S. task forces were found in the northwest of the fleet. But the problem is not so simple, if Task Force 53 is a decoy, then it should be Task Forces 51 and 52 that are found. But in the end, it was the 51st and 53rd task forces that were discovered!

This difference may not be noticed by many people, but Tan Renhao has noticed. Some people may think that Spruance temporarily changed the deployment and transferred Task Force 52 to use it as bait, but Tan Renhao doesn't think so, because Spruance is not the kind of person who will easily change after making arrangements, and since Task Force 53 has been exposed, there is no need to let Task Force 52 be a bait.

When arranging the departure of Ansle's fleet, Tan Renhao seized the time to calculate, and this time, he found a new problem. That is, the sea area where the US fleet appeared was different from what he had speculated.

If it's a trap. Then Spruance will deploy the ambushed fleet first, and then let Task Force 53 reveal its position, therefore. The position of the two ambushed fleets should be a little further south. Extrapolating from the sea area where the U.S. fleet was discovered, it was only after the 53rd Task Force sent a telegram that the U.S. fleet turned around and headed toward Pearl Harbor. This is also not in line with the characteristics of Spruance, Spruance can't throw the bait without making a good arrangement, right? At least, Spruance didn't know the exact location of Tan Renhao when he released the bait.

Immediately, Hao Dongjue sent a telegram, and the second task force was exposed. Tan Renhao was not surprised, and the US military would certainly arrange a lot of reconnaissance planes. It was not until the US reconnaissance plane was shot down by Yao Boyan's air defense fighter that Tan Renhao realized that there were other loopholes in the deployment of the US military.

The US reconnaissance plane that arrived over the 1st Task Force was nearly an hour later than the reconnaissance plane that arrived over the 2nd Task Force! Even if Task Force 1 is farther away from the American forces. There was a difference of half an hour at most, and it was obvious that the US reconnaissance plane arrived a little too late. This illustrates the problem that the enemy has made the southeast direction a key search direction and the east side a secondary search direction! Obviously, this does not fit into the ambush arrangement, and if this is indeed a trap, then Spruance should search the east first, not the southeast!

The problems can be said to be more and more. It wasn't until the reconnaissance planes sent by the 1st Task Force returned one after another that Tan Renhao grasped the key point of the problem, that is, the 52nd Task Force that had not been discovered. Prior to this, Tan Renhao basically believed that Spruance might have encountered some unsolvable problems, so he temporarily switched the positions of Task Force 52 and Task Force 53, and let Task Force 52 act as a decoy. But he quickly denied the idea.

At that time, there were two situations, but Tan Renhao only took one into account. That is, Spruance did not arrange the bait, and the telegram sent by Task Force 53 was only used to lure Tan Renhao and them north, and before that, Task Force 52 had already sailed far to the east. At the time of the outbreak of the battle, Task Force 52 was in the northeast of the battlefield, not north and not northwest. Spruance's plan was to use three task forces to flank Tan Renhao. Of course, this plan also has a lot of loopholes, but this is the only explanation that Tan Renhao can think of.

If this is indeed the case, then the reconnaissance planes he sent to the north will naturally not be fruitful, and the number of reconnaissance planes sent to the northeast is not large, and it is very likely that the 52nd Task Force will stay outside the battlefield first, and wait until Tan Renhao and they will fight Spruance before killing and attacking Tan Renhao from the flank. When Yang Qinkai sent back the search report and went to bomb the 51st Task Force that had been defeated, Tan Renhao was even more sure that the 52nd Task Force may not have withdrawn from the battle or returned to San Francisco, but was hiding somewhere in the northeast, and maybe it had sent bombers to deal with the 1st Task Force or the 2nd Task Force!

At half past nine, Tan Renhao took the initiative to give the second task force. and the 4th Task Force. He demanded that Hao Dongjue strengthen the air defense capability of the Second Task Force as soon as possible, withdraw from the battle as soon as possible, and evade to the south. At this time, two aircraft carriers of Task Force 2 had lost their combat capability, so Task Force 2 was no longer suitable to participate in the next combat operations. And his order to Huang Xiaotian was more complicated, he asked the Fourth Task Force to recover the bombers as soon as possible, strengthen the fleet's air defense, and at the same time make the returning bombers ready to set off again, if they can. It was also supposed to receive part of the bombers of the 2nd Task Force in order to strengthen the aviation strike capabilities of the fleet. The position of the 4th Task Force is the safest, according to Tan Renhao's idea, if the 52nd Task Force suddenly kills, the 1st Task Force will be the most vulnerable to attack, and when the time comes, if the 1st Task Force is heavily damaged, only the 4th Task Force will have the ability to take out the 52nd Task Force.

After sending the telegram, Tan Renhao made new adjustments to the aviation operations in the fleet. The first to return to the open space above the fleet was the Ansloth group that had gone to cover Task Force 2. There was not much fuel left for this batch of fighters, and a lot of ammunition was consumed in air combat. All need to land on the aircraft carrier as soon as possible. Therefore. Tan Renhao first arranged for the landing of the Ansloth group, and all 28 fighters who returned were refueled and ammunition on the flight deck, and then took off immediately. Minimize the amount of time you spend on the flight deck.

Then, the group of Qiu Gengbo returned to the sky above the fleet. This time, Tan Renhao first landed two squads of dive bombers. These "water-shooting birds" were also refueled on the flight deck, but without ammunition on board, and then immediately took off. They will carry out new reconnaissance missions, and all 18 reconnaissance routes are within 60 degrees northeast, which is the most likely area for Task Force 52.

Before the reconnaissance aircraft departed, the three destroyers broke away from the fleet and galloped away in a northeasterly direction. This is an air defense alert ship arranged by Tan Renhao. In addition, at that time, two groups of fighters patrolling the sky over the fleet were concentrated in the northeast direction, with the Ellsloth group in the north. Yao Boyan's fleet is in the east, but the fighters in Yao Boyan's group will also land within an hour to replenish fuel.

After the reconnaissance planes departed, the other bombers of the Qiugeng wave group landed one after another. These bombers were all sent to the hangar immediately after landing on the aircraft carrier, and the aviation service personnel did not replenish the fuel and ammunition for the bombers, but they had to replenish the fuel and ammunition for the Zhu Xiaohuo group that was about to arrive. Tan Renhao knew very well that before the reconnaissance planes gained something, he could only strengthen the air defense of the fleet, and not prepare the bombers for departure. As long as Task Force 52 is found, it may be the bomber group of Task Force 52 that is discovered first. At that time, even if the first task force is defeated, there will still be a fourth task force that can come out and kill the 52nd task force. Therefore, it is more advantageous to secure the fleet in the first place than to prepare for an attack.

It was busy until about 10:50, and when the Qiu Gengbo group had basically landed, Zhu Xiaohuo's group returned to the sky above the fleet. The fighters, which were almost running out of fuel, quickly landed on the aircraft carrier, and the aviation crew rushed to replenish the fuel and ammunition of the fighters. Just as Zhu Xiaohuo's group had landed and was about to take off, the air defense sirens in the fleet sounded. "The enemy plane is approaching the ground from 15 degrees, in the north!"

Tan Renhao frowned slightly. "How long will it take for the enemy aircraft group to arrive?"

"Twenty-five minutes, maybe 20 minutes, Colonel Ellsloer and they're already on board."

"Let Yao Boyan and them go up too, if the fuel runs out, then make a forced landing on the sea!" Tan Renhao quickly made a decision, "Let Zhu Xiaohuo and them set off immediately, give them ten minutes, the aircraft carrier will enter the air defense state in ten minutes, and tell Ann Shile and Yao Boyan to delay the speed of the US military fleet as much as possible to buy us time!" ”

The order was quickly issued, and the Ansler group rushed towards the US bomber group at the fastest speed, and the Yao Boyan group was also rapidly moving. The real focus is on the aircraft carrier. Less than a minute after Tan Renhao made his decision, Zhu Xiaohuo left the aircraft carrier in his "Peregrine Falcon". One by one, the 27 fighters in the group left the aircraft carrier, and it took less than ten minutes, only about seven minutes, and all 27 fighters were lifted into the air. In order to speed up take-off, many fighter jets set off with only half of the fuel.

"General, Colonel Yang Qinkai sent a telegram that they would return to the fleet in twenty-five minutes."

Tan Renhao was stunned. "How much fuel do they have?"

"Maybe just enough to return to the fleet."

"Then let them slow down and stay in the air as long as possible, now we can't receive their bombers!" Tan Renhao didn't hesitate at all, "If you can't wait, then try to make a forced landing near the fleet, and when the battle is over, I will arrange for the battleship to pick them up." ”

At this juncture, Tan Renhao would not put the fleet in danger for the sake of dozens of bombers. The enemy's bombers are rapidly approaching, and they can only blame Yang Qinkai for not coming back at the right time, if it is a little earlier, or a little later, then there will be no such problem. But this can't be blamed on Yang Qinkai and them, this is Tan Renhao's own arrangement, to blame, you can only blame the US bombers for coming at a good time.

Reports on air battles on the front line kept coming, and the task of commanding air operations was the responsibility of staff officers, and in each aircraft carrier battle group, there was a "Rui Beast"-class cruiser in charge of commanding air defense operations, and all that could be sent to Tan Renhao was the results of air battles. Soon, Tan Renhao heard a faint sound of artillery shelling coming from outside, which indicated that the enemy's bomber group was already very close to the fleet.

"General, it's time for you to get out of here!" The Marine Corps Major officer walked in, his face was very serious, he was not asking Tan Renhao at all, but giving orders.

Tan Renhao nodded, and then put down the teacup in his hand. "Well, looks like we're going to be shrunken turtles again."

The major didn't joke with Tan Renhao, he immediately greeted more than a dozen Marine officers and soldiers who followed up, and escorted Tan Renhao, Zhu Rongzhe and others out of the command cabin. When he arrived at the gangway outside, Tan Renhao glanced at the sky in the distance, and the fleet air defense operation had begun......