The U.S. intelligence agencies were not useless, and by the end of March, when Spruance was planning to send three task forces out to sea at the same time for actual combat training, important intelligence arrived.

"All these people have returned to Zhoushan?" Nimitz looked at Spruance from the top of his glasses, looking a little incredulous.

"The intelligence should be accurate, and all the senior front-line commanders of the Tang Imperial Navy have been, or are preparing to return to Zhoushan." Spruance felt that there was nothing to doubt about this, and that the intelligence services should be condemned if they could not even get this kind of basic information. "In other words, the Tang Imperial Navy is preparing to launch, or is organizing a new round of attacks, combined with the information we have received in the past few months, it is not difficult to believe that the Tang Imperial Navy will definitely launch a large-scale offensive in the near future, no later than the end of May."

Nimitz pondered for a moment. "They will attack before our next batch of warships enter service."

"Yes, this is definitely the plan of the Tang Imperial Navy, we can also get a batch of warships in June, and the scale will continue to expand, the Tang Imperial Navy will definitely hope to defeat us before this and win victory in the Pacific. This avoids the final showdown with us in the second half of the year. Mobile station ap.. cn

"And what do you think?" Nimitz looked at Spruance again.

"There is no choice, we have to avoid this danger."

"If we don't fight, won't that keep the enemy advancing?" Nimitz asked rhetorically.

"If we face the battle, we will fall into the trap of the other party, after all, our current strength is far inferior to the Tang Imperial Navy. As expected, the Tang Imperial Navy will deploy at least five task forces and more than 15 fleet carriers in the Central Pacific. In addition, they have small aircraft carriers, close to 30 escort carriers, and a large number of other warships. Even those few battleships will come over. At that time, the strength of the Tang Imperial Navy will be far above ours, and if we fight a decisive battle with the Tang Imperial Navy at this time, there will not even be the slightest hope of victory. ”

Nimitz smiled wryly. "Then we'll go back to San Francisco and give Pearl Harbor to the enemy?"

"No, of course not." Spruance didn't find any irony in Nimitz's statement. "It is impossible for the Tang Imperial Navy to attack Pearl Harbor directly, they must attack Kauai before attacking Pearl Harbor, and then use Kauai as a base for advancement. Finally, he attacked Oahu and Hawaii Island, and completed the combat mission of capturing the Hawaiian Islands. We can hold off our opponents on Kauai and make them have to spend more time fighting on Kauai, and as long as we can drag it out until the second half of the year, then we have the capital to fight back. ”

"But the question is, what will happen if we can't make it to the second half of the year?"

"I don't know, but it's going to be pretty bad, so we'll have to drag it out until the second half of the year."

"All right, Redmond. I will strengthen the defenses on Kauai. But another question is, wouldn't the Tang Imperial Navy attack Pearl Harbor? ”

"Attack on Pearl Harbor?" Spruance looked up, "It's a possibility. But I don't think it's going to be huge. Of course, we must strengthen the search force in the sea near Pearl Harbor, expand the search radius to 750 nautical miles, and increase the search force in several directions where the fleet of the Don Empire is most likely to appear, preventing the sudden approach of the enemy. In addition, the Fifth Fleet will not stay in Pearl Harbor, it must leave Pearl Harbor, even if we do not go to a decisive battle with the Tang Imperial Navy fleet, as long as the Fifth Fleet is active at sea, then the enemy will have to have some scruples. It would be difficult to attack Kauai with all our might, which would be a great help to our defenses on Kauai and avoid an enemy attack on Pearl Harbor. ”

Nimitz pondered for a while and said, "I need a detailed report, a detailed battle plan. ”

"No problem, I'll try to get the battle plan out early next month, and then it's almost time for the Fifth Fleet to leave Pearl Harbor."

The two agreed on this, and Spruance's opinion was once again supported by Nimitz, and he knew it. This will probably be my last chance. Since he became the commander of Task Force 16, Nimitz has given him tremendous support and trust, and has helped him block the pressure from above several times, even when Spruance lost the battle, and in the most difficult time, Nimitz did not hold him responsible, but gave him another chance. This kind of kindness was another reason for Spruance to persevere, but the war had reached this point, and Spruance knew in his heart that if they had to leave Pearl Harbor in the end, he would be doomed, and Nimitz would probably be removed from all positions. This was not only the last chance for Spruance, but also for Nimitz, the last chance for the Pacific Fleet, and the last chance for the US Navy.

More and more information was being sent, and in the past, it seemed sparse and unimportant, but now Spruance was paying a lot of attention to it, especially some of it that seemed of little value to others.

When receiving the news of Tan Renhao's promotion to admiral of the Tang Empire, most of the local intelligence officers thought that this was a very ordinary piece of information. Tan Renhao was already an "old acquaintance" of American officers, and in the eyes of most American officers, although this Tang Imperial admiral was very young, his military exploits were long enough for him to become an admiral. Some people even discuss behind their backs that Tan Renhao's contributions in the Pacific, Indian Ocean, and South Atlantic theaters are greater than Nimitz's contributions in the U.S. Navy, and if Tan Renhao is a U.S. Navy admiral, then it is not surprising that he became a five-star admiral, and in the U.S. Navy, a five-star admiral is equivalent to a general in the Imperial Navy, and even a little higher than a general, between a general and a marshal. But in Spruance's eyes, this information is very valuable. It was this incident that made Spruance begin to doubt the competence of the officers in charge of intelligence processing, and he asked all the information classified as "ordinary" or "secondary" to be taken over, and as a result, he really found clues in these "ordinary" or "secondary" intelligence.

Tan Renhao's promotion to admiral, for Spruance, the biggest significance is that it is very likely to indicate that the Tang Imperial Navy will change the fleet structure again. Spruance studied the rank promotion system of the Tang Imperial Navy. And he also knew how great Tan Renhao's exploits were on the battlefield, and Tan Renhao had been hesitating in the position of first-class lieutenant general before, not because his merits were not enough, but because there was no suitable position for him. Now, Tan Renhao has been confirmed to be promoted to admiral, and two more vice generals will also be promoted to admiral, which shows that the Tang Imperial Navy is ready to change the command structure of the fleet. There will be a fleet commander who is not a task force commander, or a fleet commander who is a higher level than the task force commander, or other commanders, and Tan Renhao and the other task force commanders who have been promoted at the same time will become the new commanders.

This should be a big threat, if the Tang Imperial Navy changes the fleet structure, then its fleet size will definitely have to be expanded, but Spruance did not know the specific situation of the reorganization of the Tang Imperial Naval Fleet at that time, and he did not know whether the basis of the new fleet was still an aircraft carrier battle group, or some other combat unit, or let the task force act as a basic combat unit. All of this requires more intelligence support, and Spruance can only make a rough judgment. This will be a huge threat. A threat that will affect the combat operations of the Fifth Fleet.

In the previous useless information, Spruance found more clues. For example, why did the Tang Imperial Navy capture Nihua Island before. When there were still forces to continue the attack, they had to delay so much time on Nihua Island instead of attacking Kauai Island immediately, which was mainly the result of the internal turmoil of the Tang Empire, and at the same time, the Tang Empire Navy was not fully prepared for the attack on Kauai Island at that time. In addition, the Tang Imperial Navy is about to acquire an advanced fighter, but the intelligence content is quite limited, and there is no detailed performance data of this new fighter, so it is difficult to judge whether this new fighter is better or worse than the newly acquired "Super Corsair" of the US Navy. This intelligence could have been important a few months ago. But now it's not worth much. For Spruance, the most valuable of these was the troop movements of the Tang Imperial Navy in the Pacific Theater.

Because the transfer of front-line troops of the Tang Imperial Navy was carried out separately, information on the movement of troops was sent one after another. In addition, the scale of each force adjustment of the Tang Imperial Navy was not very large, and it was basically controlled at the regimental level, or even smaller units, which often made people feel that this was the front-line troops taking turns to rest and recuperate, so it did not attract enough attention from intelligence officers, and they were all included in the "ordinary" intelligence. When Spruance combined all the troop movements organized by the Don Imperial Navy in recent months. Spruance spotted the problem. That is, the Tang Imperial Navy has been secretly sending additional troops to Midway, Lysan Island, Gardner Island, Nihua Island, and even Wake Island, and in a few months, the number of troops it has assembled on the front line is already quite amazing!

At that time, every time the Tang Imperial Marine Corps changed a battalion, it was replaced by a regiment, and if it was replaced by a regiment, then it was replaced with a reinforced regiment, or even two regiments and a division. Because the commanders of the Tang Empire arranged these transfers with great frequency and were extremely complex, the US intelligence agencies ignored the key issues in the middle, and instead tried to track the movements of each army. Obviously, the opponent almost achieved his goal, sending several, or even a dozen divisions, to the front line without any notice from the US army!

Spruance spent several days figuring out the connections between these intelligences, and he finally came to a conclusion that made him tremble at all, from the end of the Battle of Nihua Island to the present, the Tang Imperial Navy had increased the strength of at least fifteen marine divisions on the front line, and most of them were elite marine divisions! In addition, Liao Hanxiang also gathered a large number of landing fleets and transport fleets in the rear, and hoarded a large amount of combat materials. Now, as long as these landing fleets and transport fleets arrive, and of course, the fleet of the Tang Imperial Navy, Liao Hanxiang will be able to attack Khao Yai Island immediately!

Spruance immediately reported the situation to Nimitz, who immediately took Nimitz's attention. Both believed that the Tang Imperial Navy would most likely launch an offensive in April, and not until May. Subsequently, a timely piece of information arrived, and the front-line generals of the Tang Imperial Navy who had returned to Zhoushan were returning one after another, and the two newly formed task forces of the Tang Imperial Navy had basically completed their training.

"We've got to hurry up. I will immediately reinforce Kauai with troops, and the key now is that the Fifth Fleet must act and cannot sit idly by. ”

"The battle plan is almost complete, and within two days, I will give you a detailed battle plan." Spruance also knew that it was already April 10, and he could no longer stay at Pearl Harbor and wait for the Tang fleet to come and attack. "Once the combat operation is decided, the Fifth Fleet will leave Pearl Harbor, but it will not immediately participate in the battle, and now is not the time."

"The actions of the fleet are in your hands." Nimitz still asked Spruance to let it go, "I'll solve the other problems, maybe, in a few days, we will have to fight a final decisive battle with the Tang Imperial Navy." ”

Two days later, Spruance sent the fleet battle plan drawn up by him, Turner, and Mitchell to the theater command, and on the same day, all the ships of the Fifth Fleet began to refuel, replenish ammunition, food, fresh water, and other supplies. Nimitz quickly approved Spruance's battle plan, and although there were still some parts of the plan that needed to be revised, there was no time for the Fifth Fleet to wait for the final battle plan in Pearl Harbor. The next day, April 13, the Fifth Fleet left Pearl Harbor in the evening.

Task Force 51, under the direct command of Spruance, was the first to depart. He did not compete with Turner and Mitchell for new aircraft carriers, all three aircraft carriers were commissioned at the beginning of 26, but Spruance put four battleships and three "Miami" class heavy cruisers in the 51st task force, which is also the most combat-effective task force and the absolute main force of the Fifth Fleet, but Spruance knows that this is only relative, in front of the task forces of the Tang Imperial Navy, the 51st task force is too bad.