The remnant sun is like blood.

The southeastern part of the Matautu Sea is scorching with scorching fires and thick smoke obscuring the sky.

The sea was littered with the wreckage of warships, burning coal and heavy oil, and the corpses of thousands of Japanese naval officers and sailors loomed in the waves.

The air was filled with the strong smell of gunsmoke, the stench of bloody urine, and the smell of uncooked meat from charred corpses.

An hour earlier, there had also been a powerful naval fleet of four battle cruisers, six heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, and one troop carrier, and they were preparing to attack the Tang Empire, which was completely worthless in their eyes, with the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

An hour later, the arrogant Japanese naval fleet was completely wiped out by the Royal Air Force of the Tang Empire, which they considered completely vulnerable.

In the face of the fierce attack of the bomber group of the Tang Army, the Japanese naval fleet had no power to fight back.

It's a complete one-sided slaughter!

This is a gap in strategy and tactics, and it is also the result of Zhang Meng's carefully prepared asymmetric combat concept.

"Launch!"

At the command of the captain of the light cruiser Amphion, a torpedo sneered across the sea and hit the Japanese Navy's troop carrier Tokyo Maru.

With a loud bang, all 2,000 Japanese marines and more than 100 crew members on the Tokyo Maru were buried at the bottom of the sea.

They refused to surrender, especially to the Royal Navy of the Tang Empire, and they felt that they were too poor, and perhaps only death could make their souls feel better.

Li Haichen fulfilled their wishes, and a torpedo sent them to the sea to feed the fish.

In fact, even if these Japanese troops surrendered, Li Haichen would not let them live. Because before this, he received Zhang Meng's order that the Tang Army would never want Japanese prisoners.

"Ready! Shoot! ”

Bang bang bang!

A volley of gunfire rang out from the deck of the light cruiser Mercury, and the Tang sailors on board were executing the Japanese naval prisoners they had just rescued.

The reason why these Japanese prisoners were captured was that Li Haichen ordered the officers and men on each ship to vent, because they were full of hatred for the Japanese devils, and now is the time for revenge.

Of course, there is another hidden reason, that is, to let every officer and soldier of the Tang Royal Navy kill people and see blood, so that they can truly become a qualified bloody soldier.

"Next team! Raise your gun! ”

"Ready! Shoot! ”

The gunfire pierced the sky, and with the execution of a Japanese naval prisoner, it was announced that the Japanese Expeditionary Tang Task Force was completely annihilated, and all 22,531 Japanese naval officers and soldiers and 2,000 Japanese marines under Rear Admiral Ono Sannori were wiped out, and the Tang Empire achieved its first complete victory in the war against Japan, and it also marked the first defeat of the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet since its establishment, and it was a complete defeat.

This victory belongs to the Royal Air Force of the Tang Empire, as well as to the entire Tang Empire.

When the news returned to Chang'an, Zhang Mengtong ordered all the personnel of the Royal Air Force of the Tang Empire to be commended, and the army, navy and air force jointly celebrated the unprecedented victory in the Battle of Mataotu.

Subsequently, Zhang Xinhai, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, set up a state banquet in the Xuanzheng Hall of the newly built Daming Palace to celebrate the meritorious ministers, and according to Zhang Meng's suggestion, through the British High Commissioner to the Central Pacific, Bain, directly invited the commissioners of more than a dozen countries such as the United States, France, Germany and the Soviet Union to attend the state banquet in the Daming Palace in Chang'an.

Zhang Meng's intention was very clear, in addition to proving that the military strength of the Tang Empire could completely resist the enemy, it was also an opportunity to show all countries that if they were to rob the Tang Empire or were robbing the Tang Empire, it was best to calmly think about whether they would bite their front teeth and whether they could afford the huge price.

Killing chickens to show monkeys is a decisive measure that the Tang Empire must take in order to protect itself. After all, the Tang Empire has attracted widespread attention from the international community, and the huge amount of gold in this small island nation will inevitably arouse the greed of peepers.

If there is one word that can describe the feelings of the special envoys of various countries after learning of this, it must be shock. If you could add a modifier, it would be quite shocking.

"Is this possible?"

"I don't believe it either!"

"But these photos aren't fake, are they?"

The military attaches of various countries led by British Commissioner Bain really didn't believe it, but when they saw the photos taken by the reporters accompanying the Tang Army, they undoubtedly recognized the names of the battleships that were about to sink.

"This is the Kirishima!"

"Then this should be the King Kong!"

"This looks like Hiei!"

"Oh my God, these four are all Kongo-class battlecruisers of the Japanese Navy, and they were all sunk by the Tang Army?"

"How did they sink these superships? Is it just those six old light cruisers bought from the British? ”

After seeing the photos, the military attaches of various countries believed that what the Tang people said was true, and that they had indeed destroyed a powerful Japanese fleet. They soon asked how the Tang army had managed to defeat the strong with the weak, and Zhang Meng's explanation for this was that they launched a sneak attack with submarines, and with the cooperation of the air force bomber group, they completely annihilated the Japanese fleet.

Zhang Meng deliberately put the submarine in the first place, and the air force cooperated, he didn't want the powers of various countries to pay attention to the air force.

"The Japanese army must be too arrogant, otherwise even a submarine sneak attack would never have achieved such a result!"

When Bane said this, the military attaches of various countries could only think so, and they really couldn't find a more reasonable explanation.

No matter what the military attaches of various countries say about the Battle of Mataotu, they have to admit the fact that the weak Tang Army has won the victory, and they have eliminated a powerful Japanese naval fleet, and the international community will no longer look down on the small island country of the Tang Empire.

Their attitudes suddenly took a 180-degree turn, and they made requests to Zhang Wei, the foreign minister of the Tang Empire, at the state banquet, and there was no doubt that they all decided to send envoys to the Tang Empire.

Although it was only at the level of minister and not ambassador, it was a great diplomatic success for the Tang Empire. This means that the Tang Empire suddenly has the status of a third-class power in the eyes of all countries.

Of course, Zhang Meng's goal is to establish ambassadorial-level diplomacy with other countries, but he knows that there is still a long way to go, so he is already very happy to establish ministerial-level diplomacy with other countries.

After the state banquet, Zhang Meng once again convened a joint meeting of the army, navy, and air force. At the meeting, in accordance with the rules formulated by Zhang Meng, the principal commanders of the navy and air force involved in the Battle of Mataotu conducted strategic and tactical self-evaluation and discussion on the battle, summed up some unexpected situations that occurred during the battle, shared successful experiences, and drew lessons from the mistakes and deficiencies in the battle.

At the same time, in order to react more realistically to the situation that arises in battle. In addition to the reports made by the commanders of the Navy and Air Force, the officers and pilots at the grassroots level of the Navy and Air Force also selected representatives who had performed well in combat and who had performed abnormally in battle to make reports at the meeting; from their reports, Zhang Meng and other senior commanders of the Navy and Air Force were able to better understand the proper and improper command in the course of this battle, understand the combat mentality of the grassroots fighters, and the various deficiencies that were exposed, so as to provide targeted guidance and experience for future training.

It is precisely because the military of the Tang Empire established this way of discussing self-criticism and summing up experience that the Tang Army was able to quickly grasp and sum up experience and lessons after every exercise and actual battle, which played a huge role in the strategic and tactical command ability of the high-level commanders of the Tang Army and the rapid improvement of the overall strength of the Tang Army.

At the meeting, Zhang Meng said: "This time, we completely annihilated the Japanese Tang Expedition Task Force of Ono Sandenori, which can be described as a good start for the military of our Tang Empire, and it is a great fortune." However, I hope that you will not be complacent, because there is still a huge gap between us and the Japanese Navy as a whole, and it cannot be ruled out that the Japanese devils will retaliate against us on a large scale. We may face an attack by the entire Japanese Combined Fleet next, and it will be a life-and-death battle, and I hope that everyone will be mentally prepared. ”

All the generals understood what Zhang Meng meant, and immediately stood up and shouted in unison.

"Swear to live and die with the Tang Empire!"

After the meeting was dismissed, the generals of the army, navy, and air force at all levels returned to their stations one after another to step up combat readiness training in accordance with Zhang Meng's request.

The victory in the Battle of Matauptu was undoubtedly a shot in the arm for the Tang Army. If they had heard that there was going to be a war with Japan, their long-term fear of the Japanese army's might make them very worried about whether the Tang Empire would be able to hold it. Now that the first battle has been won, they are immediately relieved that the strength of the Tang Army is strong enough to easily destroy a powerful Japanese fleet. Therefore, when the Military Command Department issued the order to continue to strengthen combat readiness training, the officers and men of the three services immediately threw themselves into military preparations with full confidence, believing that as long as they were under Zhang Meng's wise leadership, they would definitely be able to defeat the Japanese invading army.

The morale of the Tang army skyrocketed, and it was in full swing to prepare for war. Similarly, for the subjects of the Tang Empire, the victory in the Battle of Mataugtu was also reassuring to them.

Since most of the subjects of the Tang Empire came from Chinese mainland, they chose to come to the Tang Empire after suffering from the war of aggression by foreign powers. They thought that the Tang Empire was the happy land in their hearts, but they never thought that the Tang Dynasty would go to war, and they were really worried that the Tang Army was not the opponent of the Japanese army. Since they all came to the Tang Empire not long ago, the sense of belonging to the country was actually very weak, and most of them were panicking, and most of them were ready to flee the Tang Dynasty.

When the news of the Tang Army's victory in the first battle came back, the subjects of the Tang Empire were immediately relieved, and they also believed that the Tang Empire would definitely be able to repel the Japanese invading army. Before, people were terrified, but now they can stay in the Tang Empire with peace of mind, they have increased their determination to defend their homeland, they work hard, fully support the country and the army, for their own homeland, they have convinced themselves for the first time that their homeland can be defended, and they can no longer give up easily.

It can be said that the victory in the Battle of Matautu brought great national cohesion and self-confidence to the nascent Tang Empire. This invisible cohesion will prompt every subject of the Tang Empire to fight to defend their homeland, and the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese has been shattered, replaced by the strong rise of the Tang Empire, and a new undefeated myth is about to begin.