During the afternoon break, Tan Renhao roughly understood the previous events during this time. At that time, in addition to the battles commanded by Han Shaofeng and Gu Xunlei, there was also great progress in other aspects of the project at that time.

At that time, the most important were more than a dozen major infrastructure projects in Central America, including six large airports on the Yucatan Peninsula, the expansion of Puerto Barrios and Puerto Chetumar, and the road connection from Puerto Cetumal to Liudo Airport. The arterial road traffic from the Port of San José to Gutiérrez, as well as the road traffic line that connects to the various front-line airports around the route. These are big projects.

The most important thing at that time was the six official airports and the road connecting the airport to the port of Chetumal. The six airfields were originally built to the standards of regular military airfields. At that time, the attack on the Greater Andrés Islands could not begin for a long time, and in desperation, we had no choice but to first establish a large airfield on the Yucatan Peninsula, which is relatively close to the US mainland, and first carry out strategic bombing of the southern part of the United States. In order to ensure that these airports can move supplies in a timely manner, roads must also be built and the throughput capacity of the port of Chetumal must be expanded. To this end, within a few months, the Marine Corps and the Army successively mobilized tens of thousands of engineers to complete these major projects.

Each of the six airports had a concrete runway 60 meters wide and 2,500 square meters long, which was the highest standard for an imperial military airport at the time. In addition, there is room for another runway. The number of hangars at airfields is not very large, and most of the time, heavy bombers are parked in the open and are sent to the hangar only when repairs are needed. And the number of parking stands at each airport ranges from 210 etc. That is, from 120 to 210 bombers can be deployed. If necessary, additional parking slots can also be added. Or park bombers on both sides of the runway. According to the previous way in which the Imperial Navy's Strategic Strike Force deployed bombers on the islands, as long as the logistics could keep up, more than 300 bombers could be parked at any airfield. In other words, these six airfields are enough to accommodate nearly 2,000 heavy bombers.

The main question is whether enough ammunition, fuel, and spare parts for the bombers can be delivered. Unlike island airports, airports on land are generally not too close to the port, so lines of communication are extremely important. Thankfully, the Yucatan Peninsula is a flat peninsula. The terrain is fairly flat, and the construction of roads is much less difficult. In order to ensure transport capacity, each airport is directly connected to the port and is a four-lane, concrete-paved trunk road. Of course, in order to transport supplies, it is necessary to mobilize a lot of transport vehicles. Later, tens of thousands of trucks traveled back and forth on these six highways. In order to ensure that enough ammunition is delivered to the bomber, so that the bomber cannot fly on the ground due to lack of ammunition and fuel. In reality, however, this was still not sufficient, and by the time the bombardment was at its highest, the shortage of ammunition and fuel became a major factor affecting the value of the six regular airfields.

After Luo Yunchong arrived in the Americas, he went to inspect the situation of these six airports before the new theater command was formally established, and he personally ran around the six highways by car, which took him two days and two nights. As a result, he only returned to Panama City half a day before Tan Renhao arrived. Through on-the-spot investigations, Luo Yunchong was quite satisfied with the construction of the project, and this also made him determine that the bomber group would be deployed to these six airfields first, and the first batch of bombers was transferred in late July, and the official bombing time of the US mainland was in early August, mainly because the fleet transporting ammunition and fuel did not arrive at the port of Chetumal until the end of July. So the bomber who arrived first could only wait.

It was the completion of these basic projects, which seemed to have little to do with the war, that ensured that the imperial army had an excellent performance in the next battle, and that the front-line combat troops would not be forced to abandon the offensive due to lack of supplies, and at the same time, Luo Yunchong had the forward base to bomb the US mainland before taking Cuba. If you look at it in terms of importance, the military infrastructure is even more important than the front-line combat units. Not to mention anything else, before Luo Yunchong's heavy bombers arrived, the six airfields on the Yucatan Peninsula were deployed with ground and naval tactical aviation, without the support of these tactical aviation, Gu Xunlei probably would not have been able to quickly complete the second campaign, let alone exceed the campaign objectives.

By chatting with Luo Yunchong. Tan Renhao has more information, and these are all good news. It can be said that the chaotic situation on the front line in the past has been improved, and with the establishment of a new theater command by Luo Yunchong, the situation will become more favorable. Everything is developing for the better, which is what Tan Renhao is most willing to see.

The two were chatting energetically, and Lei Shaoqing came to ask them to go to the banquet. According to the standards of the wartime front, the scale of the reception banquet prepared by Luo Yunchong and Lei Shaoqing for Tan Renhao was very large, and more than 100 people attended the banquet. And with the exception of the generals who were in Panama City at that time, almost all of them were new theater commands. As well as the senior staff officer of the upcoming Combined Fleet Command. However, the banquet was not complicated, no one spoke, and the purpose of holding the banquet was not only to wash the dust of Tan Renhao, but also to let the staff officers of the two headquarters at the same level know each other, so that they could cooperate more closely in the future, so that they would not even know who was who at that time.

Soon after the banquet began, when most of the people began to move freely, Tan Renhao and Luo Yunchong quietly left the venue, and the two began to talk energetically, how could they be in the mood to entertain those guests. After avoiding the others, the two continued to talk.

"Now my idea is that I don't have to wait for Han Shaofeng to attack Cuba, and use the existing infrastructure to immediately launch a strategic bombing of the United States." Luo Yunchong took out the map in his pocket. "The six airfields on the Yucatan Peninsula are only 11001200 miles from the continental United States, and even if you want to bomb inland industrial cities, you will have a radius of about 18002100 miles. Counting the range required for a mid-flight detour, the combat radius of 2,500 miles for the Peng-type bomber is sufficient. ”

"And how many Peng' bombers do you have now?" Tan Renhao frowned slightly, he still didn't know the performance of this new bomber.

"Now there are 1,200 aircraft, and by the time of the beginning of next month, >: by the end of the year, it will definitely exceed 3,000." Luo Yunchong looked very proud, "Now, a few planes."

A joint production agreement was reached to be responsible for the production of a certain section of the aircraft, and Hafei and Shenfei carried out the final assembly, which can greatly increase the output. In addition, the striking power of one 'Peng' bomber is equivalent to that of two 'wolf doves', and as long as I am given 1,500 bombers, it is enough to destroy a large city in the United States in two or three bombings. ”

"Is it so powerful?" Tan Renhao was even more surprised.

"You still don't believe me? I've been working in Europe for years, and you don't think that the brick and concrete houses in American cities are much stronger than the wooden houses in Japan, but they are almost the same, and they can't be bombed by bombers. Moreover, the main target we dealt with in the early stage was the basic industry, and this is not much different. ”

Tan Renhao nodded slightly, he still had one thing unclear, that is, in the past, it was manufactured by a certain aircraft factory alone, at most, each aircraft factory opened its own production line to increase production, and manufactured a certain part separately, and then assembled, this method has not been used before. However, Tan Renhao did not ask this question, after all, how to produce aircraft is a trivial matter, as long as enough aircraft can be produced, then it will be fine.

"The main problem now is that our seaborne capacity is still insufficient, and after the strategic bombing begins, it will definitely affect the offensive operations of Gu Xunlei and Han Shaofeng, and if they are affected at that time, it will not be easy for me to be the commander of the theater."

"You don't need to worry about that. Since the end of last month, the Navy has been building more transport ships. And, this month, we're going to open a shipping route from the Atlantic, bringing in a fleet of ships that were supposed to deliver post-war relief supplies to Europe. By the end of the year at the latest, maritime capacity will be secured. ”

Luo Yunchong nodded slightly. "If that's the case. That couldn't be better. Moreover, the scale of our bombing before the end of the year will not be too large, and the pressure on the shipping sites will not be too great, and if we can ensure the transportation next year, then I am confident that we will blow up most of the cities in the United States within half a year. ”

"That's fine, but those airfields on the Yucatan Peninsula alone won't do the job."

"Of course. I'm going to visit the island of Jamaica in two days. The engineering corps arranged by Han Shaofeng is building three large field airfields, plus the airfields of the US military, and there are four airfields on the island of Jamaica. And the closer it is to the port, it is actually more suitable for deploying bombers. Luo Yunchong marked a few more data on the map. It is less than 1,000 kilometers from Jamaica Island to Miami and only 1,400 kilometers from Jacksonville. I plan to first deploy the 'Wolf Dove' bombers of the former Navy's strategic strike force here, focusing on bombing US military and industrial targets in Florida, especially ports and airports, to support Han Shaofeng's attack on Cuba. As long as Cuba is captured, the "Wolf Dove" will be able to strike all the important industrial cities in the southeastern region of the United States, and if there are enough "Peng" bombers in the future, they can even fly over Boston to drop bombs. When the time comes, we can strike outside of the northeastern United States, as well as parts of the Great Lakes. All the major industrial cities in the eastern region of the United States. ”

"It seems that you have everything arranged, so, do you have enough pilots? Especially the pilots of the new bombers? ”

"Well, you don't have to worry about that. Peng's bombers have been in service for half a year, and the first batch to be accepted is for training. In addition, the Peng' bomber is similar to the 'Wolf Dove' bomber in terms of operation, and the previous bomber pilots only need dozens of hours to familiarize themselves with the new bomber. There is certainly no problem with the pilots, but the training of ground service personnel is a bit troublesome, and the maintenance method of the 'Peng' bomber has been greatly improved. Many maintainers are not familiar with it. ”

"Then you'll have to figure it out." Tan Renhao smiled and shook his head, he knew a few years ago that Luo Yunchong was the kind of practical talent who was unambiguous in getting things done.

"Don't worry, I've already arranged it. Moreover, the ground staff only need to have more contact with the aircraft, learn more, and explore more. There will be progress soon. Luo Yunchong lit a cigarette, "It can be said that before I came, I really didn't know what to do, and after I came, I didn't need to think about it, the way came out." ”

"I told you at the beginning, your worries are all unnecessary, Gu Xunlei and Han Shaofeng didn't trouble you, right?"

"Of course not, but I haven't met either of them yet. I heard that Han Shaofeng was very annoyed by the US troops who hid in the jungle to fight guerrillas. And Gu Xunlei is still having a headache about Puebla, otherwise, the two of them will rush back to meet you today. ”

"It doesn't matter if they welcome it or not, the main thing is that they don't have an opinion." Tan Renhao also leaned back on the sofa. "Do you have any difficulties here?"

"Except that the bomber unit did not arrive for a while and there were no more transport ships, there were basically no major problems." Luo Yunchong shrugged his shoulders. "Yesterday, I determined the candidates for the main staff officers of the Theater Command, and this time I asked Lei Shaoqing and others to submit their respective personnel lists, after all, they are more familiar with the situation here. When are you going to set up the Combined Fleet Command? ”

"Just a few days, I also want to understand the situation first." Tan Renhao touched his forehead. "Wait for me to breathe a sigh of relief, and I'm not in a hurry to set up this combined fleet now. Anyway, the Atlantic Fleet of the US military will not be able to come out for a while and a half. If there's anything you can do to help, just say, I'll help you get the theater command out of the matter first. ”

"Come on, you're still going to go about your own business, and I'll take care of my side of the matter myself." Luo Yunchong immediately rejected Tan Renhao's kindness. "Moreover, don't think that the U.S. Navy has given up its efforts so quickly, I talked to Lei Shaoqing yesterday, he is very worried about the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, I'm afraid he will come to chat with you later."

Tan Renhao smiled and shook his head, he didn't blow cold on his own rice balls now, and he still had to help others. Of course, it was just a polite remark at first.

The two saw that the banquet outside was not over, so they were not in a hurry to go out, so as not to socialize. After chatting for a while, Lei Shaoqing finally came over, and Luo Yunchong took this opportunity to leave, so that Lei Shaoqing and Tan Renhao had a chance to chat alone, Luo Yunchong knew that he couldn't intervene in the matter of fighting in the fleet.