The Southwest Task Force led by Wei Dongbei arrived near Honiara Harbor west of Kuah Island at about half past two. This place has been captured by the 6th Sentai Group, and the Southwestern Task Force has searched here for a while, and after there is no convoy of American troops, it immediately began to move south along the coastline of the island. Northeast Wei also sent two destroyers to sail almost close to the island.

In fact, by this time, Wei Dongbei felt that something was wrong. He repeatedly compared the information he had received before, and there was a suspicious point, that is, even if the US military's fast transport fleet could reach 24 knots, then before 12 o'clock, even if the shortest route was adopted, it would be impossible to reach Kuah Island, and this transport fleet could only reach Kuah Island before 2 o'clock at the earliest, and at 4 o'clock at the slowest time. That is, there is no need for them to hurry so quickly at all. But in the same way, there is another question that Wei Dongbei can't figure out, that is, why is the third task force north of it?

More importantly, why did Task Force 32 go south? When Wei Dongbei arrived at Awu Awu, the southernmost part of the island, he finally figured out that there was one reason why the 32nd Task Force went south: to find the Third Task Force for a decisive battle. At this time, the U.S. convoy had not yet arrived, so the 32nd Task Force had to take out the 3rd Task Force patrolling the waters south of Kuah Island to clear the way for the convoy. But the question is, why did Task Force 32 go north?

Wei Dongbei did not think about this problem, but let the fleet go all south, and the course was about 195 degrees, that is, 15 degrees west-south, not due south. This arrangement of Wei Dongbei had already taken into account that the Third Task Force was fighting a decisive battle in the south, so he did not go straight to the battlefield, but made a detour, wanting to miss the main battlefield, bypass the edge of the battlefield, and then intercept the American transport fleet.

From the beginning. Wei Dongbei was very clear about his mission, the Southwest Task Force was by no means an opponent of the 32nd Task Force, and he could not even do one American battleship, let alone six. In addition, Wei Dongbei knew very well what Yan Shiqi was. When dealing with the "Z Fleet" at the beginning, Yan Shiqi did not hesitate to sacrifice the shelling formation of the Second Task Force for his own victory, buying him time. If the Southwest Task Force enters when the two sides are in the midst of a fierce battle, Yan Shiqi will definitely let the Southwest Task Force be a shield!

In the eyes of Wei Dongbei. The third task force may not be able to beat the 32nd task force of the US army, the reason is very simple, Kincaid has six battleships in his hands, and all of them are the most advanced battleships in the United States, and the performance of the four "South Dakota" class is not much different from the "new provincial capital" class in all aspects, so it can be said that it is between the best. The two battleships of the "North Carolina" class were only slightly inferior in protection, and in terms of firepower they were not at all inferior to the "New Provincial Capital" class. Therefore, Yan Shiqi's maneuver space is very small, and it will be difficult for him to hold out until dawn if he is forced to fight with the third task force.

In this extreme case. Yan Shiqi will definitely use all the power at his disposal to take out the 32nd Task Force. And this includes the Southwestern Task Force. Wei Dongbei didn't have a good impression of Yan Shiqi, and Yan Guozhong gave him the task of intercepting the U.S. convoy, therefore. Wei Dongbei didn't think about helping Yan Shiqi at all, anyway, Yan Shiqi couldn't beat him and could still run, and the bombers would arrive after dawn, how long the third task force could hold out depends on how far Yan Shiqi could wield the combat effectiveness of the fleet.

Under this guiding ideology, Wei Dongbei acted very cautiously. At three o'clock, he led the fleet to the sea off Avu Avu, and made sure that there were no American transport ships here, and further east, the area controlled by the Imperial 6 Sentai was located. At this time the fleet turned south. By this time. Wei Dongbei did not know the situation on the battlefield of the naval battle in the south, he did not run into the 32nd Task Force of the US Army, but ran headlong into the 31st Battleship Formation of the Third Task Force commanded by Yan Shiqi, who was evading torpedo attacks and was attacking two "North Carolina" class battleships at the same time!

The two sides appeared on the radar almost at the same time, Wei Dongbei was taken aback, the radar screen showed that there were two battleships about 14 nautical miles southwest of the fleet, and about 1o nautical miles to the southeast of the fleet were four battleships, and the distance between these two parts of the battleships was probably the first reaction, it was the 32nd Task Force of the United States. The two battleships that fell out of the ground should have been disabled, and the four battleships were approaching, apparently trying to rescue the two battleships.

Yan Shiqi was also taken aback, he didn't take into account that there were still some US warships operating in the north, but he immediately thought that the target of those suspected cruisers should be the cruisers escorting the US transport fleet, and the targets of the next few suspected destroyers must be the destroyers in the "Washington Express". Yan Shiqi didn't think much about it at all, and immediately ordered the "Guangzhou" to turn off the runway, while the two cruisers in the 33rd cruiser formation that were still operable, and the seven destroyers in the ship-by-ship formation in the 321 area, which had withdrawn, immediately blocked the "killed" US warships from the north and stopped the opponent's torpedo attack, while the other three battleships in the 31st battleship formation continued to shell the two "North Carolina"-class battleships to eliminate the opponent as soon as possible.

Maybe the impact of the Shaoli battleship against the two "North Carolina" class battleships is not great, these two battleships are doomed, but the problem is that now their own people are fighting their own people, and Yan Shiqi and Wei Dongbei don't know at all!

When the first row of huge bombs fell, Wei Dongbei immediately ordered the seven destroyers following behind to add shock, since they had already met, it was impossible to escape, if you want to fight, the main guns on the cruiser could not do the opponent, but the torpedoes on the destroyer still had a great threat to the battleship. The six cruisers in the formation aimed their guns at the nine battleships that were approaching, and the focus of the shelling was on two cruisers, and when the seven destroyers rushed over, they immediately began to focus on shelling the destroyers.

The battlefield was already in chaos, and the communication channels used by the Southwestern Task Force and the Third Task Force were completely different. Wei Dongbei did not forget to report back the news that he had encountered the "32nd Task Force of the US Army", but he did not use the channel of the Third Task Force to contact Yan Shiqi.

In Wei Dongbei's view, the 3rd Task Force had been fighting fiercely with the 32nd Task Force for more than three hours, and the opponent was already rescuing the damaged battleships, so the 3rd Task Force might have been finished, and the value of connecting with the 3rd Task Force was no longer great. Wei Dongbei knew better that even if the Third Task Force still had breath left, Yan Shiqi would not take risks for the sake of the Southwest Task Force.

Yan Shiqi's idea is also very simple. Now that there are blockers in front and pursuers in the back, he must take out the two North Carolina-class battleships before the four South Dakota-class battleships under Kincaid's command catch up. He was not very afraid of the "American battleships" to the north, as long as they could keep the enemy out of the effective range of the torpedoes, those destroyers would not be able to pose a threat to the battleships. Of course, Yan Shiqi didn't expect that the Southwest Task Force, which was originally resting at the Buyin anchorage, would come over so quickly, and he wouldn't be idle that Wei Dongbei would come to help him.

Yan Guozhong in the rear was a little suspicious, and the Third Task Force did not reply to the news for half a day. This proves that the battle continues, and if Yan Shiqi wins, he will definitely come to the news, and if he is defeated, he will also reply to the news. Therefore, only when the battle was still going on, Yan Shiqi would not rush to contact the rear. So, why did the U.S. fleet rescue the damaged battleships when the battle was not over, and where was Yan Shiqi's battleship? Thinking of this, Yan Guozhong did not dare to hesitate. After receiving a telegram from Northeast Wei. He immediately sent a telegram out on the channel of the Third Task Force, asking Yan Shiqi what he was doing, and also bringing the Southwest Task Force to the battlefield. And the news of encountering six American battleships also went out.

After receiving the telegram, Yan Shiqi was immediately shocked, the six battleships of the US army were divided into two parts, and the distance was at least 15 nautical miles, and how could the southwest task force have two US battleship formations at the same time? The only explanation is that the fleet that came to the north was the Southwest Task Force, which mistook his four battleships and two "North Carolina"-class battleships for American ground battleships. At this time, Yan Shiqi immediately asked people to call Wei Dongbei from the channel used by the Southwest Task Force. And when Wei Dongbei received the call, he was also surprised. He also had a suspicion for a long time, the other side had six battleships, but the number of huge bombs that could fall to the ground was too small. At most, a battleship was shelling him. Now he also figured out that he was attacking his own people. After the two confirmed each other's identities, they immediately let their battleship withdraw. Wei sent an urgent telegram to the seven destroyers to attack the two American battleships. His telegram arrived only half a minute early, and if it had been half a minute late, the seven destroyers would have torpedoed at the 31 battleship formation commanded by Yan Shiqi.

It seems to be 4:18. Three battleships, in addition to the "Canton", had already fired twelve salves at each other, the "North Carolina" was hit by at least 12, and the "Washington"

The ship was enveloped in flames. The four "South Dakota" class ships under the command of Kincaid had already begun to target the "Chengdu" at the end of the 31 battleship formation with radar three minutes earlier, and had already fired two salvos. The distance between the two sides has been reduced to about 8 nautical miles.

Yan Shiqi immediately ordered the fleet to turn to the left, and then the "Chengdu" was hit by a shell, and the seaplane catapult behind the C turret was blown up, but the battleship did not lose its combat capability, and the fire caused by aviation gasoline was quickly extinguished. Yan Shiqi could no longer hold on to the two dying "North Carolina"-class battleships, so he had to turn the four battleships around as quickly as possible and aim all the guns at the American battleship formation. Although he was unwilling, Yan Shiqi had to leave the task of killing the two "North Carolina"-class battleships to the Southwest Task Force.

Wei Dongbei did not relent, he never dreamed that he would have the opportunity to take out two battleships.

By this time, he already had two cruisers in his hands that had been shelled by his own men, but all seven destroyers were intact. When the ship-by-ship formation in Area 323 needed to withdraw from the battlefield and reload the torpedo tubes, only the seven destroyers he had here still had torpedoes in the torpedo tubes.

The North Carolina had been reduced to 12 knots, and three of the 12 bombs penetrated the armor and exploded inside the hull, completely destroying the No. 1 and No. 3 boiler rooms, as well as the main power engine room. The "Washington" was hit by two torpedoes, and the three turrets on the battleship only had the two guns No. 1 and No. 2 of the C turret that could continue to fight, and the water intake of the battleship had reached 35oo tons, and the three huge shells under the waterline of the hull were on the left side, and the battleship had begun to tilt to the left, and its degree was reduced to about 1o knots.

The seven destroyers of the Southwestern Task Force rushed forward like seven short, skewed wolves. Because both battleships were slow and the steering was inflexible (the angle of steering had a lot to do with the ship's course), it was almost impossible to evade a torpedo attack. The secondary guns on the port side of these two battleships were almost completely destroyed, and the rate of fire of the main guns that could be used was too low, and it was difficult to intercept the destroyers that were very fast. Although both battleships were trying to turn to the destroyer on the starboard side, and to deal with the destroyer with a secondary gun that was still intact in the starboard direction, the problem was that it would take at least fifteen minutes for the two ships to turn around. And it only takes ten minutes for these destroyers to enter the torpedo range of 5 nautical miles, and fifteen minutes to close this distance to within 3 nautical miles! And at this distance, the hit rate of the torpedo will be more than two percent!

The end of these two battleships has also come. All seven destroyers locked the torpedo range at 3 nautical miles. There were 1o torpedoes on each destroyer, and as soon as the torpedoes were fired, the turn began. And the shells on the four cruisers commanded by Wei Dongbei also quickly greeted the battleship's surface, although these shells could not penetrate the battleship's main armor belt, but they could easily destroy all the secondary guns on the battleship, including anti-aircraft guns!

By 4:45, the "North Carolina" was hit by twelve torpedoes on the starboard side, and the "Washington" was hit by nine torpedoes. No matter how strong these two ships were, they were going to be finished. And to the east of these two battleships, the duel of the eight sea giants has reached the most critical stage.