While Yan Shiqi was in the final battle with Kincaid, the colonel commander of the Southwest Task Force was advancing towards his goal.

When he saw that the two American battleships that were torpedoed into the sea began to sink, Wei Dongbei's excitement also passed, and at this time he suddenly realized that he should not participate in the battle here, and the task given to him by Yan Guozhong was not to sink the American battleships, but to kill the American transport fleet. At this time, Wei Dongbei woke up like a dream, and immediately ordered the fleet to concentrate and look for the US convoy.

At this time, the 31st battleship formation and the battleship formation commanded by Kincaid were turning, and they were all preparing to open the queue for a battleline-style decisive battle. Wei Dongbei didn't want to block the shells for Yan Shiqi for no reason, his formation was directly north of the 31st battleship formation at that time, if he went directly south, the only result would be to rush to the 31st battleship formation and the American battleship formation, and then suffer from the shells! This is not a good thing, Wei Dongbei doesn't care about Yan Shiqi's life or death, according to his thoughts, Yan Shiqi is the best to be killed. It was impossible for him to go directly south, therefore, after collecting the previous destroyers that had been torpedoed, Wei Dongbei immediately let the fleet move in a northwesterly direction, moving south from the west of the 31st battleship formation.

The four cruisers and seven destroyers immediately began to add, and Wei Dongbei did not call the cruisers and destroyers of the Third Task Force that were engaged in a struggle with the American escort warships, and he was not qualified to command the battleships in the Third Task Force, and of course, he did not think of getting help from those warships. Even if the Southwest Task Force was missing two cruisers at this time, in Wei Dongbei's opinion, he still had enough strength to take out the American transport fleet.

The fleet had increased to 31 knots in 1o minutes, and at the same time reached 5 nautical miles west of the 31 battleship formation, heading south as fast as possible. Wei Dongbei did not forget to let the destroyer reload the torpedo tube with torpedoes, while the radar on the cruiser tried its best to search the sea area to the south. At this time, they were about 12 nautical miles away from the American battleships, and Kincaid did not have the fleet that was heading south.

At 4:55 a.m., the battleships on both sides re-formed the battle line. By the time the artillery bombardment began, the Southwest Combined Fleet under the command of Wei Dongbei had already rushed to the south of the battlefield. After determining that the U.S. fleet was about 14 nautical miles behind him (the maximum effective range of 4o6 mm guns), Wei Dongbei immediately dispersed four cruisers and sailed south in a horizontal column at intervals of 3 nautical miles, while the seven destroyers were also in a horizontal formation about two nautical miles behind the cruiser formation.

Northeast Wei was almost certain that the U.S. convoy was just south of Task Force 32 and was looking for an opportunity to head north. He scattered four cruisers over the sea at almost 1o nautical miles, while the radar on the battleship detected large transport ships at a distance of about 15 nautical miles. In other words, he can guarantee the US convoy on the current 4o nautical mile width, and this is almost the width of the entire Kuah Island.

In fact, it is exactly what it is. At 5:15 a.m., the radar of the heavy cruiser "Dahan," which was located in the westernmost part of the formation, appeared in the southwest direction, about 14 nautical miles. Then more and more "flashes" appeared on the radar screen. The news was immediately pierced into the hands of Wei Dongbei, who was on the "Duan Zhixuan". Without any hesitation, Wei Dongbei immediately ordered the four cruisers to move closer to the southwest, and at the same time let the seven destroyers also follow.

The place that Wei Dongbei found was not a US convoy, but a "Washington Express" that carried out escort missions in front of his convoy.

The U.S. military convoy reached the western waters of Rennell Island at two o'clock. At this time, the battle to the north was in full swing, so the convoy did not immediately go north, but decided to wait a while.

If Kincaid can take out Task Force 3. They could go north under the cover of the battleships, and if Kincaid couldn't beat them, they could make a detour north. Therefore. The convoy waited until 2:40, and when it was learned that Kincaid would not be able to defeat Task Force 3 at half a moment, the commander of the "Washington Express" escorting the convoy decided to bypass the battlefield to the west, avoid Task Force 3, and go to Kuah Island.

This "Washington Express" also came prepared. Kinkaid knew that in addition to the Tang Empire's Third Task Force operating near Kuah Island, there was also a relatively small fleet that had been operating near Kuah Island. Although much information indicated that the fleet remained at Bouin Anchorage in the morning, Kincaid was not at ease, so he arranged for the convoy a "Washington Express" with four light cruisers and eight destroyers. According to Kincaid's deployment, if he is unable to take out Task Force 3 for the time being. And if the small fleet of the Tang Empire also arrived at the battlefield, it was necessary to cover the transport fleet by this "Washington Express".

When Wei Dongbei rushed over, the "Washington Express" running about five nautical miles north of the convoy also happened to rush over. It is a pity that there is no radar on the light cruisers of the American army (originally two of them were equipped with radars, but they left the port before the radars were repaired, so the radars were not yet available). Just when Wei Dongbei ordered to prepare for artillery bombardment and let the destroyers prepare for torpedo attacks, the commander of the "Washington Express" did not know that a catastrophe was coming.

The muzzle flashes of the 2oomm and 24omm guns actually sounded the battle alarm for the Yankees, but it only took a minute for the shells to fly over a distance of 8 nautical miles. And in a minute, 12 American warships could not dodge at all. Then the 155-mm guns on the destroyers, which had already rushed through the cruiser formation, also opened fire. When the US commander reacted and gave the battle order, the four cruisers under the command of Wei Dongbei had already fired a second salvo and were approaching the front of the US formation.

When the shells of the second batch of heavy guns fell, the 155-mm guns and 127-mm guns on the American battleships also began to counterattack. When Wei Dongbei saw the flashes of those cannon muzzles in the southwest, he was first startled, and then he became excited. The "Washington" Express has not been to Kuah Island for nearly 10 days, and it seems that this time Kincaid has staked the last weight. Wei Dongbei was not afraid, the main guns of the four cruisers under his command could easily take out the American cruisers and destroyers, and although the 155mm guns equipped with the American cruisers also posed a threat to him, the accuracy of the 155mm guns was too low in long-range combat. The 127-mm guns of the American destroyers on the ground could hardly threaten the heavy cruisers when the combat distance was more than 5 nautical miles.

The northeastern side of Wei ordered the fleet to deviate a little north. In order to keep a good distance, order the destroyer to complete the torpedo attack as soon as possible, and then return to reload the torpedo (the "City" class destroyer has 2o spare torpedoes, plus the barrel, a total of 3 torpedo attacks). By this time, Wei Dongbei was still very clear about what his task was. In Yan Guozhong's arrangement, his first task was to intercept the US convoy and prevent it from reaching Kuah Island. And on top of that. Only when there is a chance to annihilate the transport fleet of the American army. In other words, as long as he intercepts the US military transport fleet outside Kuah Island, then he has already completed the task, and whether he can annihilate the US transport ships needs to be determined by the situation on the battlefield. At this time, by keeping the fleet north of the US fleet, he could ensure that the US transport fleet could not go north, and he had no need to let the fleet go up and fight a bloody battle with the US army.

The "Washington Express" has also been lowered, and those American warships will first deal with the opposing destroyers. And not the cruiser in the back. The commander of the US military is also well aware. Torpedo attacks were more deadly, whether they were his cruisers or destroyers. None can afford to withstand torpedoes, one torpedo is enough to destroy a cruiser. Therefore, he had to distance himself and deal with those destroyers first, and then find a way to rush up and take out the opposing cruisers.

Two of the seven "City" class destroyers were almost crippled during their approach, but the US 155-mm and 127-mm ground shells could not directly hit the destroyers' ground power compartments, so they could not stop them completely. The design of the armored deck used in the design of the destroyers of the "City" class played a large role, and the additional displacement of several hundred tons for this was completely valuable. Although these destroyers were all shelled, and the surface of the ship was riddled with bullets. But they are all moving forward. Approaching 3 nautical miles, the seven destroyers turned almost simultaneously and fired torpedoes. At the same time as the stormy shells hit, the destroyers who had fired the torpedoes immediately turned and fled, and the two destroyers, who had already been badly damaged at the beginning, had no such good luck, and the rain of bullets almost enveloped the two destroyers, and they were also beaten into two drifting bonfires.

The "Washington Express" immediately began to turn to evade torpedo attacks, and taking advantage of this opportunity, Wei Dongbei let the cruiser formation turn again. At the same time, the distance was shortened by 3 nautical miles. On the "Washington Express"

As soon as they turned around, only one light cruiser and two destroyers were torpedoed, and the four cruisers on the northeastern side of Wei formed a formation again and resumed shelling at a distance of less than 5 nautical miles from the American battleships. At this time, the rain of bullets became more intensive, and the "Washington Express" fell into chaos, and for a while, the US warships could only fight on their own and could not form effective fleet firepower, and those US destroyers that were hit by the focus did not even have a chance to go forward to carry out torpedo attacks. In just five minutes, three other U.S. destroyers were hit by 2oo mm or 24o mm shells and disappeared from the sea with explosions, while the other three U.S. destroyers were also hit by 12o mm high-level dual-purpose artillery shells into a hornet's nest.

Just as Wei Dongbei was trying his best to pack up the "Washington" Express, three huge explosions from the south frightened him to jump up. When he reacted, he realized that it was three torpedoes that had begun to shoot misses and had accidentally hit the US transport ship, and the US transport fleet was about 1 sun to the south of them! And these transport ships are less than 5 nautical miles away from the "Washington Express", while the torpedo range used on the destroyers of the Tang Empire is about 8 nautical miles, that is, the dozens of torpedoes that were missed actually inadvertently hit the US transport ships following the "Washington Express"!

Then there was a flash of fire on the southern sea, not from the explosion of the transport, but from the muzzle of the cannon fire. Wei Dongbei was shocked again, but after two minutes, there were still no shells falling, and now he was a little puzzled, if it was a US warship, then the shells should have fallen, otherwise, those US warships were shelling other targets. Wei Dongbei immediately asked the staff officer to ask the radar operator to confirm that there were no other warships moving ten nautical miles away. So, what exactly are those "American" warships shelling? Unless, it's not the American warships that are shelling, it's their friendly forces that are shelling!

This time, Wei Dongbei was much more careful, on the one hand, he ordered the five destroyers to reload their torpedoes, and on the other hand, he asked the five destroyers to quickly bypass the "Washington Express" to intercept the American transport ships to the south, and confirm whether the battleships that were firing their guns were friendly or enemy. Of course, he did not forget to continue to pack up the few American cruisers and destroyers that were still breathing, and the cruiser formation began to move south.

Wei Dongbei's guess was not wrong, it was not the American warship, but the two cruisers of the 34th cruiser formation in the third task force were shelling the American transport ships. After Yan Shiqi gave the order for the cruisers in the fleet to intercept the US transport ships, only the two cruisers in the 34th cruiser formation that could continue to sail could bypass from the east side of the battlefield. And the 224th Area ship-by-ship formation studied the U.S. warship fighting in the 32nd Task Force. The two cruisers immediately headed south, bypassing about 13 nautical miles east of the American battleship formation, and then sailed westward, rushing directly in front of the American transport fleet. When the three transports were torpedoed by a destroyer of the Southwestern Task Force, the two cruisers opened fire (the radar on the battleship had already been damaged).

Wei Dongbei contacted the two cruisers at about 5:50, and at this time the "Washington Express" was also finished, and only one light cruiser escaped from the battlefield. Without any hesitation, Wei Dongbei immediately led four cruisers to the south to annihilate the American transport ships, expand the results of the battle, or complete additional tasks!