The fleet left the port of Canton on the night of the 25th. The aircraft carrier "Yangtze River" returned to the port at three o'clock in the afternoon to replenish fuel and ammunition. The other warships had already completed their preparations for sailing. Tan Renhao also boarded the "Yangtze River" aircraft carrier before the fleet went out, and he vetoed Hao Dongjue's suggestion and insisted on using the "Yangtze River" as the flagship of the fleet, so as to indicate that the aircraft carrier had completely recovered its combat effectiveness, but in fact this was not the case.

At the time of the fleet's departure, nearly 30 percent of the "Yangtze River" maintenance work had not been completed, mainly minor repair work such as the repair of some cabins and the installation of watertight doors. Tan Renhao did not wait any longer, he left more than 50 engineers and technicians and more than 500 workers on the aircraft carrier, and at the same time piled up the necessary spare parts and materials in the hangar of the aircraft carrier, so that these personnel could continue to maintain the aircraft carrier while the aircraft carrier was sailing, and the officers and men of the fleet who boarded the aircraft carrier would also participate in the maintenance work. In any case, the fleet will definitely stop at Naha or Keelung Harbor once before arriving in the war zone, and then let the workers and technicians go ashore at that time, and the fighters deployed to the aircraft carrier will first go to Naha and then land on the aircraft carrier halfway. In other words, the "Yangtze River" was not completely repaired at all when it came out, and it went into battle with injuries.

The maintenance work was assigned to the staff officer of the fleet in charge of logistics, and Tan Renhao, who was in charge of logistics, had already focused his attention on this combat operation the moment he boarded the battleship. In fact, as early as the 23rd, the Navy Command sent over a detailed plan for this campaign operation. Tan Renhao only read it roughly at that time, and then asked Hao Dongjue to organize the fleet staff to study and familiarize himself with this battle plan, while he still went all out to assist the engineers in repairing the aircraft carrier. On the evening of the day of the voyage, Tan Renhao convened a meeting of all the staff officers.

"This combat operation is very crucial, no matter what role we play, no matter how powerful our enemy is, I have enough confidence to win the final victory, and my confidence is based on the high morale of all the officers and men of the fleet!"

Tan Renhao glanced at the more than forty fleet staff officers in the command cabin. "What you have to do is to do your duty, stick to your post, do every job well, and pay attention to every change. You may not feel the importance of this work, but I believe that when each and every one of us does his job beautifully. Then victory will come to the door. From then on, the fleet entered a state of combat readiness and assigned tasks in accordance with Class B combat readiness. Victory is in front of us, in your hands, let's seize it together! ”

When Tan Renhao clenched his fist and raised his right hand, all the staff officers made the same move, they had to seize this chance to win!

"Chief of Staff. The specific tasks were immediately arranged. ”

Tan Renhao put down his hand. Then he lowered his voice and said, "Wait until you come to me." ”

Hao Dongjue nodded, and when Tan Renhao walked out of the command cabin. He immediately began to arrange the work of the staff headquarters. This was the first time he had performed the basic duties of the chief of staff of the fleet (assisting the commander in directing the combat operations of the fleet), but before that, Hao Dongjue had been in the fleet staff for several years, and he was very familiar with the structure of the fleet staff and even more familiar with the work of the chief of staff of the fleet, so he was also very easy to do.

Tan Renhao didn't worry about the trivial matters of the fleet staff, he believed in Hao Dongjue's ability, a chief of staff who had been trained in the fleet for several years, proficient in aviation operations, and was very familiar with the staff officers. Perhaps the best chief of staff of Task Force 1. The commander's private cabin is the largest living cabin on the entire aircraft carrier, only about 10 square meters, only enough to arrange a one-meter-wide single bed, a desk against the wall, an iron wardrobe, and two iron-framed chairs.

A copy of the battle plan was placed on the desk, and Tan Renhao hadn't had time to read it carefully. When Hao Dongjue went to arrange the work of the fleet staff, he seized the time to read the most important parts of the plan (which will be marked) in detail. As a matter of fact. This is not the full battle plan, but only the part of Task Force 1 and the part related to Task Force 1's operations.

When Hao Dongjue rushed over, Tan Renhao had already finished reading the key parts, and now he had even more headaches.

"I'm starving to death if I didn't eat dinner first."

Hao Dongjue brought two boxed lunches and two bottles of beer. "Finished reading the campaign plan?"

Tan Renhao nodded slightly, and then opened the tin lunch box, he has been busy since the afternoon, let alone eating, and he hasn't even drunk a few sips of water.

"This time, Lao Lei and Lao Chang are going to be happy."

Hao Dongjue directly bit the lid of the beer bottle with his mouth, "But it's better to give them a hand than to give someone a part-time job." ”

"Who's to say we have to be a part-time worker for Task Force 2?"

Tan Renhao took the beer bottle, "I don't think so. If Shaoqing and Lao Chang have the ability, then go for it themselves. Brothers to brothers, fighting to fighting, this is the same thing. I'm not going to save their face and leave the fat for Task Force 2. ”

"But according to the current plan......"

"The plan is the plan, the so-called generals are not awarded the military life abroad, what are you worried about so much? As long as we do not violate the overall principles and do not destroy the overall campaign plan, how to fight is up to us, not others! ”

Tan Renhao laughed: "Although there are only two aircraft carriers in the fleet now, it depends on who will command it." We've won with the same forces before, so why not this time? ”

Hao Dongjue also laughed. "Renhao, what are your plans?"

"Eat first, I won't go hungry to war!"

The two quickly eliminated the meal, and Hao Dongjue didn't bother to take out the lunch box. When Tan Renhao opened the battle plan, he threw his lunch box on the floor next to the door, and then spread a map on the table.

"First of all, we must have a general understanding of the enemy's deployment and configuration."

Tan Renhao pressed the two opposite corners of the map with a teacup ashtray: "Judging from the intelligence provided by the Navy Command, the two task forces of the United States have been reorganized, and it is most likely that the four aircraft carriers will be evenly distributed, and they will not be biased towards one fleet like the last time. ”

"It's very likely, there is only one sneak attack, unless the Yankees are 100% sure. Otherwise, they would not dare to disperse their forces. ”

Hao Dongjue took out a cigarette, "And these two fleets will definitely act together, at least they will be deployed nearby, maintaining mutual support and cover, and they will not be very separated." ”

"It's a possibility, but it's not certain."

Tan Renhao took the cigarette: "The U.S. intelligence system will soon know that we have left the port of Guangzhou. Although the Imperial intelligence assured that it would confuse its opponents, and the United States was unlikely to believe that the Yangtze River had regained its combat effectiveness in such a short period of time. But U.S. commanders will still be vigilant as a result. If the two fleets were to be put together, the danger would be great. Even if you get closer, it's easy to be exposed. Therefore, I don't think the U.S. fleet should get too close, at most in the planning of patrol routes, so that the two fleets will not be attacked at the same time, and they will be able to bomb us at the same time. ”

"The premise of this is that the U.S. Navy must know the specific areas we patrol."

Tan Renhao smiled and shook his head. "Does that need to be said? This time our mission was to make the bait. Even if it is not revealed. We'll all have to deliberately signal that the enemy can roughly determine where we are. What else are we bait? ”

Hao Dongjue immediately laughed, to make a good bait, and not be able to bite the bait eaten by a shark, that is really a difficult job.

"The biggest problem now is that we don't know who the commander of the enemy fleet is."

Tan Renhao opened the intelligence document attached to the campaign plan: "There are so many generals in the Pacific Fleet of the US Navy, and if you count them from the rear admiral, there are more than a dozen people who can serve as fleet commanders. The intelligence services have invested so little in this area that we simply cannot accurately grasp the capabilities of these American generals, let alone judge who will be the commander of the fleet. ”

"Since we don't even know the characteristics of these generals. Isn't it the same who is the commander of the fleet? ”

Hearing Hao Dongjue say this, Tan Renhao immediately laughed, and he also drilled a dead end. "Well, we'll leave that alone for now. The U.S. fleet left Pearl Harbor on the 22nd, and if they had been refueled at Midway or Wake Island, they would have reached the waters near the Mariana Islands by now. ”

"Maybe you've entered the mobile standby area, waiting for us to throw us into our arms!"

Tan Renhao ignored Hao Dongjue's joke. "So. In which areas of the U.S. fleet will operate? ”

Both fell silent, and their eyes fell on the chart. It is of the utmost importance to determine the sea area where the enemy fleet is most likely to appear, and if it is not possible to make a general judgment first, then it will be very difficult, almost impossible, to find a fleet over the vast ocean.

"It's certainly not the eastern and northeastern seas of the archipelago."

Hao Dongjue spoke first, he picked up a pencil and a scale bar, and drew an arc and a quarter arc on the map. "This arc is the reconnaissance range of our bombers deployed on the Ogasawara Islands and Iwo Jima, and the arc in the middle is the submarine cordon. While it was highly likely that the U.S. fleet would have evaded bomber searches and avoided those submarines, there was no reason for them to risk being struck by hundreds of bombers and enter waters of little operational value. Unless the U.S. Navy plans to attack Iwo Jima and the Ogasawara Islands before we do. ”

Tan Renhao also picked up a pencil and traced a few points on the chart. The intelligence department affirmed that the United States was not ready to attack Iwo Jima and the Ogasawara Islands, otherwise the American fleet would not have left Pearl Harbor until 22 July. In addition, the Navy's reconnaissance planes did not show the United States' desire to send an additional 6 Corps to the Mariana Islands. This piece of information should be reliable, and without the fleet, the attack on Iwo Jima and the Ogasawara Islands would not have been possible without the 6th Sentai Squadron.

"If it is only to protect the Mariana Islands, then the safest thing for the U.S. Navy is to ensure that their fleet is not destroyed by us and not by us now. As long as the U.S. fleet is still active, as long as those four aircraft carriers have not been killed or brought back to Pearl Harbor, then we will not be able to move the 6 campaign. ”

Hao Dongjue looked at the points described by Tan Renhao and didn't understand what this meant: "If this is the case, then the U.S. fleet is most likely to appear between the Mariana Islands, the Hall Islands, and the Marshall Islands, of which the Hall Islands are the most likely." ”

The U.S. military has military bases in the Hall Islands, as well as the neighboring Caroline Islands and the Marshall Islands, and several islands have airfields for heavy bombers to take off and land. Although the U.S. military has not yet deployed bombers to these airfields, the Yankees can use their base network to deploy heavy bombers and fighter jets to these islands at any time as long as they wish. And these fighters can not only provide cover for the fleet, but also act as the eyes of the fleet, and if necessary, attack the approaching fleet of the Tang Empire. In other words, if the US fleet operates in the waters of the Hall Islands, it is acting under the cover of shore-based aviation.

"If that's the case, we're in big trouble."

Tan Renhao flipped through the map in the battle plan, "This is our scheduled patrol area, 55o nautical miles north of the Hall Islands, which is completely beyond the range of bombers. ”

"It's just the plan, it's up to us."

Both laughed, their mission was to find the American fleet, and the Navy command did not make it clear. Of course, if you want to let the fleet go south, then it is very dangerous, and you need to seek cooperation.

"Okay, when I get to Naha, I'll go to Shaoqing to discuss."

Tan Renhao said as he connected the dots with lines: "It seems that we have to find a way to persuade the chief of staff to persuade Lei Shaoqing to make a small revision to the campaign plan this time." ”

Hao Dongjue glanced at Tan Renhao, and when he saw the red lines on the charts, he hesitated for a moment and didn't understand what it meant, and then immediately laughed, it turned out that Tan Renhao had already had his own thoughts!