Nie Renfeng's plan for a naval reorganization was discussed in the cabinet for several days. Previously, in order to prevent the monopoly of generals, the Imperial Cabinet strictly limited the delegation of too much power to overseas generals, as this would directly affect the cabinet's control over the military. However, now that the empire is at war, most cabinet officials are well aware that this reorganization plan will allow overseas generals to gain more power, but in the end, Prime Minister Xue Xiyue still approved the reorganization plan, and at the same time put Nie Renfeng in full charge of the reorganization operation. At the same time, he put forward a new requirement to Nie Renfeng, after the Navy completed the reorganization, it was necessary to save the passive situation on the battlefield in the first half of the second year of the war and gain part of the initiative.

Nie Renfeng accepted this "request", but he only had less than seven months left. After the prime minister's letter of appointment was issued, Nie Renfeng immediately set about reorganizing the imperial navy.

The Fourth Fleet and the Independent Fleet, which operated in the Atlantic, were reorganized into the South Atlantic Fleet, and the South Atlantic Theater Command was located in Cape Town, and the commander of the task force, Weng Yiming, was appointed commander of the South Atlantic Theater and promoted to admiral at the same time (the theater commanders were both admirals). The appointment and dismissal of other personnel in the region was directly delegated by Nie Renfeng to General Weng Yiming, who arranged it himself, and then submitted a report, which took effect immediately after Nie Renfeng's approval.

The remnants of the Third Fleet, which had retreated to Colombo, were reorganized into the Indian Ocean Fleet, and the Fleet Commander, Rear Admiral Gong Daifan, was also the commander of the Indian Ocean Theater (not promoted). The theater headquarters is located in Colombo, and the personnel arrangements for the Indian Ocean theater are arranged by Gong Daifan himself.

The Fifth Fleet was reorganized into the Western Pacific Fleet, and Wu Xianyu still served as the commander of the fleet, and at the same time was the commander of the theater of operations, and was promoted to admiral, and the theater headquarters was located in Dagu. However, Wu Xianyu did not have the right to arrange personnel, and the personnel arrangements in the Western Pacific Theater were directly responsible for the Navy Command, after all, this was the most important theater command of the Imperial Navy.

The Pacific theater of operations is temporarily vacant, and the Pacific Fleet is also temporarily vacant.

This set of personnel arrangements took more than a month, and during this period of more than a month, the warships of the Fifth Fleet returned to the major shipyards one after another to receive improvements, and one of the main tasks of the improvement was to equip the ships with newly equipped 40-mm naval anti-aircraft guns, so as to enhance the air defense combat capability of the navy's warships.

This twin 40-mm caliber anti-aircraft cannon was actually "transplanted" from the army. At that time, the Imperial Army had three caliber anti-aircraft guns, of which the 40 good machine anti-aircraft machine guns were the smallest in the mouth, mainly responsible for low-altitude air defense operations, and their performance was much better than the quadruple 40-mm anti-aircraft guns equipped on naval warships. Now the navy has also given up the "gateway view" and admitted that the performance of this kind of army air defense artillery is better, so it directly took this kind of air cannon, and then added some equipment suitable for sea operations, improved some places, and directly installed it on the warship. Although this gun is two-packed, each with two less barrels, its rate of fire has been increased to 120 rounds per minute, and the failure rate is lower, and after the use of large-charge shells, the firing height has been increased to 5,000 meters, and its elevation angle has reached 95 degrees, which can attack enemy aircraft above the head of the battleship. These are all performance advantages that the 40mm guns previously equipped with by the Navy did not have.

Tan Renhao was slightly disappointed that the progress of the development of the anti-aircraft artillery shells equipped with electromagnetic proximity fuses proposed by the Navy was not going smoothly and could not be put into production in a short period of time; although the firing elevation angle of the 120-mm air gun on the battleship had been increased to 85 degrees, and it had the ability to deal with enemy planes overhead, the performance of the 120 mm air gun had basically reached the limit, and it would be difficult to improve it if there were no new shells.

At that time, the only remaining escort warships of the Fifth Fleet were the flagship "Li Jing", three other heavy cruisers, eight destroyers, two heavy cruisers and four light cruisers that had only recently been commissioned. It's a lot weaker than it used to be, but it's still much stronger than nothing.

The day after Nie Renfeng put on the admiral's epaulette for Wu Xianyu, Tan Renhao was called to Nie Renfeng's office. Admiral Gan Yongxing, chief of staff of the Navy, was also here, and Tan Renhao could see at a glance that Nie Renfeng was going to arrange a new position for him.

"Colonel, please be seated!" Nie Renfeng has always been very polite to his students, which is also an important reason why he is respected by many disciples, "Originally, I wanted to promote you to Commodore Admiral, but considering that you are now the highest-ranking one among the 192 students, if I promote you again, someone will definitely come to me to trouble." However, I believe that it will not be long before the next time I look for you, I will put you with the rank of general. ”

Tan Renhao laughed awkwardly, being able to become a colonel of the Imperial Navy at the age of less than 23 already made him feel very satisfied, if in peacetime, he would now be a captain officer at most.

"Okay, let's talk nonsense, let's get down to business." Nie Renfeng said, and nodded at Gan Yongxing.

"Colonel, with your personal abilities, we all feel that it is simply a waste of talent to keep you in the Navy Command to continue to do these civilian things." Gan Yongxing laughed, he is an alumnus of Tan Renhao, and he can also be regarded as Tan Renhao's senior brother. "So, we decided to let you go out there and use your abilities. Now, you have two options. ”

Tan Renhao immediately concentrated his energy, and at the same time smiled reluctantly at Admiral Gan Yongxing.

"First, it is to go to the Indian Ocean Fleet, where there is a great need for talents, and the danger is not great, we can arrange a position for you as a fleet staff officer, of course, it is a very important staff officer." Gan Yongxing paused slightly, "In addition, you can choose to go to the Western Pacific Fleet, Admiral Wu Xianyu has already greeted us several times, I must let you go back, in addition, Admiral Liao Hanxiang also called, thinking that you have a better future for the development of the Western Pacific Fleet." Of course, we respect your choice, which is a tradition of our Navy. ”

Tan Renhao barely needed to think about it to know which side to choose.

"You don't need to rush to make a choice, though." Nie Renfeng spoke before Tan Renhao made a choice, "We have two different strategic counterattack plans here, I think, you'd better take a look at it first, and then tell us your choice!" ”

Tan Renhao was slightly surprised, but he still took the document from Nie Renfeng's hand.