Almost just when Wu Hongyuan was worried that he would not be able to find the main US fleet, the US Second Pacific Fleet, which was moving to the Marshall Islands, unexpectedly received classified information from Brisbane, and the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet in Brisbane forwarded a telegram from the destroyer USS Fira, a US destroyer that was conducting a reconnaissance cruise north from the Solomon Islands and accidentally spotted a fleet group 300 kilometers west of the island of Micronesia, including the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong.

Later, when the destroyer Fira tried to get close to observe, it was attacked by two Chinese destroyers escorting the aircraft carrier, and it took a lot of effort to disengage, because the destroyer commander, Major Olsen, had already learned the news of the second squadron from the Pacific Ship Headquarters, so he reported it upward, and assumed that he had found the traces of the Chinese Grand Fleet.

In fact, the Fila did encounter the Shandong aircraft carrier unexpectedly, but the reason why the aircraft carrier formation appeared here was that it had to sail continuously against the wind for nearly 30 hours to conduct a large-scale search with take-off and landing reconnaissance planes, which caused the Shandong aircraft carrier to leave the main fleet under the jurisdiction of Tangzhen at a great distance, and the six Changbaishan-class large destroyers belonging to the 7th Destroyer Fleet escorted the aircraft carrier.

The USS Fira destroyer that sent back the message this time is the latest Vickers-class destroyer of the US Navy at present, but it is completely unable to confront the Changbaishan-class in terms of tonnage and speed, and the reason why it was able to finally get rid of the blow of the two Changbaishan-class destroyers is that the seventh destroyer formation wants to escort the Shandong aircraft carrier, and it is impossible to break away from the formation to pursue!

Commodore Lucius was skeptical of the news, and he immediately sent a telegram to Brisbane to confirm it, but soon received similar information, although the news seemed to be very convincing, the cautious Brigadier Lucius had no intention of making a new plan, but Vice Admiral Albert, who was also informed, was obviously not willing to let the Second Squadron become a chicken rib in the whole battle.

At 4:30 p.m., Brigadier General Lucius received a new order from the new Vice Admiral Eber, considering that the Chinese Grand Fleet and the Second Battleship Formation now have a huge space of more than 200 kilometers, and the two sides are still separated by a Carbonesian Islands area, so Vice Admiral Abel ordered the Second Battleship Formation to adjust its tactical arrangements and first to the north and then to the west to approach the main fleet.

Vice Admiral Eber's consideration is obviously also grounded, the three battleships and a small group of destroyers of the Second Squadron are not small combat power no matter how you look at it, and when going deep into the Chinese controlled Pacific hinterland, the Chinese Grand Fleet is a big problem that the United States and Britain combined fleets have to consider, and after opening the voyage for nearly 2 days, he did not expect Lucius to join the attack on Guam.

However, in the entire battle plan, attacking Guam and destroying the most important military stronghold of the Chinese on the Pacific route was actually only a key point in the entire campaign, and finally taking the siege of the island as an opportunity to attract the possible fleet of the Chinese and grasp the best time to complete the attack on the Chinese mobile fleet, this is the grand strategy he hopes to complete.

The results of the many engagements between the Chinese and American navies, and the pain of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, have long made it clear to him that the rise of China's navy and military power was completed by stepping on a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, and the United States was once one of those stepping stones, so prudence and caution were his only choice, as for whether the goal can be achieved, at least for now, Abel is still full of confidence.

After receiving the order of the Grand Fleet, it was clear that Commodore Lucius could no longer have any excuse to continue the return voyage to the Marshall Islands, and he immediately asked the surveying officer to re-mark a return route, and at this moment, the Second Squadron was 130 kilometers east of the Micronesian Islands, and to the north was a reef group with a radius of more than 50 kilometers, which was only suitable for small fleets to pass through, and it was obviously impossible for the battleship formation to choose a direct north.

"General, we can continue to sail eastward, and then go north to bypass the reef area, which is relatively only a few hours longer voyage......" The fleet staff officer on the side cautiously reminded, "If we turn around and go west and then north, when we return to the west side of the reef area, it is estimated that it will be before sunset, in that case, the fleet will sail north and pass through the reef area at the beginning, and the night will affect our navigation observation!" ”

Lucius naturally understood the intention of the staff officer's suggestion, and the previous one-sided air strike, even he, the military commander, had greatly affected his will to fight, not to mention the other low-level officers and soldiers in the fleet, after confirming the news of getting rid of the Chinese fleet from the Tai Ship General and the Grand Fleet, he actually had great doubts.

However, in any case, the Tai Ship General and the Grand Fleet should have more intelligence sources than themselves, and, judging from the tactical point of view, Vice Admiral Abor put into effect the plan to attack Guam, and it is impossible for the Chinese not to respond positively, so since Vice Admiral Abel has made a judgment, he is also sure that the battle order should be carried out as soon as possible.

After only a few minutes of consideration, Commodore Lucius made a decision, "Immediately issue an order to the destroyer formation to meet us as soon as possible, and at the same time give an order to the USS Nebraska and USS Louisiana, and we turn around and immediately carry out the rendezvous order!" ”

"General, will the Russell supply ship continue to follow us, First Officer Morpheus said that they urgently need to stop the ship for maintenance, and the continued voyage has made the Russell's mechanical condition very bad!" The telegraph officer had just finished sending the telegram, but he had brought new news.

The supply ship Russell is not a military supply ship, but a large American coal carrier temporarily requisitioned before the war, which provides supplies for the detachment after adding oil tanks, Commodore Lucius naturally understands the meaning of Russell's existence, and it is impossible for the fleet to slow down for any replenishment after the withdrawal of the whole day after the defeat in the previous battle with the Chinese fleet, and the Marshall Islands, the destination of the fleet, is also completely dependent on the supply capacity, so he will not consider carrying out a replenishment operation at sea at all.

However, the possibility of emergency breaking the fleet's supply to the Marshalls, and the Russell's poor endurance after continuing to sail at high speed was magnified in wartime, and he immediately ordered another telegram to send the first mate Morpheus to the flagship to report, and 20 minutes later, the news brought by the veteran captain poured cold water on Commodore Lucius.

One of the Russell's supply vessels overheated and shut down, which was not a fatal problem, after all, the Russell had eight boilers, and the big problem was that both engines also had mechanical failures, and only one engine could be used to provide time for maintenance on the other engine, but this obviously did not solve the problem.

"General, the ship's coal and heavy oil reserves have been reported, the fuel reserves of the destroyer formation are close to 40% of the alert, the coal and heavy oil reserves of the USS Nebraska and Louisiana are 55% and 60% respectively, and the fuel reserves of the flagship battleship Delaware are 67%, and we will need a refueling before joining the main fleet!" At the same time, the staff officer gave a good assessment of the situation.

Looking at the setting sun, a huge shadow in Lucius's heart made him make a decisive decision, "The Russell must maintain its current state and follow the fleet, no later than 10 o'clock tomorrow morning, the fleet will arrange for replenishment at sea, at that time, the first mate Morpheus can return to the Marshall Islands for maintenance on his own after completing the replenishment mission!" ”

This seemed to be a good decision, at least from the perspective of Brigadier Lucius It was the best plan, and after the U.S. Second Squadron turned to sail westward for 50 minutes, at 5:40 p.m., a small water reconnaissance plane flew across the sunset, and the very tired pilot Wu Xun held his bloodshot eyes and stared closely at a few black spots on the sea in the distance......

This is a water reconnaissance plane dropped from the flagship of the Guam detachment Guangzhou, Tang Zhen led the main fleet all the way to chase after it, but after chasing for a whole day, he did not catch up with the Yankees, which was looking for people on the vast sea, especially after a night of mutual maneuvering and dislocation, if he wanted to find the opponent, it was indeed not small, in order to find the other party's position, Tang Zhen ordered the Shandong aircraft carrier to continue to release carrier-based aircraft, but the result was still nothing......

Lucius's fleet was more than 200 kilometers away from the Shandong aircraft carrier before, and the effective range of today's carrier-based aircraft to complete the sea search will not exceed 150 kilometers......

Twenty-five minutes later, the YG-I water reconnaissance plane piloted by Wu Xun dropped a message bottle on the Chang'an, which was sailing in formation...... No, it should be the other party who bumped into it!

Tang Zhen stood in front of the chart and looked at the sunset that was already hanging on the sea level diagonally outside the gaze window...... MMD, that's a lot of time...... At this moment, the coordinates of the two sides have been plotted, and the distance is less than 60 kilometers, which means that the time point of direct contact between the two sides is about 1 hour later...... However, by then, the sun will almost go down!

As a naval commander who was born as a shooting officer, Tang Zhen naturally understood what this meant, the night obscured the horizon, and the conditions most needed for the battle would become extremely harsh, although the Chinese Navy had already trained night combat as a standard subject, but this did not mean that the desired results could be achieved, and under the cover of darkness, the weak would get more benefits!

However, since he had already been seated, how could he stop there, he immediately vetoed the idea of delaying the battle until the early morning of the next day, and made a firm decision - "night battle!! ”

[The recent update is not effective, dear book friends, sorry sorry!!]

I have written a book for a few years, Xuepiao's own work is also sitting at the desk every day, and the code word is also sitting at the desk at night, almost sitting for more than ten hours a day, a few years down, the physical condition is very unsatisfactory, but it is not a situation such as illness, but the cervical spine, migraine and other sub-health conditions are very obvious, I have always wanted to make some adjustments, and I am working hard to adjust in the near future, hoping to change this sub-health state as soon as possible!

Finally, I would like to thank you again for your support, Xue Piao reminds the brothers to also pay attention to health and moderate exercise, the body is the capital of the revolution, it is really a big truth! (To be continued.) )