The Japanese pilots kept complaining, and soon they pulled up the nose of the plane, and they could not find the infantry but could find the tanks of the Don Army. However, they soon discovered that a 7.7 mm caliber bullet, even with additional muzzle velocity attached to the aircraft, could not penetrate the armor of the Tang Army tank, even if it was a light tank.

The Nakajima fighter can carry two 30-kilogram aerial bombs, although it is a small comparison with the 500-kilogram aerial bombs of the Tang Army, but it is still a great threat to the ground forces of the Tang Army. It's a pity that the Japanese fighters were looking for the Tang fighters for air combat this time, and they did not carry aerial bombs, so the Tang army escaped a catastrophe.

The Japanese aircraft group circled in the air for more than an hour, and they successfully stopped the offensive of the Don Army.

At the same time, the Japanese First Squadron also sailed to the vicinity of Majuro Atoll.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Zheng Shaoqiu, commander of the 1st Marine Division of the Tang Army, immediately ordered the Tang Army to stick to their respective positions and switch from attack to defense.

"Knock knock!"

The guns of two Japanese heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and four destroyers opened heavy fire, and the positions of the Tang artillery regiments deployed on Anigu Island, opposite Jarrett Island, were suddenly heavily shelled.

The artillery regiment of the Tang Army did not dare to fight hard with the firepower of the Japanese fleet, and Zheng Shaoqiu urgently ordered the artillery regiment to withdraw from its position.

Seeing the Japanese ships flaunting their might on the sea, the Tang army could only watch but had no way at all.

Zheng Shaoqiu immediately sent a telegram to the Supreme Commander Zhang Meng for instructions, and Zhang Meng was also taken aback when he learned of this sudden situation, and urgently ordered the 1st Marine Division to hold on and wait for reinforcements.

"This Kobayashi is worthy of being a famous admiral of the Japanese Navy. What a skill! ”

Zhang Meng sat down slowly, took the grape wine handed over by Yang Yi, and tasted it slowly.

Although Kobayashi saw through Zhang Meng's tactical deployment. But he still couldn't turn the tide of this naval battle, but the limitations of his time still constrained him.

"It was a mistake in our intelligence, and several submarines responsible for monitoring the Japanese Combined Fleet failed to report the situation in a timely manner."

"There is no way to do this, the planes cannot detect at night, and the speed of the submarines cannot catch up with the fast fleet. We can get rid of the Japanese reconnaissance at night, and the Japanese can also use the night to get rid of our reconnaissance. ”

Zhang Meng paused, and then said: "It's undeniable. Kobayashi is indeed a genius in traditional naval warfare, but it is a pity that he does not understand the use of aviation, and he is destined to be unable to defeat us. ”

Li Haichen asked, "Your Highness." Now that we know that the two Japanese aircraft carriers are near Majuro, should we kill these two aircraft carriers first? ”

Zhang Meng nodded and said, "That's right, order the electronic combat ship to immediately search for the location of the Japanese aircraft carrier." They must also be looking everywhere for the location of our aircraft carriers. Therefore, each aircraft carrier was ordered to keep a squadron of fighters on alert in the air at all times. ”

"Yes!"

"It would be nice if there was a radar!"

"What is radar?"

"A subject that we are speeding up our research on, and it will be possible to detect the equipment of enemy ships even in foggy and dark nights!"

"If we have radar, then the enemy ships will have nowhere to hide, and won't our planes bomb whoever they want, invincible?"

"The theory is like that!"

Zhang Meng smiled and nodded, without explaining too much, just let him understand.

Li Haichen was immediately overjoyed, and at the same time admired Zhang Meng even more. He knew that the young commander in front of him was the one who really created the myth. When he followed Zhang Meng at the beginning, Li Haichen had no bottom in his heart. Until now, he believes in Zhang Meng more and more, and only with whom Zhang Meng can bring his military career to the peak and fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a famous Shijie general.

At this time, the first wave of fighters all completed the recovery task.

Zhao Changzhi and Li Jianhui happily walked in, gave Zhang Meng a standard military salute, and then began to talk rhetorically about how they tortured and killed the little Japanese devils.

"Your next mission is to find the two Japanese aircraft carriers and sink them by all means. As long as these two Japanese aircraft carriers are destroyed, we will win the war. In other words, the next battle is very crucial, and I hope that the two will work together to make another meritorious contribution to the Tang Empire. ”

"Please rest assured, Your Highness, resolutely complete the task!"

Zhang Meng nodded, and asked again, "How are those Siberian tigers?" ”

Zhao Changzhi and Li Jianhui glanced at each other, and the former said: "Report to Your Highness, the run-in is basically smooth, and they have settled down after learning that the Nationalist Government has no intention of recovering the Northeast." When I taught the little Japanese devils a lesson just now, they shouted the fiercest and fought the hardest, and I believe that in the next battle, they will be more active in preparing for battle. ”

Li Jianhui added: "I have to say that Gao Zhihang, Zhao Wenyi, Wan Xianzhang and others have a much higher level of jishu than us, they were not very familiar with the new fighter before, and now the Raptor and Hellfire have more tactical performance in their hands, and they are no longer conservative to us, and they have taught us a lot of air combat stunts, which has opened our eyes and learned a lot of jishu." ”

Li Haichen said with a smile: "It is worthy of being an elite student of the Paris Aviation School!" ”

Zhang Meng nodded and said, "That's good!" There will be a fierce battle with the Japanese air forces, although we have the advantage of equipment, but the Japanese have the advantage of the number of aircraft and the well-trained pilots, so you should prepare well. ”

"Please rest assured, Your Highness, always ready!"

Zhao Changzhi and Li Jianhui shouted in unison, looking full of self-confidence.

Zhang Meng nodded with satisfaction and motioned for them to hurry up and prepare.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the Tang Army's electronic combat ships, which were responsible for listening to radio signals around the Marshall Islands, intercepted the telegram of the Japanese air force returning home, and then the electronic combat ships fired at full speed and used radio direction finders to measure the approximate positions of the two Japanese aircraft carriers.

Subsequently, an FC-1 torpedo reconnaissance plane of the Don Army spotted two Japanese aircraft carriers and several escort destroyers over the Javo Atoll, 90 kilometers north of the Majuro Atoll.

"They weren't far from Majuro Atoll, and they looked like they were coming with the Japanese First Squadron."

"There are only a few destroyers to escort us, and they obviously don't know how good we are!"

At this time, the Japanese reconnaissance planes had not yet discovered the Tang Army's aircraft carrier battle group, and the opportunity was rare, so Zhang Meng decisively gave the order.

"Order, all aircraft carriers immediately prepare for sailing, ready to attack enemy aircraft carriers!"

The order was given, and a rapid battle siren sounded on the four aircraft carriers of the Don Army.

"Attention to all personnel, this ship will start preparing for sailing at 9:13 and carry out combat missions at 9:38! Repeat, this is not a drill! ”

At 9:38 a.m., the four aircraft carriers of the Tang Army completed their preparations, and the Raptor and Hellfire ships that took off one after another were divided into three echelons.

The first echelon consisted of eighteen Raptor ships and eighteen Hellfire ships, and they continued to carry out bombing missions against the Japanese on the Majuro Atoll. This time they were acting as decoys in order to attract the attention of the planes on the Japanese aircraft carriers and lure them away from the carriers.

The second echelon consisted of one hundred and eight Raptor heavy carrier-based fighters, and their target was the aircraft that remained near the Japanese aircraft carriers, still intending to divert the Japanese escort planes away.

The third echelon consisted of eighteen Raptor carrier-based fighters and one hundred and forty-four Hellfire carrier-based bombers, whose first goal was to sink the Japanese aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga, and then had a chance to take out several escort destroyers around them.

In addition, the Don Army had a reserve echelon.

Eighteen Raptor ships were left to serve as air defense missions for aircraft carrier fighter groups, and twenty-four FC-1 torpedo reconnaissance planes were also placed on the flight decks of their respective carriers, carrying aviation torpedoes for use as Zuihou's reserves.

After learning of the location of the Tang Army's aircraft carrier battle group, Kobayashi immediately ordered the First Fleet to rush to attack, and his main fleet would also arrive at the Majuro battlefield eight hours later.

At the same time, Kobayashi also asked the commanders of the two aircraft carriers, the Akagi and Kaga, to organize preparations for meeting the Tang Army's bomber groups, and asked them to send fighter planes to escort the First Fleet, and also asked them to send torpedo attack planes to attack the Tang Army's four aircraft carriers.

Kobayashi completely ignored the opposition of Uno Keizo and others, and he, an aviation layman, insisted on dispersing the use of Japanese aircraft, which wiped out the original numerical superiority of the Japanese army in aircraft.

Half an hour later, a large-scale sea and air battle finally broke out around the Majuro Atoll. (To be continued......)