It turned out that the fleet had already retreated. Admiral Shimada did not send out the fleet, but only sent planes to battle, and the outcome was not good. At 15:30 on 20 November, Lieutenant Na Lichun of the "Xuanyuan" spotted the retreating Tsubamoto fleet, and he immediately sent back a telegram: "The Tsukamoto Task Force has been discovered, and the formation is vast and endless. Bearing: 15°35'N, 134°35'E. "I said that my fleet is 400 nautical miles (more than 780 kilometers) from Chinese aircraft carriers." The officers on the deck of the Xuanyuan, with a contemplative expression, looked at the telegram from Na Lichun and the commander's flag hanging on the battleship "Fuxi", and pondered in their hearts the decision that Zhang Qifan was going to make. Now less than 3 hours before nightfall, the maximum endurance of dive bombers and torpedo planes is 800 nautical miles. If Zhang Qifan gave the order to take off, then the Chinese pilots would have to catch up and attack the task force in the evening. And to return to the aircraft carrier at night, there is no room to even hover in the landing circle. Not to mention that this calculation does not take into account the amount of gasoline needed in battle. The telex behind the fluorescent screen in the pilot's standby room rang, and the pilots of the "Xuanyuan" were suddenly silent, and the order was handed down, and the target: the task force fleet was ...... in the direction and took off immediately. The Chinese pilots picked up maps and notepads and boarded the deck without saying a word. At 16 o'clock, the first group left the deck, and the eyes of the ground crew were fixed on the planes that had disappeared into the open sky. There was silence on the ship.

In the switchboard room, two horns made a slight noise, one of which was connected to the receiver of a long-range radiotelephone and the other to the telephone of an aircraft flying short distance. No message was received on the receiver until the first group leaders reported the situation. Before the discovery of the plane, the pilots did not speak to each other. Due to the distance, the transmitted sound is also difficult to hear. Wireless phone operators, there is nothing else to do but wait. In front of the brightly lit signal board, they wore work hats and sat motionless, quietly and neatly at the reception table. About an hour after the plane took off, the sound of one of the horns became louder and louder, and an officer immediately walked to the receiving table, and the two operators began to bang on their small silent machine: "Please pay attention, the exact position is,......, please pay attention to the correct position...... This is a reconnaissance plane speaking to the plane in the air. He indicated that the position of the fleet was 70 nautical miles farther than originally reported.

The planes were flying at an altitude of 2,500 meters, and directly in front of them, the setting sun had sunk into the horizon, and the golden sunset was brilliant and dazzling. At 18 o'clock, one of the pilots of the vanguard group reported: "Directly ahead, several ships have been spotted. "However, it was not a ship, but a small dark gray cloud very close to the water. Ten minutes later, another pilot also mistook it for a warship, but he quickly corrected it himself. At 6:15 p.m., a powerful voice came from the headphones, "Watch out for that oil stain." The ship found that there were pursuers behind it, so it interrupted refueling. The Chinese dive bombers began to rise slowly, trying to save gasoline.

At 18:23, the Chinese pilot spotted his oil tanker. At 18:30, the main force of the fleet was discovered, which was divided into three groups and marched in unison, separated by 10 nautical miles from each other. The fleet consisted of 6 aircraft carriers, 4 battleships, 11 cruisers and 212 destroyers. Now, twilight has shrouded the vast sea. The commanders of the various fleets of the Chinese military regard aircraft carriers as the first targets for bombing. The fleets move quickly and agilely. The ship's anti-aircraft artillery fire illuminated the dim night sky as if it were day, and the Chinese bombers swooped down under the dense artillery fire. It is said that the army has only a few "Gale" planes in the air, more than 60 in total, and they are not properly deployed. Some Chinese planes have not encountered a single plane at all. However, the firepower of the air defense forces was quite dense and fierce. Probably, the Chinese pilots had never encountered such a ferocious artillery fire. The antiaircraft guns of the army used thermite incendiary bombs and yellow phosphorus incendiary bombs, and the ballistics in the air were colorful and strange. After some intense bombardment, one aircraft carrier was sunk, another was seriously damaged, one caught fire, and the other aircraft carriers were also damaged, along with one oil tanker and two destroyers. 22 Chinese planes were shot down, and the rest returned victorious.

At 19 o'clock, the aircraft carriers of the Chinese army received a briefing on the battle. At this point, the station has stopped broadcasting. The officers and men of the "Xuanyuan" were informed of the results of the attack, but they were reluctant to make a comment. It's not hard to guess what they're thinking. Very few of the Chinese pilots who were shot down over the fleet were safely withdrawn, either dying on their own rubber rafts or being devoured by sharks. As for the other pilots, they were faced with two problems: one, to fly over the aircraft carrier; Two, land on deck. The night was pitch black and there was no moon. According to the regulations, the fleet should cover all the lights on the ship when sailing in the war zone.

When the aircraft approached the aircraft carrier, the noise of the wireless telephone between the aircraft was first heard from the ship's radio speaker, and this sound was mixed with the noise of the broadcast horn, and the noise became louder and louder. The officers huddled in front of the radiotelephone quickly recognized the noise as a jumbled voice, but could not make out a complete sentence, and occasionally a few words could be heard. Then, when the noise occasionally subsided, people unexpectedly heard a sentence, and the voice of this was very clear: "No way, Lao Wang, I am going to plant in the water." Farewell, good brother. The tone of his voice was calm. Lao Wang did not answer. At this moment, in the midst of this cacophony, a higher voice was heard, and it was a pilot repeating a call sign endlessly: "I am ...... (call sign). Can anyone tell me the position in the air. Please, tell me where I am! Please, tell me where I am! I am ......". Then a calm voice said, "I'm Lynn, and I have twenty liters left." I'm ready to land on the water. "Now, the sound coming from the horn is very clear. The people standing in front of the horns, listening to these sounds, felt very uncomfortable. The pilots were still shouting to each other, and although the tone was different, they all made it seem as if they were isolated people, as if no one could hear them, as if there was nothing in the world except for them, the birds in the dark. None of the pilots still had the illusion of landing on deck. Some of them said, "I have ten litres." Some said, "I still have five minutes of gas." One of the pilots who was about to land said, "Brothers, come to me tomorrow." "More and more planes are running out of gas. Some drivers simply say, "I'm out of gas." Another pilot told his wingman that he had enough gas left to fly back, but he still wanted to go back with his wingman, "Let's go together!" ”

At 20:15, the aerial probe reported the arrival of the first aircraft.

Zhang Qifan paced back and forth on the bridge of the "Fuxi." Lieutenant Commander Whiteway came over and said: "General, many pilots cannot land on the deck, I propose to turn on the lights to illuminate the aircraft carrier. "The night was dark, and Zhang Qifan could barely see the escort ships." The rumbling motors of the first returning planes were heard over the Fuxi, and the red, green, and white signal lights on the planes flashed and turned. At this time, Bai Wei walked away, and Zhang Qifan was still pacing back and forth alone. He pondered repeatedly: should the task force take risks by turning on the lights to light the aircraft carrier? Or let the pilots go in the dark and take the greatest risks? Only Zhang Qifan has the right to make the final decision. The task force carried nearly 100,000 people and was worth billions of dollars. And it is impossible to conclude that there are no submarines in this area.

Finally, Zhang Qifan stopped in the dark. His officers watched as he walked into the duty room and gently closed the door. He took a few steps, then turned and sat down on the holstered couch against the wall. He smoked a cigarette, his eyes did not look at anyone, and no one else was silent. After a minute and a half, the general pushed back the large-brimmed baseball cap on his head, rubbed his forehead back and forth with his hands, then stood up from the leather cushion, turned his resolute face, and said to Colonel Deng Keng, "Turn on the lights." ”

The order was immediately communicated to the ships via a close-range radiophone, and the navigation lights were lit and beams of searchlights pierced the night sky. To mark the aircraft, each aircraft carrier turned on a vertical searchlight for the positioning of the aircraft and several horizontal searchlights for deck lighting.

In the night, the planes gathered around the "Xuanyuan" like swallows chirping softly, and as soon as the lights on the deck turned on, the landing commander waved the command board. The first plane landed on deck, and the ground crew rushed to meet it. This is a "Tianyu" aircraft aboard the aircraft carrier "Xingkaihu". The pilot of the plane said, "I ran out of gas and I almost went to hell." At this time, a notice from Zhang Qifan was read out on the loudspeaker: "Attention to all the planes of Fu Renxuan's task force: Please land nearby." The soldiers of "Regulus" seemed to feel a swarm of bees buzzing above and around their warship. As you can see from the signal lights at the top of the wings, these planes are very dangerous in groups of people who are in close proximity. I saw the plane flying around, and the landing commander signaled the pilot to keep his distance. He could only guide one plane to land at a time, and these planes wanted to pounce on the deck at the same time. It can be seen that they are exhausted and can no longer hold on. At this time, one of the planes completely ignored the guidance signal and crossed a plane that had already entered the landing route to land first. The plane's signal lights were all off. It's really a blind man who has turned into a madman. For the first time, it slid like a tornado from above two meters above the deck. The landing commander watched as the wingtips of the plane grazed past his chest, and when he bent down, the plane had already flown over and almost fell into the sea. The plane flew over for the second time, still not looking at the signal of the landing commander, and the sirens on the ship went off. The people on the deck ran away, and only the landing commander was still in his place. The plane crashed into the deck with a thud and caught fire instantly. A minute later, the spray of a fire extinguisher was heard. Soon, the searchlights were all extinguished. This is to tell the pilots that the deck is temporarily unusable. It takes at least five minutes to clean the deck.

The planes were circling over the task force all the time. A distress signal from a pilot who had fallen into the water was spotted on the sea. Flares rose into the night sky, a blazing white light fell on the sea, and the destroyer rushed to rescue the pilot who had fallen overboard. Occasionally, a long column of light suddenly came from a searchlight. Like a delicate tentacle visiting the sea for a moment, it retracted. If a group of submarines is found in this area, it will definitely be quite dangerous! But 1 submarine did not either.

During the day, reconnaissance planes were dispatched to find the pilots who were still drifting on the small orange rubber rafts. During the attack on the fleet at dusk, 22 Chinese planes were shot down. In a seemingly hopeless situation, quite a few of the crew members who fell into the water escaped. Zhang Qifan specially sent the cruiser, and the planes on the cruiser found the victims after taking off. On their way back and while they were waiting to land, 79 of the Chinese planes fell into the sea. Despite the best efforts of rescuers, 52 Chinese pilots were not saved. Fu Renxuan's task force fleet lost a lot of time in the process of rescuing the overboard pilots, so it was unable to catch up with the fleeing fleet. However, even if the Chinese fleet did not need to spend time rescuing the pilots, it would not be able to catch up with the Yumoto fleet, which had already retreated in advance. The reason why the fleet retreated so easily was, first of all, that the commander of the fleet was unwilling to commit his warships in this battle, but instead sent planes to engage within the limits of its endurance; secondly, Zhang Qifan didn't want to sail too far; The second was that Zhang Qifan had not traveled as far as he had originally wanted to go, because the east wind was blowing so strongly that it often forced the aircraft carrier to turn the rudder and sail eastward, so that the fighters could take off and land.

Nevertheless, the losses of the Yue army were considerable. After that, the Chinese army could confidently and boldly attack Saipan, and the fleet would not come back to disrupt this military operation. The task of supporting the advance of the ground forces was entrusted to 10 escort aircraft carriers. The battle to capture Saipan lasted more than a month. After the Marines landed, the Army troops landed on Saipan on 19 November. Army units and marines use different tactics, with the Army advancing behind the artillery units and the Marines attacking in a scattered manner.

The army did their best to build trenches and hold on to Saipan, and the defenders of each cave were desperately and stubbornly resisted until the last moment of their lives. At dawn on 7 December, about 3,000 to 5,000 Japanese troops armed with machine guns, knives and bayonets launched a desperate counterattack. The furious Yue army pounced on an artillery battalion of the Chinese army. The Chinese artillery fired at the Japanese army, and the detonator of the shell was set at one-fortieth of a second, and it exploded within 50 meters. Although the army took away two cannons, the army could not withstand the fierce artillery fire after all. With absolute superiority in strength and equipment, the Chinese army recaptured this position, which was already covered with corpses.

Saipan himself began to commit suicide. Most of the remaining soldiers committed suicide with grenades. Hiding on the top of Saipan, the refugees were undefended, and they were afraid of falling into the hands of the devil as described in the propaganda tool, and countless people committed suicide. The cost of the capture of Saipan by the Chinese army was: 4,125 dead and 12,000 wounded.

After seizing Saipan, the Chinese High Command believed that the time had come to launch a fierce assault on the last positions of the Japanese army and the mainland of Saipan. Shen Honglie authorized Wu Qianlong to form a large fleet. He divided the fleet into three parts: an "expeditionary fleet" dedicated to capturing targets (escorting, protecting transport fleets, and supporting landings); a "forward fleet", always tasked with supporting the "expeditionary fleet"; The third fleet was directly commanded by him and was called the "cover fleet". This fleet concentrated the best fast battleships, almost all aircraft carriers with escort fleets. In short, the third fleet is the main force of the entire offensive force. The task of this "cover fleet," also known as the strike fleet, is to "seize every opportunity that can be used or created to destroy the most vital forces of the company." Wu Qianlong always had a way of assigning himself a task that he had always been interested in: an errand for pirates. This time, however, it was a big move.

The first battle of the expedition was the battle against the Palaus Islands from January 6 to 23, 1946. The garrison on the island was said to have neither air protection (the island of Palaus had been subjected to Chinese air raids for several months) nor ammunition supplies, and fought desperately on courage. It took great effort for the Chinese army to capture certain strongholds. The Chinese army launched an offensive on January 7, and the fighting continued until the end of January. However, during this time, the Chinese fleet did not drag in front of the reef. As soon as the fleet arrived, preparations for the bombardment before the attack began, and then the troops began to land according to an impeccable procedure. As soon as the troops reached the island, they set up a solid beachhead. The fleet left a few escort aircraft carriers to ensure air "support" and then galloped to another military stronghold.

After taking the Palaus Islands, the next target of the Chinese army is the Philippines.

In September 1944, China wanted to take back the Philippines, which was in the hands of himself. After the surrender of the American army, the Chinese volunteers became the main force to resist the Japanese army, and they successfully launched a guerrilla war, making the occupation of the Philippines very unstable. Now the islands are again being targeted.

(To be continued)