The weather is not very good, the wind is very strong, the waves on the sea are also high, sailing in formation in such sea conditions,

Standing on the bridge of the aircraft carrier "Nanhai", Shen Honglie looked into the distance, and a faint black appeared on the sea level in the distance, and it looked like a storm was coming.

This season, which is the season of the most intense climate change in the northern Indian Ocean, has clear skies and calm waves, but in the blink of an eye, it can turn into stormy storms and stormy waves.

This morning, we received a report from the meteorological unit of the Lanfang Air Force that there was a storm in the southern part of the Andaman Sea, and it seems that the fleet is now approaching the edge of the storm.

In this weather condition, the best choice should be to lead the fleet to sail north and avoid the storm area, but Shen Honglie can't do this, he also has to pursue an enemy fleet, and that enemy fleet is also found by the Lanfang Air Force, after all, on this endless vast sea, it is indeed not easy to find a small British fleet, it is necessary to mobilize all the forces that can be used, and the Lanfang Air Force is a powerful arm, although the Lanfang Second Republic is still maintained"Neutrality", but military cooperation with China continues, which is quite similar to the position of the current French government.

The fleet was approaching the storm zone and the British fleet was still nowhere to be seen, and in this case, the commander of the fleet had to decide whether to continue sailing south or turn around and avoid the storm zone.

"Order, the fleet turned around and sailed east, avoiding the center of the storm."

Shen Honglie gave an order to a midshipman standing beside him, then raised his binoculars and continued to search the vast sea.

The British fleet that Shen Honglie wants to find is another main fleet of the British Navy's Indian Ocean Squadron, since the end of the Andaman Naval War, the British Navy's Indian Ocean Squadron has suffered a fatal blow, but it has not yet breathed, for the Chinese Navy's task force, only by destroying the remnants of the fleet in front of him, the Indian Ocean's sea dominance can be regarded as truly completing the transfer.

After the end of the Andaman naval battle a few days ago, Shen Honglie led the fleet to cruise in the northern Indian Ocean between Burma and India, during which he carried out low-intensity air strikes on some important military targets on land, Yangon, Kolkata, Dhaka, Trincomalee, these port cities under British control have welcomed the dive bombers and fighters of the Chinese naval aviation, but the results are not great, the British navy fleet is very cunning to dodge, as for whether to go to the Arabian Sea or still in the Bay of Bengal circle, but also made Shen Honglie think a lot, until he found the British fleet that was now being tracked by him.

The main force of the remaining British Indian Ocean Squadron is two large battleships of the battleship class, one is the battlecruiser "Counterattack", the other is the battleship "Nelson", and the latter battleship is the sister ship of the battleship "Rodney" sunk in the Battle of the Andaman Sea, and it is also a battleship completed in 1927. The only capital ship completed during the "naval holiday" period after the Washington Disarmament Accord came into force, its design fully absorbed the lessons of the Battle of Jutland, the battleship has stronger firepower, better protection performance, and more importantly, in order to strengthen the armor protection of this class of battleships, the design of the warship adopts the idea of "centralized defense", which is actually from the German Navy, and also integrates the characteristics of the British Navy's ship design, which can be described as "learning from others".

However, this hodgepodge of design ideas also brings a serious problem, that is, the warship is very odd, which directly affects the maneuverability of the "Nelson", in fact, when this battleship sails in bad sea conditions, the swing period of its hull has been shortened to eleven seconds, looking at the world's naval ships, this is very rare, as a result, it brings a direct consequence, that is, in high sea conditions, the main gun of the "Nelson" can not accurately shoot at the target, Because the hull swayed so violently, what was even more unbearable was that when the wind was strong, the "Nelson" would actually tilt to one side, which was of course the effect of the huge superstructure.

As an excellent admiral, Shen Honglie is very aware of the shortcomings and advantages of the "Nelson", and through the actual combat test of the last Andaman naval battle, he has further grasped the fatal point of this class of battleships, that is, the armor protection under the waterline, in fact, the "Rodney" lost its combat effectiveness because it ate five deep-water torpedoes at the waterline, and sank into the waves of the Indian Ocean in the subsequent torpedo replenishment attack. Moreover, the battleships are really outdated, and now, the era of aircraft carriers.

It is precisely because he is well aware of the shortcomings of the "Nelson" that Shen Honglie now believes that the British fleet will definitely not run to the storm area, where the wind is too strong and the sea conditions are too bad, and the "Nelson" is bored by running to the storm area, so the most likely route of the British fleet now is also to the east, parallel to the storm area, and then wait for an opportunity to go south to the sea near the Kra Isthmus.

The order that Shen Honglie received from the General Staff was very clear, that is, "absolutely no enemy fleet is allowed to approach the Kra Isthmus", and the reason is very simple, because just tomorrow, the "Typhoon" campaign launched by the Chinese military is about to start on the Pacific side of the Kra Isthmus, and in order to ensure the smooth landing of the army troops, even the Indian Ocean side of the Kra Isthmus must be "cleared"; on the Indian Ocean side, the British fleet really cannot directly threaten the Chinese landing force with naval guns, but it can use naval guns to cover the British defensive forces, The main concern of the General Staff was that the British Army would build a line of defense on the Indian Ocean side of the Kra Isthmus with the help of the coastal and naval fleet guns, which would seriously affect the implementation of the Malayan campaign.

Therefore, no matter what, Shen Honglie must also command the fleet to cruise in the waters of the Indian Ocean side of the Kra Isthmus to guard the sea surface in this area.

This is not an easy task, due to the very fierce battle of the Andaman Sea a few days ago, the fleet's combat aircraft losses are relatively large, almost half of the torpedo planes and seventy percent of the dive bombers can no longer participate in the operation, relying on the remaining torpedo planes and dive bombers can guarantee the sinking of the "counterattack" and "Nelson"? This is a real problem in front of Shen Honglie.

In view of the difficulties faced by Shen Honglie, the General Staff Headquarters has also taken action, and now several shore-based aviation squadrons have been stationed at two field airfields in the area south of Mandalay, equipped with medium-sized bombers, and are ready to be dispatched by Shen Honglie at any time, but it is also unknown how many bombers can be mobilized at that time; after all, these shore-based aviation squadrons must also ensure the smooth progress of the "Typhoon" campaign, and they will also draw up combat plans in accordance with the orders from the Malayan Theater Command.

At present, Shen Honglie needs naval aviation the most, and his telegram has already been photographed at the Bangka Island naval base, and now, two squadrons of torpedo attack aircraft are transferring from Bangka Island to an air base in Lan Fang, and according to the telegram received in the morning, the two squadrons will be ready to land aircraft carriers tomorrow morning at the latest.

However, even if these additional planes can arrive on time, it is impossible to restore the combat effectiveness before the war, mainly because the pilots lack experience, and the same is naval aviation, and the difference between training on aircraft carriers and training at naval bases all year round is real, although the system of rotating on duty on ships has been formed, but compared with those pilots personally selected by Shen Honglie before the war, there is indeed a gap in the technology of the substitute pilots, which is also a real difficulty.

"Report, the reconnaissance plane took a telegram, and no target was found in the waters north of it."

A staff officer walked up behind Shen Honglie and handed over a copy of a telegram.

Shen Honglie looked at the telegram and didn't say anything, just turned around and continued to look at the dark sea antenna.

It may be possible to command the fleet to rush directly to the waters around the Kra Isthmus, wait for the British fleet to come, but this must be risky, because the landing operation on the Kra Isthmus has not yet begun, and the British Air Force's shore-based aviation there is a threat, so Shen Honglie still thinks that it seems more prudent to take the initiative.

"Did the submarine forces make any discoveries?" Half a minute later, Shen Honglie asked the staff officer.

"Didn't find it." The staff officer shook his head.

"Could it be that the British fleet ventured into the storm zone?"

Shen Honglie began to question his judgment just now, after all, this is a battlefield, and what is important is a "military trickery", and the commander of the British fleet may not take into account the enemy general's opinion of the battleship "Nelson", maybe the other party really rushed into the storm area.

When Shen Honglie was hesitating whether to send two destroyers over to reconnoitre, he received a report from the radar room, on the radar screen, a flying formation was approaching the sky over the fleet, but because the other side maintained radio silence, it was impossible to judge whether the other party was a Chinese air force unit.

Shen Honglie did not dare to slack off, and immediately ordered the fleet to prepare for air defense, because judging by the course displayed by the radar, the flight formation flew from the direction of Burma, and now, the southern part of Burma is still controlled by the British army.

The fighters immediately took off, flew to the unidentified air formation under the guidance of the radar, and came into contact with the other side after 15 minutes, and then there was a false alarm, and the other side was not a bomber group of the British Air Force, but a transport plane flight formation of the Chinese Air Force, using "Yan" medium transport planes, and escorted by "Falcon" fighters, and the British army was not equipped with these two kinds of aircraft.

More than 100 "Yan" medium-sized transport planes, this is a large number of aircraft, although the other party did not identify themselves, nor did they inform them of the mission, but Shen Honglie guessed intuitively that this transport aircraft formation is likely to be an air assault corps, carrying paratroopers, each "Yan" transport aircraft can carry at least 30 fully armed paratroopers, so if you calculate it, this airborne assault is at least the size of a paratrooper brigade.

Shen Honglie came to the chart room, found a map, and then drew a straight line on the map according to the air route given by the radar room, there is no doubt that this straight line passes through the Kra Isthmus, and the target of the paratroopers is the Kra Isthmus.

"It looks like the paratroopers have already moved, and it's up to our fleet to find the British fleet."

Shen Honglie threw aside the ruler he was holding, and then gave the order to the staff officer.

"Order the convoy to send a destroyer and a light cruiser to form the first reconnaissance detachment, and a submarine and a destroyer to form the second reconnaissance detachment to go to the storm zone for reconnaissance."