"Knock~Knock~Knock~" Zhang Cheng, who squinted his eyes, sat on the chair in the office, stretched out his hand and tapped lightly on the solid wood table in front of him. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info looked calm and didn't say a word.

"How should the Navy respond?" Xiao Hongbao, who was standing opposite Zhang Cheng, pursed his lips and asked out loud.

"Huh?" Zhang Cheng raised his eyelids, and after a moment of silence, he sighed lightly, "Tell the Navy that I accepted their proposal." ”

Yunmo proposed a new battle plan, and the main force of the Pacific Fleet attacked the Fletcher fleet roaming the open sea, instead of following Zhang Cheng's order to go south to recover the lost islands. This plan was recognized and supported by the Ming Admiralty. They submitted a new battle plan to Zhang Cheng, who made the final decision.

In fact, this is tantamount to the navy vetoing Zhang Cheng's order. If you change to a person in power who has an extremely strong control over power and is not broad-minded, it will inevitably be like a thunderstorm. And there will certainly be many people who will pay for it. In modern space-time history, at the end of World War II, the mustache did this because of the constant defeat that led to a huge increase in pressure. The same goes for the bearded man of the Great Purge.

Fortunately, Zhang Cheng is very young, and he was born in modern time and space, and the education and information he has received far exceed that of people of this era. He has always had a faint sense of superiority over this era. Because he knows far more things than the people of this time.

The most important thing is that now the Ming Dynasty still occupies a dominant position on various battlefields, and Zhang Cheng also wants to end this war as a victor, rather than going to the gallows. Therefore, Zhang Cheng still attaches more importance to the opinions of professionals. After all, he was only a halfway commander who was a monk, far less than the professional soldiers who would spend their lives in the army.

Of course, some small unhappiness in my heart is inevitable. After all, as a superior, it is not a glorious thing to be dismissed by his subordinates after all.

"And where is the Kiribati garrison?" Xiao Hongbao paused and asked softly.

The Ming are powerful, and their army has never had a tradition of not saving friendly troops to the death. In addition, in the past few days, both the radio and the newspapers have been frantically reporting the news of the heroic fighting of the Kiribati garrison, and the attention of all parties is extremely high.

If the main force of the navy gives up on the rescue, it will certainly have to bear the tremendous pressure of public opinion. This kind of thing is put in the alone. Naturally, there is no big deal about cutting the country, but it will inevitably cause a lot of controversy in the Ming Dynasty. And those who have two ambitions will inevitably use this matter to make some fuss to attack the Navy and Zhang Cheng.

"War always involves sacrifice." Zhang Cheng lowered his eyelids and said softly, "The heroic soldiers will be remembered, but the partial efforts are to contribute to the victory of the overall situation." ”

"Yes, Your Excellency." Xiao Hongbao pursed his lips, he knew that Zhang Cheng had made up his mind.

"Even if the Pacific Fleet goes south now, it won't be able to rush to the rescue." Zhang Cheng shook his head a little helplessly, "The difference in strength between the enemy and me is too great, and it is no longer something that courage and spirit can fight." The Kiribati garrison can hold out for a day or two at most, and that's all this can be done. ”

After a pause, Zhang Cheng raised his eyelids and looked at Xiao Hongbao: "In my name, the Kiribati garrison is awarded a collective meritorious service medal in recognition of their heroic performance in the war." The commander can be promoted with excellence, and the soldiers must also be well cared for. The propaganda organs in the country should go all out to propagate and point the finger at the Americans. Let Qi Bing do a good job of propaganda and correctly guide public opinion. ”

"Yes, Your Excellency." Xiao Hongbao nodded, but was stopped by Zhang Cheng when he was about to leave.

"Wait a minute." Zhang Cheng glanced at the battle report on the table, and after a moment of silence, he spoke softly, "Send a telegram to the Pacific Fleet and tell them that they must win!" ”

......

"Must win?" On the bridge of the aircraft carrier Beihai, the flagship of the Second Air Fleet of the Daming Pacific Fleet. Lin Luo, commander of the Second Air Fleet, looked at the telegram forwarded from the Pacific Fleet Command in his hand, and smiled helplessly. Who can guarantee that they will win on the battlefield? It's a real lot of pressure.

After Zhang Cheng agreed to the Admiralty's new combat plan, the main force of the Pacific Fleet was dispatched. After leaving Pearl Harbor, the three large air fleets headed south to Johnston Atoll with great fanfare.

The Pacific Fleet did not have any attempts to disguise its whereabouts. In fact, a fleet sortie of this size could not be concealed. The U.S. Navy's submarine forces, which had long been hiding off Pearl Harbor, quickly passed on the movements of the Ming fleet.

The large and long fleet made its way south, and it seemed that it was going to fight southward, but at night it made a massive division of forces.

The speed of the fleet is very fast, and it is not at all comparable to submarines. Not to mention that in broad daylight, no American submarine dared to surface in order to obtain information. This is Pearl Harbor, the most important warship port of the Ming Navy. Not to mention those anti-submarine ship patrol boats, the mere patrol near the sky flying in the sky is enough to make American submarines dare not show their faces during the day.

The three air fleets were divided into two teams, and Tong Haifeng led the First Air Fleet to continue swaggering southward to attract the attention of the Americans. Lin Luo and Han Dongwen led the Second and Third Air Fleets to secretly turn northwest at night and rushed towards the Fletcher fleet in the distance at high speed.

After being played a tactical deception by the Americans, the Ming Navy immediately returned the color and also came to a tactical deception.

In this day and age, there were no surveillance satellites, and there was no network surveillance. As for the lurking personnel, there is no accurate high-level information in the military port. Even if a spy lurks in the fleet, it will never be possible to send out the information, this is a vast sea!

"I hope I can make it a success." Lin Luo, who was also the commander of the strike fleet, turned his gaze to the vast sea outside the ship, and his thoughts turned a thousand times. The Americans are not Japan, and the mighty American fleet is no match for the Japanese. The Americans far surpassed the Japanese in terms of the number of warships, the quality and the technology and tactics.

Not to mention anything else, in the previous battles, Lin Luo already knew that the Americans had similar scientific and technological power to the Ming Dynasty. From proximity fuses to 500-kilogram heavy armor-piercing shells, from sturdy warships to new aircraft. The strength of the Americans is not weak at all.

In particular, the performance of the American aircraft is not much different from that of the main fighters of the Ming Dynasty. The Japanese, due to the lack of steam catapult technology, coupled with the lack of resources and technical shortcomings, had to use light carrier-based aircraft. For example, although it is mobile and flexible, it has no defensive force, as is the case with the Zero Battle, which explodes in one hit. The Japanese had to be as light as possible, as their carriers could only take off and land with taxiing.

The aircraft could not get up at all with heavy armor and heavy bomb torpedoes, and the range was limited. This is one of the reasons why the Ming Navy was able to gain an advantage when fighting the Japanese.

The gap in equipment largely determines the direction of naval warfare. The use of light bombs by the Japanese gave the Daming aircraft carrier more chances to survive. And the use of heavy armor-piercing shells by Daming HNA is likely to directly kill the Japanese!

In addition, the Japanese bombers and torpedo planes had to reduce their weight in order to be able to take off smoothly, and they had to hang light bombs and refuel less, which directly led to a shortening of the range and combat radius. This is also a fatal flaw in naval and air warfare.

But none of these problems exist in the Americans. This is a formidable opponent. Even if Lin Luo held the initiative on the battlefield and was even stronger, he didn't dare to speak of victory lightly.

On the night of November 3, 1941, about 700 nautical miles northwest of the Hawaiian Islands, an American submarine was quietly sailing on the sea under the moonlight.

The submarine, numbered SS129 Salmon, belongs to Task Force 59 and is a long-range alert submarine, and its main defense direction is in the southern waters of Task Force 59.

"Captain, the fleet of the Ming Kingdom should have reached the vicinity of Johnston Atoll long ago, but there was no news from Task Force 58. Did they go straight south to Kiribati without going to war? Under the bright moonlight, the first mate, who was leaning on the bulkhead and smoking a cigarette, looked at the sailors who were laughing and bathing, and turned to look at his captain and asked.

For the soldiers, the most important thing after going to the battlefield is naturally the battle situation. There has been no news since the main force of the Pacific Fleet of the Ming Navy went south, and no one knows where they went.

"Didn't you read the telegram?" The captain, who straightened up from the top of the telescope, raised his hands and stretched his waist, and handed the observation telescope to the officer on duty. He took the cigarette handed over by the first mate, lit it, took a deep breath, and then said, "Didn't the Trout send a report that the traces of the Ming fleet had been found in the northwest waters of Johnston Atoll?" ”

The Ming Navy successfully carried out a battlefield deception, and the First Air Fleet under the command of Tong Haifeng disguised itself as the main force of the fleet has been wandering the waters northwest of Johnston Atoll, playing a game of hide and seek with Spruance's 58th Task Force. Spruance wanted to drag Tong Haifeng, and Tong Haifeng was also cheating. Neither side had any intention of taking the initiative to fight, and the radio silence was maintained all the time.

However, this situation cannot last forever, and it will not be long before the Ming Navy takes the initiative to attack, which will make Spruance suspicious. All it takes is a bold reconnaissance, and the Americans will soon discover the true intentions of the Ming Navy.

The Salmon was actually located about three hundred nautical miles south of Task Force 59, the outermost guard post of Task Force 59. The entire Task Force 59 believed that the main force of the Ming Navy had moved south, and as long as they waited for the definite news to arrive, they would cover the landing force and advance at high speed and go straight to the Hawaiian Islands.

The 59th Task Force, which was full of anticipation, never thought that the main fleet of the Ming Navy would actually appear near him! (To be continued.) )