The successful sinking of the Mutsu was too important for the young Chinese Navy, which fundamentally shattered the myth of the Combined Fleet, and at the same time allowed China to completely avoid the shadow of the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War.

In addition, the victory of this naval battle also eloquently proves the importance of air power, aircraft carriers have been able to replace battleships as the hegemon of the sea, but also proves that China has adhered to the right path from the beginning, and it also has unparalleled value in the military field.

However, Chen Shaokuan did not have much joy at this time, and it was certainly worth rejoicing that he had sunk the Mutsu, but at this time, the Japanese Combined Fleet was still raging along the coast of China, and it was conceivable that the Yangtze River Delta region was no longer spared.

Shanghai is the largest city in China, and although it is not as important as Chongqing and Wuhan, which are centers of heavy industry, it is also a place of wealth in China and an important financial center, but because of its poor geographical location in the Yangtze River Delta, it is very difficult to defend.

The muddy mudflats are not conducive to the construction of large batteries, and submarines cannot get close, let alone attack with torpedoes, although China has also laid some mines, but due to the rush of time, the number is not too much, and it is not tight enough, and the Japanese still have loopholes to drill.

Therefore, it is difficult to defend such a big city with some coastal defense artillery and air force alone, in fact, from the time Chen Shaokuan decided to deal with the Mutsu, it was equivalent to throwing Shanghai as a decoy, which is also the reason why he felt pressure.

In fact, this is also a big gamble, if the battleship Mutsu cannot be sunk, then Shanghai's sacrifice will become worthless, and the Chinese Navy will be nailed to the cross of shame, but fortunately, he won the bet, the Mutsu sank, and the strength and weakness between China and Japan have been reversed.

What China has to do now is to inflict heavy damage on the Japanese as much as possible, and Chen Shaokuan was originally going to go north directly to aid Shanghai. But Mr. Shen made a more attractive suggestion. That is to attack Keelung and Ryukyu and completely pull out these two nails, both of which are important naval bases for Japan.

A large amount of supplies and repair docks were also prepared on the docks, and if these were destroyed, the Japanese Combined Fleet would have to retreat to the mainland, and the blockade of eastern China would be completely broken.

Back in the time of the attack by Japanese warships. Chinese submarines have already been dispatched one after another to cut off Japan's retreat road, and dozens of submarines have been gathered on the sea route between China and Japan, and every five submarines form a battle group, which is completely arranged in accordance with the wolf pack tactics, and each group is responsible for a sea area. It can be said that this time it was easy for the Japanese to come, but it was difficult to go back.

At present, the submarine force is also being stepped up in deployment, and most of them will cause great damage to Japan, but if the Japanese can still retreat to Keelung and Okinawa, which are relatively close, they will be able to avoid even greater losses, after all, there are only a few hundred kilometers in between, and Japan will not show too many flaws.

Once these two ports were destroyed, Japan would have to retreat to its homeland. That's a thousand kilometers in between. And there are ambushes of Chinese submarine forces along the way, and the Japanese will peel off their skin even if they don't die.

Therefore, Chen Shaokuan was very tempted by this proposal. He immediately agreed, and the Chinese fleet quickly split into two parts, leaving behind the Chaoyong and the Chongqing, who had been badly wounded, with the task of completely destroying the auxiliary ships of the Mutsu, including two cruisers and several destroyers, which were scattered after the sinking of the Mutsu, but they were no faster than the planes.

Leaving the Chaoyong behind is to annihilate these warships in one fell swoop, and then protect the Chongqing to return to the port for maintenance, while Chen Shaokuan led the task force with the starting point and Yangwei as the core to sail towards Keelung, and the Guangxi, which is in better condition, also set off as an escort ship.

The Chinese fleet sailed all the way to Keelung, Keelung is located in the northeast of the island of Taiwan, is a natural deep-water port, after the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was taken by Japan, Keelung has become an important port area of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and with the continuous increase of China's power, Japan also regards Keelung as the most important base to contain China.

Therefore, the Keelung port has been expanded twice, and at the same time, a maintenance dock has been added, and a large amount of fuel and munitions have been stored in the port, which can provide sufficient logistics support for the huge combined fleet, and has been a thorn in the side of the Chinese Navy since its completion.

Originally, Taiwan was China's territory, and it was supposed to be China's base for going to the sea, but it was stolen by the Japanese and became a fulcrum to contain China, and all circles of China's military and political circles have a kind of pain in their skin, and the sacred territory will not be allowed to be touched by the Japanese invaders, and China will certainly take back the sacred territory, and from the current point of view, this day will not be too far away.

Unlike the Chinese Navy's complacency, the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Kanji Kato, was like five thunderbolts at this time, although he successfully attacked Shanghai, destroyed many cities along the way, and caused huge losses to China, but these are insignificant compared to the sinking of the Mutsu, and the balance of war has begun to reverse!

How to judge the victory of a war will never be measured simply by the number of losses, otherwise the Germans in the Soviet-German battlefield in World War II will be the victors, but in fact, the status of the Soviet Union as the victorious country is undoubted, even if the losses are heavy, as long as it can win the victory, it is worth it.

In World War I, France suffered very heavy losses, and the damage was greater than that of Germany, and it seemed that the war was worth the loss, but in fact, from another point of view, if France was defeated, the country would be completely gone, and it would become a province of Germany, and the end of defeat would be even more terrible.

And this time China's loss of wealth and population in Shanghai must be far above a Mutsu, but China is still the undisputed winner, the strategic initiative has completely shifted to the Chinese side, as long as this advantage can be maintained, all the cities along the coast of Japan will become the target of Chinese attacks, the Japanese have now destroyed Shanghai, and then China will be able to destroy Tokyo, so that Japan will feel more painful losses!

Of course, Kato Kanji is very aware of the stakes, but he is now more worried about the safety of his fleet, and now the several capital ships in his hands are already Japan's last cards, if there are any more losses, Japan will completely lose the possibility of turning over, especially the sinking of the Mutsu makes the Japanese do not have enough confidence in the powerful battleships.

If the Mutsu can be sunk, then the Kaga and Nagato will not be any exceptions, and what is even worse is that Japan's naval aviation has suffered serious losses. If all three of China's aircraft carriers go north. The Japanese have no ability to resist, and the top priority now is to retreat back as soon as possible and preserve their strength!

The target of Kato's retreat was Keelung, which was relatively close to the Japanese fleet, and was well equipped and well defended, allowing the Japanese warships to be replenished quickly. It was back to its best, but Kanji Kato decided that it would be better to withdraw the fleet to the mainland, and now it was more important than anything else to defend the Japanese mainland.

In this era of sea power, the impact of changes in the strength of the navy on the war situation is becoming more and more serious, especially after an island country like Japan has lost its superiority at sea. It is equivalent to a rope around the neck, and China can hang the Japanese as long as it uses force.

After all, Japan is still a small island country, there is no foundation at all, a defeat has completely exposed the fragile side, at this time Kato only feels that the red sun on the Japanese flag has begun to fall westward, and the national fortune has been reversed at this moment!

The Japanese fleet temporarily anchored in the Zhoushan Islands and adjusted its formation. Kato put cruisers and destroyers on the periphery. A defensive network was formed, and then he put two aircraft carriers in the very middle. And the most majestic and powerful Kaga and Nagato have been reduced to the status of escorting the Akagi.

This change quietly announced that the status of the aircraft carrier had undergone an earth-shattering change, and at the same time, the Japanese had also withdrawn all the landing forces, and the faster they came, the more haste they withdrew.

Kato Kanji knew very well at this time that the Chinese fleet would definitely attack north, but he did not expect that the Chinese would attack Keelung, in fact, the Japanese at this time still had a sense of superiority, believing that the Japanese navy was still strong, only they attacked China, and China did not have the ability to fight back.

But they soon paid the price for the idea, and after a night of sailing, when the sky was just getting a little lighter, the Chinese fleet finally passed through the Taiwan Strait, and the port of Keelung was in sight.

The first wave of attack groups was ready, and the first batch of sixteen fighters and twenty bombers roared into the air from the Qiqi and Yangwei, and rushed straight to Keelung, while the Japanese fleet was in the northeast sea of Keelung, and there were about two hours to go before they could reach Keelung.

In fact, the distance between the Chinese and Japanese fleets and Keelung was not much different, but the Japanese believed that China would go north along the coastline, so the Japanese mainly attacked the detour, but also to avoid the attack of the near-shore submarines, but the result of the detour was that the speed of the Japanese was much slower.

The Chinese naval aviation preemptively launched an attack on Keelung, and the Japanese soldiers in Keelung Harbor did not think that the Chinese would take the initiative to attack them, Japan is the most powerful country in East Asia, how can anyone provoke Japan's dignity, it is this arrogance that makes Japan neglect to take precautions, even if they learn that the Mutsu is sinking, they are not vigilant enough.

It wasn't until the plane appeared in the sky over Keelung that the sleepy-eyed Japanese suddenly felt that the catastrophe had come, and the Japanese soldiers ran frantically towards the air defense position, ready to shoot at the air, and several other Japanese planes were also ready to take off to face the enemy, but they were obviously a little slow to react!

The Chinese Air Force had long devised a plan of attack, and the first target to destroy was the oil depot, which stored about 800,000 barrels of oil in tanks in the Keelung port, and all of them were stored in the open air.

In fact, this situation also appeared in the original historical time and space, that is, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the difference was that the United States had more oil than Keelung, but Japan turned a blind eye to this kind of goal, and the US Pacific Fleet regained its combat effectiveness within half a year, which was caused by this kind of mistake.

In fact, attacking the oil storage tank is not simply causing much fuel loss, because these fuels will also burn, this power is simply unimaginable, it can be said that if Japan attacked the American oil depot back then, I am afraid that the entire Pearl Harbor will become a sea of fire, everything will be burned to the ground, compared to simply using aircraft to bomb, the efficiency is much higher, but now Japan enjoys this treatment! (To be continued.) )