Following Gao Xiaolei's gaze, Nanyun's flagship 'Flying Eagle' was on fire.

The 'echo wave' hit the aft flight deck of the Flying Eagle, because there were more than 10 97 ships waiting to take off, but after the bomb exploded, two torpedoes and aviation gasoline were detonated, so the fire gradually increased, so that the 41 Squadron dozens of kilometers away could see clearly. Fortunately, Echo Wave did not use an armor-piercing warhead, so the explosion and fire did not spread internally.

Because it was night, and the opponent's fighters were also taking off one after another, the 41st Squadron did not stay to check the results. Later, it was learned that in addition to the "Flying Eagle", the "Myoko" heavy cruiser also ate a missile, but the injury was not serious, and the rest of the ships were able to continue sailing, except for the destroyer Limbo sank 20 minutes later. Although the damage was not severe, the attack frightened Nagumo's fleet. The Japanese sailors couldn't figure out how the bomb landed on them, even though the plane was still far away. The unknown always brings fear, and all sorts of gossip quickly spread through the fleet, frustrating even some of the officers. Nagumo did not dare to linger any longer, and immediately ordered to accelerate the turn to the southwest, trying to leave the attack radius of Taiwan's land-based bombers.

At this time, off the coast of Hualien, Taiwan, an outpost formation of six Taishan-class destroyers, in groups of two and two, split six waves on the sea surface at a rare high speed of 40 knots. This is the fastest formation sailing speed in the history of the human navy, and only this kind of destroyer jointly built by China and France and based on the utopian class can continue to soar on the sea surface for several hours. Behind them were the newly renovated aircraft carriers 'Guizhou,' 'Beihai,' and 'Balkhash,' under the protection of two Xi'an-class heavy cruisers, four Xiangjiang-class light cruisers, and 12 destroyers. "In this position." The flagship 'Guiyang' heavy cruiser has been reported by the 41st Squadron, and the chief of staff of the fleet, Brigadier General Feng Guoru, lies on the chart table and marks the location of the aircraft carrier hit: "The reconnaissance plane has confirmed that it hit an aircraft carrier, but it is impossible to distinguish which one it is. ”

Like the name, Feng Guoru is a rare Confucian general in the navy. Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, he has an elegant temperament, and his voice is soft when he speaks, but he is very organized and clear, so that people can understand it as soon as they hear it. Pointing to the dotted line moving towards the Philippines, he pushed down his glasses: "According to this analysis, the radio signal moving towards Leyte Gulf must be Inoue Narumi." Because Nagumo's losses are not yet known, we temporarily assume that its speed remains the same, then its fastest speed is 25 knots, beyond which three escort aircraft carriers cannot keep up. Calculated like this. It takes 20 hours to return to Ryukyu in a straight line. Turning back to the west, it takes about 26 hours. We're at 30 knots now, and if he had taken a straight line, we'd have it seven hours later. If there is a detour, I am afraid that it will be delayed until about four o'clock in the afternoon, so that it will only be enough for a wave of attacks. ”

Zhang Zhaoyang asked, "Then do you think he will take that line?" ”

"Detour!" Feng Guoru was categorical: "Nanyun is a navigation expert, if it hadn't been for what happened just now, it would have been possible to forcibly take a straight line home." But now, even if the aircraft carrier is not seriously injured, it will definitely affect the take-off and landing. And the 41 squadron hit him without getting close. It will make him more worried about shore-based bombers, so he will inevitably take a detour to avoid it. ”

Zhang Zhaoyang put his hands behind his back and slowly wrinkled his brows. In terms of strength and experience, the 121 aircraft carrier battle group is higher than those rookie pilots of the Nagumo fleet. But to destroy the entire Nagumo fleet in one wave, it is a little tricky. Now on his three aircraft carriers, there are a total of 248 combat aircraft, including 92 'Lightning' fighters. 88 Yaksha dive bombers and 68 Osprey torpedo bombers. These numbers are enough to strike three aircraft carriers, but what about the other ships? In particular, the 4 extremely fast Myo-chan heavy cruisers would have escaped by them by taking advantage of the night. It will threaten the main battlefield of the Ryukyus.

Feng Guoru also understood his thoughts, heavy cruisers were regarded as such capital ships in the Japanese Navy, and it was basically impossible to destroy seven capital ships in one attack. So he stepped forward and reminded with a smile: "Commander, did you forget? The 23 ships of the 23 battle group Anhai and the two ships of the French Dunkirk set off from Guam the morning before yesterday to support the 21 fleet, and if nothing else, they should be able to catch up. ”

"Yes!" After sinking the battleship Haruna, Gilbert basically fell into his hands, and the Admiralty transferred four battleships of the 23rd Fleet back to participate in the Battle of the Ryukyus. After refueling in Guam, they are already on their way back, so they can cooperate with themselves to eat Nagumo first, and then go to the Ryukyus. So Zhang Zhaoyang clapped his hands vigorously: "Send the seaplane back to Keelung, be sure to contact them." ”

"I'll go." Feng Guoru nodded, turned around and prepared to let the signal soldier contact the light patrol water reconnaissance plane, at this time, the communication staff officer also came over: "Sir, I received a telegram from the headquarters, Yipingya Island has started. ”――

"Hidden, hidden! Drag all the cannons into the hole. "At five o'clock in the morning, on the position of Mt. Heyo in the southwest of Iheiya Island, Kunihei Sasato of the 42nd Wing of the Japanese Army was shocked and loudly told the soldiers to hide.

Iheya Island is located 40 kilometers northwest of Okinawa Island, and the terrain is long and narrow, and the widest point is only 3 kilometers. The island is home to the three rocky mountains of Mt. Awa, Kayo and Kuba, but the mountains are gentle and surrounded by gentle coral lagoons on all sides, which is far less steep than Kume Island. To the south of the island, there are two small islands, Noho Island and Gushigawa River, and it is only 5 kilometers away from Isina Island in the southeast, and it is known as the northwest gate of the Ryukyus, so it is strategically located.

The island was garrisoned by the Japanese 42 Infantry Wing, as well as a 150-mm heavy artillery brigade and an engineer wing, with a total strength of 8,147 men. The news of the loss of Kume Island had spread throughout the Ryukyus, so Sato had been fully prepared for a long time. But when the five battleships appeared in the far sea, he realized that his so-called preparations in the face of the huge cannon were really vulnerable.

"Boom, boom." Clouds of smoke rose up at the Heyang Mountain position every minute. The deep fortifications were overturned by shells, the trenches could be paralyzed with a single shell, and the woods that were thought to be usable had long since been burned by the fire, leaving the bare trunks of the trees, and the soldiers could only be exposed to the wilderness, praying that the shells would not fall on them.

After summing up Kumejima, Zhang Xiaoyu adopted a more direct artillery bombardment tactic today, deliberately letting the battleship formation get closer to 18,000 meters before starting the shelling. This made the main gun more accurate, and he also used armor-piercing shells to carry out accurate strikes against caves and firing points hidden in the mountains.

"What about the Navy? And what about our Navy? ”

"Forget them, those cowards won't come."

"These damn Satsuma clans! Coward! ”

Faced with the completely inexplicable battleship heavy artillery, the Japanese soldiers cursed their own navy one after another. Just when they hated iron but not steel, a group of bombers from the Ryukyus appeared on the eastern sea. "Look. It's our Fly, Yaga! Shina fighter! "Waiting left and right, I finally saw a dozen bombers from the Ryukyus, but before Sato could be happy, a large group of J-8 'Tianquan' who took off from Kume Island rushed up. Within a few minutes, there was no trace of the plaster flag in the sky.

"Nakasa! Nakasa, look. Sato sighed, there was no hope for support. Just as he was about to let the soldier continue to hide, the officer next to him suddenly pulled him: "Here comes a cruiser." ”

"Cruisers?" Sato Yunmu saw that a warship the size of a cruiser had crossed the battleship formation and was heading towards the island. The battleship has rough skin and thick flesh, but it can't be beaten. Such a small warship of three or five thousand tons can always be repulsed. "Yaga, the cruiser dares to approach too! Quick, push the cannon out. Sato gritted his teeth and ordered his soldiers to push out the four 150mm guns hidden in the cave.

As an island nation, Japan was severely short of resources and had to maintain a large fleet, so the Japanese army was seriously short of heavy firepower. At this moment, the 4 150-mm cannons are already Sato's most valuable weapons. Seeing an artilleryman trembling, he flew over with one kick: "Baga." Hurry up and reload! ”

"Hey!" The Japanese artillerymen staggered two steps, did not dare to argue and hurriedly went to carry the shells.

"Wait, what's that? Quick, give me the binoculars. "4 cannons turn their muzzles a little bit. When he tried to attack the cruiser, Sato suddenly noticed that the rear bridge of the cruiser seemed to be turning, and he quickly picked up the telescope to see it clearly. But he hadn't lifted it yet. I saw what he thought was the 'rear bridge', and suddenly a huge fireball erupted.

Sato and several officers immediately straightened their eyes, such a big fireball where is this 'cruiser'. It's clearly a 'shallow water heavy gunboat'! Without waiting for him to remind, there was a whistling sound in the air like a rampaging high-speed train, and then a dull sound seemed to ring directly on the eardrums, and all the sounds on the battlefield disappeared in his ears, and then He Yangshan under his feet seemed to tremble.

"What caliber is this?" Sato brushed it in a cold sweat. Stared at the 'shallow water heavy gunboat' in a daze, and even forgot to give the order to open fire. He knew that the one on the other side was not a 'cruiser' or a 'shallow water heavy gunboat' at all, but a test ship Qingdao specially transferred by the Navy after learning from Kumejima's lack of sustained firepower.

As for the heavy artillery he saw, it was a 480-mm experimental cannon that briefly served in North Korea.

The power of the special low-speed and high-explosive bomb weighing 1.5 tons is really terrifying, especially after the distance is shortened, with only seven shells, the most dangerous section of the Japanese army's permanent fortifications in Heyang Mountain was completely smashed. "Nakasa! Shina landed on Yefu Island. "Nofu Island?" Sato was dumbfounded again, he didn't expect that the opponent would attack Nofu Island first.

Under the heavy bombardment of 5 battleships, 1 gunboat and several fire support ships, the entire sky over Iheiya Island was shrouded in dust and smoke. This time, Liao Changfeng changed his previous method of landing after the end of the artillery cover, and organized two assault teams as early as possible to quickly complete the beachhead landing from the shallows protruding from Yefu Island and the west of Awa Mountain under the cover of artillery fire.

By 12 noon, the 5th Marine Division and one Army Infantry Division had all landed on the island.

"The telegram ordered the 42nd Wing, be sure to fight to the death and delay time, and the base camp and Ben will send troops to support as soon as possible." Inside the Gyokusen-dong Underground Headquarters on the Ryukyu Island, Umezu Mijiro has a gloomy face. After recording the contents of the information sent to Iheya Island, the staff officer quickly ran out again. The heavy and nervous footsteps echoed in the open underground, giving people a dull and oppressive feeling of mountain rain coming.

Umezu Mijiro is not tall and has an elegant temperament, and is considered in Japanese military circles to be a high-ranking officer with flexible skills, shrewdness and ability, with a kind attitude in the eyes of his subordinates, without any arrogance, and his language also gives people a sense of humility and elegance. But this person is a real die-hard member of the Imperial Dao faction, and he grits his teeth even more because of the delay in the arrival of the navy. "General." If you want to talk about grievances, there is no Japanese army officer in the Ryukyus who does not hate the navy, Kume Island and Iheiya Island are the western gates of the Ryukyus, once they are, the Ryukyu Oshima is the gateway to the wide, and China can also use the two islands as a springboard to shorten the landing and sailing distance. Michitaro Komatsubara was one of the representatives, and said indignantly: "Iheya Island is only 40 kilometers away from Oshima, so it's too close!" So we should no longer rely on the navy to come to the rescue, and we must find a way to support Sato. ”

Although Umezu Mijiro was angry, he was not confused. Although Oshima is only 40 kilometers away from Iheya Island, the army only has a few warships that can be used, and they are all east of the Ryukyus, so how can it break through the naval blockade line consisting of hundreds of warships?

"It is possible to use small torpedo ships and destroyers with high speeds." When Umezu Mijiro was worried, Vice Takeshi Toyoda, who was stuffed by Yamamoto Fifty-six to Ryukyu as the commander of the garrison fleet, walked into the cave, looked arrogant and proudly held a telegram in his hand, and glared at Komatsu who had just spoken: "Komatsu-kun! Pay attention to your position and don't spread discord among the army at this time! ”

The entanglement between Vice Takeshi Toyoda and the army is well known in Japanese military circles, and he was originally reluctant to cooperate with the army to defend the island, but for the sake of the country's survival, he reluctantly agreed. To hear army officers including Komatsu insult the navy, of course, was unceremonious. Umezu Mijiro was afraid of causing another quarrel, so he hurriedly changed the topic: "General, what did you mean just now?" ”

"This is a telegram from Admiral Yamamoto, the Combined Fleet is coming."

Hearing that the main force of the navy was finally coming, Umezu Mijiro hurriedly grabbed the telegram, and his excitement was overflowing, and he asked, "General, what did you mean by small warships just now?" ”

"It's only 40 kilometers, and small ships can reach it in an hour at full speed, so I can dispatch small torpedo ships and destroyers, carry the army, and cover you on the island at night." At the moment of life and death, Deputy Toyoda didn't care about continuing to quarrel with the army, and pointed to the northwest of Iheiya Island: "So, please tell the 42nd Wing that you must stick to the northeast corner." ”

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PS: Sorry, I got home too late yesterday and forgot to ask for leave. Today is the last holiday of the year, so you need to buy everything for the New Year. No way, my mother's fracture has not healed, and the hippo is a dual-income family, so I have to work until the afternoon of the Chinese New Year's Eve to take a holiday. At that time, it is too late to prepare for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, so today I used myself as two people and drove a day's car back and forth between the supermarket and the store. (To be continued......)