Five supply ships were sunk. The sea area where the fleet was located was shrouded in fire, and Ijiin's brows kept jumping, his face was blue and white for a while, and the pain in his heart was indescribable.

The order for the fleet to sail was given by Yamamoto, and it was not something he could have expected to be attacked by superior enemy planes, but he had to take responsibility for it, and when he thought of this, he felt depressed in his heart, and he had the thought of jumping headlong into the sea of fire.

The air raids did not end. Although two more Dolphins were shot down, the attack of the Dolphin swarm on the five surviving supply ships has not stopped. And just east of the fleet, dozens of medium bombers were waiting for the order to attack.

The raid lasted about 25 minutes, and in the end, at the cost of seven fighters, the Cadet Air Force sank a total of nine supply ships and three armed frigates of the Nagasaki supply fleet. Whether it is from the ratio of battle losses or from the ratio of attrition, the Cadet Army still won the victory of this "cooking off" operation.

At about 5:40, the group of fighters of the Cadet Army began to return home, and less than ten minutes after they left, the lookouts on the King Kong howled again. The round of bombing just now had already broken the gall of Ijiin, and he was organizing the rescue of the crew members who had fallen into the water, and when he heard that another enemy plane was coming, he was so shocked that he almost sat on the ground.

And when the "enemy plane" flew a little closer, and the plaster flags on the fuselage of some fighters appeared in front of Yijiyuan's eyes, the old devil screamed, viciously slammed the megaphone in his hand on the deck, and shouted: "Bage, since you are coming, why don't you come earlier?" ”

Along the way, about 100 kilometers from the Nagasaki supply fleet, five ships were spotted chasing Lang. The ships belonged to Taiwan's supply fleet, but had been abandoned because they had lost power. At first, Yamanbe thought that this was the Nagasaki supply fleet, and he couldn't help but startle the boss. Later, not a single living person was found on board, and he realized that it was most likely a ship abandoned by the Taiwanese supply fleet.

Flying further east, in just a few minutes, he saw the thick smoke rising from the sea where the Nagasaki supply fleet was located, and flew over along the thick smoke, and soon, the embarrassed Nagasaki supply fleet appeared in the eyes of dozens of devil air forces.

"We're late!" Yamanbe circled around the fleet, muttering in frustration.

At that time, Yamamoto Isoroku had already received a telegram from Ijiin on the situation of the battle. Hearing that nine of the thirteen supply ships had been lost, and one of the three fuel supply ships was missing, the old devil was so anxious that he didn't catch it in one breath and fainted again.

This telegram was handed over to him by Koizumi himself, and he had already known the contents of the telegram in advance, and Koizumi appeared very calm. While calling for the military doctor to come and give first aid to Yamamoto, he asked Sanada to bring Tsukahara to discuss countermeasures with him.

Koizumi was the first to express his opinion, saying: "The supply fleet from Nagasaki is now left with one ammunition supply ship and two food supply ships, which can support about a week's attrition. It's just that without oil supplies, the fleet can only stop here. Otherwise, if we can't take Hainan, we won't even have enough fuel to return home. ”

suffered heavy blows one after another, and Tsukahara's fiery temper couldn't help but restrain a lot. Unlike Koizumi, who never forgot the Battle of Hainan, his eyes were set on the Japanese mainland, which was thousands of miles away. He said: "Whether it is still necessary to carry out the Hainan campaign has been decided. Koizumi, what we should be concerned about now is a more serious question, even if we can return to Nagasaki safely, but what will happen to the commander? What about the Combined Fleet and even the Navy? Those bastards in the Army won't let this opportunity go, they don't want to bring us under their command all the time. And if it becomes a reality, I'm afraid that your vision of a strong navy will be in vain. ”

Koizumi is still too young to be a political idiot at all. After being reminded by Tsukahara, he realized this problem and couldn't help but get nervous: "Although the Hainan Battle failed, it won't have such a bad impact, right?" ”

Tsukahara sighed, then glanced at him with an idiot's eyes, then took out a cigarette and smoked it, not speaking for a long time.

"Please give me one!" Koizumi said, stretching out his right hand and tremblingly taking the cigarette handed over by Tsukahara.

When it comes to politics, Tsukahara's views are naturally more accurate than Koizumi's. And as long as he thought that Yamamoto would be forced to resign or even leave the Admiralty because of the failure of the Hainan Raiders, Koizumi became uneasy. Although the Hainan campaign was initiated by Yamamoto, he was the actual promoter. Yamamoto trusts him immensely, but what does he bring to Yamamoto? Yamamoto trusted him and counted on him to contribute to the emergence of a strong navy. But now it seems that he has brought destruction to the navy, which is too great a blow to him.

"Sss

"Now I hope that Haneda and the others can kill Ouyang Yun by surprise, in that case, there may be a turning point in the Hainan Campaign. But from what I've seen of the Cadets over this time, it's really hard for Haneda to do that," Tsukahara said, snatching the matchbox from Koizumi and helping him light the cigarette.

Koizumi took a hard puff of his cigarette and coughed violently. Finally calming his breath, he said, "Your Excellency Tsukahara, in addition to this, we have another chance. ”

"What?"

"Osaka Division!"

"Merchant Division? What can you expect from them? ”

"Your Excellency, although we all disdain the Osaka Division, but you have not noticed this, they have at least taken root in Hainan. In other words, in the Hainan Campaign, we have actually achieved a preliminary victory. ”

"But-" Nakahara wanted to say, "but this is the reason why the Cadet Army took the initiative to abandon its position," but was interrupted by Koizumi before he could say anything.

He said: "We don't care what the future holds, at least for the time being, with the vigorous cooperation of our combined fleet, the Osaka Division has successfully gained a foothold in Hainan. Didn't the Army want to snatch the gains? We'll leave it to them. Since the results have been given to them, should the army also be fully responsible for the next war? ”

Koizumi said that this kind of practice is very shameless and even vicious. Out of his understanding of the combat strength of the Osaka Division, Tsukahara was able to foresee the only fate of the division left on Hainan Island. While surprised that Koizumi was so poisonous, he had to admit that this could indeed solve the crisis faced by the Combined Fleet and even the Admiralty. He took a deep breath and said, "Then wait for the commander to wake up and ask him to make a decision." ”

Koizumi shook his head: "No, this matter must not be known to the commander." You should know the commander's personality, he is a knife-mouthed tofu heart, and we can just do it in secret. If something goes wrong, I'll take the blame. ”

Tsukahara thought about it and agreed to Koizumi's suggestion. On the issue of admitting responsibility, he did not say anything on his lips, but he made a decision in his heart that he would definitely take responsibility over at that time in order to protect Koizumi, the star of hope for the navy.