At 13:40, the flagship of the main force of the East Asian Army, "Pinghai".

"How far is it?"

Commander Sa Zhenbing, who was sitting on the special seat on the bridge, tilted his head slightly towards Major General Ye Fei, the chief of staff standing in the left rear.

Ye Fei tilted his head and glanced at the chart: "Twenty nautical miles at most." ”

Sa Zhenbing asked again: "Did you hear the sound of the cannon?" ”

Ye Fei narrowed his eyes: "I'm not sure." ”

Sa Zhenbing was obviously not satisfied with this answer, frowned slightly, and then asked the next question:

"Where should Jericho's main force go?"

Ye Fei hurried to compact the offshore chart, took a folding ruler compass, and then raised his pen to draw before raising his head and replying: "If the enemy's main force still maintains the course and speed of 30 minutes ago, it should be about forty nautical miles southwest of the ship, and it is only more than twenty nautical miles away from Yuan Feng's troops in the battle. () If nothing else, you can come into contact with them within an hour. ”

A young staff officer suddenly pushed the door and rushed forward, and he didn't care about saluting, and raised the message in his hand and reported loudly: "Our mobile unit appeared in the left rear of the formation a little earlier, and the following light came: 1. Yun Peng returned early due to injury, and the flagship was changed to Golden Falcon; 2. All available combat aircraft have been dispatched to support the reconnaissance units, counting 33 ship attacks and 18 ship battles, and the self-defense of the mothership is temporarily undertaken by the ship reconnaissance; 3. Due to the serious loss of air combat strength, please allow your unit to transfer to Buenos Aires after sunset to receive the reserve fleet in order to continue the war. The above mobile troops are replaced, and they are finished. ”

Sa Zhenbing waved his hand when he heard this, and sneered without particularly malicious intent: "This Bi Lingbo looks quite honest, and he is also making a small calculation in his bones." ”

"Looks like he's expected to have some leftovers to eat." Ye Fei also spread his hands and laughed. （

Sa Zhenbing narrowed his left eye and shook his head thoughtfully: "Maybe he bet that we won't be able to catch Jericho today?" ”

Ye Fei said disapprovingly: "That's too wishful thinking." In half an hour at most, we will be able to catch Betty's fleet that was being led by Yuan Feng's nose and circling in place, can Jericho bear to abandon the avant-garde troops he had arranged with heavy troops, and flee back with the main force that has not fired a single shot? Even if he is really ruthless to this extent. It's not that we don't have a chance, at most we gritted our teeth and left the four ships of Yuezi and the two ships of Dragon and Phoenix behind, and the twelve sea characters and the six thunder characters of Yuan Feng were combined, chasing tightly, and we didn't suffer a loss in the fight.

Sa Zhenbing still couldn't feel at ease, and his eyebrows were tangled in an unconcealed way: "That said, what I saw with my own eyes was really that there was no new news about the reconnaissance plane in the past?" ”

"According to previous reports, there are land-based fighter jets over the other side, and several water scouts sent to track have lost contact. Ye Fei explained helplessly.

Sa Zhenbing groaned slightly. The index finger of his right hand flicked the oak handrail that had been worn off the paint: "Let the mobile force send a ship scout to follow." The performance of ship reconnaissance is better than that of water reconnaissance, and the crew is more experienced. Also, ask them to keep some ship battles for themselves, and take ship scouts to do the work of ship battles, which is called chasing ducks to the shelves. ”

Ye Fei nodded as he took the interrogation paper in the young staff officer's hand, and wrote a reply on the back.

"Yes. Is it okay to reply like this? Do you want to ......?"

Sa Zhenbing's left eye flashed, and he said with a smile: "Don't mention this first, anyway, it's after nightfall, and then give him instructions depending on the situation." ”

Without waiting for Ye Fei to hand over the written reply to the lieutenant staff officer who was in charge of delivering the message, a loudspeaker on the ceiling suspended behind Sa Zhenbing sent out a not-so-nervous alarm from a pair of air sentinels: "1 enemy large plane was found at 3 o'clock!" I'm hovering and tracking! ”

Ye Feideng's thick eyebrows squeezed, and he said angrily: "Sure enough, in response to the commander's concern, this is the result of throwing all the fighters in one place at once." （

Sa Zhenbing raised his finger and shook his head: "No wonder he, at this time, dragging Betty's avant-garde troops is the most important thing to take care of the east wall and not the west wall, it seems that there is really a lot of loss." ”

"But in this way, sooner or later, it will attract the ...... of the opponent's ground-based air raid team."

Sa Zhenbing said indifferently: "If you are afraid of the other party's air attack." Then we shouldn't have sailed into this sea in the first place, and it was already our great luck to be discovered until now, and it was destined to happen, you and I didn't need to bother. Add a message to your reply: From now on, the only task of the mobile unit is to protect the main force with all its might! At the same time, the bridge of the flagship of the main forces of the Entente forces" George V ". （）

“…… Repeatedly attacked by enemy planes, war-weary was difficult to save, and Barham was wounded and stalled. Now the second wave of enemy aircraft is being engaged! ”

With a "tom", Jericho's clenched fist slammed into the armrest, he had tried his best to be as calm and gentlemanly as ever, but the ensuing blow sent him into a panic like never before.

"Betty is entangled, and that's what they're trying to do." Colonel Willy, a senior staff officer on the side, did not sympathize with the feelings of his superiors, and analyzed himself without any emotion, "If we turn around like this, Betty is very likely to be wiped out, and if we go to meet it, it is very likely that it will be lost one by one in the repeated air raids of enemy planes." It was then eaten by the main enemy force that had the upper hand. ”

"Of course I know that. But...... Wait, Willie. I need to calm down. ”

Jericho stretched out his hand to wipe his face, took a few deep breaths, raised his eyebrows, suddenly realized something, got up, prostrated his hands in front of the chart table, and scanned back and forth between the west coast of Myanmar and the east coast of India.

"Willy, when did the enemy's land-based bombers first appear?"

"Around 12 o'clock." Willie didn't think twice.

Jericho's originally pale face gradually returned to a little blood, and he nodded vigorously: "So...... According to the available information, it will take several hours for enemy ground-based bombers to fly here from the east coast of Myanmar at the earliest? ”

Willie pinched his fingers and counted, "6." ”

Jericho became more and more convinced of his brilliant judgment, and his finger flicked the edge of the raised heartwood of the chart table, and glanced at the huge ship clock on the wall: "It's already 13:50, which means that if there are land-based bombers coming later, it will be completely dark before these planes return to the shores of Burma." ”

Willie paused for a moment, then nodded reluctantly: "That's right." ”

"Did our aviation solve the problem of night take-off and landing of large aircraft groups?"

"Nope."

"Then we can only gamble, and I believe that the other party has not solved this problem."

Willie's eyes flashed, and he smiled as if out of place.

"Understood, if we believe that the enemy will not launch the kind of war of extermination that is destined to go and never return, then of course we should take a gamble as a more civilized side, please give the order."

Jellico crossed his arms and smiled bitterly, muttering to himself in a whisper that others could not notice: "Willy, I don't know what civilization is...... All I know is that without Betty's strength, it will be even more difficult for us to escape this cursed ......."

Turning around and about to give the order, the adjutant Captain Anson hurriedly rushed in and excitedly read the telegram in his hand: "The main force of the enemy is coming from Bhubaneswar, 18 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 6 large cruisers, and the direction is ......."