Bay Kaohsiung Port, the flagship of the East Asian Combined Fleet "Pinghai", the headquarters will be

On both sides of the European-style long table in the room, the generals in snow-white dresses held their breath and calmed down, and their eyes were focused on the old man sitting alone at one end of the long table with a square forehead, starry eyebrows, prominent cheekbones and a pointed chin, plus a pair of slender elf ears: in his fifties, carrying the rank of wave-patterned four-star general on his shoulders, a small pile of documents in front of him, and a huge hand-drawn schematic diagram hanging behind him, he was the commander of the combined fleet, Sa Zhenbing, who led the East Asian United Fleet, the third in the world, to win successive battles. He created many "firsts" in the history of naval warfare in the empire and even the world, and was praised as the "god of war" and "Nelson of the East" by the public opinion of the empire and its allies, and was respected as a "sea devil" by the media of the enemy country and denounced as a mythical general of the "butcher of the sea".

At this moment, Sa Zhenbing, with a serious look of concentrating and concentrating, as if facing a great enemy, moved his small eyes slightly from side to side, and glanced at the generals with extraordinary majesty: "I specially summoned you from various training places, I must have been prepared, I will get straight to the point and get straight to the point." ”

"The base camp has officially issued Haizi Order No. 57, ordering the Combined Fleet to complete its combat readiness for Operation I by mid-August, and the operation will be carried out in accordance with the revised Plan B. The amendments to Case B are as follows: 1. Cancel Step B. For the sake of the highest priority, the landing force was sacrificed for this purpose. Third, before the main force is engaged in a decisive battle, it is necessary to destroy the enemy's aircraft carrier mobile units as much as possible. ”

"On the basis of this instruction, the Commander intends to reorganize the participating units as follows—"

Speaking of this, Sa Zhenbing nodded to Major General Ye Fei, his new chief of staff, who was sitting closest to Lu's right, and Ye Fei immediately got up, picked up a bamboo whip and pointed to the compilation map of Sa Zhenbing's back full of generals' names, troop markers, and connecting lines.

"Lieutenant General Yuan Feng!"

"Here!"

With a round face, a blue scalp, a fierce appearance, and a slightly bulging belly, Yuan Feng stood up and responded with full of energy. Two months ago, in support of the Japanese attack on Alaska. He commanded a reconnaissance unit based on the battle cruisers "Shock Thunder" and "Lightning Mine" to actively pursue a US detachment, and won a complete victory in the first surface ship engagement with the US Navy, sinking one light cruiser and three destroyers, and capturing the wounded new US destroyer "almost unscathed." As a result, his reputation rose to fame, and the original title of "Artillery Expert" was upgraded to "God of Artillery" by excited public opinion, and he was soon awarded the Order of the Blue Dragon of the Third Class for his meritorious service, becoming one of the many "star generals" in the empire since the beginning of the war.

This time, Sa Zhenbing wants to give him more room to play.

"You're in charge of the reconnaissance force. As the vanguard of the main force, the task is to search for and intercept the enemy's advance guard, cover the deployment of the main force and occupy a favorable position. The reconnaissance unit was equipped with 6 light cruisers and 16 destroyers with 'Thunderbolt', 'Thunder', 'Thunder', 'Lightning Thunder', 'Kirishima', '~_ with the 1st Light Patrol Team, the 1st Lightning Strike Team and the 7th Destroyer Team. Is there a problem? ”

"Nope! Leave the reconnaissance unit to me! ”

Yuan Feng was too late to be happy, how could he think of anything else, and his confident answer was sincere.

On the contrary, Vice Admiral Liang Shuming, commander of the mobile fleet who created the "mythical Pearl Harbor miracle" and fought all over the eastern and western Pacific and the eastern Indian Ocean since the start of the war, had too many contradictory feelings of eagerness and hesitation in his eyes when he was called out by Sa Zhenbing.

"You are in command of the mobile unit, as a separate guerrilla unit, tasked with searching for the enemy's main forces. Destroy enemy aircraft carriers before the launch of the main decisive battle, and if necessary, provide air cover for the avant-garde and main forces. On the premise of ensuring the above priority tasks, lightning strikes the enemy's main forces before and after the launch of the main decisive battle. The mobile unit is based on the four fleet aircraft carriers 'Dapeng', 'Yunpeng', 'Golden Falcon', and 'Saker' and the carrier-based aviation units on board, and is equipped with six .++ ships of the 3rd and 4th Patrol Squadrons, the 6th Light Patrol Squadron, and the 5th and 6th Destroyers Squadrons. Is there a problem? ”

"There's—"

Liang Shuming, who is of medium stature and thin and delicate, finally made up his mind to fight for opportunities for his ideals.

Sa Zhenbing glanced at him expressionlessly: "Speak." ”

"It is hoped that the priority of lightning strikes on the enemy's main forces will be raised to the third place, that is, after the search for the enemy's main forces and the destruction of the enemy's aircraft carriers."

"Why?"

"With three ships present, the advance guard and the main force are sufficient for adequate air cover, and the valuable carrier-based aircraft force should be prioritized for offense rather than defense."

"Rejected, the ground-based fighters of the three airlines have a limited range. There is no guarantee that the fleet will be covered by the whole process, and even if the mobile units can destroy the enemy aircraft carriers before the decisive battle, there is no guarantee that our surface artillery units will not be attacked by enemy air attack teams that have slipped through the net during the decisive battle. The surface artillery units are the decisive force of this operation, and the mobile units are the auxiliary force of the surface artillery units. The core operational purpose of the latter is to provide the former with long-range aerial reconnaissance information, eliminate interference from the enemy's air forces, and then consider disrupting the enemy's main fleet and expanding the results of the battle if there is spare strength. Did I make it clear? ”

Sa Zhen Ice Cut is categorical. Obviously, he saw through the little flowery intestines in Liang Shuming's stomach at a glance.

"Understood, there is no problem with the subordinates."

Liang Shuming's bravery ends here - judging from Sa Zhenbing's resolute performance, his campaign against the top of the military department has not achieved results, and the navy is really an independent kingdom that cannot be inserted into the needle and water cannot be splashed! The hard top is useless, especially when the big war is imminent, Old Man Sa can beat him with a single disobedience to military orders

, a fleet of talents, can replace him Liang Shuming is afraid that before he can't find a strong backstage, stop the sharpness for the time being, and keep quiet.

Sa Zhenbing is not a clear mirror to his thoughts, as the elder of the horsetail family, whose seniority and prestige are second only to Liu Buyun and Lin Taizeng, the two former commanders of the Combined Fleet, really disdain to have anything to do with the former Qing Shui Yong who was born in front of him and entered the military academy 20 years later.

Seeing Liang Shuming sit back in his position, Sa Zhenbing nodded without a sense of accomplishment, and raised his hand slightly to Ye Fei behind him, this time, it was his turn to get up.

"The main forces. Led by the commander-in-chief, he is responsible for the decisive battle with the enemy's main artillery bombardment. With 18 main warships as the backbone, it is divided into 5 warbands: the first warplane, and the four ships Pinghai, Ninghai, Jinghai, and Weihai are also led by the commander. The second team, the four ships Yangbo, Zhubo, Fubo, and Jiabo, was commanded by Admiral Liu Guanxiong. The joint Japanese-Korean team, the four ships Ise, Shinano, Hirokaito, and Yi Sunsin, was commanded by Vice Admiral Yamaya. The third team, Longwei and Fengxiang. Commanded by Lieutenant General Yi Mingxuan. The fourth squadron, four ships of Beiyue, Nanyue, Dongyue, and Xiyue, was commanded by Vice Admiral Gao Long. Liu Guanxiong was appointed as the first successor commander-in-chief of the main force and all the units participating in the battle, and when the commander was unable to see things or the flagship temporarily lost his command ability, the successor commander-in-chief automatically took over the command. ”

"The main force is also equipped with the 3rd Air Squadron, the 2nd Light Patrol Squadron, the 1st Japanese Light Korean Light Patrol Squadron, and the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 8th Destroyer Squadrons, a total of 2 naval carriers, 12 light cruisers, and 28 destroyers."

—

"If you have any questions about this, please ask them on the spot, and you won't be able to do so later."

The generals who were named had already gathered together, and they were silent at the moment. to show no doubt.

"Since there was no problem, I sat down. Let's all sit down. Sa Zhenbing waved his hand and sat down peacefully.

"Ma Shengyu."

When he read this name, Sa Zhenbing inadvertently lengthened the end note, and there were two positions on the right hand side of the long table, and a tall, heroic-looking man with a striking and shiny mustache and empty space above his right ear stood up.

"Here."

The voice was calm and composed, and his expression was calm and indifferent, which caused Sa Zhenbing to look up at him twice.

Ten years ago, during the naval battle in the South China Sea, which annihilated the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, Ma Shengyu, who was the commander of the armored patrol unit, led 10 armored cruisers with weak protection to break away from the battleship force and attack from the cover, and blocked the way of the enemy's main battleship column by virtue of the speed advantage of the patrol. Immediately, he concentrated his attack on the enemy's forward ship with fierce and accurate artillery bombardment, and took the lead 10 minutes after the exchange of fire.: Ordered Rozhestvensky to destroy the enemy's command system and lay the foundation for victory in the naval battle. And Ma Shengyu was cut off his right ear by shrapnel in this battle. He fought again, and after the battle, he still bled profusely, and for a time the name of bravery spread throughout East Asia. Emperor Guangxing of the Qing Dynasty was awarded the Order of the White Tiger of the First Class and promoted to the title of Baron, and once entered Beijing as the chief of staff of the Navy, but in the subsequent outbreak of the Yisi Beijing Rebellion, he failed to express his position in time when he married the daughter of the Manchurian imperial family, and repeatedly sang the opposite tone in the telegram petition movement in favor of Liu Yun as the emperor.

After the empire entered the war last year, Ma Shengyu served as the commander of the South China Sea Fleet and the Second Fleet, and when the elite of the whole army rushed to the Hawaiian Islands, he commanded the Second Fleet, which was composed of old surface ships, submarine forces, and land-based aviation units, to lay a series of traps in Lingjiayan Bay in the northern Philippines, ambush the combined fleet of the four Far Eastern countries with a number of dreadnought warships, and severely damaged the strong enemy in one fell swoop, sinking 9 large ships above armored cruisers (2 dreadnought warships, 1,2,4,7 battle cruisers, 14 destroyers, and wounding the enemy ++). The submarine forces of the Chinese Communists also successively sank the enemy's large cruiser 2 (the original battle report was 3, but the "Terrible" large light cruiser was not sunk) and damaged the large ship 3 (large light cruiser 1), so that the navy of the Allied countries in the Far East was once unable to use ships, and the sea supremacy in the western Pacific was in our hands, and the army conquered all important places in the South China Sea almost without hindrance.

However, in order to avoid "needless losses" under the favorable situation, Ma Shengyu did not resolutely invest his main force based on his old warships to intercept the remnants of the enemy fleet that were badly damaged but still had considerable combat strength, so that he escaped from the encirclement and successfully returned to Singapore on board the "Malaya", the flagship of Vice Admiral Bernie, the commander of the enemy fleet, including three other lightly damaged dreadnought warships, two old warships, and five patrolling in the core combat force of the inland fleet. At the time, many people accused Ma Shengyu of cowardice, compared it with the performance of the naval battle in the South China Sea, and sighed: "In the blink of an eye, ten years later, the hero is a bear." ”

Sa Zhenbing disagreed, he believed that Ma Shengyu had completed the scheduled mission and avoided the loss of the main force of the Second Fleet, although the losses of auxiliary ships and aircraft in the battle seemed serious, but these losses were originally expected - the base camp did not hesitate to contain the combined fleet of the four countries at the cost of the total destruction of the Second Fleet.

Fortunately, the high-level leaders of the base camp, including Liu Bailiang, chief of the general staff, were not affected by the anger of public opinion, and not only praised Ma Shengyu in the official documents of the war report, and awarded him the Order of the Blue Dragon of the second class for meritorious service, but also nominated him to the empress to be promoted to the title of viscount and given an annuity. He was still appointed commander of the Second Fleet.

Sa Zhenbing thought to himself: Although this person is controversial and his actual achievements are difficult to erase, he is indeed a rare talent, but unfortunately it is not my horsetail door, it is actually Liang Shuming's classmate, this guy from Dalian Haixiao is stubborn, and he bowed his hand to worship the teacher

Is it hard? If we don't seriously cultivate protégés in the future, I am afraid that the unification of the Fujian system will be unified...... Selfishness! Selfishness! The taboo of self-cultivation is the great fallacy of the world!

My mind is busy introspecting. I had already spit out most of the words I was going to talk about.

"You are in command of the support forces, and the task is to escort the landing force and provide fire support to the opposite shore, and if necessary, to support the main force with basic forces. The backbone of the support force consisted of 10 old warships and 9 patrols. It is equipped with the 4th Air Squadron, the Japanese Light Patrol Squadron, the DPRK Light Patrol 2nd Squadron, the 2nd and 3rd Lightning Strike Squadrons, and the 1st and 2nd Japanese Lightning Strike Squadrons, with a total of water engine carriers, 9 light cruisers, and 24 destroyers, as well as torpedo boats, minesweepers, gunboats, and coastal defense ships belonging to the 1st and 2nd Special Support Teams, so as to effectively support the landing operation. Is there a problem? ”

Ma Shengyu thought about it. Don't squint: "Is the ship carrying the landing force also under my command?" ”

Sa Zhenbing didn't need to think, and replied casually: "Yes." I'm about to get to that next. ”

"I'm fine." Ma Shengyu sat down with the same indifferent expression as when he got up.

This person...... It's unpredictable, but so what?

As long as you don't do that kind of stupid thing of grabbing class power and deviating from the top, no matter how you jump, it's not in the palm of our hands? In terms of the country and the people, if it is really a great talent, a meritorious person, and stands on the right side of the situation, what regrets do we have when we wait for the old man to abdicate and make way for the virtuous?

Frank and happy. In private and public, without worry, so in battle, why be afraid?

Sa Zhenbing closed his eyes slightly. I was a little proud of my calm state of mind.

"Next is the landing force, the first phase is scheduled to be divided into two waves, and the first wave of ships is scheduled to be based on the 10th Amphibious Support Team at the time of landing in Hawaii. Including 7 dock landing ships, 17 combat vehicle landing ships, and 30 large troop carriers [. The second wave is the 20th Habitat Support Team temporarily organized, which is based on large and medium-sized passenger and cargo ships, and carries a corps of the 12th Army of the Army

"The part of the ship force in the landing force is coordinated and jointly commanded by the command of the Second Fleet of Ma Shengyu and the Indian Front Command, but the final decision on the actions of the ship force belongs to Commander Ma Shengyu; The combat unit part is under the sole responsibility of the commander of the Indian Front, Deng Jian, and Commander Ma Shengyu should be able to coordinate and cooperate with him to meet the ground and sea support required by the combat force to complete its mission. Do you understand? ”

I saw Ma Shengyu smile with satisfaction, got up and saluted: "Understood!" The ship belongs to our navy, and Commander Deng is a guest, so we must entertain the guests well. ”

"Good—sit down."

The children can be taught.

Ma Shengyu's witty words made the originally serious and depressing atmosphere in the room suddenly relax a lot.

The corners of Sa Zhenbing's mouth frowned, and he quickly poured a sip of tea, posed and continued to roll call.

Vice Admiral He Kai, commander of the 11th Fleet, was in charge of commanding the alert troops, whose mission was to monitor and inspect all key points in the theater and wait for an opportunity to hunt down enemy ships. The fleet includes the 8 Whale 2 and Whale 3 ocean-going submarines of the 1st Diving Squadron, which have just been transferred from the East China Sea Fleet, as well as the 4th and 56th Diving Teams, the 1st and 2nd Japanese Diving Teams, and the Korean Diving Squadron, totaling 64 submarines (Note 1) and 5 diving carriers.

Vice Admiral Ling Yi, commander of the Third Air Fleet, is in charge of commanding the base air force, and its mission is to assist the mobile unit in seizing air supremacy in the theater and attacking the enemy fleet according to the situation. With the 7th, 8th, and 11th shore-based air squadrons of the Third Air Fleet as the backbone, this unit should have 300 planes and boats according to its establishment, and some units of the army air force will be added to the army and navy before and after the start of the operation according to the situation to form a joint air group of the army and navy, which will still be under the unified command of Ling Yi at that time.

The first step has finally been taken, but the available time is running out.

There is still half a month, just half a month, what else can be done?

Sa Zhenbing got up slowly, and his slightly hoarse voice was low and powerful: "Today, all the monarchs are gathered here for the same goal - to defeat the enemy. I hope that after this showdown, we can get together again for other purposes, such as having a drink and talking about hobbies. I also hope that even if any of us lose our lives or limbs in this duel, his sacrifice will be valuable and meaningful, and will be revered and admired by us and the tens of millions of people behind us. But I hope that no matter what the result is, you can win without arrogance or discouragement, and do your best to be worthy of your heart. Eat the king's lu, repay the king's kindness, for the emperor's grace, we must do our best; To expand the territory and open up thousands of miles, for the national fortune, we must also do our best; The huge ship, the blood and sweat of the people, for the fathers and the old folks, we must do our best. I hope that all the kings and Sa will encourage him, the empire will win, and the imperial navy will win! ”

The throats of the navy soldiers were full of emotions of one kind or another, and some of them had to add the hot tears that rolled in their eyes, which were detonated at the same time as a second of silence.

"Victory!"

"Victory!"

"Victory!"

~~~~~~~~~

(Note 1): In June 1915, the Imperial Navy amended the rules for the names of diving units, referring to the rules for the names of surface ships, with an underwater displacement of more than 500 for submarines and below 500 for submarines.