Seeing the battleship accelerating, the fighters hovering in the sky didn't care about whether the new tactics were appropriate, and rushed in all directions like a swarm of four battleships that still maintained two parallel phalanx formations, intending to attack and break through in the chaos.

Whether it was close to the sea, several planes swaying left and right, covering each other to break through, or hovering at high altitude to attract firepower and create a breakthrough opportunity for their companions, or they began to dive rapidly from a long distance to create a vacancy for their companions close to the high altitude, all of which did not work.

The planes are like the fireworks in the sky, blooming, showing the melody of beauty in blood.

And the battleships behind, except for rescuing a limited number of soldiers who fell into the water and were lucky not to be sucked into the bottom of the sea, could only watch them leave at high speed.

Annoyed, Yamamoto Isoroku ordered the remaining planes to return, and they couldn't catch up.

How could the enemy's battleship artillery range be so far? How can it be so accurate? How can such dense air defense be? And the means of air defense are similar to those of the advance army, similar to those of Germany in intelligence, and similar to those of the British anti-aircraft shells, whose warship is this? Is it really British?

When the plane landed, Yamamoto Fifty-six was full of question marks, and he didn't know what was going on. It is said that the other side did not even have a chance to return the phone to the encirclement and suppression, so the other side shelled, sank two of the fastest destroyers, and shot down several planes.

Frustrated, they cleaned up the battlefield, searched for the overboard soldiers, and the fleet was brought together. None of the generals who boarded the flagship and drove back were in a good mood, but they all understood a truth, that is, speed determines naval battles. And it is also suspected that the other party has an ultra-long-range positioning method, which is more advanced than a rangefinder.

The thought popped up. Everyone suddenly thought of a terrible thing, that is, would the other party have long known about the encirclement of their own side, otherwise how could they have been able to bypass the gap on the left side that is about to close at high speed in advance and carry out long-range artillery bombardment? One more point, these are only four destroyers, if there are battleships. Isn't that aircraft carrier a scrap? When the fighter plane does not work at all, this is an iron coffin and cartridge that cannot fight back after being beaten. The speed is slow, and there is no way to run.

On the other hand, none of the battleships here can be said to be reasonable in terms of speed, and it is obviously impossible to catch up with this kind of fast battleship, as for the opponent's battleship, since it has such a skill, of course, it will be better than the imperial battleship in terms of speed. I'm afraid it's also superior to this side in terms of firepower.

As these thoughts arose, the upper echelons of the Combined Fleet were worried. Once the opposing fleet attacks, although it is not afraid, the chances of victory are obviously not much.

"We still have to continue to plan, we can't afford to hesitate, you guys work hard, please!"

Yamamoto Fifty-six made the final decision, and did not let the mood that was about to turn into panic continue to spread.

With his command. Freighters in the back, landing ships. The troop carrier, protected by a dozen frigates, continued to advance towards the original target.

Underwater, forty or fifty meters deep, a submarine sailed quietly and slowly. The radar was tense and busy, and groups of data formed messages that were finally sent.

Li Rongbin successfully escaped. Quickly sail towards the deep sea and join the fleet of the fierce son.

His role is nothing else, that is, to transmit signals to the Japanese army, so that the Japanese army can have a mental preparation before desperately, and comprehensively consider whether it is a decisive battle.

Can't catch their own fleet. If the range is not enough, this will become a situation where it is not possible to chase or fight, and when the time comes, the Japanese army will follow the route set by the fierce sons, and will finally be driven to the predetermined location.

Mengzi received Li Rongbin's telegram and learned that he left smoothly and unscathed, and he was more confident in the plan he had formulated before. But then he received a telegram about the Japanese army's move, and he couldn't help but be stunned, and he read the telegram and understood the Japanese army's intentions.

Want to leave Mukarla, no way!

Mengzi snorted secretly, and then ordered: "The Japanese army wants to go offshore from Mukara, and the plan can only be advanced, send electricity to the wolves, and make the reserve submarines scattered in the No. 3 area, ready at any time." The fleet departs, and the supply ships are on standby three hundred nautical miles ahead! ”

Following his order, the two supply ships did not use escort and went straight to the direction from which Li Rongbin came, supplying him with ammunition and fuel on the way, while the fleet left the deep sea and sailed in the direction of the Gulf of Aden.

Although Yamamoto Fifty-six was also worried about being blocked by the other party, he had already communicated with Hideki Tojo on the shore, and at this time he was not worried that he could not plan to act, so he could only let a part of the frigate escort the fleet that received Seishiro Itagaki to the direction of the Red Sea, and he personally led the combined fleet to wait for the enemy ships that might arrive here, build a defensive line here, and meet the retreating Hideki Tojo by land.

The Japanese fleet was not traveling fast at only about eight knots, and a few hours later the group had just arrived near the Combined Fleet, and the submarines lurking around it had already moved to the designated position, and after confirming that there were no enemy ships around, they all rose up to recharge their batteries.

After the Japanese fleet converged, some of them left the group of battleships and headed for Ayton, while some of them went straight to Mukara, which was less than 100 nautical miles. The Combined Fleet guarded the nearby waters to prevent enemy ships from coming.

Mengzi has all the coordinates of the opponent's fleet, and he is not worried that the other party will find out at all, as for the reconnaissance plane, it is one and the other, and before the other party sees them, they are beaten down by anti-aircraft artillery.

Time passed slowly, and by the time the landing ships and troop carriers arrived at Mukara and began to land, the Fierce was less than thirty nautical miles away from the Combined Fleet.

The sun is setting, and it's approaching dusk. The sea was red, as if it had been spilled with blood, and there was a thick blood in the beauty.

Several of the seaplanes that had been scouted had not yet returned to the Japanese Combined Fleet, and they did not know that the enemy had approached the route, and was still sending troops to the shore, and that they would later carry the heavy weapons on the freighters.

Mengzi was waiting, and when Li Rongbin arrived, he was already less than five nautical miles away from the battleship group, and he was coming at high speed.

When the last glimmer of light in the sky disappeared, Li Rongbin entered the group of battleships, and then led twenty battleships out of the formation and sailed to one side.

After Li Rongbin left, Mengzi ordered at the moment when the night fell: "All the warships obey the order, and the formation is approaching." Preparation of high-explosive shells for the main gun and secondary artillery, preparation for air defense! ”

"Yes!"

There was a neat roar from the horns, and the battleship began to move, approaching the Japanese Combined Fleet.

At this time, the Japanese Combined Fleet aircraft carriers were all in the direction of the coast, and the battleships were surrounded. On the periphery are fast warships and fish destroyers, closely monitoring the surrounding waters to prevent enemy ships from attacking.

After approaching 20,000 meters, under the order of the fierce son, the battleship drew an arc, facing the direction of the enemy ship, and then a scene erupted with clusters of flames.

On the already dark sea, it was visible to an observer at the top of the battleship twenty kilometers away. The sudden flash of fire startled the Japanese soldiers above, and then shouted hoarsely: "Artillery attack!" There are enemy ships!! ”

With their shouts. The battleship was immediately chaotic, the alarm bell was loud, and one by one the figures rushed to their respective posts, and immediately, the rangefinder also captured the light, and the approximate distance was transmitted to the Yamato.

Another 20,000 meters!!

Yamamoto fifty-six had a headache.

"Ordered all ships, battleships to go out of line, and defense destroyers to follow." The rest of the battleships cover the aircraft carrier! ”

No sooner had he given the order than a loud bang exploded around the battleship group. Columns of water rose into the sky. Dozens of meters, hundreds of meters away from the battleship kept churning, the nearest was only a few meters away from the battleship, and the falling water column washed the deck with a roar.

With his command, the aircraft carrier and frigate, the light cruiser retreated. Approach the other fleet. Six battleships rushed out of the battleship and rushed towards the fierce fleet in the face of artillery fire, trying to close the distance with thick skin and flesh, and taking the opportunity to sink the opponent with carrier-based aircraft.

The radarman quickly fed back the information in the opponent's formation change, and the fierce man had already expected the enemy to do this. After all, with 200 caliber armor-piercing shells, it is a little difficult to sink a battleship, it takes time and the number of shells, and the enemy is absolutely able to force his fleet to retreat until the shells are empty, and then the carrier-based aircraft take the opportunity to surprise and achieve the goal of entanglement of the fleet, or drive themselves away from it.

"Inform the Seawolf to carry out the first plan! Keep shelling!! ”

He calmly ordered.

Yamamoto 56 followed the aircraft carrier to slowly accelerate, to get out of the enemy's artillery coverage, and use fast battleships to outflank them, and when the opponent's shells are exhausted, there will be no more fast battleships, and at that time, they can be picked up without planes. And the price, nothing more than the facilities on the deck of the battleship, did not need to be overhauled.

He was right, the enemy's speed is one thing, the key is that the distance of the artillery bombardment makes him unable to use his strength, so he uses battleships to resist hard, forcing the opponent to quickly consume shells, and at the same time, he must also test whether the opponent has large-caliber naval guns.

The cannonballs fell accurately around the galloping battleship, and in the columns of water, the battleship was full of fire, and the six battleships were baptized by the shells, and in just a few minutes, a battleship was about to fall a dozen shells.

Fortunately, these shells were high-explosive, and in addition to blowing up some anti-aircraft machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, only a layer of black ash was left on the turret shield. It made the battleship a mess, and it was difficult to leave people on the deck.

Seeing that the enemy's shelling did little harm to them, the Japanese army felt at ease, and the battleship still maintained a speed of 25 knots and leaned forward in the tactical action of avoiding it.

After a fierce battle for more than ten minutes, the distance between the two sides was always about 20,000 meters. Mengzi's fleet arced around one by one, and he was not worried that the other party would take the opportunity to shell, they couldn't reach it.

Yamamoto 56 felt that the aircraft carrier was safe, so he ordered the rapid battleship to outflank it in a roundabout way, not to approach until the opponent's firepower was exhausted, and to outflank and annihilate the fighter at the same time as the fighter took off.

That's when the unexpected happened. Originally, while the battleship was under contact with the artillery bombardment, teasing the battleship with more than a dozen destroyer frigates to chase it, while enduring the shelling and persistently advancing, a violent explosion suddenly sounded on the sea, and a column of water rose in the firelight, followed by two loud bangs, and in the firelight, the water waves covered the Fuso battleship that was rushing forward.

"There are submarines !!"

The three loud noises were all on the port side, which frightened all the Japanese soldiers on the battleship, shouting and starting to search for the snorkel in the firelight.

In the explosion, not even two minutes, the destroyer following behind reacted, quickly pounced on the front of the Fuso, searched for the location of the submarine, the depth charge was ready, as long as the trace of the submarine was caught, Bibao exploded and sank in the sea.

The Fuso hit three torpedoes in a row, and a large amount of seawater poured into the watertight compartment, but it did not cause fatal damage to the battleship, but the hull slowly tilted, and during the shelling, when the destroyer rushed around, the Fuso tilted six degrees and did not delay the sailing.

"Find the submarine!!"

On the destroyer, the captain roared. The sonar crew listened intently to the movements in the headset, capturing the location of the submarine.

So resistant?

When he heard the radarman say that none of the three torpedoes sank the battleship, he couldn't help but have a new understanding of the battleship's skin, and at the same time understood why the captain didn't let him entangle with the battleship, which was too strong.

"Replace armor-piercing shells and shell fast battleships!!"

Taken aback, he immediately ordered.

Can't beat the big guys, can't you beat the small ones? (To be continued......)