Helplessly, Vice Admiral Yoshida Zengo could only send a minesweeper to clear the mines, but at this time, a group of enemy dive bombers suddenly flew in, directly blowing up and sinking the unprotected minesweeper, and then without waiting for the other ships of the devil to rush over, he turned around and ran away

Zengo Yoshida, who was thunderous, had to send a minesweeper in the fleet to Zuihou, and this time he was on guard, and the main force of the fleet followed closely behind in case the enemy planes attacked again.! But it didn't take long for enemy planes to come again, and a whole bunch of them

After a terrible sound of breaking the air, thousands of aviation rockets were fired at the Japanese fleet like a torrential rain, and although the North China Air Corps, which could not afford to bear too many losses, deliberately narrowed the distance, so that the hit rate was miserable, but because there were too many of them, dozens of them still hit the enemy ships, and a light cruiser and a destroyer were seriously injured, and nine times out of ten they had to return home for overhauls, and several other ships were also damaged to varying degrees. What's more, dozens of dive bombers took advantage of this opportunity to blow up and sink the minesweeper, and also dropped excess bombs, sinking and injuring six destroyers

But what makes Yoshida Zengo mad the most is that the fleet no longer has dedicated minesweepers, and it is no wonder that due to the Japanese Admiralty's neglect of auxiliary ships, Japan only had a total of 10 minesweepers before the war, and it is already a high proportion to be able to bring three over. Helplessly, Yoshida Zengo had no choice but to show his old face and ask the headquarters for help, and the fleet could only be evacuated for the time being, unless the devil was willing to use a large battleship as a minesweeper. Drive all the way over and detonate the mines

For the sake of face, it is impossible for the devils to withdraw to Luda or the mainland in one go, so they naturally turned around and captured the port of Weihaiwei, where they could get air support from North Korea (and it is precisely because of this that Hu Weidong did not leave a garrison here, and he would not be stupid to scatter his troops needlessly for the sake of an undefendable port city). Although it was thought that this would have to be called for help from the Army. Yoshida Zengo couldn't help but feel a deep sense of shame in his heart. But then again, if he had turned to the North Korean army air force earlier, even if the air attack could not have been avoided this time (the only North Korean airfield within the reach of fighter jets was Incheon). Even if all of them come to the rescue, they are not the opponent of the North China Air Corps. The first air raid, which had greater losses, could have dealt a major blow to the enemy (the devil planes in Seoul barely reached it). The losses suffered by the fleet will certainly be greatly reduced, but the contradictions between the Japanese army and navy have already gone deep into the bone marrow, and even if they no longer openly dismantle each other for the sake of the overall situation, it is still difficult to avoid passive confrontation

The retreat of the Japanese fleet gave the Chinese navy in Qingdao precious time to prepare for battle, but these two air raids, especially the second air raid, still cost the North China Air Corps, which was already seriously damaged, with the loss of 31 fighters and 8 bombers. After this battle, the total number of fighters of the First Flying Division of the North China Air Corps dropped to 150, and the losses of the Soviet aid air force were even greater; Hu Weidong was worried that there would not be enough fighters for air defense, so he did not dare to send fighters to carry out the task of attacking ships, and without fighters to suppress and disperse the enemy's air defense firepower, the bombers with less than 100 planes naturally did not dare to release them. Fortunately, in a few days, the 150 additional planes and corresponding personnel sent by the Soviet side will be in place. Otherwise, Hu Weidong really has the intention of giving up Qingdao, and now the total strength is still the absolute advantage of the Japanese army, and if the local air supremacy cannot be obtained, holding on to the big city is looking for death

After learning that the devils had seized Weihaiwei Port, Hu Weidong knew that they would not give up. He urged the navy to step up its training in firing torpedoes at night under radar guidance, but what he was most worried about happened at this time, because Hu Weidong did not allow the ships to turn on the lights out of consideration for the actual combat environment, and could only use flashlights and other light sources that would not be noticed by the enemy ships. The destroyer was directly seriously injured by the explosion, but fortunately, the heavy cruiser Zhiyuan, which had been waiting for a long time, ventured to approach, sent personnel in time to control the fire on the ship, and dragged the almost deformed destroyer into the ship repair yard

This major accident did not shake everyone's determination to persist in training, but on the contrary, it made the officers and men of the navy more serious in training; after several rounds, the night-fired torpedo fired at a distance of 15 kilometers in a windless state hit a fixed target (the reflected target was placed in the center of a large reef with a diameter of more than 100 meters, and as long as the torpedo hit the reef, it was considered successful). The success rate finally rose to more than 20%, and by this time there were less than 100 oxygen torpedoes left, and the Navy stopped this training and was ready to fight

However, while the Chinese Navy was actively preparing for war, the Japanese Admiralty also immediately sent reinforcements to Weihaiwei after receiving the report, and in addition to all the three minesweepers that could now be dispatched, it also sent several additional combat ships, including the Kongo-class battleship "Kirishima", which partially made up for the losses suffered by this fleet before. It is worth mentioning that now the devils have also learned to behave, and in order to avoid enemy air raids, these ships all drove from Luda to Weihaiwei by night.

After receiving reinforcements, Vice Admiral Yoshida Zengo knew that even if he finally took Qingdao, he would not be able to clear his guilt, but he still took the risk of proposing a change of operations to the base camp. Although the Japanese headquarters was very dissatisfied with the heavy setback of the fleet, Yoshida Zengo's proposal was indeed more conducive to the overall situation of the entire war of aggression against China than the original Jihua who attacked Qingdao, so they still accepted it, but they did not expect that the enemy had already deciphered their own communication code

"The devil plans to increase troops directly to Weihai? This is a bit troublesome", Hu Weidong couldn't help but feel a little worried, now the devil can get more than a hundred fighters in Incheon in Weihaiwei (the devil transferred all the bombers at Incheon airfield and replaced them all with fighters to strengthen Weihaiwei's air defense. Coupled with the anti-aircraft firepower of the fleet, it is enough to compete with the North China Air Corps, plus the Seoul Airport, which is far away but barely reachable, the strength is obviously above the current North China Air Corps, even if Hu Weidong is not afraid of losses and is willing to take the planes and devils that have been greatly reduced, he may not be able to inflict heavy losses on the enemy's fleet by relying on the Air Force alone......)

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