4th, Friday, fine. At about nine o'clock in the morning, Guo Kui was sleeping soundly, and suddenly there was a dripping sound, and he immediately opened his eyes and sat up, startling the telegraph operator next to him.

Cadet soldiers are never afraid of sacrifice, but there is a question of whether it is worth it. Therefore, when he learned that the seven big ships controlled by Qi Minghao and them had almost no combat power, Guo Kui went directly into the telecommunications room of the "Richelieu" and did not come out.

At this moment, he stared at the ensign and asked, "Telegraph?" ”

"Yes."

"Where did it come from?"

"Hanoi."

"Quick translation!"

"Yes."

While the second lieutenant was translating, Guo Kui was lying on the side and watching. About three minutes later, he read: "The main force of the Japanese ships appears in the area of Labuan-" Without the concept of Labuan in his mind, he immediately ran out of Lu to find Qi Minghao. Qi Minghao had just changed shifts, and when he heard him ask where the location of Labuan Island was, he immediately understood, and his eyes lit up and he asked, "Has the main force of the devil fleet gone to Labuan?" ”

Seeing his look, Guo Kui knew it in his heart, and the heartstrings that had been tense were loosened all of a sudden, he took out a cigarette and handed it to Qi Minghao and said, "If you answer correctly, reward a cigarette." ”

"I won't smoke!"

"Smoke one cigarette, smoke one, as a cadet soldier, you can't smoke, and you're not afraid of jokes when you say it? How far is this Labuan Island from Singapore? ”

"More than a thousand kilometers."

"Ha Lu Ha! Xu Kai: Did they succeed? ”

"It's not a success, you have to be able to contain the devil fleet there for at least a day and a night."

Guo Kui understood the relationship as soon as he thought about it, he lit a cigarette and took a hard breath and said, "I believe he has this ability!" The 'Kaga' can sink the giants, but the small sampan-like 'Fengxiang' and 'Longxiang' are still in the picture? ”

Qi Minghao smiled bitterly: "Commander, it's not this kind of algorithm. Let's put it this way, the submarine is an assassin in the sea, and it can only rely on a sneak attack if it wants to make a contribution, but now the Japanese army is on guard. So it's hard. ”

"No matter, anyway, the main fleet of the little devils is not in Singapore now!"

"The time difference isn't good, but it seems like that's all it can be."

The second lieutenant had already translated all the telegrams by this time, and he came up and handed the complete telegram to Qi Minghao, asking him if he wanted to inform the British in order to speed up their advance.

Out of respect for the lives of the captured soldiers, Phillips personally directed the actions of the mixed fleet. Qi Minghao thought for a while and said, "Let's send a telegram over, Phillips was on night duty yesterday, and he should still be sleeping at the moment." Remember not to mention anything else. ”

The second lieutenant must have retired. Five minutes later, Qi Minghao and Guo Kui were discussing what Xu Kai and what they could do to attract the attention of the devil while they could save themselves, when the words on the left side of Qi Minghao's front for the whole fleet liaison came from Mai Li: "Attention ships, I'm Phillips." I now order the ships to maintain their original formation and move forward at a speed of thirty knots, and over! ”

Phillips got up fast enough, and was a little surprised, Qi Minghao grabbed the microphone and replied: "The 'Richelieu' has been received!" Then a series of orders were issued to the trainees of the ship.

A few minutes later, Qi Minghao was about to say something to Guo Kui, when the right side of the channel in front of him came out again: "I'm Phillips, please pick up Commander Qi." ”

"I'm Qi Minghao, Commander Phillips, please speak."

"Commander Qi, I have received the telegram, may I ask, was the main force of the Japanese-Western Expeditionary Fleet attracted by your army?"

Qi Minghao and Guo Kui glanced at each other, and their eyes both had the same meaning: this Brit has a set.

Qi Minghao: "I'm sorry, I don't know about this. ”

Phillips was silent for a while and said, "Commander Qi, you must know that the main force of the Japanese and Western Expeditionary Fleet is the factor that poses the greatest threat to our operation. The main force of the Japanese ships was transferred out of the waters of Singapore, and we are already halfway through the operation. If we can drag it to Labuan, the chances of success of our operation will be greatly increased. I suggest you communicate with Commander-in-Chief Ouyang about this matter! ”

Guo Kui: "Holy shit, such a sensitive sense of smell - he must have sensed something!" ”

Qi Minghao waved his hand at him, pressed the send button and said, "Yes." ”

"May God bless you, thank you so much!" Phillips replied.

Putting down the microphone, Qi Minghao responded to Guo Kui's words just now and said: "It is worthy of being the person who is known as the strongest navy in the world, and this Phillips is a character." ”

Guo Kui didn't continue the topic, but asked, "If you advance at a speed of thirty knots, how long will it take to reach the target sea area?" ”

Qi Minghao looked at the chart and said, "If nothing happens, we can arrive at about three o'clock in the morning tomorrow." ”

Guo Kui looked at his watch: "That means there are fifteen hours at most?" ”

"Yes."

"Then I'll have to go and rest. Xiao Qi, you'd better go and sleep for a while. ”

"I just woke up, and now I'm in good spirits."

The time went back six hours, and at about three o'clock in the morning, in the ocean west of Labuan Island, Xu Kai was directing the Song-class and the little devil who had built a great job the night before yesterday to play a game of hide and seek.

Guo Kui and Qi Minghao thought that it would be difficult for them to continue to attract the attention of the Japanese ships surrounded by many Japanese ships, but in fact, they achieved it very easily. By firing active sonar at a frigate, the aircraft carrier Longchamp happened to be on the inside of the frigate, and having learned the bitter lesson of the "Kaga" aircraft carrier being attacked and sunk by a torpedo, the devil commander of the Longchamp aircraft carrier fleet did not dare to be careless in the slightest, and immediately ordered the entire fleet to conduct antisubmarine operations. However, the Song-class was too slippery, and the Japanese dispatched all the anti-submarine ships of the fleet to encircle it, so the Fengxiang aircraft carrier fleet also joined the encirclement and chase battle.

The cat-and-mouse game between the two sides lasted more than four hours, which was also the reason why Xu Kai and they found the enemy's main battleship Qi Minghao at three o'clock in the morning and they only received a telegram at nine o'clock in the morning (for insurance, Xu Kai ordered the two Ming-class ships to return to the Haikou base first).

It wasn't until dawn that the merchant ship that was facing the sky was very conspicuously pierced into the eyes of the commander of the Longxiang aircraft carrier fleet, and the little devil remembered that his responsibility was to take the transport fleet back to Singapore. The little devil was also kind-hearted, and he didn't want to waste the equipment of that ship when the empire was facing a resource dilemma, and ordered the ship to be towed back. Well, the speed of the Longxiang was not fast, and the speed of the entire fleet was not fast due to its drag, but now that there is such a burden, the overall speed of the fleet has dropped by more than half, and at the level of navigation at that time, it was almost the speed of a snail. Then, the tragic thing happened-when the Japanese army in Singapore suddenly discovered the huge fleet of the British and French forces, and Koizumi ordered them to return quickly, they were still more than 800 kilometers away from Singapore.

Because of this special situation, although the rescue operation started three hours later than Qi Minghao estimated, it was still enough for the officers and soldiers of the jungle special operations brigade to do their best.