The closed-door meeting in Cairo was still going on, and the situation in the venue was unknown, and no one knew how much long-term benefit Chiang Kai-shek would win in the good environment created by Chu Tingchang; Perhaps the biggest variable was not Chiang himself or Roosevelt, but Churchill. Churchill had been using both coercion and inducement against Chiang, forcing him to relinquish his sovereignty in exchange for short-term benefits. To a certain extent, Roosevelt was happy to see China and Britain secretly making stumbling blocks.

This trick has also been used by Churchill in Chu Tingchang, hinting that he can help him establish power in Vietnam, on the condition that he give up Burma and Malay, of course, the offer is very low, so low that there is no sincerity. The British side said that it could use the surplus naval materials to help Chu Tingchang build a navy with a total tonnage of more than 20,000 tons, which is the leading navy in Asia. Chu Tingchang later calculated, and it sounded like a lot, but he was actually stingy.

Of course, the triumvirate talks, Chu Tingchang and Lin Xiuxuan were able to find leisure time to discuss the next action, of course, there is actually nothing to talk about, Chu Tingchang made up his mind to resist Lin Xiuxuan's marriage plan, he knew that if this plan was implemented, it would be of great benefit to the whole situation, but for individuals, it would be a disaster.

There was no progress in the ideological work, and Lin Xiuxuan had to focus his attention on the closed-door meeting. Of course, from their residence, a luxury cruise ship on the Nile, you can see the location of the first meeting, the US Embassy. This makes Lin Xiuxuan's laser eavesdropping device play some role.

But unfortunately, the closed-door meeting was actually open. This makes Lin Xiuxuan's eavesdropping plan physically infeasible.

But there are ways to get a glimpse of the inside story, because the minutes are constantly being activated through encrypted communications, and although it is a few hours later than eavesdropping, it is still there.

Chief Chu was enthusiastic about interpreting these words, avoiding discussing Miss Kong Er's affairs with Lin Xiuxuan too much, because the team leader had always had illusions and wanted to force him to comply.

Judging from the minutes of the meeting, the topics raised by Roosevelt on the first day of the meeting were still focused on long-term strategy. He put forward the idea of China and the United States jointly sending troops to occupy Japan. Chiang Kai-shek readily agreed that he could let Chu Tingchang's troops occupy Japan. Churchill was more pragmatic, arguing that a European counteroffensive must take precedence over Asia. Of course, if a counteroffensive was needed in Asia, he believed that it should start from the weakest areas of the Japanese army, so as to avoid an imbalance in the distribution of resources. According to the information he received, Japan's oil production in Northeast China was still unstable, and after an annual output of 2.3 million tons in 1942, production fell to 950,000 tons in the first half of 1943. So he suggested attacking Sumatra and Borneo first, so that the Japanese oil supply could be cut off. British forces are currently concentrated in the Andaman Islands, ready to move and can launch an attack at the same time when they land in X in Europe. Once a sign of the strength and determination of the Allies, X is judged to be Sicily.

Roosevelt agreed with the plan, but probably sensed that the British wanted to attack the corners of Asia with a real intention of bluffing, covering up the decline of the empire, and at the same time stalling for time. He still hopes to rely on China's power to play a role in the liberation of Asia. He hoped that Chiang Kai-shek's troops would participate in some landing battles in order to accumulate experience for future landings on Taiwan or the Japanese mainland. Churchill was negative about the proposal, arguing that the landing would be difficult to coordinate with the navy, and that the Chinese army should first focus on annihilating the Japanese army on its own soil. At the same time, he reminded Chiang Kai-shek that his warlords must be restrained from entering Tibet. Britain has selflessly provided China with bases and supplies in India, and China should not make a move that would damage relations with its allies at this time. In addition, in view of Wang's move a month ago to nominally recover the concessions of eight cities, including Shanghai and Tianjin, I hoped that Chiang Kai-shek would notice the enemy's sinister intentions.

It seems that the atmosphere of secretly arranging and guiding the post-war pattern has been very obvious, but throughout the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek appeared to have insufficient aura, although he was calm and stable, he was noncommittal on various issues, and he did not put forward his personal views on the post-war Japanese disposition. However, when it comes to the issue of the whereabouts of Chu Tingchang's troops, he is more vigilant.

At the end of the meeting, Roosevelt pretended to mysteriously say: In the Pacific direction, there will be good news soon. After a painful year and a half after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy was rapidly expanding. It's not a problem to overwhelm the Japanese.

The Japanese mobile unit, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, sailed at full speed to the Mariana Islands. It has been under attack by US troops for three whole days. The attacks were concentrated on Guam, Tinian and Saipan, and it is unclear on which islands the US military will land on, or if it will not at all.

Inside the command bridge, Jizaburo Ozawa watched Onishi standing on the side with great ambition, as if he was looking forward to the early appearance of the US Navy.

Of course, his state of mind is different, and what he is most worried about is the lure of the US military. He participated in the last naval battle east of Australia and saw that victory was in sight, but because of the arrival of Onishi's so-called secret weapon - two * launch ships, the tactics were forced to make major adjustments, and even some confusion appeared, and the American air force and submarine parts magically seized the opportunity and destroyed Chicheng, Feilong, Xianghe and Zuihe in one fell swoop. This is almost a loss like a salary draw from the bottom of the kettle, and in the end, the two * ships are almost gone? Function.

Now the fleet carriers of the mobile forces are so lost that he has to fill the gap with two pre-war cruise ship converted Chongying and Yunying. According to his original intention, the decisive naval battle must be delayed until the Taiho joins, and in terms of timing, it is best to conduct a lure battle in the sea area of his choice, rather than blindly rushing into the enemy's trap, but Onishi triumphantly said that Japan's new weapons are enough to solve the problem, and if the enemy has a trap, it will be calculated.

"Onishi-kun, I'm still worried about those weapons...... Two weeks ago, Sentai 87 fired 3 Sakura* at the USS Massachusetts but none of them hit, and the observer reported that * flew over the enemy ship without even entering the dive. If you concentrate on dive bombers, you may have sunk the enemy's ship. ”

"That's the old weapon system is not yet mature. Now, the problem has been solved. Onishi replied lightly.

"I want to engage the enemy's smaller fleet first to test new weapons."

"Commander, I know what you're worried about, but this is not the time of the day, and the air-launched type* will be an epoch-making weapon. The size of the enemy's fleet is actually not of much significance. This extremely arrogant sentence shocked Ozawa on the spot.

The communications staff officer came in to report that a submarine had spotted a fleet of American heavy cruisers, sailing west of Micronesia, and had identified a New Orleans-class heavy cruiser and the rest as smaller warships.

Ozawa judged that it may be the flank guard force of the main fleet of the Marianas. Soon the presence of the enemy fleet was also confirmed by seaplanes stationed on the island of Perry Iwo. The fleet consisted of six battleships, and no aircraft carriers were found.

Ozawa felt that he could fight a dozen and test the new weapons in Onishi's mouth that were enough to cross the era. Onishi disagreed, believing that it would be best to bypass the enemy's fleet and avoid revealing his strength before the battle. Contrary to Ozawa's fears, he feared that the enemy's main forces would flee in despair.

Eventually, Onishi was unable to convince Ozawa, and the mobile force tried to intercept the U.S. fleet at a speed of slightly over 20 knots. The new* was added in Port Morsby, and the 97 ship-raiders on the Kaga and the Shotsuru received new weapon modifications, and some of the pilots participated in the Battle of the Andaman Sea and were able to use both guided weapons with relative proficiency. The attack still cannot achieve over-the-horizon range, and it must use its own radar to search for the target, and once the ranging and tracking are completed, it can be launched. This batch* is smaller than two months ago, and can be mounted without the launch of land-based twin-engine aircraft, and the 97 ship attack can be mounted. But once you take off, you can't land with *.

The Japanese submarine secretly followed the U.S. fleet, and the enemy was indeed a vigilant force, and instead of throwing off the submarine at full speed, it kept turning back between Micronesia and the Palau Islands. The fleet was not covered by aircraft carriers, and it was not in a hurry to leave knowing that it was discovered by the Japanese army in Palau, which shows that it had no fear by relying on radar and speed.

Ozawa made a plan and decided to engage the enemy at night. He did not give any instructions to the seaplane units in Palau, passively listened to their reconnaissance reports, and even in the face of the detachment, which had always been weak, he had to be 120,000 careful, and he also expected to test the essence of the enemy's attack on Mariana once and for all. In the early morning of July 15, the fleet approached the east of the enemy fleet and began to lift the first batch of attack aircraft, among which there were no * launchers, so as not to waste the precious * .

The first batch of fighters was immediately discovered by the US air alert radar, and the US warships judged from the size of the fleet and the speed of the aircraft to be Japanese carrier-based aircraft, and immediately began to break away and sent a telegram to Halsey, warning that the main Japanese fleet had appeared.

The first batch of twenty attack aircraft, launched a * attack on the ground fleet in a conventional way. But the enemy's fleet, which was constantly maneuvering at high speed, did not give any chance to the Japanese * planes, which were piloted by a large number of novices. The dive bombing also caused heavy losses in the belief that the secret weapon fired by the enemy's 5-inch anti-aircraft guns, the VT signal tube and the medicine.

Inside the bridge in Kaga, everyone was frustrated by the disadvantage of the first wave of attacks, and too many young pilots felt unreliable. The air commander said that a total of 10 bombs were dropped and 12 were fired*, but the result turned out to be 0.

Only Onishi Takijiro was quite excited, but he was worried that the dive bomber would bomb the target, which would make it difficult to calculate the results later. 6 97 ship attack ships with guided weapons have already taken off, and the target is the cruiser that is the largest in the enemy fleet.

The pilots of these planes are the only remaining old birds of the first air war, who have not participated in the war in the past year, and have been practicing for the change of clothes, so they also luckily missed the last time four aircraft carriers were sunk.