The 23rd fleet had 15 battleships and twice as many cruisers. This is far more than the size of the force that a major general should command. Samuel's position as commander of the 23 Fleet is due to the irrefutable military exploits of the past few years.

In the just-concluded Battle of Hawa Fortress, the 23rd Fleet lost 2 of the 12 battleships that took part in the battle, and the flagship "Kokang" was also badly damaged. Only 12 battleships remained really suitable for the interception. In order to prevent Falais's sick fleet from jumping over the wall, Samuel left four battleships behind to guard Hawa Fortress, and in addition to that, he left a dozen cruisers to continue patrolling and raiding operations, maintaining a minimum military presence in this airspace. The remaining battleships, on his orders, began to go to the predetermined place to await the arrival of the 26th fleet.

In the following period, the crew found that their commander and chief of staff were nowhere to be seen, and the leaderless staff officers were arguing at the moment.

Information about Falaise's 31st Fleet was so scarce that the staff knew that the 31st Fleet had received an order to go to the Würdik area a few hours before the 23rd Fleet received the order to conduct an interception operation. However, it was not clear where the 31st Fleet was at that time. Based on vague intelligence, the staff officers could only guess that the 31st Fleet was operating near the home port of Stonehammer, south of the Grey Leaf Forest.

Vague assumptions made it difficult for staff officers to predict the course of action of the 31st Fleet, which created enormous difficulties for interception operations. Some of the staff officers proposed that the fleet should be dispersed into a search formation to rein in the enemy, but this led to a new problem: if the fleet was too far apart, in the event of an encounter with the 31st Fleet, the enemy was likely to break the line and flee in the direction of Würdik to the south before the 23rd and 26th fleets could retract. But if the search surface is too small, the line of defense is likely to be bypassed by the 31st Fleet.

The entire upper bridge was disturbed by the sound of the staff officers arguing, and the controversy did not end until sunset—only temporarily, of course. At this time, you can already see dense black dots in the distance from the bridge, which is the 26th Fleet that came to meet him. Samuel, who received the news, walked out of the captain's room with a tired face, ready to greet His Royal Highness the Prince, who had a bad relationship with him.

The liaison officer on the bridge began to liaise with the 26th Fleet, and the signaling system of the entire fleet was working at full capacity, and one command after another was passed down from the flagship in an orderly manner. Soon, the 23rd Fleet began to slow down and turn, and the 26th Fleet began to accelerate towards the tail of the 23rd Fleet. But one battleship did not move with the main force, and it headed straight for the "Earl Dunke", which was located in the middle of the formation of the 23rd fleet, which was Samuel's new flagship. The departing battleship soon came to starboard side of the "Earl Dunk", and sailed side by side with it at the same speed.

The crew of the Earl Dunk soon discovered that the size of the Earl Dunk was significantly larger than that of the Earl Dunker. The seasoned crew had already recognized each other as a "sea power-class" battleship, one of the newest capital ships that had just entered service last year. While maintaining the same mobility as the "Military Flag Class" to which the "Earl Dunke" belongs, the "Sea Power Class" has strengthened its firepower and armor, and it can be said that it is superior to the "Military Flag Class" in all aspects of performance.

At this time, the signal light on the port side of the giant ship began to flash, and the crew of the Earl Dunk began to open the starboard hatch after receiving the signal. At the same time, the "Sea Power-class" also opened the port side hatch and aligned it with the hatch of the Earl Dunk. Soon, a translucent force field appeared in the middle of the two giant ships, and after a few seconds, after confirming that the force field had been fully deployed, more than a dozen men in black coats walked out of the hatch of the "Sea Power-class" giant ship and walked towards the Earl Dunk.

Moments later, Samuel, yawning in the upper side of the bridge, saw a dozen of his guests. The man at the head has a handsome face, his golden hair is meticulously groomed, and his tall posture with a slightly raised head makes him naturally exude a kind of superior spirit.

In contrast, Samuel, who had had a sleepless night, had a tired face, his silver-gray hair hanging down his head, and his whole body was enveloped in an air of decadence. He looked at the blonde man he hadn't seen for a long time with his blank eyes, and didn't say a word. The other party didn't intend to break this uncomfortable silence, and just stared blankly into Samuel's eyes.

Eventually, the Carlin Air Force tradition took hold, and the blonde man was the first to break the awkward atmosphere by giving a military salute to Samuel, who was one rank above him. After all, the other party was a prince, and Samuel didn't want to do too much, so he politely returned the military salute.

"Long time no see, Your Highness Jerlett. Samuel took the initiative to break the silence, and then kindly extended his right hand to the blonde man.

"Time is of the essence, and we should discuss the action plan first. Jerlett, however, turned a blind eye to Samuel's friendly gesture and had no intention of shaking Samuel's hand.

Samuel withdrew his hand in embarrassment, feeling very angry. But considering the huge difficulty of this operation, it was impossible to complete the task without Jellett's full cooperation, he still endured the unhappiness in his heart and did not tear his face with Jellett on the spot.

The staff officers, who had just stopped for a while, immediately fell into a long argument again. This time, not only the staff officers of the 23rd Fleet, but also the staff officers of the 26th Fleet led by Jellitt joined them. It's just that Samuel and Chief of Staff Gustav didn't say a word, thoughtfully.

"The idea of dispersing the fleet for search is simply stupid!, our fleet is only about 1.3 times the size of the 31st fleet. Even a compromise of splitting the fleet in two for a search would mean that either of the two fleets would be only about 40% of the strength of the other and would probably have been wiped out by the 31st Fleet before the other fleet arrived. "Jellitt mercilessly approved the proposal proposed by the staff of the 23rd Fleet.

Knowing that his father had sent him to this mission to facilitate the accumulation of military merits and accumulate bargaining chips for the future succession to the throne, Jerrett did not miss any opportunity to express himself. Even the staff officers present knew that the number of warships of the two fleets after the dispersion was only 65% of that of the other side, so the strength was only 65% squared, that is, 42.25%, and he still had to emphasize it again.

"Of course, we know that dispersing the fleet means the danger of being broken by each one, but this airspace is too vast for our intellect to come up with a way to predict the course of action of the 31st fleet, and we ask Your Highness to give us a less foolish plan. Despite Jerlett's noble status, the staff officer who proposed the plan could not tolerate such an almost humiliating assessment, and he retorted mercilessly. In fact, in tactical arguments, he would not give Samuel even face, but Samuel has always been tolerant of other people's attacks in such arguments.

But Jellit could not tolerate a small staff officer's disrespect for himself, Jellit glanced at the speaking staff officer with disdain, and replied with a sneer: "In fact, it is not difficult to predict the course of action of the 31st Fleet, the home port of the 31st Fleet is undersupplied, and they will definitely resupply here before going to the Weddik region." Jellett pointed to the port of Ranster on the map.

The staff officer looked at Jellit with idiotic eyes and retorted: "There are many air ports that can supply the 31st Fleet, in addition to Port Ranster, you can also go to Cold Wind City, Twilight Fort and other places for replenishment. Your Highness is so sure they're going to Port Ricester?"

"The commander of the 31st Fleet is Colbomac, a veteran who is known for his steadiness, and with the exception of the port of Leinster, the other ports are too close to our defense zone, and Colbomac will not risk being intercepted to resupply in those places. Jellett defended his judgment unhurriedly.

But the staff officer didn't buy it: "Have you ever considered that going to Rünster for supplies means a detour around the bay, and the distance is much farther than going to other places, and if you want to get to Würdik on time, the 31st Fleet must sail at an average speed of 30 knots for the whole time, and with the reliability of the Fares, it is likely that more than thirty percent of the ships will be left behind due to mechanical problems before they reach Vördik." With Kolbomac's character, this scheme will be taken?!"

He used Kolcomak's character as a basis for defense, but he didn't expect to be turned around by the other party, Jerlett felt a little annoyed, but still began to think about how to respond.

On the other hand, some staff officers noticed that although Samuel had been watching Jellett, his gaze was unfocused, and he seemed a little absent-minded.

In fact, he was distracted, ostensibly following the discussions of the pre-war meeting, but in fact he was wandering into the world, trying to conceive of ...... Or a story.

This attempt began yesterday when he learned from Harnick that the price of food in Grey Harbor had dropped significantly.

Natural disasters have occurred frequently this year in the Grey Harbor region and throughout the Dalles region, resulting in severe reductions in cereals, fruits, vegetables and meat. About a month ago, Dales had already felt the imminent famine, which had led to skyrocketing food prices. According to Hannick's judgment, the amount of grain that would need to be put on the market for such a drop in grain prices was quite staggering, and he knew that it was far more than the total surplus of grain in the nearby colonies combined, and he only made a rough estimate.

Samuel, who got this judgment, immediately thought of something. Two months earlier, Falaise had anticipated the famine in Dales and had organized a large convoy of grain carriers codenamed "Anvil". The fleet loaded large quantities of grain, fruits, vegetables and meat products on the Farles mainland before sailing for Dalles.

However, this huge fleet disappeared half a month after leaving the mainland, and the Carlin military speculated that it had sunk in a rare and powerful storm on the Thunder Ocean that month. Falais is now in the process of organizing a second convoy of grain shipments, confirming Carlin's military speculation. But it hasn't started from home yet. It is unlikely that it will have any effect on the price of food in the Dalles.

But now Samuel suspects that the fleet may not have been swallowed up by the storm – at least not all. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain how so much grain could be found in the market of Dalles.

Samuel continued his reasoning on this assumption and found that the timing of the fleet's arrival coincided roughly with the fall in food prices. But Samuel soon ran into a problem with his calculations. According to the weather report released by the authorities of Darles to the caravanserais, when the fleet reached the south of the Grey Leaf Forest, there was a large magical storm to the west of the Gray Leaf Forest—not a storm of the wind, but a phenomenon of magical instability. If a floating ship enters the Magic Storm Zone, there is a high chance that the Magic Furnace will go off or explode, and the ship will be destroyed.

This massive storm of magic lasted until the day before yesterday, when it showed signs of abating. This massive storm zone divided Dales into north and south, and the commander of the regiment had only two options to get north: either cross the storm zone or cross the skies over the Grey Leaf Forest. Of course, he could bypass the Storm Zone from the west or east, but to the east was the defense zone of the Carlin fleet, and to the west was the Sistine colony. Even if the Sistine, who had a century-old feud with Falaise, was willing to open the colony's airspace to the passage of the ship, it would be impossible for Carlin to go unnoticed by the powerful intelligence network deployed there.

Based on the sharp drop in food prices in the Grey Harbor area, it can be inferred that the group did eventually reach the north, and Samuel is almost certain that it did not make a detour. The lesser of two evils, the group should choose to pass through the skies above the Greyleaf Forest instead of the Magical Storm Zone. However, the Grey Leaf Forest is located in a magical corruption zone, and a large number of dark creatures are entrenched all year round, and with the level of protection of the ship, even if it does not experience the storm, it is difficult to resist the corrupted wurms and bone griffons entrenched there, and there is a great possibility of annihilation if they force their way through.

So Samuel made a very bold inference: the ship group should have been escorted when it crossed the Gray Leaf Forest, and the only armed force capable of escorting the nearby could do so was the 31st Fleet, whose home port was located south of the Gray Leaf Forest.

According to the Harnick report, there has been a significant increase in the price of parts in the Grey Harbor area, perhaps due to the large-scale procurement of parts for ship repairs and maintenance by groups of ships arriving in the north. And judging from the price data provided by Harnik, the prices of "Amethyst Dust" and "Moon Shadow Steel" have also risen sharply, the former is generally used to repair the magic furnace of large military ships such as battleships, while the latter is generally only used to repair the core components of large-caliber artillery. And judging by this price, the damaged warships of the 31st Fleet are definitely not as simple as one or two.

This probably means that the 31st Fleet also suffered a lot of damage during the escort process, and if this is true, then it is likely that the 31st Fleet did not return to its home port south of the Gray Leaf Forest at this time, but was repaired at the dock in the north. This means that whether it is the group of staff officers in front of them, or the high-minded prince, the plan they have made is wrong from the hypothetical stage.

Samuel turned his gaze to the map on his desk and found a point called Lorne, which was the only nearby airport where major ship repairs could be made.

If the 31st Fleet had been in Lorne when the urgent order to go to Würdik had been received, which route would it have chosen to go south? From the weather map, it can be seen that the magic storm is weakening, and it can no longer cover all the areas west of the gray leaf forest, and a gap is forming between the two storm centers with the naked eye, and in that gap, the strength of the magic storm is no longer enough to threaten military ships. Now that this road is open, the 31st Fleet will certainly not cross the gray leaf forest that has caused them a lot of damage.

At this point, a plan of action was formed in Samuel's mind: compared to the vast sea in the southern part of the Grey Leaf Forest, the gap between this storm was very narrow, and as long as all the forces were concentrated here, the 31st Fleet's way south could be blocked.

At this time, Jellett's side had already quarreled with several of Samuel's staff officers, and Samuel knocked on the table speechlessly to signal everyone to be quiet. This succeeded in attracting everyone's attention, and everyone looked to Samuel, but the people on Samuel's side were in awe, and those on Jellett's side were disdainful.

"There is merit in your plans, but ...... I have a more certain plan here," Samuel announced to everyone.