Vice Admiral Karl, a typical American [***] man, rugged, tough, aggressive, for him, as long as he can defeat the enemy, the life and death of a small fleet does not matter at all.

What's more, what's the deal with worry? To rescue Spruance from the encirclement and interception of more than 20 escort ships is simply impossible for the current Pacific Fleet, so he cares more about this telegram sent back!

"Heading southeast."

Sailing southeast in the position marked by the staff officer, there are only two possibilities, one is San Diego under his feet, and the other is the Baja California Peninsula, which is unanimously considered by everyone to be the most likely landing for the Chinese!

These may seem like two goals, but they are the same, very simple, you can't enter the United States from Tijuana without destroying San Diego.

"Order General Charles to prepare for a possible landing south of Tijuana by the Chinese."

"Cheer everyone up, we're going to have a hard fight!"

======= "Four o'clock direction, 3 destroyers!" ”

"Intensify your observation, watch out for torpedoes."

"The left rudder is full, and the main gun is on standby."

"Rapid-fire guns get ready, watch out for enemy aircraft!"

On the light cruiser Juno, there was already a mess, and the sailors ran to the deck in a panic, looking at the huge fleet in the distance with steel helmets in a bit of a daze, everyone was dumbfounded, because they had never seen a fleet of this size.

Several columns of smoke swept the sailors out of their surprise, and although their own side had begun to turn, as long as they looked at the size of the waves that the bow of the opposing ship crashed into, everyone began to feel cold in their hearts.

Spruance clenched his fists, although the fleet in the distance made him red-eyed, and he knew that if he could rush in, he could prevent the landing of Xinhua, but in the face of the two Yangtze River-class light cruisers and ten destroyers chasing and expelling, he could only seek self-protection first.

Compared with the Juno, the advantages of the Yangtze River class light cruiser are still obvious, the L52/152 mm naval gun has a longer range, stronger lethality, although the United States has caught up with the optical ranging, but the use of fire control and naval gun follow-up systems makes the accuracy incomparable, more importantly, in terms of power, the Juno used 20 boilers and 8 steam turbines to barely run 28 knots, while the latest Yangtze River class only needs 12 boilers and 4 steam turbines to fly out of 31 knots of high speed.

What's more, the Yangtze River-level light patrol is already fully equipped with radar, not to mention that it is so daylight now, even at night, being chased by them means that the Juno and San Juan are no longer able to escape.

Seeing that they were chasing after each other, approaching nearly a hundred meters per minute, Spruance and all the officers were in a hurry, and there was only one way to drag each other, destroyer, sacrifice!

Under Spruance's order, six American destroyers with a displacement of no more than 800 tons gritted their teeth and broke away from the formation and rushed towards the pursuing enemy.

When Spruance and the others were full of hope that they could break up each other with a torpedo attack and open up the distance, the pursuing Xinhua destroyers also accelerated suddenly, but they did not choose the American destroyers, but rushed towards the two cruisers after making a circle.

"Boom, boom." The Yangtze River class opened fire.

At a distance of 15,000 meters, the 12 main guns of the two ships opened fire at the same time, and six 152-millimeter shells per minute continued to fall around the US destroyers.

This scene made Spruance breathe a sigh of relief, in his opinion, no matter how strong the Yangtze River class is, it will take a while to deal with the scattered destroyers, so that he even has a chance to kill the pursuing Xinhua destroyer and leave calmly.

But.

"Captain!"

At the adjutant's shouts, Spruance and everyone else watched as a violent fireball rose from one of its own destroyers, losing vital speed in the blink of an eye.

Without speed, the destroyer is the target!

"How can it be so fast?" Spruance clenched his fists so hard that he didn't even pay attention to his fingernails in his palms, a destroyer that maneuvered in a serpentine shape at 31 knots, it was difficult to aim just by aiming, how could it hit so quickly?

Luck?

Rumble!

Another explosion was heard, and the second destroyer began to catch fire, and now everyone knew that it could not be luck.

Spruance hurriedly raised his binoculars, and was slightly stunned when he saw the tile antenna on the top of the light cruiser's mast, but then the scene made his eyes straighten, only to see that the light cruiser's main guns were turning left and right, no matter how he maneuvered, no matter where the aimed destroyer rushed, the muzzle of the guns seemed to point at the other party.

This is?

The third destroyer was hit, this time seemingly hitting the ammunition depot, and the violent explosion tore through the small hull, and in the blink of an eye the hit destroyer disappeared into the sea.

So his heart contracted violently, and Spruance put down his binoculars, he already knew that it was too stupid for him to let the destroyer intercept it, although the United States learned the appearance of a light cruiser, but it was always difficult to draw the skin and bones, and the internal gap was too big!

"Fire!"

The Juno and the San Juan also opened fire, and the eight triple main guns fired at the Weiqing-class destroyers rushing from both sides at the same time, although the density of the shells was the same, and the firepower was not much different, but the accuracy was really not flattering, in addition to the lack of advanced naval gun follow-up systems and fire control commands, the lack of a large number of veterans also caused a serious decline in the quality of the navy, and the gunners were too nervous, often not completely locked to shoot the shells.

The four Weiqing-class destroyers formed a neat single formation, like light petrels, and when the distance was shortened to 6,000 meters, the hull suddenly deviated to the left, and when a U-shaped bend was drawn on the sea, ten black dots also rushed into the sea from the amidships of the hull at the same time.

Although the torpedo track could not be seen, the lookout knew very well that it was the unique torpedo attack tactics of the Xinhua Navy, and hurriedly shouted to remind the rapid-fire guns and machine guns on the deck to prepare to intercept.

The two Brooklyn-class light cruisers shook violently, the stern waves forming two S-shapes, and the bow was constantly deflected and tilted, trying to avoid the fearsome unseen adversary.

At that moment, even Spruance felt that 10,000 years had passed, until the deck observer saw a few black shadows rubbing the stern and leaving, he wiped a cold sweat, but when everyone was just about to breathe a sigh of relief, a few black spots in the sky made all the nerves tense again!

At this time, Spruance and the young U.S. Navy officer realized that they were more like toddlers than the endless attack methods of their opponents!

On the deck, the gunners of the rapid-fire guns were already covered in cold sweat, and their eyes were locked on these monoplanes that they had never seen before, and when they were expecting their opponents to lower their altitude and let them know that the anti-aircraft fire of the American light cruisers was powerful, these planes did not mean to descend at all, but flew towards the cruiser's head.

Could it be that they did not carry torpedoes, but only reconnaissance aircraft?

In surprise, Spruance raised the binoculars, and just as he wanted to see clearly, the ship's 47mm anti-aircraft guns finally fired, but soon the anti-aircraft gunners began to go crazy, because the opponent did not drop in height, so that the elevation angle became larger and larger, and the shells began to become more and more inaccurate, and gradually even failed to hit at all!

"What's going on?" Looking at the black dot under the belly of the plane, Spruance suddenly had a terrible feeling rising from the bottom of his heart, just as he was wondering why these planes did not drop their torpedoes at a lower altitude than before, one of the fighters, which was already almost overhead, suddenly sank down, and then rushed down in an almost vertical position.

"Boom."

A piercing sound that had never been heard before, with the plane that seemed to lose control and swooped down, or simply wanted to install a suicide plane, suddenly sounded overhead, like a ghost crying wolf, frightened many sailors involuntarily covered their ears and hid behind the armor in horror, but even so, the sound was like a night owl crying in the air, constantly drilling into their minds, making people panic and chill.

Spruance endured the ugly sound, watching the strange screaming plane grow bigger and bigger in his eyes, and when it was less than a hundred meters away from the deck, a black dot suddenly burst out of the belly of the plane, Spruance suddenly understood!

It's not out of control, it's not suicide, it's bombing! Drop bombs in a dive!

Looking in the direction where the black dot fell, Spruance waved to the foredeck and shouted, "Get out of there!" Unfortunately, the shouts were drowned out by the screams, and it was too late when the madman's plane, painted with traditional dragon wings painted under its wings, was pulling up against the mast.

Spruance saw with his own eyes that a black dot drilled into the top of the second turret almost vertically, and time seemed to freeze in this second, only to feel that the battleship under his feet let out a tremble, and then suddenly trembled violently, and then the second turret flew up like a rocket tied to the bottom, and then a cloud of fire and smoke drilled out from under the turret base.

The 9,000-ton Juno could not stop the 250-kilogram armor-piercing projectile at all, and the violent explosion tore apart the outer wall of the ship in an instant, and when the No. 2 turret and the bottom ammunition compartment exploded one after another, the hull suddenly broke into two along the bridge, and 703 officers and men, including Spruance, did not even have time to put down the lifeboat, and disappeared into the whirlpool.

Five minutes later, the lonely and struggling San Juan was also hit by two armor-piercing shells and a Lance-3 torpedo, accompanying the Juno to quickly disappear into the turquoise sea.

The screams of the ghost crying wolf disappeared from the ears, the sky seemed to be calm again, and the night owls that made their debut disappeared into the open sea again after a circle like graceful gulls, and the American sailors who were floating on the sea waiting for rescue looked at them blankly, and they didn't understand, was that the sound just now really made by them?

What kind of aircraft are they?

Although they sank 2 cruisers, the dragon wings were not complacent, they knew very well that today was only the first sound, and tomorrow would be the time when the night owls would cry in the sky and make the world tremble!

===== burgundy disc sinks into the sea little by little, leaving behind a beautiful and colorful light and shadow.

The fortifications were still being reinforced, the trenches needed to be dug deeper, countless sandbags were piled up and thickened, a rapid-fire gun was pointed at the sky, thicker and larger heavy guns were pointed at the sea, and hundreds of biplanes were quietly parked on both sides of the runway.

In San Francisco, in Los Angeles, in San Diego and Tijuana, the soldiers were busy and couldn't help but turn their heads to look at the beautiful sunset.

230 nautical miles, it takes ten hours.

Well, everything will be decided early tomorrow morning!

(To be continued)