When the Japanese Combined Fleet retreated to the Japanese mainland to rest, the entire fleet seemed to be shrouded in dark clouds, and everyone seemed to be suppressing the frustration in their hearts, and the sound of sobbing could be heard in every corner.

They abandoned 40,000 Marines and their Army colleagues, and left the waters near the Hawaiian Islands, which had been fighting for half a month, except for the aircraft carrier fleet that lost a large number of aircraft, only a few warships were damaged.

For the Japanese soldiers, who had been trained in the spirit of bushido since childhood, they felt that their despicable escape was an extremely irresponsible act and a betrayal of the Great Japanese Empire, so now there is no brilliance on everyone's faces, and some people even privately feel that Yamamoto should commit suicide by disembowelment for his stupid decision.

There were also a few officers who knew that Yamamoto's decision was the right choice, most of them were unambitious junior officers, and many of them were real technical backbones, only they understood how weak the Japanese fleet was, and only they understood Yamamoto's helplessness when he retreated. The Combined Fleet was the only essence of the Japanese Navy, and this fleet had no rest since the beginning of the war, and there was no strength to replace it, and in the end, this powerful sea force was dragged down by the naval blitzkrieg in the Pacific Theater and went to the point of no return for the Nazi armored forces.

It seemed that the German armored forces were getting closer and closer to Moscow in another time and space. That kind of beautiful vision of victory makes it easy to forget many things, such as forgetting that the troops need to rest and replenish......

Standing on his bridge, Yamamoto Fifty-six suddenly remembered a brief operational intelligence from the Ministry of the Army, which showed that Germany had given up the opportunity to attack the USSR and organized a defensive line on the Dnieper. At that time, the officers of the War Department were still laughing at the Germans for being cowardly and not daring to take the initiative to attack even in the event of superiority.

He now knew why the Germans had stopped along the Dnieper, just as Japan had faced the distant east coast of the United States, and Germany had faced Moscow too far away. The Germans did not want to waste their precious armored forces, so they chose to stop halfway and wait for the Soviets to make another stupid move, while the Japanese realized that when they were weak in attack, they remembered to passively preserve their strength - what a world of difference.

"This German Führer...... What a strategically minded and correct guy. Yamamoto sighed a little sourly and said, "Why is such a talent not from our Great Japanese Empire? If there were more people like this, then our current situation would not be so passive, right?"

I don't know what Akado, who is far away in the wolf's den and is reviewing the analysis report on the future economic shape of Germany, knows what Yamamoto will think about it. Will he sneer and pat the admiral of the Japanese Empire on the shoulder, telling him that if he is in Japan, it is estimated that Japan will lose faster and more miserably.

Just when Yamamoto suddenly remembered such a distant and seemingly unrelated figure as Accardo, a few nautical miles behind the flagship Nagato, in the air officer cabin on the aircraft carrier Akagi, the angry Sato was scolding Yamamoto's withdrawal order, after all, as a front-line air force pilot, his words were still relatively convincing.

"We air force pilots are not afraid of death! We didn't flinch, why did he let us retreat? Why did he let us run away with our tails between our legs? What about him Yamamoto is still a marshal, and he doesn't even have the slightest shame as a soldier of the Imperial Japan? If he really has the slightest so-called self-esteem, then he should commit suicide now!" Several of his men stood and listened to him, and none of them raised their heads.

Everyone knew the situation at that time, and if the planes took off again to attack the American warships, then most of the pilots and planes would definitely have no return. After all, the Americans were becoming more and more courageous at that time, and there were land-based planes as cover and supplement, and the Japanese planes were at an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers, and once the battle continued to stalemate, the entire First Air Fleet would have to fight out in the waters near Oahu.

When everyone was ready to die, it was Marshal Yamamoto 56 who pulled them back from hell and said that he was not slightly grateful, which was absolutely a lie. It's just that most of the officers are now scolding Yamamoto for not daring to be loyal to the country, and as a grassroots soldier, he doesn't dare to say anything. But basic judgment made them choose to shut up and not follow the fanatics to discredit their own commander and marshal.

"Shut up!" Outside the door, General Nagumo Zhongyi looked at his smug subordinates with his hands behind his back and sternly, if it was something else on weekdays, he would never scold this warrior who dared to sacrifice his life for the empire, but he had to speak now and say a word of justice for his superiors.

Although Nagumo also wanted to kill himself on Oahu, but when he calmed down, he realized Yamamoto's helpless feelings, although it looked more poignant and majestic to fight with the American fleet on Oahu, but this was tantamount to suicide for Japan, which lacked the ability to make blood.

Nagumo, who wanted to understand it, turned to admire his boss, so he firmly ordered his fleet to follow Nagumo all the way west, without complaining about Yamamoto Fifty-six at all. From an official point of view, since there are people who are willing to bear the blame for the retreat of the First Air Fleet, then Nagumo is also willing to keep his own fleet as the main force for counterattack.

"General, I can't understand why we are retreating from Oahu!" Sato's younger brother, who served on the aircraft carrier Kaga, is also a fighter pilot, and in the last assault, his brother's Zero fighter was shot down by the U.S. military, which is why he lost his temper so much.

"Sato-kun, I understand your mood very well, and I also know what this retreat means. But we must understand the marshal's painstaking efforts, his decision saved the entire First Air Fleet after all......" Nagumo Tadashi persuaded him a few words, and then stopped talking, because in Sato's opinion, any retreat was shameful, and he preferred to stay on Oahu to avenge his brother.

The Japanese Army Airlines flew to support 30 ME-109C fighters on Kauai, 20 of which were copied by Japan itself, using original engines imported from Germany that year. When the planes were gone, the Japanese soldiers on the Hawaiian Islands had no air support, and they had to hold their ground on their own until the Combined Fleet returned.

Nagumo returned to his lounge, and just as he was about to take off his coat and lie down on the bed to rest for a while, there was a knock on the door. He had no choice but to put on his clothes again, tidy up his appearance, and open the door. The result was a telegram from the telegraph room, from the flagship Nagato, saying that Marshal Yamamoto Isoroku would arrive at the Akagi in a dinghy ten minutes later, and asked Nagumo to be ready to greet him.

By the time Nagumo saw the depressed Yamamoto Isoroku on the deck of the Akagi aircraft carrier, he almost didn't recognize this rapidly aging man, who had been in high spirits a few months ago, but now he was just a little old man on the verge of death.

"Nagumo-kun, the last thing you want to happen has happened, our detachment in the waters near Australia has been attacked by enemy submarines. "The battleship Yamashiro was hit by four torpedoes and unfortunately sank, and our artillery operation against the northern part of Australia had to be temporarily canceled. ”

Originally, I thought that Yamamoto Fifty-six had come to blame himself for not resolutely retreating and losing a large number of carrier-based aircraft, but now it seems that Yamamoto is no longer in a position to blame himself. While Nagumo let out a sigh, he was frightened by the sinking of the Yamashiro again.

"Yamashiro ...... It is absolutely impossible that one of the most powerful battleships of the Great Japanese Empire was sunk by four torpedoes. Could it be that there was an error in the message? Marshal ......" Nagumo's first thought was that there was a mistake in the information, but soon he saw several messages from Yamamoto.

Among them were distress signals and messages from the cruiser Maya, as well as classified notices from the Ministry of the Navy. It seems that the Yamashiro has really sunk, and there is no possibility of any falsehood. Nagumo took his eyes off the message and looked up at Yamamoto Fifty-six: "A dignified battleship, with a tonnage of tens of thousands, was sunk by a few torpedoes so easily?"

Yamamoto smiled bitterly and shook his head. The American battleship had not been easily sunk by torpedo bombs dropped by Japanese planes, and he was not worried about the battleship Yamashiro alone, but about a terrorist incident behind it.

The recent losses of Japanese ships near Australia are unusual, and a discerning person can tell at a glance that this is not a normal number of losses, and in a vast sea area, there must be a fleet slaughtering the Japanese Navy's transport ships and warships. But no one dared to put this matter on paper, because it was impossible for the Japanese Navy to turn around and deal with such a small but amazing enemy.

It's a submarine! Yamamoto knew very well that there must be a submarine unit stationed in the eastern part of Australia, but he had nothing to do with this submarine force now, either the army would fight it, or he could only pretend not to know. His division of forces against this submarine would give the United States an opportunity for a decisive battle, and the main enemy of the Japanese Combined Fleet at this time was the American fleet near Oahu, not such a trouble-making submarine force.

Counting the days, the submarine force sent by Germany should have almost arrived in Australia. Yamamoto's mind was uneasy to think of the German Führer he had never met in the newspaper. But he was not quite sure that the Germans had done it, after all, the American submarine force had also caused a lot of trouble for Japan.

"Who the hell is it?" Yamamoto muttered in a low voice as Nagumo looked at him suspiciously.