On the battleship Wilhelm IV, Wilhelm. Baga lifted the curtains and looked at the starry sky, his brow tightened a little.

"Where is Squad B?"

"We have reached the vicinity of Guadalcanal, and a search is underway, and when we are sure that there is no danger there, we will be able to pass through that area."

William. Baga lowered the curtains, turned and walked back to the chart table, holding the edge with one hand and sliding the other on the chart, to find Guadalcanal, located in the center of the Solomon Islands. He immediately discovered the value of the island – as the range of planes continued to increase, it would sooner or later become a key point in the control of the Solomon Sea and the Solomon Islands! If the British Empire can keep Australia this time, it will definitely deploy heavy troops on Kuah Island in the future!

At the thought of keeping Australia, William. Baga felt his heart pounding again. It's a battlefield intuition that's hard to articulate. Although the information gathered to him so far shows that the main force of the Pacific Fleet has sailed for the South Seas, Pearl Harbor is relatively empty. But he still didn't think anything good would come of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor!

Moreover, when he led the fleet into the Solomon Sea, which is dotted with islands, he felt a strange feeling of falling into a trap and being targeted by the enemy. But the Solomon Islands are clearly under the control of the British Empire!

The Royal Navy and Army have stationed troops on many of the islands in the Solomon Islands, with the Navy deploying gunboats and torpedo boats, and the Army deploying infantry and artillery. But Bhaga will be extremely uneasy! In particular, he became more and more uneasy after he received a report from the Kaiser Wilhelm this morning that he had found a "UFO".

Where are there any UFOs in this world? That thing must be a Ming seaplane!

However, the Truk Lagoon and Kwajalein Atoll are too far away from the Solomon Islands for the seaplanes deployed there to fly to the Solomon Sea to reconnoitre. It is very likely that a detachment of the Daming Pacific Fleet has slipped into the Solomon Islands to set up an ambush!

William, perceiving the danger. Baga did not change course to the New Guinea Sea or the open sea east of the Solomon Islands.

Because the New Guinea Sea is in William. Baga seems to be too close to the Nanyang Islands, and if that Ming seaplane discovers the whereabouts of his Grand Fleet, the aircraft-carrying ships of the Ming Nanyang Fleet are likely to be rushing towards him! If he turns to the Sea of New Guinea, it will take a little more time, and when his fleet sails out of the Sea of New Guinea, he may be caught up by the group of Da Ming aircraft that have returned from the South Sea, which will be dangerous.

As for moving further east, and going north in the open sea east of the Solomon Sea, under the command of William. Baga didn't seem to be very good either—the route was too "clean" for the huge fleet to be exposed to the vast ocean in the event of an accident, and there was no place to hide.

In the end, he couldn't have turned back to Port Moresby just because a seaplane had spotted him. In fact, the purpose of his travel so far to the South Pacific was not really to attack Pearl Harbor. It's to have a decisive battle with the Daming Pacific Fleet after the division of troops!

If his fleet can win this decisive battle, it will be able to temporarily crush the Ming Dynasty's threat to Australia. Don't underestimate this "temporary" break! Because the actual war between the Ming and the British has been going on for 2 years, in these 2 years, the results achieved by the Ming Dynasty are actually not big, only the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, South Luzon, the Persian Gulf, and the southeast coast of Texas.

Except for the Strait of Malacca between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, the rest of the place is either barbaric or barren and does not have much value. Therefore, there will be people within the Ming Dynasty who will oppose this war that does not outweigh the losses.

Once the Ming can't make a substantial breakthrough in the direction of Australia that they want to get the most, the two sides may be able to make peace.

So William. Still, Baga decided to maintain the original route of the march. But William. Baga did not stupidly follow the original plan and let his grand fleet list a large column to go north.

Instead, he divided his fleet into eight detachments, including ABCDEFGH. Among them, Detachment A and Detachment C are capital ship detachments, Detachment D and Detachment F are aircraft-carrying armored cruiser detachments, and Detachment B, Detachment E, Detachment G, and Detachment H are detachments with armored cruisers as the core.

During the specific voyage, the four detachments B, E, G, and H marched in unison, searching while opening the way in front, while Detachment A and Detachment C cautiously followed behind, and Detachment D and Detachment F hung at the end of the Grand Fleet.

"Admiral, Detachment B telegraphed, they seem to have discovered a small formation of the Ming Navy!"

At this time, the chief of staff of the fleet, Brigadier General Jervis, suddenly shouted.

William. Baga hurriedly took the telegram, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes: "Our prey is here, and order Major General Bomai to immediately lead the team into battle!" ”

"Admiral," Jervis reminded, "is it really going to be fought?" Will it further expose our strength? ”

William. Baga shook his head: "No, I want to test the current strength of the Ming Navy." We've been making rapid progress during this time, but will they also make progress? And I'm not afraid of exposure. Maybe our exposure can attract part of the strength of the Pacific Fleet of the Ming Navy to the Truk Lagoon, no, near the Kwajalein Atoll! We have achieved our goal as long as we can inflict heavy damage on them and delay their actions in the direction of the South Pacific. It doesn't matter if you can attack Pearl Harbor or not. We don't have the ability to take Pearl Harbor anyway. ”

Actually, William. Baga's fleet also had some marines in it, but the number was limited, and it was not enough to seize Pearl Harbor, not necessarily enough to capture the Truk Lagoon, but at most to grab a Kwajalein Atoll, where the Ming did not invest much, but operated it as a submarine base.

On the mast of the large light cruiser Kong Ming, Hong Renkun and Feng Yilong, the two lookouts, were holding binoculars at this time and staring intently at the hazy ship figures in the dark.

"Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brother bless me, Amen!"

"Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother will keep me safe!"

It's not that these two are cowardly, but now is the most fatal time!

The guns of the large light cruisers, second cruisers, and destroyers of the Ming Navy are not strong, and their advantage is torpedoes! And you can't put a torpedo too far, you can't hit it far away! Moreover, the torpedoes on cruisers and destroyers are not stocked, they are all configurations that have to go after a wave, so they can't be released too early, and the closer they are, the better. But the enemy is not blind either!

While the two of them were praying to their Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, a dazzling light suddenly appeared in the southern sky, as if a sun had suddenly exploded in the sky.

Where can the eyes that have long been accustomed to darkness be stimulated? Suddenly, there was the legendary "bright blind" effect, and nothing could be seen except for a white expanse.

But even if they couldn't see it, Hong Renkun and Feng Yilong knew that Kong Ming had been discovered and was about to be bombarded!

But Hong Renkun and Feng Yilong are not ordinary people, they are both born to do big things, they are particularly calm and bold, and they are also very lucky on another timeline, both of them later changed their names, one is called Hong Xiuquan, and the other is called Feng Yunshan!

Although the two lookouts who were lucky and particularly calm and calm were a little panicked now, they were not chaotic, but began to rub their eyes according to the usual requirements of training - eyes are their weapons!

You have to quickly recover your eyesight, and then determine their position according to the enemy's muzzle flame, as long as you find the right position and throw the torpedo out, you are not afraid of blowing up the big fish!

While the two were thinking about it, a dull shelling sound sounded in their ears - the British warship opened fire!

(End of chapter)