Major Song Xinyuan was immediately sent to the hospital, and after confirming the symptoms of severe colic pain in his right abdomen, the military doctor suspected that it was a sudden kidney stone or gallstone blockage, which was confirmed by the subsequent X-ray images.

"Does it matter? Do you want to use the knife? Can we fight and then heal? He asked several questions in a row.

"Don't worry, stop the pain first, and then drink some medicine and observe for a few days."

First a shot of atropine to relieve spasmodic, and then a burst of morphine to relieve pain, the unbearable severe colic finally subsided, Song Xinyuan only felt that he was covered in cold sweat and was about to collapse.

There was such a small episode when the army was about to set out for the expedition, and the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft detachment of the Taiwei Youyuan couldn't help but be a little apprehensive.

On that day, the three formations of the Ming fleet set sail one after another, advancing to the southeast according to the predetermined plan, and the mighty fleet finally disappeared at the end of the sea level......

The radio listening groups of the Guam base and several capital ships intercepted many telecommunications one after another.

At present, radio communications in Hawaii, Midway, and Wake Island are particularly frequent, and several commonly used frequency bands are very active, flooding with all kinds of telecommunications.

In another case, the discerning intelligence officers noticed that a weak telegraph had been missed by most people, and only Rabaul and Saipan had intercepted it.

The telegram came from the waters around Johnston Atoll (1,300 km southwest of Hawaii), and from a tiny fraction of what could be deciphered, it could be assumed to be from a task force.

That is, there may be at least one US fleet heading in the direction of the South Pacific, and what their purpose is unknown.

At this time, the ships of various types ordered to be assigned to the TF-30 and TF-31 task forces were already on the way, and dozens of warships rushed to the "victory point" to assemble.

All West Coast cities, from Seattle to Los Angeles, have suspended civilian broadcasting, and their usual channels are now temporarily airing wartime broadcasts.

In Hawaii, Army and Marine Corps units stationed on Oahu were put on high alert, with anti-aircraft positions piled up with unpacked artillery shells and radars turned on 24 hours a day.

The Honolulu government announced the closure of the market, with all but the essential sectors maintaining operations.

Police and gendarmes patrol the streets by car or on foot; Wharves, power plants, and waterworks are all subject to light control; Hospitals have added a large number of new beds, and even empty beds have been placed on both sides of the corridors; Trucks with red crosses are parked at the intersection, and nurses are calling on citizens to volunteer to donate blood.

This posture made many people nervous, but gradually became familiar with this atmosphere of being ready to fight, and became a little excited.

A few days later.

In the early hours of February 15, in the sea west of Palikil.

The first formation encountered an unusual sea fog, a dense fog that swirled around the ships, as if sailing into a fairyland on earth.

Visibility dropped to less than half a kilometer, and the destroyer Dongming almost collided with the battleship Longshuo, and in order to avoid accidents, Song Zhongkai ordered the searchlights to be turned on.

Sea fog can occur for a variety of reasons, from dense sea fog to advection fog, which occurs in areas where cold currents pass, but here in the South Pacific Ocean, where warm currents pass through the equator.

Song Zhongkai believes that what he encounters is only radiation fog, that is, the cooling caused by the disappearance of solar thermal radiation, which generally appears in the second half of the night and early morning, and dissipates soon after dawn.

The fleet was nearing the coordinates of the realignment, however the dense sea fog limited the use of flag and semaphore contact.

The only recourse was to use radio communications, but that would risk revealing the position of the fleet.

Song Zhongkai, who looked solemn, ordered in a deep voice: "Prepare for low-power medium-wave transmission." ”

"Order."

Medium-wave communication is characterized by propagation close to the earth's surface, and only a small part of it is emitted to the ionosphere, and during the day, sunlight makes the ionosphere more likely to absorb electromagnetic wave energy, so it is difficult for medium-wave communication to propagate over long distances.

Even if the radio silence was forced to be broken, the Ming fleet would use the method with the lowest probability of interception.

However, everyone's previous judgment was correct, and what they encountered was indeed only radiation fog, which quickly dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye as the sun rose.

At this time, the coordinates of the distance adjustment to change the existing course were less than four nautical miles, and luck was good.

The flagship's flag signal was smoothly announced, and the fleet of dozens of warships began to turn in unison.

On the vast blue sea, the fleet was bathed in the morning light, leaving behind countless arc-shaped snow-white tracks that were thousands of meters long.

At dusk, the radio listening groups of several warships in the first formation, including the Yongle, intercepted a telegram from the US military, but the specific content is unclear, and it can only be judged that it was sent by a submarine.

It can be roughly determined that the submarine is in the direction of the third formation through cross-positioning, but the exact location is unknown.

The destroyer fleet and the transport flotilla are clearly exposed, but the other side should not yet know about the existence of the first and second formations.

"That's not a bad thing, maybe it will lure the enemy fleet."

"It's getting dark soon, and they don't have time to send planes."

"There is a fish that has escaped the sentry, I'm afraid it's not just this submarine, maybe we will be found tomorrow."

On the bridge of the battleship Yongle, the staff officers were talking about it word by word.

"Send a reminder to the Three Fleets." Song Zhongkai gave the order after thinking about it.

He was worried that the third formation had not intercepted the cable, but decided to remind him to be on the safe side.

After a while, a telegraph message was sent out through a medium-wave transmitter.

"I heard that there was fish activity near the glow, good night."

Yingfu and Yu are both code names, and good night is a code word that means "don't call back after reading".

The third formation was alerted, and in fact they had also listened to the telegram from the unknown submarine.

Now two destroyers have broken away from the fleet and began to search the surroundings for traces of submarines.

When night falls, the submarine will inevitably rise to the surface of the sea, and use diesel engine power to accelerate the chase while charging and ventilating.

However, without a sea search radar, it is almost impossible to find a small submarine on the vast sea at night with the naked eye.

After a night's work, the two destroyers returned in vain and returned after daybreak.

It's already 10:05 Honolulu time on February 16, and the three formations are about to enter their predetermined positions.

Now from north to south are the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd formations, and the distance between the first two formations is about 100 kilometers, but the position of the third formation, which includes the destroyer fleet and the transport fleet, is further south, more than 250 kilometers away from the second formation.

The second formation was the most advanced, less than 1,100 kilometers from the Tarawa Atoll.

What the officers and men of the Ming Navy did not know was that a PBY Catalina seaplane was flying from the northeast, just over a hundred kilometers away from the fleet.

The seaplane piloted by Second Lieutenant Baldwin was unremarkable, and the crew got up at four a.m. for breakfast and a long-range search mission.

While listening to the mission briefing, the captain on duty told everyone that the Chinese were not far from here, and that at least one fleet was approaching Tarawa.

A total of thirteen seaplanes took off together to search in different directions.

Now, after almost five hours of flight, they have flown nearly a thousand kilometers, and the mission is still an hour away, because according to the requirements they have to fly only 1,200 kilometers at most.

Although the crew members talked and laughed, in fact, no one dared to relax - not only to pay attention to the enemy fleet that may appear on the sea at any time, but also to watch out for the large seaplanes of the Ming army.

The Type 32B four-engine seaplane flies faster than the Catalina and has more powerful self-defense weapons on board.

If the other party wants to find fault, then Caterina will fall into a dilemma where she can't be beaten and can't escape.

Over the past month, three Catalinas have already been shot down as a result.

"Where will they be? If the briefing's predictions were correct, they would have certainly been within the range of 1,200 kilometers. ”

"Who knows? I just want to go back early, the jam pie and cold-cut beef tongue in the canteen are limited, and if I go back late, I can only eat fried luncheon meat. ”

While the co-pilot and navigator were muttering, Second Lieutenant Baldwin suddenly saw several small black dots appear on the glass windshield.

At first, he wondered why it was inexplicably stained, but the next second he realized that it was not a material at all, but a fleet!

"Damn! Don't talk, look at the two o'clock direction, fleet! ”

Three minutes later, the Catalina sent back a telegram to the Tarawa base: "The enemy's main fleet has been spotted, 245 directions relative to the base, 560 nautical miles."

After receiving the news of the search, the eyes of the officers and men in the base almost lit up, and the atmosphere changed abruptly, and everyone became excited.

However, at present, only the approximate location of the Ming fleet is known, but the specific situation is not known, so the base called back to ask for more information.

The PBY Katerina piloted by Baldwin was dozens of kilometers away from the Ming fleet, so naturally it was not clear the number and the type of ships.

"No, we can't wait like this!"

"Sir? What do you mean? ”

"We should weaken the enemy as much as possible, so...... Let those B-17s go to the sky! ”

The commander of naval aviation at the Tarawa base could not wait, and he ordered to immediately refuel with B-17 bombs capable of taking off, and then fly directly to the position of the Ming fleet.

The SB2U Defender dive bomber has a limited combat radius, and only the B-17 is currently capable of long-range bombing missions.

Twenty minutes later, when most of the bombers had finished taking off and were ready to taxi, the base received a second telegram from the Katerina.

「…… At least 10 large vessels, about 40 small vessels. 10:45 Honolulu time."

The base commander was so angry that he shook his fist and shouted, "What are they doing?" Let them report the type of ship, the course, the speed! ”

After determining that the fleet did not include aircraft carriers, Second Lieutenant Baldwin and others chose to boldly fly straight over.

They flew straight to the third formation, holding up their binoculars and carefully distinguishing and counting until they were close to the range of anti-aircraft fire.

Five minutes later, the detailed information that had been in the hearts and minds of the Tarawa base finally returned.

「…… The enemy fleet consisted of 2 seaplane carriers, 1 hospital ship, about 40 destroyers, about 12 cruisers, and about 30 transport ships. Heading 80, speed 11 knots. Honolulu time: 11:25"

Due to a number of factors, Ensign Baldwin and others mistook the super destroyer as a light cruiser, and did not have the energy and leisure to distinguish between a submarine carrier and a landing ship.

By this time, 11 B-17C heavy bombers were already on the way.

The third formation has been exposed, so there is nothing to fear, and the chief military officer Zou Pu ordered the radio silence to be lifted and began to send a message to report on his own situation.

At 16:31 in the afternoon of the same day, a formation of bombers appeared in the field of view of the Ming fleet.

"Dingding-ding-"

The rapid bell rang, and the air defense control officers of the ships also began to shout loudly, constantly giving instructions.

"Air defense control!"

"The height is two thousand five, the slope is seven thousand eight, usually!"

"Determination of angular velocity, determination of heading angle."

Eleven heavy bombers, nicknamed the Flying Fortress, approached the Ming fleet at an altitude of 2,000 meters and carried out medium-altitude horizontal bombing.

Dozens of Ming warships opened fire one after another, and the 128mm guns of the destroyer and the 144mm guns of the light cruiser were pointed diagonally at the sky, spitting out a series of timed fuse-to-air fragmentation shells.

In an instant, the clear blue and cloudless sky was covered with black clouds, the guns of the Ming warships roared in unison, and the American planes smashed down with aerial bombs.

One after another, the bombs fell into the sea and exploded, dozens of huge water columns emerged on the sea, and the deafening sound of explosions and the sound of rushing water were endless......

A total of 44 500-pound bombs were dropped by the US planes, but the accuracy of the horizontal bombing was as low as ever, and none of them hit, and only one of the bombs that missed was close to causing minor damage to the Yujiang light cruiser.

A quarter of an hour later, in the bridge of the Ziwei Zuoyuan, the main generals gathered in the conference room to discuss.

"Three formations were attacked, a dozen large bombers. But it's still the same, horizontal bombing, and finally a sound. ”

The officers all smiled and did not take the air raid that had just taken place.

The "Left Pivot" team of carrier-based destroyers said with some concern: "Ming'er estimates that the battle is about to start, and I don't know if we can find out where the opposite ship is as soon as possible." ”

A well-mannered lieutenant colonel staff officer stood up and walked to the small blackboard with a few manuscript papers, "The reconnaissance plan has been made, let me tell you about it." ”

It can be said that the reconnaissance plan drawn up by this lieutenant colonel is very important, because the enemy will be discovered and destroyed first, and reliable and timely reconnaissance will directly determine the number of bargaining chips in the balance of victory.

He said eloquently: "First of all, please see, the Beiluo Division Gate is responsible for the first direction, and one ...... will be released in the early morning and one in the morning."

To put it simply, this aerial reconnaissance plan uses the second formation as the starting point to determine a 150° sector with a radius of 600 km from northeast to southeast, and divides it into nine slightly overlapping small sectors.

The selected carrier and the light cruiser were each responsible for one of the small sectors, and the other three light cruisers were responsible for the zigzag shuttle reconnaissance.

Aerial reconnaissance operations were carried out in two phases, with the first and second three hours apart, in order to minimize the possibility of misses.

"If you don't see a rabbit, you won't scatter an eagle, and when the time comes, you will be stable."

"That's right, this time it's the overwhelming trend of Mount Tai, it will win!"

Zhou Changfeng sat in a seat on the right, and he also observed the meeting.

I don't know why, seeing the relaxed atmosphere in the conference room, he felt more nervous than ever.

Ouyang Zhanghua, who looked calm, patted him on the shoulder, "Zhou Beizhao, your face is not very good, what's wrong?" ”

[Picture]

(End of chapter)