"We must not let the Chinese attack ships go home!" Nagano Shushen, deputy director of the Military Command Department, slapped the table.
"The problem is that we have to find them now." As the Minister of the Navy, Mitsumasa Yoneuchi was initially opposed to starting a war with Republican China so early. The speed of Chinese industrial development made the imperial generals despair. When Britain, France and the Republic declared war, this
The guys were so happy that they threw themselves into his arms without even trying to win over the British.
Mitsumasa Yoneuchi, Narumi Yoshida and Isoroku Yamamoto and other "moderate factions" originally wanted to wait until the Chinese and the British were close to fighting before joining the war. However, they were opposed by the bellicose War Ministry and Nagano and others. The number one of the Navy
The character Prince Fushimi Miyahiro stood behind Nagano Shushen, Sueji Nobumasa and others. They were afraid that if the Chinese chose to compromise under the pressure of Britain and France, the Empire of Japan would lose this golden opportunity.
Therefore, the Japanese navy did not wait for the British and French expeditionary forces to arrive in Southeast Asia, and impatiently launched a sneak attack on the Republican navy. In this way, they forced Republican China into a situation where war was inevitable.
Just as Yonei and his group had worried, the premature start of the war made Japan the first to suffer a counterattack.
"Although the news has been absolutely blocked from the public, tomorrow we will definitely receive a lot of pressure from the cabinet and the army. Even His Majesty the Emperor has expressed serious concern about this incident. No matter what, the navy will find that abominable China
Attack the fleet and then high-five them!" Prince Hakagong, the Minister of Military Order, said. Although he was not as excited as Nagano, his tone was unquestionable.
"The opinion of the Operations Section is that the enemy may have chosen to return quickly after winning the battle," Shitaro Shimada, Chief of the Operations Section of the Military Command Department, tapped the chart with a pencil. "The shortest distance from Saipan to China's base in Guangdong is
It is through the Bashi Strait or the Balintang Strait, a distance of about 1,900 nautical miles. The combat department believes that the enemy is most likely to choose this route to return, and we should place the main fleet in the Kaohsiung Port area so that we can quickly attack after discovering traces of the enemy."
"We should dispatch aircraft ships to search and intercept them, which will expand the search area." Yamamoto said that he and Inoue Narumi had both reminded the Military Command of the Republic Navy's attack on the shipping route, and Nagano and others who controlled the Military Command
The people still held the attitude of a decisive battle with the main force and refused to send battleships to escort the Marshall area.
"The aircraft ships will perform the blockade mission of the Yangtze River Estuary and cannot be moved!" Nagano said firmly. Hasegawa Kiyoshi's China Task Force was under great pressure from the East China Sea Fleet of the Republic Navy. The Japanese Navy now only has three aviation combat ships.
"Hōsho", "Akagi" and "Kaga", and the "Kaga" is still being refitted in the dock. Hasegawa Kiyoshi's fleet is now concentrated in Keelung and is responsible for the blockade of the Yangtze River Estuary. The Republic Navy has also only moved it
Some two aircraft ships were transferred to Shanghai.
The battleships of the Combined Fleet concentrated in Sasebo, led by Combined Fleet Commander Nobumasa Suetsu, set off overnight for Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, while Japanese cruisers and destroyers launched a dragnet search in the Pacific. Four Kaohsiung-class heavy ships
Cruisers were sent to the Marshall Islands to perform search missions, while the Japanese concentrated their main forces in the Bashi Channel area, waiting for the Chinese attack fleet to fall into their trap.
Their judgment was very accurate. At this time, Wei Zihao's cruiser fleet was sailing in the deep sea area southwest of Okinori Island, and was walking step by step towards the ambush circle set by the Japanese.
The bad weather that Wei Zihao prayed for did not appear. Although there was wind on the sea, it was only Level 4. This kind of weather could not even affect the takeoff of the plane. After successfully bombarding Saipan, the attack fleet headed towards the Shantou base.
A telegram was sent: "I have successfully attacked Saipan and will return the same way!" After that, radio silence was maintained.
Navy Commander-in-Chief Chen Shaokuan personally rushed to Shantou and took charge of the response operations to the attacking fleet.
The main force of the Strait Fleet was also transferred to the Nanyang Fleet. Nanyang Fleet Commander Chen Shiying concentrated six battleships and three large cruisers under his command, while the East China Sea Fleet maintained pressure on the Japanese mainland with two aircraft ships and three battleships.
The Nanyang Fleet has notified Wei Zihao at sea of the dispatch of the main force of the Japanese combined fleet. Both the Republic and Japan have sent many spies to each other. News of the dispatch of such large warships is basically impossible to hide from the spies. Both sides
I had a premonition that there might be a showdown between the main fleets.
It was another calm dawn. Two days and one night had passed since the bombardment of Saipan. The three attack ships sailed in the deep sea in battle formation. In the past two days, not even seabirds could be seen in the sky, let alone see them.
Japanese warship.
Wu Yuxi stood on the bridge and took a deep breath of cool air. The feeling of working the night shift was indeed not pleasant. He was just a trainee staff officer who was lucky enough to participate in this operation. The door of the war room rang, and Wei Zihao stepped out of the battle room.
Walking in from the outside, as the commander of this fleet, he was under a lot of pressure. He was not sure whether he could bring this fleet back to the base safely.
It was impossible for him to sleep soundly, and he returned to the war room at dawn.
Wu Yuxi returned to the war room, "Thank you for your hard work, everyone!" Wei Zihao greeted the staff officers on duty and casually read an evaluation report that Wu Yuxi was writing.
"Sir, what would you like to drink?" a second lieutenant officer asked.
"Bring me and the major two cups of coffee!" Wei Zihao nodded and motioned for Wu Yuxi to sit next to him. "Major, you don't seem to think highly of this attack?" he said after Wu Yuxi sat down.
"Yes, sir, we are actually taking a big risk. In fact, we are in great danger now." Wu Yuxi replied.
"Well, the fleet is always in danger when fighting." Wei Zihao said.
"That's not the problem, sir." Wu Yuxi said, "We sank about 40,000 tons of merchant ships along the way, but we also put the 40,000 tons of warships in an isolated and helpless situation. The problem is that the cost of building warships is that of civilian merchant ships.
10 times that of Japan, I’m afraid the Japanese would be happy even if they exchanged 400,000 tons of merchant ships for these few warships of ours.”
"Although we are dangerous, the Japanese will put us to death if we see them."
"I heard that the general participated in the aircraft ship and battleship confrontation exercise held on Dongsha Island two years ago?" Wu Yuxi asked.
"Well, you mean..." Wei Zihao suddenly became alarmed. The drill on Dongsha Island was really shocking. At that time, two battleships and three cruisers led by Sa Shijun and two "Guangdong-class" aviation ships led by Li Honglin
The battle fleet led by Sa Shijun was completely defeated. Without seeing any opponents at all, Sa Shijun's fleet was judged to have suffered two sinkings and two heavy losses in one day's battle.
and one ship was slightly damaged, and the entire army was almost wiped out.
After the confrontation exercise failed, Sa Shijun took the initiative to apply for transfer from the position of commander of the First Battle Fleet and went to the newly formed aviation fleet. The results of that exercise greatly touched the senior leaders of the Republic Navy, and even the then Navy Commander-in-Chief Li
Dingxin also never mentioned the matter of building new battleships.
"If your fleet is targeted by Japanese aircraft ships..." Wei Zihao was afraid after thinking about it. Fortunately, according to the news from the navy, the two Japanese aircraft ships did not participate in the interception of him.
"Major, when you return to the base, please finish writing this report and give it to me immediately, and write it carefully!" Wei Zihao stood up and walked to the chart. The fleet's speed is now maintained at 20 knots, and it is expected to arrive in Bahrain in the afternoon.
Near the Tang Strait, it is now necessary to slow down the speed. If the fleet is attacked by land-based aircraft from Taiwan, the result will be even more unpredictable.
He is not very worried about Japanese surface ships. Except for the four modernized King Kong-class battleships, there are no Japanese warships that can pose a fatal threat to them. Even if there are four "King Kong" ships, the fleet should be able to rely on its speed.
Take advantage and get rid of the enemy's attack.
He kept making gestures on the chart with a two-point compass. The fleet needed to cross the entire Balintang Strait in one night.
The entire fleet reduced its speed. Wei Zihao planned to enter the entrance of the strait in the evening. In fact, when the fleet entered the entrance of the Balintang Strait, it was already 9 o'clock in the evening. The sea was completely dark. The three Republic warships took advantage of the darkness to enter Balintang.
strait.
The Japanese actually sent two Ise-class battleships to patrol and intercept at the entrance of the strait. However, because the Balintang Strait is 150 nautical miles wide, the two fleets passed each other in a hurry about 40 nautical miles apart.
On the calm South China Sea, the waterline on the horizon glows with white light. The sunlight soon penetrates the clouds on the horizon, and a red sunrise slowly rises on the sea. On the water surface dyed red by the sunlight, three
The cruiser stirred up white waves and drove westward at high speed.
The officers and soldiers who had been nervous all night could not help but relax. The general standing on the bridge also lit a cigarette. He finally passed the most dangerous period and finally returned to this familiar sea area.
A small black dot appeared in the sky, "Aircraft found, bearing 168!" the lookout hand shouted, "Woo!" Shrill sirens sounded on all warships.
The large group of red dots on the Japanese fuselage is particularly eye-catching, "Enemy's aircraft, prepare each gun position, fire!"
Boom! Boom!
The Japanese plane had already begun to turn around, and clouds of white smoke burst into the sky, but it could not reach that far.
"Sir, our whereabouts have been discovered!"
Wei Zihao nodded. The airplane was indeed such a small thing. He now felt the horror of such a small thing. He turned around and said to the combat staff: "Send a report to the base: Our unit has sailed through Bahrain."
Tanghai, please respond!" Now that it has been discovered, there is little point in maintaining radio silence.
Now the Japanese warships will definitely try their best to intercept them.
"Sir, should we return to Shantou as planned or..."
"No, we will keep heading northwest and return directly to Zhanjiang!" Wei Zihao said. This was a decision he had already made in his mind. "Order all ships to increase their speed to 28 knots!"
It was just 5:40 in the morning, and the entire fleet was on alert, but until 11 o'clock in the morning, no Japanese were seen.
When Wei Zihao's fleet sailed to the waters east of Dongsha, the two destroyers "Yakaze" and "Okikaze" of Japan's Second Mine Squadron, which were conducting search missions in the Bashi Strait, first caught up from behind. The two Japanese destroyers
The destroyer with a high speed of 38 knots ignored the danger and kept a close eye on Wei Zihao's fleet, constantly sending out messages to report its current specific position.
At 12:30, two more Japanese heavy cruisers, Haguro and Ashigara, arrived on the battlefield.