"I haven't received sufficient night take-off and landing drills, and after flying and fighting for 5 hours, the pilots are physically and mentally exhausted, can the losses be great?" Horikichi smiled faintly, "I still remember the words of Special Envoy Cole, 'The plane can fly for 5 hours, what about people?' You see, I arranged the attack on Pearl Harbor, and I didn't do it until I was close to more than 500 kilometers -- it's not that I didn't know that it was safer to be far away, but it would be very difficult for the pilot to complete the mission and return home safely if he was far away. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

Chiaki Matsuda agreed with this judgment, but still said with some dissatisfaction: "Sir, even if this is true, it is profitable, and it is ...... to exchange 80 crews and 120 aircraft for 2 aircraft carriers."

"First of all, you made such a decision from the perspective of a clear understanding of the strength of both sides, and now that the bait fleet and the Tsunoda fleet are in the sight of the US commander, if you decide to fight, the normal logic must be to fight the bait fleet that is easier to attack first; Taking a step back, even if the Americans choose to fight Tsunoda, I will still be profitable......" Horikichi smiled slightly, "You can also fight the American army in the Fifth Air Battle, don't forget that I still have 2 Yunryu-class and Chitose in my hand, and the Americans organized a rapid column to advance forward, although the distance with Tsunoda was shortened, why not also shorten the distance with the Fifth Air Battle?" With a maximum speed of 29 knots, 169 aircraft, and the ability to organize an attack group of at least 150 aircraft, how many Essexes do you think can be sunk after a sortie? ”

"There may be difficulties with 2 ships, maybe 1 ship."

"That is, to exchange 2 Yunlong-class ships for 1 Essex-class, on the surface a slight loss, when Tsukahara comes up early tomorrow morning, in the face of the shrinking US fleet, what do you think?"

The other party blurted out: "That's much easier to fight!" ”

At this point, Chiaki Matsuda understood Horikishi's intentions: the bait fleet of the Yano hero and the rapidly exposed Tsunoda fleet were essentially bait in the hope that the US army would divide its forces to attack, and it was nothing more than that the US army swallowed the bait fleet itself with small losses and swallowed Tsunoda with large losses, but no matter what kind of losses, Halsey could not retreat with his whole body. Not only must it not retreat with its whole body, but it must also close the distance -- after the attack group is released at 800 kilometers, the US fast column must approach at least 600 kilometers before it can be sure that it will be able to pick up the returning planes to return, otherwise the 1,600-kilometer round-trip flight alone will kill the US attack group.

Now Matsuda Chiaki is worried that Halsey will continue to move forward in a group, ignore the bait, and even slow down slightly, which he thinks will be difficult to deal with tomorrow.

Horiyoshi smiled: "That's okay, at least the problem of Tsunoda's oil shortage can be properly solved." We should give the enemy two or more choices, and no matter what the enemy chooses, we should think of a way to deal with it and ensure the smooth implementation of our strategic intentions. ”

Matsuda Chiaki said: "Although the enemy did not organize a rapid force to advance in the afternoon, I still have a question: what if the enemy organizes a rapid column to pursue at night and directly attacks at dawn?" I think this is likely to lead to a three-way head-to-head encounter in the early hours of the morning. ”

"I guess so." Horikichi smiled slightly, "I'm not afraid of using the tactic of hitting heads in a fast column...... The Americans only have 2 South Dakota in their hands, Nishimura has Musashi, Kongo and a few heavy cruisers in their hands, and the decoy fleet has nearly 20 torpedo boats, as well as a bunch of destroyers. ”

Matsuda Chiaki was stunned for a moment, then reacted, and sighed continuously: "The chief has no last resort, I admire it so much." ”

"It's impossible to count the last resort, is there such a person in the world?" Horikichi smiled faintly, "Otherwise, how could so many strategies in front of me fail?" ”

"If the enemy army doesn't make a major decision change, it should still be pressed over in a group, how does the commander plan to fight tomorrow morning?"

Horikichi didn't answer directly, but asked first: "How many ways is Tsukahara-kun away from the enemy fleet?" ”

"Based on the position of the afternoon report and the accelerated report tonight, it is expected that it will be shortened to about 900-1,000 kilometers at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning, and it will be more certain that the war will start in the afternoon."

"As long as this U.S. fleet doesn't turn around and run away tonight, he won't be able to run tomorrow...... Even if he runs now, he will only be able to run part of it tomorrow. But if the enemy forces are always in a group, it will take a little effort to eat the opponent at the least cost tomorrow. Horiyoshi sighed, "The enemy has 550 carrier-based aircraft, of which at least 250 are fighters, and breaking through the air defense system of the huddle will pay a heavy price, and I am still thinking about how to fight: I am afraid that I will not be able to defeat the opponent by relying on me and Tsunoda alone, even if we add Tsukahara's strength, there will be a lot of losses, and there must be a better way......"

At nightfall, Horikichi's Fifth Air War advanced at a high speed of 27 knots, accelerating its convergence with Kakuda and the decoy fleet, and it was only necessary to coordinate operations from a distance of 200-300 kilometers without meeting face-to-face.

There is only one problem that Hori is worried about: he and Tsunoda have only 350 combat planes in total, at least 100 must be left for defense, and only 250 planes can be used for attack, and he estimates that Halsey will send 250 fighters to intercept them, so I am afraid that the air force will lose half of it, and I dare not say that it can completely destroy the other side.

If the US military takes advantage of the situation to counterattack again, he believes that it will be extremely difficult to bear -- it is okay to pay some price for taking the US Pacific Fleet, but since he has made up his mind to seize Hawaii, the fleet strength cannot be lost too much, and how to organize Halsey, who has always been in a group, to go on a rampage tomorrow and make it difficult to make a wave of trouble. Even if he released the attack group earlier, as long as the U.S. military released the attack group N before the arrival of its own attack group, it would be an extremely tragic and lose-lose battle.

He looked at the charts repeatedly, and even drew them on the paper with his own hands, as if weighing and calculating life, all the staff officers, including Chiaki Matsuda, looked at him quietly, for fear of disturbing the commander's thoughts, and after 5 minutes, the corners of Horikichi's mouth showed a smile: "There you have!" ”

"Quick! Top speed! ”

"Quick! Maximum speed! Come on! ”

These two identical orders were given to their respective units by Hero Yano and Kakuharu Tsunoda.

As soon as night fell, the two fleets rushed to the road with full force, eager to rush over and join them -- as soon as the two armies met, the situation of the whole fleet would be greatly improved, so they gave a dead order, regardless of whether there were American submarines on the road, to rush over.

In fact, there were two U.S. submarines on the way, but before they could get ready, the Tsunoda fleet had already crossed the interception line like a wind, and on the night of late October, in the windy North Pacific, Tsunoda was racing at a speed of 27 knots.

Arima Masafumi calculated that if the decoy fleet could not be connected in the early hours of tomorrow morning, Musashi would only have at most 50-80 nautical miles of fuel left, and he would be completely cut off from fuel during the day and beaten, so Nishimura Shoji also walked on thin ice and personally commanded in the engine room.

Minutes and seconds passed, and by 9:30 p.m., the two fleets had managed to reduce the distance to 500 kilometers, and in another six hours they would be in a visual position.

Also late at night, Spruance and Nimitz were in the command room discussing the enemy situation and how to deal with it with a group of staff officers, and both of them had a feeling of fidgeting, as if something had not been thought through, but they could not remember it for a while. Finally, Spruance suddenly suggested that he go to Turner for a chat and a cup of coffee to calm his emotions......

Nimitz knew that his offer to chat and go for coffee was an excuse, and that asking Turner was the only way to do it—sometimes outsiders saw it better than insiders.

Spruance and Turner, who had always had a good relationship, made a phone call, and they welcomed him and warmly prepared coffee and pastries at home.

As soon as he arrived at Turner's house, Spruance, who didn't have the heart to drink his coffee, told the whole battle with the most concise and clear logic.

Turner listened silently, although there was no professional command, but he had been a naval officer and chief of staff for so many years, and there was no shortage of a full set of detailed charts and staff operations, and he quickly marked the detailed location and direction of movement of the fleets of the two armies on the map and quickly thought about it.

Two days ago, Turner was not a party to the case, and he was not too affected by Horikishi's two feints to cover his eyes, so he looked at the problem from a different angle, and he started to push back from Halsey's idea of planning to attack early in the morning, and there were words in his mouth: "Attack!" Attack! Rush ...... Broken! William and you guys have been fooled! ”

"Why?"

"Think about it, at 5 o'clock in the morning, assuming that the enemy army is really in that position, William is expected to be 500 kilometers away from the enemy army?"

"yes, almost."

"What is the distance at 3 a.m., then?"

Spruance was a little dazed by his question: "600 is less than some, and if you want to calculate it, I estimate that it is about the same." ”

Turner immediately said, "I guess it's about the same number...... Okay, when was Pearl Harbor attacked? Where did the enemy plane take off? ”

"Ahh Hearing this, Spruance was so distraught that he felt as if he had been electrocuted, and his whole body jumped - he finally understood the reason for his uncertainty.

Nimitz's hands trembled and he spilled the entire cup of coffee on the chart, and Turner's words made the two of them instantly understand the danger of the problem: if the Japanese could fight Pearl Harbor at night, they could also fight Halsey at night - don't think that you can't do it, and the enemy can't do it.

The three of them know very well that in addition to the gap between the fleet's aircraft carriers, the gap between the United States and the Axis in the field of carrier-based aircraft pilots is even greater: At present, only a small number of pilots who can fly at night are still the elite cadres left over from Nimitz's fight in the South Atlantic campaign, but the Japanese pilots generally have the ability to fly at night.

Turner followed closely with the mending knife: "There is no need to completely annihilate William's troops, the enemy only needs to dispatch 60-80 elite attack aircraft, find 2 Essex-class to attack, abolish the take-off and landing ability of the Essex-class, the entire fleet will be finished, and the Japanese will cover up after dawn tomorrow, will the fleet still have a way to retreat?" ”