When Zhang Chi and Wang Mazi walked into the conference room located on Guadalcanal, they couldn't help but feel a little surprised.

They thought that this meeting would be the same as the last one, just an informal discussion between Halsey and MacArthur and them...... This is also one of the reasons why Zhang Chi could refuse to carry out the task or even go toe-to-toe with MacArthur at the last meeting, if it was a formal meeting, perhaps MacArthur and Halsey would have to use military orders to suppress Zhang Chi in order to maintain their own prestige.

But this time is obviously different from the last time, because in addition to Halsey and MacArthur in the conference room, the crowded people are all American generals, although Zhang Chi doesn't know these people, but at a glance, the hall is full of major generals, lieutenant generals, and generals.

"Let me introduce you!" Seeing Zhang Chi and Wang Mazi walking in, Halsey got up and said: "These two respectable Chinese soldiers are Wang Ninghang, the commander of the New Seventh Army, and Zhang Chi, the commander of the New First Division, who have repeatedly defeated the Japanese on the battlefield!" ”

There was a "bang", and there was a round of applause in the conference room.

Several generals leaned over one after another to shake hands with Zhang Chi and said:

"Colonel, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Colonel, the battles on Beato Island and Makin Island are impressive!"

……

A major general with half-bald hair and a pair of round glasses walked up to Zhang Chi, held Zhang Chi's hand and said, "Colonel, I have the honor to personally thank you!" ”

"Why?" Zhang Chi was a little puzzled.

"I'm Horland Smith, the commander of the 2nd Marine Division!" Major General explained: "Maybe you remember that during the battle on Beato Island your unit rescued the 2nd Marine Regiment, and that was my unit!" ”

Zhang Chi replied with a smile: "General, that's also my troops, we're friendly troops, aren't we?" ”

Smith couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, then nodded and replied, "That's right, Colonel!" I appreciate your spirit of not distinguishing between each other on the battlefield, and as allies, we need it. ”

Halsey couldn't help but be a little surprised when he looked at this scene, and in his private time after the meeting, Halsey secretly said to Zhang Chi...... Smith was a difficult person to work with, perhaps because he read Napoleon's military writings extensively and claimed that his aggressive style of warfare was based on Napoleon's military ideas, and the result was that Smith was unpleasing to anyone, and there was a lot of criticism of both the Navy and the Army, so Smith earned a fitting eulogy: "Howling madman."

But this "howling madman" only appreciates Zhang Chi's combat methods.

Smith also gave the answer to this on another occasion, the reason why he admired Zhang Chi's combat style was because he believed that Zhang Chi's combat style was very similar to his strategic thinking, to be precise, Zhang Chi's combat style was very similar to that of Smith's idol, Napoleon...... Both seize the opportunity on the battlefield to take the initiative to attack, hit the nail on the head, and then crush the enemy in one fell swoop.

Zhang Chi couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this...... Is this how you fight?!

I recalled, and I found that it was true. For example, in the Battle of Guadalcanal, the initiative to attack and take the airport, although it was followed by defense, but after hitting the nail on the head, it was to defend instead of attack, turning passive into active; Another example is the Battle of Rabaul, which took the initiative to attack and take the entire Rabaul in one fell swoop; There are also Tarawa and Makin Island, which also hit the enemy's vital points with clean and clean attacks.

"So...... Everyone already knows each other! Halsey paused and said, "Now it's time for us to talk about how to deal with the Marshall Islands." ”

"I thought we had a few months to prepare!" Vice Admiral Turner said.

"Originally, there were!" Halsey casually threw a stack of photos on the table and said, "But the Japanese won't give us this chance......"

As the admiral passed the pictures around, Halsey continued: "These are the recent pictures taken by our reconnaissance plane, you can see them...... The Japanese are widening their airports, so why should they widen them? There is no doubt that it is to accommodate more fighters, and it is estimated that the Japanese army may put in 600 fighters in the Marshall Islands based on the extent that the Japanese army has widened the airfield......"

As soon as Halsey's words came out, it caused quite a stir in the conference room.

"But...... Checkmate! Turner asked with some confusion: "Where did the Japanese get so many fighters?" ”

"Who knows?" Halsey replied: "But we can't assume that the Japanese army has no fighters to move, can we?" ”

Halsey was of course right in this attitude, and that the battle plan should not always be based on the best-case scenario, but rather on the worst-case scenario.

Of course, Halsey was wrong this time, because no one expected that the Japanese army would widen the airfield in order to preserve its strength and implement the "Z" plan, not to have as many as 600 fighters stationed there.

"This forced us to launch an attack on the Marshall Islands ahead of schedule!" "It's very likely that the 600 Japanese fighters are massing, and some of them may even be on their way to the Marshall Islands," Halsey said...... The further back the clock goes, the more Japanese fighters we will face! ”

Hearing this, the admirals couldn't help but be silent.

Although the US military has more than 1,000 fighters, far surpassing the Japanese army in terms of numbers, and even far surpassing the Japanese army in terms of pilot quality and fighter performance, it is foreseeable that it will never lose to the Japanese army in air combat, but if the Japanese army can mobilize 600 fighters...... That would undoubtedly bring great trouble to the US military in attacking the Marshall Islands.

So no one had any objections to an early attack on the Marshall Islands.

In fact, the attack on the Marshall Islands was not ...... ahead To be precise, in the "Flintlock Musket" plan, the Battle of the Marshall Islands was supposed to be launched at this time, but the "Flintlock Musket" project was postponed because the Battle of Tarawa proved to have many problems, and it was only put on the agenda again at this time.

"First of all, we have to face this reality!" Halsey frowned and said, "For an island like Tarawa...... We still knew a lot of information about the islands before the war, because these islands originally belonged to the British before the Japanese moved in, and we can ask the British if we want to know anything like the topography of the islands. But...... The Marshall Islands have been occupied by the Japanese since 1914, leaving us in the dark about the islands that are about to be captured except for these photographs and the meagre intelligence detected by submarines! We have every reason to believe that they are the second, the third...... Even more Tarawa! ”

(To be continued.) )