Hearing the news of the great victory of the US military in last night's naval battle, the US troops on Kuah Island could not help but thunder with joy.

Although they have not seen a single warship on the sea at this time...... This is because Gormley felt that the US warships were already seriously insufficient, and if he suffered a little more losses, he was afraid that it would not be enough to protect the aircraft carriers, and it would be difficult to organize the next big battle, so he felt that there was no need to send warships to the waters of Kuah Island for the time being, risking being bombed by Japanese fighters.

Of course, he was right in this way, because even if he did not send warships to the waters of Kuah Island, the US troops on Kuah Island would be excited for a while after hearing the news of the victory, because they knew that the Navy was coming back, and they had fought a victory in the dark night when they were not good at fighting, which seemed to mean that the US Navy was about to achieve a complete victory.

But in fact, Zhang Chi, Clifton and others are very clear that the US Navy is still far from a real victory, and the real victory should be a big battle that will take place.

At this time, the most painful ones should be the Japanese.

This kind of pain was not only the successive losses on the warships...... but also the sinking of the "Furutaka," "Fuyuki," "Congyun," and "Xiayun," and the "Aoba" was hit by nearly 40 rounds of bullets, which was so miserable that it had to return to China for overhaul, which means that the Japanese Navy lost five warships at once.

What made the Japanese army feel even more unacceptable was that the Japanese army had always been very confident in their night combat ability, so much so that they had the idea of "invincible in night fighting", but since then this self-confidence has begun to waver.

Self-confidence is also a strange thing, if you are too confident, you will become arrogant, and if you are not confident, you will be timid.

And the Japanese are precisely the kind of people who are prone to extremes, and after winning a battle in the Battle of "Iron Bottom Bay", they thought that night fighting was their unique specialty, and it was also after a defeat in "Iron Bottom Bay" that this self-confidence quickly collapsed.

Hyakutake Harumichi in particular is a typical example of this kind of character. Hakutake Haruyoshi, who had even prepared for surrender before, looked at the map with a waffled look at it at this time.

"Your Excellency, Lieutenant General!" Seeing Hyakutake Haruyoshi's sad face, the staff officer persuaded on the side: "It's just a defeat, we are still confident that we can defeat the US Navy at night!" ”

It should be said that the staff officer's words were still reasonable, and the US Navy's victory in the naval battle last night was indeed due in large part to luck, and the other part was due to the Japanese army's excessive arrogance and negligence.

From the point of view of actual combat quality. The Japanese Navy has long cultivated the ability of warships to fight at night, and in particular, the lookouts with outstanding eyesight and hearing often play a very important role in preemptively discovering enemy ships in night battles, and this is not something that the US Navy can match after more than a week of emergency night combat training.

Therefore, the most correct thing to do now is to ignore last night's defeat. What to do and how to continue to do it, that is, to go to the dark and continue to use the "Tokyo Express" method to transport troops and supplies to Kuah Island, what needs to be changed is to change the high-explosive shells of warships to armor-piercing shells or partially change them, or send a fleet to patrol and escort them.

If this continues, then the US Navy, which is already short of warships, will have to watch the Japanese continue to operate and wait for reinforcements to arrive...... The problem of the US military at this time is not the shortage of aircraft carriers, although it is true that the US aircraft carriers are insufficient, but what they lack more is the warships that escort the aircraft carriers, so a sneak attack like last night must be cautious.

But at this time, Hyakutake Haruyoshi was a little confused.

He sighed and said, "Ishabashi-kun." The counteroffensive of the Americans will not be as simple as you think. They will choose to enter the waters of Kuah Island at this time, but I am afraid that they are fully prepared! And we...... But it was just right to transport troops to Kuah Island, and there was no time to transport supplies up. It's stuck in our throats! ”

After a pause, Hyakutake Haruyoshi continued: "How will we transport supplies in the future?" Shortland Naval Base is nearly 300 nautical miles from Kuah Island, and any of these points could be an ambush point for the U.S. Navy, once they are ambushed...... We're going to lose a lot! ”

It should be said that Hyakutake Haruyoshi is a bit of a soldier, but a large part of the reason why he thinks so is because he doesn't know that there are not enough warships in the U.S. Navy.

The staff officer also nodded and said, "Your Excellency Lieutenant General." We also have many disadvantages, such as our warships have to carry a large number of soldiers and equipment, and in order to transport as much ammunition as possible for Kuah Island, many ammunition even have to be placed on the deck, which is very dangerous for warships. Other than that. In order to provide fire support to Kuah Island, our warships must also carry two types of shells, which is also prone to confusion during combat. But if we don't, we won't be able to meet the transportation requirements of Kuah Island!; ”

"Hmm!" Hyakutake Haruyoshi nodded.

Then he asked the staff officer: "Have you detected the position of the US Navy?" ”

"Not yet!" The staff officer shook his head.

There are two possibilities for the failure of the US Navy to detect it: one is that the US Navy is not near the waters of Kuah Island at all, so the Japanese army cannot detect it. The other is that the U.S. Navy is near Kuah Island, but Japanese submarines or planes have not found it.

The fact is that the U.S. Navy has withdrawn after the victory, but Hyakutake Haruyoshi believes that the second possibility is that the U.S. Navy has been ready to strike near the waters off Kuah Island and inflict heavy damage on the Japanese Navy again.

Hyakutake Haruyoshi has been worried about one point, if the Japanese army still uses the "Tokyo Express" to transport, there will be the situation that Hyakutake Haruyoshi least wants:

The U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier fleet suddenly headed north to attack the warships of the Tokyo Express before dark...... The Japanese fleet went south and the American fleet went north, so that the two armies would meet quickly. At that time, the Japanese "Tokyo Express" fleet, which has no aircraft carrier cover, is afraid that it will not be able to fight back at all, and will only be bombed.

After thinking about it for a long time, Hyakutake Haruyoshi pushed down his glasses heavily and said, "It seems that we can only fight with the Americans!" ”

"Your Excellency Lieutenant General means ......"

"Crush the U.S. Navy!" Hyakutake Haruyoshi slammed his head on Kuah Island, gritted his teeth and said: "Comprehensively seize the sea and air supremacy of Kuah Island, and only in this way can we achieve victory on Kuah Island!" ”

What Hyakutake Haruyoshi didn't know was that it would be the most regrettable decision he had ever made. (To be continued.) )