Huang Xiaotian returned to Guam with Liao Hanxiang, and Task Force 4 returned to Apra Harbor the day before the two arrived. Liao Hanxiang did not immediately let Huang Xiaotian lead the fleet to set off, but decided to wait for a while. At that time, the landing operation to attack the Australian mainland had not yet begun, and the movements of the US military were also very uncertain, so both of them decided to wait and see the situation first, and only after determining the development of the situation did they make a new decision.

Liao Hanxiang has always paid attention to Huang Xiaotian's mentality, and to put it bluntly, Liao Hanxiang is also a little dissatisfied with the arrangement of the Navy Command. When he was in Zhoushan, he talked with his son-in-law Tan Renhao several times, and also hinted that Tan Renhao should let the First Task Force come to the Central Pacific Theater and cooperate with the Fourth Task Force to deal with the US Fifth Fleet. Or the first task force to replace the fourth task force, after all, Tan Renhao knows Spruance more thoroughly, and the combat effectiveness of the first task force is relatively strong. But after Liao Hanxiang knew Nie Renfeng's intention of arranging the First Task Force to go to the Southwest Pacific Theater, he knew that his suggestion would not lead to anything, so he simply did not put forward his idea at the meeting, but accepted the arrangement of the Navy Command.

Liao Hanxiang still has some understanding of Huang Xiaotian's ability. Although Liao Hanxiang had not cooperated with Huang Xiaotian before, and had not even heard his son-in-law mention this young fleet commander, in the period before the First Task Force returned to the Pacific Theater, Liao Hanxiang and Huang Xiaotian had cooperated, and Liao Hanxiang also knew very well that Huang Xiaotian was a capable and smart fleet commander. In many cases, Liao Hanxiang also secretly compared Tan Renhao with Huang Xiaotian, and what surprised him a little was that Huang Xiaotian was very similar to Tan Renhao in many ways, and the most significant common point between the two was that they were tenacious and daring!

As the commander of the fleet, what Liao Hanxiang saw. And the responsibility he bears is not the same as Huang Xiaotian, so he does not care about how the Fourth Task Force should confront the US Fifth Fleet, but is more concerned about Huang Xiaotian's situation. It is clear that this time Task Force 4 is part of the "sacrificeable". Whoever is the commander of Task Force 4 will definitely feel uncomfortable.

Liao Hanxiang has also struggled for decades to sit in his current position, and he has also experienced a lot of ups and downs, and he knows very well what kind of thoughts will arise in the face of adversity, which is what he is most worried about. So, after returning to Guam. Liao Hanxiang will meet with Huang Xiaotian almost every day, sometimes to discuss serious matters, and sometimes to find excuses to chat with Huang Xiaotian, anyway, in Liao Hanxiang's opinion, if the Fourth Task Force wants to hold the defense line in the Central Pacific, then Huang Xiaotian's state is very important!

"That's what we've just heard." Liao Hanxiang gave Huang Xiaotian several documents. He had nothing to do that day, and copies of these documents had already been sent to Task Force 4. "The Fifth Fleet had gone to sea for some training a few days before, and I heard that Spruance personally commanded the fleet for training work, but it returned to Pearl Harbor the day before yesterday. There was no intention of going westward. What do you think Spruance wants to do now? ”

Huang Xiaotian pretended to look through the documents, he also knew that Liao Hanxiang's intention to talk to him every day for a while during this period was only original, Huang Xiaotian wanted to tell Liao Hanxiang directly, he was not dissatisfied, and spent all his thoughts on the upcoming combat operations, but he still didn't say it directly in the end, after all, Liao Hanxiang was the commander of the theater and Tan Renhao's father-in-law. is a respectable general, and he is also Huang Xiaotian's elder.

"Generally speaking, Spruance does not have much confidence in the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Fleet, especially in the combat capability of aviation, and in the combat capability of the fleet's air defense, and the problem is not that the US military does not have good enough warships and combat aircraft, but that the quality of the US military personnel is far from meeting Spruance's requirements." Huang Xiaotian put down the document in his hand, "Judging from the latest information. The U.S. military has several new fighters in service, including two new fighters. There are also two new types of carrier-based bombers. It took time for the pilots to get used to the flight performance and combat performance of the new aircraft, and Spruance needed time to train the officers and men of the fleet under him. So, now the Fifth Fleet is still operating near Pearl Harbor and is in no hurry to move west. ”

Liao Hanxiang took out a cigarette, and he lit one for Huang Xiaotian first. "That's what our intelligence officers judged. In addition to the problems of the Fifth Fleet, Nimitz needed time to organize offensive forces and deploy them to the front line, as well as to prepare war supplies and mobilize the relevant transport forces. If the U.S. military had started planning a counterattack in May, it would have taken them two months to complete the preparations for the counterattack. ”

"Perhaps, both Nimitz and Spruance believe that we will not be able to win the landing operation on the Australian continent by the end of July, so they don't need to buy time to launch a counterattack." Huang Xiaotian leaned back on the sofa, "Therefore, it is very likely that the counterattack of the US military will be launched after mid-July, if this is the case, it will be a good thing for us." As long as Task Force 1 can return to the battlefield in August, we will turn the tide of the war. ”

"What if Task Force 1 can't arrive at this time, or if the U.S. forces are counterattacking faster than we expected?"

Huang Xiaotian fell silent, this is not an easy question to answer.

On the way back to Guam, Huang Xiaotian was thinking about how to fight, and there were too many factors for him to consider, first of all, the combat effectiveness of the Fourth Task Force, followed by the combat effectiveness of the US Army, as well as the counterattack time of the US Army, the counterattack plan of the US Army, the defensive forces that the Pacific Theater could invest, Liao Hanxiang's defensive deployment, and so on, and these factors will directly affect the battle between the Fourth Task Force and the Fifth Fleet!

There is nothing to worry about the combat effectiveness of the Fourth Task Force, the officers and men of the fleet are already familiar with the newly assigned warships, and the combat effectiveness of the three "Rui Beast" class air defense cruisers is quite outstanding. The aviation unit has long been familiar with the performance of several new combat aircraft, and the relevant training has never stopped.

However, there are many uncertain factors in the question of the combat effectiveness of the US military. The U.S. Navy acquired two new fighters at the beginning of '26, the F6F and the F4U (later models). Among them, the performance of the F6F should be a little worse than that of the "Golden Eagle", mainly in terms of speed and sensitivity, but this fighter is extremely strong, and it has changed the shortcomings of the poor diving performance of the US fighter jet. In this respect even surpassed the "Golden Eagle". The F4U (later model) is actually an F4U fighter with more power and a slight adjustment to the aerodynamic layout. The fighter's most outstanding performance is its speed, its maximum speed is even a little faster than that of the "Golden Eagle", and its agility is not bad. From the point of view of the integrated combat capabilities, the F4U (if there is no special significance. Unified refers to the later model) is slightly better than the "Golden Eagle", and this is the main reason why the Imperial Navy officially launched the development of newer models of ground fighters at the beginning of 26.

In addition to two new fighters, the US Navy has two new models of carrier-based bombers that entered service at the beginning of 26. Its dive bomber model is SB3C, which is a new type of bomber developed by Curtis. Originally, Curtiss was developed on the SB2C, a very bulky bomber. The U.S. Navy initially hoped to replace the SBD with SB2C, but with the rapid service of the improved version of the "Shooting Bird", the SB2C is obviously inferior to the "Shooting Bird", therefore, the U.S. Navy canceled the order, and a small number of equipped SB2C were only provided to the Marine Corps, and asked Curtis to come up with a more flexible dive bomber that could catch up with and surpass the "Shooting Bird" as soon as possible. And that's SB3C. In general, the SB3C uses the high-power engine of the SB2C, which reduces the weight of the fuselage. And a model with only two pilots. Thus, its maximum speed reached about 250 knots, it could carry 1000-pound bombs, and two 20-mm guns were installed. As well as a 50-inch self-defense machine gun. In terms of overall performance, the SB3C was slightly better than the initial model of the "Shooting Bird", and it was not much different from the improved "Shooting Bird", which was considered the best dive bomber in the world at that time.

And the torpedo bomber that replaced the TBD was the model TBF, or TBM (produced by General Motors). The biggest feature of the "Sea Eagle" BF is that its torpedoes are hung in the bomb bay, and the Tang Empire did not set up the bomb bay until the last torpedo bomber in service during the Great War, and before, the torpedoes were hung under the belly. As a result, the body of the TBF appears to be bulky. Compared with the TBD it replaces, the biggest feature of the TBF is that the speed has been improved a lot, and its maximum speed is more than 240 knots. And this is not much different from the improved model of the "Sea Eagle". In addition, the TBF has a crew of three. This is not the same as the Tang Empire's insistence on not setting up a separate machine gunner and retaining only two crew members. In terms of overall performance, the TBF/TBM is a relatively good torpedo bomber. Although the combat effectiveness of torpedo bombers was questioned at that time, torpedoes were still the most effective means of dealing with battleships, so neither the Tang Empire nor the United States gave up the development of torpedo bombers.

To put it bluntly, the core of the fleet's combat effectiveness is still the quality of the officers and men. This is precisely the main reason why the Fifth Fleet has been carrying out training missions continuously and has not moved westward. After more than two years of hard fighting, the elite soldiers of the US Navy have basically been lost, and only a very small number have survived. On the contrary, the Tang Imperial Navy has always had an elite contingent of naval officers and men, and even those who served after the outbreak of the war have become excellent officers and soldiers. In this regard, the U.S. military cannot be compared with the Imperial Navy, and this is certainly what Spruance is most worried about, and it is the biggest factor restricting the combat effectiveness of the U.S. fleet.

In addition to the impact of the fleet's combat effectiveness, the deployment of other offensive forces, such as ground forces, landing fleets, and transport fleets, is also a decisive factor, and the storage and transportation of combat materials must also be in place as soon as possible. And these factors will ultimately affect the counterattack of the US military. Of course, judging from the information obtained by Huang Xiaotian and Liao Hanxiang now, the US military is far from being ready to counterattack.

After pondering for a while, Huang Xiaotian raised his head. "If possible, we should choose to take the initiative instead of waiting here for the US military to come to our door."

"You mean, take the initiative?

Huang Xiaotian nodded slightly. "It would be more accurate to say active defense, not passive defense."

Liao Hanxiang looked at Huang Xiaotian and motioned for him to continue.

"Now the U.S. fleet is actively preparing for war, and Nimitz is definitely mobilizing the deployment of relevant forces and stockpiling war materials. If we choose to defend passively, then it will be easy for the US military to seize the holes in our defensive line. Huang Xiaotian's words were not hurried or slow, "Our main task is to delay the speed of the US military's counterattack and delay the US army's counterattack time as much as possible." Therefore, we can choose to actively attack, taking advantage of the fact that the US military is not ready, and try to disrupt the US counterattack force, so that they have to spend more time to complete the campaign preparations. As long as we can drag it to Task Force 1, then we can turn a counterattack into a counteroffensive and finally defeat the Americans. ”

"If it's a trap, what then?"

"General Liao, none of us can be sure whether this is a trap or not, and most importantly, we must grasp the whereabouts of the Fifth Fleet. The only thing that can really threaten the Fourth Task Force is the Fifth Fleet, and as long as we know the whereabouts of the Fifth Fleet, then we don't have to worry about whether this is a trap or not. ”

Liao Hanxiang nodded slightly, he thought for a while, and said: "I will try my best to arrange for the submarine to move near Pearl Harbor, and the intelligence will try to cooperate with us as much as possible." Whether you can grasp the whereabouts of the Fifth Fleet, I can't make any guarantees, but what you have to do is to make the fleet ready for battle as soon as possible."

"Task Force 4 is ready to be dispatched at any time!"

"Then, after we have further news, we will determine the departure time of Task Force 4!"

Huang Xiaotian did not continue to insist, he also knew that the Fourth Task Force must not be defeated by the US forces, at least in the Southwest Pacific Theater, before the victory of the combat operation landing on the Australian mainland, the Fourth Task Force must not have any mistakes, and this is also the focus of his and Liao Hanxiang's considerations.