Tan Renhao slept for three hours before dawn, and at dawn, he returned to the command cabin. Hao Dongjue had already let the reconnaissance planes set off, and the second batch of reconnaissance planes were also preparing to take off; Hao Dongjue did not rest at night, and he has always insisted on his post, and he has not rested for almost 40 hours.

"Go get some sleep." Tan Renhao also knew that Hao Dongjue was very desperate, "Don't worry, I will have someone call you if there is news, and besides, Spruance is unlikely to appear in the morning, unless he chooses to return in a straight line." ”

"I know, I'm going to arrange the reconnaissance work for the afternoon first." Hao Dongjue couldn't bear it anymore, "Just let the aviation staff officer be in charge later, there's nothing for you to worry about." ”

Tan Renhao smiled and shook his head, so he didn't say anything more.

Waiting can be said to be the most painful thing, in the past four years, Tan Renhao has not only mastered more tactical skills, but he has also become more patient. And waiting is also a major feature of the new naval warfare tactics.

In aircraft carrier duels, battles are often decided within hours, or even tens of minutes, but before that, intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, and fleet maneuvers require a lot of time. Often, it takes days for both sides to judge the situation and make decisions before carrying out combat operations.

And this requires better patience on the part of the fleet commander. Of course, at a critical moment, the fleet commander must be able to make judgments and decisions quickly, decisively, and accurately in order to achieve victory, and perhaps a few minutes of hesitation is enough to destroy a fleet!

Spruance has three return routes to choose from, and which route the Fifth Fleet will take depends on Spruance's judgment of the whereabouts of the First Task Force.

The most direct route is to sail south from the attack area. This route returns between Johnston Island and the Hawaiian Islands. This route is the shortest, but also the most dangerous. Judging by Spruance's presence in the waters southwest of Gardner Island, even if he did not fully grasp the whereabouts of Task Force 1. It also partially grasped the activities of Task Force 1, or at least guessed the activities of Task Force 1. Therefore. Spruance was the least likely to take this route, which was the route for a decisive battle with Task Force 1, and at this point, Spruance was not thinking about a decisive battle with Task Force 1, but retreating to the waters near Neck Island. Straighten out the troops, and wait for the state of the Fifth Fleet to be raised, and then come and fight to the death with the First Task Force. But the problem is that Spruance has now bombed the landing fleet, and Nimitz will not put pressure on him anymore, at least in the short term, so Spruance can go to achieve his goal, that is, to find the first task force for a decisive battle, so will he take the initiative to find the first task force for a decisive battle?

If Spruance had decided to flee for his life in the first place. Then the route south of Johnston Island should be taken, and this is most likely the Spruance line into the southwest waters of Gardner Island, which is to return the same way. At least. Now the US military also has a radar station on Johnston Island, as well as a fleet of seaplanes, which are able to provide part of the intelligence support to the fleet. Although the route takes a big detour, it is relatively safe. But there is also a problem. That is, will Spruance judge that Task Force 1 has retreated to the southwest of Necker Island, and is waiting for him here? If Spruance had this suspicion, would he have taken this detour course?

The final route is to bypass Lysan Island and return north of Gardner Island. This route is also quite dangerous, at least the long-range patrol planes and long-range reconnaissance planes on Midway Island with a patrol radius of about 700 nautical miles will not allow the Fifth Fleet to pass smoothly, and as long as the Fifth Fleet is exposed in the waters near Lysan Island, then the First Task Force will have enough time to catch up and stop in front of Spruance Land. However, this does not entirely mean that Spruance did not have the courage to take this route, and if he dared to pass through the waters between Lysan and Gardner at night, then he would probably be able to evade reconnaissance planes and patrol planes and return from the waters north of Gardner Island without any problems.

In other words, Tan Renhao has to take all three possibilities into account. This is also the most troublesome place, Task Force 1 can only choose one interception area in the southwest or northwest direction of Necker Island, and the other direction cannot be taken care of, and as a result, Spruance may slip away.

Analysing the battle situation has always been Tan Renhao's forte, and it is also a guarantee of his many victories. If it was against someone else, Tan Renhao wouldn't think about it so much, but when fighting against an opponent like Spruance, Tan Renhao had to think about it comprehensively.

After fighting Spruance several times, Tan Renhao has also been summing up lessons learned. After suffering a few losses, Tan Renhao also learned a lot smarter, and in addition, he also discovered a characteristic of Spruance, which can be said to be the biggest characteristic of Spruance when commanding the fleet to fight, that is, no matter how absurd, unbelievable, and incomprehensible Spruance's actions were, they were all for a purpose, and most of them served the ultimate purpose of the campaign. That is, when it came to commanding the fleet in battle, Spruance was a man with very clear goals and very decisive actions. As long as the end can be achieved, then he can do whatever it takes.

For example, in the Second Battle of the Marianas, Spruance had Kincaid's Task Force 17 come to the front to die. In the "Second Battle of Wake Island", Spruance even ventured south, almost killing Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 in one fell swoop. And in the last naval battle, in order to achieve the goal, Spruance actually mobilized bombers directly from small aircraft carriers, and in order to shorten the preparation time and increase the density of strikes, he actually let these bombers land with bombs, and in order to lure the second task force into being fooled, he actually sacrificed the convoy carrying hundreds of thousands of tons of supplies!

From these aspects, it can be seen that Spruance is a very determined and decisive person, and will never change his goals easily. This is also what Tan Renhao admires the most. Other commanders tend to modify their objectives due to changes in the situation of the battle, and Fletcher and his ilk are not to mention that even famous generals like Halsey often make the wrong decisions. For example, in the "Battle of the Coral Sea", Halsey revised the battle plan at the last minute and asked Task Force 32 to bomb Tagura. As a result, half of the local aviation strike force was consumed for no reason, and not only suffered a crushing defeat. And even Task Force 4 hasn't been killed!

This is both what makes Spruance excel and one of his shortcomings. Yes, that's certainly a shortcoming of his. Thinking of this, Tan Renhao is more sure, since Spruance is a person with a very firm goal. So, he will definitely continue to work hard to achieve the goal of the campaign, so can he take advantage of this?

Grasping the crux of the problem is not the same thing as finding a solution to the problem. Tan Renhao has grasped the crux of the problem, and is determined to use Spruance's characteristic, which is also a "shortcoming", to achieve his campaign goals, but the question is, how to achieve it?

Spruance's campaign had two aims, one was given by Nimitz.

That was to hold Gardner Island, and he bombed the landing fleet, forcing Han Shaofeng to switch to defense in the short term. Then this purpose is already half accomplished, buying him a few days of precious time. Next, he had two choices, one was to continue with this task. Let the Imperial Marines who landed on Gardner Island be completely defeated, and the second is to achieve their goal, which is to annihilate the First Task Force. So, which task did Spruance accomplish first?

Tan Renhao's eyes searched the chart, and at the same time he thought quickly.

If Spruance had given Nimitz the task he had given him priority, then he should have continued to assist the U.S. strike marines on Gardner Island, at least with bombers to continue to strike the landing force, the convoy, the landing fleet, and the artillery formation led by Wei Dongbei. Then, from a security point of view, Spruance should definitely place the Fifth Fleet northeast of Gardner Island, so that he could not only attack, but also quickly retreat to the cover range of shore-based fighters on Necker Island when threatened, and avoid a surprise attack by the First Task Force.

If Spruance was determined to use these few days to annihilate Task Force 1 before completing the mission entrusted to him by Nimitz, where would the Fifth Fleet be? It is likely to be somewhere south of Gardner Island, and in this way, the Fifth Fleet is actively looking for a decisive battle with Task Force 1. But the question is, does Spruance have the confidence to win? If he had, he would definitely come and take the initiative to fight Task Force 1, but if not, what should he do?

Tan Renhao was a little puzzled now. Judging from the comparison of the strength of the two sides, Spruance's Fifth Fleet is not above the First Task Force, and even a lot worse than the First Task Force, especially in terms of the quality of the pilots, even if Spruance has the best pilots in the US Navy, it is by no means the opponent of the old fritters of the First Task Force. In addition, Spruance didn't pick much advantage in Tan Renhao's hands, is he confident that he can defeat the stronger ones with inferior forces, and he is not inferior to his opponents in command ability?

This is a critical issue, if there is, then Spruance will kill him directly, if not, then he will take another way. Tan Renhao is not very sure about this, mainly because he doesn't know what Spruance thinks of him, or rather, Tan Renhao doesn't know much about himself. He had to make an assumption about what Spruance would have done if he hadn't had faith.

Considering this, Tan Renhao gradually understood. If Spruance didn't have confidence, he would definitely try to hide in the waters closer to Necker Island, and he would avoid Tan Renhao, and if he was forced to fight the First Task Force, then Spruance should also try to let the Fifth Fleet be protected by shore-based fighters. In other words, Spruance would first choose to avoid battle, and then use the help of shore-based fighters to fight Task Force 1. Then, he had to avoid Task Force 1 first, and if Spruance had judged the approximate location of Task Force 1, he would not have taken the southern route, but would have chosen the northern route!

Now, Tan Renhao understands a little. From the very beginning, Spruance was trying his best to avoid a decisive battle with Task Force 1, otherwise he would not have managed to go around to the southwest of Gardner Island, bombing the landing fleet from a place that Tan Renhao did not expect, and also making the bombers go around in a big circle. That is, Spruance did not want a decisive battle with Task Force 1.

In fact, this problem is obvious, when Tan Renhao clarifies his thinking, he has a more accurate grasp of the battle situation. Spruance's tactics are actually very simple, that is, as long as the Fifth Fleet is active on the battlefield, then the First Task Force must be on guard at all times to avoid being attacked by the Fifth Fleet. Naturally, Task Force 1 would not be able to support the Marines, and would have to operate in a limited area of water, and would have to maneuver at all times. However, the cruising capability of the warship, the energy of the officers and men, and even the sustained combat capability of the warship itself are all limited, and the combat capability of the Marine Corps is also limited. In the absence of absolute naval supremacy of Task Force 1, the attack on Gardner Island would certainly be extremely difficult, and the Fifth Fleet has always been a great threat. Spruance didn't need to fight Task Force 1 at all, he only needed to come out and beat the Marines on the battlefield from time to time, and Spruance's goal was achieved.

"It's likely, it's definitely possible!" Tan Renhao's thinking is getting clearer and clearer.

"What is possible?"

Tan Renhao turned his head in surprise and saw Hao Dongjue walking in. "What is possible?"

"Didn't you start by saying that there must be a possibility?" Hao Dongjue said as he walked over.

Tan Renhao was stunned for a moment and laughed. "I mean, there's a good chance that Spruance doesn't want to fight us at all, he's been trying to find a way to save the Fifth Fleet. And as long as the Fifth Fleet is still active on the battlefield, we will be pinned, and Spruance and Nimitz will have achieved their goal. ”

Hao Dongjue nodded, this issue does not need to be discussed.

"Well, there's nothing to worry about, so let's take a gamble with him and see what Spruance wants to do."

"How to bet?"

Tan Renhao laughed, if he wants to play absolutely, he will not be afraid of anyone.