From Iwo Jima south to Truk, it is about 1,200 miles; To the north to Shan Guan Bay, it is also about 1,200 miles. Such a coincidental figure makes people suspect that this exercise was not a gamble between Yang and Marshal Fushimi Palace under impulse, but a battle plot that had been planned very early. The most important flaw is the seemingly identical distance between Iwo Jima and the bases of the two sides—with the combined fleet's maximum speed of only 24 knots, the Chinese fleet has long been waiting for work in the waters of Iwo Jima.

On the Mutsu, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, the diminutive Admiral Kanji Kato, with a long and thick white beard between his lips and nose, stood on the bridge with a golden sword. He was not able to take out this exercise, but after all, the stakes were very high, so he squeezed aside the former commander, Senior General Nobumasa Sueji, and personally assumed the command of the Combined Fleet, while Nobumasa Sueji was only the deputy commander.

Unlike Kato's seriousness, Sueji Shin was a little uneasy when he looked at the afterglow of the sunset, and at sunrise and sunset, even if it was far away, the silhouette of the fleet was easy to be spotted by the enemy, so he took the telescope and looked into the distance, hoping to find and avoid something, which was very much in line with the Duke of Saionji's evaluation of him: 'Sueji is like a cat, always alert and never resting. ’

Next to the last Nobumasa, Admiral Nagano was watching comfortably as the cruiser Kaohsiung recovered the water reconnaissance plane not far away. According to the usual practice, reconnaissance of the enemy is done by the cruiser's water reconnaissance, but the flight time of the newly equipped Type 96 water reconnaissance plane is only five hours, and the range is only more than 390 nautical miles, which is for a vast sea area. This is simply not enough.

Rear Admiral Nobutake Kondo, chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, glanced at his superiors beside him, but in his mind he was calculating the attack range of the enemy's carrier-based attack aircraft, and according to this range and the efficiency of the water reconnaissance aircraft. He is also calculating how many 96 water reconnaissance will be needed to fill this circle with the radius of the attack distance of the carrier-based aircraft, so that his side can detect and attack in advance.

Just as he was coming up with an approximate number, there was chaos in the radio listening room, and the listeners with headphones heard the radio telegram coming from close by, and the entire fleet was in a state of radio silence, which was obviously not sent by his own army, but only nearby enemy planes or submarines.

"It must be a submarine from Huaguo!" The Chief of Staff, Major General Nobutake Kondo, frowned after receiving the report. This was a quid pro quo for the Japanese side to use the Iwo Jima airport – to agree to the proposal made by the Chinese side. Two submarines from each side were allowed to join the exercise and enter the waters off Iwo Jima beforehand.

"Luckily it's already dark!" General Nobusho, who was holding the telescope tightly in his hand, exhaled. In the past few years, he has gone deep into the submarine force and carried out the devil training of 'moon, moon, fire, water, wood, gold, and gold'. Thinking of torpedoes and torpedo bombers, he was uneasy.

"Hmm..."Admiral Kanji Kato, who maintained his majesty, turned his somewhat mechanical head, and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, although the Chinese Navy had chosen the location and method of the exercise. However, the specific departure time of the two fleets during the exercise was determined by the two sides. The purpose is precisely for the sake of sending troops to land on Iwo Jima at night for its own fleet, so as to increase the number of its own combat aircraft.

"But we still have to be vigilant." The last Shinshodai reminded. "Akiyama-kun once said that when the Chinese military planes attacked Puyan Port, they took off in the dark, and that was more than 20 years ago."

The last letter mentioned Akiyama Shinyuki, and Kanji Kato did not dare to be careless, and he immediately ordered: "Notify all ships to form an air defense formation." Put on alert. ”

It was already dusk, and the light from the Mutsu caused the entire fleet to change and turn. With the battleship as the center, the formation is conducive to air defense -- this is the formation that the Japanese air carrier formation has learned under the management of the Chinese Navy. Seeing this, Rear Admiral Takasu Shiro, the commander of the air carrier fleet on the Akagi, would have an indescribable emotion, the friendship of the Chinese navy made him feel ashamed, but at this time, the air carrier troops trained by Hua Guo had to fight against the Chinese air carrier in turn, although this feeling was a drill, but it made him extremely uncomfortable.

"It's finally coming!" Takasu Shiro, who has always been generous, was preoccupied, but Major General Ozawa Jizaburo, chief of staff of the air carrier unit, who was known as the 'ghost tile', said with a blank face. Capable and calm, and considered by later generations to be more suitable for the post of commander of the mobile air carrier force than Sanmoto 56, he predicted early on that the outcome of the exercise would be a fiasco for the Combined Fleet. Although he was defeated, every time he saw those old antiques, Ozawa hoped that this day would come soon. The only thing that worried him about this process was: Marshal Togo, who was not in good health, was on Iwo Jima at this time, and how would the marshal react if the Combined Fleet was defeated?

More than 170 nautical miles southeast of the Japanese Combined Fleet, six air carriers, including the Changning, were sailing at high speed into the wind at a high speed in the twilight -- from the moment they entered the waters of Iwo Jima 200 nautical miles, the aircraft carrier's combat officer issued an order to recondition, and the ship's mechanics and air crew began to prepare the first wave of sortie planes at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Although the aircraft carrier is an open hangar, many carrier-based aircraft are parked directly on the flight deck at this time, so everyone can only refuel, position, and load the aircraft under the scorching sun. When everything is in order, the next step is to wait for the order to prepare for battle, and once the order is received, the mechanic will spend fifteen minutes warming up, after which the lights on the deck will be lit up to prepare for takeoff.

But unlike in the past, after receiving the order to prepare for battle, the fifteen-minute warm-up time had passed, and the pilots who should have appeared on the deck were nowhere to be seen. At this time, they were still listening to the training in the training room, and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Zhu Tiansen, personally instructed them.

"Twenty-two years ago, in the Great East Ditch of the Yellow Sea, the former Qing Beiyang Fleet and the Japanese Combined Fleet met in a fierce battle, and Japan won and the former Qing Dynasty was defeated, these are already well known. However, what many people don't know is that since then, the national fortunes of China and Japan have reversed, and I have been a man for fish and meat, but fortunately, the prime minister has taken us to revive China, and the national fortunes have been reversed again after the three-year war of Shenwu. However, that battle was only a victory for the army, only a victory for submarines, not a victory for our navy. At that time, the prime minister of the Navy had taught: The bears in Liaodong did not hunt in the first year, but now that the bears are in their twentieth and fifth years, they should have hunted a long time ago.

Ladies and gentlemen, although China and Japan are now allies. But old grievances must not be forgotten; It is precisely because it is an ally that it should settle old grievances, otherwise it will not be able to cooperate sincerely in the future. The Prime Minister has instructed. If you don't hurt the Japanese, they can't pull back ten cows, and if you can't pull back the Sino-Japanese alliance, it's almost pointless, as long as you hurt them, it's best to 'sink' the flagship Mutsu, in order to twist them back in the right direction, and so on. Only then can the Sino-Japanese joint fleet take shape and be meaningful.

So, show the true skills of all the kings! The harder you fight. The more smoothly the Japanese will be in the future, and the more battleships you 'sink', the better the future of the Chinese and Japanese navies will be. No, once a strong enemy comes. The navy will be wiped out. China will return to the situation of the former Qing Dynasty, and at that time, the future of the nation, you and my descendants, will never have a bright future. Let's do it! Ladies and gentlemen! ”

Admiral Zhu Tiansen, who fully understood the significance of this battle, solemnly saluted the pilot in front of him, and then took the prepared two pots and drank them all, and without waiting to wipe the wine from the corner of his mouth, he struggled to 'clang' the porcelain bowl. He was like this, and so was the pilot, so the sound of the porcelain bowl 'clanging' continued. Once again, I salute the Governors. Major Deng Yueming, the pilot commander of the Changning, shouted: "Let's go!" The first one rushed out of the training room. Running to the flight deck, the rest of the pilots followed him, each running to his own plane.

The late pilots finally arrived, and the mechanics who were tossed on the flight deck to warm up the planes set the plane's engine speed to 1,000 revolutions per minute and put the finishing touches on the plane, while the green lights on the center line and sides of the deck began to illuminate. After the pilots routinely checked the engines, flaps, rudders, they shouted loudly to the mechanics on the side: "Ready!" Immediately afterward, the report of 'readiness' was transmitted to the air flight command station above the bridge, and at the same time, Major Guan Rong, the adjutant of operations, shouted on the radio: "The pilot is ready to take off!" ”

Twenty years ago, there was only one aircraft carrier in operation, but now it is six aircraft carriers operating in formation. As usual, the Changning aircraft carrier, which was sailing into the wind at the combat speed of No. 4 at this time, had gained sufficient wind speed, but the carrier-based aircraft taking off from the six aircraft carriers had to coordinate closely before takeoff if they wanted to form a group without wasting fuel. Therefore, knowing that all six aircraft carriers were ready, the Changning raised the bow flag as usual, and at the same time issued a light signal to each ship: "The first wave of attack teams is ready to go!" ”

At what seemed to be the same time, the speed of the propellers on the deck increased dramatically, and the wind from the propellers blew the green uniforms of the aircrews on standby. The pilots of the four 'Haidongqing' carrier-based fighters at the front all raised the identification lights on their right hands, and the wing lights of the planes were all turned on. Seeing this scene, the air flight command station above the bridge once again sent a light signal to the rest of the ships: "Notice again, ready to go!" ”

"Sir, can you go?" On the bridge, Lieutenant Commander Zhang Zixuan, the operations officer of the Changning, saluted the captain of the ship, Rear Admiral Tan Gen, and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Zhu Tiansen.

"Permission to go!" Admiral Zhu Tiansen ordered, he had waited too long for this moment.

Although the Japanese Navy's air carrier unit also conducted night take-off and landing training under the guidance of the Chinese side, the fleet faction did not believe in carrier-based aircraft at night at all because of the estrangement and hostility between the fleet and the air force in the Japanese Navy. It is difficult to complete the search for enemy ships at night, not to mention taking off and landing at night, and this is simply a provocative statement of the aviation faction, and it is not enough to believe it. But in fact, the Chinese Navy has long solved the problem of searching for the enemy by carrier-based aircraft at night a few years ago - even if Yang Rui does not change history, let the Japanese Yagi Shuji develop a practical high-power magnetron, and set up a radar research group in 1936 The British Royal Navy, only in the first airborne radar test the following year, it relied on the 1.5-meter meter-wave radar to discover the battleship Ronid eight kilometers away.

It can be said that putting the radar on the plane is really just a matter of thinking, not alien technology. Since the 22nd year of Shenwu, the Operations Department of the General Staff Department has stipulated: The aircraft carrier attack formation must be equipped with a gray goose radar plane, which is a modified Haijiu-4 torpedo plane, and the 10-centimeter-wave radar equipped with it can detect the aircraft carrier formation 80 kilometers away, and the submarine sailing on the surface can be found at a distance of 20 kilometers -- this made the submarine force, which was reluctant to give up its hull guns, finally accept the new submarine and completely disappear above the sea surface.

In night operations, aircraft carriers rely on airborne radars to search for enemy fleets, and when diving and dropping bombs, they have to rely on another high-tech weapon - active infrared night vision devices to solve the problem of line of sight. This is not a great technology, in 1934 the Dutchman Holster invented the first active infrared night vision device. Of course, at this time, China, which already had the technical background, did not need to buy ready-made invention patents everywhere as it did 20 years ago, and the infrared active night vision devices equipped with naval pilots were completely developed by the Optical Laboratory of the Royal Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Although the technology of the first generation of products is backward, the large current and large space provided by the airborne make the active infrared night vision device work at a distance of more than 400 meters, between 400 and 1,000 meters. Therefore, the Operations Department of the General Staff Department has also stipulated that the night combat attack aircraft formation should be dominated by torpedo bombers, supplemented by dive bombers. This is because I am worried that the speed of the dive bomber is too fast, and 400 meters will come in an instant, and if I really can't afford to pull it up, then it will be a kamikaze.

From the perspective of future generations, such crude technology and tactics are not worth mentioning at all, because Yang Rui was extremely calm in the face of the extremely excited admirals when facing the report. Active infrared, what a rudimentary thing! What he really wanted was a thermal infrared imager, but that wasn't possible until semiconductor technology was fully mature, and the only consolation was that radar was finally centimeter-wave — albeit just ten centimeters, still on the edge of centimeter-wave waves.

Then, what is not worth mentioning in Yang Rui's eyes is an incredible magic skill in the eyes of the Japanese! At 8:21 p.m., the air raid siren sent by the lookout of the bridge pagoda made General Kato Kanji stunned, but when he saw the staff officers crawling in one after another, he realized that he was not dreaming, but since he was not dreaming, how did the Chinese military plane find himself? This is the dark and moonless night he specially chose!

"Your Excellency......" Outside, when the chief of staff, Rear Admiral Nobutake Kondo, was just about to suggest that the lights be lifted and the searchlights turned on, his feet shook violently like an earthquake, and at the same time, there was a loud 'boom', and the entire battleship was trembling.

"Yaga! Didn't you say that it was good to reduce the charge! On the side, the general of Nagano was aggrieved and angry. On the grounds that the price of the battleship was several thousand times that of the aircraft, the Japanese side finally asked the Chinese side to agree to reduce the charge of torpedoes and bombs, but the empty fire charge remained unchanged, and the actual damage result was calculated by the exercise referee on the ship according to the numerical value, but did not want to, the Chinese actually broke their word.

"It could be the turret ammunition depot detonated!" The last letter guessed. Sure enough, at the same time as the speed of the ship was greatly reduced for a while, the pale face of the captain Eizaburo Kuwaori ran in and reported: "Your Excellency, the ammunition depot of the No. 5 secondary gun on the port side has exploded......

After Sang Zhe Yingzaburo finished speaking, he stopped talking, and when he saw several exercise referees following up behind him, the last letter asked uneasily: "Then ......, what is our situation now?" ”

Hearing the deputy commander ask, Eizaburo Sang Zhe lowered his head, standing in front of the referee was Colonel Li Guotang of the Chinese Navy, he saluted and said: "Report to the chief: In the strike just now, the hull of this ship was torpedoed with four rounds, two dive armor-piercing shells, and one near miss, so the referee team judged that the ship had been seriously damaged and began to tilt, and, considering that the attack was still in progress, it was ......, so the referee team thought that the ship would sink within two hours, please ...... the commanders."

"Yaga!" Kanji Kato roared angrily, although he had been mentally prepared, but he couldn't accept such a sinking.

"Please forgive me, Your Excellency, the lower official is only performing his referee duties!" To tell the truth, Li Guotang was very happy in his heart, as a member of the eliminated aircraft carrier, he did not expect the carrier-based aviation to be so powerful.

"What a faux pas!" The deputy commander of the fleet, Admiral Nobumasa Sueji, pressed the embarrassed Kato with one hand and greeted Li Guotang at the same time. However, Colonel Li Guotang did not mind the anger of the Japanese - the flagships of the devils were all sunk, so it was strange not to be angry.

Outside the bridge, there was still a loud sound of gunfire, and under the indiscriminate illumination of searchlights, four 127mm anti-aircraft guns, four 76mm anti-aircraft guns, and ten triple 25mm anti-aircraft machine guns were firing aimlessly at the extremely dark night. They all knew they were jerking off, but no one knew where the plane was, and there was hardly any fire in the air that blew up the plane, only the roar and whistling of the plane's engine that was close to the eardrums.

With a long sigh, General Nobusho broke everyone's silence and said in a deep voice: "Gentlemen, abandon the ship!" (To be continued.) )

PS: There are too many unknown things involved in the new chapter, including the economic background, the technological background, the people and relationship background, and the geographical background. Specifically, yesterday was not even more because I was looking for the cost of RS-132 Katyusha rockets all day, and at the same time I wanted to understand and calculate the amount of ammunition supplied by Japan and the United States during the Pacific War, and then calculated various war expenses, but there was no result. Although there are many problems, I believe that it will get better and better. Thank you for your support!