On the night of January 1, off the coast of Manila Bay.

On the "Asama," the flagship of the 3rd Fleet of the East Asian Combined Fleet, Vice Admiral Tatsuo Matsumura, commander of the fleet, received the telegram handed by the adjutant.

It turned out that the base camp confirmed that the main force of the enemy's combined fleet would break into Manila Bay at midnight on the same day to join the US Asian Fleet on the basis of the intercepted telegram between the British, French, and Dutch combined fleets and the US Asian Fleet.

The order given to Matsumura by the Admiralty of the headquarters camp was: After receiving the order, the blockade of Manila Bay should be lifted immediately, and the fleet would first avoid the southwest, and after confirming that the enemy fleet appeared in Manila Bay, it would then turn around the Zhongsha Islands and sail to Lingjiayan Bay to meet the main force of the 2nd Fleet.

"Damn, isn't this asking our Imperial Japanese Navy to escape in front of the enemy?"

Although Matsumura was full of complaints, he had no choice but to summon his staff officers, draft orders, and prepare to retreat.

Soon, the 18 warships of the main force of the 3rd Fleet were at full speed and disappeared into the dark night sea.

Before midnight, Vice Admiral Bernie's 57 warships arrived at the entrance to Manila Bay, and several flares were fired, and the 12 remaining ships of the US Asian Fleet—three protective cruisers, two destroyers, two gunboats, and five torpedo boats—could not wait to sail out of this dangerous bay that had almost become the graveyard of the fleet, and the flagship "Montgomery" on which Rear Admiral Martin, commander of the Asian Fleet, was riding, was busy firing a light signal to the "Malaya": "Thank you for the rescue of ......

Vice Admiral Bernie was about to order the signalman to greet Rear Admiral Martin when suddenly, the Montgomery flashed twice, and the blinding light instantly took over almost the entire field of vision, and then quickly retracted, turning into a puffing fireball, and a few seconds later came the dull, heart-stirring sound of explosions—the kind of explosions that Vice Admiral Bernie was no stranger to, and he had heard enough of them a few days earlier outside the Singapore Strait.

"Damn, there are submarines! Let's get out of here! ”

Bernie's order could not prevent the sinking of the "Montgomery" and the death of Rear Admiral Martin, and everyone could only watch as the so-called "Peace-type" cruiser, which was more than 2,000 tons, plunged diagonally under the surface of the sea and disappeared without a trace in a matter of minutes.

The only two destroyers of the U.S. fleet went crazy and dropped all the depth charges around the USS Montgomery, while the other ships cautiously leaned over to salvage the survivors.

At this moment, Vice Admiral Bernie, who was still sighing, received a telegram from Commodore Evan, the acting commander of the American fleet: "We are willing to follow your fleet into the Gulf of Lingayen (Renyain) and fight with all our might to defend our own land, and all ships under my command are immediately under your command...... If you don't mind, I'd like to go to your flagship right now for an interview with you. ”

Vice Admiral Bernie tilted his head in satisfaction: "Very good, from now on we are the Combined Fleet of the Four Nations." ”

In the darkness of the night, the 68 ships of the four-nation combined fleet gradually moved away from Manila Bay, and the whole group formed a six-way column and turned to the north.

At about 2 a.m. on January 2, Lingayen Bay.

The opening of Lingayen Bay to the north is very wide, the Baguio Mountains to the east of the bay, the Bansylan Peninsula to the west, there is a natural harbor at the bottom of the bay, which has the same name as the bay, from which the port to the south, is the rich Luzon Plain.

A few days ago, the 56th Army of the Chinese Army, led by the 111th Division, landed in the southeast of Lingjiayan Bay, and quickly captured the town of Dagupan in the east of Lingjiayan Port.

In the next 24 hours, the fate of the 30,000 officers and men of the 56th Army can only be pinned on the 186 naval ships that are sharpening their knives and waiting for battle inside and outside the bay.

The bay is ambushed by the 3rd Fleet Lingayen Bay Escort Force, commanded by Vice Admiral Izumizo Sato, which has grown to a considerable strength since the Subik Bay Escort Force was joined two days ago: 16 old light cruisers, 23 destroyers, 16 submarines, 66 torpedo boats, and 10 gunboats.

The escort force has only one task: after discovering the main force of the enemy fleet, it will gradually deplete the enemy's strength with a decisive attack by lightning strike troops, so as to facilitate the subsequent decisive battle of the main force of the 2nd Fleet.

Outside the bay, the main force of the 2nd Fleet, hovering in the waters north of San Fernando, was led by Admiral Ma Shengyu, commander of the South China Sea Fleet, and consisted of 10 old battleships (including 7 Ruizi and Ruizigai), 9 large armored cruisers, 14 light cruisers, and 22 destroyers. There is only one task for the main force - to fight the remnants of the enemy in a decisive battle and repel or annihilate them after the escort force has consumed the enemy's strength as much as possible!

At this time, the specially selected night lookouts on the ships of the two forces responsible for guarding the perimeter were wide-eyed, and they carefully searched the moonlit sea surface from the huge high-powered telescopes.

In the vicinity of Kabaruyan Island at the end of the Bansylan Peninsula, the destroyer "Sakumo" of the Japanese Destroyer 4 Sentai was the first to discover the anomaly.

Two extremely fast black shadows appeared and disappeared in the darkness of the night, and under the cover of the coast of Kabaruyan Island, they were heading into the bay.

"Hayun" quietly followed, and signaled to the wingman "Yugumo" behind: "There is a situation".

The two fastest cruisers of the British Royal Navy, HMS Weymouth and HMS Falmouth, were attempted to break into the bay, and both ships under the command of Colonel Bantok were ordered to reconnoiter Lingayen Bay.

Colonel Bantok planned to enter from Kabaruyan Island in the northwest corner of the bay, along the coast of Banchran to the bottom of the bay, and then along the coast of Baguio out of the bay, so that the whole bay could be ascertained.

The task was reconnaissance, not a breakthrough, and Bantok was very clear-headed.

The two brave British cruisers soon left Kabaruyan behind and began to sail close to the eastern shore of the Bansylan Peninsula, trying to hide their long silhouette with the rolling hills of the coast.

The hour hand pointed to 02:40, and several shiny flares suddenly rose 1,000 yards behind the "Falmouth", and almost at the same time, more than a dozen dazzling searchlight columns in the distance instantly covered the port side of the two ships......

Twenty minutes later, Vice Admiral Bernie on the "Malaya" raised the message from the "Weymouth" in his hand, and there were only two words on the entire paper: BIG-FISH.

Bernie crumpled the message and ate it in one gulp.

The receipt of this agreed cipher indicates that the Bantok detachment has discovered a large number of enemy surface forces, but only this cipher has been received, but there is no more detailed report, and that Bantok has sent a telegram in a hurry, and that their situation has deteriorated to the point where they have only had time to come up with the simplest code—in other words, they are probably finished now.

Damn, my two fastest cruisers! My best eyes and ears are ...... Is it gone?

Forget it, this is also a necessary price, their sacrifice is worth it, at least let us be sure of one thing - Lingayen Bay is a must! When the time comes, let the yellow monkeys pay off their debts tenfold!

"Order, the whole team maintains the course of 350, the first cruising speed, and is scheduled to break into Lingayen Bay at 10:30 today!"

On the second day after entering 1915, the bright red morning sun had just lifted a veil from the mountains of southern Taiwan, but the Lin Yuan Naval Air Station south of Kaohsiung City had already finished a busy night, and on the tarmac on both sides of the runway, more than 50 "Haiyan Lei" four-engine heavy bombers painted with navy gray paint were neatly lined up in two columns, and most of them had a 450-millimeter-diameter No. 1 torpedo hanging under their bellies.

In the morning light that pierced through the mist, a terrible siren sounded from the horn of the tower, and dozens of crews rushed towards their respective planes like a forked stream—in a makeshift grass hut next to the runway, Rear Admiral Ling Yi, commander of the Third Air Fleet, sat on a folding chair, his hands on his knees, his eyes resolute, ready to see his men off from the closest distance.

The so-called Third Air Fleet, in fact, does not have a single warship in its establishment, and the Seventh and Eighth Air Fleets under its jurisdiction are equipped with more than 160 land-based and seaplanes of various types, of which the 101st and 102nd Wings of the Seventh Air Force are the main force of the entire fleet, and these two wings have a total of 108 "Haiyanlei" heavy bombers, which are improved from the Army's "Yanlei" and can carry 800 kilograms of bombs to fly 1,900 kilometers after being equipped with new engines and increasing the capacity of the fuel tanks. Or fly about 2,200 kilometers with a 450-kilogram torpedo.

The 101 Wing has been stationed at the Linyuan Naval Air Station for a long time, and the more than 50 "Haiyan Thunder" planes in front of Rear Admiral Ling Yi naturally belong to the Wing, while the 102 Wing has been stationed at the Sanya Naval Air Station on Hainan Island for a long time, and a few days ago it also participated in the bombing of Haiphong Port, but just yesterday, the 102 Wing braved bad weather to fly to the Pingtung Army Air Station east of Kaohsiung, and the two fists of the three airlines rarely got together.

Ling Yi knew very well that his troops were about to carry out an unprecedentedly difficult task - to attack the enemy fleet 850 kilometers away with clumsy heavy bombers, and it was also an enemy fleet in motion!

The Linyuan base is about 650 kilometers away from the northern tip of the Philippines and about 850 kilometers away from Lingayan Bay. Although the two "Haiyanlei" wings did conduct training in long-range torpedo attacks, they conducted only one complete exercise from beginning to end to attack long-range sea moving targets, and the speed of the target ships in that exercise was less than 14 knots......