According to the intelligence in the hands of the US military;

There are two main islands in the Hawaiian Islands, one is the main island of Hawaii based on civilian ports and cities, the population of the whole island is about 210,000, of which the urban population is about 67,000, the city is built on the side of the port, winding to the mountain, garrisoning an infantry regiment and two shore artillery positions, plus more than 470 soldiers in the marine police district, a total of 2,890 troops.

The shore artillery positions were equipped with 4 305-mm shore guns, 6 203-mm shore guns, and several 152-mm rapid-fire guns. The Marine District is equipped with 12 Mosquito offshore patrol boats.

The other is Oahu, a military base of the Pacific Fleet, with a total population of 162,200 people, and the main military port Pearl Harbor has a strong fortress defense around Pearl Harbor, equipped with more than 20 large-caliber shore guns, and it is difficult to break through this fortified fortress without paying a heavy price.

The primary target of the Schroeder ship formation was Hawaii Island, and upon arrival, the fleet would concentrate its firepower on destroying the batteries and annihilate all the enemy's living forces with heavy naval artillery fire, covering the landing force to force a landing in the bay.

After the successive landings of the army forces, they occupied the port and advanced to attack in depth. The accompanying cargo ships then entered the port of Hawaii to unload their cargo.

The Schroeder ship formation was free to blockade the vicinity of Oahu and Pearl Harbor first, strike at the enemy's living forces, and after consolidating the occupation of Hawaii Island, seek an opportunity to capture Oahu

same time period

Oahu, Pearl Harbor military base

After more than 10 days of long-distance sailing, the expeditionary strike formation led by Vice Admiral Li Jie arrived smoothly all the way.

After the arrival of the fleet, it immediately began the intense and busy supply of coal, oil, water, vegetables and food. Due to the large size of the fleet, it will take about two days to complete the full replenishment.

At this moment, 11 troop carriers and several weapons and ammunition carriers are entering the port one after another, and they are the most valuable assets that the fleet needs to protect, and the 21,200 officers and men of the 3rd Royal Praetorian Guard Division, even if the fleet suffers serious losses, must protect the safety of the large troop carriers first.

The slow convoy of cargo ships in the rear will not arrive until about 6 o'clock tomorrow morning.

The third detachment was a mixed formation, with four "Katsuki" class cruisers as the main force and a mixed formation of eight destroyers, which was protecting the cargo fleet in the rear in the direction of Pearl Harbor.

The first to arrive was the 1st Battleship Detachment, the 2nd "Courage" Class Cruiser Detachment and the 4th Destroyer Detachment.

Sailors drove trucks and tractors, carrying loads of supplies, and the scene was in full swing.

Lieutenant General Li Jie led a large number of officers to stand on the dock and look at the busy scene in front of him, with a relieved smile on his face, and he chatted with Major General Ma Chang, the commander of the base, who came to greet him, and burst into hearty laughter from time to time.

At this time

Lieutenant General Duan Qirui, deputy commander of the Royal Praetorian Guard, and Major General Zheng Fusheng, commander of the 3rd Division, led a group of army officers to come over.

Lieutenant General Duan Qirui's face was still a little sallow, he patted Lieutenant General Li Jie's arm with a wry smile and said; "Brother, this boat sat down and sat me in the dark, I guess I vomited everything I could in my life, and now I finally got to the place, but my feet on this pier still seem to be undulating, which really made our group of landlubbers miserable."

His words caused the surrounding officers to laugh, and these officers in the army were somewhat lacking in energy, and generally had not recovered from the seasickness reaction, and their spirits were not good.

Lieutenant General Li Jie also laughed and teased; "Brother Qirui, I remember that the second Boer War in South Africa was when you were the head of the military observer mission, and it was a three-month sea journey, which was much farther than this one."

"The heroes don't mention the courage of the year, it was all more than 10 years ago, and now the old man!"

"Hahahaha...... Brother Churui's words are wrong, you dare to say that you are not even 50 years old, I will be 60 years old soon, shouldn't I have gone back to live a long time ago? ”

"Oh, dude, forgive me, it's me who doesn't choose what to say." Duan Qirui shook his head with a smile, clenched his fists to show offend, and then said solemnly after retracting the smile on his face; "On behalf of all the officers and men of the 3rd Division of the Royal Praetorian Guard, I would like to express my solemn gratitude to the Royal Navy Expeditionary Strike Formation, thank you for your loyal escort along the way, and thank you for your hard work."

After speaking, he raised his hand solemnly and saluted, and the commander of the Third Division, Major General Zheng Fusheng, and all the army officers saluted together.

Vice Admiral Li Jie and the naval officers behind him raised their hands in return, which is the friendship of fighting side by side.

After the solemn thanks, the following time was more casual, and the officers scattered in twos and threes to get busy.

Lieutenant General Li Jie and Lieutenant General Duan Qirui walked side by side to the dock, looking at the vast bay of Pearl Harbor surrounded by mountains, and couldn't help but admire from the bottom of their hearts;

"It's such a good place, not only is the scenery beautiful, but also it is an inner bay, the harbor is wide and the water is deep, and my large fleet is parked in the harbor, and it only occupies less than 1/10 of the water surface." Lieutenant General Li Jie's eyes revealed a look of sincere affection.

Among the tens of thousands of islands in the entire Pacific Ocean, Pearl Harbor can be ranked first in terms of superior conditions.

He turned around and said to Lieutenant General Duan Qirui; "There must be a few vicious battles here in the Hawaiian Islands, the main fleet of the Imperial fleet is not moving so fast, no matter what, the Tasmania must be brought aboard, the ship has not yet finished loading, and it will not be able to come in a short time.

This fleet under my command will support at least 20 days, and I will complete the mission if I send you here, and I will lead the fleet to attack continuously, and even go to San Francisco for guerrilla warfare, and it is up to you here. ”

"Don't worry, my 3rd Division is not a vegetarian, and if the Citi people want to take Hawaii Island, they don't want to think about it if they don't leave 70,000 or 80,000 people."

"I know, you're a famous defense expert!"

"Hahahaha...... It's a matter of circumstances, and frankly, I'm better at attacking. ”

"Uh...... You...... Hahaha......"

Lieutenant General Li Jie was really pretended by him, so he could only nod Lieutenant General Duan Qirui with his hand speechlessly, and laughed loudly.

It means that you are almost done, leave a way for others to live!

At this moment, the commander of the base, Major General Ma Chang, walked over quickly, holding a telegram in his hand and said in a deep voice; "Commander Li, Commander Duan, this is a report on the enemy situation just sent from Hawaii Island, and the reconnaissance plane sent by the island found that the enemy's large fleet was approaching during its patrol, and it arrived in about 4 hours."

"Oh......"

Lieutenant General Li Jie hurriedly took the message and read it carefully, then handed it to Lieutenant General Duan Qirui casually, and pondered for himself.

"How are you going to fight this battle?" Lieutenant General Duan Qirui put down the telegram in his hand and looked at Lieutenant General Li Jie with a frown, revealing an inquiring gaze.

"Interesting, there are a few old ships, is this a test of my appetite??" Lieutenant General Li Jie did not answer his words for the first time, and walked with his hands behind his back as he muttered to himself; "This is a big formation, the strength is not weak, if you attack rashly, the freighters will scatter and escape, it will be difficult to chase, and my 3rd detachment is not here, it is indeed difficult to swallow it in one bite!"

After a few minutes of thinking

Lieutenant General Li Jie suddenly looked back and said to Lieutenant General Duan Qirui; "Brother Qirui, how about we cooperate?"

"Would you like to hear about it?"

"That's what I thought, you see......"

Lieutenant General Li Jie looked around on the pier, walked quickly to a place with many stones, squatted down, took out the stones and drew several circles on the ground, indicating the location of several major islands in Hawaii.

Then he took out 6 big pebbles and a bunch of small pebbles and put them aside, and deliberately found 4 white pebbles representing the 4 cruisers at the Pearl Harbor base.

"Judging by the position of the enemy fleet, it can be judged with certainty that it was a large formation of ships that arrived day and night from San Francisco as soon as the declaration of war was declared.

This large group of ships protects a large number of troop carriers and cargo ships, and the goal is definitely to occupy the island of Hawaii (not the Hawaiian Islands, but specifically the largest Hawaiian Island) and use it as a foothold for subsequent attacks.

It's simple to make such a judgment;

Hawaii is like fluffy and delicious bread, while Oahu is a hard stone, and as long as you don't know what to choose, you won't be stupid.

At the moment this large formation of enemy ships is heading straight for Hawaii Island, apparently not aware of our arrival, otherwise it would not be so reckless, and this is our chance.

In view of the large number of enemy ships and the large number of cargo ships, the effect of our large formation of ships attacking with all their strength will not be good. The enemy fleet will certainly do its best to obstruct and cover the scattering of the cargo fleet.

It's like startling a flock of birds, and you can't catch a few of them in the end.

This is the case with the battle at sea, the speed of the ships is not much different, and in the case of the enemy's ship formation blocking it with all its might, our expeditionary strike formation is powerless to be distracted by others, and can only watch the fat slip out of its mouth.

I don't want to put it on anyone!

So my plan is; Show the enemy to be weak, and attack half-crossing.

He took the lead in dispatching four cruisers in Pearl Harbor to lead his destroyers to make tactical maneuvers to obstruct the landing of the enemy fleet, delay and interfere with the enemy, and cause the enemy to miscalculate.

In this case

The commander of the enemy fleet would surely have thought that the four cruisers were buying time for the Hawaiian defenders and were making futile interference maneuvers, but would have strengthened their determination to land quickly.

Hawaii Harbor is an open harbor, and the artillery batteries located on the high ground on both sides have an average firepower configuration, which cannot withstand the repeated bombardment of enemy ship formations, and its fall is almost inevitable.

In the case of a large number of enemy ships, any resistance of the harbor defenders is tantamount to self-defeat, and they will inevitably be bombed into slag in the fierce counterattack of the enemy ships' gunfire, but they will be sacrificed in vain.

Moreover, the port had only one infantry regiment in force, and it was basically impossible to make a strong counterattack.

The reasonable choice is to let it land and contain it appropriately.

Shrink our forces inland, let the enemy land ashore and continue to show the enemy weakness, wait for my ship formation to attack halfway, and then counterattack after inflicting heavy damage on the enemy ships, I don't know what you think? ”

"Commander Li, I am not proficient in naval warfare, but I must be responsible for the lives of my subordinates, please explain a few questions." Lieutenant General Duan Qirui did not agree, but asked cautiously; "The enemy fleet has 6 battleships and 9 cruisers, and many other combat ships, while we only have 4 battleships and 6 cruisers, which is a lot of difference in strength! Are you sure to inflict heavy damage on enemy ships? ”

"So I want you to buy time, I set the time for the decisive battle at 8:20 tomorrow morning, when the 3rd detachment covering the cargo fleet has been established, the cargo fleet has entered the port safely, and we can let go of our hands and feet." Speaking of this, Lieutenant General Li Jie smiled proudly and patiently explained;

"The battleship is 4:6, on the surface, we are indeed inferior, but our single ship combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the other side, and the overall advantage.

In terms of cruisers, we have an advantage of 10:9, and you don't know, our 16 Coldwind-class destroyers are all large ocean-going ships with a displacement of 3200 tons, which can be included in the category of cruisers in Citigroup.

In this way, we are crushing each other with an absolute advantage of 26:9!

Together with the four cruisers in Pearl Harbor, I am sure that the enemy fleet and cargo fleet will be swallowed in one bite and fight a beautiful battle of annihilation.

Therefore, after the 3rd detachment is rebuilt, it is time to launch a general attack. ”

"Why can our destroyers be counted cruisers?"

The British 18,000-ton high-speed battleships are called battle cruisers, the Germans' cruisers of more than 10,000 tons are called heavy cruisers, and the Americans' cruisers of more than 2,000 tons are called armored protection cruisers, and those of more than 3,000 tons are called reconnaissance cruisers. In our oceanic empire, destroyers under 4,000 tons are commonly called. It's just that the criteria for classification are different. ”

"I understand when you say that, our destroyers can be used as cruisers by Citi standards, right?"

"That's right, this is a custom that the Chinese have always hidden."

"Well, you convinced me." Lieutenant General Duan Qirui is also a decisive person, and he immediately made up his mind, and then ordered Major General Zheng Fusheng beside him; "I order you to immediately lead an armored battalion and a regiment of infantry, transfer to the port of Hawaii to land, take full command of the forces on the island to fight, shrink the forces, show the enemy weakness, wait for the naval battle to start a counteroffensive, and annihilate the enemy on the island in one fell swoop."

"Yes, guaranteed to complete the mission."

The ships in Pearl Harbor were immediately mobilized, and the troop carriers loaded with the 2nd Infantry Regiment and the freighters loaded with the armored battalion, together with four cruisers and eight destroyers, left the port one after another and sailed rapidly in the direction of Hawaii Island.

A strong atmosphere of war permeated the harbor, and everyone knew it...... The Great War is coming.