Empire Conquest
Chapter 115 - 111 Opening

Chapter 115: Chapter 111 Opening

On the morning of the 26th, at 4:30 AM, at the Zudong Military Port in the southern part of Zu Island.

After bouncing off the water twice, the "Fat Swan" finally took off.

It wasn’t until the vibrations transmitted from the control stick became less noticeable that Lieutenant He Weigu turned his head to look back at the harbor that was gradually receding.

Behind him, over a dozen seaplanes were lined up in a column on the harbor’s surface, waiting for takeoff.

At this time, the navigator from the rear cabin crawled into the cockpit.

Everyone had a box of food, still warm.

There was no helping it; it was all in the interest of saving time.

In fact, He Weigu could never understand what those people above were doing, only giving one hour’s notice to arrange the mission.

Did those officials think that seaplanes could take off as soon as their fuel tanks were filled?

In just one short hour, there was only enough time to refuel the seaplanes.

Fortunately, after flying back last night, He Weigu hadn’t rushed off to sleep but had completed the work that should have been done before the next sortie, namely checking and maintaining other critical equipment besides the engine to ensure normal operation during the next flight.

At that time, He Weigu had a bad feeling, knowing that a new mission would soon be assigned, or else he wouldn’t have prepared in advance.

Unfortunately, there hadn’t been enough time to repair the engines last night.

It wasn’t out of laziness, but because the engines required time to cool down before any maintenance could be performed.

As a result, He Weigu could only pilot this seaplane—with four engines that might malfunction during the flight—to carry out a patrolling mission that would last until the evening.

This "Fat Swan," more accurately called a "Black Swan," after being filled with fuel, could fly 4,500 kilometers at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour. If the speed were reduced to 200 kilometers per hour, the flight time could be extended to twenty hours.

Because of its bulky body, the "Black Swan" maritime patrol aircraft was also dubbed "Fat Swan" by the pilots.

Among the Empire Navy’s aircraft, the "Fat Swan" was the least popular with pilots, primarily because its endurance was so strong that each patrolling mission lasted several hours, which was unbearable for most.

For this reason, a crew consisted of no fewer than seven members!

Apart from the pilot and co-pilot, there was also a telegraph operator, a navigator, and three observers. If it was a search and rescue mission, two medical personnel could also be carried.

The biggest advantage of having so many people was having someone to talk to during the flight, which made it not too boring.

During regular patrolling missions, the seven crew members usually divided into three groups, taking turns using binoculars to search and monitor the vast sea around them.

Of course, the search work could only be carried out during daylight.

At this time, more than a thousand kilometers to the southwest, aboard the "Longjiang" of the Special Mixed Group.

Just after four o’clock, the eighteen pilots belonging to six crews went to the mess hall for breakfast and were now in the aviation combat center listening to the mission briefing.

Outside, the ground crew had already placed the six overnight-repaired "Flying Fish" on the flight deck.

All six torpedo bombers had participated in yesterday’s battle and had all been damaged; normally, they would have had to wait to return to port for factory repairs.

But now, that was definitely not possible.

To repair these torpedo bombers, the "Longjiang’s" aviation services personnel had put in a lot of work and even dismantled two severely damaged torpedo bombers that had lost their restoration value.

Even so, the six "Flying Fish" were only barely repaired, definitely capable of flying out, but whether they could return was another matter.

Further off, the "Mo River" carrier also had eight "Flying Fish" placed on the flight deck.

Just like the "Longjiang," these "Flying Fish" aircraft had also been damaged in yesterday’s battle and were repaired overnight by the aviation ground crew.

Because landing at night could not guarantee safety, according to yesterday’s plan, the aircraft intended to replenish the Special Mixed Group would only arrive after dawn.

For this reason, two "Flying Fish" were needed to lead the way.

This was unavoidable, as the Special Mixed Group had to maintain radio silence and therefore could not use radios with a working range of hundreds of kilometers to provide navigation signals for the Plane Group.

As a result, only twelve "Flying Fish" could be assigned to carry out the search mission.

Although there was sufficient reason to believe, and enough intelligence to support it, that the Mobile Fleet commanded by Lan Yun had headed straight to the Two-car Strait after yesterday’s afternoon battle without diverting south, no one knew when the damaged carrier was repaired, what its speeds were before and after repairs, or whether Lan Yun had slowed down the entire fleet’s speed for the sake of this carrier.

Moreover, what could the absolute speed of the Mobile Fleet reach?

Don’t forget that up to now, it was still unclear whether the sunk ship was the "Chicheng" or the "Feilong"; at least it was not yet confirmed.

What had been confirmed was that another carrier sunk was the "Canglong."

If it was the "Chicheng" that had been sunk and was not hindered by the uninjured carrier, the Mobile Fleet’s absolute speed could potentially exceed 60 km/h.

Otherwise, it would be at most 60 km/h.

Of course, such a small difference in speed was essentially negligible.

The key was that it was not certain that the Mobile Fleet had directly headed to the Two-car Strait instead of another location, such as Marra City in Nanzhu Country.

Therefore, a general search area could only be designated.

In this case, twelve "Flying Fish" were barely sufficient.

According to Liu Xiangzhen’s plan, even if the Mobile Fleet was not found in the initial round of reconnaissance, it didn’t matter, as a second round would commence immediately once the additional ship-borne aircraft arrived. That’s why it was necessary to dispatch the first batch of reconnaissance aircraft before dawn.

Once the additional ship-borne aircraft arrived, the flight deck would be fully occupied, making it impossible to launch aircraft thereafter.

If the wait extended past dawn for these reconnaissance aircraft to depart, it would take up a lot of time and prevent the arriving aircraft from landing promptly.

Of course, the problems were also quite prominent.

These reconnaissance aircraft would fly east for about 300 kilometers before dawn. If the Mobile Fleet was not far enough away, less than 300 kilometers, it could easily be missed by the reconnaissance aircraft. What’s more fatal was that the lookout of the Mobile Fleet might be able to spot the reconnaissance aircraft flying overhead.

Even if they couldn’t see them with their eyes, they could hear them with their ears!

As long as the Mobile Fleet’s staff officer was slightly meticulous, they could even approximately calculate the distance to the Special Mixed Group based on the distance the reconnaissance aircraft continued to fly east.

At 4:45 AM, the first pair of "Flying Fish" were sent to the forward ejection points on the flight deck.

To maximize their range, all "Flying Fish" were equipped with auxiliarly fuel tanks and were fully fueled internally for maximum weight takeoff.

It was a matter of just a few minutes.

Before 4:50 AM, the last two "Flying Fish" were catapulted into the air.

After seeing off these reconnaissance aircraft, Liu Xiangzhen then went to the officer’s mess on the lower level of the superstructure, which was open only to headquarter staff and pilots.

At that point, he had already received a telegram from Navy Headquarters.

Actually, it was a code.

The patrol aircraft deployed at the southern part of Zu Island from the Zudong Naval Base had already launched, with a primary focus on searching the southeastern sea area of Zu Island.

The operation to encircle and annihilate the Saiyi Navy’s Permanent Fleet had commenced.