Empire Conquest
Chapter 144 - 140: Worries Come True

Chapter 144: Chapter 140: Worries Come True

Many things Bai Zhizhan could not and dared not say directly.

Fortunately, Li Yunxiang had already thought of it. Li Mingbo was a bit slow, but after being reminded, he immediately understood the serious implications.

It was already past nine in the evening, yet there was still no news from the Special Mixed Group.

The telegram received in the afternoon, forwarded by the Navy headquarter, only mentioned that the Special Mixed Group had sunk two carriers and was searching for other warships of the Mobile Fleet, striving to organize two more rounds of attacks before dark, aiming to sink or severely damage the highly valuable Fast Battleships.

Nearly seven hours had passed!

Still, no news, which already indicated one thing: the Special Mixed Group had not found those four Fast Battleships in the afternoon, let alone organized an attack.

What exactly was the Special Mixed Group doing all afternoon?

Clearly, this was Bai Zhizhan’s most worrying concern!

If everything had gone according to plan, everything would be fine.

Otherwise, there would be big trouble!

According to the original plan, after wiping out the Mobile Fleet, the Special Mixed Group would continue to sail eastward, reaching the west side of the Two-car Strait before dawn on the 27th, deploying ship-borne aircraft to blockade the Two-car Strait, and attacking the Main Battle Corps to the east if necessary.

Simply put, in the battle on the 27th, the Special Mixed Group must undertake part of the strike mission.

This was exactly why Bai Zhizhan adopted Zhou Yongtao’s suggestion to let the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet rush toward the southeast, to lay an ambush in the West East Ocean.

With the current speed of the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet, it would be out of the cover range of the Zu Island Shore-Based Air Force before dawn.

Two carriers, now with fewer than one hundred fifty ship-borne aircraft, what could they do?

Even if they exerted all their strength, it would be difficult to wipe out two Main Battle Corps and one Air Corps within a day, not to mention considering the Mobile Fleet and the remnants of the Fifth Air Corps. Theoretically, an "Imperial Capital" class carrier can allow ship-borne aircraft to sortie a maximum of 150 times a day, which would be 300 sorties for two carriers. Excluding those for airborne patrols, a maximum of 240 sorties could be used for strike missions. Even without considering the endurance of the pilots and the damages sustained, organizing four attacks would be the limit.

Rely on four sorties of about sixty aircraft each to defeat the entire Permanent Fleet?

That would truly require divine intervention!

At dinner, Li Yunxiang had repeatedly emphasized the issue of sortie rate.

At that time, Li Yunxiang had suggested sending a message to contact the Special Mixed Group to clarify Liu Xiangzhen’s intentions, in order to plan and adjust air combat tactics during the night.

Bai Zhizhan disagreed, believing it unnecessary to break radio silence.

Li Yunxiang made it clear that if the Special Mixed Group had followed up and attacked the First Main Battle Corps as planned, the battle tomorrow would be almost certainly secure, with victory almost guaranteed. If the Special Mixed Group had not kept up, then it would definitely be necessary to make choices in the strike targets.

In other words, the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet couldn’t handle three fleets in one day.

Zhou Yongtao, being an aviation advisor and originally from the Third Shipborne Air Force Wing, was the first to think of these issues.

Li Mingbo didn’t think of them because he had no understanding of aerial combat.

After discussing back and forth, the conclusion still depended on the situation of the Special Mixed Group, but more preparations needed to be made for possible contingencies.

Here, Zhou Yongtao made a suggestion.

If they could first locate and eliminate the highly threatening Third Air Corps, sink the two smaller Fleet carriers, and remove the greatest threat, then in the following battles, the "Typhoon" fighters could be equipped with bombs for bombing missions, reducing air defense intensity to the minimum.

In short, use all available sortie opportunities for strike missions.

"Typhoon" Fighters can perform bombing missions?

Of course!

In the midst of the aircraft’s belly, besides hanging an auxiliary fuel tank, you can also hang a 250-kilogram bomb. However, it’s not feasible to drop bombs in a dive.

It’s not that the "Typhoon" lacks dive capabilities, but it isn’t equipped with the retractable racks needed for dive bombing.

Using a regular rack for dive bombing, it’s possible that if the dive angle is slightly more than seventy degrees theoretically, the bomb could strike the propeller in front. Thus, dive bombers are fitted with a special type of rack that extends outward during bombing.

Fortunately, bombs can be dropped during level flight, although with lesser accuracy.

Zhou Yongtao offered another suggestion.

During the search and strike operation against the Third Air Corps, deploying seaplanes from the escort battleships for reconnaissance could further alleviate the operational burden on the shipborne aircraft.

These suggestions were quite good but addressed symptoms rather than root causes.

During the discussion, the duty telecommunication officer rushed over with a telegram that had just been received.

It was still forwarded by the Navy headquarter.

The thing Bai Zhizhan had been dreading had happened.

About three hours earlier, around sunset, after completing two rounds of scouting and searching, the Special Mixed Group had already turned to head west.

What for?

To return to base!

Liu Xiangzhen provided three reasons: most of the fleet’s ships in the Special Mixed Group were nearing the warning line for fuel according to combat regulations and needed to resupply. The shipborne air force had suffered heavy losses, with only half of the aircraft operational for combat, and it was uncertain if they could be restocked by the 27th. The pilots were extremely fatigued, and many were flying while wounded, which meant even if they could fly, their condition would not be optimal.

In short, the Special Mixed Group couldn’t continue fighting.

However, not all was bad news.

In the latter part of the night, combat aircraft originally from the First Shipborne Air Force Wing had already departed from the Special Mixed Group headed for the Zu Island Navy Air Force Base.

The numbers weren’t large, just over eighty, and a third were fighters.

However, the air force base had no limitations on sortie rates, allowing these shipborne aircraft to take off fully loaded in a single strike mission.

Crucially, this unit was still under Bai Zhizhan’s command.

According to the telegram from the Navy headquarter, the deployment would be completed by 10:00 AM on the 27th at the latest, and they would be ready to enter combat by the afternoon.

At that point, as long as Bai Zhizhan gave the order, dozens of shipborne aircraft could take off immediately.

The telegram also mentioned one more point.

Whether to continue pursuing the Saiyi fleet was up to Bai Zhizhan to decide based on the actual situation. The priority was to preserve the fleet’s strength without necessarily achieving total annihilation.

It wasn’t about fearing losses, but rather that the second phase of the military operations was to proceed as planned.

Although it wasn’t stated explicitly, by emphasizing the second phase, the Navy headquarter was basically reminding Bai Zhizhan. Because the Second Aviation Mixed Fleet had already lost its combat capabilities, the originally supplementary Third Aviation Mixed Fleet was now absolutely crucial and couldn’t afford any mishaps.

Simply put, without two "Imperial Capital" class carriers, there would be no way to fight the subsequent battles!

In fact, this was exactly why Bai Zhizhan had been sent to the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet.

Both Zhu Shijian and Liu Changxun felt that Bai Zhizhan had a stronger capability in leading troops, so it was more fitting for him to go to the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet. Moreover, previously with Liu Xiangbin acting as interim Commander, arranging for Liu Xiangzhen to come might backfire.

Considering all this, Bai Zhizhan had intentionally "lost" to Liu Xiangzhen in a game of rock-paper-scissors.