Empire Conquest
Chapter 243 - 239 Emergency Stop

Chapter 243: Chapter 239 Emergency Stop

"Old rules, the lead aircraft’s captain shall be responsible for frontline command. If there’s no problem, everyone go and get ready."

Since arrangements had been made in advance, Zhou Yongtao only informed the pilots of the enemy fleet’s maritime location, course, and speed, and which were the main battleships.

All in all, it took about ten minutes.

On the outer flight deck, the aviation maintenance personnel were still loading ordnance and fueling the ship-borne aircraft; take-off was still some time away.

Due to the damage to the ship, the forward aviation munitions depot was sealed off, reducing the efficiency of sortie preparations by one-third, so the preparation time was definitely going to be prolonged.

Just as Zhou Yongtao finished his last sentence and was about to clap his hands to signal the end by habit, the cabin door was pushed open.

"Commander!"

"All rise and salute!"

"No need for formalities, everyone."

Yes, the person entering was Bai Zhizhan.

"New developments, all pilots assigned to the strike mission, stand by at the Aviation Combat Center," Bai Zhizhan said, nodding to Zhou Yongtao as he spoke.

However, before Zhou Yongtao could respond, Bai Zhizhan had already left.

"The Commander has issued orders, carry them out."

Zhou Yongtao didn’t beat around the bush but commanded and nodded towards Shen Pu, who was responsible for the strike mission, before striding out of the Aviation Combat Center like a speeding meteor.

Bai Zhizhan had already departed for the Command Bridge above.

By the time Zhou Yongtao arrived, Bai Zhizhan was standing in front of the nautical chart.

As he approached and saw the lines and notes marked on the nautical chart, Zhou Yongtao’s brows immediately tightened, and his expression turned very grim.

In just about ten minutes, Bai Zhizhan had actually carried out a tactical level wargame!

This ability was no ordinary feat.

Bai Zhizhan must have been holding back normally, or to say that with staff members like Zhou Yongtao, he needn’t do everything meticulously himself.

Of course, one could also say he didn’t want to undermine the confidence of his staff members like Zhou Yongtao.

There’s nothing surprising about this, Bai Zhizhan came from a staff background, and his basic staff skills were definitely in place. Whatever a staff member should do, he could do it.

The key wasn’t the chart work capability, but rather the information marked out on it.

"Commander..."

"Give me your opinion," Bai Zhizhan exhaled deeply and then vigorously rubbed his forehead, seeming to have a bigger headache than even Zhou Yongtao.

That was understandable; he was the Commander of the Special Mixed Fleet. Whether it won or lost, he bore the responsibility.

Zhou Yongtao didn’t rush to express his opinion but once again scrutinized the chart carefully.

Judging from the information marked on the nautical chart, the biggest problem was still the excessive distance, and the Permanent Fleet was discovered a bit late.

Now, the Special Mixed Fleet was located more than two hundred kilometers west of Agri Island, north of the North Ma Islands, approximately four hundred kilometers away from where the Permanent Fleet was spotted by the patrol planes. When Zhou Yongtao received the patrol plane’s report, he had mentioned that this distance was a bit too far.

Especially critical was that the new batch of "Flying Fish" and "Wasp" had their engines upgraded to higher power; although this resulted in some improvements in flight performance, their range was significantly shortened, even more so when torpedoes and bombs were mounted, as the fuel consumption increased by a large margin compared to normal flight.

Additionally, the catapults on the "Heng River" were not capable of launching the "Flying Fish" and "Wasp" with an overload.

However, four hundred kilometers was not beyond their range.

The "Flying Fish" could do without the rear seat machine gunner and remove its self-defense machine gun. The "Wasp" could carry 250-kilogram bombs, also removing its self-defense machine gun.

What really caused a headache was the timing.

Even if they deployed immediately, the Attack Aircraft Group would only reach their destination by evening, and the return to the Fleet would surely be at night, requiring a night landing.

Even though all the pilots in the first ship-borne aircraft Wing were veterans, the risk of night landings was still tremendously high.

At that time, both Bai Zhizhan and Zhou Yongtao never considered abandoning the attack.

The situation, however, was different now.

They hadn’t fully considered all aspects previously.

On the sea chart, some minor issues they had overlooked before were clearly marked.

For example, the location of the Permanent Fleet was distinctly further to the east, and they were spotted further south than expected, or rather, the Permanent Fleet was discovered too late. According to earlier estimates, patrol planes should have found the Permanent Fleet by noon, followed by the organization of two attacks in the afternoon.

Three days prior, during the speculation, Bai Zhizhan and Zhou Yongtao had carefully calculated, taking all possible scenarios into account.

Speaking of which, the Permanent Fleet must have been delayed for a few hours while heading north or had traveled at a slower speed for over ten hours.

This led to the conclusion that the Permanent Fleet might have refueled yesterday.

But the question was, if the Permanent Fleet conducted the fuel resupply late yesterday, such as in the evening, why would their course veer to the east?

Liuhuang Island lies northwest of the North Ma Islands, not northeast.

If the Permanent Fleet was headed for Liuhuang Island, even if not venturing to the west side of the North Ma Islands, they should have chosen a course closer to the North Ma Islands.

The only reasonable explanation was that the Permanent Fleet was preparing to refuel again tonight.

As for why they would resupply for the second time in a day, Bai Zhizhan did not mention, but there must be a reason. After all, even if traveling at full speed, they wouldn’t need to refuel so frequently. The result of this was that the Permanent Fleet needed to go to a relatively safer sea area.

After the second refueling, the four oil tankers would return, and the Permanent Fleet would definitely not refuel a third time before returning home.

Once refueled, the Permanent Fleet would head straight for Liuhuang Island.

On the sea chart, three routes were plotted in the central west, with the approximate times marked for the Permanent Fleet to arrive at the Liuhuang Island landing field at the end of each route.

The Western Front was the shortest. However, it required venturing to the west side of the North Ma Islands and launching a daytime assault on Liuhuang Island, with a high probability of being bombed. The advantage was the ability to arrive by tomorrow evening and then have the whole night to deal with the ships in the landing field, as well as the Marine Corps on the beachhead.

The middle route was somewhat longer, initially heading north closer to the North Ma Islands, then turning at the northernmost Maug Island and directly heading towards Liuhuang Island. The advantage was staying to the east of the North Ma Islands until 4 pm on the 19th, decreasing the probability of being spotted and struck. However, the journey was nearly two hundred kilometers longer, so they would only arrive in the middle of the night, leaving only half a night’s time.

The eastern route was the longest, traveling straight north until reaching 25 degrees north latitude, then turning east of Liuhuang Island, so the probability of being bombed while en route was almost zero. Unfortunately, they could not arrive until the morning of the 20th, possibly not leaving enough time to deal with the Landing Fleet.

How Lan Yun would choose was anyone’s guess.

However, now was not the time to consider this issue, after all, the Permanent Fleet could not arrive until tomorrow evening at the earliest.

Although Bai Zhizhan did not say it, Zhou Yongtao had already realized that Bai Zhizhan had given up on today’s strike operation.

The reason was simple: If Lan Yun had received information about the "Heng River" being missing and planned to refuel at night, he might have directed the Permanent Fleet to head east. Then, not only would the Attack Aircraft Group come up empty, but the first Special Mixed Fleet could also be exposed.

If they couldn’t annihilate or at least severely damage the Permanent Fleet, there was no need to strike.

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