Empire Conquest
Chapter 363 - 359: Decisively Strike Out

Chapter 363: Chapter 359: Decisively Strike Out

41st Special Mixed Fleet, "Imperial Capital."

Tanimoto had guessed only halfway correctly; Bai Zhizhan indeed hadn’t dispatched Fighters to escort the Attack Aircraft Group but had instead kept all the other 16 Fighters.

To be precise, it was not possible to send these Fighters on an escort mission.

At 11:15 am, after receiving a message from the Wei Jun on the "Wuzhou," informing him that an enemy Plane Group was approaching from the east, Bai Zhizhan immediately issued an order for the Fighters parked on the flight deck to take off urgently and reinforce what was a rather porous air defense network.

The focus was to expand the air defense perimeter to 100 kilometers.

Previously, to avoid revealing their position, the air patrol radius of the air defense Fighters had been reduced to 30 kilometers, nearly hovering around the carrier itself.

However, each carrier had only four Fighters on standby.

That was why the number of air defense Fighters increased by eight, totaling 24.

Afterward, Bai Zhizhan had Zhou Yongtao make arrangements for the ground crew to immediately refuel and arm the Bombers and Torpedo Bombers by squadron. Once the preparations were complete, they were to take off immediately without waiting for other ship-borne aircraft, nor forming large Plane Groups near the fleet.

Bai Zhizhan’s attack-oriented mindset was indeed very strong; almost always, his first consideration was to attack.

When he issued this order, he did not know the exact location of the 17th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland.

However, he made an arrangement.

The eight Xiaotian Fighters that took off urgently all flew towards the east to the 41.2 Subsquad, following the enemy planes to the Enemy Fleet after locating them.

Essentially, they were chasing the enemy planes that had attacked the 41.2 Subsquad and were flying eastward.

After the Fighters had taken off, Bai Zhizhan—through a bold guess based on a report from the 41.2 Subsquad—made a decision.

The 17th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland was not far to the east.

Although the second Newland Plane Group came from the east, it did not mean that the 17th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland was in the east, as having planes make a detour was not a novel tactic. For instance, during the attack on the 16th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland, the plane group led by Shen Pu had detoured 200 kilometers to the east.

The key fact was that the ship-borne aircraft returning eastward after completing their attack actually came from the north.

Clearly, those were the ship-borne aircraft of the 16th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland.

Before this, Shen Pu had sent a message stating that they had successfully destroyed two carriers of the 16th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland, or at the very least, severely damaged two Newland carriers.

These enemy planes couldn’t return to the 16th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland and could only head to the 17th Special Mixed Fleet.

The enemy planes flying eastward implied definitively that the 17th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland was to the east!

Bai Zhizhan made this judgment when the eight Xiaotian Fighters had already taken off.

Although they didn’t carry auxiliary fuel tanks, the Xiaotian’s operational range was already considerable.

According to Bai Zhizhan’s judgment, the 17th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland was not far away.

This was based on the fact that soon after the plane group from the 16th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland reached the airspace above the 41.2 Subsquad, the plane group from the 17th Special Mixed Fleet arrived and headed west without attacking the 41.2 Subsquad, clearly targeting the two carriers of the 41st Special Mixed Fleet.

Crucially, the 41.1 Subsquad had not yet been discovered.

If they were too far away, who could ensure that the ship-borne aircraft would find the two "Imperial Capital" class carriers before running out of fuel?

Even if Spur was commanding the 17th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland, he could only send out the Attack Aircraft Group knowing that they were close enough not to discover the 41.1 Subsquad first.

As for why the Reconnaissance Aircraft and Seaplanes hadn’t spotted the 17th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland, Bai Zhizhan could only believe that perhaps the Reconnaissance Aircraft and Seaplanes heading to the 17th Special Mixed Fleet had been shot down and, prior to being downed, had been unable to send a telegram.

Before 12 pm, the eight Xiaotian caught up with the Newland Plane Group.

More than ten minutes later, the lead plane spotted the Battleships of the 17th Special Mixed Fleet of Newland, then pursued and attacked those Newland Fighters preparing to land.

It must be said, it was all too rushed.

To catch up to the enemy planes, they had been flying at high speed.

Additionally, air combat also required a high fuel consumption.

As a result, after having shot down dozens of Newland Navy bombers and torpedo bombers, the "Xiaotian" fighters were nearly ready to return to base.

Fortunately, they discovered two carriers from Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet.

At this time, it was already 12:30 PM.

Fifty minutes earlier, at 11:40 AM, the "Wasp" and "Flying Fish" had already begun to take off for their attack mission.

Due to the extreme urgency, the plane group did not form up over the fleet, but rather carried out the attack mission in squad-size units.

Both the accompanying long-range cruisers had been attacked, and some enemy planes were flying westward; it was only a matter of time before they found the 41.1 Subsquad.

Before 12 PM, when Zhu Huasheng’s "Flying Fish" was still on the flight deck of the "Imperial Capital", Newland’s ship-borne aircraft had already appeared within visual range.

The "Imperial Capital" was exposed!

At that time, Bai Zhizhan had specifically asked Zhu Huasheng if there would be any problem without dispatching fighters, and Zhu Huasheng had answered that there would be no problem.

Thus, after Zhu Huasheng’s "Flying Fish" took off, Bai Zhizhan had Zhou Yongtao adjust the deployment.

In the end, all eight "Xiaotian" were left behind to intercept the incoming enemy planes.

Shortly after Bai Zhizhan issued this command, the "Guangcheng" sent its last telegram from the east.

It had suffered severe damage and had to abandon the ship.

Prior to this, the accompanying "Deep City" had already been sunk by enemy planes.

At this point, both long-range cruisers had been sunk.

The last heavy cruiser of the 41.2 Subsquad, the "Yuzhou", had sent a telegram about "facing adversity for the nation" approximately 20 minutes earlier.

According to Bai Zhizhan’s judgment, the ship-borne aircraft from Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet were about to arrive.

The attack on the 41.2 Subsquad was carried out by the ship-borne aircraft from Newland’s 16th Special Mixed Fleet while the plane group from the eastern Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet had attacked the "Guangcheng" and "Deep City".

The two long-range cruisers weren’t worth the dozens of ship-borne aircraft’s bombs and torpedoes.

Exactly because of this, Bai Zhizhan concluded that the attack was from the east.

That was precisely why he decided to strengthen the anti-air defenses.

The plane group led by Zhu Huasheng had already taken off, and after their attack, Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet would lose its attacking capability and pose no further threat.

As long as they could withstand the attack from Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet, once Shen Pu’s plane group returned, they could immediately organize the next round of attacks.

By then, even if Zhu Huasheng hadn’t annihilated Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet, Shen Pu could deliver the final blow.

No matter how formidable Spur was, Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet, possessing only two carriers, couldn’t withstand two rounds of attacks, especially since many fighters were arranged to escort them.

With the situation at that time, even if they couldn’t completely annihilate Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet, they had sufficient confidence to sink the two carriers.

Before that, just the two attack aircraft groups had destroyed Newland’s 16th Special Mixed Fleet.

If they hadn’t withstood the attack from the 17th Special Mixed Fleet, there wouldn’t have been another chance for an attack.

Bai Zhizhan was very confident in resisting the attack launched by the Newland Fleet.

At that time, there were a total of 24 "Xiaotian" near the 41st Special Mixed Fleet, and 16 of them were on the east side, holding the altitude advantage.

Based on previous performance, 24 "Xiaotian" could intercept about 50 enemy planes.

What Bai Zhizhan hadn’t anticipated was that the attack would not come from the east.