Comrade, your ingredients are too complicated.

Afternoon, Seto Inland Sea.

At this time, the sea was in a mess, with fragments of the Nagato's armor scattered everywhere, but more of them were stumps drifting with the tide.

Although a few "lucky" Japanese sailors were not killed directly in the explosion, they could not escape the huge whirlpool and could only be sucked to the dark seabed with unwillingness and despair.

Standing on the battle bridge of the Mutsu, Captain Yamasumi Sadajiro was holding a telescope and observing the disaster scene with his mouth open.

From his perspective, a huge mushroom cloud mixed with thick smoke and dust seemed to connect the ocean and the sky.

The overturned battleship Nagato is sinking to the bottom of the sea at a slow but determined speed, carrying countless corpses around it.

"Amaterasu!"

"Don't you care about your people? Why did things develop like this!"

Speaking of the emotional part, there was even a trace of tears in the corners of the old devil's eyes.

That was Nagato, the spiritual totem of his navy. Even now that Yamato is in service, she still maintains an unshakable position in the combined fleet.

But such an important battleship was defeated by the enemy in an incredible way and disappeared into the Seto Inland Sea like a dead fish.

"Your Excellency Commander, what should we do next? Should we continue to move forward according to the original route?"

The sudden new title swept away the sadness in Yamasumi Sadjiro's heart. But before the old devil could secretly be happy, a sense of fear surged into his heart.

Oops! I'm a stand-in!

With the fleet commander and flagship captain in disarray, he, the highest ranking and most senior commander on the scene, naturally became the temporary commander.

Normally, Yamasumi Sadjiro would definitely applaud.

However, the First Fleet suffered heavy losses in this battle. As the existing supreme commander, he will definitely have to face the anger and roar of his superiors when he returns.

According to Yamasumi Tejiro's understanding of his senior management, in order to deal with the accountability of the locusts and the angry citizens, he is likely to be pushed out as an outcast and forced to become a scapegoat.

Thinking of this, the old devil suddenly felt powerless.

"idiot!"

"Why am I so unlucky! If I had known earlier, I should have competed for the position of captain of the King Kong."

"If I could fight in the north and south with Vice Admiral Nagumo, maybe I would have become a respected rear admiral. How could I have faced such an unreasonable enemy!"

After a while of wailing and complaining, Yamasumi Sadjiro also knew that this was the worst outcome. He could only cheer up and start directing the rescue work at the scene.

Save more people to reduce losses, and maybe you can get a glimmer of hope for yourself.

Since it had not yet been determined whether the enemy's attack formation had any back-ups, the auxiliary ships of the First Fleet did not dare to rush forward to retrieve people.

After all, their ship is not auspicious, and no one can guarantee that they can return to their home port alive.

Adhering to the idea that a dead Taoist friend will never die a poor Taoist, those work ships, seaplane carriers and ad hoc cruisers all pretended to maintain an air defense ring formation, watching helplessly as their colleagues died in pain in the water.

But now, even if the eighth Kagero-class ship Yukikaze is present, there is a high probability that it will be too late to rescue them.

"Team 24, go rescue the survivors of the Nagato."

"Fourth Diving Team, the destroyer Yakaze will be left to you. We can also rescue her over there and try to drag her back to Kure Port for repairs."

Just as the orders were arriving at each ship in an orderly manner, a sudden big explosion interrupted the old devil's command.

"boom!"

Looking along the source of the explosion, Yamasumi Sadjiro saw at a glance the illegal building that was standing in the fire.

The Fuso-class battleship was originally an experimental ship developed and produced under the erroneous theory of adding water to surface and adding surface to water.

In order to suppress the Achou family's iron bastards in terms of firepower, the Japanese designers forcibly stuffed her with six twin-mounted 356mm main guns.

As a price for carrying these weapons, the Fuso's main belt was stretched many times, which shared the not-so-excellent defensive capabilities.

This makes the super-crossbow class look extremely fierce on paper, but in essence it is just a paper tiger.

In the attack just now, Fuso, who was eager to be a savior, blocked a torpedo for the Nagato. This was the main reason why she exploded and ignited a fire.

"Where's the damage control team! Rescue quickly!"

"We have already lost a battleship! We must not sink another one!"

In fact, the three damage control teams on the Fuso have been operating at full capacity and working hard to rescue the ship since it was hit by a torpedo, without any special instructions from Yamasumi Sadjiro.

It's a pity that their efficiency is not very high and they have never been able to control the disaster.

Different from A Chou's three-stage damage control on the deck, front and rear, Benzi Navy has its own unique understanding and divides the damage control of a ship into three teams.

Among them, the first detachment is responsible for the fire protection of the entire ship, the second detachment is dedicated to repairing the hull, and the last one is responsible for emergency repair of the power system.

The above allocation seems clear and reasonable, but once it is put into actual combat, it will expose fatal problems. Because such treatment will cause the soldiers of a certain detachment to be exhausted throughout the ship, which will eventually lead to a sharp decline in maintenance efficiency.

This is the current embarrassing situation of the Fuso.

"Your Excellency, Commander! Our ship is seriously flooded and is about to lose all power!"

"The damage control team can only minimize the damage, but does not rule out the possibility of requiring all personnel to abandon the ship."

As soon as these words came out, Yamasumi Sadjiro suddenly felt his vision darken, as if he had seen the scene of his own seppuku apology, and he fainted with a cry.

In just a few hours, one battleship was sunk and another was severely damaged. He is definitely the most miserable colonel commander in the entire history of the IJN.

······
Time goes back half an hour.

Wu Port is a military port located in the northeast of Zhudao. It is surrounded by three large islands, namely Si, Jiu and Ben. It has inherent advantages in safety and concealment.

In addition to this, the port is very conveniently located. It is adjacent to the Bungo Channel in the south, the Kii Channel in the north, and the Kanmon Strait in the west.

The reason why the garrison is set here in this book, and the reason why the combined fleet chooses this place as its home port, is precisely because of its geographical advantage of being able to go south, go out east, and go west. Of course, the above-mentioned advantages will all become reasons for attacking in the eyes of the enemy.

What's more, the Eighth Route Army Air Force's strategic bombing operation this time was originally intended to attack the enemy's potential.

The naval dockyard in Kure City not only has the ability to build and repair large warships, but it is also one of the only two shipyards capable of building Yamato-class ships. It is naturally a key bombing target for the troops.

Just when the comrades were about to reach their destination, the Fengxiang, which was originally staying in the military port, started to move and left the anchorage at full speed with three destroyers.

"Your Majesty Colonel, what happened?"

"I just saw a lot of Zero fighters flying to the northeast. Did the First Fleet receive any orders?"

The person speaking now is the battle captain of the Fengxiang aircraft carrier. His eyes were full of desire for battle, and everyone present could see that he was eager to prove himself through a big battle.

There is no way, compared with the world-famous Akagi, Kaga, Feilong and Soryu, Hosho, Japan's first aircraft carrier, really has no decent record.

When the Pacific War broke out, she even became a training ship for training new recruits.

As the major commander in charge of the carrier-based fighter formation, Heihachi Ishizaki and his team members are really unwilling to settle for the status quo.

"I just received a notification from Admiral Yamamoto that our rear area encountered an air attack from an unknown enemy. The Zero fighter jets of the First Fleet must have gone to support."

After he finished speaking, the Japanese around him all showed surprised expressions. They really couldn't figure out which force could plan such a bold action.

However, several majors led by Ishizaki Heihachi quickly became excited.

"It must be the Ugly people who did it! Only they can deliver bomber groups remotely! Captain! Please allow my team to set out to support and seize the enemy's aircraft carrier to avenge the enemy."

In the little devil's view, the only force in the entire Pacific region that has the ability to attack its own rear is Chou Country.

Although he didn't know exactly how the other party sneaked into the offshore sea, he dared to pat his chest and guarantee that the enemy must have dispatched an aircraft carrier.

As long as the enterprise can be destroyed, the Fengxiang will immediately gain the same honor as the mobile fleet.

While Ishizaki Heihachi and others were still enjoying the future, the captain Daiichiro Kawaguchi poured cold water on him without hesitation and said to the major with a serious face:

"This place is hundreds of kilometers away from the rear. By the time your Zero fighter jets arrive at their destination, the enemy will most likely have fled the battlefield."

"So don't even think about support. The First Fleet sent a flying team just to keep their mouths shut."

"Our mission is to cooperate with the anti-aircraft gun positions to defend Wu City. There are many cruisers and submarines under construction in the dock, and they are the main targets."

As soon as these words came out, all the HNA pilots sighed with regret, as if they had missed a lot of military exploits.

In fact, Daiichiro Kawaguchi was quite helpless. Although the old Japanese did not expect to defeat the unknown enemy, he wanted to go to sea and escape with the main force of the First Fleet.

If someone were to block it in its lair, the Fengxiang might be sunk based on Wugang's current defense strength.

Facing the villain in the sky, you can only feel safe if you stick together for air defense!

While the devils were talking, the roar of a piston engine suddenly sounded in the sky.

At first, Kawaguchi Daiichiro and Ishizaki Heihachi thought those were flying teams taking off from the Hashishima anchorage. But as time passed, the two realized something was fishy.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

It wasn't until the anti-aircraft guns in the city started operating that they finally woke up.

"General Yamamoto is right! The enemy has indeed come to attack the shipyard! Commanders are at their posts! Fighters are speeding up to take off! The anti-aircraft artillery team is on full alert!"

After briefly formulating tactics, Daiichiro Kawaguchi came to the war room of the Hosho.

Due to the dismantling of the bridge, it took a lot of effort for the old Japanese to use his telescope to see the incoming enemy planes.

"Baga! Which country's bomber is it? It's actually a four-engine bomber? Could it be the Ugly Army Air Force that departed from the southern coast of the Republic of China?"

Following Daiichiro Kawaguchi's order, the Hosho and the three escort ships took action to expel the Japanese on board.

The former speeds up the launch of carrier-based fighter jets and strives to release all fighters before the enemy begins bombing. The latter operated the anti-aircraft guns on the ship and began to counterattack as soon as the enemy aircraft came into range.

Although most of these people are new recruits who have never been on the battlefield, the complicated training in the past has made them full of confidence and they believe that they will not lose to the enemy they are about to fight.

"Ishizaki-kun, don't stray into the battlefield above the city. If you rush in, you will most likely be accidentally injured by friendly forces. Just leave it to the anti-aircraft artillery group on the ground."

"Your mission is to shoot down all the bombers approaching the coastal docks. Shoot down all the enemies for me!"

"Whoa!"

Hearing this, Ishizaki Heihachi turned around and left with murderous intent, trotting towards the flight deck.

······
At the same time, at an altitude of 40 kilometers away from Wu Port.

The comrade who was in charge of leading the Third Battalion of the First Air Division this time was still a fighting hero. Looking at the faintly visible coastline in the distance, Zhao Baotong said in a relaxed tone:
"Our mission is to blow up the enemy's Fengxiang first."

"If nothing else happens, there should be one and only one aircraft carrier in the Japanese military port. But just in case, everyone should look at the photos a few more times before taking action to make sure they don't identify the wrong target."

"After killing the Fengxiang, if we are still rich in ammunition, then we can look for the light cruiser under construction."

"Roger that!"

After the mission was clear, the sixteen Mosquito fighters immediately raised their altitude, exposing the Lancaster group in the air.

That's right, it's a pull-up.

This arrangement was because Zhao Baotong decided to use the bomber squadron as bait. When the enemy's ship attack begins to "hunt", they will rush out from high altitude and finish off the enemy with one final blow.

The reason why this battle hero is so confident is because the hangar of the Fengxiang is really small and pitiful.

Even if the Japanese captain lets all the fighter jets on the deck take off to fight, and even pulls out the spare aircraft in the hangar to fight, he can barely make up fifteen.

To put it bluntly, with just a few fighter jets, it is not necessarily a zero battle. Whether they can defeat the self-defense machine guns of the Lancaster fleet is a question. (End of chapter)