The US military raided all air bases on the Solomon Islands, and the early warning aircraft detected the escort fighter. Although it could not be proved to be a carrier-based fighter, before that, the US fighter jets deployed in Australia had never flew less than 400 kilometers from the Solomon Islands.

Obviously, it is only possible to be a carrier-based fighter.

Tong Shaoyun could almost conclude that the US fleet was in the Coral Sea, and in a relatively close place to Australia, perhaps in the Great Barrier Reef in the southwest of the Coral Sea.[..com]

The problem is that Tong Shaoyun cannot prove this.

The Great Barrier Reef is the best preserved coral reef group in the world and has the widest range. The sea water in this area has the highest transparency in the world. When sunlight is strong, the visibility of sea water exceeds 80 meters, while the average water depth in this sea area is less than 100 meters.

Obviously, it is not suitable for submarine navigation.

After a year and eight months of war, the Chinese Navy's submarines had never been to the Great Barrier Reef waters, and the US military also made full use of this favorable condition. For example, most of the supplies transported to Northeast Australia were small and medium-sized transport ships, transported to Townsville through the Great Barrier Reef waters, and then used the railway to the inland to send them to the US military bases distributed in the region, greatly improving transportation efficiency.

It is undeniable that the Great Barrier Reef waters are also not suitable for fleet activities.

The reason is very simple. The sea area is full of reefs and shallows, which can easily cause large warships to run aground, not to mention super aircraft carriers with a full load displacement of up to 160,000 tons.

The problem is that the US military has the details of the sea area and must know that some sea areas can allow super aircraft carriers to pass, so it is possible to risk allowing the fleet to enter the sea area.

In fact, this is also the most surprising thing.

It can be said that Tong Shaoyun's judgment is very accurate. The US fleet led by France did go to the Great Barrier Reef and found a deep waterway that can avoid reefs and shallows when the tide is low. The end of the channel is north of Cairns, less than 500 kilometers from Port Moresby. More importantly, there is an open deep waterway between Townsville and Cairns, enough to accommodate hundreds of large warships.

However, French did not take this dangerous move.

According to his plan, the fleet mainly operates in the waters south of the Great Barrier Reef and will not penetrate deep into the Great Barrier Reef. Because it is attacked in the Great Barrier Reef, the warships have no way to avoid it.

Unfortunately, Gong Jifei still didn't believe that the US fleet had entered the Coral Sea at that time.

In his opinion, the US military attacked the air base on the Solomon Islands in the early morning of the 16th. In addition to attacking China's shore-based aviation, it was also to divert attention and allow the Chinese fleet to enter the Coral Sea. The US fleet will appear near the New Hebrides. As a result, it can be imagined that without the cover of the shore-based aviation, the Chinese fleet that penetrated the Coral Sea will be attacked by the US fleet and the US military's shore-based aviation. It is difficult to escape. In the end, it will not be severely damaged, but will be completely wiped out by the US military.

In other words, Gong Jifei became more cautious at that time.

This cannot be blamed on Gong Jifei, because there was no intelligence at that time that proved that the US fleet had indeed entered the Coral Sea.

More importantly, two hours after the US military bombed the Solomon Islands, Mu Haoyang sent a telegram to Gong Jifei and Tong Shaoyun, reminding the two to be wary of the sudden attacks of the US fleet and to choose to retreat voluntarily when necessary. Without sufficient confidence, it is impossible to be sure that the US fleet can defeat the US fleet during the battle between the fleet, the primary purpose should be to preserve the fleet.

This telegram had a very great impact on the two fleet commanders.

In Tong Shaoyun's view, this is undoubtedly an encouragement, because he has concluded that the US fleet has entered the Coral Sea and is near the Great Barrier Reef, so preserving the fleet is not the primary purpose. More importantly, Mu Haoyang's meaning can be fully understood, that is, when he is confident of annihilation of the US fleet, there is no need to deliberately preserve the strength of the fleet, but must seize the opportunity to fight.

Unfortunately, in Gong Jifei's view, this is another meaning.

The reason is very simple. In his opinion, there is no way to determine the whereabouts of the US fleet, so we cannot rashly lead the fleet into dangerous waters, and naturally preserve the fleet as our primary purpose.

Later, Mu Haoyang's telegram caused great controversy.

In a sense, this telegram has no practical significance at all, that is, the alarm issued by Mu Haoyang thousands of miles away did not have any positive effect on helping the fleet commander. Instead, because the meaning was not clear enough, the fleet commander had a disagreement.

After the war, many people believed that without this telegram, there might not be so many problems.

Not to mention, the Second Fleet had entered the Coral Sea and sailed southwest for ten hours. Even if Gong Jifei had any concerns, he would turn on the morning of the 16th and had to enter the Coral Sea before 2 pm at the latest in order to maintain a reasonable distance from the Second Fleet.

The direct result of this telegram was that the First Fleet did not turn to the Coral Sea before 2pm.

So, why did Mu Haoyang send this telegram on the morning of the 16th?

After the war, all the official records of China were destroyed and not preserved. Only based on some things that happened at that time, can we infer why Mu Haoyang sent this crucial telegram. First, at 8 am on the 16th, Beijing time, about half an hour after the US military attacked the Solomon Islands, he received a message sent back by Sima Wenzheng. He then held a meeting with Wei Chenglong, his mother Qi Tie and Pang Yuelong through a video call, and went to the head of state at 9:00 and returned to the War Department at around 9:50, and then sent a telegram.

From this series of events, it is very likely that something happened during the head of state.

According to a document disclosed after the war, it can be roughly concluded that it was likely that Huang Hanlin asked Mu Haoyang to preserve the fleet at that time. This document is that on June 15, Du Xiaolei reached a secret agreement with the heads of government of France, Germany and Italy in Paris, that is, France, Germany and Italy would stand on China's side by the Chinese army before the end of 2054. There is another secret agreement, that is, before June 30, 2055, if the Chinese army has not yet occupied Moscow, France, Germany and Italy will officially declare neutrality on July 1.

Obviously, this secret agreement has extremely important political significance.

According to Wei Chenglong's recollection, he talked with Huang Hanlin for eight hours on the night of the fifteenth day, and left the capital before dawn, and then held a video conference with Mu Haoyang. In the capital, Huang Hanlin repeatedly asked whether he could invade Moscow before the end of the year, and Wei Chenglong's reply was very pessimistic, that is, with the situation on the mainland battlefield, it would be impossible to invade Moscow unless a miracle happened.

The problem is that it was mentioned in a document saved by the Head of State that Wei Chenglong did not reject it completely.

To be precise, he mentioned at the time that if the U.S. military could effectively restrain its forces, the army might invade Moscow by the end of the year.

Now, the question arises, that is, how to restrain the US military’s forces?

There is no doubt that there is only one way, which is to open up a new front on the Pacific battlefield, one is to enter Australia and the other is to attack the Hawaiian Islands.

It is precisely because of this that Huang Hanlin called Mu Haoyang over on the morning of the 16th.

The result was that Mu Haoyang had to consider temporarily giving up the battle in the Southwest Pacific to prepare for opening up a new front.

If Mu Haoyang had the choice, he would definitely attack Australia.

The problem is that this time it was not for Mu Haoyang to choose, so the Navy's next target was not Australia, but the much smaller Hawaiian Islands.

You should know that if you attack Australia, whether it is from the Solomon Islands or from Southeast Asia, thousands of large electric transport aircraft will have to be used, which will also have an impact on the mainland battlefield, making it impossible for the army to invade Moscow by the end of the year. Only by attacking the Hawaiian Islands will there be no negative impact, because in this direction, the main means of transportation are ships, not transport aircraft.

The problem is here. Since you want to attack the Hawaiian Islands, you have to seize the sea control.

In fact, seizing sea control is still relatively simple. To assist the Marines on the Hawaiian Islands, a strong enough fleet is needed.

In this way, Mu Haoyang naturally hopes to preserve the main force of the fleet.

As a result, after returning to the War Department, Mu Haoyang sent this telegram to Gong Jifei and Tong Shaoyun, asking them to preserve the fleet as their primary purpose.

It can be seen from the content of the telegram that Mu Haoyang was also a little hesitant at that time.

As the Marshal of the Navy, Mu Haoyang knew very well that it was almost impossible to withdraw the fleet safely when he had already fought with the enemy fleet. More importantly, if he could completely wipe out the US fleet in the Southwest Pacific, even if it would severely damage the US fleet, it would have extremely important strategic value, because this means that in the next year, there would be no need to consider fighting the US fleet again. Even for attacking the Hawaiian Islands, this is of great significance, because it can concentrate its efforts to destroy the US military bases on the Hawaiian Islands without considering seizing sea control, and then send Marines to launch a landing battle.

This hesitant attitude has very serious consequences.

In fact, this incident also changed Mu Haoyang.

Although no one held Mu Haoyang responsible at that time, after that, Mu Haoyang rarely interfered in front-line command, and never even issued direct orders to the front-line commander during the battle. Most of the time, he would wait until the front-line battle was over before inquiring about the situation of the battle.

It must be admitted that this practice of letting go played a big role in the late war.

However, in this naval battle, the telegram sent by Mu Haoyang from the War Department had inevitably changed the fate of the two fleets and the fate of the two people.
Chapter completed!