When Mu Haoyang decided to adjust the combat plan, the US Pacific Fleet had reached about 1,800 kilometers east of Saipan. French was also considering whether to comply with the arrangements of General Marshall, modify the already formulated plans, and actively seek the necessary decisive battle of the Chinese fleet.

In fact, French had already received a telegram from Guam Command at this time.

Although before this, the US military transported a large amount of combat supplies, including hundreds of thousands of tons of ammunition and millions of tons of fuel, and opened several military bases on Saipan and Tinian Islands. These preparations were related to the initial combat plan of the US military, that is, after capturing Okinawa, Guam would become the rear base of the US military and provide support for hundreds of strategic bombers. However, in 2053, the situation changed. The US military first sent the ammunition and fuel stored in the Mariana Islands to Australia, and then transferred a large number of engineering troops. As a result, all the military bases opened by the US military were used to deploy tactical aviation.[]

Before April 3, Guam defenders were not sad.

There is nothing strange about this. The bombing of the Chinese Air Force did not have much impact on the Mariana Islands and the infrastructure was not seriously damaged.

The problem is that with the arrival of the Chinese fleet, the situation changed by 180 degrees.

Especially after April 3, the situation of the Mariana Islands defenders was a little difficult. The main reason was that the long-range artillery fire of the Chinese fleet destroyed almost all ground facilities, and the fighter jets carrying out key bombing missions also exploded two-thirds of the underground facilities.

On the evening of April 4, the US troops on the Mariana Islands were almost out of ammunition and food.

The most serious thing is that the seawater desalination equipment was blown up, resulting in a serious shortage of freshwater supply, which has threatened the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of US troops.

There are freshwater sources on Guam, Saipan and Tinian Island, but the water volume is not sufficient and can only be used by 100,000 people on a daily basis. For this reason, before the outbreak of the war, the US military established a seawater desalination factory on Guam, and adopted military standards. The main equipment was buried deep underground and could withstand high-intensity shelling. Even if it was hit by a cruise missile, it would not be seriously damaged.

The problem is that none of these underground facilities are enough to resist ground-boring bombs.

At that time, there were three seawater desalination factories in the Mariana Islands, located on Guam, Saipan and Tinian Islands. On April 4, all three seawater desalination factories were blown up. The result was that the freshwater sources on the three large islands were not enough to satisfy the daily drinking of officers and soldiers.

In fact, this is not the only problem.

Because the five major oil depots were blown up, the fuel reserves of the US military had dropped to less than 2,000 tons. According to the daily power consumption level of the US military, it can only last for four days at most. In other words, after four days, the US military will be powered off and many power-consuming equipment will have to be turned off. Although at this time, the main power-consuming equipment on the island was only air conditioners and refrigerators, and military electronic equipment was basically destroyed, for the US military officers and soldiers fighting in tropical areas, it is obviously unbearable to have no air conditioners or refrigerators.

Of course, without electricity and oil, it is difficult to even cook.

Don't forget that there are about 300,000 US troops in the Mariana Islands, consuming hundreds of tons of food every day, while cooking cooked food requires electricity and fuel.

Of course, desalinating seawater also requires electricity.

In other words, the US military not only needs to transport seawater desalination equipment to the front line, but also fuel and generators, otherwise the defenders will collapse soon.

In fact, this is the main reason why Marshall asked France to fight the Chinese fleet as soon as possible.

Of course, this is also the most concerned issue for the top leaders of the US military.

Even if the Chinese Navy does not intend to attack the Mariana Islands, it will carry out a strategic blockade, leaving the US military officers and soldiers on the islands with no ammunition or food.

In a sense, this is the best way to deal with island defenders.

To achieve this goal, the Chinese army will definitely continue to bomb the Mariana Islands.

On April 5, French's concerns became a fact.

On the morning of that day, 400 bombers of the Chinese Air Force conducted centralized bombings on Guam, Saipan and Tinian Island, and they used not cruise missiles with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers, but bombs with a distance of only more than ten kilometers, two-thirds of which were heavy ground-boring bombs!

This extremely violent bombing caused extremely serious consequences.

For example, when bombing Guam, 180 bombers dropped 3,600 per ton ground bombs, and the distance between the bomb points was about 200 meters. In other words, the Chinese Air Force was too lazy to identify the US military's underground bunkers and directly carried out carpet bombs in the form of "area destruction". If this continues, it only takes ten days for the Chinese Air Force to plough Guam with heavy ground bombs. You must know that a ton of ground bombs can penetrate seventy meters of soil, thirty meters of rock, or twenty meters of reinforced concrete, while no underground bunker on Guam can withstand such bombs.

It can be said that this is a very barbaric style of playing, but it is also a very effective style of playing.

You should know that compared with those hypersonic cruise missiles that cost tens of millions of dollars each, the unit price of a ton-class precision guided bomb is only about one thousandth of the price, that is, the unit price during mass production is only tens of thousands of dollars, which is a typical ammunition that can be consumed in large quantities. The result is that even if the Chinese Air Force uses ground-based bombs to completely bomb Guam, Saipan and Tinian Island, the cost is only equivalent to a high-intensity cruise missile attack. Obviously, the Chinese Air Force will never be so poor that it cannot afford to use bombs.

For the US military, this is an absolute disaster.

In the evening of that day, the Chinese Air Force carried out a concentrated bombing of Guam, with more than 400 bombers dropping nearly 9,000 one-ton ground-based bombs over Guam. Although the bombing did not cover the entire island, it caused thousands of casualties from US officers and soldiers, and thousands of people were missing.

It is conceivable that all the missing persons were buried alive.

At this time, French also received an emergency telegram from Guam Command again, asking him to dispatch fighter planes immediately to provide air defense cover for Guam.

The problem is, French can't do that.

Although the Chinese fleet has withdrawn, it must be somewhere nearby. If the US Pacific Fleet dispatches carrier-based fighter jets to cover Guam, it is equivalent to declaring that it has arrived on the battlefield, which is equivalent to telling the Chinese fleet that the decisive battle is coming, and this is undoubtedly a way to seek death.

You should know that the US Pacific Fleet has entered the search scope of China's shore-based aviation force.

If the Chinese Air Force had not bombed the Mariana Islands at high intensity and occupied the air base in the Fuso region, I am afraid that the Chinese Navy's anti-submarine patrol aircraft would have flew over long ago.

As a result, that night, the US Pacific Fleet turned south and did not approach Guam anymore.

In French's view, the Chinese Air Force's fight was to force the US Pacific Fleet to fight to the decisive battle. The 400 bombers could be equipped with anti-ship missiles at any time to carry out sea strike missions, and the carrier-based fighter jets of the Chinese fleet would send a fatal blow to the US Pacific Fleet behind the bomber group.

It must be admitted that French's judgment is very accurate.

The high-intensity bombing operation of the Air Force was arranged by Mu Haoyang, and the purpose was to force the US fleet to appear by destroying the US military on the Mariana Islands.

However, French didn't know that a landing fleet was sailing eastward.

It was not until the early morning of April 6 that France received a message from the submarine that it learned that the Chinese landing fleet had been dispatched and was expected to arrive in the Mariana Islands in three days.

As for the whereabouts of the Chinese fleet, France still did not receive accurate information. It can only be roughly concluded that the Chinese fleet is in a certain sea area between 1,500 kilometers and 2,500 kilometers west of Guam. Because the US submarines operating in this sea area were all tracked by anti-submarine patrol aircraft, three submarines had lost contact with the rear, and several other submarines were forced to evacuate and did not dare to go to the sea area rashly.

Based on this information, French made a judgment.

The Chinese Navy will attack the Mariana Islands, and the landing location is likely to be an island north of Saipan, and the Chinese fleet will move in the southwest of the landing field. The reason is very simple. The Chinese Navy's shore-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft can cover the waters east of the Mariana Islands and prevent the US fleet from entering from that direction. More importantly, the Chinese Air Force bomber group is enough to keep the US fleet south of the Mariana Islands. That is to say, if the US fleet goes to the landing field, it has to go from the south to the north, and enter the strike area of ​​the Chinese fleet, and first encounter it with the Chinese fleet. In French's view, the Chinese fleet commander has made full use of this situation and forced the US fleet to fight on the battlefield he chose, rather than the battlefield chosen by the US military.

Making a judgment does not mean solving the problem.

The problem before France was: either go to the battlefield chosen by the Chinese fleet and fight a fleet decisive battle that would definitely be a very tragic battle; or ignore the lives of the island defenders, circle around a big circle, avoid the main search areas of the Chinese fleet, and fight in the waters he chose.

Obviously, this is not a difficult choice.

The ground garrison troops can withstand casualties, but the fleet cannot withstand losses.

On the morning of the sixth, French continued to send the fleet southward and entered Micronesia.

His intention was very simple. The fleet sailed west from Micronesia, and when it reached about 2,000 kilometers from the Philippine Islands, it turned north. Then it concentrated carrier-based fighters to search for the possible sea areas of the Chinese fleet, and then attacked first to win the victory.

Of course, in this way, the defenders of the Mariana Islands had to persist in the bombing for several days.

French didn't know that when the US Pacific Fleet moved south, the Chinese Pacific Fleet was also moving south, but the speed was much slower.
Chapter completed!