In the early morning, Li Shenzhi received a message from the Navy Command, which was actually a telegram order to prepare for leading the special mixed fleet to head north.

As for the mission, it is to escort the transport fleet to Novorossiysk in the Mohai.

Before the end of the Bo-Iran War, to be precise, the withdrawal of troops from the Bo-Iran area and throwing this mess to the Liangxia Empire, the Republic of Ter declared permanent neutrality. After the Bo-Iran War ended, the Liangxia Empire and the Tauran Empire signed an international convention to recognize and guarantee the permanent neutrality of the Thor Republic.

This is the famous International Convention of Istanbul.

The core article of the Convention is to recognize the Bosphorus, the Marmara Sea and the Dardanelles as unconditional international waterways.

In fact, this is also the basic condition for ensuring that the Republic of Ther remains neutral.

According to the Convention, in peacetime, ships of any country can pass through the strait unconditionally, and only need to report to the management agency of the strait in advance. During wartime, the Republic of Ter opened the strait unconditionally and allowed ships of any country to pass harmlessly.

Of course, the Republic of Ter will not serve military ships in any country.

All parties to the Convention must recognize and accept that even during wartime, military action shall not be taken in the strait, including attacking ships sailing in the strait.

Since then, this "free of war" scope has been expanded to all territorial waters of the Republic of Ter.

That is why the ships of the Imperial Navy can enter or leave the Sea of ​​Me from the Bosphorus, the Marmara Sea and the Dardanelles.

However, even if you can pass through the Bosphorus, it does not mean that you can safely reach Novorossisk, let alone control the entire Sea of ​​Ink.

If you want to say it, the Navy Command asked Li Shenzhi to serve as the acting commander of the Lu Xinhai Squadron, and also handed over the 51st Special Mixed Fleet to him for command. The most important purpose was to open up the route to Novorossiysk and let the transport fleet send supplies and equipment.

This route can be said to be the key to whether it can protect the shackles and land bridge.

To this end, the Navy Command also brought the aircraft carrier battle group "Li Mingbo" that had been operating in the narrow sea to return to Luxinhai, and was incorporated into the 51st special mixed fleet, forming a dual aircraft carrier battle group with the sister ship "Baizhizhan" to ensure that it can control the sea control rights of Dongluxinhai.

But the problem is that the Navy Command transferred the "Tang Zude" and "Liu Changxun" that had been operating in Lu Xinhai before.

Although there are only two large aircraft carriers of "Chen Bingxun" class, and their combat effectiveness is definitely not as good as the super aircraft carrier of "Xue Yuanzheng" class, these two aircraft carriers are equipped with nearly 180 carrier-based aircraft, which is a force that cannot be underestimated wherever they are placed, and even has the value of controlling the situation.

A few days ago, Li Shenzhi called the Navy Commander-in-Chief for this matter and proposed to keep two ships, at least one of them, and form a three-carrier battle group with two super aircraft carriers.

What made him feel very depressed was that the Navy Command rejected his request on the grounds that the two large aircraft carriers had to return to China for major repairs.

As for whether the dual-carrier combat group is enough, the Navy Command does not care.

To put it bluntly, if Li Shenzhi thinks that he cannot complete the combat mission to the Mohai North, he can give up the position of the commander of the squadron.

Fortunately, the telegram sent in the early morning allowed Li Shenzhi to see hope.

Before the counterattack operation is over, Xiluosha's strategic command system will be destroyed to ensure that the 51st Special Mixed Fleet and Transport Fleet can enter the Sea of ​​Meuro smoothly.

In order to reassure Li Shenzhi, the Navy Command mentioned in the telegram that the Air Force invested a lot to complete the mission.

During the battle last night, a new type of combat aircraft was dispatched.

Although it was not stated clearly, Li Shenzhi immediately thought of the "Boom-X" that had entered the prototype test flight stage.

According to the guiding ideology of the third round of military reform, among the several new combat aircraft developed, the closest to practical one is the "Boom-X" project, which was regarded as the lifeline by the Air Force.

The key is that "Bang-X" is the core equipment of the third round of military reform.

As far as Li Shenzhi knows, whether the theory of joint air-ground combat proposed by the empire and based on technical equipment can replace the theory that has existed for decades, and whether it can enter the electronics era from the era of mechanization depends on this kind of bomber.

Otherwise, the Imperial Air Force would not have been unswervingly advancing the project after burning nearly 10 billion yuan of research and development funds.

Even according to the most optimistic estimate, the "Hong-X" project will burn 20 billion yuan.

Judging from the current situation, the original plan of 20 billion gold is definitely not enough, because almost 20 billion gold has been used up in the early research and development.

Although the Air Force has secured additional funding, it is impossible for both houses to provide unlimited funding.

In order to control the total expenditure of the project, the Air Force is even considering the possibility of reducing the number of procurements.

According to the procurement plan proposed by the Air Force at the beginning of the year, we will temporarily consider replacing a large number of early "H-9s" with "H-X" to maintain the size of the bomber group. As for replacing all active bombers, military expenditure will only be possible during the war, and military expenditure will no longer be restricted.

In fact, if there are rumors about "Bang-X", you don't have to purchase too much.

In short, if the Imperial Air Force did dispatch "Hong-X", it would be very likely that Xi Luosha's command system would be paralyzed.

However, the real key action was actually in the counterattack in the first half of the night.

When the news was received, the Air Force had destroyed the front line headquarters of the Western Land Group and blew up the command train parked in the Volgograd station.

In addition, the Air Force Tactical Air Force also destroyed several other command trains.

The key is here.

Although only one of these command trains is "Li Kui" and the others are "Li Gui", there is no difference in hardware between these command trains, and the only difference is whether they are equipped with the headquarters. In other words, other command trains are also command trains.

There is a complete set of communication equipment on any command train.

These communication devices all need to use encryption chips.

Because there is no guarantee that these command trains will not be used, and the communication equipment has been installed in place, the chips used for hardware decryption are stored in the communication equipment carried by these command trains, and may not be damaged when bombed.

As long as you can obtain a complete chip, you will be sure to grasp the military communication password of Xilu Group.

This is the real key.

According to the telegram sent by the Navy Command, the counterattack in the first half of the night was to cover this, and the Military Intelligence Bureau was the one who led the operation.

After the counterattack operation begins, the Military Intelligence Bureau will send special forces.

As for how confident you are, no one can guarantee it.

However, this pushed Li Shenzhi to the brink of danger.

Because it is impossible to predict whether the Military Intelligence Bureau's operations can be successful, the combat troops involved in the operation, including the 51st Special Mixed Fleet, must act strictly according to the plan. Only after receiving the order issued by the Navy Command can Li Shenzhi lead the fleet back to Alexandria.

Although before that, in order to cover Alexandria, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet had already arrived at the outer sea, and to be precise, it had been operating in the East Land and Heart Sea and had no longer dispatched carrier-based aircraft to bomb Iraq, there was no need to go north to take risks, and there was no possibility of challenging the enemy.

Most of the time, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet operates under the cover of its own shore-based aviation forces.

Because there is no clear threat, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet is not very eye-catching on the Donglu Xinhai side, and the probability of being attacked is not very high.

According to Li Shenzhi's arrangement, the 51st Special Mixed Fleet could turn to retreat to the Xifan Canal at any time.

If the threat increases, you can retreat into the narrow sea.

Now, this is obviously impossible.

After receiving the telegram, Li Shenzhi ordered the 51st Special Mixed Fleet to move to the south of Cyprus and enter a state of combat readiness.

Just before dawn, dozens of carrier-based aircraft were dispatched.

According to the arrangement, the carrier-based fighter jets expanded their patrol scope to the airspace of the Republic of Ter and entered the Aegean Sea to its west many times.

Although it is performing defensive tasks, this is a typical offensive deployment.

This deployment method is often used when there is a clear threat when it is active in high-risk sea areas.

Offensive deployment can expand the fleet's defense range, increase the number of interceptions, and increase the probability of interception, but there is a very prominent problem.

It will quickly consume the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier battle group, or to be precise, the combat effectiveness of the carrier-based aviation force.

Of course, the aircraft carrier battle group under the offensive state is a huge threat in itself.

If you want to say it, this is also the value of the aircraft carrier.

In any case, aircraft carriers are responsible for deterrent and strike tasks, that is, aircraft carriers themselves are huge threats, and only by demonstrating their own existence can they produce threat effects.

To put it bluntly, only aircraft carriers that show their existence can produce a deterrent effect.

That's why the Imperial Navy has never considered the concealment of aircraft carriers for decades, and there is no possibility of concealment on the tactical level.

The aircraft carrier dominates the ocean, and it is not because of concealment.

When performing combat missions, aircraft carriers show off their offensiveness.

In the past, when dealing with regional conflicts and even local wars, this trick was very effective and could basically cure the disease.

As a result, aircraft carriers have become the "smart medicine" in the hands of the empire. No matter where there is a problem, sending one aircraft carrier can often have an immediate effect. If not, sending two or three aircraft carriers over will definitely eliminate the potential threat.

Looking around the world, there are no more than 20 countries that can withstand an aircraft carrier battle group.

A three-aircraft carrier battle group has a strike force of more than 95% of the world's countries.

But the problem is that this move may not work in a total war.

Although the Western Continental Group has no super aircraft carriers so far, and the technical foundations of the only large aircraft carriers are all from the Liangxia Empire, the Western Continental Group attaches great importance to anti-aircraft carrier operations, especially the Troman Empire, and has always regarded the aircraft carrier battle group against the Imperial Navy as its number one important task.

To this end, Xicheng Group not only has the world's largest anti-ship missiles, but also specially formulated anti-aircraft carrier tactics.

That's right, it's the saturation attack tactic of anti-ship missiles.

This was also the most severe challenge the Imperial Navy encountered after the war.

The heavy anti-ship missiles of the Western Land Group often have a range of more than 500 kilometers, with a flight speed of basically above Mach 2.5. The warheads they carry are at least 500 kilograms, and some even reach 1 ton. Only one can kill a 10,000-ton cruiser, and 3 to 5 can severely damage an aircraft carrier. In theory, dozens of such heavy anti-ship missiles can kill an aircraft carrier battle group.

If you are fighting in open waters, the problem is not big.

According to the experience summarized by the Imperial Navy, the biggest problem in anti-aircraft carrier combat is not to attack aircraft carriers, but how to find aircraft carriers and launch attacks in a timely manner.

An aircraft carrier is a navigable maritime combat platform and will not stay in a certain sea area.

The Imperial Navy's large aircraft carriers and super aircraft carriers can sail for several days at a speed of more than 30 knots after encountering serious threats.

This means that anti-aircraft carrier operations have very obvious timeliness.

According to the experience summarized by the Imperial Navy, the time from reconnaissance to completing the attack is only 3 hours at most.
To be continued...