In fact, the number of cruisers and destroyers of the two fleets in the north and south is similar. The real gap is mainly in terms of battleships. The Northern Fleet has 6 battleships, including two battleships built by the East China government, and the other 4 are also new ships with a age of less than 5 years; while the Southern Fleet has only two old battleships over 15 years old.

The reason for this extremely unbalanced distribution of battleships is because the Northern Fleet has the task of attracting the Expeditionary Fleet into the Taiwan Strait. The Navy Department believes that the Expeditionary Force crossed thousands of miles of oceans to the Far East, of course it is beneficial to quick battles. Although it showed the strong combat power of the People's Army Navy in the Navy of the Navy, the Expeditionary Force had an absolute advantage in number, so it was not afraid of engaging in a decisive fleet battle with the People's Army Navy. What was really worried was that the People's Army Navy did not engage in head-on battles with the Expeditionary Fleet, but used the advantage of the single-ship combat power of the People's Army Fleet to disperse its forces and take raids. If you find the main force of the People's Army Navy, you will definitely not miss this opportunity. Then the Northern Fleet, which is responsible for seducing the enemy, naturally must act like a main fleet.

In addition, once the battle begins, the Northern Fleet will definitely face the main force of the Expeditionary Fleet. Although there are modern warships, the pressure is not ordinary. Moreover, at the beginning of the war, the expeditionary warships were not fully introduced into the Taiwan Strait. Modern warships cannot easily take action. The Northern Fleet still needs to take more time. In contrast, the Southern Fleet is much smaller. Although the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait is nearly twice as wide as the northern entrance, there are Penghu Islands in the middle, and they mainly face cruisers and destroyers of the Expeditionary Fleet. Therefore, it is natural to allocate a large number of new battleships to the Northern Fleet.

The distribution of modern warships is on the surface, 2 north and 3 south, which does not conform to the setting of strong north and weak south. However, the strongest Kunming ship among the five modern warships was assigned to the Northern Fleet. It can be said that the other four warships are not opponents of the Kunming ship, so in fact, they are still strong north and weak south.

In fact, only one Kunming ship in the Northern Fleet is enough, but the Kunming ship can only carry one helicopter. The Natuna Islands Sea proves that one helicopter has limited control over naval combat, and the air stagnation time of one helicopter is also limited, so one Xiangyang ship needs to be built, so there are two helicopters that can be used to rotate, and one helicopter is always maintained in the air monitoring. When necessary, two helicopters can be taken off. Moreover, in order to ensure sufficient aerial monitoring power, the Kunming ship carried two helicopters this time, one parked in the hangar and the other parked on the helicopter platform at the stern of the ship.

The three modern warships of the Southern Fleet, Yueyang and Sanya are of the same level, with strong combat effectiveness. In addition, one Huaihua ship is also enough to complete the task of blocking the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait.

Finally, Shang Jinfeng said: "If this battle goes as we expected, then after the end of this battle, the Far East War will basically end. The government can consider how to end the battle and win greater benefits for us at the negotiating table."

After listening to Shang Jinfeng's speech, Xiao Jianjun said: "Although the Taiwan Strait is suitable for a battlefield, it is not our sphere of influence. On one side of mainland China, people can feel at ease and probably won't be enemies with us. However, on the other side, Taiwan Island is now in the hands of Japan. Although Japan does not have a fleet now, the shore-based firepower can still assist the expeditionary fleet in combat, posing a certain threat to us. I wonder if the Navy has taken this factor into consideration?"

Shang Jinfeng said: "We have indeed considered this factor, but we believe that the shore-based firepower of Taiwan Island has very limited help to the expeditionary fleet and the threat to us. First, the shore-based firepower of Taiwan Island is not strong, and it is mainly concentrated in the north and south ends. In contrast, the short shore-based firepower in the middle is very weak; secondly, Japan has no experience in cooperating with fleets such as Britain and France. Because it is coordinated by the shore-based firepower and fleets, it requires close cooperation, otherwise it will not only not be able to work with each other.

Supporting operations is easy to cause accidental injuries, but obviously the fleets of Japan, Britain and France do not have this condition; the shore-based firepower strike range in this era is limited, generally within 20 kilometers, the Taiwan Strait is originally enough width, and our main strike force is still five modern warships, and their combat distances are above shore-based firepower. Based on these reasons, we believe that the shore-based firepower of Taiwan Island has limited impact on this war, and there is no need to pay too much attention."

At this time, Xia Bohai said: "From Cam Ran Bay to Japan, under normal circumstances, it should be a sea off Taiwan, rather than passing through the Taiwan Strait. Therefore, the focus of this battle is to lure the Far East Fleet into the Taiwan Strait. I agree with the judgment of the Expeditionary Fleet just now. They definitely hope to fight quickly and fight with us as soon as possible. But these situations are our speculations. When we arrive at the actual battlefield, the Expeditionary Fleet may not enter the Taiwan Strait as we hope to fight and fight with us as the main fleet. Once this happens, will the Admiralty have a corresponding plan?"

Shang Jinfeng nodded and said, "Of course there are. Once the expeditionary fleet does not enter the Taiwan Sea, and walk outside Taiwan, it will definitely enter the East China Sea through the Miyako Strait and then to Japan. Therefore, the northern fleet will arrive at the Miyako Strait in advance to intercept the expeditionary fleet, while the southern fleet will follow the expeditionary fleet and cooperate with the northern fleet in the Miyako Strait to attack the expeditionary fleet. If the northern fleet fails to reach the Miyako Strait to intercept the expeditionary fleet, the southern fleet will first launch an attack on the expeditionary fleet and drag the expeditionary fleet. However, in this way, it is basically impossible to completely annihilate the expeditionary fleet. We can only do our best to annihilate as many warships as possible, but this war is not over and we must continue to fight. We must formulate the next combat plan based on the results of the battle."

After hearing this, Xia Bohai was very satisfied and said, "Okay, follow the plan of the Admiralty. You can fight with me if you don't have to worry. The government will be responsible for any result. When do you plan to set off?"

Shang Jinfeng said: "Let's leave from Qingdao to Shanghai tomorrow, and officially leave from Shanghai the day after tomorrow." He paused and said: "I will personally go to the battle with the fleet to supervise the battle."

Xia Bohai said: "Okay." He turned to Xiao Jianjun and said: "Old Xiao, I don't have time to go to Shanghai, so you can just go there, not only on behalf of the Military Commission, but also on behalf of the government to see off the fleet."

Xiao Jianjun nodded and said, "Okay, thousand."

So the next day, Xiao Jianjun and Jin Feng left Qingdao and rushed to Shanghai. At this time, the commanders of the two fleets in the north and south were ready, and they could set sail and fight with just a command.

The commander of the Northern Fleet is Han Chao. He was originally the deputy captain of the Kunming ship, and now serves as the deputy minister of the Navy and the commander-in-chief of the fleet; and the commander of the Southern Fleet is Wang Hailong. In fact, Shang Jinfeng originally wanted to appoint Wang Hailong as the commander-in-chief of the Northern Fleet, because although Han Chao also served as the commander-in-chief of the fleet, he actually left the combat post and retreated to the second line; and Wang Hailong has always been commanding operations on the front line and is currently the commander with the richest practical experience in the navy. Shang Jinfeng has planned to appoint Wang Hailong as the commander-in-chief of the Far East War, so it is of course natural for him to command the commander of the Northern Fleet as the main force.

However, Wang Hailong took the initiative to serve as the commander of the Southern Fleet for two reasons: one is that he was the captain of the Yueyang ship, commanding operations on the Yueyang ship, and is more familiar with the performance weapons of warships. In fact, the more advanced weapons, the better. Only by fully familiarizing with the performance of weapons, can we fully utilize the combat effectiveness of weapons. Although the comprehensive performance of the Kunming ship is far better than that of the Yueyang ship, Wang Hailong is not familiar with the performance of the Kunming ship, so it is difficult to fully utilize the advantages of the Kunming ship. So it is better to command operations on the Yueyang ship.

Second, Wang Hailong believes that commanding the Southern Fleet is more challenging, because although the Northern Fleet is the main force in the Expeditionary Fleet, the two modern warships, such as Kunming and Xiangyang, are actually not very difficult to fight. The Southern Fleet is a cruiser and destroyer facing the Expeditionary Fleet. The pressure of combat seems to be smaller than that of the Northern Fleet, but the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait is nearly twice as wide as the northern entrance. It is necessary to block the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait and prevent the expeditionary force from being allowed to

The fleet's warships rushed out of the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait and fled the battlefield. This difficulty was actually much greater than that of the Northern Fleet. In addition, if the Expeditionary Fleet did not enter the Taiwan Strait, the Southern Fleet not only had to follow the Expeditionary Fleet, but also had to take the lead in launching an attack when necessary to drag the Expeditionary Fleet. These combat tasks were more difficult than the Northern Fleet, and the requirements for the commander were naturally much higher. Wang Hailong hoped to challenge higher-difficulties.

Of course, Wang Hailong also has a small plan. Because in this battle, Shang Jinfeng, the highest official of the Navy Department, was going to personally supervise the battle. The Northern Fleet was the main force, and Shang Jinfeng was the former captain of the Kunming ship. Therefore, Shang Jinfeng would definitely take the Kunming ship and join the Northern Fleet to participate in the battle with the Northern Fleet. If he was the commander of the Northern Fleet, he would command the battle under Shang Jinfeng's nose. Although Shang Jinfeng would not interfere with his command, he would inevitably be a little restrained. Although the Southern Fleet was weak, he was up to him to decide. No one was in charge of him and could command the battle without restraint.

Of course, Shang Jinfeng didn't know Wang Hailong's little thoughts, but the first two reasons Wang Hailong put forward were quite reasonable, so he respected Wang Hailong's personal opinion and asked Wang Hailong to serve as the commander of the Southern Fleet.
Chapter completed!