When people are in bad luck, they will get stuck in their teeth when drinking cold water. When ships are in bad luck, they are like this. They have only been hit by two 16-inch shells and are not particularly important, but they have become paralyzed due to unlucky luck. The power is lost and the fire spreads. If Nagato had not fought well and had almost sunk the Colorado by single-handed strike, the battleship of the Lucko would have been sunk by the Colorado.

However, the Muao is not much better now, and it has barely recovered some power, so it can pump water to extinguish the fire. The fire has finally been controlled, but it cannot be extinguished for a while, and its speed has not recovered. It can only sail slowly on the sea at a speed of 5 knots, dragging thick smoke. This is really a target that is easy to discover! Fortunately, it started raining at dawn today, and American planes should not be able to be dispatched.

Of course, Nagato did not have time to accompany the Lu Ao slowly climbing on the sea. Takasu Shiro left the snow wind, Nobita, and Toriyu three destroyers protected the Lu Ao to sail slowly. He led the main force of the fleet to meet with Yamamoto Iroku. This was actually the order of Yamamoto Iroku, because the commander's compartment, chief of staff and staff compartment on the Yamamoto were burned down and could not continue to act as the flagship of the Joint Fleet. Moreover, Yamamoto himself suffered a lot of trauma and needed to return to Japan as soon as possible for overhaul. So Yamamoto Iroku decided to move the headquarters back to Nagato.

When Yamamoto Iroku made the decision to relocate the headquarters and Yamato as soon as possible, he did not expect that his opponent would not give up until he lost so much, and he was preparing to bet on the last old man Hornet aircraft carrier and the Assaulter aircraft carrier!

"Commander, really don't need the Hornets and Assaulters to cover us?"

On the battleship Washington, Major General Frederick, Chief of Staff of the Pacific Fleet, looked at the dark sky with some concern. Now Nimitz's headquarters has been transferred to the last battleship of the Pacific Fleet, the USS Washington, escorted by more than a dozen light patrols and destroyers, hiding under a large rain cloud about 80 nautical miles southeast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

Although there was cloud cover, there was no straight-cover aircraft hovering in the sky. The two aircraft carriers that had originally left San Diego with the 7th Special Mix Fleet are now preparing to launch an air strike 130 nautical miles northeast of the Great Island of Hawaii.

"No need." Nimitz answered very simply.

He smiled and said, "The Japanese devils' aviation forces are now pursuing Halsey, supporting the Oahu battle, and protecting the injured 80,000-ton battleship and two Nagamon-class (the Nagamon also suffered 5 16-inch shells, but it was just a crack). And because of the weather, the Hornets and Assaulters must have launched the air strike first. When the Japanese were bombed, they will definitely send planes to search for the northeast direction with good weather, and ignore the southeast direction of the thunderstorm from time to time. Therefore, we are very safe. By the way, where has Spruins been gone? When can we meet with us?"

Spruenz was very lucky last night because the radar of the Japanese Hiei battleship was damaged, so he was unable to effectively track his three cruisers and a destroyer. He also successfully led the Hiei from Kaneohe Bay, allowing several other destroyers to rescue some people, including more than 200 precious carrier-based aircraft pilots.

"We are still 50 nautical miles away and we will be able to meet in 2 hours."

"Where is that Japanese battleship? Are you still following?" Nimitz asked.

"I didn't follow me anymore, I've left." Major General Frederick sighed softly and smiled bitterly, "I'm still unlucky. It would be great if the King Kong-class battleship was brought over. It would definitely not be the opponent of the Washington."

I was really unlucky. The Pacific Fleet lost two more precious battleships in this battle! Moreover, the battle between Oahu was also very ugly, and only a small part of the people who were about to retreat were withdrawn. The results of the battle were only to defeat a Nagato-class and the 80,000-ton Japanese battleship.

"There will be sunk, there will be some," Nimitz said with a smile. "Fletcher will not disappoint me. Moreover, the 80,000-ton Japanese battleship looks to be repaired for several months. Before that, the Japanese should be unable to launch a counterattack against Australia. And they have to worry about defending Hawaii, which is not easy for the Japanese."

...

"Commander, the Marine Corps has taken the Diamond Mountain. A part of the Taiwan Mixed Brigade that has already landed has begun to attack Honolulu."

Yamamoto Iroku, who was frowning, inspecting the burned Commander's Office, Chief of Staff Cabinet, Staff Cabinet and other places, received some good news that made him happy.

"Ugaki-kun, it seems that the Battle of Hawaii will be a complete victory in a few days." Yamamoto Iroku said, "At that time, we can use Hawaii to restrain a large number of US Navy forces."

Ugaki Chan seemed to disagree with Yamamoto Iroru. He shook his head and said, "Commander, we must also deploy a large number of troops in Hawaii, and our strength will be restrained."

"We will be restrained, too?" Yamamoto smiled, "Why?"

"Isn't this obvious?" Ugaki said, "The Hawaiian Islands are the key to defending the central Pacific and the gateway to the Western Pacific. As long as we firmly guard it, the United States will be unable to threaten the hegemony of our empire in the Western Pacific. However, Hawaii is far away from our empire and has a slow and long distance of more than 3,000 nautical miles. Therefore, it is difficult to transfer materials. If we want to maintain hundreds of thousands of troops and thousands of commonly used aircraft in Hawaii, the amount of materials that our empire needs to replenish to Hawaii every year will be extremely huge. I am afraid it will take up millions of tons of merchant ships and continue to transport them."

Ugaki has always opposed the occupation of Hawaii because in his opinion, it is certainly a huge price to capture Hawaii, but compared with the long-term defense of Hawaii, the price of occupying it is really insignificant.

"It takes so much?" Yamamoto Iroku shook his head with a smile and said, "If Hawaii does not fight, it will be a decisive battle, and it is a battle between our empire and the United States. Therefore, neither the United States nor our country dare to start the Battle of Hawaii easily. Now that Hawaii has fallen into our hands, the United States will not easily counterattack before preparing for it. Perhaps the second Battle of Hawaii will not happen in three or five years. So instead of consuming troops and financial resources in Hawaii, we should bluff and make an empty city plan. As long as the Americans mistakenly think that Hawaii is stationed in heavy troops and dare not attack easily, we will achieve our goal."

The plan to empty the city in the Hawaii Islands! Ugaki stared at the gauze wrapped around his head, but his expression was a bit unfathomable. He thought to himself: No wonder he could be the commander, he just had an idea! Hawaii, which he had worked hard and spent such a huge price, was actually used to sing the empty city scheme, and those American ghosts and animals must have never imagined it. If they could sing the empty city scheme seriously, such as claiming that there were thousands of aircraft, tens of missiles, and 830,000 imperial army, etc., then the United States did not have dozens of warships and hundreds of aircraft carriers, how could they dare to attack Hawaii? To save so many ships, even the United States would have to spend ten or eight years?

Moreover, while the United States is preparing to counterattack the Hawaiian Islands, it must also be wary of Japan's attack on the west coast of the United States and Canada with the Hawaiian Islands as a base, and also be wary of Japan's fleet breaking its way from the Hawaiian Islands to attack the United States-Australia route. Therefore, the considerable power of the US Navy will be restrained by the Hawaiian Islands. In this way, Japan can do whatever it wants in the Western Pacific.

When Ugaki Chan was secretly impressed by Yamamoto Iroji, a staff officer from the Joint Fleet Command suddenly rushed into the Yamato officer canteen occupied by Yamamoto and Ugaki as a temporary command. As soon as he entered the door, he even forgot to go on the military salute and shouted: "Commander, the Muao was bombed! The Muao was sunk by an American plane!"

Yamamoto Iroru and Ugaki Chan both jumped up suddenly, both of them looked inexplicably surprised.

Ugaki said: "How is it possible? It's raining outside!"

The sea area where the Yamato is located is now windy and rainy, and the plane cannot come at all, but it is not raining in the entire waters near Hawaii.

The staff officer said: "The telegram from the Xuefeng said that the heavy rain on their side had arrived less than an hour after it stopped. Dozens of American planes came and dozens of torpedoes and dozens of bombs were thrown. The Luao hit 4 torpedoes and 5 bombs, and one of them hit the Luao's turret No. 3 and triggered a big explosion."

It turned out that the fire on the Muao became a very eye-catching target on the sea, and it led to an American submarine wandering near the Hawaiian Islands, following along. Because of the snow wind, Shi Yu and Ye divided the three destroyers to escort around Muao, so the timid American submarine did not find a chance to launch a torpedo, in fact, the sonar on the Japanese destroyer was very poor and no submarine was found at all. So when the heavy rain stopped, the submarine summoned dozens of American aircraft with telegrams, and a bomb torpedo sank the Muao.

"Baga!" Ugaki Chan cursed, "There are American aircraft carriers nearby, and they have not escaped."

Yamamoto Iroku ordered a little furiously: "Order Nanyun, and Tianyi will immediately send a comet plane to search. No matter what, the US aircraft carrier cannot be allowed to run away!"

Yamamoto Iroji's face was also a little ugly. Yamato Nakabang was broken, Muro sank, and two army aircraft carriers were lost. The carrier-based aircraft were missing more than 100 times one after another. The planes were nothing, but the pilots on it were all treasures. Although the battle in the Hawaiian Islands won, the price seemed to be quite large. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!