"The Japanese Joint Fleet has a new commander? When did this happen?" U.S. Admiral Chester William Nimitz looked at the intelligence and asked, "Is the source reliable?"

"Shortly, a huge change occurred in the Japanese cabinet. Former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo stepped down, and former commander of the Joint Fleet General Yamamoto was promoted to Minister of Navy, and then the man took over Yamamoto's position. The news is reliable. The Russian ambassador to Japan sent a secret telegram and shared it with our country, explaining Japan's recent political changes."

"No wonder Japan proposed peace talks not long ago." Nimitz suddenly realized and lowered his head to continue reading the information. "The new commander is Hori-Ti-Ki. Why is this name so strange? Is there any information about him?"

"Yes, it's just 8 years ago..." Colonel White, an intelligence counselor, showed an embarrassment.

"What?" Nimitz was angry, "What did the intelligence department do?"

"This..." White said embarrassedly, "It's not that we don't pay attention to it, but that the general's resume is really weird. Eight years ago, he retired from active service and turned to business after failing in the political struggle. Our manpower and budget are very limited, and the active service are almost too busy, so we can't stare at every retired general, and then we interrupted our follow-up observation of him."

"What?" Nimitz glared, "You mean, this guy hasn't fought in 8 years?"

"Not only did he not fight in 8 years, but he had not returned to the army in 8 years, so he had no follow-up information and archives at all. Now he found some information from historical archives. He only knew that he and General Yamamoto graduated at the same time, and ranked higher than Yamamoto when he graduated. He was cautious when signing the London Naval Treaty and believed that he could reach a consensus with us. I heard that his personal relationship with General Yamamoto is good..."

"The Japanese's thinking is really weird..." Nimitz sighed, "The front line is still fighting hard, and suddenly he submitted his opinion on peace talks through the Russian ambassador. The joint fleet is the third navy in the world, and the powerful force of hundreds of thousands of tons of warships. Because this guy has a close relationship with Yamamoto, he easily handed over such an important position to a general who has retired for 8 years - if he wants to put it in our country, he will not be impeached by Congress until his death?"

"Sir, isn't this good news for us?"

"Good news? Yes!" Nimitz laughed, "It's really good news. I just expressed strangeness to the behavior of the Japanese. Sometimes I really want to cut open their heads and see what's going on inside."

"Sir, our listening troops on the front line also intercepted a large number of radio signals. Through password deciphering, it found that it mentioned a place codenamed WK..."

"Is it Guadacanal?"

"No! Guadao has another code, which we have always mastered. According to the analysis, this WK is likely to be Port Moresby on the island of New Guinea. Our troops are currently attacking. The deciphering telegram mentioned that a large number of troops were invested in the place to counterattack, and at the same time, it required the navy to provide reliable support to the army. It may take 3 days later... Based on the current intelligence analysis, the only thing that Japan has continuously invested heavily and has signs of counterattack is that it is there, where two divisions have nearly 50,000 troops, and General Halsey has learned about this."

"Continue to follow and find their flaws."

"Yes, but..." White said hesitantly, "maybe a little difficult."

"What?" Nimitz asked unhappily.

"Short after deciphering the password, the Japanese suddenly changed the password as a whole, and the radio density exceeded several times before, indicating that they had a big move next time. At present, these passwords are in German style, which we are not familiar with and cannot decipher..."

"Damn..." Nimitz pounded the table hard, "This must be the Germans who disclosed the news to Japan."

Although the destruction of super secrets is confidential to the outside world, Nimitz is very clear at this level. Although super secrets do not involve Japan itself, Japan may also be alert to Germany's past experience, which is not good news for the United States - thanks to the deciphering of Japanese passwords, the Battle of Midway has achieved such a prominent success, and now this clue is obviously broken.

"Can you ask for support from the German team?"

White shook his head and said helplessly: "The situation in the German team is worse than that of us. Half of their experts died in the German raid last month. At present, the German password cannot be deciphered - they originally expected us to help them. New password experts are looking for and recruiting, but the most optimistic expectation also believes that it will take at least half a year to see results."

Nimitz's face quickly became gloomy. After pondering for a moment, he said, "Send a telegram to General Halsey to make decisions about the enemy situation and formulate a combat strategy - this decision cannot be made by us who are in Washington."

"According to the deciphered telegrams and aircraft reconnaissance results, the Japanese army is planning a large-scale attack." At the Australian Frontline Operations Research Conference, U.S. Lieutenant General Halsey, who was irritable and known as the "barbarian bull", said, "The time can be basically determined to be three days later, but the key location of the battle is not yet clear. There are two speculations now: one is that the Japanese devils are going to attack Port Moresby; the other is that they need to strengthen the army forces on Guadacanal Island and counterattack. This is not only logical but also in line with the current deployment of the enemy. I want to hear your thoughts - General Nimitz requires us to make independent decisions and severely attack the Japanese fleet."

There were many discussions on the spot, and there were opinions from all sides, but the conclusion was obvious in summary - I agreed with the commander's judgment and hoped to grasp more situations.

"More situations are impossible. The road to deciphering the password has been broken and can only rely on our wisdom." Halsey walked to the battle map and said, "Moresby and Guadacanal are 1,500 kilometers apart. It is impossible for the Japanese fleet to take into account both directions. One must be the main attack and the other is the feint, but now it is impossible to judge which one is true. However, there is a key point here - whether it is to support the Moresby port or Guadal Island, the main force of the Japanese fleet must pass through the northern region of the Solomon Sea. I am determined to deploy our naval main force there and beat them hard. So, I think we should deploy here."

He smashed his fist into the southern part of the Central Solomon Sea and expanded to the left and right wings along his fist, about 800 kilometers away from the islands on both wings. Considering that the main combat range of the aircraft carrier formation is 200-300 nautical miles, if the Central Solomon Sea is located in the middle of Moresby and Guadalam, once the enemy situation is discovered, it can quickly make targeted adjustments and reactions, everyone agrees.

"Now, I order: the main aircraft carrier formation will set off tomorrow, maneuver in the southern part of the Solomon Sea and seek to fight against the main force of the Japanese Navy."

The current main combat forces of the US military are the TF16 aircraft carrier formation (the core ship is the USS Enterprise and the battleship South Dakota), the TF17 aircraft carrier formation (the core ship Bumblebee) and the TF64 battleship formation (the battleship Washington). There are 169 carrier-based aircraft on the two aircraft carriers (72 SBD-3, 27 TBF-1, 70 F4F-4). Most of the pilots are veterans who have experienced the Midway or the Coral Sea Battle. The former Midway Battle aircraft carrier commander Lieutenant General Fletcher returned to his country to recuperate. The fleet is currently commanded by Major General Thomas Kincaid.

At dawn on November 2, 1942, just the day before Halsey issued the combat order, Hori Teki, commander of the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet in Yamato, issued the "Combined Fleet Operational Telegram No. 341", ordering the fleets near Truk to set off south. According to the order, the shelling fleet and the mobile fleet took two routes. Among them, the route of the mobile fleet commanded by Lieutenant General Tsukahara was almost straight south, with the purpose of preparing to annihilate the US aircraft carrier fleet in the northwest of Guadalam; Hori Teki himself led the shelling fleet to drive southeast, preparing to circle a large circle from the northeast of Guadalam and then turn to the southeast, with the purpose of shelling the Guadalam defenders; finally (in the evening of the 2nd), the Mikawa Army led the 8th Fleet and some transport ships from Rabaul to prepare to respond to the retreat of the 17th Army troops currently in Guadalam.

On the morning of November 3, the US fleet had arrived in the Central Solomon Sea, which was about 500 kilometers southwest of Guadalam and was preparing to fight against the Japanese fleet that could appear at any time.

Sitting in the solid and heavy commander of Yamato, Hori Teiki was worried: this time he took out all the main forces of the joint fleet and pressed them up. Although he was very calm and calm in front of everyone, this was completely disguised as a way to inspire his subordinates, and he had no idea how the battle situation developed.

When we parted with Yamamoto before leaving, facing the prospect of the future war situation, he said: "If this war in Southeast Asia is not going well, we should seek peace quickly and at all costs."

Yamamoto did not express much surprise at this. After a moment of silence, he only asked: "Where is the bottom line in your heart?"

"The British and American colonies in South China have given up completely, and only seek to preserve their rights and interests in South China before the war; China has completely withdrawn from China's mainland, and only seeks to retain Manchuria and Mongolia."

"This is going to retreat to the state of 1933." Yamamoto laughed, "If this is the case, you need to defeat it. A small defeat is not enough, you have to lose a big defeat."

"Small victory or small defeat is a long-lasting end. The problem cannot be solved. You must have a big victory or a big defeat to have a way out." Horitiki said, "In this way, after the big victory, there is still a glimmer of hope to launch the Indian Ocean strategy with the residual power of victory. Otherwise, it would be better to surrender early and the people would suffer less."

Yamamoto Izuru nodded and agreed with his point of view

"So." He held Yamamoto Izuru's hand tightly, "Let me wait for news of my return in triumph or commit suicide with guilt."
Chapter completed!