You were tasked with guarding the Sihang Warehouse, and you brought out a Tiger tank?

Just as the top officials of the Great Xia State Government in Jiangcheng were embarrassed by the scandal of "the money for buying airplanes was deposited in the bank to earn interest".

In the neon-lit capital city across the sea, the atmosphere inside the Navy Ministry building was gloomy and somber.

The telegraph machine in the communications room was frantically spitting out notes.

The communications soldiers responsible for decoding looked at the contents of the note, their hands trembling as they held the pencils.

"Our fleet was attacked by a thousand enemy aircraft. We fought bravely, shooting down hundreds of enemy planes and killing countless enemy pilots, but..."

"The Izumo...sank."

"The Ashigara...sinks."

"The Nachi... was struck by lightning and sank."

"The Sixth Destroyer Division's Thunder...sinks."

……

Inside the meeting room, when the Chief of the Naval General Staff, Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi, slammed the battle report on the table, all the high-ranking Japanese officers lowered their heads, their faces ashen, as if their parents had died.

Since the Russo-Japanese War, in which the Russian Pacific Fleet was completely annihilated in the Tsushima Strait.

When has the Japanese Imperial Navy ever suffered such a humiliating disgrace?!

Three 10,000-ton heavy cruisers were blown to the bottom of the sea in less than half a day by the land-based air force of a mere Xia army commander.

"Baka yarou!"

After a brief silence, a hysterical roar erupted in the conference room.

Several young staff officers sitting at the back, deeply indoctrinated with Showa militaristic ideology, went mad on the spot.

A radical colonel named Kuroda, with bloodshot eyes, suddenly stood up.

With a "whoosh" sound.

He actually drew his samurai sword right there in the conference room.

"This is a national disgrace, the greatest humiliation since the founding of the Imperial Navy."

Major Kuroda brandished his katana and slammed it down on the oak table in front of him, sending wood chips flying.

"Lin Feng must die, and Qingcheng Port must be destroyed."

I propose that we immediately deploy the main force of the combined fleet.

Send the battleships Nagato and Mutsu into the Yellow Sea.

"Use the 410mm cannon to completely wipe Qingcheng Port off the map, avenging the fallen warriors of the Empire."

"Yes, deploy battleships and crush them."

Several other young staff officers also stood up, waving their fists and loudly echoing the call, instantly turning the entire conference room into a bustling marketplace.

"Enough! Put the knife away. What kind of behavior is this?"

Yamamoto Isoroku sat in his chair without even lifting his eyelids.

He stared coldly at the crazed Major Kuroda:

"Send battleships? For what purpose? To send them to their deaths?"

He mercilessly poured a bucket of ice water over the heads of these fanatics:

"Do you guys even have brains?"

How did the three heavy cruisers that Oikawa Koshiro brought sink?

Was it sunk by the warships of the Great Xia people?

It was sunk by Lin Feng's bombers!

Although somewhat skeptical of the telegram's claim of a thousand enemy aircraft—after all, the entire Japanese naval air force had fewer than 800 modern fighter planes combined—Yamamoto Isoroku still stood up, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.

"Without gaining air superiority."

Sending the Nagato and Mutsu there would only make them bigger sitting ducks in front of Lin Feng's land-based bombers, which are loaded with heavy bombs and torpedoes.

Do you want the symbol of the Imperial Navy to go to the bottom of the sea and feed the fish?!

Faced with Yamamoto Isoroku's reprimand, Kuroda's face turned red, and the veins on the back of his hand gripping the hilt of his sword bulged, but he couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.

"Yamamoto-kun, your words are too encouraging to others and diminishing your own prestige."

Admiral Suetsugu Nobumasa, the leader of the fleet faction, sitting across the long table, snorted coldly.

He was the one who orchestrated the plan to bombard Qingcheng Port.

Now that the entire fleet has been wiped out, he is extremely embarrassed.

Although the brutal battle reports jolted this staunch "big ship, big gun" advocate halfway to his senses, forcing him to acknowledge the immense threat posed by aircraft.

But the thought processes of these stubborn old folks are still outrageously bizarre.

In their minds, battleships were always the absolute masters of naval warfare and irreplaceable weapons of war.

Their conclusion was not "to phase out battleships and vigorously develop aircraft carriers" at all.

But...

"The battleships weren't the problem; the problem was that their anti-aircraft firepower wasn't enough."

Suetsugu Shinji placed his hands on the table, looked around, and loudly announced his decision:

"In this battle, the ships encountered hundreds of enemy aircraft, yet still managed to shoot down nearly a hundred. What does this demonstrate?"

The Oikawa Fleet was destroyed because those cruisers and destroyers had too few anti-aircraft guns to form a dense barrage.

As long as anti-aircraft firepower is strong enough, battleships remain invincible.

He turned to the director of the Naval Technical Bureau, who was in charge of shipbuilding, and gave the order:

"Immediately revise the design blueprints for the first and second ships currently under construction in the Maru-3 Project!"

Remove some of the useless secondary guns from the decks of the Yamato and Musashi.

Make room for me to fill the deck with 25mm anti-aircraft guns.

Install 100 doors, or 200 if that's not enough.

"As long as we have enough anti-aircraft guns, our super battleships are invincible."

Hearing Suetsugu Nobumasa's self-deceiving remarks, Yamamoto Isoroku sighed inwardly, closed his eyes, and remained silent.

He knew that there was no way to reason with these stubborn old men whose minds were full of grand ideas.

The tone of the meeting changed rapidly in the latter half.

Someone has to take the blame for such a huge mistake.

The first to suffer was naturally the frontline commander, Koshiro Oikawa.

"Oikawa Koshiro lost his army and disgraced the country; he was simply a disgrace to the navy."

Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai announced the outcome with a blank expression:

"Immediately relieve Oikawa Koshiro of all his duties."

He was ordered to be transferred to the reserves and sent back to his hometown to farm.

Although, unlike the army, they did not frequently order people to commit seppuku.

In short, it directly signaled the complete end of Oikawa Koshiro's political and military life.

But this is not enough.

The loss of three heavy cruisers was too great; the navy could not absorb the responsibility internally and had to shift the blame externally.

The best scapegoat, of course, is their lifelong nemesis—the Japanese army.

That afternoon.

At the joint meeting of the Army and Navy General Headquarters held inside the Imperial Palace.

A blame-shifting contest, a traditional art form, has officially begun.

"This is entirely the Army's responsibility."

As soon as the meeting began, Nobumasa Suetsugu was the first to launch an attack, pointing his finger at Army Minister Gen Sugiyama and hurling insults at him:

"It's because your army's air force support was inadequate."

The agreement was that fighter jets would take off from nearby airports to provide continuous air cover for our fleet.

The results of it?

There was a gap of up to twenty minutes in the air defense coverage.

"It was precisely because of the incompetence of your army idiots that the Imperial Fleet lost its cover and fell victim to the Great Xia bombers."

"fart!"

Army Minister Sugiyama Gen could not tolerate such an insult and immediately slammed his fist on the table, retorting sharply:

"The air defense of your navy's own warships is too poor; they can't even shoot down a few Daxia planes."

Three heavy cruisers, each weighing over 10,000 tons, were blown to scrap metal by a warlord from the Great Xia Dynasty.

Your incompetence has nothing to do with our army.

Navy idiots!

"Who are you calling a moron?!"

Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai was also enraged, pointing his finger at Gen Sugiyama and shouting:

"If it weren't for your army's stupidity in not being able to hold the position for even three days, and losing such an important strategic location as Qingcheng Port to Lin Feng."

Does our navy need to risk sending a fleet to bombard them?

Ultimately, it's all your army's fault.

It was you who lost Qingcheng Port, and left Lin Feng with the funds in the Zhengjin Bank's vault and the industrial equipment in the city.

"Your army are the sinners of the Empire!"

"Damn it, our army is bleeding and sacrificing on the front lines, and your navy is just laughing at us from behind."

"Your army is full of idiots who only know how to shout 'Banzai' and charge!"

In the entire Imperial Conference Room, high-ranking generals from the Army and Navy were arguing fiercely, spitting as they spoke, almost to the point of drawing their guns and shooting at each other.

The young Showa-era boy sitting behind the screen listened to the arguing outside, his face turning pale with anger, yet he was helpless.

"Enough! Shut up, all of you!"

Finally, Prince Kan'in Kotohito forcefully suppressed the farce by slamming his cane heavily on the floor.

"With a formidable enemy at hand, how can you salvage a sunken warship by blaming each other here?!"

The prince glared at both sides, his tone stern:

"The most urgent task now is to get rid of Lin Feng, this major threat."

They may argue, they may make a fuss.

Faced with Lin Feng, an unprecedented and enormous threat, the Japanese high command finally managed to reach a consensus.

We must avenge this humiliation.

Lin Feng must be eliminated.

We must not allow him to easily establish himself on the Jiaodong Peninsula.

If Lin Feng were to completely take control of Jiaodong, with his terrifying air force unit...

Control of the entire Bohai Bay and Yellow Sea will change hands, and the empire's logistical supply lines from the mainland to North and East China will be completely cut off.

This is a disaster that Japan absolutely cannot afford.

"Headquarters has decided to adjust its strategic deployment for the next phase."

Prince Kan'in, looking at the huge battle map on the wall, issued the highest order:

"Army side."

Immediately halt the full-scale offensive towards Pengcheng.

Seishiro Itagaki's 5th Division is currently being pursued by Lin Feng's troops in the Linyi area and is trapped in an encirclement.

The General Headquarters will mobilize again from the mainland and the Kwantung Army, drawing three elite divisions to enter the pass.

Commanded personally by General Terauchi, commander of the North China Area Army, the primary task was to rescue the 5th Division.

They then joined forces and launched the Jiaodong Counterattack.

"At all costs, drive Lin Feng out of Qingcheng Port."

The prince turned to look at the naval leaders:

"On the naval front, cruisers alone are no longer enough to counter Lin Feng's land-based air force."

Immediately draw the main force from the Combined Fleet.

The Kaga, a regular aircraft carrier currently on mission in the South China Sea, was transferred here. The Akagi was instructed to expedite its refitting process, and the air squadron aboard the Soryu was urged to complete its shipboard training as soon as possible.

In addition, one or two high-speed battleships, along with more escort destroyers, will be selected to form a new task force.

"At that time, in conjunction with the army's ground offensive, we will launch a devastating attack on Qingcheng Port from the sea."

Upon hearing this order, Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi, Chief of the Naval General Staff, frowned, his face showing reluctance:

"Your Highness."

The Soryu is currently undergoing integration training with its carrier air wing in its home waters, while the Hiryu has just been launched.

Other main warships were also scattered in various locations to carry out blockade missions.

This massive fleet needs to be recalled, regrouped, and replenished with ammunition and fuel.

Then, a detailed coordinated combat plan should be formulated...

At the fastest, it will take one and a half to two months.

"Then I'll give you two months."

The prince slammed his cane heavily on the floor, his mustache trembling.

"In the next two months, the army's new units will also complete their assembly and deployment."

Tell the generals at the front to be patient; two months later, the Imperial Army and Navy must work together.

"Use the most intense artillery fire and bombs to utterly crush Lin Feng's Thirty-Third Army!"

"Hi!"

The bigwigs of the army and navy all bowed their heads and accepted the order.

An unprecedented, multi-dimensional war involving land, sea, and air is rapidly brewing over Qingcheng Port.

At this moment, Lin Feng was unaware of the grand gift that the Japanese headquarters had prepared for him.