Around 3 a.m. the officers and soldiers aboard "Peijing" and "Longjiang" started their busy morning.
However, it was not until 5 a.m., two hours later, that "Vermilion Bird" carrying out the first reconnaissance mission gradually took off from the carrier.
By then, it was less than an hour until dawn.
Despite months of night flight training, most pilots had mastered take-offs and landings from a carrier, but even experienced pilots like Shen Pu had to admit that spotting the enemy fleet at night was extremely difficult.
Moreover, it was easy for the naval officers and soldiers on the battleships to spot incoming reconnaissance aircraft.
The reason was simple: the roaring noise of the planes was very loud, and at night, even at altitudes over 5000 meters, it could be heard by the naval officers and soldiers on the battleships.
For this reason, Zhou Yongtao had scheduled the reconnaissance operations for after sunrise.
