He said he left immediately, but it was delayed for a few hours, mainly because the airport was not prepared. The military plane that sent Ding Zhennan to take some time to conduct necessary inspections, and the pilot also had to rest. After all, it took about 10 hours to fly back to the imperial capital before.

Before the special plane took off, Ding Zhennan received a call from Shi Suliang from the official residence of the Chief Auxiliary.

The meeting has ended. With the insistence of the Prime Minister, a strategic plan with the southwest was adopted, which is only temporary. After half a year, whether to make adjustments to the strategic plan will be decided based on actual conditions, especially the results achieved in the ground attack.

In other words, if Ding Zhennan fails to open up the situation within half a year, he will shift his strategic focus to the northwest.

Because time is rushed and it is not very convenient to talk on the phone, Shi Suliang did not explain it clearly, just asked Ding Zhennan not to carry his thoughts.

In fact, it didn't take long.

When Ding Zhennan returned to the front line headquarters located in the southern port city of Pakistan, the Army Command had sent combat orders and combat plans.

The combat order is relatively simple, to be precise, authorization.

Zhou Yongtao has officially appointed Ding Zhennan as the commander-in-chief of the Southwest, fully responsible for the combat operations of the coalition forces. Due to his own qualifications and the away battle, Ding Zhennan still serves as the chief of staff in the coalition forces, and the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces is the chief of staff of the Pakistani Army.

Of course, the real power lies in Ding Zhennan's hands.

In addition, this authorization order also divided the southern subcontinent into four battlefields, namely the northwest battlefield dominated by the Pakistani army, the southwest battlefield where the imperial army acted as the main force, the eastern battlefield where the imperial army was alone, and the southern battlefield where the imperial army was temporarily entrusted to the Imperial Navy.

In name, the northwest battlefield is mainly based.

This is completely understandable, because the capital of Pakistan is here!

From the border to the Pakistan Railway Capital, the straight line distance is less than 30 kilometers, and the distance is only about 50 kilometers. The armored troops arrived with one charge.

In the Second Southern Subcontinental War, the main force of the Pakistan Railway Army fought bloody battles here, and finally blocked the progress of the Van Luo Army's heavy army's heavy army at the bitter price of nearly 100,000 casualties. At the most dangerous time, the Van Luo Army's armored reconnaissance forces had advanced to the outskirts of the Pakistan Railway Capital. If the reserve team had not arrived in time and defended the defense line, the Pakistan Railway authorities would have moved the capital.

In the decades that followed, Pakistan Railway spent a lot of resources to strengthen the outer defense line of the capital Iborg.

But the problem is that no matter how much resources are invested, the most fundamental problem cannot be solved.

Lack of the depth necessary for defense!

It is just a few dozen kilometers, not to mention the information age, even in the mechanization era, it is not worth mentioning.

That's why the Pakistan Railway Army has always focused on the northern region, with three of the five elite armored brigades deployed near Imperial Fort. Including the infantry troops acting as "meat shields", the forces guarding Imperial Fort accounted for 40% of the total Pakistan Railway Army's total strength. Then, the reserve team deployed in the rear, that is, near Baisha, the Pakistan Railway Army placed two-thirds of its standing forces in the northern region of the local area.

Under normal organization, there are almost 400,000 officers and soldiers!

This does not include reserves and militias.

The deployment was advanced, especially in the Beikh area where there was a dispute with the Vanluo Kingdom, there were hundreds of thousands of militia controlled by tribes and local governments.

If all of this is included, the total force of Pakistan Railway in this direction exceeds 1 million.

According to the corps strength, the Pakistani army is definitely the main force.

However, it is hard to say how strong the combat effectiveness of the Pakistani army is.

The key is that what plays a decisive role in this direction, or can have an impact on strategic balance, is actually the Northwest Garrison in the Imperial Local War Zone.

Although among the five major war zones of the empire, the local war zone has the least force and the jurisdiction is also the smallest, and it is all Class B and Class C troops. After all, local defense does not require the main force, but compared with neighboring countries, the combat effectiveness of local garrison troops is not bad, especially in several main directions.

There is no doubt that the Northwest Defense Zone is the main defense direction.

During peacetime, there was only one Class B Mechanical Infantry Division and two Class C Infantry Divisions in the Northwest Defense Zone, with less than 50,000 officers and soldiers in the organization, and the main task was border patrol.

Of course, after the outbreak of the war, all three divisions were mobilized, and necessary expansion was carried out according to the pre-war arrangements, and the number of officers and soldiers in the company increased to 70,000.

In addition, reserves and militias were mobilized to form three infantry divisions.

Two of these 6 divisions were deployed near the border with the Vanluo Kingdom, and they were all main divisions, including the only mechanic division in the defense zone.

Strictly speaking, this unit, the 54th Mechanical Infantry Division, is not a truly mechanized infantry unit.

Judging from the equipment organization, the 54th Mechanical Division is more like a mountain force that has been strengthened and equipped with a large number of light tanks and wheeled armored vehicles.

To be honest, all the three main divisions in the Northwest Defense Zone are mountain divisions, but the main combat equipment is different.

Among them, the Mechanical Infantry Division is mainly armoured, and the Infantry Division is mainly infantry. However, compared with other mechanized units, mountain troops like the 54th Mechanical Infantry Division are very special in order to adapt to a more complex combat environment.

Of course, the 54th mechanic is the main force.

After strengthening according to wartime standards, the combat effectiveness of the 54th Mechanical Infantry Division should not be underestimated.

Not to mention anything else, the division's 541st Armored Brigade was equipped with about 300 tanks.

Although they are all light tanks with combat weights of less than 40 tons, their protection performance is not as good as the main battle tank, but their firepower is not worse than the main battle tank, and their maneuverability is even better. Even if they fight head-on with the main battle tanks of the Van Luo Army, they will not be at a disadvantage.

However, the trump card of the 54th Mechanical Infantry Division is not the 541st Armored Brigade, but the 545th Artillery Brigade.

The brigade is the only brigade-class long-range artillery unit in the Northwest Defense Zone.

The main combat equipment of the brigade is 180 long-range rocket launchers, with a range of 200 kilometers using ordinary rockets, and a long-range rocket can reach 400 kilometers using long-range rockets.

In other words, even if these rocket launchers are deployed on the north side of the border, that is, within the empire, they can pose a threat to the capital of the Vanluo Kingdom. If costs are not considered, logistical support will not be a problem. 180 rocket launchers can turn the capital of the Vanluo Kingdom into a sea of ​​fire within a few days.

This is a real strategic threat!

Of course, even long-range rockets are very expensive and cannot be used on a large scale, and transporting ammunition to front-line artillery positions surrounded by mountains is a very troublesome and even difficult task. They can use limited ammunition to destroy military targets within the range.

After the military base in the rear was destroyed, what did the Vanluo Kingdom use to launch an attack?

What's more, there are several armored brigades and aircraft brigades eyeing the northern plateau.

The flanks are threatened, and attacking is equivalent to going to die.

From a military perspective, after the end of the Second Southern Subcontinental War, the peace situation could last for decades without a large-scale war. The big reason was that the empire deployed heavy troops in the northwest, posing a strategic threat to the core area of ​​the northwest of the Fanluo Kingdom, thus forming a delicate strategic balance.

In fact, this is itself the basic defense strategy of the Oriental Group on the battlefield.

After the war broke out, the Pakistani Army had only one task: defend the border defense line from Iborg to Lar, strive to defeat the morale of the Vanluo army in defensive operations, and force the enemy to increase troops to the front line. It is best to use the strategic reserve team in advance. When the time is ripe, the Imperial Army will launch an assault from the north, attack the flank of the Vanluo army, and go around to the rear of the Vanluo army, and encircle and annihilate the heavy army group of the Vanluo army.

According to the deduction, the offensive action of the Fanluo army can be crushed in just a few days and achieve a decisive victory.

Of course, whether to march into the Kingdom of Fanluo, such as attacking the capital of Fanluo, is a different matter.

Overall, in the northwest battlefield, the Pakistani army was a cutting board, while several troops from the Imperial Army's Northwest Defense Zone acted as bayonets for counterattacks.

In terms of importance, the Pakistan Railway Army and the Imperial Army are at least comparable.

Because Pakistan's local area is the main battlefield and I have to defend Iran, the General Staff of the Pakistani Army has always been the focus of command.

As for the other three battlefields, all of them are led by the Imperial Army.

Relatively speaking, in terms of ground operations, the eastern battlefield is basically negligible.

Although the Empire invested a lot of money and used a lot of resources to build the Southwest Railway and began to operate the military deployment of the Southeast Peninsula, as the Empire lost in the First Global War, almost all its investments in this direction were lost.

Even after the Second Global War, due to the global hegemony and the maritime routes were even more unimpeded, the imperial authorities did not continue to consume resources on the Southwest Railway, and basically gave up inland transportation lines, focusing on port construction.

Here, there is also a non-military issue.

The northeastern region of the southern subcontinent, especially the Yunwu River Estuary Delta, has too many populations. For example, Bangladesh, which has a land area of ​​less than 150,000 square kilometers, has about 200 million people, while the northeastern region of the Fanluo Kingdom also has about 200 million people, and the Burmese country to the east has about 100 million people. There are 500 million people in this area of ​​hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, and almost all of them are poor people struggling on the survival line.

According to statistics conducted by international institutions, this is the poorest and most backward place in the world.

Obviously, this is the main reason why the Empire is reluctant to invest in the region.

Not to mention the rewards, just how to treat the indigenous people of these hundreds of millions of extremely poor classes is a arduous test for the imperial authorities.

Not to mention, more than 1 million illegal immigrants entering the empire from this region every year, and basically all are concentrated in the southwestern region of the empire, especially the three border provinces. This is why the social situation in the southwestern region of the empire has never been very stable. What’s more serious is that illegal immigrants play an important role in the drug network and are also the key reason for the spread of drugs.

The empire's war against drugs was mainly targeted by drug lords entrenched in the region.

To this end, the empire invested billions of gold every year and sacrificed hundreds of anti-drug police officers, but they still failed to stop the drug.

It is not difficult to see from this that at least as far as the empire's senior management is concerned, the Northeast region of the southern subcontinent is not very attractive.

From a military perspective, there is no need to invest heavily in the eastern battlefield.

To put it bluntly, large corps are not the best choice for combat in river network areas where infrastructure is scarce and natural conditions are extremely harsh.

The key is that logistics support may not keep up!

Without railways and even roads are not complete, how can we transport combat supplies to the front line?

Of course, with the Imperial Army's experience in the Bo-Iran War, helicopters can solve some problems, but they will definitely not be able to replace other means of transportation.

This alone determines that the number of troops invested will not be too much.

In addition, armored troops are not suitable for combat in the Gang area, because main battle tanks weighing dozens of tons are basically unable to maneuver quickly in places with dense rivers.

If the assault ability is lost, the armored forces will lose their value of existence.

If you want to say it, the Marines are more suitable for fighting in such an environment.

That's why the main force in the eastern battlefield was the three light infantry divisions of the Imperial Army, which were amphibious troops facing the coastal areas.

Because the Marines were upgraded to independent troops, the Imperial Army abolished the amphibious forces after the Second Global War.

However, the Marines are nominally affiliated with the navy and are controlled by the navy, and they are not able to undertake corresponding combat tasks at any time.

In other words, the Imperial Army had the need to fight in the coastal areas.

It is precisely this that the amphibious forces were reorganized in the name of the Light Infantry Division.

Strictly speaking, several light infantry divisions of the Imperial Army that mainly target amphibious operations mainly face the southeastern region and the northeastern region of the southern subcontinent.

However, these light infantry divisions are all Class C units.

Even after the war broke out, it did not reach a complete state. It was seriously lacking in main combat equipment like amphibious armored vehicles, and its combat effectiveness was not strong.
To be continued...