Although the Northeast Army led by Hei Wuchang disrupted the plan and deployment, Simon's strategy of luring the enemy did not fail, but the three ace joint forces of the US army were more careful, and they could have advanced to Ramadi within three days, but it took them a week.

And this week's time is enough for Simon to turn the entire Ramadi perimeter into a super position and minefield, although they only have 150,000 people on the entire battlefield, while the other side has 300,000 people and more than 1,000 tanks, but the morale of the Prophet Army is not comparable to the coalition army.

Compared to the last advance on Lutbay, the battlefield commander of the coalition forces this time has been replaced by McCain, which is obviously requested by the multinational force.

George, the commander-in-chief, only serves as the link of a multinational force and commands at a large level, while McCain is not in a hurry to attack, sitting in the command headquarters, he carefully reads through every piece of information provided by the intelligence department, and the victory or defeat of the war is often decided only in a moment, ignoring a small detail, and the biggest factor for victory may be ignored.

"Only 150,000 people!" McCain wondered that the Prophet's army seemed to have more troops at its disposal, and it seemed a little too far-fetched to hold the whole of Ramadi with just 150,000 men.

"The Prophet's Southwestern Army has crossed the Iran-Saudi border and is fighting against the Royal Saudi Army's Second Army in Saudi Arabia." The staff officer said suddenly.

"No, the Second Army of the Royal Saudi Army only has a strength of 20,000 people, and it has been disabled twice, does it need 100,000 troops to deal with it?" McCain said.

The staff officers of many countries also reacted, and the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, Erickson, said: "Maybe their target is not the Royal Army's Second Army, but the First Army, and the Central Garrison Division of the Prophet's Army has already marched into Kuwait, and I don't think they want to defend Kuwait." ”

"I think Simon's real target should be the Saudi capital, as long as the Saudi capital is captured, it can basically make Saudi Arabia unable to support this war, and most of our supplies are shipped from Saudi Arabia, obviously this is to cut off our logistics." Claude, the commander of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Division, also said.

"What about airplanes, why don't we use them? The U.S. military has concentrated seven major aircraft carrier battle groups, and the coalition forces also have three major aircraft carrier battle groups in the Mediterranean, so why don't we use planes to deal with the Prophet Army? At this moment, Ogasawara, a staff officer of the Japanese Dispatch Army, said, "Why should we fight a tough battle with them?" ”

Of course, they know the importance of air supremacy in modern warfare, but the NATO air force fighting in enemy territory must face the Iraqi territorial air defense force, and the Iraqi air force is not vegetarian, it is equipped with advanced Russian-made fighters, and since Afghanistan was opened, even Chinese fighters have been equipped.

They really want to take advantage of the air force and seize air supremacy first, but in this way, the NATO air force must pay a heavy price, and even after an air battle, there may be less than dozens of planes left in the end, but it may not be able to complete the strategic purpose, you must know that the current Iraq is not the previous Iraq, itself is an oil power, the establishment of economic zones, and the successful cultivation of Oriental International grain in Iraq have greatly enhanced Iraq's national strength, and the most important point is that the Iraqis are all oriented to the Prophet Army.

So McCain didn't explain, Ogasawara was sent, it was also because his predecessor was killed by the Prophet's Northeast Army in Turkey, and the Japanese and Philippine troops in Turkey at that time were given special care by the Prophet's Northeast Army, and the two commanders were directly killed, and later after Turkey withdrew from NATO, there were only a few hundred people who could come to the battlefield in Iraq, and most of them were very timid.

The Japanese prime minister also had no choice but to send another 5,000-strong force to Iraq, and this was because China was pressing on Japan step by step in the East China Sea, and the continuous cruising of the Russian Pacific Fleet greatly reduced Japan's strategic space, and the United States transferred almost seventy percent of its warships to the Mediterranean, which caused the emptiness of the Pacific Ocean.

As a last resort, the Japanese wanted to put pressure on China in Iraq, and Ogasawara came for this reason.

It's a pity that McCain directly ignored his opinion, and he summed it up and said: "I think that the real purpose of the Prophet Army is not Saudi Arabia, on the contrary, the purpose of the Prophet Army is us!" ”

Hearing this, everyone was stunned, and Erickson said, "Isn't this a clear intention to cut off our transportation supplies?" ”

"Wrong, the real purpose of the Prophet's Army is to create a false impression of attacking Saudi Arabia, so that the Southwest Army will make a detour, attack our rear Jordan, and completely block our logistics supply when it reaches Lutbay, and form a flank attack with the 150,000 people in Ramadi, once we can't capture Ramadi in a short period of time, and we can't hit Baghdad, it will directly lead to the annihilation of our army!" McCain said.

Everyone didn't think he was alarmist at all, in fact, if the supply was cut off, their army would not be able to support for long, no one would expect their subordinates to take guns without bullets to fight the Prophet army hand-to-hand, once the bullets were gone, voluntarily surrendering was their first choice, which was the biggest weakness of the coalition army.

"But now that we've reached the periphery, can't we retreat?" Claude is not reconciled, even without the support of the air force, they are all ace troops.

"Nope." McCain shook his head, "The U.S. troops in Baghdad don't have to count on it, if they could help, they would have helped a long time ago, so we changed our strategic goals." ”

"What do you mean?" Everyone was surprised.

"Bypass Baghdad, head to Basra, and strike at the heart of the Prophet's army!" McCain pointed to the map.

Everyone looked at it and found that it was really possible to try, the Southwestern Army went to Saudi Arabia, the garrison division was in Kuwait, and now Basra is extremely empty, although there is also a Southeast Army, but everyone knows that the Southeastern Army is mainly to defend Iran's Khuzstan, as long as they take Basra with lightning speed, the power of the Prophet's Army will be over.

When the time comes, they can also open up the Persian Gulf to the sea and expel the Russian fleet, so that the situation will be greatly reversed.

But there are still people who object, this person is Ogasawara, and after being ignored once, he is very unwilling to say: "Isn't this following Taylor's old path?" What if we can't get to Basra? When the time comes, the Prophet Army will turn back, and it will form a flanking attack on us from all sides! ”

The entire pre-war headquarters was quiet, Ogasawara was right, if it couldn't be defeated, 300,000 people would have to be wiped out, but McCain had already considered this, and just said calmly: "We are not sending all the troops over, on the contrary, we send two aces to Basra." ”

As he spoke, he looked at Erickson and Claude: "Your troops are the most mobile, with enough supplies, it will only take about two days to raid Basra, especially when the Prophet's army is empty, which can not only disrupt the entire battlefield, but even help us to seize control of the north." ”

Eriksen understood that even if they couldn't hit Basra, the Prophet Army in Ramadi would quickly come to Basra's aid, unless they didn't want Basra, but this was almost impossible, Basra was the capital, and if it was captured, the new Iraq would be destroyed, and the Prophet Army would definitely not give up, and all the troops would rush to their aid.

"At that time, we will counterattack Baghdad in one fell swoop, disrupt the positions of the returning troops, completely cut off the connection between the north and the south of Iraq, and if they do not return to help, we will take Basra directly!" Claude said.

McCain nodded, this is exactly his strategy, this time Simon is in the old way, it is impossible to think that he will do this, when he thinks about it, it is too late, when the air force of the Prophet Army is dispatched, then their air force can also be dispatched, and the Prophet Army that is disrupted is not so terrible.

Soon McCain gave the order to attack, this time the attack was the 75th Ranger Regiment of the US Army as the main force, this team composed of special forces, will be the vanguard of the first round, and the hundreds of thousands of NATO coalition forces followed, McCain is very smart, this time he did not attack in a hurry, on the contrary, he was clearing mines while breaking through, with the help of army aviation helicopters, step by step, once the other side used anti-helicopter rockets, he sent tanks to suppress.

And because most of the Prophet Army is minefield and there are only a few important passages, their tanks naturally can't get out, only the help of the Army Aviation is obviously a headache for the rogue fighting style of the NATO coalition forces, and the vanguard of the other side are special forces, so in one day, the troops on the periphery of the Prophet Army had to retreat to the city.

In the command headquarters, Simon also frowned, now that the major generals are there, the other party has a numerical advantage, and the weapons and equipment are almost the same, they have no way to launch a counterattack attack, they can only rely on the favorable terrain to encroach on them.

But when encountering McCain, a seasoned opponent, the Prophet Army can't take much advantage at all, even if it is black impermanence, it is helpless, according to his method, that is, directly drive the tank out, fight guerrilla warfare, and it is not his specialty to fight street battles in the city, which also greatly limits the aggressiveness of the Northeast Army.

But Simon can't help it, they only have 150,000 people, if Hei Wuchang goes out, at most he will scratch the itch of the guarded opponent, and he may even be surrounded and annihilated, although he believes that Hei Wuchang can take advantage of the situation, but the war has been fought so far, he can't just build the hope of victory on a miracle, and now if the fight continues, wait for the southwest army to detour, their chance of victory will reach more than sixty percent.

But Simon really misjudged this time, he didn't know that McCain was going to make a risky move, no wonder, McCain was not an adventurer in the first place, his personality was the same as Simon, he was of a safe nature, but this time the Prophet Army forced McCain to do so.

However, Simon did not see this strategy, but another person discovered McCain's intentions: Abdul-Jabbar, who had just been evacuated from Afghanistan