The siege of Gal was the first bitter battle of the Marines after the landing. Strictly speaking, the biggest enemy is the countless hungry people.

The situation in Gal is even more dire than in other places, especially in rural areas.

Actually, this is also very easy to understand.

Garr is a big city that does not produce food, and all food is supplied by nearby villages. Under the wartime control system, local governments were responsible for the purchase and distribution of grain. After the granary was emptied by the Vatican army, where did the local government go to find food to distribute to the population?

Relatively speaking, even if the peasants were forced to pay grain to the Vatican army, each family still had some grain in stock, and they could still get some subsistence through fishing, hunting and gathering.

Don't forget that West Beng is located in the lower reaches of the Gangala River, and the estuarine delta is most lacking in aquatic products.

In addition, out of the Gangaro River is the sea-rich Mon Bay, and most of the residents in the coastal area are fishermen, and almost every household has a fishing boat.

By the time the Marines arrived, Gal was almost starving.

As a result, offensive operations turned into relief operations.

For example, the 13th Marine Division and the 12th Marine Division have increased the distribution of supplies several times, especially the 12th Marine Division, which specially arranged a reinforced battalion to transport food to the front line with 500 trucks, just 3,000 tons of rice sent to Garden Ridge with the assault troops, and about 2,000 tons of other types of food.

In addition, Ding Zhennan also asked Liu Zunshan to specifically advise the front-line commanders.

As long as the problem can be solved with food, do not use weapons.

Obviously, on the side of the Garr, there is basically no problem that cannot be solved with food.

On the outskirts of Gadenridge, the 12th Marine Division set up three distribution points and "traded" food with all personnel, including Vatican officers and soldiers.

If anything, it's actually barter.

In fact, this is also trying the new tactic proposed by Ding Zhennan, exchanging food for weapons.

To put it simply, it is to exchange food for weapons and ammunition.

According to the rules set by Ding Zhennan: the price of an assault rifle is 100 kilograms of rice or flour, and the ratio of two staple foods can be adjusted at will; A semi-automatic or bolt-action rifle is worth 50 kg, an automatic pistol is worth 75 kg, and a revolver is worth 50 kg.

In terms of ammunition, depending on the caliber of the bullets, 100 rounds can be exchanged for 1 kg to 20 kg of staple food.

In addition, machine guns, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, flamethrowers, grenades, man-laid mines, and individual anti-aircraft missiles, as long as they can be used by individual soldiers, can all be distributed at distribution points and exchanged for food from the coalition forces.

Later, even the military uniform was counted.

Large platforms and heavy weapons, such as vehicles and artillery, can also be exchanged for food, but only with the coalition forces alone.

Of course, in addition to "buying" weapons that have been stray to the civilian population with food, the Marine Corps is also actively helping the hungry.

In addition, it is to strengthen law and order.

After the 5th Marine Division captured the international airport in Gaar, the 12th Marine Division moved into Garden Ridge and took on the task of patrolling the city.

In fact, this is also directly related to the "weapons for food" plan implemented by Ding Zhennan.

To put it simply, it is only after law and order is assured that the local population is willing to exchange weapons for food. Otherwise, because of security concerns, especially if food is available, civilians will be more willing to keep their guns, even if they have to go hungry.

Security patrols are accompanied by a strict curfew regime and an occupation control law.

The "Occupation Control Law" is indeed the current law of the Empire, but it is not a single law, but a series of laws, which are mainly aimed at the social order of the occupied territories. Crucially, this set of laws targets not only civilians in occupied territories, but also military personnel in the occupation mission.

The first Occupation Control Act was born in the latter part of World War II, and it was mainly aimed at Imperial soldiers who were scattered across the battlefield to carry out occupation tasks. To put it bluntly, it is to restrain the occupying forces and provide the necessary security for the inhabitants of the occupied territories.

Subsequently, during the Polish-Iranian War, the Occupation Control Act began to target the population of the occupied territories and, for the first time, gave the occupying forces the power to enforce the law at the legal level. At that time, this was also a last resort, after all, during the Polish-Iraqi War, the main opponent of the imperial army was not the regular army, but the partisans. Without a clear front, almost the entire occupied zone is a battlefield, and it is difficult to distinguish civilians from partisans. Without battlefield law enforcement, it would be difficult for the occupying forces to control the situation, let alone engage elusive enemies.

Fundamentally, the law of occupation control is essentially a civil and criminal code with the force of military control.

Of course, it is inherently temporary.

The greatest value of the Occupation Control Act is that it frees the hands and feet of the occupying forces and enables them to maintain social order within the occupied territories and to combat enemies who disrupt them by means permitted by law, within the limits of the law.

To put it simply, it is to turn the occupying army into a policeman.

In order to more effectively enforce the Occupation Control Law, Ding Zhennan also hired thousands of Mongols through the Army Headquarters to serve as interpreters for the occupation forces.

These interpreters are all arranged in the front-line troops, directly accompanying and cooperating with the front-line troops.

After the end of the war, most of these paramilitaries from allies and friendly countries became citizens of the Empire, or at least granted permanent residency.

In addition, in Garden Ridge, there are several thousand civilian volunteers from the Eastern Bloc, mostly doctors and nurses of the International Medical Association.

To this end, the Marines also built several humanitarian relief hospitals in Garden Ridge.

As for medicines, as well as medical supplies and equipment, it is a trivial matter, after all, the Marine Corps can send tens of millions of tons of food to the front line, and it is not short of medicine and equipment.

It can be seen that the Marine Corps clearly wants to build Garden Ridge into a demonstration area.

If I want to say, it works pretty well.

By 10 January, the Marines had acquired and collected approximately 100,000 guns of various models and nearly 5 million rounds of ammunition at Garden Ridge by various means. Although most of them were old guns that were worn out and no longer functional, and some were even front-loading rifles that fired lead pellets from black powder, the occupation forces were indeed welcoming to the rest of the country, and the good law and order made Garden Ridge the most important settlement in West Bang State.

It was during this period that hundreds of thousands of hungry people poured into Gardenridge.

Later, the first civil establishment of the Eastern Bloc in the eastern part of the country was opened in Gardenridge, also because it was the safest place.

On the other hand, the Gard, where the 13th Marine Division is located, is a different situation.

Ding Zhennan chose Garden Ridge as a demonstration, in fact, because the scale of the city is relatively small, so the combat burden here is lighter.

Crucially, after the 5th Marine Division took control of the Gard International Airport, it was able to obtain various supplies from the country by air.

While air freight is not as efficient as ocean freight, it is much faster and better suited for transporting important supplies.

Of course, the main problem is that there are too many residents of Garr.

Close to 20 million!

According to estimates based on reconnaissance photographs provided by the Imperial Air Force, the population of Gal has exceeded 20 million, most likely 23 million.

With so many people, the Marines simply can't cope with it!

As such, the 13th Marine Division remained outside the city of Gard until January 8, and all it did was prevent the Vatican troops in the city from breaking through.

In fact, it is to deal with the counterattack launched by the Vatican army.

It can be seen that the Marines will not march into the city of Gard until they are fully prepared.

By 8 January, believing that it was ready, the 13th Marine Division launched an offensive and the vanguard moved into the city.

However, on the same day, the ground offensive was declared over.

The reason is also simple, the 13th Marine Division was not prepared for the offensive at all, or did not take into account the possible situation.

The vanguard had to stop only controlling the southeastern city of Garr.

The Vatican army had little resistance, and the roughly 3 million inhabitants living in the city made it impossible for the vanguard, which had less than 3,000 troops, to withstand it.

As a result, the vanguard withdrew from the city that night.

Obviously, fundamentally it remains a human problem.

Here, there is a very serious problem involved.

Although the Marines had occupied Canning Harbor, the 13th Marine Division had also disembarked here, and the 5th Marine Division still had a part there, the first convoy had already followed the Marines to Port Diamond during the landing operation, and all the supplies were in Port Diamond, while the second convoy would not arrive until late January, even if it was fast, and the only way to rely on it was to rely on air transportation before that.

But the problem is that the airfield is at Garden Ridge and the field airfield is at Port Diamond.

There is no airport here in Port Canning!

Even on January 5, when the field airfield built by the 13th Marine Division was put into operation, it could only support tactical transport aircraft.

Obviously, relying only on tactical transport aircraft, it is clearly a drop in the bucket.

It was for this reason that the Thirteenth Marine Division, on the other hand, did not follow the example of Garden Ridge and use food to meet the thousands of hungry people.

As a result, after withdrawing from the city, the commander of the 13th Marine Division gave up the idea of taking the lead.

However, the attack on Gal had to continue, but in a different way.

After two days of rest, on 11 January, the vanguard of the 13th Marine Division was again mobilized, but not into the city, but from the eastern outskirts to the north. In the evening of the same day, the vanguard reached Padbara and set up offensive positions outside the city.

The next morning, the assault on Padbara began.

To be precise, the purpose of the 13th Marine Division was to take the railway station, not the entire city, after all, Padbara also had millions of inhabitants.

The point is, Padbara is Gard's gateway to the north!

There are only two railways in the Garr, and both of them go north, on both sides of the Gangaro River, and the one in the east passes through Padbara.

In fact, the railway in the west bank is not far from Padbara, only a few tens of kilometers, within the range of artillery.

If there was a choice, the Marines would prefer to go to the west bank of the Gangaro River and occupy Kindernagar, across the river from Padbara.

The reason is also very simple, there are only a few hundred thousand people in Kindenagar.

Unfortunately, even if the 13th Marine Division has amphibious assault combat capabilities, it may not be able to cross the Gangaro River smoothly due to the blockage of the Gangaro River. The point is, to the north of Garr, there is no suitable place to cross the river to Padbara, mainly because the river is too wide.

It was obviously redundant to go north of Padbara to force the crossing of the Gangaro River, and then to the south to attack and occupy Kindernagar.

The capture of Padbara was to strengthen the blockade of Gal and force the Vatican army to retreat from Ghar.

Offensive operations are completely unchallenged and are still facing the same old problems.

Of course, for the 13th Marine Division, it can be regarded as a familiar road.

After the capture of the railway station, the 13th Marine Division did not advance into the city and remained on the outskirts, but opened up a few roads to the north.

To put it simply, the local residents are allowed to leave Padbara.

As long as you don't go to Gal, it's easy to say anything.

As for the railway, it must be cut off.

However, the offensive operations of the 13th Marine Division ended there.

It was not that they were afraid of being attacked by the Vatican army, but the 13th Marine Division had less than 20,000 officers and men, and there were no troops to continue north.

The point is that the second trip of the convoy brought two brigades of the 12th Marine Division, and all of them went to Port Diamond.

As for the second group of troops of the 13th Marine Division, even if all goes well, it will not be possible to reach Port Canning until after January 20.

In this way, it would be nice to be able to reach the front line at the end of January.

Of course, after receiving reinforcements, the 13th Marine Division did not have to continue north.

With enough troops, why not just storm Gal?

Laying down Gar and then going north into the Gangaro River valley was itself a strategic plan set by Ding Zhennan.

Officially, according to the deployment made by Ding Zhennan, the 13th Marine Division began to prepare for the attack on Garr after taking Padbara.

Unless there are any surprises, a combat operation against the Garr will be launched in late January.

The key is that in addition to the 13th Marine Division, the 5th Marine Division will also participate in the battle, and the number of troops invested will not be less than 5 reinforced regiments.

Don't forget that the force that attacked Port Canning has returned to Port Diamond.

In addition, other units of the 5th Marine Division will also arrive at the front in mid-January and be combat-ready.

Based on this estimate, the 5th Marine Division invested about 20,000 troops.

Counting the 12th Marine Division's participating troops, the attack on the Gard must have more than 60,000 troops, and at least 50,000 combatants.

This force is obviously more than enough.

Of course, with so many troops thrown in, the main thing is that there are too many inhabitants of Garr.

Prior to this, the largest city captured by the Marines was only a few million people. Obviously, capturing and managing a city of 20 million inhabitants was an unprecedented challenge for both the Imperial Marines and the Allied Command Structure.

Crucially, this challenge is unavoidable. Even if you bypass Gard, you will still have to face a populous city after going further inland.

To put it bluntly, the success of the military operations in the country of Van Luo will directly determine whether the military operation in the country of Van Luo will achieve the objectives originally envisaged.

It is precisely because of this that Ding Zhennan is willing to invest enough troops to fight the combat operation of attacking Gar as a typical combat example.