The official residence of the first auxiliary of the imperial capital.

After dinner, Zhou Yongtao took advantage of half an hour after the meal to meet Shi Zhiliang, who came from afar, and listened carefully to his report.

On the other side of Posha Bay, the combat operation has entered the final stage.

Strictly speaking, the ground offensive is the end of the Posha Bay War.

The indiscriminate bombardment, which lasted for nearly 2 months, had already destroyed the national defense system of Ila X, and the Ira X army had long lost its fighting spirit under the high-intensity bombardment.

Even if only the 7th Panzer Division remains, it will definitely be able to take down Bag X.

Besides, the 7th Panzer Division has not yet reached wartime status and is still a divisional establishment. Therefore, even if an accident occurs, it only needs to send additional combat troops to the 7th Armored Division to expand into a field army, and there is no need to draw the main force from other theaters.

The focus is on the Southern Subcontinent.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shi Zhiliang formally proposed to Zhou Yongtao that Ding Zhennan be appointed as the interim commander of the Southern Coalition Army and be fully responsible for combat operations in the Southern Subcontinent.

To Shi Zhiliang's surprise, Zhou Yongtao did not agree, and said that there was already a more suitable candidate.

However, Shi Zhiliang immediately understood.

The Southern Subcontinent is under the jurisdiction of the Southern Theater of Operations, with the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division as the permanent garrison and the reinforced 17th Panzer Division as part of the Western Theater.

Obviously, it is certainly not appropriate to send Ding Zhennan of the Northwest Theater to take command.

What's more, Ding Zhennan is so young that he may not be able to convince the public.

Of course, Zhou Yongtao also clearly told Shi Zhiliang that he really needed Ding Zhennan to go to the Southern Subcontinent, but he was the chief of staff of the coalition forces.

As for the commander of the coalition forces, he will be the general of the Southern Theater of Operations.

In addition, the southern subcontinent will be divided into two battlefields, the north and the south, Ding Zhennan is in charge of the southern battlefield, and the northern battlefield has another candidate.

Although Zhou Yongtao didn't say it explicitly, Shi Zhiliang immediately thought that it was likely to be Fu Weimin.

In this way, the 17th Panzer Division will definitely be sent to the capital of Pakistan.

Shi Zhiliang didn't know what to say about this arrangement.

The reason is also very simple, Zhou Yongtao's strategic intentions are diametrically opposed to his own!

On the way back to China, Shi Zhiliang discussed with Ding Zhennan, and the two tended to have the same views on the overall strategy, that is, to focus on the south first.

To put it simply, first stabilize Karachi, and then cooperate with the Pakistani Railway Heavy Army Group in the middle to fight a battle of annihilation on the east bank of the Sutlej River. Having grasped the initiative in the central region, it will not be much difficult to storm the capital of the Van Luo Kingdom in the north, sweep the Gangaro Plain in the east, or even sweep the western coastal areas with the most developed economy in the south.

To fight like this, it is first necessary to invest sufficient troops.

If it pushes south, it will also need naval contributions.

All in all, the Southern Subcontinent is the main battlefield.

Obviously, that's the problem.

During the discussion, Ding Zhennan reminded Shi Zhiliang in a more obscure way not to have too much hope.

To put it simply, whether the Southern Subcontinent is the main battlefield or not is not decided by these front-line generals, but by the rear commanders.

Zhou Yongtao's deployment obviously did not regard the Southern Subcontinent as the main battlefield, at least temporarily.

Spreading the limited forces across the entire line of defense has only one purpose.

Hold the front!

In other words, there are currently not enough forces to fight a large-scale ground war in the southern subcontinent.

However, Zhou Yongtao did not say this, but emphasized another issue.

Wear down the enemy's forces through defensive operations on the inside line, fight a war of attrition with the enemy, thwart the enemy's spirit, and lay the foundation for a counterattack.

Hearing this, the conscience of the giver is counted.

If you want to say anything, Zhou Yongtao also has a hard time.

After the entry of the Van Luo Kingdom, the Nuland Republic will definitely enter the war in the near future, and the third global war will also be in full swing, and the empire must be at war with the most powerful opponents in 2 main strategic directions, so it cannot waste troops in the secondary directions, let alone complete the war mobilization yet.

Although there is great strategic value, the southern subcontinent is a secondary direction.

The main direction can only be the continental battlefield and the Guia battlefield.

The key point is that the Imperial Army is still a passive defense on the continental battlefield, and it is still far from launching a strategic counterattack and seizing the initiative on the battlefield.

Just yesterday, on the night of October 3, the last of the Eastern Loksha troops guarding Astrakhan surrendered.

Although there were still some sporadic battles on the outskirts, and the Western Continent army suffered heavy losses and was unable to attack the shackled land bridge south in the short term, as Astrakhan changed hands, unless the Imperial army could open a transportation route to the north in the near future, the shackled land bridge would be lost within the year.

The loss of the Badong Cave, to be precise, the control of the Badong oil field by the Xilu Group, will have unimaginable consequences.

In addition, on the side of the Ural Mountains, the forward units of the Western Army Regiment had advanced to the outskirts of Orenburg and sent forward aviation to bombard Yebao.

Even though the first snow of the year has fallen, there is still more than a month before the harsh winter.

There is no doubt that this winter in Yebao will not be easy.

The key is that the Eastern Coalition has been losing ground on the mainland battlefield, especially the loss of Astrakhan, which has affected the surrounding countries.

Among them, the most critical is the Republic of There.

According to Zhou Yongtao's analysis, if the Eastern Coalition Army loses its shackles and land bridges, especially if it suffers a crushing defeat in the southern region near the Caucasus Mountains, the Republic of Thell will definitely not join the Eastern Bloc, and it will be fortunate that it will be able to continue to maintain neutrality at that time.

From another point of view, without the support of the Republic of There, it will definitely not be able to hold the shackled land bridge.

In addition, it will have an impact on the situation on this side of Posha Bay.

To put it simply, as long as the Republic of There joins the Western Continent Group, even if it emphasizes its neutrality, the Boi Kingdom, which is still in a wait-and-see mode, will enter the war.

The country of Boi has not taken sides so far, because of the worries of the Republic of There.

From this point of view, it is not too much to emphasize the importance of the mainland battlefield.

It is precisely because of this that Zhou Yongtao unequivocally told Shi Zhiliang that he had to go to the Northwest Theater immediately to preside over the overall situation, and no matter what the request was, he could put it forward.

He has only one mission: to stabilize the current front!

Even if the commander has to go to the front in person, he must not take a step back.

In order to reassure Zhou Yongtao, Shi Zhiliang made a military order.

As for the other main battlefield, it has little to do with Shi Zhiliang.

However, he could see that Zhou Yongtao had been worried, which was obviously related to the situation in the Guia Ocean.

In Zhou Yongtao's self-deprecating words, this feeling is like a cancer patient who goes to the hospital for follow-up, even if he knows that he has a terminal illness, he is still hoping for a miracle.

It was also when Zhou Yongtao and Shi Zhiliang discussed, to be precise, asked Shi Zhiliang whether he needed to send troops to the Southern Theater, in fact, when he was increasing troops to Aozhou, Lin Shiping and Qin Fenglie arrived and brought the latest battle report, and it was a battle report sent by the Guia Fleet.

On the morning of the 4th, at around 8:45 local time, the Guia War broke out.

The Nuland army fired the first shot before the official declaration of war.

According to the battle report sent by the Dongwang Fleet Command, the Nuland fighters attacked the early warning aircraft of the Imperial Air Force on patrol 1,000 kilometers east of Honu Island, and also shot down the escort fighters, and the fighters of the Imperial Navy then fired back.

It's just that the battle just started, and what the specific situation was, it was not mentioned in the battle report.

Zhou Yongtao did not delay, and immediately called Luo Youbin in, asked him to contact the other cabinet members, and asked the foreign minister to issue a statement immediately.

Of course, it is also necessary to revise the declaration of war that has been drawn up in advance.

At the same time, the Guia, the sea east of the Khowaii Islands.

Under the leadership of Zhu Tingxuan, the four "Zhan-9Bs" in the team were speeding up and flying north.

About 10 minutes ago, when he received a voice call, Zhu Tingxuan thought that the commander of the early warning plane was joking with them.

However, a call was received from the fighter pilots of the second squad.

Two "Zhan-9Bs" flying northeast of the AWACS aircraft were locked on by the fire control radar of the enemy aircraft, and they were attacked, and they were accelerating to turn and escape.

Enemy planes are coming from the north!

Although he was shocked, Zhu Tingxuan did not dare to hesitate and immediately gave the battle order.

According to the deployment of the mission, as long as there is a threat, even if it is not attacked, the fighter on the escort mission can immediately open fire.

Appearing in the eastern part of the Khowaii Islands, and also using fire control radars, enemy aircraft must have bad intentions.

In fact, before he gave the order, the other two "Zhan-9Bs" of the second squad had already turned, activated the radar, and spotted the enemy planes that were killing from the north.

In addition, the Air Force's Finger-8C has also turned south.

Zhu Tingxuan didn't think much about it, and he didn't have to think about it.

In order to increase the detection range as much as possible, the "Finger-8C" must adopt an area scanning mode, which concentrates the radar beam in a relatively narrow range to the east, and realizes a large area detection by adjusting the direction of the radar beam. Because we have to focus on monitoring the east, the intensity of surveillance in other directions is certainly far from enough, and it is difficult to detect enemy planes approaching from other directions in a timely manner.

This is even more true if enemy aircraft penetrate from ultra-low altitudes.

As for why the enemy planes attacked the escort fighters in the first place, perhaps it was because they were afraid that they would be discovered by the AWACS aircraft and intercepted by the escort fighters.

After all, even if flying at an ultra-low altitude, with a shortened distance, it will still be detected by AWACS.

Of course, as long as the escort fighter is shot down, the AWACS aircraft will be at hand.

It took less than 3 minutes for the flight speed of the four "Zhan-9B" to exceed Mach 1.8, and they continue to accelerate, and will soon break through Mach 2.

In order to arrive as soon as possible, 4 "Battle-9Bs" threw away the auxiliary fuel tanks before accelerating.

This is not fast, after dropping the external missile, the "Zhan-9B" can accelerate from Mach 0.9 to Mach 2 in 3 minutes.

Now, speed is everything.

As soon as the AWACS aircraft sent a message, the first two "Zhan-9Bs" to be attacked had disappeared from the radar screen, and both were shot down by missiles fired by enemy planes.

The enemy planes were about 350 kilometers away from the "Finger-8C" and more than 100 kilometers away from the two "Battle-9Bs".

Although the "Finger-8C" could not judge the model of the enemy aircraft due to electromagnetic interference, judging from the combat distance, it was very likely to be the F-14 of the Nuland Navy.

The F-14 is one of only three of the world's active fighter jets capable of carrying and using long-range air-to-air missiles.

The AIM-54 "Immortal Bird" long-range air-to-air missile, which is carried and used by the F-14, has a theoretical range of more than 150 kilometers, and the actual range must be 100 kilometers.

In addition, the Nuland Navy has EA-6Bs that specialize in performing electronic warfare missions.

In order to buy time for the AWACS planes to turn and retreat, the other two "Zhan-9Bs" of the second squad had already arrived and opened fire on the enemy planes.

It's just that this move doesn't make much sense.

Under the interference of the enemy's electronic warfare planes, the radar of the early warning aircraft cannot accurately identify the enemy plane, and it is not even able to form a continuous tracking, and the fire control radar of the "Zhan-9B" will certainly not be able to continue tracking, and there will be no way to obtain fire control data, let alone control the missile to hit the enemy plane.

However, 2 "Battle-9B" do pose a great threat.

If the target of the enemy plane is the "Finger-8C", it must first get rid of two roadblocks, otherwise it will be shot down by the "Zhan-9B" after the distance is shortened.

After about 5 minutes of sprint flight, Zhu Tingxuan turned on the fire control radar.

The interference was so severe that the radar could hardly work properly, and a warning signal was given that the fire control radar was not working properly due to interference.

A red exclamation mark.

However, this is only temporary.

After about half a minute, the red exclamation mark on the radar screen disappeared, followed by several yellow dots of light representing unidentified targets.

It's just that the signal is very weak, or rather very unstable.

The fire control radar is frequently adjusting its operating frequency to reduce the electromagnetic interference it receives, and the enemy's electronic warfare aircraft are also adjusting to the intercepted radar signals.

This kind of jamming and counter-jamming is actually the most basic electromagnetic countermeasure tactic.

The fire control radar detected the enemy aircraft, but it did not form a continuous track, so it did not obtain specific enemy data such as speed, altitude and distance.

Still, definitely outside the range of the KK-9E.

The reason is also very simple, the range of the KK-9E is on par with the AIM-54 of the Nuland Navy, and the enemy aircraft did not use radar to lock on to Zhu Tingxuan and them.

If it has already entered the range of the missile, the radar of the enemy aircraft will lock on to these "Battle-9Bs", and then the radar warning aircraft will sound the alarm.

It's just that it's not a good thing.

Because it was too far away, even if the speed of the four "Battle-9Bs" exceeded Mach 2, they could not arrive in time.

At around 8:55, the commander of the "Finger-8C" sent a message that the other two "Zhan-9B" of the second squad were also shot down by enemy aircraft.

In fact, about three minutes ago, Zhu Tingxuan heard the call of the pilot of the second squad in the formation communication channel. It's just that he didn't hear clearly. Before the AWACS plane sent the news, Hu Haitao was still calling and trying to get in touch with the pilots of the second squad.

Now, there are still 4 enemy aircraft in pursuit of the "Finger-8C", which is expected to be within the range of missiles in 5 minutes.

Because it was too far away, the four "Zhan-9Bs" on Zhu Tingxuan's side could not arrive in time no matter what.

At the last moment, the commander of the AWACS aircraft gave the order to fight alone and reminded Zhu Tingxuan to keep an eye out for enemy planes from the east.

Even if it has turned to escape, compared with fighters, the speed of AWACS aircraft is too slow.

Before 9 o'clock, communication with the AWACS aircraft was interrupted.

It's just that there is no time to grieve Zhu Tingxuan at all.

Just after the AWACS aircraft was shot down, the radar warning aircraft sounded the alarm. The "Zhan-9B" piloted by him was locked on by radar, and the enemy plane may have fired missiles.

The time left for Zhu Tingxuan is only a few dozen seconds.