It was not only Ding Zhennan and Liu Zunshan who went to the airport to greet Bai Huawei and Li Tianling, but also Hou Chensheng and Fu Weimin, as well as the main staff officers.

Of course, there must be senior generals of the Pakistani army.

This also shows that Bart has long received the news that Bai Huawei and Li Tianling have come to Karaport.

It was precisely because of this that the commander-in-chief of the Southern Theater of the Pakistan Railway held a banquet that night to wash away the dust for Bai Huawei and Li Tianling, who came from afar.

In fact, only Bai Huawei stayed in Kara Harbor, and Li Tianling just stopped by, and then he was going to Iborg.

According to the arrangement, Li Tianling's official post is: Provisional Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Subcontinent Battlefield Air Force of the Eastern Coalition Army.

For the time being, this "Southern Subcontinent Theater" only has the Northwest Theater and the Southwest Theater, and the Eastern Theater and the Southern Theater are still operating independently.

If anything, this arrangement is still a solution to the problem at the command level.

From another point of view, this is also the primary purpose of the above to send Li Tianling over.

With Li Tianling's influence, the Pakistani railway military will inevitably be afraid, so it will naturally make appropriate concessions on the issue of command authority.

Of course, when it comes down to the fundamentals, it is still related to core interests.

As for the kind of banquet and entertainment, it is only necessary for etiquette.

Besides, the banquet is really unappetizing.

As a result, after a polite entertainment, Ding Zhennan and the others returned to the front line headquarters and set up another table.

Actually, everyone didn't have much appetite, but they were all hungry.

On the way back to the headquarters, Ding Zhennan was in the same car with Bai Huawei, and he also learned from Bai Huawei that the primary task of Li Tianling's trip was to establish a joint command organization.

Obviously, the internal contradictions of the Eastern bloc have surfaced.

As for the specific reason, Bai Huawei only mentioned one point. To this day, the Pakistani side has refused to make the necessary concessions on the command and full power of the joint operation, and has insisted on following the agreement reached before the war, that is, the combat operations in the northwest theater will be led by the Pakistani army, and the imperial army will only be responsible for assistance.

If this is the case, it means that the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division and the 33rd Infantry Division will have to obey the command of the Pakistani army.

It's just that, it's not a big problem.

No matter who commands it, as long as you can defeat the enemy, that's a good thing.

But the problem is that according to the system pursued by the Pakistani army, it may not be able to defeat the enemy.

As mentioned earlier, after the Second Southern Subcontinental War, Pakistan joined the Eastern Bloc for the purpose of safeguarding national interests.

Although since then, Pakistan Railway has become one of the main member countries and has obtained a high status, but in the vital national defense construction, Pakistan Railway has always been different from other member countries, not only maintaining a high degree of independence, but also insisting on pursuing a basic strategy of focusing on local security.

In the current situation, this is indeed understandable.

The Northwest Railway, which connected the empire with the Pakistani railway, was only opened in 148 A.D., and until then it was only a highland highway that would freeze in winter and be easily damaged. The point is that the capacity of this plateau road is not enough to support large-scale strategic transportation.

As for strategic airlift, it can only be used for emergency purposes in a large-scale war.

It can be seen that before the opening of the Northwest Railway, the aid provided by the empire to Pakistan Railway was mainly by sea.

Herein lies the problem.

Although the Empire has the most powerful navy in the world, not to mention in peacetime, even in wartime, it will certainly be able to ensure that the shipping routes to Pakistan Railway are unimpeded, but the Imperial Navy cannot prevent the enemy from blocking the ports of Pakistan Railway with mines, let alone cutting off the railway line from Kara Port to Iborg.

Even now, there is only one railway between Kara Harbour and Iborg!

Worse still, the railway crossed the Van Roe River several times, and there were many tunnels in the northern section, so it could easily be cut off by the enemy in wartime.

In fact, even roads have similar problems.

As a result, Pakistan's strategic lines of communication were very fragile, and the assistance of the Liangxia Empire was not necessarily effective.

It is precisely in this way that Pakistan will place heavy troops in the northern part of the mainland, and the defensive deployment will always be centered on Iburgh.

Even after the opening of the Northwest Railway, Pakistan Railway still did not make adjustments to its basic strategy.

The reason is also very simple: the Northwest Railway is still only a single-track railway, with an annual capacity of less than 20 million tons, and it will only reach the designed 50 million tons after the completion of the second phase of the project. Even in the best case, it is not expected to be completed until after 160 A.D.

In addition, 50 million tons per year is simply not sufficient.

According to the latest version of the battle plan revised in 149 of the new calendar, in the first year of the war, counting the troops participating in the war, the empire needs to send 60 million tons of supplies to Pakistan, and if a large-scale counterattack is launched in the first year, the supplies shipped to Bart will increase by at least 20 million tons. In the end, the capacity of the Northwest Railway is only one-third and one-quarter of the actual capacity.

In other words, other supplies still have to be shipped by sea.

Because most of the supplies were sent to Kala Harbor, the Pakistani Railways authorities had no way to deal with Iborg, and there was no room for negotiation.

In addition, the strategic value of the Northwest Railway is there, and it must be a key target for the enemy, so it is necessary to invest a large number of troops to protect this railway.

In this way, the emphasis is even more on the northern part of the country.

That's just the reason to put it on the table, though.

Fundamentally, it is still a conflict of interests.

As mentioned earlier, in order to safeguard their own interests, especially in the Eastern Bloc, the Pakistani railway authorities do not want to weaken the country too much.

For this reason, in the combat operations against the Van Luo country, Pakistan and the railway will naturally have reservations.

It is precisely because of this that the strategic plan drawn up in the past against the Van Luo State was to resist the attack of the Van Luo army in the early stage, and launch a counteroffensive after stabilizing the battle line, and the ultimate goal of the counteroffensive was only to recapture the southern part of Kebang controlled by the Van Luo State, and then they had to sit down and negotiate with the Van Luo State.

Even if a global war breaks out, it will be necessary to switch from offensive to defensive after occupying the southern part of Kebang.

The reason for this was that it would take time to mobilize for war, and before that, there would not be enough troops to capture and control the rest of the kingdom. Obviously, according to the calculations of the Pakistani railway authorities, it would be better if the war ended before the mobilization was completed, and even if the war was not over by then, another way could be found. It is much better to drag on for months, or even more than a year, than to launch a strategic offensive immediately.

As long as this is understood, it is not difficult to understand why the Pakistani army did not immediately launch a counterattack after withstanding the attack of the Vatican army and stabilizing the battle line.

Of course, the reason given by the Pakistani railway authorities is that preparations are being made for an attack on the southern part of the country as planned.

In addition, the Pakistani railway authorities have been asking the empire to send the 33rd Infantry Division to the battle, but the 24th Infantry Division has not been used, which is also related to this.

The 33rd Infantry Division was a mountain unit, which was better at fighting in the mountains until it was strengthened, and had little use in the plains. On the other hand, the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division is a genuine heavy army, and the envisaged battlefield is the northwest region of the Van Luo Kingdom.

The former must be aimed at the southern region of Kebang, while the latter is aimed at Decheng.

When it comes to political contradictions involving the core interests of the country, Ding Zhennan and other generals have no right to speak.

However, as far as military issues are concerned, the establishment of a joint command and the integration and unification of the command system can indeed effectively solve the problem.

Sending Li Tianling over is also a good move.

The point is that in the battlefield of the Southern Subcontinent, the position of the Imperial Air Force is irreplaceable.

Although Pakistan also has a large scale and quite strong combat effectiveness, it is obviously a big gap compared with the Van Rowe Air Force.

Building a modern air force requires far more investment than Pakistan can afford.

Before joining the Eastern Bloc, the Pakistani Air Force had about 600 combat aircraft, while the Van Rowe Air Force had about 1,500 combat aircraft during the same period, with a ratio of 2.5 to 1 between the two sides. Before the outbreak of the war, the Pakistani Air Force had less than 350 combat aircraft, while the Van Rowe Air Force had 2,100 combat aircraft, with a force ratio of more than 6 to 1. It is not difficult to see from this that the combat aircraft of the Pakistani Air Force have been declining both in absolute and relative numbers after joining the Eastern Bloc.

Although the Pakistani Air Force has maintained a fairly strong combat capability with new fighters with advanced performance, such as the "Zhan-10AP" purchased from the Liangxia Empire, the effective scale means that in a large-scale war, the continuous combat capability of the Pakistani Air Force will definitely be very limited.

Of course, this is not a big deal.

To put it simply, the Pakistani Air Force will certainly be able to hold out until the coalition forces intervene in a big way.

In fact, after joining the Eastern Bloc, the theoretical basis for Pakistan's air power was only to deal with a surprise attack in the early days of the war. As long as it can withstand the first round of the enemy's onslaught, with the arrival of coalition air power, the Pakistani air force will be able to take a back seat.

According to the relevant plan, the air power of the coalition forces can enter the war within 1 month.

Of course, it won't actually be that long.

On the day of the outbreak of the war, the fighters of the Imperial Air Force participated in the defense of large cities such as Ibar and Kara Harbor, and achieved good results.

By now, the Imperial Air Force has become a real pillar.

This is not to belittle the Pakistani Air Force, but the size of the Pakistani Air Force is so small that most of the combat missions fall to the Imperial Air Force.

Among other things, the Imperial Air Force has deployed more than 1,000 combat aircraft in the northwest of Pakistan, including 400 at the Peshawar base alone. There were also hundreds of heavy fighters deployed in the northwestern part of the empire mainland, and as for bombers deployed in the rear, it was even more.

Obviously, on the question of the choice of commander-in-chief of the coalition air forces, the Pakistani railway authorities will not have any objections.

As long as the status of air power is not reduced, and ground operations still have to rely on air support, then the commander-in-chief of the air force will have a great say in the command of the coalition forces. At that time, even if the general of the Pakistani army is the commander-in-chief of the ground forces, he will be able to control the direction of the war.

Let Li Tianling come forward, then it will be even more so.

The reason is also very simple, almost all of the senior generals of Pakistan Railway have gone to the military academy of the empire for further study, and most of them went to the empire during the reign of Lian Xusheng. As for the air force generals of Pakistan and Railway, almost all of them can be related to Li Yunxiang, and many of them are Li Yunxiang's close friends.

If you want to say anything, Li Tianling can eat better than Bai Huawei.

After all, the scale of the Pakistani Railway Navy is very small, and its status has never been very high, so the admirals have little say in the general staff of the three services.

Just looking at these two layers of relationship, the senior generals of the Pakistani army will not embarrass Li Tianling.

Of course, it's not that simple.

According to Bai Huawei, before Li Tianling came over, he returned to the imperial capital to meet with several representatives of the Pakistani army and held preliminary consultations on the establishment of a joint operations command.

The main difference between the two sides is actually the size of the troops.

As far as the generals of the Pakistani army intended, unless the Imperial Army can go all out, at least all the four main forces on the Pakistani side must participate in the offensive operation, otherwise in the case of insufficient troops, in the first phase of the counterattack operation, the purpose can only be to capture the southern part of the country.

The implication is that Pakistan has no plans to attack the mainland of Van Luo.

Although after many consultations, especially after Zhou Yongtao personally intervened, the Pakistani railway side made some concessions, promising that after a major breakthrough was made, it would invest troops to participate in the follow-up offensive operations and provide logistical support for the coalition forces, but fundamentally speaking, the combat operations on the Pakistani railway side were still dominated by the imperial army, and the deadlock must be broken as soon as possible to ensure that the strategic assault is completed in the dry season.

Let's not forget that the dry season in the Southern Subcontinent will end at the end of April, and it is around this time that the spring of the continental battlefield will arrive.

There is no doubt that the continental battlefield is the main one, and the southern subcontinent is nothing more than a secondary direction.

According to Bai Huawei, if a strategic breakthrough cannot be made before the end of the dry season, the strategic plan of Pakistan and Railways will have to be considered.

The "strategic breakthrough" here refers to the capture of the capital of the kingdom of Van Luo and the control of its core area.

Obviously, the first thing to do is to control the northwest region, where the capital city is located.

For this reason, Zhou Yongtao not only sent Li Tianling over, but also made Bai Huawei the commander-in-chief of the Fanyanyang fleet to ensure that he could fully assist in the combat operations of attacking the Fanluo Kingdom.

The key is that Ding Zhennan has to be in charge of ground combat operations!

It's just that Zhou Yongtao didn't give an order.

Since no agreement has been reached with Pakistan on the issue of joint command, the first assistant will not sign the relevant letter of appointment, not even a verbal order.

In fact, this is also the reason why Bai Huawei and Li Tianling came to Karaport.

Bai Huawei made it very clear that Shoufu meant that Ding Zhennan was in charge of ground combat operations, and at least before the Pakistani army entered the war, he had to grasp the rhythm of the ground offensive to ensure that it developed in the direction that was most beneficial to the empire, and strive to achieve victory within half a year.

For this reason, not only the Fanyanyang fleet commanded by Bai Huawei had to fully cooperate, but even Li Tianling's air force would obey Ding Zhennan's dispatch.

Obviously, this arrangement exceeded Ding Zhennan's prediction.

Although he is in power, Ding Zhennan is not high-definition at all.

The reason is also very simple, according to the current set, it is necessary to storm the northwest region of the Fanluo Kingdom, not only to invest a large number of troops to fight a war of attrition, but also to encounter the problem that Ding Zhennan is trying to avoid, that is, to directly face hundreds of millions of civilians in the occupied area.

Ding Zhennan insisted on focusing on strategic intersperse, that is, he did not want to be held back by the occupation action.

Of course, this also reflects that Zhou Yongtao is indeed a layman in ground warfare, or he takes it for granted that ground warfare is a naval battle.

In this regard, Ding Zhennan could only complain a few words.

Zhou Yongtao is not only the chief assistant of the empire, but also the actual commander of the imperial army, while Ding Zhennan is an imperial soldier and must carry out the orders of the commander.

This battle, whether it can be fought or not, must be fought!