It wasn't until after 10 o'clock that the utility helicopter flew back.

On board the helicopter, there were not only 8 Marine Special Forces, but also 1 prisoner of war with special status.

Hussein's eldest son, Kusa.

Ding Zhennan arranged to launch psychological warfare and sent bombers to launch a carpet bombing of Bus X, the real purpose of which was to drive Kusa out.

To put it bluntly, it made Kusa feel that a big disaster was coming.

As it turned out, it really was.

Before the bombing began, the special forces deployed to the north of Bus X intercepted the convoy coming out of the city, and after a fierce battle, captured Kusa, who was disguised as a civilian and tried to flee from Bus X as a civilian, and killed more than a dozen guards protecting him.

If anything, this is thanks to the help of the Military Intelligence Agency.

Yesterday evening, a large electronic reconnaissance plane belonging to the Air Force, but used by the Military Intelligence Agency, rushed over and had been hovering in the southeast direction of Bus X.

The mission of this reconnaissance plane is to monitor the radio signals of the civilian frequency band in the X city of the bus.

The reason is also very simple, if Kusa intends to flee from Bus X, he will definitely not use military radios to contact the rear, after all, all military radios in Iraq are under the surveillance of the coalition forces, as long as the signal is transmitted, it will be detected, and then it will be bombed or shelled.

Inevitably, the use of civilian communication equipment such as maritime satellite telephones was used in Cusa.

But the problem is that there are certainly not many high-end gadgets like maritime satellite phones in Iraq.

Not to mention civilians, even in the Iraqi army, high-ranking generals are qualified to use satellite phones, and they are not used very often.

The reason: the phone bill is too expensive.

This satellite communication system, jointly funded by the Republic of Nuland and the Empire, has always been famous for its nobility, but it has never been promoted. Up to now, the main market is still carried out by the Liang Xia Empire, relying on the wireless telephone communication network of ground base stations.

In fact, very few Iraqi households have telephones.

It was the reconnaissance plane that intercepted the radio signal from the Inmarsat telephone to determine the location of Kusa, and then reported it to the special forces who were ambushed nearby.

According to the special forces report, after being caught, Kusa also tried to fool himself around, insisting that he was a civilian.

After that, when he was still trying to escape, he was hit by the butt of the rifle a few times and suffered some minor injuries.

It was not until noon that the intelligence officers sent by the Military Intelligence Agency confirmed Kusa's identity.

Subsequently, Ding Zhennan accompanied the intelligence officers of the Military Intelligence Agency to escort Kusa back to King Khalid Military City.

As for the combat operation of attacking Bus X, there is no need for Ding Zhennan to worry about it.

Although Kusa refused to give the order to surrender, the Iraqi army guarding Bus X was just a rabble when the commanders had fled.

Moreover, by tomorrow afternoon, the psychological warfare will escalate again.

This time, photographs of the capture of Kusa will be dropped.

Unsurprisingly, the Marines will complete the combat operation to capture Bus X in 2 to 3 days, and may only need to accept the surrender of the Iraqi army.

Upon returning to King Khalid's military city, intelligence officers from the Military Intelligence Agency put Kusa on a transport plane.

As for how to deal with Kusa, it is not Ding Zhennan's turn to make irresponsible remarks.

However, Ding Zhennan did not stay long in the affairs of King Khaled's army.

After signing several orders, he set off again.

This time, of course, it was on a tactical transport plane, and the destination was Semavo.

In the previous days, the 17th Panzer Division of the Imperial Army had moved to Semavo via Salman and had begun preparations for the attack on Bag X.

As for logistical support, for the time being, it will mainly rely on air transportation.

If anything, there is no way to do it.

In order to support the 17th Armored Division, Ding Zhennan obtained 20 heavy strategic transport planes and 60 large transport planes through Shi Zhiliang.

Based in King Khalid Military City, as well as several other major airports, the planes are capable of transporting about 2,500 tonnes of supplies per day to Samawah.

In fact, the capacity can be increased.

Theoretically, 20 Y-10 and 60 Y-11 can fly twice a day to carry out a round-trip transportation mission of less than 2,000 kilometers, and can transport up to tens of thousands of tons of materials to the front line, even if they cannot reach the maximum carrying capacity each time, they can also transport 7,500 tons.

However, it is not only the carrying capacity of transport aircraft that restricts transportation capacity, but also the throughput capacity of airports.

In Semavo, there is only one 2,000-meter runway.

This means that the Y-10A cannot land with a full load, to be precise, it cannot land at the maximum weight designed, and it must reduce its weight.

Landing on a runway of 2,000 kilometers, the "Y-10A" will reduce the cargo capacity to 80 tons, in addition to reducing the fuel load.

This capacity is not much stronger than the "Y-11" with a carrying capacity of more than 60 tons.

The use of the "Y-10A" is also mainly due to its larger cargo compartment size, which is capable of transporting main battle equipment such as the ZT-99B, as well as some large-sized cargo.

In addition, Semavo Airport has almost no infrastructure to provide effective protection for transport aircraft.

This means that the transport aircraft will take off after unloading the cargo, so when making mission planning, the return fuel must be taken into account, which further reduces the load capacity.

If nothing else, because the runway has a turnaround time of up to 30 minutes, the airport could theoretically only accept 48 transport flights per day.

To achieve a capacity of 7,500 tons per day, the first step was to reduce the runway turnaround time to less than 10 minutes.

Fortunately, the Imperial Air Force has sent in specialized engineering units.

According to reports from the front, it is certain that the volume of air transport will be more than doubled next month, when the assault on Bag X begins, to an average of 5,000 tons per day.

In fact, this is also the most basic requirement.

Ding Zhennan went to the front line to understand the situation in this regard.

The 17th Panzer Division, which had reached full combat strength and had been strengthened, had a supply of 5,000 tons a day, which was not sufficient at all.

Now the 17th Panzer Division has a total of 5 combat brigades.

Among them, the 171st Brigade and the 172nd Brigade are genuine armored brigades, with similar equipment scale, each with 330 main battle tanks and 300 infantry fighting vehicles, in addition to nearly 1,000 combat vehicles of various natures, including dozens of self-propelled howitzers.

The 173rd Brigade and the 177th Brigade are both infantry brigades, of which the 177th Brigade is a temporary reserve, and the equipment level is equivalent to 70% of the 173rd Brigade. In the 173rd brigade, there were almost 240 main battle tanks, 380 infantry fighting vehicles, and almost a thousand other combat vehicles.

The 174th Brigade is an artillery brigade with 180 self-propelled howitzers and more than 80 long-range rocket launchers for the main battle.

In addition to these five combat brigades, the 17th Panzer Division has one aviation support brigade with more than 300 helicopters, the main of which is about 200 "Z-8" series utility helicopters, and about 80 "Z-X" series heavy helicopters. As it is an aviation support unit that does not undertake combat missions, the brigade is not equipped with helicopter gunships, although it can be augmented as needed during operations.

In addition, there are a large number of special operations battalions directly under the division.

The total strength of the whole division has exceeded 30,000.

As mentioned earlier, this large and comprehensive establishment system has always been the characteristic of the Imperial Army.

In peacetime, all divisions of the Imperial Army were organized according to the size of the army, while the infantry divisions of the first class were engaged in construction according to the size of the group army.

The reason is also simple, these combat units can be rapidly expanded in wartime.

If you want to say, the expansion of the 17th Armored Division is not large, after all, it was previously deployed in the Western Theater, facing the Beixuan region and the Crescent region, and the combat pressure was not very great, so the establishment scale of the 17th Armored Division was not outstanding among several Class A armored divisions.

In addition, there is no need to over-expand.

For a combat unit with 30,000 officers and soldiers, thousands of main battle equipment, and hundreds of helicopters, the consumption of 5,000 tons per day is not much at all!

In the face of fierce fighting, the 17th Panzer Division simply consumed ammunition, and it would have reached 10,000 tons a day.

In fact, this is also where Ding Zhennan's confidence lies.

Nominally, the Imperial Army committed only two divisions, but in reality, the combat strength of these two divisions after the completion of the expansion was equivalent to that of two armies.

The point is that they are all armored divisions, or armored corps.

If nothing else, the 17th Panzer Division has more than 1,000 ZT-99B main battle tanks!

Not to mention that in the Poshawan area, even if it is put on the mainland battlefield, 1,000 ZT-99B main battle tanks can launch a large-scale ground offensive.

Besides, there is an even more powerful 7th Panzer Division!

However, logistics remain a major problem.

The key point is that when the 17th Armored Division was expanded, it did not increase the size of the support force, but pinned its hopes on the coalition forces.

To put it simply, the 17th Panzer Division charged forward, and the coalition forces carried ammunition supplies in the rear.

The problem now is that the coalition forces may not be able to keep up.

Then, we can only find ways to shorten the length of the logistics supply line, that is, the ground supply line.

In fact, this is also the main problem that Ding Zhennan came to the front line to solve.

In addition to the airfield in Semavo, it is possible to capture or build more airfields along the way, so as to get supplies as close to the front line as possible by air.

The commander of the 17th Panzer Division gave an affirmative answer.

Not only did the Air Force send engineering troops, but the 17th Panzer Division also had an independent engineering battalion, which was strengthened and had a strong engineering operation capability.

If anything, the Imperial Army never lacked the ability to work in engineering.

The Imperial Army's engineering capabilities have been world-renowned since the First World War, and have remained so for decades since.

However, the commander of the 17th Armored Division, Major General Fu Weimin, also raised a question.

According to the new tactics proposed by Ding Zhenna, it is not expected to maintain a sufficient rate of advance, that is, the ground forces will definitely have to wait until the construction of the rear works.

In addition, the 17th Panzer Division will inevitably be under greater combat pressure.

In the original plan, the 17th Panzer Division's mission was to complete the battle division and prevent the Iraqi troops deployed in the southern region from returning.

Although the 17th Panzer Division was required to advance northward, that is, to participate in the combat operation against Bag X, there was a premise that the 5th Marine Division at Bus X would arrive and take on a part of the combat mission, so that the 17th Panzer Division could draw a few brigades north.

The question now is that the 5th Marine Division will not come to the battle.

Ding Zhennan made it very clear that after sweeping away the remnants of Bus X, the 5th Marine Division would go to Port Fao to board the ship, and at that time, at most, the armored brigade of the High Giant Kingdom would go north, so the 17th Armored Division would need to take on more combat missions, such as those originally undertaken by the 5th Marine Division.

Obviously, this is not a low requirement.

Don't look at the 17th Armored Division, which has more than 30,000 officers and soldiers and 5 combat brigades, but in fact, only 4 armored brigades and infantry brigades can charge into battle.

The four brigades together have less than 20,000 troops.

According to Major General Fu Weimin, if he wants to take on part of the tasks of the 5th Marine Division, he can send at most one armored brigade north.

If there is a real need, he can also send the division headquarters guard battalion up.

The other three brigades had to remain in the south.

This is something that cannot be done, because to the southeast of Semawah, there are about 400,000 Iraqi troops. After bus X is captured, these Iraqi troops will swarm to Bagh X. What's worse is that these Iraqi troops will pass through Samawa!

Rely on 3 brigades to withstand 400,000 Iraqi troops!?

Even if there is enough air support, it will not be an easy task.

What's more, after the start of the battle to attack Bag X, it may not be possible to obtain sufficient air support, that is, naval aviation will definitely have to be dominated by Bag X.

In the face of the swarming enemy, these brigades of the 17th Armored Division must be exhausted.

At that time, it would be nice to be able to send 1 armored brigade north.

Of course, having said so much, he was actually telling Ding Zhennan.

The heavy task of attacking Bag X still has to rely on the 7th Panzer Division.

It's not that Fu Weimin confessed, but calmly faced the reality. More importantly, this is really for the sake of the soldiers under his command.

The division commander won the task, but it was the officers and soldiers of the grassroots units who went to die.

Ding Zhennan knew this.

If Fu Weimin didn't think about his subordinates, he would not be a good division commander, and it would be impossible for him to be loved and followed by tens of thousands of officers and soldiers.

As for the practical difficulties, they do exist.

The problem is not on the side of the 17th Panzer Division, but on the side of the 5th Marine Division, or rather, it is determined by the situation of the battle.

From another point of view, it is not easy to use the strength of one division to stabilize the southern region, which is equivalent to one-third of Iraq's land area and accounts for nearly half of its population. At that time, it would be nice for the 17th Panzer Division not to cause trouble for the rest of the troops.

Fortunately, in the battle plan drawn up by Ding Zhennan, the 17th Armored Division was a secondary combat force and was not the main force to attack Ba Ge X.

As a result, Ding Zhennan was only delayed for a few hours in Semavo.

After understanding the situation, he left Semavo on a transport plane.

In fact, Ding Zhennan was very aware of the situation of the 17th Armored Division, so he did not force it.

In addition to various practical reasons, there is another problem that no one has mentioned.

The 17th Armored Division was from the Western Theater, and Shi Zhiliang and Ding Zhennan were both from the Northwest Theater.

In any case, Fu Weimin was willing to accept the command and arrangement, and did not work against Ding Zhennan in secret.

Since he was from the Northwest Theater, Ding Zhennan would naturally pay more attention to the troops that were also from the Northwest Theater and were the first to reach the 7th Armored Division in Poshawan.

If anything, it's not cronyism either.

After all, each theater has its own system, and commanders and staff officers have a better understanding of the combat units in their theaters.

From the very beginning, Ding Zhennan regarded the 7th Armored Division as the absolute main force, and there was enough reason to believe that the officers and men of the division would never let him down.