The assault on Port Diamond went more smoothly than planned, and there was no trouble at all.

With the first armoured battalion ashore, on the night of the 21st, the Marines launched an offensive and often made their way into the port area.

Although it was resisted by the Vatican army, it was not as fierce as expected.

Crucially, the Vatican army only resisted, and did not wreak havoc on the infrastructure in the port.

In addition to not expecting the Imperial Marines to attack Port Diamond, and not preparing in advance, it also has a lot to do with the morale of the Vatican army.

To put it more bluntly, most of the Vatican officers and soldiers surrendered voluntarily after a symbolic resistance.

For the officers and men of the Fifth Marine Division, who had fought hard in Guji Bang, they were not very adaptable, so they behaved a little too cautiously.

In the early morning of the 22nd, the Marines took control of the entire port.

However, it was not until the afternoon of the 22nd that the front-line troops issued a good news, claiming to have captured Port Diamond, and by this time, the Marines had already entered the city.

Driven into the city, to be exact.

To the great confusion of the Marines, the inhabitants of Port Diamond did not appear to be afraid, let alone spontaneously resisted.

When the Marines drove into the city, the reaction of the local residents could be described as very indifferent.

As if, this war has nothing to do with them.

Of course, this is not without reason.

The state of West Beng, where Port Diamond is located, is under the direct administration of the city of De, which is very different from those states that were originally independent and were later annexed by the kingdom of Van Luo.

The main difference is the lack of autonomy.

As a result, West Bengal had to unconditionally obey the orders issued by the central government of Decheng and be the first to enter a state of martial control. Those states with autonomy can postpone mobilization under the pretext of asking for the approval of the legislature unless they have already been attacked.

This is definitely not a good thing for the inhabitants of West Bengbang.

In the three months from September to November, the Vatican army stationed in West Ben State forcibly purchased almost 10 million tons of grain according to the orders of Decheng.

What is this concept?

Although West Bengal State itself is a major grain-producing state and a major rice-producing area, and many places can achieve three crops a year, it is limited by poor water conservancy facilities and basically no chemical fertilizers available, so the grain yield is not large. Theoretically, the annual rice production in West Beng State is around 35 million tonnes.

This output seems to be a lot, but there is not much surplus grain that can be requisitioned, that is, there is not much surplus.

The point is that West Bengal is also a populous state, according to official statistics, it has exceeded 100 million, and the actual state must be more. Even at 100 million people, West Bengal consumes about 25 million tonnes of grain a year, and only 10 million tonnes can be exported.

In peacetime, West Bengal does export about 10 million tons of grain a year.

Interestingly, in the past few decades, most of the grain exported from Western Ben State was sold to the Mon state, to be precise, purchased by trading companies registered in the state of Meng, and then resold to other countries, most of which went to the Liangxia Empire. It was only a few years ago that Pakistan Tie replaced the Liangxia Empire as the number one importer of Van Luo rice. Pakistan's ability to become a major grain importer has a lot to do with its industrialization.

Strictly speaking, the countries that have industrialized, or are in the process of industrialization, are almost exclusively food importers.

The reason is also very simple, the production efficiency of agriculture is too low, far less than that of industry, so most industrial countries are willing to solve the food problem through imports.

Importing grain is far more cost-effective than producing it yourself!

Not to mention Pakistan, even in the Liangxia Empire, agricultural production was a big problem.

Although the Liangxia Empire has always been the world's number one food producer, in the post-war decades, the Liangxia Empire's grain production has been increasing at a slower rate than the population growth, and if calculated on a per capita basis, the Liangxia Empire's grain production has been decreasing.

That is, for the reasons mentioned earlier, the efficiency of agricultural production is too low.

Fortunately, the Liangxia Empire took advantage of its dominance in the international grain market during the war and more than ten years after the war to establish a fairly complete grain trade system, and the world's largest grain futures market was in the Liangxia Empire, and the main importers and exporters were also in the Liangxia Empire.

In addition, the Liangxia Empire's agricultural mobilization capacity was also very strong.

To put it simply, after completing the mobilization, the Liangxia Empire was able to increase its grain production by more than 50%, which was able to meet not only its own needs, but also its main allies. If wartime rationing were strictly implemented, it would theoretically be able to meet the food needs of the entire Eastern bloc.

However, within the Eastern Bloc, there was no need for the Liangxia Empire to expand its grain production.

Seven of the world's top 10 grain exporters are members of the Eastern Bloc, and in addition to the Liangxia Empire and Austria, the other five are countries in the southeast. It can be said that as long as the Liangxia Empire can be self-sufficient, the surplus grain in Austria and the southeast region will be able to fill the gap of other countries.

Grain exports are still a strategic weapon of the Eastern Bloc.

In peacetime, grain from the southeast region was mainly sold to the western continent.

After the outbreak of the Great War, the Eastern Bloc restricted the export of major strategic materials, including vital grain, in accordance with the war plan.

More importantly, the imperial authorities seized the last opportunity to expand the scale of grain imports.

Before the official entry into the war, the traders of the empire procured about 15 million tons of grain, mainly rice, from the kingdom through various channels. Although some of them were not transported before the war, the surprise purchase had a huge impact on the order of the Van Luo Kingdom. For example, in several major grain-producing states, such as West Beng, the price of rice has risen by 50 per cent in a short period of time.

As a result, famine broke out in many parts of the country.

Strictly speaking, the grain production of the country is not large, and it does not even meet the standard of self-sufficiency.

Even according to the statistics released by the Van Luo authorities, the total grain production in the broad sense of the new calendar 149 is 210 million tons, and the per capita is only 250 kilograms. According to the standard set by the International Food Agency, the minimum standard of food and clothing is 800 grams per day, and the grain produced in Van Luo is only more than 600 grams per day, even if it is not exported, and distributed to all citizens. The problem is that the country exports about 30 million tons of rice a year, and it is impossible to distribute it evenly. This means that the vast majority of the Van Luo people live below the subsistence line.

Actually, this is also true.

Even in peacetime, about 5 million people die each year from hunger or malnutrition-related diseases.

During the war, especially when grain was collected, the food problem became even more prominent.

The key is that the grain is usually sold in batches over 12 months of one year, to be precise, in three harvest seasons.

This time, in just 3 months, 10 million tons of grain were purchased from West Bengbang!

It is said to be an acquisition, but in fact it is a forcible requisition. In many places, especially in remote villages, the Vatican army, which collects food, does not pay the local population at all. Even in small towns, it is often the case that a white slip is written or an IOU is written, and the farmer who pays the grain asks the local government to cash it in.

There is no doubt that the local government will certainly not pay for the white slip issued by the Vatican army.

Obviously, for farmers, as well as residents of small towns, the first thing to consider is definitely how to fill their bellies.

As for the war, what does it have to do with them?

Not to mention Garr, in Port Diamond alone, there are about 150,000 hungry people, many families have been without food for half a month, and people are starving to death almost every day. If it weren't for the port cities, many families with rural relatives and good catches, I am afraid that they would have starved to death.

In the big cities, especially in Gale, the situation is certainly more serious.

If anything, this is also a new problem facing the Imperial Army, or a problem that was not thought of before, and which must be solved.

How can we get enough food to feed tens of millions of people to the front?

It is precisely because of this that after the capture of Port Diamond, Ding Zhennan made adjustments to the operational deployment according to the feedback from the front-line commander.

That is, to let the support troops go ashore in advance, increase the delivery of support materials, and set up rescue points in the occupied areas.

Although the Marines are here to fight, not to carry out humanitarian relief, it will certainly not work regardless of the lives of more than 100,000 hungry people.

If nothing else, officers and soldiers who fight on the front line, that is, directly face the local population, are also people.

In the face of the victims who are hungry and clothed, even the iron soldiers will be moved by compassion, not to mention that most of the officers and soldiers are not hard-hearted.

As a result, the assault on Port Diamond turned into a humanitarian operation for the hungry.

In fact, this is also what Ding Zhenna is most worried about, or the key to the imperial authorities' reluctance to go deep into the country of Van Luo and the reluctance to use troops in the southern subcontinent.

Having taken control of Port Diamond, to be precise, settling more than 100,000 hungry people, the Marines did not immediately move north, nor did they rush to deploy aviation to the front.

It's not that there aren't enough troops, it's that the supplies prepared are not enough.

Although before launching the attack, in fact, it was the preparatory stage, Ding Zhennan accepted the information provided by the Military Intelligence Bureau, that is, the situation in West Beng State was not optimistic, there were a large number of hungry people, and made corresponding preparations, such as tripling the delivery of food and other supplies, but compared with the actual situation, this increase in investment was not enough at all, let alone attacking and occupying Gar, which has a population of nearly 20 million.

This is no small matter.

According to the normal standard, 20 million people need to consume 40,000 tons of food a day, and even according to the standard of food and clothing, the average daily consumption of food is as high as 16,000 tons.

Of course, it's not that the 20 million people of Gal had to be fed by the Imperial Army.

However, compared with the already tight capacity, the increase in the transportation volume of thousands of tons per day will inevitably increase the burden of logistics support.

Crucially, there is only one road from Port Diamond to Gard, and the road is in very bad condition.

Even if the grain was transported to Port Diamond, it might not be able to reach Garr.

To this end, in addition to increasing the amount of supplies delivered, it is also necessary to adjust the operational deployment and advance the combat operation of attacking the port of Canning.

The reason is simple, Canning Port is closer to Gal and the transportation is more convenient.

In the next two days, in addition to stepping up the disembarkation and building a field airfield south of Port Diamond to speed up the construction of infrastructure, the main purpose of the Marine Corps is to transfer helicopters to the shore and rely on the field airfield under construction to enhance the combat efficiency of the vertical airlift force.

The assault on Canning Harbor was still dominated by air assaults.

In areas where the river network makes up for it, tanks and other main battle equipment have become a burden.

The problems faced by the Imperial Marines were also inescapable.

If nothing else, the Vatican army guarding Port Diamond is infantry, not to mention the main battle tanks, not even armored vehicles.

If anything, this is also the key reason why Ding Zhennan dared to use air assault tactics.

During these two days, Task Force 31, which supported the Marine Corps, did not leave, but simply turned its guns to Canning Harbor.

On the evening of the 23rd, before sunset to be exact, the Van Rowe Air Force sent dozens of attack aircraft to launch a counterattack in an attempt to sneak up on the 31st Task Force, which was supporting the Marine Corps in the coastal waters. In order to avoid the AWACS aircraft, the attack aircraft not only flew at an ultra-low altitude throughout the whole process, but also maintained radio silence and broke through the outer air defense network of the 31st Task Force, at least before the attack was launched. It's a pity that after entering the Bay of Bangladesh, the pilots who led the team took several freighters that were heading for Port Diamond as warships. Next, more than 20 Van Rowe attack planes swarmed up and blew up seven large cargo ships with dozens of bombs.

As a matter of fact, a fire support detachment of eight destroyers of the 31st Task Force was about 50 kilometers southwest at that time, and the eight destroyers were replenishing their ammunition, not only were they not in a state of combat readiness, but they were not even on the necessary alert.

In the face of a surprise attack, these 8 destroyers are definitely more than lucky.

It's a pity that the team leader is in a hurry.

It was also the swan song of the Van Rowe Air Force during the Imperial Marines' attack on Port Diamond, and strictly speaking, the only counterattack.

After that, until the Imperial army attacked Garr, the Van Rowe Air Force did not perform again.

If anything, the Van Rowe Air Force has done its best.

It is a crazy move in itself to let attack aircraft carry out the task of sea domination with bombs, to deal with warships with anti-aircraft missiles, not to mention to break through the interception of anti-aircraft fighters. This also reflects that the Van Rowe Air Force has reached the point of exhaustion, and it is not far from completely losing its combat capability.

It's just that the counterattack of the Van Rowe Air Force did have an impact.

The seven freighters that were sunk by the bombing were all carrying war materials, one of which carried almost 30,000 tons of grain, and all of them were military supplies. It's not canned food, or cooked food in sealed packaging, but most of it is ingredients that have been processed according to military standards.

Strictly speaking, military supplies are mainly ingredients that have been processed in the first place.

In large-scale wars, especially in combat operations in which the regular army participates, the officers and men on the front line are certainly provided with fresh food made on the spot.

As for the well-known military canned food and bagged cooked food, it is mainly supplied to special forces, and at most it is used for emergency purposes.

However, Ding Zhennan did not shirk the combat operation of attacking Canning Harbor because of this.

According to the redrawn plan, the delivery of supplies would be increased only after the capture of Canning Harbor, so that even if tens of thousands of tons of food were missing, it could be replenished after the capture of Canning Harbor, and there was no need to postpone the attack on Canning Harbor because of the losses suffered.

In fact, there were not a lot of supplies hoarded in Port Diamond, enough to support the Marines to attack Port Canning.

The impact is simply that there will be less aid to the local population, especially the hungry in the nearby villages, before the next shipment arrives.

It is also the Van Luo who are starving.