Thompson was right, and the Department of Defense once again rejected Jackson's request for a transfer, allowing him to remain in Decity as head of the Military Advisory Corps.

On the first day of December, Thompson returned to Udaipur.

In fact, he went back to Decheng for a day and a half.

The situation is still not optimistic.

On the Gugibang side, the Liangsha Marines had already moved south to attack Ahmedabad, and another force was moving north from Palampur.

The key is that there is already enough intelligence to prove that it is not only the 5th Marine Division that is fighting in Gugibang, but the army that went south to attack Ahmedabad only uses the communication code of the Marine Corps, which is likely to come from the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division of the Liangxia Army, both of which have at least two brigades, and they are all heavy troops. The impersonation of the Marine Corps may have been an attempt to deceive the Vatican Army into believing that there was only one Marine Division fighting in Guchibang.

This kind of deception is not uncommon in warfare.

For example, in the raid on Deogle, the 5th Marine Division pretended to be the 17th Panzer Division, so that the Vatican army believed that the Liangxia Army had invested the main force in this direction.

The 24th Mechanized Infantry Division has already gone south?

Although there was information before this that the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division had been strengthened and had more than 50,000 troops, due to capacity constraints, except for the combat brigades in the formation, the new combat brigades had not obtained the main battle equipment, and they might not be able to obtain the main battle equipment in time.

It is precisely because of this that the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division has remained in the north to assist the Pakistani army in defending Ipo and other strategic points.

Affected by this, the Van Luo intelligence agency has not yet figured out the specific situation of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, especially the deployment locations of several combat brigades.

If anything, a lot of the information was provided by Nuland.

Now, the combat brigade of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division appears in Guji Bang, and participates in front-line combat operations, and even takes on the main offensive mission. Could it be that the Eastern Bloc has really shifted its strategic center to the south? Or is it just to encircle and annihilate the southern cluster in Udaipur?

Obviously, whatever the case may be, it's not optimistic.

The encirclement of Udaipur was completed with the Eastern coalition forces entering Ahmedabad on 2 December, or more precisely occupying the train station on the northern outskirts. Even if the Liangxia army did not move north from Ahmedabad, the southern cluster would not have been able to get support from Gugibang.

However, for the southern cluster, the biggest problem at present is not whether they can obtain supplies from Guchibang.

Because the continuous strong attacks failed to break through the defense line of the Liang Xia army, but suffered heavy losses, the southern cluster, which had stopped at Deogle, was only one step away from collapse. In fact, all the main forces of the southern cluster have lost their combat effectiveness.

The vast majority of the troops are paralyzed.

According to the feedback from the front, the non-combat attrition of many units has exceeded 30 percent.

Of course, this is a nice way to put it.

The so-called "non-combat attrition" is actually an escape from the battle.

Because there were so many deserters, many battalion and company-level troops even escaped en masse, so the military police sent from the rear could only pretend not to see them.

Dealing with deserters casually will cause a mutiny if you don't get it right.

It was not only the repeated defeats that destroyed the morale of the southern cluster, but also unfavorable news from the rear, especially the fall of Gugibang.

Do not forget that almost half of the officers and soldiers of the southern cluster are from Gujibang.

In fact, the Vatican army that remained in Udaipur was also affected.

On the day Thompson returned to Udaipur, the garrison guards in charge of Chagit, who were actually the personal guards brought by Chagit, had just suppressed a rebellion against the commander himself, killing hundreds of rebels and capturing thousands of officers and soldiers who participated in the rebellion.

After Chagit explained the situation to Decheng and obtained authorization from Tigara, all the officers and soldiers who participated in the rebellion were summarily executed.

Subsequently, Chagit ordered that all units have a unified management of weapons and equipment, including firearms used by soldiers.

In addition, officers at all levels must report to their immediate superiors on time on their itinerary and the situation of their units, and be responsible for their officers and men.

All of a sudden, the fighting units associated with the rebellion seemed to be the number one enemy.

There is no doubt that Chagit did not trust the officers and soldiers from the southern regions at all.

But the question is, is it really a rebellion against Chagit?

According to Thompson's information, the so-called rebellion was caused by several officers from the southern region who went to Chagit and offered to let the hospital in Udaipur treat the wounded who had been sent back from the front, mainly because the field hospital was overcrowded, and many of the wounded could not be treated in time. It's a pity that Chagit rejected the request on the grounds of shortage of medical resources, and also asked these officers in the southern region to take care of their subordinates. As a result, during the surprise inspections conducted by the military police, the officers were in units that found a number of wounded officers and soldiers from the forward combat units, which they identified as deserters, and clashed when they went to arrest them.

In fact, these wounded officers and men who returned from the front line came back to reorganize the reserve in accordance with the instructions of their superiors, so that they could go north to reinforce the southern cluster as soon as possible.

Sending wounded officers back is also just to deal with the wounds in passing.

If anything, almost all of the front-line officers in the southern cluster were wounded.

In fact, this incident also reflects from one side that Chagit is very unpopular on the side of the Southern Cluster, and the contradictions between the two factions can be said to be deep-rooted.

Not to mention the capture of Deogle, it would be nice to be able to hold Udaipur.

Crucially, after these events, Chagit may not allow the Southern Cluster to withdraw from the front line, and the officers and soldiers of the Southern Cluster may not be at his disposal. The best outcome would actually be for the southern cluster to remain between Deoger and Udaipur, and for more than 100,000 officers and soldiers from the southern region to act as Udaipur's meat shield. The worst-case outcome would be for the southern cluster to defect in front of the formation.

In Thompson's view, the most likely scenario is actually the surrender of the Southern Cluster to the Liang Xia army in a hopeless situation.

Clearly, Chagit's reckless move has cornered the Southern Cluster.

As expected, it's been a few days.

Of course, even if the Southern Cluster did not surrender in front of the battle, it would not last long.

Two brigades of the 5th Marine Division had already moved north from Palampur and could reach the south side of Pali as soon as 3 December, attacking the southern cluster from the west. Because there is no road to the east, and Pilvara to the east is still dozens of kilometers away, the southern cluster does not even have a chance to break out.

It was in this way that on the day Thompson arrived, Chagit sent several of his henchmen to Cota.

Clearly, he was preparing a retreat for himself.

If they can't hold Udaipur, they can at least retreat to Kota and organize a defense there.

As for the other side, the situation on the other side, which is Jaipur, is not much better.

On the night of December 1, the main forces of the 17th Panzer Division took down Polodi. Just one day later, the vanguard appeared on the outskirts of Jodhpur. Although it was a company-level reconnaissance force, with a total of only a few dozen officers and soldiers, it also meant that the 17th Panzer Division would soon march towards Jodhpur. The point is that the main forces of the 17th Panzer Division are all in Pelodi. Even after eliminating the two brigades that had suffered losses, the 17th Panzer Division still had 3 combat brigades available, and several support brigades were also very combat-ready.

If it were real, the 17th Panzer Division would be able to attack Jodhpur with 20,000 troops.

Obviously, even if the main force of the Central Army is dispatched, it may not be able to hold Jodhpur.

It was for this reason that Tigara had approved the battle plan submitted by the front-line commander, and the defense zone was extended to the rear to expand the depth of the defense.

In addition, it is on this basis that defensive tactics are adjusted.

Primarily, it was to destroy the railway from Jodhpur to Jaipur, strengthen the defensive deployment of the road to the north, and ensure that the Eastern Coalition could not march towards Jaipur immediately after the capture of Jodhpur, so as to buy enough time for the Vatican army defending Jaipur to complete the pre-war preparations.

The point is that there is a problem with Jaipur's defenses.

As mentioned earlier, Jaipur has always been the rear of the city, and has been responsible for providing strategic assistance to the city, especially the deployment of reserves.

It is precisely because of this that most of the Vatican troops on the Jaipur side are deployed in the north.

In addition, Jaipur's defenses were mainly deployed to deal with threats from the north, such as almost all of the defensive lines facing north.

The Van army never expected that Jaipur would be threatened from other directions.

If it's in peacetime, it's not that difficult to adjust the deployment.

But the problem is that it is not so easy to adjust the deployment in wartime, and without air supremacy.

Crucially, the Eastern Coalition front has advanced to the vicinity of Jodhpur, and the straight-line distance from Jodhpur to Jaipur is only 250 kilometers. Although threatened by the long-range anti-aircraft missiles deployed in Jodhpur, the joint command aircraft of the Liangxia Empire have been operating in the vicinity of Bogren, but the proximity is so close that there is no challenge at all for tactical reconnaissance aircraft.

In fact, almost every day several tactical reconnaissance aircraft fly to Jaipur.

As far as Thompson knew, in order to master the defensive deployment of the Van army, the Liangxia Empire dispatched a strategic reconnaissance aircraft nicknamed the "Night Phoenix".

No air defense system can do anything in the face of such a strategic reconnaissance aircraft flying at a speed of more than Mach 3.5 and flying at an altitude of more than 35000 meters. It's just that the reliability of the "Night Phoenix" is not very high, and the number is not large, and it is generally not used to carry out tactical reconnaissance missions. It is only when the tactical reconnaissance plane cannot come, and there is accurate intelligence support, that the Liangxia Air Force will send the "Dark Night Phoenix" to Jaipur.

In addition, the Eastern Coalition has been focusing on bombing Jodhpur, mainly targeting long-range anti-aircraft missiles deployed there.

That's right, it's the Patriot PAC-2 anti-aircraft missile of the Nuland Republic.

Before the outbreak of the war, to be precise, after the outbreak of the Bosshawan War, in order to consolidate relations with the Van Luo country, the Nuland Air Force, in accordance with the president's order, used strategic transport aircraft to transport three sets of "Patriot" systems to the Van Luo country, and handed over two of them to the Van Luo Air Force.

The Nuland Air Force's own set, which had previously been deployed in Trivan to the south.

After Trifan was hit hard, the Nuland Air Force was ready to send the air defense system, the remainder to the Northwest to be exact.

Unfortunately, when it came time to Jodhpur, there was no way to go north.

Since then, this air defense system has been deployed in the urban area of Jodhpur, and it is scattered and concealed to avoid being destroyed by the Eastern Coalition forces.

Because there are only 6 sets of launchers left, there are only a few dozen spare missiles, and there is no battlefield mobility capability, so it is difficult to say how much of a threat this "Patriot" air defense system is, at least Nuland's military advisers have not put forward a proposal to use it.

It is the existence of this air defense system that makes the Liangxia Air Force afraid to let clumsy large aircraft such as the joint command plane be deployed in front.

For the "Finger-10A", 250 kilometers is indeed a little far.

Even if the maximum detection distance is close to 300 kilometers, the imaging resolution will be reduced due to the long distance, and the nature of the target cannot be distinguished.

This situation will not last long.

The Liangxia Air Force has already increased its investment, and has dispatched a lot of electronic attack planes and anti-aircraft suppression fighters, and it is only a matter of time before it finds and destroys the "Patriot" system. The point is that in a few days, the Liangxia Air Force will be able to determine that there is no threat to that system.

At that time, the "Finger-10A", which is deployed later, will be allowed to move forward.

In fact, it is only necessary to have the joint command aircraft deployed to the north of Jodhpur to monitor the whole of Jaipur and direct the attack aircraft to attack the Vatican army near Jaipur.

Adjusting the deployment of defenses under an air strike?

Not to mention the Van Army, even if it is the Nuland Army, it is more than lucky.

Previous battles have long proven that after losing air supremacy, the only way to preserve ground forces is to hide as much as possible to reduce the probability of exposure.

Theoretically, exposure would be destroyed.

Even if a transfer is required, try to schedule it at night, preferably on a bad night.

It is best to be a sandstorm, otherwise a storm will do, but if it doesn't work, you have to choose when it is foggy, because bad weather will greatly reduce the strike accuracy of precision-guided munitions such as laser-guided bombs, and even cannot be used normally, thereby reducing the combat efficiency of the Liangxia Air Force.

Unfortunately, such bad weather is rare here in Jaipur.

As for human interference, such as using the smoke generated by burning waste tires to obscure the battlefield, it is feasible to carry out small-scale tactical mobilization, but large-scale battlefield mobilization is not of much significance.

It is precisely for this reason that Jodhpur must be defended.

The problem is that it is not easy to sabotage the railway from Jodhpur to Jaipur, as the railway is almost entirely in the desert and there are not many bridges and tunnels along the route. If it is only to tear down the railroad tracks and blow up the land base, it will not help much to delay the Eastern Coalition forces.

The layers of fortification along the road to the north are just talking.

Even if there are enough troops, this tactic of dividing troops and defending is only a senseless sacrifice.

Based on the performance of the Vatican army before this, if it is dispersed along the road line, I am afraid that it will collapse before the Eastern Coalition army arrives.

Even if a small number of troops hold out, it is very likely that they will surrender before the battle.

To put it into practice, it is still necessary to defend Jodhpur.

No matter what the cost is, you will have to fight to the death with the Eastern Coalition here.

It was for this reason that Tigara's second order, issued on December 3, was to keep the Vatican army in Jodhpur and not to take a step back.