After Li Tianling left, the main issue discussed was still the main direction of attack.

That is, the arrival of Bai Huawei and Li Tianling made this problem, which had been solved by Ding Zhennan, once again become the focus of contention.

The most energetic ones are Hou Chensheng and Fu Weimin.

According to the arrangement made by Ding Zhennan before, the southwest battlefield is actually a secondary direction, there is no such thing as a "main attack", and both units have their own belongings. After the start of the main assault, the 5th Marine Division will move to the east coast, and the 17th Panzer Division will go to the northwest. Even if it is necessary to make a fuss in the southwest battlefield or the west coast of the Van Luo Kingdom during the offensive phase, other troops will be arranged at that time.

In short, the southwest battlefield has little to do with Hou Chensheng and Fu Weimin.

Because it's none of their business, the two of them are not very concerned.

The key is that, according to Ding Zhennan's arrangement, whether it is the northwest battlefield or the east coast, the 17th Armored Division and the Fifth Marine Division are well-deserved main forces.

It is precisely because of this that Hou Chensheng and Fu Weimin did not trouble Ding Zhennan.

The problem now is that we have to launch a large-scale offensive on the Pakistani side in advance, and judging from the current situation, we must definitely put the main battlefield in the southwest, and even if we go to the northwest battlefield to fight, we will still draw troops from the southwest battlefield, and we will not consider using the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division and the 33rd Infantry Division for the time being. The reason is simple: the former is the general reserve, while the latter will take several months to complete the expansion.

In fact, the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division is also expanding, and due to capacity constraints, several supplementary brigade-level units have not yet been put in place.

Comparatively speaking, the 17th Armored Division and the 5th Marine Division, which participated in the Bosshawan War, had the most complete establishment and the state of the officers and men was more ideal.

So, on the southwestern side, who will fight the main force?

Also, is it necessary to launch an offensive in the North-Western theater at the same time?

These two issues are actually one and the same.

If for the time being, only an offensive will be launched in the southwestern theater, then it is necessary to select a unit to act as the main force, or in other words, it is necessary to determine a main offensive direction in the southwestern theater.

On the contrary, there is no such problem.

It is precisely for this reason that the main topic of debate is whether to start fighting in the Northwest Theater.

Interestingly, the two factions of the Army and the Marine Corps fought to the end, and they all pointed the finger at Bai Huawei, to be precise, the Navy.

In short, how much support the Navy can provide.

Obviously, Hou Chensheng and Fu Weimin came prepared, and they were targeted.

According to the information revealed by Li Tianling, when the large-scale counterattack operation begins, the air force will have to focus on the northwest battlefield and may not be able to take care of the southwest battlefield. Even if it had to be balanced, only one air force would remain, and this would obviously not be able to support a large-scale offensive operation.

In this way, it is necessary to count on naval aviation.

In fact, in the Poshawan War, the naval aviation unit shouldered heavy responsibilities, especially in the later stage of the war, that is, after the air force switched to the mainland battlefield, the naval aviation unit took the lead and undertook most of the battlefield support tasks, making great contributions to the victory.

On the Southern Subcontinent side, the situation is much the same.

Based on the calculation of investing two divisions, the Navy must provide at least 500 combat aircraft under the condition that the Air Force can only send one air force with a size of about 500 aircraft. Since support aircraft are not included, it is approximately equal to the size of six carrier-based aviation wings.

Actually, this is just a theoretical calculation.

In the case of past wars, the actual need is certainly much more.

Taking combat operations in the southern theater as an example, in large-scale air strikes, 50 percent more combat aircraft were actually deployed than theoretically calculated.

In this case, the Navy will need to provide 1000 combat aircraft.

Where to find 1000 combat aircraft?

Actually, this is a secondary issue.

In any case, the Imperial Navy can be regarded as a great business, and the 51st Task Force deployed in Luxinhai, as well as the 41st Task Force and the 61st Task Force in the Guia Ocean, have all suffered heavy losses and will not be sent to the battlefield in the short term. Counting the several wings formed after the start of the war, it is not difficult to gather 1,000 combat aircraft.

Relatively speaking, the real trouble is actually the transport aircraft attached to the Airlift Command.

Because he did not expect to launch a strategic offensive in advance, when making the plan, Ding Zhennan applied to the Air Force Command for airlift support in accordance with the standard of supporting the Fifth Marine Division, and the Air Force Command also dispatched large transport planes to the Southern Subcontinent according to this request.

In addition to the 60 "Y-15A" mentioned earlier, there are 40 "Y-10A" and 80 "Y-11".

Obviously, these transport planes would certainly not be able to support two large-scale offensive operations in the interior of the country that would have to cross the Van Loe Desert at the same time.

If anything, it is a bit difficult to support a large-scale offensive operation in one direction.

Otherwise, when planning the assault against Dai Ogle, Ding Zhennan would not have made strict restrictions on the number of troops invested by the Fifth Marine Division.

The key point is that the "Y-10A" cannot take off and land at field airfields, and the "Y-11" cannot carry such large main battle equipment as the main battle tank.

In addition, Li Tianling has already mentioned that the most urgent thing at present is the transport plane.

Don't forget that there are also a large number of combat units that need to be transferred, including hundreds of thousands of officers and men from more than a dozen divisions in the Northwest Theater that need to be withdrawn to the rear for reorganization.

On the Guia side, too, there are large quantities of supplies that need to be sent to the front.

What's more, the situation in the Beixuan region is also very tense, and at most the sea transportation is to quench the thirst of the plum, and many important war materials and military equipment still have to rely on air transportation.

As a result, even though the Imperial Air Force was equipped with thousands of transport aircraft, it was still overstretched.

In Li Tianling's words, because there is the Northwest Railway, and the shipping routes are still unimpeded, and the local security of the Pakistani Railway is also guaranteed sufficiently, so in the short term, do not expect the Air Force Command to send additional transport planes to the southern subcontinent, and it would be good to be able to keep the current fleet.

The key reason for this, Li Tianling didn't say, but Ding Zhennan could think of it.

Actually, it has something to do with Bai Huawei.

Although the Khowaii Islands were held, for the Empire, this was tantamount to carrying a burden, and this burden should have been lost to the Republic of Nuland.

That's right, it's the Howaii Islands.

According to the original battle plan, after the end of the offensive and defensive battle on the Khowaii Islands, it should be the Nuland authorities worried about holding the captured islands, and the Imperial Navy took this opportunity to retreat, shorten the logistics supply line, minimize the burden of support, and avoid investing too many troops in the Guia Ocean.

Only in this way will it be possible to launch a large-scale offensive in other strategic directions using the saved forces, or more precisely combat materiel.

To put it more bluntly, it is to use the Khowaii Islands to catch the Nuland Republic and take this opportunity to sweep the world island.

As a result, the Nuland Navy was hit head-on.

Affected by this, the Imperial Navy had to start an offensive operation on the Guia side ahead of schedule, that is, to begin the deployment of strategic strike forces to the Khowaii Islands.

Although according to the plan, the Navy was responsible for the transportation mission, and the Air Force only provided combat platforms and sent bombers to the Khowaii Islands to carry out strategic bombing missions, in the original plan, a large-scale bombing operation began as soon as the second quarter of 151 New Calendar.

That is, the work on transports in support of strategic bombing also began in 151 of the new calendar, at most 1 month earlier.

Obviously, that's the problem.

The relevant preparations of the Imperial Navy were carried out according to plan, so that the ships for transport tasks could not be deployed until the end of the year.

Even if you make adjustments immediately, you can't immediately put them in place.

Even in the best-case scenario, only two-thirds of the basic needs of the transport vessel could be put on by the end of the year, there would still be a huge capacity gap.

In addition, there is an issue that no one can ignore.

Transport vessels also suffer losses.

It was in this way that the Imperial Air Force undertook some of the transportation tasks, such as the transportation of valuable equipment and important supplies for the maintenance of strategic bombers.

As a result, more than half of the Y-10A was left in the Guia.

Of course, what Ding Zhennan needs most is the "Y-15A", after all, to be sent directly to the front line, the most ideal transport force is the "Y-15A".

It is a pity that the "Y-15A" is the most sought-after, or the most popular, transport aircraft.

In Li Tianling's words, various theaters have long arranged for representatives of the air force to go to the manufacturer to squat to ensure that they can grab the transport planes that have just rolled off the production line.

The key is that no one can grab the Northwest Theater.

The main thing is that the air transport task in the Northwest Theater is the heaviest, and in many places, only field airfields with extremely rudimentary conditions are available. What is even worse is that the mainland battlefield facing the Northwest Theater spans more than 4,000 kilometers from north to south, and the depth from east to west reaches 5,000 kilometers. This led to a very serious problem, with many defensive strongholds located far from the lines of communication on a frontline of thousands of kilometers long.

Before the arrival of winter, the problem of logistics support was not very prominent.

Even if the distance is very long, it is possible to set up a transfer station on the railway and road lines, and use heavy helicopters when necessary, which is nothing more than burning more fuel.

With the arrival of winter, the problem becomes even more serious.

After the first snowfall, most of the transit stations along the highway have become decorations, and it is difficult to maintain them, let alone operate normally. Without the support of the transit points, it would not have been possible to arrange for heavy helicopters to deliver supplies to isolated positions. As for sending vehicles to transport supplies, it is even more impossible to talk about it.

In response to this problem, the Imperial Army not only needed to adjust its defensive deployment, but also relied more on airlift.

To put it simply, it is to provide logistical support to the bases within the flight radius of the helicopter with large field airfields and heavy helicopters.

Obviously, this requires more than enough "Y-15A".

It is precisely because of this that in addition to the 60 "Y-15A" sent to the southern subcontinent, the other 120 that have been produced have all been sent to the Northwest Theater.

In fact, it is precisely with the "Y-15A" that the Imperial Army can keep the entire defense line intact without making too many adjustments to the defense line, and there is still enough tension in winter to cope with the enemy's harassment, so that the main forces behind the defense line can withdraw and recuperate.

If the traditional defensive deployment is followed, unless the defensive line is contracted, the main force will have to take on part of the defensive tasks.

If you want to say, 120 "Y-15A" are only barely enough.

According to the winter defensive operation plan drawn up by Shi Zhiliang himself, 180 "Y-15A" are needed to maintain the strength of the defensive line, and if they plan to do something in the winter, such as launching a counterattack on the local defense line, eliminating the salient, and seizing key areas of great value, it is necessary to put in more transport planes, and all of them must be "Y-15A" transport planes that can send main battle equipment to field airfields.

The great significance of launching a tactical counterattack in the winter does not need to be said by Li Tianling at all.

The reason is also very simple, the battle plan submitted by Shi Zhiliang was actually drafted by Ding Zhennan, and the main part is almost unchanged.

The core of the plan is to use the opportunity of the winter truce to lay the groundwork for a spring counterattack.

As long as the preparations are in place, then a counterattack can be launched immediately after the beginning of spring, and a breakthrough can be made in the main direction from the very beginning.

Because the Western Army Corps may not be able to prepare for defense, and after the beginning of spring, it is very likely that the defensive line will be adjusted according to traditional practice, so when the Imperial Army launches a counterattack, or more precisely a strategic offensive, the Western Army Corps may not be in a state at all.

If this were the case, perhaps before the end of the year 151 of the new calendar, the Imperial Army would be able to drink the Strait of Madover.

It can be seen that even if hundreds of "Y-15A" are rolled off the assembly line every month and delivered to the Imperial Air Force, they will be provided to the Northwest Theater first.

If anything, tactical transport aircraft are enough.

Before the outbreak of the war, the Imperial Air Force had about 5,000 tactical transport aircraft, and most of them were Y-9s with a carrying capacity of 30 tons.

After the completion of the first phase of mobilization, the monthly production of the Y-9 will exceed 400 aircraft, and it will definitely reach 600 aircraft by the beginning of next year.

Comparatively speaking, the demand for tactical transport aircraft in various theaters is not very strong.

The reason is also very simple, the range of tactical transport aircraft is too short.

In peacetime, it can rely on military bases all over the world, and it can also carry out in-flight refueling, so even if the range of tactical transport aircraft is not long enough, it is acceptable. However, in wartime, not only did many overseas bases be lost, but tankers were also in short supply, and the shortcomings of tactical transport aircraft with a short range were magnified.

The "Y-9" series is still being produced, and there is only no replacement model for the time being.

According to the tactical indicators proposed by the Imperial Air Force, the next-generation tactical transport aircraft used to replace the Y-9 must first double its range, that is, to be on par with large transport aircraft. As long as there is a long enough range, the load capacity and cruising speed can be appropriately reduced.

It is a pity that the prototype of the new tactical transport aircraft will not be seen until the end of next year at the earliest, and the production of the new tactical transport aircraft will probably be a matter of the year after tomorrow.

Of course, there are enough tactical transport aircraft available, which is better than nothing.

Either way, tactical transport aircraft can transport combat personnel and ammunition supplies, as well as light equipment of modest size.

It is precisely for this reason that, after discussing with Hou Chensheng and Fu Weimin, Ding Zhennan proposed a compromise solution, staggering the offensive time, leaving 5 to 7 days for adjustment, to ensure that the vital large transport aircraft can support the offensive operations in both directions one after another.

This is not the best solution, but it is the only one that can be used at the moment.

Hou Chensheng and Fu Weimin also knew that Ding Zhennan did his best, and even if they didn't agree, there would be no better result.

Moreover, the discussion has been going on all night.

Not to mention that they are exhausted, even if they still have a little energy, they still have to fill their stomachs. After arguing for a night, the feeling can be described as "hungry and cold".