Ding Zhennan did not explain why he changed the battle plan temporarily, and he did not need to explain to Liu Zunshan.

Landing on the east coast of the country of Van Luo has something to do with Bai Huawei?

Even if it is related, it is only secondary.

In any case, on the issue of right and wrong, Ding Zhennan is very principled.

Before coming to the Southern Subcontinent, Ding Zhennan mentioned to Shi Zhiliang that if he only focused on combat operations in the direction of Pakistan and Railway, it would be difficult to quickly defeat Van Luo, and it might even turn into a war of attrition. The only way to achieve the stated goal is to let go of your hands and feet and not make clear restrictions on the area of operation. It's just that at that time, because there was no authorization from Shoufu, Ding Zhennan was just talking.

Now, with Shousuke's authorization, that's a different story.

Before returning to Kara Harbor, Ding Zhennan had already made up his mind that if he wanted to win in half a year, he had to make a fuss in the east coast area.

The key is not how many cities are captured, nor how many enemies are destroyed, but to completely destroy the somewhat inexplicable self-confidence of the people in the Van Luo Kingdom, which can also be said to be arrogant. Only in this way can we achieve the strategic goal of dismembering the Van Luo Kingdom at the fastest speed and at the lowest cost.

To put it into practice, it is to use the most direct way to let most of the Van Luo people appreciate the war strength of the empire.

Then, it is also necessary to fight a ground war without water in the core area of the Van Luo Kingdom.

It can be seen that this is Ding Zhennan's true intention.

Even if he can help Bai Huawei, it is only a passing effect.

In the following days, Ding Zhennan went around the main military base and learned about the situation of the garrison and the progress of the work of using the storage equipment.

Before the end of the month, the 11th, 12th, and 13th, three marine divisions reorganized from the reserve will arrive one after another.

According to Ding Zhennan's arrangement, the combat operations in the early stage will begin at the end of the month, and the main offensive operations will also begin within the year, and there is not much time left for pre-war preparations.

Fortunately, Liu Zunshan's preliminary work was done very well.

In addition, it is necessary to be grateful to the Sri Lankan authorities.

Although the Silan authorities have no intention of external expansion and have not attached much importance to national defense construction, the civil war that lasted for more than ten years, especially in the last few years, with the assistance of the imperial military advisers, the Silan National Defense Forces have trained a large number of outstanding officers and soldiers, especially grassroots officers who have been on the battlefield and have actual combat experience.

Crucially, during the protracted civil war, Slan established a basic military industry and trained a number of skilled workers. For example, the state-owned arsenal on the outskirts of Cologne provides overhaul services for main battle equipment, including the ZT-80DG. Even some key equipment, such as the barrels of tank guns, sighting equipment and electronic equipment, still needed to be imported from the Liangxia Empire, but ordinary factory maintenance work could be carried out locally, and the skilled workers were almost all local residents, and had nothing to do with the imperial garrison.

The development of the military industry was also the main policy of the post-war reconstruction and national industrial planning drawn up by the Sri Lankan authorities.

Interestingly, the main purpose of Silan's vigorous development of the military industry is not only to strengthen national defense construction, but also to earn foreign exchange.

The reason is also very simple, there is no real industrial country in the southern subcontinent, even if it is the Van Luo country and Pakistan Railway, its military industry is not complete, and many weapons and equipment rely on imports, let alone self-production, and even basic maintenance cannot be guaranteed.

Of course, the arms trade itself is a lucrative business.

According to the plan made by the Silan authorities, the development of the military industry, even if it only has the ability to maintain and support, can earn a lot of foreign exchange from the garrison of the Liangxia Empire. For Silan, who was still in the process of post-war reconstruction, the most scarce thing was foreign exchange, which was dominated by imperial gold dollars.

This is also the key reason why Silan vigorously develops heavy industries, including petrochemicals.

The "Silan International Petrochemical Group", which was jointly established by the Imperial Petroleum Enterprises with funds and technology, and the Silan authorities provided land and tax incentives, was designed to produce 15 million tons of aviation kerosene in the first phase of the oil refinery plant on the outskirts of Cologne, of which 5 million tons were aviation kerosene produced according to the standards of the Imperial military. It was clear that this oil refinery was aimed at the Imperial garrison. The first phase of the project can meet the combat consumption of the garrison, and the second phase of the project, which will be doubled by 1 time, will be completed, with a total production capacity of 45 million tons, which can not only meet the daily consumption of Silan, but also provide it to the imperial garrison in the Rim Fanyan Ocean region. At that time, there will no longer be a need to send fuel from the empire mainland to the military bases in the Fanyanyang region, and the fuel produced by Silan will be enough.

However, the oil refinery will not be able to carry out trial production until the end of the year at the earliest, and it may be next year to reach the design capacity.

Obviously, the offensive operation could not be dragged on until the end of the year.

Five days later, on October 22, 60 large civil airliners temporarily requisitioned by the Imperial Air Force sent nearly 20,000 officers and men of the 13th Marine Division to Silan.

This is the largest strategic airlift carried out by civilian airliners since the start of the war.

Along with the officers and soldiers, about 50,000 tons of supplies were delivered.

In fact, mixed passenger and cargo transportation is one of the major advantages of civil aviation passenger aircraft.

For example, the C-420, which has more than 2,000 aircraft, can fly 12,000 kilometers after carrying 420 passengers and 80 tons of cargo, and can carry 120 tons of cargo after carrying 360 heavily armed combat personnel when carrying a transport mission with a range of no more than 6,000 kilometers, and leave behind the fuel required for light load return, that is, there is no need to refuel at the destination airport.

Just looking at the transport capabilities, the C-420 is no worse than the "Y-10A" of the Imperial Air Force, and even a little stronger.

The difference is actually the adaptability of the site, as well as the ability to transport large cargo, after all, civil airliners are not required to be loaded with main battle tanks when they are designed.

The C-420 was on an airlift mission.

Because there is only one large airport in Silan, there is a problem of too long diversion time, and it is necessary to leave more surplus fuel, so these passenger planes have not reached the maximum loading capacity, otherwise they can transport about 10,000 tons of more cargo. It's just that due to cabin restrictions, there is no way to transport more people.

In fact, the main mission of civil airliners in wartime is to transport combat personnel to the front line.

Even in peacetime, the Imperial Air Force often requisitioned civilian airliners for personnel transport tasks, which were not only cheaper than using transport aircraft, but also much more comfortable to ride. When flying more than 6 hours for long-haul airlift missions, civil airliners are the best choice. The key is that civil airliners are more comfortable, can keep officers and men in a good mental state, and can immediately participate in combat operations after arriving at the war zone. If it is replaced by a transport plane, it will be difficult for the officers and men to maintain an ideal mental state all the time because the ride comfort is too poor.

It is obviously impossible to modify the transport aircraft to bring it up to the standards of a civil airliner, after all, the main task of the transport aircraft is to transport large equipment.

The materials transported by civil airliners are generally light weapons, such as individual weapons carried on their body.

Of course, looking at the whole world, there are only two countries that can use civil airliners to transport one division to the front line in one day in wartime, namely the Liangxia Empire and the Nuland Republic, because only these two countries have a huge enough civil aviation market. Not to mention second-rate and third-rate countries, even the Manman Empire does not have too many civil airliners, and it is dominated by small and medium-sized trunk airliners.

However, only officers and soldiers were sent, as well as a small amount of combat equipment.

In order for the 13th Marine Division to reach operational status, it also needs to acquire main battle equipment and spend some time for officers and men to carry out adaptive training.

Of course, there is still plenty of time.

In the days that followed, officers and men of the 11th and 12th Marine Divisions also arrived.

Even if a civil airliner is used, this kind of strategic airlift operation will certainly not be absolutely secret.

Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers equivalent to 3 marine divisions were transported to Silan, and even if the intelligence officers of the Van Luo Kingdom were blind, they could see the empire's war intentions.

Of course, there will be countermeasures.

On 23 October, the day after the officers and men of the 13th Marine Division arrived in the city of Cologne, the Van Rowe Air Force organized a very targeted assault operation.

That's right, for the international airport in Coron.

As mentioned earlier, in the whole of Slan, only the Cologne City International Airport has a runway length of more than 3,000 meters, which is capable of supporting all military aircraft.

In addition, large civil airliners like C-420, because of the high requirements for the flatness and carrying capacity of the runway, even if the taxiing distance required for light take-off will not exceed 2,000 meters, it is difficult to land at other airports, or can only rely on Coron City International Airport.

Then, as long as this airfield is destroyed, it can prevent the Liang Xia Empire from increasing troops to Silan, at least delaying the speed of increasing troops.

If anything, October 22 is the ideal time to raid.

Unfortunately, the intelligence agencies of Van Luo were not effective, and the military command system was not fast enough to respond, and by the time the news was received, the airlift operation had been declared over. By the time the Van Rowe Air Force had completed its dispatch that night, the last C-420 carrying expatriates had taken off from Coron City International Airport.

It's just that the Van Rowe Air Force didn't stop there.

After careful preparations, especially after completing the preliminary reconnaissance, the Van Rowe Air Force launched a raid codenamed "Iron Fence" in the early morning of the next day.

It must be admitted that the Van Luo Air Force did come prepared, and it also paid a bloody price.

According to the battle report submitted by the Imperial Air Force, in the battle in the early morning of that day, the Van Rowe Air Force put in at least 200 combat planes, and also used some reconnaissance planes, and the attack aircraft group was divided into several formations to launch a surprise attack from several directions at a carefully planned time. At the tactical level, the Van Rowe Air Force's attack aircraft group has been carefully choreographed, such as letting a small number of fast-attack supersonic attack aircraft act as decoys at high altitudes, and the main aircraft group will penetrate from ultra-low altitudes, trying to use the detection blind spot of air defense radar to break through the air defense network of Cologne City.

It's a pity that this set of tactics has long been outdated!

As a matter of fact, it was a big mistake to send a reconnaissance plane to the city of Coron on the night of the 22nd to collect battlefield intelligence.

Without a special purpose, why let a tactical reconnaissance aircraft venture to fly to the city of Cologne?

Previously, the tactical reconnaissance planes of the Van Rowe Air Force operated at most hundreds of kilometers west of the city of Cologne, and rarely provoked the air defense fighters of the Imperial Air Force and Navy.

The reason is also very simple, the tactical reconnaissance aircraft of the Van Rowe Air Force are improved from the second-generation fighters, while the Imperial Air Force and Navy stationed in Silan are all equipped with third-generation fighters. Even if the reconnaissance planes generally enter at a relatively fast speed, it will be difficult to take advantage of the air defense fighters.

What's more, the city of Coron was a strategic point for the Imperial garrison to guard.

If anything, it is because of the problem of tactical reconnaissance aircraft revealing combat intentions, and the Imperial Air Force and Navy are looking for more secure reconnaissance methods. Although the Imperial Air Force and Navy were still equipped with a large number of tactical reconnaissance aircraft, they were mainly used to carry out the task of judging the results of the war in wartime. To put it simply, after the assault operation is over, the reconnaissance plane is allowed to come on the field to confirm whether the combat objective has been achieved.

It was also because of the Van Roe Air Force that suddenly intensified its reconnaissance efforts, and the Imperial Air Force stationed in Cologne City increased its combat readiness level.

As a result, by the time the Van Roe Air Force's attack aircraft group arrived, the Imperial Air Force was already in full swing.

As for the outcome of the engagement, there is no suspense.

The assault tactics adopted by the Van Rowe Air Force are mainly aimed at the air defense system supported by ground-based radars, and they have become clowns in front of the AWACS aircraft.

In addition, the combat aircraft dispatched by the Van Rowe Air Force are also mainly second-generation aircraft.

Not to mention attack aircraft, even if there are a small number of escort fighters, they are mainly MG-23 and F-4E, and only the forward formation is 8 MG-29s.

In front of the "Battle-10B", these combat aircraft of the Van Rowe Air Force are simply not enough!

The key is that the air defense fighter was supported by two "Finger-8C" throughout the whole process, which brought the performance of the KK-12A medium-range air-to-air missile to the limit.

The whole air battle was completely one-sided.

In just 15 minutes, the "Battle-10B" group shot down 8 MG-29s through 2 line-of-sight interceptions, eliminating the threat to AWACS aircraft.

After that, air defense fighters, under the command of AWACS, began to intercept the incoming attack group.

More importantly, the Van Rowe Air Force is seriously short of long-range ground-strike munitions such as air-launched missiles, not even precision-guided bombs. Most of the attack aircraft carried traditional iron-hulled bombs, and only a few carried cluster bombs used against airfield runways.

The throw distance of these munitions is generally only a few kilometers!

Not to mention that there are air defense fighters in the sky, even in the face of air defense systems on the ground, the attack planes of the Van Rowe Air Force may not be able to reach the bombing airspace.

According to the battle report published by the Imperial Air Force, a total of 146 enemy aircraft were shot down in this battle, and they did not suffer any losses themselves.

Because they fought in the skies over the Fanyan Ocean and most of the enemy planes flew at ultra-low altitudes, there is no such thing as enemy planes escaping after being wounded.

However, the battle report released by the Van Rowe Air Force is another story.

In the evening of the same day, the Van Rowe Air Force not only claimed to have destroyed the Cologne City International Airport, but also shot down nearly 100 combat planes of the Liangxia Air Force, including one large early warning plane, in an air battle, and won a great victory in the assault operation, and won air supremacy in the area in one fell swoop.

Subsequently, the Van Luo authorities issued a diplomatic statement, in addition to claiming that the Silan authorities acted as lackeys of the Liang Xia Empire, demanding the immediate surrender of the Si Lan, and calling on the surrounding countries to resist the brutal rule from the Liang Xia Empire and create a bright future with the Van Luo Kingdom.

Thus, at the southern tip of the Southern Subcontinent, the battle with air strikes as the main means of engagement began.

The Van Roe Air Force launched the attack first, but unfortunately the good times did not last long, and the Imperial Air Force soon declared the terrifying strength of the world's number one air force with actions!