Under the command of Ding Zhennan, the preparatory work for the attack on Gal was carried out in a clear manner.

In fact, this is also the first time that Ding Zhennan has commanded combat operations at the tactical level after coming to the Southern Subcontinent, and he has only deployed at the campaign level before. After all, for a commander at the battlefield level, it is simply impossible to take care of everything.

This time it was so important, not only because the combat operation against Gal was very important, but also because there was nothing else for Ding Zhennan to worry about.

To put it bluntly, the situation on the battlefield is very favorable.

In the northwest battlefield, the 17th Panzer Division not only occupied Jodhpur on January 18, but also encircled and annihilated the main force of the Central Army from Jaipur north of Jodhpur with the assistance of the 24B Infantry Brigade, forcing the Van army to abandon the idea of holding Jaipur.

On 20 January, the day after the Battle of Jodhpur, Tigara announced that the central government of Van Rowe had been transferred to Kanpur. Although at the same time, Tigara also claimed that the millions of Van troops would defend Decheng to the death and fight to the death against the invading enemy in Decheng, but setting Kanpur as the accompanying capital would be tantamount to announcing the abandonment of Decheng, at least he, the high-ranking figures of the Van Luo Kingdom, would not coexist and die with Decheng.

If anything, after the fall of Jodhpur and the destruction of the main force of the Central Army in Jaipur, the Van Roe hierarchy has become a bird of terror.

The point is that it was only the 17th Panzer Division that attacked Jodhpur.

Around Jodhpur, the Central Army successively invested more than a dozen divisions, and after paying the heavy price of hundreds of thousands of casualties and soldiers, not only did it fail to hold Jodhpur, but also failed to inflict heavy losses on the 17th Panzer Division, which had only 50,000 troops. It is simply impossible to imagine how big the difference in combat effectiveness between the two sides is.

After this battle, Tigara probably has no illusions.

At that time, to the west of the city, the battle for Sirsa had just begun.

The key point is that the Syrsa is guarded by an ace unit of the Central Army, and the main force attacking Syrsa is only a brigade of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division.

Although the attacking force exceeded 40,000 troops, outside of the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade, there were only two infantry divisions of the Pakistani Railway Army and a disproportionately large armored brigade. Obviously, the only thing that can really fight is the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade with a total strength of nearly 7,000.

In fact, from Firozpur to Poyuda and then to Sylsa, the main force of the road force has always been the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade.

To say, at the initial stage, the performance of the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade was not outstanding, it can even be said to be relatively bad, and it did not meet expectations at all.

As for the specific reasons, it is also easy to understand.

Over the past few decades, after the Polish-Iraqi War to be precise, the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division has been the most neglected main force. Even after Pakistan joined the Eastern Bloc, the status of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division in the Imperial Army did not change much.

Don't forget, the imperial authorities have never taken the Van Luo Kingdom seriously, let alone strengthened the military deployment in the Southern Subcontinent for the sake of the Van Luo Kingdom.

In fact, the fact that the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division is subordinate to the Southern Theater of Operations, which is dominated by the Navy, is enough to explain the problem.

Obviously, even with the standing main force of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade is not in very good shape.

Fortunately, the officers and men of the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade are genuine active-duty soldiers, and they are backed by the core area of Pakistan Railway, so they can enjoy the highest treatment in all aspects.

It is precisely in this way that after the first battle, that is, the battle of storming Firozpur, the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade was temporarily reorganized, not only replacing all the main battle equipment in the name of "battle damage", but also using the replaced armored forces that had not been handed over for the time being to form three armored battalions. After such a toss, the strength and equipment level of the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion have reached the level of strengthening the armored brigade.

After that, in the battle against Pyunda, the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade performed almost perfectly.

In Sylsa, it's not that simple.

The 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade attacked continuously for 3 days before breaking through the outer defense line of the Van army, and then covering the follow-up Pakistani army to expand the breakthrough.

It's not that the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade can't fight, but it's the main force of the Vatican army that guards Sylsa.

Under the circumstances, the officers and men of the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade were all mentally prepared for a bitter battle.

According to the estimates of the front-line commanders, it is already very remarkable to be able to storm the city at the end of January and defeat the Van army in half a month.

Because the Vatican army was extremely tenacious in the early days, the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division was also preparing according to the standard of a strong attack.

At that time, the ammunition and supplies sent to the front line were enough for the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade to storm for half a month.

Who would have thought that the Van Luo authorities would announce that they would move the capital!

As a result, the main forces of the Central Army began to break through on the night of January 21, and before dawn, or more precisely before the Eastern Coalition reacted, they broke through the southern defensive line guarded by the army of Gao Ju. When the reinforcements of the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade arrived on the afternoon of the 22nd, the main forces of the Central Army had all rushed out, and only a few temporarily formed infantry divisions remained in the encirclement.

The strength of the "division" level troops of these people is generally between 6,000 and 8,000.

However, the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade did not stop there.

The gap was plugged, and after the Pakistani army arrived, the assault force of the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade was dispatched on the night of the 22nd, and the front was directed towards Hissar.

This city is actually the west gate of Decheng.

Not to mention the capture of Hisar, even if it only besieges Hisar, it can pose a threat to the city of Germany.

However, the threat to the city is not limited to the west.

To the south, another assault force has reached the outskirts of Jaipur and is likely to bypass Jaipur and march towards Mathura, south of the city.

This unit was the 24A Infantry Brigade, one of the two additional brigades that had previously assisted the 5th Marine Division in operations in the south.

After taking Udaipur, the 24B Infantry Brigade moved north to Jodhpur, while the 24A Infantry Brigade advanced east, capturing Bundy after capturing Mandelger. After scaring the northern cluster retreating to Kota to death, the brigade turned north.

As a result, while the Central Army was eyeing Jodhpur, the brigade headed north from Bendy.

By the time the 17th Panzer Division had taken Jodhpur, the brigade had captured Dunge.

In fact, the Central Army finally abandoned Jodhpur, that is, because Dongor was captured by the 24A Infantry Brigade, and Jaipur was directly threatened.

Under the circumstances, if the last of the main forces were sent to Jodhpur, it was likely that the 24A Infantry Brigade would attack Jaipur alone.

If anything, the 24A Infantry Brigade really has this strength.

Although in the beginning, the performance of the two additional brigades of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division was not good, and they basically followed the Fifth Marine Division to fight soy sauce, but after breaking away from the Fifth Marine Division, especially fighting in the north alone, the two additional brigades were tempered.

In terms of actual combat experience, the 24A Infantry Brigade is still above several other standing brigades of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division.

Comparatively speaking, the 24A Infantry Brigade is inferior in equipment, after all, most of the main battle equipment is drawn from the reserve after moving south. It's just that in the fight against the Van army, second-generation main battle equipment like ZT-80DG is sufficient, and the actual combat effectiveness is not bad.

If you want to say, the most powerful thing about the 24A Infantry Brigade is actually the morale and fighting spirit honed in actual combat.

In fact, this is also the key reason why the 24A Infantry Brigade went directly north, that is, it tried to take advantage of the opportunity of the Van army to hold Jodhpur to attack Jaipur.

If Jaipur could be taken in one fell swoop, the 17th Panzer Division would be able to attack Decheng directly north.

It's a pity that the Van army was not fooled.

Because there were still several main forces of the Central Army in Jaipur, the 24A Infantry Brigade could only stay in Dongkor and look for opportunities to bypass Jaipur.

In this way, the 24A Infantry Brigade was in a relatively advantageous and valuable position.

As long as it can bypass Jaipur, the 24A Infantry Brigade will be able to penetrate directly into the rear of the Van army and encircle the city from the south!

From a strategic point of view, even if the Van Luo authorities had already fled from Decheng, the main forces left behind in Decheng, as well as a large number of military factories that had not yet had time to move, would lose the opportunity to break out because Mathura was captured by the 24A Infantry Division and the retreat road was blocked.

If anything, this is more straightforward than storming Jaipur.

Crucially, several main forces of the Central Army have retreated to Jaipur, so even if they attack, they may not be able to take Jaipur in time. The Vatican Army could have deployed troops to strengthen its defensive deployment in Mathura and other places when the 17th Panzer Division stormed Jaipur.

In other words, by the time the 17th Panzer Division took Jaipur, it had already missed the best opportunity to encircle the city.

In this way, the 24A Infantry Brigade is very crucial.

In fact, before January 20, that is, before the Van Roe authorities decided to move the capital, no one expected that the position of the 24A Infantry Brigade would be so important.

According to the original plan, the 24A Infantry Brigade was more like a partial division.

To put it simply, when the 17th Panzer Division was not able to take Jodhpur as planned, the brigade pinned down the main force of the Vatican army in Jaipur.

Otherwise, it would not have been possible to allow an additional infantry brigade to move north from Udaipur alone.

It was not until January 20, or the early morning of the 21st to be exact, that Li Tianling began to make adjustments to the deployment and strengthen the assistance provided to the 24A Infantry Brigade, including giving the air force authority to support the brigade.

The key is to take Mathura.

That is, in the early morning of the 21st, Li Tianling personally gave an order to the commander of the 24A Infantry Brigade to take Mathura at any cost.

As a result, when the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade marched into Hisar, the attention of the Vatican army was not here at all.

The battle was still going on, with the 24A Infantry Brigade still a few dozen kilometers from Mathura, and the 243rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade fighting the Van army in Hisar.

It's just that, at a strategic level, there is nothing to doubt about the situation in the Northwest Theater.

Do not forget that the 33rd Infantry Division has not yet been dispatched.

Judging from the overall situation, by mid-February at the latest, the coalition forces will be able to fight on the outskirts of Decheng. If the 33rd Infantry Division had been brought into battle earlier, it might have been able to capture Decheng by mid-February. Even if the 33rd Infantry Division had remained still, it would have been able to capture Decheng in late February.

Clearly, the Van Rowe authorities have little hope.

To be precise, the key is actually to the east, which is the side of Gal.

If the Marines under the command of Ding Zhennan can take Gar as planned and swim up the Gangala River, they will definitely be able to defeat the Van Luo Kingdom before the arrival of April, at least end the large-scale combat operation, and hand over the follow-up security war to the Allied forces or the local forces that support it.

On the other hand, if the Gal side drags on, it will take more time.

If you want to say it, Ding Zhennan also went to the front line to command because of this.

The battle for the Garr did not begin until 22 January.

However, this time the first thing to do was not to prepare for firepower, or to say that shells and bombs were not used.

The first thing to vote out is 50 million flyers!

Throughout the day, the Imperial Air Force dispatched hundreds of transport planes to drop 50,000,000 leaflets printed in Sanskrit and local scripts on Garr and several nearby satellite cities, calling on Vatican officers and soldiers to abandon resistance in addition to promoting Tigara's decision to abandon the city.

The key is to tell the officers and soldiers of the Vatican army, as well as the residents of the city, that the coalition army has prepared hundreds of thousands of tons of food.

As long as you surrender, you can be saved.

And, of course, ultimatums.

The Vatican officers and soldiers have only 48 hours, to be precise until 0:00 on the 25th, and if the Vatican army has not surrendered, it will carry out a devastating blow.

In order to convince the Vatican officers and soldiers that the coalition forces were capable of destroying Gar, during the day on the 23rd and 24th, the Imperial Air Force used dozens of bombers to form a large formation and flew over the city of Gar. By the night of the 24th, hundreds of bombers were used to drop thousands of tons of incendiary bombs on the northern outskirts of Garr.

The fire burned until dawn and could be seen from tens of kilometers away.

In fact, this is a typical psychological warfare.

Not to mention the residents of Garr, even the officers and soldiers of the Van army must have been stupid.

As a result, at around 23:50 on the 24th, the commander of the Gar garrison gave the order to surrender, and then shouted to the coalition forces over the radio.

A few hours later, in the early morning of the 25th, the vanguard of the 5th Marine Division moved into Garr.

In a sense, the Marines captured the city without firing a single shot.

It's just, there's nothing to be happy about.

By 27 January, when the Gahr was fully taken over, only one reinforced regiment remained, of the 60,000 officers and soldiers arranged by Ding Zhennan. The remaining 56,000 officers and soldiers were all sent to carry out the occupation mission, to be precise, to help more than 20 million hungry people.

In fact, even after the coalition forces occupied Garr, tens of thousands of people died of starvation every day.

This situation will not ease until early February.

Of course, the bloodless capture of Gal was a great victory, and the experience in Gal was also very valuable.

Interestingly, Ding Zhennan did not feel that the success achieved in Gal could be replicated and promoted.

To this end, he made the necessary adjustments to his deployment on 28 January, mainly to prepare the 5th and 13th Marine Divisions as soon as possible to ensure that they could move upriver along the Gangaro River as soon as the 12th and 11th Marine Divisions took over the occupation.

Ding Zhennan also explicitly informed the two division commanders that as long as necessary, they could hand over the occupation task to the brother units in advance.

That night, Ding Zhennan took Liu Zunshan and took a transfer flight back to Silan.

said that he was preparing for the subsequent attack, but in fact, earlier that day, Ding Zhennan received a telegram from Bai Huawei from the fleet.

A very important thing has just happened.

For this reason, Bai Huawei asked Ding Zhennan to return to Silan immediately.