The battle for the port of Canning once again proved that the Vatican army's will to fight was extremely low, and they did not have the courage to fight to the death from top to bottom.

According to the plan drawn up by Ding Zhennan, the Fifth Marine Division dispatched air assault troops in the early morning of the 25th and simultaneously launched an attack on several important points outside Canning Harbor.

As with the attack on Port Diamond, the perimeter was first controlled, and then the encirclement was followed by an inward advance.

It was said to be an attack, but in fact there was no resistance at all.

Not to mention stubborn resistance, not even symbolic resistance!

Of course, the biggest problem is not the ground fighting, or combat operations, but how to deal with the thousands of hungry people pouring in from the north.

Although it had only been a few days since the capture of Port Diamond, the news that the Eastern Coalition was helping the hungry in the area, distributing food to the hungry, and even providing medical care had already spread. As a result, the hungry people of Garr flocked south to the occupied territories controlled by the Imperial Marines.

During the day on the 24th alone, the Marines sheltered about 50,000 hungry people.

After all, there are dozens of freighters in Port Diamond, and there are 50,000 tons of grain that have been unloaded, and there will be hundreds of thousands of tons of grain sent by the end of the year. The real problem is that forces must be used to maintain order.

Affected by this, the 5th Marine Division had to keep its main forces in Port Diamond.

At that time, there were only about 15,000 officers and soldiers ashore, and more than 10,000 remained in Port Diamond to maintain order and build a field airfield.

The shortage of troops is also a relatively acute problem faced by the Marine Corps.

According to the original plan, it would take about five days to take Port Diamond, and then it would take a few more days to consolidate the beachhead, especially the construction of a field airfield, so that the next attack would be launched after one week at the earliest, or 10 days at the earliest.

The projection of troops must be carried out in accordance with the battle plan.

As a result, in the first phase, the first 5 days, only one standard Marine Division was sent to the front. The second group of troops will not be sent until Port Diamond is captured. The second group of troops will arrive as planned, i.e. after 26 December.

Obviously, that's the problem.

The second landing force was part of the 13th and 12th Marine Divisions.

Because it involved advancing inland, and predicting stubborn resistance from the Vatican army, and also having to consider the possibility of storming Gar, the second group of troops was equipped with enough armored weapons, and there were hundreds of main battle tanks alone, so they had to go by sea.

In addition, deliveries can only be arranged by civilian vessels.

This means that even if you want to, you can't get up quickly.

Even if the convoy carrying the second group of troops arrived at Port Diamond on the 26th, it would take two days to reorganize and complete preparations for battle.

In addition, ground propulsion takes time.

In other words, it would be nice if, according to the original plan, the second landing force could arrive at the end of the year and rush to attack Gar with the 5th Marine Division.

In fact, in the original battle plan, there was no part of the attack on Canning Port in advance.

This has also had a huge impact on operational deployments.

After sending the 5th Marine Division ashore and being counterattacked by the Van Rowe Air Force, the landing fleet left the landing ground in the early morning of the 24th.

Of course, the main thing is that the 5th Marine Division also has a few brigades in Gugibang, and all of them are heavy troops.

According to the plan, the landing fleet will go to Guji Bang to pick up these brigades and, depending on the situation, participate in combat operations in the east coast area.

Arrangements for the landing fleet to go are not only about the speed of the landing ships, but also related to the specific situation.

On the Gugibang side, the main force of the Fifth Marine Division was south of Vadodara, with only a few makeshift docks and no military ports available. Because the requisitioned cargo ships could not load the main battle equipment through the temporary docks, they could only arrange landing ships and use landing craft for transshipment.

Affected by this, before the return of the landing fleet, there were simply no conditions for launching an amphibious assault operation.

Obviously, in the estuarine delta, which is covered with a dense network of rivers, amphibious assaults are the norm in ground warfare.

What's more, Port Diamond and Canning are not in the same place at all.

The two ports are far apart, and there are several very wide rivers in between.

Without the support of the amphibious fleet, especially the landing craft and hovercraft used to transport heavy equipment, heavy forces disembarking in Port Diamond would not necessarily be able to reach Port Canning.

It is precisely for this reason that when the plan was made, the second landing force was not considered to attack Canning Harbor.

The question now is that the port of Canning must be taken before the arrival of the second landing force, and then the heavy forces will have to go ashore directly at the port of Canning.

The effect of this was that there were only 2 regiments that stormed Port Canning!

Strictly speaking, the total number of ground troops delivered was only about 3,000 officers and men, while the other 2,000 were part of the Marine Corps aviation.

This was also the key reason for the offensive on the 25th.

Do not forget that the flotilla carrying the second batch of landing troops will arrive on the 26th. If they fail to take Port Canning here, they will have to let the troops go ashore at Port Diamond. It is crucial that the ships carrying the second landing force return as soon as possible to carry out more important transport tasks.

If anything, the only thing that cannot be delayed is the transportation work.

Of course, this also means that risks have to be taken.

Thankfully, during the assault on Port Canning, the Marines did not run into trouble.

As mentioned earlier, the biggest trouble is actually the influx of hungry people from the north.

Because of the lack of troops and the fact that the convoy carrying reinforcements did not carry much supplies, after capturing Canning Harbor, the Marines did not advance north, but instead pulled up barbed wire at several intersections outside the harbor to prevent the hungry people from the Garr from moving south.

In order to prevent the situation from getting out of control, Liu Zunshan, who had already arrived at Port Diamond, gave the front-line commander a death order.

Hungry people must not be allowed to enter Canning, even if extreme measures are necessary, to ensure that Canning is functioning properly.

Thankfully, this didn't last long.

In the early morning of the 26th, the convoy arrived.

In order to strengthen the defensive deployment of Canning Harbor, the Marine Corps dispatched helicopters before dawn to send a group of officers and men of the 13th Marine Division ashore, and temporarily incorporated them into the assault force of the Fifth Marine Division, which supplemented the outer defense line and strengthened the control of the defensive line north of the port.

It was not until the early morning of the 26th that the convoy entered the port of Canning.

To be precise, it is actually part of the transport vessels.

According to the revised plan, the ships carrying the 12th Marine Division went to Port Diamond, and the 12th Marine Division was tasked with continuing to assist the 5th Marine Division in taking control of Port Diamond. If necessary, follow the 5th Marine Division north to participate in the combat operation against the Gard.

In fact, all three marine divisions were only partially committed.

Not to mention, the total strength of the Fifth Marine Division has long exceeded 50,000, and when it arrived at Port Diamond, only more than 15,000 officers and men participated in combat operations, and the other 30,000 officers and men are still in Gujibang. Counting the main battle equipment, the landing fleet had to run at least three round trips before all the officers and men of the Fifth Marine Division could be sent to Port Diamond. In terms of time, it would be nice to be able to complete it in mid-January next year.

The situation with the other two Marine Divisions was actually similar.

Although it was not the main force, the 13th Marine Division arrived in Silan after the start of the war, and to be precise, it was reorganized in Silan, and it was no worse than the main force in terms of organizational scale. By the time Ding Zhennan decided to launch an offensive on the east coast, the strength of the 13th Marine Division was close to 50,000.

Crucially, the 13th Marine Division is a heavy unit, and all the main battle equipment that has been transported from China has been obtained, including hundreds of the latest ZT-99BL.

In terms of equipment, the 13th Marine Division is still above the 5th Marine Division.

Of course, the main reason is that the transportation capacity is limited, and there is too much stock equipment on the Pakistan Railway side, so there is no need to send new equipment over.

It is precisely because of this that when making plans, Ding Zhennan even thought about letting the 13th Marine Division fight the main force.

If you want to say, this is also the main reason why Hou Chensheng and Ding Zhennan don't deal well.

Of the 50,000 officers and men of the 13th Marine Division, less than 20,000 were brought to Canning Port by the convoy, which means that about 30,000 officers and men remained in Ceylon.

Comparatively, the situation of the 12th Marine Division was much worse.

Among the three marine divisions reorganized in Ceylon, the 12th Marine Division was the latest to be formed, so it was inferior to the other two divisions in terms of troop allocation and equipment arrangement. Up to now, it has only reached the normal establishment state, and there are only 6 regiments including the support troops, with a total strength of less than 20,000. There is basically no main battle equipment, so the so-called combat units are mainly engaged in support tasks.

This, of course, was the main reason for sending the 12th Marine Division to Port Diamond.

With the arrival of reinforcements, adjustments to operational deployments will definitely need to be made.

With the situation at that time, the biggest problem was still to help the hungry.

By the morning of the 27th, more than 200,000 hungry people had gathered outside Canning Harbor, and at many intersections, there were vicious incidents of hungry people storming the Marine Corps defensive line.

In addition, more hungry people are heading south.

According to the information provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, the Van Luo authorities used the hungry people as weapons and used various means to force the hungry people in the city to attack the defense area of the Eastern Coalition Army.

This information has been corroborated by reconnaissance reports provided by the Air Force.

On the 22nd, the day after the Marines launched their offensive, the Vatican troops stationed in Garr made an emergency dispatch and transported tens of thousands of tons of grain from Gard.

The grain convoy is more than ten kilometers long!

Since then, convoys carrying grain have left Gar every day.

Because civilian vehicles were dispatched and under the banner of humanitarian organizations, the Imperial Air Force did not bomb the convoys.

Of course, it is not difficult to imagine that the Van army has abandoned Gal.

To be precise, it turned the 100 million hungry people of West Beng into a nuisance for the Imperial army, a shield to block the advance of the Imperial army into the Gangaro Plain.

Strictly speaking, it's not just West Bengal that needs to be considered.

The eastern part of the country has a population of about 300 million, and it was affected by the war, or historically, the region was very poor, and it can be said that it is the most backward place in the country. Every year, millions of people starve to death or die of malnutrition-related diseases, not to mention in times of war, but even in times of peace. To put it bluntly, the Van Roe authorities did not treat the poor at the bottom as human beings at all.

This is also the key to the fact that the imperial military does not pay attention to the Meng State and is unwilling to make a fuss in the eastern part of the Van Luo Kingdom.

To this end, Ding Zhennan went to Port Diamond on December 28.

Although the second convoy will arrive three days ahead of schedule, on December 30, and will carry up to 600,000 tons of grain, twice as much as planned, the current situation will not support the Marines to attack Garr as planned.

Unless we admit that we have failed in our operations on the East Coast, we will have to come up with a way to deal with it.

If I want to say, Ding Zhennan has indeed made a lot of preparations, and taking into account the current situation, otherwise he would not have sent Liu Zunshan to Port Diamond in advance.

According to Ding Zhennan's line of thought, the problem of the Van Luo country had to be solved by the Van Luo people.

Of course, it's not all bad news in these days. As far as the overall battle situation is concerned, the good news on the Western Front is also where Ding Zhennan's confidence lies.

On 25 December, the 17th Panzer Division entered Jodhpur.

Although the street fighting is not over yet, and may not end in the near future, after the outer defense line was breached, the Van army had to transfer troops from Jaipur.

In other words, the next step will be to enter the encirclement and reinforcement stage.

Unsurprisingly, the main forces of the Central Army deployed in Jaipur will move south one after another, and will almost certainly be bombed on the way to Jodhpur.

Crucially, just one day later, the vanguard of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division broke through the border defense line of the Vatican army.

Although the Pakistani Army did not send 500,000 troops as promised, it also sent the main force into the battle, and the participating troops of other allied countries were very active.

By the time Ding Zhenna went to Port Diamond, in the northwest battlefield, the number of troops participating in the attack had reached 300,000!

Strictly speaking, that's not much.

But the problem is that the main force of the Central Army is in Jaipur, and the Vatican Army is also focusing on the 17th Armored Division, and the troops deployed in the northwest border area are not many.

Of course, in the north-western direction, the Vatican army has always pursued a strategy of defense in great depth.

If you want to say anything, the Van Luo authorities and the top brass of the Van Luo army have long known that if they really want to fight, they will definitely not be the opponent of the Liang Xia army, and they will not be able to hold the border defense line at all. If we fight in the same way as we deal with Pakistan and put the main forces near the border, I am afraid that they will be surrounded and annihilated after the war begins.

For this reason, it is necessary to exchange space for time, and adopt the tactics of clearing the field with strong walls.

Don't forget that the Northwest Territories is one of the most densely populated areas in the country of Van Luo, and there are hundreds of towns and cities around the city.

Even if the Eastern Coalition broke through the border defenses of the Van army, they would have to face dense cities.

Obviously, there is simply no way to move quickly.

The Vatican army did the same.

After the vanguard of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division broke through the border defense, the Van army did not put up much resistance, to be precise, did not hold the border line. While retreating inland, the Vatican army increased its deployment in various towns along the route, and also restricted the movement of urban residents.

Moreover, that is, the arming of the militia began.

There is no doubt that the improvised militia is indeed the biggest headache for the Eastern Coalition Army.

Not only in the Northwest Territories, but also in the Eastern Battlefield.

Hundreds of thousands of hungry people flocked to the Imperial Marine Corps' defense zone, and if no one planned and organized it behind the scenes, I am afraid that even the ghosts would not believe it.

Obviously, in the case of the complete rout of the regular army of Van Luo, the only way to organize the hungry people to move south was the militia rooted in the local area.

However, local militias are also the key to solving the problem.