Ding Zhennan received the news in the early morning of the 29th, when it was almost dawn, and at this time, the battle on the front line had entered a white-hot stage.

The battle began late at night on the 28th, and the first thing to encounter with the vanguard of the 17th Panzer Division was a reconnaissance detachment, at most the strength of one company. Because it was late at night, and it was a sudden encounter, the reconnaissance company of the Van army immediately retreated east after the exchange of fire.

For the front-line commanders, who have long been holding their breath, it is obvious that they will not let go of the combat exploits sent to the front.

It's just that, before giving the order to pursue, the front-line commander ignored a very critical issue.

About 15 minutes before the encounter with the reconnaissance force of the Van army, the joint command plane that had been hovering over Jaiselmeir had not been able to meet the tanker plane as planned, and to be precise, the tanker plane that had been originally sent over had been temporarily sent to carry out other tasks, so it had to return ahead of schedule, and the replacement joint command plane departed from the air base on the Kuah port side, and it could not arrive until one hour later at the earliest.

If it is to be said, it was precisely because the joint command plane withdrew ahead of schedule that the vanguard did not detect the approaching enemy in time.

If the tanker arrives as planned, the vanguard will definitely receive the news and know at least a few minutes in advance that there is a reconnaissance unit of the Vatican army ahead.

Don't underestimate these few minutes.

It takes only 3 minutes for an assault force in combat to change from a marching state to a surprise state, and to issue combat orders to each tank group.

The reason why the tanker did not arrive on time was that the air supremacy fighters responsible for cover needed to refuel.

To put it simply, about half an hour earlier, a group of Van Luo fighters had come from Jaipur, and all the nearby air supremacy fighters had been called in to intercept them. After tossing for more than ten minutes, those Van Luo fighters accelerated to get rid of the air supremacy fighters. Because it was a full-speed volley and there was no exchange of fire with the Van Luo fighters, most of the air supremacy fighters had little fuel left, and in order to retain the minimum command force, they could only temporarily arrange for the tanker planes on standby nearby to refuel the four "Battle-11s" in the air.

It is precisely because of this that it is impossible to refuel the joint command aircraft.

The surprise attack launched by the Van Luo fighter did not have any other effect than to consume the fuel of the air supremacy fighter.

However, the front-line commanders cannot be blamed for this.

After the encounter with the Van Luo reconnaissance unit, the front commander inquired about the rear, and the coordination liaison officer made it clear that the joint command aircraft did not find a threat before turning back, that is, there was no main force of the Van army to the east of the vanguard, and the replacement joint command plane was about to arrive.

As for the reasons for the early withdrawal of the joint command aircraft, the coordinating liaison officer did not tell the front-line commander.

In the circumstances, the Coordinating Liaison may not have been aware.

It can be seen that the front-line commanders have enough reason to believe that this is just a coincidence.

It was precisely in this way that the vanguard pursued the reconnaissance troops of the Van army fleeing eastward at full speed without fully understanding the situation on the battlefield.

Until breaking into the ambush circle of the Vatican army.

The battle began at around 0:20 a.m. on the 29th, and the vanguard pursued for less than half an hour.

It must be said that after the test of the Posha Bay War, the officers and men of the 17th Armored Division, especially the officers and men of several combat brigades, were very good in personal quality.

Despite a surprise attack, the vanguard was not routed.

The 17103rd Armored Battalion, which was at the forefront, bore the brunt of the attack, and in just a few minutes, the three companies in front suffered a catastrophe, 11 of the 13 ZT-99Bs were destroyed, the other 2 were blocked in the middle of the road and could not move, and dozens of officers and soldiers, including the company commander and 3 platoon commanders, were killed on the spot. However, the officers and men of the Third Company did not disagree because they were ambushed, and even under extremely unfavorable circumstances, they did not break up, but through stubborn resistance, they bought a few minutes of precious time for the troops following behind.

When the three companies fought to the death in front, the next five companies quickly entered the battle state, and also expanded the frontal width of the defense line through counterattacks.

The key is that the fifth company is the only mechanized infantry company of the 17103rd armored battalion, there is only 1 tank platoon, and the other 4 are infantry platoons, and each platoon has 4 infantry fighting vehicles, counting the 2 of the company headquarters, a total of 18 vehicles, and the close fire is very fierce.

In these few minutes, the 5th Company gained a firm foothold, mainly by allowing the infantry to build a defensive line on the spot.

At the same time, the 17304th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, which was at the back of the ranks, was also attacked.

Fortunately, behind the 17304th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, there was also a combat battalion, which had previously opened the way in front, because several tanks broke their tracks, leaving the 17102nd Armored Battalion behind. The point is that the battalion lagged behind by about 5 kilometers and did not enter the ambush circle.

The point is that the Vatican army cannot wait until the 17103rd Armored Battalion rushes out before closing the encirclement.

It can be seen that this is a very typical "severed head and tail" ambush tactic, as long as enough troops are invested, then the enemy who enters the ambush circle will basically be wiped out.

As for the troops, there is obviously nothing to worry about.

According to the battle report released by the Vatican army, one armored division and one mechanized infantry division were involved in this battle, and a brigade was drawn from each of the other three infantry divisions, with 32,000 officers and soldiers participating in the battle, and 600 main battle tanks, 480 infantry fighting vehicles, and thousands of other vehicles.

Crucially, it was the Nuland advisers who planned and directed the ambush.

If anything, this is also the key to the success of ambush warfare.

As for some of the inside information disclosed afterwards, during the planning stage, the senior generals of the Vatican Army insisted that with so many main forces, it was necessary to at least encompass the Eastern Coalition forces in front of the breakthrough, that is, the 171st Armored Brigade and the 174th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, and strive to eliminate these two brigades in one fell swoop.

Just looking at the troops, the requirements of the generals of the Vatican army are not excessive.

The 171st Armored Brigade and the 174th Mechanized Infantry Brigade have a total strength of more than 12,000 troops, and the Van Army has invested more than 32,000 troops, almost three times as much.

Counting the ambush advantage, the advantage of the Van army is indeed very obvious.

But the question is, how much time will it take to annihilate 2 combat brigades?

After the first round of fighting, the Van army had no surprise advantage, and it had to face the powerful Liangxia Air Force, why should it encircle and annihilate 2 combat brigades at that time?

When the Liang Xia Air Force goes all out, it is probably the Vatican Army that will be wiped out.

Not to mention the Van Luo army, even the Western Route Army, did not dare to say that it would destroy the 2 combat brigades of the main armored force of the Liangxia Army in one battle.

The point is that in terms of main battle equipment, the Vatican army has no advantage at all.

Both the 171st Armored Brigade and the 174th Mechanized Infantry Brigade are veritable workhorses, with the former having 236 ZT-99Bs and the latter also having 168, totaling more than 400 units. Taking into account the fact that the ZT-99B has stronger combat effectiveness, it is fully capable of making up for the gap of 200 vehicles.

The rest of the main battle equipment is similar.

As for the disparity in the number of officers and men, the impact on combat effectiveness is obviously not as huge as the figures indicate.

If nothing else, there were no non-combatants in the 171st and 174th Brigades, and in the Vatican Army, even the main armored units of the Central Army, there were many non-combatants, and they were mainly retinues hired by senior officers, and they were not soldiers at all.

These private retinues occupy places in the army, and they only have to pay commissions with taxpayers' money.

As for whether they can fight, those officers who have a whole in their hands obviously don't think too much, after all, the combat effectiveness of grassroots soldiers is already very poor. At the top of the Vatican army, no one expected to rely on grassroots officers and soldiers to defeat the enemy, and it seemed that as long as there were good officers, they could lead the troops to victory.

Counting the quality of officers and soldiers, let alone 2 divisions, even if the strength of 2 more divisions is increased, it may not be able to swallow the 2 combat brigades of the Liangxia Army in one go.

On the mainland battlefield, the best result achieved by the Western Continent Army was only the defeat of an armored brigade of the Liangxia Army, to be precise, the brigade did not take the military flag placed at the brigade headquarters when it retreated, and the result fell into the hands of the Western Army Regiment, giving the Western Continent Group a pretext.

In actual combat, it is very difficult to annihilate a battalion in a structured manner.

In a head-to-head battle, the 2 combat brigades of the Liang Xia Army were able to easily defeat the 1 group army of the Van Army!

It was the persistence of the Nuland advisers that targeted the ambush as the vanguard.

It turned out that even against five battalions, the Vatican army was obviously overstretched.

The reason is also very simple, the vanguard is marching on the road, and it is the reconnaissance unit that encounters before the pursuit, and it is inevitable that the team will be stretched. With the same number of troops participating in the battle, the Vatican army could not expand the scope of the ambush circle, and it was difficult to swallow the vanguard in one gulp.

To speak, in the first few minutes, the Van army fought very easily.

It only lasted a few minutes, though.

To a large extent, this also proves the idea that the Vatican army is better suited to fighting a smooth battle, and that the battlefield performance of the Vatican officers and soldiers will take a sharp turn for the worse after encountering an accident, especially a setback. Fundamentally speaking, this is also a problem of the poor quality of the officers and men of the Vatican army.

About five minutes after the battle began, on the east side of the battlefield, on the side of the 17103rd Battalion, the situation was reversed.

The key is that the two ZT-99B main battle tanks that were not destroyed in the third company!

When the armored forces of the Van army launched a surprise attack, rushing from both sides of the road to be precise, the two main battle tanks immediately became a nightmare for the Van tanks.

In just a few minutes, two ZT-99Bs destroyed 7 Van tanks with extremely accurate artillery fire, and all of them were the latest M1A1.

In just a few minutes, the Van army was stunned.

When the offensive was stopped, the Van army did not even find the two ZT-99Bs, and only roughly judged that they were on the road, and their specific location was not clear.

It's not surprising, though.

The wreckage of a dozen ZT-99Bs sits on the road, and most of them are burning, and the smoke produced must have interfered with the infrared night vision devices.

In addition, the attention of the Van army was on the side of the fifth company, and did not pay attention to the third company, which had been defeated.

The main problem is to stop the offensive after a counterattack, not to say that the offensive tactics are immediately adjusted and the enemy who is counterattacking is eliminated.

As a result, when the Vatican army stopped and redeployed the attack, five more M1A1s were scrapped.

Before the offensive began, 1 company of tanks was lost!

The key is that because of the delay in launching the offensive, the Van army is losing the initiative on the battlefield, and at least the five companies behind have more time to adjust their defensive deployment.

By the time the Vatican army reorganized itself to attack at around 0:40, the five-year-old infantry fighting vehicles had dispersed, and the infantry who had disembarked to fight had taken up a favorable position. As a result, the Van army was faced with 18 BZ-98 heavy anti-tank missiles and 30mm guns.

And, of course, more than 100 vengeful infantrymen.

Not to mention that the morale of the Vatican army has been shaken by the setback of the attack, even if it is a rainbow, it may not be able to break through the defense line guarded by a fully formed infantry company in one fell swoop. What's more, the width of this defense line is only a few hundred meters, and there is no problem of insufficient density of troops.

It was precisely in this way that the raid on the eastern side of the battlefield quickly turned into a strong attack.

In fact, on the west side of the battlefield, the situation faced by the Vatican army was also very bad.

The point is that the 17102nd Armored Battalion was not surrounded.

Although the 17304th Mechanized Infantry Battalion was defeated by a surprise attack, the battalion had a attrition rate of more than 70% and basically lost its combat capability, but under the threat of the 17102nd Armored Battalion, the main force of the Vatican Army did not launch a surprise attack at the first time, and it failed to close the encirclement.

There is no doubt that this was a fatal mistake.

After the battle began, the 17102nd Armored Battalion dropped the tanks with damaged tracks, and the battalion commander personally led another 32 ZT-99Bs to launch an assault.

Let 32 ZT-99Bs put in formation, or at night, it is not a small matter.

The Battle of Posha Bay has proven that the ZT-99B's night combat capability is the strongest today.

Crucially, the Imperial Army corrected the problems that had been exposed during the Battle of Poshawan and improved the ZT-99B of the main forces.

The main improvements include the replacement of the BZ-98 infantry fighting vehicle with the same set of infrared night vision devices.

Because the heavy anti-tank missiles equipped with them have a range of 6 kilometers, and in assault operations, the infantry fighting vehicles must be behind the main battle tanks and at a greater distance from the enemy, so the Imperial Army equipped the BZ-98 with the best performance and more expensive infrared night vision devices.

It is that in the Poshawan war, the ZT-99B even needed to be guided by the BZ-98.

After that, the Imperial Army replaced the ZT-99B with infrared night vision devices for all front-line main forces, raising the ZT-99B's night combat capability to the level of the BZ-98.

Under normal conditions, the improved ZT-99B is capable of spotting tank fighting vehicles at a distance of 4000 meters at night.

With the latest 125mm armor-piercing projectiles, the ZT-99B can penetrate the frontal armor of most main battle tanks at this distance.

It's just that the hit rate will definitely not be too high.

Of course, the ZT-99B, which was attached to the 17th Panzer Division, was all improved.

Comparatively speaking, even if the M1A1 exported to the Van Rowe Army does not shrink in the infrared night vision device, its maximum observation distance at night is only 2,000 meters.

Although in dynamic combat, the firing distance of the tank is generally within 2000 meters, and the accuracy is not guaranteed if it exceeds 2000 meters, but if you can see farther, you can also detect the enemy in advance, so as to grasp the initiative, such as avoiding the enemy's edge and attacking from the side.

Actually, that's what the 17102nd Armored Battalion did.

To be precise, at the time of the assault of the 17102nd Panzer Battalion, the Van troops in this direction were besieging the 17304th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, which had been ambushed before. Because they did not see the 17102nd Armored Battalion to the west, or the 17102nd Armored Battalion did not appear for a long time, the Vatican Army, which acted as a reserve, relaxed its vigilance, and some tanks and combat vehicles deployed in front even entered the battle without authorization, firing at the 17304th Mechanized Infantry Battalion from a distance of several kilometers.

As a result, when the 17102nd armored battalion arrived, the Van army was taken by surprise, and the carefully deployed encirclement was broken through.

Over the next few hours, the 17102nd ZT-32B of the 99th Armored Battalion almost turned the tide of battle!