As in the previous two Southern Subcontinent battles, in the early stages of the war, Van Roe's army focused on the north and launched a strong attack on the Pakistani capital of Iborg.

To the south of the front, on the side of Cala Harbor, that's a different story.

Although on the side of Kara Harbor, the country of Van Luo has also invested heavy troops, but it is mainly a second-line infantry unit, and the only main force is only a mechanized infantry division, with only more than 100 main battle tanks. After breaking through the border defenses of the Pakistani army, the speed of the Van army's advance was suddenly reduced. As a result, by the time the main forces of the 5th Marine Division arrived at the port of Kara, the Van army was still circling in the desert east of the city of Hela.

As for the armored forces in this direction, they never crossed the border line.

After that, after being counterattacked, the Van army retreated.

By early October, before the 5th Marine Division could take action, the Vatican army retreated to the eastern side of the border and began to strengthen the border defenses.

This situation did not exceed Ding Zhennan's expectations, or it was not worth making a fuss.

The reason is also very simple, the road traffic conditions on this side of Pakistan are also very bad, and the Vatican army attacking to the west, or the coalition army advancing to the east, will have to face the problem of unsustainable logistics support, and will not be able to invest enough troops, so there will definitely be reservations when attacking.

Of course, there are also political reasons.

To put it bluntly, the Van Rowe authorities did not think about achieving a strategic breakthrough before the Nuland Republic entered the war, so they fought more conservatively in the early stages of the war.

On the northern battlefield, this problem is even more pronounced.

Although the Pakistani railway authorities had made early preparations and carried out military mobilization in a timely manner, due to various factors, especially the failure to see through Tigara's bitter plan, there were major mistakes in their judgment of the situation. As a direct result of this, the Pakistani army's pre-war preparations were not sufficient.

On the day of the battle, in the outer defense line of Lahe, the garrison was less than sixty percent!

At the time of the Vatican attack, about a third of the officers were at home, and even some of the senior officers were at the General Staff in Iborg.

As a result, when the Vatican army crossed the border, the Pakistani army did not put up any decent resistance at all.

In the following three days, the Vatican army not only broke through the outer defense line of Lahe, but also advanced to the outskirts of Gujranwala, cutting off the line of communication from Lahat to Iburg.

As a result, the Pakistani army had to launch a counterattack with heavy forces in Gujranwala.

Because it has not been able to defeat the Van army and open up the lines of communication, the Pakistani army can only send reinforcements and war materials to Rah from Gojla in the west.

Herein lies the problem.

Walking Gogera, not only was it a detour, dozens of kilometers more, the road conditions were not ideal, and there were no air defense units deployed here at that time.

In peacetime, air defense forces in this direction are deployed along the Ira-Ira.

In addition, after the collapse of the forward defense line, the Pakistani railway army did not have time to adjust its defensive deployment, and many of the evacuated air defense units gathered behind the forward defense line, which was not effectively used at all. Even in October, quite a few air defense units were still in a state of soy sauce.

Throughout the month of September, the main task of the Pakistani Railway Army was to solve the problems of logistics support and command coordination.

Affected by this, the investment of the Pakistani railway army in the direction of Lahe has not been very sufficient, and in many areas it is even dominated by militia.

Under the circumstances, as long as the Vatican army invested enough troops, it would definitely be able to take Laho.

From a strategic point of view, the significance of taking Laha is by no means under the storming of Ipo, and it can even be said that it can only be said that the attack on Ibor can be talked about only after taking Laho.

In addition, taking down the pull allows you to get more options.

Even if they attack Ibor in the north, there are many problems that are difficult to overcome, such as attacking from the plains to the plateau, the defenders can condescendingly block the attacking troops, but starting from Lahe, they can easily sweep the Van Luo River Plain area and knock down the foundation of Pakistan.

The key point is that 80% of the population of Pakistan and Railway, almost all of the agricultural production areas, all the large cities with a population of more than 1 million, and almost all the major industrial towns are on this plain with an area equivalent to one-third of the country's land, and the Van Luo River has almost no strategic depth in the east-west direction from south to north.

It can be seen that the loss of Lahe is equivalent to the loss of most of the Van Luo River Plain!

It is precisely because of this that even after suffering extremely heavy losses, the Pakistani railway army did not give up Lahe.

But the problem is that the Vatican army did not invest too many troops in Lah.

From the first day, the Vatican army focused on the north, and was confident that they would be able to take Eburgh in one go, and the main force was all in the north.

Of course, from the perspective of hindsight, everyone knows the true intentions of the Van Rowe authorities.

It's just that not many people saw this problem clearly at the time.

If nothing else, the chiefs of the general staff of the three armies have been advocating the threat of the Vatican army in order to put pressure on the empire to focus on the northwest.

At that time, the prime minister of Pakistan Railway also personally rushed to the imperial capital to propose to Zhou Yongtao, hoping that the empire could transfer several divisions from the local northwest garrison to assist Pakistan Railway in strengthening its defense in the direction of the homeland, and launch a strategic counterattack in this direction in advance.

To put it simply, it is to contain the Vatican army through strategic counterattacks.

At that time, the Sentimental Van army had already arrived on the outskirts of Iborg and could attack the city at any time.

But the reality is that the attacking force of the Vatican army has never crossed Gujranwala.

With the forces invested by the Vatican army, even if they can capture Gujranwala, it will be the end of the crossbow, and it will be impossible to capture the heavily guarded Ipo.

In addition, the Vatican army had no intention of marching on Iborg.

In September, the Vatican army focused on the Lahe side, to be precise, using long-range artillery to deal with the Pakistani railway army deployed west of Lahe, especially several field artillery units. In addition, fighter planes were dispatched to compete with the Pakistani Air Force for air supremacy, and it was mainly an inefficient air battle.

On the side of Gujranwala, the Van army has never invested more than 50,000 troops, basically 1 main division and 2 second-line divisions.

This amount of troops, let alone marching into Iborg, is not enough to capture Gujranwala!

It is precisely because of this that the imperial authorities withstood the pressure and did not immediately increase troops to Pakistan, let alone let the 54th Mechanized Infantry Division launch a strategic counterattack in advance.

The reason for all this is that the Van Rowe authorities are skeptical of the commitment of the Nuland Republic.

To put it bluntly, if the Nuland Republic did not enter the war at the promised time, the Van Luo Kingdom would bear the military blow of the Liangxia Empire alone. Because there is not the slightest certainty of victory, it is necessary to focus on defense and think more long-term when drawing up plans.

In fact, even if the Nuland Republic entered the war on time, the Van Rowe authorities would also have reservations.

Don't forget that the sea route from the Republic of Nuland to the country of Van Luo is not guaranteed to be unimpeded at all, and there is a high risk of a strategic blockade.

In other words, before the decisive victory of the Nuland navy, and even for a long time afterward, Van Luo was left alone.

At the strategic level, this requires a defensive-minded approach.

The biggest advantage for the country is not the millions of troops, but the population of more than 1 billion, and the hot, humid and dense Ganghala Plain.

The implication is that what the Van Luo Kingdom can rely on is by no means the line of defense arranged along the border.

If you want to say, this is also the only defensive strategy that can be adopted after the Second Southern Subcontinent War, when Pakistan Tie formed an alliance with the Liangxia Empire, and after the Liangxia Empire directly intervened in the strategic pattern of the Southern Subcontinent, and it is also the basic theoretical basis for the national defense construction of the Fanluo Kingdom in the past ten years.

As a result, in October, when the Nuland Republic officially entered the war, the Van Roe did not intensify its offensive.

Of course, this is easy to understand.

Even if the Nuland Navy won a complete victory in the Guia Ocean, it would not be possible to immediately send troops to the Fanyan Ocean, at most it would open a route to the Southwest Guia Ocean, and instigate the rebellion of the old immigrants in Austria. After taking the Austrian continent, he can use the western port of the Austrian continent to enter the Fanyan Ocean.

Obviously, this will take more than enough time.

Even if the indigenous people of Ozhou have been looking forward to the Nuland army, because the new immigrants loyal to the Liangxia Empire are as high as tens of millions, they will definitely not give in easily, so even if the Nuland navy has absolute sea supremacy, it will take several years to control the Ozhou.

As for the other side, after passing through the Yuanwang Angle, the route from Nanxi Luoyang into Fanyanyang, because Nanxuan is a member of the Eastern Bloc, and the Liangxia Empire also has tens of thousands of garrisons in Nanxuan, as well as more than a dozen large military bases, so the chance of entering Fanyanyang from this side is even more slim.

No matter which way you look at it, the country of Van Luo has to fight alone.

According to the information disclosed after the war, in late September, the Van Rowe authorities drafted a "truce declaration", which if the Nuland Republic did not enter the war in early October as promised, it would be issued immediately, in an effort to unilaterally make peace with the Liangxia Empire and make the necessary sacrifices to protect the country's core interests.

These include the dissolution of the Digara government and, if necessary, the consideration of holding Tigara accountable for war crimes.

Even after the Newland Republic entered the war in October, as promised, the Van Rowe authorities remained on the sidelines.

Obviously, after the announcement of the end of the "offensive and defensive battle of the Khowaii Islands", the position of the Van Roe authorities became even clearer.

After the loss of the naval battle by the Nuland Navy, there was no hope of opening up sea routes, and it would be difficult to turn the tide of the war in the foreseeable future.

The choice before the Van Roe authorities, then, is when to issue an armistice.

To put it more bluntly, when did you request an armistice to the Liang Xia Empire.

Objectively speaking, no matter how much pressure you need to bear and how heavy the losses you suffer, you must get the bargaining chips to negotiate an armistice with the Liang Xia Empire.

It is precisely because of this that on the day he returned to Kara Harbor, Ding Zhennan received news that the Vatican army in the northwest battlefield was retreating in an orderly manner, and the combat troops remaining in the rear had been stationed in the border defense line and began to strengthen the defensive deployment in the border area to prepare for the counterattack of the Pakistani army.

Crucially, some of the non-war sectors have already left Decheng and moved to the southwest of the Gangara Plain and the northwest of the Deccan Plateau.

The Van Luo authorities have launched a plan to move the capital!

As mentioned earlier, Decheng, the capital of the Van Luo Kingdom, was within the range of the Empire's long-range artillery, and there was no effective means of defense.

For this reason, the Van Rowe authorities had long drawn up a secret plan to move the capital in wartime.

It's just that Ding Zhennan didn't expect that before the coalition army launched a counterattack, the Van Luo authorities began to move the capital!

However, it also reflects the fact that the Van Rowe authorities have little confidence in victory.

From another point of view, this is also the key to Zhou Yongtao's support for Ding Zhennan and his decision to focus on the southwest rather than the northwest.

Of course, this also has to do with the Empire's basic strategy towards the Southern Subcontinent.

For a long time, the empire regarded the kingdom of Van Luo as a major problem.

For nothing else, the country has a population of more than 1 billion, a land area of more than 3 million square kilometers, and has unique light and heat conditions, such as about 3 billion acres of cultivated land, nearly 20% more than the Liangxia Empire, and slightly more than the Nuland Republic. There is no similar country to be found around the empire, or even on the entire world island. Theoretically, industrialization, arming a billion people, or a large-scale war that displaced a billion people, would pose a huge threat to the empire.

The point is not that there are too many people, but that so many people belong to one country.

After forming an alliance with Pakistan, the empire drew up a basic strategy for the southern subcontinent.

To put it simply, whether it is the outbreak of a global war or the third war of the southern subcontinent, the basic purpose of the empire is to crush the kingdom of Van Luo.

Although it was possible to achieve the goal by capturing the capital of the kingdom of Van Luo, it was likely to have the opposite effect.

The reason is simple: it is very likely that the Van Roe authorities will surrender after the fall of Decheng to protect their core interests, which are the integrity of the state.

In addition, the position of the Pakistani railway authorities is also involved here.

Although it has always regarded the Van Luo Kingdom as the number one threat, and it was to confront the Van Luo Kingdom that it formed an alliance with the Liang Xia Empire, but from the standpoint of the Pakistani Railway authorities, in the past ten years, Pakistan and the Iron have been able to receive a lot of attention, receive a lot of aid, and even have a status in the Eastern Bloc, which is actually related to the Van Luo State.

If the threat from Van Roe no longer exists, will Pakistan still be taken seriously?

When many medium-sized countries like Pakistan Rail appear on the Southern Subcontinent, the Liangxia Empire has more options and may not continue to rely on Pakistan Railway.

In order to maintain regional balance, the Liangxia Empire will definitely support other countries and avoid letting Pakistan and Railway dominate.

It can be seen that Pakistan will accept the surrender of Van Luo at the first time.

Without Pakistan's involvement, the Empire's military operations on the Southern Subcontinent would have lost legitimacy, since the Empire was not a country in the Southern Subcontinent.

Obviously, even from the political position of the Empire, it is not possible to directly attack Tokujo.

But the problem is that this situation will definitely not be able to be sustained forever.

As the tide of the war develops, especially in the main strategic direction, that is, the situation on the mainland battlefield, the situation is reversed, even if the capital city has not yet been attacked, it is very likely that the Van Luo authorities will decide to surrender as soon as possible. Judging from the timing, the situation on the mainland battlefield will certainly change within half a year.

Don't forget that large-scale combat operations on the mainland battlefield are carried out in the spring, and now until next spring, it will be almost half a year.

If you want to say it, this is also the reason why Zhou Yongtao only gave Ding Zhennan half a year.

Half a year later, when the Imperial Army launches a general offensive on the continental battlefield, the Van Luo authorities may surrender directly, so no matter how difficult it is, a major victory must be achieved within half a year.

Fortunately, there are no four seasons in the Southern Subcontinent, only the rainy and dry seasons!