Strictly speaking, "secondary tasks" are actually more important.

It is the strategic targets mentioned by Zhang Jiazheng to bomb the city of Mosa, the capital of West Luosha, and destroy the presidential palace, the general staff, and the national telecommunications center.

If it is said that blowing up the front headquarters of the Western Continent Group can buy a few days, then defeating the central nervous system of Xiluosha may be able to launch a counterattack in advance.

When talking about this, Wang Qingen mentioned a very important thing.

Up to now, almost all the other countries of the Xilu Group are watching the excitement. The only one who directly fought was the Hindan Empire, and the number of troops invested was only one armored brigade.

Of course, there is nothing surprising that the war has only been fought for a few days.

However, the problem is that, with the exception of the Hindan Empire, none of the other major member states of the Western Continent Group sent ground troops to the war as promised.

The closest "Allied army" to the front line is still in Kiev on the other side of the Dnieper.

Even if they set out now, these troops would not be able to reach the front line until three days at the earliest.

Worse still, there are not enough troops.

On the Kyiv side, there is only 1 Raleigh Infantry Brigade, 1 Locke Rapid Reaction Brigade, 1 Spann Armored Brigade and 1 Bran Reinforced Composite Battalion.

Crucially, none of these units are full.

Three brigades plus one reinforced battalion have a total of more than 10,000 officers and men.

In fact, even if it is a full number, there are not 20,000 people.

What can this little force do?

According to Wang Qing'en, the authorities in West Luosha were very dissatisfied with the slackness of their allies, and the defeat at the front had exacerbated the discontent.

In the army of West Luosha, resentment towards allies is already very serious.

That's the point.

If the offense goes well, even if the allies react a little slower, it's not much of a problem, after all, victory has a morale-boosting effect.

The problem now is that the offensive operation is not going well.

As a result, the officers and men of the West Rosa army felt that the defeat at the front had a lot to do with the reluctance of their allies to commit their forces.

Of course, it is indeed a bit far-fetched to say this, and it can also be said to shirk responsibility.

Objectively speaking, the other countries of the Western Continent Group are not ineffective, but the West Luosha army itself has screwed up.

In the pre-war battle plan, the Allied forces were to enter the war one week after the start of the war, and the main support tasks were to act as reserves at most.

For at least a week after the start of the battle, the West Rosa army had to take on the burden of attacking alone.

This arrangement, or the time set in the strategic plan, is not a decision taken for granted, but is limited by objective factors.

To put it simply, other countries, including the Empire, need to spend a week mobilizing and transporting combat troops to the front line.

In fact, it takes days just to transport and assemble combat troops.

The current situation is that after only three days of fighting, the army of Xiluosha has exhausted its reserves and asked its allies to send troops to support it immediately.

Of course, this is not to say that allies do not have problems.

If anything, the support provided by allies such as the Empire is indeed not in place, and there are huge problems.

If nothing else, the Manman Air Force has not invested its main forces until now, and the tactical aviation units it has sent have been operating behind the front line to carry out defensive tasks.

Obviously, this is not enough!

Although the West Luosha has the largest front-line air force in the entire Western Continent Group, and there are as many as 1,000 front-line fighters such as the MG-29 that are suitable for deployment at forward airfields, the West Luosha Air Force seriously lacks long-range strike capabilities, and even battlefield support capabilities are insufficient.

The only attack aircraft at the disposal of the West Luosha Air Force is the MG-27.

This kind of attack aircraft that uses the third-generation fighter, that is, the MG-23, is mainly improved by removing radar and other electronic equipment, and is specially designed to perform ground strike missions is not perfect at all, not only is its performance not exhaustive, but it is also not very suitable for performing battlefield support tasks.

Within the Western Continent Group, the main forces to undertake air support missions have always been the Zoman Air Force and the Locke Air Force.

There's no way around it.

There are no more resources left in Siluosha to develop air power.

But the problem is that neither the Manman Air Force nor the Locke Communist Army have performed decently so far!

In previous battles, almost all of the setbacks suffered by the West Luosha Army were related to the lack of air support, and they could only rely on armored forces to force breakthroughs.

Take, for example, the battle that took place north of Astrakhan.

That night, if a high-intensity bombardment could be carried out, there might not be any need for the armored units of the West Luosha Army to return to the field, and the German Panzer Brigade on top would be able to break through the defense line guarded by the infantry of the East Luosha, while the reinforcements sent by the Imperial Army might not be able to reach the battlefield at all.

However, if there is anything to be said, it is not that the Manman Air Force is unwilling to provide support, but it is unable to do so.

In the previous days, the first task of the Hindan Air Force was actually air defense, that is, dealing with enemy planes that were constantly attacking from the east.

Because more air supremacy fighters were to be deployed on the front line, the Hindman Air Force never sent additional attack aircraft.

In any case, there are already voices of skepticism within the army of Xiluosha.

The situation can be maintained, firstly, because the front-line troops are still advancing, and there is still hope for victory, at least not to the point of despair. The second reason is that the West Luosha authorities, that is, those politicians, played an active role and put tremendous pressure on the generals of the army.

It is precisely in this way that it is necessary to strike at the central nervous system of Xi Luosha.

In Wang Qingen's words, if he can take out the leading group of Xiluosha in one fell swoop, and at the same time achieve a large enough victory on the front, he may be able to force the generals of Xiluosha's army to make a new choice, even if it is just to become negative, which will also be of great help to the Eastern Bloc.

From a strategic point of view, this is actually the key to a quick victory.

As long as Xiluosha falls, Xilu Group will not be able to support it for long!

Don't forget, the member states of the Western Continent Bloc such as the Hindan Empire have not completed their mobilization.

If Silosha had been defeated quickly after the war, the Empire would probably have had no choice but to compromise, and the war would have ended.

Of course, Li Tianling does not agree with this view.

In his opinion, Silosha suffered defeat on the battlefield, and the only result was actually to force the Nuland Republic to immediately send troops to the war.

However, Li Tianling also knew that the top priority was to stabilize the war situation.

As long as the military-political system of Xiluosha is destroyed, then everything is easy to say!

It was precisely like this, Li Tianling did not delay, and after hearing the news from Wang Qingen, he went to find the pilot who came with him and began to prepare.

On the North-Western Battlefield.

The order to counterattack has been sent by the theater command to the forward command centers in all directions, but it has not been distributed to combat units for the time being.

Zheng Zhishuang summoned Lian Mingyang and other major officers at the first time.

Counterattack operations are arranged directly by the Theater Command, combat units involved in the counterattack are arranged by the Theater Command, and front-line troops are only responsible for providing assistance.

To put it simply, it is to send counterattack troops to the battlefield.

The task was very simple, the aviation brigade under the command of Zheng Zhishuang arranged transport helicopters to send the air assault troops to the battlefield.

On the side of Astrakhan, a brigade of troops will be thrown.

That's right, it's the 1st Air Assault Brigade under the 101st Infantry Division.

Don't be fooled by the name "Infantry Division", in the Northwest Theater of Operations, the 1st Infantry Division is a heavy unit without the slightest moisture.

In addition, the 1st Infantry Division is also the divisional unit with the largest number of troops in the Northwest Theater.

In peacetime, its strength is as high as 23,000 troops, and in wartime it is generally strengthened to more than 30,000.

In the Polish-Iranian War, the strength of the 1st Infantry Division reached 44,000 men at one point, which was almost as large as one army in other theaters.

In fact, the 1st Infantry Division itself was formed according to the rank of "corps".

To put it simply, in wartime, the divisional headquarters of the 1st Infantry Division will be automatically upgraded to the headquarters of the 1st Army of the Imperial Army, which will be responsible for commanding the ground forces in the Northwest Theater of Operations.

It is precisely because of this that the establishment of the 1st Infantry Division is so large.

The division's main combat force consists of five infantry brigades.

Of course, it is said that it is an infantry brigade, but in fact it is all mechanized troops, of which the 111th Brigade and the 112th Brigade have reached the standard of armored brigades, and the other 3 brigades have also reached the standard of mechanized infantry brigades. Just these five brigades, after the full strength, the total strength exceeds 28,000 people.

The support unit is 2 artillery brigades, of which the 121st Artillery Brigade is equipped with all self-propelled howitzers, and the 122nd Artillery Brigade is equipped with long-range rocket artillery.

In fact, the 122nd Brigade was also the only artillery brigade of the Imperial Army that was fully equipped with long-range rocket artillery.

During combat, these two artillery brigades were generally dismantled and reinforced to infantry brigades.

In addition, it also includes air defense brigades, logistics brigades, communications support battalions, guard battalions, electronic countermeasures battalions, medical battalions and other support units under the direct jurisdiction of the division headquarters.

During the Polish-Iranian war, a low-altitude assault unit equipped with hundreds of helicopters and tens of thousands of officers and soldiers was added.

Although the Army Command did not integrate the low-altitude assault units into combat units due to the resolute opposition of the Army Aviation, and nominally the Army Aviation Command uniformly deployed them, in actual combat, the low-altitude assault units were all reinforced to the main combat units such as the 1st Infantry Division, which were located in important areas.

If anything, this is also the key reason for the integration of the 101st Air Assault Brigade within the 101st Infantry Division.

The predecessor of the brigade was an airborne division of the Imperial Army.

Although in the last war, the airborne troops were very popular, especially on the western continent, and the airborne troops of the Manman Empire made great achievements, but both during and after the war, the imperial army did not pay much attention to the airborne troops, nor did they make great efforts to develop the airborne forces.

The main thing is that the Imperial Army pursued a defensive strategy after the war.

Of course, it also has a lot to do with the serious lack of armored forces in the Airborne Forces.

According to the theory of the Imperial Army, both offensive and defensive forces had to rely on armored forces, so the airborne troops were basically ineffective, or unreliable.

As for the paratrooper fighting vehicle, that was actually later.

In the post-war years, limited by the performance of transport aircraft, no one thought about developing a paratrooper fighting vehicle capable of direct airdrop.

The key is that even now, the paratrooper fighting vehicle is very fragile and can be regarded as a means of transportation at most in a large-scale war.

When the performance of transport aircraft increases, it will be even less necessary to develop paratrooper fighting vehicles.

Even if you need to run from a distance, because you must capture and control the airfield behind enemy lines, it is better to use transport planes to airlift main battle tanks directly to the front line.

However, it was not these factors that made the Airborne Forces fade out of the arena of war.

In the Polish-Iranian war, helicopters shone brightly.

It was for this reason that after the end of the Polish-Iraqi War, the Imperial Army retained only three airborne brigades, and all other airborne troops were reorganized into air assault units.

In addition, all air assault units are brigade-level, all under the name of infantry divisions.

In this arrangement, in fact, the air assault force has been given a dual mission.

To put it simply, in the defensive operation stage, the air assault force is the reserve force, which bears the heavy task of plugging leaks, while in the offensive stage, it is a rapid assault force, acting as a sharp knife for the assault.

Of course, under the current establishment system, the air assault brigade is a veritable rapid reaction force.

To speak, it is also a real light infantry unit.

This is also the reason why the air assault brigade was organized under the name of the infantry division.

The 101st Brigade, at full strength, had only 4,200 men, which was the smallest of the six combat brigades of the 1st Infantry Division, and was even inferior to the 2 artillery brigades.

The point is that it's all infantry.

Although equipped with some heavy equipment, it is also recoilless guns, mortars and light howitzers that can be lifted by helicopters.

The main feature of the air assault brigade is that all weapons and equipment can be transported by helicopter.

However, in actual combat, not all weapons and equipment have to be transported by helicopter, such as light howitzers, which are rarely transported by helicopter.

Whenever conditions permit, the troops use trucks to bring light howitzers to the front line, and at most arrange for helicopter lifts during retreat.

When arranging the mission, Zheng Zhishuang clearly mentioned that because the aviation brigade reinforced to the 1st Infantry Division was sent to other directions to carry out more important combat missions, the entire transportation work had to be undertaken by the 135th Brigade, which meant that it had to fly back and forth several times.

Crucially, transport planes will be arranged to send 20 10-ton utility helicopters over in the afternoon.

The main task of this helicopter is to send heavy equipment that cannot be lifted by a light transport helicopter to the forward position.

Here, Lian Mingyang received a new task.

Lead these 20 10-ton utility helicopters to complete the most critical missions.

Helicopters were sent from the rear, but no pilots were arranged to participate in combat operations, after all, there is a shortage of pilots everywhere.

In Zheng Zhishuang's words, the losses of the front-line troops were too great, and even reserves like the 135th Brigade had a casualty rate of more than one-third.

Now, on the entire front, there is a shortage of people everywhere.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient pilots, Zheng Zhishuang has ordered that excellent pilots with more than 1,500 cumulative flight hours can decide whether to carry out the mission alone, that is, to fly the helicopter alone without a partner.

Of course, the attendance of solo flights will be doubled.

According to the rules of the Imperial Air Force, after completing 100 missions, pilots are entitled to at least 3 months of family leave.

All in all, after the battle began, the only task of about 100 pilots such as Lian Mingyang was to transport troops and supplies to the front line.

As for why a counterattack was launched at this time, and it came so suddenly, Zheng Zhishuang didn't say, and no one asked.

Need to ask?

The enemy's forward forces had advanced to about 50 kilometers north of Astrakhan, and reconnaissance troops had been sent in, and an attack might soon be launched.

You will definitely have to defend Astrakhan and contain the enemy through tactical counterattacks, so that you can be more sure of defeating the enemy here.

In Lian Mingyang's view, at this point, as long as there is a task and is still being dispatched, it is not a bad thing.