In the following days, in addition to continuing to bomb military targets in the vicinity of Udaipur, the scope of air strikes was extended to the main towns between Balmel and Udaipur, or to be precise, the main military positions, and the posture of marching towards Udaipur was assumed.

In addition, the 5th Marine Division has been sending additional troops to Balmel. Especially after the laying of the second runway, the tactical transport aircraft of the Imperial Air Force almost poured out, delivering war materials to Balmel at a rate of about 8,000 tons at an average of 300 sorties per day. On the other hand, there are not a lot of supplies transported to Balmel by ground communication lines, mainly some main battle equipment that cannot be airlifted by tactical transport aircraft.

This scale can be said to be quite amazing.

Because Balmer had already been occupied on the 6th, and since then it has not advanced eastward, so the front-line combat units consume less than 500 tons of supplies per day.

At the rate of 8,000 tons per day, the allied forces will be able to hoard war materials to meet the requirements for launching a large-scale offensive around November 15 at the earliest.

In addition, at the rate of the increase, the combat units of the 5th Marine Division were able to reach Balmel around the 15th.

In fact, this is exactly what Ding Zhennan wants the Van Army to make.

In order to deceive the Van army, the "Y-15A" was not used in the early airlift operation.

In this matter, the Northwest Theater of Operations also took the necessary actions. That is, in the early morning of 4 November, the Northwest Theater launched a winter offensive operation codenamed "Warm Wind" and launched an offensive against dozens of enemy salients on a front thousands of kilometers wide. In order to provide support to the ground forces, the Air Force mobilized hundreds of Y-15A planes to deliver supplies to the front line, and all transport aircraft were dispatched at maximum intensity. The impression is that the Imperial Air Force used all the Y-15A in this direction.

For this reason, 60 "Y-15A" deployed in the southern subcontinent flew back to the empire mainland on the night of the 3rd.

Instead of going to the Northwest Theater of Operations, he carried out maintenance at the home airport to ensure that after receiving an order, the equipment could be sent to the front line immediately.

The air strikes continued until the afternoon of November 9, when the tide of the battle changed, or rather "results".

According to the information provided by the Military Intelligence Agency, the two main divisions of the Vatican army deployed in Udaipur have set out and are expected to move west along the road, and after crossing the Aravalli Ridge, they will then head north to Bali, where they will join the Central Army in Jodhpur to block the Eastern Coalition forces from Balmel.

The point is, the chances of the Vatican going to Ogle are slim.

The reason is that to go north to Deogle, you have to travel hundreds of kilometers in the mountains, and the capacity of the mountain roads is certainly not as good as the main roads on the plains.

If you first cross the Aravalli Ridge to the west, there will be no trouble in climbing over the mountains.

As for the railway, it's even more even more thought-free.

Before 5 November, coalition forces had blown up all railway bridges near Udaipur, bombed all railway stations, destroyed hundreds of locomotives and thousands of wagons, and paralyzed rail traffic in the area. It was because of the paralysis of the railways that the armored units of the Van army lost their ability to maneuver on the battlefield.

Here, a very critical issue is involved.

Although the Vatican army claims to be mechanized, its main armored forces are still highly dependent on the local railway network for battlefield maneuvering.

The main thing is that most of the road bridges in Van Luo have a load capacity of less than 50 tons.

In fact, this is also the main reason why the Van Luo Army still spent a lot of money to purchase the T-72 from Xiluosha after obtaining the M1A1, but did not choose the "Leopard 2" with better performance. Also limited by the capacity of roads and bridges, almost all of Van Roe Army's M1A1s are deployed in the northwest.

At least the river network in the northwest is not so dense, and the rivers are relatively narrow, even if the road bridge cannot withstand the 60-ton M1A1, it can also erect mechanical bridges and boat bridges to ensure that the tanks can pass smoothly. Besides, the extremely arid Van Roe Desert is also here.

If anything, it is because battlefield mobility relies heavily on the railway network and the armored forces lack the ability to assault in large depths, so the performance of the Van Luo Army in offensive operations has been lackluster. Even in the case of absolute superiority, there has never been a decent victory.

Take the Second Southern Subcontinent War as an example, the Van army not only had several times the superiority in troops, but also grasped the initiative on the battlefield through a surprise attack, but after attacking the territory of Pakistan, it was unable to open the situation for a long time, and only delayed for more than a month outside the city of Lahe, thus missing the excellent opportunity to capture Ipo. It was precisely because of the lack of strength on the ground that the Van Rowe authorities had to end the attack on Ibor in the name of a truce when the situation was very good, and permanently abandoned the basic strategy of unifying the southern subcontinent.

According to the evaluation of the outside world, the Van Luo Army used the main battle tanks after the Second Global War to fight a positional war in the mode of the First Global War.

In purely tactical terms, the performance of the Vatican army in the Second Southern Subcontinent War was not as good as it was during the Second Global War. Even the Nuland Army, which has little performance on the ground battlefield, knows that the number one value of armored forces is to make a quick assault, not to stop and engage the enemy in positional warfare.

Unfortunately, almost 20 years have passed, and the Vatican army has not made much progress.

Of course, this is also a major basis for the transformation of the military strategy of the Van Luo Kingdom.

To put it simply, before the Second Southern Subcontinent War, the basic strategy of the Van Luo State was to eliminate the Pakistani Railway and complete the grand cause of reunification, so in the construction of national defense forces, it must be mainly offensive. However, with the alliance between Pakistan and the Liangxia Empire and the entry into the Eastern Bloc, the way to unify the southern subcontinent by waging war was no longer feasible, and the military threat from the Liangxia Empire suddenly put the country in a dilemma of being surrounded by enemies, and it was necessary to adjust the military strategy.

Naturally, there is no reason to strengthen the infrastructure in the border areas with a strategy of focusing on defense.

After the collapse of the border defense line, the poor road traffic conditions will become the number one enemy of the enemy army that invades the territory of Van Luo!

From this point of view, it is not difficult to understand why the Vatican army did not use the main force deployed in Jodhpur, but instead transferred troops from Udaipur to the north.

There is only one reason: the Vatican top brass does not see Balmer's Eastern coalition as a threat.

From Balmel to Bali or Jodhpur, the road is more than 250 kilometres long, and almost the entire journey is in the desert.

Obviously, even if the logistics support capability of the coalition forces is very strong, it will take several days to cover these 250 kilometers.

The point is that it is not only the combatants who need fresh water, but also almost all the main battle equipment.

For example, the engine coolant used in the main battle tanks of the coalition forces is actually pure water with additives, and pure water can be used directly when necessary.

A brigade-sized unit consumes at least 500 tons of fresh water per day when it is on assault mission.

Normally, fresh water is obtained locally and is generally purified with specialized equipment.

As long as you follow this route, which is the Luni River, which originates at the northern end of the Aravalli Ridge and flows southwest into the Van Lo Desert, to the east, the water source is not a problem.

However, this severely limited the direction of the coalition's offensive.

To put it simply, the coalition forces could only advance along the Looney River before reaching Bali or Jotril.

At the very least, it was necessary to keep the main armored forces near the Looney.

If it is carried out in advance and the frontal width of the offensive is expanded, it will inevitably cause a serious burden on logistical support, and even make it difficult for the offensive to continue.

Even if the armored forces can advance quickly in the desert, they will need to use enough vehicles to transport supplies.

The key is a military transporter with the ability to travel off-road.

Theoretically, to support the 5th Marine Division, at least 5000 military transporters of the 20-ton class are needed.

Where to find so many military transporters?

Of course, this series of measures by the Vatican army proves without exception that the deceptive tactics planned by Ding Zhennan have had an effect.

The point is that the Vatican army is clearly prepared to stop the coalition forces at Pali and Jodhpur, or more precisely the upper reaches of the Looney River.

This is a very normal choice, because the Looney River is an inland river, and the amount of water gradually decreases after entering the Van Luo Desert, not to mention that it is now the dry season. In contrast, the upper reaches of the Looney River are more abundant and have a more severe impact on the attacking forces.

From another point of view, if the Van army can give the coalition a head-on attack here, in addition to crushing the coalition attack, it may also get a chance to counterattack.

All in all, the Vatican army used Pali and Jodhpur as decisive battlegrounds.

By the evening of the same day, the intelligence provided by the military intelligence was confirmed.

The main forces of the Vatican army, already under the cover of night, set out from Udaipur and went west into the mountains, not north.

In order to avoid startling the snake, the Air Force did not "harass" the Vatican army.

In fact, from the early morning of the 6th, the Air Force has reduced the intensity of its strikes against Udaipur, otherwise the Vatican Army would not have transferred troops from here.

It was only after the intelligence was confirmed that Ding Zhennan gave the order.

The air assault operation, codenamed "Spotlight", began in the early morning of the 10th.

In fact, the first assault force set off after 23 o'clock on the night of the 9th, and it is expected to arrive at the destination at about 0:30 in the morning of the 10th.

The assault mission was carried out by 2 light infantry battalions transported by 300 heavy helicopters.

In addition, the Marine Corps dispatched 60 helicopter gunships to clear the way for the assault force, while the Air Force arranged for front-line attack aircraft to prepare fire for the airborne operation 15 minutes in advance. If necessary, the Air Force could also mobilize dozens of heavy attack aircraft to bomb nearby Vatican forces.

If anything, this is also the largest air assault operation launched on the battlefield of the southern subcontinent since the beginning of the war.

As for the results, there is no need to say much.

Before 1 a.m., the commander of the assault force sent a message that he had taken control of the open area of Deoger Nambi as planned, and that with the support of helicopter gunships and front-line attack aircraft, he had routed the nearby Vatican army and took control of the roads and railways outside Deoger.

It was precisely because of this that Liu Zunshan gave the order to let the airlift troops set off just after 1 a.m.

Of course, the first sortie was a tactical transport aircraft.

As mentioned earlier, all 60 Y-15As on this side of the Southern Subcontinent have returned to the Imperial mainland and will not be dispatched until after the air assault operation begins.

To be precise, the "Y-15A" will not be dispatched until the field airfield is repaired.

For this reason, before dawn, the main thing is to arrange for tactical transport planes to transport combat materials and light equipment to the front line, so as to strengthen the control over the landing site.

Of course, until the field airfield was repaired, the transport aircraft could only make low-altitude airdrops.

It can be seen that the most urgent task at present is to repair the field airfield as soon as possible.

In addition to allowing tactical transport planes to airdrop the supplies necessary for the construction of field airfields to the front line, the key is to use heavy helicopters to deliver engineering equipment to the front line.

In response to this matter, Ding Zhennan repeatedly told Liu Zunshan.

Whether or not the assault can be successful does not mean whether or not the landing site can be occupied, but how quickly the field airfield can be repaired after the occupation.

The Vatican army near Deoger must have more than 5,000 men, and to the south, there was a not too small armored force. Because of the desire to deceive the Vatican army, during the air strike operation in the past few days, the focus was not on taking care of the Vatican army near Deogle.

If the Van army concentrates its forces and launches a counterattack, the 2 light infantry battalions will not last long.

The key is to send the heavy troops as soon as possible.

It was precisely because of this that Liu Zunshan stayed in Balmel and did not follow the assault troops to the front.

At about 3 a.m., the first heavy helicopters returned to Balmel.

All are "Z-17E" of the Marine Corps.

Equipped with three engines and with a maximum take-off weight of more than 30 tons, this helicopter is the most powerful helicopter equipped for the Imperial Army by lifting equipment weighing up to 15 tons and flying up to 200 kilometers away and then returning to the departure airfield.

In fact, many heavy equipment of the Imperial Army and Marine Corps is designed according to the performance indicators of the "Z-17", especially the curb weight. To put it simply, except for a small number of main battle equipment such as main battle tanks and self-propelled howitzers, other equipment, including heavy engineering equipment, has a curb weight of less than 15 tons to ensure that it can be hung and transported by the "Z-17" during combat.

Of course, most of the engineering equipment is capable of being transported by the 20-ton "Z-18".

In fact, the main force involved in the assault airlift was the "Z-18".

Because the price is relatively cheaper, the maintenance cost is lower, and the huge cabin space, the "Z-18" is not only loved by the army, but also favored by the Marine Corps, becoming the only transport helicopter equipped with both the Army and the Marine Corps in addition to the "Z-15".

It's just that the Marine Corps procures much less "Z-18" than the Army's.

Of the 300 heavy helicopters involved in the airlift, 220 were Z-18s, of which 120 were supplied by the 17th Panzer Division.

At 4 a.m., the second round of assault airlift began.

At this time, on the side of Deogle, the Van army launched a counterattack.

Because of the limited number of troops, the assault forces that arrived earlier could only disperse the defense, that is, hold the outlying strongholds, and rely on air support to deal with the counterattacking enemy.

The main characters are front-line attack aircraft and heavy attack aircraft.

As for the helicopter gunships that had been dispatched before, they all returned after the arrival of the assault force, mainly because there was no spare fuel to stay on the front line.

Relatively speaking, the Air Force's attack aircraft can at least refuel in the air on the way back.

To speak, before dawn, the front-line attack aircraft of the Air Force almost dominated the battlefield, creating a sea of fire outside the Marine Corps' line of fire that the Vatican Army could not cross.

However, with the return of front-line attack aircraft before dawn, the situation on the battlefield was immediately reversed.

The Van army's counterattack also reached its peak at this time.