In order to avoid a strong attack, Liu Zunshan proposed to use the Meng State.

It's a pity that it was directly vetoed by Ding Zhennan.

If you want to say it, Ding Zhennan didn't think about it, but knew that this method would not work.

When it was decided to launch an amphibious landing operation on the east coast of Van Luo, Ding Zhennan had the idea of attacking Gar through Meng.

It's just that after weighing left and right, Ding Zhennan gave up this unrealistic idea.

First of all, there are problems at the strategic level.

More than a decade ago, the state of Mon was once part of Pakistan. Because it is in the east, it is called Dongba, and the current Pakistan railway is called Xiba. During the Second Southern Subcontinent War, the Mon kingdom was besieged by the Vatican army and fell in just a few dozen days. It was only after the capture of Bangladesh that Van Luo accepted the mediation of the international community and declared a ceasefire. Regarding the independence of Meng, the Liangxia Empire could not help. After all, at that time, the international community generally accepted this fait accompli, and it was useless for the Liangxia Empire to oppose it.

At that time, the only thing the Liangxia Empire could do was to ensure that the Van Luo Kingdom withdrew its troops from the allies after a formal armistice.

It was for this reason that Mon declared permanent neutrality immediately after gaining independence.

Of course, the so-called "permanent neutrality" is nothing more than to ensure its own security, or to survive in the cracks of the great powers.

The key is that when the Mongol State was established independently, the Liangxia Empire was in the post-war trough period, otherwise it would not tolerate the Fanluo State to show off its military might, so when the Mongol State needed security protection the most, the Liangxia Empire was powerless, and the Mongol authorities had to adopt the strategy of "permanent neutrality".

In essence, Meng had always been a quasi-ally of the Liangxia Empire.

Even before Zhou Yongtao moved into the residence of the first assistant, the Bangladeshi authorities were secretly in contact with the empire to negotiate the entry into the Eastern Bloc.

However, on the issue of Bangladesh's accession to the alliance, the attitude of the imperial authorities has always been neither warm nor cold, or rather not very attentive.

The reason is simple: Myanmar, to the east of Bangladesh, was one of the founding members of the Eastern Bloc. The empire worked hard in Burma for decades, building a large number of military bases, turning Burma into an advance base for encircling the kingdom of Van Luo and preventing the penetration of the kingdom into the southeast.

In the strategic system of encirclement and blockade of Van Luo State, Meng State is a strategic buffer zone sandwiched between Van Luo State and Myanmar State.

It's not that Myanmar is too threatened, but that Myanmar is too backward and too small, and it doesn't have the capital to compete with Van Luo at all.

If there is really a conflict, the empire will have to end up in person.

In this way, a buffer zone of "permanent neutrality" is particularly important.

This was the main reason why the imperial authorities did not adhere to their principles and recognize the independence of Mon in the later stages of the Second Southern Subcontinent War.

The reason is also very simple, if Bangladesh is still Dongba, it will not become a buffer zone.

Here, too, there is a very critical issue involved.

The main direction of attack.

Although for a long time after the war, the empire has been operating the southeast region, and once regarded the southeast region as a springboard to enter the Fanyan Ocean, the most representative, that is, after the war, the annexation of Shiquan City and the construction of it into a military fortress to hold the throat strait, but a series of events that occurred after the war, such as the premature decline of the Empire, the rapid retreat of the Bran Kingdom in the southern subcontinent, and the unusually conservative behavior of the Nuland Republic in its external expansion, led to the empire's march into the Fanyan Ocean. There were no challenges.

Strictly speaking, apart from the Fanluo Kingdom, there are no decent opponents in the Fanyanyang region at all.

Even the Boi country, which gave the empire a taste of defeat, was only a small country, and there was no capital to confront the empire at the strategic level.

To put it bluntly, without the support of the Nuland Republic and the Juman Empire, let alone defeating the Liangxia Empire, the Boi Kingdom may not even have a chance to be born.

It can be seen that the empire's military strategy in the Fanyan Ocean region revolves around the containment of the Fanluo Kingdom.

In the strategic encirclement against Van Luo, Myanmar seems to be very important, for example, it is a country in the southeast region, a start-up member of the Eastern Bloc, and the southwest railway also passes through its territory, but in practice, there are many problems that cannot be solved.

The most serious is its complex national problem.

Although Burma is a country in the southeast, it belonged to the Bufan Empire before independence, but in the Second Global War, it was captured by the Imperial Army, so unlike the other countries in the Southern Subcontinent, it became independent before the end of the war.

Because it is located at the junction of the Eastern civilization and the Van Luo civilization, the ethnic problem of Myanmar is very complicated.

The most immediate effect of this is that the empire's top brass has never regarded Myanmar as a valuable or promising ally.

Strategically, Myanmar is actually a zone separating the southeastern region from the southern subcontinent.

All in all, after the end of the Second Southern Subcontinent War, the empire turned its attention to Pakistan and strengthened its assistance to Pakistan.

As a result, it was even more unlikely that the Mon state would gain the attention of the upper echelons of the empire.

Although after Zhou Yongtao came to power, the empire's military strategy in the southern subcontinent became more active, such as building several new forward military bases and strengthening its military presence, the Mon state remained a buffer zone isolated from the Van Luo state, and its existential value did not change much.

In addition, there are some unavoidable objective factors of reality.

Bangladesh is the third largest country in the southern subcontinent and the third most populous, with more than 100 million according to official statistics, and it is likely that it has reached 200 million.

The key is that with so many people, the total living space is less than 150,000 square kilometers.

Of these, there are almost 50,000 square kilometers of nature reserves!

The population density of Bangladesh is as high as 1,000 people per square kilometer, while the population density of Van Luo is only 300 people per square kilometer, and Pakistan is only 250 people per square kilometer.

It is no exaggeration to say that Bangladesh has the highest population density among countries with a population of more than 100 million.

With such a high population density, the only result of a traditional agricultural country is extreme poverty.

In a sense, this was a key reason for the Empire's reluctance to ally with Mon.

If Bangladesh really joins the Eastern Bloc and is treated as a member state, these more than 100 million poor people will become a problem for the empire.

Apparently, for the imperial authorities, there were enough troubles like that.

In fact, there has always been a dispute within the empire about the value of the Eastern Bloc, and even within the military, there are many voices of skepticism.

The point is that most of the members of the Eastern Bloc, with the exception of a few members, are poor, and the main purpose of joining the EU is to join the empire, or to take advantage of the shade with their backs to the trees. Almost all of these poor and backward allies are populous countries.

The Eastern Bloc has been around for decades, and the empire has always been an exporter of interests.

However, the more important practical factor is that the largest nature reserve in Bangladesh is in the estuary delta of the Yunwu River, adjacent to the Gangaro River delta in the country of Van Luo, that is, the world-famous Sundarbans Nature Reserve with an area of more than 50,000 square kilometers.

The reserve is divided into two and there are about 20,000 square kilometers in the territory of the country.

As a result, even if they crossed the border from Bangladesh and avoided the trouble of amphibious landing operations, the ground forces would have to make a detour from the north, that is, deep inland.

As for the nature reserve to the south, there are no roads at all.

Obviously, attacking Gal from the interior is definitely not an easy task.

Not to mention how many troops need to be expended in the Meng State, just the poor road traffic and the long supply lines are enough to discourage Ding Zhennan.

And so it is.

According to the judgment made by the staff officer, borrowing from Bangladesh will only be used for logistics support of more than 50,000 troops, in addition to tens of thousands of troops will be arranged to strengthen Bangladesh's border defense.

Don't forget, Mon has always been a permanently neutral country.

Because it has never joined the Eastern Bloc, Bangladesh is not very national defense construction, or even if it is national defense construction, it does not make much sense. After all, compared with the Van Luo Kingdom, the size of the Meng State is too small, and without foreign assistance, it cannot stop the millions of Van troops at all. If there is foreign aid, and it is strong enough, then the little defense power of Bangladesh itself is not enough.

If you need to control the big cities of Mon, even if it is only the capital and the main ports, you will need to invest more troops.

With so many troops, why not just attack Gal?

A direct attack on Gal is nothing more than three options.

One is to disembark at Canning Harbor, south of Garr, and then advance north along the river.

Although this offensive route is the shortest, and there are inland waterways to use, Canning Port is the outer port of Gard, and the infrastructure is also very complete, but the difficulty of attacking Canning Port is also the greatest, after all, no matter how careless the Vatican army is, it will definitely arrange heavy troops to guard the gateway port of Garr.

A direct landing not only requires the investment of sufficient troops, but also bears heavy casualties.

In addition, there is no guarantee that the combat mission will be completed within the specified time, or even that it will be possible to march into Garr from there.

The second option is Port Diamond in the southwest.

Strictly speaking, Port Diamond is the outer harbor of the Gard, while the port of Canning is the inner harbor.

Because it is farther away from the city of Garr, and the infrastructure has not kept up, especially the road connecting the two places has not been expanded, let alone widened, and even the cement road has not been paved, so the scale of Port Diamond is not very large, and there is no way to compare with Canning Port.

If anything, in fact, the economy of Van Luo is not developed enough, and the demand for shipping is not too large, so there is no need to develop a second port.

It's just that the conditions in Port Diamond are actually better.

Among other things, the average water depth of Port Diamond is over 20 meters at low tide, and the main channel reaches 40 meters, allowing any ship to enter and exit. With an average water depth of only 10 meters and a main channel of 20 meters, large ships with a displacement of more than 50,000 tons can enter and exit at high tide.

Because it is too far from the city, there must not be many troops guarding Port Diamond.

In addition, due to road constraints, the Vatican troops deployed in the urban area may not be able to reinforce Port Diamond in time.

In other words, attacking Port Diamond was much less difficult than attacking Port Canning.

It's just that Port Diamond has a serious flaw.

The port is not at the mouth of the Gangaro River, but at the mouth of the Hooghly River.

Although the two rivers are not far apart, the inland waterways are not connected. After taking control of Port Raymond, it is necessary to capture Canning Harbor before being able to enter the Gangaro River.

If you want to take advantage of inland waterway shipping, you still have to attack Canning Port.

As for the third option, which is to go to Gandi, which is even more distant. After going ashore there, it pushes north to encircle Gar from the west.

Comparatively speaking, the landing in Ganti was the least difficult to operate.

Although Gandy is a large city with a population of more than 1 million, it is not that big compared to other cities in the region.

Crucially, Gandi is not a modern city, but more like a large rural village.

According to the analysis made by the staff officers, it was not very difficult to occupy and control Ganti, and after a successful landing, there was no need to capture the city.

Of course, Ganti is just too far away from Gal.

If you go north, you will have a ground propulsion range of more than 200 kilometers and a straight-line distance of more than 150 kilometers, which is more than the range of most support weapons.

Allowing the Marines to advance 200 kilometers in the area of the river network in extremely poor road conditions?

Even if the combat troops are able to do so, they will not be able to continue the operation because the logistics support cannot keep up, or it will be difficult to gain a foothold after the initial assault.

In addition, there is no ready-made port on the Gandi side, and a temporary port needs to be built after landing.

Obviously, this is a big trouble.

Even if the Imperial Marines have the strongest engineering capabilities in the world, the throughput capacity of even the best temporary ports is not comparable to the existing large ports.

What's more, it is also necessary to consider the transportation capacity of the outbound port.

Combined with these factors, even if the landing in Gandi is successful, it may not be possible to immediately advance to Gar, let alone mobilize heavy forces to capture Garr.

Combining these factors, the final option that can be chosen is the second option.

In fact, this is also one of the main plans initially determined by Ding Zhennan to attack Gal, to be precise, the first option.

As for the main option, it is actually a direct attack on Canning Harbor.

After changing and changing, I finally went back to the same path.

The difference is that according to the reformulated battle plan of Ding Zhennan, it is no longer required to occupy Gar, which actually reduces the operational difficulty of the landing stage.

Landing on the operational stage, only the capture of Port Diamond was requested.

As for the assault on Gard, it was after the successful landing.

However, in addition to capturing and controlling Port Diamond, the Marines had to expand the depth of the landing field, including establishing a defensive line to the north.

In addition, control of the area south of Port Diamond.

This arrangement has only one purpose.

To the south of Port Diamond, a large field airfield capable of accommodating hundreds of combat aircraft was established in order to take full advantage of the port's transshipment capacity.

To put it simply, it is to let the aviation troops be deployed in front.

With the direct support of tactical aviation, the difficulty of advancing inland can be greatly reduced.

The key is that in the river network area, heavy equipment such as the main battle tank is actually not much use, and the main force must be lightly armed.

In this way, the powerful vertical air force has a place to play its value.

That is, the field airfield outside Port Diamond can be relied on to allow ground forces to launch a vertical assault as a solution to the problem of inconvenient transportation.

As for specific tactics, they were widely promoted and applied during the Polish-Iranian War.

If it is to be said, the use of helicopters to carry out rapid assaults has always been the specialty of the imperial army, and it is also the key to the transformation of landing operations from a plane to a three-dimensional one.