In fact, during the Battle of Bertankot, the top brass of the Pakistani army had already recognized the problem and began to adjust the deployment of troops.

Of course, the focus remains on Kashmir.

No matter how it fights, Pakistan will never cede Indian-administered Kashmir, which it has occupied, and will force the Indian authorities to accept a fait accompli.

It's just that to hold Kashmir, all that is needed is infantry.

In Kashmir, there is little use for armored corps.

Besides, Jammu has already been laid, so there is no need to put the main forces here.

Next, there's Amritsar.

It's just that attacking Amritsar is obviously much more difficult.

Why?

Amritsar is located on the Indus River Plain, and is a border military town guarded by the Indian army, with not only the main force of hundreds of thousands of Indian troops, but also a tight defensive line.

In fact, this is also the key to the reluctance of the Pakistani army to fight Amritsar before.

The key point is that the Pakistani army has no superiority in troops.

Throughout the war, the Pakistani army, from top to bottom, was extremely sensitive to the issue of troop strength, and always believed that problems in troop strength would lead to serious consequences.

For this reason, the Pakistani army was cautious when fighting.

In many cases, because there is no superiority in troops, the Pakistani army is even willing to choose defense rather than attack, even if it needs to fight a defensive war on the mainland.

Obviously, this is also the reason why the Pakistani army has been holding on to Lahore for half a month.

To put it more bluntly, the Pakistani army is obviously a little timid.

Of course, there's nothing surprising.

In the previous wars between India and Pakistan, the Pakistani army lost all of them, and they lost very completely.

Especially in the Third Indo-Pakistani War, the Pakistani army was still quickly defeated in the case of taking the initiative to attack, and was eventually dismembered by India.

At the strategic level, Pakistan has been on the defensive for decades.

In terms of national defense construction, Pakistan has always focused on strategic defense.

Although the Pakistani army has always emphasized the offensive, especially the Pakistani Air Force, in the final analysis, the offensive emphasized by the Pakistani army is only an offensive at the tactical and campaign level.

To put it simply, it is to replace defense with offense.

Why?

Pakistan's strategic depth is too shallow, and if it is not aggressive enough, it is in danger of destroying the country, so it must be proactive at the tactical level.

Now, the position has been reversed, and the Pakistani army is not very adaptable.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the Pakistani army has no similar preparations.

What preparation?

The top brass of the Pakistani army never thought that it would be able to fight an offensive war in India, let alone a large-scale strategic offensive, a general battle like encircling and annihilating hundreds of thousands of Indian troops at once!

To put it bluntly, the Pakistani army does not even have a combat plan in this regard!

In the past few decades, the operational plans formulated by the General Staff of the Pakistani Army have all revolved around the defense of the Indian army, that is, the defeat of the Indian army in the defense of the homeland.

Of course, such a plan determines Pakistan's national defense construction.

In addition, in its daily training and exercises, the Pakistani army mainly relies on its own territory.

All in all, when it was discovered that it was necessary to fight a war of annihilation in India, the top brass of the Pakistani army suddenly discovered that there was no ready-made combat plan in hand.

What to do?

Of course, it is necessary to hurry up and formulate a combat plan.

In addition, it is to transfer troops.

And, of course, there is the preliminary investigative work.

As a result, the Pakistani army needed enough time to prepare for the attack on Amritsar.

During this period, the initiative fell to the Indian army.

It's just that that's not accurate enough.

At that time, the Indian army was in even greater trouble.

What's the trouble?

Return to Bertankot and restore order to the city, providing supplies for more than 1 million civilians and clearing the ruins of the war.

In a sense, the more than 1 million war refugees in Bertanot are the big problem.

Of course, the Indian army did not give up the idea of counterattacking Kashmir.

After returning to Bertankot, the Indian army launched a counterattack.

What counterattack?

Counterattack against Jammu.

It is a pity that after launching several attacks in succession, the top brass of the Indian army realized that it was impossible to break through the defense line of the Pakistani army by relying only on infantry.

Quite simply, fighting in the plains, the infantry is almost going to die.

So, what about in the mountains?

The same is to die.

The Indian army is actively counterattacking, and the Pakistani army is also actively strengthening its defensive deployment.

As has been the case in the past few decades, what the Pakistani army has done is to control the main roads and valleys in Kashmir by setting up strongholds and other means.

Although the Pakistani army's defensive line was not tight enough to prevent the Indian army's infiltration operation, it was enough to make the Indian army's counterattack action come to naught.

In fact, these scattered strongholds are enough to make the Indian army's large-scale counterattack go to naught.

Why?

The Pakistani army has air supremacy and enough long-range artillery.

If it is only a diamond-shaped infiltration operation, the problem is not big, and it is impossible for the Indian army to regain the lost territory by infiltrating the small force behind the Pakistani army's defensive line.

For a large-scale offensive, we have to consider the long-range strikes of the Pakistani army.

Obviously, fighting in the mountains will only create some trouble for the Pakistani army at most.

In the past few decades, have the Indian army's border guards and mountain troops caused less trouble for the Pakistani army?

In terms of experience in dealing with skirmishes, there is probably no unit that can match the mountain forces of the Pakistan Army.

In addition, as the front stabilized, Pakistani border guards were sent up, and the mountain troops, which were the main force, were withdrawn one after another.

In fact, the Indian army suffered even more casualties in the counterattack.

According to information disclosed after the war, in the initial phase of the counterattack, the Indian army suffered hundreds of casualties per day, and most of them were caused by long-range artillery fire.

The huge casualties seriously undermined the morale of the Indian army.

Although the Indian authorities and the Indian army's top brass are unwilling to admit defeat and accept a fait accompli, the Indian soldiers on the front line do not want to die for the sake of statesmanship.

As a result, after the first half a month of counterattacks, the front-line troops of the Indian army generally began to retreat, to be precise, desertion.

What does it mean?

The Indian army's top brass gave the order to counterattack, but the front-line troops would not carry it out, or it was not implemented in place.

In the later stage of the battle, the most important thing that the front-line troops of the Indian army did was to fire cold guns at the Pakistani army post across the battle line.

If the pressure from above is too much, send the mortar up and fire a few shots.

All in all, not only the soldiers, but even the rank and file officers were disheartened.

Can such an army still win battles?

Of course, after the first half month of counterattack, the Indian army's top brass also realized that continuing the counterattack was to send the officers and men to death.

In a sense, it would be nice to be able to hold the front.

As a result, on the newly formed front, that is, the border between Kashmir and India, both sides have entered a phase of sit-down warfare, and neither has taken large-scale military action, at most occasionally reminding the other side that they are still on the defensive line.