The reorganization of the main fleet went relatively smoothly, and the officers and men who were assigned to the third place gladly accepted the facts, while Jiang Zhongmin had no other choice but to unconditionally obey the orders of the naval headquarters. In addition, the small-scale refitting work did not cause much trouble, and with the assistance of the pilots of the Second Task Force, the pilots of the reconnaissance planes of the First Task Force quickly mastered the flight performance of the "Reconnaissance Eagle," and the navigators also quickly mastered the operation of the radar, and conducted coordinated training with the Second Task Force.

The new seaplanes that were being refitted for the First Fleet at that time were larger than the previous ones, and as a result, during the training after the refurbishment, the seaplane pilots discovered an important problem: the new seaplanes could not take off with all the fuel when using the old catapults. Therefore, it is only possible to carry two-thirds of the fuel catapult and take off, or when the sea is relatively calm, the seaplane is first lowered to the sea surface by a crane, and then taxied on the sea surface for take-off. In order to enable the First Fleet, as well as the Third Fleet, which was operating in the Caribbean at that time and also received new seaplanes, to form a combat force as soon as possible, the Navy Command had to organize a transport fleet to transport the new catapults to the forward ports and replace the catapults for these warships.

While the refitting and rearmament was carried out, the three task forces of the First Fleet were rotated to Ceuta and Tangier for rest. Both ports were under the control of the Persian Empire. According to the agreement reached between the Tang Empire and the Persian Empire at that time, the Persian Empire would provide a place for the officers and men of the fleet to rest, and would be responsible for maintaining order on the shore. As a result, the officers and men of the fleet could not move completely freely after arriving at Ceuta and Tangier, and had to abide by the military regulations of the Persian Empire when they were on shore. This caused some minor troubles, but in the spirit of maintaining the friendship between the two countries. The problem was quickly resolved. The Persian Empire relaxed restrictions on the officers and men of the Tang Empire's navy, and Tan Renhao also strengthened restrictions on the scope of activities of officers and soldiers.

Because Han Shaofeng's marines encountered a lot of problems in preparing for the attack, and the coordination with the Persian Empire was not completely determined. By the last day of April, Tan Renhao had received a new order from the Navy Command that the attack on the Greater Andres Islands would be postponed until late May. At the same time, the command of the Navy also sent a battle report. This is a battle report that has little to do with the navy, and at the same time, it is this battle report that lets Tan Renhao know why Han Shaofeng could not complete the offensive preparations in April.

This is a battle report of the Imperial Army's combat operations in Mexico, to be precise, a battle report summarized from all the combat operations of the Imperial Army in Mexico in the past few months. As most of the Admirals had predicted, the Imperial Army's operations in Mexico did not go well.

By the time the First Fleet left the Caribbean and began the Eastern Atlantic Theater, the Imperial Army had already taken on combat missions in Mexico. This was the result of the strong demands of the Imperial Army, in fact. At that time, the Imperial Prime Minister was not entirely sure of the significance of opening up the Mexican battlefield. In addition to the Army's strong demands, the Mexican government-in-exile has been agitating for the Empire to move into Mexico. In addition to helping them regain their homeland, he also preached the importance and decisiveness of attacking the American mainland through Mexico. A two-pronged approach. Prime Minister Xue Xiyue had to approve the army's battle plan, and finally determined the assignment of tasks in Mexico with the commanders of the two armies.

According to the task assignment determined by the prime minister, the navy will not be responsible for combat operations in the Mexican theater, but will only be responsible for dispatching transport fleets to provide logistical support for the army's combat units. This was also the only battlefield where the army was the main force at that time, and in other battlefields, the army was no longer too useful. Therefore, the Army paid special attention to the Mexican battlefield. Initially. Yan Dingyu planned to send Shi Xing to serve as the commander-in-chief of the Mexican Expeditionary Force, but later the prime minister assigned Shi Xing more important tasks. Therefore, Yan Dingyu temporarily replaced the candidate and put Gu Xunlei in this important position.

Yan Dingyu's reason for making Gu Xunlei the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force is very sufficient. First of all, Gu Xunlei has rich combat experience in the Pacific theater, which other senior army generals do not have. Secondly, Gu Xunlei also has rich experience in cooperation with the Imperial Navy, and can better deal with conflicts with the Navy. In the end, the battle on the Australian battlefield led by Gu Xunlei has ended, and the post-war recovery work is basically completed, so nothing else affects him.

After receiving his appointment, Gu Xunlei arrived in Mexico at the beginning of the year, when Tan Renhao's First Fleet had not yet left the Caribbean theater. Gu Xunlei did not contact Tan Renhao, and he only brought more than a hundred officers from the front command, and the main force of the army did not arrive at that time. After secretly reaching the front line, Gu Xunlei first inspected the situation on the ground and made contact with several Mexican generals. At this time, Gu Xunlei had already realized that the battlefield in Mexico would be a difficult battlefield, and even if he did not regret accepting the new appointment, he did not dare to have the slightest feeling of underestimating the enemy. Later facts proved that Gu Xunlei's worries at that time were not without a little reason.

By the end of February, the Army's expeditionary forces had arrived. At that time, the Navy dispatched eight large convoys to support the Army's combat operations. All eight fleets were used on the Oahu-Central American port route. In addition, with the direct intervention of the prime minister, the navy had to distribute a batch of combat materials that should have been allocated to Han Shaofeng to the army in order to speed up the deployment of the army's expeditionary force. Because of this, Han Shaofeng's Marines never got enough combat supplies, and as a result, after the arrival of the Third Fleet, they reluctantly captured several important islands in the Little Andres Islands, and then used aviation to bomb and blockade other islands where American troops were stationed. The attack on the Greater Andrés Islands, originally planned for March, has also been delayed, and until now preparations for the attack have not been prepared. Perhaps, the only thing that Han Shaofeng will not complain about is that the Army has taken over the Marines who carry out combat operations in Central America, so that Han Shaofeng does not have to worry about the battle here.

With strong assistance, by the end of February, Gu Xunlei had already gathered an expeditionary army with two tank divisions, three armored divisions, and eight infantry divisions. In addition, during this period, the Mexican government army also received a batch of aid equipment (most of which were weapons and equipment from the Imperial Army, or obsolete weapons and equipment from the Marine Corps, or American equipment that was repaired after capture, or simply remodeled).

At least 20 infantry divisions (the establishment of these infantry divisions is quite small, about half of the ^I infantry division, and some divisions even have less than 4000, and the training is not in place). In other words, at this time, Gu Xunlei already had 200,000 expeditionary forces, plus more than 100,000 Mexican government troops.

In parallel with the formation of ground forces, army aviation is also increasing its forces to the Mexican theater. By the end of February, the Army had sent three air divisions to Mexico, deploying more than 1,200 combat aircraft, 600 of which were fighters. The pace of deployment of the Army Air Force did not meet the pre-requirements, mainly due to the severe lack of airfields in Central America that could be used by army combat aircraft. In addition, most of the airfields are deep inland, and the road traffic system is seriously backward, resulting in the inability to transport a large number of combat materials from the port to the airport, thus reducing the combat efficiency of the ground aviation. In addition, some defects of the Army Aviation itself have also led to the fact that the sortie efficiency of the Army Aviation combat aircraft is not as good as that of the Hainan Airlines.

In order to strengthen the support of the Army Expeditionary Force, the Navy and the Army have reached an agreement that the naval aviation deployed in Central America and the Caribbean, as well as the Naval Strategic Strike Force, will take on part of the operations to support the Army Expeditionary Force until the Army Aviation is unable to quickly deploy combat units to the front line and the Navy has not launched combat operations against the Greater Andrés Islands. At the time, HNA had 4,500,300 more aircraft deployed in the region. Compared to those that are adapted to the deployment of ground aviation aircraft on regular airports. HNA's combat aircraft have long been adapted to deploy in the harsh environment of island airfields, so their combat capabilities are much stronger.

At this point, Gu Xunlei had assembled a strong enough army. In early March, shortly after Tan Renhao and his men arrived at the fortress of Gibraltar, Gu Xunlei launched the first round of offensive campaigns, codenamed "Lightning". The main objective of the campaign was to recover southern Mexico, capture Ciudad Gutiérrez, advance the front to Puerada, southeast of Mexico City, and allow the Mexican government-in-exile to establish the new Zemdi regime in the country.

For this purpose. Gu Xunlei and the generals of the Mexican government army formed the Tang-Mo Coalition Command, with Gu Xunlei as the commander-in-chief and the chief of staff of the Mexican Army as the deputy commander. In terms of specific tasks, the Mexican government forces were only responsible for leading the way for the Imperial Expeditionary Force, providing Mexican domestic intelligence, and controlling the situation in the areas occupied by the Expeditionary Force. The main attack was carried out by the Imperial Expeditionary Force. Especially the five main armored divisions under Gu Xunlei.

The initial phase of the campaign went quite smoothly, with the U.S. and Mexican rebels not putting up stubborn resistance to Gutierrez at all, and quickly abandoning the first line of defense. By 8 March, Guzonlei's armored forces had entered the city, and the situation in the city was quickly stabilized by Mexican government forces, and the large amount of supplies brought by the expeditionary force also served to pacify the civilians. However, in the subsequent attack, Gu Xunlei discovered that his armored forces could not actually play much role in the battle, and all this was due to the complex terrain conditions of Mexico.

Continue advancing from Gutierrez. It's in the mountains of Mexico. The Sierra Madre do Sul, the extension of the Rocky Mountains in Mexico, became the greatest obstacle for the expeditionary force. The U.S. military seems to have long recognized that terrain would be the most powerful weapon to stop the Tang Empire's expeditionary force. As a result, the American forces retreated directly to the eastern part of the Tevanpec Isthmus, ceding the entire flat area to the Imperial Expeditionary Force. New defensive lines were established in Oaxaca and Tututepec. The expeditionary force easily advanced outside the city of Tututepec and quickly established an encirclement to the north, east, and southeast of the city, but was unable to cut off the southwestern part of the city from the mountains. At the same time, the troops attacking Oaxaca encountered stubborn resistance from the American and rebel forces on the way forward, not to mention heavy losses, and the speed of the advance was far from reaching the requirements of Gu Xunlei.

By March 20. The expeditionary force had been attacking Tututepec for eight days, but had still not been able to capture the city. The U.S. military used its highway to the mountainous terrain to provide a large amount of war supplies to the garrison troops. The worst part. The operation to attack Oaxaca also got bogged down. After losing nearly a quarter of their officers and men, one armored division and two infantry divisions finally came to a halt about 50 kilometers from Oaxaca

This was the first major trouble Gu Xunlei encountered on the battlefield in Mexico. He quickly adjusted the deployment of the campaign, sending an armored division and an infantry division to capture several communication arteries between the two cities, cutting off the connection between the two cities. Subsequently, Gu Xunlei used two infantry divisions to exert pressure on Oaxaca, and at the same time concentrated two tank divisions and four infantry divisions to storm the city of Tututepec, which was located in the plains. The battle continued on April 5, and after seven days and six nights of bloody fighting, the 8 American troops and rebels defending Tututepec began to break through with less than 2 men left. The next day, the expeditionary force took a crucial step forward by occupying the city, which had been almost flattened by artillery fire.

After the loss of Tututepec, Oaxaca has lost its defensive support, and therefore has lost its defensive value. The U.S. forces quickly retreated from Oaxaca, without giving Gu Xunlei a chance to encircle and annihilate. By 8 April, the expeditionary force had occupied Oaxaca. It was also the last city that Gu Xunlei had captured on the battlefield in Mexico by the end of April.

Tutu Tepec was the last major city in the flat underground area of Tewantek, and the troops continued to advance completely into the mountains. From the beginning of April to the end of April, Gu Xunlei organized and planned several small-scale tactical attacks, but in the end they were unable to break through the US defense line set up at Tewankan. At this time, Gu Xunlei had already realized the negative impact of the mountains on the attack of mechanized troops, and if a strong attack was launched, the losses would inevitably be quite heavy. At the same time, the newly arrived expeditionary force was simply not able to support a large-scale offensive campaign. Under these circumstances, Gu Xunlei stopped the large-scale offensive, and while constantly harassing and reconnoitring the American defense line, he also mobilized troops (mainly the Mexican Defense Forces) to build camps, airfields, material storage points and other important offensive infrastructure in the rear to prepare for future offensives.

In April, Gutierrez's government-in-exile announced his return to Mexico and formed a new government. In addition to stabilizing the domestic situation in Mexico, this also provided a legal basis for the Tang Empire to send troops to Mexico. But all this did not change the situation on the battlefield, Gu Xunlei was blocked from the direction of the US army, and the army's actions were long and long.