Empire Conquest-Chapter 926 - 132: Force Realignment_2

Then, within 7 to 10 days, completely paralyze the Fanluo Army’s operational system.

At most, within half a month, we can achieve absolute air superiority, and then carry out traditional strategic bombing, which means a comprehensive attack on non-military targets.

This set of operational plans is hard to imagine during peacetime, but in the period of a Global War, it’s not a difficult task.

Take air-launched cruise missiles, for example; the stock in peacetime is less than 2000. After the outbreak of the Global War, just in September, 7500 were produced, and by year-end, the monthly production can double again, with the production plan for the New Calendar 151 reaching an astounding 300,000 annually.

The ability to produce cruise missiles at such a fast pace is mainly due to the newly developed guidance system.

This guidance system, based on the "Compass" Global Navigation System, is characterized by its extreme simplicity.

Of course, this also means it’s cheaper.

Although the "Compass" system was damaged after the war broke out, with more than half of the low-orbit navigation satellites lost, the satellites in mid-high orbit are still operational, providing positioning accuracy up to 15 meters, still of great military value.

As for conventional ammunition, there’s plenty to go around.

Due to prior preparations, by the afternoon of the 4th, the Imperial Air Force could deploy bombers from the Diego base to carry out strategic bombing in the southern region of Fanluo Country.

In fact, this is also the focus of Newland Air Force’s defense in the southern area of Fanluo Country.

The defense deployment in Fanluo Country, specifically air defense deployment, has three main directions: towards the northwest of Bakistan, facing the northeast of Liangxia Empire, and extending into the southern region of Fan Flame Ocean. After officially allying with the Newland Republic, Fanluo Air Force mainly dealt with the first two directions, maintaining an offensive stance in the northwest and focusing on defense in the northeast. The defense of the southern region is undertaken by the Newland Garrison.

However, because of the presence of the Diego base, the southern region cannot be considered a strategic rear area.

Although the Newland Air Force has deployed 4 early warning aircraft and over 100 fighters in the southern region of Fanluo Country, in the context of a Global War, they definitely cannot counter the strategic strikes of the Imperial Air Force. At best, it provides a little psychological comfort up and down Fanluo Country.

Theoretically, the Newland Garrison can provide about 30 minutes of strategic warning time.

Expecting the Newland Air Force’s fighters to venture over 1000 kilometers to intercept those Imperial bombers carrying cruise missiles is obviously unrealistic.

Nevertheless, Fanluo Country places great importance on the cover provided by the Newland Air Force.

To put it simply, the strategic reserve forces of Fanluo Country, as well as its main strategic reprisal weapons, are almost entirely concentrated within the Newland Garrison’s defensive area.

For this reason, the Imperial Air Force also places great emphasis on military targets in this region.

Still, the outcome of the Southern Subcontinent War is not decided by the Imperial Air Force.

As mentioned before, Fanluo Country is simply too enormous.

Even if strategic bombing could completely cripple Fanluo Country, it would not fundamentally eliminate the threat but merely provide temporary relief.

As long as Fanluo Country exists, the threat will not be eradicated.

The only way to eliminate the threat is for Fanluo Country, or more precisely, the Southern Subcontinent, to return to the status before the Bulan Kingdom’s colonial rule.

Yes, it must be divided into several local states.

Without a doubt, achieving this objective during a great war requires the Army to be deployed to fight a real ground war.

To be clear, this is also the Empire’s core strategy against Fanluo Country. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The key does not lie in the ground forces stationed in the Southern Subcontinent, i.e., the Southern War Zone, where the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division has been stationed in Bakistan since the Second Southern Subcontinent War, nor in the garrison units in the Southwest region of the homeland, but in the reinforcement units from other battle zones.

To put it more directly, to keep the ground war within an acceptable range, it must be based in Bakistan.

The battlefield should be limited to the northwest area of Fanluo Country.

Not only is this the location of Fanluo Country’s capital, but it is also the most densely populated area, and modern-day Fanluo Country was born here.

However, for the Imperial Army, the difficulty of fighting in that direction is immense.

There’s only one reason: north of that area is the Wuji Plateau, and the adjacent Pamou Plateau, and further beyond is the Northwest region of the Empire.

Not to mention that the Northwest region of the Empire itself is sparsely populated; just crossing the Pamou Plateau is a gigantic hurdle.

During the first Global War, the Empire preferred to deploy heavy forces on the eastern side of the Gangaro Plain, namely the Cloud Mist River Valley, rather than opening a front on the Pamou Plateau side, precisely because of the treacherous terrain of Pamou Plateau, which makes it impossible to deploy large troop formations.

Even now, the situation remains the same.

Due to the terrain constraints, it is very difficult for the Imperial Army to launch an attack on the northwest region of Fanluo Country from the Northwest region of the homeland.

As a result, the only option is to advance from Bakistan.

For this reason, one of the three main missions of the Imperial Army’s Western War Zone includes deploying main force units to partake in operations against Fanluo Country when necessary.

These considerations are reflected in the delineation of battle zones.

While the Southern Subcontinent is allocated to the Southern War Zone, the Boi Country west of Bakistan falls within the jurisdiction of the Western War Zone, and moving north from Bakistan leads to the Northwest War Zone.

Thus, the Southern Subcontinent sits precisely at the juncture of the three battle zones.

Theoretically, the Imperial Army can marshal forces from all three battle zones to besiege Fanluo Country.

However, this is only in theory.

The Northwest War Zone’s focus is naturally on the continental battlefield, and with the 7th Armored Division having gone to Boss Bay, not having requested reinforcements is already a miracle.

The Southern War Zone’s primary focus is on the Southwest East Ocean and Aus, and it also has to attend to the Southeast region, so it can at most just leave the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division in Bakistan.

In the Western War Zone, the 11th Infantry Division must guard the North Xuan area, the Xifan Canal, and the Jibu Fortress; the 14th Mechanized Infantry Division faces the Ter Republic, detering the Southeast region of the West Continent Group, containing the Boi Country, while also considering the Caucasus Mountains and Chains Bridge; both primary divisions are quite busy.

As such, for the Army, the only unit available to mobilize is the 17th Armored Division.

The real key is whether the Imperial Army can timely dispatch reinforcements.

Ding Zhennan anticipated this situation early on.

When making the deployments, he did not assign too many tasks to the 17th Armored Division, nor did he allow it to receive full enhancement in its organization, ensuring that when necessary, the 17th Armored Division could quickly extract from Boss Bay, reducing the logistics burden of transporting combat equipment.

According to the organization, the three combat brigades to properly enhance the 17th Armored Division to the scale of a field army were all left in Karachi, and the corresponding main battle equipment was in roll-on/roll-off transport ships docked at Karachi port, ready to be assigned to combat units at any time.

This is also why Ding Zhennan recruited Park Tae-hee and tasked the Gaoju Army with the occupation duties.

However, transporting the few brigades stationed at Boss Bay will take at least half a month, while the operational plan allocates only a week for adjustments.

To be direct, the Imperial Air Force needs just a week to gain local air superiority.

Predictably, the Bakistan Army can also complete a tactical counterattack within a week, driving back invading enemies to the vicinity of the border.

Without engaging in early combat, the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, stationed in Bakistan, can also be fully assembled within a week.

A week later, whether the 17th Armored Division arrives or not, a strategic counteroffensive will commence as planned.

If the 17th Armored Division fails to arrive on time to participate in operations, it will be difficult to defeat Fanluo Country before the Newland Republic joins the war, as planned.

This shows that the operational plan targeting Fanluo Country is intricately linked.

Prolonged delays will inevitably lead to unexpected results.

In the Empire’s strategic plans, it is emphasized that once war breaks out in the Southern Subcontinent, the first priority is to concentrate forces to crush Fanluo Country, eliminating the greatest concern.

To this end, after receiving news of Fanluo Country’s surprise attack, Ding Zhennan issued orders to Fu Weimin.

Of course, the occupation task must first be handed over to the Allied Forces.

Subsequently, Ding Zhennan called Shi Shouliang, proposing that Lu Liangyuan command the operation against Baghdad, allowing him to proceed to Bakistan as soon as possible.

Shi Shouliang did not give a direct response, just agreed to mention this to the Grand Secretary for Ding Zhennan.

Matters pertaining to the selection of a Commander must be decided by the Grand Secretary.

However, before Shi Shouliang’s response came, an unexpected piece of news arrived, shocking Ding Zhennan.