Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 576 Precise Deployment

Xu Jingzhe looked through the rest of the information. Regarding the Aster missile encountered by the Air Force, it is obviously necessary to upgrade the identification software of the radar warning equipment of all fighters in the theater. Unrecognizable, but at least a very timely warning of new threats.

"Do the Indians still think that their logistics is not troublesome enough?" He thought to himself, "It seems that NATO is determined to compete with us."

He knows that European arms manufacturers have been urging their governments to provide assistance to India, so as to test the superiority of these systems developed in the past 20 years in an actual combat environment. Recently passed, so that they will also join the global anti-China chorus.Of course, if Lin Huaisheng played well, even if they wanted to help, it would probably be too late.However, the United States covets geographical interests and only wants to obtain an independent kingdom bordering Iran for the time being. It has not provided new assistance to New Delhi recently.However, Xu Jingzhe knew that the United States' attempt to secretly grant and accept with China would most likely fail in the end, and it could not be ruled out that they would become angry in the future, and there would be further actions after the Apache helicopter's assistance.

He walked to the big glass window and waved, and a staff officer outside who was busy sorting out the text came trotting in.

"Have the South Korean tanks gone down?"

"Just learned that the previous training base has been in Ludhiana, but it was no longer there 6 days ago. The photos of the camp captured by satellites show that the communication facilities and temporary canteens have been dismantled, and the railway station has lifted the blockade. , nor any freight trains in sight."

"Okay, you go out."

Xu Jingzhe walked to the front of the map, found this place called Ludhiana, and then checked the railway extending from this place.The railway goes all the way to the north and all the way west to Lahore.Obviously within half a month, this army will either run into Lin Huaisheng or He Fan.He wasn't too worried about meeting Lin. Wang Zhenbei's tanks were advanced enough to beat them, but He Fan's tanks were at a disadvantage in terms of armor and firepower.

As a prelude to Lin Huaisheng's big operation, the troops in the Assam area launched a new small-scale attack yesterday, pushing the enemy's front line to the west by a certain distance. command attention.Now that India is facing enemies from all sides, it is necessary to make a wild punch to make them misjudge the key direction of the next round of attack. From past experience, Indian decision makers at all levels lack the ability to find the main threat in the chaos insight.

Ten hours ago, Lin Huaisheng's group had already started its first move - using the first three main forces (Pakistan's 10st and 1th Armored Divisions, and an armored group of the Chinese army) to rush across the Chenab River at night .There were no Indian defenders along the Chenab River. In fact, the Chinese-Pakistan coalition forces had always been in control. However, the news from the front said that the crossing of the river was not going well. Whether to take the next step immediately depends on Lin's personal judgment.

Xu Jingzhe reckoned that Lin Huaisheng would not make any delays, because after the Pakistani troops from all walks of life gathered, they would be detected by the enemy soon, and the purpose of the campaign should become clear from a vague state, and Meneyam would definitely respond.But he is very strange. So far, the intelligence department has not intercepted the enemy's intelligence about the increase in the danger level of Punjab. At least from the perspective of deployment, the enemy is not alert at all, and a large amount of supplies are still being transported to Srinagar by railway.It was hard for him to imagine that the enemy would turn a blind eye to the large-scale crossing of tens of thousands of people, but the fact seemed to be the case.

The Chenab River in Pakistan has entered a severe dry season. The Indians struck a series of dams upstream seven months ago, which caused the river to divert and turned it into a flood zone.A direct result of the dispersal of the water volume is that it becomes easier for tanks to cross the river.

Wang Zhenbei's tank troops had already crossed the river at night. He had already scouted the river, so he didn't use the snorkel method, but swam across the river directly. At this moment, the follow-up mechanized infantry was still crossing the river.

His troops did not make use of the pontoon bridges erected by Pakistani engineers, which had to be used by Pakistani troops.The communication of the troops was restricted to prevent the enemy from detecting large-scale radio movements. However, Wang Zhenbei felt that it was a bit self-deceiving to continue to operate covertly on such a large plain. If the Indian air force did not come for reconnaissance, it was inevitable that satellites would be able to see it.

As the leading edge in the center, he was in the center of the entire formation, but after crossing the river, he found that the two main Pakistani divisions on the north and south flanks were not well fed. The liaison officer drove a jeep to look for it, and found that most of the Pakistani troops were still on the opposite side of the river.While awaiting the mobilization of the lingering Pakistani troops, he spread out his reconnaissance forces to find the enemy, but found no Indian Army in the area 20 kilometers deep to the east.It seems that the campaign attempt has not been exposed?Maybe it was the tug-of-war in Kashmir that drew the attention of the Indian Army?
Wang Zhenbei did not sit still. His reconnaissance troops quickly contacted the local resistance forces and learned that the nearest Indian troops were still 30 kilometers to the west and had no tanks.This area is currently in a state of anarchy controlled by tribes, and external forces are still unable to reach out here to provoke right and wrong. The tribes here regard India as the only enemy.

His troops marched on the desolate land full of various war relics. Complete tanks can be seen everywhere near the road. Most of the tanks are facing the west. There are no traces of being shot or fighting, and they are just discarded.In the field, an Arjun tank that was blown up to only the chassis, and some burned T80 tanks can be seen in the field, which is obviously the battlefield of small-scale operations in Pakistan not long ago.Generally speaking, the tank battles that took place here were not large-scale, and the entire Punjab region was flat and vast, which was very suitable for large-scale tank battles.

The tank group finally stopped at the designated area on the east bank of the river. Due to the slow movement of the neighboring troops on both wings, he could only stop here and wait.

Since Yahini's tank troops once broke through to the same area and then retreated, the commander of the Indian frontline troops took it for granted that the opponent's purpose-it was only a limited operation, and the chaotic river crossing operation on the front did not arouse their concern enough. Pay attention to.It was not until noon that an American satellite photographed many half-built pontoon bridges on the river, and a Red Flag 9 missile unit maneuvering eastward on the road behind, that there was some tension in Meneam's headquarters.

Judging from the collected signs, the enemy seems to be carrying out a river crossing operation at a width of 30 kilometers, which is much larger than the previous one.

After Meneam got the first-hand information, he was not in a hurry to draw conclusions. He just waited silently for the staff to connect the known enemy situation in the new Punjab direction.He didn't know why the enemy pushed the Red Flag 9 forward. If this missile was deployed to the west bank of the Chenab River, it could almost cover the border, and it could completely open up a protective umbrella for the battle to recover Lahore.So far, he still has not considered the more serious consequences of losing Lahore. He relies on common sense to ignore those unlikely military operations.

"The enemy may launch another diversionary offensive. It will be deeper than the one last month." The commander said in a slightly cautious tone. "But the scale will not be too large. They have no capital." He then added.

"Commander. We have been monitoring the communications of the 1st and 6th Armored Divisions. Their main radio stations are still in the area west of Fort ***." Someone immediately echoed the Commander's opinion. The two main armored divisions Trends can always be seen as some kind of sign of the Pakistani Army's movements. When the Indian staff is lazy, they will make hasty judgments based on such isolated evidence.

"The strange thing is that the number of floating bridges observed by the US satellite has increased from 6 to 12," Meneam hesitated, "but this number is still too small to sustain a large offensive of more than 2 divisions." He said As if arguing with yourself, there is always a stronger idea to convince yourself: yes, the enemy will attack, but not too strong.

"General, we can't actually measure the water depth of the river right now. Since the dam in Jhelum was destroyed, the local hydrology and geography have changed, especially now in the traditional dry season. Tanks may be able to do it without the use of floating bridges. Come here." Someone reminded cautiously.

"Where do they have any tanks? Satellite photos only show motorized infantry and artillery."

"Well, there will always be some, right?"

"Can you send a drone to reconnaissance?"

"UAVs basically never go back. Unless you send MiG 25, but with all due respect, those MiG 25s are running around at high speed, and there is actually nothing of value to be photographed."

"Then don't draw conclusions first, and then send MiG-25 to take a look, and at the same time notify the Americans to strengthen satellite surveillance in this area."

Meneam's suspicion was quickly dispelled by the new Chinese firepower in Diemu Ke, and the Chinese army secretly sent some howitzers to the Ali defense area by helicopter, apparently to retaliate against the previous attack.So he put the new trend in Punjab behind him and did not take any action. He thought that there would be new and more telling information in the afternoon.

During the whole daytime when the Indian military was doing nothing, Lin Huaisheng's crossing operation turned into a disaster. Missile units missed the opportunity to fire.Since most of the troops did not follow the instructions to reach the east bank, it is estimated that the enemy's reconnaissance planes will not find anything. Of course, the whole army's action to cross the river will inevitably be delayed for the next day.

Lin Huaisheng originally planned to complete the operation of the entire attacking force across the river at night, quickly and silently.According to his plan, the engineering equipment will arrive first after nightfall, and then quickly build new bridges. The tank troops will arrive at midnight and cross the river by starlight; followed by the baggage and infantry columns.

If the plan goes as planned, at dawn the next day, he will have at least one and a half divisions and 1 tanks to cross the Chenab River and form the necessary defenses. Even if the Indians find out, they will not be in a hurry.

But the final result was beyond his expectations. Among all the Pakistani troops, only Yahini's assault force crossed the Chenab River in time through a complicated route and arrived at the designated area to stand by.Most of the remaining troops were either unable to find the route and crossing point specified on the map at night, or they were unable to complete the transfer and give way before the rest of the troops arrived in time.The first mis-scheduling made it impossible for the pontoon equipment to arrive in time. All the 6 planned new pontoons were only half completed, that is to say, the effect was zero, and this mistake caused a series of domino effects later. .

Before the operation, Lin Huaisheng's headquarters also specially instructed the troops not to abuse radio communication. The radio communication of a division must be reduced to the battalion level. The marching column must also limit unnecessary lighting.The original intention of these measures is of course to prevent the enemy from discovering any movement in advance through satellite or radio reconnaissance, but the result has intensified the difficulty of troop dispatching.In the end, the whole operation went awry, and several troops huddled on the bank of the river but found the designated bridge.At dawn, only the two forces of Wangzhenbei and Yahini had established bridgeheads at two locations 15 kilometers apart.The scale was smaller than expected by half, and because the flanking troops and supplies had no time to cross the river, they could not take the original assault mission to the deep zone.

The overly complicated route set by the command, as well as the strict time limit for road use, caused great confusion.Orderly actions only exist in Lin Huaisheng's mind or on the map of his staff.As a result, after a night of tossing, he experienced the biggest setback since joining the army.He has always believed that the biggest problem is that the morale of Pakistani soldiers is not strong enough. Facts have proved that this concern is a bit unnecessary; but he has ignored another problem. Many, most of them have not received the necessary training, and they can't find North at night.

noon.Lin Huaisheng's own headquarters was also blocked in the west of the river, and the motorized infantry belonging to the Pakistani 8st Armored Division did not cross the river at the appointed time (25 hours late). Stretching for several kilometers and staying on the ground without cover, if the enemy dispatched the air force, the consequences would be unimaginable.For this reason, Lin Huaisheng had to order the anti-aircraft missile unit to suspend its maneuvers before reaching the designated area during the march, and implement anti-aircraft alert on the spot (of course, also to protect its own headquarters), which also caused the enemy's first wave of high-altitude and high-speed reconnaissance to arrive. machine, was not hit.The blurry photos taken by the MiG-[-] will be sent to Meneam in a few hours. With these underexposed photos taken at high speed, the Indian lieutenant general can at least see the tank group in the north of Wangzhen The scale is very impressive.

(End of this chapter)