Although it was late at night, the siege of Semavo did not stop.

Semavo is a small city with a population of less than 100,000 and an urban area of only a few square kilometers with few high-rise buildings.

The siege had already begun in the afternoon, but the pace of progress had not been quick.

Reinforcements from the 5th Marine Division arrived before dark and then spent 3 hours preparing for the battle, arriving at about 10 p.m.

Previously, the assault troops, which had been under the command of Liu Zunshan, were attacking Semavo.

Although reinforcements had arrived, Liu Zunshan did not let the troops withdraw, and still stood at the front and acted as the main force to attack the fortification.

This is also something that can't be helped, the reinforcements are mainly infantry, and the armored force is only Liu Zunshan's battalion.

It's not that they haven't made good arrangements, but they need to send fuel, ammunition and other materials as soon as possible, so they can only let the logistics troops travel lightly.

There was only one road from Salman to Semavo, and there was no way for the armored forces to advance at the same time as the logistics units.

"Staff Officer Ding, you wait here for a while."

After sending Ding Zhennan to the front-line headquarters and dropping a sentence, the staff officer who brought him over left, to be precise, to find Liu Zunshan.

Because he came to the front line temporarily, he didn't arrange it in advance, so Liu Zunshan didn't know about it.

Fortunately, the liaison officer of the 5th Marine Division had been to the Joint Forces Command, met Ding Zhennan, and knew Ding Zhennan's identity.

The fighting in the city was still going on, not too intense, and the occasional sound of artillery and explosions could be heard.

Too far away, the gunfire is not very noticeable.

Just a few minutes after the liaison officer left, a convoy of armored vehicles passed outside the headquarters.

Not an infantry fighting vehicle, but a self-propelled mortar with a barrel sticking out of the hull, it was supposed to be a heavy mortar with a caliber of 120 mm.

This thing is a siege weapon.

Of the several standard calibers determined after the war, there were only two mortars, one of which was 120 mm.

Although the Imperial Army has always attached great importance to the construction of field warfare artillery, to be precise, it has not given too high a status to field artillery, but in the battalion-level combat units of the Imperial Army, at least one artillery platoon equipped with 120 mm mortars will be equipped.

In mechanized units, such as the Infantry Division, they are armed with self-propelled mortars converted from armored carriers.

These are the first few tanks to drive by.

Although the caliber of the 120 mm mortar is much smaller and the shell is lighter, the muzzle velocity of the mortar is low, the acceleration when fired is much lower, and the external force is less, which can make the shell thinner and thus fill more explosives, so the blasting and killing effect is far greater than that of the howitzer of the same caliber.

Against unreinforced buildings, a 120mm mortar is about as effective as a 150mm howitzer.

Even in the case of fortifications, special shells can be used.

Crucially, mortars rely on high-throw ballistics, which are well suited to targets hidden behind tall buildings.

In siege operations, large-caliber mortars are often used to destroy buildings fortified by the enemy, or to conceal fortifications.

During the last war, both warring sides developed large-caliber mortars to deal with fortifications such as permanent forts.

Even now, mortars are mainly used on urban battlefields.

Soon, muffled shelling and heavy explosions could be heard in the city.

Although it was several kilometers away, the fire from the explosion, or the light from the fireball to be precise, was still very dazzling, as if it had lit up the entire night sky.

Ding Zhennan did not wait long, and about 15 minutes later, an armored ambulance drove from the direction of the city.

Liu Zunshan was in the car, but he was not injured, but just hitchhiking.

As soon as he got out of the car, the armored ambulance drove away. There were several wounded in the car, two of whom were lying in serious condition and had to be taken immediately to a field hospital.

"Why are you here?"

"Come and see the situation here, the battle is fierce ahead?"

"It's okay, it's almost time to advance to the city hall. Maintain the current offensive momentum, and the city government can be defeated early tomorrow morning. ”

"What about casualties?"

Liu Zunshan didn't answer this question, Ding Zhennan didn't ask much, and the two went to the command center on the side of the road, which was actually a big tent.

There were only a few battalion staff officers inside, and after Liu Zunshan made a look, they all went out with interest.

"The casualties weren't too big, but they were quite few. The attrition ratio is about 20%, of which 32 were killed. Liu Zunshan said as he lit a cigarette. The combat effectiveness was not affected, but the officers and men were very tired, and it was best to withdraw and rest for half a day. ”

Ding Zhennan nodded slightly, but didn't answer.

"Come here, is there anything important?"

"It's almost 1 a.m., is seven hours enough?" Ding Zhennan glanced at his watch before saying this.

Liu Zunshan was stunned for a moment, and then frowned.

"The situation on the eastern front is not ideal, the Iraqi army has ignited almost all the oil wells before retreating, and the ground forces are not able to advance as planned. Although adjustments have been made to the deployment of the two battalions of the Marine Corps, there is no way to ensure that they will be in place in time. ”

"So, we need to work harder?"

Ding Zhennan nodded, indicating that Liu Zunshan was right.

"Our forces are ......"

"The forces are drawn directly from the fraternal units to make up for the losses suffered in the assault operations, and can be strengthened as appropriate according to the situation."

"Mission?"

"Take Highway 1 and march into Basra."

Hearing Ding Zhennan say this, Liu Zunshan was stunned, but he didn't say much, and turned out a map of the war zone.

In a few clicks, Liu Zunshan drew the route of the march on the map.

There is no need to explain, Ding Zhennan is also an army officer, and obviously understands military maps, so he knows how far it is from Semavo to Basra.

"Mainly logistical, I mean," Ding Zhennan said, pointing to several points on the map, "setting up temporary supply points near Nasiriyah, Jelbay and Rumaila, near Highway 1, to provide ammunition and fuel by air. ”

"There are so many helicopters?" Liu Zunshan looked towards Ding Zhennan.

"Transporter."

Liu Zunshan was stunned for a moment, and then said: "If you want to arrange it like this, you need to dispatch an air assault force first to control an open field that is large enough. ”

"You don't have to worry about this, I'll make arrangements."

"What time are we leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning at the latest, at 8 o'clock sharp." Ding Zhennan glanced at his watch again, which was actually hinting to Liu Zunshan that time is very precious.

"Okay, I'll go and get the troops out first. I'll send a staff officer to take you to the airport and ......"

"You go and get busy, I'll just go to the airport myself."

Ding Zhennan said so, Liu Zunshan didn't say anything polite to him, after all, he didn't say hello before he came over, and he could find the front-line headquarters.

As a matter of fact, the biggest problem in speeding up the assault is whether the logistical support can keep up.

The work of the support of an armored battalion of the Marine Corps, that is not a simple matter.

Even at the current scale, that is, about 130 main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, more than 20 self-propelled howitzers, and hundreds of other vehicles, a full-speed assault consumes about 350 tons of fuel a day, and 100 tons of other oil and water, including drinking water, and other oil, including vulnerable parts, and supplies, etc., which consumes nearly 500 tons of materials per day, and not including ammunition.

If on other battlefields, such as the Astrakhan side, it is not much difficult to send 500 tons of supplies to the front line.

The reason is also very simple, the distance between the front line and the rear is tens of kilometers, and the general-purpose helicopter can fly several times a day.

But on the Posha Bay side, it's not that simple.

The nearest helicopter base is in Rafha, about 200 kilometres to the south.

It's not that the Marine Corps is unwilling to deploy helicopters forward, but that there is no way to do so, that is, the road only leads to Ravha, and the supplies can only be transported to Ravha by road. Deploying helicopters closer to the battlefield, such as Salman, the first stronghold controlled by the coalition, would also mean that a small number of military trucks would be needed to deliver helicopters to the desert city and consume supplies.

Obviously, this loses the meaning of tactical airlift with helicopters.

With a distance of more than 200 kilometers, the helicopter can only fly 2 times in a day, and a maximum of 3 round-trips!

The key is that the main force of the Marine Corps aviation is a 6-ton general-purpose helicopter with a carrying capacity of less than 2 tons, so a general-purpose helicopter can deliver less than 4 tons of materials to the front line in a day, and a total of more than 100 general-purpose helicopters need to be mobilized to complete the airlift mission.

Obviously, there are simply not so many general-purpose helicopters deployed in Lafha.

Because Ravha is only a temporary forward base, it can only support a maximum of 30 helicopters for one brigade.

If the assault force encounters the enemy and a fierce battle breaks out, it is even more troublesome.

In high-intensity combat, a reinforced armored battalion can use up thousands of tons of ammunition in a single day.

During the Polish-Iranian War, during the battle for Abbas, a composite battalion of the Imperial Marine Corps set a record of using more than 50,000 artillery shells and 15 million rounds of ammunition in a single day, and the ammunition consumption was as high as 2,200 tons, which has not been broken to this day.

Fortunately, the Air Force left several dozen tactical transport aircraft.

In fact, these tactical transport planes have always been the "reserve force" in Ding Zhennan's hands.

Although the capacity of the "Y-9" is not as good as that of the "Y-10" and other large strategic transport aircraft, with a maximum load capacity of only 30 tons, and it is also necessary to control the load capacity within 24 tons when taking off and landing at a field airport, the tactical transport aircraft has a capability that a large strategic transport aircraft does not have, and can take off and land in a field field without paving, and in the case of light load, the landing and gliding distance is less than 1,000 meters.

To put it simply, as long as you find a flat field with a length of more than 1,000 meters and a width of 30 meters, you can let the tactical transport aircraft take off and land.

Obviously, there is no shortage of such sites in the desert of Posha Bay.

At most, an air assault force must be dispatched in advance to control the take-off and landing sites and clear the larger obstacles in the site, such as larger rocks.

The Marine Corps is not part of the Air Assault Force, but all Infantry units of the Marine Corps are capable of carrying out air assault missions.

In modern landing operations, air assault has become the main means of projecting troops, otherwise the Imperial Navy would not have been equipped with a full 15 amphibious assault ships.

In addition to carrying hovercraft and landing craft, this kind of landing warship can also carry dozens of helicopters to launch landing operations in the form of sea and air assaults.

All in all, it is not difficult to get the Marines to go to the front line and open up several field airfields.

With field airfields and a sufficient number of tactical transport aircraft, replenishment is not a difficult task.

Even if each sortie could only carry 24 tons of cargo, it would only take 20 sorties to provide the assault force with the supplies it needs to sustain a day's offensive.

Of course, in the event of a fierce battle, dozens of more sorties will need to be arranged to deliver ammunition.

For a tactical transport aircraft, let alone 200 kilometers, even from King Khalid Military City, a range of about 600 kilometers is not too far. Under normal circumstances, a tactical transport aircraft in good condition can carry out four transport missions on a route of 600 kilometers in 24 hours. If you use containers, or pallets that are easy to load and unload, you can theoretically fly 1 more sortie.

Ideally, only 20 Y-9Fs would be needed to support one reinforced armored battalion.

If the problem of logistics is solved, there is nothing to worry about.

It is precisely because of this that Liu Zunshan did not complain.

Shortly before 2 a.m., after the replacement units had been put on top, the assault force withdrew from the city and rested in situ near the front-line headquarters.

Actually, at best, it's a break.

By now, taking into account the preparations before the attack, the officers and men of the assault force had been fighting for two whole days, during which they had also experienced a sand storm.

If anything, the threat of the Shacheng storm is still above the Iraqi army.

If nothing else, many of the ZT-99AL's infrared imagers were damaged in sandstorms and have not been repaired until now.

Of course, the number one problem faced by officers and men is fatigue.

Many officers and soldiers got out of the tanks and combat vehicles, lay on the side of the road and fell asleep.

Thankfully, they're not alone.

Liu Zunshan was busy until 3 o'clock, and he was making arrangements, mainly to arrange work for the logistics support troops who came up with reinforcements, such as repairing damaged instruments and equipment, helping tanks and combat vehicles replenish fuel, wiping the barrels of tanks, and preparing the ammunition needed in advance.

Originally, the officers and men of the combat units were supposed to be responsible for all this work.

The key, of course, is the transport fleet.

Even if you do 3 refills along the way, you need to bring enough transport vehicles, such as fuel tankers, to ensure that you have fuel at all times.

There is no ammunition and there is also the option to retreat.

If you don't have fuel, you can only be beaten when you meet the position.

Even if Liu Zunshan trusted Ding Zhennan very much, he would leave a way out, instead of pinning the lives of the officers and soldiers of the battalion on a promise.

When Liu Zunshan went to rest, Ding Zhennan's "Attack-2EG" had already returned to King Khalid Military City.

On the Eastern Front, the situation is not getting better.

The Marines are still making adjustments, to be precise, to send several landing ships to Dammam Port, load them with infantry fighting vehicles and other main battle equipment, and then sail to the landing ground north of Kuwait City.

It takes a day or two to toss it like this.

According to the report sent by the combat troops, the two infantry battalions that landed north of Kuwait City were able to launch an attack in the early morning of the 20th at the earliest.

If something goes wrong during the period, I'm afraid it will have to be postponed for 12 hours.

In this regard, Ding Zhennan was also helpless.

Now, he can only put his hope on Liu Zunshan's side, hoping that they can successfully break through the defense line of the Iraqi army.