Meteorology has always been one of the main factors influencing wars, and in past wars, second only to geography.

Although the impact of meteorology on warfare has been decreasing with technological advances, today's technological means still cannot completely eliminate the effects of bad weather. In fact, the more advanced the weapon, the more susceptible it is to weather interference, and even cannot be used normally due to bad weather.

For example, in the Poshawan War, sandstorms reduced the efficiency of coalition air strikes by more than 60 percent, and severely limited the use of laser-guided munitions.

Of course, the effects of the cold are just as significant.

Although after learning the lessons of the Second Global War, all countries attach great importance to combat capabilities in high-latitude areas, for example, Xiluosha insists on equipping the T-80 series main battle tanks with gas turbines, which has a lot to do with the better cold start performance of gas turbines and is more suitable for working in severe cold environments, but due to technical limitations, the combat efficiency of armored forces in severe cold environments is still not much better.

If nothing else, all but a few models of main battle tanks run on diesel engines.

In addition, the huge fuel consumption of the gas turbine negates the benefits of cold start performance by eliminating the need for a hot car.

In addition, the effects of severe cold are not negligible with good equipment.

For example, the impact of snow cover on road and rail traffic cannot be ignored, and in severe cases, it can paralyze traffic lines.

It was in this way that after the first heavy snow fell in early October, the situation on the mainland battlefield gradually stabilized.

Both the attackers and the defenders are preparing for the coming winter, such as providing warm clothing and installing heating equipment for the barracks.

Of course, the impact of weather is not only bad, but also good.

Looking at the battlefield as a whole, meteorological factors are actually more favorable to the Empire.

The reason is that the Imperial Army can take advantage of the weather changes in each battlefield to fight the time difference, and at least greatly alleviate the problems caused by the shortage of troops.

Don't forget that no matter what the circumstances, the empire is faced with the dilemma of fighting on two fronts, or even on multiple fronts.

Even on the ground battlefield, you have to face tough enemies from multiple directions.

The problem, however, is that even if sufficient military spending can be obtained from both chambers of the Chamber, it is impossible to maintain a standing military force capable of winning a global war in peacetime.

That is, in times of the Great War, there will definitely be a shortage of troops before completing military mobilization.

It is obviously unrealistic to expect to solve the problem of insufficient troops through war mobilization.

It is precisely for this reason that the overall strategy of the empire was to focus on defense in the early stage, and to gain time to complete military mobilization through defense.

That's not all, though.

The use of weather, which is closely related to geography, is also one of the main means of response.

Here, the key is actually that there is a huge difference in meteorology between the continental battlefield facing the Western Continent Group and the Southern Subcontinent battlefield facing the Van Luo Kingdom.

The continental battlefield is located in the hinterland of the huge continent, which is a typical high-latitude region, characterized by very cold winters.

Comparatively speaking, the southern subcontinent belongs to the tropical monsoon, and the annual temperature change is not obvious, and the main seasonal sign is rainfall.

The key point is that the winter of the continental battlefield is highly consistent with the dry season of the southern subcontinent.

In general, the dry season in the southern subcontinent runs from October to May.

Because of the decrease in precipitation and the lowering of the water level of the river, the dry season in the Gangaro Plain, which is densely networked, is more suitable for large army operations.

Strictly speaking, large-scale combat operations can only be launched during the dry season.

With the arrival of the rainy season, especially after several successive rainstorms, the water level of the river has skyrocketed, and no matter how powerful the troops are, it is sure that they will not be able to move an inch.

As such, the previous two wars on the Southern Subcontinent were fought at the end of the year and ended a few months later, before the rainy season.

If anything, it is under this influence that the Pakistani railway authorities will be so lax.

After all, compared with the previous two wars in the Southern Subcontinent, because of the support of the Liangxia Empire, the situation of the two sides at the strategic level has been reversed. According to the judgment of the Pakistani railway authorities, the country may not dare to launch an offensive in October, when the dry season has just arrived, due to the limitations of its overall military strength. For the sake of a more long-term consideration, especially in defensive operations after the failure of the offensive, it is more likely that the offensive will be launched at the end of the year, or even at the beginning of next year, to ensure that in the event of an unfavorable overall situation, the abundant precipitation in the rainy season can be relied upon to block the offensive of the Eastern Coalition forces. Even if you can't defend Tokujo, you have a great deal of confidence in holding the crucial Gangara Plain.

If you want to say, even Ding Zhennan has a similar view.

Of course, for the Imperial Army, the winter of the continental battlefield is basically synchronized with the dry season of the southern subcontinental battlefield, which can definitely be regarded as a strategic advantage.

It is not wrong to say that it is "the time of day".

To put it simply, starting in October, the Imperial Army could send its main forces to the Southern Subcontinent to defend the defensive lines on the continental battlefield with second-line troops. As long as it can carry out rapid battlefield transportation, it can also send the main force back to the mainland battlefield in a few months.

It can be seen that, in addition to the necessary rest and recuperation, the main forces can actually fight on two fronts.

The key here is how to quickly move between the two main battlefields.

However, from a transfer point of view, the ideal approach would be to keep the volume of transport as low as possible, with a focus on personnel and light equipment that can be transported by air.

To do this, it is necessary to reserve a set of main battle equipment in each direction, such as tanks and combat vehicles.

Only in this way can only people be transferred. After the personnel are in place, the required main battle equipment can be obtained immediately, and then the combat capability can be quickly formed.

As for the ammunition-based war materiel, it is a secondary issue.

After all, there is not much ammunition stored in peacetime, and the Empire's ammunition factories are all in the core of the homeland, so whether it is sent to the continental battlefield or to the southern subcontinent battlefield, it must be transported by rail, and the empire has long built a railway network as standard.

problems, that is, the main battle equipment.

Not to mention that the status of the Imperial Army has been decreasing, and even if it is not, it is impossible to purchase twice the actual needs of the main battle equipment in peacetime.

Funding is a big problem.

Take the main battle tank as an example, on the mainland battlefield, at least 8,000 are theoretically needed to be expected to withstand the onslaught of the Western Continent Group in the early stage of the war. Although the demand in the southern subcontinent is lower, 5,000 vehicles are also needed. Together with the operational needs in other directions, the total demand is between 15,000 and 18,000 vehicles. The point is, this is still the minimum demand, and the actual demand is more than 20,000 vehicles.

Obviously, it is simply impossible to procure 20000 ZT-99 main battle tanks.

The reason is also very simple, according to the calculation of 30 years of service, an average of 700 vehicles will be purchased every year, and the Imperial Army can only purchase 300 main battle tanks every year. If 700 units are forcibly purchased, there will be no money to buy other main battle equipment.

In addition, the service time of the main battle tank may not be able to reach 30 years, for example, the service time of the ZT-80 to the ZT-99 is 24 years.

It is precisely because of this that the main battle tanks of the Imperial Army have been maintained between 8,000 and 9,000 units.

Unable to procure enough main battle equipment, the Imperial Army had no choice but to find other options, such as trying to extend the service time of the main battle equipment.

In addition, these "semi-decommissioned" main battle equipment are stored in the forward base in the form of mothballing.

In addition to aid and sales to friendly countries, all decommissioned ZT-80s are placed in several forward bases in the northwest and southern theaters after the necessary disposal, and there are 600 in the underground warehouse of the Baisha base west of Iborg in the north of Pakistan. With only a few simple disposals, these tanks are ready for service and delivery to combat units.

600 tanks can equip 2 mechanized infantry divisions, or 4 mechanized infantry brigades.

The same goes for other main battle equipment.

In addition, most of the mothballed decommissioned equipment is stored in the Southern Theater, while the main battle equipment in active service is mainly assigned to the Northwest Theater.

Of course, the reason is also easy to understand.

The Northwest Theater is directly facing the Western Continent Group, and both the Ximan Army and the West Luosha Army have very advanced main battle equipment, such as the T-80 and "Leopard" 2 series main battle tanks, and their strength is also very sufficient, and their combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated, and they must be handled carefully.

Comparatively speaking, the Van Rowe Army was significantly worse.

Don't look at the Van Luo Army, which has millions of standing troops, millions of reservists and militias, and can mobilize tens of millions or even more combatants in wartime, but in terms of major equipment, the Van Luo Army is a veritable international card, and in many respects it is not as good as the Pakistani Iron Army.

Still talk about things with main battle tanks.

The main battle tanks of the Van Rowe Army were divided into two factions: West Rosa and Nuland.

The former is represented by about 2,000 T-72s, of which 500 are imported directly, another 1,000 are imported parts and then assembled at local tank factories, and the remaining 500 are produced under license and are still being produced at a rate of 300 units per year.

The combat effectiveness of these tanks is just like that.

Although according to reliable information, among the 500 vehicles directly imported, some of them are Type B for Xiluosha's own use, which is obviously different from the exported monkey version, and the performance has not shrunk, but the other 1500 vehicles must be the monkey version, and the performance is far less than the model used by Xiluosha for its own use.

Crucially, the Van Rowe Army certainly did not acquire the new armor-piercing shells.

If export-type armor-piercing shells are used, the power of the tank gun is not guaranteed, even if the tank gun is not reduced.

On the side of Posha Bay, the Iraqi T-72 was unable to penetrate the frontal armor of the ZT-99B at the usual engagement distance. According to the tests done by the Imperial Army, even if the engagement distance is shortened to 500 meters, it will take enough luck for the Iraqi T-72 to use export-type armor-piercing shells to penetrate the frontal armor of the ZT-99B. In the face of thicker turret frontal armor, the full range of export-type armor-piercing shells cannot be penetrated.

Of course, the biggest advantage of the T-72 is that it is cheap.

Otherwise, it would not have been the main battle tank with the largest number of equipment in the Van Rowe Army.

As for the latter, in addition to the hundreds of M1A1 directly imported from the Republic of Nuland, that is, the "Arjun" based on the M1 and designed according to the national conditions of the Van Luo country, and the "Arjun" 2, which has been improved according to the standards of the M1A1 and has greatly enhanced its combat capability.

It's just that the number of these 3 main battle tanks is not much.

There have always been different theories about how many M1A1s the Van Rowe Army is equipped with.

Shortly after the advent of the M1, the Van Rowe Army introduced a batch from the Republic of Nuland, only the actual number of accepted vehicles was much smaller than the contracted number, less than 100 vehicles.

The reason is also very simple, after the official equipment, the Van Rowe Army found that its 105 mm rifled guns were too powerful to destroy enemy tanks at regular combat distances, and even if the latest armor-piercing shells were purchased, they could not deal with the new tanks encountered during service.

For this, all subsequent batches were replaced with M120A1 equipped with 120-mm smoothbore guns.

Based on this, the Van Rowe Army has only 500 M1A1s at most.

Herein lies the problem.

According to the equipment list released by the Van Luo Army, the M1 received before has been upgraded, and the combat effectiveness has reached the level of M1A1. However, there is intelligence that the Van Rowe Army sold these M1s back to the Nuland Army, stored them in a military base leased to Nuland, and later upgraded them, and then sold them to the Van Rowe Army at a very low price as third-hand equipment, and the quantity was more than the original resale.

The point is that it also includes the M1 that the Van Luo Army refused to accept, but had already produced and shipped to the Van Luo country, about 300 vehicles.

According to this calculation, the Van Rowe Army has more than 800 M1A1s.

There are not many "Arjun" modeled on the M1, strictly speaking, there is no mass production at all, that is, the performance of this type of tank is really poor.

If nothing else, the protection provided by a combat weight of more than 60 tons has not yet reached 60% of that of the M1.

It was precisely because of this that the Van Rowe Army only symbolically procured a few dozen vehicles.

As for the "Arjun" 2 after the overhaul, the performance has indeed been greatly improved, such as the use of a 120mm smoothbore gun, and the protection has also reached the level of M1. It's a pity that the cost is ridiculously high, even more expensive than the imported M1A1, and the Van Luo Army can't afford it at all.

Although the Van Luo Army has long announced that it will purchase 3,000 "Arjun" 2 to replace almost all imported tanks, including the T-72, by the outbreak of the war, the production of "Arjun" 2 was less than 100, and due to the limitation of the power system, the production speed could not be fast at all.

Arjun 2 uses diesel engines imported from the Empire, not gas turbines from the Nuland Republic.

In addition, the fire control system was imported from the Locke Country, the tank guns were from the Empire, the armor-piercing shells came from the Newland Republic, and the armor steel was stolen from the West Luosha.

If anything, this is the main reason why the reliability of "Arjun" 2 has not been high.

All in all, the Van Rowe Army has a total of 3,000 "advanced" main battle tanks, and only a few hundred are qualified to compete head-to-head with the ZT-99B.

Not to mention compared with the Imperial Army, even compared with the West Luosha Army, there is a big gap between the Van Luo Army.

It was for this that the Imperial Army did not have too many new main battle tanks in the Southern Theater of Operations, and the ZT-80DG, which had been completely improved, was sufficient.

From another point of view, this is also where Ding Zhennan's confidence lies.

By simply sending combat personnel to the front line by air, it is possible to deploy powerful combat units in the direction needed in a relatively short period of time.

Of course, you'll definitely have to take some time to get used to it.

The key is that Ding Zhennan has exerted the value of this advantage to the limit.

There is a very crucial factor here.

Although the Southern Subcontinent is subordinate to the Southern Theater, in terms of task assignment, the Southern Theater has never regarded Pakistan as the main direction.

As mentioned earlier, the area where Pakistan Railway is located is actually the junction of the three major theaters.

In addition, the Southern Theater of Operations had close ties with the Navy.

In other words, from the standpoint of the Southern Theater of Operations, the core area is actually Silan, which is separated from the Van Luo Kingdom by a strait, and can be controlled by the navy.