On the night of September 11, in the western part of the Federal Republic of Locka, Champala, Army Base.

Before the Imperial Army came to establish a military base here, Jhangara was a town that few people knew about at all, and there were only a few hundred permanent residents.

The reason is simple: Jhangara is to the north of the Rennes Desert, and further north is the Western Siberian Plateau.

The city can be built here, or someone can settle here, only because it is close to the lower reaches of the Xiaowujin River, and it is barely able to cultivate the vast river plain.

However, the Xiaowujin River is a typical inland river with not much water.

The military base of the Imperial Army was built just west of Jhangara, next to the Little Uzin River.

In order to control the water source, the Imperial Army also built dams downstream, and the river near the base became a reservoir.

Although the military base occupies a large amount of fertile land, and after the dam is built, all the fertile land downstream has become desert due to lack of water, but the local residents have long stopped relying on farming to make a living, and their main source of income is the thousands of emperors who have been stationed here for a long time.

Even in peacetime, there are more than 5,000 emperors stationed here.

In addition, the base is capable of accommodating up to 2 divisions, that is, about 45,000 officers and soldiers.

Although Kangara is a small town that cannot be found on the general map at all, it has irreplaceable strategic value in the Northwest Theater of Operations.

The point is that the place guards the two strategic passages of the Southern Urals and the Northern Open Sea!

About 250 kilometers northeast of Champala is the Urals, a military point and transport hub from Saratov to Orenburg, and home to the largest train hub in the South Urals, which carries about one-third of the east-west traffic.

In addition, Orenburg is a necessary place to march into Yebao, and it is a strategic town that must be taken.

The first strategic line of defense of the Eastern Bloc in the northwest direction was actually built around Orenburg, so Orenburg was the central axis of the entire defense line.

The Urals are the frontier of Orenburg, while the Djangala is the frontier of the Urals.

And that's not all.

About 300 kilometers south of Djangara is Astrakhan.

This city is located on the northern shore of the broad sea, in the delta of the mouth of the Volga River, and its strategic value is still above the Urals, so it can be said that it is Orenburg in the northern open sea plain.

Strategically, the Western Continent could advance eastward, even if only to capture the Federal Republic of Rossa, i.e., Yebao, which served as its administrative capital, only two routes of advance were to pass through the Southern Urals through Orenburg, and to take the Northern Wide Sea through Astrakhan.

The other routes, even if they seem closer, are actually more difficult to enter.

For example, the distance from Perm to Yebao is only more than 200 kilometers in a straight line, but in the middle is the Ural Mountains, and there is only one road and one railway.

The mountainous terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the bridges and tunnels along the way are easily damaged, so the possibility of crossing the Ural Mountains directly is almost zero.

Of course, the mountainous areas are not suitable for armored forces to fight.

Because the logistics are unsustainable, and even the transportation capacity of the railway is very limited, so even if the Ural Mountains are crossed, it will not be possible to commit heavy troops in this direction.

Continuing north, it also entered the extremely cold Arctic Circle, and the lack of transportation facilities such as railways made it more likely to support large corps operations.

As for Chelyabinsk, south of Ufa to Yebao, there is also the problem of crossing the Ural Mountains.

To avoid the Urals, you have to advance from the south, either by taking the Orenburg line or by crossing Astrakhan.

If the main purpose is to storm Yebao, then Orenburg will definitely be chosen.

After taking Orenburg, it was possible to advance east along the main railway line, and then turn north in Orsk to attack Chelyabinsk.

As long as they can reach Chelyabinsk, they will definitely be able to march into Yebao and control the region east of the Urals.

The biggest advantage of this offensive line is that there are railways and highways along the way, and there is no problem of logistical support being unable to keep up.

In fact, just the Juxi Trunk Line 1 from Orenburg to the Guia port city had the capacity to support the operation of 5 million troops.

If you want to say, this is also the most important trunk railway on the battlefield between the huge land and the western continent!

In the last war, the Imperial Army had enough of the lack of logistical support.

In the first two years, the Imperial Army failed to make a breakthrough on the huge land battlefield because of inadequate logistical support. It was not until the navy invaded the Mohai Sea and landed on the northern side of the Caucasus Mountains, that is, on the shackled land bridge, and opened up the sea route, that the problem of ineffective logistics support was solved.

After the end of the war, the Imperial Army learned from the pain and invested heavily in the construction of railways and roads on the huge land in order to solve the difficulties of transporting supplies.

Of course, this is also related to the great development of the Federal Republic of Luosha after the war.

If it is to be said, the Juxi First Trunk Railway, which extends from the port city in the eastern part of the empire to the port city of Novorossiysk in the Mohai Sea, with a total mileage of more than 10,000 kilometers, was built according to the standards of the global war from the beginning, and dozens of train centers were built along the way.

To control this railway is to control the main artery in the northern part of the world island!

Interestingly, it was not the Imperial Army that actively promoted the construction of the first trunk railway, but Dong Luosha.

East Luosha was rapidly revived after the war, and it took only 35 years to surpass the better foundation of West Luosha, and the first pot of gold to achieve industrialization came from this railway.

The steel and cement needed to build the railway, as well as the trade brought by the construction of the railway, were the key factors in the take-off of Dongluosha.

Without this railway, Dongluosha would still be a wild place.

It's just that no one can deny the military value of the first trunk railway.

Theoretically, just relying on this railway, it can support 5 million troops to fight on the front line, so it will no longer be difficult to defeat Yebao.

The significance of capturing Fort Yebao has been debated.

Yebao was only the administrative capital of the Federal Republic of Locke, the nominal capital was still Mosa, and the nominal presidential palace was established in Eastern Mosa.

Crucially, Yebao is also only the administrative capital of the Federal Republic of Locke.

After decades of development, Yebao is no longer the only central city in the Federal Republic of Luosha.

Although Yebao is still the most populous city in East Luosha by virtue of its status as the administrative capital, more than a decade ago, Astrakhan in the south and Samara facing West Luosha have surpassed Yebao in terms of economic scale, and Chelyabinsk has always been the most important in terms of industrial output.

Excluding political factors, even if Yebao is captured, it may not be able to make the Federal Republic of Luosha surrender.

In addition, the military significance is not great.

The first main railway connecting the East and the West is actually a few hundred kilometers south of Yebao, separated by Chelyabinsk and other large cities.

In other words, even if you capture Fort Ye, you can't use Fort Yebao as a base for marching eastward.

Continue to advance eastward, and there is no need to attack Fort Leaf!

More than 40 years ago, the Imperial Army did not go north to attack Yebao, but chose to continue to attack westward, concentrating its forces to advance towards the caves.

Fundamentally, the military value of Yebao was actually to serve as a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Urals.

Because in modern warfare, the military value of the Ural Mountains is much less than before, so Yebao has long lost its original strategic position.

The current Yebao is actually a resource city with an administration as the main thing.

Without hundreds of years of precipitation, Yebao would have been surpassed by other emerging cities in the wave of industrialization.

It can be seen that unless the Western Continent Group intends to switch from attack to defense after crossing the Ural Mountains, there is no reason to waste time and troops to attack Yebao.

On the contrary, cities in the northern plains of the open sea, such as Astrakhan, are strategically important.

This city, more than 10 years ago, was the economic center and chemical center of the Federal Republic of Luosha, and now it is the largest city of the Federal Republic of Luosha.

For the same reason, to the south of it is the Badong oil field.

Because the southwest coast of the broad sea, where the Badong oil field is located, is too narrow, and it is close to the Boyi country to the south, which lacks the space and security needed for development, Dong Luosha has not invested too many resources in Baguo in the past few decades, but only regarded it as an oil production area.

As a result, Astrakhan to the north of the cave was highly valued.

Of course, location is also crucial.

Because they are all coastal cities on the open sea, they can solve the transportation problem by relying on shipping and minimize the logistics cost.

More importantly, relying on the second trunk railway passing through the Beikuhai area, the output of resources can be easily transported to the east or west.

It is in this way that Astrakhan has developed into the most populous and economically largest city in the Federal Republic of Raksha in just a few decades.

The military value of Astrakhan is actually here.

If you control Astrakhan, you can easily seize the caves in the south and obtain the super oil field with the highest production in the entire Western Continent.

In addition, it was possible to use the chemical enterprises of Astrakhan.

As for transportation, it goes without saying.

Starting from Rostov-on-Don, passing through Astrakhan and extending to the Guia Seaport, the second trunk railway has a capacity equivalent to eighty percent of that of the first trunk railway in the north, and passes through more cities along the way, so it has no less strategic value than the first trunk railway.

Crucially, the second trunk railway is mainly located on the plains of the vast land hinterland.

That is, more suitable for armored forces to fight.

In fact, for this reason, the construction of this trunk railway, which can support the operation of 4 million troops, was delayed for 20 years.

Because it has been postponed for 20 years, the last phase of the project has not yet been completed!

From a military point of view, or from the standpoint of the Imperial Army, it was not really desirable to build this trunk railway.

According to the strategic plan made by the imperial side, a trunk railway is enough, even in the counteroffensive stage, it still needs the help of the navy.

In fact, a strategic counteroffensive will not be launched until the sea routes are opened.

In other words, by the time the Eastern Bloc has the ability to launch a strategic counteroffensive, it will definitely have seized sea supremacy long ago, and there is no need to worry about shipping.

From the perspective of economic construction, the value of this railway is actually even greater.

If there was no second trunk railway, there would be absolutely no current Federal Republic of Luosha!

In fact, it was at the insistence of the Federal Republic of Luosha that the second trunk railway was established, and even the relevant funds were raised by the Federal Republic of Luosha itself.

This railway is actually a symbol of the independence of the Luosha Federation.

Before the construction of this railway, 30 years after the war, the Federal Republic of Rosa was highly dependent on the empire in all aspects, and everything depended on the face of the imperial authorities.

After the economy developed, the Federal Republic of Rosa gradually got rid of its dependence on the empire.

In layman's terms, it means that the wings have grown stiff.

Actually, this is also after the Polish-Iranian war.

Despite the fact that the imperial authorities clearly expressed their opposition, and later only acquiesced and did not approve of it, the authorities of the Federal Republic of Luo Sha still raised their own funds and started the construction of the second trunk railway, which was not only to promote the economic development of the southern region, but also to show their own strength.

Of course, this is an inevitable result.

In the Eastern Bloc, Dongluosha ranked second in terms of industrial scale and economic aggregate, surpassing all other member states except the Liangxia Empire.

After the strength increases, it is natural to want to get the right to speak in the match.

It is not difficult to see from this that Astrahan has a more significant strategic value, and it is also very likely that it is the primary target of the Western Continent group.

Jhangara is only 300 kilometers from Astrakhan!

This distance is exactly within the combat radius of the helicopter gunship.

In addition, about 400 kilometers west of Dzhana, is Volgograd.

Although this distance is a little farther, exceeding the combat radius of the helicopter gunship, it is impossible to resist the enemy's armored torrent on the front line when defending the operation.

Moreover, it is also possible to expand the combat radius through front-line field airfields.

It can be seen that the location of Jhangara is indeed unique.

It's not that there aren't problems.

The number one problem is transportation.

Apart from a branch railway from Saratov, which was built at the expense of the Imperial Army, there was only one gravel road to the outside world.

Because there are several tunnels and bridges along the railway, and geological disasters are frequent, in general, ground transportation should not be counted on at all.

It is precisely for this reason that what has been deployed in Gangara for a long time is actually an assault brigade of the Army Aviation.

In fact, before the army was stationed, it was a forward airfield for the air force.

Even now, it has taken on the mission of supporting the front-line aviation of the Air Force, and has reserved two runways for combat aircraft to take off and land.

It is precisely in this way that materials and equipment are mainly transported by air.

What brought Kangara back to work and received attention was actually the army-funded oil pipeline that passed through the Astrakhan Company.

The deep-buried pipeline can transport up to 2,500 tonnes of fuel per day.

On a two-day basis, the fuel would support 250 tactical aircraft for the Air Force or 500 helicopters for the Army.

Because it is not possible to maintain such a high rate of sorties all the time, and because supplies can be obtained by air, the actual number of troops that can be deployed is somewhat larger.

It was in this way that the base of the Champara became the base camp of the Imperial Army Aviation in this direction.

In the past 20 days or so, there have been three brigades of army aviation units stationed at the Chakara base, including more than 100 helicopter gunships.

Among them is Lian Mingyang's assault brigade.

This assault brigade, which took the lead in changing its equipment to the "Z-10A", is also the ace unit of the Army Aviation in the Northwest Theater and has irreplaceable value.

Otherwise, it would not have been transferred back to Ghangara from Posha Bay.