The warriors of the Far North had a proven method of protecting themselves from frost, wearing thick cotton gloves and boots in addition to thick furs, each of them wearing thick cotton covers on their weapons to keep the bolts from freezing, and those who were forced to be exposed were coated with antifreeze ointment made of grease, rosin and other substances.

In order to be able to fight for long periods of time in the snow without causing snow blindness, the Cossacks were uniformly issued with matte dark sunglasses, while the armies of the two Axis countries did not have such equipment, and they used the traditional method of applying black ash to the skin under the eyes, which was less effective but more convenient.

In terms of weapons, the Garand semi-automatic rifles made in Boston were not adapted to such a cold climate and could no longer be used, and those Axis soldiers had to replace the old Arthur 88 manual rifles, and some were also equipped with scopes to use as sniper rifles.

On the Cossack Empire's side, although their sniper rifles are also the old Type 91 manual rifles, the multiplier of the scope is higher, and the Type 17 automatic rifles now equipped by the Cossack Empire are also fully adaptable to low temperatures, and even the accuracy has not been affected much. With superior weaponry, the Axis armies suffered a lot of casualties, so they paid attention to the Cossacks' weapons, and quickly reported to the top that the opponent's automatic rifles could be used freely at low temperatures.

The news quickly reached the ears of the Boston people, who still seized some Type 17 automatic rifles on Battlefield Hill, and the Boston Imperial weapons experts, who did not attach much importance to light weapons, immediately dismantled these weapons and studied them in detail. The final research results surprised the Boston Imperial Government, the structure of these weapons is very simple, and the operation is easy to use, but the processing accuracy of the Boston Empire is not enough, and the material of the butt and handguard is a unique engineering plastic of the Chinese Empire, and the Boston Empire cannot imitate it, if you want to imitate it, then you have to replace all the parts of these projects with wood, and the existing processing accuracy is insufficient, its shooting accuracy will be reduced by half, and the weight of the whole gun will be increased by 20%.

In terms of weapons, the Boston Empire has been catching up with the footsteps of the Chinese Empire, but they have been unable to catch up, especially in terms of weapon processing accuracy and electronics, and their gap is even getting farther and farther, which makes the Boston Empire very distressed.

In the end, the weapons experts decided that it was not the right to always follow in the footsteps of the Chinese Empire, and that it would be better to find another way to increase the power of weapons as the first priority. Instead of pursuing precision, but pursuing greater destructive power to counterbalance the weapons system of the Chinese Empire, Prime Minister Bauer gave support, and Boston's military science and technology department immediately transformed to develop new weapons with new ideas to increase power.

The new weapon could not be researched for a short time, but the battle on the Western Continent continued, and after the snow and ice slowly melted, the Saar Army joined the fight. Tanks and trucks that had been frozen for months were started again, and planes were dragged out of their wintering nests to overhaul various parts in preparation for returning to the blue sky.

The Cossack Empire was also making preparations, and in the winter, the Cossack army did not abandon the renovation of the fortifications, and with cement antifreeze produced by the Chinese Empire, they could work even in winter. Over the course of a few months, the Cossacks repaired the fortifications destroyed last year and built new ones, as well as several military airfields on the outskirts of Lake Ladoga and the addition of several concrete runways to increase the speed of aircraft takeoffs and landings.

Petrov on the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga was also an important stronghold of the Cossack army, with the only shipyard on Lake Ladoga, which in peacetime was used to build fishing boats and small transport ships for the vast area of Lake Ladoga, and after the war burned to the Paladin's Fortress, this shipyard was converted into river gunboats.

Throughout the winter, the shipyard did not rest, and they used these months to build more than thirty small gunboats of five hundred tons and more than seven hundred small transport ships. With the support of these transports, after the Paladin's fort was cut off from the land link, it was still possible to get a steady stream of supplies through Lake Ladoga, and with those river gunboats, the Cossacks took control of the lake and directly threatened the Axis forces close to the banks of the lake.

"Order the fleet to pick up speed, this is the last trip of the day." Major Vasily issued an order to speed up the convoy. After the ice melted, the convoy began a new delivery of supplies instead of trucks passing on the ice, and he was leading ten gunboats and covering more than one hundred and thirty transports towards the Paladin's Fort.

They could make two round trips a day, and this was the second time in the afternoon, thinking that when they arrived at the Paladin's Castle, they could drink warm vodka and eat fragrant bread, and the sailors were full of energy.

Just when the convoy was still five kilometers away from the Paladin's Fort, Major Vasily received a telegram from the Paladin's Fort, warning that a large number of planes were coming in this direction. By this time, the Cossack Air Force had been ordered to take off and meet the large fleet of Axis aircraft, and the war on the northern route had finally begun again after several months of suspension.

Receiving an early warning signal, Major Vasily immediately ordered the fleet to line up in a dense anti-aircraft formation, while all anti-aircraft weapons were pointed at the sky. The Cossack river gunboats, designed by the Jiangnan Shipyard of the Chinese Empire, were designed specifically for use on Lake Ladoga, and after being finalized last year, work began at the Petrov Shipyard, a five-hundred-ton river gunboat with one 155-mm gun and two 76-mm guns, in addition to being able to carry out independent air defense tasks on the lake, such gunboats were equipped with up to seven anti-aircraft guns of various calibers and ten large-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns.

With such a firepower configuration, even if the Axis air forces bombed them, they would have the power to protect themselves, not to mention that the small transport ships were also not unarmed. Because it has no combat mission, this kind of civilian transport ship of about 1,500 tons is not equipped with main guns, but it is equipped with four 30-millimeter antiaircraft guns and six large-caliber antiaircraft machine guns, and its air defense capability should not be underestimated.

The Cossack Air Force, with its inferior forces, stubbornly resisted the attack of the Axis Air Force. The Sahr army had to prepare for the big war this time, they wanted to test the defensive ability of the Cossack supply line, and wanted to break the morale of the Cossacks by cutting off this supply line, and they had no control over the lake, they could only rely on the air force.