On Fan Yanyang, in addition to the Digo base won from the Bran Kingdom in the Second Global War, Slan has the greatest military value.

Of course, this is also in line with the overall strategic policy of the empire.

Although it is close to the Southern Subcontinent and only crosses a strait, Slan is an island closest to the Southern Subcontinent and large enough to cover it.

In addition, Slan is an independent nation-state and has several deep-water ports.

In history, especially after the Imperial Navy advanced into the Fanyan Ocean, Slan has always tended to form alliances with the Empire and obtain the protection of the Empire.

That's why Slan was the first independent country in the southern subcontinent.

Although Slan took advantage of the trend of the First National Independence Movement to get rid of the colonial rule of the Kingdom of Bran and become an independent country, decades ago, after the Imperial Navy seized the hegemony of the Fanyan Ocean, Slan was no longer under the colonial rule of the Kingdom of Bran. It was nominally entrusted by the Imperial Navy and gained a high degree of autonomy in the non-military occupied areas.

However, after the end of the First Global War, the autonomy of Slantu was trampled on.

It was not until the late period of the Second Global War that the Imperial Navy returned to Fanyan Ocean that Slan regained autonomy and based on this, he formed an autonomous government. As for the post-war independence movement, it was more just to follow the trend of the times and change a name.

That's why Slan is the most special country in the southern subcontinent.

Even after independence, Slan insisted on forming an alliance with the empire and the first inter-state treaty signed was to rent more than ten military bases that had been used by the imperial army to the empire, and the lease period was 49 years, and the contract would be automatically renewed for 49 years after the lease expired.

In addition, Slan is also the only southern subcontinent country among the founding parties of the Oriental Group.

For decades, Slan's basic national defense strategy has relied on the Liangxia Empire, or the Liangxia Empire provides Slan with the most basic security guarantees.

That's why Slan has always been a thorn in the side of the Vanluo Kingdom.

What to say is even more jealous of Fanluo Kingdom than Pakistan.

The reason is also very simple. Using Slan's base, the Imperial Navy can easily block the Vanluo Kingdom, and the Imperial Air Force can carry out strategic bombing on the entire Vanluo Kingdom. In contrast, the strategic defense line of Vanluo Kingdom had to be expanded several times, and the originally relatively safe southern region has also become a frontline.

After the first national independence movement, especially after the Second Southern Subcontinental War, the Vanluo Kingdom pointed its finger at Slan. After all, after Pakistan joined the Oriental Group, the Vanluo Kingdom had no room to move on the northern battlefield and could only find a breakthrough in other directions.

In other words, the domestic situation in Slan deteriorated sharply and eventually turned into a civil war.

However, the main reason is still the empire.

At that time, the empire was in a period of strategic adjustment, changing from strategic expansion to strategic contraction. Therefore, after the civil strife broke out in Slan, the empire not only did not intervene in the first time, but even did not provide necessary support, but also refused to provide necessary military assistance on the grounds of "non-external aggression".

It was the intensification of the Slan civil war and the possibility of being completely out of control that the Imperial Navy spent a huge amount of money to build the Digo base.

At that time, Zhou Yongtao was in charge of the overall situation in the Navy, and built Digo Island into the Imperial Navy's general base in Fanyan Ocean, which was Zhou Yongtao's decision.

Obviously, this is by no means an isolated incident.

The inaction of the imperial authorities can even be said to be an appeasement policy. The domestic situation in Slan deteriorated rapidly. The rebels who had obtained support from the Vanluo Kingdom once seized the initiative, and the government forces could only barely resist. At the end of the 143rd year of the New Calendar, the rebels had advanced to the outskirts of the capital and surrounded several imperial military bases. At that time, it seemed that in a few months, the rebels would be able to achieve a comprehensive victory in the civil war.

In fact, it was only a few months later that the rebels invaded the capital and captured the Presidential Palace.

However, the Empire welcomed a new prime minister before this.

That's right, it's Zhou Yongtao.

As mentioned earlier, Zhou Yongtao's first combat order issued after taking office was to authorize the navy to send troops to quell the Slan civil war, escort the Slan democratically elected president who had been exiled to the empire to return to the capital city of Coron City, and help the founding party of the Oriental Group restore democracy and the legal system.

Looking back, it is not difficult to find that Zhou Yongtao's decision to send troops to Slan is definitely not an easy thing.

Of course, under the escort of the Imperial Army, the Slan democratically elected president successfully returned to the capital and re-established a government that symbolizes democracy and the rule of law.

In the following years, the Slan Defence Force, with the support and assistance of the Imperial Army, restored control of the northern region.

By 149 of the New Calendar, that is, last year, after several months of fierce attacks, the rebels occupying the northern important town of Jiafu Port surrendered. Although a few broken rebels fled into the mountains and continued to resist stubbornly, the large-scale combat operation had ended. The National Defense Forces controlled all towns across the country. The Slan government was also actively promoting national reconciliation and eliminating the root causes of internal turmoil.

There is no doubt that the Slanese Wehrmacht's ability to win the civil war is closely related to the support of the empire.

Not to mention anything else, restructuring the former government forces into the National Defense Forces is an extremely huge project.

The key is that the Slan "government army" is essentially a paramilitary force, more like an armed police, with its main function being to maintain domestic social order. Because there is no possibility of fighting against foreign enemies, it is not equipped with many heavy weapons, and even automatic weapons such as machine guns are rarely.

When the Civil War broke out, the main weapon of the Slan government army was the BQ-99 rifle assisted by the Empire.

This was a kind of bolt-action rifle that was established in the 1999th year of the New Calendar, when the Second Global War broke out, using a bolt-action rifle that was rotating and pulling a bolt. Although the total output exceeded 5 million and was widely equipped with combat troops in various regions, even during the war, the gun did not become the main equipment of the Imperial Army. After the BQ-01 semi-automatic rifle was released, the gun quickly disappeared from the front-line combat troops. After the war, like a large number of other excess military supplies, the BQ-99 was widely assisted to friendly countries.

Of course, it includes Slan.

The war has ended for more than 30 years, and all BQ-99s from other countries have been thrown into trash cans or have become a private collection of gun enthusiasts. On a global scale, only the Slanese government forces are still using this old rifle and treating it as standard equipment.

The enemy of the government army, the rebels who obtained the secret support of the Vanluo Kingdom, used AK and M series assault rifles, with firepower far exceeding that of the government army.

It is precisely because in the early stages of the civil war, the government forces were beaten by the rebels so hard that they could not fight back.

The reorganized National Defense Forces are the real military force.

Not to mention anything else, the Empire presented 200,000 BQ-40 automatic rifles to the Slan Defense Forces, of which 40,000 were new products that just appeared.

Of course, it is mainly heavy equipment.

By the end of the Civil War, the weapons and equipment provided by the Empire to the Slan Defense Forces include: 300 main battle tanks, 500 infantry fighting vehicles, 1,200 crawler-type armored personnel carriers and 1,000 wheeled armored vehicles, more than 1,200 artillery and rocket launchers, and thousands of small-caliber mortars.

Because it mainly uses free aid, most of them are second-hand goods, and many of them are outdated retired equipment.

As for firearms, there are countless.

In addition, hundreds of fighter jets and dozens of speedboats were provided in the form of assistance, helping the Slan Defense Forces to form the Air Force and Navy.

The key is that the Empire participated in the establishment of the Slan Defense Forces throughout the process.

In fact, even in later combat operations, the military advisers sent by the empire played a crucial and irreplaceable role.

To put it bluntly, the military instructors of the Empire were commanding the Slan Defense Forces to fight.

It was through the training of civil war that Slan had a real modern army.

In Zhou Yongtao's words, this is a tutoring lesson.

After all, before this, Slan's national defense construction was simply a mess. Not only did he lack the necessary defense capabilities, he also failed to fulfill his obligations as a member of the Oriental Group.

Of course, with the Slan civil war, the empire strengthened its military presence in Slan.

Although the Imperial Navy has built Digo into the largest and most complete sea and air comprehensive base in Fanyan Ocean, Digo is actually a small coral island. Even if all the nearby islands are used, there is no way to deploy too many combat troops here.

Besides, the Digo base is far away from the Southern Subcontinent and is not an ideal base for advancement.

From the perspective of fighting a global war, Slan is the ideal frontier and irreplaceable.

Not to mention, if you land at the southern end of the Southern Subcontinent, the landing ships can be deployed within dozens of hours, and the logistics support efficiency is several times higher than that of the Digo base. Moreover, after the delivery distance is shortened, the requirements for delivery tools will be greatly reduced. For example, you can use a small landing craft, and you can directly deploy hovercraft and other rapid delivery tools in Slan's military port.

In other words, using a comparable scale of delivery power, that is, landing ships, starting from Slan, can send more combat troops.

Obviously, this means there is a greater chance of winning!

That's why the empire has been strengthening its military deployment after returning to Slan.

In fact, this is also the key reason why the civil war lasted until the end of the 149th year of the New Calendar.

The Empire intervened heavily, and the Slan civil war could be completely over in one year, but it took five years to delay, which was related to the Empire's military deployment.

In the past five years, the Empire used military assistance to Slan to deliver a large number of main combat equipment that was difficult to transfer in peacetime during the period of peace, including at least 2,000 ZT-80DG main combat tanks, and were scattered in several military bases.

Of course, it is not to say that the leaders of the empire have the ability to predict the future and make accurate judgments on the time and method of the outbreak of the Third Global War 6 years in advance.

Given the situation at that time, what really needs to be wary of was actually the Third Southern Subcontinental War.

The key is that because of the lack of confidence in defeating Pakistan, the Varo authorities are likely to target Slan, and take advantage of the empire's unstable foothold to send troops to attack and occupy Slan, and at least control the ethnic minority areas in the north. It is also true that before deciding to send troops to Slan, the imperial authorities were ready to fight with the Varo Kingdom. Maybe it was because the empire was prepared that the Varo authorities gave up the idea of ​​sending Slan.

It was not until the end of the Slan Civil War that the imperial authorities began preparing for the global war.

It was in this context that after Zhou Yongtao personally came forward, the Imperial Army handed over the main combat equipment stored in Slan to the Marine Corps.

Of course, the Marines also made concessions, such as handing over the guard missions of Kara Port and Guaro Port to the Army.

The key point is that before the outbreak of the Posa Bay War, the empire had been transporting combat supplies to Slan on the grounds of helping Slan for post-war reconstruction.

By the 149th year of the New Calendar, the international situation was already full of storms.

A global war is imminent. Not to mention Zhou Yongtao, even if he is replaced by a civilian chief minister, he would not dare to be careless. He would definitely start to strengthen his combat preparations.

As for Slan's value in the imperial strategic system, there is no need to say much.

If you want to say, the pre-war preparation time is still too short.

By the time the war broke out, the total military supplies stored in Slan were less than 200,000 tons, mainly the ammunition of the army armored forces.

In addition, less than 100,000 tons of fuel are stored!

This fuel is not enough for the "Hong-9D" to fly 2,000 times.

Although the oil refinery located outside the capital of Slan has been put into production, the production capacity has not been raised yet, and it is necessary to wait until the situation in Posa Bay stabilizes to obtain a stable supply of crude oil. With the current situation, it would be great to be able to reach the designed production capacity by the end of the year.

In fact, due to this restriction, Ding Zhennan has not deployed a strategic aviation force to Slan.

Before this, the strategic bombing of the Vanluo Kingdom was based on the empire's homeland, and hundreds of bombers were all deployed at local airports.

Affected by this, the bombing efficiency has never been very high.

It is precisely because after joining the war, the Vanluo Kingdom began to conduct strategic transfers, such as transferring arsenals and heavy industries to the southern region.

The reason is also very simple, it is further away from the empire's homeland.

If short-range air-to-ground missiles of tactical level and guided bombs throwing closer distances are used, bombers deployed in the empire can basically pose a threat to the northern part of the Vanluo Kingdom. If the southern part of the Vanluo Kingdom is used, cruise missiles or bombers will fly over the Bay of Bengali.

Unfortunately, cruise missiles are very "in shortage" and have always been in a state of "out of stock".

Then, the bomber can only fly across the Bay of Bengali. Even if the heavy fighter escort can be arranged, the combat efficiency of the bomber cannot be guaranteed.

In large-scale wars, combat radius is the number one factor limiting the combat efficiency of bombers.

The key is that the maintenance of the bomber is directly linked to the flight time, and the flight time of each mission is determined by the combat radius.

The larger the combat radius, the lower the frequency of the dispatch.

It is precisely this that the Imperial Air Force would rather use expensive cruise missiles to enhance the bomber's strike range than extend the combat radius.

Of course, in the early stages of the war, the main targets were also military targets in the northern part of the Fanluo Kingdom.

To put it bluntly, the real strategic bombing has not yet begun.

The key is that after the battle on the East Ocean comes to an end, the Imperial Navy will turn its focus to the Fanyan Ocean, such as investing in more transport fleets.

In fact, before Ding Zhennan flew back to Kara Port, a fleet of dozens of cargo ships set off from the southern port of the Empire, accompanied by more than a dozen escort warships and embarked on a voyage to Fanyan Ocean. Half of the transport ships in the fleet were the destination of Columbia, Slan.

These ships will send hundreds of thousands of tons of ammunition and fuel to Slan in late October!
Chapter completed!