The Rhine flows through the wilderness of Münnstrefel and the concrete buildings are as unremarkable as ordinary single-storey warehouses. However, around here, there are as many as 300 guards lurking in the dark. In the cave in the rear, the Führer's train with two armored cars is docked in the middle of it, through a secret track, ready to connect to the national railway network.

It was the current home of the German High Command and Hitler's wartime stronghold. In the early morning of May 10, Hitler arrived here by special train and began to command the battle on the Western Front, which had already begun. Less than 40 kilometers to the west, hundreds of thousands of German troops were marching across the Belgian border, and the occasional thunderous sound of artillery echoed from afar, adding to the tension and slaughter of the base camp.

By noon, almost all the messages coming back from the various units were that everything was going well. The vital fortress of Eben-Emmel had been successfully taken control by the commandos, and along with the two bridges over the canal, had fallen into German hands; The main bridges in the Netherlands were also open to Army Group B, and the Germans would no longer be blocked by floods. As for Luxembourg, which covers an area of 2,600 square kilometers, it surrendered as soon as it was invaded, and the country had only 400 infantry and 12 cavalry, and had no ability to resist at all.

In the first step of implementing the yellow plan, Army Group B had already overfulfilled its tasks. According to the psychological expectations of the German High Command, as long as the German army could break through the first line of defense of Belgium and the Netherlands within three days, it would be enough to shake the French command and lure the other side to rush to support. Now, it was up to the reconnaissance planes to report on the movements of the main forces of the French army. If the main force of the French army really advanced eastward as expected, Army Group A in the middle of the German army could surprise at full speed without any scruples, and even this European war would be decided by this!

Although Hitler was restless and anxious to contact the 1st Air Fleet to inquire about the current situation, he gritted his teeth and forcibly resisted this impulse, and pretended to be confident and calmly enjoyed the afternoon meal. In addition to the fact that he knew that as a commander-in-chief, he should give his subordinates enough confidence at all times, and taking this opportunity to create an image of himself as a military genius who knew everything was also an important plan of Hitler at this time.

Ever since Hitler deposed Blomburg and assumed the post of supreme commander of the German armed forces, the senior generals of the army had never been convinced of him. You are a mere corporal, you have not even been to a military school for a day, and you actually rode on our head in the military rank, what ability do you have to be our leader in professionalism? Therefore, Hitler had to prove himself by all means, and now is an excellent opportunity to gild.

The gesture immediately made a clear difference. Seeing that the Führer was calm and unconcerned about the current situation, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Brauchitsch, and the Chief of the General Staff, Halder, who had also had no idea about the prospects, gradually settled down and began to deal with their work calmly. And the young war minister Jodel admired Hitler even more. In his eyes, Hitler was indeed a genius commander who could strategize and win thousands of miles, and he would surely lead Germany from victory to more brilliant victory.

In the anxious waiting, the time seemed to be several times longer than usual, and Hitler felt like a whole day before the corner clock pointed to 4 p.m. During this period, the communications officer had sent several reports from the telegraph room, but they were all about the German offensive on the front line. Just as Hitler was about to lose control of his anxiety and send someone to call Lu Hang to inquire, the communications officer suddenly trotted in with a few pieces of paper that still smelled of ink.

"The 1st Air Fleet reported that an extremely large Franco-British army with a total strength of about 40~50 divisions was rapidly entering Belgium. At present, its vanguard has arrived at the Oldenburg-Deerlake line, and it is expected that by the early morning of the 12th, the coalition forces will enter Brussels. With that, the communications officer handed Hitler the detailed report.

Hitler's heart twitched violently. He resisted the urge to jump, and took the telegram as if he was light, although the slightly trembling right hand revealed his excited state of mind at the moment, but because he was not in good health, he often trembled, so even if someone noticed, he would not pay much attention to it. And Halder and the others next to him didn't have such good concentration, their faces immediately changed suddenly, and then they quickly gathered around both sides of Hitler. The room soon fell silent, save for the heavier and heavier breathing of the crowd.

"The French took the bait, they really took the bait!" Yodel was the first to hold back, and the first to cheer excitedly. He looked at Hitler with admiration, and only felt that the wisdom of the commander in front of him could already be described as a god. Three months ago, it was Hitler who chose to attack in the middle and developed a yellow plan that was very different from Schlieffen's plan. Hitler's strategic vision proved to be comparable to that of Frederick the Great: the enemy's movements were exactly what he expected, and how could this war be unwinnable?

Halder took a deep breath and looked at Hitler with a hint of complexity and confusion.

At the beginning, Halder firmly believed that there was no future in launching a land war on the Western Front, and on more than one occasion he poured cold water on Hitler by passively sabotaging. He first tried to persuade Brauchitsch to draw up a clumsy plan for an offensive on the Western Front, and then he did everything possible to suppress Manstein, who was playing against him, and rejected his scythe plan seven or eight times. But now, I have become the humble and ridiculous clown in the stage play. According to Manstein's plan, the Germans were already expected to win, which was tantamount to swelling the left side of Halder's face and then continuing to slap the right cheek!

Am I wrong again? Could it be that Hitler was really a great man from heaven, and even the field of military affairs, which he had never systematically touched, had a talent that surpassed all professional generals? Halder was confused and messy, and couldn't help but fall into the chaos of the shattered cognitive world again. At the Munich Conference two years ago, Hitler shuffled his three views once: the incredible concessions of Britain and France made him, the core backbone of the conspiracy organization, doubt his life for half a year, and it was not until the Danzig crisis that he recovered. Now, once again, Hitler had shattered his insistence that if Germany could win the war, what was the point of conspiring against himself and Beck and the others?

"This is just the beginning. Wait and see, the best is yet to come. In the face of everyone's joy, Hitler, who breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, finally floated with joy and spoke out heavily. Hitler paused, and said again: "I propose that the 1st Air Fleet stop bombing the depths of the coalition forces on the Northern Front and let them enter Belgian territory quickly. When Army Group A breaks through the Maas River, I will make it impossible for them to retreat. ”

The mountains are steep, the peaks and mountains are lined with towering trees, the Arden mountain forest is towering, and the vegetation is dense and verdant, and it has always been a paradise habitat for all kinds of birds and beasts in the hinterland of Europe. However, from May 10, an uninvited group of uninvited guests of unprecedented size suddenly broke into the area from the east. They let out a deafening roar, and the forest birds all flew high in fright, and even the ferocious and bloodthirsty wolves were frightened by the steel beasts, and the wind fled into the mountain stream with its tail between its legs.

Guderian sat in the armored command vehicle and looked at the road ahead with a serious expression. In this mountainous range, there are few wide sections that allow tanks to pass smoothly, and as far as the eye can see, there are either narrow and winding rocky paths, steep slopes and steep slopes, and sometimes cliffs and river streams in front of them, which make every army with heavy equipment almost crazy. Twenty-six years earlier, Guderian had fought the French in this area, and due to the unfavorable terrain, the vanguard of the German and French armies could not receive artillery support for several days, and had to engage in the most direct flesh-and-blood confrontation with the other side with rifles and bayonets.

This time, however, the situation is different. In order to allow the armoured forces to pass through this largely insurmountable obstacle, as early as the end of 1939, Army Group A concentrated its best engineering teams to study how to open a way for tanks in the mountains and forests. Although the Ardennes is located in Belgium and has been inaccessible for many years, Guderian and others are very familiar with the terrain here; After several months of evaluation exercises, the German sappers lived up to expectations and successively planned several roads that could be temporarily opened up by hand.

At this moment, the sappers used chainsaws to brush down the towering trees on both sides, and then dragged them in an orderly manner to the front as roadbed padding. The narrow, rugged road quickly became smooth, and the tank tracks drove on it, and its pressure was suddenly carried by the combined force of several tough trees.

And in the face of individual steep slopes and peaks that had to be crossed, the German sappers were equally confident. They cleverly carve out winding mountain roads with a steep topography, and although most sections of the road have a slope of more than 10 degrees, which is very demanding on the driver's skills, it is not difficult for a well-trained German armored soldier. As for the streams and streams along the way, they were overcome by the sappers in one fell swoop. You must know that they are going to force their way across the Maas River, and compared to the wide and turbulent river, these barriers in the Ardennes can only be regarded as a gutter at best.

As the sun set, the mountains and forests soon became dim, but the Germans did not stop moving. Illuminated by the lights, the sappers continued to sweat and work hard to clear the way for the armored forces in the front. Thanks to the well-prepared pre-war preparations, there were few real troubles in the process, and by this time the German tanks had penetrated deep into the mountainous hinterland. Guderian's face was beaming, and he continued at this pace, and by the early hours of May 13, his vanguard troops would be able to sail out of the Ardennes and be under the city.