"Let me see your original battle plan." Guderian was the first to break the silence.

Colonel Westphar took the whip and gestured on the map, and described Rommel's general operational ideas and details before leaving.

Guderian frowned: "What is the basis for this plan?" Are there reliable sources of information? ”

"Yes. We have obtained a more detailed and complete map of the British army. Lieutenant Colonel Merlinzin handed Guderian a map, "Our artillery hit a jeep coming to reconnoiter at the front line, scoured from the side of the British major who was driving. ”

"yes, this cannonball is a coincidence......"

Listening to Guderian's tone, there seemed to be a faint mockery in it, Lieutenant Colonel Merlinjin was puzzled, "The destruction of the jeep can't be faked, the officers and soldiers on the front line have seen it." We checked with the British prisoners, and the major's name was Smith, and he was indeed a staff officer at the headquarters of the Eighth Army. ”

"Alas......" Guderian sighed, and said in a mocking tone, "you have been with Rommel for too long. ”

Colonel Westfale's face suddenly fell: "Your words are not funny at all. ”

Guderian said casually: "Let me ask you, besides Rommel, which other high-ranking general of the empire often goes to the front line and personally observes the enemy's situation when he fights?" Not to mention the marshal, I'm afraid there are no more major generals, it turns out that I am like this, but I have basically changed this habit. ”

"This ......" The people in the command looked at each other, as if there was really no one else to find except Rommel, everyone had always taken this spirit of leading by example and now listening to Guderian's tone, it seemed that this thing was done very wrong?

"Gentlemen, although I have not had many opportunities to deal with the British, I have encountered some of the English during the French campaign." Guderian smiled and said, "Think of the image of the British officers in your minds, they are the most hierarchical and inferior, how can such a thing as a reconnaissance position be done by a major himself?" Taking a step back, even if this major came to reconnoitre, would he come out alone? What about his driver? What about his guards? ”

The faces of the staff officers in the "......" command changed drastically and began to whisper. One wanted to ask why the British would send a real major to his death, but they thought it was stupid to ask - what was the great deal about sacrificing a major in order to pass on false information, and who knows what else was going on with that major.

"And ......," Guderian shook the map, "look at this map, how new, so new that it doesn't even seep through the cracks." If you look for an old map and compare it, which one has no traces of seepage? "Everyone is an experienced officer, and this kind of thing does not need to be verified, and the mind understands it when you think about it: because the creases are often in contact with the hands, sweat will inevitably fall on them, especially in the desert combat climate, and the old maps are covered with imprints.

"Take a step back...... Suppose this is a new map that the British scouts have just completed, and you look at the lines and outlines on it......" Guderian pointed to the map with his hand, "can it be drawn so evenly and so consistently?" I have the impression that the scouts are always in a state of panic and nervousness, and they are not capable or necessary to draw so finely. ”

Lieutenant Colonel Mei Linjin took a closer look at it, remembered some of the doubts he had when he got this map, and said decadently: "I understand what Your Excellency meant, this is not a reconnaissance map at all, this is clearly a fake map carefully concocted by the British against the existing map......

This suffocation woke everyone up: the strategic deployment that had been targeted and thought to be very ingenious was based on false intelligence, and the codes and information of the African Army had been completely mastered by the British. No matter which way you look at it, this battle cannot be fought, and all factors point to one path - complete defeat!

Now everyone is looking at Guderian with a hard eye, counting on the new commander, who has been in office for less than a week, to come up with a solution, just as everyone has looked at Rommel in the past two years when the situation is unfavorable, counting on him to come up with a whimsy.

"Don't change your password just yet." Guderian smiled slyly, "Changing the password will not achieve the effect of paralyzing the other party, I have communicated with the Führer before I came, I will use a better method." ”

Under the watchful eyes of several leading generals of the command, Guderian personally drafted the telegram on the spot and sent it to Berlin in the original telegram code. The telegram was written in a very artistic and strategic style: our side noticed that the enemy's troop deployment was different, and was changing the established operational disposition, and the attack originally scheduled for August 31 was planned to be postponed to after September 7, and in order to avoid the British seeing the flaws, we would choose the opportunity to let the Italians launch a feint on the northern front to divert the attention of the British. In addition, in view of the shortage of materials and the shortage of troops, it is hoped that the base camp can be replenished as soon as possible.

Berlin's reply came back in the evening: first, he agreed with Guderian's operational disposition, telling him that there was no need to hurry, and if it was too late on September 7, it was okay to postpone the campaign offensive after September 10; The second is to tell him that due to the fierce fighting on the Eastern Front, the German army is ready to launch an all-out campaign to seize Stalingrad, and the main forces of the Air Force are deployed in the Caucasus, and there is no time to take care of the Mediterranean, so that he can wait until after December, that is, after the Eastern Front enters the season when the ice and snow are not suitable for combat, and then consider large-scale replenishment, and at present can only focus on maintenance, and on the afternoon of September 6, two Italian oil tankers will supply 6,000 tons of gasoline in the port of Tobruk, so that he can arrange to respond.

Of course, these two are false information made up in order to fool the British, Guderian had already communicated with Hoffman before leaving, and the battle plan for the first phase of the African campaign before the cipher code was completely changed was all drawn up by Guderian, Berlin didn't care, if Guderian needed to cooperate, the base camp would follow his will - anyway, there will not be half of the truth in it, but the overall meaning looks very realistic. The news of the so-called gasoline replenishment is true, but the time is not right, the real time is that the oil tanker docked on the morning of September 3, which is a small trick negotiated by Kesselring and Guderian.

"Gentlemen, I have sent a telegram of confusion, and soon the British will understand our operational disposition, but our real direction of operation is ......" Guderian drew an arrow on the map and slapped it heavily, "it is actually here. ”

The arrow Guderian drew on the map pointed to Tobruk behind them, and for a moment the conference room exploded. If Guderian had followed his deployment, wouldn't all their achievements in the past six months have come to naught?

"Gentlemen, you would not be surprised if you knew exactly what was going on with the British on the other side." When Guderian told his men the actual situation of the British Eighth Army facing them, everyone in the Afrika Army command could not sit still: Montgomery had 230,000 men and horses, and the number of tanks and planes was basically 1,500, while the Afrika Army had less than 80,000 troops, only 500 tanks (and half of them were inferior Italian Fiat tanks), and only 350 aircraft. The British army not only had three times the strength of the African Army (the African Army had less than 100,000 men in total, excluding the troops left behind in the rear, there were less than 80,000 men on the El Alamein front, of which 50,000 were Italians), but also had an overwhelming advantage in major technical weapons.

The chief of staff, Colonel Baier Lein, immediately scolded and said: "This battle cannot be fought, the enemy has a 3-4 times superiority in aircraft, tanks and other major weapons, and the number of troops is 5 times more than ours. No one pointed out the problem of calculation in his words, for the Italians were never the first to be counted in the Afrika Army's determination to fight, and at most to hedge against the same number of British, which was often not possible.

Lieutenant Colonel Merlinjin was very nervous, because it was the responsibility of the intelligence department to find out the enemy's situation, he had already suffered a loss on the fake map, he had originally collected information that the Eighth Army had a slight advantage over the African Army, but it was not that he had no fight, he subconsciously asked Guderian: "Sir, is this situation reliable?" ”

"Reliable, after the Führer's arrest of Canaris, the intelligence agencies were reorganized, and a lot of information was unearthed." Although the arrest of Canaris was still a matter of secrecy in the country, Guderian was not afraid of the news coming from the African army, so he did not hesitate to say, "Because I found out that you don't even know that the commander of the Eighth Army has been changed from Auchinleck to Montgomery, and there is a problem." ”

Merlinzin's face was very embarrassed, and the radio listening unit that Marshal Rommel had relied on had been knocked out by the British, and now he, the chief of intelligence, was almost blind. These days, there is still intelligence information from Egypt, but now it seems that the line is also obviously fake, and the intelligence agents may have been served by the British a long time ago.