"Is this a good gap?" Montgomery smiled and shook his head, "Gentlemen, don't forget that Guderian's ultimate goal is to retreat to Tobruk, if he seizes this gap and jumps out of our detour, he will just fall into the flanking attack of the two armored divisions in front of our army and the 5-6 infantry divisions behind, plus our troops breaking through Tella Khakil are in place, and a new encirclement can be formed with the combined forces of three sides, and then he will be finished." ”

"Would he jump into such an obvious trap?" Everyone was skeptical of Montgomery's optimistic judgment and had no qualms about putting their expressions on their faces.

"What if, I mean what if." De Lagan felt compelled to fulfill his duties as chief of staff and reminded the commander, who had been forced by the prime minister, that "Guderian seized the gap and jumped out of the encirclement, and the enemy troops who had retreated before turned back to attack us, and the first two pantry divisions would be caught in the enemy's flank." ”

"So we have to be fast." Montgomery, of course, understood the possibility, "The result is either that the enemy is flanking or that we are flanking the enemy—I would rather be entangled in a melee with the enemy than watch him retreat unscathed to Tobruk." Therefore, the assault of the 1st and 7th Armored Divisions must be resolute, and at the same time, the frontal breakthrough of the 10th Armored Division must not stop. As long as the Germans can be held back, it is worth paying some price, and it is better to pay the price now than in front of the hard walnut of Tobruk. ”

"If he's willing to take the bait, of course it's better, if he doesn't, what do we have to worry about?" Montgomer summed up the battle plan with one sentence: "Let us pounce on it like a hound, not letting go of the slightest smell, and not being afraid to run away—gentlemen, show your ingenuity and perseverance in hunting foxes in the Scottish countryside." ”

Since the commander was willing to fight like this, everyone no longer objected, and several people had the same idea in their hearts: what if 2 armored divisions were surrounded? That's more than 30,000 troops, nearly 300 tanks, and it's impossible for Guderian to eat them in a short time. As soon as the scene just described by the chief of staff occurs, as long as the trapped troops hold their positions, as soon as the follow-up troops arrive, the 1st and 7th Panzer Divisions in the encirclement will immediately turn over and form a counter-encirclement of Guderian -- at that time, it will be a spectacular scene of 200,000 men besieging and beating tens of thousands of German troops.

"Yes, sir." Everyone's mood began to improve, and there was a feeling of sudden enlightenment, but this good mood lasted for less than two minutes before being ruined by the commander's chatter.

"Keep an eye out for the search during the rapid advance, and at the same time don't let the infantry get too far away from the armored units, and be careful that Guderian gives you a surprise counterattack, as he once did." Montgomery nagged and explained a lot of precautions, and Major General Ramsden, who was old in qualification, gradually frowned, but he couldn't refuse the commander's kindness, so he could only keep nodding yes, and the faces of the others were also weird.

Finally, the meeting was adjourned, and the two army commanders were about to adjust their deployments, when Montgomery said again: "Send me a telegram every two hours to report the situation, I need to keep abreast of the latest developments on the front." Major General Ramsden, who had just left the door, suddenly rose into a nameless fire, he was really fed up, and after thinking about it, he had agreed to many requests from the commander just now, and he didn't care about accepting more, so he could only suppress the anger in his heart, pinching his nose and continuing to agree. Horrocks winked at him, and his helpless eyes seemed to say: You have only been in contact for two months and you can't stand it, but I have been under him for more than two years!

At the moment when Montgomery was deploying troops, the African Army was also discussing its next move:

"Sir." "I have just received a call from Admiral Waldau of the Eighth Air Force of the Air Force that the Führer's second flying wing (JG77) has arrived in Tobruk, and tells us that we will continue to have a wing (JG53) reinforcement by the beginning of next month -- this is specially given to us by the Führer, which will mean that we are almost equal in the number of planes with the British." ”

"Very good!" Guderian rubbed his hands happily, it was good for the Führer to be the commander of the air force, and his hand was much more generous than Goering's: with sufficient air forces, whether it was covering the remaining units of the 4th Panzer Division from Italy to Tobruk, or covering the "Flying Fortress" Panzer Brigade from Crete to the front line, the Afrika Korps had plenty of room for manoeuvre.

"According to the Air Force, today they drove away and shot down some British reconnaissance planes and bombers in the process of covering the retreat of the Italians, and now the Italians are divided into five relatively large columns in front and behind, and they are retreating overnight, and the formation is very long, and the coastal roads are scattered everywhere, and they believe that this way of marching is not conducive to the concealment and air defense of the troops, and I ask you to order them to adjust immediately. Otherwise, if the British launch a large-scale air raid tomorrow, the air force will not dare to guarantee that it will still be as safe as today. ”

"Of course, the Air Force can't be blamed for the accident, ......as long as they try to fulfill their responsibilities," Guderian replied nonchalantly, "The road was chosen by the Italians themselves, and no one can be blamed even if it is a dead end, so let's tell you about the specific investigation results." ”

This was something that puzzled the Air Force, because Guderian asked for a two-fold reconnaissance: on the one hand, to detect the pursuit of the British troops, and on the other hand, to detect the retreat of the Italians. The former is easy to understand, but the latter task is unbelievable - just send a telegram to ask about the retreat of friendly troops, why do you need the air force to conduct special reconnaissance? However, the rigidity and obedience of the Germans played a role, and even if they did not understand Guderian's intentions, they reconnoitred the Italians according to the standards of the enemy. The results of the reconnaissance reported the discovery of more than 200 tanks or armored vehicles of the Italians, and judging by the number of accompanying trucks, At least 25,000 troops of more than 25,000 men retreated, but now the ranks were more scattered than at the beginning of the morning; the results of reconnaissance of the British showed that they had originally begun to advance together with hedgehogs, and the distance between the units was very small, but perhaps after learning the news of our army's retreat overnight, the speed of the march was diverging to varying degrees, and the gap was gradually widening, and at least two armored divisions at the front began to break forward.

"Very well, the Italians did a good job." Guderian suddenly burst out of a sentence coldly, but he didn't expect that there was no resonance in the command at all, and the generals all had bitter faces on their faces: Is this retreat method still bad? Is this a rout, okay? Fortunately, the British only had the air force to threaten the Italians at present, and if the enemy's ground forces were allowed to catch up, the nearly 20,000 Italian troops would be all vulnerable and would be rushed everywhere like ducks. The only thing to be thankful for was that the commander was wise enough to stay and fight the attack rather than retreat with the Italians, otherwise he would have to be implicated by them to death.

Collingwood was the youngest, and he couldn't help but think in his heart, what kind of retreat is this? On the Eastern Front, the Russians were beaten to the point of collapse by us, and they were much more orderly and organized than the Italians are now. You must pay attention to the fact that the Italian army in North Africa is a "trick" teammate even more "pit" than the Italians on the Eastern Front, so don't get mixed up.

Seeing that no one echoed his bad jokes, Guderian shrugged his shoulders disappreciatively, tapped the map with a pencil and drew a circle lightly, and said to everyone with a smile: "Everyone, don't worry about the Italians, they will definitely have a way." Let's take care of ourselves first, this is the ambush field I have for Montgomery. ”

The place Guderian chose was an open field between two hills, one called the Kidney Mountains and the other the Miteia Mountains, 10 kilometers from the Treakakir front.

"This is a very favorable terrain, with mountains on both sides, but the open area in the middle is more than 5 kilometers, enough for tanks, and if the enemy does not want to go to the north and south flanks to fight the minefields, it is most suitable to pass between the two mountains."

"But the enemy will be cautious enough when passing through the open field, it is difficult for us to ambush, and there is little point in blocking the attack, they are far superior to us, and they can attack us on the one hand, and at the same time detour from the north and south flanks of the dispatched troops." Baierlein was the first to object, "I have visited these two mountain ranges on the spot, and they are not tall and majestic, and their geographical advantages are not obvious. There are minefields deployed, but as long as they are willing to take the time and suffer some losses, they will not be able to stop them. ”

"Did I say I'd ambush the enemy as they cross?" Guderian smiled weirdly, and then said his thoughts, everyone was stunned for a moment, and then stretched their brows, and after a long aftertaste, Merlinjin squeezed out a sentence, "Sir, your trick is really bad enough......"