Hoffman took a deep breath, took the note and read it slowly, it was okay not to read it, but after looking at it, his face became very distorted, and his mood was simply terrible.

The telegram read: "...... Last night, the British and American Allied bomber groups bombed Augsburg, the total number of enemy planes was more than 400 sorties, our army fought back, shot down 23 of them, and a number of enemy planes escaped after being wounded, our casualties were not large, but the diesel engine production plant of the MAN company for the U-boat was destroyed, and after emergency cleaning and statistics on the site during the day today, about 36% of the machinery and equipment have been buried in the rubble or confirmed to be unusable, and the production of U-boats in the next three months will be significantly affected......"

To the surprise of the two, the Führer did not get angry as usual, and although his face was ugly, he only said lightly: "Go back to the Air Force Headquarters first, and I will listen to their reports and explanations." ”

Sitting in the spacious Mercedes 770K, Hoffmann fell into deep thought, and the new chief lieutenant colonel Fritz Dahlgers, who was accompanying him in the passenger seat, saw that he was sullen and persuaded him: "My Führer, you and Minister Speer seem to be very concerned about this loss? But as far as I know, the losses of the British in the air raids in June, July, and August were very large, but our losses were very small, and purely in terms of probability, it seems reasonable to let them succeed once. ”

"You, like the people in the Air Defense Command, so far do not understand the importance of this plant." Hoffman shook his head, not taking the adjutant's persuasion to heart, "After the defeat of the British air war and the unlimited delay of the 'Sea Lion' plan, the wolves active in the Atlantic Ocean are almost the only shackles around Churchill's neck, if Dönitz can't maintain the current pressure, the British will release more troops, at that time not only air raids, but also the ground troops will counterattack one after another, the Battle of Dieppe has reminded me that our 'Western Wall' fortress is far from perfect." ”

The Führer's tone sounded a little impatient, but Dahlges was happy to hear such a "lesson", wishing that the Führer would talk as much as possible. After the almost assassinated Eagle's Nest meeting, he keenly sensed that there seemed to be some unusual change in the Führer's personality - sensitive and suspicious in words, and although this attitude was gradually revealed in a subtle way, the life of the adjutant and his retinue generally became difficult. Except for the chief adjutant General Schmunt, who was promoted to the post of quartermaster on the Eastern Front because of the appointment of General Zeitzler as chief of the General Staff, the other adjutants encountered problems one after another: the former Air Force Adjutant, Colonel von Bello, because he was recommended by the Imperial Marshal Goering, "improperly" leaked the news of the split and replenishment of the Air Force Field Division to Goering before the strategic meeting, and was considered by Himmler to be "politically unreliable" and suggested that the Führer be purged, and finally sent him to the prisoner of war camp under Field Marshal Milch; Adjutant Putkamer, who had worked with Admiral Canaris for some time before the war and served as his liaison officer, was also censored by the SS after the admiral was imprisoned, and although nothing was found, he was still sent by the Führer as a liaison officer of the Ministry of Armaments to inspect the progress of the construction of the Count Zeppelin and other warships, and was exhausted every day at the shipyard trying to coordinate labor and supplies. He was the only one who seized the opportunity, for he had been admired in the Führer's inner circle as secretary to Martin Bowman, and in the course of this drastic change he was honored to take over the position of chief lieutenant on the recommendation of Bowman, and his rank was promoted from major to lieutenant colonel.

Dahlges himself could not have imagined that the fundamental reason for the successive transfers of these adjutants was not because of reliability problems, but simply because they had followed the Führer for many years, and Hoffman did not want people who were familiar with Hitler's temperament to notice the changes in the Führer's before and after and took the opportunity to leave. Daldgs's promotion was certainly based on ability and past performance, but it was more a trade-off choice made by Hoffman to support Bowman's forces, and Hoffman was more familiar than Daldgers himself with the Führer, who almost married Eva's sister and became a brother-in-law with the Führer, but left his post because of "the disadvantage of chasing flies" and wrote "Memoirs of an Adjutant" and other anecdotes. In the same way, as a reward for Ribbentrop's first attack on Goering, Hoffmann also asked him to recommend an intelligence adjutant, provided that he was proficient in foreign languages and good at comprehensive textual analysis, and the foreign minister really found a generalist, a diplomat named Maximilien von Kohl, who was of the Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, was not only proficient in English, French, Russian, and Ital, but even spent two years in Japan, familiar with the Japanese situation and fluent in Japanese. Bowman, who had compiled the various pieces of information presented by the Imperial Security Bureau, was full of praise for his rigorous and efficient style of work that assisted the Führer in carrying out intelligence work. Hofmann had already praised Ribbentrop twice, both privately and publicly, to the latter's almost detached delight - in this sense, power is the natural corrosive agent of human nature, and in less than 10 days the position of Führer had transformed Hoffmann's worldview from a suave intellectual to a dictator full of power.

Heavily guarded by the Flag Guards, the convoy arrived in Berlin in the evening, and it was already completely dark, with few exceptions not much light visible over the huge city. Hoffman was very satisfied with this, after the full transfer to the wartime system, the city night light control was finally implemented unswervingly, it is really strange, knowing that British planes often have to carry out night raids every now and then, Berlin and other big cities still implement the discipline of light control half-heartedly, only after the air defense siren sounded to deal with it in a hurry, you must know that in Britain, two years ago, that is, during the air war in Britain, the British, who were free and loose by nature, began to implement strict light control. On the contrary, the Germans, who have always been known for their strict discipline, are very arrogant about this. It is evident that the recent investigation and handling of the traitorous group has had an additional benefit: the following strata, especially the formerly privileged ones, were far less likely to defy the orders of the military and the government, after all, no one wanted to be invited to coffee by the SS and the Gestapo for a trivial matter.

Hoffmann hurried through his dinner, and after overhauling his former lieutenants and vatains, he finally had the courage to upgrade his food from the likes of boiled fruit oats in sugar water to traditional foods such as bacon, small sausages and whole-wheat bread, and as for the cravings for steak, caviar and Bavarian pork knuckle, he could only try it after a while more - the Führer's vegetarianism really killed him.

He hurried to the conference room of the Air Force Headquarters with Speer, Keitel and others, and the new Air Force Adjutant, Major Lehmann, was already waiting for him, and before he could open the door of the conference room, he heard a very fierce sound inside. Hoffman waved his hand to stop the guards as they were about to make a loud announcement, paused and pricked up his ears to listen.

It seemed to be the voice of the fighter commander, Major General Adolf Garland, who was accusing a person: "This afternoon, in the face of an air raid by the US Army Air Corps, the fighters of your wing have obviously spotted enemy aircraft, why did most of the fighters choose to avoid the battle in the end?" This is a disgrace to the entire JG26 team! ”

"Your Excellency, I cannot agree with you." A young voice argued, "You know, you can't assess the death threat posed by the new American bomber while sitting in an office or in a command room, you have to go and experience the flight for yourself." You're also a pilot, so you know that almost all of the aircraft sights and attack weapons we have are intended for attack fighters, and we have never tried to optimize even the slightest bit for this heavily armoured, heavy-fire bomber. If it were a fighter plane, they would only fill the ring of the aircraft's sight 100 meters away, but the American bombers were very different, and when they were far from reaching the right range, their huge bodies were filled with the entire sighting apparatus, and the backward machine gunners on the enemy planes would use a heavy rain of bullets to prevent us from getting closer, imagine the feeling that the cockpit was surrounded by red tracer bullets and could not effectively return fire, and you can understand why many pilots finally gave up on the attack - they were men and not gods, I can't rush into this horrible and desperate environment......"

Listening to the other party's unceremonious defense, Garland roared and said in a voice trembling with anger: "Since you can't hit the Americans from a distance, why can't you stick it?" You may be inferior to others, but as the former commander of the JG26 Wing, I don't want to see you lose even the slightest fighting spirit, which is tarnishing the glorious traditions of the Wing. ”

"I'm sorry sir, I'm responsible for their lives, I can't make senseless sacrifices, besides, isn't this bomber shot down by anti-aircraft guns today, we may not lack the means to deal with this new aircraft until the fighter is improved......"