On 28 September, after three full days of flaming swastika flags flying over the city of Sidi Barani, the main force of the Italian Tenth Army crossed a distance of 70 kilometers to join the remaining forces of the Afrika Army.

Upon learning that the main forces of the 10th Army had occupied Sidi Barani, Marshal Graziani sent two telegrams in succession.

A telegram was sent to Rome, and the contents of the telegram were then widely publicized on the major radio stations in Rome.

"Dear citizens of Rome, after four days of fierce fighting, the flag of the great motherland of Italy is now flying over the city of Sidi Barani. The brave Italian army is continuing its march into the heart of Egypt, and the flag will be planted on the head of Cairo in the coming October, so let's look forward to an exciting October. ”

Another telegram was sent to the headquarters of the 10th Army, and upon receipt of this telegram, the main forces of the 10th Army immediately ceased their march for an indefinite period.

To the astonishment of the senior generals of the African Army, the bigwigs of the Italian Tenth Army did not pay attention to the defensive function of the barracks, but to the "officers' clubs" that were detached from the grassroots.

The Officers' Club had all the pleasures to offer, and the bigwigs of the Italian Tenth Army could indulge in a piece of music, a flamboyant dance and a chilled Frascati white wine served in fine crystal vessels.

Of course, hospitality is a traditional Italian virtue. The bigwigs of the Italian Tenth Army, in between pleasures, would still pay attention to the German allies who were drinking wind and sand on the front line.

The commander of the 10th Army, General Bertie, sent a daily telegram inquiring about the progress of the fighting on the Rommel front. He also warmly invited Rommel and other senior officers of the African Army to return to Sidi Barani in their spare time to participate in the (Communist) Plus (Together) Gathering (Corruption) Meeting (Defeat).

September 30 at 2 p.m. Rommel received a telegram from Admiral Berti as usual.

Rommel sneered after reading the telegram, and then handed the telegram in his hand to Chen Dao beside him, and Chen Dao handed it to Major General Feng Ke beside him after reading it.

The telegram passed around the hands of the people in the room and returned to Rommel.

"See, no, this is our ally. We were racking our brains here to figure out how to wipe out the British on the other side, but they repaired the football field in the rear and invited us to send someone to hold a friendly match with them. Can anyone tell me how I should reply to them? Rommel said.

"I've always been speechless about lovely Italians." Major General Funk said.

"To lovely Italians. I can only be speechless. Colonel Starkhausen said.

"Heinz, what do you think of our lovely ally?" Rommel saw that Chen Dao was speechless and asked curiously.

"To the lovely Italians, I'm speechless." Chen Dao said with a crying and laughing expression.

There was a burst of laughter in the conference room.

Rommel laughed and said, "The greatest use of our allies is to make jokes for us and relieve our stress." ”

After laughing for a while, Rommel pointed to the map and said: "Now the British have built fortifications on the line of Mesha Matru, about eight kilometers east of us, and judging from the photos taken by the reconnaissance plane, these fortifications should be standing fortifications.

And our lovely allies are now enjoying themselves in the barracks eighty kilometres to the west, and while I have no hope for their fighting power, we still need their troops to maintain the front. So that we can free ourselves from the trenches and attack. ”

"My suggestion is to invite Marshal Graziani, two hundred and eighty kilometers to our west, to come to the front to supervise the battle, so that we can mobilize the old men of the Tenth Army to our advantage." Chen Dao said.

"Two divisions. As long as the Italians can mobilize two divisions for us to use, we can launch an attack according to our plan and hit the Suez Canal in one go, so how to convince those lovely Italians to obey our command is the most important link, Heinz, are you sure? ”。

"I'll get Marshal Graziani, but I have one condition."

"On what terms?"

"According to our plan, there will be a force to carry out that special mission, and I have asked that the team be sent to Herman. The Goering division came to execute. Chen Dao said.

"Yes, as long as you can convince Marshal Graziani."

At eight o'clock the next morning, Marshal Graziani's special plane arrived at a temporary field airfield behind the lines of the African Army.

Rommel was deeply shocked by the efficiency with which Chen Dao persuaded Marshal Graziani.

"How did you convince him?" Rommel asked in surprise.

"I didn't convince him by a method, but I conquered him with my charisma." Chen Dao had an unfathomable expression on his face.

The arrival of Marshal Graziani announced the end of the good days of the Italian Tenth Army, and in the afternoon of the same day, a group of high-ranking generals led by General Berti rushed to the headquarters of the African Army to discuss the plan to annihilate the main force of the British army in Egypt.

The German-Italian forces were plotting how to annihilate the British army in Mesa Matru, and the British forces in Mesa Matrum were also plotting how to hold their existing positions.

At 10 o'clock in the morning of 1 October, in the conference room of the headquarters of the Nile Army Group in the port of Mesha Matru, Admiral Wavell, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East, who had just flown from Alexandria, sat in the main seat of the conference room, staring at the officers under his command with his only right eye.

Admiral Wavell was withdrawn and unremarkable, and was blinded by a stray bullet in his left eye during World War I, and the black blindfold on his face added a bit of mystery and coldness.

Being stared at by Admiral Wavell's one-eyed, the officers in the conference room instantly felt that the temperature in the room had plummeted, and their bodies involuntarily straightened up.

"The Germans and Italians must have had more than 100,000 troops combined, nearly three times as many as ours, but their forces were oddly distributed. According to our aerial reconnaissance, the Germans had formed a defensive line on the line of Zavia and um Leham, about eight kilometers to the west, while the Italian line was about eighty kilometers behind the Germans, Sidi Barani. General Wilson, commander-in-chief of the British forces in Egypt, said.

Admiral Wavell had just flown in from Alexandria, and his heart was also under a lot of pressure.

Looking at the deployment map on the map, Wavell couldn't stop thinking about countermeasures.

In the face of the menacing Axis ** team, all the troops he could take out were only about 66,000 people.

These troops will first be stationed in Egypt and Palestine with about 16,000 troops to maintain local security.

The Italian army in Ethiopia had already launched an attack on Sudan, and it was necessary to divide about 15,000 men out of the remaining 50,000 men to maintain the situation in Sudan.

Only about 36,000 troops are now capable of being used on the Mesha Matrou Line.

The reinforcements promised by the Prime Minister in London were now adrift across the ocean, and the first South African Brigade would not arrive until mid-October, and troops from New Zealand and Australia would take even longer.

Will the existing forces be able to hold out until reinforcements arrive? Wavell was not optimistic about the answer.

"Is there any movement in the German army on the other side?" Wavell asked.

"Their reconnaissance planes hover over our positions every day, and small units of reconnaissance units often appear near our lines to conduct reconnaissance, and there have been 17 skirmishes with our patrol units, and we have each suffered some damage." Wilson replied.

Wavell was about to ask another question when a captain's staff officer suddenly knocked on the door and walked into the conference room, reporting to Wavell: "I just received a call from the headquarters of the 4th Indian Division, and their patrol has caught a British ** officer who has been released. The officer, who identified himself as Captain Smith, the commander of the 7th Garrison Company stationed in Selum, had on him a letter from Marshal Graziani, the Governor of Italy, to General Wavell. General Ogereau, would you like to see him? ”

Everyone in the room looked at Wavell in unison.

Wavell's one-eyed flashed with light.

"Captain Smith couldn't have come at the right time to tell us what the Germans and Italians were up to, and bring him to me." (To be continued......)