At 11 o'clock in the evening of December 28, the German envoy went to the British headquarters in Cairo again with great hope, hoping to hear from Ramsden that he was willing to lead his troops to surrender, but the British reply stunned him, and he immediately jumped up like a cat with a trampled tail, and said angrily: "General, this is impossible...... This is tantamount to us completely letting you go, and under the premise that our African Army Group has besieged Cairo, this is simply a fool's dream. ”

"That's the way it is." Ramsden had anticipated the reaction of the other side in advance, and was not angry, "I have tried my best to convince my men, but they are not willing to surrender. As you may know, we have moved here from Tobruk, and if we want to surrender, I can surrender in the desert, and there is no need to do anything more in Cairo. ”

"We have made the greatest concessions, we can allow your soldiers to take the city of Cairo without bloodshed, not only to avoid the killing of the citizens of Cairo and the destruction of the city, but also to reduce the casualties of your army." Mosshead was beside him with an aggressive attitude, "Why don't you do such the best of both worlds?" If we have to fight us, we want to compete in Ethiopia. If your army insists on attacking Cairo, we will have to fight to the last man. ”

"We have 2 divisions, more than 30,000 people, we are the best soldiers in the British Empire, we have enough equipment, supplies and supplies, and the most powerful allies in the world, we can fight a hearty defensive war, your country has come from afar, how many troops and materials can compete with us?" "Our warriors have not lost their thirst for victory," Freiberg feigned. It is also far from the point of exhaustion, why surrender? ”

"In that case, there's not much to say." The Special Envoy knew that it would be useless to talk too much. "After midnight tonight, the two armies can only resume the state of engagement, farewell."

Just as he was approaching the door, Ramsden stopped him: "Wait. ”

The envoy turned his head in confusion, wondering if there was a turnaround?

"I offer a compromise that I think can be reconsidered to give us more time to convince our subordinates and reach a consensus. If you are willing to give me three more days, I can first temporarily hand over the three fortifications north of Cairo and the airfield in the south to your army for occupation......"

"Sir, this won't work...... The three fortifications were of great importance to us - they were the first line of defense against the Germans. ”

"Sir. This is an insult to us, the airfield must not be handed over to them, I have let the sappers plant explosives, even if they are completely destroyed, they cannot be left to the Germans. ”

Moshead and Freiberg spoke out against it. There is a posture that if there is a disagreement, they will use force. Seeing that the envoy was dumbfounded, he didn't have time to think about it, and said: "Okay, well, the ceasefire has been extended for two hours, and I will immediately report to our commander, and I will give you a clear answer before 2 o'clock." ”

After the German envoy left, Ramsden and the other three sat down on stools, and the double reed performance was lame......

"The British want to stall for time?" After listening to the report, Guderian raised his eyebrows, "They can't beat us on the battlefield." It's time to start playing tricks. ”

"What about procrastination, it is inevitable that it will fail in the end." Kesselring asked, confused. "What's in it for them to just drag their feet?"

"There is a group of troops landing in Mombasa, Kenya, maybe Ramsden is waiting for the Americans to come to the rescue." Guderian sneered, "Don't say whether the Americans can fight here or not, I'm just letting them march, and don't even think about it for three months because of the poor transportation conditions in Kenya, Ethiopia and southern Egypt." ”

"To cover in other directions, for example, Iraq?" Kesselring looked carefully at the map, agreed with Guderian's judgment, and at the same time came to this conclusion after analyzing the distribution of the British 10th Army.

"With Erwin in front, the 10th Army can't beat it, but it is more likely to destroy the Iraqi oil fields, and Ramsden may have received orders from London to use this behavior to buy more time for the Middle East troops, lest my troops rush over and help the Canal Army."

"How sure are you of opening Luo Cheng?"

"It can be taken, it will take about a week, and the casualties may be close to 10,000, and the other ......" Guderian hesitated, "I'm afraid the whole city of Cairo will not be saved." ”

Kesselring frowned and said: "This news is not good, we can't pay such a big price, there are still 100,000 British in Iraq and Persia, and there are no less than 100,000 British and American troops in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, and by mid-January, if you don't want Italian troops, you can only count on reinforcements from the 7th Panzer Division at most." ”

Guderian shrugged: "I don't care, but do you think there are any Italian troops who dare to join my army?" ”

Kesselring suddenly laughed dumbly: Guderian directly gave 3 Italian infantry divisions to the British prisoners last time, and let a large number of Italians be used as bait to lure the British into pursuit, and suffered heavy casualties, and the pit people were more ruthless than Rommel!

"Then you can only agree to the other party's rude request."

"Do you want to ask the Führer for advice?"

"No, keeping Cairo as intact as possible and avoiding street fighting is the Führer's repeated instructions, and it will be observed for a few more days, anyway, the troops will have to rest when they first arrive, and see if Rommel's operation tonight can be successful."

At about 2 o'clock in the morning, the German and British armies reached an agreement to extend the ceasefire for another three days, and in order to show their sincerity, the British army abandoned three suburban strongholds and the southern airfield, and withdrew all its forces back into the city.

At 3 a.m., the Italian paratrooper brigade was speeding up boarding at the German-controlled Damascus military airfield, a unit trained and commanded entirely by the Germans, and which had been transferred from Tobruk to the battle, a rare elite of the Italian troops, and who had been given a daunting task today: to parachute into the Mosul oil fields, to contain the British sabotage attempts, and then to hold out there for at least three days until the receiving troops arrived.

The soldiers' faces were full of excitement and fanaticism, and their movements were neat and neat, completely devoid of the malaise of ordinary Italians, which made both Rommel and Gauss very happy.

Rommel sighed: "If the Italians are so good at fighting...... We don't need to come to Africa at all. ”

"They are not the Army, they are the Air Force, and the Italian Air Force is quite brave - completely different from our Air Force field divisions, and even General Student is full of praise for them." "So the Führer promised the Italian leader that he would have this unit act as the representative of the Italian troops when the ceremony of entering the city of Cairo was held." ”

"I don't know how many people will survive this operation. Send a message to General Felix Steiner and tell them to speed up, they must take the oil field for me in its entirety. ”

Originally, Rommel's battle plan was to be airborne in Mosul and Basra at the same time, and in addition to the Italian paratrooper brigade, he also had the German paratrooper brigade under the direct command of Admiral Student available, and then the two armored divisions bypassed Baghdad without fighting, marched north and south respectively, and then carried out a centripetal attack on Baghdad after occupying the oil fields, but Gauss, after careful consideration, objected on the grounds that the combat was too difficult, on the grounds that:

First, the number of planes is insufficient, and if the two places are airborne at the same time, the number of people in the first wave of airborne is too small, and it may not be able to deal with the defenders;

secondly, Basra is so far away that the departure from Damascus is almost the limit of the transport plane's loading of the auxiliary fuel tank, and the slightest mistake will not return;

Thirdly, the two armored divisions of the Canal Army are still more than 300 kilometers west of Baghdad, and it will take at least three days to reach Mosul and five days to Basra at the earliest - this is still on the premise that everything is going well, and the waiting time in the direction of Basra exceeds the combat capacity of the paratroopers;

Fourth, according to Iraq's internal intelligence, the enemy forces in Mosul are relatively small, and there is at least one division in the Basra direction, and if the oil fields cannot be seized at the first time, when the enemy reacts, not only will the oil fields not be able to be saved, but the entire airborne brigade will take them.

Rommel was very bold in using troops, but he knew that he must not act recklessly, and any mistake would bring ruin to the troops, and the consequences were not only military, but also political: there was a circle of Middle Eastern countries around him who was concerned about the course of the war, and these were all the grass on the wall that whoever had big fists and thick arms, and if the German army could not show its crushing strength, it would be very detrimental to the future control of the Middle East. Taking a step back, these fields are so important to Germany that it is better to secure one than to take the risk of not being able to get both the oil fields in the north and the south.

Gauss's revised plan of action was eventually changed to have the paratrooper brigade parachuted in Mosul first, while Steiner led the Viking division to respond diagonally, and the Greater German division to attack Baghdad in front of him.

"Sir, Prime Minister Rashid Ali is here, and he has an urgent matter to see you."

"Please."

A year and a half ago, the political situation in Iraq changed dramatically, the anti-British Rashid Ali Gelani came to power as Iraqi Prime Minister, and sent a note to Berlin hoping to form an alliance with Germany, Churchill immediately asked Wavell, the commander of the British army in the Middle East at that time, to send the 10th Indian Division to land in Basra, preparing to overthrow the legitimate government of Iraq by force, Rashid believed that it would take time for the British army to fight from land to Baghdad, and planned to attack the Royal Habbania Air Force Base near Baghdad first, As a result, the British army, with the cooperation of the base defense troops and aircraft, not only thwarted the Iraqi army's offensive attempt, but also defeated the Junkers special air force and the Italian air force sent by Germany (which took off from Crete with a small number of aircraft), and Rashid himself was finally forced to go into exile in Germany.

Rashid is a typical intellectual, but his anti-British attitude has always been resolute: "I got in touch with my supporters in Baghdad, and they promised to cooperate with your army and find a way to send the British garrison tomorrow." ”

"Thank you very much." Rommel shook his hand, "Mr. Chancellor, let's work together to drive out the British." (To be continued.) )