"Dear Lucy, this is the happiest time I've had since the end of the French campaign, and this joy has even overwhelmed the moment of storming the fortress of Tobruk and being awarded the Marshal's Scepter

Not only because I miraculously washed away the slander and slander that I had escaped from the basement of the Army Hospital, but also because I had led my troops back to fight in El Alamein, from here, you know, I was drafted back.

As you may have learned from the newspapers, I have led my troops over most of the Middle East, the size of ten German proper, and this honour cannot be entirely attributed to me, but in fact it belongs to everyone from the Führer onwards, and to the Führer above all.

The Führer not only fulfilled the promise he had made to me, but also gave me unimaginable support and trust - I am convinced that his trust and love for me has never wavered, but there have been times when I have been disappointed by my overly willful actions and actions, but fortunately we now understand each other.

…… I have never been so satisfied as I am today, when I used to command the African Army, I was always lacking in this and that, but now the situation is reversed, and it is the British and the Indians who lack everything, and they clearly do not have the resilience that we had at once - their soldiers and officers all looked relieved after surrender, and had no desire to hold on any longer. And the combat effectiveness of the Indian troops is even more ridiculously low, almost to the bottom of the chaos, when we take prisoners often in a large line, a few points worse than the Italian troops that I have always thought are relatively low, once we had a reconnaissance platoon of less than 30 people, captured more than 1,000 prisoners, when they ordered the prisoners to line up and walk closer to our position, there was not even a word of opposition, God knows by what means the British Empire organized them, It is even more unclear how they could have relied on such a force to occupy such a vast colony - the Führer's approach to the Middle East was so wise, and the colonial system of the British Empire was like a cardboard house that would crumble at the slightest push.

Lately I have been bewildered by all sorts of native chiefs, kings, prime ministers, ministers, and their representatives, some of whom have given me lands and slaves, some of whom have given me chests of diamonds, pearls, and gold, some of whom have given me a plot of land rich in oil fields, and some of whom are ready to stuff me with all sorts of exotic women, and even pretend that according to their teachings, a man can marry four wives at once...... I rejected all of them, and I was going to send them to the Führer. I've got to apologize to you, you might like some of them, but I can't start with this, I've got a whole bunch of officers watching me. I wonder how the soldiers of the British Empire were corrupted, degenerated, and quickly incapacitated.

I can't tell you exactly where we are, the climate here is very dry, with only 20mm of rain in January, and the locals tell us that this is one of the rare rainy seasons of the year - thanks to the wars of the past few years, we have enough experience in dealing with this environment, and the soldiers can always find wells, but fortunately it is winter, the temperature is not high, the average temperature has been maintained at 5-6 degrees, and the minimum temperature is only -3 to 4 degrees, which is much better than in North Africa.

I expected to take on the Russians soon, and Gauss reminded me that it would be a tough opponent, but I believe we can get the final victory......

Love you Erwin."

Several other people in the headquarters watched Rommel finish writing letters to his family in earnest, and this single-minded commander had to hurry up to write letters to his wife every day, sometimes even two a day, which seemed to have become his unique aura, and it was hard to imagine that a marshal who was in a high position, held a heavy army, and had to think about life and death, victory and defeat every day, would deliberately take time out of his way to "report to his wife" -- perhaps, this is the unique charm of Marshal Rommel.

In this rare relaxation time, several generals either took time to drink a pot of coffee, or pull out a cigarette to have a good time, or chatted with their colleagues casually, only Rommel sat in the corner and wrote a book. A few minutes later, the operational meeting was officially convened.

After in-depth communication with Rommel, Balk finally understood the other party's idea: he would deploy the North Route Group with the Viking Division as the main force on the flank of the logistics line between Tabriz and Tehran, and at the same time deploy the South Route Group south of Tehran. If the Red Army focused on defending Tehran, he attacked Tabriz; If the Red Army focused on the defense of Tabriz, he would attack Tehran; If the Red Army had divided its forces evenly between Tehran and Tabriz, he would have the Northern Route Group cut off the link between Tabriz and Tehran, and then either flank Tehran between the North and South blocs, or feign an attack on Tehran, but target the reinforcements that Tabriz might send.

"The weakness of the Russians is that they have to hold Tabriz and Tehran, two important cities more than 500 kilometers apart, and we can accept either one of them - so if they take defensive measures, it means giving us the initiative in the whole Persian war." Rommel smiled and asked, "If you were the commander of the Red Army and attacked first, where would you attack?" ”

"We must not attack our right flank in a detour to the south - we will be flanked by our two groups in the north and south, and we can only attack the left flank of the northern group from the north......" Balk said here and looked at the map carefully, and suddenly exclaimed, "If the Russians borrow the passage from Turkey, they will be able to attack conveniently, and they can even directly threaten the Mosul oil field group." ”

"Hehe......" Rommel laughed, "it's a good idea...... It's a pity, will the Turks think so? ”

Balk thought about it for a long time, and then shook his head slowly: Turkey would not accede to such a request - if Turkey dared to agree, the Germans would be able to attack Istanbul from Bulgaria in two days, and the bombers deployed on the island would soon find a place to use them.

"So...... There is only one way to do this. As soon as the words came out, even Balk himself couldn't help laughing, "Forcibly borrowing the way will definitely anger the Turks, and it will be tantamount to pushing Turkey into our arms." In that case, instead of 150,000 Russians attacking us, 500,000 Turks will attack Russia. ”

Rommel smiled and nodded: "I can't deal with the impatient and rash Red Army commander, but Tyulenev is a very cautious and careful commander, he will repeatedly consider the pros and cons, weigh the pros and cons, and finally come to the 'correct' conclusion." We need to be good at using his caution to prevent him from doing radical things, so you see that I don't move on to the next move after each action, in order to allow time for him to think carefully and judge and not to 'take risks'. By the way, we can also replenish the supplies. ”

"Isn't there a way for him to keep both Tehran and Tabriz and at the same time meet the challenges?"

"Yes, there is, but it's difficult, for example, he continues to increase his troops to more than 250,000 troops, so that it will be difficult for us to nibble on either of these two places - the question is, how can he find a logistics supply road that can guarantee 250,000 troops without the help of the Turks? You know why I'd rather have a mountain infantry division like Prince Eugen than an armored division like the Imperial Division, because our logistics are almost at the limit - another armored unit will quickly collapse, but a mountain infantry division will not. "So he wouldn't make such a mistake, and if he did, our bombers would be of great use." Moreover, if he really dares to transfer so many troops to fight in Transcaucasia, how can the Black Sea and Caucasus directions be maintained? General Kleist's troops will be able to attack. ”

"And you're going to keep fighting the Russians like this? When will we be able to solve them? ”

"It's going to be soon, and it's going to be easier than you think." Rommel lightly outlined two offensive routes on the map, "To deal with the Red Army in Persia, it is not necessary to destroy them hard, as long as we start from the Turkish border, attack 200 kilometers to the northeast and take Tbilisi, Georgia, we will close the passage to Transcaucasia, and if we attack 500 kilometers to the east, the Baku oil fields will fall firmly into our hands." The key to solving the Transcaucasian problem is not in our hands, but in Turkey. As long as the Turks fall to us, with the coordination of our 1-2 armored divisions, the Turks can successfully cage the Red Army south of the Caucasus Mountains with 10-15 infantry divisions - the Caspian Sea and the plateau are the best encirclement. ”

Balk and a group of staff officers carefully looked at the map and felt that Rommel's next step was very pertinent and not difficult to achieve militarily. The greatest difficulty now was to convince the Turks to join the Axis, but in view of Turkey's previous opening of the Black Sea straits and the receipt of equipment from 2 divisions, it was believed that Turkey's entry into the war was no longer out of reach.

Major General Gauss, chief of staff of the Middle East Army, nodded with satisfaction next to him: He felt that Marshal Rommel had become more mature and more cautious after being "educated" on the matter of the traitorous group, and that he would no longer disregard his allies and superiors as he did in the days of the African Army, and would only insist on rushing forward for the sake of the "victory" in his mind, and that he would consider the coordination and cooperation of the entire war situation, and would think about the strategic policy of combining politics, diplomacy, and military affairs, and would no longer make people feel fearful.

What happens when the Desert Fox is not only resourceful and cunning, but also sophisticated and mature? Gauss believed victory was within reach. (To be continued.) )