At 3 o'clock in the morning, in the Middle East, the sea is calm and calm, accompanied by a slightly cool east wind.

On such a night, Guderian's Midway aircraft carrier fleet, many of the sailors of the ship were in a hurry to get up to eat, and then prepare to change shifts.

At this time, the sound of noisy talking can be heard from the galleys of each ship, and the situation of boiling, fried eggs, and all kinds of meat is also staged one after another.

Of course, the personnel of other positions are also preparing to change their positions to rest and sleep, especially the staff in charge of the boiler room, and the mechanical officers on the ship are also tired of waiting in line for their replacement and preparing to get their breakfast to satisfy their hunger.

At this time, Guderian was also in the officer's room where he was, smoking a cigarette and cooking a cup of steaming coffee, ready to use it to dispel his sleepiness.

At the same time, he browsed the map of the Middle East hanging on the wall of his officer's room, which included Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, and Qatar; Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Palestine, Cyprus and Turkey have all been marked, with topographical maps and approximate locations of cities clearly annotated.

In the end, Guderian shifted his gaze from Turkey and Iran, two non-Arab countries, to Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries near the Mediterranean.

Soon, however, his eyes were fixed on Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as Palestine and other countries close to the Arabian Sea.

Because at this moment, Guderian's aircraft carrier fleet had already passed through the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf and was stationed in the Arabian Sea.

And now Guderian is also thinking about which Middle Eastern country Chen Yanlong will let him attack first.

The aircraft carrier fleet he was riding on had been in the Arabian Sea for a few days, but he had not yet received Chen Yanlong's order to attack, and he had not even been notified of which country to attack first.

In the original history, in the Second World War, the Mediterranean theater in the Middle East was commented as one of the three major theaters alongside the Euro-Atlantic theater and the anti-Japanese Pacific theater in the Far East.

For this reason, whether it is the allied forces of Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, or the Axis powers such as Germany, they all treat and compete for the Middle East as a strategic place for war.

The first Middle East war was when Italy launched the East African campaign in July 1940, invading British Sudan, Somalia and Kenya, and crushing Egypt's back; and the beginning of the war with a frontal attack on Egypt from Libya.

But in the end, whether it was the Northeast Africa peripheral war, the Egyptian-Libyan campaign, or the North African landing campaign, the final victor was still the United States, Britain and other allied forces.

As for Germany and Italy, not only were they defeated, but even the main German army, which was commanded by Rommel, suffered heavy losses during the night, and of course the Italian troops suffered casualties and surrendered a large number of troops.

Of course, during and after the Second World War, in the Middle East, the biggest winners were not Britain, France, nor the Soviet Union, but the United States.

Before the war, Britain held a firm grip on Egypt, Palestine, and Jordan, controlled Iraq, and interfered with government decision-making in the Arabian Peninsula in the southern part of the Middle East.

France, on the other hand, holds the mandate over Syria and Lebanon.

But after the outbreak of World War II, everything changed in the Middle East.

"Maybe the Führer will plan to occupy the oil fields in the Persian Gulf that let me go south to Iran first, and occupy the LinkedIn countrymen's rule, completely destroy the British resource base, and turn the British planes and tanks into useless scrap metal!"

After looking at it for a long time, Guderian made up his mind.

He thinks this for a simple reason: Iran was one of the central factors that determined the outcome of World War II.

If Iran is controlled by the British, American, Soviet and other allies, then Iran's railways and oil fields will be used by the British and American forces to transport all kinds of military supplies and soldiers to the Soviet army to fight against the German troops on the Eastern Front, and then drag down a large number of German living forces.

On the other hand, once Iran was controlled by the German army, then the German army would also be able to use Iran's railways to attack the British Persian Gulf and destroy the British oil base, so that the British army could not continue to transport military supplies such as food, medicine, fuel, metals, weapons and engines to the Soviet Union.

"But if you want to control Iran, then you must first defeat the British, American, and Soviet forces stationed in Iran and Iraq."

But then Guderian continued to mumble to himself with interest.

Then he picked up the investigation report of Chen Yanlong's current troops, and browsed and studied it.

By the end of June 1941, the Germans had a total of 205 divisions, including 38 divisions on the Western Front, 145 divisions on the Eastern Front, 12 Norwegian divisions, 7 Balkan divisions, 2 Libyan divisions, and 1 Danish division.

For such a scattered state of troops, Guderian at that time was already a headache; Because he felt that there were too many troops stationed on the Western Front and Norway, but the troops on the Eastern Front were not enough, and if Rommel's Afrika Korps had been able to obtain more new weapons and equipment, he might not have lost to Montgomery.

Now, according to Guderian's private investigation of Chen Yanlong's strength, he has summed up about 140 divisions on the Eastern Front, and many of them are recruits who have only recently been recruited, and their combat experience is almost zero.

On the Western Front, however, there were less than nine divisions, because his Middle East forces were divided into seven divisions, and Rommel's forces that were seizing Port Ceuta in the English Channel were also divided into seven divisions, but not including the 1st Airborne Division and the Brandenburg Division.

Norway's strength has been reduced to 3 divisions, while Germany now has 20 divisions, of which 8 divisions are veteran divisions repatriated from Norway, and of course, about 20 divisions are being formed by troops who have been repatriated from Yugoslavia and Finland.

In other words, the most powerful force that Chen Yanlong can have now is only 203 divisions.

Of course, this will have to be done by consolidating and replenishing the troops that have been repatriated from Yugoslavia and Finland.

Otherwise, there are only 183 divisions, and among these troops, there are only less than 100 divisions that really have a certain combat capability, and the rest of the divisions are all recruit divisions and do not have much combat effectiveness.

"It seems that most of the Führer's current troops are strong from outside! I really don't know what the final result will be if I continue to fight like this! ”

When Guderian looked at the general situation of Chen Yanlong's current strength that he had sent someone to investigate privately, he also sighed worriedly.

"Commander! What a victory! ”

At this moment, Guderian's adjutant happily walked into Guderian's officer's room and said with a smile.