"W-What?" Manstein listened to Leon's words and couldn't react for a while, "My Führer, Chief of Staff of Army Group A?" Are you sure? ”

"Yes, Chief of Staff of Army Group A!" Leon confirmed with a smile.

"And what about the original chief of staff of Army Group A? Was he removed from office? Manstein asked with concern.

He was very thoughtful, if the original chief of staff was demoted because of his promotion, then he would prepare early and find a suitable time to visit him, so as not to have problems in future cooperation.

"No, no, no, Manstein, I see what you mean." Leon explained, "But no one is demoted because of your promotion. ”

"In fact, on the contrary, instead of being demoted because of your promotion, a large number of officers were promoted."

"Because the French have been expanding their forces recently, in order to maintain the balance on the Western Front, we carried out a new expansion yesterday, with two new army groups in the Wehrmacht and three new infantry corps in the SS, of course, these establishments are still being slowly filled, and they are not yet combative."

"Haha, it seems that I went to Norway for two days, and the Western Front has completely changed." Manstein joked, "By the way, who is the one who is partnering with me in Army Group A?" ”

"It's still Admiral Rundstedt, I think he and you will get along very well." Leon replied.

Rundstedt was the oldest of the senior commanders of the German army, and at the same time he was very full of the spirit of a traditional German officer, with the typical demeanor of a Prussian officer.

In terms of military thinking, Rundstedt's basic concept is relatively steady; he is not brave in innovation, nor does he keep old habits, he insists on advocating infantry as the main branch of the army, and also advocates the renewal of the technical equipment of the troops, especially the development of armored units, and at the same time he is also very good at applying the new tactics of the German army.

It is precisely because of these characteristics, coupled with the fact that he never interferes too much in the command of his subordinates and is good at taking the opinions of his colleagues, that Leon will choose to let him cooperate with Manstein and continue to serve as the commander of Army Group A, so as to ensure that Manstein can give full play to his excellent strategic talents without scruples.

It is foreseeable that with the steady and experienced Rundstedt as the commander, and the bold and meticulous Manstein as the chief of staff, the strength of Army Group A will be greatly improved in a short period of time, and it will become a terrifying force that will give the Allies a headache.

In addition, in order to further make this force able to comprehensively crush the Allies in future wars and become the spear tip of the German war spear, Lyon also drew some elites from the armored forces of other army groups, and based on these elites, formed four new German armored divisions, which formed two Panzer Corps - the First Panzer Corps of the Wehrmacht and the Second Panzer Corps of the Wehrmacht, which were led by Guderian and Rommel respectively.

They were not subordinate to any Army Group, but were directly subordinate to Army Group A, under the direct command of Manstein and Rundstedt.

"Overall, Manstein, I have given you the best troops of the Empire, while at the same time allowing you to command your troops individually as much as possible, so that you can make the most of your talents. So I don't think you're going to let me, the empire, down, down, you, right? Leon asked solemnly.

"Of course, my Führer." Manstein assured with the same seriousness, "I will not let you, the Empire, down!" ”

"That's good." Leon smiled and said, "So be it, and I wish you all the best on your journey." ”

"Thank you, Führer!" Manstein said immediately, then put down the wireless microphone in his hand, walked back to the cabin from the cockpit of the plane, found a seat and sat down, and began to carefully calculate his future plans.

He used to be only the chief of staff of the army group, and this time the Führer directly promoted him to the chief officer of the group army, saying that it was all false to say that he was not nervous, but more than nervous, he was looking forward to being able to show his ambitions in France, and to command the most powerful army of the empire to avenge the success of the Führer and the motherland who trusted him so much.

On the other side, Ludwig saw that Lyon had ended the call with Manstein, and stepped forward and whispered: "Führer, the plane is ready to take off at any time." ”

"Tell me about the route." Leon rubbed his temples, stood up and walked out of the Führer's house.

"Okay Führer." Ludwig nodded, "We took off from Berlin and arrived at the Italian air base in Calabria under the escort of our air force, where we refueled and flew across the Mediterranean to Iraq, the first stop of our trip to the Middle East. ”

"That's good." Leon nodded, got into a high-class bulletproof car that was parked outside the presidential palace for 24 hours and was specially developed by Daim Mercedes-Benz for Lyon, and drove towards the Berlin air base under the close protection of the SS Führer's Guard.

This was Lyon's first trip to the Middle East, and in his previous life, the Middle East was always full of wars and assassinations, and it was a little far from Europe, that is, Lyon's sphere of influence, so he didn't want to go there, after all, he now had the fate of the whole of Germany hanging on him.

And the reason why he arranged this trip to the Middle East "against his heart" this time was because the empire's oil balance ratio began to be negative, and the army began to consume the empire's oil reserves, so he had to go to the Middle East to seek oil resources.

However, although the Middle East was not very stable due to geographical problems (it has been the core of the conflict between Europe and the Arab world since ancient times, plus the border problems after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire) and religious problems, because the most serious core problems had not yet arisen at this time (the YSL and BLST issues about Jerusalem), this instability did not lead to the point where it would have to be bloodied.

Coupled with the strength of the Gestapo's headquarters in the Middle East, and the fact that Iran and Iraq are now pro-German, Lyon dared to go to the Middle East in person to negotiate the oil issue.

When the crowd arrived at the airport, three large four-engine planes began to warm up their engines, and the Gestapo security forces began to inspect the three planes to ensure the Führer's safety.

After a rigorous inspection to make sure everything was okay, Lyon and Ludwig boarded the very comfortable "Führer's plane" with some accompanying officials and personal guards, and the accompanying Führer Guard boarded the other two with weapons and equipment.

Compared with the "Führer's plane", the environment of the two planes on which the Führer Guard flew was not very comfortable, and they belonged to typical troop carriers - there were a lot of seats and could put a lot of weapons and equipment, but the environment was terrible.