"General! A telegram from the Division of the 1st Infantry Division and the General Headquarters! Another signal soldier ran up with two telegrams.

"Give it to me."

Montgomery took the telegram and read it. He first read the telegram of the 1st Division, and he wondered why the 1st Division sent a telegram to himself, didn't it say that the 2nd and 4th Divisions would support him? After reading the telegram, Montgomery looked surprised.

He hurriedly looked at the telegram from the headquarters again, and after reading the telegram from the headquarters, a smile finally appeared on Montgomery's gloomy face.

"The order to retreat has been canceled, we will hold out here until the 1st Division arrives, and order the forward positions to be reinforced again, and the enemy's shelling will be more accurate after dawn."

Then Montgomery walked back to the command post on his own, ignoring the puzzled looks of the staff officers around him. Montgomery's heart was so happy, but he couldn't bear to let others see his joy in his expression, and he was always proud that he didn't allow others to see through his inner world.

Finally, there is a rescue, and maybe it is possible to get out of the current situation of being beaten and turn defeat into victory. Lord Gott yesterday ordered all units that had no defensive duty to rush to Arras as soon as possible, with himself and those two brigades as the vanguard, and the 2nd and 4th Infantry Divisions of the Second Army as backup. The main forces of the expeditionary force followed last.

But what I didn't expect was that the 1st Infantry Division, which was one of the main forces, was too agile in its actions, and as a result, they had now surpassed those two support divisions and became the closest unit to them. They had just contacted Goth's headquarters and learned about their situation, and they asked Goth to fight and asked them to come to their aid first. Gort had agreed to their request, and now they were approaching him as fast as they could, believing that they would be able to join him in an hour.

Montgomery couldn't help but be grateful for the 1st Infantry Division's timely help, and was glad that he now finally didn't have to disobey military orders.

What pleased him the most was that the 1st Infantry Division also carried the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, the only one in the entire British Expeditionary Force that had not yet suffered losses, with 18 Matilda II tanks and 64 Matilda 1 tanks. That's exactly what I need the most support.

He was originally ready to retreat because even if the two supporting infantry divisions caught up in time, it was impossible for them to be of any help to his attack. Infantry will never be able to capture that city. With the support of the Air Force, there is still half a chance of success. But the RAF suffered heavy losses in the planes of the French army, and the airfields were in the rear of the French, which did not help itself at all. Moreover, even if they were to be dispatched, the German Air Force would not be left there to watch, and when the time came, it would not be outnumbered and flee. And the air force on the mainland was ordered not to leave the British mainland, so it was even more unexpected.

But now with tanks it was different, Montgomery had a soft spot for heavily armored tanks, believing that the Germans did not yet have a weapon capable of dealing with them, and he had seen with his own eyes the shells of German anti-tank guns that were immediately ejected after hitting them. If these tanks were allowed to attack suddenly, and advance quickly, the time to pass through that section of the battlefield would have been short, and they could break through the enemy's forward positions before the Germans could organize that kind of heavy artillery bombardment. Even if the Germans had time to fire, they would only have had one or two shots, and if they hadn't hit them directly, the shrapnel alone wouldn't have hurt their armor.

By the time they rush into the enemy's forward positions, these tanks can wreak havoc on the enemy's forward positions and cause confusion. Then, while the Germans were scrambling to deal with the tanks, their infantry could rush forward, break through the enemy's front and take advantage of the situation to enter the city. By the time their own infantry and the Germans began to mingle in the city and engage in street fighting, the Germans' terrible heavy artillery would no longer be effective unless they were prepared to kill their own men as well. At that time, it would be a sure thing to occupy the city of Arras with the strength of almost three infantry divisions on his own. If the infantry had been fast enough, it might have been possible to capture the terrible artillery, which was too slow for the Germans to drag them away.

Montgomery excitedly conceived of his battle plan, thinking that if he attacked according to his plan, he would definitely succeed, and now he just waited for the tanks and the 1st Infantry Division to arrive.

At the first light of dawn on May 27, 1940, Montgomery finally arrived for the reinforcements he had been waiting for.

As the commander of the 1st Infantry Division, Harold. When General Alexander entered his command post, Montgomery swooped down and hugged him warmly, and Montgomery could not express his joy at the arrival of the 1st Infantry Division in no other way.

After the two division commanders had exchanged their usual courtesies, Montgomery talked to Alexandra about his battle plan. Alexander couldn't help frowning when he heard this, although he passed by Montgomery's destroyed artillery position on the way here, he still didn't want to believe that the two ordinary German infantry regiments could have such powerful firepower, and he said that he wanted to go to the forward position to see it himself.

Montgomery accompanied him to the forward command post, and when Alexandra saw the bleak scene of the forward position, he was simply stunned. Leaving aside the wounded soldiers, just look at the crumbling trenches and bunkers to see how powerful the shells were, not to mention the hellish sight on the battlefield. The mutilated bodies of an entire regiment of British officers and soldiers were still lying in the place where they had died last night, and the blood flowing from the huge craters had accumulated into small puddles of blood, which made the miserable battlefield even more miserable.

Alexandria took Montgomery's word for it. He had also fought in the First World War, and knew that without the cover of tanks and planes, the infantry would never want to capture an enemy position covered by heavy artillery. Moreover, his own artillery is the same as Montgomery's, it is also a 25-pounder infantry gun. And those heavy 203 mm heavy howitzers are still slowly advancing here with the army headquarters, and now they can't compete with the terrifying firepower of the Germans on their own. He now fully agreed with Montgomery's battle plan, and he felt that it was indeed the only way to deal with the Germans on the other side.

Montgomery, however, discovered the cause of the annihilation of his artillery. A huge balloon floats over Arras. It was at a great distance from the positions of the British, and could not threaten it due to the threat of German artillery fire, which their own anti-aircraft guns could not get close to the forward positions. However, it was able to get a full view of its entire position, and it is believed that the observation balloon had spotted its artillery position last night based on the light of its own artillery fire.

Now Montgomery felt that there was a big problem in his plan, and if his tank forces attacked, he would inevitably be seen by the observation balloon. The attack loses its suddenness, and the threat of heavy artillery bombardment by the enemy increases. But if it is impossible to take out the balloon, its own anti-aircraft artillery may be spotted before it can enter the position, and then it will be blasted into a pile of scrap metal. "Yes, since the Germans can bombard their artillery positions, that is, their artillery fire can already cover their entire positions, if last night it was dark they couldn't see clearly, then now that it's dawn, their positions, including the positions of the newly arrived 1st Division, are placed in front of them without cover, why don't they immediately carry out shelling? It's been an hour of dawn, and the Germans haven't shown any signs of shelling, so could they have another purpose? Montgomery lowered his head and pondered.

"Mundy, what are you thinking?" Alexander asked curiously.

"I was thinking that the Germans were behaving very abnormally, as if there was some conspiracy that we didn't know about. I now feel more and more that we are stepping into a trap. Montgomery replied solemnly.

"Then where did you see that the Germans were acting unusually?"

Alexandra still didn't know what Montgomery was talking about. Montgomery immediately explained his analysis and hunch to Alexander. After listening to Montgomery's analysis, Alexandra also felt that the behavior of the Germans was indeed very problematic, and he very much agreed with Montgomery, and he asked Montgomery about it.

"What should we do now if you follow your idea? Originally, I thought that if we attacked with tanks, we might suffer some losses, but there was still a good hope of success. But listening to you now, I think that even our tank attack may fail, and that the Germans may have more powerful tricks waiting for us, according to your hunch. Are we still going to retreat? Goth will eat ours raw, and you have no idea how zealous he is about this plan. Now we are running out of time. If we decide to attack, we have to attack immediately, and if we continue like this, we will be in big trouble by the time the German tank divisions are finished repairing tomorrow. ”

"Tomorrow......" Montgomery felt as if he had some crucial question in mind, and he stood there with his head bowed, desperately thinking about it.

Suddenly, he raised his head and grabbed Alexanda by the shoulders with both hands.

"Alexander Great! What if those German tanks were okay? What if they had plenty of fuel and didn't need trimming at all! ”

Alexander stared at the excited Montgomery, obviously frightened by Montgomery's assumption, and immediately thought that if Montgomery's assumption was correct, then all this was the most dangerous trap set by the Germans, and if the Germans succeeded, the British expeditionary force would be annihilated. But it's just crazy, would the Germans have come up with such a ruse?

"Mundy, you really scared the hell out of me, and if that's true, then it's horrible. But can you be sure that your idea is correct? ”

"Of course! I finally figured it out, I finally knew why the Germans had so easily exposed their weakness to us, why they had suddenly withdrawn their tank troops, why they had only two infantry regiments in this most important transport hub, and why they had more firepower than one corps.

I figured it all out. They are trying to lure our main force out of the El Canal Zone. And then with those armored divisions that did not need to be trimmed at all, they suddenly penetrated to the rear and flanks of the main forces. Divide us and annihilate us in this area. The Arras in front of us was a huge bait, and a bait that we couldn't swallow in one bite. The job of those two German infantry regiments was to draw us here, and then to hold us back with their heavy artillery, to hold us back, and to wait until our troops were blocked on the plain so that their panzer divisions could attack us at a time and place we did not expect.

It's a brilliant plan, and the man who came up with it is a sinister bastard, but he's also the greatest war genius I know. I can't believe that there is such a guy in the German team. If I have the chance, I must see for myself what kind of guy is this guy who can play with the entire British Expeditionary Force in the palm of his hand. I would also like to know how he managed to get his old-fashioned command to agree to such a huge, elaborate, and crazy plan. ”

Montgomery was so excited that he could barely control himself, he thought he had completely seen through Xu Jun's plan, and his face flushed with excitement that he was able to discover this huge conspiracy before the expeditionary force stepped into the trap.

"Blindfolding...... Mundy. It seems that you are right, you did guess the plans of the Germans, but I think it may be too late for us to understand. Alexander's face turned pale, and his eyes stared blankly at the distant horizon behind Montgomery.

Montgomery quickly turned around and looked in the direction Alexander was looking at.

As smoke rose in the distance, countless tanks and armored vehicles emerged from the horizon, roaring towards the flanks of their positions. On the turret of the hideous No. 4 tank that rushed to the front, a German ** flag with a red background and a black cross was fluttering high in the wind.

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