Still, there were many soldiers who did not believe that their superiors would order them to enter the heart of the desert.

Their idea was simple: if the army was dying of thirst in the desert, could the superiors still count on the army to continue fighting?

This idea certainly made sense, but they clearly did not understand Rommel...... Rommel had always played his cards out of the way, both with his enemies and with his own people.

The people close to Rommel said of him: "It was as if there was a never-ending engine in his body, because he himself was extraordinary, and he also demanded the same from his subordinates, without realizing that ordinary normal people have physical and psychological limits!" ”

So, the next morning the troops received an order to cross the desert.

Hearing this order, many officers and soldiers could not believe it, and they even discussed:

"Did General Rommel know about this order?"

"Is this order from those Italian fools?"

"We should check it out!"

……

But all the talk and suspicion was in vain, because it was Rommel himself who gave the order, and ironically, the Italians were precisely the ones who did not want to do it.

In fact, only one of the troops needed to go deep into the heart of the desert. This is another decision by Rommel to play his cards out of common sense:

At this time, the German army was not strong, only a light division of more than 15,000 people, such a small force pursued the British army of 150,000 people...... According to the traditional military principle, it should be "no division of troops", because if the troops were to be "divided" again, the troops would be divided into several parts with weaker combat effectiveness, and it was obvious that this could easily be broken by the enemy individually.

But Rommel completely ignored this principle, and he divided his forces into four parts of pursuit:

The first part was the 3rd Reconnaissance Group, with 1,500 men and a small number of light tanks and armored vehicles. This section marched north along the coastal road to occupy the port of Benghazi...... As mentioned earlier, the port is an important object of contention for desert warfare.

The second part is the 5th Panzer Regiment...... It was the main force of the 5th Light Panzer Division, and tanks and armored vehicles were mainly concentrated in this regiment.

This part followed the first part to the port of Benghazi, and then advanced eastward in pursuit of the British army towards Mechichi.

This arrangement is reasonable, the tank is not suitable for long-span penetration in the desert, because it requires too much fuel and water, its weight will make it difficult to move in the desert, and the engine will also have difficulty running in high temperatures...... It is more suitable for advancing along coastlines where supplies are easy and there are roads.

The third part was the 2nd Regiment of the 6th Infantry Brigade, which was tasked with covering the flanks of the 5th Panzer Regiment at a slight distance from the coastline and being ready to provide reinforcements to the 5th Panzer Regiment before interspersing it with Mechichi, as appropriate.

The fourth part was the 1st Regiment of the 6th Infantry Brigade, which was tasked with starting from Agdabia and drawing a straight line on the map towards Tengeten, 64 km south of Mechile, to the rear of the British army.

The whole plan was very cleverly arranged, and Rommel set several traps that the British army could not imagine: the British army thought that there were only pursuers in the rear, but they did not expect that there was still a force interspersed with Mechile on the right flank, and when the British army hurriedly defended Mechile, they did not expect that there would be a force interspersed with Tengeten in the rear...... One after the other, like an ambush on all sides.

But as previously stated, the Germans were seriously underarmed, in case the British organized a counterattack...... The consequences are unimaginable.

These Qin Chuan were not worried, because he knew that Rommel would succeed...... The British had long been frightened and had no courage to fight back, and it was precisely because Rommel saw this that he dared to formulate such a pursuit plan.

What Qin Chuan needs to worry about is that he belongs to the 1st Regiment of the 6th Infantry Brigade, which is the fourth part that needs to be interspersed remotely.

The whole journey is 453 kilometers, and this is still a straight line distance on the map.

When Bazel told the soldiers the news, the soldiers exploded.

"Captain!" Someone asked: "More than 400 kilometers, how many days will it take us to reach our destination?" ”

"If you count it as forty kilometers a day, it is expected to be twelve days!" Bazel replied, "They gave us thirteen days!" ”

There was an uproar among the soldiers.

"Thirteen days!" The baker objected: "I wonder if you have taken into account that the actual distance may be much longer than the distance on the map, and there are also problems such as sandstorms and lack of supplies, especially water and food!" ”

"It's difficult!" "But if there are no difficulties, what else do we need to do?" ”

As soon as Bazel said this, the soldiers were silent.

German soldiers were much better in this regard than the armies of other countries in Europe and the United States...... If the troops of other countries were faced with such a situation, they would either strike or rebel.

"So!" Then Bazel commanded: "This is the end of the discussion of this question, you have half an hour to prepare, understand?" ”

"Yes, sir!" The soldiers answered in unison.

Said to be preparing, but the German soldiers did not know what to prepare at all, and the only thing they could do was fill the two water bottles on their waists...... The 5th Light Panzer Division had no experience of living and fighting in the desert, and the only desert training they did was to listen to a few lectures on common tropical diseases. As a result, the German cooking squad initially carried a lot of firewood-burning boilers, only to find that there were no trees at all and fuel had to be brought with them.

"We should find some locals to be tour guides!" Qin Chuan said worriedly.

He saw that the men of the Quartermaster Department were filling empty gasoline barrels with water before carrying them into the bed of the car...... This may be the drinking water they rely on for the next ten days.

But Qin Chuan thinks this is unreliable: what if the car breaks down? What to do if you get separated from the quartermaster? Or what if there is not enough gasoline and the car won't run?

There are also many unexpected dangers, and any one of them is unfortunate enough to be fatal.

"It's difficult!" Werner shook his head: "First of all, we don't understand the language, and secondly, the locals don't want to take this risk, they even hate us!" ”

Werner was right, because not so long ago, the Germans had been fighting with no regard for the lives and buildings of the local population, and the people were certainly not willing to cooperate with the Germans.

"But at least we should try!" Qin Chuan said.

"How do you try?" Werner was a little dazed: "We only have half an hour!" ”

Qin Chuan didn't say anything, took Werner and walked towards the Italian convoy.