When Qin Chuan and Colonel Slein rushed to Rommel's headquarters, Rommel was discussing something with Major General Stryk and others, and to Qin Chuan's surprise, Rommel's face did not have the joy that he should have when he was victorious, but regret.

"General!" Qin Chuan and Colonel Slein walked up to Rommel and saluted.

Rommel looked up and saw that it was the two of them, and his face was soon full of smiles, and he said, "Look, our hero is here, welcome!" ”

The officers in the command spontaneously applauded, and several officers, including Rommel, enthusiastically stepped forward to shake hands with Qin Chuan and Colonel Slein.

"Lieutenant, you're doing a great job!" Rommel said: "I am not only talking about your performance on the battlefield, but also about your suggestions and plans that allowed us to defeat the mighty Allies once again." More importantly...... If the British don't find a better way, we can keep using the mountains and tunnels in Tunisia to stalemate them, that is, we have finally found a foothold. ”

"But the General!" Colonel Slain said, "You seem to be ...... And what you don't like! ”

Colonel Slein also saw it.

"Yes!" Rommel nodded and sighed: "You know what? We could have called back! ”

"What?"

"I mean, we can attack Tripoli!" "And then attack Benghazi, Tobruk, Matroux as before," Rommel said...... And even drive the British into the sea! ”

"But ......" Colonel Slain looked at Qin Chuan, who he thought was difficult.

Qin Chuan knew what Rommel was thinking, Tripoli was the logistics supply port of the British army at this time, if the two German armored divisions launched a surprise attack there...... It is indeed possible to regain Tripoli and obtain a large amount of supplies and cause the Allies to retreat on all fronts, as was the case with Tobruk and Alexandria.

Attack, at the same time, is Rommel's style of employing troops.

Sure enough, Rommel said: "Do you know what will happen if we take Tripoli and attack all the way along the Corniche and occupy the coastal ports?" The British armored forces will have to stay here forever! ”

This is indeed possible, although the British army has air supremacy, but because the German army has the 27th Air Wing and the quality of the pilots is generally better than that of the British and American pilots, especially compared with the American pilots who do not have much combat experience, so the German army may have partial air supremacy, such as covering the attack of German armored forces over Tripoli.

"We didn't do it because we didn't have enough fuel, didn't we?" Qin Chuan asked.

Rommel nodded and replied, "This is also the reason why we were unable to encircle the British 15th and 7th Panzer Divisions in Gafsa, and it is also the reason why our fighters are rarely dispatched. ”

Qin Chuan couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, he knew that the Afrika Korps was short of fuel, but he didn't expect it to be so short.

This is somewhat beyond Qin Chuan's imagination, because the communication line from Algiers to the port of Toulon in France has been opened and is very safe, so it should not be so short of fuel.

Rommel seemed to see through Qin Chuan's thoughts, so he explained: "Warships, warplanes, tanks, cars, etc., everything needs fuel, and Berlin also needs fuel for the Eastern Front, so ......"

Hearing this, Qin Chuan understood.

The lack of fuel in the Afrika Korps may also have something to do with itself, the Afrika Korps in history should not have so many tanks surviving, and now the three armored divisions have 300 tanks, although they are not yet fully equipped, they are much better than the only dozens of tanks left in history.

In particular, Qin Chuan also captured an entire Toulon fleet...... These warships are big oil burners.

As a result, although a relatively safe transportation channel has been established and a steady stream of fuel has been delivered, it is still unable to make ends meet.

It is also a matter of time, as the Afrika Korps withdrew to Tunisia after a defeat on the Eastern Front and Hitler refocused his focus on North Africa...... The Eastern Front was in full swing, and Hitler's supply shipments to North Africa would certainly not be much.

"Do you know how dangerous we are in this battle?" General Stryk said: "Our fuel is already on the danger line, if the British know this and launch another attack from the sea...... We can't even take on it! ”

The reason, of course, was that there was not enough fuel, and Qin Chuan later learned that the two German armored divisions were pretending to be worried about being bombed by the British and moving slowly, but in fact they were short of fuel.

"We can't let anyone know about that!" Rommel said solemnly: "Otherwise, the consequences will be unimaginable!" ”

Qin Chuan and Colonel Slain stepped forward and replied in unison: "Yes, General!" ”

"I'm afraid that this situation will not change for a long time in the future!" Rommel said with some concern: "The fuel allocated to us by the Berlin side every month is only enough for us to fight a battle!" That is, if the British launched two large-scale offences in a month...... Then we'll just have to sit back and wait! ”

After thinking about it, Qin Chuan asked, "General, didn't we transfer a geological reconnaissance team from Berlin?" ”

"You mean looking for oil in Algeria?" Rommel couldn't help laughing: "Please, lieutenant, this is a desert, there is only sand and corpses, there will be no oil!" ”

"Oh yes!" Qin Chuan replied: "I'm just asking!" ”

As mentioned before, the technology of this era has entered a misunderstanding about the formation of oil, they think that oil is formed by the long-term seepage of mud from the bottom of the sea, so they take it for granted that oil should be at the seaside.

This may be the reason why several of the large oil fields discovered happen to be close to the sea...... For example, Europe's oil is mainly concentrated in the coastal country of Romania, which is also a major oil importer to Germany and Italy. Another example is the Caucasus oil field, the oil base of the Soviet Union, which is located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Therefore, geologists are always looking for oil by the sea, which is the main reason why Africa, a country rich in oil resources, was not discovered and developed until after 1950, and they generally believed that there would be no oil in an arid and barren land like Africa.

After thinking about it repeatedly, Qin Chuan thought that he could already hold Tunisia by using the tunnel defense, and even if the oil fields were exploited, they would not fall into the hands of the allies.

On the other hand, he thought that Germany would do everything in its power to keep it a secret for its own sake...... After all, the fate of Germany is at stake, and of course they will be cautious and cautious.

But how do you tell them that there is oil in the hinterland? Not only is there oil, but it is also rich in reserves and of good quality, not only good quality, but also mostly self-blowout wells that are easy to exploit......

Qinchuan, who has studied North Africa, even knows several large oil fields, such as the Borma oil field in Tunisia and the Hasim Mesau oil field in Algeria.