Looking at the procession on the mountain road, Rommel couldn't help but feel a little helpless. The sudden reduction of the originally scheduled four-week training to three weeks, and the fact that some of the scheduled training subjects could not be carried out, inevitably had some adverse effects on the troops.

Fortunately, Rommel's troops received some compensation from elsewhere before setting off - due to the successful arrival of the German combat unit formed in the name of the mercenary group, in order to cooperate with the anti-encirclement operation, the command specially transferred an infantry squad from the mercenary group to supplement Rommel's 23rd battalion.

Regardless of the fact that there were only 10 soldiers in this squad, Rommel was happy for a while when they came to report. They are nominally shoulder mercenaries, but in fact, like Rommel, they are genuine German ** people.

1 non-commissioned officer plus 9 soldiers, the standard German Army establishment!

1 improved LMG Firebird, 1 MP16 submachine gun, 2 Luger 08 pistols and 7 Mauser 1898 rifles, standard German Army configuration!

Rommel incorporated the newly arrived mercenary infantry squad into the battalion headquarters, and then immediately announced that the entire battalion was moving north of Morelos.

Along the way, Rommel learned that everyone in the infantry squad had previously known each other. The squad leader, Sergeant Fred, was a native of East Prussia, served in the German 8th Army, participated in two major battles and fought more than twenty battles of various scales, and was awarded an Iron Cross of the Second Degree, which he could only remain in the country due to the regulations of the mercenary regiment; The machine gunner, Wenna, was a native of Bavaria, served in the 6th Army, shot countless enemies, was awarded an Iron Cross of the 2nd degree, and was included in the reserve at the beginning of the year; Deputy machine gunner Joseph, a native of Bavaria, is 23 years old and has been in service for 4 years, and was originally scheduled to be transferred to the reserve at the end of the year; The seven riflemen were also from various regions of Germany, aged between 22 and 28 years old, and all had experience in at least one campaign and ten battles. Private Igo is a semi-professional sniper who studied sniping techniques at a wartime sniper training school.

The weapons used by the mercenary group are all German, but these soldiers are not wearing traditional gray military uniforms, but instead of the most commonly used khaki military uniforms of the British ** team, and they wear special steel helmets with a dome on the ground, the purpose of wearing them is very simple, that is, to try not to let outsiders see through their identities. If they were unfortunate enough to be captured by the American army, they had in their pockets a fake document proving that they were Austrian citizens. and a contract letter for a mercenary group, which would have kept them alive if they were captured, and the German government would have the opportunity to exchange them back through secret diplomatic channels.

Of course, if our General Rommel is also captured, a similar forged identity and mercenary contract can guarantee his life, as long as he is not so unlucky to be killed on the spot.

Departing from the base area in the morning, Rommel and his battalion were out of the area controlled by the peasant army before noon. After this, he put the two platoons of the company in charge of the marching guard and ordered the soldiers not to speak during the march. Judging from the situation in one afternoon, the three weeks of training still achieved good results.

Since only weapons and two days' worth of dry rations were carried. Rommel's 23rd Battalion marched at a fast pace. At dusk, they arrived on a hill more than 50 kilometers west of Mexico City, not far from the foot of a dirt road on which the American Expeditionary Force used as a northern blockade to isolate the Morelos base of the peasant army from the outside world. Therefore. If you want to get in and out of Morelos from the north, this road is the way to go.

"Let the troops hide in the woods, no one is allowed to make a sound, everyone take care of their weapons, and don't go off!" Rommel gave Jehart an order, and then led Sergeant Fred, the leader of the mercenary squad, to the front and observed the situation with a telescope.

Stay. Under the sunset, you can see a small house on both sides of the highway at intervals, that is, the temporary guard post set up by the American army, and there is a small watchtower with searchlights on top of the house, and a soldier with a rifle is standing guard on each watchtower. Patrols of eight people walked back and forth between checkpoints 4 or 500 meters apart. It is very difficult to pass through or attack such a blockade during the day. Rommel estimated that when a certain part of the highway was attacked, the American patrols at three or four nearby checkpoints would be able to arrive for reinforcements within five minutes, and the number of American troops gathered at the accident site within ten minutes should be about 200. It is no wonder that some time ago, when the peasant army guerrillas attacked the US convoys at night, they were always driven away and attacked by the superior forces of the other side, and it turned out that the Americans had already strengthened their blockade line deployment, and it was not surprising that it was becoming more and more difficult for the guerrillas of 10 or 20 men to achieve results.

"Sure enough, it's heavily guarded!" Rommel said as he handed the telescope to Fred, "How did you get here last time?" While it's dark? ”

Fred looked at Rommel very seriously, "No, let's touch a checkpoint and kill all the American soldiers inside." Then swagger over! ”

Rommel was a little surprised, and a little envious, if his previous armored regiment was also here, he could have swaggered through the US blockade line, and even cleaned up the US military posts along the blockade line, instead of sneaking in while it was dark like before.

"What's in there?" Rommel asked.

Fred thought for a moment, "A dozen beds, a few boxes of ammunition, some food, and...... Phone! Yes, a phone! ”

Rommel silently wrote this down in his mind.

"Look, a convoy is coming!" Fred whispered to Rommel, "From the east, it's ...... 1 car, 6 trucks, all covered with canvas, may be full of soldiers, or it may be ammunition! ”

Just then, Rommel heard a strange sound coming from a distance. After listening carefully for a few seconds, he quickly pulled Fred by the waist and walked towards the grove where the troops were hiding.

Half a minute later, an American-made biplane reconnaissance plane flew over the woods, made a bend after a while, and then slowly flew away along the road to the west.

"Once upon a time, it was all our planes flying in the sky!" Ghartt said self-deprecatingly.

"You go and ask them if they know how often American planes appear in this area!" Rommel pointed to the Mexican soldiers sitting in the shade of the trees.

After finding a few Mexicans to understand the situation, Jehart turned back, "Some of them said five minutes, some said half an hour, and the opinions were very different!" ”

Rommel looked up at the scene outside, less than an hour before it got dark.

"It's okay, we'll wait until it gets dark!"

The nights are much longer in winter than in summer, and before 6 o'clock it was completely dark outside.

After this. Rommel called in the commanders of the companies, who were the most hard-working and disciplined in peacetime. After some advice, Rommel took the mercenary squad and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd companies down the mountain, and the 4th company stayed where it was to prepare to respond.

After dark, the winding road did not fall into darkness. The searchlights of the U.S. military sentry sentry scanned the highway back and forth, and patrols with flashlights continued to patrol the road.

"Jehart, let the 1st and 2nd company commanders act according to the order I just made, and cut the telephone lines on the side of the road as soon as the battle begins! And also. It is only allowed to block the attack, and when you hear the whistle, you immediately retreat to the mountain! Fred, take your squad of machine guns and 4 infantry to that small hill, and be responsible for suppressing the American fire within 400 meters of the east and west after the battle begins! ”

After that, Rommel called in a few more soldiers in charge of planting the mines, and asked them to take advantage of the searchlight scans to bury the rope mines on the road, and then pull the mines when they saw the green flares.

"Igo, how many searchlights can you knock out in this position?" Rommel called in the only sniper in the infantry squad, and here he was the only one with a 6x scope on his rifle.

Igo looked left and right, "3 on the left." 2 on the right. It's hard to get there! ”

"Well, you'll be in charge of those searchlights when the battle begins!"

After the order was given, Rommel took out a small revolver from his bag. Carefully put a flare in it.

Soon, the companies completed their scheduled deployment as ordered, and now they are only waiting for the arrival of the next American convoy.

The winter nights were long and cold, and the Mexican soldiers, crouching in the grass and bushes by the roadside, began to feel the cold, and one by one they crouched or lay on their stomachs, the only movement was to rub their hands gently.

In contrast, the American soldiers in charge of patrols were less patient, and as time went on, they gradually reduced the frequency of their patrols, and spent most of their time hiding in some rudimentary but strong enough to withstand the wind and cold. The soldier in charge of the searchlight was still scanning the road with the thick pillar of light, but it was clearly absent-minded.

At around 8 p.m., Rommel waited for the first convoy to pass through at night. However, he saw through the distant headlights that there were 20 trucks on the other side, which was much more than the "fishing net" he had prepared for the Americans.

When the American cars passed one after another, Rommel, who was holding a flare gun, was still a little apprehensive, and if his Mexican soldiers couldn't help but open fire, he would immediately give the signal to attack, if the cars were full of American soldiers. Then he had no choice but to blow the whistle immediately to announce the retreat.

Thankfully, the Mexican soldiers didn't pull their triggers until the last car disappeared at the end of the road, and three weeks of intensive scraping at least taught them to obey orders.

More than half an hour later, another convoy appeared, this time a total of eight trucks covered in canvas. As the fourth car was about to pass through the mine-laying site, Rommel pulled the trigger just in time.

After a few explosions, the two US military trucks in the middle suddenly flipped to the side, and then the truck in front that tried to escape also lost its direction in a burst of bullets, and the remaining concealed trucks finally stopped under the guns of the peasant army.

At the same time, the searchlights in the front and rear of the convoy were extinguished one after another, plunging a large area into darkness.

In the vicinity of the convoy, a few small fires from the mine explosion were still burning on the ground, dark red bullets streaked across the night sky from time to time, and the American soldiers who jumped out of the truck were quickly knocked out, and the dozen or so American soldiers who came out of the nearest outpost were left with a single machine-gun fire.

At this time, Rommel patted Gerhardt on the shoulder, and the guy immediately riveted his throat:

"3 Consecutive Attacks!"

More than 60 soldiers, most in their 20s and 30s, rushed down the road amid a burst of shouts, and the last soldiers in the American convoy gave up their resistance at the sudden onslaught.

The soldiers climbed into the truck and shouted, "It's food!" ”

"General, it's food!" Jehart looked at Rommel excitedly.

Rommel said one word with an indifferent expression: "Burn!" ”

After two seconds of hesitation, Jehart refreshed himself, and the situation at this time did not allow them to move the heavy grain back to the base area.

"Yes!"

In a short time, the gunfire on the east and west flanks intensified, and it appeared that the two companies responsible for blocking the attack and the American reinforcements exchanged fire.

At that moment, the soldiers of the 3rd Company lit the fuel tanks of the trucks, and after a few muffled bangs, the trucks loaded with food turned into fireballs. Picking up the guns scattered on the ground, the soldiers of the 3rd Company quickly withdrew from the road.

Hush...... Hush......

A minute later, Rommel blew the whistle for retreat, and the gunfire on both sides gradually subsided, until at last only the wounded American soldiers could be heard wailing.

Before the U.S. forces could launch a massive pull-out, Rommel's troops had retreated to safety. Although the battle did not capture the expected weapons and ammunition, the first victory after the reorganization will undoubtedly bring great encouragement to these Mexican soldiers. Even happier was that two soldiers from the 3rd Company had taken a bag of canned beef from the truck before evacuating, and although Rommel was a little unhappy with this behavior, he still allowed the 200 or so people to gather together for a feast. Even though everyone could only get a small half can of beef, the smile on every face was so satisfying.

After counting the losses of the battle, Rommel could not be happy. Such an ambush was a great one, killing and wounding at least 50 American soldiers, but it also cost a lot of bullets, grenades and mines. With the remaining ammunition in the soldiers' hands, Rommel estimated that they would be able to cope with an ambush of the same size at best.

After that, the troops will be in a situation where they will run out of ammunition and food.

After continuing west for about 5 kilometers, Rommel told everyone to rest in place. In a few moments, most of the people, except for the sentinels in charge of the guard, were sleepy. After thinking about it for a long time, Rommel decided to jump outside the American blockade with his troops, so that he would have the opportunity to seek assistance from German merchants near the port.

As far as he knew, there were not a few weapons and ammunition that had been shipped to Mexico but could not be sent to the base areas for the time being, and in several private warehouses near the port of Tampico, a large number of brand-new rifles and ammunition had been stored there for several days, and it was not difficult to get some food from there.

At 4 a.m., Rommel, who had only squinted for a moment, beckoned his troops to move on. One hour later, they took advantage of the darkness to touch a U.S. military checkpoint next to the road, and then sneaked to the north of the blockade before other U.S. patrols noticed the anomaly.