"The Indian Red Army is really a fragile rabble, I really don't know how they defeated the British and the Chinese to seize power in India." Stilwell personally brewed three cups of coffee and brought them to the table, and General Marshall, commander of the US Eighth Army, and Major General Patton, commander of the US 2nd Armored Division, took one cup and sat at the table himself.

"China's President Mao didn't make it clear in the investigation report that they were defeated politically rather than militarily, and the policies pursued by the Indian GCD have won the support of most of the low-level Indian civilians." Marshall explained in a calm tone. "But this is not India, and they don't have the support of the Arabs, so they are vulnerable.

"But they still have the whole of India behind them, and theoretically we are fighting against 3.5 billion Indians! But I didn't find a lot of Indians on the battlefield! There was a hint of worry in Barton's tone.

"George, this is a desert terrain, not a river-dense South Asian subcontinent, where the power of tanks and planes can be maximized, so the Indians can't hold the Middle East, and this will soon be the sphere of influence of the United States." Stilwell took a sip from his small coffee cup, and his face couldn't hide the triumphant expression.

The three of them were at the headquarters of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division in the small city of Contila in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The Panzer Division commanded by General Patton was a heavy armoured division, and the battle sequence included the PH Infantry Regiment, the 66th and 67th Armored Regiments, the 17th Armored Engineering Battalion, the 82nd Armored Support Battalion, the 2nd Supply and Maintenance Battalion, and the 147892 Artillery Battalion. At full strength, it has 456 M丨Tuyat light tanks or Grant medium tanks. In the past few days of fighting, this heavy armored division, together with another light armored division, the 4th Armored Division, formed the iron fist of the American army, easily crushing several Indian divisions in their way.

"You say you want to turn the Middle East into a sphere of influence for the United States?" Patton asked, and Stilwell nodded, unlike "politicians and soldiers" like Marshall and Stilwell, who were relatively pure professional officers, so he was a little surprised by Stilwell's statement.

"The President believes that oil will play an increasingly important role in future economic and industrial development," Marshall explained. At present, the United States is the world's largest oil producer, while Germany, China, and Britain do not control much oil, and the Soviet Union has several large oil fields in the Caucasus, close to the Middle East, and is the second largest oil producer after the United States. If both the Persian Gulf and the Soviet Caucasus were to be under the influence of the United States, then in the future the United States would be able to control the whole world by controlling the supply of oil. ”

"That's a good idea, but ......," Barton said, shaking his head, "we haven't won yet, have we?" Oil in the Middle East is not on the Mediterranean coast, but around the Persian Gulf, we have to cross large expanses of desert and mountains without railways and good roads to get there. The Indian Red Army, on the other hand, will set up many obstacles on the way! I think they'll do it! ”

Patton was a complete layman, but when it came to fighting, none of the eight Stilwells were his opponents—at least he thought he would. In his opinion, Stilwell's plan for the desert gale was completely layman's level, and he did not take into account the cruelty of war at all, and only regarded the war as a child's house. And the victory of the American army in Palestine does not say anything either, according to intelligence, the Indian Red Army deployed 200 divisions in the Middle East! There are also 50 to 80 local divisions in the Middle East, and the total strength of the enemy that has been deployed to the Middle East alone is around 4 million! That's a frightening number, and the whole of the Middle East has become a sea of uniforms! Moreover, if China and Germany did not work hard to attack the Soviet Union and India proper, the Soviet Union and India could still send millions of reinforcements to the Middle East.

Moreover, Patton's estimate of the ratio of the U.S. military to Duasan's combat strength is not as optimistic as Marshall and Stilwell. In the Desert Gale program, they estimated that the combat power of one American GI was at least equal to ten Indian Asan! In Barton's view, this is complete ignorance! I think that during the First World War, he had seen soldiers recruited from colonial forces in the armies of European countries, including North Africa, India, Vietnam, etc., and they all undertook the same combat mission as the whites, and at that time, no British or French commander thought that it was necessary to use no Indian or Vietnamese to deal with a German!

"George, you don't have to worry." Seeing Patton's solemn face, Marshall took out a telegram he had just received from his pocket and handed it over: "The caliphate has landed near the port of Jeddah in the Hejaz Kingdom, and like us, it has not encountered much resistance. ”

Patton was stunned for a moment, and then smiled slightly: "General, in my opinion, this does not mean that there is any problem, at least it does not mean that we have won the battle." I remember that in the Desert Gale program, the heaviest battles were supposed to take place in Palestine, the Sinai Peninsula, the port of Jeddah and Mecca. And we will kill at least 300,000 Indians with strong naval and air firepower! Can ...... now We have killed less than 10,000 Indian Ahsan, maybe only 80,000 to 9,000. ”

Marshall nodded, but Barton wasn't done, and he continued, "This is not a good sign, the fact that the enemy is not showing up where and when we want them to be means that they will be there when we don't expect them!" Commanding the entire Red Army in the Middle East were the famous Soviet generals Blyukhel, Ubolevich, and Yakil. They are all the best soldiers in the world, and they have been fighting on the battlefields of the world war for two and a half years. ”

Stilwell cocked Erlang's legs and said thoughtfully, "In this way, Indian Asan has no intention of defeating us on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. But where are their defenses? Air Force reconnaissance did not find their defensive zone, at least not in Transjordan or Syria. Even the Arabian Valley, the Dead Sea and the Golan Heights show no sign of heavy defense. George, where do you think they will be waiting for us?

"I don't know, I don't know." Patton took out a map of the Middle East and put it on the table, took a deep breath and said: "This is the Middle East, the land we are preparing to conquer, from the Anatolian plateau to the south to the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, from the Suez Canal east to the border between India and Afghanistan, a total of millions of square kilometers!" And now we have seized only more than 10,000 square kilometers! ”

Stilwell shrugged: "So what, a good start is half the battle." ”

"Our 2nd Panzer Division has also lost 866 men and 52 tanks in the last few days, and the 3rd Panzer Division has lost 5 men and 44 tanks. ”

"I know that the entire Second Army lost less than a man in the landing and capture of Palestine." Stilwell shook his head and said, "It's nothing, people always die in war, and such losses are completely bearable." ”

"But the question is・・・・・・ how many Indians have we exterminated?" Patton asked himself, "Less than 1, that is, in the last few days of fighting, we exchanged 1:5 with the Indian Red Army, so they have 3 million people in the Middle East, and they may be prepared to pay 3 million, and how many lives are we prepared to pay for this land in the Middle East?" 600,000 or 1.2 million? ”

Stilwell couldn't help but laugh, it was a mocking laugh, fighting a war is not a simple arithmetic problem, what the hell did this Barton think? Is his mind that simple? It seems that he is really not suitable for the position of division commander and above.

"We will consider this situation carefully, George, the main task of the 2nd and 4th Panzer Divisions is now to block the enemy's rear roads in the Sinai Peninsula. Our British friends will soon break through the Suez line of the Indians, where there is at least one army group of the Indian Red Army, and they cannot be let go! Marshall got up and said to Patton and Stilwell, "I will take my leave, I will go to Alexandria for a military conference to-night, and I will probably stay in Alexandria for two or three days, and before I return, the Eighth Army will be under the command of Joseph." ”

Both Stilwell and Patton knew that this military meeting was important and might be related to the distribution of territory in the post-Rì Middle East, so Marshall had to go there himself. The two got up to see Marshall off, and Stilwell gave Barton a few more words, and left for the headquarters in Haifa. But at this moment, none of the three of them have realized that the United States and Britain have stepped into the trap laid for them by Blyukhel!

"Admiral, the British want to revise the Desert Gale plan again." This was the first news that Marshall, who had just flown to Alexandria, heard. He was told the news by Lieutenant General Magrud, commander of the US 7th Army. The headquarters of the 7th Army was still in Alexandria, and the troops under the jurisdiction of this army group had not been on the front line, and they were still roaming in the barracks of Egypt.

"What's going on? Again, revise ...... What do the British want to do? Marshall got into a green sè sedan with a three-star logo on it, and his face was very unhappy. Although the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-American Allied Forces in the Middle East was Sir Montgomery Marcin Bent, this does not mean that the American forces in the Middle East are really under the command of this British field marshal, and the United States is not a little brother sent by Britain at will!

"Sir Massingbent wants to march on the Kingdom of Hejaz after breaking through the Suez Canal."

"The Kingdom of Hejaz?" Marshall was confused when he listened to Magrud's report, "What does the Kingdom of Hejaz have?" The holy city of Mecca and the holy city of Medina? What's the use of those sites? ”

"There's the Caliphate there." Magrud got into the sedan and reminded in a low voice: "The Caliphate, under the command of the Central Affairs Adviser, has just captured the port of Jeddah. ”

"So what?" Marshall didn't understand what Magrud meant. "Isn't the caliph the king of the Hejaz? His family has guarded Mecca for more than a thousand years, so what's wrong with going back to his hometown now? ”

"The caliph was also the leader of the entire world of Muslin, and he also proclaimed himself the monarch of the Arab Empire." As the car drove away, Magrud explained to Marshall: "In addition, the Caliph's army controlled the Sultan's Red Sea Province, which was a colony of the British Empire. Therefore, the British wanted to enter the kingdom of the Hejaz before the caliph took control of the entire territory of the Hejaz, at least half of the Hejaz, and then put pressure on the caliph to force him to abandon the Arab Empire and accept the protection of the British Empire.

When Magrud said this, Marshall finally understood a little, it turned out that Britain wanted to take the opportunity to control the caliph Hussein and turn him into a puppet for them to continue to rule the Middle East. He thought for a moment and asked, "Did you refuse to sue Washington?" Does Mr. President have any instructions? ”

"It has been reported, Mr. President, that the caliphate is very important for the United States to control the Middle East region, and that the United States must have the initiative on the issue of the caliphate! And we should make the caliph feel that the United States is his friend, not his enemy. ”

"This means that the U.S. military is also going to march towards the Kingdom of Hejaz." Marshall shook his head and said, "Although we have a lot of troops, but the enemy's forces are even more・・・・・・ now we put our limited forces into the Hejaz Kingdom, then in the main direction, our forces will be weak." ”

"I have already raised this issue with Washington, and Admiral MacArthur said in a telegram that the follow-up troops will soon arrive in the Middle East, and eventually the United States will put 1.5 million troops into the Middle East!" Magrud paused, and then said: "General, the British did not plan to throw too many troops into the Hejaz area, and Sir Masin Bent also knew that it was not the main direction of attack, and he thought that a few infantry divisions would be enough to occupy most of the Hejaz. Oh, by the way, there's another piece of news that just today at noon, the British army had broken through the Suez Canal, and the Indian Red Army defending there was moving to the south of the Sinai Peninsula. ”

Port of Jeddah, Arabian Peninsula. Early morning of March 8, 1935.

The guns rang out sparsely, and there was no time to stop. On the Red Sea outside the port of Jeddah, a fleet of dozens of warships and cargo ships is barging up military supplies. The port city has been completely controlled by the Caliphate, but the mines in the harbor have not yet been cleared, and in order to ensure safety, the ships have not entered the port for the time being, but are transloading supplies through Guò Beach.

The whole Caliphate's Guards were working land and at sea, and there was no rest for a day and a night. The infantry of the two divisions had already gone ashore, and a lot of supplies had been transported, and Lin Zuoda and Ma Zhongying had been at the landing site since yesterday afternoon, and had been in command of the landing operation all night.

The Caliphate's Guards had begun to assemble and advance inland to drive out small groups of the enemy. It was not the Indian Red Army that defended the area, but the Soviet-supported Hejaz People's Army, and although they had been educated in godlessness for two years, when the soldiers of the Hejaz People's Army saw the caliphate banner (a huge green banner with the name of the Qur'an and Allah embroidered on it). Since ancient times, this flag has only been brought to the battlefield by the caliph himself or when the caliph's appointed representative goes on a campaign. And this time the caliphate's designated representative was none other than Lin Zuoda), who still lost his fighting spirit at the first time, knelt on the ground and cried and prayed, no matter how the party members and cadres in the Hejaz People's Army (Hejaz GCD) beat and scolded, it didn't work. In the end, the Hejaz GCDs abandoned their forces and withdrew to the mountains outside the port of Jeddah, but instead of retreating, they fired guns and artillery all night to try to delay the caliphate's landing, and no doubt they had already reported the arrival of the caliphate to Mecca and Baghdad.

After a sleepless night, Lin Zuoda and Ma Zhongying's eyes were red, and they were now sitting on a C-type armored command vehicle that had floated ashore (that is, two pontoons were temporarily installed on both sides of the armored vehicle), listening to the staff officer's report on the latest battle situation.

"Chief, the Suez line of the Indian Red Army has been abandoned around noon yesterday, and the remnants of the Indian army in the Sinai Peninsula are retreating to the south of the peninsula. In addition, there is also information that Admiral Marshall, commander-in-chief of US forces in the Middle East, arrived in Alexandria yesterday afternoon to attend an important military meeting......"

Ma Zhongying listened to these two pieces of news and sighed softly. Once the Suez Canal is breached, the Anglo-American allies will continue to enter the Middle East. In this way, the caliphate guards under his command will be much safer, and there should be no problem in taking the entire territory of the Hejaz Kingdom.

Lin Zuoda frowned: "It's too fast・・・・・・"

Ma Zhongying looked at him with some surprise, and Lin Zuoda explained lightly: "The Suez Canal defense line is based on natural dangers, and the Soviet army has worked hard for more than a year to build a perfect defense system. According to reconnaissance, this line of defense was not one-way facing the canal, but was deployed in both directions, and was not afraid of a flanking attack at all...... Moreover, the US army has just advanced to the eastern part of the Sinai Peninsula and has not yet begun to attack the Indian defense line. Why did they abandon it on their own initiative? ”

"Maybe they were afraid of annihilation, so they ......"

Lin Zuo shook his head and interrupted: "Then we should have crossed the Arabian Valley before the US military blockaded the eastern part of the Sinai Peninsula, and now what is the matter with retreating to the south of the Sinai Peninsula?" ”

"They can retreat to the Hejaz through the gulf of Aqaba, which is very narrow and not too windy, so it shouldn't be too difficult to build a few pontoon bridges."

"I hope so, but it is also possible that Blyukher will deploy in reverse, first ambushing a large army in the northern part of the Hejaz Mountains, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Gulf of Aqaba into the Sinai Peninsula!"

"In the northern part of the Hejaz Mountains there is the main force of the Indian Red Army?" Ma Zhongying's face turned blue all of a sudden.

Their current location is close to the southern part of the Hejaz Mountains, and if the Indian Red Army really has a heavy army lurking in the northern part of the Hejaz Mountains, it means that their tens of thousands of caliph guards are right under the noses of the Indians!