Anyone who knew Rommel knew that this man was a natural adventurer, and those so-called all-powerful leaders seemed to be nothing compared to him. The Rommel general liked to get into the tank himself and attack with his troops, the Rommel general liked to sit on light planes and lean out of the plane to take pictures of his own troops, and the most dangerous experience of this somewhat reckless general was that a bullet hit a staff officer who was less than two paces away from him.

Of course, if you are familiar with the real history of World War II in France and the history of the Afrika Korps, you will find a tragic thing, this general named Rommel is a commander who likes to disobey orders on the battlefield. As soon as he sees an opportunity, whether it's real or fake, he attacks as long as he judges it as an opportunity.

This earned him the reputation of the Desert Fox, and also laid the foundation for his later defeat. And now he has a more prosperous "saint" than in another time and space - this time Rommel is a general who has been picked up by Accardo more than Hitler's love, and in private he even considers himself the Führer's own army. So at Lisley, he and Guderian made almost identical decisions.

He patiently arranged the headquarters at Lisley, then left his staff and retinue, climbed into a Leopard tank, and as his "reconnaissance unit" continued forward, he launched a "general reconnaissance" that made everyone laugh and cry.

This limited reconnaissance operation detected the city of Marles, an important French city, in one go, and when Rommel came to the outskirts of Marles and learned in a unique way that the French defenders were incompetent, he decided to let his few troops attack.

His unique method of reconnaissance was to sit in a tank, pass through the city as fast as he could, and judge the number of French defenders by listening to the sound of gunfire on the tank. This may sound risky, but Rommel, after a trial of the periphery, found that the French had no intention of holding the place, so his adventurous spirit, or rather the spirit of death, manifested itself and made this dangerous factor 9. 9 crazy moves.

The French did not expect that there would be such a person who was not afraid of death and dared to cross the city with a tank, and by the time they came to their senses, the tank had already passed through the city. Of course, this also testifies to the weakness of the French army's lack of preparedness and the absence of anti-tank weapons. Soon 1 tank regiment and 1 motorized infantry regiment of the 7th Panzer Army caught up with their commander and drove the French out of Malle.

The victory at Marles gave a self-confident Rommel a reason to continue his "reconnaissance" to the northwest, and he was determined to order his troops to continue their anticipatory attack on the French army and capture Le Catlet.

The loss of Marles also completely stunned the French army, originally judged that the German army captured Stone was preparing to go south, and the French commander Gammelin found out that the real goal of the German army was to encircle his main force in Belgium, so he hurriedly ordered the troops in France to organize a counterattack, but he received the news that De Gaulle had been defeated in Stone.

Guderian's cooperation made Rommel very comfortable, and when he learned that Guderian's 1st Panzer Army had passed through Lisley, stormed Leon and occupied it, he used the word "understanding" to describe his flanking partner. The news of Leon's capture also made him feel more at ease and boldly move towards his goal.

His troops carried rubber pipes along the way, looting discarded French gasoline and civilian gasoline to compensate for the awkward situation of not having supplies. Guderian's 1st Panzer Division was slightly more limited, and it also needed to use local materials from time to time, and the two generals were like two bandits who completed their pre-planned combat mission.

Of course, in the north of Rommel's troops, the 5th Light Panzer Corps under Rundstedt had to be dragged forward with great reluctance in order to avoid Rommel's 7th Panzer Corps from being too prominent, although they were not so proactive, but they faced a weaker defense of the Anglo-French army, so they had unknowingly hit the northern city of Le Catleo.

By the time the 5th Light Panzer Corps arrived at Le Cateau, the French had already left, threatened by Rommel's offensive on the flanks, and they abandoned the important city to the 5th Light Panzer Corps and a hospital full of wounded soldiers.

The speed of the German advance apparently completely frightened the French commanders, who were in an awkward position with their Belgian defensive lines: if they retreated, the interests of the Belgian allies they had been defending would be wiped out, and if they continued to hold out, they would be at risk of being encircled in Belgian territory.

In the mess of Brussels, Colonel Grul, who had been promoted to commander of the Brussels garrison, stared blankly at the Gammelin in front of him, as well as the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Lord Gort, chief of staff of the British Empire. The two of them had deliberately rushed over in the hope that Colonel Grull would understand their decision.

"Colonel Gruul, we must ensure the safety of the entire coalition force. Gott said a little stubbornly: "The Germans threaten the security of the transport and supply lines in our rear, which makes us lose the initiative, we need to shorten the defense line and draw some troops south to counterattack the Germans...... Thank you for your understanding. ”

"So I've been temporarily appointed commander of the defense of Brussels, to help you hold off the German offensive?" asked Gruul, staring at Gott.

"Yes, if the Belgian troops can hold out in Brussels for two to three weeks, then we will counterattack, and as allies we will fulfill our obligations. Gan Molin was also embarrassed on the side, and said to Lord Gort.

In fact, the idea of retreating backwards and abandoning part of Belgian territory was the idea of Gott, and it was he who single-handedly contributed to the plan and obtained the passage in the Allied Command. It was easier for Britain to make the decision to give up some of its Belgian interests than the ties between France and Belgium, which were closely related. They had to prioritize the safety of the British Expeditionary Force before they thought about anything else.

However, even so, Britain's decision to facilitate the withdrawal of the main forces of the Anglo-French coalition was very reluctant and highly questionable. At least General Montgomery, commander of the 2nd Division of the 3rd Army of the Expeditionary Force, strongly disagreed with this betrayal. He drew out a part of his elite troops and moved south to deal with the German armored forces, while most of the defenders remained in place.

Unfortunately, his construction was not taken seriously by Gott, and the Anglo-French forces finally decided to give up part of the Belgian-controlled area to shorten the defense line and move troops south, so as to ensure the absolute security of the entire allied supply line.

But in doing so, they gave up some of their Belgian interests, and were resisted by most Belgian officers. This anger and resistance has spread within the coalition forces, and has even affected the cooperative relationship between the two sides. On many occasions, for example, the Belgian defenders refused to provide fuel to the retreating Anglo-French forces and refused to send food supplies to these allies.

However, under the effect of mutual evasion and constraints, the slow shrinking speed of the Allied forces was never able to get rid of the pursuit of the German Army Group B, and the defensive line was shrinking again and again, but it was still unable to draw effective forces to support its own fragile southern supply line.

Now that Brussels, Belgium has become a front-line city that the German army can directly threaten, and the country of Belgium has reached a life-and-death crisis, most of the Belgian defenders have decided to live and die with the country. But their idea was still that France and England would stop retreating and join forces with them to fight to the death, instead of walking around the road with their luggage and equipment every day, as they are now.

That's why there was an embarrassing meeting between the two sides this time, and the two sides couldn't get used to each other's decisions, so they had to discuss the next issues in such a disgraced manner.

"Colonel Gruul, I know you are for the sake of the country, and I want to be able to hold the city with you, but we must not be emotional, we must make the necessary trade-offs for victory. Lord Goth sighed and persuaded again: "We must win in the south before we can safely return north to Brussels." ”

"Do you think we can do it for two weeks, relying on weak forces to defend such a vast territory?" Gruul was almost amused by the fantastical demands of his allies: "We lack heavy weaponry, we can't stop the German 6th Panzer Corps in the north, and we don't have the ability to counterattack the German 2nd Panzer Corps that is advancing in our south, what can we do to hold Brussels?"

"This ......" Got's face was slightly red, and he was too embarrassed to speak.

The commander of the French army, Gammelin, had no choice but to come up with their plan: "Belgium concentrates its forces to hold Brussels, and the German armored forces are not very effective in fighting in large cities, and it can still be held for two weeks...... That's the main reason why we came to you. ”

This plan is more feasible than other battle plans, but it has a very strict side effect, that is, holding on to Brussels in this way will scorch the city, and whatever the final outcome of the war, the city will become synonymous with ruins.

Colonel Grull glanced at Ganmarin, did not speak, he just walked to the door, opened the door of his office, and then made a send-off gesture to the two generals who were much higher in rank than him, and then said: "Whatever you may do, the Belgians will defend their country in their own way." ”