[Ran^Text^Library] Chen Dao and Manstein stood side by side in front of the tunnel entrance in Gibraltar, watching the long queue of British prisoners of war emerge from the tunnel.

Chen Dao raised his hand and pointed at the British officer with the rank of general in the queue and said, "That guy is the Governor of Gibraltar?" Called Lieddale? ”

"Is this guy clamoring to kill 200,000 of us? I really don't know where he got his confidence? Manstein also had a look of contempt on his face.

Chen Dao and Manstein saw that it was Lieddale.

Two Waffen-SS soldiers escorted the mellow Lieddale to the two, and the two sides reported their identities to each other, Lieddale raised his chin slightly, tried his best to maintain his dignity, and said to Manstein: "General Manstein, our army has laid down its arms according to the agreement, and I hope that your army will abide by the agreement and let our army enjoy the treatment corresponding to the rank in the prisoner of war camp." ”

Chen Dao said goodbye to Lieddale with disdain, and Manstein said: "Of course our army will abide by the agreement, and you need not worry about your future life as a prisoner of war, Mr. Governor." As for the specific details, I will arrange for General Steiner of the Viking Division to consult with you in detail, and he will make specific arrangements for you. ”

The title General Steiner instantly evoked some of Lieddale's memories.

Thinking that I had claimed in front of Steiner that I wanted to hold on to Gibraltar for three years, and that I was clamoring to kill 200,000 German troops, and now I was going to negotiate with Steiner about the treatment of prisoners of war, this German must have deliberately retaliated against me.

Li Dedell's face turned from white to red, from red to purple, and finally to the color of pork liver.

The corner of Chen Dao's eyes saw the change in Li Dedell's face, and he sneered in his heart.

Words spoken are like water that cannot be recovered, and the governor who is as big as Goering should now understand a truth. It is easy to make a promise, and once a promise is made, it must be fulfilled, otherwise it will definitely suffer from the retribution of the world.

Ignoring Lieddale's disgruntled eyes, Manstein ordered his men to escort Lieddale back to the prisoner of war.

"Look at his reluctant expression, I didn't give him to the group of camp guards who handed him over to the Skeleton Division. He was not satisfied. Chen Dao stared at Li Dedell's back and said dissatisfiedly.

Manstein was about to speak. A voice took the lead.

"The two generals used to be here."

It was Spanish Prime Minister Franco who spoke.

Surrounded by a group of high-ranking Spanish officers, Franco walked up to the two men and looked up at the summit of Mount Gibraltar. With tears in his eyes, he said: "It has been two hundred and thirty-seven years, and the flag of Spain has finally been planted on the mountain of Gibraltar, even if God tells me to die now, I am willing." ”

Chen Dao and Manstein followed Franco's line of sight, and a group of Spanish soldiers had climbed to the top of the cliff at some point. A Spanish flag was being waved incessantly.

"I now understand your feelings, Mr. Prime Minister, that the peninsula of Gibraltar is a sacred and inalienable part of Spanish territory, and I have always believed that." Chen Dao said.

Manstein also congratulated Franco in a timely manner.

Franco retracted his gaze, thanked the two politely, and then smiled at Chen Dao and said, "General Rosen, although we haven't known each other for a long time. But I firmly believe that you are a person who makes a promise easily, and once you do, you will definitely keep it. You have said that the war against Britain will end within six months after the reconquest of Gibraltar, can we start the clock now? ”

Is the smile on the face of this old man the legendary smiling flesh and not smiling?

Chen Dao suddenly felt that Franco's smile was very bad.

"Mr. Prime Minister. In my eyes, the British, especially the British under Churchill, are a mad dog, and now is the time when this mad dog is at its weakest, and we must use this opportunity to beat him to death, otherwise once he recovers, it will definitely run around the streets and bite people everywhere, and spread rabies by the way.

You don't have to worry, the clock starts tomorrow, and in six months, the war will definitely end. Chen Dao said with an oath.

Franco excitedly stretched out his right hand to Chen Dao, and Chen Dao slapped Franco's hand with a slap.

"God testifies, I await the news of General Rosen's victory."

"There is a prerequisite for victory, and that is that the chancellor must do everything in his power to cooperate with Germany." Chen Dao said.

"As long as a final victory can be achieved, Spain will provide all the military assistance it can provide." Franco said.

On 16 March, the Battle of Gibraltar, which had been prepared for half a month and half a month to be carried out, came to an end, and the Mediterranean Sea was officially transformed into an inland lake of the Axis bloc.

At the cost of less than 1,000 dead and wounded, the Germans annihilated more than 15,000 British defenders, successfully occupied the Gibraltar Peninsula, and captured 6,000 tons of gasoline and a large amount of food, ammunition and medicine.

The world was shaken when the Spanish government issued a declaration of victory to recover the peninsula of Gibraltar.

Italy, Norway, Japan, and other members of the Axis Group sent congratulatory messages, and Iraq, Jordan, and France, and even the Soviet Union were not far behind.

As the leading brother of the Axis group, the German government headed by Hitler was even more jubilant.

As soon as Chen Dao returned to Berlin, he was dragged by Goering to the Chancellery to meet Hitler, who humbly took a map of Gibraltar and asked Chen Dao about the whole process of the battle, and praised the performance of the special forces.

Chen Dao, Goering, and Hitler chatted for a while, and suddenly remembered something.

He first glanced at Goering secretly, and then said to Hitler: "Our lovely Mr. Franco is now counting down to the promise of defeating Britain in six months." ”

The smile on Hitler's face faded and he asked softly, "Are you really sure of this?" ”

Chen Dao nodded solemnly and said, "As long as no major changes occur, with our current strength, we will definitely be able to fulfill this promise." ”

Goering sat on the sidelines, his eyes purring a few times, and he instantly guessed Chen Dao's thoughts, and then said: "Since we have made a promise to our allies, we must concentrate all our energy on fulfilling it. In this way, we will be able to preserve our image and dignity as leaders of the Axis bloc. I suggest that our task for the next six months be to concentrate all our efforts on defeating Britain, and to veto any dispersive military action. ”

Chen Dao combined with Goering to create a combination punch, and continued: "Since the victory of the French campaign, the military power of the British has been reduced to a minimum. Our wins now are all because we played a time difference. We must take advantage of the fact that Britain's war potential has not yet been fully exploited to get rid of it as soon as possible. Otherwise, when its strength is restored, our hopes of victory will be greatly reduced. ”

Hitler sighed.

"I understand that you should let go of your One Piece plan. The High Command will do its best to cooperate with you, and this is my promise to you. ”

The three of them discussed for a while, and Chen Dao and Goering left the chancellor's office by car.

On the way home, Chen Dao asked, "The Führer doesn't have any wonderful ideas lately, right?" ”

"His mood has been relatively stable lately, and he has no intention of teasing Stalin." Goering said.

"I'm relieved. It's just that the thinking of middle-aged people in literature and art is too jumpy, we can't be careless, you must pay close attention to the Führer. Chen Dao reminded.

"Don't worry, everything has me, you can go and be your One Piece."

After having lunch at home, Chen Dao came to the office of Navy Commander Raeder that afternoon.

After knocking on the door and entering. Chen Dao was surprised to find that Dönitz, the commander of the submarine force, was also there.

The three of them exchanged a few words of greeting warmly, and Raeder walked to the world map hanging on the wall, pointed to the Strait of Gibraltar excitedly, and said: "Taking Gibraltar, our strategic advantage has been further enhanced, and this is all thanks to you." Heinz. ”

"Although we already have the French port of Brest at our disposal, it is too close to the UK, and the RAF bombers often use the night to sneak up on the port of Brest, which creates a lot of trouble for our fighting, and now with Spain and the Gibraltar Peninsula, our submarines have a safer and more reliable base, no longer have to worry about the RAF sneak attack, and we can also use the Mediterranean Sea as a transit point, free to travel between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, to intercept their transport ships, The real catastrophe for the British was about to befall them. The expression on Dönitz's face was just as excited.

"I have made a promise to the Spaniards that they would take out Britain within six months, and in this decisive battle, our navy will be the absolute main force, and the myth of the invincibility of the British Royal Navy will end in the hands of the German navy." Chen Dao said.

Raeder picked up a letter on his desk and handed it to Chen Dao, and said with a smile: "Look at this letter, the German Navy is fighting very strongly, and I firmly believe in the victory we are about to achieve." ”

Chen Dao quickly read the first page of the letter, and then flipped through the back letterhead, which was full of dense names.

The letter was written by the captain of the battleship Tirpitz. Colonel Top, the contents of a page of the letter can be summed up in one word, please.

"According to your suggestion, after the completion of the battleship Bismarck, we transferred the workers of the battleship Bismarck to the Wilhelm shipyard to speed up the construction of the Tirpitz and put it into service two months earlier than scheduled.

Although the Tirpitz has not yet completed commissioning, the 90 officers and 2,300 crew members led by Colonel Topp are expected to participate in the battle, and you have their petition and collective signatures in your hand, what do you think of their petition? Marshal Raeder asked with a smile.

Chen Dao lowered his head and looked at the signatures on the letter paper again, and said slowly: "I want to say to Colonel Top, he has a month at most to debug the ship and train the crew, the focus of the commissioning and training is the power plant, and when the battle is going on, if there is a problem with the power plant of the Tirpitz, I will really throw it to the British." ”

"So you agree?" Raeder asked.

"Originally, I didn't want the battleship Tirpitz to participate in this battle, since they are eager to fight, I can't dampen their enthusiasm, and with such a capital battleship joining, our chances of victory will be greater, so I really can't bear to refuse." Chen Dao said.

"Colonel Toph will surely be happy to hear this." Marshal Raeder said.

"Where are the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau now?" Chen Dao asked.

"They will be able to enter the Strait of Gibraltar the day after tomorrow, General Ruetjens sent a telegram that their results have exceeded 100,000 tons of transports."

"When they arrive in Spain, our forces have been deployed, and the next step is to carry out Operation Pull. Finally, it was the turn of our lovely Italian and Japanese friends to play, and we hope they can have a good match. ”

"They're going to surprise the British, I'm sure that's pretty much that."

Rome, the capital of Italy, Palazzo Venezia.

Mussolini stood in front of the map with his arms crossed and said to Marshal Badogglio and Ziano with great ambition: "The Mediterranean Sea has now become our sea, the shortcut to the Atlantic has been opened, and now is the time for the world to rediscover the Italian Navy."

Since our German allies are in dire need of our strength, we cannot live up to their expectations, and the Army's lost honor must be earned back by the Navy. ”

"Yes, my leader, the Navy will be your most trusted subordinate, and we have been preparing for almost four months to carry out this combat mission at sea, and everything is foolproof." Marshal Badoglio said.

"What I can't worry about the most is those Japanese dwarfs, although they are only here to play a supporting role, but we can't be careless, we must try our best to urge them to cooperate with our battle, and don't let them lower our combat effectiveness." Mussolini reassured Badoglio.

"Our Navy and the Japanese Navy have already conducted two joint military exercises, and the cooperation has been very pleasant, and the Navy Command is very satisfied with the performance of the Japanese Navy, believing that they are a force with strong combat effectiveness, and that they are only performing some auxiliary tasks in this battle, and even if they perform abnormally, it will not make any difference."

Mussolini nodded and said to Ziano: "Then I can rest assured, you will immediately reply to the German High Command, we will attack according to the original plan, and let them wait for the good news of our victory." ”

Sending Ciano away, Mussolini continued: "You immediately contact General Campioni and General Nagumo, and I will invite them to dinner tonight and practice for them." ”

On 24 March 1941, the brother ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and arrived at the port of Malaga.

On 25 March, two light cruisers and four destroyers of the Japanese Navy crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean.

The moment the Japanese Navy entered the Atlantic, it announced the official start of "Operation Pull". (To be continued.) (lwxs52０。 com))