In front of Stephen was a copy of the deduction document that Rommel had given him.

Opening the battle rehearsal document, which had been translated into French, Stephen read the key parts of it in less than 30 seconds.

Then, the corners of Stephen's mouth couldn't help but shed a bitter smile. He looked away from the deduction document, raised his head to look at Rommel and said, "In this way, our 5th Division is probably in a desperate situation this time. ”

Rommel handed him the content of the deduction, and Stephen was not surprised. After all, the fame of the German General Staff, after the end of the French Campaign, no French general would not fail to understand - it was the most powerful General Staff in the world!

In this battle situation, everything deduced by the German staff officers under Rommel is exactly in line with the inferences that Stephen has drawn in the past few days based on the battle situation and battlefield changes he has experienced.

Although because of the intensity of the battle, the intensive offensive of the British army did not have time to make further analysis and summary. However, after seeing the Germans hand over this deduction, Stephen, as a man in the bureau, quickly determined most of the conclusions of the deduction.

Now, the British have taken Heights 4 on Stephen's flank, and Heights 3 has become a lonely point and trapped in an encirclement. Once the fight continues, even fools can see that it is only a matter of time before the No. 3 position falls.

And the deduction document that Rommel gave him also clearly pointed out that at this pace, Stephen's 5th Colonial Division may be able to hold out for about 4 days at most, which is still the best estimate made by ignoring the factor of low morale!

In fact, according to what Stephen himself saw and felt, his troops could continue to hold out for another 48 hours, which was already the limit!

Rommel handed over the meaning of the deduction, and Stephen thought he could probably guess some.

Although the other side only brought 2 battalions of troops, these two battalions are the essence and have just demonstrated their high combat effectiveness.

It is certainly unrealistic to rely on only two German battalions to eliminate the British troops besieging Heights 3 in person. However, if you just let these two German battalions play the vanguard and break out with the French 5th colony, the probability of success is still very high.

After all, they were able to break in on their own, and with the addition of the French army, it would be easy to break out again.

But Stephen shook his head and sighed to Rommel: "General Rommel, I am very grateful that you can bring people to the rescue." But we can't break out with your people. Behind our divisions, there are Algerian oil fields that must be defended, a reason why we cannot evacuate in any case! ”

To retreat, Stephen had the opportunity to lead his troops to retreat from the very beginning, when the British army had not yet captured Heights 3.

But he did not retreat, because Berente had given the order to die, and because he himself understood what that oil field meant to France today behind the 5th Division.

"Mr. Major General, I think you seem to have made a mistake......." After understanding Stephen's meaning from the accompanying translator, Rommel smiled conceitedly: "I'm not here to help you lose the Algerian oil fields. ”

Indeed, the Algerian oil fields are not only France's money bag, but also Germany's oil mines. Without this, Germany will be able to import much less oil.

However, for Germany, the importance of Algerian oil fields is much less important than that of France.

First of all, the German army used the blitzkrieg to defeat Poland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, and seized a full 8.1 million tons of oil reserves from these countries, which also made a lot of gains.

This huge increase in oil reserves, combined with the oil reserves that Reinhardt had been preparing since before the war, the Third Reich now has more than 12 million tons of oil reserves, and its war capital can even support Germany to fight against a geographical superpower like the Soviet Union!

Moreover, today's Third Reich not only has the historical Romanian oil fields that can import a large amount of oil, but also the Algerian oil fields developed by Reinhardt under the guidance of Vichy France can import a large amount of oil, and even the large North Sea oil fields dug by Germany itself can produce a large amount of oil on its own.

It can be said that Reinhardt's Third Reich now has too many options and capital.

The loss of the Algerian oil fields was a devastating disaster for the French, but for Germany it was just one less route for importing oil.

Fortunately, Rommel was not prepared to lose this additional oil field import route.

"In fact, I have a way to break the desperate situation that your army is facing now." Rommel instructed the staff officer to translate the phrase to Stephen as it was.

"As long as you have a way, you can do whatever you want!" As soon as Stephen heard from the interpreter, he immediately swore to Rommel and promised: "I can promise anything to keep the oil fields in eastern Algeria!" ”

Stephen's attitude immediately won Rommel's favor. To be honest, although he hoped to take command of this French army for the time being, he was not sure of it.

After all, Rommel's Army Group Africa, which supposedly included only the right to move the Allied forces in Italy. The Vichy French army was essentially under the command of Vichy France itself, and they were not obliged to accept Rommel's command.

It can be said that Stephen's cooperative attitude saved Rommel a lot of effort.

So, Rommel directly took out another battle plan and quickly handed it over to the staff officer, asking him to hand it to Major General Stephen.

This time, Stephen spent a full 10 minutes reading every detail of the second document that Rommel handed him.

"This is a brilliant and daring plan!" Stephen couldn't help but sigh at the end of the reading.

Turning around, Stephen stretched out his right hand to Rommel, who was patiently waiting for him to finish reading the battle plan, and said solemnly: "General, I believe now that you may really be able to solve the situation that I can't solve." All the officers and men of our 5th Division will do everything in their power to cooperate with your battle plan! ”

Rommel stretched out his hand to shake Stephen's hand while listening to the interpreter relay the other party's words, and after a while, Rommel, who learned the other party's wishes, showed a satisfied smile.

"It was the right decision." Rommel complimented: "You saved yourself, your men, and your oil fields." ”

The two talked very well, but the adjutant of Major General Stephen, who had been standing aside and paying attention to the communication between the two, took two steps forward anxiously and whispered to Stephen: "Commander, you really want to ......."