Chapter Sixty: The Noble Mentor

  A leaky defense line appeared in 'Fu Kui'. Rommel was ready to fight to the death and had mentally prepared for heavy casualties among his troops. The orders given by Rommel to the combat units were all desperate, either fight the British to the end or face trial by military court, two options were put directly in front of lower-level commanders, anyway there was no time to build fortifications. The British would arrive soon, no matter what method was used, as long as they could stop the British it would be fine.

  The subordinate commanders who were originally prepared to complain to Rommel also dared not to say more when they saw Rommel's attitude. They obediently commanded the troops to repair defensive fortifications while being vigilant for the arrival of the British.

  But Rommel waited anxiously for nearly three hours, and not a single British soldier appeared. If it really came to a fight, Rommel would have steeled himself. What he feared was that the British would employ hit-and-run tactics, and with night approaching, they might suddenly pop out of nowhere and launch a surprise attack. That would be unbearable.

  The British 10th Armoured Division is missing, of course not. The 10th Armoured Division was cut off by the German 15th and 21st Divisions' armoured vanguard in the previous campaign, losing nearly half of its tanks. The subsequent advance was like a startled bird, with tanks previously charging forward and infantry being left far behind. One by one, British tanks ran away as if they had eaten something bad.

  But now it's different. The British 10th Armoured Division, which once had 260 tanks, is now left with only 35 old and worn-out French pre-war production 'R-1' type tanks, and a few isolated 'Matilda' 2 type British-made tanks. These tanks have become the last treasures of the British 10th Armoured Division, and they are not willing to send them to the front line to die.

  So these last dozens of seeds were closely protected by the infantry of the 10th Armored Division, and all the tasks of foraging and reconnaissance that were previously performed by tanks could only be completed by infantry.

  Romel's intelligence was of course accurate, but that referred to the speed of mechanized armored divisions. Not just relying on 2 legs, step by step advancing infantry. Especially the British Tenth Division, which advanced while scouting and immediately went on high alert at every rustling sound.

  The British armored corps moved forward two steps, backward two steps, slowly and steadily towards Rommel's defense line. As they advanced, the commander of the 10th Armored Division, Alexander, urged his communications chief to contact the headquarters of the Alaman Corps, but for some reason, they couldn't get in touch with them.

  The British Army used only two types of wireless sets, one set being the long-wave transmitters for communication with Corps HQs hundreds of kilometers away. These transmitters were very powerful and could be received hundreds of kilometers away, each divisional and armored brigade HQ having a set; however, their cipher texts were different from each other.

  The password book was different One worry was that in battle such a device would fall into German hands and the communication cipher be compromised.

  The second is that the superior commanders of general troops will not let other troops know the true situation during the battle. Think about it, if the enemy launches a large-scale attack with several divisions, and the situation is extremely critical, you need to send a division of troops to block the attack in advance. If the news leaks out beforehand, the division commander under his command will be scared to death. Moreover, if the defense line is breached by the enemy, it will cause tension among all troops, which may lead to the collapse of the troops.

  So there is generally no direct contact between the command centers of armored divisions and corps, unless the command center tells them the communication password.

  The British army also had a wireless telegraph equipment, which was a microwave communication device. The power of this device is not very large, generally only tens of kilometers, used for contact between division-level command and troops under its jurisdiction. This type of device usually has relatively simple encryption, important military information is generally not sent using this device. Sometimes two mutually covering divisional troops will use this communication equipment to make simple contact.

  It can be seen that long-wave wireless is like the main trunk of a large tree, firmly connecting various branches. Microwave wireless is like the small twigs on the branches that connect the leaves, constantly connecting every small leaf. All intelligence is gathered together by these branches and sent to the root of the big tree, the army command. The army command at the root of the big tree then summarizes and analyzes all the intelligence, and issues instructions to various lower-level commands.

  It can be seen that Liu Qi's surprise attack on the 'Ah Lai Man' British military command had a great impact on the British Eighth Army. What was originally a tight-fisted punch became individual fingers attacking separately. Of course, if one has practiced "One Finger Zen" or "Six Meridian Divine Sword" and other extraordinary martial arts, the opponent would probably be enough to take it.

  But this is not the world of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and the British army is not the lucky Ruan Ping who keeps encountering unexpected events. In short, the road still needs to be walked step by step, and the days still need to be passed day by day.

  The 'Alexander' General of the British Tenth Army had been unable to contact Corps HQ on long wave wireless, but got through to an unexpected friendly force on short wave.

  This ally is now the sole remaining British Army unit, the 7th Armoured Brigade.

  The 7th Armoured Division was originally a regular army infantry division. Its predecessor was the British Third Infantry Division, which had been commanded by Montgomery in France during World War II. The Third Division was one of Britain's most renowned divisions and an old 'Iron Division' from World War I times.

  In the French campaign, the British were beaten by the Germans and only a few battles were fought with distinction, all of which involved the Third Division. Monty also emerged from over 100 divisional commanders to become Britain's fig leaf.

  The current commander of the British 7th Armoured Brigade is Sir Brian Horrocks.

  As a viscount, he was naturally the son of a British noble family. Brian chose to join the army because there was no other way out. As the second son in his family, the iron-clad rules of the family clearly stated that the family business would be inherited by his older brother, and all Brian would get was a viscount title.

  Luckily, Brian's brother was a person who loved his younger brother very much. Brian lost his mother at an early age and his father remarried to another woman. This woman treated young Brian very cruelly, often beating and scolding him when no one else was around. It is likely that this woman's behavior towards Brian had a lot to do with her own psychological abnormalities. Of course, she did not dare to behave in the same way towards Brian's brother.

  Brian's brother was born a legitimate noble and heir to the family property. The woman would not be rude to Brian's brother, of course. So Brian became the sole outlet for his stepmother's anger, and Brian, who had been spoiled since childhood, lived an inhuman life, with hunger being the most frequent occurrence.

  Later, Brian's brother learned of the situation and this sixteen-year-old brother directly slapped his stepmother eighteen times in front of all the servants. His stepmother was beaten from a beautiful noblewoman to a pig head.

  Of course, afterwards Brian's brother also received severe punishment from their father who rushed back home. Brian's father loved his young and beautiful second wife very much, but after knowing the truth, he didn't investigate further either.

  A mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, Brian's stepmother did not dare to lay hands on Brian's brother, but she would not be polite to Brian. There are too many such things in the noble family, and no one can control them. Moreover, Brian's second son's status in the family is not high either. In the end, Brian's father had to send Brian to a military school outside.

  The drastic change in life also brought about a huge change in Brian's personality, and he became a man of few words. Except for the times when his brother came to visit him, Brian generally didn't interact with other classmates. Moreover, others kept their distance from him due to the dazzling noble title on his head.

  'Bryan' put all his energy into his studies, and the excellent grades that were usually obtained by commoner children were this time taken by this noble son, which made his teachers very surprised. In the end, 'Bryan' graduated from the military academy with the highest total score.

  For this young man from a noble family, the upper echelons of the army were also very respectful. He was directly appointed as Captain 'Brian'. In the following years, 'Brian' had a smooth and steady career, with promotions every few years, until the outbreak of war in Europe. At that time, 'Brian' was already a 38-year-old lieutenant colonel, teaching at the British Army Staff College in Camberley. Due to the urgent need for officers on the front line, 'Brian' was sent by the War Office to the British Third Division, which was fighting in France.