Chapter 866 The Vast Ocean Is a Casino (Part 1, 1200 Votes Plus More)

"I haven't bet for a long time, and I really want to take a gamble." Hoffman turned his head to Rommel, who was attending the meeting but had not spoken much. "Erwin, are you willing to bet with me?"

"Of course, my head of state! Wherever you point, I will fight. No matter how difficult the task is, just leave it to me!" Rommel stood up respectfully to show his loyalty, but the others were stunned: Bet? The head of state said he wanted to bet? God, did I hear that right?

Hoffman nodded with satisfaction and revealed his answer to everyone: "I want to start the 'Amazon' plan..."

"Fuhrer!" Jodel jumped up as if his butt was on fire and exclaimed, "This is too risky."

Several generals of the navy and air force looked at each other, wondering what Hoffman was talking about. Even Zeitzler was confused. Rommel was even more confused. Except for Keitel and Jodl, everyone here knew the inside story. Basically nothing is known about this.

Keitel knew that the head of state always had a big imagination and unconstrained strategic thinking. As the chief of staff of the Supreme Command, he had been trying to keep up with this rhythm, but found that he was completely powerless. He sighed and couldn't say anything. His face was full of shock.

Everyone turned their curious eyes to Yodel, wanting to hear him explain what the Amazon plan was. The latter reluctantly explained under Hoffman's signal.

The Amazon Plan is actually a plan to conquer and dismember Brazil. It is a key component of Hoffman's grand strategy towards the United States. In fact, the entire plan has not been completed. Not only was it not completed, even the fundamental strategic significance and goals were unclear, because there were two arrangements for Brazil - either to win over the United States and retain Brazil for the United States, or to win over the United Kingdom to dismember Brazil and give part of it to the United Kingdom. The processing methods are different.

In Yoder's view, the Amazon plan cannot be called a plan at all now. Compared with the original specific combat plans such as the "White Plan" and "Yellow Plan", it is at best a campaign idea, otherwise Krank would not have been allowed to do so this time. He took the staff of the Supreme Command to the Falklands to ask Manteuffel and others for their opinions and went to Argentina to investigate the situation on the ground. According to the original process, the plan could not be fully formulated until Crank and others fully explained the situation and situation, and fully prepared and deployed it after they returned to China.

Of course, the direction of the Amazon plan is clear. The core idea is to first incite pro-German forces to riot and split in the four southern states of Brazil, and then the German main fleet will provide armed cover for 2-3 German divisions to forcefully land in Brazil under the premise of controlling the sea in the South Atlantic. At the same time, With the cooperation of the troops stationed in the Falklands and the national defense forces of the countries in the La Plata Group, they will work together to launch a Brazilian offensive - either to incite a coup in Brazil and become a member of the Axis camp, or to dismember (partially split) Brazil.

After hearing this, everyone frowned: Brazil is also a big country in South America. How can such a huge plan be implemented so easily in just a few words? According to Yoder, the current plan is not yet mature at all, and the prerequisites for the plan are not met. Apart from other things, the countries in the La Plata Group that need to cooperate are probably not ready yet, right?

Fortunately, everyone knows that the head of state is actually very cautious under his wild and domineering appearance. It can be seen from the formulation process of the SEAL plan that the head of state has clear boundaries between the estimation of his own power and the use of military strategies. The arson in the Caucasus was also carefully considered. At first it seemed that many risky moves, such as the Kungunir Plan and the 20,000-kilometer expedition to the Falklands, were successful afterwards. They quietly waited for Hoffman to explain to them.

"I know it is difficult for you to understand this decision, but what I want to say is that you have a common problem among Germans - too precise, too rigid, and too obsessed with the completeness and comprehensiveness of the plan. A little vagueness and uncertainty will cause trouble. It makes you feel uneasy. Does war operate step by step and as accurately as clockwork? Shouldn't it be carried out based on a correct assessment of one's own strength, the strength of the opponent, and the battlefield situation? "Hoffman said with a smile. "I have repeatedly claimed that senior generals, especially those above generals, must read three books thoroughly and intensively. Have you done this?"

The three books are the three military science works that Hoffman has repeatedly emphasized: Clausewitz's "On War", Ludendorff's "Total War", and China's Sun Wu's "Sun Tzu's Art of War". He believes that they are based on politics respectively. , an important work that combines the three dimensions of comprehensive national strength and military to consider strategic issues. Everyone nodded hesitantly. Everyone here had received hardcover books signed by the Führer and sealed in lambskin. Anyone who could get these books was regarded as a confidant of the Führer. Others wanted to return them. No.

"Now that everyone has read it, let me test you. How do you understand the words "The first step is to attack strategy, the second step is to attack enemies, the last step is to attack troops, and the last step is to attack the city" and "the soldiers are unpredictable, the water is unpredictable" in "The Art of War" "Impermanent form"?

The first sentence is easy to understand. The German army has actually done this - why not attack cities with index significance such as Moscow and Stalingrad and focus on breakthroughs on the central battlefield and field assaults? It would take a lot of time to explain using other ideas. "At the bottom of the city" can explain the problem thoroughly in one sentence.

The second half of the sentence is not so easy to understand, but Hoffman has his own idea: "Brazil is a very big country, with a land area even larger than the entire Western Europe. The strategy cannot be completed by one or a few assaults. But Everyone knows that the road conditions in Brazil are very poor, far worse than the eastern route, which is recognized as the worst condition. It can even be said that there are no backbone roads running through the country in Brazil. What does this mean? "

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what the Führer wanted to express. Keitel and Hoffman had been together for a long time, and he asked tentatively: "Does this mean that Brazil is not actually a complete and effectively functioning administrative body, and it is easy to split under the influence of external forces?"

Hoffman clapped his hands: "Yes, that's what I mean. Now it is much more convenient to communicate between regions in Brazil by sea than by land. Originally, I was concerned about the strength of the US fleet and did not intend to use this method, but now the Americans first divided their troops and were beaten by us, and then deployed the fleet in the Denmark Strait. The Brazilian navy was eaten last time. In other words, the sea control in the waters near Brazil is at hand! If I let the guerrilla fleet go to Brazil now, who can stop us?"

Everyone looked at each other hesitantly, thinking that although this statement was a bit arrogant, it was not without reason.

"Of course, the navy alone is not enough. No matter how powerful the fleet is, it cannot sail ashore. But are we afraid of the army?" Hoffman walked to the large map and pointed to Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in southern Brazil, with his pointer. "This place covers an area of ​​280,000 square kilometers, which is about the same size as Italy (300,000 square kilometers), but do you know how many people there are? Only a little over 160,000, and 60% are of German or Italian descent! There have always been activities of the National Socialist Party, but it has been banned by the Brazilian government. Such a large place, such a small population, is it because of poor geographical conditions? On the contrary, the conditions here are very good. The north belongs to the Paraná Plateau, with an average altitude of 600-900 meters, which is not very high; the south is gently undulating hills and plains, very flat, with many sand dunes and lagoons along the coast, and well-equipped ports. This is the most important agricultural and pastoral area in Brazil, with soybean, wheat and corn production accounting for about half of the country's total, and rice accounting for a quarter. If I establish a country belonging to the Germans here, you Guess what? "

Rommel added: "The Americans will really be restless."

"You don't even have to launch a full-scale offensive to get things done. Didn't the Uruguayans repeatedly notify us that they wanted to help them? We can get things done at once, send troops into Uruguay, and let the state get in chaos first, and then we will go over to take over - this is a very common method. "Hoffman smiled, "The troops are ready, one armored grenadier division is enough, at most one more aviation wing, of course, we can also consider placing a marine brigade in Uruguay to make the Uruguayans calmer. In this way, we have a total of 2 brigades in Argentina and Uruguay, and an armored grenadier division in German Brazil. Guess how the Americans will deal with us? "

The so-called very common method is understood by everyone at once. This is just a replica of the Czechoslovakia issue: first, the Germans in the Sudetenland rebelled, then Germany supported them, and after the Munich Conference, they first swallowed up the Sudetenland, and then nibbled away at the remaining territory of Czechoslovakia and made Slovakia independent. Brazil is better. There is no need to find an excuse. They are countries that have declared war on each other. Isn't it natural to attack you? We have attacked Brazil several times in the past year or so. What will happen if we attack you again?

"In the eyes of Americans, in addition to size and resource endowment, the value of regions is hierarchical. The mainland is the first priority, North America (Canada and Mexico) is the second, the Caribbean and Central America are the third, South America is the fourth, and then the UK and Australia and New Zealand are the next, and then it will be the turn of others. Now the mainland and North America cannot be attacked, and the US military in Central America is very strong, so let's start with the southernmost part of South America."

Rommel shrugged and had no opinion. Whether it was Iceland or Brazil, he would obey orders. In a sense, Iceland must be much more difficult to attack than Brazil.

"The only ones that can threaten us in the South Atlantic are the British and American fleets, but now the US South Atlantic Squadron has only one aircraft carrier available. If we send the second-tier aircraft carrier guerrilla fleet there, we will have three aircraft carriers and two battleships. Sooner or later, we will have to send more troops to South America anyway, so we might as well take this opportunity to increase them all at once and see whether Roosevelt wants to protect Britain or Brazil! As for the US fleet in Iceland, it doesn't matter if they leave or not. If they don't leave, let him and Commander Ozawa stare at each other and waste time; if they leave, then we can land in Iceland!" Hoffman smiled slightly, "Intelligence shows that there are no US troops or US air forces in the state, only less than 2,000 Brazilian troops, and it is estimated that one armored battalion can deal with them."

Everyone started to discuss...