Chapter 868

I nodded to major general cofes for the kindness he had shown me. At the same time, I said slowly in unskilled German, "Hello, sir. I'm glad to meet you, too."

Then another general stood up next to cofes and said to me with a smile: "Hello, general oshanina, I've heard your name for a long time. Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm Paulus, wearing presbyopic glasses, reading slowly and carefully. It seems that he wants to read every letter in the book of persuasion clearly. On the way here, I heard captain Sania say that this letter of persuasion was dictated by rokosovsky and handwritten by another German staff officer. In this way, the trouble of retranslation is omitted, and grammatical errors are not easy to occur, resulting in the situation that words fail to convey their meaning.

While Paulus was reading the letter of persuasion, I leaned back on the back of the leather chair, folded my hands in front of my chest and waited patiently.

I don't know whether it was five minutes or ten minutes later, Paulus finally took his eyes away from the book of persuasion, took off his glasses and put them on the table. Then he said slowly, "general oshanina, your superior general rokosovsky's conditions in the document are very respectable: all the prisoners are given" standard rations. ", The wounded and frostbitten will be treated, and the captured can retain their military rank, medals and personal finance. Can all these conditions be fulfilled? "

Hearing Paulus' question, all the generals focused on me again, waiting for the answer I was about to give. I sat up straight and said, "general Paulus, I can tell you very responsibly that since general rokosovsky has made such a promise, he will certainly fulfill it."

After I finished, Paulus stared at me for a while, put down the document in his hand, and unexpectedly said: "general oshanina, with all due respect, although my troops are surrounded by your troops and it is difficult to supply them, there are more than 200000 troops after all. It may not be easy for your troops to annihilate us completely, right? What's more, although Marshal Manstein's troops have been repulsed by you for the time being, they may come back one day. Will your troops have the good luck to repulse them again? "

After listening to lieutenant gretka's translation, I knew that Paulus despised the fighting capacity of the Soviet army and felt that it was a shame to order his troops to lay down their arms to the defeated generals in the past. I didn't get angry about his attitude. I just said to him with a smile: "general Paulus, I admit what you said is very reasonable. But I don't know if you have ever thought about how long it will take to organize a new attack after Manstein is defeated by us? And can your troops wait that long? "

In order to enhance the effect of persuasion, I also specifically stressed: "Mr. Paulus, I want to remind you that at this moment, the cold wind of the severe winter has hit the southern grassland, and there is snow everywhere. The temperature has dropped below zero. The besieged German army is in a very awkward situation: the tanks are short of fuel, the cannons are short of shells, and the horses are slaughtered, The soldiers drink only snow water... I can say that your men are suffering from hunger, cold and artillery bombardment, crouching in the trenches, waiting for the fate of destruction. "

After I finished all this, I found that Paulus and the German generals didn't respond to what I said. They just stared at me in a daze. Then I found out that lieutenant greteka didn't translate my words to the other party in time, so I turned around and glared at the lieutenant behind me, and said discontentedly, "Hey, I said lieutenant greteka, what are you doing? Don't translate what I just said to them."

Gretka didn't know what he was doing. Being reminded by me, he nodded in a hurry and translated what I had just said to Paulus and the surprised generals.

Paulus, after greteka finished translating, suddenly said a few words. Before I could ask gretka what he meant, he had already made up his mind to communicate with Paulus. Sania, on the other side, leaned slightly down to my ear and said in a low voice, "Comrade General, Paulus is asking if the second lieutenant you brought has served in the German army before? After hearing this, the second lieutenant first gave the other side a positive answer, and then said his name, rank, and his former unit. "

After a few words of conversation, Paulus leaned back, put his head on the back of his chair, and said, "general oshanina, although your troops are very difficult and cause us a lot of trouble, even yesterday, your troops captured a small position of ours. But in the Russian army, you can't find a second one as effective as your army. As for the reasons, you only need to compare how many brigade commanders of your divisions were killed by us in this campaign, and how many other commanders of our same level were killed. So let's lay down our arms and surrender to the enemy we have defeated. Unfortunately, we can't do it! "

"Commander," as soon as Paulus finished his words, Captain Sania translated for me before gretka. Perhaps the latter had just communicated with Paulus, which aroused his suspicions, so he automatically took over the post of translator without asking me. After listening to Sania's translation, I stood up and said politely to Paulus: "I think it is necessary for me to remind you of the fact that our middle and senior commanders have suffered a lot of casualties in the battle because their command post is usually located only a few hundred meters away from the most intense part of the battle. And your generals, except general Lazer, who was captured by me, have set up their headquarters in a safe place a few kilometers away from the front line. "

At this point, I sat back in my chair and said in a relaxed tone: "although the combat effectiveness of our troops is not as good as that of the 6th group army, even so, you can't drive them into Volga River and capture Stalingrad completely with all your troops in summer and autumn. Well, now that you are a hungry and cold army, you can never defeat us. "

Paulus sat up straight again, picked up the persuasion book on the table again and read it carefully. I can tell from the trembling details of Paulus' hand holding the document that he did not want to review the contents of the persuasion book in his hand, but to cover up his panic.

Just then, there was a loud noise outside, which immediately attracted the attention of the generals. Their eyes turned to the door, trying to find out what had happened. Paulus put down his papers, frowned, and said to the adjutant standing beside him, "Hello, Colonel Adam, go out and have a look. What's going on outside?"

After captain Adam left, Paulus apologetically said to me, "general oshanina, something seems to have happened outside. I've asked my adjutant, Colonel Adam, to go out and have a look." Then he assured me, "but please rest assured that no matter what happens, your personal safety here can be guaranteed."

Although I knew that my mission was not dangerous, I said politely to Paulus for his friendly attitude: "thank you, sir. I believe that your control over your own troops can not be shaken."

After a while, Colonel Adam came into the door with an officer who was struggling with his hands cut by two soldiers. He went straight to Paulus and reported to him.

I recognized the officer who had escorted us to the headquarters, but why was he arrested by Colonel Adam? Thinking of this, I leaned over and asked Sonia in a low voice, "Captain, what's going on? What's Colonel Adam talking about?"

"Report to general," Sania replied respectfully, "Colonel Adam told Paulus that the captain had been waiting outside since he had just escorted us to the headquarters. Perhaps it was too cold, and the officer outside, out of kindness, asked him and his men to come in and get warm. But I don't know what happened. As soon as he entered the underground bunker, he began to get angry. The soldiers on duty came forward to stop them, and several of them were knocked down by him and his subordinates. "

"What's your name, captain? What's more, "Paulus's face was full of anger. It was obvious that he was extremely dissatisfied with the subordinate who dared to commit the following crimes, but he was still trying to exercise restraint in front of me, an outsider. He gritted his teeth and asked," please tell me honestly, why do you want to do this? "

"My name is Danglars. I'm captain Gerhard Danglars of the national defense forces." After hearing Paulus' question, the captain stopped struggling and answered the commander's question truthfully: "I'm escorting the Russians to the headquarters today. I just walked into the basement division, and I almost fainted. There is a strong smell of cigar, brandy and barbecue in the air. This makes me extremely angry. We should know that our troops in the front line have basically run out of food, some companies have even begun to eat the bodies of their comrades in arms, while our superiors still have meat, brandy and so many other things. Why don't we and my subordinates feel angry? "

Paulus coughed awkwardly after listening to captain Danglars' explanation, and then explained dryly, "Captain, because we are under siege, we can only rely on airdrop or airlift for logistics supplies. However, the transport planes used to transport food, ammunition, fuel and evacuate the wounded on the return journey need a large number of fighters to cover. Due to the needs of the war, these fighters have to be temporarily used on other fronts. Therefore, we can only temporarily reduce the rations of the troops. "

Captain Danglars took a look at us, and then said viciously, "since we can't hold on, why don't you declare surrender? Anyway, the Russian negotiators are in your headquarters. "

All the generals on the scene were indifferent to the remarks made by Danglars. They just stared at Paulus silently to hear how he replied to his subordinates.

After a moment's silence, Paulus did not avoid me. He said to Danglars calmly, "Captain, it's very simple for you. You're just fighting face to face with the enemy. But here in the headquarters, I need to make decisions at a higher strategic level. "

Although Paulus said this to captain Danglars, I understand that he was telling me tactfully that although he was the commander of the group army, he could not help himself to make the final decision according to the actual situation, so he would never surrender.

After listening to this, Captain Danglars snorted heavily and said with disdain, "Your Highness, these words are meaningless to me. You are just a coward's excuse."

Paulus didn't get angry at captain dangla's taunt. He waved to the two soldiers who had caught him and sent them out. Then he said, "Captain, the hard time has come, and the initiative has shifted to the lower officers." When he said that, he turned his eyes to me, and then said to the captain, "with the honor of being a soldier, you must promise me that you will send general oshanina and her men back."

With that, he stood up, nodded at me and asked, "general oshanina, I don't know how much time you left for me in your ultimatum?"“ 24 hours, "I answered immediately after listening to Sania's translation," that is to say, if you and your troops have not laid down their weapons after 24 hours, we will launch a final attack on you. "“ 24 hours! " Paulus repeated the time, nodded bitterly, and then told his adjutant, "Adam, let captain Danglars send general o'shanina and them away." With that, he turned and walked slowly towards a room next to him. When his figure entered the hut, the door was closed. Colonel Adam came to me with Danglars, made a gesture, and politely said, "general oshanina, please! I'll order captain Danglars to escort you away safely. " Leaving the basement of the department store, blindfolded again, we sat in the motorcycle sidecar of Captain Danglars' army and returned to the place where the jeep was parked. Captain Danglars himself untied the black cloth tied to my eyes. When I thank him, he murmured, "Sir, I have a request. I don't know if you can accept it?" After listening to gretka's translation, I nodded and said in a friendly way, "please go ahead, captain. As long as it's within my ability, I can accept it." After receiving my promise, Captain Danglars hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth for the last time, and said decisively, "Sir, I want to lead my company to surrender to your troops. I don't know if you can accept it?" I was startled by Danglars words, and I asked in surprise, "Captain Danglars, you mean you want to lead the army to surrender, I heard you right?" Danglars nodded his head hard and said in affirmation: "Sir, just now in the headquarters, you must have heard what commander Paulus said. He said that the command has been transferred to the lower officers. It was on my way here that I understood the true meaning of his words. There are so many generals in the headquarters. Everyone is so cowardly that they dare not surrender. I'm just a little captain, but he told me that if you want to surrender, you should surrender. You should bear the consequences. If Hitler wants to settle accounts with me in the future, I'll have to be lucky. After understanding this sentence, I told myself that since he gave me the right to surrender, I will do it decisively. " After listening to Danglars' words from the bottom of my heart, I understood why his determination to surrender was suddenly so strong, so I took the initiative to reach out to him and said in a friendly way: "Captain Danglars, on behalf of all the officers and men of the 79th infantry army, welcome to join us!" When shaking hands with him, in order to dispel his worries, I went on to say, "I know that many officers and soldiers have the same mind as you, and want to lay down their arms and surrender, but they are still bound by their own vows. Yes, everyone is bound by it. Whoever wants to break it will betray the motherland. As far as I know, it will be sentenced to death. Even officers and generals are no exception. For officers, it's important. Paulus, for example, felt that if they surrendered as generals, they would be ruined in the eyes of the German people. But for ordinary officers and soldiers, whatever oath, let it go to hell. " After Danglars released my hand, he stepped back and saluted me solemnly. Then he said, "general oshanina, please wait here. I'll send someone back to the company and call the rest of the officers and soldiers. Today, I will lead 47 officers and soldiers of the company to formally surrender to you and your troops."