Chapter 881

We walked towards the gate of "Red October" in the direction of the prisoners' March. After a short walk, a ragged soldier rushed to me and put his dirty hands in front of me. At the same time, he kept talking. Before I could react, the next captain Yushchenko rushed up, kicked the prisoner to the ground with one foot, and then pointed his assault rifle at the other's head.

I was afraid Yushchenko would shoot the prisoner to death, so I quickly raised my hand to stop him. Although I didn't understand what the prisoner said just now, I could guess that he must have been starving and risked being killed to get out of the line. The prisoner, who escaped from death, got up from the ground with difficulty and looked at Yushchenko, who pointed at him with the muzzle of his gun in horror. His body was shaking like chaff.

"Captain, do you have anything to eat?" Seeing the embarrassed prisoner in front of me, I couldn't bear it, so I turned to Yushchenko and said politely, "give him some."

Yushchenko always carried out my orders unconditionally. He put his assault rifle on his shoulder, took out a small paper bag from his briefcase, opened it, took out two biscuits from it, and handed them to the terrified prisoner. The prisoner took the biscuit from his hand, put it into his mouth and ate it with a gulp.

Yushchenko came forward, grabbed the prisoner by the shoulder and pushed him into the line. Although he didn't say a word, the prisoner understood it and went to the troop honestly. Yushchenko may be because he gave his precious food to the prisoner. He felt extremely uncomfortable, and raised his foot to kick the prisoner's ass.

Seeing that the prisoners returned to the ranks and staggered along with the crowd, I went back to gurov standing next to him and said to him with some embarrassment, "Comrade military commissar, let's go back."

Gurov looked at me and nodded. He didn't say anything. He just stepped forward.

When we entered the building and walked up the stairs full of bricks and rubble, gurov suddenly said, "o'shanina, you may not know that because of the freezing weather and transportation difficulties, we may not be able to provide the necessary food, medicine and winter clothing for these prisoners for a long time. Even if there are supplies to be delivered, we should first ensure that our commanders and soldiers are fed, and then the remaining residents of the city. If there is extra food, we will give priority to those who are captured

Gulov's words made me take a breath. If the situation is really like what he said, thousands of prisoners will die of hunger and cold. What's more, I also know that German prisoners often encounter Soviet commanders and fighters on the way to the prison camp. They recklessly shoot at the prisoners regardless of the order. Once these things are spread out, it will be more difficult for the German officers and men to surrender willingly in the future.

Gurov was good at observing words and expressions. Seeing the strange expression on my face, he said earnestly, "o'shanina, do you think we don't want to fulfill the promise to the German soldiers in the book of surrender? But I can't help it. If we weren't lucky at the beginning, an iceberg happened to float down from the upstream and stop at the ferry pier, which made us build an ice transportation line overnight, we now estimate that we can't even guarantee the basic weapons, ammunition, food and medicine of the army. "

When I heard him talking about the iceberg floating down the upstream, I shrunk my mouth and said to myself, "what's the luck? It's clear that there are too many ships sunk by the German army near the wharf, so the iceberg will just be stuck in that position when it floats down. Otherwise, I don't know where it has gone."

When we got back to the temporary headquarters, the commanders inside were going out one after another. When we saw the two of us standing outside, we all raised our hands to salute when we passed by. When I saw wittkov and bantaileiev come out talking and laughing, I quickly stopped them: "chief of staff, and captain bantaileiev, please wait for me in the car downstairs. I have something to say to you later."

As I walked into the conference room with gurov, trakov looked at us, then asked faintly, "have you sent General sedlitz away?"

"See you off." Gurov answered with relief, "and sent the trouble away."

I couldn't help staring at gurov when I heard that. I couldn't understand why he said such a thing.

After hearing what he said, trakov nodded his head unexpectedly and said with approval: "if we really cooperate with general sedlitz, we can draw people from the aggressors who once plundered our motherland to form a new army. To be honest, it's hard for me to accept psychologically. "

"Yes, comrade commander, I totally agree with you." Gurov also expressed his views unreservedly: "if general rokosovsky hadn't flown to Moscow today and shelved his cooperation with sadlitz, I really don't know whether I should accompany him to the prison camp to choose the right person."

Listen to the two of you and I kept talking, I finally figured out what was going on. On the surface, they are very polite to sadlitz, the German general who offered to cooperate with us, but from their heart, they are very resistant to this kind of cooperation.

"Comrade o'shanina, take a look at this." I was listening to trekov and gurov talking when krailov, who was sitting next to me, suddenly handed me two pieces of paper.

"Comrade chief of staff, what is this?" I asked and took what he had.

"It's a letter from the German mail we seized. I've had it translated. Have a good look." When krailov finished these two sentences, he specially added: "the commander and the military commissar have also read this letter."

I put the original German letter aside and looked attentively at the translation. The letter was written by an ordinary German soldier to his family in China. In the first half of the letter, he confided in his family the pain of Acacia, and then talked about his experience in Stalingrad. The letter wrote: "people are dressed in rags. You can see that women have begun to cut off meat from rotten dead horses. The smell is unbearable. Injured women and children die slowly without medical treatment. They live and die like animals until they die. I saw a piece of shrapnel on a woman's face. Her nose and mouth were full of craters, and her eyes were protruding. Everything was festering and waiting for death. "

Seeing the last date of the letter, I couldn't help asking krailov in surprise: "chief of staff, this letter was seized in October?" When I said this, I couldn't help feeling sad for the residents who were trapped in the German occupied area at that time. For several months, they couldn't get any food and medicine, and they didn't even have enough clothes to protect themselves from the cold. In the end, they could only die slowly in hunger and cold.

"Good! "This letter was seized in October," Krylov said excitedly after giving me a positive reply. "If the Germans had not attacked Stalingrad, these civilians would not have died. If we want to cooperate with these ferocious enemies, even if we can agree, it is estimated that the soldiers below will not agree. "

After hearing what krailov said, gurov stopped talking with trakov and said, "Comrade oshanina, I know you are too soft hearted to see German prisoners suffer from hunger and cold, but you forget how they treat those civilians. In the case of serious food shortage, our superiors are not willing to provide food for German prisoners of war. Nowadays, many Red Army soldiers are not satisfied, let alone the surviving civilians. Therefore, any idea of providing food to the aggressors who once plundered their motherland is against common sense. "

Without waiting for me to speak, trakov broke in and said, "according to the order, these prisoners will be sent to dubovika concentration camp north of Stalingrad, and those who can't hold them will continue to go northward to becktovica concentration camp farther away. The 20000 prisoners captured by your army, as just agreed, will not be sent to the concentration camp for the time being. The ruins of the city need to be cleaned up and tens of thousands of corpses need to be buried. These things need a lot of manpower. Let the prisoners do these things. "

When trakov finished, I stood up and said in embarrassment, "Comrade commander, the prisoners have so much work to do. If we don't give them some food and medicine, we can do it in a short time, and there will be no more prisoners left."

After my request was made, trakov shook his head and said in an unquestionable tone: "Comrade oshanina, the political commissar has just said that we can not provide food and medicine for the prisoners. Whether the prisoners will die of hunger, cold and fatigue in the course of labor is not something you should worry about. Since they are aggressors, they should have the consciousness of being punished like this. "

I left the headquarters dejected with the task given to me by trakov. When I came to the outside of the building, I saw wittkov and bandeleev, who were standing by the jeep chatting with Yushchenko, and remembered that they had just asked them to stay and wait for me, saying that they had something to discuss with them.

I went to the jeep I was in and said to the three of them, "Captain Yushchenko is in the car, and captain bantailev is in the front row. And you, chief of staff, sit in the back row with me. I have something to tell you. " With that, I opened the door and got on.

When the jeep arrived at the gate of the factory, the long line of captives was not over. Yushchenko slowed down slightly and honked his horn to pass through the middle of the line.

The car drove towards the direction of our army station. After driving for a certain distance, leyev, who was sitting in the front desk of the passenger car, turned around and took the lead in breaking the silence in the car: "Comrade commander, I don't know if you want to leave me. Do you have any instructions?"

"Which regiment is in charge of the prisoners?" I left Bantai leyev because the more than 20000 prisoners captured yesterday were under the jurisdiction of the 150th division. I called him to go to the scene to arrange how to use the prisoners. "Are the prisoners still honest?"

"Don't worry, commander." Bantaileiev respectfully said to me: "the prisoners were guarded by the third regiment of kosga. At the beginning, the prisoners incited trouble. When I ordered the leaders to be executed on the spot, the prisoners were honest."

Wittkov, who was sitting next to me, and so on, asked curiously as soon as leyev had finished saying, "Colonel, what's the trouble with these prisoners?"

Bantaileiev shrugged his shoulders and said in a sarcastic tone, "what else can we do? Of course, we want us to provide them with enough food and water, and even the necessary medicine for the wounded."

When I heard Bantai leiev say this, I suddenly opened my eyes and asked, "what did you say just now, Colonel? You haven't provided them with any food or water for a whole day since yesterday? "

Although bantaileiev didn't know why I asked, he nodded and answered truthfully: "the officers and men in the division only have three days' rations. How can they provide extra food for these German men. As for water, let alone snow. They can use it to quench their thirst

Wittkov not only did not refute bandeleev's words, but also nodded in agreement. From their attitude towards the German prisoners, I knew that I had become another kind. It was estimated that only the East had preferential treatment for the prisoners. Here, the prisoners were a bunch of irrelevant consumables.

I didn't want to argue with my subordinates on this matter, so I tried to hold back my anger and explained to them the task that had just been assigned by trakov: "Captain bantaileiev, according to the order of the higher authorities, the German prisoners under the supervision of your division don't need to be sent to the concentration camp for the time being. Instead, they all stay in the city to work, Responsible for clearing the ruins of buildings and burying the remains of the dead. Do you understand? "

"I understand!" Bantaileiev replied loudly.

At this time, the jeep suddenly bumped violently, so that my head almost hit the ceiling. As a result of this accident, I suppressed for a long time anger finally broke out, I yelled at Yushchenko: "Captain, what are you doing, why don't you drive well?"

Yushchenko turned his head and said to me innocently: "sorry, sir, because the snow is too deep, I didn't see the dead horse buried in the snow, so I bumped it accidentally."

I looked out of the car window and saw that there was a vast expanse of white everywhere. Knowing that Yushchenko was right and that he didn't mean it, I waved my head at him and said, "OK, comrade captain, you can drive well. Let's forget it this time."

Under the guidance of bandeleev, we came to the place where the 150th division held the prisoners. But when I got out of the car and saw the environment of the prisoners, I immediately understood why the death rate of German soldiers captured by the Soviet army was so high. More than 20000 German prisoners of war were held in a damaged building without a roof. Almost everyone had a thick layer of snow on his body. If the temperature dropped again at night, I don't know how many people would be killed.

See our arrival, next to a relatively complete building ran out of two commanders. I looked at them and found that they were all acquaintances. At the front of them was captain dubrovsky, the commander of the first battalion of the third regiment, and immediately after him was captain Rosenberg, the company commander.

After they saluted me, I asked in reply, "Captain dubrovsky, how can you keep the prisoners in such a place?"

Dubrovsky took a look at the position of the prisoners and answered me, "report to the commander, shut the Germans in a building without a roof, so that our soldiers deployed in the nearby building can observe them. If they are found dishonest, our snipers can kill them."

Although I knew that captain dubrovsky could not provide any help for the prisoners, I still took a chance and asked, "Captain, have you provided food for them?"

Captain dubrovsky immediately shook his head like a rattle and replied, "no, comrade commander. We don't have enough food of our own. Where can we provide them with extra food. You see, "he said, turning and pointing to the distance," those are the bodies we cleaned out of the captives today. "

I looked in the direction of his fingers and saw the frozen German bodies in front of a row of buildings in the distance. They were neatly placed in an invisible wall. Seeing this scene, my heart is particularly heavy. Although the dead are all our enemies, they all put down their weapons, but still did not escape the fate of death. I bit my back teeth and asked, "Captain, how many people died in one night?"

"Almost two thousand." Captain dubrovsky replied excitedly, "if we had been able to wipe out so many enemies every day some time ago, Paulus' army would have been finished."

"Captain," seeing his jubilant look, I was so angry that I raised my voice and said to him, "these prisoners are very important to us. We still have a lot of work to do for them. If they die, who will do the work?"

After hearing this, Captain dubrovsky scratched the back of his head and said in a dilemma, "Comrade commander, you know, with the more than 4000 prisoners who surrendered today, there are more than 20000 people in total. I'm afraid it's very difficult for us to provide them with enough food."

As for the question raised by dubrovsky, I bowed my head for a moment, and then said to him, "Comrade captain, you should immediately send a group of strong prisoners to form a special unit to collect food nearby under the leadership of our soldiers. By the way, when we just came here, we saw some dead horses on the road. Take them to get them back, so that they can at least fill many people's stomachs. "

"Comrade commander, even if we get all the dead horses back, we can't eat them." Dubrovs base station did not move in place, and continued to tell me about the difficulties: "if there is not enough to make a fire, you can't let the prisoners eat raw meat." I looked at the captain in front of me, who was obviously short of a string in his head. I wanted to kick him, but I finally managed to control my emotions. I pointed to the buildings in the distance and said to him, "Captain, do you see the buildings that were destroyed? You can have prisoners go there to collect furniture, doors and window frames to make a fire, not only to keep warm, but also to cook food. Do you understand? "“ I see! " As soon as captain dubrovsky had answered this, he turned away with Captain Rosenberg and went to carry out my orders.