Red Moscow

After Kahn received Sokov's reply, he immediately returned to his own position and reported to the colonel and adjutant waiting there: "Mr. Colonel, General Sokov said, let us use 300 prisoners of war to fight in front of their position. At the position of 200 meters, an exchange ceremony will be held."

"I can't decide this matter." After hearing this, the adjutant said coldly, "I need to ask Marshal Manstein for his permission."

The adjutant came to General Knobelsdorf's command cabin and reported Sokov's exchange terms to Manstein through his telephone line. After hearing this, Manstein said without hesitation: "Promise him. Give the microphone to General Knobelsdorf, I have something to say to him."

Hearing Knobelsdorf's voice coming from the receiver, Manstein immediately said: "General Knobelsdorf, pick five hundred prisoners from the prisoners you have captured."

"What, pick out five hundred people?" Knobelsdorf couldn't believe his ears. Sokov only offered to exchange three hundred prisoners of war for Hornerdorf's body, while Manstein agreed without hesitation. Giving others five hundred, I must have misheard: "Your Excellency, Marshal, are you talking about taking five hundred prisoners of war and exchanging them for General Hornerdorf's body?"

"That's right, that's what I mean." The reason why Manstein offered to exchange five hundred prisoners of war for Hornerdorf's body did not have any good intentions: "As far as I know, the Russians captured by you Among the captives, the wounded and sick accounted for a considerable proportion. We don't have so many medicines to treat our enemies. Since Sokov wants their people, then give him, preferably more The better."

"Understood, Marshal." After figuring out Manstein's wishful thinking, Knobelsdorf said happily: "The Russian prisoners of war used for exchange are definitely wounded and sick."

"Also." Manstein continued before the other party put down the phone: "After the exchange ceremony is over and our people return to the position with General Hornerdorf's body, we will concentrate all your cannons. bombard the Russian positions, and destroy them with our steel and fire."

After listening to Manstein's order, Knobelsdorf couldn't help being stunned. He knew that this decision was very vicious. If all the Russian prisoners of war sent back were all wounded, then they would not wait for everyone to return to the opposite position. , Sudden artillery fire can wipe them out.

In order to effectively implement Manstein's order, General Knobelsdorf immediately called his chief of staff and said to him: "You immediately take care of the commander of the Russian prisoners of war, and immediately pick out five hundred of them. No, eight hundred sick and wounded, preferably seriously wounded, to be exchanged with the Russians."

The chief of staff heard the call between Knobelsdorf and Manstein, and knew that it was a trick of Manstein. He planned to use the two parties to exchange the ceremony, and caught the other party by surprise. Severely wounded people are unable to move and must be carried on stretchers, and the more the number, the slower their movements will be. After the body of General Hornerdorf returned to his position, he immediately fired at the Russian position. It is estimated that these wounded prisoners of war will be wiped out by intensive artillery fire.

In order to make Manstein's poisonous plan succeed, when the chief of staff of the army arranged for the manual selection of prisoners of war for exchange, he specifically told the commander in charge of the prisoners of war: "Remember, the more wounded the wounded for exchange, the better. The more the merrier."

Although the commander did not understand what the chief of staff said, he still faithfully carried out his order. From the place where the prisoners of war were held, 813 wounded and sick were picked out. Under the escort of more than a hundred soldiers, they followed the colonel. Behind the adjutant and Second Lieutenant Kahn, they struggled towards the exchange point.

The commander in charge of the exchange on the Soviet side was the head of the 564 regiment. Since what he wanted to hand over to the Germans was only a coffin, he took only an interpreter and a squad of soldiers, and waited early at the exchange location. However, for the convenience of reporting the situation to the rear, he also had a telephone by his side.

Sokov and Keida stood in front of the lookout of the observation post, raised their binoculars, and watched the exchange ceremony that was about to begin. After waiting for quite a while, but still seeing no trace of the German army, Koyda lost his composure. He picked up the phone and asked, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, are the enemies coming?"

"Report to Comrade Commander," the head of the regiment thought to himself that your observation post has a wide field of vision, has the enemy appeared, can't you see it? However, since it was Keida who asked about this matter, he still patiently replied: "For the time being, no trace of the enemy has been found..."

Before he finished speaking, the interpreter standing beside him exclaimed: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, look quickly, the enemy is coming."

The head of the group holding the microphone looked into the distance, and sure enough, he saw hundreds of people emerging from a trench. After they came out of the trench, they moved slowly in their direction. From the clothes of those people, the regiment leader knew that these must be the prisoners of war that the Germans exchanged for Hornerdorf's body.

Sokov, who was staying at the observation post, also saw this scene through a telescope. Seeing that the number of people wearing Soviet uniforms far exceeded the number he requested, he couldn't help being stunned. He felt that with his own prestige, he might not be able to make Manstein so willingly exchange so many prisoners of war for a corpse , there must be something wrong with it.

But Keida didn't think so much. He saw so many prisoners of war coming out of the German defense zone, and counted them with great interest. After counting for a while, he turned to Sokov and said, "Comrade Commander, the number of prisoners that the enemy exchanged with us is at least six or seven hundred."

"Comrade Colonel," Sokov frowned and said to Koida, "tell me, what is going on? I asked Manstein to exchange three hundred prisoners of war with us, but he took out the Six or seven hundred people, I always feel that something is wrong in the middle."

"Comrade Commander, you are so humble." Koida said flatteringly: "You have a great reputation in the German army. When the second lieutenant heard your name, he became very respectful, as if you were his superior. Average. I think you taught Manstein a lot in previous battles, he was afraid of you, so he used so many prisoners to curry favor with you."

"Manstein needs to curry favor with me?" Sokov knew very well in his heart that with his own prestige, it would be foolish to want to deter Manstein, but now the Germans exchanged six or seven hundred people. What's going on? In order to find out what was going on, Sokov raised the telescope again and continued to observe.

But Koyda didn't notice Sokov's strangeness. After raising the binoculars, he continued to say: "Comrade Commander, I saw the open bucket cart that Second Lieutenant Kahn was riding in. The German soldier in the colonel's uniform beside him The military officer should be the supreme commander in charge of this exchange."

Koyda looked at it for a while, shook his head and said, "It's a pity that we are exchanging with the enemy, otherwise such an important target will appear in front of us, and I will definitely ask the snipers to kill him."

When Koyda said that he wanted to order snipers to kill the German colonel who was in charge of the exchange, Sokov seemed to think of something, and felt that it had something to do with the German army exchanging prisoners of war that exceeded his requirements. But in a hurry, his mind was like a mess, and he couldn't figure out what was going on.

"Damn it," just as Sokov was thinking hard, he suddenly heard Koida shouting, "How come the prisoners that the Germans used to exchange with us are all wounded."

"Are they all wounded?" Hearing what Keida said, Sokov quickly observed carefully with a telescope, and found not only the twenty-odd stretchers in his field of vision, but also the seriously wounded who could not move. Even the people who carried them were still wounded with bandages on their heads or arms.

"Damn it, we were fooled." Seeing this, Sokov slammed his fist against the wall, and said angrily, "What a cunning Manstein, he actually came up with such a vicious scheme."

Koyda asked Sokov in a daze: "Comrade Commander, what do you mean? Why can't I understand anything?"

"Comrade Colonel, have you seen the prisoners that the Germans used to exchange with us?" Sokov raised his voice and said to him, "All of them are wounded, and there are many seriously wounded who cannot move."

"I see." Keida has been carefully observing the line of prisoners of war that appeared, and naturally saw that the hundreds of people who came were all wounded. Hearing Sokov say that this was Manstein's poison timing, he also echoed: "Damn Manstein, throwing so many wounded at us will make our nervous medicine even more nervous."

"Manstein put so many wounded on us, and it is inevitable that there will be a shortage of medicines in a short period of time." Sukov frowned and said through gritted teeth: "Actually, Manstein must be planning a bigger one." conspiracy."

"Conspiracy, what conspiracy?" Keida asked puzzled.

"Look at how slow our wounded are moving." Sokov pointed to the troops in the distance and said to Koida: "Don't look at the exchange location is only more than two hundred meters away from our position. They need at least It took ten minutes to complete the walk. If the enemy carried Hornerdorf's body, returned to their position, and immediately bombarded our position, how many of these wounded do you think would survive?"

Sokov's words made Koyda terrified. He hurriedly asked: "Comrade Commander, what should we do? Are we just watching our wounded die under the enemy's artillery fire?"

"Don't worry, since we have guessed the enemy's poisonous plan, we still have enough time to deal with it." Sokov told Koida: "Comrade Colonel, you immediately call the lieutenant colonel in charge of the exchange and order him to come out of the position." Two more companies will be deployed to assist the transfer of the wounded."

Koyda grabbed the phone and asked nervously, "Comrade Commander, is there anything else you need to pay attention to?"

"What's more..." Sokov stopped at the beginning of his words. He felt that if he wanted to save the lives of the wounded and sick, he had to do it himself: "I think it's better for me to preside over the exchange ceremony in person. Bar."

Knowing that Sokov was going to the front in person, Koyda quickly grabbed him and said nervously, "Comrade Commander, it's too dangerous there, you can't go there."

"Comrade Colonel, I know it's dangerous there. If it's possible, I don't want to take the risk." In order to save the wounded and sick, Sokov could only bite the bullet and take the risk: "But now I'm the only one who goes out personally. Only in this way can we solve this poisonous plan of Manstein."

"Okay, Comrade Commander." After getting along with him for several months, Keida understands Sokov's character very well and knows what he has decided. No one can make him change his mind, so he can only sigh softly. , told him: "Then you have to pay attention to safety."

Sokov took Samoilov's guard platoon to the command post of the 564th regiment, where he met the deputy head and chief of staff. The two of them didn't expect Sokov to appear here suddenly, so they quickly stood at attention and raised their hands to salute him: "Hello, Comrade Commander! Why did you come to our place?"

"I'm here to take over from your head and preside over the exchange ceremony."

When the two commanders heard what Sokov said, they couldn't help but looked at each other in blank dismay. The deputy head asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, did something happen that made you temporarily decide to host the exchange ceremony?"

"I just saw in the headquarters that the prisoners of war that the enemy used to exchange for our army were all lightly or severely wounded." The next thing required the full cooperation of the two, and Sokov did not hide from the other party: "I guess this It's a German conspiracy."

"A conspiracy?" Sokov's words made the two commanders even more confused, but they didn't dare to ask casually.

Sokov continued: "Our wounded are slow to move, regardless of the fact that the exchange site and the trench are only 200 meters away. Maybe when the German army dragged Hornerdorf's body back to their defense area, our wounded have not entered the position yet. .If the enemy launches a sudden round of artillery fire at this moment, how many people do you think will survive?"

Sukov's words immediately shocked the two of them into a cold sweat. After careful consideration, they realized that it was really possible. If there are only two or three hundred wounded, you only need to send a group of people out of the position, and they can return to the trench in a few minutes. But for the six or seven hundred or even more wounded who came before them, it would take a lot of time to get them all into the trenches.

"Comrade Commander." The Chief of Staff asked, "Then what should we do?"

"The first battalion followed me to transfer the wounded into the trenches, while the second and third battalions and the troops directly under the regiment all withdrew to the second-line positions."

"Why should the troops be withdrawn to the second-line position?" the deputy head asked puzzled.

"The reason is very simple. I think the Germans may carry out heavy shelling on your position." Sokov looked at the deputy commander and said, "Do you think your current position can withstand the intensive German artillery bombardment?" ?”

"No." After the deputy head replied honestly, he said, "Then I will immediately notify the second battalion, the third battalion and the troops directly under the regiment to withdraw to the second-line position in an orderly manner."

"Comrade Commander," the chief of staff thought more comprehensively than the deputy head of the regiment, and he asked tentatively: "Before the enemy bombards, the troops can withdraw to the second-line position in time, but what about the wounded who have just returned? We will just watch." to watch them stay in position, to be killed by enemy fire?"

"Don't worry, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov said solemnly, "Since I'm here, I won't let this tragedy happen. It's getting late, so hurry up and arrange for the troops to withdraw from the position."