Red Moscow

"No, absolutely not."

"It's too dangerous, and I don't agree."

"Yes, you cannot be allowed to take such a risk."

As soon as Sokov said that he planned to go to the German army to negotiate in person and persuade the enemy to lay down their weapons and surrender, he was firmly opposed by Sidolin, Ivanov and Anisimov.

For the three people's heartfelt concern, Sokov felt warm in his heart, but at the same time he also understood very well that if you don't go into the tiger's den, you won't catch a tiger. How can you know whether Paulus is real if you don't go there yourself? As in history, the new headquarters was located in the basement of the department store.

"Comrades, thank you for your relationship with me." After expressing his gratitude to the three of them, Sokov explained his reasons: "After being hit hard by our army, the enemy is already demoralized and demoralized. They want us to send people to negotiate. Therefore, this trip to the German positions will definitely not make things difficult for them."

Seeing that Sokov was so stubborn, Sidolin knew that even if he continued to persuade him, there would probably be no results, so he said cautiously: "Comrade commander, do you think this will work? Let's report this matter to Commander Chuikov. If If he agrees, it's not too late for you to go."

"I don't think it's necessary." Sokov shook his head and said, "I was ordered by the commander of the front army, General Rokossovsky, to persuade the enemy to surrender. Even if Commander Chuikov knew about it, he would There will be no objection. We don't need to bother him for such a trivial matter."

Now that Sokov has moved Rokossovsky out, it is hard for everyone to say anything. After a while, Ivanov asked: "Comrade commander, where are you planning to enter the German defense zone? Or from the position of the 122nd regiment?"

"No, I won't go to the 122nd Regiment's defense zone this time." Sokov thought of the 122nd Regiment's defense zone, which is close to the factory area and at least 20 kilometers away from Paulus' new headquarters. There is no need to go so far big circle. He decided to enter the German defense line from the area controlled by the downsizing regiment. In order not to arouse everyone's suspicion, he pretended to be thoughtful and said: "Since we analyze that Paulus may set his new headquarters in the south of the city, Residential area or the central area, then the most suitable location is in the defense area of ​​the Belkin Regiment."

Sokov's statement really did not arouse everyone's doubts. Sidolin quickly asked: "Comrade commander, how many people do you plan to bring to Paulus' headquarters?"

"I'm going to persuade you to surrender, not to fight, so I don't need to take anyone with me." Sokov said to Sidolin: "Let Samoilov take a guard platoon to escort me to the Belgin Regiment. When we arrive at the place, I will drive with Ernst to the German line."

"Comrade Commander, I will call Commander Belgin first and ask him to send someone to inform the Germans on the opposite side, and we will send someone to negotiate with them." As the chief of staff, Sidolin considered the issue very comprehensively: "In order not to When you drove to the German defense area, you were bombarded or machine-gunned by the enemy."

Sokov felt that what Sidolin said was very reasonable, so he nodded and agreed: "Since this is the case, Comrade Chief of Staff, please call Commander Belkin and ask him to send someone to contact the Germans first. Let the enemy know that we will be sending negotiators into their zone."

…………

An hour later, Sokov appeared at Belgin's regimental command post.

After a hug, Sokov and Belkin asked, "Comrade my political commissar, how is the situation here? Has the enemy discovered your existence?"

"No." Belkin replied with a smile: "Since you told me not to make any big disturbances after entering here, the three battalions I brought over have been on standby and have not participated in any battles. It is estimated that the enemy will Until now, everyone thought that we only had one battalion here."

After reporting the regiment's information, Belkin hesitated for a moment, then asked Sokov tentatively, "Misha, are you really planning to go to the enemy's position and negotiate with them?"

"Yes," Sokov nodded: "This is a task personally assigned by the commander of the Front Army, Rokossovsky."

"Can your safety be guaranteed?" Knowing that this order was personally issued by the commander of the front army, the muscles on Belkin's face twitched violently, and he asked cautiously: "If it cannot be guaranteed, it is better for me to Go instead of you?"

"Thank you for your kindness, Comrade Political Commissar." Sokov was very grateful for Belkin's concern. It is definitely dangerous to go to the German defense area to negotiate this time, but it is completely worthwhile to find out the location of the Paulus headquarters, no matter how big the risk is. "This is my mission, and I must do it myself."

"By the way, have you greeted the enemy's position?"

Belgin nodded and replied: "The chief of staff of the regiment, Captain Vanya, contacted you personally. The enemy will send someone to pick you up between the positions of the two armies."

"It's getting late." Seeing that it was getting late, Sokov got up and said to Belgin, "Let's go there now. It won't be too dark when we come back later. If the jeep is not careful It will be troublesome if you run over a landmine."

Belgin accompanied Sokov to the front, and the jeep stopped less than 300 meters away from an incomplete building occupied by the Germans. Sokov turned his face sideways and said to Belkin: "Comrade my political commissar, you can send it here, it will not be safe to go any further."

"Misha." Belkin held Sokov's hand and said with a choked voice, "You must come back alive. I will always be here waiting for you."

"I see." Sokov let go of Belkin's hand and said to him: "Hurry up and hide in a safe place, I'm worried that there will be enemy snipers nearby, don't let him treat you as a target."

After Belkin left, Sokov ordered the driver to drive and arrived in front of the enemy's building. A German lieutenant came out of the building, followed by a soldier with a submachine gun. Ernst jumped out of the car in a hurry, ran to the other party quickly, and said with dancing.

Not long after, Ernst returned to the jeep with the German lieutenant, and said to Sokov: "This is the staff officer sent by the chief of staff, General Schmidt, to pick you up. He said, the driver stays, and he drives us. To headquarters. But before that, blindfold us."

The fact that the Germans wanted to blindfold him had long been expected by Sokov. He knew very well in his heart that Paulus would definitely order people to blindfold him in order to prevent himself from discovering his headquarters. Anyway, I have been to department stores several times before, and I am very familiar with the terrain there, even if I am blindfolded, I can recognize it.

Sokov dismissed the driver and asked the German lieutenant to blindfold himself and Ernst and sit in the back of the jeep. After the German lieutenant had done all this, he started the car and fired at the headquarters. The soldier was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, half-turned and stared at Sokov and Ernst, pointing his gun at them for a moment, ready to shoot at any time.

After driving for ten minutes, the jeep stopped. However, the German lieutenant did not immediately remove the blindfold for Sokov, but called two soldiers to help Sokov and Ernst follow behind him, and walked towards the building.

Coming to the door of the room at the end of the corridor, the German lieutenant reported to a major sitting at the door: "Mr. Major, the Russians who negotiated with us have been brought."

"Well, I will report to the commander immediately." The major nodded, got up and pushed open the door next to him, walked in, and closed the door behind him.

After a while, he came out from inside and said to the lieutenant: "There is nothing for you here, you go down first. I will call you when I need you."

After dismissing the lieutenant and the soldiers supporting Sokov and Ernst, the major stepped forward and tore off their blindfolds, and said coldly, "Russian, come with me!"

Hearing this insulting title, Ernst couldn't help but smiled wryly and said to Sokov: "Comrade commander, he told us to go with her."

After the door was pushed open, Sokov saw a long conference table in the room, with people sitting on both sides of the table. When Sokov was looking at the generals present, he suddenly heard the general sitting at the other end of the conference table say: "I am Paulus. Russian, tell me your name, military rank and position, and the purpose of coming here .”

After listening to Ernst's translation, Sokov replied with a sneer, "I am Colonel Sokov, commander of the 41st Guards Division. The purpose of my coming here today is to urge you to surrender unconditionally to our army."

If someone else said these words, they would definitely be ridiculed by the generals present. But when these people heard that the Russian standing in front of them was Sokov, who made them fearful, the room suddenly fell into silence.

After a while, a general sitting on Paulus' right hand stood up and walked quickly in front of Sokov, leaned forward slightly, stretched out his hands, and said in a friendly tone: "Hi, Colonel Sokov, nice to meet you here. By the way, let me introduce myself, I am General Schmidt, Chief of Staff of the Sixth Army."

"Hello, General Schmidt." Since Schmidt greeted him with a smile on his face, Sokov naturally couldn't treat him too coldly. He smiled and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, too."

After Schmidt and Sokov shook hands, a tall German general sitting not far away also got up and walked to Sokov, saying respectfully: "Hello, Colonel Sokov. I am Kurzbach, commander of the 51st Infantry Corps, among the Russian officers, besides Zhukov, you are the one I admire the most. Because as long as my troops encounter your troops, they never take advantage of it.”

Facing Kurzbach's compliment, Sokov smiled and replied: "General Kurzbach, I am just an ordinary Soviet commander, how can I compare with General Zhukov. Every time you encounter my troops, you will suffer, that is because you are not familiar with my tactics, and you still use the tactics against other Soviet troops to fight us, no wonder you don’t suffer.”

After Sokov chatted with Kurzbach, Schmidt quickly asked Sokov to sit down at the other end of the conference table, just facing Paulus.

As soon as Sokov sat down, Schmidt put a cup of coffee in front of him, and said apologetically: "Colonel Sokov, I'm sorry, our conditions are very poor now, and we can't use better things to entertain you." you."

After thanking Schmidt, Sokov looked at Paulus on the opposite side and said, "General Paulus, you must be very clear about the current situation. If you continue to resist, you will only pay more casualties." If you can respond to our army's ultimatum and put down your weapons and surrender in time, more soldiers' lives will be saved. I believe that after the war is over, the families of these surviving soldiers will be grateful to you for the rest of their lives."

The generals present, after listening to Sukov's words, all turned their eyes to Paulus, wanting to hear his answer. In fairness, there is no point in continuing to resist when supplies are on the verge of being cut off. If Paulus could really agree to surrender, tens of thousands of lives could be saved.

But after Paulus was silent for a long time, he said with difficulty: "Colonel Sokov, everything you said is very reasonable. But it is the duty of soldiers to obey orders. Before I get permission from the head of state to surrender, I will never surrender." Surrender to you. Then we will fight until the last bullet is fired, and we will definitely not surrender."

When Paulus said that he would not surrender, the generals present all showed disappointment on their faces. They did not expect Paulus to refuse so simply. Especially Kurzbach, he even stood up and said to Paulus without hesitation: "Your Excellency, I think Colonel Sokov's words are very reasonable. If we continue to resist, there is no point. It's better to let go of it earlier." Surrender your weapons and save more soldiers' lives."

"General Kurzbach, I have just made it very clear." Paulus did not expect that Kurzbach would actually sing against himself, he said through gritted teeth: "Without the permission of the head of state, I will definitely not Surrendered to the Russians."

"Your Excellency, Commander." Seeing that today's negotiations were about to collapse, Schmidt hurried out to smooth things over: "Since everyone agrees that the terms proposed by the Russians can be accepted, why don't we send a telegram to Berlin to ask the Führer for instructions to see if it is possible to surrender in order to Save more soldiers' lives."

"The chief of staff is right." As soon as Schmidt finished speaking, there was a echoing voice in the room: "Your Excellency, you should immediately send a telegram to the head of state to report the situation here to him and let him allow We surrender to the Russians."

"Chief of Staff," Paulus saw that his subordinates were in agreement, so he stopped being stubborn and told Schmidt: "Immediately send a telegram to Berlin to report our current situation to the Führer. Ask him, Allow us to surrender to the Russians to save more soldiers' lives."