Red Moscow

"Chief of Staff," Schmidt just walked out of the basement where Paulus was, when he was stopped by Kurzbach, the commander of the 51st Infantry Corps, who asked in a low voice: "How is it, Your Excellency Commander agrees?" Surrendered to the Russians?"

"General Kurzbach," Schmidt replied with a wry smile, "Unfortunately, His Excellency the Commander has no such idea at all. He intends to obey the order of the Fuhrer and fight the Russians to the last man."

"Is he crazy?" Kurzbach was a little anxious when he heard this, "Doesn't he know how our situation is? Without food, ammunition and fuel supplies, we are encircled by the Russians, how can we survive?" How long will it last?"

"You heard the Führer's order at the time." Schmidt said helplessly: "I also advised him to stop his hopeless resistance and surrender to the Russians in order to save more lives. But he couldn't listen at all. He wants to obey the orders of the Führer."

"No, we must not let him do this." Kurzbach said firmly: "We must find a way to stop him."

"How to stop? Continue to persuade?" Schmidt asked the question, and before Kurzbach could answer, he asked himself and answered: "I have persuaded everything that can be persuaded, but Your Excellency Commander is now focused on Fight the Russians to the end. No matter who persuades it, it will be useless. Unless the Führer changes his mind and agrees to let us surrender, he will issue an order to stop resistance and surrender to the Russians."

"Since persuasion is useless," Kurzbach didn't want to sit still, determined to take the risk, and said through gritted teeth, "How about we carry out military remonstrance? If he still doesn't agree, we'll arrest him and hand him over to the Russians." .”

"General Kurzbach, are you crazy?" Hearing what Kurzbach said, Schmidt rushed over and covered his mouth, and said in a panic: "Such a ridiculous idea would come up. What if If you are heard by the guards, they don't care what kind of general you are, they will directly shoot you to death."

After Kurzbach pulled Schmidt's hand from his mouth, he asked angrily: "Chief of Staff, do you really want to stay here and die?"

"If you can capture it alive, who wants to die." Schmidt said with a sad expression, "Even if you want to make a military remonstrance, how many troops can you mobilize?"

"If you don't object, I'll call people to discuss immediately." Kurzbach asked tentatively: "Chief of Staff, would you like to participate together?"

Schmidt understands the current situation of the army, and knows that it is only a matter of time before the Soviet army wipes out. He does not want to sacrifice his life in vain. Now that he sees a chance to survive, he is not willing to give up easily. He nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go there after you gather all the people."

Schmidt returned to his room, and after waiting for more than ten minutes, a second lieutenant knocked on the door. After Schmidt opened the door, the second lieutenant reported to him: "Your Excellency Chief of Staff, General Kurzbach ordered me to come and find you."

"Where is he?"

"plz follow me."

The second lieutenant led Schmidt to the door of a room on the back, stopped and said to Schmidt: "Your Excellency Chief of Staff, General Kurzbach is inside, please come in."

Schmidt opened the door and walked in, and saw seven or eight people sitting in the room. In addition to Kurzbach, there are Max Pfeffer, commander of the 4th Infantry Corps, General Walter Heitz, commander of the 7th Infantry Corps, and Dr. Division commander Werner Sanne and others.

Seeing that so many senior generals gathered in this room, Schmidt couldn't help feeling a little frightened. Among other things, if the Russians were launching an attack, Werner Sanne, the commander of the 100th Jaeger Division, only had to order the troops to stop resisting. In less than five minutes, the Russian vanguard would be able to rush into the basement of the department store.

"Gentlemen," saw Schmidt coming, Kurzbach said: "Your Excellency, Commander, intends to continue to resist and let us all die with the Russians. I called you here to ask , What do you think, should you continue to fight with the commander, or take the initiative to lay down your arms and surrender to the Russians?"

"Due to the tight blockade of the Russian Air Force, the supplies we can get are getting less and less," said Walter Heitz, who was the first to speak, frowning: "According to my estimation, even if the Russians do not attack, we may It is also difficult to last until February. Therefore, the best way is to take the initiative to cease the war and surrender to the Russians."

"But, Commander, can you agree?" Dr. Kofes said worriedly: "Some time ago, Colonel Sokov of Russia came to persuade him to surrender, but he also refused. How can he change his mind so easily now?"

"If he doesn't change, then we'll force him to change." Kurzbach gritted his teeth and said, "I'm going to use military advice to force the commander to change his mind. What do you think?"

"General Sanne." Seeing that everyone was silent for a long time, Kurzbach could only call Sanne's name: "Your troops are deployed on the periphery of the department store. Tell me, what do you think?"

"Your Excellency, Commander, deployed our division here to protect the safety of the headquarters." Sanne said with some hesitation: "If you order the soldiers to force the Commander, I am afraid that the situation will get out of control. I think we should try To persuade the commander, as for the matter of military remonstrance, it is best to give up."

Seeing that Sanne actually sang against him, Kurzbach was very angry. But now whether Sannei's troops participate in the remonstrance will be related to the success or failure of this operation. He can only persuade him with nice words: "General Sannei, I think your subordinates may also want to return to their homeland alive." , if we explain the truth clearly to them, I believe they can still stand by our side.”

"I'm sorry, General Kurzbach." Sanne replied resolutely: "General Paulus is my superior, and I will never point the gun at my superior. Sorry, I think such a meeting, I'm not fit to participate anymore..."

Seeing that Sanne was about to walk outside, Kurzbach pulled out his pistol, pointed it at the opponent's forehead, and said with a grim expression: "General Sanne, if you dare to take another step forward, I will shoot. "

"General Kurzbach, what are you doing, quickly put down the gun, and be careful not to fire." Seeing that Kurzbach actually drew his gun, Schmidt hurried out to smooth things over: "And you, General Sanne, we I'm just trying to persuade the commander to change his mind, and I'm not really planning to harm him. You should sit down first and listen to what General Kurzbach has to say."

Sanna snorted, returned to his seat and sat down. And Kurzbach also threw the pistol on the table.

"Everyone," Schmidt felt that he should express his attitude first, so that the senior officers present would know how to make a choice: "Although General Kurzbach's method of remonstrance is a bit extreme, it is the only way to do it under the current circumstances. Our situation has become more and more difficult since the Russians who attacked from outside joined forces with the defenders of Mamayev Kurgan. It is clear to everyone that we are getting less and less supplies now, let alone ordinary The soldiers are not full, and even the generals here may be able to eat less food every day..."

"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff." After Schmidt finished speaking, Dr. Kofess asked bluntly, "Then what do you think we should do?"

"We can make another effort." Schmidt said with some hesitation: "Go to persuade the commander again, if he still can't listen, then follow General Kurzbach's method and use military advice to force him to submit .”

After reaching a consensus, a group of people walked out of the meeting room and walked along the corridor towards Paulus' room. The soldiers standing guard at the door saw that Schmidt was the leader, not only did not stop him, but also took the initiative to open the door for him.

Paulus was stunned when he heard the door slam, and then so many people poured in from outside, and then asked, "What do you want?"

"Your Excellency, Commander," Schmidt, who stood at the front, said respectfully to Paulus, "we are here to ask you to reconsider the letter of surrender from the Russians. Under the current circumstances, Our army is short of food and clothing, ammunition and fuel are seriously short, and we will not be able to last long under the powerful blow of the Russians."

"What are you trying to say?" Paulus asked coldly.

"I would like you to obey everyone's wishes and order all troops to stop resisting and surrender to the Russians." Schmidt said righteously: "You can save more lives by doing this."

"No, this is absolutely not possible." Paulus turned around, turned his back to the group of subordinates and said forcefully: "I will obey the order of the head of state, fight to the last man, and shoot the last bullet. Will not surrender to the Russians."

Seeing that Paulus was so stubborn, everyone knew that there was no point in persuading him, so they returned to the room where the secret meeting had just been held. Kurzbach said angrily: "As you have heard, Your Excellency the Commander will never surrender to the Russians. If we continue to fight, everyone will end up badly."

After a long time, Sanne spoke to break the silence in the room: "General Kurzbach is right, only extraordinary measures can be taken in extraordinary times, and I agree to use military advice to persuade Your Excellency the Commander."

Kurzbach, who was already frustrated and disappointed, couldn't help being overjoyed when he heard Sanne's statement that he agreed to participate in the military remonstrance, and hurriedly said to him: "General Sanne, you made a correct decision. In the future, those who survive Soldiers and their families will be forever grateful to you."

"Since everyone has no different opinions on the remonstrance," Schmidt saw that everyone was silent, tantamount to tacitly acquiescing Kurzbach's opinion, and said proactively: "Next, we need to discuss the details of the operation. After all, there are With so many troops loyal to the commander, it would be bad if our own people fight with our own people."

There had never been a mutiny in the Wehrmacht, so none of the generals present had experience in this regard. After listening to Schmidt's words, they became hesitant again. Especially the instigator, Kurzbach, who was going to die, if he was intercepted by the guards loyal to Paulus when the remonstrance troops entered the basement, he would not hesitate to order the shooting. But now hearing Schmidt's reminder, he feels that this opportunity needs to be further improved, lest it really end badly in a fight.

"Gentlemen," Kurzbach said again after contemplating the opportunity, "after dark, General Sanne's troops entered the basement under the pretext of changing defenses, and waited for an opportunity to disarm those guards. Pay attention, they are all ours." Man, shoot or don't shoot."

"If our remonstrance succeeds, the commander agrees to surrender to the Russians." Heitz asked, "How can we negotiate with the Russians?"

"A large number of Russians are gathered in the area close to the department store." As the chief of staff, Schmidt knew more about the situation than any general present. He said solemnly: "From all indications, They will launch an attack on us in the near future. Don't look at the many troops around us, but they are all entangled by the Russians. Even if we ask them for help, the support we can get is very limited. I think, if we want to If you surrender, you can surrender to this army at that time."

"What, let me surrender to a group of defeated generals?" Heitz shook his head and said, "If the one who accepts our surrender is the Russian Colonel Sokov, I can think about it; but for those former defeated generals, I don't any interest."

"General Heitz, it seems that your intelligence is too outdated." Schmidt waited for Heitz to finish speaking, then smiled and said to him: "The troops that are in serious danger to us today are under the command of Colonel Sokov."

"However, according to my observations, the Russians stationed in those places have at least two or three divisions." Heitz said disapprovingly: "He is just a division commander, how could he command so many troops."

"In order to attack us, the Russians established a combat group not long ago, which was named after Colonel Sokov." Seeing that everyone was so ignorant of the outside situation, Schmidt introduced to them: "Sokov Cove is now the commander of the cluster."

Hearing what Schmidt said, Kurzbach couldn't help his eyes shine, and he said quickly: "Your Excellency Chief of Staff, so the troops that threaten us now are under the command of Colonel Sokov?"

"Yes."

"Look, can we send someone to get in touch with Colonel Sokov immediately." Kurzbach asked Schmidt tentatively: "In this way, they will not easily attack the department store and can avoid An unnecessary fight."

"Well, that's a good idea." Schmidt nodded and said, "I was worried that if General Sanne returned from the front to participate in the remonstrance, and the Russians took the opportunity to launch an attack, I'm afraid our defense line would be on the ground. The gap was torn apart in a short time."

Seeing that Schmidt agreed to his proposal, Kurzbach walked to the door, opened the door, and shouted outside: "Come on!"