Red Moscow

The reason why Sokov sat here chatting and did not take Paulus away in a hurry was due to many considerations. One is to wait for Rokossovsky's order to determine the location of Paulus and ensure his safety;

Second, escorting Paulus out at this moment will be crowded with those ordinary German prisoners, which is also very detrimental to protecting his safety.

It is precisely because of this consideration that Sokov sat patiently with Paulus in the stinking basement and chatted with him.

In this way, after waiting for about forty minutes, Ivanov led people in from the outside and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, all the prisoners in the department store have been taken away. The enemies in the rest of the area, Surrendering to our army."

"Comrade Deputy Commander," Sokov asked back: "The rest of the area you mentioned, do you mean the control area of ​​my combat group?"

"No." Ivanov shook his head and replied, "According to the information I have received, troops from the 64th Army are accepting the surrender of the German army to the south of us; The troops are taking prisoners."

Sokov knew very well that the areas Ivanov mentioned were all south of Mamayev Gang, but he didn't mention the factory area in the north, and then asked: "What about the factories in the north?" What about the area? Have the enemies entrenched there surrendered too?"

Ivanov shook his head and said, "I haven't got any information from there yet."

Sokov stood up and asked the radio operator sitting in the corner, "Did the front army headquarters call back?"

The operator raised his head and replied, "I asked about it just now, but the other party told me to wait."

"Wait?" Ulbricht, who was working as a translator at the side, asked curiously: "Comrade Colonel, what does the Front Army Command mean?"

Sokov guessed that the reason why Rokossovsky did not give himself an order for so long was probably waiting for a reply from Moscow. After all, since the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, this was the first time that such a high-ranking German commander had been captured, so the higher-ups would naturally treat it seriously. He was silent for a moment, then replied: "Comrade Ulbricht, General Rokossovsky told me to wait, obviously he is still waiting for an answer from Moscow. After all, such a high-ranking German general, we still The first time a prisoner is captured, one must be cautious in how to deal with it."

"Comrade Colonel, you are right." Ulbricht replied with a nod of his head: "From the outbreak of the war until now, even a German general has been difficult to capture alive. This time, a German marshal and his subordinates were actually captured alive. This is definitely a great victory for a group of corps commanders and division commanders."

Paulus, who was sitting by the side, felt a little annoyed when he saw Sokov and Ulbricht talking in Russian, which he did not understand. He coughed lightly, and then interrupted the conversation between the two of Sokov: "Colonel Sokov, I would like to ask one more question."

"Marshal Paulus," Sokov heard that Paulus had something to ask himself, and quickly said politely, "If you have anything to do, just say it."

"I have three requests." Paulus stretched out three fingers and said: "1. I am used to eating two breakfasts a day. I hope you can satisfy my eating habits when I am in the prisoner-of-war camp; 2. I have to drink from Ukrainian wine; 3. I can read newspapers every day so that I can keep abreast of the situation outside.”

After listening to Ulbricht's translation, Sokov smiled wryly and said to Paulus: "Marshal Paulus, your three requests seem simple, but they are indeed very difficult to implement. First of all, due to the , A large area of ​​land is occupied by you, and we lost a lot of food production areas, so that we have to implement a rationing system across the country, and each person has a certain amount of food per day. To provide you with two breakfasts a day, even if I Say yes, and neither will the person in charge of you.

Secondly, the Ukrainian wine you want to drink may not satisfy you. After all, the origin of these wines is still occupied by the German army. Until our military retakes these lost territories, there will be no legal way to acquire the wines produced there. But I have a suggestion for you, you can consider Georgian wine, which tastes no worse than Ukrainian wine. "

"Colonel Sokov, you are right." Paulus said to Sokov after listening to Ulbricht's translation: "It is indeed too difficult for you to obtain wine produced in Ukraine. It seems that I should really switch up and drink Georgian wine from now on."

After a few dry laughs, Sokov continued: "The third point, you said that you want to read newspapers every day in order to keep abreast of the situation outside. But what kind of newspapers do you want to read? "Izvestia", "Red Star" or "Pravda"? You know, these newspapers are only in Russian, and you don't want to learn Russian just to read them."

After hearing what Sokov said, Paulus laughed awkwardly, and then said: "Colonel Sokov, you are right. I really can't read Russian newspapers, and it is impossible to learn Russian. I mean Yes, can you find some German newspapers for me, after all, life in a prisoner-of-war camp will be very boring."

"Marshal Paulus, others may feel that life is miserable in a prisoner-of-war camp, but it is not the case for you." Sokov comforted Paulus and said, "I think you are in a prisoner-of-war camp. You will get the treatment you deserve. Maybe you can often go to some important occasions and get some unexpected benefits."

Regarding Sokov's statement, Paulus was skeptical at first, but he couldn't help but believe it after seeing Sokov's certainty. After all, the opponent is very famous in his own army, so what he said has a very high degree of credibility.

At this moment, the radio operator sitting in the corner stood up and said to Sokov: "Comrade Division Commander, the Front Army Command is calling."

"What does the telegram say?" When Sokov heard that it was the call from the Front Army Command, he asked nervously, "Where should we settle Paulus?"

"The telegram says," said the operator, with some hesitation, "to hand over Paulus immediately to the 64th Army, whose Chief of Staff Ruskin will come to take the prisoners himself."

"What, hand over Paulus to the 64th Army?" Sokov rushed in front of the radio operator, snatched the telegram from his hand, and browsed it carefully. At this moment, how much he hoped that the operator would misread the contents of the telegram because the light in the room was too dark.

But after he read the telegram five or six times, he found that what the operator said was the same as what was in the telegram. He slumped down on the chair beside him weakly, thinking sadly in his heart: He thought that after all the hard work, he finally took the achievement of capturing Paulus alive into his arms, but a telegram from his superior wiped out his entire life. credit.