Red Moscow

Miller returned to the headquarters and told Strekel the content of the meeting with Chuikov, but Strekel fell silent.

The chief of staff at the side was worried that Strekel would change his mind, so he quickly reminded him: "Your Excellency, since we have already discussed the matter of surrender with the Russians, we should resolutely implement it. If we change our minds at this moment, I am afraid there will be disasters." The mad revenge of the Russians."

"Don't worry, Chief of Staff." Seeing the worry of the Chief of Staff, Strekel comforted him and said, "Since I have made a decision, I will not change it easily. When the appointed time comes, I will naturally go out and report The Russians surrendered. But now I'm worried that Lensky will get in the way, and it won't be good to cause trouble then."

"Your Excellency, General, I think it's better to call all the commanders of the divisions here." The chief of staff suggested to Strekel: "Then inform them of the surrender, and if anyone disagrees, they will be arrested on the spot. Anyway, they There are no soldiers around, and even if we shoot all these opponents, it will not cause any confusion."

"You are right." Strekel agreed with the chief of staff's proposal: "Call the division commanders immediately and ask them to rush to my headquarters immediately."

Half an hour later, the division commanders who were notified all came to Strekel's headquarters.

Lensky was still muttering when he came in, "What the hell is going on to call us all here so late?"

The rest of the teachers did not speak, they all muttered to themselves: Why did Strekel summon himself in the middle of the night? Did something happen?

Seeing that everyone was here, Strekel coughed heavily twice, cleared his throat, and said to everyone: "Gentlemen, there is no point in continuing to fight. In order to save more lives , I am ready to order the troops to surrender to the Russians."

Although before everyone came to the meeting, they guessed that Strekel called himself urgently, and it must be to decide whether to fight or surrender. At this moment, when Strekel uttered the final answer, some people felt relieved and felt that Strekel had finally made the right choice; family.

After hearing this, Lensky was furious. After he slapped the table, he stood up, pointed at Strekel and said sharply: "Your Excellency, why do you want to surrender? We obviously still have tens of thousands of soldiers." People, you can continue to fight the Russians. Have you forgotten the Fuehrer's order to fight the Russians to the last moment?"

"As soldiers, we have done our duty." Faced with Lensky's accusations, Strekel said calmly: "The only thing left to do is to find ways to save more living people, so that the They will have the opportunity to return to their home country in the future."

Seeing that Strekel had made up his mind to surrender, Lensky's face was black and purple with anger, and he pointed at Strekel and scolded sharply: "You traitor to the German motherland, how dare you disobey the Führer?" I’m going to kill you.” As he spoke, he reached out and drew his gun at his waist.

But just as his hand touched the holster, Aronstorf, the commander of the 60th Motorized Infantry Division sitting beside him, grabbed his hand and prevented him from pulling out the pistol.

Seeing that Lensky was about to shoot Strekel, the chief of staff quickly retreated to the door and shouted to the outside: "Come, come, there are assassins!"

Following his shout, more than a dozen soldiers with submachine guns rushed in from outside. The officers present immediately recognized these people as members of the military guard regiment from their clothes.

Lensky looked at the black muzzles of the guns pointing at him, fearing that the other party would fire at him, so he quickly let go of the gun holster, looked at Strekel and gritted his teeth and said: "Strecker General, are you really going to be a traitor to your motherland?"

Strekel stood up and said calmly: "I just want to save more living people. As for whether I will become a traitor to the motherland, I don't care at all."

Hearing what Strekel said, the chief of staff of the army immediately said to the soldiers confidently: "Hurry up and take Lensky away."

The soldiers rushed forward, first handed in Lensky's gun, and then pushed him out of the headquarters with his hands cut behind his back.

When Lensky was taken away, Strekel looked at the remaining teachers and asked, "Does anyone have any different opinions?"

Those division commanders who had been undecided saw that Lenski was dragged out of the headquarters by the soldiers, and knew that if they were to disagree with Strekel, they would probably end up in the same way, so they quickly replied in unison: "No more."

"Okay, since everyone has no disagreement, let's stay here." After Strekel finished speaking, he turned around and shook his head at the chief of staff, and said, "Give them the order to sign."

When everyone saw the document handed to them by the chief of staff, they realized that it was an order for the troops to surrender. Although Strekel could directly issue a surrender order to all troops, he still asked these division commanders to sign on it to share the responsibility.

With Lensky as a lesson from the past, naturally no stubborn species would come out to confront Strekel. Everyone honestly signed their names on the surrender order.

Seeing that everyone signed, Strekel couldn't help secretly heaving a sigh of relief. He called the chief of staff, handed him the signed order, and said at the same time: "Chief of staff, order all the troops to stop all hostile actions with the Russians after daybreak, lay down their weapons and surrender to them."

According to Strekel's thinking, after this order is issued, there will definitely be a lot of opposition, so he dare not put back the division commanders who participated in the meeting, lest they secretly disobey the order and continue to confront the Russians. Bring disaster to other troops.

Unexpectedly, after the order was issued, not only the imagined opposition did not appear. On the contrary, those hungry German officers and soldiers began to cheer: "Finally there is no need to fight, we can go home alive."

"Being captives of the Russians, you should provide us with food and winter clothes, so that fewer people will die of freezing and starving."

Some German officers and soldiers who were close to the Soviet positions were even more straightforward. They couldn't wait for the agreed time of surrender. They came out of their positions holding a white flag, and lined up to surrender to the opposite Soviet army.

The surrender of the German army was so fast that Chuikov had no time to notify all the troops below. The Soviet commanders and fighters staying in the bunker immediately issued a battle alarm when they saw groups of German officers and soldiers approaching them. The soldiers who were still sleeping in the hiding place heard the alarm sound from outside, immediately rushed out of the hiding place with their weapons in hand, and quickly entered the position.

With the help of the burning fire on the battlefield, the soldiers saw clearly that the German soldiers approaching did not seem to be attacking, but seemed to be marching, and they all rushed to wonder. Moreover, the enemy stopped when they were two hundred meters away from their position, and they all stood there like telephone poles. Only one soldier in the front was desperately waving the white flag in his hand.

The commanders and fighters worried that it was a conspiracy by the Germans and hurriedly reported the matter to their superiors. In this way, what happened at the frontier was reported to Cuikov layer by layer. After reading the report, Chuikov said in surprise: "Damn it, didn't you say you will surrender after dawn? Why did you surrender so soon?"

Sokov, who had just rushed over from Mamayev Post, heard what Chuikov said, and immediately analyzed to him: "I guess the German commander gave the troops the order to surrender, and if these soldiers continue to drag on, maybe Will be killed in battle, so I can't wait to come and surrender to our army."

"Comrade Commander," Krylov asked Chuikov for instructions: "What should we do? Order the soldiers to accept the enemy's surrender?"

"Wait a little longer," Chuikov said, waving his hands. "We still don't know whether the enemy really surrendered or pretended to surrender. If they sneak into our defense area and wreak havoc while we are taking the prisoners, I'm afraid it will be too late." It will cause confusion. I think the soldiers on the ground should be on standby and not take prisoners for the time being."

"But, do we just let so many enemies stay in front of our position?"

"Chief of Staff, please tell the forward commanders that it's not that you don't want to accept German prisoners, but that if so many people enter our positions before dawn, it may cause confusion." Chuikov told Krylov: "We must accept them." Prisoner, let’s talk about it after dawn.”

In this way, Krylov issued Chuikov's order to the divisions, and the commanders of each division were issued the same order to the front troops. The forward troops who received the order immediately shouted to the German prisoners who came to surrender: "German soldiers, we have been ordered to accept your surrender after dawn. If anyone wants to approach our position without authorization before dawn, we will not do anything." Shoot without hesitation."

Hearing the shouts of the Soviet army, the German officers and soldiers who lined up in front of the position reacted numbly. Since the Russians asked us to wait here until dawn, let us wait here until dawn. No one turned around and left the team, nor did they find a shelter from the cold wind, they just stood there obediently and did not move.

After a long wait, the sky finally dawned. Groups of Soviet commanders and fighters left their positions and ran towards the German officers and soldiers in formation, and they were ready to start taking prisoners. However, they soon discovered that some of the weaker soldiers were frozen stiff, and the rest were also shivering from the cold.

And Strekel, who was staying in the headquarters, saw that it was already dawn outside, so he said to the division commanders sitting at the conference table: "Gentlemen, it is already dawn, and it is time for us to go out and surrender to the Russians." .”

Rokossovsky, who was in the rear, received a call from Chuikov and learned that the German troops surrounded in the factory area had begun to surrender, and he almost jumped up for joy. But he quickly regained his composure, and said to the phone: "Comrade Chuikov, since the Germans voluntarily surrendered, you should accept their surrender in person."

"Understood." Chuikov replied immediately, "I will rush over to accept the surrender of Strekel and his men."

After Rokossovsky put down the phone, he called Malinin to him, and said to him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the enemy surrounded by the factory area north of Stalingrad has begun to surrender. You immediately give The troops gave an order to let them quickly approach this direction to assist the comrades of the 62nd Army to receive the prisoners."

Strekel and a group of middle and senior officers under him left the headquarters and marched towards the barricade factory, preparing to surrender to the Lyudnikov division stationed here. But when they saw a group of Soviet officers walking towards them, Strekel's corps couldn't help being stunned, because he found several generals among them.

The chief of the army staff approached him and said in a low voice: "Your Excellency, it seems that Chuikov himself has come."

The two sides stopped at a distance of four or five meters. Chuikov walked out of the crowd and said loudly to the opposite side: "I am Lieutenant General Chuikov, commander of the 62nd Army. Where is your General Strekel?"

After listening to the translation, Strekel walked out of the crowd, raised his hand in salute, and said respectfully: "Hi, General Chuikov, I am Strekel, Commander of the 11th Infantry Army. See you here."

Chuikov did not return the salute, but looked at the other party and said expressionlessly: "General Strekel, I have been ordered to come to accept your surrender."

Hearing what Chuikov said, Strekel quickly took out a pistol and handed it to Chuikov with both hands. Cuikov casually took the pistol from the other party's hand, put it in his pocket, and concluded the surrender ceremony. He said to Strekel: "General Strekel, you can rest assured that I will fulfill my promise to provide the necessary food and medicine to your soldiers and treat the wounded and sick."

The roar of aircraft engines came from the air. For these battle-tested officers and soldiers on both sides, everyone immediately heard the sound of a German transport plane. Chuikov sneered and said, "General Strekel, this must be the plane that came to carry out airdrops for you. Unfortunately, except for food and medicine, you won't be able to use the rest of the airdropped supplies."

Strekel didn't speak, just smiled wryly. He thought to himself: Not to mention a few transport planes, even if dozens of transport planes are air-dropped, the food dropped may not be able to feed these tens of thousands of mouths. He said to Chuikov in a low voice: "General Chuikov, my troops have been out of food for a long time, and all the soldiers are starving. If they don't eat anymore, I'm afraid they won't be able to survive."

"Don't worry, General Strekel, we mean what we say." Chuikov raised his hand and looked at his watch, and then said: "Before twelve o'clock at noon, all officers and soldiers will get the necessary food, good luck Officers and soldiers can even drink a bowl of hot red cabbage soup."

The German transport planes were frightened by the Soviet ground anti-aircraft artillery fire, and the pilots did not dare to lower their altitude so easily that they could not figure out what was happening on the ground. Seeing the dense crowd below, the pilot immediately opened the hatch and dropped the supplies in the cabin. Countless white umbrella flowers bloomed all over the sky in an instant. They dragged heavy materials and wobbled to the ground.