USSR 1941

"So, we should tell them!" Shulka said: "I mean tell the Germans who are besieged in Stalingrad, as long as they are willing to surrender, we will give them preferential treatment and guarantee their personal safety!"

Shulka didn't say the Geneva Conventions, because it was impossible for the USSR, Stalin had clearly refused to sign the Geneva Conventions, if Shulka would say something like compliance, it would be clearly with Stalin By the way, Shulka couldn't afford that hat.

"Will the Germans believe this?" Zolotarev said. "We told them so before!"

Indeed, the Propaganda Department of the Soviet Army had said similar things before, such as prisoners of war being treated preferentially and even writing letters to persuade their families... But it turned out that these would only be regarded as a joke by the Germans.

But that's not what Shulka wanted to say.

"They can choose not to believe it!" Shulka replied: "But we can declare that this time is different from the previous situation. This is a special case. The reason is that the battle on the Soviet side is not easy. Victory will result in heavy casualties, in order to avoid such an outcome and end the war as soon as possible, the Soviet Union is willing to amnesty all enemies who surrendered at the Battle of Stalingrad..."

"It's impossible!" Zolotarev interrupted Shulka: "This is showing our weakness to the enemy!"

"You're right, Comrade Zolotarev!" Shulka said, "but sometimes showing weakness to the enemy is not a bad thing. For example, now, if we show that we are strong and can annihilate the enemy at any time, then The Germans would think: 'If this is the case, why did the Russians try so hard to persuade them to surrender and grant amnesty?', 'Why would the Russians treat us differently'? Then, they will soon come to a conclusion , that is, we are deceiving them. The result is that they will still resist to the end!"

"That's right!" Trufanov agreed. "If we tell them it's going to be a tough fight...it's true, we don't even have air superiority, and the fighting at Stalingrad is still brutal. If we Tell them this, and the Germans will have reason to believe that we are telling the truth, so they may believe that we will give them an amnesty!"

"And this amnesty should be real!" Shulka said: "Because it will be very beneficial to our future battles!"

As for why it was "very beneficial", Shulka didn't need to explain and they understood.

If this amnesty is fake, it is just to trick the Germans into surrendering and then throw them to Siberia, the result is that the Germans will never believe in any amnesty in the future, and it will even arouse the tragedy of the German soldiers who regard death as home Psychology and the Soviet army to fight to the death.

But if this amnesty is real,

The German soldiers who surrendered did guarantee their personal safety and received preferential treatment, so this in itself is a weapon.

The reason is very simple. Once there is any tough battle or similar situation occurs in the future, the "amnesty" can be brought out again. This is absolutely extraordinary attractive to German soldiers.

Of course, Zolotarev could also understand the reason. He thought for a while and said, "This is not something I can decide. I have to report to my superiors!"

"Of course!" Shulka replied.

Zolotarev might be able to decide on the distribution of leaflets, but the amnesty, and the real amnesty, is indeed not up to him, because it means that the Soviet Union will have a lot less coolies and a lot more food-consuming mouths.

Not to mention that this food was precious to the Soviet Union, and the Soviets would never have hoped to use it to feed the aggressors.

Zolotarev immediately reported this issue to the Supreme Command... This is Zolotarev's advantage. He was sent by the Supreme Command to "monitor" the 51st Army, so he was directly responsible to the Supreme Command. There is no need to report layer by layer.

As a result, Shulka's proposal was quickly put on Stalin's table.

Stalin looked at Zolotarev's report, nodded and said, "We fight to gain benefits. If we continue to fight like this, obviously we will sacrifice more soldiers and consume more supplies and food." .From this point of view, if we can persuade the enemy to surrender, we are actually just taking out part of the food to feed the captives. This will definitely be of great benefit to us! And if it is beneficial to the country, we should resolutely support!"

After speaking, he agreed to this proposal with a swipe of the pen, and even personally issued an amnesty decree, stipulating that the German officers and soldiers trapped in Stalingrad who surrendered within the next ten days will receive preferential treatment.

This is exactly what Shulka expected.

The reason is as mentioned before. Due to the massive consumption of troops, Stalin lost all confidence. He even hoped to reduce the consumption rate of troops by improving combat effectiveness to increase the weight of the final victory.

So now, there is an opportunity to reduce the consumption of troops in front of Stalin, and of course Stalin will not let it go easily.

At the same time, Stalin set the deadline of "within the next ten days" very cleverly.

If the time is too long or there is no specified time, then the Germans will have no sense of urgency or even care. Anyway, they can surrender at any time, so they should resist until the last moment until they can't hold on before surrendering.

If the time is too short, the amnesty period will pass before the Germans realize it.

Ten days is not too long, just enough for the Propaganda Department to distribute leaflets and news to the German troops and give them some time to think about it, and even give them time to plan their surrender...Surrender is also a technical job, and it is not easy to surrender at any time Those who surrendered, the officers and secret police in the German army will also stare at them, and will catch those traitors who try to surrender and "kill chickens and scare monkeys".

These things are not what Shulka and others need to consider.

Shulka only knew that when Zolotarev received the call, he stared in disbelief for a while before saying, "They agreed, they actually agreed?!"

Zolotarev thought that this proposal was impossible to pass, especially the "showing the enemy to be weak" in it, because the previous Supreme Command had been very tough, and such words as "strengthening the morale of the enemy and destroying one's own prestige" are affirmative. If you don't say it, you may even be considered a traitor.

Therefore, Zolotarev was a little trembling and changed his words.

But I didn't expect the Supreme Command to agree immediately. Not only did it agree, but Stalin personally signed the amnesty order.

"What are you still doing!" Trufanov reminded: "We should plan how to implement it!"