Chapter 957 The Hungry Enemy

   Regarding the orders issued by Sokov, the Belkin Regiment is the most resolute in implementing them. In any case, these were Sokov's former direct troops, and the commanders and fighters had always carried out his orders unconditionally.

  After Sokov returned from the Paulus headquarters, he felt that it was meaningless for Guchakov to stay in the division headquarters, so he asked him to return to the third battalion and continue to be his company commander.

Ulbricht, who was in charge of speaking to the German army, came to Guchakov's company and shouted to the opposite position: "Brothers in Germany, you are desperate, stop working for Hitler, put down your weapons and come here!" Surrender, we need you together to build a new Germany."

   Then Ulbricht shouted towards the opposite position for more than half an hour, his voice was hoarse, but there was no movement on the German side. Guchakov handed Ulbricht a water jug ​​and said to him with a smile: "Comrade Ulbricht, your voice must be hoarse. Come, drink some, and moisten your throat."

   After thanking Guchakov, Ulbricht opened the lid of the kettle and took a big sip. But then, he began to cough violently, and asked while coughing, "Comrade Captain, why is there wine in it?"

"It's too cold, drink something to warm your body." Guchakov didn't explain why the flagon was full of wine, but changed the subject and said, "You know, it's not easy to find such good wine in the city. "

Knowing that there was wine in the jug, Ulbricht did not gulp like before when he drank this time, but took a few sips lightly, and said to Guchakov with a smile: "Sure enough. It's good wine."

   "Comrade Ulbricht," Guchakov looked at the opposite position where there was no movement, and asked Ulbricht curiously: "I see that you have been shouting for so long, why is there no reaction from the enemy on the opposite side?"

"I guess they still have illusions, thinking that Manstein's troops will come to rescue them." Ulbricht said with a sneer: "They can't receive information from other channels, they can only listen to the deceitful propaganda of their commander, Therefore, after listening to our shouting, there is no reaction, which is perfectly normal."

"Comrade company commander," a sergeant came to Guchakov quickly along the traffic trench, and reported to him: "The cooking squad brought a basket of bread and two buckets of red cabbage soup. What do you think?" disposal?"

  Hearing that the cooking team brought bread and red cabbage soup, Ulbricht thought it was everyone's supper, and couldn't help saying enviously: "I really didn't expect that you would have supper at night."

   "You are mistaken, Comrade Ulbricht." Guchakov replied with a smile: "These bread and vegetable soup are not for our soldiers."

   "What, isn't it for your soldiers?" Ulbricht asked in surprise, "Could it be for the enemy on the other side?"

   "You guessed right." Guchakov nodded with a smile, and said, "It is indeed prepared for the enemy on the opposite side."

Ulbricht didn't know the order from Sokov at all, so when he heard Guchakov prepared food for the German soldiers on the opposite side, he couldn't help frowning: "Comrade Captain, does your superior know that you are doing this? "

"Of course I know." Guchakov said affirmatively: "I was ordered by my superiors to prepare bread and vegetable soup for the German soldiers on the opposite side." After finishing speaking, he turned and told a soldier standing next to him, "To The German army on the opposite side shouted."

Before Ulbricht understood what was going on, he heard the soldier shout in fluent German: "Brothers in the German army, our division commander knows that you have been out of food for a long time, and you will not be able to eat enough for a long time, so he ordered us to give you food." You have prepared bread and hot cabbage soup. As long as you don’t come with weapons, you can eat with your stomach open. Don’t worry, we will never shoot you.”

  Hearing the soldier's shout, Ulbricht smiled wryly and shook his head. He didn't believe that with just these few words, the German soldiers on the opposite side would put down their weapons and crawl over. Sure enough, after shouting for a while, there was no movement on the other side.

Just when Ulbricht wanted to persuade Guchakov not to do such useless work, he heard Guchakov say to the soldier: "Tell them, this order is from Colonel Sokov, the commander of the 41st Guards Division. Personally ordered, as long as they put down their weapons and come to eat, we will never shoot at them."

"Comrade Captain," Ulbricht couldn't help saying to Guchakov when he heard the soldiers continue to shout towards the German positions, "I know German soldiers. Even if they starve to death, they will not leave the position easily. Come here..." Before he finished speaking, he suddenly noticed that everyone's attention was looking towards the German army's position opposite, and he asked puzzledly, "What's going on, what happened?"

  Under the bright moonlight, everyone could clearly see two black shadows climbing out of the German positions, crawling towards this side with hands and feet on the ground. "Comrade Company Commander," the soldier who called out to the German army said excitedly to Guchakov, "There are two Germans crawling towards us."

"Attention everyone." Seeing two German soldiers crawling towards his position, Guchakov worried that if any soldier got nervous and shot at them without authorization, Sokov's efforts would be in vain. Shouted loudly: "No one is allowed to shoot! Repeat, no one is allowed to shoot without my order."

   A few minutes later, two German soldiers climbed to the front of the position. Immediately, several soldiers reached out and pulled them into the trench. When the two entered the trench, some soldiers searched them, and found that they did not have any weapons, so they nodded to Guchakov, indicating that they were not carrying weapons.

   Guchakov walked to the bamboo basket, bent down and picked up two black breads, walked over and handed them to two German soldiers respectively. And turned around and ordered the soldiers in the cooking class: "Give them a serving of red cabbage soup."

  The cold and hungry German soldiers devoured the black bread in their hands and drank the hot red cabbage soup. A German sergeant timidly asked Guchakov: "Mr. Captain, can I have another vegetable soup?"

   "Yes." Guchakov took the lunch box in the opponent's hand, handed it to the cooking soldier behind him, and ordered, "Give him another serving of red cabbage soup."

   Soon, a serving of red cabbage soup was handed over to Guchakov. When Guchakov handed the vegetable soup to the German sergeant, he felt that the other party looked familiar, so he tentatively asked: "I think you look familiar, I seem to have seen it somewhere?"

After listening to the translation by the soldier next to him, the German sergeant grinned and said, "Mr. Captain, have you forgotten that we once met at the door of a basement. At that time, you blocked me on purpose to prevent me from entering that basement." In front of me, I later found out that the basement was full of civilians."

The German sergeant's words were very tactful, but Guchakov immediately remembered the German corporal who captured him and then let him go quickly. He quickly looked at the other party carefully and found that it was the German soldier who let him go , but is now a sergeant.

"It turned out to be you." After recognizing the other party, Guchakov's affection for him increased a bit, and he picked up a piece of black bread and handed it to him, saying, "I really didn't expect to meet you here. You must be starving, come on, eat more, if you don’t have enough.”

  The German sergeant took the black bread and didn't put it in his mouth, but put it in his pocket. Seeing that Guchakov cast a puzzled look at himself, he quickly explained: "I have a friend who was seriously injured and hasn't eaten for several days. I plan to take this piece of bread back for him to eat." .”

   Guchakov looked in the direction of the German position, and seeing that there was still no movement there, he tentatively asked the German sergeant: "Sergeant, can I ask you a favor?"

  The German sergeant who had just finished drinking a lunch box raised his hand and wiped his mouth, looked at Guchakov and said, "Mr. Captain, if you have anything to say, just say it."

"Can you tell the German soldiers on the opposite side?" Guchakov said to him, "Tell them, as long as they don't carry weapons, they can come to eat. After eating, should they stay with us as prisoners or go back, Everyone listens as you please."

   "Mr. Captain, what did you just say?" The German sergeant was stunned by Guchakov's words, and quickly checked: "After we have filled our stomachs, can we really choose to stay or stay freely?"

   "Yes, Sergeant." Guchakov replied with a serious expression: "This is an order from our division commander, Colonel Sokov, and we will strictly implement it."

   "Okay, Mr. Captain, since Colonel Sokov made the promise, then I can immediately shout to our people." The German sergeant replied very readily: "Please give me the horn."

   After obtaining Guchakov's permission, the soldier acting as an interpreter handed over the microphone in his hand to the German sergeant. The German sergeant took the microphone and shouted to the opposite position: "Brothers, I am Sergeant Doppler. I and a soldier risked our lives to come to the Russian position. This place is really like what they said That way, there is something to eat, as well as hot red cabbage soup, we are full now, so come here quickly."

After Sergeant Doppler finished shouting, there was still no movement in the opposite position. He felt that what he said might not be clear, and added specifically: "The Russians said that as long as we don't carry weapons, we can come to eat. As for whether to stay as prisoners or return to the original position after eating, it is up to us to decide. This is Colonel Sokov's assurance to us, and his subordinates will resolutely obey this order. "

There was no movement in the German positions. Hearing Sokov's promise to feed them, they could freely choose to stay or come back. The soldiers who had been hungry for a long time couldn't bear it anymore. They put down their weapons one after another. And used the ground to climb out of the position, and crawled towards the opposite Soviet position.

At first, Ulbricht saw only two or three German soldiers crawling out of the position, and then seven or eight more. After a while, he found a dark group of people on the snow between the positions of the two armies. Climb over. His heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and he quickly said to Guchakov: "Comrade Captain, so many enemies are coming, can your people handle it?"

   Guchakov didn't expect that Sergeant Doppler's call would attract so many people. He turned his head and glanced at the bamboo basket and the barrel of red cabbage soup on the ground. He felt that there must be not enough food, so he quickly ordered the people in the cooking team: "Go and bring another basket of bread and two buckets of red cabbage soup."

   After the German soldiers entered the trench one after another, Guchakov found that there were not only ordinary soldiers, but even two lieutenant officers. After the German officer met Guchakov's gaze, he hurriedly lowered his head, fearing that he would be humiliated by the other party.

  But the situation imagined by the German officers did not happen. Guchakov walked up to them and handed them the bread in his hand. Without saying a word, he went to the ordinary soldiers next to him and distributed the bread for them.

  Due to the difficulty of supplies, not to mention ordinary soldiers, even lieutenant officers have a hard time getting enough to eat. Now that they suddenly had bread and hot vegetable soup in their hands, everyone couldn't be bothered to eat it hungrily. At this time, Ulbricht was worried that they would choke if they ate too fast, so he kindly comforted them: "Brothers, there is plenty of bread and vegetable soup, don't worry, eat slowly, and don't choke."

   "Are you German?" As soon as Ulbricht opened his mouth, Sergeant Doppler quickly judged his identity from his accent. After getting an affirmative answer from the other party, he asked curiously again: "Did you join the Russian army because you were captured?"

"No, Sergeant Doppler, I'm not a soldier." Ulbricht replied righteously: "I am the head of the German Anti-Fasi Temple Alliance. The anti-war broadcast you heard recently is me and It was broadcast by my comrades."

Sergeant Doppler let out a oh, looked around, and saw that other officers and soldiers were busy eating, and no one noticed him, so he lowered his voice and asked Ulbricht: "I want to ask, Manstein Was the Marshal's army really repulsed by the Russians?"

   "Yes." Ulbricht replied affirmatively: "Not only was Marshal Manstein's troops repulsed, but even the attack of General Hoth's armored troops was crushed."

"It turns out that this is all true." Sergeant Doppler said with some surprise: "So, our commander has been lying to us, saying that it will take another week at most, and Marshal Manstein's troops will be able to come and fight with us." We meet."

"After being hit hard by the Soviet army, Marshal Manstein's troops have completely lost their ability to attack." Ulbricht shook his head and said, "So I still advise you to give up this unrealistic plan as soon as possible." Fantasy."

  After the German soldiers had enough to eat and drink, some people climbed out of the Soviet trenches and crawled towards their positions. At the beginning, the German soldiers still had some scruples, worrying that they would be shot by the Soviets if they left the Soviet positions. But when they saw that their comrades had successfully climbed to the front of their own positions, and the Soviet army had not yet fired, they realized that the words of letting them leave freely were not made up to deceive them.

   Sergeant Doppler, who came first, reluctantly came to the edge of the trench after everyone had left. Before he left, he deliberately explained to Guchakov: "Mr. Captain, although I really want to stay, but I still have a few injured friends on the opposite side. I want to bring them something back. Wait for their The injuries are getting better, and I will definitely bring them over to surrender to you. Goodbye, we will see you later."

Looking at the back of Sergeant Doppler's departure, Ulbricht said with emotion: "I really didn't expect that Colonel Sokov's method is so effective that it can make those soldiers who just want to fill their stomachs obediently let go." Weapons come to our positions. If this is the case elsewhere, I estimate that it will not be long before the German officers and soldiers will completely lose the courage to continue fighting."

  (end of this chapter)