Chapter 978 Negotiation

  The white flag waving on the rooftop on the second floor was quickly seen by Ivanov in the distant observation station.

   "The Germans surrendered?" Ivanov said to himself: "Is there no conspiracy?"

   Anisimov, who came over from Mamayev Post to watch the excitement, interrupted quickly when he heard what Ivanov said, "Comrade Colonel, do you think we should report this news immediately to the division commander?"

   "You are right, Comrade Political Commissar." Ivanov nodded and said, "Such important information really needs to be reported to Comrade Division Commander immediately."

  After the call was connected, Ivanov's voice became hoarse with excitement: "Comrade Commander, the enemy who stood firm in the department store raised a white flag and surrendered to our army?"

   "What?" Due to the loud noise coming from the earpiece, Sokov couldn't hear what Ivanov said clearly, and hurriedly shouted into the microphone: "What did you say? I didn't hear clearly, please repeat it loudly."

   "Comrade Commander." Ivanov took a deep breath and raised his voice and said: "The enemy standing in the department store has unfurled a white flag and is ready to surrender to our army."

"Great, that's just great." Sokov didn't expect that the enemy who stood firm in the building would surrender so quickly. After applauding repeatedly, he told Ivanov: "Comrade deputy division commander, order the troops to temporarily Stop attacking, stay where you are, and wait for further instructions."

   "However, some fighters from the drawdown group have already rushed into the building." Ivanov asked Sokov for instructions, "Should we order them to evacuate the building and stand by outside?"

   "No, let them stay in the building." Sokov said into the microphone: "Send them a radio station so that they can keep in touch with them at any time. I will rush there immediately."

  After putting down the phone, Sokov ordered Sidolin: "Chief of Staff, immediately notify the other attacking troops that the enemy has surrendered with a big white flag, and order them to stop attacking."

"Comrade Commander." Seeing Sokov hurriedly wanting to leave, Sidolin quickly reminded him: "Our attack was not violent, how could the Germans surrender so easily? Could there be some conspiracy? "

   "Is there any conspiracy, I will know when I go to the frontier."

   "Wait a minute, Comrade Master."

   "Anything else?"

   "You are now the commander of the combat group. Even if you want to go to the front, you should report to the front army headquarters, lest you will not be there when they want to find you."

  Regarding Sidolin's reminder, Sokov nodded, and asked the communications soldier to help him connect to the Front Army Command. When a voice came from the handset, Sokov said bluntly: "I am Colonel Sokov, the commander of the combat group. Please help me find Chief of Staff Malinin. I have important military information to report to him."

  After waiting for two or three minutes, Malinin's voice came from the receiver: "Colonel Sokov? I'm Malinin. Do you have any important military information to report to me?"

   "Report to Comrade Chief of Staff, my deputy commander just reported to me. Said that the enemy who stood firm in the department store raised a white flag and surrendered to our army."

   "What, you said the enemy raised a white flag?" Ma Linin asked in surprise, "Is this true?"

   "It's true, Comrade Chief of Staff..."

   Before Sokov could speak, he suddenly heard Rokossovsky's voice from the receiver: "Misha, I'm Rokossovsky, is what you said true?"

   "Comrade Front Commander, have you returned from Moscow?"

   "Yes, I just came back by plane." Rokossovsky was eager to know the answer, so he urged: "Misha, tell me the courier, is what you said true?"

"The news that the enemy raised the white flag was reported to me by my deputy commander, Colonel Ivanov." Seeing that Rokossovsky expressed doubts about the matter, Sokov quickly explained to him: "He is a An old commander with more than 20 years of military experience, I believe his report will never be wrong."

   Rokossovsky, who has always been prudent, continued to ask in order to find out the truth of the matter, "Misha, have you verified the accuracy of this information?"

   "Comrade Commander of the Front Army!" Sokov replied: "I am preparing to rush to the front to verify this matter myself. I will report to you after I know the exact situation."

   "Very good." Satisfied with Sokov's answer, Rokossovsky nodded and said, "Then I will wait for your good news."

  When Rokossovsky put down the phone, Malinin asked him impatiently: "Comrade Commander, do we need to report this good news to Moscow immediately?"

"Don't worry, Comrade Chief of Staff." Rokossovsky waved his hand and rejected Malinin's proposal, and said: "Even if the German surrender is true, it is still unknown whether Paulus will stay in the building. If we didn’t figure out the status, we would rush to report to the base camp, and once something went wrong, it would be very difficult to make up for it.”

  Besides, when Sokov left Mamayev Gang and took an armored vehicle to the forward headquarters of the 41st Guards Division, the fighting near the department store had completely stopped. Except for the billowing black smoke and flames, there was no sound of gunfire on the battlefield. Seryozha, who was sitting next to Sokov, said excitedly: "Misha, listen, there is no gunfire on the battlefield. It seems that the Germans are really going to surrender to us."

  As he got closer to the forward headquarters, Sokov's heart beat faster than expected. Although the enemies of the department store raised a white flag, it is still unknown whether Paulus is still in the building at this moment. If you wait until you lead someone to rush in, only to find that Paulus has already fled, it will be a waste of time to fetch water from the bamboo basket.

  ...

  The white flag on the roof was seen not only by the Soviet commanders and fighters who attacked the building, but also by the Germans who stood firm in the building. Someone immediately reported the situation to Sannei.

  Sang Nei learned that someone in the building dared to fly a white flag at the Soviet army, and immediately became angry from embarrassment, and came towards the rooftop with a dozen subordinates. Still far away, he saw a group of people standing on the rooftop, and before he could see who they were, he sternly shouted: "Which part of you cowards are you, who allowed you to raise the white flag to the Russians? "

  As soon as his shout fell, someone in the crowd said leisurely: "I gave the order, General Sanne."

"It's you, Hans Wurz." When Sanne saw clearly that the person speaking was General Hans Wurz, commander of the 144th Artillery Group, he couldn't help being surprised: "Why did you raise the white flag to the Russians? Don't you You know, we can still fight, the Russians want to occupy the department store, at least thousands of lives will be paid."

"Wake up, General Sanne." Hans Wurz shook his head, smiled wryly and said to Sanne: "Now the soldiers are unwilling to fight any more. If you put down your weapons and surrender earlier, more people will live. Come down. Let me tell you the truth, the order to surrender was personally issued by the Commander."

   "Impossible, this is impossible." Sanne roared: "If your Excellency Commander wanted to surrender, he would have surrendered long ago. How could it be possible for our officers and soldiers to suddenly announce their surrender while our officers and soldiers were still fighting tenaciously with the Russians?"

"General Sanne," Hans Wurz said with a raised voice, "I don't think you understood the command of your Excellency Commander. What he said is that when our army resists and finds that it cannot stop the Russians from attacking, we can choose to surrender. .Now that the Russian troops have stormed the building, there is no point in resisting any longer, so I ordered the white flag to be raised."

Seeing the row of black muzzles pointing at him, Hans Wurz took two steps forward with his hands behind his back, and said to the soldiers: "Soldiers, we are on the verge of running out of ammunition and food. If you go down, there is only one dead end. Don’t you all want to return to the motherland alive, and return to your parents, wives and children?"

   It may be the last sentence of Hans Wurz, which moved the officers and soldiers who followed Sanne. First, one muzzle was lowered, and then more muzzles were lowered. Soon, there was no longer a single gun pointed at Hans Wurz.

Seeing that his words had an effect, Hans Wurz secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and said to Sanne: "General Sanne, stop being obsessed and order the soldiers to stop resisting. Listen, the Russians outside are attacking It also stopped. Wait a little longer, and they will send someone to accept the surrender."

   "General Hans Wurz," at this moment, a familiar voice came from the stairs: "I was looking for you everywhere, but I didn't expect you to be here."

   Everyone turned their heads and saw that it was Chief of Staff Schmidt who came up from the stairs. He came between Hans Wurz and Sanne, and said to them: "The latest order from Your Excellency Commander, stop resisting and surrender to the Russians. General Sanne, immediately order your troops to stop shooting."

   "Not all the defenders in this building belong to my 100th Jaeger Division." Sanne said angrily, "I can't order them all to surrender."

   "You only need to give orders to the officers and soldiers of the 100th Jager Division, and the rest of the troops will naturally have their officers to give orders."

  Since Schmidt had already said this, Sanne knew that no matter how much he refuted, it would be meaningless, so he could only turn around and order an officer to notify the troops to cease fire.

  After the gunfire in the building completely stopped, Schmidt tidied up his military appearance and said to Hans Wurz: "Let's go, General Hans Wurz."

   "Where are you going?" Hans Wurz asked puzzled.

   "Your Excellency Commander ordered the two of us to send representatives to the Russian headquarters for surrender negotiations."

   A few minutes later, Schmidt and Hans Wurz followed a soldier with a white flag down the stairs. They saw the commanders and fighters of the downsizing regiment on the first floor. Schmidt said to the battalion commander Captain Vasily who came out of his hiding place: "Mr. officer, I am the full-fledged negotiator appointed by Marshal Paulus. Please take me to see Your higher-ranking commanders."

  Although Vasily did not understand Russian, he only guessed three points from Schmidt's tone of voice. After asking for instructions through the radio, he decided to personally bring Schmidt and others to the forward headquarters.

  As soon as Sokov entered the headquarters, Ivanov said to him in surprise: "Comrade commander, it's a good time for you to come. The Germans will send people to negotiate later."

   "The Germans are coming to negotiate?" Sokov asked back: "Who are the negotiators who are coming, and what is the purpose of their negotiations?"

Sokov's question stopped Ivanov. He shook his head with a wry smile and replied: "Comrade Commander, Captain Vasily, the commander who led the troops into the building, doesn't understand German at all. He only knows the Germans." Send two generals to negotiate with us, and I have ordered him to bring people here."

  After waiting for about ten minutes, Captain Vasily showed up at the forward headquarters with Schmidt and Hans Wurz.

  After seeing the person coming, Sokov couldn't help exclaiming: "So it's you, Chief of Staff Schmidt."

  Schmidt followed Vasily into the forward headquarters with a feeling of apprehension, still muttering in his heart, what kind of character would the Russian officer who will deal with him later have. After hearing Sokov's voice, he couldn't help calling out, "So it's you, Colonel Sokov."

   After confirming that the person negotiating with him was Sokov, Schmidt's mood suddenly became lighter. After raising his hand to salute Sokov, he said respectfully, "Hello, Colonel Sokov, we meet again."

   "Hello, Chief of Staff Schmidt." Sokov asked with a straight face, "Paulus sent you, right?"

   "Yes, Colonel Sokov." After listening to the translation, Paulus replied respectfully: "Commander Paulus indeed sent me to negotiate with your army."

   "Tell me, what conditions does Paulus have?"

   "Your Excellency Commander asked me to tell you, first, provide food for our army; second, provide medicine and corresponding treatment for the wounded and sick; third, allow officers to carry self-defense weapons..."

   "These bastards," Ivanov cursed in a low voice when he heard this, "they are dying, and they are still here to negotiate terms with us."

"Chief of Staff Schmidt," Sokov waited for Schmidt to finish all the conditions, and said lightly: "These conditions you mentioned were in the ultimatum given to you by General Rokossovsky. It has been mentioned in detail. Our army means what it says, as long as you put down your weapons and surrender, we will abide by our agreement."

Schmidt raised his hand and looked at his watch, then bowed and said to Sokov: "Colonel Sokov, since there are still some stubborn generals who need to be persuaded, we still need a little time. The surrender will be carried out on time at one o'clock in the afternoon. Please send someone to accept our surrender."

   "No problem," Sokov nodded, and said, "I will take people to the department store myself."

   Seeing Sokov's statement that he went to the department store to accept the surrender in person, Schmidt's heart suddenly became more at ease. To be honest, everyone felt a little bit uncomfortable when they were asked to surrender to their former defeated generals. But if the surrendered person was Sokov, the situation would be completely different. After all, most commanders had suffered from Sokov. Surrendering to a victor will not bring humiliation, on the contrary, it is a relatively honorable thing.

After Sokov ordered Vasily to take Schmidt and others to leave, he immediately ordered the operator: "Send a telegram to the headquarters of the front army, saying that the news has been confirmed, and Paulus and others will surrender to our army on time at one o'clock in the afternoon. I Request to go to the department store in person to accept the surrender of the Germans."

  (end of this chapter)