Before the battle officially began, the forward position of the 40th Guards Division received a letter from the German army opposite, saying that it hoped to negotiate with the Soviet army.

After seeing the letter sent by the Germans, Rokossovsky handed it to several of his subordinates to circulate, and then asked with a serious expression: "The Germans want to negotiate a ceasefire with us, what do you think?" ”

After reading this, Deputy Commander Trubnikov sneered and said disdainfully: "The Germans are really shameless, they used machine guns to shoot the negotiators we sent yesterday, and today they took the initiative to contact us and want to negotiate with us." ”

Malinin, on the other hand, easily connected the letter with the reconquest of Rostov, "Comrade commander, I think so. The reason why the Germans wanted to negotiate with us was probably because our troops had recaptured Rostov and completely cut off their connection with Army Group Don, so they had to think of other ways to get out of their current predicament. ”

Terekin also agreed with Malinin's analysis: "I agree with the chief of staff that with the recovery of Rostov-on-Don, the German Army Group on the Don River is farther away from the besieged 6th Army, and Paulus, who is unwilling to be wiped out by us, sees that purely military means can no longer allow his troops to successfully break away from our encirclement, so he can only use political means to achieve this goal." ”

After listening to the opinions of several deputies, Rokossovsky had a score in his heart, and he instructed Malinin: "Chief of Staff, call General Vinogorodov and ask him to come to me." ”

After hearing this, Malinin asked with some surprise: "Comrade commander, do we still have to negotiate with the German army?" ”

"That's right, if we can negotiate to get the Germans to stop resisting and lay down their arms and surrender unconditionally to us, I think we should still try." After Rokossovsky said this, he also deliberately emphasized: "As long as the enemy is willing to surrender, then we can not only reduce the casualties of our commanders and fighters, but also rescue more innocent citizens of Stalingrad from the current predicament." ”

Vinogorodov soon came to the headquarters, and when he saw several front commanders in a meeting, he guessed in his heart that calling him here might have something to do with persuading the Germans to surrender. However, he did not take the initiative to ask, but stood straight in front of Rokossovsky, waiting for him to assign him a task.

"Comrade Vinogorodov," Rokossovsky said after a long pause, "now that the situation has changed, we intend to send your team again to the German command for negotiations. How, do you have faith? ”

Although Vinogorodov feared the same fate as yesterday, in front of Rokossovsky, he replied as if nothing had happened: "Don't worry, Comrade Commander, we promise to complete the task this time." ”

An hour later, Vinogorodov, with two of his men, again came to the defense zone of the 40th Guards Division. The division commander who received them, Pastevich, asked worriedly: "General Vinogorodov, why are you here again?" ”

Vinogorodov smiled bitterly and replied: "We were ordered to negotiate with the Germans. ”

"What, negotiate with the Germans again?" Vinogoradov's words took Pasterevich by surprise: "Yesterday the Germans shot at you just to scare you away. If you shoot again today, your lives may be in danger. ”

"Don't worry, General Pastevich." Vinogoradov smiled at Pastevich, who was concerned about his own safety, and explained: "We went to contact the Germans yesterday, and the reason why we were strafed by machine guns was because the negotiation was unilaterally proposed by our army. Today, however, the situation is different, it was the Germans who took the initiative to invite us to negotiate. ”

"The Germans offered to invite you to negotiate?" Confused, Pastevich asked, "How did their attitude change so much?" ”

"Our troops occupied Rostov-on-Don." Vinogorodov said with some pride: "Paulus saw that his reinforcements were getting farther and farther away from him, and knew that if he continued to hold on, he would be wiped out by our army sooner or later, so he took the initiative to negotiate the matter." ”

The next steps are exactly the same as yesterday. Several people, led by Pastevich, came to the forward position. However, today, for the sake of safety, after being contacted by the trumpet, Vinogorodov stayed in the trench and did not show up, only Major Smyslov and Captain Tiatrenko, who did not carry any weapons and only waved a white flag, and walked towards the German position without hesitation.

The Germans in the trenches were informed by their superiors that they did not shoot at Major Smyslov. On the contrary, a black sedan pulled out of the defensive depth and stopped in front of the position. After the car stopped, a German officer got out of it and stood next to the car, waiting for the arrival of the Soviet representatives.

After the meeting between the two sides, the German officer said to Smyslov: "Mr. Major, I will now take you to our headquarters, but I will grieve you for the time being." After speaking, he took out two strips of black cloth from his body, and after obtaining Smyslov's permission, blindfolded the two Soviet commanders and led them into the car.

After driving for more than half an hour on the streets of the city, the car carrying the Soviet negotiators finally arrived at its destination, the central department store in Stalingrad, where Paulus's headquarters was located.

After the strip of black cloth that had been placed on the eyes of Smyslov and the interpreter was removed, a tall marble building that the major recognized at once as the famous central department store in Stalingrad. He saw that on the platform at the doorway, there was a sandbag bunker on the left and right of the door, on which machine guns were set up, and the German machine gunners who were staying behind the sandbags were vigilantly observing the surroundings, ready to shoot at the rushing enemy.

A German officer of higher rank stood on the platform, and when he saw that the major's blindfold was untied, he walked down the marble steps, and when he came to Major Smyslov, he raised his hand and saluted, and said politely: "I am Colonel Adam, the adjutant of General Paulus, and I have come out to meet you on the orders of the commander." Please! ”

"Hello, Mr. Colonel," Smyslov said to the German adjutant in front of him, after raising his hand in return, "Hello, Mr. Colonel, please take me to General Paulus, I have important business to see him immediately." ”

Colonel Adam said with a smile on his face, "The commander is waiting for you in the headquarters, please come with me." With that, he turned and walked up the steps first.

After Smyslov and the interpreter entered the building, they walked up the long staircase into the basement, led by Colonel Adam. As soon as he passed through the huge iron gate, a sour smell hit his face, and he had to cover his nose with his hand. He saw that the wide corridor was full of German soldiers sitting or lying on both sides, and immediately understood what was the strange smell he smelled, it turned out that there were too many people here and the air circulation was not good, so this strange smell appeared. The fact that the Germans could stay in such a harsh environment made Smyslov feel extremely impressed.

As the group walked inside, most of the German soldiers on either side of the corridor sat blankly with their eyes unfocused, except for a few whose eyes moved with their movements.

When Smyslov walked into Paulus's headquarters, he saw at a glance in the dim candlelight that on the leather chair on the other side of the long conference table facing the door sat a German officer in a military overcoat, although he was too far away to see the other party's face, but he guessed that this man was Paulus.

In addition to Paulus, there were many officers sitting on the left and right sides of the conference table, and when they saw the Soviet negotiators enter the door, they all turned their eyes to Major Smyslov. But since Paulus did not speak, the officers also remained silent, just silently looking at the two negotiators standing in front of them.

Smyslov walked to the table and stood still, and said loudly to Paulus opposite: "General Paulus, I have come today to present you a letter of surrender on the orders of General Rokossovsky, commander of the Stalingrad Front. After saying that, he turned to Tyatrenko, who was standing behind, and whispered: "Captain, translate my words to them, and at the same time, give them the letter of surrender we brought." ”

From his briefcase, Tyatrenko took out a letter of persuasion drafted by Rokossovsky and handed it to Colonel Adam, who was standing next to him. Adam took the letter and walked briskly to the other end of the table. He came to Paulus's side, leaned forward slightly, and respectfully handed the letter into Paulus's hands.

Paulus tore open the envelope and glanced at it, then handed it to Colonel Adam next to him, and muttered a few words: "Colonel, why is this letter in Russian, you can read it to us." ”

Adam took the letter and read it aloud to the German commanders present. When he had finished reading it, he carefully placed the letter in front of Paulus and stepped aside.

Paulus asked Smeslov, who was standing opposite him: "Mr. Major of the Russian Army, I would like to ask, if our army abandons the positions occupied in the Stalingrad area and leaves behind heavy weapons such as tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, etc., will your army let us leave here safely?" ”

After listening to Tyatrenko's translation, Smyslov shook his head and said categorically: "I'm sorry, General Paulus, you can only surrender unconditionally to our army. Otherwise, any form of negotiation is unacceptable to us. ”

After listening to the translation, the German commander burst out laughing, and the commander of the 295th Infantry Division, Major General Otto Kofes, said to Smyslov: "Mr. officer, you must know that we still have more than 200,000 troops in the Stalingrad area, and although they have temporarily fallen into your encirclement, their troops have not lost their combat effectiveness. If there is a real fight, who will destroy whom, it is not clear who will destroy whom, why do we surrender to you unconditionally? ”

Kofes's words resonated with his colleagues, and almost all the generals present agreed that they still had the strength to continue fighting with the Soviet army, and the Soviet army's demand for them to surrender unconditionally was too strong.

After Smyslov waited for the room to be quiet, he sneered, and then said: "Generals, gentlemen, when you said what you just said, you may have forgotten that under the continuous attacks of our army, the transport aviation that transported a limited amount of food, ammunition, and fuel for you has suffered huge losses, and it is impossible for it to continue to help you. And the situation of your besieged troops is extremely difficult, and your soldiers are suffering from hunger, disease, and cold. You know, the cold winter in Russia has just begun, and even more severe cold, biting cold winds and blizzards are yet to come. But your soldiers don't have winter clothes to protect themselves from the cold, and the sanitary conditions are terrible, so it won't be easy to survive this winter. ”

After Smyslov's words, the room suddenly fell into a deathly silence, because the German officers present knew the truth of what he was saying, and if it were not for the predicament of their own troops, who would take the initiative to negotiate with the Soviets in such a loss of dignity and honor.

After a long time, Paulus turned to Colonel Adam, who was standing behind him, and whispered something. When Adam heard this, he turned and walked to a small door next to him, pushed open the door, and walked in. When Smyslov saw this scene, he secretly guessed in his heart: the place where Colonel Adam had just entered seemed to be the German telecommunications room, and perhaps he was preparing to report the situation of the negotiations here to the higher-ranking commanders.

Paulus put on his reading glasses, picked up the letter of surrender on the table again, and read it carefully. Although it was written in Russian, which he did not recognize, he read it slowly and carefully, as if he wanted to read every letter of the letter of the persuasion.

I don't know how long it took, but Colonel Adam came out of the small door. He stood in the doorway, glanced at Smyslov and them, walked quickly to Paulus's side, and handed him a small roll of telegraph in his hand. Paulus put down the letter of surrender in his hand, took the telegram and began to read it carefully.

When he saw the telegram, he took off his glasses and put them on the table, then stood up and said to Smyslov across the table: "Mr. Russian Major, your ultimatum, we have just reported to the Führer. Now that his reply had arrived, he replied that surrender was impossible, and that the 6th Army should do its duty of valor at Stalingrad until the last man was fought. ”

Paulus sighed softly: "Our reply is to refuse to accept your ultimatum. We will continue to fight you until we receive the order to surrender. After saying this, he turned his head and ordered Colonel Adam, "Colonel, send them out of our defense zone." ”