I nodded kindly at Major General Kofes and said slowly, in unfamiliar German: "Hello, Your Excellency, I am also glad to meet you!" ”

Immediately after that, another general stood up from Kofes's side and greeted me with a smile: "Hello, General Oshanina, I have heard of your name for a long time. Allow me to introduce myself, but the contempt is the commander of the 4th Infantry Corps, Max. Lieutenant General of the Artillery of Pfefer. My troops have had several encounters with yours, but unfortunately they all ended in failure. ”

"I have long admired your name." Opposite the two stood an officer, who identified himself as the commander of the 11th Infantry Corps, Carl Brown. Lieutenant General Strecker, and he was impressed by the fact that I inflicted heavy losses on the 29th Motorized Rifle Brigade and captured the commander of the brigade, Major General Leeser.

And then stood up was the commander of the 44th Infantry Division, Heinrich. Anton. Lieutenant General de Boy, who praised me for skillfully occupying the Abuganelovo station, unwittingly cutting off the German transport lines, and provoking the Vostok Battalion and the German units to kill each other, and finally leaving the station with a large amount of explosives, which caused heavy casualties among the German troops who were stationed thereafter, and finally only lightly brushed off the defeat of his division at Mamayev Heights.

When Paulus knew who I was, and saw that so many of his subordinates were courting me, he turned around and ordered Colonel Adam, who was standing nearby, "Hey, Colonel, what are you still standing here?" Didn't you see General Oshanina still standing? Go and bring him a chair immediately. ”

When Adam received the order, he rushed to the empty chair by the wall and walked over to me with one. After putting it down, he said respectfully, "Please sit down." General Oshanina. ”

Spend a lot of time in the house. I'm slowly getting used to the light. I saw curiosity and approval in the faces of the German generals who were watching me, and even Paulus had a stiff smile on his face. He waved at me and said with a smile: "General Oshanina, although we are enemies, we are old acquaintances. To tell you the truth, the trouble your troops have caused us is not much more than that of one of your armies. Although we know that your forces are limited. But every time you shell and bombard Mamayev Heights, even if you level all the surface positions on the high ground, you just have to wait for our infantry to attack, and your soldiers emerge from the bombed positions in ruins. Under the heavy fire of you, our soldiers pounced on it again and again like a tidal wave, and had to retreat again and again. ”

Saying this, Paulus picked up the bag he had thrown on the table, opened it, took out the letter of surrender that Rokossovsky had given him, and read it carefully.

When the German generals turned their eyes to his commander, they stared nervously at the expression on his face. I can't help but feel a little complacent, the most proud of a soldier. It's not about how many battles you have won, or how many medals you have won, but about gaining the respect of your enemies. From the attitude of the German generals towards me, I suddenly understood the original intention of Rokossovsky to send me to carry out this task, and perhaps in his mind, there was really no one more suitable than me.

Paulus put on his reading glasses and read them slowly and carefully, as if he wanted to read every letter of the letter of the persuasion. On the way here, I heard Captain Saña say that this letter of surrender was dictated by Rokossovsky and handwritten by another German staff officer, so that the trouble of re-translation was omitted, and second, it was not easy to make grammatical errors, resulting in the situation that the words did not reach the meaning.

As Paulus read the book of surrender, I leaned back in my leather chair, crossed my hands over my chest, and waited patiently.

I don't know if it was five minutes or ten minutes, Paulus finally took his eyes off the letter of surrender, took off his reading glasses and put them on the table, and then said slowly: "General Oshanina, the conditions put forward by your superior, General Rokossovsky, on the text are quite decent: all prisoners will be given 'standard rations', the wounded, sick and frostbitten will be treated, and the captured personnel will be allowed to retain their ranks, medals, and personal finances. Will all of these conditions be honored? ”

Hearing Paulus's question, the attention of all the generals was once again focused on me, waiting for the answer I was about to give. I sat up straight and said, "General Paulus, I can tell you very responsibly that since General Rokossovsky has made such a promise, then he will definitely fulfill it." ”

After I finished speaking, Paulus stared at me intently for a while, then put down the text in his hand and said unexpectedly: "General Oshanina, with all due respect, although my troops are surrounded by your army and it is difficult to replenish them, after all, there are more than 200,000 troops, and it may not be easy for your army to completely annihilate us, right?" What's more, although Marshal Manstein's troops have been temporarily repulsed by you, there may be a day when they will come back, and will your army still have the good fortune to repel them again? ”

After listening to the translation of Second Lieutenant Gretka, I knew that Paulus despised the fighting power of the Soviet army and felt that it was a shame to order his troops to lay down their arms against the defeated men of their former past. I didn't get angry at this attitude of his, but said to him with a smile: "General Paulus, I admit that what you said is very reasonable, but I don't know if you have ever thought about how long it will take for Manstein to organize a new attack after we have been repulsed? And your troops, can they wait that long? ”

In order to enhance the persuasive effect, I also specifically emphasized: "Your Excellency Paulus, I would like to remind you that at this moment the bitter winter winds have hit the southern steppes, there is snow everywhere, the temperature has dropped below freezing, and the besieged German army is in a very bad situation: the tanks are unable to move due to lack of fuel, the cannons are short of shells, the horses are slaughtered, and the soldiers drink only snow water...... I could be like this, your men huddled in the trenches with hunger, cold, and artillery fire, awaiting their fate. ”

After I said this in one breath. I found that Paulus and the German generals did not react at all to what I had said. Just staring at me in a daze. It was then that I realized that Second Lieutenant Gretka had not translated my words to the other party in time. Then he turned his head and glared at the second lieutenant behind him, and said dissatisfiedly: "Hey, I said Second Lieutenant Grettka, what are you doing in a daze, why don't you hurry up and translate what I just said to them." ”

Gretka didn't know what he was doing, and he was reminded by me, and quickly nodded in a panic. Translate to Paulus and the astonished generals what I had just said.

Paulus waited for Gretka to finish translating, and then suddenly said a few words. Before I could go back and ask what Gretka meant, he had already taken it upon himself to communicate with Paulus. On the other side, Sagna bent down slightly, leaned closer to my ear and whispered: "Comrade General, Paulus is asking if this second lieutenant you brought has served in the German army before?" After listening to this, the second lieutenant first gave the other party an affirmative answer, and then said his name, rank, and former unit. ”

Paulus and Gretka had spoken a few words, then leaned back and rested his head on the back of his chair. To put it mildly, he said: "General Oshanina, although your troops are difficult to entangle. Caused us a lot of trouble, and even yesterday your troops captured a small position of ours. But in the Russian army, there is really no second one as effective as yours. As for the reason, you only need to compare how many of your division and brigade commanders were killed by us in this battle, and how many of our commanders of the same level were killed or wounded. So let's lay down our arms and surrender to the enemy who was once defeated by ourselves, unfortunately, we can't! ”

"Your Excellency," said Paulus, as soon as Paulus had finished speaking, Captain Saña preemptively preempted Grettka's translation for me, and perhaps the latter, who had just communicated with Paulus, aroused his suspicions, so he took over the post of interpreter without consulting me. After listening to Sania's translation, I stood up and said politely to Paulus: "I think it is necessary for me to draw your attention to the fact that the reason why the middle and senior commanders of our army have suffered many casualties in battle is that their command posts are usually located only a few hundred meters from the most intense part of the fighting. And your generals, with the exception of General Lesser, who I captured, have set up their headquarters in a safe area a few kilometers away from the front line. ”

At this point, I sat back in my chair and said in a relaxed tone: "Although the combat effectiveness of our troops is not as elite as that of the 6th Army, even so, you have not been able to drive them into the Volga and completely capture Stalingrad with all your forces in the summer and autumn. Now, then, you are a hungry army, and you will not want to defeat us. ”

Paulus sat up straight again, picked up the book of surrender on the table again, and read it carefully. From the slightly trembling details of Paulus's hand holding Wen Jiàn, I could tell that he was holding the letter of surrender in his hand, not to revisit the contents of it, but to hide his panic.

At this moment, there was a commotion outside, which immediately attracted the attention of the generals, and they collectively turned their eyes to the door, trying to figure out what was going on. And Paulus also put down the Wen Jiàn in his hand, frowned and ordered the adjutant standing next to him: "Hey, Colonel Adam, go out and see, what's going on outside?" ”

After Colonel Adam left, Paulus said to me apologetically, "General Oshanina, something seems to have happened outside, and I have asked my adjutant, Colonel Adam, to go out and check on it." Then he swore to me, "But rest assured that no matter what happens, your personal safety with us can be guaranteed." ”

Although I knew that my mission was not dangerous, I politely replied to Paulus's friendly attitude: "Thank you, Your Excellency, and I believe that your ability to control your own troops cannot be shaken. ”

After a while, Colonel Adam walked in with an officer who was struggling desperately with his hands cut behind his back by two soldiers, walked straight up to Paulus, and reported back to him.

I recognized the officer as the one who escorted us to the headquarters, but why was he arrested by Colonel Adam? Thinking of this, I leaned over and asked Sania in a low voice, "Captain, what's going on, what is Colonel Adam talking about?" ”

"Report to Comrade General," Sania replied respectfully, "Colonel Adam said to Paulus that the captain had just escorted us to the headquarters. I was waiting outside. Maybe it's because it's too cold. The officers outside were well-intentioned. Let him and his men come in to keep warm. But I don't know what's going on, as soon as he walks into the underground bunker, he starts to go berserk. The soldiers on duty stepped forward to stop them, and several of them were knocked down by him and his men. ”

"Captain, what's your name? And, "Paulus's face was full of anger, and it was evident that he was extremely unhappy with this subordinate who dared to commit an offence, but in front of me, an outsider. Still trying to maintain restraint, he gritted his teeth and asked, "Please tell me honestly, why did you do this?" ”

"My name is Dangra, Wehrmacht Captain Gerhard. Danguera. When the captain heard Paulus's questioning, he stopped struggling and answered the commander's question truthfully: "I am escorting the Russian headquarters today, and I have just walked into the basement division, and I am almost fainting with anger, and there is a strong smell of cigars in the air here, mixed with the smell of brandy and roast. It made me angry to the extreme. You must know that our front-line troops have basically run out of food, and some companies have even begun to eat the corpses of their comrades. And our superiors still have meat to eat, and brandy and so many other things, how can this not make me and my subordinates angry? ”

Paulus coughed a little embarrassedly after listening to Captain Dangra's explanation, and then explained dryly: "Captain, since we are under siege, logistics and supplies can only be relied on by airdrop or airlift. However, transport planes used to transport food, ammunition, fuel, and the evacuation of the wounded on the return journey required a large number of fighter cover, and due to the needs of the war, these fighters had to be temporarily used on other fronts. As a result, we had to temporarily reduce the rations of the troops. ”

Captain Dangela glanced at us, then said viciously, "Since we can't hold out any longer, why don't you announce your surrender?" Anyway, the negotiators of the Russians are in your headquarters. ”

All the generals present had a cold expression on their faces at these words of Danguera's offense, and they just stared at Paulus silently, wanting to hear what he had to say to his men.

Paulus, after a moment of silence, did not shy away from me, and said unhurriedly to Dangra: "Captain, this is very simple for you, you are just fighting face to face with the enemy. But here at Command, I need to make decisions at a higher strategic level. ”

Although Paulus said this to Captain Danguera, I understood that he was telling me tactfully, although he was the commander of the army group, many times he was also involuntarily unable to make the final decision according to the actual situation at will, so he would never surrender.

After hearing this, Captain Dangra snorted heavily and said disdainfully: "Your Excellency, Commander, these words are meaningless to me, and you are just a coward's excuse. ”

Paulus surprisingly did not get angry at Captain Dangra's taunt, and waved his hand at the two soldiers who had grabbed the captain and sent them away. Then he said: "Captain, the difficult time has come, the initiative has shifted to the junior officers. At this point, he turned his gaze to me, and then said to the captain: "You assure me with the honor of a soldier that you will send General Oshanina and her men back. ”

After saying that, he stood up, nodded at me, and asked, "General Oshanina, I don't know how much time you left me in the ultimatum you issued?" ”

"Twenty-four hours," I replied as soon as I listened to Sania's translation, "that is, if after 24 hours, you and your troops have not laid down their arms, we will launch a final attack on you." ”

"24 hours!" Paulus repeated the time, nodded bitterly, and then instructed his adjutant, "Adam, let Captain Dangela send General Oshanina and them away." With that, he turned and walked slowly towards a nearby room. When he entered the hut, the door was shut.

Colonel Adam came to me with Dangra and, after making a gesture, said politely: "General Oshanina, please!" I will order Captain Dangla to escort you out safely. ”

Leaving the basement of the department store, we were blindfolded again, sat in the motorcycle sidecar of Captain Dangra's unit, and returned to where the jeep was parked.

Captain Danguera himself untied the black cloth that bound my eyes, and as I thanked him, he murmured: "Your Excellency, General, I have a request, I don't know if you can accept it?" ”

After listening to Gretka's translation, I nodded and said kindly, "Please, Mr. Captain, as long as it is within my ability, I will definitely accept it." ”

After receiving my promise, Captain Dangela hesitated for a moment, finally gritted his teeth, and said decisively: "Your Excellency, General, I want to lead my company to surrender to your troops, I wonder if you can accept it?" ”

Danguera's words startled me, and I asked in surprise: "Captain Danguera, you said that you want to lead the troops to surrender, did I hear you right?" ”

Dangra nodded vigorously and said affirmatively: "Your Excellency General, just now in the headquarters, you must have also heard the words of Commander Paulus, who said that the command has been transferred to the junior officers. It was only on the way here that I understood the true meaning of his words. There were so many generals in the headquarters, and everyone was so cowardly that they didn't dare to surrender, but I was just a little captain, and he told me that if you want to surrender, surrender, and you will bear the consequences. If Hitler were to settle accounts with me in the future, I would have to ask for a lot of blessings. After thinking about this sentence, I told myself that since he gave me the right to surrender, then I should do it decisively. ”

After listening to Danguera's heartfelt words, I understood why his determination to surrender was suddenly so strong, so I took the initiative to extend my hand to him and said in a friendly voice: "Captain Danguera, on behalf of all the commanders and fighters of the 79th Infantry Corps, welcome you to join!" When shaking hands with him, I went on to reassure him: "I know that there are many officers and men who share your thoughts and want to lay down their arms and surrender, but they are still bound by their oaths. Yes, everyone is bound by it, and whoever wants to break it betrays the Motherland, which, as far as I know, is punishable by death, even officers and generals. For officers, this is important. Paulus, for example, felt that if they surrendered as generals, they would be ruined in the eyes of the German people. But for ordinary officers and soldiers, to hell with any oath. ”

After letting go of my hand, Danguera took a step back, saluted me with a solemn military salute, and then said: "General Oshanina, please wait here, I will send someone back to the company station, call all the remaining officers and soldiers, today, I lead the whole company of 47 officers and men, officially surrender to you and your troops!" (To be continued......) R1292