"Chief of Staff," Schmidt was pulled by the commander of the 51st Infantry Army, Kurtzbach, who asked in a low voice: "How is it, has the Commander agreed to surrender to the Russians?"
"General Kurtzbach," Schmidt replied with a wry smile: "I'm sorry, the commander has no such thought at all. He intends to obey the orders of the head of state and fight the Russians until the last man."
"Is he crazy?" Kurzbach was a little anxious when he heard this. "Don't he know what's going on with us? Without food, ammunition and fuel supplies, how long can we last in the Russian encirclement?"
"You heard the order of the head of the head of the country," Schmidt said helplessly: "I also advised him to stop his hopeless resistance and surrender to the Russians to save more lives. But he couldn't listen at all and wanted to obey the order of the head of the head of the country."
"No, we must not let him do this." Kurtzbach said firmly: "We must find a way to stop him."
"How to stop it? Will you continue to persuade?" Schmidt asked the question and said to himself without waiting for Kurtzbach to answer: "I have persuaded you all, but the commander is now fighting with the Russians to the end. No matter who persuades you, it will not be useful. Unless the head of state changes his mind and agrees to let us surrender, he will issue an order to stop resisting and surrender to the Russians."
"Since persuasion is useless," Kurtzbach did not want to sit and wait for death, and decided to take a risk, so he gritted his teeth and said, "How about we make a military admonition? If he still disagrees, arrest him and hand it over to the Russians."
"General Kurtzbach, are you crazy?" Schmidt rushed over and covered his mouth when he heard Kurtzbach say this, and said in a panic: "There will be such a ridiculous idea. If the people in the guards hear it, they will shoot you directly, no matter what general you are or not."
After Kurzbach broke Schmidt's hand away from his mouth, he asked angrily: "Chief of Staff, do you really want to stay here and wait for death?"
"Who wants to die if you can be captured alive?" Schmidt said with a sad expression: "Even if you want to make military advice, how many troops can you mobilize?"
"If you don't object, I will immediately call someone to discuss it." Kurtzbach asked tentatively: "Chief of Staff, are you willing to participate together?"
Schmidt understood the current situation of the troops and knew that it was only a matter of time before being wiped out by the Soviet army. He didn't want to sacrifice his life in vain. Now that he saw a chance to survive, he was reluctant to give up easily. He nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go there again when you call all the people."
Schmidt returned to his room and waited for more than ten minutes, a second lieutenant came to knock on the door. After Schmidt opened the door, the second lieutenant reported to him: "His Excellency Chief of Staff, General Kurtzbach ordered me to come and find you."
"Where is he?"
"plz follow me."
The lieutenant brought Schmidt to the door of the room inside, stopped and said to Schmidt: "Chief of Staff, General Kurtzbach is inside, please come in."
Schmidt pushed open the door and walked in and saw seven or eight people sitting in the room. In addition to Kurtzbach, there were also commander Max Pfeiffer, commander of the 4th Infantry Army, General Walter Heights, commander of the 7th Infantry Army, as well as Dr. Otto Kofes, commander of the 295th Division, and commander of the 100th Hunter Division, including Werner Sanne.
Seeing that there were so many senior generals gathered in this room, Schmidt couldn't help but feel a little scared. Not to mention anything else, if the Russians were launching an attack, Werner Sanne, commander of the 100th Hunter Division, had to order the troops to stop resisting, in less than five minutes, the Russian vanguard could rush into the basement of the department store.
"Gentlemen," said Kurtzbach, seeing Schmidt coming, "The Commander-in-Chief intends to continue to resist and let all of us die with the Russians. I call you here to ask what you think, whether you continue to fight with the Commander, or take the initiative to put down your weapons and surrender to the Russians?"
"Due to the tight seal of the Russian Air Force, we can get less and less supplies," Walter Heitz, the first speaker, said with a frown: "According to my estimate, even if the Russians do not attack, it will be difficult for us to hold on until February. Therefore, the best way is to take the initiative to cease the war and surrender to the Russians."
"But, can the Commander agree?" Dr. Kofes said worriedly: "Some time ago, Colonel Sokov from Russia came to persuade him to surrender, but he refused. How could he change his mind easily now?"
"If he doesn't change, then we will force him to change." Kurtzbach said gritting his teeth: "I plan to use military advice to force the commander to change his mind. What do you think?"
"General Sanne," Seeing that everyone was not talking for a long time, Kurtzbach could only call Sanne's name: "Your troops are deployed on the periphery of the department store. Tell me, what did you think?"
"The Commander has deployed our division here to protect the safety of the headquarters." Sanne said hesitantly: "If the soldiers are ordered to force the commander, I am worried that the situation will be out of control by then. I think we should try to persuade the commander. As for the military admonition, it is best to give up."
Seeing that Sonne actually sang against him, Kurtzbach was particularly angry. But whether Sonne's troops participated in the military admonition would be related to the success or failure of the operation. He could only persuade him with kind words: "General Sonne, I think your subordinates may also want to return to their motherland alive. If they explain the truth clearly to them, I believe they can still stand on our side."
"Sorry, General Kurtzbach." Sanne replied firmly: "General Paulus is my superior, and I will never point the gun at my superior. Sorry, I think I am not suitable to attend such a meeting..."
Seeing that Sanne was about to walk outside, Kurtzbach drew his pistol and pointed it at the other party's forehead, and said with a ferocious expression: "General Sanne, if you dare to take another step forward, I will shoot."
"General Kurtzbach, what are you doing? Put down your gun quickly and be careful of fire." Schmidt saw that Kurtzbach actually drew his gun toward him, and hurried out to smooth things over: "And you, General Sanne, we are just trying to persuade the commander to change our minds, but we are not really ready to be detrimental to him. You should sit down first and listen to what General Kurtzbach said."
Sanne snorted and returned to his position to sit down. Kurtzbach also threw his pistol at the table.
"Everyone," Schmidt felt that he should first show his attitude, so that the senior officers present knew how to make a choice: "Although General Kurtzbach's proposal of military advice was a bit too extreme, in the current situation, it was the only effective way. Since the Russians attacked outside met with the defenders of Mamayevgang, our situation has become increasingly difficult. Everyone knows that the supplies they receive are getting less and less now. Not to mention that ordinary soldiers are not full, even the generals here may have less food every day..."
"His Excellency Chief of Staff." After Schmidt finished speaking, Dr. Cofes asked bluntly: "What do you think we should do?"
"We can make another effort." Schmidt said hesitantly: "Go and persuade the commander again. If he still can't listen, follow General Kurtzbach's method and use military advice to force him to submit."
After the consensus reached, the group walked out of the meeting room and walked along the corridor towards Paulus' room. The soldiers standing guard at the door saw that Schmidt was the leader, not only did not stop him, but also took the initiative to open the door for him.
Paulus heard the door ringing, and then so many people rushed in from outside, so he couldn't help but be stunned, and then asked, "Is there anything you have to do?"
"Hisser Commander," Schmidt, who was standing in front, said respectfully to Paulus: "We are here to ask you to consider the Russians' letter of persuasion. Under the current circumstances, our army is short of food and clothing, and has serious shortage of ammunition and fuel. Under the strong attack of the Russians, we will not last long."
"What the hell do you want to say?" Paulus asked coldly.
"I would like to ask you to obey everyone's wishes and order all troops to stop resisting and surrender to the Russians." Schmidt said righteously: "You can save more lives if you do this."
"No, this is definitely not possible." Paulus turned around and said with a tough attitude towards these subordinates: "I will obey the orders of the head of state, fight until the last person, and shoot the last bullet. I will never surrender to the Russians."
Seeing that Paulus was so stubborn, everyone knew that it would be meaningless to persuade him, so they returned to the room where the secret discussion had just been held. Kurtzbach said angrily: "You have heard that the Commander will never surrender to the Russians. If we continue to fight, no one will end up well by then."
After a long time, Sanne spoke and broke the silence in the room: "General Kurtzbach is right. In extraordinary times, he can only take extraordinary measures. I agree to persuade the commander by using military advice."
Kurzbach, who had been disappointed, was overjoyed when he heard Sanne expressing his opinion and agreed to participate in the military advisory. He hurriedly said to him: "General Sanne, you have made a correct decision. In the future, those surviving soldiers and their families will be grateful to you forever."
"Since everyone has no different opinions on military admonition," Schmidt saw that everyone was not speaking, which was equivalent to resolving Kurtzbach's opinion, so he took the initiative to say: "Next, we will discuss the details of the action. After all, there are so many troops loyal to the commander in the basement, and it will be bad if our own people fight with our own people."
There had never been any mutiny in the German Wehrmacht, so no generals present had any experience in this regard. After hearing Schmidt's words, they became hesitant again. Especially the initiator Kurtzbach, who was originally planning to burn his boats. If the warriors were intercepted by the guards loyal to Paulus when they entered the basement, he would order the gun to fire without hesitation. But now when he heard Schmidt's reminder, he felt that this opportunity needed to be further improved so that it would be difficult to end if the fight really started.
"Gentlemen," Kurtzbach said again after pondering the opportunity: "When it's dark, General Sanne's troops entered the basement under the name of changing defenses, waiting for an opportunity to disarm the guards. Note that they are all our compatriots, so if you can't shoot, do not shoot."
"If our military admonition is successful, the commander agrees to surrender to the Russians." Heitz asked: "How can we negotiate with the Russians?"
"In the area near the department store, there are a large number of Russians." Schmidt, as the chief of staff, knew more than any general present. He said with a serious expression: "From all signs, they will attack us in the near future. Although there are many troops around us, they are entangled by the Russians. Even if we ask for help from them, the support we can get is very limited. I think if we want to surrender, we can surrender to this force at that time."
"What, let me surrender to a group of defeated men?" Heitz shook his head and said, "If it was Russian Colonel Sokov who accepted our surrender, I could consider it; but I have no interest in those defeated men from the past."
"General Heights, it seems that your intelligence is too out of date." Schmidt waited for Heights to finish speaking and said to him with a smile: "The troops that are now in serious danger to us are under the command of Colonel Sokov."
"But, according to my observation, the Russians stationed in those places had at least two or three divisions." Heitz said disapprovingly: "He is just a division commander, how could he command so many troops."
"In order to attack us, the Russians set up a combat cluster not long ago, named after Colonel Sokov." Seeing that everyone was so unaware of the situation outside, Schmidt introduced them to them, "Sokov is now the commander of this cluster."
When Kurtzbach heard Schmidt say this, his eyes lit up. He quickly said, "His Chief of Staff, then, is the troops that threaten us now under the command of Colonel Sokov?"
"Yes."
"Look, can we send people immediately to contact Colonel Sokov?" Kurtzbach asked Schmidt tentatively: "In this way, they will not easily attack the department store, and will avoid an unnecessary battle."
"Well, this is a good idea." Schmitic said with his head: "I was worried that if General Sannei was dispatched from the front to join the military admonition, the Russians took the opportunity to launch an attack, and our defense line would probably be torn apart in a short time."
Chapter completed!