Five days have passed since Guderian and Manstein crossed the Don River. During these five days, the troops of the Second Armored Army and the 11th Army moved forward cautiously and tentatively.

Both armies acted very cautiously. They seemed to want to open a life channel connecting the Don River to Stalingrad.

The tanks did not make a large-scale advance, but cooperated with the infantry units to build defense lines on both sides of the passage to ensure the safety of the core main force.

As a result, Guderian and Manstein's advancement speed was like a snail crawling, astonishingly slow.

However, five days later they arrived at a place more than 30 kilometers away from Stalingrad.

The front was the core of the Chinese army's defense. Manstein tried to attack several times, but without any surprise, they were all beaten back by China's super firepower, and the attacking troops suffered heavy losses.

During the advancement of Guderian and Manstein, the Chinese armored group army and infantry units only harassed the passage they built and did not attack with all their strength.

This made the two generals suspicious and worried that the Chinese were preparing for a bigger operation.

In the north, in addition to the Chinese, there was Mao Xiong's Don River Front.

Manstein was worried that once he got into a tangled battle with the Chinese army, the Don River Army and the Chinese armored forces would attack his rear with all their strength.

This will not only fail to save Stalingrad's Paulus 6th Army, but may also plunge the 11th Army and the 2nd Armored Army into heavy encirclement.

Manstein personally sent a telegram to Paulus, asking him to break out to the west and cross a distance of 30 kilometers to meet up with the receiving troops of the 11th Army.

This is the safest plan with the highest success rate.

However, the cautious Paulus refused to break out of the encirclement because he had not received orders from the Führer, and still stubbornly insisted on holding on to Stalingrad.

Manstein was so angry that he almost vomited blood, and he, who was always calm and composed, started to curse.

After scolding him, he fell into deep helplessness.

The Führer was unwilling to admit defeat at Stalingrad and did not issue an order for Paulus to retreat.

Even if there are countless perfect plans in mind, they cannot be implemented without the approval of the head of state.

Manstein was caught in a dilemma, and his beard and hair were almost plucked out by his anxiety.

Paulus was unwilling to break out of the encirclement. Apart from the lack of orders from Mustache, another main reason was the threat from Jiangdong.

In several contacts, Jiangdong emphasized to Paulus over and over again that he could be given a certain amount of time to decide to surrender, but he must not break through, otherwise he would be waiting for a big move.

On June 23, Paulus sent two divisions to try to break through to the west.

But Jiangdong's threat soon became a reality.

The two divisions that broke out of the encirclement had not yet exchanged fire with the Chinese army that besieged them, but they were suddenly hit by a new type of bomb that was unheard of and unseen before.

The Chinese side only sent five bombers, and each bomber dropped a bomb on the heads of the breakout troops.

Then a deafening explosion broke out between the sky and the earth. The sound was not like the sound of ordinary artillery shells exploding. It was like the air between the sky and the earth was exploding.

After the explosion, five mushroom clouds rose to the west of Stalingrad, which looked small to Jiangdong, but looked like giant mushroom clouds to Paulus and others.

Paulus and the soldiers of the 6th Army looked to the west in horror. Their expressions were uniform, that of dullness and horror.

It was more than an hour after the explosion that the rescue troops dared to enter the area. The scene before them would be a nightmare that would accompany the soldiers of the Third Reich throughout their lives.

The two divisions that broke through lost 40% of their troops, and the surviving soldiers completely lost their will to fight.

That night Paulus read the search and rescue report, and he felt the fear of the search and rescue personnel from between the lines.

At the moment of the explosion, when the sound was the loudest, the people in the core area were directly vaporized by the high temperature and pressure, leaving no ash behind.

Then the shock wave and flames began to spread, many people were roasted into charcoal, and their internal organs were shattered to pieces.

The scene outside the explosion is the most completely preserved, but it is also the most horrifying.

Some soldiers were lying quietly on the ground, looking as if they were asleep, but in fact they had lost their breath of life for a long time.

Many people grabbed their own throats.

The soldiers in armored vehicles and tanks, as well as the soldiers hiding in bunkers, had no idea what kind of nightmare they had experienced. When the follow-up personnel opened the doors, they saw those imperial soldiers holding their throats and opening their mouths.

Many soldiers even used their own hands to tear open their throats. The wounds were dripping with blood, and the expressions of the dead were hideous and horrific.

The unknown is the scariest thing!

I don’t know what weapons the Chinese used, or what kind of pain these soldiers went through before they died.

After this blow, Paulus and everyone in the circle believed:

The threat from the Chinese is real!

On June 24, negotiator Luo Xingxing appeared in front of Paulus again.

Through Luo Xing's mouth, Paulus learned that the kind of bomb that would produce a small mushroom cloud after exploding was called a cloud bomb.

"The explosion will create a high temperature of more than 2,500 degrees, and the flames and air waves will spread and expand around at a speed of 2 kilometers per second to 3 kilometers per second!"

"We call this process detonation!"

Luo Xingxing would not tell Paulus the details of the cloud bomb at all. It is best to be vague.

“The ultimatum is at 12:00 am on June 28th!”

"If your army is still unwilling to surrender by then, we will have no choice but to throw cloud bombs into the city of Stalingrad!"

"General Paulus, the Chinese people keep their word, please seize the opportunity!"

After seeing the power of cloud bombs, there were fewer and fewer voices opposing surrender within the Sixth Army.

Paulus sent a telegram to Mustache on June 25, again asking for the surrender of the 6th Army.

The 11th Army in the North Caucasus has retreated to Krasnodar. They will then retreat to Rostov. Once there, they will be completely safe and can cooperate with other armies to stabilize the front.

Mao Xiong's Southern Front Army and Southwest Front Army with 800,000 men followed closely behind, and both sides chased each other.

The Don Front was previously restrained by the small number of troops left by Guderian, but they were soon to break free.

Koto could have let the cloud bomb explode in the city of Stalingrad and urged Paulus to surrender immediately.

There must be a reason for not doing this.

Manstein's feeling was correct, Jiangdong and Zhukov were playing a big game of chess again.

Paulus's 6th Army was allowed to surrender on the 28th because all the troops would be ready by that day.

The criticality of Stalingrad’s location needs no elaboration. Keeping Paulus’s 6th Army in the city would force Mustache to constantly urge Manstein to move in the direction of Stalingrad.

As a result, Manstein, Guderian and their troops will always be hesitating and wandering.

They didn't have the courage to move forward, and they didn't dare to disobey orders and retreat.

For the Allies, a huge fighter plane is in front of them again.

The main forces of the Sixth and Eighth Corps of the Chinese Western Expeditionary Army have quietly withdrawn from the outskirts of Stalingrad and are secretly moving towards the south of Stalingrad, to the flank of the 11th Army.

Paulus was definitely going to surrender. He and his troops had lost their fighting spirit.

Jiangdong safely transferred the 6th and 8th Corps to the next phase of the battle.

And all the German generals knew nothing about it.

A huge network is slowly taking shape and closing.

Mustache is reluctant to give up Stalingrad. For this reason, he will lose not only Paulus, but also the 11th Army, the 2nd Armored Army and the 17th Army.

Insight into people's hearts, seize the opportunity, make full use of all available factors, and lay a dragnet without the enemy noticing.

Marshal Vasilevsky and Marshal Zhukov of the Supreme Command expressed admiration for Jiangdong.

[Author's digression]: Please give me a vote, okay?
Chapter completed!