Sokov was not in a hurry to take Paulus away because he was considerate. First, he had to wait for Rokosovsky's order to determine the location to settle Paulus and ensure his safety;
Second, if Paulus is escorted out at this moment, he will be crowded with ordinary German prisoners, which is also very unfavorable to protecting his safety.
It is precisely because of this consideration that Sokov patiently sat with Paulus in the smelly basement and chatted with him.
In this way, after waiting for almost forty minutes, Ivanov walked in from outside with his men and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, all the prisoners in the department store have been taken away. The enemies in the rest of the area are surrendering to our army."
"Comrade Deputy Division Commander," Sokov asked back, "Does the rest of the areas you mentioned refer to the control area of ​​my combat cluster?"
"No." Ivanov shook his head and replied, "According to the information I have received, the troops of the 64th Army are accepting the surrender of the German army to the south; and to the west, there are troops of the 65th and 57th Army to the west, receiving the captives."
Sokov knew very well that the areas Ivanov mentioned were all south of Mamayev's hill, but he did not mention the factory area in the north, and then asked: "What about the factory area in the north? Have the enemies entrenched there surrendered?"
Ivanov shook his head and said, "I have not received any information from there for the time being."
Sokov stood up and rushed to the radio operator sitting in the corner and asked, "Have the Front Command called back?"
The radio operator raised his head and replied, "I asked me just now, and the other party asked me to wait."
"Wait?" Ubrich, who was working as a translator, asked curiously: "Comrade Colonel, what does the Front Command mean?"
Sokov speculated that the reason why Rokosovsky had been slow to give him orders was probably waiting for the Moscow reply. After all, it was the first time since the outbreak of the Soviet-German War that was so high that the German commander of such a high level was captured, so the superiors naturally had to take it seriously. He was silent for a moment and replied: "Comrade Ublich, General Rokosovsky asked me to wait. Obviously he was still waiting for the Moscow reply. After all, it was the first time we were captured by this German general of such a high level. How to deal with it must be very cautious."
"Comrade Colonel, you are right." Ubrich nodded and replied, "It is difficult for even a German general to capture alive since the outbreak of the war. This time, he actually captured a German marshal and his gang of commanders and division commanders alive. This is definitely a great victory."
Paulus, who was sitting aside, felt a little irritated when he saw Sokov and Ubrich talking in Russian that he couldn't understand. He coughed softly, and then interrupted the conversation between Sokov and his friends: "Col. Sokov, I want to ask another question."
"Master Paulus," Sokov heard Paulus have something to ask himself, and quickly said politely: "If you have something, just say it."
"I have three requests," Paulus said, stretching out three fingers: "One, I am used to eating two breakfasts a day. I hope you can satisfy my eating habits in the prison camp; two, I drink wine from Ukraine every day; three, I can read newspapers every day so that I can understand the situation outside in a timely manner."
After listening to Ubrich's translation, Sokov said to Paulus with a wry smile: "Marty Paulus, your three requests seem simple, but they are indeed very difficult to implement. First of all, because in the war, a large area of ​​land was occupied by you, we lost a lot of food production, so we had to implement a rationing system nationwide, and each person had a fixed amount of food. We should provide you with two breakfasts a day, even if I agree, the person in charge of taking care of you will not agree.
Secondly, the Ukrainian wine you want to drink may not satisfy you. After all, the origin of these wines is still occupied by the German army. Before our army regained these lost territory, there is no legal way to obtain the wine produced there. However, I have a suggestion for you, you can consider Georgian wine, which tastes no worse than the wine produced in Ukraine."
"Col. Sokov, you make sense." Paulus said to Sokov after listening to Ublich's translation: "It's really too difficult for you to get wine produced in Ukraine. It seems that I should really change my taste and drink Georgian wine in the future."
After laughing dryly, Sokov continued, "Third point, you said you want to read newspapers every day so that you can understand the situation outside in a timely manner. But what newspapers do you want to read? "Issue, "Red Star" or "Prince Truth"? You should know that these newspapers only have Russian versions, and you will never learn Russian specifically to read newspapers."
After hearing Sokov's words, Paulus laughed twice, and then said, "Col. Sokov, you are right. I really can't understand Russian newspapers and I can't learn Russian. I mean, can you find me some German newspapers? After all, life in a prisoner of war camp will be very boring."
"Martyr Paulus, others may feel that life is miserable in prison camps, but for you, it is not the case." Sokov comforted Paulus and said, "I think you will get the treatment you deserve in prison camps. Maybe you can often go to important occasions and get some unexpected benefits."
Paulus was skeptical at first about Sokov's statement, and he could see Sokov's words convincingly, but he couldn't help but believe it. After all, the other party is very famous in his army, and what he said is very credible.
At this moment, the radio operator sitting in the corner stood up and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, the Front Command has called."
"What do you mean by the telegram?" Sokov heard that it was a call from the Front Command, and asked nervously: "Where can we settle Paulus?"
"The telegram said," said the radio operator hesitantly: "Immediately hand over Paulus to the 64th Army, which Chief of Staff of the Army, Ruskin, will come to receive the prisoners in person."
"What, hand over Paulus to the 64th Army?" Sokov rushed to the front of the radio operator, snatched the telegram from his hand, and browsed it carefully. At this moment, he hoped that the radio operator had misread the contents of the telegram because the light inside the room was too dark.
Chapter completed!