"Chief of Staff," Strakel said with a bitter face: "The troops commanded by His Excellency the Commander have been destroyed. The tens of thousands of people who are left with us are basically exhausted, and even if the Russians do not attack, they may not die in hunger and cold. "
The Chief of Strekel's statement felt that he could not refute at all. As early as the Russians took offensive actions in the Don River Basin, in order to speed up the retreat, they ordered the soldiers to burn their military coats during the transfer. They thought that if they could get supplemented in the reserve warehouse by jumping out of the Russian encirclement, they would not be as good as the God's encirclement. The breakout ended in failure. Even the troops on the right bank of the Don River were ordered to give up their original positions and rushed to join the troops in the encirclement.
Thinking of this, the Chief of Staff of the Army was no longer stubborn. He had made a decision to continue to stick to it, and there was only a dead end. So after thinking for a while, he said to Straker: "General, I think Lieutenant Colonel Miller, the Chief of Operations Director, can carry out this mission."
"Call him over."
A few minutes later, the tall Lieutenant Colonel Miller appeared in the military command. He stood in front of Straker straight, raised his hand and saluted, and said loudly: "Genius, Lieutenant Colonel Miller, the Chief of Operations Director, is ordered to come."
"Lieutenant Colonel," Strakel said to him in a heavy tone: "To call you here today is a difficult task to hand it over to you to complete. You bring a Russian translator to the Russians to negotiate with them."
"Negotiate with the Russians?" Hearing Strakel's order, the muscles on Miller's face twitched violently. As the commander of the combat, he was qualified to know about the call from Berlin. He thought that General Strakel would choose to fight the Russians to the end after receiving this telegram, but he ordered himself to negotiate with the Russians. It was obvious that the other party did not intend to continue fighting and be a shameful traitor. "General, we still have tens of thousands of people, so we can continue fighting. Besides, didn't Berlin just send a telegram to let us fight to the last moment?"
"Yes, we do have tens of thousands of people, but our food and ammunition are almost gone, but most of the soldiers do not have winter clothes for winter." Strakel said in a stern tone: "If we follow the Berlin orders and continue to resist, we may be destroyed in at most two or three days. Even if the Russians do not attack, most of our soldiers will die of starvation in less than a week."
When Miller heard Strakel say this, he was silent. He knew very well about the supply situation of the troops. Not to mention that ordinary soldiers were not full, even he, a lieutenant colonel officer, was often full and hungry, so hungry that he either looked like stars or sweated all over his body.
Seeing that Miller stopped talking, Strakel continued: "Lieutenant Colonel, we have fulfilled our responsibilities. What remains is to find ways to save the still alive people so that more people can return to their own country after the war is over."
Strakel's last words completely touched Miller. He nodded slightly and said with a serious expression: "I understand, General, I will obey your orders and go to negotiate with the Russians."
"The defenders of Stalingrad are Cuikov's 62nd Army. You must find a way to meet Cuikov and tell him that as long as we provide us with enough food and medicine, we can put down our weapons and surrender to them." Strakel said, and explained some conditions for surrender to Miller.
Miller left the army command center, took an interpreter, entered the barricade factory with a white flag, and prepared to contact the defenders here before going to see Cui Kefu.
Unexpectedly, they were fired by machine guns shortly after they entered the barricade factory. Miller and the interpreter hurriedly hid behind a pile of bricks and stones before evading the disaster. A moment later, he heard a burst of rapid footsteps, and then more than a dozen German soldiers with live ammunition rushed over and pointed their guns at them.
It seemed that all German soldiers were. Miller felt that there must be a misunderstanding, so he quickly asked the officer who led the team: "Which part of you are from?"
After seeing Miller's epaulette clearly, the officer with a bandage on his head replied loudly: "I am Lieutenant Steiger, the company commander of the 305th Engineer Battalion. Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, why did you drive the white flag?"
Miller stood up and said to Lieutenant Steiger: "Lieutenant, I am Lieutenant Colonel Miller, the command of the Army, and went to the Russians' positions and negotiated with them."
"Negotiation?" Steiger asked in confusion: "In this case, what can I have to talk to with them?"
"Lieutenant, do you think we can continue to fight?" Before Steiger could answer, he asked and answered: "I don't think we can fight anymore. Maybe only by putting down our weapons is our best way out."
Hearing Miller say this, the soldiers lowered their guns one after another. They agreed with each other's words. If they continue to fight, they will have a chance of death. Only by putting down their weapons and surrendering will they have a glimmer of life.
Seeing that all his soldiers had put down their weapons, Steiger still said toughly: "Lieutenant Colonel, how can you prove that you are from the military command?"
"My ID is here." Miller took out his ID and handed it over to Steiger, "Lieutenant, if you don't believe it, you can check my ID."
Steiger took Miller's ID, opened it and took a look, and confirmed that the other party's identity was correct. After he handed the ID back to the other party, he asked curiously: "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, why are you two going to negotiate with the Russians?"
"The General is worried that too many people we go there will probably cause misunderstandings among the Russians." Miller explained: "After all, it's already night now, and the visibility cannot be compared with the day. If there are too many people going there, the Russians will think we are going to attack, and maybe both sides will fight."
"Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, there is a Russian division in the factory." Steiger said to Miller: "I can send you there."
"No need." Miller waved his hand at Steiger and said, "There are too many people, and it may arouse suspicion from the Russians."
"It's okay, Mr. Lieutenant Colonel." Steiger replied: "We can use flashlights, so no one will expose themselves with flashlights when they attack."
"Okay." Miller was actually worried that he was not the Russians on the other side, but the fact that he was afraid that he would be shot coldly by the diehards who were unwilling to surrender, so he agreed to Steiger's proposal: "You send us to the Russians' positions and come back."
Miller and Steiger walked carefully towards the Soviet position opposite with a dozen soldiers and flashlights. Halfway through, Steiger asked carefully: "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, listen to the Russians' radio and said that the commander's commander has been captured by the Russians. Is this true?"
"It's true." Things have reached the point of today, and it's no point to conceal the officers and soldiers below. Therefore, Miller told the truth: "The headquarters has been captured by the Russian troops commanded by Colonel Sokov, and the commander himself was also captured by Sokov himself. As for the remaining troops, ammunition and food, we are almost exhausted. Even if the Russians do not attack us, there will probably be many people who die of starvation in a week. In order to save more lives, General Strakel decided to go against Berlin's will and take the initiative to put down his weapons and surrender to the Russians."
"Dadada", everyone was walking forward, and suddenly a burst of machine gun shooting sounds came from the front. When they heard the gunshots, everyone instinctively lay down on the spot and quickly looked for a place to hide.
As soon as he got off, a shout came from the opposite side. Miller hurriedly asked the translator: "What are the Russians talking about?"
"The other party asked us to stop, otherwise we would shoot at ours." The terrified translator replied: "I just shot towards the sky to warn us. If we go further, they will be welcome."
"Tell them, just say we were ordered to come to negotiate." Miller said to the translator: "Let them not shoot."
The translator quickly lay on the pile of bricks and shouted to the opposite side with fear: "Don't shoot, don't shoot, we are ordered to come and negotiate with you."
After hearing the German call from the fortifications, the Soviet commanders and soldiers did not dare to make decisions without authorization, so they called Lyudnikov to report to him. When Lyudnikov learned that the German army had sent a negotiating representative, he hurriedly ordered the soldiers who were calling: "Let them come here, but for safety reasons, they can only send two people here."
The soldier who received the call quickly shouted at the square where Miller and others were hiding, "Our division commander agrees that you come over to negotiate, but you can only have two people."
As soon as he heard that there were only two people coming, Miller stood up and said to Steiger, "Lieutenant, thank you. You can send it here, and leave the rest to me." Then he bent down and lifted the translator who was still lying on the ground, and pulled him towards the Soviet position.
Not long after, Miller and the translator were brought to Lyudnikov. After looking at the two, Lyudnikov asked, "Which part of you are from, what are you doing here?"
"I am the commander of the Operations of the 11th Infantry Army. I came to negotiate surrender with you on the orders of General Strekel." Miller asked respectfully: "I wonder if you can send me to General Chokov?"
Lyudnikov was silent for a moment, picked up the phone on the table, and said to the microphone: "I am Lyudnikov, please answer me with the commander." The phone soon passed, and he reported to Tsuikov, "Comrade Commander, two German negotiators have come here, and they want to see you."
"Negotiate the representative?!" Cui Kefu obviously had guessed that the German army would send representatives to negotiate, and asked without any surprise: "Who is the person coming?"
"It is Lieutenant Colonel Miller, the 11th Army's Operations Department." After explaining the identity of the visitor, Lyudnikov asked Cuikov for instructions: "Will they be sent to your command center?"
"Take them here." After saying this, Cui Kefu specifically emphasized: "Take both of them here in person."
"Let's go, Lieutenant Colonel Miller." After putting down the phone, Lyudnikov said to Miller: "Our commander agrees to meet you."
In this way, Miller followed Lyudnikov to Trikov's command.
"You are the negotiator of the German army." As soon as you walked into the command center, a general stepped forward, looked Miller and asked straight to the point: "Come here, how do you plan to negotiate with us?"
Miller thought that the person who spoke to him was Cui Kev, so he quickly raised his hand to salute and said politely: "Hello, General Cui Kev, I am Lieutenant Colonel Miller, the commander of the 11th Infantry Army, Lieutenant Colonel Miller, sent by General Straker."
"I am Chief of Staff Krelov." The general pointed to the side: "This is General Chokov."
"Tell me, General Strakel sent you here, what's wrong?"
"General Strekel hopes that you can temporarily stop fighting against us and provide us with enough food and medicine. After getting these things, we can stop resisting and put down our weapons to surrender to your army." Miller proposed some prerequisites for surrender to Trikov and Krelov according to Strarekel's explanation.
"What you can do is surrender unconditionally." Cui Kev waited for Miller to finish his speech, and said bluntly: "After we confirm that you put down your weapons and surrender, we will provide you with basic food and medicine, and the wounded and sick will also receive necessary treatment."
"But, Mr. General." Miller said with some embarrassment when he heard Trikov say this: "I have not received such authorization..."
"If you are not authorized, then we can only continue to fight." Cui Kefu said in a stern tone: "You will bear all the losses caused during this period."
Seeing Cuikov say this in an unquestionable tone, Miller realized that he might not be able to complete the task assigned by Strakel. After he was silent for a long time, he murmured: "I'm sorry, Mr. General, the order I received is to put down our weapons and surrender to you after you have met our conditions."
"Do you think you still have a chance of winning under the current circumstances?" Krelov sneered: "You are now out of ammunition and food. Even if we don't take offensive actions, you may not be able to support you very long. If you surrender one day earlier, you will be able to survive more people."
Miller was silent for a long time again, and he thought to himself: If he rushed back to ask Strakel for advice and rushed back after obtaining permission, it would be dawn. At that time, the Russians attacked their defensive positions again, but I don’t know how many people would die because of this.
It was precisely for this reason that Miller decided to make a decision this time. He looked up at Cuikov and asked: "Mr. General, as the plenipotent representative appointed by General Strakel, I agree with your army's proposal to stop all hostilities in the north of the city at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, and put down your weapons and surrender. I just hope that you can keep your promise, provide us with food and medicine, and provide necessary treatment for the wounded and sick."
Chapter completed!