After receiving Sokov's reply, Kahn immediately returned to his position and reported to the colonel adjutant who was waiting there: "Mr. Colonel, General Sokov said, let us hold an exchange ceremony with three hundred prisoners of war two hundred meters in front of their position."
"I can't make decisions about this matter." After hearing this, the adjutant said coldly: "I need to ask Marshal Manstein for instructions and ask for his consent."
The adjutant came to General Knobel Steff's command cabin and reported to Manstein the exchange conditions proposed by Sokov to Manstein through his telephone line. After hearing this, Manstein said without hesitation: "Promise him. Give the microphone to General Knobel Steff, I have something to say to him."
Hearing Knobel Stewart's voice coming from the receiver, Manstein immediately said: "General Knobel Stewart, pick out five hundred people from the prisoners of war you have captured."
"What, pick five hundred people out?" Knobel Steff couldn't believe his ears. Sokov only proposed to exchange three hundred prisoners of war for Hornerdolph's body, while Manstein promised to give five hundred others in one breath. He must have heard it wrong: "Marson, what you said was to exchange five hundred prisoners of war for General Hornerdolph's body?"
"Yes, that's what I mean." Manstein did not have any good intentions when he offered to exchange Hornadorf's body with five hundred prisoners of war: "As far as I know, the wounded and sick accounted for a considerable proportion of the Russian prisoners captured by you. We do not have so many medicines to treat our enemies now. Since Sokov wants their people, give them to him, the more the better."
"I understand, Your Excellency Marshal." After figuring out what Manstein wanted, Knobel Steff said happily: "The Russian prisoners of war used for exchange are definitely wounded and sick."
"And," Manstein continued before the other party put down the phone: "When the exchange ceremony is over, our men will return to the position with General Hornerdolph's body, and then concentrate all your cannons to bombard the Russians' positions, and destroy them with our steel and fire."
After hearing Manstein's order, Knobel Steff was shocked. He knew that this decision was very vicious. If the Russian prisoners of war were all wounded, then they could be wiped out and dressed up without waiting for everyone to return to the opposite position.
In order to effectively implement Manstein's order, General Knobel Steff immediately called his chief of staff and said to him: "You immediately take care of the commander of the Russian prisoners of war and immediately pick out five hundred of them. No, eight hundred wounded and sick, preferably all seriously injured, and use them to exchange with the Russians."
The chief of staff heard the call between Knobel Steff and Manstein and knew that this was a manstein's plan. When he planned to use the exchange ceremony between the two sides, he caught the other party off guard. The seriously injured were unable to move and had to lie on a stretcher and be carried by people. The more people, the slower their movements were. After General Hornerdolph's body returned to his position, he immediately fired fire at the Russians' positions. It was estimated that these injured prisoners of war would be wiped out by dense artillery fire.
In order to make Manstein's vicious plan successful, the Chief of Staff arranged for mandates to select prisoners of war for exchange, and specifically reminded the commander who was in charge of prisoners of war: "Remember, the heavier the wounded person used for exchange, the better, and the more people the better."
Although the commander did not understand what the Chief of Staff said, he still truthfully carried out his orders, and picked out 813 wounded and sick people from the place where the prisoners of war were imprisoned. Under the escort of more than 100 soldiers, he followed the colonel's adjutant and Lieutenant Kahn and advanced to the exchange site with difficulty.
The commander in charge of the exchange matters of the Soviet army was the leader of the 564th Regiment. Since he had to hand over to the Germans only a coffin, he only brought an interpreter and a squad of soldiers, and waited at the exchange location early. However, in order to facilitate reporting to the rear, he also had a telephone set beside him.
Sokov and Koida stood in front of the observation port of the observation center, raised their eyes toward the telescope, and observed the exchange ceremony that was about to begin. After waiting for a while, but not yet saw the traces of the German army, Koida couldn't help but feel a little angry. He picked up the phone and asked, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, is the enemy coming?"
"Report to the division commander," the commander thought to himself that the vision of your observation center is broad, and whether the enemy has appeared, can't you see it? But since Koida asked about this, he still patiently replied: "No trace of the enemy has been found yet..."
Before he finished speaking, the translator standing beside him exclaimed: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, please look quickly, the enemy is here."
The commander holding the microphone looked into the distance and saw hundreds of people emerging from a trench. After they came out of the trench, they moved slowly in the direction they were in. Judging from the clothes of those people, the commander knew that these must be the prisoners of war used by the Germans to exchange Hornerdolph's body.
Sokov, who was staying in the observation center, also saw this scene through a telescope. Seeing that the number of people wearing Soviet uniforms far exceeded the number he asked for, he couldn't help but be stunned. He felt that with his prestige, Manstein would not be able to exchange so many prisoners of war for a corpse so willingly. There must be something wrong with it.
But Koida didn't think so much. He saw so many prisoners of war coming out of the German defense zone and counting with interest. After counting for a while, he said to Sokov with a side face: "Comrade Commander, there are at least six or seven hundred prisoners of war used by the enemy to exchange us."
"Comrade Colonel," Sokov said to Koida with a frown, "Tell me, what's going on? I asked Manstein to exchange with us with three hundred prisoners of war, but he took out six or seven hundred people in one breath. I always felt something was wrong in the middle."
"Comrade Commander, you are so humble." Koida said flatteringly: "You have a great reputation in the German army. When the lieutenant heard your name, he became respectful, as if you were his superior. I think you taught Manstein a lot in his previous battles. He was afraid of you, so he used so many prisoners to please you."
"Manstein needs to please me?" Sokov knew very well. With his prestige, it was simply a dream to shock Manstein, but now the Germans exchanged six or seven hundred people. What's going on? In order to figure out what was going on, Sokov raised his telescope again and continued to observe.
Koida did not notice Sokov's abnormality. After raising the telescope, he continued: "Comrade Commander, I saw the convertible bucket car that Lieutenant Kahn was riding. The German officer in the colonel's uniform next to him should be the supreme commander in charge of this exchange."
Koida looked at it for a while, shook her head and said, "It's a pity that we are exchanging with the enemy. Otherwise, such an important target would appear in front of me, and I would definitely ask the sniper to kill him."
When he heard Koida say he wanted to order the sniper to kill the German colonel who was in charge of the exchange, Sokov seemed to think of something, and felt it was related to the German army's exchange with prisoners of war that he had more than he asked for. But in a hurry, his mind was like a mess, and he couldn't figure out what was going on.
"Hehe," just as Sokov was thinking hard, he suddenly heard Koida beside him call to pull up: "How come the prisoners of war used by the Germans to exchange with us are all wounded."
"Are they all injured?" Sokov heard Koida say this, and quickly observed it carefully with a telescope. He found that not only the twenty stretchers that appeared in his field of vision, but also the seriously injured who could not move. Even the people carrying them were still wounded with bandages on their heads or arms.
"Hehe, we're fooled." Sokov saw this and smashed his fist hard on the wall, saying in annoyance: "What a cunning Manstein, he actually came up with such a vicious plan."
Koida asked Sokov in confusion: "Comrade Commander, what do you mean? Why can't I understand at all?"
"Comrade Colonel, have you seen the captives that the Germans used to exchange with us?" Sokov raised his voice and said to him: "All of them were wounded, and there were many seriously injured who could not move."
"See." Koida has been observing the team of prisoners of war that appeared carefully, and naturally see clearly that the hundreds of people coming were all wounded. Hearing Sokov said that this was Manstein's poison timing, he also echoed: "Damn Manstein, throwing so many wounded people to us will make our originally nervous medicine even more nervous."
"It is inevitable that Manstein has given us so many wounded people, and it is inevitable that there will be a shortage of drugs in a short period of time." Sokov frowned and gritted his teeth: "Actually, Manstein must be planning a bigger conspiracy."
"Conspiracy, what conspiracy?" Koida asked in confusion.
"Look at how slow our wounded moves." Sokov pointed at the troops in the distance and said to Koida: "Don't look at the exchange location that is only more than 200 meters away from our position, it will take at least ten minutes for them to complete. If the enemy carried Hornadolph's body and returned to their position, they immediately launched shelling on our position. How many of these wounded people do you think can survive?"
Sokov's words made Koida think in detail. He asked hurriedly: "Comrade Commander, what should we do? Are we watching our wounded people dead under the enemy's artillery fire?"
"Don't worry, since we have guessed the enemy's vicious plan, we have enough time to deal with it." Sokov ordered Koida, "Comrade Colonel, call the lieutenant colonel in charge of the exchange immediately and order him to draw two more companies of troops from the position to come out to assist the transfer of the wounded."
Koida grabbed the phone and asked nervously: "Comrade Commander, are there any other things to pay attention to?"
"And it's..." Sokov stopped as soon as he said it. He felt that if he wanted to save the lives of these injured and sick people, he had to do it himself: "I think I'd better preside over the exchange ceremony myself."
When Koida learned that Sokov was going to the front in person, he quickly grabbed him and said nervously: "Comrade Commander, it's too dangerous, you can't go."
"Comrade Colonel, I know it's dangerous there. If possible, I'm not willing to take risks." In order to save the wounded and sick, Sokov could only take risks: "But now only I personally can solve this vicious plan of Manstein."
"Okay, Comrade Commander." After several months of getting along, Koida knew Sokov's character well and knew what he had decided. No one could change his mind. He could only sigh softly and remind him, "Then you have to pay attention to safety."
Sokov brought Samoilov's guard platoon to the command post of the 564th Regiment, and met the deputy commander and chief of staff here. The two of them did not expect Sokov to suddenly appear here, and quickly stood at attention and raised their hands to salute him: "Hello, Comrade Commander! Why did you come to our place?"
"I am here to take over your leader and preside over the exchange ceremony."
When the two commanders heard Sokov say this, they couldn't help looking at each other, with a confused look on their faces. The deputy commander asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, is there something wrong that will make you decide to preside over the exchange ceremony?"
"I just saw in the command center that all our prisoners of war used by the enemy to exchange were minor and serious wounded." The next thing required the cooperation of the two, so Sokov did not hide the other party: "I guess this is a conspiracy of the Germans."
"A conspiracy?" Sokov's words made the two commanders even more confused, but they did not dare to ask casually.
Sokov continued: "Our wounded moves slowly, don't look at the exchange location and trenches only 200 meters. Maybe when the Germans drag Hornadorf's body back to their defense zone, our wounded have not yet entered the position. If the enemy came to a sudden round of artillery fire at this moment, how many people do you think will survive?"
Sokov's words immediately shocked the two of them and they thought about it carefully. It was really possible. If there were only two or three hundred wounded people, they only needed to send a group of people out from the position to get them back to the trenches in a few minutes. But the six or seven hundred, or even more wounded people coming in front of them, would really take a lot of time to get them into the trenches.
"Comrade Commander." The Chief of Staff asked, "What should we do?"
"The first battalion followed me to transfer the wounded into the trenches, while the second battalion, the third battalion and the regiment directly under the regiment retreated to the second-line position."
"Why should we withdraw the troops to the second-line position?" the deputy regiment commander asked in confusion.
"The reason is very simple. I think the Germans may launch violent shelling on your positions." Sokov looked at the deputy commander and said, "Do you think your existing positions can withstand the dense bombardment of the German army?"
"No." After answering honestly, the deputy regiment commander said, "Then I will notify the Second Battalion, the Third Battalion and the regiment directly under the regiment to retreat to the second-line position in an orderly manner."
"Comrade Commander," the chief of staff considered the problem more comprehensively than the deputy commander. He asked tentatively: "Before the enemy's shelling, the troops can retreat to the second-line position in time, but what about the wounded who had just been replaced? We just watched them stay on the position and be killed by the enemy's artillery fire?"
Chapter completed!