The white flag waving on the rooftop on the second floor was soon seen by Ivanov in the observation center from afar.
"Has the Germans surrendered?" Ivanov said to himself: "Isn't there any conspiracy?"
Anisimov, who was specially rushing to see the fun from Mamayev's hill, heard Ivanov say this and quickly interrupted, "Comrade Colonel, do you see if you should immediately report this news to the division commander?"
"You are right, Comrade Political Commissar." Ivanov nodded and said, "Such important information does need to be reported to the division commander immediately."
After the phone was connected, Ivanov's voice became hoarse because of excitement: "Comrade Commander, the enemy who was standing in the department store, shook out the white flag and surrendered to our army?"
"What?" Sokov did not hear what Ivanov said clearly because of the huge noise coming from the earpiece. He quickly shouted at the microphone: "What did you say? I didn't hear it clearly. Please repeat it loudly."
"Comrade Commander," Ivanov took a deep breath and raised his voice and said, "The enemy who was standing in the department store has fired a white flag and is ready to surrender to our army."
"That's great, this is really great." Sokov didn't expect that the enemy who was standing in the building surrendered so quickly. After applauding, he ordered Ivanov: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, order the troops to stop attacking for the time being, stay in place, and wait for the next instructions."
"However, some of the soldiers of the reduction regiment have rushed into the building." Ivanov asked Sokov for advice: "Do you order them to withdraw from the building and stand by outside?"
"No, just leave them in the building." Sokov said to the microphone: "Send them a radio station so that they can stay in touch with them at any time. I'll hurry over."
After Sokov put down the phone, he ordered Cydolin: "Chief of Staff, immediately notify other offensive troops, saying that the enemy had surrendered to the White Banner and ordered them to stop the attack."
"Comrade Commander." Seeing Sokov hurriedly want to leave, Cidolin quickly reminded him: "Our attack is not fierce. How could the Germans surrender so easily? Is there any conspiracy?"
"I will know if there is any conspiracy when I go to the frontline."
"Wait a minute, comrade of the division commander."
"What else?"
"You are now the commander of the combat cluster. Even if you want to go to the front line, you should report to the Front Command so that you will not be there when they want to find you."
Regarding Sidolin's reminder, Sokov nodded and asked the communications officers to help him connect to the front headquarters. When a sound came from the earpiece, Sokov said bluntly: "I am Colonel Sokov, the commander of the combat cluster. Please help me find Chief of Staff Malining. I have important military information to report to him."
After waiting for two or three minutes, Malining's voice came from the receiver: "Col. Sokov? I am Malining. Do you have any important military information to report to me?"
"Report to Comrade Chief of Staff, my deputy division commander just reported to me. The enemy who was standing in the department store had fired a white flag and surrendered to our army."
"What, you said the enemy fired the white flag?" Malining asked in surprise: "Is this true?"
"It's true, Comrade Chief of Staff..."
Before Sokov could speak, he suddenly heard Rokosovsky's voice coming from the receiver: "Misha, I am Rokosovsky, is what you said true?"
"Comrade Commander of the Front Army, have you returned from Moscow?"
"Yes, I just came back by plane." Rokosovsky was eager to know the answer, so he urged: "Misha, please tell me, is what you said true?"
"The news that the enemy had cast a white flag was reported to me by my deputy division commander Colonel Ivanov." Seeing that Rokosovsky expressed doubts about the matter, Sokov quickly explained to him: "He is an old commander with more than 20 years of military service. I believe his report will never be wrong."
Rokosovsky, who has always been steady, continued to ask in order to find out the truth of the matter: "Misha, have you confirmed the accuracy of this information?"
"Comrade Commander of the Front Army!" Sokov replied: "I am just about to rush to the frontline to verify the matter personally. I will report it to you after I understand the accurate situation."
"Very good." Rokosovsky was very satisfied with Sokov's reply, and he nodded and said, "Then I'll wait for your good news."
When Rokosovsky put down the phone, Malining couldn't wait to ask him: "Comrade Commander, do we need to report this good news to Moscow immediately?"
"Don't worry, Comrade Chief of Staff." Rokosovsky waved his hand and rejected Malining's proposal. He said: "Even if the German surrender is true, whether Paulus stays in the building is still an unknown. If we don't understand the status, we will report to the base camp in a hurry. Once something goes wrong, it will be difficult to make up for it."
Besides, when Sokov left Mamayev hill and took an armored vehicle to the frontier command of the 41st Guards Division, the battle near the department store had completely stopped. Apart from the rolling black smoke and fire, there was no sound of gunfire on the battlefield. Selyosha, who was sitting next to Sokov, said excitedly: "Misha, listen, there are no gunfires on the battlefield. It seems that the Germans are really going to surrender to us."
As he got closer to the frontier command, Sokov's heartbeat accelerated unsatisfactorily. Although the enemy of the department store fired a white flag, it is still unknown whether Paulus is still in the building at this moment. If he led his people in, he found that Paulus had already escaped, it would be a waste of water.
…………
The white flag on the rooftop not only saw the Soviet commanders and soldiers attacking the building, but also the Germans who were standing in the building. Someone immediately reported the situation to Sonnei.
When Sangnei learned that someone in the building dared to shoot a white flag to the Soviet army, he was immediately angry and led a dozen subordinates to the direction of the rooftop. Along a distance, he saw a group of people standing in the rooftop. Before he could see clearly who they were, he shouted sternly: "Which part of you cowards are? Who allowed you to go to the Russians to the big white flag?"
As soon as his shout fell, someone in the crowd said leisurely: "It was my order, General Sangnei."
"It's you, Hans Vulz." When Sanne saw that the person who spoke clearly was General Hans Vulz, the commander of the 144th artillery group, he was shocked: "Why do you want to shoot the white flags at the Russians? Don't you know that we can still fight. If the Russians want to occupy the department store, they will have to pay at least a few thousand lives."
"Let's wake up, General Sanne." Hans Wuerz shook his head and said to Sanne with a wry smile: "Now the soldiers are unwilling to fight anymore. If you put down your weapons and surrender earlier, you can make more people survive. Let me tell you the truth. The order to surrender was issued by the Commander himself."
"Impossible, this is impossible." Sanne roared: "If the Commander wanted to surrender, he would have surrendered long ago. How could it be that our officers and soldiers suddenly announced their surrender while our soldiers were still fighting tenaciously with the Russians?"
"General Sanne," Hans Wuertz raised his voice and said, "I don't think you understand the commander's order. What he said is that after our army resisted and found that it could not stop the Russian attack, they could choose to surrender. Now the Russian troops have rushed into the building, and it is meaningless to resist, so I ordered people to shoot the white flag."
Seeing the row of black muzzles pointed at him opposite him, Hans Wuerz took two steps forward with his hands behind his back and said to the soldiers: "Soldiers, we are already on the verge of being out of ammunition and food. If we continue to fight, we will only have a dead end. Don't you want to return to your motherland alive and return to your parents, wife and children?"
Perhaps Hans Wuerz's last words touched the officers and soldiers following Sanne. First, one muzzle drooped, and then more muzzle drooped. Soon, no muzzle continued to point at Hans Wuerz.
Seeing that his words had worked, Hans Wuerz felt relieved and said to Sanne: "General Sanne, don't be obsessed with it anymore and order the soldiers to stop resisting. Listen, the attack of the Russians outside has also stopped. Wait for a while, and they will send people to surrender."
"General Hans Vulz," at this moment, a familiar voice came from the entrance of the stairs: "I am looking for you everywhere, but I didn't expect you to be here."
Everyone turned their heads and saw that it was Chief of Staff Schmidt who walked up from the stairs. He came to the middle of Hans Wuerz and Sanne and said to the two: "The latest order of the Commander, stop resisting and surrender to the Russians. General Sanne, immediately order your troops to stop shooting."
"The defenders in this building are not all from my 100th Hunter Division." Sangnei said angrily: "I can't order them all to surrender."
"You only need to give orders to the officers and soldiers of the 100th Hunter Division, and the rest of the troops will naturally have their commanders to give orders."
Since Schmidt had already said this, Sanne knew that no matter how much he refuted, it would make no sense, so he could only turn around and order an officer to inform the troops of the ceasefire.
After the gunfire in the building stopped completely, Schmidt sorted out his military appearance and said to Hans Wuerz: "Let's go, General Hans Wuerz."
"Where do you go?" Hans Wuerz asked in confusion.
"Your Excellency the Commander ordered both of us to go to the Russian command to negotiate surrender."
A few minutes later, Schmidt and Hans Wurz followed a soldier holding a white flag and went down the stairs. They met the commanders and fighters of the shrinking regiment on the first floor. Schmidt said to Captain Vasily, the commander of the first battalion, who came out of his hiding place, and said, "Mr. Officer, I am the full-power negotiator appointed by Marshal Paulus. Please take me to meet your higher-level commanders."
Although Vasily couldn't understand Russian, he guessed three points from Schmidt's tone of speaking. After asking for instructions through the radio, he decided to personally bring Schmidt and others to the Frontier Command.
As soon as Sokov entered the command center, Ivanov said to him in surprise: "Comrade Commander, you are so good. The Germans will send someone to negotiate later."
"The Germans are coming to negotiate?" Sokov asked back: "Who are the negotiators coming and what is the purpose of their negotiation?"
Sokov's question stopped Ivanov. He smiled bitterly and shook his head, and replied: "Comrade Commander, Captain Vasily, the commander who rushed into the building with his troops, does not understand German at all. He only knew that the Germans sent two generals to us to negotiate, and I have ordered him to bring the people here."
After waiting for about ten minutes, Captain Vasily appeared at the Frontier Command with Schmidt and Hans Vulz.
After seeing the person clearly, Sokov couldn't help but exclaim: "It's you, Chief of Staff Schmidt."
Schmidt followed Vasily into the frontier command center with a nervous mood, muttering in his heart what kind of personality the Russian officer who was dealing with him later. After hearing Sokov's voice, he couldn't help but scream: "It turns out it's you, Colonel Sokov."
After confirming that the person who negotiated with him was Sokov, Schmidt's mood suddenly became relaxed. After raising his hand to salute Sokov, he said respectfully: "Hello, Colonel Sokov, we're meeting again."
"Hello, Chief of Staff Schmidt." Sokov asked with a stern face: "Is Paulus sent you here?"
"Yes, Colonel Sokov." After hearing the translation, Paulus replied respectfully: "It is indeed Commander Paulus who sent me to negotiate with your army."
"Tell me, what are the conditions for Paulus?"
"Your Excellency the Commander asked me to tell you, 1. Provide food for our army; 2. Provide medicine for the wounded and sick, and corresponding treatment; 3. Allow officers to carry self-defense weapons..."
"These bastards," Ivanov whispered when he heard this: "It's all dead, and I'm still here to negotiate terms with us."
"Chief of Staff Schmidt," said Schmidt with all the conditions, and said lightly: "The conditions you mentioned were mentioned in detail in the ultimatum given to you by General Rokosovsky. Our army keeps its word, and as long as you put down your weapons and surrender, we will follow our agreement."
Schmidt raised his hand and looked at the watch, then bowed to Sokov and said, "Col. Sokov, since there are still some stubborn generals to convince, we still need some time. Surrender will be carried out on time at 1:00 pm. Please send someone to accept our surrender."
"No problem," Sokov nodded, saying, "I will take people to the department store myself."
Seeing Sokov expressing his opinion to go to the department store to surrender himself, Schmidt felt much more at ease. To be honest, it was a bit of a problem that made them surrender to their former defeated generals. But if the surrender was Sokov, the situation would be completely different. After all, most commanders had suffered from Sokov. Surrendering to a winner would not only not bring humiliation, but on the contrary, it was a relatively glorious thing.
Chapter completed!