Chapter 1488

With all the offensive units ready and half an hour to go before the attack, I came out of the forward command in rebarko, stood in the trench covered with camouflage net, and looked at the German defensive position in the distance with a telescope.

Through the lens of the telescope, I can see a layer of mist floating on the German position in the distance. Whether it is the trench or the reinforced concrete fortification, it is quiet. No one can be seen or heard.

There was a rapid sound of footsteps coming from the side. I followed my steps and saw that rebalko was walking towards me quickly. I said to him with a smile, "general rebalko, it's a pity to break such a quiet dawn."

Unexpectedly, after listening to what I said, rebalko said solemnly, "Rita, from the current situation, we don't expect to break the silence for the time being."

Rebalko's words made me stunned. I immediately restrained my smile and asked seriously, "Comrade General, what's the matter?"

"Marshal Zhukov called and asked us to stop the attack!" He said he wanted to talk to you

"Why, why let's stop the attack?" After I asked this, I didn't wait for rebalko to answer, so I went to the headquarters to ask Zhukov what happened.

As soon as I entered the headquarters, a staff officer came up, pointed to the telephone on the desk not far away, and respectfully said to me, "deputy commander of the front army, the telephone is there."

Seeing the microphone on the table, I felt a group of anger burning in my heart. At the moment when our army had to launch an attack on jernopol, Zhukov suddenly stopped unexpectedly, and I didn't know what was going on. If my subordinates are on the other end of the phone, maybe I'll pick up the phone and scold them. But unfortunately, the person who called me was Zhukov. No matter how hard I tried, I could only remain respectful in front of him.

I stood at the table and took two deep breaths. When I was a little more stable, I picked up the microphone and stuck it to my ear and said, "Hello, marshal, what's your important instruction?"

"Stop attacking tarnopol immediately." Zhukov also ignored the greetings and said frankly, "according to the latest information we have, the battlefield situation has changed."

"What's the change?" When Zhukov said that, I asked instinctively.

"Just yesterday, Manstein was removed by Hitler." Zhukov said in a relaxed tone: "our first task now is to concentrate our superior forces and encircle and annihilate 20 German divisions in the kamenitz podolisky region. Among these divisions, 10 are tank divisions, mainly from general Hube's tank 1st group army."

"And tarnopol?" Manstein is recognized as the most talented German marshal. For Zhukov, his departure can be regarded as a loss of a strong competitor. However, I still don't understand why Zhukov will adjust his deployment accordingly when Manstein is dismissed? So I asked puzzledly, "are we letting go?"

"You may not know, Rita, that balk's 48th tank army has safely left tarnopol, and there are less than 5000 troops left in the city." Zhukov patiently explained to me: "since the strength of the city is far less than what we know, then we can change the way of fighting and take the city without blood."

"Take this city without blood?" I repeated Zhukov's last sentence and immediately thought of a possibility. I asked cautiously, "Comrade marshal, do you want to..."

Before I had finished, Zhukov had already said the answer I wanted to say: "send someone to persuade the German commander in the city to let the troops lay down their arms and surrender to our army."

Zhukov's suggestion made me frown. At any time, balk's 48th armored army escaped, but it doesn't mean that the defenders in the city would think that their general situation is over and then lay down their arms and surrender to us? Thinking of this, I hesitated to remind Zhukov: "marshal, even if the 48th armored army runs away, there are nearly 5000 garrison in the city. Will they really lay down their arms and surrender to our army?"

"I think I should have tried." For my worry, Zhukov thought for a moment, and then said, "I think it's most appropriate for you to do it yourself. When you were in Stalingrad, you used to go to the German headquarters alone to persuade Paulus to surrender. Although you didn't get him to order the troops to surrender to our army immediately, it destroyed the morale and morale of the German army, It was a lot of German officers and men who took the initiative to stop resisting and surrender to our army. "

"I see, comrade marshal." Although I guessed that I would come back in frustration after persuading him to surrender this time, since Zhukov gave such an order, I had to carry it out with a stiff head“ I immediately went to tarnopol to persuade the garrison in the city to surrender. "

I put down the phone and asked rebalko, "Comrade General, do you know who the German commander in tarnopol is?"

"Major General von naindor." When rebalko finished the name, he frowned and asked me, "Rita, do you really want to go to the city and persuade this von naindol to lay down his arms and surrender to our army?"

I nodded and replied, "yes, since Comrade Marshal has given this order, I can only carry it out."

"But it's too dangerous for you to go to tarnopol at such a time." Rebalko said with a worried face: "otherwise, it's better to go to another person."

"Never mind, general rebalko." I knew that I was not qualified to change Zhukov's order at this time, so I had to pretend to be calm and say, "when I was in Stalingrad, I was also a representative of the 62nd army to persuade Paulus to surrender. Although I didn't succeed in the end, I also have experience in dealing with senior German commanders. " After I said this, I immediately urged rebalko, "first order the artillery to stop shelling, at the same time, let the frontier send people to contact the German army, saying that we should send people to negotiate with them."

"Yes Seeing my resolute attitude, rebalko could not say anything more. He could only turn around and tell the staff around him: "call the artillery and order them to stop the coming shelling. At the same time, inform general Panfilov to send someone to contact the German, saying that our senior commander will negotiate with von naindor. "

After giving a series of orders, rebalko turned to look at me and asked tentatively, "Rita, have you really considered that you don't need someone else to carry out this task for you?"

I knew in my heart that rebalko had mentioned this matter again and again for two reasons: first, I was worried about my safety, for fear that I would be detained or killed by the German army; Second, the German army would not negotiate with us, let alone surrender, at such a time.

Considering that he didn't know German, gretka, who used to work as a translator for me, died again. When he wanted to go to the city to negotiate with von naindor, he was bound to find a suitable translator. So I asked rebalko, "Comrade General, do you have any of your people who know German?"

"Yes," rebalko said, and then he called out to the side, "Captain, come to me."

With his shouts, a tall, thin faced young captain ran up to us. After a quick glance at me, he looked at rebarko and asked, "Comrade commander, what instructions do you have?"

Rebalko nodded at me and said, "the deputy commander of the front army is going to tarnopol to negotiate with the German commander. You should follow her as an interpreter."

With a smile on his face, the captain asked rebalko in a relaxed tone: "Comrade commander, since I am going to accompany the deputy commander of the front army to the enemy's lair, please allow me to take submachine guns and grenades."

"No need," rebalko said, waving to him. "Even if they don't have any weapons, the Germans don't dare to touch you. Your task is to translate for the deputy commander of the front army and ensure her life as safe as possible, understand? "

"I see," the captain replied with his head held high. "I promise to finish the task!"

Half an hour later, Panfilov sent a telegram back from the front line, reporting: "Comrade commander, the German army has sent a lieutenant officer to drive and stop at a place 100 meters away from our army, waiting for the commander to enter the city to negotiate with them."

"I see, general Panfilov, thank you. We'll be there soon When rebalko put down the phone, he said to me solemnly, "Rita, a German officer is at the front of our army, waiting to pick you up into town."

"OK, I'll go right now." Then I stood up, ready to go out. But rebalko reached for my arm and asked anxiously, "is it really OK?"

"Don't worry, general rebalko." Although I didn't know the final result of the negotiation, I guessed that my life was not in danger, so I waved my head to the captain standing beside me, "come on, comrade captain, it's time for us to go."

Our jeep crossed our line of defense and came to the German officers waiting at the front. Seeing a jeep coming up to him, the lieutenant hesitated for a moment, then left the convertible behind him and came to our car.

When he saw me get out of the car, his face was obviously surprised, but soon returned to normal. After he raised his hand to salute me, he said politely in Russian: "Hello, general. I have come to meet you at the command of the commander of tarnopol fortress." Then he put his body slightly to one side and made a gesture of "please." the car is ready for you. Please get on the bus

According to the original plan, when we meet with German officers, we will enter the city with white flags in our cars. Although this is only a temporary measure to enter the enemy's defense zone, I feel very embarrassed. Now the German officers let us ride in his car, so that when we enter the German defense area, we don't have to fly the white flag. Maybe it's for this reason, so I readily agreed.

The German lieutenant, after waiting for me and the interpreter to get on the bus, immediately started the car, turned around in the same place, and drove along the road towards jernopol. I wanted to have a talk with him, but I saw that he was staring at the road ahead and driving intently. Instead of disturbing him, I looked around.

The car we were in passed through the German line of defense. In the car, I can see a lot of situations that I can't see in the front headquarters. In those seemingly empty trenches, there are actually a lot of German soldiers sitting. Seeing our car passing by the trench, the German soldiers stood up one after another, looked at me in the car, and talked with their fingers. Our car entered the city, passed several streets and stopped in front of a tall building. As soon as the car was finished, several German officers standing at the door came down the high steps to meet us. The captain pushed the door open and got out of bed. Then he put his seat down so that I could get out of the car smoothly. After seeing me, the faces of the German officers who came down all showed surprise. A major came up to me, looked me up and down, and asked me in Russian with a straight face: "are you the one the Russians sent to negotiate?"“ Yes, sir major Seeing that he understood Russian, I didn't ask the captain to translate for me. Instead, I said impolitely, "I'm the one who came to negotiate with you. I don't know where your fortress commander General von naindor is." After listening to my reply, the major reached to one side of his body and made a gesture of invitation. Then he said, "Your Excellency, it's the adjutant of General von naindor. Our commander is waiting for you in the office on the second floor. Please follow me." Under the guidance of the adjutant, the captain and I followed him to a spacious room on the second floor. On entering the room, around the long conference table, there were full of German school officers. See me enter the door, all eyes are coincidentally focused on me. When you see that I am a woman, the quiet room suddenly becomes noisy. I turned my back and looked at the gray haired German commander opposite me. I guessed that he might be major general von naindor whom I wanted to see this time. Just then I heard a few taps on the table, and then a low baritone roared in a voice I didn't understand. Fortunately, the captain did the simultaneous translation for me in time: "Comrade General, the German commander is angry. He said that his subordinates are not soldiers at all. I don't know that they are not allowed to talk casually during the meeting!" When the room became quiet, the German general sitting opposite said a word to me. Then the major, who was not far away from me, said to an empty chair opposite the general, "please take a seat. Our commander asks you to take a seat." After I sat down, I heard the German general opposite me ask, "Sir, can you tell me your identity? So we all know who we are talking to face to face. "