Chapter 654: German-Soviet War (11)

"Report, a Soviet lieutenant colonel holding a white flag has been captured!"

In a regiment headquarters on the German front line, the regiment leader Christian saw a Soviet lieutenant colonel who was in a mess and dirty. In addition to a small white flag, he also had several leaflets dropped by the German army.

The Soviet lieutenant colonel saluted Kerstian and introduced himself. "Colonel and Sir... I am Yevgeny, the division commander and staff officer of the 104th Division of the 84th Army of the 49th Group Army of the Western Front."

Christian raised his hand and returned the salute. "I am Kristian, the commander of the 204th Regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny, I guess you are Ukrainian?"

Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny nodded. "Yes, most of our division is Ukrainian. Before I came, our division commander had executed all the political commissars and Russians in the division."

"Oh?" Christian raised his eyebrows slightly. "Tell me about your conditions, but I'll be the first to say something ugly. Your army is now a turtle in a urn and has no qualifications to negotiate conditions with my army. We may not accept the conditions you propose, so don't be a lion."

"Of course." Yevgeny had an awkward smile on his face. "We are very aware of our situation. We have only one condition, that is, we hope to join your army and overthrow Stalin together!"

This request was completely beyond Christian's expectation. "I will report your army's requirements to the general headquarters now. Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny, how many Ukrainian troops are there in the encirclement? Do you have enough supplies and ammunition?"

"Although the specifics are not clear, there should be about 200,000 Ukrainian troops. In addition, there should be about 200,000 Belarusian troops. The rest are Russian troops. As for supplies and ammunition, food can last until noon tomorrow at most, soldier It only carries a dozen rounds of ammunition. The armored force will also run out of fuel, and I'm afraid it won't be able to travel more than ten kilometers. "

"That's really good news. It means that even if those Russian troops resist stubbornly, we only need to maintain the encirclement state to trap them to death."

"Exactly."

Kerstian immediately passed the news to the German frontline headquarters.

When Kruger received this message, he couldn't help but sigh. "Oh, the resentment of these Ukrainians against the Soviet Union is really deep. Your Highness is really far-sighted." I often heard His Royal Highness the Crown Prince talking about Ukraine and Belarus as targets that can be fought for. Now it seems that this is indeed the case, and it is not a casual joke. .

At this time, Pavlov, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front in the Soviet frontline headquarters, was arrested and put in an interrogation room.

The culprit was his political commissar Lev Zakharovich Mykhlis.

Mahlis was known as the king of small talk, a man who believed in a philosophy of struggle, both against his enemies and against his own people. He was also very loyal to the cause of the Soviet Union and worked very hard, but he was too simple, crude, and too dogmatic. When he served as director of the Soviet Army's Political Department, he was one of the main promoters of the great purges in the Soviet Army. Even Stalin said when talking about him, "How can constructive matters be entrusted to Mahlis? He can only destroy, destroy, and destroy. This is what suits him."

Khrushchev once said of him: He is quite honest, but what he sees are only "enemies of the people" everywhere, only saboteurs.

In the original Soviet-German War, in 1942, when the situation was the most dangerous, he was sent to the Crimean Front by Stalin. At this time, the German army was already approaching the city, but he fought fiercely with the commander of the front army Kozlov, and used his power to replace a group of people. Even the chief of staff of the front army, Major General Tolbukhin, was directly replaced by him. The arrival of Vichyny caused chaos in the entire army.

In the end, not only did the German army occupy the Kerch Peninsula, but the Soviet army lost a total of 176,566 people, 347 tanks, 3,476 cannons and mortars, and 400 aircraft... Stalin was furious when he heard the battle report: "These idiots! They took a successful battle away. Destroyed!"

Once, after reporting the frontline situation to Stalin, Myhlis mentioned in passing that Rokossovsky had "life style problems." Stalin made no reaction. Machlis was unwilling to give in and insisted on attacking the proud general. Before leaving, he asked Stalin: "What are we going to do with Comrade Rokossovsky? He is too proud of having women!" Stalin asked in return. Mahlis: "What should I do? You can only be greedy."

Now that the Soviet army had suffered such heavy losses, he, the king of small reports, naturally couldn't sit still and immediately reported the defeat on the battlefield to the Kremlin.

Upon learning that he had lost nearly 1 million elites, Stalin was furious and ordered Myhelis to arrest Pavlov immediately and interrogate him on the spot; just like that, Pavlov was put into the interrogation room, and the person who interrogated him was A battalion-level political commissar named Pavlovsky and a national security second lieutenant.

However, Pavlov refused to answer any of the interrogators' questions, stubbornly repeating, "The interrogation can only take place in the presence of the People's Commissar of Defense or the Chief of General Staff!"

At this time, a figure walked into the interrogation room and snorted coldly. "Hmph! No answer! Could it be that the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee, the People's Commissar of State Supervision, and the Political Commissar of the Front Army are not good enough to you? Should Comrade Stalin come in person? How glorious..." The visitor is none other than Mehlis . "In the name of the People's Committee, I order you to answer the question immediately!"

Pavlov had no choice but to obey, and the interrogation could continue.

Q: Were the reasons for the arrest announced to you?

Answer: Mekhlis announced to me that I was arrested as a traitor, which is ridiculous. How could I be a traitor?

Q: In this case, then confess your treasonous activities.

A: You are crazy! I am not a traitor! The troops were defeated, and it was not because of me.

Q: There are investigation materials proving that your behavior for many years has been treasonous, and this treasonous behavior was particularly obvious during your command of the Western Front.

A: I am not a traitor. As the commander of the front, there is no conspiracy in my actions.

Q: In this case, how could this happen?

This absurd interrogation lasted for more than ten hours, and everyone was exhausted. Pavlov always insisted that he was innocent and not a traitor.

This made Mekhlis very annoyed. The order to attack was issued by Comrade Stalin himself. Pavlov refused to admit his mistake. Doesn't that mean that Comrade Stalin was wrong? If this gets out, will Comrade Stalin be angry with him?

He sent another telegram to the Kremlin, labeling Pavlov as an incorrigible reactionary diehard. Unexpectedly, he received the execution document from the Supreme Military Tribunal that night, sentencing Pavlov to death for treason.