"So, we should tell them!" Shulka said: "I mean tell the Germans who are besieged in Stalingrad that as long as they are willing to surrender, we will give them preferential treatment and guarantee their personal safety!"

Shulka did not say anything about the Geneva Convention, because this was impossible for the Soviet Union. Stalin had clearly refused to sign the Geneva Convention. If Shulka would say something like abide by it, it would obviously be in conflict with Stalin.

No, Shulka cannot afford to wear this hat.

"Will the Germans believe this?" Zolotarev said: "We have told them so before!"

Indeed, the Soviet Propaganda Department had said similar things before, such as that prisoners of war received preferential treatment and even wrote letters to persuade their families... However, these later proved to be only treated as jokes by the Germans.

But that's not what Shulka wants to say.

"They can choose not to believe it!" Shulka replied: "But we can state that this time is different from the previous situation. This is a special case. The reason is that the Soviet Union's battle is not easy. Although the Soviet Union will eventually gain

Victory will also cost heavy casualties. In order to avoid such a result and end the war as soon as possible, the Soviet Union is willing to grant amnesty to all enemies who surrendered in the Battle of Stalingrad..."

"This is impossible!" Zolotarev interrupted Shulka: "This is showing our vulnerability to the enemy!"

"You are right, Comrade Zolotarev!" Shulka said: "But sometimes showing weakness to the enemy is not a bad thing. For example, now, if we show that we are strong and can annihilate the enemy at any time, then

The Germans will think: 'If this is the case, why do the Russians bother to persuade them to surrender and grant amnesty?', 'Why do the Russians treat us differently?' So, they will quickly come to a conclusion

, that means we are deceiving them. The result is that they will still resist to the end!"

"That's right!" Trufanov agreed: "If we tell them that this battle is very difficult... in fact this is the truth, we don't even have air superiority, and the battle in Stalingrad is still very cruel. If we

Tell them this, and the Germans will have reason to believe that we are telling the truth, and then they can believe that we will grant amnesty to them!"

"And this amnesty should be real!" Shulka said: "Because it will be very beneficial to our future battles!"

As for why it was "very beneficial", Shulka understood it without explaining it.

If this amnesty is fake, it is just to deceive the Germans into surrendering and then throw them into Siberia. The result will be that the Germans will never believe in any amnesty in the future, and it will even arouse the tragic feeling of German soldiers who regard death as home.

Psychologically fight to the death with the Soviet army.

But if this amnesty is true, and the German soldiers who surrendered did have their personal safety guaranteed and received preferential treatment, then this is a weapon in itself.

The reason is very simple. Once there is any tough battle or a similar situation occurs again in the future, the "amnesty" can be used again. This will definitely have an extraordinary appeal to German soldiers.

Of course Zolotarev could understand the reason. He thought about it and said: "This is not something I can decide. I must report it to my superiors!"

"Of course!" Shulka replied.

Zolotarev may be able to decide on the issue of leaflet distribution, but it is indeed not his decision to issue an amnesty and a genuine amnesty, because it means that the Soviet Union will have many fewer coolies and many more mouths to consume food.

Not to mention that this food was valuable to the Soviet Union, and the Soviets would never want to use it to feed the invaders.

Zolotarev immediately reported this issue to the Supreme Command... This is Zolotarev's advantage. He was sent by the Supreme Command to "monitor" the 51st Army, so he was directly responsible to the Supreme Command.

There is no need to report to each level.

As a result, Shulka's suggestion was quickly put on Stalin's desk.

Stalin looked at the report typed by Zolotarev, nodded and said: "We fight to gain benefits. If we continue to fight like this, we will obviously sacrifice more soldiers and consume more supplies and food.

.From this aspect, if we can persuade the enemy to surrender, we are actually just taking out part of the food to feed the prisoners, which will definitely be of huge benefit to us! And we should be determined to do things that are of benefit to the country.

support!"

After speaking, he agreed to this suggestion with a stroke of his pen, and even personally issued an amnesty order, stipulating that German officers and soldiers trapped in Stalingrad who surrendered within the next ten days would receive preferential treatment.

This was completely within Shurka's expectation.

The reason is as mentioned before. Due to the massive consumption of troops, Stalin lost his confidence. He even hoped to reduce the consumption rate of troops by improving combat effectiveness to increase the weight of achieving final victory.

So now, there is an opportunity before Stalin to reduce the consumption of troops. Of course, Stalin will not let it go easily.

At the same time, Stalin's time limit of "within the next ten days" was very clever.

If the time is too long or there is no specified time, then the Germans have no sense of urgency or even don't care. They can surrender at any time anyway, so they will resist until the last moment until they can no longer hold on and then surrender.

If the time is too short, the amnesty period will pass before the Germans can react.

Ten days was neither long nor short, just enough for the Propaganda Department to distribute leaflets and messages to the German troops and give them some time to think about it, and even give them time to plan for surrender... Surrender is also a technical job, and you cannot surrender at any time if you want.

Those who surrender will also be watched by the officers and secret police of the German army, who will catch those traitors who attempt to surrender and "kill the chickens and scare the monkeys."

These things are not what Shulka and others need to consider.

Shulka only knew that Zolotarev was stunned for a while with disbelief when he received the call, and then said: "They agreed, they actually agreed?!"

Zolotarev thought that this proposal was impossible to pass, especially the "showing weakness to the enemy" in it, because the previous Supreme Command had behaved very toughly, and such words as "destroying the enemy's morale and destroying one's own prestige" were definitely

Those who don't tell may even be considered traitors.

Therefore, Zolotarev was a little nervous and even changed his words.

But unexpectedly, the Supreme Command agreed immediately. Not only did they agree, but Stalin personally signed the amnesty order.
Chapter completed!