Chapter 2426:

Chapter 2426

The importance of 1,600 tons of gold to a country is self-evident. However, Sokov knew very well that this batch of gold sunk at the bottom of Lake Baikal was like a mirror, visible and intangible. It would still be sleeping at the bottom of the lake seventy or eighty years later, let alone today's technology.

As for what Yakov said about using alien technology to develop new submarines to salvage gold from the bottom of the lake, Sokov didn't think it was feasible. To people on earth, alien technology is like modern people returning to ancient times with an advanced laptop. No matter how smart those ancients were, if no one taught them how to use the computer, they might have to study just how to turn it on. A long time, let alone use.

Without aliens to guide the people on earth, even if the Soviets obtained advanced alien technology, it would still be impossible to rely on this black technology to develop anything beyond this era. If you're lucky, you might be able to figure out how to make the most of these alien technologies after a few decades or hundreds of years, and you might be able to make the country's technological progress reach a rapid pace. But at the moment, the high technology from aliens is just a decoration.

 “By the way, Yasha, I remembered something.”

"what's up?"

“If alien technology really fell to the earth after the Tunguska explosion, did we obtain some special materials while acquiring technology?”

"Special materials?" Yakov couldn't help but be confused after hearing this: "What special materials, Misha, I don't quite understand what you mean."

Sokov originally wanted to find out whether the meteorites that fell to the ground contained materials similar to Captain America's shield. The material of Captain America's shield is original Edman metal, which is composed of vibranium, iron and certain chemicals. It is almost indestructible, can absorb kinetic energy, and resist extreme pressure, extreme temperatures, radiation, electromagnetic spectrum and other attacks. If there is such a material in meteorites, then indestructible tanks, aircraft and warships can be made.

But judging from Yakov's expression, he either didn't know what the things shipped to Chelyabinsk were, or he didn't have the special materials he imagined. So Sokov waved his hand and said awkwardly: "Nothing, I just asked casually."

After a brief silence, Yakov spoke again, but this time he had changed the subject: "Misha, on our way back to Moscow, we will pass through a small city called Suzdal, which is located in Vladivostok, east of Moscow. Kimir Oblast is 26 kilometers away from the state capital Vladimir and has a population of about 5,000 people.”

Sokov looked at Yakov in confusion, wondering why the other party suddenly mentioned such an unknown small city to him.

Yakov saw the confusion on Sokov's face and said with a smile: "Misha, you may be wondering why I mentioned this town to you, right?"

After Sokov nodded slightly to express his approval of his statement, he continued: "You may not know yet, but after Paulus was captured by you, he moved around several times and was finally imprisoned in this small city."

“The person who captured Paulus was the Chief of Staff of the 64th Army…”

Before Sokov finished speaking, he was interrupted by Yakov: "Okay, Misha, others don't know, don't I still know? The chief of staff of the 64th Group Army personally captured Paulus, but It was the external propaganda of the Soviet Intelligence Agency. Anyone who knows the inside story knows very well that you are the one who really captured Paulus."

Speaking of Paulus, Sokov immediately found a new topic: "On December 24, 1942, Paulus and his more than 200,000 officers and soldiers welcomed Christmas Eve. On this day, Paulus Despite the shortage of supplies, each soldier was still given 300 grams of bread, and every ten soldiers also received 1 kilogram of potatoes. Some generals and officers even shared precious chocolates with the soldiers.

On this day, Paulus also wrote a letter to his old boss, Field Marshal Bock, who was idle at home. The content was: 'My brave army group is fighting under extremely unfavorable conditions. But I firmly believe that I will dominate the situation. ’ Even though he was surrounded by our army, he didn’t care at all. He felt that Mustache would definitely send troops to rescue him. It wouldn’t be long before his troops could successfully break through our army’s encirclement. "

Yakov waited for Sokov to finish and immediately added: "I heard that Paulus also issued an order on Christmas Eve. He did not mention any clichés such as honor and bravery, but bluntly warned everyone There are only two consequences for his subordinates who surrender: either they will be executed, or they will be sent to a Siberian prisoner of war camp to starve, freeze to death or be tortured to death. He told all the officers and soldiers: "We have only one way out, to fight to the end in severe cold and hunger." One bullet, fighting to the last breath. All negotiations should be rejected, ignored, and their messengers driven away with fire.' Finally, he did not forget to add: 'Our hope will be placed in the troops who are coming to rescue. '."

"Paulus was by no means just talking. The army chaplain would receive orders from time to time to say last prayers for soldiers who were about to be shot. In the following period, the 6th Army executed a total of hundreds of war-fearers and deserters. "Sokov continued: "However, as time went by, the German officers and soldiers saw no hope of breaking the encirclement, and their morale gradually became low."

"I think the reason why Paulus's troops were completely defeated was mainly because the officers and soldiers ran out of food." Yakov expressed his opinion on Paulus's failure: "As long as the soldiers can obtain food that can sustain their lives, they will We will fight to the last man. If we want to completely annihilate the 6th Army, I am afraid we will pay an even heavier price."

"Yasha, what you said makes sense." Sokov said: "The 6th Army, which was besieged by our army, did suffer from food shortages. On the last day of 1942, Paulus reduced the bread ration. to 80 grams per day. So the hungry soldiers could only slaughter several thousand horses belonging to the Romanian cavalry. The horse meat was made into sausages and the horse bones were used to make soup.

But these are only soldiers. Officers can also enjoy privileges, and they will also use their power for personal gain. A captured military doctor once accused his superior of "feeding his dog bread with thick butter, but there was nothing in the dressing room for the wounded." There are even some troops who have a lot of food stored privately. The positions they hold have food reserves before the siege, so they don't have to worry about starvation.

 Yasha, there is something you may not know. Although the German army was trapped in our siege at that time, many troops of General Chuikov's 62nd Army were under the counter-encirclement of the German army and could not get decent supplies at all. They only had less than 100 grams of bread per day. "

"Huh?!" What Sokov said shocked Yakov: "No way, our army's situation is actually worse than that of the Germans."

Sokov nodded, and after confirming this statement, he continued: "In fact, the most tragic thing is the Romanians and the so-called 'Soviet auxiliary personnel' in the encirclement. Because they cannot obtain supplies like the German army, Therefore, many Romanian soldiers had to run to beg for scraps from the German army. By the end of the battle, only 1,169 of the Romanian army, which originally numbered more than 13,000 people, were captured alive by our army. Most of the more than 30,000 "Soviet auxiliary personnel" chose to flee. Because they knew very well that as long as they were captured by either the Soviet Union or Germany, they would be regarded as traitors and would be dragged out and shot. Even if they stayed honestly, they would not get any food. It was better to choose to flee, and maybe there would be a chance of survival. .

I also heard that there were more than 3,500 captured commanders and fighters of our army in the encirclement. They were imprisoned by the Germans and had no choice but to starve to death because they could not get food. When our army discovered them, out of 3,500 prisoners of war, only 20 skinny prisoners were left. ”    While the two were talking about Paulus, there was a sudden knock on the door.

Yakov got up and went over to open the door. Seeing Bezikov standing at the door, he asked: "Comrade Major, what can I do for you?"

“It’s almost time to eat.” Bezikov said respectfully: “Should I come here to ask you whether you plan to go to the dining car to eat by yourself, or should I ask the conductor to bring it to you?”

 “Let’s go to the dining car and eat by ourselves.”

Yakov closed the door and walked back to Sokov: "Misha, shall we go to the dining car now?"

Sokov raised his hand and looked at the time, and then slowly shook his head: "Yasha, now is the time when there are the most people. I think it's better to wait a little longer and wait until there are fewer people before going."

"I think it's okay." Yakov nodded and said, "Let's continue talking about Paulus."

“After Paulus surrendered, the German army in the south of Stalingrad quickly disintegrated and laid down their weapons and surrendered to our army. Our intelligence agency immediately broadcast to the country the news that a large number of German generals had surrendered and been captured.

At 3:30 a.m. on February 1, Mustache learned that Paulus, 11 German generals, and several Romanian generals had been captured, and the entire 6th Army headquarters had surrendered. Mustache immediately ordered an inquiry to see if Paulus's appointment as marshal could be withdrawn, but he knew that the news had been published and it was impossible to withdraw it. "

"Mustache is really stingy." Yakov said in a contemptuous tone: "Since it has been officially announced that Paulus will be appointed marshal, how can he revoke it just because he wants to do so?"

Sokov chuckled and said: "Mustache may have never dreamed that he gave Paulus the title of marshal because he wanted the other party to resist until the last person; but he did not expect that the other party would finally surrender to Paulus as a marshal. Our army surrenders."

“After the Germans surrendered, our army announced the standard rations for German prisoners of war: each person could get 360 grams of dry bread, 75 grams of wheat bran (soup), 100 grams of porridge, 100 grams of pickled herring, and 10 grams of sugar every day. , 2 grams of tea substitute, 10 grams of salt.”

"Yasha, what you said is just written stuff." Sokov said: "It seems that the food standards we set for German prisoners of war are not low, but they cannot be implemented because of the 1942 massacre. Famine and the loss of a large number of grain-producing areas left us with excess food. Even front-line troops such as the 62nd Army could only receive very little food supply every day. Therefore, the captured German soldiers could only receive one for every ten people. A loaf of brown bread, water, a little salt and a soup of beans and rice.

  We could not give the German prisoners of war enough bread, nor could we provide them with shelter. The city of Stalingrad and its surroundings were almost completely wiped out, and there were few ready-made houses available. Knowing that tens of thousands of German prisoners of war had to be resettled, some simple wooden houses were hastily built without enough beds. A large number of German prisoners of war, including the wounded, had no choice but to sleep on the damp and cold ground and endure the unbearable cold. .

 Severely insufficient food and poor accommodation conditions caused the German soldiers, whose physical strength had long been exhausted, to quickly become infected with spring typhoid and die in large numbers. The death rate of prisoners of war was alarming. From 91,545 prisoners of war registered on February 22, only 56,175 were left on March 8. "

The large number of German prisoners of war died in such a short period of time, which surprised Yakov. He looked at Sokov and asked: "Misha, you said that the prisoners of war will be repatriated in the future. How many Germans were captured in Stalingrad?" How many can return to their hometown alive?”

"It's hard to guess the specific number." Regarding Yakov's question, Sokov was also a little embarrassed. After all, the data announced by later generations were contradictory. East Germany announced that there were 7,000 German soldiers captured in Stalingrad. Many people returned to Germany. However, the Soviet side said that more than 5,000 German prisoners of war were repatriated. Sokov could only reply generally, "I think a few thousand people can go back alive."

After hearing this, Yakov nodded and said: "More than 91,000 people were captured, and a few thousand people returned to Germany alive, which is already a good result. I think at the beginning, our army on the battlefield could easily number more than ten or two hundred thousand people." People were captured by the German army. How many of these captured commanders and fighters survived until the end of the war? A thousand would be good. The rest died in German prisoner-of-war camps. Some were shot. Many more were sent to gas chambers and poisoned to death."

When talking about gas chambers, Sokov couldn’t help but think of the Jews. Nearly six million of them were brutally murdered by the Germans during World War II. To them, the mustache is a devil, bringing disaster to their nation.

“Misha.” After a brief silence, Yakov asked tentatively: “When do you think the next war will break out?”

"Yasha, wars will never disappear at any time," Sokov looked at Yakov and said seriously: "But they are just local wars between individual countries, like the first and second world wars. A war on the scale of the Great War should never break out again in the future.”

Regarding Sokov's statement, Yakov was skeptical: "The distance between the two world wars was only 21 years. Even if these two world wars brought huge losses to various countries around the world, it would not be possible otherwise. How long will it take for many people to forget the lessons of the past, and it may be a precursor to a new war?"

Hearing what Yakov said, Sokov did not refute him, because he knew very well that this was the most popular view at the moment. People who had just experienced the war were always uneasy and felt that in a few years, the war would be over. A new world war will break out. Even the principal with a bald head likes to say to his students: "As soon as the United States sends troops, World War III will break out, and the situation will develop in a direction favorable to our military."

"Yasha, I just want to say that according to my judgment, the probability of the outbreak of World War III is infinitely close to zero." Yakov finally said: "If you don't believe it, we might as well wait and see if what I said is right. correct."

 (End of this chapter)