Red Moscow

Zhukov stared into Sokov's eyes again and said nothing for a long time.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhukov finally said: "Well, Misha, since they are the people you recommended, let them find a job in the newly formed security headquarters. I believe your judgment is not Incorrect."

With Zhukov's approval, Sokov finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Just when Sokov was about to leave, Zhukov suddenly asked a question: "Misha, I want to ask you, why did the German officer's operation to assassinate Mustache fail?"

Sokov didn’t understand why Zhukov suddenly asked this question. He tried hard to recall the history he knew and cautiously expressed his opinion: “Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg may have been nervous and did not put on his equipment. The bomb's briefcase was placed under the table instead of on the ground. As a result, a general tripped over the briefcase while trying to get closer to the table to look at the map. He pushed the briefcase to the outside of the table leg and it became thick. The oak table legs shielded Mustache from the impact of the explosion, allowing him to survive the explosion."

"Misha, even if Stauffenberg placed the bomb in the right place and succeeded in killing Mustache, do you think their coup will be successful?"

"I don't think the chance is high." Sokov shook his head and said: "Shortly after the explosion, the reserve army headquarters in Berlin received the intelligence, but the commander sitting here was hesitant and did not take advantage of this favorable opportunity to launch an attack. Any action. It was not until Stauffenberg returned to Berlin by plane that he urgently issued some action orders, but the best opportunity had been missed.

What's even more terrible is that Major Remer, who was sent to arrest Goebbels, learned that Mustache was not dead, so he actually turned his gun and went to deal with Stauffenberg and others..."

"Stop!" As soon as Sokov said this, Zhukov stopped him: "Do you think there is any problem here?"

Sokov was confused by Zhukov's jumping thinking. He could only shake his head and said: "I don't know. Maybe when arresting Goebbels, Stauffenberg should send one of his cronies to accompany him to avoid Remer. The major's temporary defection caused the coup to fail."

"Then let me tell you my opinion." Zhukov said: "There are many reasons for the failure of assassinating Mustache. This is not a problem of one detail, but multiple details that jointly created the failed ending.

First of all, Colonel Stauffenberg, who was responsible for assassinating Mustache, never gave up the idea of ​​​​survival from the beginning. He was not willing to die with others. If he really wanted to complete the assassination mission, he should stay in the conference room and die with Mustache.

What is even more surprising is that during the coup, all execution and organization work relied on him alone. Even after planting the bomb, he had to take a plane from Rastenburg, East Prussia, where the Wolf's Lair was located, back to Berlin to direct the coup. This kind of reliance on a physically disabled person is simply too naive and idealistic. "

Sokov said nothing and listened quietly to Zhukov's explanation.

"This plan lacked broad popular support and was merely a murder and coup planned by the Wehrmacht officers' internal organization, while the Nazis had a broad mass base. At the same time, the plan failed to win the support of other senior German generals, such as Rommel and Gu Derian only heard about the plan and organization and chose to wait and see, without providing any substantial help.

The anti-mustache crowd in Berlin hesitated in taking action, delaying the opportunity to remove the top Nazis from power and occupy Berlin with arms. Some members who participated in the coup were even shaken after learning that Mustache had not been bombed, causing the planned coup to fail. "

Sokov hesitated for a moment and began to express his opinion: "Comrade Marshal, you are right. In fact, even if the assassination fails, we must quickly occupy the radio station and disband the SS in accordance with the plan where Mustache was killed. armed forces, take control of Berlin, temporarily cut off all connections between Berlin and the outside world, declare a state of emergency, and immediately dispatch capable generals to take over the armies in other places - instead of a group of people talking in the office, checking the wind direction, and launching campaigns by phone coup, waiting for hours before taking action."

"What you said makes sense." Zhukov continued: "These assassination members have lofty ideals: to overthrow the Nazi dictatorship, establish a new government, and negotiate with the Allies to achieve the greatest interests. They hope to win a Relatively mild surrender terms to retain the major territories Germany had already occupied before 1939 and even share the partition of Poland with our country.

They also hope that Germany can retain its troops and prevent foreign troops from entering Germany. In short, they realized that the sooner they negotiated peace with the Allies, the more likely they were to take the initiative and retain more vested interests. This surrender was not unconditional, but conditional, and was intended to ensure that Germany received as many benefits and intact territory as possible, rather than the entire country being divided into four parts, owned by four different countries, as is now the case occupied. "

After Zhukov chatted with Sokov for a few more words, he said to him: "If you have time in the past two days, you can go find the two Germans you mentioned and ask them if they are willing to serve in the newly formed garrison commander. position in the ministry.”

"Yes, Comrade Marshal!"

"Okay, you have nothing to do here, you can leave."

After raising his hand in salute, Sokov turned and walked out of Zhukov's office.

When the lieutenant colonel saw Sokov coming out, he nodded to him, then picked up the table in front of him and called the next person Zhukov wanted to meet.

Sokov walked out of the building and saw Vasergov and Adelina standing by the car.

Seeing Sokov coming out, the two men immediately stepped forward to greet him.

Agelina asked with concern: "Misha, Comrade Marshal didn't say anything to you, right?"

"No." Sokov shook his head and said: "At the beginning, he criticized me for not keeping time. After learning that I encountered an attack on the way, he even asked me a few questions with concern."

"Comrade General," Vaserigov asked tentatively, "Did Comrade Marshal tell me how to deal with the one-armed old man?"

"He has informed his comrades in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and they will take over the interrogation." Sokov said lightly: "We don't need to worry about this matter."

"What about your plan?" Agelina then asked, "What does Comrade Marshal say?"

Sokov looked around and then said: "It's not convenient to talk here, so let's get in the car first."

After getting in the car, Vaserigov turned and asked Sokov: "Comrade General, where should we go next? Back to the Adlon Hotel?"

"No, no, no, we won't go back to the Adlon Hotel for the time being." Sokov shook his head and said, "Let's go to William Street first. We have important things to do."

"Okay, Comrade General." Vaserigov turned to the driver and said: "William Street!"

After the car started, Agelina realized that the plan submitted by Sokov might have been approved by Zhukov, so she asked cautiously: "Misha, so you said that Comrade Marshal agreed to the plan you submitted?"

Sokov did not answer her question immediately, but asked: "Agelina, why do you ask that?"

"Because you said you were going to Wilhelmstrasse." Agelina said with a smile on her face: "You just arrived in Berlin not long ago and you don't know anyone at all. Now that you have left Comrade Marshal, you can't wait to go to Wilhelmstrasse. , indicating that your plan has been approved by Comrade Marshal, and you are ready to go there to find people who can help you. "

"Agelina, you are so amazing, you actually guessed the truth." Considering that Vaserigov is the person responsible for his own safety, Sokov did not hide this kind of thing from him: "Comrade Marshal agrees To form a garrison command, ordinary soldiers would be selected and recruited from the prisoner of war camps, while officers would be selected through other channels. I recommended Ernst and Captain Hosenfeld to him, and he both agreed. Now. We are going to William Street just to find them."

On the way to Wilhelmstrasse, Sokov looked out through the car window and saw that there were basically no intact buildings on both sides of the street. Groups of women are cleaning up the rubble from the ruins in an organized manner, preparing to rebuild their homes as soon as possible.

"Misha," Agelina asked tentatively, looking at the busy women outside: "How long do you think it will take for Berlin to become the bustling city it once was?"

"It's hard to say." Sokov shook his head and said, "The reconstruction of the city is a big project. Not to mention anything else, just cleaning up the ruins of these buildings will probably take a few years. It will take at least ten years to start rebuilding the city back to its pre-war levels.”

"Ah, it takes so long?" Agelina said in surprise: "Can't it be done in advance?"

"Yes, it does take a long time to rebuild the city." Sokov sighed and said: "In fact, it is not impossible to speed up the reconstruction of the city. As long as the millions of prisoners of war detained in the prisoner-of-war camps are released, Come out and let them participate in the clean-up of the ruins. I think in this way, the reconstruction of the city can be greatly accelerated.”

"I'm afraid it won't be easy." Vaserigov shook his head and said, "Putting so many prisoners of war into the city at once would probably have a devastating blow to the city's security. Maybe that's what the superiors wanted. After thinking about it, prisoners of war were not used to clean up the ruins of the city, but the surviving residents of the city were allowed to clean up the ruins on their own initiative. "

"Major, I have something to ask you." Sokov said: "How do the residents in the city obtain food and daily necessities? In other words, are German marks still in circulation today?"

"How is this possible, Comrade General." Vaserigov shook his head and said: "I don't know what the situation is in the areas controlled by the Allied forces. But in the areas we control, a rationing system is implemented, and every household You can rely on the rationing system to pick up the food and daily necessities you need at designated locations.”

"Isn't this the same rationing system we implemented during the war?" Agelina said.

"Yes, Comrade Agelina, this is indeed the case." Vaserigov replied affirmatively: "I heard from the comrade in charge of the economy that the German economy has completely collapsed. Circulation can only lead to crazy depreciation. It is said that after the end of World War I, the German mark devalued so much that it cost 500,000 marks to buy a loaf of bread. Therefore, the best way is to temporarily stop the circulation of marks to the people in the city. Residents implement rationing so that Germany can regain its vitality as soon as possible.”

"Have the water supply and power supply been solved?" Sokov asked: "Also, with the arrival of winter, the weather is getting colder and colder. When will the heating in residents' homes be available?"

Facing these questions raised by Sokov, Vaserigov showed an embarrassed expression on his face: "Comrade General, in fact, since June, we have begun to restore power and water supply to the city one after another, but it is disappointing. Unfortunately, there were mines and explosives planted by the Germans in these underground facilities, and our comrades who went to repair cables and water pipes suffered a lot of casualties, which affected the speed of recovery.”

Vaserigov's answer was beyond Sokov's expectation. He did not expect that the Germans would frantically lay mines and explosives where underground cables and water pipes were located. It would be surprising if this did not affect the speed of restoring civilian facilities. . But then I thought about it. After the Soviet army rushed into Berlin, Mustache ordered people to flood the Berlin subway with water, drowning a large number of Berlin people who were hiding from the war inside. Since Mustache can do this, what does it matter if his men lay mines and explosives at civilian facilities?

The motorcade stopped at William Street, which was still in ruins.

After Sokov got out of the car, he remembered that he had never asked Ernst the specific address of his home. But from what he saw in front of him, Sokov was very suspicious. Even if he asked for the specific residence, it might not be easy to find Ernst and Hosenfeld.

There were several women walking by slowly carrying iron buckets on the roadside. Vaselgov volunteered and said: "Comrade General, I will go and ask the women who are passing by to see if they know about Ernst and Horton." Where does Captain Senfield live?"

But Sokov stopped him. What the Soviet army had done in Berlin in the past few months had probably made the women in Berlin frightened when they saw the Soviet army. If he stopped them and asked, it might make them panic. Bewildered. So he said to Agelina: "Agelina, ask them if they know where Ernst and Captain Hosenfeld live."

Agelina agreed, walked forward quickly, and stopped one of the middle-aged women wearing a headscarf.

When the middle-aged woman who was stopped saw several Soviet jeeps parked not far away, she felt a little panicked. After being pulled back, she almost ran away in fear. When he saw clearly that the person blocking his way was a young and beautiful girl, the fear in his heart immediately dissipated a lot, but he still asked tremblingly: "Girl, what can I do for you?"

"Hello!" Agelina asked politely: "Do you know where Ernst, or a person named Wilhelm Hosenfeld, lives?"

"I don't know, I don't know anything." The middle-aged woman realized that Agelina was asking for directions and didn't even hear clearly who the other party was asking, so she denied it, then left as if running away, quickening her pace. Walking towards the distance.