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After annihilating the German Wallonian Volunteer Grenadier Division, Sokov ordered the troops to press on.

When the vanguard reached the second line of defense of the German army, they found that although there were no towns here, those villages and residential areas were used by the German army to build fire support points one after another.Facing the fire support point blocking the front, the Soviet army launched an attack without hesitation.

Facing the Soviet attack, the German army fought tenaciously and successfully repelled the first attack of the Soviet army.

Knowing that the vanguard was blocked by the German fire support point, Sokov was very annoyed. He turned his head and asked Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, how many artillery have we crossed the river now?"

Sidolin, who had just learned about the situation from Potapov, heard Sokov's question and replied without hesitation: "Report to Comrade Commander, our artillery has two artillery regiments and three guard rocket battalions, and has successfully reached the west bank of the West Oder River."

"Where is the tank brigade?" Sokov continued to ask: "How many tanks have crossed the river?"

"Currently, the armored units that have crossed the river are only one tank brigade and one tank regiment, and the number of tanks is less than sixty."

"Too few, too few." Sokov heard that so far, there were only about [-] tanks crossing the river, and he couldn't help frowning: "It's not enough to guide the infantry to charge with just such a few tanks."

After a short pause, he continued: "Order the artillery to shell those fire support points, and be sure to destroy them."

But what surprised Sokov was that when Sidolin communicated the order to Potapov by phone, he was rejected by the other party: "I'm sorry, Comrade Chief of Staff, please tell the commander that I cannot fire at the German fire support point."

Sokov, who was standing next to him, heard what Potapov said, snatched the microphone, put it close to his ear, and said in a stern tone: "General Potapov, what's going on, why can't your artillery unit fire at the fire support point controlled by the German army?"

"Comrade Commander," Potapov didn't expect that the person he was talking to suddenly changed from Sidolin to Sokov, and he couldn't help being taken aback.But he quickly settled down and explained to Sokov: "The artillery observers I sent reported to me that there are still a large number of civilians in the villages and settlements that the Germans used as fire support points. If we fire without explanation, we can indeed destroy these fire support points, but at the same time, it will also cause a large number of civilian deaths. I have no right to order my subordinates to shoot at civilians. If you think I am incompetent, you can ask others to take my place."

Sokov was originally angry that Potapov refused to carry out his order, but after figuring out the reason, he also became embarrassed.The German army changed the villages and settlements that still had a large number of civilians into fire support points. If they tried shelling without any explanation, they could destroy all these fire support points, but the civilians inside would definitely be destroyed.But if the enemy's fortifications are not destroyed, and the commanders and fighters are allowed to attack, they will inevitably suffer heavy casualties.

Sidolin, who was standing next to him, saw Sokov's embarrassment, and whispered to him, "Comrade commander, there are no undead in battle. If we are afraid to fire at will because there are a large number of civilians in the fire support point, it means that our commanders and fighters will suffer heavy casualties when they attack."

"Misha," Lunev interjected, seeing that Sokov held the microphone and remained silent. "Firing fire at the fire support point will definitely cause a lot of casualties inside, but if we don't fire, our army will pay huge casualties during the attack."

"Comrade Military Commissioner, tell me, what should I do?"

"Since these fire support points cannot be taken down for the time being, let's send troops to surround them first."

"And then?" Sokov continued to ask: "After we have surrounded them, what should we do?"

"Persuade to surrender!" Lunev said: "Send someone in to persuade the German troops inside to surrender."

"Can the Germans surrender?"

"Even if the Germans refuse to surrender, we can open a humanitarian channel." Lunev said: "Let the civilians trapped in villages and settlements evacuate."

After listening to Lunev's suggestion, Sokov felt very reasonable.The Germans left the civilians at the fire support points and let them act as human shields, and after besieging these fire support points, they opened up a passage for the civilians to leave.If the other party doesn't appreciate what you have done, then don't blame the guns for being blind.Thinking of this, Sokov quickly said into the microphone: "General Potapov, you are right. There are a large number of civilians in the fire support points. We cannot fire casually, so as not to accidentally injure innocent people. Now I am going to surround all these fire support points first, and then send people to persuade them to surrender. Even if the Germans cannot surrender, I will open a special passage to allow civilians to leave safely."

As the order was issued, the troops that originally attacked the firepower support point changed their strategy and did not launch an attack. Instead, they turned around from the two wings and surrounded several firepower support points.After doing all this, Sokov sent his classmate Major Vadim as his representative to persuade the German army to surrender.

When Vadim was at the Frunze Military Academy, he had always been at odds with Sokov, so after coming to the front, other students were assigned different positions, but Vadim remained in the headquarters as a staff officer.He was very excited to be appointed as Sokov's representative today to go to the enemy's defense area to persuade the enemy to surrender.He knew very well that if he could really say the surrender of the German army, it would be a great achievement.

When Vadim finished accepting the mission and was about to leave, Sokov stopped him and said to him: "Major Vadim, although the situation on the battlefield is becoming more and more favorable to our army, if you go to the enemy camp to negotiate today, the enemy dare not do anything to you, but you must be more careful in everything and don't cause any danger."

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Vadim assured Sokov, "I will definitely complete the task."

After sending Vadim away, Sidolin asked Sokov curiously: "Comrade Commander, do you think Major Vadim can complete the task you gave him?"

"I don't know." Sokov shook his head and said, "Whether his persuasion will be successful depends entirely on whether the German commander intends to continue fighting. If he is lucky, he may be able to persuade the other party to surrender when he meets a war-weary commander. But if he encounters a stubborn one, I'm afraid he will have to return empty-handed."

"When our army attacked, Germany's resistance was extremely tenacious." Sidolin said: "I think the German commander must be a hard-to-talk person. I think Major Vadim may leave this time in a happy mood and come back disappointed."

Sokov didn't think that if he sent someone casually to persuade him to surrender, the Germans would honestly put down their weapons and surrender to him.The main purpose of this negotiation is to allow the German commander to show mercy and allow the civilians to leave the combat area through the passage they gave up.

As Sokov judged, after Vadim explained his intentions to the German commander, the other party sneered and said: "Mr. Major, I advise you not to waste your time. Even if all of us die in battle, we will never surrender."

The German army's non-surrender had long been expected by Vadim.So he gave up his plan to persuade, but went on to say the second plan: "Your Excellency Commander, if you are unwilling to lay down your weapons and surrender to our army, then I ask you to allow the civilians in the fire support point to leave this dangerous area."

If the place of the battle at this moment is not on the territory of Germany, but on the territory of the Soviet Union, then what Vadim said is tantamount to playing the piano against the cow.But the area where the battle is now is in mainland Germany, and there are a large number of civilians who are trapped in the fire support point together with the German officers and soldiers.The German commander knew very well that if the Soviet army bombarded this place with artillery regardless, the army and civilians would suffer heavy losses.

It was precisely because of this consideration that the German commander's tone relaxed: "Okay, I agree to let all the civilians leave here. But I want to ask, how much time can we give?"

"We can give you two hours to evacuate all the civilians here." Vadim said: "When I return to our position, there will be a red signal flare, which means that the passage for civilians to leave is open; when the yellow signal flare rises, it means that the passage is closed."

Vadim returned to the headquarters, and after explaining the negotiation process to Sokov, he blushed and said, "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I failed to complete the task you entrusted to me and failed your trust in me. Please punish me."

But Sokov waved his hand and said generously: "Major Vaham, although the Germans have fallen into our surrounding circle, they are only [-] kilometers away from Berlin. If they do not perform tenacious defense, they will put their weapons to surrender to our army, then their family members will be implicated." Shoot the red signal bullet and inform the Germans that our passages have been opened, and they can let civilians leave the battle area with peace of mind. "

After the red flare was lifted into the air, the besieged Soviet army gave up a 50-meter-wide passage, allowing civilians in the fire support point to evacuate safely.

Although the passage was open, the German civilians were worried. They were deeply afraid that they would be killed by firepower from both sides after entering the passage. After all, German officers and soldiers had done many such bad things, and the civilians were worried that the same fate would happen to them.

The unit that opened the passage was the 284th Infantry Division. Colonel Ismailov, the division commander, saw that no German civilians appeared in the passage for a long time.

Ismailov called Sokov, reported the situation there, and finally said: "Comrade Commander, what is going on, our safe passage has been opened, why haven't the German civilians come out yet?"

After hearing this, Sokov thought for a while and understood what was going on, and quickly said to Ismailov: "Comrade Colonel, I guess the German civilians still have some concerns, so they dare not easily enter the passage opened by our army."

"Then what should I do?" Ismailov immediately felt a headache when he heard it: "If the German civilians don't come out, I can't send people in to catch them all, right?"

"Comrade Commander," a staff officer came in from the outside and reported to Sokov, "we caught some women outside."

Sokov hurriedly covered the microphone with his hand, and said dissatisfiedly to the staff officer: "What are you arresting the German women for?" The reason why he said this was entirely because later generations read too many articles that smeared the Soviet army. He was afraid that these women would be forced to do something indescribable after being arrested by the soldiers, so his tone was extremely severe: "Quickly release them all."

"Comrade Commander, you made a mistake. These women are not Germans, but Belarusians." The staff officer reported to Sokov: "They are all military members. They were captured by the German army at the beginning of the war and sent to the German mainland to work as coolies. Now that our army has entered the German mainland, they finally have a chance to escape the clutches of the Germans and come to join us."

"So that's the case." Sokov nodded slightly after finding out the identity of the other party, and then ordered the staff: "You settle them down properly first, and when I finish my work here, Comrade Military Commissioner and I will go to see them."

"Yes, Comrade Commander." The staff officer agreed loudly, turned and walked out of the headquarters.

Sokov continued into the microphone: "Comrade Colonel, you send an officer to contact the Germans and tell the civilians that we will ensure their safety and that they can safely and boldly pass through the passage we set aside to leave this dangerous area."

"Understood, Comrade Commander." Ismailov on the other end of the phone replied loudly, "I don't worry about leaving this matter to others. I'd better make a trip myself."

Knowing that Ismailov planned to go to the enemy's camp in person, Sokov originally wanted to dissuade him, but then he thought about it. Now he is surrounded by the German Wehrmacht, not the SS who has done all kinds of bad things. Even if Ismailov goes out in person, I am afraid that there will be no danger, so he nodded and agreed: "Okay, Comrade Colonel, I agree with you to go to the enemy camp in person, but you must pay attention to your own safety."

After Ismailov finished talking with Sokov, he immediately took a German interpreter and rode in an open jeep towards the German camp.At a distance of 50 meters from the enemy's fortifications, he stopped the car, and then asked the German translator to shout towards the enemy's defense area, telling the other party that the passage for civilians has been opened, and all civilians can leave here safely without any danger to their lives.

After the interpreter yelled Ismailov's words several times over the loudspeaker, he finally saw civilians carrying bags, suitcases, and bicycles slowly coming out of the German positions.At first there were only a few sparse people, but soon more people joined, and within 10 minutes, the muddy road was already full of people.The expressionless civilians, stepping on the mud on the ground, walked forward along the road step by step, wanting to leave this place of right and wrong as soon as possible.

Seeing the civilians starting to leave the village and settlements, Ismailov heaved a sigh of relief, then raised his hand and patted the driver on the shoulder, saying, "Let's go back."