Iron Cross

After a few people left, several guards who had been on guard duty rushed in immediately.

"Sir, is this true? Are you ready to agree to the Germans?" Apparently they had just heard the whole process.

"If I answer yes, are you prepared to do this?" Kononov made a beheading gesture with his hand.

"Of course not... You are our commander, and we will go wherever you go. Besides, even the lieutenant general can cooperate with the Germans, why can't we?"

"Sir, that bullshit Order No. 270 was not deliberately fabricated by them to trick us into taking the bait, right?"

Kononov shook his head and said slowly: "This is true! They thought I didn't know, but in fact I received this telegram during the encirclement. Do you know why I chose to break out of the encirclement separately with the division commander?"

"Why?"

"Because after receiving the telegram, he still foolishly wanted to carry out the order." Kononov sneered, "He didn't even look at the situation. The battle has reached this point and the soldiers are looking for a way out for themselves. Isn't it okay? You didn't drag them to be buried together? You still carried out the order. Maybe you didn't know who had shot him... Of course, it's also possible that he was pretending to be high-profile in front of us. If that's the case, I have to admit it. He's a good actor."

"Sir... what should I say... um... I think you overestimate the teacher. He doesn't have that kind of wisdom."

"Damn... this bastard's Order No. 270." Kononov suddenly vented his anger as he spoke, "Is it our responsibility to lose the war? We have done our best for this war, Kiev A total of more than 600,000 troops were captured in the encirclement. Is this a problem caused by the inability of one or two of the troops to fight? The people above are not even remotely responsible? They made a mistake in their own command but they asked us to rush in and die... …”

Several guards nodded silently - this was the leader they knew. If he was stupid and only knew how to mechanically carry out the orders from above, they would not continue to obey him on the first day of the prisoner of war camp.

"So you decided to agree to them?"

"It's hard for me to make up my mind. Really, my mind is very confused right now..." Kononov said intermittently, "You know me. Although I have never been very successful, I am still a lieutenant colonel and a regiment leader. , I have also been educated by the party for many years, I have feelings for the party, I have feelings for the Red Army, these feelings cannot be broken off at once... The boss is a bit stupid and a bit unhuman, but just because of this, he betrayed They are wrong."

"Sir, are you still reluctant to part with that bullshit party and army?" The guard obviously knew what Kononov had been through. "If the former deputy political commissar of the group army hadn't said a few nice things to you, he would have kept preaching to you about Su De's will." With the talk of a war, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has long wanted to arrest you and put you in jail - the evidence that you are a British and American spy who was instigated by imperialism to undermine Soviet-German relations is already available. Now, we are really at war with the Germans. Now they have something to say - those who study German technology and theory and advocate Soviet-German cooperation are all German spies. They are justified anyway. What is there to be nostalgic about a place like this? I would be you instead , I stood up on the first day in the prisoner of war camp.”

"But, but..." Kononov obviously couldn't make up his mind.

Another guard advised: "Sir, you also said that you would seek the opinions of the majority of people. If everyone agrees, you don't have to be upset. If everyone is opposed, then we can just pretend that this never happened. "

"No one will object." Kononov suddenly said.

"Why?"

"Did you hear the Germans' conditions?" Kononov turned to a guard and said, "Petrov, let me ask you, what did you do before you became a soldier?"

"What else can I do? I'm just a farmer."

"Me too." "Me too." Several other people said in unison.

"Do you have land at home? What about you? What about you?"

Everyone shook their heads. Who can own land? Needless to say, before the revolution, everyone was a poor peasant. After the revolution, there was no land - the land was all in collective farms.

"Well, I don't have any land... If the Germans give me some land in the future, will you do it?

"What? Land?" Petrov became excited.

"How much? How big is it? Where is it?"

"Everything grown on it belongs to me? No, no, no, I mean it all belongs to me after paying the tax?"

Kononov suddenly smiled: "Look..."

Several people scratched their heads in embarrassment and smiled: "Sir, you are an officer and don't know the suffering of farmers..."

"Am I an officer by birth? My ancestors were not farmers? I never did farm work when I was a child?" Kononov said, "Let's not talk about the stupid Order No. 270. Just dividing the land is enough to make people crazy. You know Why are Ukrainians willing to go with the Germans? Because the Germans support their independence and promise to disband collective farms and distribute land according to families or people. Those who are willing to join the army to fight Stalin will be distributed first.”

“The Germans don’t want their land?”

"Why do we need land? Can't the Germans just collect taxes from the Ukrainians?"

“It’s better to collect taxes than establish collective farms.”

"No wonder the superiors always say that Ukrainians are unreliable. It turns out that they have always wanted to divide the fields and work alone."

"Who wouldn't be... I would think the same thing if I were Ukrainian."

Kononov raised his hand to stop the chatter among his men: "Let's ask for everyone's opinions on whether to go or stay. Maybe there will be different ideas coming out."

The prisoners of war quickly gathered around. There were no secrets to be kept in the prisoner of war camp. They were also very strange about the scene just now. When they heard Kononov said this way out, the prisoner of war camp that had been chattering and noisy just now suddenly became agitated. It became deathly silent. Finally, Kononov's usual prestige was high enough, and no one wanted to come up to fight him. Everyone was thinking silently, and it took a long time for someone to speak: "Sir, does this mean we have a chance to escape?" arrive?"

"What do you want?"

"We can pretend to agree to the Germans first, and when it comes time to actually fight, we will lay down our weapons and surrender to the Red Army - then we can return to the army? If we seize the opportunity, we can turn our guns and hit the Germans, and maybe we can make some achievements. ”

"You want this?" Kononov shook his head, "This is impossible."

"Why?" Many people were puzzled.

"Don't talk about whether you can hide it from the Germans. Just follow this Order 270. You can't go back. Now even the prisoners are unforgivable, let alone those who joined the Russian Liberation Army and then surrendered - unless you want to Spent half my life in a Ministry of Internal Affairs prison..."

Several soldiers burst into tears: "How could this be possible...how could this be possible? We don't want to be prisoners, neither do we!"

A veteran was so excited that he opened his clothes and revealed two shocking wounds on his stomach: "You see, one wound was left by fighting a Finn the year before last, and this new one was left last year." The wounds... My wounds are all on the front. I am not a deserter! I was captured by the enemy only after being wounded. I have not failed the party, let alone Comrade Stalin..."

Seeing him crying, everyone felt uncomfortable.

"Then..." Many people hesitated, and someone interjected, "Forget it, let's reject the Germans. You can't turn your guns and attack the Red Army brothers. The bastards above are not human, but below are still big-headed soldiers like us. , I can’t do it.”

"Sir, we will do whatever you say, we will listen to you."

"Yes, Kononov is a good commander and has many ideas. We listen to him and do whatever he says."

Kononov didn't say much, and only added in a low tone: "The Germans asked us to work for them and promised to give us land after the war..."

"How much land do the Germans have to give us?"

"Of course not, it's Russian soil."

“Where is the extra land in Russia?”

"You are stupid..."

"You mean? Those collective farm lands?"

Kononov only spoke verbally, and the following was already an argument between you and me.

"Your guesses are basically correct." Kononov sighed, "I wonder if you have discovered where the non-Russian brothers in the prison camp have gone?"

"Where have they gone?" After Kononov's reminder, everyone came to their senses. Yes, there used to be many other ethnic groups in the prison camp, but now only Russians are left.

"They went back to their country to serve as soldiers and divide their fields..."

"Return to the country? Divide the fields?"

"The Germans supported their pursuit of independence and promised them to dismantle collective farms and distribute land according to families or people. Those who are willing to join the army to fight against Stalin will be distributed first - this is not propaganda, this is a fact." Kononov sighed, "First of all, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, then Belarus, Ukraine, Cossacks... Finally it is our turn. The only difference is that their territory has been occupied by the Germans, so the division of land will be immediate, while our territory is still there. In the hands of Stalin and the Red Army."

"They can do it, why can't we do it? Sir, we can also make revolution...um...revolution and revolutionize the lives of Stalin and the Bolsheviks."

"Sir, let's build a party. How about we call it the Russian Revolutionary Party? You are educated and an army officer. You can be the chairman of the Party Central Committee. We are your soldiers. We don't want you to give us official posts in the future. Give us Just a piece of land for each person..."

"Yes, yes..." The crowd started shouting, and their emotions were very high.

"The party chairman has someone, Lieutenant General Vlasov, and his men are here today."

"Ah!" Everyone was stunned, and someone finally remembered the name, "That...that is the original commander of the group army."

"It's done! The lieutenant general has done it, why should we be reluctant to part with it? It's just one life. Stalin wants our life, and we want his life too!"