August 8, 1942 was a very auspicious day for the Chinese people. For the Germans, though, the day was not so pleasant. A day earlier, Paulus had sent a rather heavy telegram to the Senate, which was long and wordy, but to put it bluntly, there was only one layer of meaning - my troops were exhausted.

Yes, Paulus was indeed exhausted, and his troops were cut into small pieces by Ubolevich with a very delicate knife, and then slowly eaten one by one with a fork.

By August 7, the formation of more than 100,000 German troops in the encirclement had been completely shattered, showing a state of fragmentation, and such a state actually meant destruction. At least Paulus knew very well that he and his troops were finished.

This can also be seen from the telegram he sent to Yuan Shou, in which he talked about only one thing, that is, the mountains and rivers mentioned above are exhausted, and nothing else is mentioned. There was no request for the Führer to send someone to pull him along, nor for another request for an increase in the intensity of the airdrop. In fact, Paulus did not ask for anything, and this is extremely abnormal!

Why? The people in the encirclement, as long as they still have the courage, fighting spirit and hope, will definitely strongly demand the above two points, and they are definitely crying and shouting for reinforcements and more assistance.

But Paulus didn't mention it, which shows that Paulus had accepted the fate of defeat, and he already thought that his troops had no hope of salvage! You must know that he is the commander, and when the commander is desperate, you can imagine what the situation of the Paulus cluster was at that time.

To put it bluntly. It's just that there is no hope and no morale. Just waiting to die!

In fact, Paulus's sentiment in this telegram is more than just waiting for death. He was actually even more disappointing than waiting for death, because he babbled so much, and he didn't really say what was in his heart, at least he didn't dare to say it to Hitler.

So what did Paulus think at the time? From his own later recollections, he actually wanted to surrender: "Every second that my troops held out was a devastation to the boys, and they did not have to bear such devastation at all, they had done everything they could." They are worthy of Germany and owe nothing to anyone. There's no reason to continue to ravage them......"

However, Paulus also knew that the words of surrender could not be said to the Führer, he knew the Führer's temper, that person was definitely the kind of extremist who would rather be broken than destroyed, he was like that to himself, and he was even harsh to others. So it is impossible to pray to the Führer for their consent.

However, Paulus did not want to continue to make senseless resistance, so he could only vaguely express his desire to surrender, which made the last telegram stinky and long. babbling like an old lady.

So did Hitler know what Paulus really thought? It should be seen that Hitler was not a fool. A fool can't get his status. So he knew that Paulus already had the idea of surrendering, but he didn't dare to carry it out openly.

To tell the truth, Hitler was very disappointed in Paulus, on the one hand, he despised this man for not having the ambition that Germany should have, and on the other hand, he hated iron and steel. He asked Paulus to replace Guderian, which shows that he still had great hopes for Paulus. But who would have thought that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

But Hitler could not denounce Paulus's incompetence and weakness, because in any case, it was he who brought Paulus to where he is today, and whether it was to take care of Paulus's face or to save his personal face, he could only solve the problem by more gentle means.

"Record my order, promote Colonel Paulus to Field Marshal of the Third German Reich......"

When Hitler issued the above order, Jodel, Halder and Keitel were a little surprised, as soldiers, they did not know much about the essence of the Führer's order, so they were quite confused about it.

However, for those who knew Hitler, this order is easy to understand, such as Himmler, who bluntly commented: "The Führer is letting Paulus die!" ”

Yes, the order was well understood, there had never been a German field marshal who surrendered to the enemy or was captured by the enemy, and given Paulus's miserable situation, his end was simple, either he committed suicide or resisted to the end until he was killed.

In fact, Hitler had already instructed Goebbels to focus on the "short-lived" Reich field marshal's will to serve the country to the death after Paulus's heroic death. Anyway, he wanted the German people to see a saint-like Paulus, not a coward.

So, did Hitler's hand work well? Did Paulus eat him? It should be said that the Führer's political methods are a little crude and too straightforward. When Paulus received Hitler's telegram, he was silent for a long time, and he instantly knew Hitler's true intentions and knew that the Führer wanted his life!

How do you feel when someone is ready to kill you? I'm afraid that in addition to the fact that Japanese people use their perverted thinking to make different feelings, the first feeling of normal people is anger and dissatisfaction.

Paulus is not surprised, he is a normal person, and he is naturally quite dissatisfied. There was a feeling of being a scapegoat and being abandoned, so much so that it was not surprising to make some kind of broken jar.

As in history, Paulus did not die as Hitler commanded, but chose to surrender. It has to be said that Hitler's political methods were too childish, and the choice he made at that time was really unwise.

Why? Because the best way to let Paulus die is not to promote his rank, not to buy his life with the vanity of a field marshal, which is unacceptable to a normal person. Do you think about it, does Paulus lack the rank of field marshal? Is that rank worth his life?

I'm afraid that Paulus thinks that he can't stand it, so Hitler actually plays the role of a bully in this scene, and he tries to lower the price of Paulus's life and achieve his goal by buying and selling. It's just that what Hitler didn't expect. Paulus can choose not to sell.

So what was the correct way to force Paulus to death? In fact, history is not without precedent. It's our Chinese people who play better with this hand. Take a look at Liu Bei's methods after Zhao Yunqi went in and out to save Adou. That's a lot smarter than Hitler.

Of course. This hand is still not the highest level, Liu Bei's highest level is manifested when he is about to die. Looking at the performance of the absolute hypocrite when he entrusted Gu Zhuge Liang, you have to say that the big-eared thief took the shameless art to the extreme.

Returning to the topic of Hitler and Paulus, Hitler wanted to force Paulus to death, in fact, there was no need to give any marshal rank, and fools knew that it was fake. The correct thing to do was not to engage in this kind of hypocrisy, and Hitler should continue to encourage Paulus to resist to the end, and do everything possible to help Paulus. Paulus must be made to see the determination and will of he, the Führer, to save his legions.

Of course, we all know that Paulus must not be saved, but to save or not to save and how to save is a matter of pure attitude. The difference between saving and not saving is one level of attitude, and the difference between saving the law of salvation and recklessly releasing one's destiny and recklessly rescuing (at least in this way) is another kind of attitude.

So to force Paulus to death, you can only make him feel ashamed, you can only make him feel sorry for Hitler, this is useful. It's a pity that Hitler's approach was the opposite, and his approach gave Paulus a reason to "betray", and you don't treat me with sincerity. I must be the moon shining in the ditch. Hitler didn't do it, and Paulus naturally wouldn't let him get his way.

Paulus surrendered. The most elite German panzer group, which had been invincible a year earlier, gloomily laid down its arms and entered the Red Army prisoner of war camp. And before the surrender, our Marshal Paulus also took the trouble to correct the Red Army's title for him, saying that he was a field marshal and not an army general, and as for the military uniform, who let the Führer not give it to him, and he had not yet delivered it!

In fact, we can guess the psychology of Paulus when he said this, I am afraid that he did not want to show anything (the general of the defeated army has nothing to show off), he is probably doing this to disgust Hitler, that is, he deliberately angered the Führer - don't you want me to die? Then not only will I not die, but I will deliberately find you awkward!

Judging from Paulus's behavior after his capture in history, it cannot be ruled out that he deliberately took revenge on the Führer. Look at his performance in the prisoner of war camp, look at the confession he gave at Nuremberg, it really can blind the Führer's eyes, if the Führer was still alive at that time, I am afraid that the three corpses would be angry.

In fact, the Führer was already three corpses at this time, and after learning the news that Paulus did not commit suicide but surrendered on his own initiative, the Führer erupted: "How can he surrender to the Bolsheviks!" He could kill himself! If you're afraid of shooting, you can take poison! If there is no poison, then bury it alive! ”

According to Eva's recollections, Hitler's emotions were unusually angry in those days, and he would curse endlessly whenever he remembered Paulus, and that posture wanted to tear Paulus alive to relieve the hatred in his heart!

However, Paulus's surrender was overjoyed on the Soviet side, and when the remaining 50,000 or so German prisoners of war and their marshals walked into the prisoner-of-war camps of the Red Army, the dark cloud that had been pressing on the Politburo and the Soviet people for a year was blown away. After a long period of bad news, there was finally a rare piece of good news, and it was very good news, if it weren't for the shortage of materials, the Soviet Union would probably be celebrating like Christmas.

Even if this joy had to be controlled, the Politburo showed how excited it was for the first time! Two hours after receiving this news, the decision was made to award Ubolevich the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and at the same time gave six Guards titles in one go, namely:

The title of Guards of the Fifth, Sixth, Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Armies of the Red Army was awarded. In addition, in recognition of the 4th and 9th Mechanized Corps, which had performed particularly well in this campaign, the title of Guards was awarded together.

This was the first wave of rewards, and immediately after the concrete results were demonstrated, new rewards were further implemented, and Lukin, Konev, Zhukov and Vasilevsky were promoted to the rank of one rank, and there were four more generals in one battle. At the same time, they will be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The Order of the Gold Star was also awarded a long list of names, among which the more famous ones were: Tolbukhin, Vatutin, Rotmistrov, Katukov......

All in all, the battle led to a sharp increase in production by the Red Army's manufacturers of medals, both the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner. Of course. These medals are well-deserved for the commanders and fighters who participated in this battle.

For example, Ubolevich. In this campaign. He was given a chance to make a name for himself, and he seized it. More importantly, in this battle, Ubolevich showed something unique and different from the previous Soviet generals, that is, - delicate.

In the past, when the generals of the Red Army were mentioned, they gave people the impression that they were more than brave, and their momentum was very good and powerful, but they were somewhat flawed in the details. And this time, in the midst of more than three months of campaigning. Ubolevich, however, was very careful or very patient with the Germans. Especially in the final moments, there is no blind rush because victory is already within reach. On the contrary, at the very end of the battle, Ubolevich still firmly controlled the rhythm, and did not hurry to wipe out the last fighting spirit and combat effectiveness of the German army.

And his carefulness and meticulousness are also reflected in the losses, not to mention the slight losses of the Red Army, because this is impossible, after all, the old foundation of the Paulus cluster is the second tank cluster left by Guderian, which is where the elite of the German army lies, and wants to solve the enemy without losing a single hair. That's the Arabian Nights.

Ubolevich's attentiveness and meticulousness are shown in the fact that he did not pay unnecessary casualties, so to speak. Eighty percent of the Red Army's losses were unavoidable and inevitable, because less than 20 percent were caused by tactical or commander errors. And this was not easy, at least among the Red Army generals at that time, there were very few people who could do this, including Rokossovsky, Zhukov, Konev and Vasilevsky, who could not do this.

Of course, this victory will also be the last swan song of Ubolevich's military command, as the head of the General Armament of the Red Army, as the Marshal of the Soviet Union, he will not have the opportunity to command a campaign again, and in the future he will need to pay more attention to macro issues.

In fact, immediately after the end of the campaign, by order of the Military Commissar, the Kursk Front was disbanded, and part of its subordinate part was returned to its existing formation. For example, Zhukov's Fifth Guards Army and Lukin's Sixth Guards Army were returned to the Bryansk Front and the Second Ukrainian Front, respectively. The 37th and 38th armies of Konev and Vasilevsky were also returned to the Voronezh Front.

As for Ubolevich himself, I am afraid that his head of the General Armament Department will not be able to do it for long, not that the Politburo and the Military Commission are ready to unload the mill and kill the donkey, but after the test of the Kursk battle, the bigwigs, including Trotsky, unanimously believe that Ubolevich is overkill. To let him continue to be the head of the General Armament Department is simply a tyrannical thing!

Well, the question immediately arises, where else is there a position in the Military Commissar where can Ubolevich's real talent be brought into play? In fact, this is the lice on the bald head, in fact, it is the place under Tukhachevsky's buttocks.

Yes, almost everyone thinks that compared to Ubolevich, Tukhachevsky is really outdated, and at this time Tu Shuai had better take the initiative to abdicate and make way for Xian, so that he can still leave a good story, otherwise he will be ousted from power, it will really not look good!

For a time, Tukhachevsky was under a lot of pressure, and what made him especially depressed was that this time the wind of public opinion was really very unfavorable to him, and even Trotsky did not stand up to speak for him, so he was left to suffer in this storm.

How Tukhachevsky wished that Trotsky would stand up and say good things for him, even if it was a false scene! But what made him depressed was that no! Not at all! With a wordless silence, Trotsky told the whole Soviet Union his true attitude - he was also in favor of the replacement of Tukhachevsky.

In fact, Lao Tuo can't be blamed for being ruthless, first of all, Tukhachevsky himself is not angry, and secondly, the most critical reason is that Vasilevsky performed well. The latter gave Trotsky a new hope, and he would certainly give priority to Vasilevsky, after all, the Trotskyists now have very limited resources in the military, and the only resources they have are used on Tukhachevsky, who is doomed to fall, no matter how you look at it, it is a wasted act.

Trotsky's idea was simple, it was inevitable for Ubolevich to replace Tukhachevsky as Chief of the General Staff, it was already basically doomed, the only thing lacking was his attitude. He doesn't speak now, although his attitude is obviously to rush Tukhachevsky to step down, but this is a subtext after all, and if Tukhachevsky really wants to step down, he will inevitably have to go through his pass.

Therefore, Trotsky wanted to make a deal with Li Xiaofeng, and Ubolevich could come to power, but a certain immortal must give him appropriate compensation. For example, give Vasilevsky a commander of the front army.

To put it bluntly, Trotsky was ready to sell at a price, and he wanted to sell Tukhachevsky at a good price. Well, if Tukhachevsky were to know what Trotsky really thought, I am afraid that he would vomit blood. But this can't be helped, who will let the generations of talented people come out, and a generation of new people will replace the old people!

In other words, when Ubolevich will become chief of the General Staff depends entirely on Li Xiaofeng's attitude, if he can reach a deal with Trotsky soon, then Ubolevich will come to power very quickly, otherwise, I am afraid that this matter will drag on for a long time. So what does a certain immortal think? In fact, Li Xiaofeng also has a headache about this...... (To be continued.) )

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