One hundred kilometers east of Leningrad, on the southern bank of Lake Radoga, Volkhov on the Volkhov River.

In the headquarters of the Volkhov Front, General Kiril Afanasievich Meletskov, commander of the Volkhov Front, welcomed an uninvited guest.

His adjutant took off the black cloth strips covered by the uninvited guest's eyes, and the uninvited guest's eyes quickly focused on General Meletskov.

"Mr. General, I am Major General Morse, Chief of Staff of the German Northern Army Group. I will come to inform you of an important news on the order of Marshal Leb."

General Meletskov raised his hand to return the salute to Major General Morse, and then asked, "General Morse, I think you should know that you are not popular here. If you are persuading surrender, you don't need to say anything."

"I'm not here to persuade you to surrender, I'm just here to inform you and prepare you to accept tens of thousands of refugees."

"What refugee?" asked General Meletskov.

Major General Morse said: "Of course, it is the war refugees in the city of Leningrad. The siege of our siege in Ningrad has begun. In order to avoid innocent casualties of citizens, Marshal Leb decided to hand over all citizens in the city we control. Starting from two o'clock this afternoon, the first batch of refugees will arrive at the front line and get off at the intersection of various towns in the Pudiluovo to Liuban, and then walk through the middle of the battlefield to reach the position of your army. Please prepare for receiving and resettling refugees."

Hearing Major General Morse's explanation, General Meletskov's first intuition told him that there was a conspiracy here. When did the German fascism become so kind? Should he sneak into spies among the refugees? Or should he use refugees as a leader to make his troops dare not shoot, and then take the opportunity to launch an attack?

A series of conspiracy theories flashed through General Meletskov's mind, and General Meletskov asked in confusion: "What if I refuse to accept these refugees?"

"Mr. General, I'm sorry, I don't think I've made it clear before. Whether you agree to accept these refugees or not, they will appear on time at the places I mentioned, and then walk through the middle of the battlefield to reach your positions. If you don't like them, you can let your subordinates shoot and drive them back to our positions. Please rest assured Mr. General, Marshal Leb said, "You don't have to worry that we will use these refugees as shields and launch an attack."

General Meletskov hesitated for a few seconds and then said, "I need to ask my superiors."

While waiting for Moscow to call back, General Meletskov seemed to say inadvertently: "I heard that your head of state has cracked down on a treason organization. The commander-in-chief of the German Army and the chief of the General Staff are both suspected of treason and have been arrested?"

Major General Morse said: "Yes, the official documents have been issued to the Army Group Command. In this small purge, the head of state cleaned up a group of officers, purified our officer team and was conducive to the better performance of the combat effectiveness of the troops."

"Little Purge? That's what do you call this?" Meletskov asked.

"Yes, the document says that this cleaning incident, both in scale and in length, is not as good as the major cleaning incident initiated by General Secretary Stalin of your country, so it is named the Small Cleanup incident." Major General Morse said.

Listening to Major General Morse’s mention of the Great Purge, General Meletskov’s muscles on his face beat uncontrollably for a few times, trying to control himself from thinking about his comrades and old superiors who had mysteriously disappeared during the Great Purge.

"How many refugees do you plan to hand over to us?" General Meletskov changed the topic in time.

"Every time we occupy a part of the city in Leningrad, we will take all the citizens there out of the city and hand them over to you. I don't know the specific number." Major General Morse said.

The two of them passed the time by chatting until General Meletskov received a call from Moscow.

"We will accept refugees on time at about 2:00 p.m.," said General Meletskov.

"We Germans have always been punctual. Goodbye, Mr. General." Major General Morse said.

Major General Morse then rejected General Meletskov's invitation to lunch, put on his eye mask, and left Volkhov.

Major General Morse returned to the Northern Army Group Command in Luga City, and saw Chen Dao standing next to Marshal Leb at first sight.

"Welcome back, General Morse, what you brought us must be good news." Chen Dao said with a smile.

Major General Morse saluted Marshal Leb first, and then said to Chen Dao: "The Russians agreed to our request and handed over on time at 2:00 pm."

"Very good, you can follow the plan." Marshal Leb said.

The officers of the Northern Army Group Command, including Marshal Leb, looked at Chen Dao again at this time, and like Major General Morse, they inevitably felt a little more fear in their hearts.

At the beginning, Chen Dao promised to persuade the head of state to change his mind, stop the plan to attack Moscow, and continue to carry out the sledgehammer operation to attack Leningrad.

After making the promise, Chen Dao took the expectations of the Northern Army Group and flew back to Berlin.

In less than a week, a series of earth-shaking news came one after another. Former Chief of the Army General Baker was arrested for treason. German Army Commander-in-Chief Brauchic and Chief of the General Staff Halde were imprisoned. Then the Gestapo accompanied the military police to appear in the Northern Army Group and took away a group of officers including General Hepna, the commander of the Fourth Armored Army Group...

The Polish Governor General Rosen, faithfully fulfilled his promise and persuaded the head of state to change his plan to attack Moscow, but the method of persuasion was so tragic that it completely exceeded the imagination of Marshal Leb and others.

When the document on cleaning up treasons was issued to the Northern Army Group Command, Marshal Loeb and others saw the extremely connotation of the term "small purge" and the first thing that came to mind was the "big purge" that "Russian friends" had experienced.

During the Russian Great Purge, three of the five marshals were executed.

During the German small purge, three marshals, Witzleben, Blauchic and Kruger, have been arrested. It is still unknown what the result of the trial will be.

What made Marshal Leb even more frightened was that there were poisoning criminals like Colonel Stauffenberg under his command.

If the assassination was really successful, I would probably have to be with Braushich and others in a prison in Berlin.

In just a few days, the Northern Army Group Command had a new understanding of Chen Dao.

Major General Morse met Chen Dao again with a new understanding.

Marshal Leb turned to Chen Dao and said, "The troops have entered the city of Leningrad. According to the scheduled plan, the truck convoy for transporting refugees has been prepared outside the city, just waiting for the refugees to leave the city."

"The action to identify refugees is a trivial task. The head of state said that Leningrad was erased from the map was a simple task. I must preside over it myself. Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Marshal, I will say goodbye first."

Chen Dao thanked Marshal Leb, and then turned around and left the Northern Army Group Command.

Chen Dao arrived in the southern suburbs of Leningrad and found a middle-aged man with a raised forehead, nearly sixty years old and very wise appearance.

"Long time no see, Mr. Gurion, the war against Russia has come to an end, and it is time for us to fulfill our promise."

David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Zionist Executive Committee, shook hands with Chen Dao with a smile.

"General Rosen, you are such an honest and trustworthy person."

"The screening work is about to begin. Let's go and check it out and remember our agreement." Chen Dao said.

"Don't worry, I will transfer the money on time." Gurion said.

Driven by German soldiers, citizens from the German-controlled area in Leningrad fled from the city in groups to help the elderly and children, and arrived at the designated assembly site in the suburbs for screening.

During the first round of screening, all Jewish families were separated and turned to the southwest to continue the march.

In the second round of screening, those non-Jewish families were asked one by one whether they were looking for Germany or Russia.

After two rounds of screening, the citizens who were driven out of the city were divided into three groups, the first group was Jewish, whose future was to be sent to the port of Riga on the Baltic coast, and then to the Jewish settlement in Palestine by boat.

The second group of people are Russians who are devoted to Germany.

Leningrad was the second largest city in the Soviet Union and an extremely important industrial city. There were a large number of industrial workers and engineers in the city, which was the human resources urgently needed by the war.

These people were identified, and their future was to be sent onto the train and transported to Poland, where they would become people under the Polish Governor's Office.

The third group, also the largest group, was taken to the convoy's assembly ground, sent to the truck, and then handed over to the Volkhov Front.

Gurion looked at the surging heads in the distance and asked in confusion: "General Rosen, is it too troublesome for you to do this? Is it necessary for those people to hand over to the Russians? Isn't it easier to drive them back to the city?"

"Who knows if there are militias in it? If they are allowed to return to the city, our soldiers in the city will be in danger of being shot in black behind their backs. Although this is troublesome, it can completely avoid the incident of soldiers being shot in black behind their backs. In addition, this has another advantage. These people are handed over to the Volkhov Front, which is also a problem for them. Receiving these refugees will disrupt their actions and allow them to devote their energy to receiving and resettling refugees, so that they will not launch an attack, harass our siege, and distract us."
Chapter completed!