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Hiring, indeed, is all you need It's January 1420 Near a marble quarry Around 40 miles southwest of Beijing, China On the side of a wide, ice -covered road A young man in his early 20s Huddles among hundreds of other laborers The bitter cold bites his cheeks, and his breath billows out in a huff of steam He bounces on his heels to get the blood flowing, preparing himself for the monumental task ahead At his feet lie several thick ropes, heavy with ice They're all connected to an enormous wooden sled, upon which sits a giant slab of rock Around 54 feet long, nearly 10 feet wide and just under 6
foot thick, this monolith weighs an astonishing 220 tons The young man rubs his calloused hands together His fingers roar from the cold, and from gripping those coarse, freeze -picking through the ruined building Until he hears a sound that makes him freeze Now, transporting huge rocks from the quarry along these specially created ice roads, all the way to Beijing, and the construction site of Emperor Jungler's palace complex. This slab of stone, though, is the final piece.
By far the biggest and most significant, a block of solid marble.
It's roughly hewn, but the winter sun still glints off its surface in places.
Up on the road ahead, the foreman raises his arm with a shout.
It's time. Moving as one, the laborers bend to pick up the thick ropes, hauling them over shoulders worn into ruts by previous drags.
Once everyone is in position and ready, the foreman calls out again.
A chorus of grunts erupts as the pulling team takes the strain.
Other laborers throw water in front of the wooden sled, creating a slick path for the load to travel on.
And with a low, grinding rumble, the great slab of marble begins to move.
The men advance as one, in slow, deliberate steps, their boots crunching in the snow, taking care not to slip on the road.
His muscles burning with the effort of getting the sled moving, the young man settles into his stride.
The hardest part is over.
Now they just have to keep this beast moving.
But the weight of expectation bears down on him, as heavy as the stone he's dragging.
Because this is more than just a slab of marble destined to become a grand staircase.
It is a final piece of the mighty construction in the capital, the symbol of Emperor Yongle's ambition and power.
It's up to this young man and his fellow laborers to deliver it safely to the Forbidden City.
Nestled deep in the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City stands as one of the world's greatest architectural and cultural marvels.
It's the largest palace complex anywhere in the world and the biggest wooden structure on Earth.
The seat of imperial rule for nearly 500 years, this sprawling city within a city was home to 24 emperors, their families, entourages, and governments.
Built in the early 15th century, Its towering walls, red lacquered wooden buildings, and golden rooftops were once strictly off limits to all but the inner circle of the Chinese Empire.
But how did an audacious coup lead to the construction of this vast, mysterious past killed, wounded, or captured?
It is considered the bloodiest battle in the entire war, and probably in the history of warfare.
but why was invasion and a series of natural disasters to remain a monument of Chinese heritage even today?
I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Network.
This is a short history of the Forbidden City.
The story begins in the late 13th century.
Having just conquered China, the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Yuan Dynasty, establishes his capital on the site of present -day Beijing.
called dadu or great capital it's built on an impressive grid system and on a massive scale to demonstrate mongol supremacy but when the yuan dynasty falls in 1368 after widespread civil unrest a new dynasty is founded the ming Having ousted the Mongols from Dadu, the new emperor renames the city Beijing meaning pacified north and sets about removing all traces of its former rulers Dr. Stephen Whiteman is a reader in the art and architecture of China at the Cortell Institute of Art Basically, the site of Beijing had been a capital of a state of various empires off and on since the Bronze Age.
And the city of Beijing itself was built on top of earlier Mongol and Jurchen capitals in a slightly different location, but basically the same spot.
The first Ming emperor destroys or restructures most of the imperial buildings of the former Mongol city.
Then he promptly moves his court and the capital down south to Nanjing.
By the time the emperor dies, his first son has also passed away, so the throne goes to his 15 -year -old grandson.
But this hierarchical slight doesn't go down well with the first emperor's fourth son.
Zhu Di. He's been leading armies in the north, but now, less than a year into his young nephew's rule, Zhu Di launches a civil war, under the pretense of rectifying the new government's wrongdoings.
In 1402, after three years of fighting, Zhu Di finally captures the Chinese capital, Nanjing.
His nephew, according to conflicting accounts, either flees in disguise or dies in the coup.
In any case, Zhu Di declares himself emperor, adopting the reign title of Yongle, and immediately and Stalin gets started with his plans to drag this rural backward empire kicking and screaming into the 20th century.
For many citizens that means… Away from factional politics relating to brothers who were competing for the throne.
When he moved north to sort of get closer to his own power base.
And also the Ming perceived military threats from Inner Asia, from Northeast Asia and Mongolia.
And so he moved the court north for defensive reasons as well.
To truly stamp his mark on his new capital, Yongle plans an immense ambitious palace complex at the heart of the city.
It will be a grand display of his strength and of the might and ingenuity of the Chinese people.
It will be called the Purple Forbidden City.
Forbidden because it will be the private space of the emperor and his court, and a city, of course.
But why purple? The purple is associated with the North Star, or the Polar Star, which is the residence of the mythical jade emperor, who is a sort of paradigm for all imperial rule.
And so the design of the Forbidden City positions the emperor in the north of the city, associated with the North Star, facing south, facing the population before him.
To implement this majestic vision, he employs the best architects, designers, artisans, and master craftsmen, and gathers the very finest resources from across China.
The striking white marble to be used for the palace's staircases, terraces, and foundation stones will be mined from quarries in the Dishiwo Hills, southwest of Beijing.
To ship these colossal slabs, a unique transportation method is devised.
In winter, the roads from the quarry to the construction site are deliberately frozen over to make the job of hauling the marble on enormous sleds that little bit easier.
Immense timber beams and columns, some of the largest in the world, are sourced from the dense forests of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces over a thousand miles south.
Moving these enormous logs, over 130 feet long, force Yongla's builders to come up with another marvel of engineering, the China Grand Canal.
Longer than the Suez or Panama canals, the waterway stretches over 1 ,100 miles from the commercial center of Hangzhou in the south all the way to Beijing and links the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers on the way.
In total, over 100 ,000 of these huge logs are floated along the full length of the canal to reach the construction site.
Then there's the glazed golden roof tiles, which are crafted in the emperor's kilns elsewhere and transported to Alingrad.
Hitler had always considered the defeat of the Soviet Union as his ultimate...
The entire design combines cosmology and traditional harmonizing principles to create a masterpiece of sacred geometry.
The city's architects plan it on a north -south axis to represent the balance between yin and yang.
Every temple, building, and path will be aligned perfectly with the cardinal directions.
Their placement and architecture, in which every tiny detail has significance, will serve to reflect the Emperor's connection to heaven.
The new city will be a microcosm, not just of Yongle's empire, but of the universe itself.
It embodies the sort of sacred or ritual geometry that is intended to reflect outwards onto and sort of order the empire as a whole.
It's the site of many, many rituals that are key to the emperor's ritual authority over the state.
And it is, in fact, connected in a sort of network, almost a sort of nesting series of spaces that reach outwards.
And so it's connected to other ritual and state places within Beijing itself, and then further out into the empire symbolically.
The adherence to these traditional principles is drilled down to the very smallest details.
The number nine, denoting eternity and imperial power, appears throughout the city's architecture.
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Whistle while you work From Disney, on March 21st, The Magical Tale Snow White Snow White Snow White That started it all I believe you're looking for me Arrives in theaters Magic mirror on the wall Experience the Disney classic Who's the fairest One of all Like never before We haven't even been in regards yet Disney Snow White Only in theaters March 21st Rated PG Parental guidance suggested With the design, materials, and experts in place Construction begins in 1406 It will take 12 years to complete.
But when it is done, it will be the defining symbol of Emperor Yonge.
Operation Barbarossa was going to be an offensive with three main axes of advance in the north, northern army group to attack Lenin.
Made of rammed earth, reinforced on the outsides with brick and stone.
Standing around 33 feet tall, they form a square to enclose the complex. Each side of the square is around 2 ,500 feet long, around seven modern football pitches, and the whole barricade is surrounded by a moat wider than an Olympic swimming pool is long.
Entry, though not completely forbidden, is certainly by invitation only.
We often think of the Forbidden City as a place of walls.
You know, it's sort of an infinite number of walls that divide space, that close things off, that do create this sort of forbidden environment.
But equally, we can also think of the Forbidden City as a place of gates and portals, places that people come and go through for all sorts of different functions.
The main gate through those daunting walls is Meridian or Wumen Gate.
This massive, five -arched gateway is a magnificent, imposing structure which faces south.
It's reserved for the Emperor, his close officials, and honored guests.
Other visitors must use either the East or West Glorious Gates or the Gate of Divine Might to enter the city.
Those permitted to enter via the Womengates pass through the towering red walls into the outer court.
An expanse of golden -tiled roofs stretches out, casting reflections on the marble courtyards like dragon scales in the sunlight.
A gently meandering man -made river, the golden stream, winds its way through the grounds.
Bordered by marble balustrades and spanned by five intricately carved marble bridges, it's designed to represent the passage from the mortal world into the emperor's celestial domain.
On either side of the courtyard, colossal red columns support roofs adorned with dragons, phoenixes, or the fearsome fish -dragon hybrid, the Chiwen, all mythical guardians of the emperor's realm.
The more important the building, the more figurines it posts, and the hall of supreme harmony, rising on a three -tiered marble terrace, is the most decorated of all.
While the Outer Court is a vast stage for lavish ceremonies and state functions, the Inner Court is a secluded realm, inhabited only by the Emperor and his family.
They combined aspects, I suppose, of Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, all into one.
It was where the Emperor lived.
It was where his wives, the women of the court, lived.
It was where he saw officials.
Except now, the Nazis have a new and more urgent objective.
Despite their earlier confidence, they are now fighting on multiple fronts.
America has ended the war on Britain's side.
Dramatically purity to enter the sacred inner court is not only a physical transition but a symbolic passage into the emperor's private world.
Here, the scale becomes more intimate with tranquil pavilions and elegant, intricately decorated halls.
There are areas for entertainment, smaller temples for reflection and worship, and lush, manicured gardens.
Every corner whispers of lives lived in seclusion, bound by duty and the weight of imperial tradition.
These spaces are less open and more sort of maze -like.
They consist of lots of little courtyards that basically resemble elite houses, you know, the homes of rich officials or rich merchants, in the sense that they are a series of halls arranged around a small courtyard in which a small family unit lives, or a series of halls that contain libraries or other objects or other things associated with the emperor's private life.
From this inner court, the emperor's power will radiate outward through the more public areas of the Forbidden City, over the massive walls, out across Beijing, and into the country beyond.
By 1421, the construction is complete.
Finally, a procession from Nanjing carries Emperor Yongle and his family, court, and government to the Forbidden City.
Safely moved in, he gets started developing his influence beyond China.
Through his patronage of the famous eunuch admiral Zheng He, he expands his country's maritime influence across the Indian Ocean.
With his treasure ships dwarfing anything Europe has to offer, they travel far and wide, asserting the potency of the Ming Dynasty through trade and cultural exchange.
At home, Emperor Yongle has ordered repairs and reinforcements to the Great Wall of China that had been damaged or neglected under the Yuan Dynasty.
But he's still locked in frequent battles with the Mongols in the northern steppes.
In August 1424, not three years after moving into the Forbidden City, Yongle dies during one of those military campaigns.
As the 15th century gives way to the 16th and then the 17th, China thrives.
The Great Wall as we know it today, with its watchtowers and garrison stations, is completed.
A porcelain boom sees the height of the Chinese blue and white pattern production.
And he then started screaming at his generals because, once again...
And yet, life in the Forbidden City flows as a relatively unchanged blend of opulence, ritual, and isolation.
Each successive emperor lives in the inner court with his wives, concubines, his mother, the Empress Dowager, and a troop of very carefully selected servants.
Who the father of the emperor's children actually was was a very, very important issue.
It had to be the emperor.
And if it turned out that it actually wasn't, that it was the emperor's brother or uncle or nephew, that would in itself create a whole succession crisis.
And so this was one reason why the inner court was so heavily controlled.
As such, the only adult men allowed to stay inside the inner court are the thousands of eunuchs who attend to the Emperor.
These men, often from poor families, are castrated before adolescence and are raised for court service.
Their roles variously include administrative record -keeping, archiving, managing the harems, guarding the treasure vaults, or performing ceremonial duties.
Some higher -ranking eunuchs are called on to lead military expeditions, like Admiral Zheng He.
Others advise the emperor politically, or act as conduits between him and his scholars and bureaucrats.
At the height of the Ming dynasty, there are between 70 and 100 ,000 eunuchs employed across the empire, with a significant number of those living within the walls of the forbidden city.
Their proximity to the emperor makes them good gatekeepers, but their influence often leads to tensions with the Confucian scholar officials who make up the government.
Increasingly, eunuchs are sent out to liaise, negotiate, or present the Emperor's directives, while the ruler himself remains ensconced in his inner sanctum.
Famously, after the turn of the 16th century, after 1600 in the sort of lead -up to the fall of the Ming, the Emperor stayed extremely isolated for many, many years within the inner court, not even coming out to sort of greet his officials for a number of years.
If there was something that contributed to the fall of the Ming, that isolation either was a cause or a reflection of the effect.
In 1627, following the death of his older brother, the Chongzhen Emperor inherits a court divided by political infighting and a country in poor health.
And despite the name Chongzhen, meaning honorable and auspicious, his reign is anything but.
Heavy taxation, government corruption, and mismanagement have led to widespread poverty, which coupled with a series of… Not long ago, Stalingrad had been a peripheral target of Operation Case Blue.
Now, possession of the civil eunuchs of the previous reign will challenge for the throne.
The new emperor, beset by paranoia and determined to stem the decline of the Ming dynasty, turns his attention to the top ranks of his civil and military institutions.
Rashly, he executes many of his top field commanders, including those with vital experience of defending against the troublesome Manchu forces who keep invading the northern frontier.
Formerly a coalition of tribes from the northeast, by the mid -1630s, the Manchu have coalesced into a formidable force under the leadership of Hong Taiji.
Once semi -nomadic horsemen and hunters, they have forged alliances with the formidable Mongol tribes and adopted advanced military tactics.
Taking advantage of the crumbling Ming dynasty, they launch repeated incursions along the Great Wall, testing China's defenses and sowing chaos.
As he notches up the victories, Hong Taiji's control grows.
By 1636, he proclaims a new dynasty, the Qing.
And though the Ming are still holding onto power by their fingernails, Hong Taiji declares himself emperor of this new house.
Meanwhile, the struggling Ming armies, stripped of their skilled leaders, also find themselves faced with major popular uprisings.
A number of rebel forces, driven by relentless famine and deprivation, take arms against the old Ming emperor in the Forbidden City.
and begin a drive to overthrow him.
The rebellion spread from province to province, gathering momentum.
Largely under the leadership of one man, Li Zicheng.
A former postal worker who lost his job due to imperial cost -cutting measures, he manages to unify the rebels through his vision for economic and social reform.
With Hong Taiji tying up the beleaguered Ming armies in the north, Li Zicheng expands his own forces.
Soon, they are marching towards Beijing, meeting little resistance.
But though the Ming emperor in the Forbidden City is already under pressure from the dual threat of the Manchu armies along the wall and the looming arrival of Li's rebels, a further peril now emerges.
Initially breaking out in the northwest of the country a major bubonic plague epidemic makes devastating progress through the country By 1641, it's arrived in the capital At its peak It was actually a disaster because turning the city on the whole of that western bank of the Volga into a pile of ruins created a killing ground for their own troops It's allowed the Red Army to bury their tanks under rubble, their anti -tank guns.
It is the 25th of April, 1644.
Inside the sacred walls of the Inner Court in the Forbidden City, a young concubine smooths her formal gown over her narrow hips.
The silk is soft against her skin The deep red fabric a vibrant contrast to her pale face She is new to the court A quiet shadow in this imposing palace Her name still unspoken on the emperor's lips Hopefully, though, she will meet him this morning Outside, footsteps approach The concubine shrinks back Rumors of a coup have been whispered for weeks And so far, everyone she's met has seemed unnerved and suspicious Even as she was brought into the Forbidden City some days ago She'd caught glimpses of the rebel forces gathering around Beijing Armed peasants with fierce eyes But surely they're no match
for the Emperor Without a word, a court eunuch steps into the room and with a somber nod summons her out into the corridor Dwarfed by her surroundings, she stares wide -eyed at the intricate carvings, the gleaming marble, the shining gold Finally, the eunuch opens a huge set of doors and leads her into a vast, spectacular hall Inside she joins a group of other timid -looking concubines, all staring silently at their silk -slippered feet The tension is palpable Raising her eyes, the young woman recognizes Consort Yuan, the Emperor's favorite Beside her, two of the Emperor's daughters, Princesses Xiaoren
and Changping Both have tears brimming in their eyes A pair of ornate doors swings open, and the silent room seems to hold its breath as the emperor enters.
But this is not the man the young woman is expecting to see.
His shoulders are stooped, his eyes hollow, as though his whole being is haunted by the weight of his crumbling empire.
As the doors close behind him, the emperor draws his sword and points it at his consort and daughters.
The sword shakes in his hand as he tells them that rebels have seized the city.
He will die rather than surrender.
It is a matter of honor.
However you choose to do it.
Because when you're not worried about doing things the right way, you're free to discover your way.
Suddenly the concubine is pushed backwards, as the group recoils from the Emperor's swinging blade.
Consort Yuan tries to appeal to him, but it's too late.
She is the first to fall to his sword.
Her daughter lunges to help her, but the Emperor strikes again, and the Princess Tu is killed.
His other daughter, Princess Changping, raises her arm to protect herself.
He slices it clean off.
It will take her days to die from that wound, but she will inevitably join the rest of the fallen royal family.
With a clatter, a smaller set of doors opens on the far side of the hall.
Two eunuchs burst through.
Loyalty swept aside.
In the face of certain death, they shout for the women to run for their lives.
The concubine is swept away with a fleeing group as Li Xicheng's rebels take the city.
Having murdered the heir to his throne and most of his immediate family, the emperor hangs himself from a tree in the gardens before the rebels reach him.
The Forbidden City, that symbol of Ming dominance, now begins a new chapter.
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Having slid his rebellious feet under the imperial table, Li Zicheng's capture of the capital is a pivotal moment in Chinese history, marking the end of the Ming dynasty.
However, his hold on Beijing and the rule of his self -proclaimed Shun dynasty is particularly short -lived.
Taking advantage of the fall of the Ming, Those Manchu forces who've been terrorizing the northern frontiers are about to make their own move on Beijing.
Before 1644 is out, the gunfire is suddenly closer.
The boats are under attack.
Columns of water are thrown up midstream from near misses.
A gunboat alongside the barge is struck, and there is panic, the few dozen men trying desperately to cling to the deck as it goes down.
The bullets keep coming, and now the man next to him takes a direct hit.
The young soldier tries to help him, but there's nothing he can do, and just before the injured man slumps to the deck, he presses his weapon into the teenager's hands.
The barge hits the bank.
The soldier is pushed forward in the mad rush into shallow water, almost losing his footing.
With the Germans still firing on him, he charges up the steep sandbank towards a Soviet officer screaming instructions.
The bewildered teenager staggers off with what's left of his unit, gripping the dead man's rifle in his hands.
What he can't know is that within 24 hours of arriving in Stalingrad Around 30 % of the 30 % of the thousands of people go to Beijing His successor is his 5 -year -old son Who will be guided by a regent in the shape of his uncle, Prince Dorgon In the short term at least, Dorgon will prove to be the steadying force the Qing need to consolidate its power grab.
To introduce stability from the start, he insists, against the wishes of other Manchu princes, that the Forbidden City remain the dynastic capital and that most Ming officials are reappointed to their previous positions.
He also drastically reduces the reliance on eunuchs Who many see as a corrupting force The Qing at least initially Shrunk the size of those eunuch populations Because rightly or wrongly They believed that corruption in the eunuchs Over reliance on eunuchs Who they viewed as emasculated And therefore weaker Was one of the things that had weakened And ultimately led to the fall of the Ming Although he's seen as instrumental to the young emperor's rise, it is only after Dorgon's sudden death during a hunting trip in 1650 that the Shunji emperor, still aged only 12, gradually begins his personal rule.
Stepping in to help with the big decisions now is his mother, the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager plays a very important role in the court She is the only person whom the Emperor kowtows Ching Emperors were very, very connected to their mothers And archives tell us that they literally went to see their mothers sort of every day To greet them and ask them how they were They played a very, very important role in the court's life in that regard But the young Emperor's reign is cut short when he dies of smallpox at the age of just 24.
He, in turn, clamber through the decimated buildings, searching for vantage points to kill the enemy one soldier at a time.
It is a dangerous and unending occupation, and the leaders on both sides are painfully aware of the impact such a fruitless, protracted battle will have on the morale of their people.
So the propaganda machines do what they were made to do.
People back home in Germany receive breathless reports on the 6th army's progress.
But those receiving them aren't always convinced.
Parodies are shared discreetly, with one surviving letter reading, Today, our troops captured a two -room flat with kitchen, toilet, and bathroom.
They managed to retain two -thirds of it, despite hard -fought counter -attacks from the enemy.
The reality is that every night, more Soviet troops, fresh lambs to the slaughter, are transported into the besieged city across the Volga.
The lifespan of a Soviet soldier drafted in to defend Stalingrad is often not measured in weeks or even days, but hours.
And even in the face of Order 227 and the punishment it allows for desertion, thousands of soldiers try to flee.
To give an idea of the savagery of the fighting, 13 ,000 Soviet soldiers were executed during the course of the battle.
That was more than a whole division of troops.
By mid -November, the Germans, at great cost of men and machinery, have pushed the Russians back into a narrow, 9km long strip of land along the Volga's bank.
But victory is still beyond their grasp, and the fighting continues.
The corpses pile higher, and winter will soon be returning.
Stalin, though, is finally ready to launch his counter -attack.
His generals identify the weak link in Germany's Stalingrad operation.
The Romanian army divisions on the flanks of the city, protect agriculture, and a growth in population.
The Forbidden City continues as the seat of imperial government, but thanks to the patronage of the Kangxi Emperor, it also becomes a hub of Chinese and Manchu cultural heritage, helping to bridge the divide between the emperor and his people.
As the Qing dynasty reaches the height of its strength in the 18th century, its self -sufficient economy and vast resources make China a dominant force in Asia.
Trade with Europe is heavily controlled under the Canton system, which restricts foreign merchants to a single port in Guangzhou and allows the Qing to tightly regulate the lucrative export of tea, silk, and porcelain.
At this stage, China has little need for European imports.
Operation Uranus begins Thursday, 19th November.
The Russians launch simultaneous assaults on the Romanian divisions guarding the two flanks.
The Axis forces are no match for the onslaught and quickly retreat.
In a matter of days, the two Soviet armies meet up in the small town of Kalak on the Don River.
The occupying forces in the city are now encircled, their supply lines cut.
It's a desperate situation.
Marshal Erich von Manstein, in charge of German forces in the south, launches an offensive to create a corridor into the city, but it fails.
Those on the ground know that the game is up, and a breakout plan for the 6th Army is devised.
But Hitler has no intention of surrendering the city that bears the name of his sworn enemy, so he vetoes the plan.
insisting that the soldiers stay in the city and fight, whatever the cost.
Hitler would prefer the whole of the Sixth Army to be lost rather than give up Stalingrad, over which he had made so many boasts of victory.
Paulus, trapped with his men, has a tough decision to make.
Another commander in charge of this army might decide to defy Hitler And launch an offensive to lead his men to safety Paulus was unfortunately, for the Germans, a very conventional officer He was a brilliant staff officer, a brilliant planner But he was not a commander, not a leader Paulus was not going to break Hitler's order that he had to stand firm with no way out the sixth army soldiers have no option but to fight on and pray that a german counter -offensive will come to relieve them they do at least have control of some small airfields which allow the luftwaffe to relay the food ammunition and supplies
they need to survive the winter reich marshal hermann goering tells Hitler his planes are up to the job.
When Goering, when Reich Marshal Goering boasted once again because he was in bad odour and wanted to get back into Hitler's good books, boasted that his Luftwaffe could supply the 6th Army, his senior officers were absolutely appalled.
They knew it was impossible.
Goering said, oh, we can, you know, at least deliver 300 tons of supplies a day.
Well, they hardly even ever supplied more than 100 tons, even on the best days.
And there were, of course, many days when the weather conditions were so poorly in that winter, when there was absolutely no chance of them getting through.
The increasingly foul weather makes it hard for the supply planes to land.
Aircraft that do touch down can find their undercarriages damaged by potholes in the runway, meaning they can't fly out again.
By the beginning of December, the 6th Army soldiers are receiving less than 20 % of their daily food requirements What follows for many is death through accelerated starvation A condition brought about by the lethal overlap of cold, stress and hunger Others are dying of their injuries or simple hypothermia or else being driven mad by the constant barrage and hopelessness of the situation to which they had been abandoned.
Back in Germany, the propaganda continues.
The news reports give no indication of the misery and hopelessness of the Stalingrad siege.
And on Christmas Eve, German radio broadcasts what it claims is a message from the soldiers inside the city.
They still had radios in Stalingrad, and when they heard, first of all, a pretense that they were still holding firm at Stalingrad, and there was a choir singing Silent Night, pretending they were soldiers from Stalingrad singing it, and the guys in Stalingrad heard that.
I mean, the shites of anger, bitterness, and betrayal, because that's when they knew that the promised relief force was never going to arrive.
Christmas passes, and a new year begins.
But still, the Soviet onslaught continues.
The trapped, beleaguered soldiers of the Sixth Army continue to fight, but the celebrated iron discipline of the German soldier is breaking down.
There are suicides and murders.
Particularly hated officers are shot dead by their own men.
Rations are denied to the sick and wounded And given only to those still able to fight But even the precious little food left is dwindling The last of their horses have been eaten They catch and consume rats, dogs, magpies Those who can manage to sleep amid the relentless shelling Sometimes wake to find they are overrun by starving rats Trench foot, that illness particular to the First World War, as well as dysentery and frostbite, are common It is impossible to get warm And with the ground now too hard for graves to be dug The corpses just lie out in the open Even if the Führer won't admit it,
everyone knows the end of the Battle of Stalingrad is in sight It's early in 1943 and a German soldier is sat shivering in what is left of the cellar of a house.
He's trying to distract himself from the agonizing hunger by rereading an old letter from his wife when he suddenly becomes aware of something unusual.
He looks up, confused It's quiet Could it really be a break in the bombardment?
But then, cutting through the silence He hears the engine of a single Red Army plane He runs to his nearest bunker And waits there with a clutch of other, equally skeletal men For the inevitable explosions He hunches with his hands over his ears that the plane passes over.
And when he looks up, he sees not bombs falling from the sky, but thousands of leaflets, written in German, fluttering to the snow -covered ground.
The soldier checks around him.
Russians have dropped leaflets many times before, and anyone found with a copy is liable to be shot.
Except now, there's no officer in sight.
Emerging from the bunker, he reaches out with a frostbitten hand to pick up a leaflet and, blinking away snow, begins to read.
The page promises that he and his fellow soldiers will receive favorable treatment, as well as food and medical assistance, if they surrender now.
And after the war, he can return to Germany, to his home, his wife and his children.
before he can begin to imagine it the soldier next to him snatches the leaflet from his hands and stamps it into the snow there are good reasons his friend reminds him not to trust the words written on this paper it is now a year and a half since they arrived in this wretched country and there's no doubt that they have committed the most appalling atrocities against these people.
The six -month battle for Stalingrad has decimated the Soviet division sent in to defend it, and any soldier he surrenders to is unlikely to forget any of that.
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On the 23rd of January, the last airfield controlled by the Germans is overrun by Russian forces.
Now, the starving, depleted invasion force can only receive supplies by airdrops.
Two days later, a further military push from the Soviets sees German forces divided into two smaller pockets of resistance.
Just a few days after that, Berlin informs Paulus by radio that he's been promoted to the position of field marshal.
But he's under no illusions that this is a cause for celebration.
No German field marshal has ever been captured by the enemy, a detail that Hitler knows will be understood loud and clear by Paulus.
The message from the Führer is simple.
He's telling him to commit suicide.
This, however, is the one command that the previously obedient Paulus refuses to carry out.
I have no intention of shooting myself for this bohemian corporal, he says contemptuously.
The next day, Paulus's headquarters are overrun, and he surrenders along with his staff.
He leaves it to his men to decide their own fate, but they are by now beyond spent.
Within days, the remains of the Sixth Army surrender.
The battle of Stalingrad is finally at an end.
Ninety thousand enemy combatants are led from the city, many of them barely able to walk from frostbite.
The Soviets are shocked to discover that many of the fiercest fighters they faced are fellow Russians.
Nearly 30 % of the frontline personnel left of the 6th Army at Stalingrad were actually Russians in German uniform.
They were the Red Army soldiers who'd been forced through appalling scarvation to volunteer as basically slave labour for the German army.
knowing what fate awaited them if they were captured by the Red Army having been working for the Germans, they were prepared to fight on.
Some soldiers attempt to hide in the ruins of the city, but eventually they will be flushed out and shot.
Many of the surrendered German soldiers will not make it to a prisoner of war camp and will instead die on the long, arduous journey.
Those who do make it to the camps will be subjected to such brutal treatment that only around 5 ,000 will survive to the end of the war.
Amazingly, some of the civilians who have been trapped in the city for six months make it out alive.
And at the end of the battle, come February 1943, there were still 10 ,000 civilians still left in the ruins of the city.
A thousand of them were children who were totally feral, couldn't speak, utterly traumatized, and I think that is the only way to show the sheer suffering of the civilians in what has become the great symbol, if you like, of the horrors of warfare, but above all of urban warfare.
In all, the fight for the city has left more than a million people dead.
And though Stalingrad is not the place where Hitler loses the war, the Soviet victory here does mark a significant moment in the conflict.
The Battle of Stalingrad became the psychological turning point of the Second World War.
It was the moment, I'm now talking actually of February 1943, of the surrender at Stalingrad, when right across the world, you know, from South America through to anywhere else, I mean, we have Pablo Neruda writing his great poem of homenagia Stalingrado.
recognizing that this actually is marking the end of Nazi power.
Many of Hitler's generals privately acknowledge that all is lost but Hitler refuses to accept defeat and so the war grinds on for another grueling two years.
With Stalingrad, the Soviet military has proven it can carry out strategic, complex operations on the battlefield and win.
There will be more bloody battles against the Germans on the Eastern Front, but the balance of power has shifted.
U .S. Army Air Forces begin a campaign of bombing German cities, prompting much of the Luftwaffe to be pulled back to protect the homeland.
Later that year, the battle in North Africa ends with the surrender of Axis powers in Tunisia, and Italy falls to Allied forces.
Finally, in 1945, those house -to -house combat techniques are used again when Soviet forces, including Stalingrad's General Treykov, encircle and then take Berlin.
Trapped inside, Hitler does himself what he'd ordered Paulus to do, and commit suicide.
Once the war is over, Stalin's victory in the city that bears his name helps cement his standing as the great leader.
But though he will stay in power until his death in 1953, his reputation will go the way of his German nemesis.
Within a decade, Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd as part of Khrushchev's national de -Stalinization of the Soviet Union.
The enormous human sacrifices that were made here played a role in ensuring that Hitler's dream of a Third Reich to last for a thousand years is dead.
But the name of Stalingrad endures as a stark reminder of humanity's capacity for suffering and cruelty and the true toll of war.
Stalingrad is remembered, of course, as the symbol of the true horror of war, the suffering of the civilians, the total destruction of the city, and all the rest of it.
But also, it was the start, let's face it, of what we're seeing now.
Nowadays, we don't have front lines anymore, really.
Ukraine is an exception.
But basically, no armies really nowadays are large enough to have front lines as in the old days.
Warfare is going to always be focused on cities.
So urban warfare is the future, I'm afraid, of warfare.
And that is going to be the full focus in every single case.
will bring you a short history of the Forbidden City.
It's a sort of magnificent place, and it's a relic or a survival of an extraordinary empire and or series of empires and culture that is very much, in some respects, a living culture in China.
We think of it according to its sort of name as it being forbidden, and at one level, it really was.
But at another level, it was the beating heart at the center of this huge circulatory system of ritual, of objects, of people, of symbolism.
It kept so much of that going in such important ways.
That's next time. surrounding the Battle of Stalingrad.
We have mini -series on the lives of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini over on our Real Dictators podcast.
Search for Real Dictators wherever you get your podcasts or click the link in the episode description.
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In recent decades, extensive restoration and conservation efforts have been undertaken to preserve the Forbidden City for future generations.
Built to signify the emperor's divine right and absolute power, it now stands as one of the most iconic landmarks in the world, attracting millions of visitors annually.
And though it no longer forms the bridge between the imperial rulers and the heavens, the Forbidden City still offers a crucial key to understanding and appreciating China's rich history and culture.
It's a sort of magnificent place and it's a relic or a survival of a extraordinary empire and or series of empires and culture that is very much in some respects a living culture in China, and that many, many Chinese simply feel great pride about the foreign city, just as the British might about Buckingham Palace or Americans might about the White House.
We think of it according to its sort of name as it being forbidden, and at one level it really was.
But at another level, it was the sort of, the beating heart at the center of this huge circulatory system of ritual, of objects, of people, of symbolism.
It was, you know, it kept so much of that going in such important ways.
Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Go to a Mozart concert and at the end of it, sit back and the music has washed over you, everything is right with the world.
Go to a Beethoven concert and your knuckles should be white, gripping your chair.
What has he done? Where has he taken me?
I've never heard anything so exciting in my life.
That's the big difference.
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Because he breaks the rules, his music is as fresh today as it was when he wrote it over 200 years ago.
And that is what, I believe, makes him the greatest of them all.
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