Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

On the Soviet-German battlefield, facing the battle situation in Smolensk, the top Soviet officials were in an embarrassing dilemma.

The Germans have surrounded Smolensk on three sides, but have yet to close the encirclement. Naturally, it is not that the German army does not have this strength, but it is obvious that they will wait for more Soviet soldiers to enter the encirclement and catch them all in one fell swoop.

But even though they knew this was a German trap, the Soviets had no choice but to jump in, because Smolensk was the gateway to Moscow. Once Smolensk was lost, the German army's offensive spearhead would be directed at Moscow. This was not a situation that the top Soviet officials, especially Stalin, wanted to see.

"Smolensk must be defended!" This was Stalin's fatal order, leaving no room for bargaining.

But wanting to hold on and being able to hold on are completely different things.

The military supplies originally assembled on the front lines such as Belarus and Ukraine were not withdrawn in time. As a base far behind, Smolensk did not store much military supplies, and the food was not very abundant. In addition, the Soviet Union's granaries, Belarus and Ukraine, have been lost, which means that even the supply of troops can only be regarded as barely adequate. What's even worse is that the Siberian Railway is occasionally damaged, and the mountains of American aid supplies in the Far East cannot be transported in time. Stalin could only allocate supplies from other nearby cities to Smolensk for emergency relief.

To this end, Stalin specifically asked the U.S. transport fleet to pass through the Bering Strait and bypass the Arctic Ocean to deliver supplies directly to frontline cities. It's not that the United States has never tried it, but the news was leaked when the transport fleet took the Arctic Ocean route for the first time, and it ran into an ambush of the German submarine force in the Arctic Ocean. Dozens of transport ships were annihilated without being spared.

At this point, the U.S. transport fleet no longer dares to cross the Bering Strait, and it is better to obediently send these supplies to the Far East of the Soviet Union.

But this goes back to the original problem. The materials accumulated in the Far East could not be transported to the front line in time because the Siberian Railway was frequently damaged. In a rage, Stalin dispatched three divisions of troops to guard this long railway, and the situation improved slightly.

But it's not without good news. Smolensk is an ancient Russian city. Most of the residents here are Russians and are the most die-hard supporters of the Soviet Union. These people can resolutely carry out any order given by Stalin, unite as one, and have high morale. The men, women, and children in the city are helping the Soviet army improve the city's defenses. Basically, there will be no situation like Belarus and Ukraine surrendering at every turn.

And Stalin sent Marshal Boris Mikhailovich Shaposhnikov to guard Smolensk.

Shaposhnikov was gentle, knowledgeable and highly respected by Stalin. He was the first person to be called by his full name by Stalin (the second was Rokossovsky) and the only one allowed to speak in front of Stalin. In front of people who smoke.

In the original time and space of 1940, when the Soviet Union was nervously preparing for war, Stalin asked Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Shaposhnikov to draft a comprehensive staff report on possible plans for Germany's invasion. Shaposhnikov believed in his report that Germany's main attack direction would be between the Baltic Sea and the Pripet Swamp, targeting Smolensk and Moscow. At the Politburo meeting in September of the same year, Stalin listened carefully to this report, but dismissed it. He believed that the main direction of the German assault was the southwest, and vetoed the report made by Shaposhnikov. Stalin's misjudgment had an extremely negative impact on the development of the early Soviet-German war.

Sending him here shows how much Stalin attaches importance to Smolensk.

Shaposhnikov ordered that all food and medicine in the city be centralized and managed by the military department. All doctors and even church clergy were integrated into the army to do some work of praying for the wounded and dead.

Smolensk is also large enough to facilitate the Soviet army's layout for street fighting. As long as the defense is properly defended, he believes that the German army will pay a heavy price. He ordered that defensive positions be carefully laid out in every street and every house. Moreover, in order to defend against German aerial bombing, Smolensk's waterways and subways were transformed into underground bunkers, some solid underground air defense facilities were reinforced and expanded, countless trenches were dug on every street, and barbed wire was everywhere. There are checkpoints. All residents were required to sew more than 10 cloth bags every day, which were used to fill sand and rubble as sandbags for building fortifications.

Under Shaposhniko's careful deployment, the entire Smolensk became a giant fortress.

On the other side, in the Berlin Palace, Yannick ordered someone to pick up Yakov.

"How is it? Yakov, are you used to life in a prisoner of war camp? Let me tell you some bad news. Your father issued a statement calling you a traitor to the Soviet Union, and he announced that he would sever the father-son relationship with you. And no matter who it is, As long as you, the traitor, are caught and punished on the spot, you can be promoted to three levels in a row."

"..." The muscles on Yakov's face trembled slightly, with a look of decline on his face.

"Tsk, tsk, your father is really decisive. He just severed the relationship between father and son without even discussing with us to see if he could get his own son back. If he is willing to negotiate, I don't want much, as long as your father takes Si I will send you back as soon as Molensk comes out. It seems that in the eyes of your father, even a brick or a grain of soil is more valuable than your own son. But if it were your brother, I don’t know if he would still be there. Will he be so decisive?"

He talked to himself, and seeing a trace of imperceptible resentment flashing through Yakov's eyes, Yannik smiled secretly in his heart, and then got to the point. "Our army is about to launch an attack on Smolensk, but you also know how cruel your father is. He ordered the women and children in Smolensk to also take up arms to resist our army. If young adults can still understand, women and children Oh, what do they know? Can they shoot? Can they throw grenades?"

That being said, Keyanik knew that during the Soviet-German War in the original time and space, when the number of soldiers was extremely tight, the Soviet Supreme Command ordered the recruitment of female soldiers. Within three months after the war began, 8,360 women from Moscow joined the army, and 2,700 women from Leningrad signed up to fight. During the entire four-year period of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union recruited 800,000 female soldiers, 70% of whom were in various main forces, including 6,097 pilots, 4,522 machine gunners, 7,796 riflemen, 15,290 shooters, 45,509 correspondents, and snipers. There are 2484 people in hand. Most of them were unmarried young women between the ages of 18 and 25, and as many as 500,000 of them died on the battlefield.