The Rise of the Third Reich

"Shoulder, be careful and take cover!"

Captain Solzhenitsyn, commander of the reconnaissance company of the 4th Artillery Regiment directly under the 4th Army of the Soviet Red Army (currently part of the 3rd Army), heard an unknown shout from someone, and then came the shell-breaking sound that he hated. A whistling sound coming from the sky!

"Boom boom..."

Then there were two roars like meteors hitting the ground, which almost deafened the ears of this future great writer.

"Damn it!" he muttered obscenities as he ran along the trench.

He had just attended the party committee meeting of the 4th Artillery Regiment - the meeting was arranged to celebrate International Labor Day, because the political deputy company commander Morozov was shot in the shoulder by a German sniper a week ago and was now lying comfortably He was recuperating in a hospital in Smolensk, so he could only take on the political and ideological work within the company.

Who knew that on the way back, we would encounter German shelling!

Based on the sound of falling German artillery shells, Solzhenitsyn knew that this was not the forward German army firing indiscriminately with regimental-level artillery, nor even the division-level or corps-level 150mm or 155mm cannons, but the German 170mm. Or the French 194mm heavy cannon is firing shells.

"Boom boom..."

Then there were two more loud noises, and the impact point of the shell seemed to be much closer than the two that exploded just now!

Solzhenitsyn did not choose to hide in a nearby bunker, but accelerated his advance. He knew that the German army was conducting a school shooting, and there would not be overwhelming artillery shells falling for the time being. So he still had time to rush back to his company's bunker on the forward position. It was a very strong bunker. As long as they were not directly hit by 170mm or 194mm artillery shells, theoretically the people hiding inside should not die.

And there was Solzhenitsyn's fighting station! He and his company are now located on the Soviet frontline near a small town called Velizh, about 100 kilometers northwest of Smolensk, facing the German army across the Velikaya River.

The Velikaya River is not a natural chasm, just a medium-sized river with a width of 100 meters. Moreover, there are many places where the rivers are shallow and can be forded by tanks and armored vehicles.

Therefore, Solzhenitsyn and his comrades must act as the eyes of the artillery behind the front when the German tanks and infantry begin to attack, ruthlessly and accurately pouring Soviet artillery shells onto the invaders' heads.

"What kind of invader is that?" Solzhenitsyn thought while running in the traffic trench. "Across the Velikaya River is Russia! There is Russia over there, but here is the Soviet Union... This is A war between Russia and the Soviet Union?"

Captain Solzhenitsyn, who spent several years in the physics department of Rostov University, was confused about fighting "Russia". Lieutenant Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov, who serves as a platoon leader in the 13th Guards Rifle Division (which is currently in Kalinin Oblast), would not have such bizarre thoughts.

In fact, he was quite satisfied with his current situation. He was not moved at all by the reactionary Queen Olga's "Agrarian Reform Order".

Because his ideal is to be a party cadre, not a rich farmer who owns land. What are the benefits of being a rich peasant? He worked diligently like a cow, but in the end he became a heinous villain.

Therefore, Pavlov has determined to be a revolutionary cadre since he was a child, and even if he is unlucky, he will become a member of the working class.

And he is already a cadre now...don't mistake the second lieutenant for being a cadre! No matter how young a platoon leader is, he is still an official. After the war, when he returns to the local area, he can at least become the owner of a collective farm. The owner will not agree to divide the land and work alone. Besides, the Great Patriotic War has just begun, and there will be many opportunities in the future.

On the morning of April 30, when the German army began to launch a large-scale offensive, Pavlov was leading a platoon of soldiers on a path through the endless forest, covered with leaves and green camouflage nets. Patrol on simple roads.

"Hurry, hurry, catch up!"

Hearing the urging of the captain, Lieutenant Sprosky, Zoya Kasmodemyanskaya, who was marching with the guerrillas in the forest near Velikiy Luki (belonging to Pskov Oblast), also As excited as Lieutenant Pavlov.

Now she is no longer a tragic figure who comes from a "bad element" family and is destined to struggle at the bottom of the Moscow household (there are also bad people with Moscow household registration, otherwise, who else would Gao JJ use as a target when fighting?).

Because of this sacred war, Zoya got rid of her own destiny, or she has become the master of her own destiny!

Zoya is now a glorious revolutionary warrior. This bad girl from Moscow, through her own efforts, became the squad leader of a guerrilla unit behind enemy lines. She also submitted an application to join the glorious Bolshevik Party. Zoya knew that as long as she made a little more merit, her application to join the party would definitely be approved. By then she would be a member of the proletarian revolutionary vanguard. After the war, she wanted to go to university. Studying will certainly not be a problem.

A dream I’ve had for many years looks like it’s about to come true!

Just a week ago, she had participated in her first battle, taking four boys and three girls (including Zoya, all from Moscow) on a road leading to Velikiy Luki. Mines are laid on the road. And it seems like something exploded...

Today, Lieutenant Sproski, the guerrilla leader, told Zoya that she was going to carry out a difficult reconnaissance mission, lurking near several important roads in Velikiy Luki to find out the status of passing German convoys.

Just as Zoya and others were walking quickly through the woods, a dull sound like rolling thunder came from the distance.

"Listen, it seems like there's thunder somewhere?" someone asked.

"No, it's not thunder!" Lieutenant Sproski, a veteran of the Polish campaign, said, "It's artillery fire! The Germans are shelling our position!"

"Germans?" Zoya asked, "Do they want to attack?"

The second lieutenant nodded and said in a low voice: "It should be! Comrades, we are going to find out the true and false status of the enemy's attacking troops now. This is very important information!"

"I understand, Comrade Second Lieutenant!" Zoya replied, thinking that she must complete this mission no matter what, even if she sacrifices her life!

Zoya and her partners were not the only ones who were secretly determined to find out the situation of the German army. After the situation on the battlefield reversed last autumn, the Soviet Supreme Command issued an order to carry out guerrilla operations behind enemy lines. A large number of guerrillas were organized and trained and sent to occupied Western Belarus, right-bank Ukraine and the Pskov region of Russia.

Because Pskov is an area inhabited by Russians, its mass base is far greater than that of Western Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine, which are Polish territories and are inhabited by Belarussians and Ukrainians. Even after the Queen promulgated the "Agrarian Reform Decree", there are still There are many supporters of the Bolshevik Party - not to mention that Pslav Oblast also has such a thing as urban household registration, but there are also people with vested interests in the collective farms, such as owners, secretaries, accountants, etc., even if these people are assigned The land can still be exempted from taxes for three years, and people will still support and love Comrade Stalin.

However, there are always reactionaries who actively sell themselves to the reactionary empress, and Sergei Bunyachenko from the glorious 1st Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army is one of them.

His 1st Tank Army suffered a devastating blow from the Germans outside Warsaw. However, he did not devote his entire life to the cause of communism like most of the officers and soldiers of the 1st Tank Army, but chose to betray! Became a shameful prisoner of war! And not long after, he knelt down under the court dress of Russian Empress Olga.

Now, this former communist fighter has become the colonel commander of the 1st Cavalry Division of the Royal Russian Army. At this moment, he was leading a cavalry division composed of Soviet traitors and remnants of Tsarist Russia, passing through the forest area east of Velikiy Luki (belonging to Pskov Oblast), entering the western part of Kalinin Oblast for fire reconnaissance, and establishing A search curtain that would cover the German flanks.

For reasons of national defense and security, southern Pskov and western Kalinin are undeveloped forest areas and are not suitable for mechanized troop movements. But the location of this forest area is very important. The straight-line distance between here and Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, is less than 400 kilometers. Among them, heading east from Velikiy Luki City, passing through a forest area about 150 kilometers wide, you will enter a plain agricultural area with good road facilities. It is only about 220 kilometers away from Moscow!

In other words, as long as the German army and the Russian Royal Army can control this forest and then cut a road for cars and tanks to pass, the German and Russian allied forces can arrive at the gates of Moscow in a very short time - of course, One prerequisite is that they must defeat the Kalinin Front commanded by Marshal Zhukov.

Soviet generals such as Zhukov and Pavlov certainly saw the importance of this forest area early on. If the Red Army can firmly control this area and build a few improvised roads in the forest, the Red Army can quickly pass through central Pskov and invade the German Baltic States. The distance from this forest area to Riga, the capital of Baltic State, is only over 400 kilometers.

The work of felling trees and building roads had been secretly carried out after Marshal Zhukov took over the Kalinin Front. At the same time that Bunyachenko was commanding the cavalry to enter Kalinin State, tens of thousands of Red Army infantrymen had already used axes and saws to carve out hundreds of kilometers of simple roads in the large forest. In order to avoid being discovered by German reconnaissance planes, the repaired roads (actually mainly dirt roads, with timber paved in muddy areas) were covered with a large number of branches and camouflage nets.