Petersburg.

After the start of the Great Patriotic War, Marshal Voroshinov was appointed a member of the State Defense Committee, a member of the headquarters of the Supreme High Command, and the commander-in-chief of the North-Western Direction.

And his main task was to protect the great October Revolution, Petersburg.

But now, the situation seems to be quite unfavorable.

At this time, in the North-Western Command, Voroshinov was constantly nodding into the phone, and on the other side of the phone, there was a roaring lion.

"How did Pskov lose it? Where are you going to retreat? Evacuate to the Arctic Ocean? "The voice was familiar to him, it was Stalin's, and now Voroshinov was sweating profusely.

On the northern front, things have not been going well.

As the marshal of the Soviets, Voroshinov was distinguished by his military achievements, he came together with Lenin and Stalin from the beginning of the civil war, and in the Great Purge, Voroshinov stood in line accurately, with a high banner, and became the most obedient person under Stalin.

It is also because of this that he was able to come all the way and was entrusted with important tasks by Stalin.

Voroshinov was the god of war who was propagated, but now in the war, it seems that no one in the Soviets had good luck.

Stalin was rather dissatisfied with them.

The loss of Daugavpils completely exposed the Pskov-Leningrad line to the Germans due to the loss of its natural barrier.

At that time, Stalin was extremely angry and ordered the removal of General Kuznetsov from the post of commander of the North-Western Front, and his replacement by the commander of the 8th Army, Major General Sobinnikov, and the appointment of Lieutenant General Vatutin as chief of staff of the Front.

However, this obviously had no effect, the German army drove straight in, occupied Riga, the capital of Latvia, and broke through the Soviet defense line on the Latvian-Russian border, and what made Stalin even more unbearable was that the Soviet army actually took the initiative to abandon Pskov and open the door to Leningrad.

When Stalin received this news, he was extremely angry, and he called the commander-in-chief of the north-western direction, Marshal Voroshilov, to personally reprimand.

Comrade Stalin was outraged, and the consequences were serious.

Voroshinov knew that although he was constantly patting Stalin's sycophants, now Stalin did not need sycophants, he needed a determined fighter and a good commander.

Speaking on the phone, Voroshilov solemnly stated: "Comrade Stalin, I am well aware of my duties, and I will spare no effort to fulfill the entrustment of the party and the people. ”

With the capture of Pskov, Petersburg was exposed, and Voroshinov now knew that his fate was tied to Petersburg, and that it must not be lost.

Putting down the phone, he felt his back soaked.

"Mobilize all the inhabitants of Petersburg at once, build three lines of defense around Petersburg day and night, and we will keep the German tanks out." Voroshinov looked at the map and said to the others.

Now he had to mobilize the masses, as the Soviets had always done, and now it was still cold outside, and in the freezing cold, the task of constructing the fortifications was very difficult.

"At the outermost, we have the Luga defense line with a total length of about 300 kilometers from the city of Luga, starting from Simsk on the west bank of Lake Ilmen in the south, along the Luga River, and reaching the mouth of the Luga River in the north, Kingisepp, with four infantry divisions and three militia divisions deployed on this line."

Voroshinov came out of the civil war, still had some experience, he looked at the map, and his mind began to spin rapidly.

Laying out three lines of defense, digging deep trenches, hindering the offensive of German tanks, depleting the living forces of the Germans, forcing the Germans to abandon the attack on Petersburg, now Voroshinov, the brain entered the moment of full speed, and just like that, time passed little by little.

When he saw what his deputy wanted to say for the third time, Voroshinov finally got impatient: "Vatutin, what exactly do you want to say?" ”

Just when Vatutin wanted to speak, he was stopped by Voroshinov, and now he finally had a chance to speak, and hurriedly said to Voroshinov: "Marshal, no, our Baltic Fleet has been attacked by German bombers, and the fleet has asked us for fighter escort. ”

German bombers? They also come to Petersburg a lot, what's so scary? These sailors are really too weak, Voroshinov waved his hand: "Okay, send the fighters of the previous squadron to help them expel the bombers, well, pay attention, not too much, we still have to guard our Petersburg." ”

Vatukin breathed a sigh of relief and hurried out to give orders, but, just after he had just gone out, he turned around and came in again.

More than an hour has passed since the fighter jet was requested, and now, the situation at sea has changed dramatically, and Vatutin's face is pale.

Voroshinov was obviously aware of the special situation of his assistant, he had already said that the three lines of defense were almost complete, and now he frowned: "Vatutin, let's go?" ”

"Marshal, our Baltic Fleet, it's over." The words that came out of Vatutin's mouth shocked the entire people present.

Finished? What do you mean?

"The two battleships, the Marat and the October Revolution, were sunk, and the rest of the battleships were also under German fire, and they could not hold on."

In Voroshinov's plan, the Baltic Fleet was still useful, they could use their own naval guns to support the defensive campaign on the ground, and now, these battleships, actually sank.

If Stalin had known about this, he would have been even more furious.

Voroshinov's face turned pale, and his hands began to tremble involuntarily: "Take off the fighters, take off the fighters immediately, help the Baltic Fleet." Save our warships. ”

"Vatutin, you bastard, why didn't you report earlier?"

As soon as Voroshinov's words were finished, the entire city suddenly sounded a whining air defense siren.

Damn it!

The German air raid actually came again, all the fighters needed to take off to meet the enemy, the Germans often formed dozens of planes to form a large group of planes to bomb, and their fighter units were always overstretched.

And to help the Baltic Fleet?

At this time, Voroshinov's heart had sunk to the bottom, and he actually forgot to ask the important point, where was the Baltic Fleet attacked?

Kronstadt, the western gate of Petersburg!

The sunken battleships blocked the shipping lane, and the sea passage of Petersburg was completely blocked, and if necessary, the German navy could even use their large-caliber naval guns to send grenades directly from Kronstadt to Petersburg.