The king's intention was to win the tsarist crown for himself or his son Władysław, and then, after the combined forces of Russia and the Commonwealth, to regain control of his inheritance, Sweden, and to neutralise the Tartar-Turkish threat.

[citation needed] Sigismund III did not raise the issue of a future war at the Sejm of January and February 1609; however, plans for it were widely known, the nobility passed new military regulations and also legally recognised the Orthodox Church in the Commonwealth.

A side effect of such a state of affairs was the paucity of war preparations, as, lacking the support of the Sejm, the king could only organise an army based on his own financial resources.

[citation needed] Sigismund III set off from Minsk and travelled through Borisov to Orsha, where Lew Sapieha was waiting for him with Lithuanian troops.

[citation needed] In September 1609, the Polish army under the command of King Sigismund III Vasa (22,500 men: 4,000 infantry soldiers and 8,500 cavalry with 4,342 being the Winged Hussars and later to be joined by 10,000 Zaporozhian Cossacks) approached Smolensk.

The city was defended by the Russian garrison under the command of voyevoda Mikhail Borisovich Shein (over 5,400 men with 170 guns, 500 Swedes, and 14,600 inhabitants who volunteered).

The weakened Russian garrison (with only about 200 remaining soldiers) was not able to repel the fifth attack of the Polish army on 3 June 1611, when after the 20 months of siege the Polish army advised by the runaway traitor Andrei Dedishin, discovered a weakness in the fortress defence and on 13 June 1611 a Cavalier of Malta, Bartłomiej Nowodworski [pl], inserted a mine into a sewer canal and the succeeding explosion created a large breach in the fortress walls.

The fortress fell on the same day, with the last stage taking place after violent street fighting when some 3,000 Russians citizens blew themselves up in the Assumption Cathedral.

[citation needed] Although it was a blow to lose Smolensk, it freed up Russian troops to fight the Commonwealth in Moscow, whereas Shein came to be considered a hero for holding out as long as he had.