Chapter 621: The Eastern European Chessboard
Potemkin ripped the hot towel from his head, immediately breaking into a violent cough.
He had contracted a severe fever in Iasi and had barely been handling official duties personally lately. Yet, at this moment, he forced himself to the table and picked up a quill with trembling hands.
As Russia's de facto Chancellor and Minister of Defense, he immediately saw what Stanisaw II was trying to do.
For the past two years, Poland had been integrating its nation, gradually sorting out its previously chaotic ethnic conflicts and political factions. A few months ago, it had promulgated a Constitution, further strengthening its national power.
If Poland was allowed to continue developing, in five years at most, Russia would find it very difficult to conquer it.
So, for more than half a year, he had been mobilizing troops, preparing to launch a war against Poland.
But at this time, the King of Poland was instigating the Tsar to wage war against the Ottoman Empire in the south, even offering Polish troops to assist.
If the Tsar truly agreed, Russia's military focus would be on the Balkan Peninsula for a long time.
At the same time, with Poland acting as an "ally" that had fought alongside Russia, it would be harder for Russia to find an excuse to move against it later.
Of course, Stanisaw II didn't possess such profound political acumen; everything was fabricated by Zubov, who was well-acquainted with Russia's strategic plans.
Furthermore, for Potemkin, beyond matters of state, he personally disliked Stanisaw II intensely.
Although he hadn't "shared the bed" with Catherine II for a long time, he remained the de facto head of her court. Any of the Tsarina's lovers had to gain his approval to safely "assume their position."
This Pole was acceptable when he merely sang for the Tsarina, but now he dared to climb into the Tsarina's bed without his permission.
This was a direct challenge to his authority, and he absolutely had to be punished!
More than an hour later, Potemkin painstakingly finished writing two letters, handed them to his confidant Popov, and gave detailed instructions.
The first letter was for Zubov, instructing him to arrange for a young woman to approach and seduce Stanisaw II, and to orchestrate a situation where the Tsarina would witness them in an intimate moment. Even if the Pole didn't take the bait, it didn't matter; the woman merely had to kiss him at the right moment and then claim to the Tsarina that they were mutually smitten.
Given Potemkin's and Zubov's control over the Winter Palace, it wouldn't be difficult to have Stanisaw II's servants confirm the matter.
The other letter was for General Mikhail Kakhovsky, ordering him to accelerate war preparations and ensure he was ready to invade Poland before the end of the year.
After Popov departed, Potemkin began to cough violently again, the blood gushing from his nose staining a good portion of the bedsheet red.The source is ^$oЕ)š.
Several servants rushed over to support him, only to find that he had already lost consciousness.
......
Eastern Poland, Targowica town.
Franciszek Branicki, Kossakowski, and more than a dozen other Polish Conservative nobles emerged one after another from Count Potocki's estate, each with a solemn expression.
At the meeting just held, they unanimously agreed to secretly gather troops loyal to them and to jointly petition Russia to intervene in Poland's affairs.
If not for Joseph's reminder, the Poles likely would never have imagined that the ones who would ultimately betray the nation and invite the Russian invaders would not be the Slavic people of Poland, but these pure-blooded, ancient Polish and Lithuanian nobles.
In truth, from the moment the Polish Constitution was promulgated, they had been discontent.
The new Constitution stripped them of their liberum veto. It also strictly prohibited political bribery, making both offering and accepting bribes serious crimes.
Bribery, in the past, could be carried out openly. To achieve their political aims, Russians or Prussians would often spend tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of Złoty, to purchase their votes.
With the promulgation of the Constitution, they could no longer earn this kind of money.
In the period that followed, the Polish parliament successively abolished noble privileges such as executing serfs, recruiting private armies, and levying taxes on trade within their territories, on the grounds that they "violated the principle of harmlessness."
Consequently, the enraged Conservative families, under Potocki's leadership, decided to use Russian power to abolish the Constitution.
This was the notorious traitorous organization in Polish history—the Targowica Confederation.
However, at Joseph's suggestion, Prince Poniatowski had removed radical clauses from the Constitution, such as "complete abolition of serfdom" and "imposing a tithe on nobles to strengthen military readiness," which delayed the formation of the Targowica Confederation by more than half a year compared to historical accounts.
This effectively gave Poland an extra half-year of preparation time.
Branicki returned home, immediately summoned his family members, and began preparing for the rebellion.
However, just as they were secretly recalling their former private cavalry and contacting local forces with close ties, agents from the Committee of Liberty and Security arrested six core members of the Branicki family.
Thanks to a year-long advance surveillance operation, the Polish intelligence organization had ample evidence, and a week later, these six individuals were publicly prosecuted by the Polish Prosecutor's Office for "organizing rebellion."
At the same time, the Potocki family, the Ankwicz family, the Zabiełło family, and Archbishop Massalski, along with a large number of other Targowica Confederation members, were purged by the intelligence department.
The Polish Supreme Court had over seventy indictments on its desk and immediately became as busy as ants moving their colony before a heavy rain.
Of course, some members of the Targowica Confederation acted with extreme caution, which meant the Committee of Liberty and Security was unable to gather concrete criminal evidence against them.
For instance, several members of the Rzewuski family immediately retreated to their estate in northern Ukraine after the incident, yet continuously attempted to send people to establish contact with Russia.
Half a month later, three fanatical adherents of the Bar Confederation infiltrated the Rzewuski household, murdered everyone bearing the Rzewuski name, and then committed suicide by poison.
Thus, the Targowica Confederation, one of Poland's greatest hidden dangers, was largely annihilated.
However, one morning, two members of the Potocki family, while being transferred from Warsaw prison to the Polish High Court for trial, were abducted by a group of armed thugs, and their whereabouts became unknown.
West of Warsaw, inside the British Embassy in Poland, Stanisław Potocki looked at British Ambassador Daniel Jason with a pale face and bowed, still shaken, saying:
"Thank you for your help. The Potocki family will never forget your kindness."
Jason handed two cups of tea to him and his second son, respectively, and said with a sorrowful and indignant expression:
"I cannot stand idly by and watch a political persecution unfold. Your family has inherited supreme glory, yet now it is being falsely accused by a group of despicable people."
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