The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1211: Wisdom in a hurry

An order issued by the Tsar himself was ignored by Venpetlovsky for a whole month. He didn't know how to remedy the situation. After all, Nicholas I was not a good-tempered monarch.

However, the matter of conversion was of great importance. Starting from Ivan IV, Russia had wanted to convert "toxic importers and parasites of Christianity", but hundreds of years had passed with little success.

(The “poisonous importers and Christian parasites” were the Jews.)
But success and whether or not something is done are two different things. If the Tsar knew what Venbetrovsky had done, he would most likely spend the rest of his life in Siberia eating frozen potatoes, or even worse.

Venbetrovsky couldn't care less about so many things. He had to achieve results immediately.

Wenbetrovsky immediately called his men, but his men were almost the same as the governor, not caring about government affairs at all.

Of course, it is precisely because of their laxity that Russian Poland has developed well in recent years.

However, power is something that is difficult to take back once it is given up. At this time, the senior officials of Russian Poland were all in the dark, and some even stood up to question the authenticity of the Tsar's order in Petrovsky's hand.

"Damn it! Are you blind? How can this be fake!"

At this time, Wenbetrovsky no longer cared about his poetic demeanor and cursed directly. However, the officials from Russia were not afraid of him. A middle-aged official who was dressed meticulously asked back.

"Governor, how could it be possible that the Tsar's order has only just arrived in Warsaw? Did the postman crawl here?"

"Yes! Governor-General, it is impossible that an order from His Majesty the Tsar himself would take almost two months to arrive, right?
And it doesn't seem reasonable to ask the Poles to convert to Islam. Is there any hidden reason behind this?"

Wen Petrovsky's face turned blue and red, and he almost got internal injuries. He couldn't say that he forgot the document in the bathroom and just remembered it.

So he said angrily.

"This must be the work of the Poles!"

"Poles? How could they be so powerful? Didn't the joint action of the three countries completely eliminate the power of the Polish Restorationists?"

"It's better to believe that someone is negligent than to believe that the Poles are behind this."

The person who spoke at this time was Ivan Firdow, the governor of Lesser Poland. In different countries and at different times, the power and relationship between the governor and the governor were different.

But in Russian Poland at that time, since the entire Russian civil service group was in a weak position, the governor's power was far greater than that of the deputy governor, and the deputy governor needed to be responsible to the governor.

However, no one would doubt that Ivan Firdov was the second-in-command of Russian Poland. After all, Větlovsky was usually elusive, and when he encountered problems that he could not handle, he could only go to this great man.

But Ivan Firdov, who had always been covering up for Venbetrovsky, did not like this pretentious boss, so he would naturally take advantage of his misfortune when he had the chance.

"Did you do it? I know it! Who has such great ability? How dare you withhold the imperial order from His Majesty the Tsar? You are courting death! Arrest him now!"

Ivan Ferdov was both shocked and angry. He never expected that the other party would accuse him without any evidence.

"How dare you! I am the mayor of Little Poland!"

"Are you all deaf? Or do you want to be like this traitor?" The soldiers who were originally hesitant immediately rushed towards Ivan Ferdov. They didn't want to get involved in the fight between these bigwigs, but if they did not follow the governor's orders, they might not even see tomorrow.

The angry Venbetrovsky didn't care about anything else. He didn't think he would really miss such an important document, so someone must be playing tricks.

Ivan Ferdov is undoubtedly the most suspicious person, because he is the biggest beneficiary of his own failure.

Once suspicion was raised, the crime was established. All of Venbetrovsky's subsequent actions would be aimed at proving that Ivan Firdov was the mastermind.

Not to mention that Petrovsky turned an "accidental" mistake into a power struggle between civil and military officials within Russia.

The Polish Governor was indifferent to the Tsar's orders, and this one clause alone was too much for Petrovsky to bear, so he had to achieve some results as soon as possible.

Then Venbetrovsky made a decision that he would regret for the rest of his life.

Historically, the methods usually adopted by the Russians to deal with pagans and ethnic minorities in the country are to increase the poll tax, conscription ratio, military service years, compulsory education and other discriminatory measures.

At that time, the normal military service in Russia was 20 years. Adding six years of military service was almost equivalent to a lifetime for Russian civilians whose average life expectancy did not exceed 40 years.

Even under such harsh conditions, these policies of the Russian government have had little effect.

If Wenbetrovsky wanted to see immediate results, he would not take such a stupid approach. He wanted to see immediate results and achieve success in one go.
So the solution that Wenbetrovsky came up with was to directly convert the Catholic church into an Orthodox church, so that when the imperial envoy from St. Petersburg arrived in Warsaw, he could say that the entire diocese had been transformed.

Based on Vipetrovsky's understanding of the imperial envoys, no one would be so bored as to ask passers-by whether they had converted to Islam.

At that time, he only needs to arrange people and routes in advance and there will be no accidents. However, in order to be absolutely sure, he still personally entertains the imperial envoy and presents him with a generous gift.

The so-called imperial envoy was nothing more than a servant of the Tsar. Who would be against money? In Russia, which imperial envoy was not greedy? If not greedy, who would become an imperial envoy?

You must know that it is not easy to be the Tsar's envoy. If you don't do your job well, you will be exiled or beheaded. If you do your job well, you may be killed by desperate local officials and indigenous tribes. When you come back, you may be framed by political enemies and exiled or executed.

Since there is such a big risk, why not be a little more greedy?

In fact, Venbetrovsky had also been an imperial envoy, so he was very sure that his plan would succeed.

The cost is just a few churches. At worst, I can just pay to rent them and return them after the matter is over.

For Vbetrovsky it was not important whether the Poles converted or not; what was important was that the Tsar should see his efforts and achievements.

As long as Nicholas I felt that he had done a good job, then the matter would be done, and Venpetlovsky would have a successful career in the future.

With his financial resources, Vinbetrovsky was fully capable of buying all the churches in Warsaw, but people always hate losses, and even if they are as rich as a country, they are unwilling to spend that little extra money.

So Venbetrovsky only planned to rent the church for a period of time to deal with the inspection. However, he was not the only one who hated losses. The officials in the city also needed to eat.

So rent became a levy.
(End of this chapter)