The Last Frontier of Fire and Sword

One day in January 1666, a four-wheeled carriage entered Vidava under the cover of night under the **** of a group of Hessian cavalry.

At midnight, the town of Vidawa was completely dark. There was no one on the street, only a few wild dogs digging through the trash in the corner.

The sound of carriage wheels and horse hooves broke the tranquility of the night. A black and white wild dog lifted his head from the garbage dump and pricked his ears. It made a demonstrative cry in the direction of the sound.

But this scream has no deterrent to those who come. One after another Swedish heavy-armored pistols guarding the carriage passed by the wild dog, and they didn't even look at the "enemy".

The wild dog finally stopped yelling. Because the carriage and the cavalry came from the darkness and disappeared into the darkness.

Finally, the carriage stopped at the gate of Piedro's manor. A Swedish pistol cavalry jumped off the horse and opened the door of the carriage.

A man in a black cloak got up and down from the carriage. She is slender and obviously a woman.

When she got out of the carriage, all the Swedish cavalry immediately dismounted, and they stood in two rows from the carriage to the entrance of the manor.

It was between such tight walls that the woman came to the entrance of the manor. When she stepped on the stairs, the door was opened. Pidro and Fatima stood behind the door, and the two of them looked infinitely happy, and said to the person who came: "You are finally here, Queen Christina (sister)."

The visitor was Christina, who had been away from Cheorchen for six years after becoming the regent queen of the Kingdom of Sweden.

With the help of Chechen and Arvid Widenberg, she succeeded in becoming the guardian of Karl XI and taking charge of the administration of the Kingdom of Sweden. Christina continued the peace treaty with the Republic of Poland and implemented the national policy of rest and recuperation. , So that Sweden’s national strength slowly recovered.

After Cheerchen left Stockholm and returned to Poland, he and Christina did not break the connection. The two of them wrote letters from time to time about each other's thoughts and interesting events in their respective countries.

When Cheerchen and Natalie's children were born, Christina gave a ruby ​​necklace as a gift. The queen wanted to come to congratulate herself. But her identity was too sensitive, and she knew that Natalie didn't welcome herself, so she could only send Corson to express her blessing to Cheer Chen on her behalf.

And this time, Christina also came in secret. She received a letter of help from Piedro and Fatima, and then she hurried from Sweden to Poland.

And it is Cheerchen who deserves Pidro and Fatima to ask Christina for help.

Things have to start in September 1660.

After the three-month holiday, Chechen followed Pidro's suggestion and voluntarily applied to King Jan Kazimierz to go to Ukraine to fight against Russia. At this time, Vasily Sheremetev, who succeeded Prince Alexei, obeyed the order of the Tsar, led about 18,000 soldiers and 35,000 Cossack allies who rushed straight to the southeast important town of the Republic, and was also the Lyubao Macki family. Old nest Lviv.

The situation was critical, and even Lubao Matsky had to put aside the conflict with the king, and whispered to the king for help.

Cheerchen took the initiative to invite Ying, and of course King Jan Kazimierz couldn't ask for it. He ordered Tetsuchen to lead the entire mercenary regiment, plus 12,000 troops including 200 winged cavalry, 3,000 armored Cossacks, and 3,500 dragoons to reinforce.

After receiving Chechen's reinforcements, Lvbao Macki was ecstatic. He immediately began to organize a counterattack.

At this time, the reinforcements of the Crimean Khanate as an ally and the 1,500 Cossack troops led by the Governor of Kiev Vygowski helped in the battle, bringing the total number of federal troops to an unprecedented 40,000.

In this battle, Cheechen took the lead. The mercenary group he led occupied the positions of the Russian Cossack allies and blocked the Russians' retreat.

On the second day, Lvbao Macki ordered the entire army to surround the Russian army camp. Although the number of the two armies was still the same at this time, the Polish army was clearly stronger than the Russian army in terms of the level of sophistication and the number of artillery. What's more, the retreat was blocked, and the morale of the Russian army had already fallen to the bottom. By September 17, many Cossacks began to flee. In despair, Sheremetev hoped to bribe the Tatars to let go, but the Tatar commander Nahai directly handed the bribe letter to Chechen.

Under Chechen's suggestion, Lvbao Macki deliberately opened a gap to lure the Russians to break through. This trick worked, and Sheremetev left the fortifications and broke through in the direction of Chudnov. Lvbao Macki ordered a pursuit, and the Polish cavalry quickly cut off the retreating Cossacks from the Russians, and then defeated the Cossacks.

The remaining exhausted Russian army was forced to stop on a plain and be surrounded again. After several failed breakouts, especially after the breakout forces were ambushed by the Tatars, Sheremetev decided to surrender to the Poles.

Lvbao Macki accepted the Russian surrender request. The Russian army laid down its weapons and battle flags, and Peleyaslav, Kiev and several other cities occupied by the Russian army were also returned to the Republic. After leaving eight of the most prominent Russian nobles as hostages to enforce the conditions of surrender, unarmed Russian soldiers and officers were released.

In this battle, the Polish army wiped out nearly 10,000 Russian troops at the cost of about 5,000 casualties and captured more than 10,000 people.

Undoubtedly, the biggest hero in this battle is Chechen. Lvbao Macki couldn't add to Chechen's liking, treating him like his own eyes.

And thoroughly reciprocated, and committed allegiance to the marshal.

News of victory ahead inspired Jan Kazimierz's fighting spirit. In the second year, he assembled the most powerful army in the Republic since the Bogdan Khmelnitsky riot. Nearly 70,000 troops plus 30,000 Tatar reinforcements marched toward the east vigorously.

King Jan Kazimierz is ready to complete his work and recover all the towns in the Dnieper River basin that were occupied by the Russians at the beginning of the war. In the beginning, the military operations went smoothly. Boryspil, Kremenchuko, Lohvica, Lubni, Romney and several other Ukrainian cities were successively recovered by the Republic.

But by the end of January, the coming back Prince Alexei changed his strategy. He ordered all the Russian troops not to fight with the Polish troops in the field, but could not stand in the city.

As a result, the Polish army’s cavalry superiority could not be used, and due to the lack of supplies for long-term combat and severe winter wear, the Polish army’s siege battles in several areas failed. As a last resort, King Jan Kazimierz was forced to retreat this summer.

Objectively speaking, there are many reasons for the failure of the counterattack, not just the responsibility of a certain general. First of all, Russia attacked westward by breaking the treaty and suddenly declared war at the beginning of the war. The main army of the Republic was controlled by the Cossacks of Ukraine. Except for Smolensk, the defense force of the Republic in the eastern castle group was extremely weak, which caused the Russian army to almost Conquered large castles with no effort. Eight years later, the Republic reluctantly assembled an army to launch a counterattack. During these eight years, the Russians further strengthened these castles and sent a large number of soldiers and sufficient supplies to garrison. Therefore, to attack the same castle, the Poles would have to pay a hundred times the price of the Russians eight years ago to succeed.

Despite the military failure, King Jan Kazimierz succeeded in taking advantage of this opportunity to use the defeat as an excuse to remove Lubaumacki from the position of marshal, at the same time dismissed his military power and forced him to live in. .

The result of this punishment caused an uproar throughout the Republic of Poland. Because in this counterattack, the leaders of Jan Sobieski and Pavel Saperga and even the king himself have suffered defeats that are not inferior to the battle of Miyatersk, but no one has been punished so severely.

Suddenly, the spread went viral everywhere, and the king and queen's move was a feign public benefit and public revenge.

It may not be without cause. Because at this time, Queen Ludvik who stayed behind in Warsaw is further promoting the reform of Poland in order to achieve her political goals. Queen Ludwig began to shrink or even cut off Poland's dependence on the traditional allies of the Habsburg family, and shifted Poland's diplomatic focus to France, which has completed a high degree of monarchy. She tried to make the French court more influential in Poland and made her nephew in France, Prince Henry Jules de Bourbon, the elector of the next Polish king. And Lubao Macki is precisely the biggest opponent of this matter.

Due to the new defeat, and the important elders of the Republic such as Stanislaw Potocki, Pavel Sapega, Stefan Czarnetsky, etc., all stood on the side of the king, Lupaomatsky had to accept Punished.

At this moment, Cheer Chen did something unexpected to everyone.

When everyone shunned the convicted Lvbao Macki, they completely proposed to Lvbao Macki to **** him back to Lviv.

Although Chechen’s move was to care about the friendship between him and Lubaumacki, it undoubtedly made King Jan Kazimierz and Queen Ludvik suspect that he had become a member of the old school.

At that time, Natalie happened to be training the new army in Brest and was not completely by his side. The "spiritual conservative" Pidro, who saw the importance of the matter, was happy to see Cheerchen's move.

So Chechen escorted Lvbao Macki back to Lviv.

Although Lubaumacki was forced to live, Queen Ludvika still felt that the life of Lubaumacki was a huge threat. In 1664, she finally wanted to exterminate her future troubles and physically eliminate Lübao Macki.

Once successful, the old school will have no leader, and the reform of her and her husband will take a big step forward.

However, Lvbao Macki had served as the Minister of Intelligence, and the whole country was full of his eyes. This plan was leaked in advance.

And Chechen in Bratzlaff "coincidentally" learned that someone was about to assassinate Lubao Macki, and he ran to **** the driver again "confusedly".

At this time, even if Natalie defended Cheerchen no matter what, the king and queen would no longer trust Cheerchen.

After another year, under the control of Queen Ludvika, the reformist nobles headed by Jan Sobieski filed a lawsuit against Lubao Macki, accusing the latter of treason.

The lawsuit reached the Supreme Court of Poland, and most of the lawmakers voted for the queen.

On December 29, 1665, the court issued a verdict against Lubaumacki: The crimes of the great nobleman Jerzy Sebastian Lubaumacki included inciting conspiracy against the king, trying to seize power, bribery and treason. .

Lubaumacki was sentenced to exile, confiscated all his property, and lost all honors.

Just when everyone was silent, Cheerchen spoke a fair word to Lubao Macki at a cocktail party in Bratzlaff, and made a few complaints.

These complaints were transferred to King Jan Kazimierz's side, Prince Mihavu secretly learned that he had impeached Chechen in front of King Jan Kazimierz.

Cheerchen returned to protect Lubao Macki again and again, and King Jan Kazimierz finally couldn't bear it. He also decided to punish Cheechen on the charge of being a partisan of Lubaumacki.

Of course, before King Jan Kazimierz punished Cheechen, because he thought of Natalie and Cheechen’s many contributions, the king still gave him a chance to "reform and reform": as long as Cheechen leaves Lubaoma Tsky ~www.readwn.com~ broke with him, and Jan Kazimierz would treat him lightly.

Cheerchen refused naturally, he was not the kind of person who fell into trouble. Moreover, in the court where his sentence was pronounced, Cheechen also openly expressed his support for Lvbao Macki, praising Lvbao Macki as a hero who was defeated and a great man who rebuilt the republic.

In this way, Cheerchen and the king and queen were completely broken.

The king not only dismissed his military post but also dismissed him as governor of Brest, and asked him to return to Vidava to reflect.

And because of this, Natalie and Cheerchen quarreled constantly. After a fight, Natalie angrily returned to the territory of the Kishka family and was separated from Cheerchen.

This blow was undoubtedly heavy for Cheer Chen. Once losing everything, Natalie left him again-Cheechen at this time was undoubtedly decadent. He became like a walking corpse-even if Uncle Piedro and Fatima were by his side to comfort him day and night, they couldn't cheer him up.

Seeing Cheerchen's weight loss day by day, the two were anxious in their eyes, but they couldn't imagine it. At this time, Ingrid thought of Christina, who was far away in Sweden.

To Chechen, besides his family, Bao Hong and Christina are the people he respects and trusts most. In a sense, the two are still mentors to his life. If Christina can come to solve it, Cheerchen will surely be able to cheer up again.

After listening to Ingrid's words, Pidro was convinced. He also thinks Christina is the only hope for his nephew.

So Pidro wrote a letter and asked the messenger to take it to Stockholm.

Christina quickly replied, and she said that she would leave for Vidava immediately.

This was the Queen's trip to Vidava.