Potemkin suddenly tore off the hot towel covering his head, immediately starting to cough violently.
He had contracted a severe fever in Iasi and had recently stopped dealing nearly in person with official duties, but now he forced himself to the table and picked up a quill with trembling hands.
As the de facto Chancellor and Minister of Defense of Russia, he instantly recognized what Stanislaw II intended to do.
For the last two years, Poland had been consolidating its state, gradually sorting out previous ethnic conflicts and political factions. A few months ago, they had enacted a constitution, further strengthening their national power.
If Poland were allowed to continue developing, in no more than five years, Russia would find it very difficult to subdue Poland.
Therefore, starting from half a year ago, he had been assembling troops, preparing to wage war on Poland.
Meanwhile, the King of Poland was coaxing the Tsar to use troops against the south, in the Ottoman Empire, and Poland was even preparing to send troops to assist.
If the Tsar truly agreed, then Russia's military focus would long be set on the Balkan Peninsula.
At the same time, as an "ally" that had fought alongside Russia, Poland would make it harder for Russia to find a pretext to act against it in the future.
This would seriously disrupt Russia's strategic plans.
Of course, Stanislaw II had nowhere near such a formidable political strategy, and everything was fabricated by Zubov who was well versed in Russia's strategic plans.
Moreover, for Potemkin, besides issues on a national level, he had a personal dislike for Stanislaw II as well.
Though he had long ceased to be Catherine II's bedchamber attendant, he remained in charge of her harem. Any of the Tsar's lovers needed his approval to safely "take the post."
Previously, the Pole was just singing for the Tsar was acceptable, but now he dared to climb into the Tsar's bed without his permission.
This was a direct challenge to his authority, and he had to be punished!
Over an hour later, Potemkin laboriously finished writing two letters, handing them over to his confidant, Popov, and gave him careful instructions.
The first letter was for Zubov, instructing him to arrange a young woman to seduce Stanislaw II and to engineer a scene where the Tsar would witness their intimacy. It did not matter if the Pole fell for it or not, as long as the woman could kiss him at an opportune moment and then claim to the Tsar that their affection was mutual.
With Potemkin and Zubov's control over the Winter Palace, it wouldn't be difficult to have the servants around Stanislaw II confirm this matter.
The other letter was for General Mikhail Kakhovsky, ordering him to accelerate the war preparations, ensuring readiness to attack Poland by the end of the year.
After Popov had left, Potemkin started coughing violently again, and with fresh blood spraying from his nose, nearly half of the bedsheets turned red.
Several servants hurried over to support him, only to find he had already passed out.
Eastern Poland, Targowica town.
Francisco Branicki and Gosakowski, along with over a dozen Polish conservative nobles, walked out of Count Pototsky's estate one by one, each with a solemn expression.
At the meeting they had just attended, they unanimously agreed to secretly assemble an army loyal to them and collectively requested Russia to intervene in Poland's affairs.
Had it not been for Joseph's reminder, the Poles would never have imagined that it wouldn't be the Polish Slavic people who betrayed their country by summoning the Russian invaders, but rather these pure-blooded nobles of Polish and Lithuanian descent with long-standing family heritage.
From the moment the Polish Constitution was promulgated, they had already harbored dissatisfaction.
The new constitution deprived them of their veto power and strictly prohibited political bribery, where both offering and accepting bribes were to be considered serious crimes.
Previously, bribery could be conducted openly. The Russians or Prussians, to further their own political purposes, would often spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of zlotys to buy their votes.
With the promulgation of the constitution, they could no longer earn that kind of money.
In the subsequent period, the Polish Parliament successively abolished the nobles' privileges such as executing serfs, recruiting private soldiers, and taxing trade activities within their territories on the grounds of "violating the principle of harmlessness."
Angry conservative families, led by Pototsky, then decided to use Russia's power to abolish the constitution.
This was the infamous traitorous organization in Polish history—the Targowica Confederation.
However, per Joseph's advice, Prince Poniatowski had already removed radical clauses in the constitution such as "complete abolition of serfdom" and "increased nobility tithes to strengthen the military," which delayed the formation of the Targowica Confederation by more than half a year compared to history.
That extra half year gave Poland much-needed preparation time.
Upon returning home, Branicki immediately gathered his family members to start preparing for rebellion.
However, just as they secretly recalled their former private cavalry and were contacting closely allied local military forces, agents from the Freedom and Security Committee arrested six core members of the Branicki family.
Due to surveillance that had been in place for over a year, the Polish intelligence organization had enough evidence, and a week later, these six individuals were prosecuted by the Polish Prosecutor's Office for "organizing an uprising."
At the same time, the Pototsky family, Ankovich family, Zhabieuvwu family, and Archbishop Masaerski, along with many others from the Targowica Confederation, were purged by the intelligence department.
The Polish Supreme Court was as busy as ants moving before a heavy rain, with over seventy indictments laid on their tables.
Of course, some members of the Targowica Confederation were extremely cautious, making it impossible for the Freedom and Security Committee to obtain actual evidence of their crimes.
For example, several members of the Reuski family, after the incident, immediately holed up in their estates in northern Ukraine, but still tried to make contact with Russia.
Half a month later, three fervent followers of the Bar Confederation infiltrated the Reuski home and killed all the Reuski family members before committing suicide by poisoning themselves.
Thus, the Targowica Confederation, one of Poland's greatest threats, was almost completely exterminated.
However, one morning, two members of the Pototsky family disappeared without a trace while being transported from Warsaw Prison to the Polish Supreme Court for their trial, abducted by a group of armed thugs.
In the west side of Warsaw City, inside the British Embassy in Poland, Stanislaw Pototsky, pale-faced, bowed deeply to the British Ambassador, Daniel Jason, and said with a sense of escape, "Thank you for your help, the Pototsky family will forever remember your kindness."
Jason handed a cup of tea to him and his younger son, his expression sorrowful as he said, "I cannot stand by and watch a political persecution unfold. Your family has inherited supreme glory, yet now it is being unjustly accused by a group of despicable people."