Poland-Lithuania was once a vast and populous country, and many of them migrated to the Great Plains from all over the world, including Cossacks (i.e. freemen), The Tatars and Hungarians, who migrated there in the fourteenth century at Ripka, did not follow Catholicism or Orthodoxy, but had the same faith as the Otto-Turks, but because Poland had always been a multi-faith country, and the king had always been very tolerant, they were very patient with the Polish nobility, because it was difficult for them to find a place where they could worship and live wherever they went, except to Ottoman Turkey.

The previous Polish government recognized their military legitimacy, granted the Ripka Tatar chieftains the status of nobility, allowed them to worship their gods, and agreed to give them sufficient rewards and commissions in exchange for their conquest of the Quartet for the government. They did faithfully fulfill the peace treaty, and as the largest military force in the Commonwealth other than the hussars, they kept their word, and even during the Great Flood, the Tatar Khan was unsuccessful in plotting against them, but after the Great Flood the Polish Schlachita became suspicious of them, because they were Tatars, and the Tatars were clearly on the side of Poland's enemies when Sweden was at war with Poland.

Despite Sobieski's dissuasion, the Polish government eventually banned all the privileges of the Ripka Tatars, including their freedom of worship, forbidding them to build their own temples, etc., and the nobles unanimously passed a three-quarter reduction in military salaries, leaving many Tatars without food and clothing.

During the reign of John II, there were several riots among the Tatars, but such commotions did not make the nobles change their minds, on the contrary, they felt that they did anticipate the sins of these "ungrateful" people, judged and weakened them early, and Sobiesky was rarely on the same side as the king - Because the reason why these nobles were dissatisfied with the Tatars was only because the great Polish nobles had been accumulating land and raising serfs for a long time, and the land of Lipka was not rich but it was vast, so they wanted to drive the Tatars out and take it for themselves.

Thanks to the joint efforts of John II and Sobiesky, in 68 they managed to re-grant most of the privileges of these Ripka Tatars - Mainly for the religious aspect, but once the mirror is cracked, it is difficult to repair the original form, the Tatar leader with a humiliated face Sobiesky remembers vividly, and he also thinks that when the mission of the envoy is completed, he will try to go to Ripka once again to stabilize the previous alliance, even if he marries his daughter to their great chieftain, Alexander Klitschinsky.

But the king of France kept Sobieski for a month and a half, and the great nobles did something stupid - they had cut three-quarters of the Tatars' salaries before, and this time they did not even give the last quarter......

With the guidance of the Ripka Tatars, the Ottoman Turkish soldiers could be said to have entered the Polish territory all the way unhindered, and captured the secondary fortress of Kamene overnight, the secondary fortress of Kamene is the last shield of the city of Lviv, it stands on the isolated island of the river valley, the canyon washed out by the river is a natural moat, the narrowest place is also three hundred feet wide, a hundred feet deep, only a narrow passage with the outside world, the unique and dangerous terrain makes this castle known as the "City of God" - Because it had never been captured in battle, this time too, the Ripka Tatars knocked on the gates of the castle.

"How is the build-up of our troops?" Sobiesky simply asked casually, but never received an answer, and his heart sank.

When Michal I died, the great nobles of Poland gathered in Warsaw to elect the next king, and while they were arguing, the Ottoman Turks were already on their way, and when they heard the news of the enemy's invasion, they were still clamoring for the cost of raising an army— Some people say that taxes should be raised, some people say that they should borrow money from merchants, but no one says that I am willing to pay this fee first, or send my soldiers, because the big nobles are now gradually annexed by the original small and medium nobles, and they don't trust others—even if they fight for their country, it is difficult to ensure that there is no one behind them to rob them.

Sobieski did not dare either, he listened to the return of his subordinates with a blank face, and was already so disheartened that he did not know what to say, his wife Maricinka held his arm with tears in her eyes, and he shook her hand with his backhand, and his heart was sour, and he was sorry - because he had agreed with his wife that their eldest daughter would be sent to Ripka, and now it seemed that this was their luck and the misfortune of Poland.

Now Sobieski was vaguely aware that it was not the kindness of Louis XIV or the greed of Madame de Montespan that he was able to flee from Versailles so easily, but that they had done it on their own initiative - Lviv was so far away from Warsaw, and if he were to go to Lviv to intercept the Ottoman Turks, then he would not be able to control the election of the king in Warsaw, and if he chose to return to Warsaw, those Schlachita would have accused him of putting power before duty, and that he wanted to be the new king of Poland, not impossible, But it must have been very difficult and unpredictable - and could he really watch the Ottoman Turks' Sipac cavalry crisscross Polish soil?

The King of France wanted him to choose between his own selfish desires and his loyalty to his country.

"We went to Lviv. Sobieski said.

——————

"Maybe you want to go to Lviv first. Louis said that he stood with the Prince of Condé in front of a table the size of a billiard table—or rather, it was originally a pool table, which Louis had converted into a sand table, and that the king's missionaries and spies had already explored the situation in Poland, that Madame de Montespan had provided more detailed information, and that mathematicians and sculptors had made sand tables based on maps and records, which could be used on the real battlefield, though not absolutely accurate and complete.

"His Excellency the Pope of Rome will issue an edict calling on all Catholic nations to be united in their hatred," said the Duke of Orleans, although the intimate relationship between the Roman Church and France had long since existed in name only—in view of the indifference developed by King Philip IV of France towards Avignon, the treasure of the Pope, and Louis XIV's proclamation. It is clear that the ruler, who became a king as a child, is an extreme egoist, and although no one dares to say it, those close to him know that the king does not care much about whether he will go to heaven or hell in the future, and all he cares about is the present.

And he's probably never been afraid of things in the dark. The Prince of Condé remembered that when he first met the little king, he had offered him a werewolf's fur - the Prince of Condé had no good intentions, he wanted to startle the king, and now that he remembered it, the king had never shown any fear at that time—he meant that he had many brave and strong soldiers under his command because of the instinctive fear of dark creatures, but a weak witch could scare them to death, the result of the persistent indoctrination of religious men for a long time— They always do their best to portray the devil and his servants as terrible as possible in every sermon, otherwise where would their holy water, charms, and crosses, and holy relics come from?

But no one would dare to intimidate a king - Cardinal Mazaran treated him as his own son.

Of course, at that time, the prince of Condé did not know that the king had narrowly escaped from the pursuit of a group of werewolves. "This is a good opportunity," said Louis, looking at the Prince of Condé and the Duke of Anghien beside him: "If you are elected King of Poland, then they have reason to ask for your generosity." ”

"I'd rather go with the army. Prince Condé said.

"Yes," said Louis, "you can pick and choose from your army." "You can take anyone away as long as they want to, you want to." ”

"Is Captain Vauban okay?" asked Prince Condé at once.

"Well, this will not work," said the king, "for as soon as he returns to Versailles, he will be a general, sir, and you may take the soldiers and officers with you, but the general will not, it will be mine." ”

Prince Condé was just joking, Duke d'Engian glanced at his father cautiously, of course he was willing to follow Prince Condé to Poland, although Louis XIV was a tolerant king, but as long as they were his courtiers for a day, then their lives and fortunes were in the hands of the young king for a day, and judging from the previous events, Louis was a benevolent ruler, but when the bottom line was touched, he would be as ruthless as a hurricane.

And as his father had beset, if the Prince of Condé rebelled, he would be a traitor, and anyone could crusade against him on this charge, and they would have the throne of their descendants forever at peace—but once they became kings of Poland, it would be extremely beneficial to both Louis XIV and the Prince of Condé, and Louis XIV would have no great danger and could recover the fiefdoms, castles, etc., which were on the east side of Paris of the Condé family; As long as they were able to subdue or destroy all of the Schlachita, it would have been a long and brutal battle, but unlike the Fronde rebellion, Prince Condé could have the whole of France behind him.

"Is it in time?" the Duke of Anghien couldn't help but ask, "It took nearly three years for the Poles to last elect a king. ”

"The Ottoman Turks will make them smarter. Louis said: "Even if Sobiesky goes to Lviv, it will not be possible to fight an army of 80,000 men overnight, unless Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire is willing to support them......"

"Would Leopold I be willing?" asked the Duke of Orleans.

"Generally speaking," said Louis, "but if His Excellency the Pope of Rome wishes to issue an edict to us, to France......"

"When did our relations with the Church of Rome become so cordial?, Your Majesty, Clement X was an eighty-year-old fellow, but he was no less ambitious than Clement IX before him. ”

"Is it because of the conversion of the King of England?" asked the Duke of Orleans.

"No," said Louis, "they will not let go of their chips until they see Charles II, or his little prince, or the Duke of York, and this time we owe thanks Madame de Montespan, who has given us some indispensable help, and I think that in a few days the edict will come." ”

Prince Condé lowered his head and coughed, he could barely hide the strange look on his face, to be honest, it was the first time he saw the king who used the royal wife as a secret agent and foreign secretary - although there were royal ladies involved in government affairs before, but they also used their gorgeous looks and graceful posture to win the favor of the king before they could get power, but here in the king, the whole thing can be said to be reversed, and the royal lady must first do the work assigned by the king before she is qualified to perform her real duties.

If Louis had heard what had been in his heart, he would have told him that of course, and given that there were not many credible people around him, or rather, in the general sense of the word, he certainly hoped that they would be able to possess a multifaceted and varied talent, so that he might be able to put this vast kingdom to work once and for all, and not in the chaos of being torn apart and the king's destiny out of Paris, as had been the case before— You must know that the royal lady has the traditional power to recommend officials to the king, if his royal wife is a stupid fellow, then will he continue to follow the tradition, or let her go out of the way and cause another storm?

Madame de Montspan was indeed a wise lady, as she said, her mother had taught her how to use her beauty, and her two fathers had taught her how to use her wit—she had made herself into what the king needed most, and who could she choose if the king did not choose her?

"Madame de Montespan......" the Duke of Orleans stopped as soon as he spoke, he almost forgot that there were also the Prince of Condé and the Duke of Anghien, but not only the king, but even he could guess where the shadow behind Madame de Montespan came from.

The Duke of Anghien seemed to want to ask something, but the Prince of Condé put his hand on his shoulder, and now the child did not know much of the secret qualifications—though he was also surprised how the king could share a bed with a witch, but now it seemed that the witch was not so bad, at least in the past, and that a month and a half of keeping Jan Sobieski in Versailles alone could not have done so much.

Although it was Madame de Montespan who learned of the death of Michal I that provoked a conflict between the Polish nobility and the Ripka Tatars, it was a decision made by Madame de Montespan on her own after learning of the death of Michal I.