Prince Heinrich asked without betraying a hint of emotion, "Do you think Warsaw is plotting something?"
"Certainly not," Hodkiewicz said. "You really should see with your own eyes what a mess Warsaw has become. The serf issue caused such an uproar that even the Great Sejm was dissolved, and the elections still haven't been completed.
"The Lithuanians and Ruthenians in the east simply don't want to fight. Poniatowski knows perfectly well that if he does not negotiate peace, neither he nor the King will be able to keep their positions."
"Go back and tell the Regent of Poland that if they cede everything west of Węgrów, our country may choose to agree to a ceasefire. Oh, and Gdańsk Port must complete its handover within ten days."
And so, without firing a single shot, the Prussian and Austrian armies entered Danzig and Lublin respectively.
But once news that "Poland was about to surrender" spread through the two armies, their formerly soaring morale gradually turned into slackness.
In Warsaw, the Polish Army's failure to resist and the loss of two important cities sparked an unprecedented movement condemning the government.
Following the Crown Prince of France's advice, Regent Poniatowski sent his chief secretary, Piatoli, to deliver a public speech outside the Parliament Building.
"In recent years, the Federal Government has suffered trade suppression from Russia, Prussia, Austria, and other nations, and our financial situation has deteriorated to the extreme," Piatoli said earnestly. "On top of that, the war broke out too suddenly. We could not even scrape together the funds to procure logistical supplies.
"The soldiers at the front can only be guaranteed two meals a day, while vehicles and tents are in desperately short supply. Under such conditions, the soldiers will only be slaughtered by the enemy...
"His Highness the Regent did