Burning Eastern Europe II

Brigadier General Dombrowski said in very halting Polish, "Every sacrifice is worth it. We will eventually break free from Russia's control and threat.

"Their bodies may fall, but their blood will congeal into Poland's soul. The motherland will forever be with them!"

He had attended the military academy in Saxony from his youth—back when Saxony and Poland had still been one country—and had returned to Poland only four years ago. As a result, his German was far more fluent than his Polish.

Historically, it was precisely for this reason that Prince Poniatowski had never trusted him very much.

But Joseph knew very well that Dombrowski was a steadfast patriot. He later joined the anti-Russian uprising led by Kościuszko and fought with extraordinary bravery in the Defense of Warsaw.

Thus, at Joseph's recommendation, Dombrowski was given an important post in the Polish Army as the overall commander of the Dnieper Front's cavalry.

Dombrowski pointed toward the narrow breastwork between two distant hills.

"If the day comes when I must stand there and fight, I will likewise use my life to hold back the invasion of Tsarist Russia."

Kościuszko nodded silently. Of the fifty thousand Polish troops on the Mozyr defensive line, as many as thirty-seven thousand were recruits with less than four months of training. They would face the Russian Army's fiercest assault.

Yes, in order to carry out the predetermined battle plan, this most important eastern defensive line could only be propped up by raw recruits.

"Perhaps we will all die in this war..."

Kościuszko seemed to find the subject inauspicious, so he raised his head and looked east.

"When do you think the Russians will launch their attack?"

He asked because Russia had sent Poland a formal diplomatic note five days earlier—really an ultimatum—demanding that the Polish Government immediately