The Tsar's Glory Shines Upon the East European Plain

Marshal Rumyantsev, the most senior man in the conference room, swept his gaze over the silent officers. Left with no choice, he gave a light cough and said, "Your Majesty, we do not have many troops along the Oka River that can be mobilized.

"If these Poles continue pushing east, Kaluga, Mozhaysk, and Kolomna will all become their targets... I fear only Moscow can make them halt."

Catherine II said coldly, "I do not need you to remind me. What I need is a countermeasure—a countermeasure against the Poles!"

A great many exceedingly prosperous cities lay concentrated on the north bank of the Oka River. An attack on any one of them would be a grave loss for Russia.

Even if the Russian Army successfully occupied eastern Poland, those losses would cut the war's gains in half—or even reduce them to thirty percent.

Rumyantsev immediately said, "Your Majesty, the safest course at present is to recall the Morkov Corps home and completely wipe out this Polish Army force..."

"Absolutely not!" Catherine II shot him a glare. "The Poles risked crossing the Dnieper River precisely to force us to withdraw our troops.

"I will never allow them to lead us around by the nose."

The Tsar's lover, Platon Zubov, immediately chimed in loudly, "The Poles' combat strength is nothing to fear. Besides, they only have seventeen thousand men. The domestic garrisons alone will be enough to deal with them."

Marshal Vasilyevich Repnin shook his head. "The Moscow garrison has only around ten thousand men. If they fail to destroy the Poles, the situation will become extremely dire.

"Although Saint Petersburg and Saratov have sufficient troops, they are both too far away."

The north bank of the Oka River was the boundless East European Plain. Once the Moscow garrison lost to the