In the winter of 1457, biting cold winds howled, and roads were covered in snow. The vanguard troops shoveled a path through the snow, allowing the following units to advance at a snail's pace along this route.
This was an army moving from Poznań to the Prussia region. Logically, given such severe weather, large-scale army movements were extremely difficult, and advancing into enemy territory at such a time was not a wise choice.
However, they had no choice but to do so, as a contingent of allied forces was currently besieged in Prussia.
The Teutonic Order's counterattack had led to successive defeats for the Polish-Prussian combined forces. Without relief, it wouldn't be long before these troops were completely annihilated by the enemy.
Władysław III rode among his troops with a dark expression, looking as if someone owed him hundreds of thousands of florins. Well, someone actually did owe him that much money.
Ahead of his personal guards were Bohemian mercenaries, flying the St. George's Cross flag. These mercenaries were remnants of the Tábor faction and now served the King of Poland.
They naturally abandoned their Cup-Sword banners (the Tábor faction's military flag, which had two more swords than the Cup faction's flag) and adopted the white flag with a red cross. After all, it was about making money, regardless of faith.
Seeing these heretics from Bohemia, Władysław III couldn't help but recall the shameless deceit and schemes he had encountered that year, which made his mood even worse.
In 1454, an urban rebellion broke out in the Teutonic Order. Cities led by Danzig and Toruń, unable to endure the oppression of the Teutonic Order, chose to unite and form the Prussian League, rebelling against the Teutonic Order's tyranny.
Subsequently, the Prussian League swore allegiance to the King of Poland, thus initiating this brutal war between the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland.
In fact, after entering 1457, as both the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland had exhausted their financial resources, there was no longer any need to continue this war.
Over the next few months, both sides began prolonged negotiations. Besides the lack of funds to hire more troops for battle, changes in the international environment were also a major influencing factor.
In April, Moldavia changed hands. To ensure the security of his Kingdom's eastern borders, Władysław III granted more privileges to the nobility of Red Ruthenia, using this to gather a large army. He also allied with his brother, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Kazimierz, and their combined forces advanced on Moldavia.
However, Stefan, in his madness, adopted a scorched-earth tactic. The combined forces lacked supplies, and morale was unstable.
Subsequently, the young Moldavian Grand Duke directly launched a surprise attack, defeating the combined forces and even executing a prominent noble from the Red Ruthenia region by hanging.
This greatly troubled Władysław III. To quickly stabilize the situation, he chose to give up his bargaining chips, Stefan being the murderer of Peter Aron, and even paid a small war indemnity, attempting to appease him.
Stefan readily signed a truce with Poland and Lithuania, and upon his return, he executed Peter Aron using the most brutal methods.
The threat from the east was temporarily resolved. At this time, news came from the south that the Holy Roman Emperor was leading a large army to attack the Bohemian heretics.
Władysław III became anxious. If Bohemia fell under the Emperor's control, where would he find strong and effective mercenaries?
This was secondary; the most important thing was that the Emperor would then have the ability to directly threaten Poland.
Thus, Władysław III urged his diplomats to accelerate the negotiation process.
Finally, in early July, the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland signed a peace agreement in Marienburg.
The main content of this agreement was simple: the Teutonic Order would sell three important castles—Marienburg, Tczew, and Iława—to the King of Poland. Marienburg was the capital of the Teutonic Order State, and the three castles were priced at a lump sum of 190,000 florins.
It was widely believed that once Marienburg changed hands, the war would be declared over.
Unfortunately, Władysław III also believed this nonsense.
Poland and the Prussian League truly went to great lengths, selling everything and squeezing the people's wealth to produce 190,000 florins to pay the Teutonic Order.
However, this was a complete fraud.
After the peace treaty was signed, Władysław III played a trick: he did not order his troops, who were besieging other castles of the Teutonic Order, to stop their attacks, hoping to gain more profit during this window of opportunity.
As a result, the main Polish forces suffered setbacks in the siege, and Władysław III reluctantly ordered the army to withdraw from the Prussia region.
At the same time, news came from Bohemia that Iri, the leader of the Cup faction, had died in battle, and the Emperor's army had surrounded Prague.
Władysław III reorganized his troops, preparing to lead the Polish army south to Bohemia to contend with the Emperor.
Although his treasury was completely empty, it didn't matter. The Nieszawa Statutes he had previously signed granted various privileges to the nobility. By adding more privileges, he could borrow more funds from the nobles and recruit more soldiers.
However, before this army could even set foot in Bohemia, anti-Polish rebellions broke out in major cities of the Prussian League, such as Danzig and Toruń, due to the previous exploitation.
These anti-Teutonic Order rebels now launched an anti-Polish rebellion, which was truly a rare and comical farce.
What they had always wanted to resist was merely the oppressors who exploited them.
Władysław III could only dispatch troops to suppress the rebellion. Once the rebellion was quelled, just as he was about to march south, news of a plea for help came from Prussia.
It turned out that after repelling the Polish army's attack, the Teutonic Order felt that the King of Poland had violated the spirit of the agreement by continuing to attack the Teutonic Order after signing the truce.
So, the Teutonic Order stopped pretending. They directly swallowed the 190,000 florins, recovering significantly, and then, with the support of the citizens of Königsberg, the Prussian knights, and Denmark, they regrouped and launched a counterattack.
The Polish garrison stationed in the Prussia region suffered successive crushing defeats. The Teutonic Order's army, led by Bernhard, a Bohemian Catholic noble commander, and Rudolf von Sagan, a German noble from a prominent Silesian family, advanced triumphantly, recapturing Iława and Chełmno, and on September 28th, the day after the fall of Prague, they captured the town of Marienburg.
Now, the Kingdom of Poland's army in the Prussia region was besieged in the castle of Marienburg, desperately awaiting reinforcements.
Watching the demise of the Bohemian Cup faction helplessly, Władysław III's mentality exploded. He swore to fight the Teutonic Order to the death, which led to the current scene of marching through the snow.
Since the war began, Poland and the Teutonic Order had held no fewer than three peace negotiations. The only peace treaty signed lasted less than half a month before being completely torn up.
Both sides harbored ulterior motives. If one was dishonest, the other was not clean either. The agreements were riddled with deceit, and such treaties could not bring true peace.
Władysław III now resembled a mad gambler, risking everything to fight the Teutonic Order, even if it meant being reckless.
His idea was that the young Emperor in Austria was currently contending with the French in Naples, and the Venetians could also help him attract the Emperor's attention. Seizing this good opportunity, he wanted to completely expel the Teutonic Order from Prussia.
However, the Teutonic Order was backed by Denmark, the Hanseatic League, the Pope, and even the Emperor. Expelling the Teutonic Order completely would be incredibly difficult.
If he knew that even with the Prussian war situation so dire, there were still people trying to trip him up, he would undoubtedly be even more indignant.