It is said that after Ivan IV's banquet, many lords returned home with terrible nightmares or fell ill and were bedridden. The bloody banquet echoed endlessly in their minds, seeping into their bones and souls. The Tsar's face at the banquet had become grim and terrifying, as if he were holding a gallows, pacing and waving it around them.
Daggers, poison, and the noose of the gallows had almost become symbols of Ivan IV.
After a week of anxious waiting at home, the Kremlin still made no further move, and the lords, fearing their execution, finally felt relieved. They believed the Tsar didn't want their lives, but was merely using Shuysky's death to warn the lords and make them more cautious.
Just as all the lords breathed a sigh of relief, only Grinsky did not see it that way. After ten days of mental and physical torment, he could no longer bear it and finally extended an invitation to Grand Duke Belsky.
He had important matters to discuss with him.
Belsky pondered for a moment before accepting Grinsky's invitation. After all, they now had a common political enemy.
The luxurious carriage stopped in front of the Grinsky residence. After Belsky alighted, he didn't see Grinsky come out to greet him.
The servant who came out said to Belsky, "Grand Duke Grinsky is ill, so please, Your Excellency, proceed to the Grand Duke's sickroom."
He hesitated for a moment at the door, and the servant stammered, unwilling to explain the reason.
Belsky worried that Grinsky had contracted an infectious disease. The sanitation and medical environment in Tsarist Russia were extremely poor. Apart from the Tsar's personal physicians and the physicians around the noble grand dukes who were well-versed in medicine, other folk doctors were almost all practitioners of both medicine and witchcraft. If an ordinary commoner contracted a serious illness, there was only one outcome: death.
However, infectious diseases were even more terrifying. In the Black Death that broke out in Smolensk in 1386, only two people survived. The poor sanitation in Moscow meant that, given the right opportunity, a devastating pandemic could erupt.
The servant seemed to guess Belisky's thoughts and quickly whispered, "It's not contagious, there's no need to worry. Grand Duke Belisky will know when he reaches his bedside."
But he still followed the servant through the door. The servant awkwardly led him to the door of an extremely secluded room, dimly lit only by a faint light.
He saw Grand Duke Grinsky lying in bed, the windows sealed shut, a few oil lamps on the table casting a faint glow, illuminating a corner of the dark room.
Grinsky turned his head, revealing a perfectly healthy face. Belisky even subconsciously took two steps back, hesitatingly asking, "Grand Duke Grinsky?"
Grand Duke Grinsky coughed a few times, nodded, and said, "You've come, my friend. The situation is unusual lately, I cannot go out to greet you personally."
The Grand Duke sat up in bed, composed, showing no signs of illness whatsoever. It seemed the so-called illness was merely an excuse.
Belisky was utterly bewildered. He asked, "Why is this...?"
"For their own safety,"
Grinsky whispered. "Your Majesty, I don't know if he's been monitoring the every move of all the Grand Dukes. The other foolish Grand Dukes think the Tsar has let them off the hook. But he will never let it go. Those corpses hanging in the Kremlin are a dangerous sign."
Belisky felt a chill run down his spine as he recalled that scene. The other Grand Dukes practically supported each other as they walked that path, their fear of the Tsar's methods of executing his opponents deeply ingrained.
With a glance from Grinsky, the servant behind him discreetly closed the door, locking the secret firmly within.
Inside the closed room, only the voices of two people echoed.
"We all thought the Tsar eliminated Shuysky simply because his son had charged Ivan IV on horseback in the square. But is it really that simple? The night before Shuysky's incident, the Tsar's servant was arrested on charges of assassination, and afterwards, the entire Kremlin underwent a massive purge. It's likely all part of a conspiracy against Shuysky, to remove the spies he had planted around him. He just thought the Tsar wouldn't target him. Unfortunately, Grand Duke Shuysky was wrong. The Tsar had long been dissatisfied and resentful of his disloyalty. Killing him was also a way to consolidate his power."
"So what should we do?"
"He won't let it go. We need to find an opportunity to act ourselves."
Grinsky proposed an even more terrifying idea: "We need to prepare to install another Tsar, because Ivan IV is becoming increasingly difficult to control. Once he comes to rule in his own right, we will be the victims of his rule, and he will kill us without hesitation."
"If his brother, the mentally challenged Yuri Valisievich, were in power, we could firmly control the government. It's said that Shuysky was eventually arrested in the militia; it seems he also wanted to hastily start a rebellion, only the Tsar acted faster."
Shuysky's hasty uprising and subsequent execution served as a wake-up call for Grinsky. It made him realize that to save his family, he had to make a choice.
"So what do we do? Should we depose the monarch? The Duma won't agree, nor will those grand dukes who covet power. Besides, there's Tuchkov, who holds military power, like a loyal dog, devoted to Ivan IV."
Grinsky walked to the table, sat down facing the other man, and said to Belsky beside him, "First, firmly control the militia forces near Moscow, then wait for an opportunity and plan carefully. Ivan IV is still young; he can't be infallible. And there are a group of watchful eyes around him, so we have plenty of opportunities."
Serving a ruler is like serving a tiger.
From now on, every step they took would be fraught with anxiety, lest Ivan IV find an opportunity.
After a moment of silence, Belisky asked one last question, "I have only one question: why is the Tsar so eager to force all the grand dukes? He's just a teenager; where does he get the courage to make such a decision?"
After a moment of contemplation, Grinsky finally shook his head and sighed, saying, "The answer, I'm afraid, can only be found out from him himself."
"Perhaps, he's even more ruthless than his father, Vasily III, Ivan IV."