Between January 1, when Marshal Murat moved his headquarters west to Elbing, and January 3, when Marshal MacDonald, Yorck's superior, arrived in Königsberg, General Bülow had worked feverishly to move his supplies to Graudenz and about five thousand men to Kreuzberg, where he had arrived on January 2.

On January 9, Bülow retreats west across the Vistula, ceding East Prussia to the retreating French and advancing Russians.

On January 5, Yorck had sent his last messenger to Berlin.

On January 8, he had arrived at Königsberg with the Russian general Ludwig Adolf von Wittgenstein.

Yorck had reaffirmed his commitment to the armistice, but had refused Wittgenstein's demand that he fight the French.

That day, however, the king's messengers had arrived to dismiss Yorck from his command and repudiate his armistice.

Yorck refuses and in a letter to Bülow on January 13, he questions if he had "sunk so deep that he fears to break the chains of slavery, the chains that we have meekly carried for five years?"

He declares it "the time to regain our freedom and honor" and protests that he is "a true Prussian".

Diebitsch had refused to let the bearer pass through his lines, and the general will finally be absolved when the Treaty of Kalisz on February 28 will definitely range Prussia on the side of the Allies.