They needed reinforcements, so on March 16, the king ordered his brother, Adolph John, to send the army of Frederick VI, Margrave of Baden-Durlach, which was stationed in Warsaw.

His mission was to relieve the main Swedish army, together with the king himself, which was trapped and surrounded by Poles and Lithuanians in the confluence of the Vistula and San rivers.

The Swedish king realized that main Polish forces, which had trapped him in the area of Gorzyce, headed northwards, to face Frederick.

Polish hetmans Jerzy Lubomirski and Stefan Czarniecki were no longer in the area, which gave Charles Gustav a chance to escape the trap.

The Polish forces under Czarniecki and Lubomirski that chased him had to cover the distance of some 80 kilometers, which was difficult in the conditions of early spring, when roads were flooded by melting snow.

The forces of Frederick VI could have escaped the Poles, but the margrave made a grave mistake, when he decided to wait for a column of Swedish soldiers together with heavy wagons, which marched slowly to Warka from Radom.

In the meantime, Lubomirski caught up with lieutenant colonel Ritter's regiment forming the Swedish rearguard, defeating it and killing its commander.

[6] Frederick VI, whose forces shrank to between 2,200 and 2,500, ordered some units to guard the wagons, while the remaining regiments took positions at the edge of a forest, waiting for the attacking Poles with loaded muskets.

Altogether, the Poles had 8,000 soldiers, divided into ten regiments, but some 6,000 participated in the main fighting, as the remaining ones were busy chasing the retreating Swedes or looting the wagons.