It was decided that only eight thousand Cossacks would go out of the Sich while the rest would stay put as reserves. During the preparations to the Sich arrived the envoy of the Crown Hetman Mikołaj Potocki, rotmistrz Chmielecki, who offered Khmelnytsky and Cossacks the chance to leave Zaporizhia and disperse. To that Khmelnytsky said that it would happen if Potocki himself together with other Polish lords left Ukraine. Receiving such an answer Potocki in a great hurry moved with his army south.