Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

This wasn't the first time something like this had happened; the Persians' arrogance was indeed quite exaggerated.

Fortunately, Alexander did not understand Persian, so the translator's tone was somewhat lacking. The Persian Shah used very harsh words and had a very tough attitude.

But now it seems like a fight won't break out.

This is nothing more than a diplomatic insult. If it really came down to a fight, if there were a game console here, the Persians would know they couldn't afford to mess with the Russians.

If we use the Total War series as an analogy, Solovyov currently has a commander with eight to nine stars, the kind who can be maxed out in defensive battles.

The weakest Russian general here is probably a basic character with some added attributes; he is not comparable to the governors and generals in the Persian army.

This doesn't even take into account the huge gap in national strength between the two countries; in terms of manpower reserves, Persia was far behind.

This could be considered a diplomatic insult, and Alexander wouldn't say anything to his face.

However, he did not intend to do anything immediately. The fact that the Persian envoy was able to move freely at the reception was in line with European diplomatic principles. At this time, the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire were still considered equals, with their respective statuses and Britain backing them up. Therefore, there would be no diplomatic incidents that would be reported in the newspapers.

If Alexander later had any objections to the Persian Empire, he was very good at diplomacy and simply asked Nesserrodi to summon the Persian ambassador to St. Petersburg and ask what was going on.

Solovyov's negative impression of the Persians stemmed from a fire in St. Petersburg, which started at the Persian embassy.

His old house was located in Xiye Lane, near a water source, so there was nothing to do there.

After that, he had little contact with Persia, but instead went to fight against the Ottoman Empire.

But before doing anything, the Sultan would always write a letter to show off his status, unlike the Persians who were so arrogant.

In short, those titles were no different from those of European monarchs.

After the reception ended, Solovyov saw a familiar figure.

Roman Bagration, the younger brother of Prince Peter Bagration, was also the guardian of several of his nieces.

Bagration wasn't too worried about his wife. She was famous for her womanizing ways in Vienna and Paris. This was only because she was beautiful, lived a fashionable and luxurious life, and didn't harm the interests of ordinary people, so she had some immunity from criticism.

In another sense, it's somewhat notorious.

Roman thus became the executor of his brother's will. The brothers were not often together, as Roman was transferred to the south several times for expeditions to Europe, and he only caught the tail end of some of them.

As for the fighting in the Caucasus, his legion will likely join the battle alongside Yermolov.

"Rome, how have you been lately?"

"Misha, you must have seen it there too, right?"

"I see. The Emperor probably doesn't intend to take any action. This isn't the first time he's done this recently. I can tell. Russia has been through more than a decade of war and needs a rest. The foreign debt incurred during the war is so large that just dealing with the accounting issues will take a long time."

"You also think it shouldn't have been done?"

"We need to wait a year or two. We still need to prepare. Dealing with a country like Persia isn't something we can just do because they send us a diplomatic insult. Otherwise, we'll be led by the nose by people with ulterior motives."

"You're still worried about the British; they always like to use these kinds of tactics."

“Even the British were quite surprised. Count Vorontsov talked with the British ambassador for a while, and we learned some things about the situation. The British had made diplomatic arrangements to support Persia against us, but not openly. They preferred to do things behind the scenes, instigating one country to fight against another.”

Those who try to maintain a balance in this regard always end up shooting themselves in the foot.

"What a pity, I thought we could fight a war."

"Don't worry, there will always be opportunities. How old is your son this year?"

"She's 4 years old and seems very lively."

"Boys may be a bit naughty when they are young, but they will be better when they grow up. Of course, they may also be like those dissolute young men in the St. Petersburg Guard."

Solovyov's attitude on this point will not change; he has never been one of those people.

"That's true. If I were to join the army, I would probably become more estranged from my son."

“But we are soldiers. I finally have some peace, but I have to stay in Crimea. Most of my family members are in St. Petersburg. My father even went to Italy to retire. He recently wrote to say that he even hopes to buy a burial plot in Italy and be buried there. When people get old, they inevitably have some strange ideas. He seems to be in very good health, much better than the average old man.”

"Putting that aside for now, if we're going to attack Persia, are you still planning to go through Azerbaijan?"

"If possible, we would keep our troops all the way to Tabriz. If we stay in the Caucasus Mountains, the fighting there might be disadvantageous to us. But we can't completely bypass it here either. In the Caucasus Mountains, the Georgians and Armenians are our supporters."

“Yes, if you think about it, before my father went to Russia, our family lived there too. We even had our own territory in Abkhazia in the past.”

However, this branch of Bagration is slightly different from the three ruling duchies, but the family tree can still be connected.

In the mountains of the Caucasus, there is also the Grovani family, who hold the hereditary title of prince in the Abkhazia region.

Going back further, even the actor who plays the role of Iron Man comes from this family. There was even a son of the last prince in the Red Army who became a marshal of the engineering corps. In his youth, as a naval engineer, he built a lot of coastal defense fortifications in the Crimean Peninsula that gave the Germans a headache.

They said they still felt a sense of belonging to Russia. Although it could not exist as an independent country, they still had their own territory there, were able to maintain a decent life, and did not have to worry about being constantly harassed by the Ottoman Sultan and the Persian Shah, or being subservient to them.

In fact, Bagration's lineage can be traced back to the Armenian royal family, and he has a strong claim to the Caucasus region.

This is something that other Caucasian rulers could not match. The most glorious period in Georgian history was during the reign of the two queens of the Bagration family.

The Kingdom of Georgia was subsequently attacked by Jalal ad-Din, but the Mongols intervened and resolved the crisis. Georgia had even married a noblewoman from the Golden Horde. Before the kingdom's disintegration, it only needed to pay tribute to the Mongols. It existed for another six hundred years before finally being annexed by Russia.

However, by following Russia, even Caucasian nobles like them not only had soup to drink, but could also be considered to have meat to eat.

After all, Russia absorbed many of the upper classes of the conquered forces to become lords, while the treatment of its own serfs has been getting worse and worse for a long time. If you trace the ancestry of many Russian heads of state after the 20th century, you can probably find that they were serfs.

Solovyov also thought of this, and he thought of the bald tailor from his expedition to Sweden, who should still be in Astrakhan.

Even the surname had changed when the letter arrived.

He used to think they looked familiar, but now he's quite shocked.

In Trier, you might meet a lawyer with a big beard, and his son also has a big beard.

As for the bald tailor in Astrakhan, his son and grandson were also bald.

If I were to go to the Caucasus again and encounter a bearded shoemaker, it wouldn't sound strange at all.

After all, he didn't know who the Iron Man's grandfather was, and Georgians and Ossetians generally had beards, and peasants liked to rebel.

He was of course unaware that Zaza Dzhugashvili routinely antagonized the lords, especially the Russian lords.

If we compare this matter with what Rokossovsky's great-grandfather did, there might be a connection.

After all, the Russian military and police who work on the ground are quite inhumane.

In the few provinces of the Crimean Viceroyalty, regardless of whether the governor was a military officer or a civilian, the political situation was considered clean and efficient.

This was entirely Solovyov's idea. He believed that appeasement, lowering tax rates, stabilizing local social order, prosecuting corrupt officials, replacing incompetent officials, and inviting unscrupulous merchants to the private rooms of luxury hotels were all necessary actions.

Solovyov usually only interacted with nobles, and it was only in his home and the towns and villages he visited that he saw commoners and even serfs at this time.

Compared to other officials, he was not only close to the common people, but in the Chinese context, he even had the air of a righteous and upright official.

However, he had a fair complexion, and although he had a scar on his forehead from being slashed by French cavalry in the past, it was not a crescent-shaped scar in the center of his forehead; the scar was too shallow to be easily seen.

As for the other powerful figures in the underworld, they didn't want someone like Solovyov wandering into their jurisdiction.

After seeing Roman off, Solovyov strolled in the garden of Tsarskoye Selo, and unfortunately ran into Alexander's squire, Balasov, with whom he had a grudge both publicly and privately.

“Count, the Emperor now requests your presence.”

"at this time?"

"Yes, he simply sent a maid with a note requesting your presence."

However, Alexander himself did not meet with Solovyov, but left only a letter.

This Tsar is getting stranger and stranger.

But the letter also made it very clear that Solovyov's jurisdiction extended from Crimea to the Caucasus, and the princes of the former semi-independent principalities of Georgia, as well as his old friend General Yermolov, were all under his unified command.

The formal appointment will be issued, and the burden will become even heavier after Solovyov returns to Crimea.

Alexander planned to expand the territory into several large governorates, and send governors to each of them.

The Siberian Governorate, which originally oversaw all matters related to North America, was to be separated and assigned to a separate Russian Governorate of America. Under Speransky's ingenious arrangement, this governorate itself was transformed into the jurisdiction of two governorates: West Siberia and East Siberia.

In terms of status, they were the same as Solovyov, the governor of Crimea, but their territories were just larger, and they could not effectively govern the land, nor did they have many people there.

In Europe, Alexander sent several of his loyal ministers to the south, while Russia's core regions were still governed in the old way. Poland was handed over to Grand Duke Constantine, and the Grand Duchy of Finland was also occupied by the original group of Swedish nobles, with the Grand Duke of Finland nominally being held by the Tsar himself.

Yermolov remained the governor of the Caucasus, but he was under the jurisdiction of Solovyov. Given their personal relationship and the camaraderie forged in the bloody battle, this was not a problem.

Solovyov packed his bags, heading to Georgia to inspect the front lines.

Although it seems more like dealing with the Ottoman Empire right now, after all, its reputation makes it a formidable opponent. The mothers of the Ottoman Empire would probably say how terrible it is to have a Russian pretty boy devil.

As for the Persian Empire, they had probably heard of a formidable fellow in Russia, but this man had been transferred from the Suzdal Regiment, where he was supposed to serve, at the age of 15, and had not been able to come south to have friendly physical exchanges with the Persians or become one of them.

Therefore, they didn't feel anything, and according to official sources, it was just like the Persian king in the Book of Kings, who simply overwhelmed Napoleon with sheer numbers by using his army of hundreds of thousands.

They hadn't considered that even with sheer numbers, the battle had to be fought thoroughly. Darius III twice encircled and killed Iskandar, only to be outmaneuvered and killed in a dramatic counterattack, creating a story reminiscent of a mythical drama about resisting Persia, bordering on the exaggerated.

Moreover, Solovyov's solo victory over the Ottoman Empire, a terrifying achievement accomplished by a detachment, is something they should pay close attention to.

However, the Shahs of Persia remained very arrogant, believing that with the support of the British, they had nothing to worry about with the Russians.

Then, this terrible fellow, after spending some time with the children in St. Petersburg and fostering a bond with them, hurriedly skipped the subsequent royal reception, only briefly meeting his aunts and glancing at his daughter with Maria, before heading south along the Volga River's canal network, eventually reaching the Kalmyk pastures.

In truth, Solovyov preferred to be with these Kalmyk Mongols, at least there wasn't much infighting between them. Genghis Khan, though he used schemes to kill his internal adversaries, did so without any attempt to hide anything, killing them directly.

These straightforward Mongol leaders, upon hearing of the Persians' arrogance, along with the various Tatar Noyans who had come to the meeting, declared that by the "Eternal Heaven" and "Allah," they would use their sabers to silence these impudent people and force them to obediently accept punishment.

Moreover, it also carries some remnants of the past grievances between the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate. (End of Chapter)