Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 144 001 A series of trivial stories

The ambassador to Britain, Count Semyon Vorontsov, knew what the conspiracy was doing, but being in London, he certainly would not join the actions in St. Petersburg, but he was always regarded as an "absent conspirator."

Judging from this evaluation, he would not avoid some contact with the British, and by the end of 1800, he had become a former ambassador, but was allowed by Paul to stay in London.

Vorontsov's son Mikhail would play a great role in the military field in the future. He would become an army marshal and be awarded the title of prince, but that was a long time later.

The earl now lives in London and does have in-depth exchanges with the British cabinet. It is even possible that he conveys news from St. Petersburg to London and communicates with his associates about the attitude of the British side.

His dress and living habits are no different from those of ordinary British people.

Meanwhile, his daughter Ekaterina has been with him in London.

The strange thing is that this unmarried girl now has the status of a court maid, but she has never appeared in the palace. She is living in London while holding this status.

Count Vorontsov once claimed that if it were the Empress's time, he would never allow his daughter to accept this title.

After all, there were Potemkin's infamous nieces, and the kind of life they led, and he certainly would not accept the fact that his daughter would be compared with them.

However, when he said this, he was a typical "Russian chameleon". Paul usually would not be so kind as to provide this kind of identity to aristocratic girls who were not in St. Petersburg and were absent. The two sisters at No. 7 Million Street were an exception.

If Queen Maria had not mentioned Vorontsov's contribution to Paul, it might not have been passed.

The Earl was now dictating a letter home, written by his daughter, outlining the progress of the recruitment of engineers in England.

"Father, the contents of the letter to His Majesty cannot be just dictated by you. You must check it so that I can rewrite it."

"It's okay, Catherine. You don't need me to check. Just consider the matter of recruiting engineers in Scotland as unfinished business."

He didn't want to serve Paul at this time, but through his contacts with the British, he learned that the British government was dissatisfied with Paul's policy of armed neutrality and reconciliation with France, and that the channel for maintaining contact with Lord Whitworth had actually been cut off by Paul himself.

Now only Count Vorontsov and his friends in Russia could communicate with each other and let the British know the latest developments in St. Petersburg.

The latest reply he drafted implicitly raised the British cabinet's support for Lord Whitworth, which meant that the British hoped that Russia would change from its current political views to become closer to Britain, just like the Queen's foreign policy before 1793.

The result of the communication with Smirnov, the acting ambassador of the Russian Embassy in London, was that the cabinet's note was sent to the actual envoy.

"That's right. The Earl's letter has already explained the British side's attitude. We can take further action."

However, what they are going to do is rather ridiculous. After the New Year arrives, they will first make personnel changes in the Guards.

Since personnel appointments were in the hands of the regiment commander, Solovyov escaped the disaster. The appointment power of the Guards Regiment was in the hands of Tsar Paul, the Crown Prince and Grand Duke Constantine. Talezin once proposed to transfer the commander of the 1st Battalion, but the first suggestion was rejected by Paul.

And the latest big news is that the Crown Princess, who has always been so delicate that she has difficulty eating, has suddenly had a strong appetite.

Considering that the "little fairy" has had a bulging belly for three months, it is clear that something has happened to her this time. It is also generally believed that it may be some subtle results after the crown prince returned to the palace recently, at least there has been a result, otherwise Louisa, who has never eaten much, would not be able to eat a large plate of dishes by herself at every meal.

Only Solovyov himself was a little worried. He was wondering if there would be any trouble if the baby in Louisa's belly had the typical green eyes in his family.

Of course, his idea was a bit redundant. As long as the child was blond, there would be no problem. His hair color was lighter than Alexander's, and at most it would be considered "this is God's will."

This is thanks to the underdeveloped technology in Russia. He also did not run over during this period of time. After all, Alexander's time with Louisa increased, and he should not cause trouble for himself during this period of time and fall into a trap again.

But his job in the palace was to deliver letters to the Tsar on a daily basis, including a petition from Count Vorontsov on behalf of the expatriates in Britain.

"If Count Vorontsov could consider how badly the British's actions in the past had affected Russia, he should not have written this petition. I agreed to his resignation as ambassador to London, but I did not want him to be a leisurely retired aristocrat. After all, he has many connections in the UK."

"Yes, sir. But what is the point of showing me this letter?"

"Unfortunately, regarding your steam engine project, the British do not intend to directly license us the production technology of steam engines. They only agree to sell us some physical goods."

"By the time they are ready for use, Your Majesty, I'm afraid our own imitation steam engine will be completed, and it will be an updated version."

"Have you ever thought about becoming a civilian official? Solovyov, you were in the Guards, and it's obvious that there were some things you didn't do your best to accomplish."

"Your Majesty, I still think it's better for me to be by your side so that I can protect your safety. I'm afraid there are some people in the country who are not very friendly."

"Become a civil servant, and you can directly transfer to the eighth-class civil servant, which is also a hereditary noble. You can do well in railway construction, literary translation, and other areas that you are interested in."

"No, Your Majesty, I am not a professional engineer. It is better for me to stay with you."

Moreover, he had been corresponding with Louisa recently. The Crown Princess no longer just wrote him letters on white paper, but communicated in French and German. Solovyov carefully kept every letter in the old house in Laundry Lane, as well as Louisa's pajamas that he took away that night. The outside world didn't know why this guy was so mysterious and always went to his old house.

In this regard, Solovyov's explanation to the outside world was simple: it was very quiet to work there, and it was quieter than his new home at No. 29 Moika Embankment.

As long as Count Shuvalov and Prince Yusupov didn't hold any salons, Laundry Lane would be too quiet. Here, he finally put down his pen and completed the translation of a book. It was unlikely that he would have enough time to do something like this again.

Here, he was still making his own plans, and regarding the possibility of Paul being assassinated, he had expressed his concern for the safety of the Tsar himself while on duty.

And he was also making his own analysis, including the correspondence between London and Petersburg, the recent letters from Count Vorontsov, and the recent developments in various European countries.

With the Austrian army's disastrous defeat at Hohenlinden, the war in Central Europe came to an end. Currently, the only active participants in the anti-French alliance were Britain and the Ottoman Empire, the latter of which was still trying to take action in Egypt to repel the troops of General Kleber and General Menu.

Judging from the British attitude, they were actually very afraid that Tsar Paul would side with France and form a formal alliance.

Paul was different from his son. He really came up with a plan and even revealed this grand plan to the First Consul of France.

It was also suggested that France and Russia each send troops to advance into Afghanistan and India via the route explored by the Cossacks in Central Asia. The method of action should refer to the First Consul's expedition to Egypt. In addition to soldiers, there would also be scholars. The commander of this French army would be General Massena.

Putting aside other things, General Massena's ability to make money would definitely come in handy if he went to India. If this old soldier could win the battle, he would probably plunder all the Indian princes and Brahmins.

He himself was favored by Tsar Paul because he defeated the Russian army in Zurich.

The biggest obstacle to this plan is probably that neither the route through Central Asia-Afghanistan nor the march into Persia is suitable for an expedition. The price paid for Alexander the Great's legendary expedition was still very high, and it is not very feasible in terms of action.

However, this problem could be solved by having a sizable squadron operating from the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea.

When Alexander returned from his expedition, he took this route. In theory, there should be no problem with it and it is more practical.

You have to know that the French have several frigates and tens of thousands of militia-level armed forces in the territories of Reunion and Mauritius, which are enough to support Surcouf's privateers and pose a huge threat to the British.

At its most powerful, it was even able to attack the coast of India and Sumatra, and eventually the British were forced to send a small squadron to occupy these islands.

If they could gain a foothold in the Persian Gulf, it might be more troublesome for the British.

It’s just that Solovyov’s ideas were more or less due to the fact that he was not influenced by the Americans in other areas. However, the fact that there is oil in the Persian Gulf can be said to be a very typical symptom of "oil deficiency".

After he told Paul so much, the Tsar only sent two Cossack teams to explore for oil near some mountains. There are still reserves on both sides of the Caucasus Mountains.

We must also consider that the first Shah of the Qajar dynasty of Persia was a eunuch who had no offspring. After he was murdered like Nader Shah, his nephew who succeeded him was not very friendly to Russia and was prepared to use the power of Britain to continue to oppose Russia.

Whether it was the Queen, Paul or Alexander, three generations of the family had one goal, which was to have a good talk with the Persians. After all, Russia's strategy in the Caucasus had become somewhat restrained as the situation in Europe changed, and there had been no large-scale proactive offensive.

On the other hand, the Qajar dynasty took many actions to restore its sphere of influence in the Caucasus Mountains.

This is a long-standing legacy issue that has existed since Peter the Great went south and briefly controlled the southern coast of the Caspian Sea more than 80 years ago.

Although he was a bodyguard that the Tsar trusted very much, this status was not enough to allow him to have a say in the meeting. He could only answer questions asked by Paul.

Therefore, although he told the Tsar himself about these ideas in bits and pieces, they did not play much of a role.

During this period, he also saw Alexander returning frequently, so he would not run into any bad luck at this time, but instead focused more on inventions.

As for asking him to continue his translation work, he only translated some poems that he could still remember and explained some of the Chinese cultural background.

In fact, publishing books in this regard can also improve one's status, especially in cultural salons.

There were a lot of girls in that kind of place, and Louisa had reminded him of this when she kissed him.

Especially when he started to publish his translations, his name was already on the cover, and many young girls knew about this "great translator".

The "little fairy" even claimed that if she had not just gotten married and was enjoying her happy newlywed life, she would have organized a literary salon and invited him to attend.

Even if this girl becomes a little wife, she is still very interesting.

She has now earned the nickname "Little White Cat". She gets up lazily from her bedroom all day and starts her boring life as a lady.

Solovyov did not like literary salons, and he hoped to quickly transform technical things, so he had to get closer to Alexander and Konstantin and be active in front of them.

Alexander actually had a very good impression of him. After all, if he hadn't sold donkey skins to the palace, Louisa's uneasy fetal movements when she gave birth to her first child would have been very dangerous. He was also very loyal in the palace and was reliable in doing things. He had previously chased the intruder in Peterhof Palace and shot him dead.

Another point is that he is a close friend of several of his confidants. If you round it up, he is still close to Paul and Alexander. But when he is loyal to Paul, he also has to be "loyal" to Alexander and his wife.

However, if he knew that Solovyov's intimate relationship with his wife had even developed into his bedroom, he might have had a different attitude.

(End of this chapter)