Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 159 016 Petersburg's Bitter Fall Tower (Part )
Paul did hear the noise outside. Regardless of other people's feelings, he knew that this should be a real coup.

He then realized that he had underestimated the poisonous snake. What he raised was not a dog, but might even be worse than an animal.

The secret passage leading to the Queen's bedroom was blocked, so he ran to Princess Gagarina's room. When he just reached the secret staircase, he heard a sound coming from there.

In this way, Paul knew that he was now trapped in a jar and could only wait to die.

Bennigsen and the Zubov brothers were still searching for him, and Paul had no choice but to hide in the closet. He could only escape by luck if the other party didn't search the closet.

If these people left the room, he might still have a chance to escape. As long as he could reach the corridor, those guards still loved him, and he might have a chance to turn the tables.

At this time, he felt a little regretful for sending Solovyov to Alexander. If he was still in the 1st Battalion of the Putin Regiment, he would not have allowed such a group of people in during the night duty.

Bennigsen saw the situation at the closet. He walked over and didn't pay much attention to it, but Count Zubov behind him noticed something was wrong.

The officers opened the closet door and pulled Paul out in his pajamas.

The Tsar himself was short in stature, and there was no way he could defeat these tall officers.

"what is this?"

"Your Majesty, please abdicate! Just sign it."

Count Zubov stood in front of Paul with an expressionless face and took out the drafted abdication decree.

"No, I won't sign it!"

This is Paul’s attitude now.

But these drunken officers had already entered the emperor's bedroom, making the place full of alcohol, and everyone was holding a weapon. At first Paul mistakenly thought that Constantine was also there, and there was a young officer in the uniform of the Izmailov Regiment mixed in. He even said "Et tu", the famous saying of Caesar, but blinked and saw that it was not Constantine, so he was relieved that it was not his son who came here to rebel.

Bennigsen, who had his cavalry sword in his hand, raised it and addressed Paul: "Monsieur, you are my prisoner, and your reign is over. Relinquish the throne and sign the abdication immediately in favor of Grand Duke Alexander." (Sir, you are my prisoner, and your reign is over. Relinquish the throne and sign the abdication immediately in favor of Grand Duke Alexander.)
"Abdicate? Sign this edict? Who gave you the power?"

"In the name of the country and the people, Your Majesty, what you have done in the past few years has made everyone fed up."

Count Platon Zubov's words made Paul's attitude towards him even more contemptuous.

"Humph! The welfare I have brought to the people is something no one has ever done before. I issued a Three-Day Corvée Proclamation to the serfs, prohibited the separation of families when buying and selling serfs, abolished the poll tax, reformed the tax system, and destroyed the unpayable bonds and banknotes in our country. No one has really been able to do this in the past. The Russian army has won a brilliant victory in Italy, and the Georgian prince has even requested to submit. Our country has never been as stable and prosperous as it is today. No serfs or citizens have risen up in rebellion."

The louder Paul spoke, the more powerful his voice became, and he forced Count Platon to retreat step by step.

"And you, you just relied on your mother's favor to enter the core of the court. Although I don't like Prince Potemkin, he did much better than you. Among the four of you brothers, I know Nicholas and Valerian. They have some courage. You sold yourself to your mother and gave her edict of succession to me in advance when she was dying. This behavior is cowardly and treacherous. My name was originally written on the edict, and you, a villain, still wagged your tail and begged for mercy. What did you do by taking advantage of your mother's trust in you? You are a villain who curries favor with the powerful, a vicious dog that can never be tamed. The dog sheds tears when its master is about to die!"

When he said this, Paul thought of his father Peter III who died young, and his mother the Empress. Their final fate was that they were both betrayed by their favorite ministers, and tears came to his eyes.

"I will never sign this bullshit abdication edict! You are a bunch of Courland grooms, salted fish in the Baltic Sea, and stupid donkeys on the Gulf of Riga. If you really think you are asking me to abdicate for the sake of the country and the people, bullshit! Do the 3600 million people of Russia really support you as you say? Do you want to come and see, and ask the soldiers in the palace, the citizens of St. Petersburg, Moscow and other major cities, the free people in the countryside and the serfs in the manors to give their opinions?"

Count Zubov realized a problem at this time. That is, if Paul continued to talk like this, although the little Tsar's speaking skills were not very good at normal times, but when he was angry, the more he talked like this, the more these officers who were in the coup would feel that this matter was about to blow up.

And at this time, Paul began to have compassion on them again.

"It's not too late for you to stop now. I will forgive you. How pitiful! You want to depose me in the name of my son? I think this is impossible! My son Alexander is my heir by birth. This will not change after the royal succession law is announced. Even if I hate my son, I can't change the laws of the country! It's not too late for you to lay down your weapons and pledge allegiance to me again. I won't regard you as traitors."

His words really made the officers involved a little shaken. At this moment, Bennigsen was very calm. He knew that the worst outcome for him would be to be deprived of all the honors he had won in Russia and expelled from the country - after all, he was still a citizen of Hanover.

It was extremely dark in the bedroom at this moment, so he prepared to go out to find a candlestick and take a look at the situation.

As for the Zubov brothers, they are actually not as good as Paul when it comes to talking big. Paul looks short and inconspicuous, but he studies very hard. He is familiar with law, science, history, and has learned several foreign languages. Although he has never been to the battlefield, he has his own set of ideas about training soldiers, organizing logistics, and researching military equipment.

If he really outputs at full power, Count Platon Zubov may not be Paul's opponent. His level is far inferior to Potemkin.

Although Paul had a lot of dissatisfaction with Potemkin and even prepared to throw his coffin, he was quite caring towards his relatives.

He was somewhat disdainful of Platon Zubov, and the current situation was even more unfavorable to the count.

Count von Paalen was outside. He arrested Count Kutaisov and found a note in his hand, which read "Someone is causing trouble tonight, maybe the Count from Courland." The note looked like it was written in fresh handwriting.

"Humph!"

He had just finished humming when he saw an officer from Zubov's team coming over.

"Count, we have taken control of the palace, but..."

"Has the abdication decree been signed?"

"No, your majesty, he does not want to."

Seeing that the young officer was somewhat shaken, von Paalen's face became very ferocious.

"I think at this time, we should take the last resort. What should we do? You can go and tell them to execute according to the plan!"

As for the "plan", it was what Count von Paalen had been planning all along, to complete the regicide at this time and end Paul's rule by physical means.

However, he did not control any member of the royal family.

Hearing the commotion upstairs, Madame Leven came to the children's bedroom, woke up Maria, Catherine, Anna, Nicholas and Mikhail, changed their clothes, and then let the older children lead the younger ones, followed by the nanny and the maid, and ran to the stable through the secret staircase.

"Your Highness Maria, just go to the stable and let the groom take you to the Winter Palace!" While Mrs. Liven was in chaos in the palace, she took the opportunity to try to go to the Queen's bedroom, but when she turned to the stairs, she saw several officers at the door.

She was afraid of getting into trouble, so she went back to her room and now she could only wait for her chance to act.

The officers who received instructions from von Paalen had been listening to Paul using words as a weapon to drive Count Platon into a corner.

When Nicholas saw this situation, he could no longer bear to hear his brother being unilaterally verbally attacked by the monarch, so he threw the snuff box in his hand at Paul.

Although he was extremely strong, he still had some measure of restraint when hitting people, so he wouldn't kill them at once.

However, after seeing Count Nicholas beating the Tsar, these officers who came over plucked up the courage to attack Paul.

The most brutal attacker was the Georgian prince Yashvili, who threw himself on Paul, pinned him down, and then beat him with his fists.

Paul was still struggling and kicking the Georgian in the crotch, making him scream in pain, and then the other officers rushed over and beat the Tsar himself with sword handles and fists and anything they could pick up.

The Zubov brothers were stunned watching from the sidelines. These drunkards were simply destroying the plan. By now, Count Platon was no longer drunk and he saw a situation that was ultimately out of control.

Paul's face was now covered in blood, and he was lying on his simple royal bed, apparently not breathing. There was a scarf around his neck, and it was obvious that these officers had strangled him to death.

None of the beatings would be immediately fatal, but the interruption of breathing would definitely be fatal.

When Bennigsen came back with the candlestick, he saw this scene and he could hear it clearly at the door.

"What the hell did you do?"

The three leaders knew the current situation, so they went to find Count von Paalen.

"Now, these guys are directly killing the king. I think what you said about breaking eggs is for this purpose, right?"

Although Count Zubov and his brothers had a deep grudge against Paul, they were not willing to become regicides directly, especially since Nicholas actually hit Paul hard.

"At this point, we have to go all out. The only way to solve the problem is to meet His Highness and support him to ascend the throne!"

Count von Paalen completed his vicious plan to kill the king, but his back-up plan was thwarted. Alexander and Constantine were not in the palace. Only Queen Maria and her five children were there. However, looking at the royal carriage running out of the yard, the count knew that someone might have already escaped.

"What's going on over there?"

"Sir, several young princes have gone to the Ares Square in a carriage."

"what?"

These conspirators and murderers left Paul's bedroom. Discussing the next countermeasures on the stairs, Count von Paalen advocated mobilizing the Guards. After all, the commanders of the two Guards regiments were here and they could mobilize troops.

It is now late at night, and Count von Paalen is still preparing to use his power as the military governor of St. Petersburg to mobilize troops other than the Guards. Under the premise that there was no original plan, he is prepared to go all out and use military force to force Alexander to succeed to the throne, absolve them of their crimes, and control the government.

But whether it will succeed or not, no one knows.

It was Agapev who woke up at this moment. He had just had his head hit and was unconscious for a while. Now he was still dizzy when he sat up.

When he saw that the doors of the bedroom were all open, he knew that something was wrong. Thinking back, he thought that someone must have come to attack.

Then he saw Kirillov lying there with his face covered in blood.

"Dude, wake up"

After he confirmed that the hussar was not dead, he wanted to check the situation inside the bedroom, and then he saw a scene that shocked him greatly.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong with you?"

Agapeev remembered Paul's kindness and gave him a medal.

Paul was indeed dead, and the loyal guards remembered that they had sworn to protect the Tsar himself, but now this was the result, so they burst into tears. They also found Paul's military coat and hat and covered his body first.

Then he thought calmly that if someone attacked him, it must be a treason. At this time, he had only one way, which was to sneak out and report the death to the Winter Palace or the Marble Palace, at least to let one of the two princes know.

The Ares Field was now in chaos again. He crossed the moat and went to Nevsky Avenue.

After making a big circle so that he could still reach the gate of the Winter Palace on the other side of the palace embankment when he turned around, Agapev tore off a shirt and bandaged his head. He did not want to faint again before meeting the crown prince.

He was also quite lucky. Count von Paalen's attention was all on the Field of War at the moment. Although he was able to run out to Nevsky Avenue, he did not dare to talk to the Guards Cavalry officers on the street.

But among the officers patrolling the streets at night was Davydov, a young hussar who saw Agapev and seized him to question him.

"You are a soldier from the 1st Battalion of the General Corps, right? What happened? Were you attacked?"

"Mr. Lieutenant, something terrible has happened. Take me to the Winter Palace. I need to report to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the general on duty!"

Davydov looked rough but very smart. He knew that something big must have happened in the Mikhailovsky Palace.

"Can you ride a horse? Come with me, I will take you to the Winter Palace!"

(End of this chapter)