Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 168 025 Russia's steamship is finally built

After counseling, Louisa felt better and her physical condition also improved.

It is now April and the investigation is still ongoing. Alexander himself is worried. Neither having fun with his mistress nor playing cards can make him happy.

This emotional political animal and outstanding actor did not care about his wife at all. The queen was beautiful and kind-hearted. She was unforgettable at first sight. It was impossible for him not to like her because he was so lustful.

However, he always had to make a trade-off in interests, using the royal ceremonial status and the two major palaces left by Paul, Pavlovsk and Gatchina, to appease the empress dowager's dissatisfaction, thus sacrificing the interests of his wife.

Louisa had no compensation. She was only a queen and had not been officially crowned. Alexander knew where to delay, which was one of his most hateful aspects.

"Your Majesty, the Queen is feeling better now. Would you like to arrange a place for her to rest?"

"I think that's fine. She can choose whether to go to the aquarium, Tsarskoye Selo or Tafred Palace. She can also tell her how many attendants she wants and what kind of ceremony she wants."

However, Louisa's event was modest. She just moved to the Tavrid Palace with a few caring maids and several guard officers.

She didn't go to Tsarskoye Selo because it was too close to the Empress Dowager and she would inevitably be caught in the middle. Although there were her two chattering sisters-in-law, Maria and Catherine, she didn't like to make herself uncomfortable at this time.

After all, the imperial physician had reminded her that during pregnancy, one should always keep a good mood. Solovyov emphasized this again when he went to counsel her that night.

"Louisa, I'm going to make you a new toy during this time."

Intense preparations are now underway in the pond of the Tauride Palace. This is Russia's first steamship. Although the materials used are designs previously used by the French, it is still a big deal.

The reason why Alexander himself did not appear on the scene was that he was busy completing negotiations with France and some new political ideas.

In comparison, the actor Alexander is much smarter than his father. He knows that he has to do things in a roundabout way, but he lacks determination and is prone to give up halfway if he encounters a little setback.

However, establishing a secret committee and allowing confidants to discuss politics within this framework, as well as reforming Russia's government departments and changing both the committee and the Diplomatic Academy into a departmental system, this kind of administrative reform is at least much more cunning than Paul's forced reform.

However, this was just a minor matter. He was a person who particularly liked to compromise. His wife was going to give birth to a child for him, but he sacrificed his wife's interests just to compromise with his mother.

As for compromises elsewhere, who knows how he will do it.

Solovyov really wanted to label Alexander as "Yuan Shao". It was too tiring to watch him perform like this. If he were to be a minister, it would definitely not be as comfortable as being an officer fighting on the battlefield.

During the first month of the old emperor's absence, Solovyov missed him very much. After all, the several inventions and ideas that he was able to gradually complete were all strongly supported by the old Emperor Paul.

He has now completed the construction of two boats, the first of which will be put on display in the pond of the Tafred Palace.

Those who came to see the steamship were basically all ladies in the palace. Maria and Catherine also came from Pavlovsk. Konstantin, the second oldest brother, was very kind to his sisters and mentioned that Major Solovyov and the French had worked hard for a whole winter and had completed the first steamship.

However, before this ship could start its first official voyage and reach the pond of the Tauride Palace, it had to be sailed on dry land and towed into the pond from the bank of the Neva River.

Solovyov did not expect that so many girls would come to watch. The area around the pond of the Tavrid Palace was already occupied by girls from the Smolny Palace and the Catherine Medal School.

"Brothers, with so many girls here to watch, we can't lose face! Otherwise, we'll become gossip among these little girls!"

Especially the naval cadet, there were two Lazarevs sent there for internship, but they were not nuclear-powered either, so they nodded after hearing this.

"Yes, Mr. Major, we can't lose face. Our sister is in the Smolny Girls' School!"

"Then we have to work harder! Actually, my sister is also a student at a girls' school. What a coincidence."

The Lazarev brothers looked at Solovyov and guessed that the major's sister was about the same age as Vera.

Of course, they didn’t know that Yulia and Vera were not only classmates, but also roommates in the same dormitory. Sometimes when they couldn’t sleep, they would cuddle in the same bed and they had a very good relationship.

Solovyov himself didn't know. He knew that his sister was a "social bully" in social occasions, but he didn't know her exact level. She was in the military camp and the palace all day, so he had no idea of ​​the situation.

The girls from the girls' school are now sitting by the pond, waiting for the queen to arrive.

"Which one is Her Majesty the Queen?"

The two sisters of the Komnenos family were still very curious. After all, the former Queen Maria, now the Empress Dowager, was very particular about pomp and circumstance, and although they had heard that the Crown Princess was a great beauty, they rarely saw her.

This time in the Tauride Palace was Louisa's first official business, and although Alexander's relationship with his wife had become cold again, her few words on the Field of Mars that night were indeed very useful.

But a queen who doesn't care about ostentation is somewhat strange in Russia.

If Louisa had married into another country's court and become a queen, those monarchs would have loved her very much. After all, the court atmospheres of the German princes and several major countries were similar, except that Vienna was worse than St. Petersburg. Or perhaps Louisa was not very adaptable to the Russian court. If a princess who liked pomp and excitement was replaced as queen, the problem might have been solved.

"Ania, look at the one in the white dress, that is Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth."

Julia recognized Louisa, after all, her ruby ​​brooch was given to her by the Queen, even though she was still the Crown Princess at the time.

"Her Majesty the Queen is such a beautiful big sister!"

All the girls in the girls' school agreed with this statement. Besides, they were not children anymore and girls were sensible at an early age. They also knew that the queen, who had a slender figure, was a little "fat", which meant that she was pregnant.

One of the purposes of their coming to the girls' school is to train themselves into qualified ladies.

When Louisa sat down, she also heard the speech of the lady-in-waiting.

"Your Highness, can we start now?"

"Let Mr. Major start. I hope he can succeed at once. After all, this is the mature design of the Marquis." Through several demonstrations in the palace and night talks with Solovyov, Louisa also learned about the concept of steamships and was looking forward to it. After all, it was her Mishka who discussed with the Marquis to change the display venue from the Neva River to the pond of the Tauride Palace just to make her happy.

But I didn’t expect that it would cause such a big fuss and all the girls from the girls’ school would come.

For the Marquis de Jouffroy, this is indeed an opportunity to show off. Although Tsar Paul is no longer around, the new Tsar Alexander is a man who cares about face and has agreed to the bounty and research funds.

Although he was not present in person, the young Queen, three younger sisters and two Grand Duchesses were all present at the event.

Of course, Yevdokia and little Maria had no idea what this thing was at the moment, but Louisa missed her daughter, so she asked the nanny and the governess to bring her over.

Strangely, neither Nicholas nor Mikhail came. I wonder what the Empress Dowager is up to.

Constantine had military duties to attend to, and he also had to clean up the conspiracy groups left over from within the Guards, so it was normal for him not to come.

"Mr. Major, Her Majesty the Queen means that you can start now."

"Marquis Jouffroy, let us begin."

"All right, monsieur, light the fire!"

Of course, for a small ship, burning the boiler is relatively quick, but for a large ship, it would be more disastrous.

After the small boiler on the ship had been burning for a while, steam finally came out. With the rising white smoke, the paddle wheel of the steamship finally started to turn.

The boat sailed from the west side of the pond, passed the wooden viewing platform in front of the Tavrid Palace where Louisa was sitting, then passed in front of the girls' school students, and finally turned around and came back.

When the steamboat with steam and a simple whistle slowly passed in front of Louisa, she smiled, a smile from the bottom of her heart, and hugged her two daughters tightly.

The little girls also clapped their hands. Maria and Catherine maintained their ladylike demeanor. They appeared in front of the students of the girls' school. The noble sisters of similar age and younger were watching them. They could not lose face.

Solovyov and the Marquis were both operating the boiler. Now that they had confirmed that there were no problems, they lined up neatly on the boat and, together with the Lazarev brothers, young cadets sent by the Naval Academy, saluted the Queen on the boat.

Louisa returned the greeting and she also noticed that the ship had the golden name "Elizabeth Alexeevna" on it. It was obvious that she had come here and paid tribute to her before choosing this ship.

In fact, there was another reason. When the Marquis was testing on the Neva River, the boiler of the "Pavel" exploded again.

The Marquis himself found it funny that his inventions always caused the small boiler to explode, and this time it failed completely.

Originally the ship was named "Queen Maria", but Solovyov remembered that the unlucky Black Sea Fleet always managed to sink its flagship, especially the battleship "Queen Maria", which not even Admiral Gao could calm down, as it sank due to an overheated boiler that caused an explosion in the ammunition depot. This name was unlucky, so he changed it to the Russian name of Louisa.

The voyage was relatively smooth, and they were restoring history. The first steamship in Russia was called this name.

Louisa was particularly happy today. After the steamer came back, she wanted to take a ride on it herself.

"Sister-in-law, you have to be careful and you haven't been feeling well lately."

Maria did try to persuade her sister-in-law not to get on board, but she was not worried.

"Major Solovyov is here, don't worry, and we'll only be back a short ride."

In terms of the load capacity of the ship, the women could also try it out. The Marquis was a little timid and felt he could not afford the risk of the Queen falling into the water, but Louisa was very confident.

"Just drive the boat. We are going to the girls' school. If you are worried about any problems, just let the boat dock at the small pier over there."

The girls from the girls' school were all there. Today, Louisa felt much better, so she dared to "take the risk". She believed in Solovyov and believed that the ship would definitely operate very stably.

Safe driving is indeed required. Solovyov knows that today's responsibility is not ordinary. Several young girls also got on the boat.
Of course, the boat was sailing very steadily, so there was no need to worry, and it was moored at the dock.

The two Lazarev brothers jumped down first, and there they took Maria and Ekaterina's hands and asked them to jump ashore as well.

Louisa came to the dock with the help of Solovyov. She was in very good spirits today. It seemed that after several days of recuperation, her complexion was not much different from the healthy skin color of her peers.

Of course, when Yulia saw her brother, she did not act unruly like she had in the past. She first saluted the queen, and then was recognized.

"Is it Yulia? Your brother is right here. She is really cruel enough to send you to a girls' school instead of attending classes at home."

"Your Highness, it's great here. I have many sisters now. This is Vera, this is Anya, and this is Katya. We live in the same dormitory."

Vera also saw her two brothers, and after bowing to Louisa, she ran over there.

"It's a fine day indeed, Major."

"Yes, Your Highness, it is a very memorable day in Russian history. On April 1800, 4, the first Russian steamship completed its maiden voyage in the Tauride Palace Pond."

This is indeed a restoration of history (historically it took place in the same place in 1815). Louisa was very happy today and was sitting among the girls in the girls' school. Fortunately, there were only about eighty or ninety students in each class of the girls' school, and the class she was taking care of happened to be the first and second grade students where Julia was.

The Lazarev brothers were also very happy, after all, their sister was here. But they didn't expect that they were in the same class and dormitory with the major's sister. This was a coincidence.

Apart from the successful voyage, the Queen herself was also very happy today, as it was considered a mission successfully completed.

The successful operation of the Russian steamship will also be reported in the newspapers. The next time it sails on the Neva River, it will be a victory as long as it does not capsize.

(End of this chapter)