Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 372 014 Changes that Appeared in Advance

"It's been a long time since we've spent time together like this, Misha."

"But if it's like this, it always makes people feel that you are also looking for excitement."

Solovyov and Louisa slept in the same bed, but they didn't have to worry about being spied on. After all, the maids had all gone to sleep and the guards were all outside, so they wouldn't disturb the queen's sleep.

"But I don't like excitement that much."

"In Russia, anything can happen."

As he said this, he was still caressing Louisa's back and waist, and then continued to kiss her.

If we are not careful, someone might die again. This time there are no twins to cover us.

"It looks like we might have a child."

"But for so long, Louisa, you have given birth to girls, and your Majesty has even given up hope of having a son."

"That may also be God's will. I am also curious, besides our baby, how many other children do you have, young people who are not married."

"There are three more, two of whom are girls you know."

"Are you talking about the girl from the Visconti family? She's really interesting. She could have been your wife, but you chose her this way in the end. If you bring her back, I will bless you."

"But that's the way it is. She doesn't want to marry me, and she doesn't even plan to marry anyone else."

"Strange girl, what about the other one?"

"Don't be surprised, Louisa, when you hear that."

Seeing him like this, Louisa became curious.

"I would like to listen to it. Of course, I might be surprised."

Solovyov cleared his throat and said slowly: "I have a son with Polina, wife of Prince Borghese, the sister of the French usurper Napoleon Bonaparte."

"Alas, you have struck directly at the heart of our enemy."

Of course, Louisa's words were somewhat joking. Her brother wrote to say that Napoleon intended to make his adopted daughter Stephanie his wife, so that the Elector of Baden, or now the Grand Duke of Baden, and Bonaparte's new royal family would become one family.

"You rarely speak so playfully, Louisa, go on..."

"I always feel like you still have some secrets. Don't hide them from me. I can tell from the look in your eyes."

Then Louisa pressed herself against Solovyov's body. The soft touch and the mixed almond milk-like scent made it difficult for anyone to refuse her request after the intimate contact.

Solovyov did this because he liked this feeling. He thought for a moment, then stroked Louisa's shoulder and whispered in her ear: "Don't disbelieve it, Louisa. My stepmother may be the cousin of Queen Josephine, and that Bonaparte may be my uncle!"

Of course, his hands were not very honest and they frightened Louisa like a frightened little rabbit.

She grabbed the quilt and huddled inside it. After giggling, she regained her calm expression.

"I never thought you had such a relationship with that person. In that case, the princess' wife can be regarded as your young aunt, oh my..."

Young women are often gossipy, but Solovyov knew that Louisa would not tell anyone. She knew what could be said and what could not be said.

"But I only found out about this afterwards, and there's no blood relationship between us, so it doesn't matter."

"So we are a family now."

"Even now, we're in the same bed."

Solovyov was now tickling Louisa's ticklish armpits, which made her beg for mercy, and her tearful eyes made people want to bully her even more.

"Okay, Misha, please forgive me."

"Well."

We have to stay here overnight, and there are still important things to do tomorrow.

What was more shocking was that because Solovyov said "there was no confirmation", Louisa did not investigate further.

Anyway, even if the person involved knew about it, there has been no reaction so far. The letter that Solovyov wrote after Dürenstein, which was half about looking for relatives and half about provocation, was not handed over to the person involved's family, and Josephine didn't even understand it.

As for Louisa, Solovyov will come over during this period, but you have to be careful.

During the day, he still had to return to Grand Duke Constantine, because the Russian army had to set up the structure of the general staff, and then adjust the general staff headquarters supervised by the Quartermaster General, so he devoted all his energy to work.

At this moment, adjustments do need to be made.

However, when he arrived at the Guards headquarters, he looked to be in poor condition and easily attracted attention.

But many people knew that he often went to Madame Récamier's house, so maybe he went there again this time.

The lady was not even thirty years old. Although she was a young widow from France, she was very attractive just to look at, and the generals were extremely envious of her.

But for Madame Recamier, those who were allowed to enter her boudoir had to have some literary accomplishment and be able to write poetry or create works by themselves. Although these warriors had a high level of cultural literacy, they were not very good at cultivating their sentiments, and when they wrote love letters, they still kept piling up corny words and phrases.

"You kid, hehe."

It was not until some of the Guards Cavalry came over that Solovyov realized the problem, but he still had time to tidy up his appearance.

Only after Constantine came in did they begin to discuss the main issue, the composition of the general staff.

"Well, all the regiment leaders are here today, as well as the clerk from the War Department who is here to record the results of our discussion. The results of our discussion will be sent to Sergei Kuzmich. Now, let's start with Solovyov."

Konstantin took the lead, and Solovyov knew that he would be the initiator today. "Ladies and gentlemen, our staff has always followed the style of Prussia and Austria. On the one hand, we have a quartermaster general, and on the other hand, we have a duty general. This maintains parallelism between departments, but in fact it is not conducive to the operation of the entire command structure."

"Yes, the duty general was only restored after the emperor issued an edict, so it is inevitable that his duties are unclear."

"That's true. So when we set up the General Staff and appointed the Chief of Staff below the commander, we merged the departments under the jurisdiction of the Quartermaster General and the General on Duty into the jurisdiction of the General Staff. After all, the staff is also a kind of staff. This is how it is used in the several languages ​​we use."

Even in Russian, words may have been borrowed from abroad.

Everyone agreed to this, and then Konstantin signaled Solovyov to continue.

Then, he asked a lieutenant of the Chasseurs to unveil the curtain, revealing the staff structure he had created.

In fact, it is also simple. This can directly establish a general staff headquarters for Russia, which will be under the jurisdiction of seven departments, responsible for operations, intelligence, reconnaissance, logistics, general affairs, office and foreign exchanges.
If we do this, after Solovyov explained it, the structure is indeed very clear.

“This looks okay!”

Maliutin understood that if the operation was carried out in this way, the responsibilities of the General Staff would be clearer. Moreover, if the Foreign Affairs and Office were removed and the previous five departments were placed in the regular General Staff, it would be very useful.

However, many people have noticed that this plan still includes a lot of staff configurations for several combat-related departments.

In order to explain it clearly to everyone, Solovyov also had to continue to explain: "Look here, after our staff is established, the front-line troops will definitely have needs. The responsibility for combat planning should still be in the high-level command organization. The army and divisions going out need to be adjusted, and more efforts should be made to strengthen the combat planning department. What is needed more at the front is the reconnaissance agency."

"But then you'd be as bloated as the Austrians."

When Solovyov heard someone say this, he knew what to do and how to respond.

"The Austrians have bloated organizations because they have added too many meaningless personnel to their departments. Our staff organization has fewer personnel than the Austrian one, and at the same time, each staff member must emphasize his or her functionality."

“Functional?”

"Ah, that's what you can do. Gentlemen, remember not to imitate the Austrians and use incomprehensible words like I did."

After saying this, all the group leaders burst into laughter. They all knew that the orders given by the Austrians were very rigorous and verbose, and were conveyed in German.

During joint operations, it would be a big problem if the Russian officers were not proficient in German.

At this time, Solovyov had begun to prepare for the next anti-French alliance and was already considering the issue of the staff organization after joining forces with Prussia.

You know, if the Guards set up a general staff now, his rank is not high, but he can join the general staff. Grand Duke Constantine hopes that he will serve as the chief of staff.

Although his rank was somewhat low for the position.

However, considering that royal family members like Grand Duke Constantine are generally not called by military rank, since he is a colonel, it doesn't matter if the rank is a little lower.

He has even now figured out what the composition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be.

But even so, he would probably have to leave the Guards Chasseurs and take up a new job in the General Staff.

The disadvantage is that you cannot lead troops directly and the workload is heavy; the advantage is that you have more free time and can also focus on writing work.

Even after work, he had to divide his energy to deal with those publishing houses. In addition, he had to teach Grand Dukes Nicholas and Mikhail, and he had to take time out in the evening to deal with Louisa, and sometimes he might even have to go to Madame Recamier.

Even at home in Xili Lane, I couldn't completely relax.

This period of time was quite stressful for him, with both the work and life intensity being very high.

However, as the work intensity increased, he felt a sense of accomplishment to a certain extent, and this was also a way for him to cross the threshold and be promoted to general.

If the Solovyov family wants to have a general, if he doesn't work hard now, he will probably have to wait until his nephew makes a name for himself in the Guards.

As for the establishment of the General Staff, when Constantine brought the results of the discussion to Alexander, the Tsar himself made a quick decision and approved the transfer of many responsibilities of the Quartermaster General's Department to the newly established General Staff. In the future, the old department will focus on logistics support and the construction of military facilities.

However, after the reorganization of the Ministry of War, it began to be more or less involved in military production.

Sergei Kuzmich’s ability is enough to run the old Ministry of War, but it would be a bit difficult if he were to run the new track.

But Alexander had not made a decision in this regard. Except for Van Suchteren who would temporarily serve as Chief of Staff and his confidant Peter Volkonsky who would serve as Deputy Chief of Staff and concurrently Chief of Operations, all other personnel were transferred from the original Quartermaster General's Department.

After this reorganization, the responsibilities of the main military leadership organs are relatively clear. The next step is to further adjust the military system and add a division-level command organization, which generally has 4 to 6 regiments under its jurisdiction. It is still mainly a two-four system. Only a few strengthened troops will use the three brigades and six regiments.

Solovyov himself was merely transferred out of the Guards Chasseurs, and a royalist exiled from France, Saint-Prix, was found to replace him.

"Your Highness, what else should I do?"

"You should stay at the Guards Headquarters. Considering that you have to teach my brothers and are busy with official duties, you should also guide the establishment of the Guards General Staff."

In this way, the intensity of work has been reduced a little. His schedule in recent times has been quite full, and he really cannot work at full capacity.

General Van Suchteren also made some adjustments to the structure of the General Staff. As a chief engineer at the rank of admiral, he was indeed in charge of a lot of things.

Especially in several important cities in the border areas, defensive fortifications must be built, such as the newly built fortresses in the Brest area, as well as defense zones around the border and the construction of defense facilities in some important areas of the country.

However, at the construction level, it is also quite troublesome, that is, the phenomenon of misappropriation of military funds, which is common in Europe. It is just that it has not affected the number of troops, which is thankful.

If they are like the Turks next door, many of their sultan's personal guards have already been vacant. If the number of people continues to decrease, I am afraid that even the Ottoman slap will be lost in the future.

After the General Staff was established, Peter Volkonsky was also tasked with conducting preliminary assessments of possible military operations in several directions and formulating corresponding combat plans.

This was supported by Alexander. In the reports he had seen, both Gudovich, who had already set out for the Caucasus, and Duke Richelieu, who was in Odessa, had reported that the Ottoman Empire was extremely restless on its border.

Even Anapa, an important military fortress and talent exchange market of the Ottoman Empire, which is very close to Crimea, has strengthened its military forces, and the opponent obviously does not want to stop.

(End of this chapter)