Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 506 018 Russian troops have unimpeded access to Finland

Nikolai behaved well at Soloviev's house, although the difficulty of Soloviev's "Tsarskoye Selo Secret Scroll" was quite difficult for a child of his age, even for a relatively outstanding student.

He gritted his teeth and persevered, and when Miss Scherer took them back, he asked about some of the situations.

"Your Highness's academic level is all here. You'd better go back and show it to Her Highness the Queen Mother."

"Any progress?"

"At least I was able to stick with these courses, which is a good performance."

Seeing that Nikolai had already got into the carriage, Solovyov continued.

"At least I said that in order to learn military affairs well, you must master geography, mathematics, physics and chemistry. This makes Your Highness very interested and willing to learn. As for teaching military science, I don't need to continue to be the master, right?"

"Of course, Count. After all, you are an active soldier and you have missions to perform."

"I won't see you off. I have to take care of my wife here and finish some writings. After all, the Minister of War doesn't want the staff to interfere too much in frontline affairs."

The fact that Solovyov was so openly slacking off was not considered strange in the Petersburg court. Arakcheev did indeed kick Sukhteren and his group aside after they had completed their plan.

Volkonsky, who had been acting as foreman of the general's chamberlain and Alexander's personal military adviser, would naturally be in Petersburg.

But for the other people in the General Staff, except for the intelligence department being requisitioned by Arakcheyev, the others could not play any role. Sukhteren himself no longer served as the Chief of the General Staff, but went to the front line as the Director of Ordnance.

Solovyov took advantage of the fact that his wife was pregnant and needed someone to take care of her, and lived with his wife in their estate.

In fact, Katya is in good health. Apart from the fetus kicking and punching in her belly, she is in the best condition among the inexperienced young mothers and does not really need her husband to take care of her so much.

She even knew that her husband was amorous and lustful, and the fact that he could behave like this in front of her showed that he loved her very much.

"Mishka, you don't have to accompany me all the time. You can go to Petersburg."

"Although I have many flaws, I am different from those young men in the Royal Guards. I always have my own principles. I have to wait for a while anyway. Besides, I like you so much, even though you are still a little girl."

"I'm about to give birth to a child for you, and you still treat me like a child."

"I am doing this because I like you. Also, lie down first. Olga, hold your belly. Either the fetus is too well nourished in your belly, or you are pregnant with twins."

Katya then obediently raised her buttocks. She still had to do some "unblocking" for her. She had been entertaining several princes these two days and had eaten a lot, so it was inevitable that she would have indigestion and constipation. Solovyov took care of his wife like he was taking care of a child. He was even afraid that she would make stupid mistakes and make herself sick.

"Yes, I will eat more every day. I will love this child very much in the future. As for the future, we will have many more children."

Hearing this, although Solovyov knew in his heart that Katya loved him very much, if she continued like this, and she was still young, according to the fact that Russian women often gave birth in their forties,
Judging from the family's financial situation, it seems that he will need to fight more wars and earn more money. If his stepmother had not been very kind to him and still insisted that half of his father's property should belong to him, the eldest son who brought the most income to the family, in exchange for taking good care of his younger brothers and sisters, then the traditional inheritance dispute among the Russian aristocracy would have occurred.

After all, there are always widows who marry a concubine after their wife dies. This kind of thing always happens in families, from St. Petersburg and Moscow to Smolensk, Tula, Ryazan and Tambov, and even in some less prominent small places.

In short, he also felt that he was under a lot of pressure. After all, he was the eldest son in the family and the burden was extremely heavy.

After Katya's intestines were lubricated with glycerin and grease, Olga had to take her to the toilet, and he couldn't take her with him for this part.

Anyway, in Katya's mind, it seems that the whole process from pregnancy to childbirth is no big deal. It's just that according to Russian tradition, the fewer people who know about it, the less pain it will cause.

Besides, it’s still early.

He returned to the study and waited for the butler to arrive with some letters.

"Master, all the letters I received in the past two days are here."

"These postmen, we should be thankful that they didn't deliver the wrong letters. Our country's postal system still needs to be improved. At least they should be able to read."

"Who says it isn't? Here is a letter from Prince Bagration. You have also given instructions that there are letters from several gentlemen that need to be taken care of. When you come to the study, you should bring them to me."

"Yes, you have worked hard. Vasily, you can go down and rest. I have nothing to do here. I will have to send someone to take care of the lady later."

"After all, she is a young lady from my family and now she is your wife, Master. I understand what you mean."

"When Mr. Belzoni comes back, if I'm not at home, you should give him this letter. It's about the plan to transform the land by the lake. He needs to see if the design of these water conservancy facilities is up to standard. Also, I should be out these days, so you must arrange things at home."

"Yes, sir."

After Solovyov asked the butler to leave, he opened Bagration's letter, which was about the latest war situation in Sweden.

The Russian army's progress was indeed very smooth. Prince Gorchakov and Tuchkov quickly captured several important strongholds along the way, but the progress was too smooth.

In the letter, Bagration mentioned that the 20,000 Swedish troops abandoned a series of places on the border with almost no resistance. Except for the Svartholm Fortress, the Russian army experienced almost no fighting.

Such a strategy is not surprising. If the Russian army extends the front line, the Swedish army may still have some chances.

The Russian army had already focused on the march to Abo, and even Bukhoden concealed one thing, that is, the Russian rowing team, under the command of General Shepelev, surrendered almost without a fight, and 50 galleys and gunboats were burned. Although the Russian army besieged Sveborg and several other fortresses, and was thinking of marching to Abo (Turku), Bukhoden was even writing a letter to the Tsar to show his merit. Anyway, the situation was not good, and Bagration wrote to his junior brother, hoping to explain the situation.

It just so happened that Solovyov's family was near the Russian army's rear-line station, and he was also able to learn about the situation at the front.

Speaking of which, Alexander during this period of time felt that he was able to stand up again, but he also made progress and did not micro-manage and interfere with the front line.

But Buckholden's trick is to rely on his own information to show that the Russian army has won a series of great victories and can even end the main battle in April, which is more or less true.
The US military has entered Baghdad, and things will not be good in the future. What the bureau chief said is still very accurate. And according to previous estimates, the boomerang from the Russian army should be here soon.

However, Solovyov also knew that Bagration wrote to him in order to remind the Tsar himself through the General Staff.

But he himself was not suitable to show up, so he took advantage of his home's special location near the military station and prepared to inject water according to the actual situation, which must reflect the real situation.

But he could not be the one to deliver this message, so he thought of Arkady, Suvorov's only son. If the message was delivered from him, Alexander would be able to hear it to some extent.

After all, Arkady's wife is from the Naryshkin family, which is considered a relatively close family to the royal family, and he is about to take office as the commander of the 9th Division on the right bank of Ukraine.

Arkady actually didn't experience much combat. He just participated in the war against France. Because of his father's relationship, he was promoted quickly and was not even subject to the constraints of the military rank promotion system. He was already a lieutenant general.

To be honest, Russia's military merit system is more or less favorable to noble families. They can be quickly promoted to colonel or even general based on their father's military exploits. However, those from small and medium noble families and those children of noble families who volunteer to serve on the front line are often at a disadvantage in this regard, and sometimes it depends on the monarch's preferences.

As for Solovyov himself, if he wanted to be promoted to lieutenant general, he had to fight a battle.

Besides writing to Arkady, he wrote a letter to Christian.

Surprisingly, the progress between him and the eldest sister Julia seemed to be particularly fast. The Prince of Mecklenburg often went to the girls' school, even when she had just come out of the hospital and had her bandages removed.

You know, he was hit by a French artillery shell during the retreat from Helsberg and almost became disabled, but that didn't affect his ability to pick up girls.

He had also been in the palace recently, speaking through these two young and somewhat hot-blooded generals, and Buckholden couldn't handle them.

After all, one is the brother-in-law of Her Highness Elena, and the other is the son of the Grand Marshal. Their identities are too noble, and even ordinary people can hardly afford to offend them when they are talking.

However, Solovyov had given some thought to the consequences.

There is a possibility that Bukholden is in collusion with Arakcheev, but after Alexander reads the reports of these people, he will have some evaluation.

But Solovyov underestimated one thing: Alexander's desire to achieve great things.

After receiving Buchholden's report and the Russian army's advance to Abo, Alexander also announced that Finland would become a part of Russia in the form of a Grand Duchy.

This recipe sounds very familiar. Besides, if Helsingfors (Helsinki) was in Novgorod at that time, it might not even be under the control of the Russians.

This approach made one thing clear: Alexander really needed something to boost morale and consolidate his rule.

Then, the ones who are unlucky now are the Swedes, but Gustav IV has it all his own fault. He refused Russia's advice to remain neutral and was still planning to attack Denmark and Norway, so he suffered a heavy blow at this time.

The Tsar now saw that the Russian army had won the victory, but he was also troubled by the reports of several young generals, which stated that Buchholden had concealed some facts on the front line and that the fighting in Finland would not end so soon.

But this "actor" thought about the fact that Prince Christian August and Arkady were both friends of Solovyov, and the relationship between Solovyov and Bagration, and he knew that someone was complaining through his junior brother who lived on the shores of Lake Ladoga because the road to communicate directly from Vyborg was blocked, and was reminding people of what was happening at the front.

At this time, Alexander did not make it public. He also knew that Shepelev's ships had been burned, but there was no mention of it in Buchholden's letter reporting the victory.

But once such a big news as Finland's incorporation into the Russian Empire was released, other aspects also needed to be blocked.

Even if you encounter setbacks later, it will be your own fault.

Therefore, these two memorials did not receive any response.

However, Alexander also felt that Solovyov should not be left idle. Since the Operations Department did not need to take on any work due to Arakcheev's approach, in addition to giving Nikolai regular lessons, he still had to increase his intensity.

For example, the railway construction at Tsarskoye Selo is indeed almost completed, and someone is needed to inspect it again, and even a steam locomotive needs to run on it.

Richard Trevithick, a mining engineer hired from the UK, had already completed a railway steam locomotive in Luhansk, so naturally he had to find a place to test it.

This type of vehicle has been running on the tracks inside the mine for more than two years and its efficiency is relatively high, so it has also received attention.

The first railway steam locomotive was supposed to appear in the UK, but because of the high salary offered by Count Vorontsov, it appeared in the mines of Luhansk by coincidence after a round of poaching.

The feasibility of the railway track has been tested for horse-drawn carriages, and now it is time to prepare for the operation of steam locomotives.

Alexander, who always cared about his reputation, could not wait to build the railway in Tsarskoye Selo according to the plan that Solovyov had given Paul when he was still the crown prince, and to hold a celebration ceremony after announcing the annexation of Finland to Russia.

If we talk about all these tricks, he has the most.

After seeing this situation, Solovyov knew that he could not stay at home for too long. However, his stepmother needed to rest after giving birth to a child, so he could let her brothers and sisters come to live here and take care of Katya at the same time.

(End of this chapter)