Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 511 023 The Big Guy at the Admiralty Shipyard

Treat Mary's child and check on Mary's condition as well.

The person who was most worried in St. Petersburg was probably Louisa. She had always been very concerned about her sisters, especially Mary, who was still feeling somewhat aggrieved.

After her sister and niece's conditions stabilized, she sent her maid to express her gratitude to the doctor and friends who had helped her.

But Queen Louise didn't think it was a big deal. She even thought it was a small matter to help the frail Mary raise a child.

Especially since little Louise was born after little Caroline, the two children were roughly in the same cycle.

This even gave Solovyov the illusion that there were always some strange factors behind Queen Louise's early death, but he quickly shook his head to rid himself of this strange idea.

"Mick, what are you doing there shaking your head?"

Sometimes, there really is a sense of a crow's mouth that says what it means and means what it says.

Queen Louise appeared behind him. There was a huge pond in the Royal Village, and the scenery was quite nice, at least in the spring.

"Nothing, I'm just denying some strange thoughts in my heart. Your Highness, as for what are you doing here?"

"I heard from Charlotte that the scenery here is nice, so I wanted to come and see it."

"It's still very windy in Tsarskoye Selo at this time. You just had a baby, so you should take care of yourself and don't catch a cold."

"No matter how terrible this wind is, it shouldn't be as terrible as your uncle, right?"

Solovyov did not forget the queen, who was always gossipy and knew everything about other people's relatives and all the gossip in the court.

In Solovyov's opinion, if she became the king of Prussia, or served as regent as the queen mother, she would be much more reliable than the king of FW.

"But it's different. Losing a battle won't necessarily lead to anything bad, but being sick is life-threatening, especially for someone like you."

The distance was so close that even the veins on the "big white grapefruit" were clearly visible, and Queen Louise was indeed wearing very thin clothes.

"Of course I know that, but you also know that women who have given birth to many children will always gain weight."

There is some truth in this. Her stepmother is the same age as her. If she becomes plump, she is just rounder. If she becomes plump, she will look like a local specialty.

"My wife is also pregnant with her first child and will give birth in the summer."

"Congratulations, you're going to be a father soon. Although for a playboy like you, this shouldn't be your first child, right?"

"Ah, that's true. After all, my uncle is also my child's uncle."

When Queen Louise heard this, a sly smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

"All our victory over the French is concentrated in you."

She said it rather subtly, but everyone understands the plot.

Moreover, her sister was also a restless person. She married her younger brother-in-law, but he died early. Later, she married a noble of a higher rank, but the other party's property was not very good.
You can imagine that although King FW is not good in other aspects, he was good to his wife before.

However, the king looked rather neurotic, and it was inevitable that he would think that France, the public enemy of Europe, would do something to his wife.

But the real situation is only known to the two parties involved. Queen Louise would definitely not tell it, and Napoleon would not tell it either.

As for little Princess Louise, she is still a little chubby girl and it is hard to tell who she looks like, but her outline is very similar to that of the queen.

If you want to say that he looks like an emperor? The emperor has started to gain weight, with a big head and a thick neck.
As for the queen, after she came to St. Petersburg, the food here was very good. She had a plump figure, the only regret was her neck, but that had improved a little.

"It's a kind of victory, I do have a son there."

"But whoever is your wife will definitely be a happy woman. Although you are a little unfaithful, you always care about others. Even if it is a woman you are not familiar with, I think you will help her, right?"

"When I was in the army, this kind of thing did happen. As a soldier, you should help the weak and fight against the strong, and you can't always bully others. For example, the Ottoman Empire was obviously weaker than Russia, but it always wanted to attack us. The only way to make them submit was to use fists. However, this is my personal opinion."

"I can understand that you are a good person, but you like to do strange things sometimes."

Queen Louise's close proximity always made him feel a little nervous, but the queen was just being friendly with him now.

"Thank you for helping us a lot."

"Sometimes it is necessary. If you need anything, you can still come to me, as long as you are in Petersburg. However, this is limited to social occasions and some private relationships."

"I know you can't decide anything."

The queen's attitude was strange, but Solovyov's impression of her, apart from her strong character, was that her husband was a little difficult to match, and perhaps the most important impression was that.
“Cow”, definitely!

After Mary's condition improved, Solovyov received a new task, but this time he was to go to the Admiralty Shipyard. Alexander asked him to inspect a new battleship that was completed this year.

The battleship "Brave" is a new ship with 120 guns, which is currently waiting for acceptance at the Admiralty Shipyard. When Solovyov was inspecting it, he was accompanied by Kulepanov, the engineer in charge of the design and construction of the Admiralty Shipyard.

"It looks pretty good. What about the guns this ship uses?"

"Count, our artillery may be less powerful than the enemy's, but after all, it is a large ship with 120 guns, and it is designed based on Western Europe, so we can compete with the enemy."

"But the crews also need to be fully staffed. Can the new ships keep up with the battle against the Swedes? The Swedish Navy should not have such cutting-edge warships at this level. When I went there six years ago, many battleships were parked randomly in the harbor."

"But you also have to consider the influence of the British. As for us, we are on another slipway."

"That place has always been blocked. Is there some big thing in there?"

"You know the Grace, don't you? You were a guard officer with Emperor Paul at that time. This is the same ship. I don't understand why Katasanov likes this big ship. It costs more, but it only has ten more guns."

"A 130-gun warship is obviously also useful to the navy, and there are two such ships." "The workers in our Admiralty shipyard said that such a warship should be invincible, but the Spanish one seems to have sunk."

"It's true that there is no unsinkable warship. Victory or defeat is still determined by people. However, there are already navy troops down here. In fact, we can leave from the slipway and go to the bay, right?"

"Yes, but this ship has no name and has a power auxiliary system. The reliability of the steam engine can only ensure that these ships leave on this slipway. Whether it can work when sailing is another matter."

"I just hope nothing happens to this thing!"

Solovyov always had reservations about the reliability of early steam engines, especially using them on such a large battleship, which was simply making the world weird.

However, considering that the Admiralty's shipyard only provides these sailboats with auxiliary power so that they can smoothly leave the slipway, but no consideration has been given to the power assistance during navigation. It can be regarded as a temporary measure.

By then, the ship would certainly not be able to be used in the next phase of operations against Sweden planned for the summer, but the "Brave" would barely be able to catch up.

After completing this series of tasks, Solovyov would return to Tsarskoye Selo to report on his work.

"Well, Solovyov, you didn't expect that we have such a great warship?"

"I didn't expect that, Your Majesty. I just think that if a ship is built like this, it will be difficult for it to catch up with this year's naval battle. After all, I heard that the 'auxiliary power' will be removed later."

"You know a lot about steam engines, but you're a little dissatisfied with this. For more than a year, we have been working on improvements. We just need to gradually dismantle it from the top, remove the device, and then seal it up."

"Your Majesty, the feasibility of this project will indeed affect the strength of the warship. Although I am only an army officer, I have to get involved in naval affairs because of the advancement of science and technology."

"So what do you think we should do?"

Solovyov felt that Alexander was somewhat respectable.

"It will take some time for the steam engine and the ship to work together, at least not now. It's just such a small thing, providing auxiliary machinery, which always gives people a feeling that the gains do not outweigh the losses. But there is one good thing. This ship is as big as the Grace. At least we can use it to deter potential enemies and show the strength of the Russian Navy."

That was all he could think of. Alexander felt relieved when he saw that Solovyov's attitude did not seem to be one of strong opposition.

But the Tsar still had to give the new warship a name, and the name "Grace" came from the noble lady around Paul, Lopukhina, who was nominally his mistress but only a conversation partner.

Naturally, there is a reason for naming this battleship.

"What do you think would be a more appropriate name?"

"I don't have any ideas, Your Majesty. You can use any name if you think it's appropriate."

"But you are very talented and know a lot of allusions. If you give it a traditional name, it may not be so loud for this warship."

"I think we can name it 'Varyag'. It's a good name and it can represent the tenacity of our naval officers and soldiers. I even thought of a song for it."

However, when Solovyov sang this song in front of Alexander, Maria, and Catherine, Alexander frowned.

"Why do you make it seem like we lost the battle?"

Then, Maria added boldly.

"But my brother, this sounds great!"

"It's so tragic, and the previous defeat of the Russian Navy sounds just like the naval battle in Vyborg!"

"We are now fighting the Swedes. If our naval fleet is not commanded like Fyodor Fyodorovich, I don't think we will be able to win the battle against the Swedes and the British."

Speaking of which, although Admiral Ushakov is old and his physical functions have declined, he can still fight, but he retired last year.

Alexander used to think that Solovyov was trying to please him most of the time, but now he noticed that this guy actually had some ideas.

As for the level of these people in the navy, Alexander did know where the problem lay. He still had some impression of the Baltic Fleet's failure in the last Russo-Swedish war.

Even Solovyov said privately, "This is Huang Tian Dang."

Of course, Alexander didn't understand what this meant.

If Solovyov had not brought up Ushakov because he was really fed up with the current combat readiness of the Baltic Fleet, he would not have remembered Solovyov's previous abstract statement.

He is truly a disciple of Suvorov, except that the Field Marshal always likes to use metaphors when speaking, while Solovyov often speaks in ways that are incomprehensible.

"Misha, I want to ask you, what is 'Wang Tiandang'?"

"Your Majesty, it is 'Huangtian Dang'. This was a battle that took place more than 600 years ago when the Khitan emperor in the south was being pursued by the Jurchens. As for the content..."

After Solovyov finished speaking, Alexander also laughed.

"No wonder you said that. You really do know some tricks. We can't let you stay idle at home all the time. I think we can let you serve as an inspector in the Baltic Fleet as a major general of the Imperial Guards Infantry to see the combat readiness of our fleet."

"But I'm an army soldier. It's not appropriate for me to go to the navy, right?"

"Our fleet commander was able to sink a warship in the bay. It's not a problem for you to be an inspector. At least you know how to advance and retreat."

After that, Alexander issued another order to recall Admiral Ushakov, who was unemployed in his old estate in Tambov and living a comfortable but not rich retirement life, to stand by.

But he was unwilling to admit his mistake immediately, and was recalled only because he needed a strategic advisor for the war with the Swedish Navy. However, his treatment was still the highest among the admirals.

As for Admiral Ushakov, the fact that Sozi Ge had a stepmother was somewhat related to him. If he hadn't been so eager to chase the Barbary pirates all the way to their lair and brought back so many captured women, his father wouldn't have fallen in love with a French woman who was old enough to be his daughter.

To be honest, we should thank him for bringing about a series of strange chain reactions that followed.

(End of this chapter)