Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Today's trains are just good enough to carry passengers, but they are still far from being practical.

However, if we only carry a group of accompanying personnel, there should be no problem.

Essentially, the development of steam locomotives still requires the construction of railways to improve transportation efficiency within Russia, but things do not go as expected.

The first problem to be solved is the royal family’s attitude towards these new things.

If Paul was still around, you wouldn't even need to have any attitude. You could just tell him that as long as it could be verified successful, it would naturally be promoted. Regardless of the efficiency, it would be easier to do with the Tsar's endorsement.

The situation Alexander is facing now is obviously not enough to support such an approach, and there are certainly voices of opposition within Russia, most of which are about power struggles.

As for him personally, he was certainly not so decisive and ruthless. Among so many Russian tsars, he was the only one who acted as an actor on stage.

As for Queen Mother Maria, she has been indulging in pleasure ever since she became a widow. It is always beneficial for her to be exposed to some new things.

Of course, she had to look presentable on her 50th birthday celebration.

The testing of the locomotive and rolling stock has been completed and everything went smoothly.

Compared with the time when Trevithick damaged the railroad tracks in the UK, causing many factory owners to complain, Russia was obviously well prepared.

After all, when Solovyov first submitted the principles of the steam locomotive to Paul, he had already explained the significance of the entire engineering project. As for the line system and sand table model produced for the royal family later, they were also made very clear.

With the approval of Empress Dowager Maria, the project of Tsarskoye Selo will continue. The funds allocated will mainly come from the royal family expenses, and in fact, from the expenses of the Tsar and his wife.

This was also a gesture, although Alexander might have had some opinions about the Queen Mother in recent years, mainly because she interfered in the affairs of the nobles in St. Petersburg. Even frequently summoning nobles was not a big problem, as the royal duties also included summoning these nobles.

Overall, we still need to show a peaceful and stable atmosphere, especially to the French.

After the test run, Alexander will indeed invite distinguished guests to board the train during the celebrations of Queen Maria's birthday.

Those involved included Alexander and his wife, Empress Dowager Maria, Grand Duke Constantine and Grand Duchess Catherine, as well as the maids, attendant generals and adjutants accompanying them in the carriage. The guest was Mr. Caulaincourt, the French ambassador to Russia.

Of course, Caulainau now has his own title, Duke of Vicenza, which is a separate branch of his family's original aristocratic lineage.

"Armand, this is Russia's latest masterpiece. Although the engineers are all British, the craftsmen and the main planners are all from Russia."

Alexander actually called Caulaincourt by his name, which seemed a little strange to outsiders.

However, the Russian royal family always has some surprises. For example, married princesses feel that Western and Central European countries are "strictly hierarchical" and the atmosphere is not as relaxed as in Russia.

It is indeed rare to call a French ambassador by a name like Alexander.

However, considering the Luo family's history of always causing some trouble, there is no problem with this.

Caulaincourt could only follow the tea and continue walking down: "Your Majesty, this is indeed a masterpiece."

"If I wish, I can make the railway from Petersburg reach Moscow and Königsberg, so that if we face some external enemies together, Russia and France can join forces to defeat these enemies, just like this war with Austria."

These words, which were spoken in the carriage, would only be transmitted intact from Caulaincourt to Napoleon's ears.

Napoleon's reaction might not be that strong, but he would still have a certain curiosity about railways.

But what Lu Ai was thinking about was not only transporting troops to Moscow and Königsberg, but also laying railways to many other places in the future.

During this period, if France and Russia fight, they will naturally quickly mobilize troops from the Russian hinterland.

Given Prussia's strength and the relationship between Russia and Prussia, it is obvious that the Russian army's Baltic route was not for Prussia's sake.

The words actually revealed a threat to France and demonstrated its own strength.

Russia seems very strong, but I don’t know what the emperor thinks.

Thinking this, Caulaincourt continued to exchange polite words with Alexander.

Their actions in the first carriage may have nothing to do with what happened in the following carriages.

However, Maria took the opportunity to be alone with Solovyov for a while and took his arm again, in the third carriage.

"Martha, this isn't good. There will be more passengers coming up soon, and this is the Aide-General's box."

"What's wrong with that? You are the attendant general on duty today, and I am your passenger. You are responsible for protecting me."

No one knew what was wrong with this girl. She had been acting more and more strangely recently. Solovyov even thought that her husband should take her back to Weimar as soon as possible while Austria and France were negotiating.

Otherwise, if she continues to take the initiative like this, someone will die sooner or later.

I just don't know if I will be hit by the lead bullet, or if Maria will have a stomachache, or if Katya will take out a kitchen knife or something like that.
Although with Katya's temper, nothing should happen, but she still needs to be more restrained when she is outside.

"Martha, you better be obedient. When someone comes to this carriage later, I'm afraid someone will gossip about it."

"It's okay. I'm just here as a friend to see how you're doing. Nothing will happen."

Indeed, her facial expression changes very quickly.

An attendant adjutant came in from outside, and she sat down opposite him almost instantly.

This cartoon character's skills are quite outrageous, and no one outside noticed this.

"Look, that's it. Mishchka, you have to listen to me, or else..."

"Okay, but when Her Majesty the Queen Mother summons you later, you must maintain your manners and not be like you are now."

Maria's biggest killer move is probably the Queen Mother. She and Catherine were naughty when they were young, and they were often severely disciplined by their mother. Think about the Queen Mother's figure. Even in the 21st century, she is still a tall and strong woman.

While doing farm work, Maria and Catherine got themselves covered in mud and ended up making a fool of themselves, although the main problem was with Catherine.

But Maria also suffered misfortune, after all, the two of them had lived together since childhood.

This made her calm down a little and go back to the carriage on the other side.

On the Soloviev side, it was finally quiet. We had to wait for the train to start. The whole journey was not long, and it even moved at an extremely slow sightseeing speed, which was quite rare.

This train speed is mainly for display. It can actually run faster, but it does not need to reach the designed speed.

What he took out was his notes, which would be the focus of his work for the next period of time.

Going to France is to escort the bride. After Alexander agreed, Napoleon should have made grand preparations in Paris, but all this is not so friendly to Josephine.

But she should still be able to keep her position as queen, as well as Malmaison, and when she visits her relatives she will formally meet her aunt for the first time.

And what happens next is that we have to go to Odessa.

Alexander was still very dissatisfied with the war in the Balkans, so he had to redeploy his troops and let Bagration and Kamensky the Younger lead their armies respectively.

This time in Odessa, Solovyov did not have any combat mission. He was just in the reserve of the Danube Corps, responsible for transportation in the rear. For the war against the Ottoman Empire, the focus was on sufficient supply of materials, so that the front-line troops could maintain high morale and excellent combat effectiveness.

In addition, he also served as the military governor of Odessa because the Duke of Richelieu had to go to Crimea.

This is Alexander using his confidants to gather power in key areas, although it is unspeakable
But such a useful brick, as a time-tested feudal fighter, although Solovyov has always been an undercover with liberal ideas, he had to accept Alexander's appointment and go to Odessa to take up the post.

For Katya, her plan of speculating in land may not go smoothly. After all, the Duke of Richelieu's residence there is in good conditions, and Odessa looks like a French city. A large number of French royalists have fled here. Those who do not want to return to their country or will never betray their hometown will all be here.

Solovyov also had an idea of ​​the subsequent arrangements. Even though he was only acting as the Governor of Odessa, it was probably a special product under the military district system.

The rank of lieutenant general is high enough. Although the rank of governor is usually a position that a second-class civil servant or general will hold in the future, can you consider serving in the local area?

That was all. When the train started, he was also writing something, mainly to investigate the local situation.

According to his thinking, there would be no need for Kutuzov to take action in the future. As long as the Russian army was willing to take action, the British fleet would not dare to challenge the Russian navy easily after the failure in Karlskrona.

You know, the Black Sea Fleet's combat readiness is far better than that of the Baltic Fleet, and it has been conducting in-depth exchanges with the Ottoman Empire on the front line for a long time. Even if the current governor of Sevastopol and the commander of the Black Sea Fleet are both French, it is not a problem.

The key point is how to deal with the Ottoman Empire. The light cavalry of this army still has some combat effectiveness, but considering its strange infantry configuration, some local infantry even use cold weapons extensively.

It looks strange, but it's normal.

Solovyov had come into contact with people with turbans on their heads before, and their fighting power became the most important weapon for Russian generals to gain points.

It was during the Battle of Remnik that Suvorov first had the opportunity to add the title of the battle before his title of count.

Solovyov already has his own battle title, but he also hopes to go further.

Although he has already moved to the front among those generals who "want to make progress too much", he is the type who cannot be more active now.

He was already a lieutenant general at the age of 28, which meant that he might be given an important position in some direction in the next few years, but his military rank could not be promoted for the time being.

The missing parts here can still be made up with medals.

But he is no match for some people. Balashov has always been the garrison commander and has hardly ever experienced a real war.

This person didn't have a very good impression of Solovyov, but they were in a state of out of sight, out of mind.

The close ministers around Alexander were changing. Except for Novolsitsev who still served in the court, Stroganov joined the army, Kochubey went to the Privy Council, and Czartoryski returned to his fiefdom in Lithuania.

That is Speransky, who has been promoted from Secretary of State.

But the atmosphere of freedom in Alexander's court was no longer as great as when he first ascended the throne.

As some "traditional" Russian nobles entered the court as attendants, some elements of "order" began to appear in the court.

Unlike Paul who wanted to make some changes, these people wanted Alexander to not change anything.

The Tsar himself also had a problem. After realizing the benefits of being an autocratic monarch, he began to indulge in the game of power struggle and was no longer as concerned about reform as before.

Although he still wants to find a wife for Speransky, the atmosphere is obviously not as good as it was in the past two years. Once something happens, Alexander may turn to the side of the reactionary nobles.

Compared with the Paul era, it might be even more reactionary because of Paul's bad temper. Anyone who disobeyed him would not be fined $25 like Emperor Norton, but would be sent back to his own estate to farm.

"It's difficult."

The train continued to move forward. This grand celebration and reception could be said to be very successful.

It was Queen Mother Maria's first time riding a train and she was very satisfied with this new thing. The only problem was probably that the speed was not fast - considering that this was a sightseeing train, it was not a big deal.

What followed was a grand reception and fireworks display at Tsarskoye Selo, which was quite lively at the time.

But there was something else going on. After the celebration, Catherine was also going to prepare to go to France. This was the farthest marriage that any Russian royal had ever made.

The future marriage record will probably be broken in the UK, but whether there is such an opportunity is indeed a question.

Maria originally wanted to send her sister, but considering the impact, she had to return to Weimar first and wait until the formal wedding was held before going to Paris.

Except for Anna, this was probably the first time that the four older sisters who often got together reunited, and the members were all present. (End of this chapter)