Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

The salon organized by Madame Récamier may have become a gathering of small businessmen in places like the Balkans, which are weakened by the rulers themselves on a daily basis.

But she still enjoyed it. After all, many noble ladies did not have the status she had. She could become the center of social occasions in a foreign country. Even a city like Sofia could be considered the capital of a small country.

She thought about General Moreau who had pursued her before they got married, and how his wife had betrayed him badly. But she also knew that those jealous ladies were probably jealous of Josephine's status.

Moreover, the wives of these local businessmen are mostly gentle and simple, which is much better than the outrageous palace drama in Paris.

That girl Yulia would not compete with her for the position of hostess and chief lady in Sofia's salon. She should still listen to her brother and support her husband wholeheartedly.

Women who are in the limelight are only now more proud of it. This was Madame Recamier's own experience when she opened a salon in Paris.

But Yulia was no mere decoration. She was able to talk to some of the wives of local merchants and learn some information.

But when she told Solovyov about this, her brother just replied: "I know."

"Brother, you don't seem to care."

"Because I already know these things, Julia. But you can take the initiative to inquire about some information, which is progress. Your sister-in-law and Madame Recamier are both good at this and behave very well. You are now a princess of a branch family, no longer your father and brother's little cat."

"It's boring to discuss military and politics with my brother. You know everything and I treat this as news."

"But Christian doesn't seem to understand much about politics. If he leaves Russia one day, you should go to Mecklenburg with him. I know him too well. But by the way, how did you find out that Ali Pasha's eldest son was only his adopted son? Although I have heard of this, I have no confirmation."

"The Greeks here, Muhammad Ali Pasha had a Greek wife, and before marrying her, he had Ibrahim with his ex-husband."

It seems that having good relations with the Greeks is still useful.

Solovyov had known about Muhammad Ali Pasha before crossing the Danube. Although his name sounded like a boxing champion, he was a man of great political and military skills. The future Thief King was a member of the dynasty he founded in Egypt.

By the end of the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire was already in turmoil and anyone could give it a kick.

After the end of the Sixth Russo-Turkish War led by Potemkin, there were constant rebellions in the Ottoman Empire, and the centrifugal force of local Pashas and some existing local forces began to strengthen.

Although the Governor of Algiers still paid tribute to Constantinople, the Barbary pirates were very independent in their wars with the Americans and their piracy in the Mediterranean.

As for Egypt, even though the Mamluks surrendered to the Ottoman Empire, they still maintained a strong sense of independence. Now that the Ottoman Empire has weakened, they will naturally show separatist tendencies after the French leave.

Then, Napoleon went to Egypt, and the Mamluks were defeated by him for a time and surrendered. When the French were finally defeated, the Ottoman army once again entered Egypt, and things became lively.

There were serious conflicts between the Syrian and Albanian soldiers of the Ottoman Empire and the local Mamluks, and not only at the military level, but even the clergy and tax farmers were involved. Finally, in 1805, Muhammad Ali became the Pasha of Egypt.

Then, it was the destiny of this founder of the dynasty to begin. As various forces competed, he gradually gained the support of the locals and eventually drove away his superiors.

When Selim III realized that Muhammad Ali was too powerful and was preparing to replace him in 1806, the Russo-Turkish War broke out. Muhammad Ali sent his wife and eldest son to Constantinople as hostages, so Musa Pasha was not used to replace him.

Now, it was the Pasha's turn to strike hard at Egypt's local forces.

He drove away his chief and ally Khurshid who was fighting against the Mamluks, and then bribed Musa to withdraw voluntarily. After that, he dealt with the local religious figures who owned a large amount of land, confiscated their land and declared it to be nationalized.

Although it can be considered a palace-owned economy to a certain extent, because Muhammad Ali made these plots of land directly under the jurisdiction of the Pasha, while he was grabbing wealth for himself, he actually did a good thing with bad intentions at the same time and reduced the burden on the farmers.

However, he was not at peace at this time. In order to prevent Egypt from being involved in the French again, Britain sent an army into Alexandria, but was eventually defeated by Muhammad Ali's army in Rosetta.

It seems that the British do not have the ability to know, and it will take a long time to enter Egypt.

Then Muhammad Ali entered his period of opportunity. As the warlord with the most territory and the strongest power, he had many options to choose from.

He can attack or defend. If he wants, he can go all the way to Türkiye. If he retreats, he can still be a Ptolemy.

As for which path he will choose, Solovyov is now also guessing.

There is a strange thing, that is, Egypt has traditionally had a very close relationship with the Greeks, so reading more books is beneficial at this time.

However, because Egyptology had not yet emerged at that time, Solovyov could not show off his knowledge and could only share it with himself.

Like the unfortunate relationship between the Sea Peoples and the New Kingdom, the Greek mercenaries of the Egyptian pharaoh, the Greeks and Egypt united against Persia, and Alexander became the son of the god Amon.
Later Egyptian regimes would have some actions towards the Aegean Sea. Ptolemy had to exert influence on Greece on a daily basis. When it came to Muhammad Ali, although he was an Albanian tobacco dealer, his relationship with Greece was even closer.

Not only is he likely to have Greek ancestry, he also has ideas about Greek territory.

"It's really strange. If the Ottoman Empire were defeated by us now, it would probably fall apart. But we rarely see people openly separating. Perhaps these people are waiting for an opportunity."

Among the people around him, perhaps only Vasily could listen to this. The others were pure soldiers. Although Clausewitz understood something, it was far from enough.

After all, he could not escape the category of a professional soldier. If Solovyov wanted to talk about political issues, his wife's family was the most powerful military family among the direct descendants of Rurik, who had nobler royal blood than the old Rurik's family.

In this way, we can still cross some boundaries to some extent.

"Misha, you think a lot."

"Strategically, I can't stay still when I sit down, and I'm always thinking. You can't do that, or people will gossip about you."

Although Solovyov is his brother-in-law, he is a few years older than his elder brother-in-law and has a higher military rank, so his words still count.

Since he wanted to marry the wealthy orphan girl from Gagarin's family, he had to restrain himself for a period of time before the marriage.

As a person who has experienced this, Solovyov said this very clearly. Varvara is indeed a girl with good personal character, but she should not be like Katya.

My brother-in-law, he is...
However, the focus is still on the issue of the Ottoman Empire. Solovyov is now also considering whether there will be another conflict with Egypt in the future.

After all, he fought too fiercely, and Mahmud II would probably send people over to ask for help from a few warlord-like pashas.

Some of them even have the demeanor of hereditary warlords.

The opponent naturally needs to be studied carefully, not to mention that if Egypt sends troops, it will most likely encounter more garbage soldiers.

Under the premise that the Russian army cannot continue to increase its troops, it will be very troublesome.

It seems that he is also determined to make some changes.

"Vasya, I have a task for you. Go and sort out the data on Egypt and Syria. You need to write a report for me in a few days. I need a memorandum here."

"You want to study the enemy?"

"Who knows what we will encounter next? We can't drive the enemy into the Danube to feed the fish every time. And this time is different from the situation in Sweden. They will not send us reinforcements."

There is no way. Russia's territory is indeed huge, which is not very convenient.

"You have to be frugal and budget-conscious. This is really you."

"There's nothing I can do."

After sending his brother-in-law away, Solovyov had a conversation with some businessmen who had come to the salon.

Although these people were not in high positions, they knew a lot. Perhaps it was because Sofia was not far from Constantinople and Greece, and was a transportation hub in the mountains, so news spread here very quickly.

He also gained a better understanding of the situation in Constantinople.

Now he has begun to consider a topic, which is what the Pashas of the Ottoman Empire will do next.

At least now the Saudi family is fighting the Ottoman Empire in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, forcing Sultan Mahmoud to consider transferring troops from Egypt, but if that happens, he will have to start bargaining like in the vegetable market.

After all, Muhammad Ali came from a family of minor military officers. He was commonly known as a tobacco dealer and he made his money by selling cigarettes in Macedonia. It was inevitable that he was a bit materialistic.

Solovyov also happened to come from a family of profiteers. If they really met this time, it might not be a military issue, but rather a matter of bargaining in the vegetable market.

The Ottoman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean is in this state now. It has died like this. Even if it doesn't die, it would be really ridiculous.

But this is a sign of an empire in decline. In fact, according to general rules, even the Roman Empire, as successive sultans called themselves, should have fallen apart by now.

There is a strange force that maintains the existence of this country. Otherwise, with the frequency of the Russian Gothic invasions, Constantinople might have had a new master after the last Russo-Turkish War.

Sometimes, the British are so schizophrenic. They were at war with the Ottoman Empire three years ago, but now they are allies. This is really a flexible moral bottom line and political skill.

However, he did not have much confidence in the next action plan. In Macedonia, there were not only Greeks who supported them, but also some diehards of the Ottoman Empire. There were also many mosques in these cities. However, the Ottoman Empire was like this and did not completely change the local religion into what they wanted.

There are always people who have to pay taxes, but if those who pay taxes become poor, there will naturally be no taxes, and this will lead to a vicious cycle.

Next, there are indeed some considerations on when to enter Greece, and he cannot act in such a hurry, as the supply line is very important.

In this case, he would need Skopje to be in his own hands, and from both Sofia and Skopje he would have access to the relatively flat Greek coastal areas.

Although the grain production in the coastal areas of Greece is not high, it is still self-sufficient, not as some people say.

After all, the huge Peloponnese Peninsula can be used for farming, and Thessaly to the north can be used for raising horses, and the same is true for Macedonia and Thrace further north.

This is also where his skills come in handy. If possible, Solovyov wanted to write a memorial to Alexander, asking Oldenburg's relatives who had their territories deprived by Napoleon to come to the Balkans and become kings.

Anyway, if it is impossible to find a prince from a big country in Europe to become king of a newly established small country, we will probably have to look for one from these small countries. If we look at the German states, there will be many, and many of them are relatives of Alexander.

Even Solovyov was a little envious of Christian. He was probably the same type who lacked ambition like himself, otherwise a crown might have fallen on his head at any time.

If I had the status of a prince from a branch family, I would probably have the same idea, but he is just an earl now.

If one wants to go a step further, he can probably only become a special prince through military merit, but this standard is quite difficult.

Katya's grandfather fought in wars all his life, starting from his teens when he was the first to land in Crimea and finally entering Crimea during the fifth Russo-Turkish War. Only then did he change the princes of his line to special princes with special titles.

If I get such military merit, I will naturally have a chance.

However, it would probably be impossible to complete this step without showing some special military achievements against the Turks.

Moreover, at this time, his status as a count and his old father also posed some obstacles.

As for my father, his legitimate son has already obtained the title of special prince, which seems very abstract. If I were the second son, it might not be so troublesome.

Le, indeed, is more about finding joy. (End of this chapter)