Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Solovyov was worried that there was not enough time and that he would become strict, but the Queen Mother actually approved of his plan.

It seems that it was indeed the previous failure that made the Queen Mother a little angry.

It makes Nikola look like Nobita Nobi who got 0 points.
"Finally, you've passed these courses. If you work hard, you can still pass them. If there's a make-up exam at the beginning of the semester, you should be able to pass it based on your ability."

Solovyov took the homework and test paper, checked them bit by bit, and finally he was quite satisfied.

"Can we eat now?"

"Finishing your homework is just your duty. When you were doing your homework, I was still preparing for today's class. How could you think about eating?"

Solovyov made Nikolai laugh so hard that he didn't study seriously. Now that it was time for dinner, he was in a hurry to eat.

The time is very regular, sometimes there is really nothing you can do about it, although a regular schedule is a good thing, but he also...
"Yes, Boss, you haven't eaten either."

"When I was at the front, I followed the Field Marshal and starved in the mountains of Switzerland. Alexander Vasilyevich was too old to eat much, but we were really running out of food. We could only eat one meal a day, and we were still not full. This was something we had trained ourselves to do, so naturally I was not afraid of hunger."

After that, he took out a brand new booklet with Mencius' name spelled in French and handed it to Nicholas.

"This is what I translated recently. I prepared it on the way back from Greece."

"Boss, who is Mencius?"

"It is not easy for an Eastern philosopher to get Mencius with annotations and be able to make comments. The content of this book is what we will study during the holidays."

I showed him the Analects before, and luckily I translated it directly myself, so Nikola didn't learn the Chinese language, which is a blessing in disguise.

Fortunately, his interest was generally not in this area, but Solovyov insisted on teaching it.

"Confucius pursued benevolence, while Mencius pursued righteousness. Morality and righteousness may be easier for you to understand. This is why I use Mencius as the subject of my tutoring. I believe Her Majesty the Queen Mother will agree."

"Then what is morality?"

"Because this is not our native language, I can only speak from the perspective of principles and order. What we pursue is a stable social order. But this kind of order must value the people, not just the rule of the monarch."

In fact, Solovyov was quite conservative when teaching. He was not like the teacher that the empress found for Alexander, who not only taught the Enlightenment thought but also made the Tsar, who was somewhat rebellious when he was young and called himself a "Jacobin". In fact, he was not.

What he wanted to talk about was gradual reform, step by step in a stable order, which could be done within the framework of the monarchy.

If Solovyov were to take a more radical approach, he was still worried that it would benefit Britain and the United States. At least he had to allow conflicts between the major powers in Western Europe so that a balance of power could be formed in both the European continent and the Atlantic.

Therefore, Russia cannot die for the time being. If Tsarist Russia were to choose a time to die, he would hope it would be in 1917.

But this was not something he could see. Even if he could live to be a hundred years old, it would only be 1881. By then, the most he would be able to see was Alexander II being assassinated by a bomber from the Narodnaya Volya Party.

As for what I have to do here, I still need to improve Nikola's skills and not act so stupidly.

And he also knew that Nicholas would definitely ask questions.

"Then let's start from here. These are the conversations between Mencius and King Hui of Liang after they met. If we start from the first chapter, you can read this part, Nicholas. I think you will gain something from it."

Mikhail doesn't need to learn this, as he is probably playing with his nieces right now. Also, Solovyov said that this is knowledge that students over the age of fourteen can learn, and Mikhail will have to learn it in the future, but there is no need to rush.

Nicholas began to read: "King Hui of Liang said, you have come from a place a thousand miles away, so you must have some good ideas that will benefit my country, right?"

"So what's next?"

"Mencius said, Your Majesty, how can you talk about interests directly? It is enough to talk about benevolence and righteousness, Boss. Is this what you call order and justice? And you must also be tolerant and caring to the people?"

"If that's the case, when the late emperor was alive, people said he had a bad temper and changed his mind every day, but why have I always been loyal to him and often carried a sword and pistol with the Order of Saint Anna?"

"When Father was alive, who were included in this category of people?"

"If you want to talk about it, in addition to the royal family, our country also has great nobles, registered nobles, commoners represented by the bourgeoisie and self-cultivating farmers, as well as a large number of servants and serfs. Of course, there are also some workers. Generally speaking, they are divided into three classes. The royal family and nobles are always the rulers. If the monarch wants to keep the country going, he must care about the people. This is why some people always call the emperor "our little father." Even if he does not do well, he must listen to the people's petitions. This is also a basic means for them to feel that the monarch is with them. But this is not enough. The monarch can only have taxes and soldiers if the common people and serfs are well fed and the nobles are no longer in large-scale debts."

"Isn't that what Mr. Speransky is doing?"

"It can be considered as part of it. To implement benevolent governance, we cannot let the peasants be tied to the fields. If we only use whips to rule, they will only resist in the end. Just like when Her Majesty was still alive, Pugachev, this kind of people were called bandits and vagrants, but many people supported him. Why is that?"

"I once heard an old servant in Gatchina say that when my father was young, he rode on horseback in plain clothes and talked with farmers in the fields. He was willing to improve the treatment of farmers, so he was praised and even called 'our Pugachev'."

"But as a monarch, you cannot do without the nobles. The nobles' problems can be seen below. Kolya, don't rush to ask questions. Read the first article again."

Then, Nicholas began to read again. After seeing the following content, he nodded frequently.

"How about it?"

"There is some truth to this. I have almost no memory of my father's assassination, but I remember the verdict, which said that von Paalen was only concerned about his family's personal gain, but he lied that it was for justice, and thus organized people to assassinate the Tsar."

"Yes, this plot was carried out under the planning of the British. I found some clues at the time, but the investigation of the British Embassy was not completed until after the coup. If we look closely at these people, we will find that they are the former ministers of Her Majesty the Queen and some pro-British factions whose interests were affected by Emperor Paul's reforms."

"That is to say, it is said here that the king may be assassinated by the dukes and ministers because of the struggle for interests within the country. This is because morality is placed behind interests. Everything is based on interests, which will naturally cause chaos in the order."

"What does that represent?" "The order, morality and justice of the country itself come first, and although interests can exist, they must also be based on order."

"Yes, a monarchy has an order headed by the monarch, and the same is true for a republic. Your history score is not bad, let me test you, why was Nero able to save civilians from the fire when he first came to power, but then he indulged in extravagance, was opposed by the Senate and the Roman people, and eventually became a public enemy of the country?"

"Because he violated the principles of rule and killed his mother and teacher. Although Agrippina the Younger was a vicious woman, Seneca was indeed a philosopher. To be honest, he was only after his own enjoyment and unlimited power."

"If it was Nero who encountered the Great Fire of Rome, although the historical records are a bit vague, he was still a monarch with some ability. However, he put the blame on Christians and sent them to the Colosseum because Rome was still mainly pagan at the time, so he naturally had to please the common people in Rome, so he had to find a culprit. Although this method was cruel, it also diverted people's attention. But what he did later was even worse than Commodus. At least Commodus was willing to hold gladiatorial contests and give money to the common people in Rome to cheer them up."

After hearing this evaluation, Nero must have wanted to hit someone, but Solovyov said so.

And if we have to make an evaluation, Solovyov also thought that when he explained the Analects and Mencius to Nikolai, he always combined them with the situation in Europe.

He showed it privately to Countess Sophia, who also found it amusing.

However, "benevolent rule" is indeed quite difficult in the Russian environment, and Solovyov's main purpose was to broaden Nicholas' horizons.

If you only learn European content, not everything may be useful.

"But gladiatorial combat also involves killing people and animals. It would be fine if it was just hunting."

"No wonder everyone in Constantinople was watching car races in the hippodrome. Besides, benevolence and righteousness cannot be used to make a living. To be righteous, one must have strength as a foundation."

But when Solovyov said this, it somewhat entered the realm of "slang".

Did he hope that the Russian monarch, with such a huge country size, could talk about "benevolence and righteousness" with European countries?

Moreover, if he has the opportunity to go and lead Qing in the future, he might even say this to his face.

If he only talked about benevolence and righteousness, he might be no different from Duke Xiang of Song.

He was even worse than Duke Xiang of Song. He was able to gain face from the State of Qi and had a good brother, Mu Yi, to assist him. The two brothers were actually humble to each other in giving way to the position of Duke of Song.

"Boss, is it because, for example, my uncle's Wurtemberg and my sister-in-law's Baden don't have the strength to talk about 'righteousness'?"

"I guess so. To be honest, the old man of the Baden family abolished the serfdom system much earlier than we did. But a small country also has its advantages. As a monarch, he can be frugal and get it done by talking to his subjects. But we have too many things to deal with, just like now. If I ask you, Kolya, do you support reform or not?"

"I think it's good only if it's good for both nobles and commoners."

"This is from the perspective of a monarch. Civilians still make up the majority. If you ride with me to the villages around Gatchina one day, you might come to a similar conclusion."

Nicholas just doesn't like studying, but at least his brain is still competent now.

"And morality doesn't apply all the time. If our opponent doesn't apply morality, then we can only have an all-out contest."

This statement will be tested later. Solovyov made such a statement because he did not trust the countries that had formed alliances with him.

"Even in countries that are allied by marriage?"

"The British Royal Navy attacked Denmark, which is our relative, but the attack was quite severe. If you think about it, you know, some of our relatives often have to fight with each other."

"Boss, this is about you, right?"

"Ah, you can say that. Kolya, we need to learn more than just this. There is more to it than this, anyway."

Speaking of which, it is quite funny to tell a 15-year-old adolescent Grand Duke about the story of King Hui of Liang. Now Solovyov is telling the first chapter, and there will be more exciting ones later.

However, after seeing the content of the lecture here, it did arouse the curiosity of some people in the palace.

Since the class was held in the Catherine Palace where the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was located, Nicholas' classmates were also there.

They were somewhat curious, but during this holiday, they were staying here because their parents had estates in the country, so they were left here.

Your Highness has such a master, and what he talks about is always curious.

Especially Nicholas' little followers. After being reprimanded by the Queen Mother for the exam, His Highness actually hired a special teacher to tutor them. However, the content of the tutoring was not only the lectures, but also some additional content.

Solovyov was able to speak the translated works of Confucius and Mencius, which showed that he had a solid foundation. He also produced a lot of content by cooperating with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Therefore, Nicholas' classmates were also curious and wanted to join in the fun.

They originally wanted to persuade Mikhail to come and attend the class together.

However, Mikhail's grades were pretty good, so the Empress Dowager allowed him to go out and play after the holidays, and he is not in Tsarskoye Selo at the moment.

A few guys who lived in Moscow thought about it and finally decided to find an opportunity to attend the class for free.

It’s just that some people are more curious about the East, while others simply want to learn Solovyov’s boxing and kicking.

After all, he preferred to convince people with (physics) rather than with virtue, and he killed his way through neighboring countries that had always been unfriendly, causing a lot of trouble for the French. (End of this chapter)