Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Before the war with Napoleon began, the news coming from Germany was indeed disturbing.

A few days after Speransky submitted his resignation, Alexander received a secret letter from Vienna. Although Metternich had a bad relationship with Alexander, for the common goal, he still sent messages while sleeping with the "little goblin".

However, during this period, he rarely summoned Foreign Minister Count Rumyantsev, but instead summoned Arakcheev to the Small Winter Palace.

It's not for anything else, all we're doing now is preparing for war.

Since Barclay is mainly responsible for mobilizing the troops, there is also someone in charge of the screw-in work, and that is Arakcheev.

As for what they said, Alexander did not arrange for a recorder, and people outside only saw Arakcheev's carriage passing by Million Street.

At this moment, Constantine wanted Anna and his two younger brothers to come to his house to play, but Nicholas also wanted to put a red box in the carriage, which contained not official documents but homework.

"Boss, I'm going to my brother's house at the Marble Palace this time, not to go out and play by myself."

"You spend one hour writing an essay about my lecture, and that's it."

Nicholas felt as if he had been pardoned, and this assignment has been with him ever since.

This meant that he could have a good time today before school started. Although his eldest brother's nieces all lived in Tsarskoye Selo, they were relatively well-behaved. Sonya from his second brother's family was the best, as lively as her sisters.

For Nicholas, although he spends little time with his sisters and is always suppressed by his blood, they are still a family after all, and the relationship between the siblings is very good.

He is just a little afraid of Maria, and the master is the same, but the emphasis is different.

“Why do I need to write a review about this article?”

"The country itself is more important than the monarch. The monarch's rule has a foundation. It depends on whether you choose the nobility or the people."

"Like a Caesar story, sir, but when you do things."

If Nicholas dared to express the opinions of his mistresses, he would be beaten violently by Solovyov, as the Empress Dowager allowed Solovyov to beat people.

"what do you want to say?"

"Nothing, sir, except that sometimes you really have to stop being like Prince Alexander Kurakin."

"Don't worry, if people value a relationship, they won't look for too many. Really, you haven't even arranged a wife yet, and you're thinking about adults' affairs all day long."

Nikolai didn't say much. After getting off the car, he found a place to write it down first. Mikhail could go play with his niece first.

"Misha, you've worked hard, taking care of these two kids. You can't be idle during their vacation."

Grand Duke Constantine's face was flushed today, but he hadn't started drinking yet. In order to maintain a good state in front of his daughter, he seldom drank at home in the Marble Palace.

"It will be ready soon. When the Imperial Village High School starts, I will probably be able to get a new appointment, right?"

"Don't be so anxious. I want you to come to the Guards. How about you command the Guards when I'm not around?"

"There will always be people who raise objections. I would rather go to the 2nd Army Group. There are too many things going on in the armies here, just like the drama that often happens in our palace."

"It seems that you don't want to be in the 1st Army anymore?"

"After all, I am the only one among these lieutenant generals who has independently led a corps-level battle. When others see that I have a good relationship with Barclay, I am afraid they will try to isolate me."

Although Solovyov has always been popular and the commanders of the 1st Western Army are all acquaintances of him, there are conflicts among these people and he does not want to get involved.

The composition of the 2nd Army was relatively simple. Under the commander-in-chief Bagration, the commander of the 7th Army, Raevsky, had known him for a long time. One of the two division commanders of the 8th Army was his brother-in-law, and the other, Neverovsky, had also worked under him.

"If you are worried about this, then go to Bagration. He also needs people. It's just that you have been a corps commander, so it may be a low position for you to be a corps commander. But if Polozkin has done nothing wrong, he cannot be replaced."

"It doesn't matter. At least we won't get into any trouble if we go there. And I think if the French want to attack, they can't deploy a large army along the Baltic Sea road, and the flanks here are more conducive to our defense. The more dangerous part is probably on the flanks. If we want to provide cover, I'm afraid we will have to fight fierce battles with the enemy every day."

"You are right about ensuring the movement of the main force of the legion and completing the mission. Besides, King Gustav and my daughter are still young. I am still a little worried about the situation in Sweden."

This is indeed a problem, but the Grand Duke himself may be over-concerned.

"If they want to come, I'm afraid it will be winter, but it's hard to say whether they will have the ability to provide support by then."

The Swedish army and the Russian army are not of the same level. If they really turn against us, it will definitely not be a good thing.

"No, I'm still worried about what the French might do."

"No, their attention is probably on us right now, especially since the war with Turkey hasn't officially ended yet."

"The honors you have achieved in Türkiye are something that many people are jealous of."

"But there is another issue. I am considering the land in the border areas and how to effectively consolidate our border areas."

After returning to St. Petersburg from the Guards, Grand Duke Constantine did not go to the front line for several years. He was actually relatively pro-French within the royal family, which was very different from his military image.

Actually, it was because he didn't like writing letters that Catherine directed all her love for her two brothers onto the eldest brother, the Tsar.

Therefore, he was not like Solovyov, who walked a long way, saw a lot, and had his own ideas.

"You mean Moldavia and the Caucasus?"

"I think the land in southern Russia and Ukraine is fertile. If we introduce some immigrants, after a few decades of transformation, we can transform the swamps and wastelands into fertile fields, which can be covered with crops, especially corn."

"I heard you were force-feeding corn paste to your children lately."

Constantine couldn't hold back his laughter. This kid's hobby was also very strange. When he was feeding his weaned children, he was simply
"I like corn myself, Your Highness. Would you like a corn salad as well?"

"If you were with your brothers, it would be nice to eat this, and pea paste. But you eat these things in the army, and you let your sons and daughters eat them. I heard that your daughters are not close to you, and are not as close as my sister-in-law's daughters." "It's really strange. Whether I was raising my own children or helping to take care of the children in the palace, I never encountered such a thing. My own daughter is not close to you."

“If you put these things aside, how are you going to farm?”

"Can we bring in people from all the German states, as well as foreigners who have nowhere to go because the land is overcrowded?"

Although Constantine and Alexander received the same education, Alexander turned to politics in his later years, while Grand Duke Constantine preferred military affairs.

He has never been very sensitive in this regard, but now he can guess that this is exactly the same as how his grandmother tricked the fellow villagers into coming to Russia to farm.

So, he said that.

"In that case, we may even have to build a prison in Saratov."

"No, I have other ideas, different from what Her Majesty did at that time."

Grand Duke Constantine heard this and thought it was normal.

"Well, that's interesting. Tell me about it."

"If we want to attract them, we have to think about the terrible situation in Europe right now. Taxation and looting alone are already troublesome. But if we give these people a piece of land in some cold place like Orenburg, they will not be willing to do so. If we go to Siberia to dig apples, it will also be a disaster."

"What should you do if you want to go to the southern Russian steppes?"

"From Tsaritsyn to the south, there are Kalmyks everywhere. We don't necessarily just want to introduce farmers, but also craftsmen and merchants. I recently read a review paper on the city-states along the Black Sea coast, which I found very interesting."

"What did it say?"

"The Greeks had a trading post with the nomadic Scythians in Rostov-on-Don, but it was unexpectedly established relatively late, a few years before Hannibal's defeat at Zama."

"Is it so late?"

"It should be said that it has a lot to do with Crimea. It's not like we can't read Diodorus of Sicily. There are a lot of fragmentary contents in his records."

Among the four brothers, Mikhail is the youngest but he likes to study the most. The second is Alexander who is talented and smart but too lazy to study. Constantine is very self-disciplined, but the second brother's brain is obviously not enough, and what he studies tends to be military.

When I said this, it was a bit confusing. The more I talked to this kid Solovyov, the more he showed off his knowledge.

But there is no other way, so I can only continue like this.

"You want to fill this place up?"

"If possible, we can exempt them from military service. It will be much better here than in some of the previous places. However, there must be many people who want the good plots of land, and we can't give everyone who comes here a good one. If they come here, they won't just be cultivating the land, they will have to do many things, even the nobles."

After hearing this, Constantine still couldn't guess what his next plan would be, but there was no problem in attracting immigrants from Central Europe, which was currently being severely plundered by France.

But the Poles cannot be sent to Siberia, as they will cause trouble there. It would be better to send them to the Rossburg Colony in North America.

This series of talent introduction plans will indeed be quite difficult, and the number of people who can arrive before the war breaks out will be limited.

It’s hard to say what the situation will be like in the future.

For example, if there were captured French soldiers, it wouldn't sound strange if they ended up somewhere.

This kind of thing is probably a daily occurrence in Russia.

The purpose of saying this to Grand Duke Constantine was naturally to seek some support.

He must agree with expanding the population. As long as he can attract some people from Europe and reduce the labor pressure, it will seem easier for him to recruit soldiers.

And those who will be on Russian territory in the future must also realize that there is nothing bad about this place except for the ice and snow.

"This idea is interesting. When we are not fighting, we can attract some people here, but the old question is, what if someone really escapes?"

"There is no better solution. It is always inconvenient for them to travel in these places. But compared with going to the United States, it may still be better. After all, we still give them the opportunity to be a decent master. If it were the United States, I don't know when they would finally succeed."

Hearing this, Grand Duke Constantine couldn't help laughing.

What kind of joke was this? He had also taken lessons from a tutor from Switzerland, and if Solovyov was to be believed, perhaps the feudal system was better than the more advanced system on paper.

"That's not what Mr. Laharp said. Did you make a mistake?"

"This is a kind of authoritarianism, not autocracy or an advanced system. If democracy were really that easy, then the demagogues who give speeches on the streets would probably be the most powerful. For example, the protagonist in the Catiline conspiracy, but having only a mouth is not enough. We need institutional guarantees to do things in a down-to-earth manner."

What was actually targeted was the decision-making of the Tsar himself. If the Tsar was incompetent, it would seem that the country would be ruined soon.

If you have stronger decision-making ability, there would be some room for negotiation.

But don't be stupid and hardworking, that's also a hassle.

From this point of view, someone who is very self-aware like Constantine is actually more suitable to be the Tsar.

However, after he and Alexander were stimulated by the assassination of their father, Constantine had already made up his mind.

"Perhaps what you said makes sense, Misha. But considering these immigration issues, you can't get people from the German princes now. Even if my brother and I write to my sisters, and my sister-in-law talks to the relatives at home, there needs to be a peaceful environment. Before that, how are you going to deal with it?"

"They probably brought people here from the Balkans. We now control many places in Wallachia and even Rumelia. If they immigrate from mainland Greece, it would be convenient for them to be placed in Crimea, or even in Balaklava."

Having said that, it is obvious that there are still some contingency plans. Besides, these ethnic groups are not uncommon in Russia, and the differences in customs and communication are not that great.

Even capturing tens of thousands of Turks would not be a problem. (End of this chapter)