Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 712 014 In , the French invaders attacked (I)

Louisa knew that there were such concerns at court, and Alexander had been conducting diplomatic mediation, repeatedly asking Napoleon to withdraw most of the French troops from Poland while maintaining the current state of peace.

At the same time, Alexander did not forget the two wings, and the diplomatic negotiations with Sweden and Turkey, one was to form an alliance, and the other was to finally conclude a peace treaty, always aiming to crush the French diplomatic strategy on the two wings.

Meanwhile, the French had signed a treaty of alliance with Prussia and Austria in March 1812.

What is strange is that Catherine has not sent any warning letters from Paris so far. She only mentioned in her letters that Napoleon went to Malmaison to see Josephine.
It is relatively easy for the sisters to get pregnant, and they have already started preparing to have a backup baby.

However, these letters did not make everyone feel relieved. Instead, the activities of the French were very worrying.

When the queen thought this, Alexander himself was not in St. Petersburg, and even many heads of government agencies were not here.

The person in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St. Petersburg was Prince Saltykov, the acting Chairman of the Council of Ministers, whom Alexander himself had disliked for many years. He looked like Sir Humphrey, had a similar language style, and even always had several options when doing things.

He even talked about this with some young students from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when he got up in the morning.

"Let's not talk about what the British think. Their cabinet decision-making speed is not fast. There is always a document at the bottom of the red box."

"Sir, the most important concern in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs right now is the relationship with France."

"I think the continental blockade policy against Britain may not have any deterrent effect in the end. If it is a declaration of war, it seems too much. I still advocate that the relationship between Russia and France should be resolved peacefully. You may have the opportunity to go to embassies abroad in the future and practice it there, but this is in civilized countries, not including the Ottoman Sultan, the Shah of Persia and the Governor of Algiers."

"Does that include the Emperor of China?"

"They are a civilized country, but they do things differently."

Prince Saltykov remembered the defeat his father-in-law suffered, and when he came back he wanted to teach the Russians a lesson with the 20,000 Russian troops in Siberia.

In the end, Alexander denied this view on the spot. He had suffered many losses in the promotion sequence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in those years.

He is only the Deputy Foreign Minister now. With his talent, there would be no problem for him to be the Foreign Minister.

But his interest is always disturbed by the people around him.

"Sir, we have to go to the Diplomatic Academy in an hour, and you have a meeting there, and the French ambassador sent his entourage to the Ministry this morning, saying that he had an important meeting at noon."

"this afternoon?"

Some key issues quickly emerged in Prince Saltykov's mind, because the formulation of policy towards France has also been a key focus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently, and this was also the case when Count Rumyantsev accompanied the Tsar himself from St. Petersburg.

What he was thinking about was whether something would happen. General Lauriston was different from Mr. Caulaincourt. That gentleman was of noble birth and had a deep friendship with Alexander himself. He could communicate through diplomatic mediation.

But if another general is replaced, it will look like Napoleon's executor of French foreign policy, which is not a good thing.

He thought of the worst outcome, that is, France would make a final response to Russia's announcement in April.

Since the Russian upper class is generally pro-French, or at least has some favorable impression on French culture, and it seems that the focus for France at present should be on Britain and solving problems somewhere on the Western Front, rather than waging war against Russia to the east.

The correspondence with Count Solovyov also made Prince Saltykov more determined in his prediction.

People in the Foreign Ministry generally hold a peaceful stance, which is also a convention, and the prince does not think that a war will occur.

Both sides believed that some of the other side's actions were undermining the agreements reached during the negotiations on the Neman River. The spirit formed by the two diplomatic talks in Tilsit and Erfurt should not be broken. For both Russia and France, peace must be maintained.

This idea is very optimistic, but it is difficult to say what the French think, especially what Napoleon himself thinks.

Although the Russians have always believed that Napoleon launched an undeclared war in 1812, General Lauriston happened to have a diplomatic note in his hand in advance, which contained the final decision of the French side. It was kept secret from the outside world even before Napoleon himself arrived at the front and settled in a Vilkavishsky estate in Lithuania.

Even his beloved wife Catherine, who had given birth to a son for him and whom he wanted to keep as a backup, his "little Catherine" still had to be kept secret.

After all, she was a Russian princess. As for Lauriston herself, she had long smelled the scent of this in the diplomatic affairs between France and Russia.

Russia's ambassador to Paris, Prince Alexander Kurakin, has publicly stated that he wants to prepare passports, probably to prepare for possible accidents, especially war.

Lauriston himself was not too worried. If war was really declared, the French soldiers would still believe the emperor himself. Since he returned from Egypt, he had not suffered any failure when he was personally on the battlefield.

Of course, except for the incident at Essling, Archduke Karl did take advantage of the terrain to inflict heavy damage on the French army that time, which was different from previous wars.

As for Alexander Saltykov himself, when he met Lauriston, he met him here as an old friend.

"Jacques, I'm glad to see you at this time. It's such a peaceful morning."

"It is indeed a quiet morning, and today is also the longest day of the year. You can also see white nights in Petersburg." "You are here to submit diplomatic documents at this time, so there must be some important event."

“Yes, I present this document to the Tsar and the Russian Government on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor and the French Government.”

Young Prince Saltykov has been a shrewd man over the years, and he has long been aware of some of Lauriston's small actions. This time he is definitely not up to no good, and may even cause quite a bit of trouble.

In Lauriston's hand was a diplomatic note in which France declared war on Russia.

After reading it out, Prince Saltykov was also a little surprised.

"It sounds shocking, but I can only express my regret on behalf of our head of government that all the problems are attributed to Prince Kurakin. After all, diplomatic relations with France are an important part of our country. Moreover, Her Royal Highness Ekaterina Pavlovna, whom we fight for, is the Queen of France. Such a marriage relationship should help consolidate our relationship."

Having said that, Prince Saltykov's face looked very ugly. He also knew that since war had been declared, the other party would definitely find some high-sounding reasons.

For example, Napoleon also expressed this view in the Grand Army Bulletin issued on the same day, saying that the war was caused by the repeated arrogance of the Russian government.

In fact, it was always the French's own actions that ultimately led to their own downfall.

The prince himself was shocked, and his expression was indeed a bit stunned, but he quickly regained his normal composure and began to talk a lot of time-delaying words.

Lauriston could sense that Prince Saltykov was probably speaking in order to give himself time to think. It was a very strange delaying tactic, where a person had to give a long speech while also talking about a specific plan.

He was actually delaying time. When he received the diplomatic note earlier, which was also the time when France took action, Lauriston was not prepared to submit a declaration of war at the first time. What's more, Alexander himself, Secretary of State Alexander Shishkov as the head of the government, and Foreign Minister Count Rumyantsev were not there at this time. The people in charge of the operation of the government in such a big St. Petersburg were actually the two old men, the Grand Tutor and Sergei Kuzmich, and the little Prince Saltykov, who was obviously out of favor with the Tsar.

It did buy him some time, so the emperor's plan could probably continue.

However, once the declaration of war comes out, it will definitely have a major impact.

After sorting out his thoughts, Prince Saltykov also confirmed the current situation.

Now that France has declared war, it seems that the whole of Russia has to carry out a full mobilization. Under the current circumstances, even a senior bureaucrat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs like him knows that the scale of the war will not be lower than the previous two wars. Both sides have undergone a long period of preparation.

As for the coordination work, Prince Saltykov knew that his confused and indecisive old father could only stabilize the emotions of the court and the people of the capital, and other roles would probably not be reflected. Since the Tsar and Grand Duke Constantine were not here and Grand Duke Nicholas was not yet old enough to handle government affairs independently, the Grand Tutor himself would naturally step forward to serve as regent.

After he received the imperial edict, he soon met his father.

The Grand Tutor was even more surprised, and even stammered when he spoke. He had fought with the French many times in the past. He even remembered some Russian veterans who mentioned when he was a child that they had fought with the French abroad in the war. In addition to the war of the anti-French alliance, Russia and France often appeared as allies in the past. It was really a huge change.

"Why did the French choose to attack us at this time? We already have a princess married in Paris and has given birth to an heir to the emperor. It is really unnecessary to fight a war like this, Sergei Kuzmich, don't you think?"

The other old guy next to him seemed relatively calm, except that he was wiping his eyes with a handkerchief.

"It's just that at this time, we have to mobilize everyone we can, and we should ring the bells in St. Petersburg and hold a prayer ceremony. May God bless our country."

After saying this, the old man made the sign of the cross on his chest.

As for the other people present, they all maintained shocked expressions.

However, these people have not immediately announced what has happened, and the French declaration of war is still kept secret from the residents of St. Petersburg and the people in other parts of Russia.

At this time, Alexander was attending a reception at General Bennigsen's villa and had not yet figured out what was happening in all aspects. Whether it was the Cossacks' activities near the Neman River, the diplomatic notes from St. Petersburg, or the reports from his spies, there must be some delays.

As for the Grand Army bulletin issued by Napoleon, such content had already appeared.

"Soldiers, the Second Polish War has begun. Our first war ended on the banks of the Neman, at Tilsit, Russia swore an everlasting alliance with France and war with England. Now the Russian has violated his oath, refused to give any explanation for his insolence, and demanded that the French eagle return to the Rhine, leaving our ally at his mercy. A catastrophe is about to fall upon the land of Russia, and his fate will be fulfilled. Does he think we have fallen? Are we no longer the soldiers who fought at Austerlitz? He offers us between diplomatic insult and war, and our choice will not be difficult. Let us march, then, as we have in the past, we will cross the Neman and bring the war to his country. The Second Polish War will be as glorious for the French armies as the first, but the peace we will conclude will have its own guarantees and will prevent the fatal influence that Russia has exercised in Europe for fifty years."

After this announcement was made, the soldiers in the French army also began to cheer.

After all, with the emperor, they always moved from one victory to another.

As for the army itself, it had already begun to mobilize.

The French action was actually ahead of schedule. On the Russian side, apart from the diplomatic note conveyed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, some Cossacks who were grazing their horses near the Neman River noticed that someone was taking action on the other side, and even that soldiers were preparing materials for building a bridge. Others knew nothing about this war at this time.

The wheels of war were about to turn, and the French troops were lining up in their respective barracks, ready to set out into action.

The fate of many people will also change with the outbreak of war.

(End of this chapter)