Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Prince Alexander Saltkov's father was the Grand Tutor who remained in Russia as regent, a man of high status but incompetent.

He had an older brother who was blind and a younger brother who was not good to his wife. He was outstanding, but he was not liked by the Tsar himself.

His father was clearly the guardian of the Tsar or Grand Duke.

He is an honorary member of the liberal poetry society, but he doesn't attend events very often.

Who else is here? The cavalry poet Davydov, Pushkin who always had a penchant for dueling, and a few others.

He himself held the official position of Vice Foreign Minister and also acted as Foreign Minister.

His mission was accomplished when the Tsar himself returned.

Even his dinner today included a bowl of chicken soup, but he didn't like the taste.

"Sasha, why are you like this?"

"Those Chinese officials, in order to avoid their own responsibility, actually denied the existence of the mission that visited China during the reign of Peter the Great, as mentioned in our diplomatic archives. The mission at that time was much larger than they claimed!"

"People keep bringing this up, should we?"

Prince Saltykov's father-in-law was Count Golovkin, who had gone to Uliastai last time but failed to get things sorted out.

After being turned away, he returned and, disregarding Russia's recent major defeat and subsequent war with France, claimed that troops should be sent to the Chinese border.

Even he, as the son-in-law, thought his father-in-law had gone mad.

"It's alright, my dear. The Emperor will be back soon, and he will have to make the final decision."

Then Prince Saltykov was about to be disappointed. After Alexander returned, he became somewhat lazy in governing and often locked himself in his room. Who knows what kind of mystical things he was doing?

But then they still had to send a mission to China, and a letter from Count Vorontsov indicated that the British were planning to do just that.

This immediately made even a seasoned diplomat like him nervous; there were still many things to do!
However, there is some good news: Solovyov has returned. The Emperor had already appointed him as the chief envoy for this mission, and the team was built around him.

But after returning, Solovyov was busy settling into his home and would be going back to Western Europe again after a while, so he didn't seem to have much time.

Before the mission departed, Prince Saltykov, who had been in charge of the negotiations between China and Russia, would always meet with the future chief envoy.

So he was going to 17 Nevsky Prospekt to visit Count Stroganov.

After the count returned, his health deteriorated significantly.

Because of this, he was eager to arrange a marriage for his son and actually approached Solovyov.

“My sister Polina? She’s only fifteen. Although she’s quite tall, she’s still a child. Pavel Alexandrovich, I understand your feelings. You want your son to get married soon, but you need to find a suitable girl, and someone from a good family.”

“Julia is also your sister. No one objected when she married Christian. Moreover, Christian is the Prince of Mecklenburg. Although he does not inherit the land, he still has a prestigious title and a share of the family fortune. My son will inherit my family business in the future, and my four daughters will each receive a generous dowry. What’s wrong with that?”

Countess Sophia echoed this sentiment from the side.

“Mishka, it’s okay, don’t worry about it.”

It's true that they were kind to us, but your son is getting married and has come to our house. Although this is a huge fortune for my second sister, and the young count is a very outstanding young man, it's not a bad thing.

“My father has retired and no longer manages family affairs, but I always have to tell him.”

“You can write to Sergei Osipovich; I think he will agree.”

Even though the count and countes were kind-hearted and good to their family, the daughter-in-law of the richest man was still a bit of a hassle for him.

We'll see how the children get along then; the wedding procession has already started, and it's the stepmother's daughters' turn.

Just as they were discussing marriage, the count's butler entered.

"My lord, Prince Alexander Saltkov has arrived."

"What is he here for?"

"They're supposedly here to see Count Solovyov."

“That must be a diplomatic matter. His father-in-law, Count Golovkin, was my father’s student. So we’re practically family. Valery, let him come over. We haven’t seen each other in a long time. We’ve all been in Europe these days, and he’s been the only one here looking after the house.”

The prince arrived quickly. There were no salons or receptions today, and the countess, seeing her husband growing thinner and thinner, had no interest in holding such events.

"Since you're all here, I'm here to see Misha."

"What's going on this time?"

"Regarding your trip to China, the Emperor's representative in Kyakhta does not agree to our mission by land, stating that the mission is too large. Even though the archives have been found, they say that this is a matter on our side, and the Emperor has no relevant documents."

"This is either feigning ignorance or it's Alexander Nikolayevich. Can you imagine something? That they simply can't be bothered to look at the documents and files. Even if this matter is true, these people would find it too troublesome to look at it."

"That's more like how we do things here."

“They won’t budge unless we open the red box, take out the document hidden inside, and have a final confrontation. We have the document, but the Chinese emperor isn’t willing to do anything.”

Prince Alexander Saltkov looked just like Sir Humphrey, and Solovyov wanted to laugh at the thought, but he held it in.

But officials all over the world, no matter where they are from, all have this tendency.

"Misha, what should we do if you have to go?"

Solovyov pondered for a moment, then blurted out.

“We come by sea, and this involves trade. The port of Kyakhta is not enough, and we also have furs and medicinal herbs to export to China. If this continues, we will only be able to use the land ports, and the British will take away our trade share.”

"But what if Chinese officials don't admit it?"

"It's alright. If the emperor himself finds out, they'll be in big trouble."

Even though Emperor Jiaqing was generally lenient, the basic procedure of dismissing officials would still have to be followed if things were to proceed in this manner.

The fact that he didn't have a literary inquisition doesn't mean he didn't discipline his officials. In the case of the poisoning of the imperial envoy, Jiaqing executed several key officials; even a merciful emperor would have a few heads chopped off.

Solovyov knew this, but he still had his own plans on how to make the connections.

For the Ming and Qing dynasties, nothing else mattered, but face was very important.

The practice of kneeling did not originate in the Qing Dynasty. Many things were inherited from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, except for the queue on the head.

Therefore, if you go there, you should be respectful.

However, we should also find another way to file a complaint.

The border between the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia was not only through Uliastai, but also through the Ili General and the Heilongjiang General, who each had contact with the Siberian Governor-General's District and the Kazakhstan, which was effectively divided between the two sides.

If the main gate is impassable, the side gate can also be considered, especially regarding the Tarbagatai issue, which the two sides have been discussing.

Solovyov's idea was to take advantage of the time before leaving home to file a complaint and let Jiaqing know what had happened here.

Another person deceived the higher-ups and caused the Russian Kingdom, which came to "pay tribute," to be unable to do so. This was something that General Uliastai could not tolerate.

Solovyov was betting on the Qing emperor's attitude. According to news brought back by Dutch ships passing through Macau, as well as descriptions from Jesuit missionaries who had recently returned to Europe, a cult had besieged the palace in the imperial capital, but the attack was quickly quelled.

This does reflect the weakness of the Qing Dynasty at this time, but it is only a superficial phenomenon, since it was just a minor disturbance.

Europeans might even think that Chinese emperors were incredibly swift in suppressing these unruly people, a feat unmatched by any other European country.

Isn't this kind of behavior of directly attacking the capital and even storming the palace exactly what the Jacobins did?
Even some of the latest communications are praising the Chinese emperor's swift response in eliminating their own revolutionaries.

Only the British might know that China had some problems at this time, and that a ship always leaks from the superstructure first.

Solovyov knew much more.

So he took up his pen himself and wrote it down with a quill pen. Fortunately, he knew how to use traditional characters, so it became a sincere petition and diplomatic document.

"This document should be copied out by our diplomats and submitted, just like a petition to the Emperor."

"You really do have a way with things."

"What I'm worried about is that they don't know anything, what those civil officials and border governors are hiding. If we were to send an imperial envoy from here, there would probably be some interesting stories to tell."

Solovyov's letter claimed that the Uliastai General was "obstructing tribute," forcing them to file a complaint with the Ili General.

If this blockage continues, it will eventually become something even a general cannot handle.

Furthermore, in the document, Solovyov explained that he was now going to tell Prince Saltykov about the situation.

"Are you saying that since we can't reach the land route and we have a lot of tribute items, we should switch to the sea route?"

“This will definitely be useful. Besides, what I wrote is not in a language that the Chinese emperor could not understand. The Chinese officials can also understand those Chinese characters. They are illiterate, not familiar with philosophical classics, and have not received systematic education. They cannot serve as officials.”

“But it’s not like that here. Although they have hired private tutors, there are still some civil servants who are not up to the task.”

"Then we need to make changes; education will always be needed."

But matters concerning civil officials cannot be resolved in a day or two.

Solovyov will remain in Europe for a long time; he will not move until at least the end of 1815, the summer of 1816, and before the departure of the British Amherst Mission.

But on the Qing Dynasty side, they had many more problems to deal with.

Even after the Ili General received the Russians' complaint, he rushed to the capital to deliver it.

This left Emperor Jiaqing both amused and exasperated.

The Russian Empire had been negotiating for several years to send an ambassadorial delegation to pay tribute. Their officials even informed Qing officials in Kyakhta about what was happening in Europe.

It wasn't that the Jiaqing and Daoguang emperors were completely unaware of the situation; it was simply that the decrease in missionaries and the relative isolation within the country led to a reduction in information exchange.

Emperor Qianlong knew about things happening in Europe, and so did Emperor Jiaqing.

The article I saw this time, although somewhat incoherent and even a bit colloquial, making it as easy to understand as an imperial edict from the Mongol Yuan dynasty, still had some literary merit. It even quoted classical texts and mentioned stories from the Zuo Zhuan, which proves that the writer had a certain level of cultural literacy.

However, it was also mentioned that this tribute mission would involve a large number of items, and Russia would also be sending personnel to their territory in the Yaksha Kingdom, so the number of people would exceed that of previous missions, reaching the scale of the largest mission during the Kangxi era.

This also requests the Emperor's permission for Russia to send tribute by sea, and mentions many diplomatic etiquette rules from Europe.

Bringing female relatives along is also a diplomatic tactic. Moreover, Jiaqing actually understood such strange sayings as "the deep love between husband and wife cannot be considered virtuous if they are separated by thousands of miles of ocean."

His approval was simple: he permitted the Russian delegation to pay tribute this time.

He could even deduce that it was probably because of the opening of the port that they were sending people to negotiate.

The Jiaqing Emperor had a good impression of Russia, partly because of Prince Zhi, who later became the Daoguang Emperor. He used Russian muskets to fire repeatedly and repel the enemy. Moreover, the Russian "Khan" was always very polite, respectful, and courteous, which explained the misunderstanding from nine years ago.

He was also willing to meet with the Russian side, and even quickly approved Kyakhta's dismissal from his post as General Uliastai, and sent other personnel to make contact.

However, this punishment was only mild, as was customary for Emperor Jiaqing.

It had no deterrent effect whatsoever, and besides, the emperor himself only permitted Russia to do so this once.

As for the size of the mission, he himself couldn't even imagine how many people would be coming.

If it were Solovyov's arrangement, there would probably be a fleet and a merchant convoy. The number of people going ashore might not be many, but if they were to set off all at once, there would be thousands of people, not including the sailors.

Since things have come to this point, permission is granted.

Of course, when this happened, Solovyov was on his way to send Anna off to her wedding in the Netherlands, and also went to Paris to visit his daughter who had just given birth to a grandson, so he did not react immediately.

Even if he knew, he would only find it unexpected. The fact that Jiaqing had agreed to the maritime tribute system meant that the matter concerning the women was completely unexpected.

This time, he's taking Katya on a long trip, a kind of round-the-world journey, as a form of compensation. (End of Chapter)