Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 50 050 Russia officially declares war on France

Everything that happened in France was changing the world. With the fall of the Bastille, any news from the Western European continent was shocking.

However, from the perspective of the aristocracy of various countries at that time, they all had the same view, that is, the complete destruction of their known order, which also caused the first anti-French alliance.

But at that time, the Queen still did not send Russian troops to Western Europe. Until 1791, Russia's attention was mainly in the south. The treaty with the Ottoman Empire determined Russia's southern border and completely held Crimea in its hands.

When the attention turned to the west, I wonder if the French should thank the stupid Swedish king who wanted to form an alliance with Russia and then messed around again and again, making the Queen sick.

By the way, if the Russian Grand Duchesses really caught a cold as the Queen worried, the Swedish King would probably be regarded as a clown.

In short, Paul has now given up the marriage with Sweden. After all, Gustav IV is the only child, and there are no brothers or sisters in the family. Moreover, this Nordic neighbor is really petty.

But in Austria, except for his wife, it seems that everyone in the family is not optimistic about marrying Archduke Joseph of Austria. This atmosphere has also spread to some favorites and his son Alexander's confidants.

For this matter, Count Stroganov, the chief steward of the court and the leader of the Petersburg nobles, also went to Vienna. After returning, he reported to Paul.

"Your Majesty, you know that my daughter is in the manor in Moscow, although I don't care about what happens there. But I also want to say that although Archduke Joseph has a good character, in all aspects, his performance is not necessarily better than that of a squire's child!"

"You can sit down and listen to me, don't stand there, Alexander Sergeyevich."

After the old count sat down, Paul handed over a document.

"Even the sons of gentry may have some talents. You may be talking about the kind who have never left home. How does this description sound to you? For example, 'the stupid son of the landlord'?"

"But the Austrian royal family is so bad. When Prince Ferdinand received us at the reception of His Majesty Franz, Your Majesty, you should have heard that he twitched on the spot. And those court ladies in Vienna, I don't think they can have any good feelings for our noble eldest princess, Alexandra. The atmosphere in this court is very strange. Your Majesty, only in your court, there is some warmth from relatives. No court in Europe has this. The connection between royal family members is so close."

Speaking of this, Paul sighed: "If I can make Constantine not so ridiculous, I will thank God."

Constantine's situation is indeed hard to describe.

Even if Paul goes against his mother, he still longs for a harmonious and warm family. He is also very concerned about his daughter-in-law who married in.

He even had an idea that if Archduke Joseph was not the Vice-Prince of Hungary, could he come to St. Petersburg if he was given the rank of Russian Field Marshal?

The old count said before he set off that the arrogance of the Habsburg family would not allow an archduke to be a son-in-law.

If he wanted to do this, he would have to find a prince from a German state who was not the first in line, which would be a remedy.

"Your Majesty, this meeting with Archduke Joseph of Austria still needs to be arranged, but"

Then the old count took out a preliminary draft of a newspaper, which was quite interesting.

"What is this, 'Legend of the Three Kingdoms'?"

"It is a translated article published in the Petersburg News, selected from the Chinese novel translation selection. Your Majesty, I am responsible for cultural sponsorship, and this aspect must also be given special attention."

"Has the editor-in-chief talked to you about this? It's all about blind dates!"

Of course, the old Count Stroganov has read it. He knows that his son and daughter-in-law, the crown prince and the crown princess, have thought of many ways to prevent the eldest princess from getting married.

In the end, the young Count Stroganov told Solovyov that when you ask for manuscripts, don't give the preface and the content of the previous few chapters, and go directly to Ganlu Temple.

The highlight is the annotation below. Paul read this, and his brain is not bad. He quickly realized the problem.

His problem is that when he was governing, he took it for granted and led to a series of ghost operations.

"I think we can consider this issue, but don't publish it in the newspaper. You can use other paragraphs instead. During sensitive periods, we shouldn't send out content with stimulating signals."

"Okay then, Your Majesty, there are other parts of the relevant content that can be printed."

Before the old Count Stroganov was about to leave, Paul still held the newspaper in his hand: "I hope to see the complete version of this book. Maybe I can use it as an enlightenment reading for the elite children of our country in the future."

This is a bit difficult for Solovyov. After all, he only completed the content of the blind date in Ganlu Temple and the first three chapters. The preface has been put aside. This is already very fast. After all, his talent for translation is still limited. This version can only be said to be interesting in content, but the wording is not beautiful enough, and it can even be said to be rushed.

And he already knew the content of the future mobilization of the army. When 1799 came, the last batch of Russian troops mobilized would prepare to set off for the Austrian border. The Guards and Grenadiers of Petersburg were preparing. It was unknown who would be the last batch to set off. There were still some confidentiality measures in it.

The strong urging from the Tsar himself was good that he did not sign his name at all, so he would not be pressed in the hut for translation by armed urging.

In the end, the special issue of the "Petersburg News" published the content of the first chapter of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and introduced some situations during the Han Dynasty in China. The content of the opening chapter was still a bit politically correct in Russia, such as the sons of the declining nobles recruiting volunteers to suppress the peasant uprising, etc., which was somewhat useful for the young nobles in Petersburg.

If the whole chapter was really completed, the workload would not be small.

After the old count who was in charge of blind dates left, Paul's next meeting was with Count Alexander Andreevich Bezborodko, the chancellor and dean of the Diplomatic Academy. Although his health was not good and he was no longer fit to continue his duties, Paul still needed to hear the opinions of this foreign policy maker in the queen's early years.

He was already lying in bed, and had no chance to enjoy the long vacation for recuperation and the huge imperial estate that Paul had given him as a reward.

"Your Majesty, you must have something important to do if you come here at this time, but my health is very poor and I can no longer help you solve diplomatic problems."

"I just want to listen to your opinions, Alexander Andreevich. I have arranged your family affairs. Your heirs are your younger brother and his children."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. This is a special favor from you. My assistant Count Bezukhov is also in poor health. Your Majesty should be cautious about the selection of the Dean of the Diplomatic Academy and the Imperial Chancellor."

"I know this. Let's discuss the relationship with Austria now."

"Okay, Your Majesty, about Austria, and also about Britain."

The count still tried to sit up, but his physical condition was very poor and he could only lean on the soft pillow.

"If it is what Alexander Sergeyevich saw and heard in Vienna, I think the suggestion made by Prince Saltykov, which is the delay of the marriage mentioned in your letter in September, is feasible, but this requires Austria to have a "fault" first, not us. At least it must be due to the mistake of Austria to cancel this marriage. In this case, the marriage between Archduchess Elena and the heir of the Mecklenburg Prince may come first. Of course, we can claim that our eldest princess is in poor health, and His Royal Highness seems to have been ill recently."

"Yes, although you are at home, the court and the outside world are Everything that happened in the academy was communicated immediately. "

"In this case, the Austrians will definitely propose a joint operation plan after our army arrives. My brother once served under Alexander Vasilyevich. When he came to see me yesterday, we discussed this issue. I think the Austrians will definitely invite him to come out, because our ever-victorious marshal has dealt with the Austrians before. "

Then, Bezborodko began to cough and coughed up a mouthful of thick phlegm. He was obviously in a bad state because he talked too much, and his breathing became more rapid and heavy.

"Don't be anxious, you can talk slowly."

"Your Majesty, while I am still awake, finish this question. The Austrians will definitely hinder us secretly in order to meet their needs and take into account the friendly relations between our country and Prussia. At this time, we should still exert pressure on the Austrians not to make such stupid moves. There are so many concentrated means in diplomacy. Since we want to marry, and at that time, Archduchess Alexandra is likely to "get along badly" with Archduke Joseph during the blind date, we can adopt a sausage-cutting method to solve this problem, cough cough cough."

Then the count began to cough violently again, but he had already said the main content of what he wanted to say.

When several servants came to help the Imperial Prime Minister to turn over, Paul also helped him.

"Your Majesty, you must use people who are familiar with diplomacy to formulate policies, not people around you to serve as the dean of the Diplomatic Academy."

As for the specific details, he obviously had no time to think about them because of his weak health. In the first half of the year, the Imperial Prime Minister and the dean of the Diplomatic Academy, the head of the Russian civil servants, was still in good health. Due to anxiety and the workload required by the changes in Russia's foreign policy, he quickly fell ill, and then his health deteriorated to this state.

Although the Imperial Prime Minister was already seriously ill, he still had to say something about the government's arrangements. Before applying for retirement, he had some opinions on the selection of the cabinet secretary. Paul also had to make adjustments now, but he appointed the young Prince Saltykov as the deputy of the cabinet secretary and the actual secretary of the emperor himself, which looked like a Sir Humphrey inserted in anyway.

It seems that now is the glorious age of the British Empire, and they are very clear about what they want to do.

But Russia's diplomatic department is divided into two parts to operate, one is the foreign minister, and the other is the dean of the Diplomatic Academy.

Obviously, Paul did not immediately hand over the Diplomatic Academy to his trusted favorite, Count Rostopchin. The Count had been humiliated once this year and was dismissed from his post, but now he is back to take charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

However, as the executor of Paul's foreign policy, he obviously had no persuasive effect on Paul himself.

In fact, the Imperial Chancellor himself hoped that his nephew, the Imperial Vice Chancellor Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey, would come to the Diplomatic Academy to take power instead of always serving as a deputy.

In the end, the Tsar still acted according to his own decision, but the policy was discussed by the two that day.

Now Paul wants to "test" the issue of marriage first, but he did not expect that the Austrians were eager to win over Russia to oppose France, and they also agreed to the "Russian tradition" of dating before engagement. The bad luck that Grand Duchess Alexandra had encountered before did make the Austrians worry that if they did not do well, they would cause another diplomatic scandal. For the moody Paul, Austria now wants to take advantage of the time when he is about to take action, and it is still the first priority to bring all the Russian troops to the battlefield.

In St. Petersburg, in December 1798, ambassadors from various countries have arrived here, including Britain, Austria, Naples and the Ottoman Empire. These countries may have had grudges in the past, but this time they united to deal with the French.

The Russian imperial government also officially declared war on France and joined the Second Anti-French Alliance.

In fact, this time the anti-French alliance is stronger than every time. In addition to Prussia, the main political forces in Europe, except for the always weak Spanish Bourbon, have joined in. This is the most dangerous time for France.

It can even be said that even these generals and soldiers of the anti-French alliance are of the highest quality in history. In the future, we may never see such a grand occasion where famous generals of all ages from various countries will fight.

However, so many countries united, but in the end they still failed because of their ulterior motives.

This is what will happen a year later, and the war will officially come at the end of 1798.