I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 556 The irresistible temptation

Petersburg.

In the Anichkov Palace in the middle of Nevsky Avenue, laughter and somewhat noisy music disturbed the quiet evening.

Alexei raised his glass to the young nobleman standing on the balcony railing and shouted, "Dance! Ha! I bet 100 rubles that he can finish the dance. Is there anyone who dares to bet with me?"

A slightly plump nobleman came over and whispered, "Count Bobulinsky, Primakov has already drunk a whole bottle. He will fall..."

"No, you haven't seen how much he drinks." Alexei said, patting the black bear next to him who was drinking from the glass with his paws. "Ivan, Sergey has never been drunk, right?"

The black bear nodded in a very human way, then dropped his wine glass, turned around, pushed the pianist who was playing aside, climbed clumsily onto the chair, raised his paws and slapped the keys, making a messy noise.

"Sergey, Ivan is urging you to dance!"

Alexei drank the wine in the glass in one gulp, glanced at the middle-aged man with a long face beside him, and said casually: "I bet 200 rubles that Primakov will not fall!"

Now, through the profits of Gemini Trading Company, he has already achieved financial freedom and has become one of the business leaders in St. Petersburg. 200 rubles is nothing to him.

"300 rubles! Who wants to bet with me?" He continued to increase the bet.

The long-faced middle-aged man seemed to be infected by his madness, and he also drank the wine in his glass in one gulp. He looked at the young man swaying on the balcony railing and continued loudly:
"Well, I'll bet you 300 rubles that he'll fall!"

Alexei was overjoyed: "Great, let's start, Sergey! Where is the music!"

The musician glanced at the black bear that occupied the piano - it was Alexei's pet - and reluctantly picked up a violin, walked quickly to the balcony, and began to play.

Primakov sang along with the music and danced on the armrests, which were less than the width of a palm.

Although this was the third floor, he showed no fear at all. Perhaps the alcohol had made him forget his fear. He stumbled several times but miraculously managed to keep his balance and continued waving his arms and legs.

The nobles in the room gathered around, cheered and cheered, and handed him full wine glasses from time to time to show their encouragement.

Alexei saw the long-faced middle-aged man staring at Primakov nervously, so he came over and said, "Count Chikolin, I heard that the British who came recently wanted to discuss a big business?"

Count Chikolin was the Second Assistant to the Russian Foreign Secretary and had recently been in charge of receiving Lord Grenville.

He had drunk a lot today, and his attention was focused on the bet, so he nodded subconsciously: "Ah, yes, they said they wanted to increase trade volume, and they seemed to have mentioned the development of Crimea."

"That's a good thing." Alexey curled his lips, "But they can be so generous, they must have put forward a lot of conditions, right?"

"What else can the British think of? They want us to raise tariffs on French goods or reduce trade with France..."

Count Chikolin was startled when he spoke, and looked at Alexei and asked, "Why do you suddenly ask this?"

The latter thought to himself that of course it was the French ambassador to Russia who asked me to help find out the news.

Ever since Lord Grenville landed in Riga, the French ambassador had been on high alert, trying to find out what the British were up to. However, his gains were limited, and he could only follow the instructions of the Crown Prince and turn to Count Poplinski if he encountered any problems.

Alexei said hurriedly: "As a businessman, I must understand the trade trends between countries as much as possible, so that I can make money, right?" As he was speaking, Black Bear squeezed onto the balcony and tried to dance with Primakov. The latter was startled and immediately stepped on the air and fell out, "Ah--"

Fortunately, a servant laid straw under the balcony, so he was saved from falling to his death.

Alexei pretended to be angry when he saw this: "Hey! This stupid bear should not be allowed to drink so much!"

He signaled his attendant to hand over the bag of 300 rubles to Count Chikolin, who immediately smiled and said, "Ah! Thank you for your generosity. It is really a smart animal, haha."

He put away the money bag, feeling that he had owed someone a debt, so he leaned over to Alexei's ear and said, "Count Bobulinsky, you must make some preparations in advance, such as trying the Baltic Sea route."

"what do you mean?"

"His Majesty seems to be very interested in the British proposal." The assistant foreign minister lowered his voice even lower, "and His Majesty has sent someone to Iasi to summon Prince Potemkin back to St. Petersburg to discuss this matter."

Alexei said with a grateful look: "You have helped me a lot. It seems that we really need to send some ships to the Baltic Sea."

Potemkin was the de facto "Chancellor" of Russia, and was currently working on the newly occupied territory of Moldavia, which is eastern Romania. The fact that the Tsar was so eager to call him back showed that the British really touched her.

Moreover, Potemkin was pro-British in his political spectrum and would most likely not refuse the olive branch from the British.

The next day, Alexei went to see his brother, Crown Prince Paul, and tried to find out the purpose of the British trip indirectly.

Unfortunately, the latter did not enter the core political circle of Russia - Catherine II did not like him. So Alexei did not get as much information from him as he did at the party.

Soon, the French ambassador to Russia wrote the information Alexei told him into a coded letter and sent it back to Paris as quickly as possible.

……

North coast of the Black Sea.

On the Ezu steppe, more than a hundred elite Russian cavalrymen guarded a golden carriage and galloped northward.

In the carriage, Potemkin leaned weakly on the seat and looked at the Tsar's secretary opposite with his only remaining right eye: "Baron Hrapovitsky, there are no outsiders here, please tell me the truth, what do the British want to do?
"Your Majesty will never let me leave Iasi behind and go back just for some 'new trade agreement'. Unless...she misses me."

As the "ever-loving" one among Catherine II's many lovers, he is now finding it difficult to gain the Empress's favor due to his deteriorating health.

In particular, he ignored the doctor's advice and after a binge eating session at the beginning of the year, his digestive system disease completely defeated him.

But he always fantasized about being able to sit by the Tsar's bedside again like he did more than ten years ago.

"Ahem..." Hrapovitzki coughed awkwardly, and then said, "In fact, Britain does want to cooperate with us in many trade areas. But I heard that they mentioned Poland."

"Poland?" Potemkin narrowed his one eye and shook his head. "But Poland doesn't have any chance at the moment. It's hard for us to deal with Poland alone. After all, we have to keep an eye on the Ottomans and Persia."

(End of this chapter)