Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

The engineers needed arrived. Soloviev was not an officer on duty, so he went to the Admiralty Shipyard to talk with these experts.

When he arrived, he also saw the wooden keel being laid. The first clipper ship had completed the most basic work here, but it would take some time to complete.

"The port here is frozen outside, and it is not convenient to move."

"There is no way. The whole Baltic Sea is like this."

His answer to the question of the Marquis was also simple.

Who let the few places in the world with relatively fresh water, one Azov Sea and one Baltic Sea, be caught up by Russia.

The Azov Sea is not as easy to freeze as the Baltic Sea in winter. Although there are some non-freezing ports, it is also very difficult to sail.

It is difficult to travel these waterways by sailing alone. In the Gulf of Finland in winter, the colder the climate, the more difficult it is to travel.

Even if you face the Swedes across the sea in winter, you can still hit them.

"That's right. The seawater here is not as salty as that in the Mediterranean. When I served in the provinces, I went to Toulon and Saint-Tropez."

"The climate in the south of France should be very good, right?"

"That's true, Major. If you have a chance in the future, you can go and see it."

Soloviev had some impression of Saint-Tropez, mainly because he had watched many comedies, such as the police series, which was actually the gendarmerie series, starring the conductor. It was interesting to take his daughter to a police station to take office.

This place is also a resort, and it is adjacent to several important ports in southern France, but the military use is not so strong. Toulon is already an important base for the French Mediterranean and Levantine Fleet.

"I am looking forward to going to Saint-Tropez, but I have to finish the work in front of me now."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have already reported the steamship model you made to the emperor. Now we have to complete the construction of a new ship, which will take some time."

"It will be good if the structure can be completed by summer. The steam engine we use here is not powerful enough, and it can't go too fast on the water."

"I see, you want this kind of ship to be practical, not just to show it to your majesty."

"Indeed, Russia's territory is much larger than France, and it has such a dense network of rivers. Shipping work should be started on several major rivers, which is also more convenient. Road construction is not so easy."

He didn't intend to tell the Frenchman how terrible the muddy roads in Russia are, especially in the thawing season, when carriages often get stuck in the mud, making travel very inconvenient.

Going in all directions, as long as it is in the navigable season, steamships are still needed. In the absence of wind, they are also very useful as ferries and navigable ships on rivers such as the Volga River.

"That's it. According to the ship we built at that time, we will make some modifications to make the steam engine more powerful and make the ship larger."

"You mean, Marquis, to enlarge this ship?"

"That's right, but we also need to reinforce the parts. As for the safety valve you considered, you can try several materials first, and you also need one with better thermal conductivity."

At the same time, we must also consider that lead plugs must be used. If it is tin, it will be too brittle under low temperature conditions and useless at high temperatures. This must be put aside.

You know, tin buttons, like tin soldiers, are not very suitable in Russia.

The first Russian version of the paddle steamer did not adopt the appearance of a small inland transport ship, but was based on the previous design of the French. The enlargement of the hull also required precise calculations.

In this regard, the engineers of the Navy Department can give full play to their advantages.

After all, they are professional and must be very good at "copying" technology from abroad.

The construction progress is relatively stable. The sea at the gate of Petersburg is indeed not as good as those around the North Atlantic warm current. It is relatively convenient to come up, but the temperature and salinity are not enough, so you can only freeze.

There is a way to make an icebreaker, but the technology is not mature and cannot be used now.

Even the first icebreaker with practical value will not be delivered until 1864.

It is still early, and the demand in the Baltic Sea is not so great now. As long as the steamship is made first, it will be fine.

In the Admiralty Shipyard, many things can be done, which is indeed reassuring.

And the new news from the palace now is that Count von Palen seems to be coming back, and he will still be in charge of the postal business that Paul is more concerned about.

However, this is also news released in Petersburg. Count Kutaisov always has his own way to make money, but this kind of information can't bring much waves.

According to Solovyov's idea, if Count von Palen, who worked for Paul in the latent residence, turned against him, it was actually not very likely.

After all, not everyone holds the script in their hands and knows about the current conspiracies, especially the things in Russia are like the weather here, which are still a bit unpopular.

At this moment, Solovyov returned home. When he went up to the third floor, he saw Yulia leading Polina to play there, and she was wearing the ruby ​​brooch given by Louisa.

He asked Louisa that this was for daily dressing up of the child. She only pinned it up at home and cherished it very much, but would not wear it out.

Yulia is also more sensible this year than in the past. When she saw her brother coming back wearing a cloak, she was not clamoring for him to play with her like she used to.

Maybe Polina has this kind of adjustment effect at home. There is a growing baby here, which is more fun.

He also liked Polina and just touched his little sister's cheek.

"Master, I have your letter."

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Malafiev."

He took several letters from the butler, and when he saw the envelopes, he knew they came from several different places.

The first letter was from Silvia, who had not heard from her for a long time. The girl mentioned that she had moved to Rome and was staying at the palace of Prince Borghese, where her father had gone to Rome from relatives in Spain.

In the letter, he only told the story from Milan to Florence and Rome, and the changes that took place in northern Italy after the French took control of them.

"Michele, I know you will be very busy. We also saw a set of hardcover picture albums here, which seemed to be adapted from your translation manuscript. These picture albums are very beautiful, and the story content is very vivid. It is just a pity that the The text in the picture is all in Russian, and I don’t understand Russian text. Just seeing your signature makes me very happy.”

He didn't expect that his book would have been taken to Italy despite the language barrier. The spread of culture was not slow, but it was only the "first volume" that had been sold recently.

But he couldn't figure out what it meant, "Dear Michele, if we meet again by chance, I will give you a surprise."

"What's going on with this surprise?"

He would also mutter to himself, and he had even analyzed the results, but if this happened, he would definitely explain it in the letter.

Although he had always known that Sylvia liked to be surprised, he did not expect that he would be surprised on this issue.

At the same time, he did not notice that Sylvia went to Prince Borghese's house, which was the location of the famous sculpture he loved very much.

The second letter followed, from Prince Peter. He met Prince Vasily Dolgorukov who was abroad in Dresden. After all, they were relatives of the same clan, and he also met the unlucky "Cake Princess" , she was living well in Dresden, and she also corresponded with the two highnesses who spent the winter in Berlin.

It is also a public matter that the exiled French princess went to Dresden, but Prince Peter did not know about this His Highness. He wrote a letter to Archduke Karl some time ago.

I just know that the poor fate of His Highness and Prince Dolgorukov's family lived very happily. They played with the two girls all day long, and even invited Goethe and Schiller to Dresden, or she was in Dresden. Accompanied by servants, she went to Weimar. This may be a good outcome for her parents who lost their heads, her younger siblings died of illness, and she was left alone.

There is no need to marry his cousin, but he is free.

However, the princess still couldn't let go. The letter she wrote to Archduke Karl also showed some emotional entanglement between the two.

Peter did not write it down, but only stated in his letter to Alexander that Marie Therese would give the greatest support to those who supported Bourbon.

But considering her terrible situation, and even her life depends on the always kind-hearted Prince Vasily Dolgorukov, I don’t know the specific content of this reward, but I can guess what it is.

However, there is nothing wrong with the great cause brought about by the conquest of the Bastille. The princess represents the Bourbons of the past, not the current First Consul, and Napoleon himself can also be called great, and he himself is the same as this The princess had no grievances and even believed that the Swiss Guards should use artillery. However, he represented the current ruling government in Paris, so this hatred was transferred.

What he didn't know was that Archduke Karl sympathized with his cousin. The recent illness in Theschento, away from the intrigues in Vienna, gave him the opportunity to write to Dresden.

After Emperor Franz found out about it, he did not interfere in the third brother's private life. He just lamented that his aunt Maria Christina adopted the third brother. When she was still alive, she pursued her love and married the uncle who had a lower status. , even unanimously envied by his brothers and sisters.

His father, Leopold, had a good relationship with this aunt, so he was about to adopt his third brother. Unexpectedly, in the past few years, Karl had actually learned to love freely!

Of course, only the person involved and Franz himself knew about this. Compared with political stupidity and military pig-like command, Franz was very tolerant when it came to personal issues. He believed that Karl could pursue his own interests. happiness, he is still a good big brother in this regard. Even this potential marriage will not bring benefits and may even bring trouble to Austria.

If it were a historical story, Archduke Karl met a young aristocratic girl who believed in Protestantism in Mainz and married according to his personal wishes. Unfortunately, his wife died young due to scarlet fever. At this time, Franz From the perspective of family members, it would be better to bury the young siblings, who had never converted, in the Habsburg catacombs. After all, they were all one family.

Moreover, Karl himself received relatively few marriage applications. I don’t know why. It may be that he himself always makes people feel boring when they meet.

As for the third letter, it was written by Prince Vasily in Dresden. He said that there were many craftsmen in the German principalities. Considering the current dangerous situation in Central Europe, some talents could be introduced to Russia.

This is because he still had business dealings with Baron Sergei, but he was worried that the old baron himself was not sensitive to technology and was only good at operations, so he handed over technical issues to Soloviev to communicate.

In addition, he also mentioned that Europe was already at peace, and he was going to send his two sons to study in France. Now going to the university in Strasbourg was also a good choice.

For this prince, Soloviev still respected him very much. He was a kind-hearted man who was generous and kind. He was also a retired lieutenant general and privy councilor. He was also very kind to his servants. In fact, his old father's former boss was the son-in-law of the deceased old prince of this family, so naturally they had a close relationship.

He also mentioned in his heart that his eldest daughter Ekaterina missed her playmate Yulia, whom he met in Petersburg, but he also said clearly in his heart that the baron's family should hire a professional French teacher.

Thinking about the Baroness, his stepmother, Soloviev also knew this problem. His stepmother spoke French well, but there were always grammatical problems when writing, which was the same problem as her eldest cousin, but because she had studied in France, she did not make so many mistakes.

Prince Vasily's statement did attract Soloviev's attention. He planned to talk to his father about sending Yulia to the Smolny Palace's female noble school, which was open to children of nobles. If the family taught her like this, it would delay her sister's marriage in the future.

He told the Baroness about this and received strong support. After all, his father was not at home. He recently went to the Suvorov family's ancestral estate in Tver to visit the Marshal's relatives in his hometown. When he came back, Soloviev's work would not allow him to spend so much time.

Looking back, he was still thinking about Prince Borghese's background. Silvia was a branch of the Visconti family in Milan, so it was not surprising that she had some relatives in Rome.

But he didn't realize that Prince Borghese would marry into the Bonaparte family in the future, and this circle of relatives is too small.

The previous chapter is still under review. I have tendonitis recently, so my typing speed has been affected.