Chapter 33 The Palace is a Super Large Intelligence Center

Chapter 33 The Palace is a Super Large Intelligence Center

The fourth son of the Duke of Mecklenburg, his name is quite long if you really think about it.

Besides, he doesn't speak a word of Russian and his French is not good either. If you want to talk to him, you have to use German and speak louder.

If you don’t know, you might think it was a “Conference of Ten Thousand Deaf People” or that they had gone to some special school.

Then the guy will respond with the German version of "very spirited".
It's no wonder that for this group of noble children from the vicinity of Prussia, when they serve in the army, captain is basically their bottom line. These people have received military training since childhood and have a good family background. In the end, they will start directly from the battalion commander level after assessment, and it is only a matter of time before they become generals.

Finally, he became the commander of the 2nd Grenadier Division in Russia. In 1814, at the age of 32, he retired early and returned home to live his retirement life with injuries.

This is in line with what some Russian officers once said to foreigners who came to Russia to serve, that they were just here for the formality, and if the fiefdom was not within Russia, it might just be a job.

Some people, when they finally retire, return to their estates in warmer parts of Europe rather than freezing Russia.

As for what happened after he entered the palace, it was certainly not like in Hejian where it required some skills to crack it in a short time, nor were there any long strips of donkey meat BBQ. So after he entered the palace, he was led by the attendants to the garden.

Then he met Grand Duchess Elena, who recognized Solovyov when she saw him.

"Ah, you are the captain that the emperor awarded a medal to, right?"

"Yes, Your Highness, I am."

"I just asked Catherine to find me a model, but she found me an officer." (I asked Catherine to find me a model, but she found me an officer)
"Your Highness, officers can remain motionless while on duty. You know the story of Queen Elizabeth's guard." (Your Highness, officers can remain motionless while on duty. You know the story of Queen Elizabeth's guard.)

A short story with a complicated version. In addition to the story about Empress Elizabeth and Suvorov on duty, there is also Lenin and the guards. Maybe in Russia, stories and jokes are mass-produced. Of course, there are some jokes that cannot be told.

"Okay, let's start painting today. You just go into the room and sit there. I want to finish the sketch today."

Perhaps when introducing Solovyov, the Countess used the old Moscow version, such as "the captain's French is not very good", and when Tsar Paul talked to him in Gatchina, he spoke Russian throughout, which resulted in the Grand Duchess speaking a mixture of Russian and French when speaking to him.

When Solovyov was modeling there, he was also looking at Grand Duchess Elena. Of course, the portrait that had been hung in the palace before must have been the result of Madame Le Brun's "beautification", but it was still better looking than those painted by some other court painters. It was just that she was too young, only thirteen years old. It was not anything else, but that girls so young were already discussing their engagement. In fact, the fate of girls in the royal family was not very good.

Because the one who came with him was the fourth child of the Duke of Mecklenburg, he was probably guessing the future husband's family of Archduchess Alexandra or Archduchess Elena. After all, they were relatively suitable for marriage. These were the two sisters who were always inseparable, even appearing in portraits and often together when they went out to play. That is, when Elena was painting, her sister was not around.

If this job only involves standing at attention, or maintaining a certain posture for a long time, it is actually nothing for Solovyov. These are necessary skills in daily life.

However, Elena seemed to be a little careless. The heating measures in the room were too good. Although the Grand Duchess was considerate enough to ask Solovyov and the servants in the room to take off their coats, their clothes were still a bit thick, and Solovyov began to sweat after a while.

Elena also discovered this problem. She only painted for a quarter of an hour before saying, "Let's stop here today."

Although they were wearing light indoor clothes, it was so hot in the room that it was "inappropriate" to do any activities, so Elena stopped, but she also asked Solovyov to come over.

"Captain, please come and have a look."

It must be said that this Grand Duchess had some technical skills. At the same time, Solovyov noticed that the pencil used by the Grand Duchess had a red bee pattern on it. This was definitely not an imported product, but a new gadget that he and Uncle Sergei invented at home.

"Your Highness, the pencil you are using seems to be produced by the 'Bobridge' company."

"Well, Uncle Alexei prepared it for me when he came to the palace last month."

It should be taken into account that Paul had a total of 4 sons and 6 daughters. Except for Grand Duke Mikhail who was still in the birth sequence in the Queen's belly and Grand Duchess Olga who died young, the 5 daughters had different hobbies. Except for Anna who was too young, the other four were born "according to plan" in a unified organization between 1783 and 1788. These four of them were interested in poetry, painting, music and Grand Duchess Catherine. It might be the power of the name itself. Although she herself would not be allowed to play the Cossack style of swordsmanship, she still liked these things very much. Last time Solovyov saw her slip and fall from the marble fence. It was only because Prince Mikhail Dolgorukov was agile, otherwise he would have hurt his leg.

Let's get back to Elena's pencil. Apparently, the manager hired by Count Bobulinsky did a good job in implementing Solovyov's plan.

Because he was serving in the legion, he spent the entire summer fiddling with guns and had no time to do anything, and then this production type of pencil already had some colors.

"Your Highness, do you think it is useful?"

"It's very useful. My sisters all have it. I also know that this is Uncle Alexei's company, but this little gadget was invented by you. Father even called you an 'inventor', but the reward was given to Uncle."

To be honest, the Earl is a man who knows how to advance and retreat. When the Queen is around, he relies on his mother, and when his brother is around, he relies on his brother. If there are any good things, he will not forget his nieces. After all, these things he produces are for women and children. He has accurately grasped the pain points.

If the earl lived in the 21st century, he might be able to invest in a lot of coin-operated projects, such as penguins, and he would be able to make money anywhere.

"Originally the factory building belonged to His Excellency Count Bobulinski, we just contributed our own efforts."

"But Katyusha, she is painted like this, Captain, you don't have to mind it."

Then, there is Grand Duchess Catherine's "masterpiece", which is simply a child's doodle.
"This"

"She insisted that I show her paintings to others for 'appreciation' when I was in the studio, and that they give some comments." "I can only say that if the emperor saw this, he would probably be very happy for a while."

Elena was smart enough to know that the captain did not want to comment. Paul doted on his daughters more anyway, so as long as they did not do anything out of line, whatever they did was fine. She thus avoided the issue of the painting itself.

"But, Your Highness, I think if it's just a painting like this, it will only truly reflect the appearance of the person. For example, what you are doing now is roughly completing the hat on my head. Also, this room is really hot."

"Yeah, that's why I let you move around for a while."

"Do you want to continue?"

"No, this room is so hot, it's torture for both of you."

The heating in the Winter Palace was too good. No wonder Tsar Paul himself missed the environment of Gatchina and wanted to build another palace in the city. Anyway, he was not very comfortable living in the Winter Palace.

The Grand Duchess was very considerate of the people around her. Since it was too hot, they stopped here today and spent the rest of the time chatting.

Of course, she didn't know about the marriages arranged for herself and her sister, because peace had temporarily returned to Europe, and Tsar Paul and Queen Maria had decided to arrange the marriages of several grand duchesses one after another, and now the actual blind date work had begun.

However, if the Queen were still alive, she might not want all her granddaughters to get married off. However, with Queen Maria's voice and the large number of nobles who came from the German states to join the army, it seemed inevitable that several archduchesses would marry off in Central Europe.

In particular, there is one plan, which is to marry an Austrian. This is a new plan of the Queen. However, given the Habsburg environment, it is hard to say what the daughter-in-law will be like if she marries into the country. But one thing is that Archduke Joseph, who is currently the main target, is the Vice Prince of Hungary (Paladin), and his conditions in all aspects are relatively outstanding.

The proposal was brought by the Queen's brother when he rushed to St. Petersburg from Württemberg. Obviously, Austria had to make preparations earlier. However, it was still early. You have to know that the stupid Swedish king is still doing this. He recently got engaged to Princess Frederick of Baden, and he has already spread the fire to St. Petersburg.

After all, the beautiful but unlucky Princess, who really looked like the "Psyche" mentioned by Madame Le Brun's blessed mouth, was Frederica's third sister.

As for Grand Duchess Elena, although she is smart, she is not as scheming as the noble ladies living outside the Winter Palace. In terms of intelligence, she is the most outstanding among her sisters.

She had just signaled to the servants to open the door to get some fresh air when she heard what seemed to be a heated argument in the corridor, and one of the parties was obviously very angry.

When Elena heard the accent, she probably knew that her mother was angry, but it was too late for her to close the door of the room. The corridors of the Winter Palace were still very wide, and of course the sound could be transmitted very effectively.

What can be heard is that the Queen actually disregarded etiquette and questioned the Crown Princess in the corridor. The problem was with the King of Sweden. This happened once last year, and it happened again this year because the King of Sweden was officially engaged and was going to hold the wedding in Stockholm.

In fact, it is not too surprising. In fact, Queen Maria's bad temper is somewhat related to her daily hobbies. She is an excellent lathe worker and is good at processing various reliefs. She even carved her own children on them.

People who like to tinker with handicrafts tend to have very bad tempers.

However, based on her hobby, she can actually be considered a relatively compatible engineer combination with Louis XVI.
As for the Crown Princess, who usually loved reading, although she had seen this kind of scene many times, she was too proud to show her respect and just kept crying. It was obvious that both sides completely ignored the court etiquette.

"It seems that this is not very friendly news to Your Highness."

Solovyov muttered quietly. He did know that the King of Sweden had broken off the engagement. The two sides were related, and the Swedish regent, the Duke of Södermanland, the emperor's uncle, had been struggling over this matter for several times. The Queen even invited Suvorov to come out and stationed a legion near Vyborg to scare people. After repeated tug-of-war, the matter almost broke out, but in the end Gustav IV managed to ruin it.

This put pressure on the Crown Princess, and she didn't know how to deal with this way of speaking.

Elena also sighed. She had a very good relationship with her eldest sister and sister-in-law. The previous rumors were at most just rumors and some information. This kind of humiliation would not be too serious. But when Stockholm issued an official announcement this time, she could not escape it anyway.

"Your Highness, please don't be sad about this."

A servant said this, but Elena had heard this many times, so she put down her pencil and said this.

"This problem is entirely the fault of the King of Sweden! If you follow grandma's advice, you should have sent a legion directly to attack them."

But after all, she was still the Grand Duchess of the Romanov family. Once she spoke, she was violent enough to send tens of thousands of people to the battlefield for a "war". In terms of the degree of danger, she was no less dangerous than her two sisters Maria and Catherine.

The reason for saying this is that the women in the court who loved riding horses the most were these two grand duchesses, Catherine even more than Maria.

Moreover, Elena was the girl that the Queen liked more, while Paul preferred Maria. It was possible that when the Queen was still alive, she unconsciously influenced Elena's way of thinking.

Even this method can be considered simple and crude. If the King of Sweden had really married Mecklenburg, he would have avoided so much trouble now by attacking them.

However, Elena did not realize that her potential husband's family, the Mecklenburg family, had been forgotten because all the conflicts had shifted to the Crown Princess from Baden.

In this palace, apart from anything else, the amount of intelligence and information has always been extremely huge, and people whose brains are not enough will be directly overwhelmed.

(End of this chapter)