Chapter 44 Fountains can show vigorous vitality

Chapter 44 Fountains can show vigorous vitality

Chapter 44 044 Fountains can show vigorous vitality

Napoleon has set out for Egypt and will pass through Malta on the way. Paul does not know that the Order of Malta will lose its Grand Master as a result, and he will be the next one.

What he has to do now is to reorganize the medical school established during the reign of Peter the Great.

The new name of the school was the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical School. When the Russian capital was still Moscow, the general hospitals of the army and navy had been established, and teaching institutions had been established, which were merged into the Medical College in 1787.

Now Paul just gave orders, and he didn't know where he learned it from, but he set up a "Preparatory Committee" and planned to complete the project by the end of the year. He would plan it on the basis of the existing medical school and also fund the construction of a luxurious affiliated hospital, which would be divided into two wards, one for receiving nobles and the other for civilians connected to the workhouse.

However, after the regulations of this hygiene measure were published in the "Petersburg News", everyone in Petersburg knew that our emperor had started to make trouble again.

Although everyone knew that he was on the right track, everyone knew that the emperor had a bad temper and wanted to hit him with his cane. He built hospitals, factories, mines and manors, and started so many projects at the same time.
In other words, he was slow in increasing revenue but had a good ability to save money. As an emperor, he also exploited the nobles. The financial budget was still sufficient, but whether he had enough manpower was also a problem.

Of course, he is now loved by the people, but the great nobles do not like him very much.

What is even more strange is that his close aide Count Palen actually began to organize a conspiracy group, the existence of which the Tsar himself had no way of knowing. Because there were not many people in the group, they were in the core class, and he himself was a confidant of the Tsar, which completely made the darkest part of the light.

It can be said that among the 3600 million Russian people, 3300 million of them will love their emperor from the bottom of their hearts. This sounds a bit outrageous, but this time Paul visited many provinces and governorates that had never seen any tsar in the past. When the local citizens and serfs heard that the emperor was coming, although they must have wanted to watch the fun, there were indeed many people who were grateful to him.

Paul, who still knows nothing about it, is still working tirelessly. He reviews various drawings every day, and replies to petitions and letters from all over the world, and even requests that the letters be delivered to the senders themselves.

Even from the peasants in Luga, near St. Petersburg, a petition was sent. Paul was very happy when he saw it. After waiting for so long, he finally saw a letter from a literate peasant.

On the one hand, he affirmed the farmer's suggestion in his reply, and on the other hand, while criticizing the master, he also commended the master for his practice of teaching the farmers to read and write, and asked him to set up a school in his estate, and if he succeeded, he would be awarded a third-class Order of Saint Anna.

The officer on duty at the Winter Palace that day happened to be Solovyov. After giving the order, Paul was going to have lunch with his son and daughter-in-law.

"Why is it you today, Inventor?"

Paul might have been in a too good mood today. When he saw Solovyov on duty here, he came down the stairs to take a look.

"Yes, he has grown a little taller. Now he is a proper officer of the Grenadiers."

Now, the Tsar himself was a bit of a jerk, but he also hit Solovyov with his cane, but it was his sword.

"Your Majesty, I am on duty."

"You are a duty officer, you can patrol, don't act like a soldier. I know you write to Alexander Vasilyevich on your days off to ask questions, but don't learn the way he did when he was a guard."

"No, sir. An officer from the 1st Grenadiers Battalion will be here soon to relieve us. We have to take over."

"Well, that's what I was just about to say. I remember Alyosha once heard from you about the cultural significance of Chinese gardens. Is that true?"

"Yes, it happened, but that was information I got from books and rumors in the past, and it can be confirmed to be true."

"Well, come to my office this afternoon. You know a lot about Chinese gardens, so you must have read a lot of books about architecture, right? Let's discuss garden architecture. We are planning to expand the palace. But if you have time in the future, please pay attention to military architecture and read Vauban's books."

Anyway, Solovyov was used to it. This Tsar was definitely not a complete idiot. He still had some good qualities, although not much.

However, the Tsar's habit of talking to his subordinate officers is indeed a bit strange, which makes people wonder whether Paul will change his career to micromanagement in the next life.

At least the trusted officers he promoted were quite loyal, but the biggest problem was that he always punished others based on various minor regulatory errors. This did not seem to be a problem at the moment, but the longer the time went on, the more problems would accumulate.

Noon is the time when Paul and the Queen educate Alexander and Louisa. Perhaps because the due date is getting closer, the Queen's snobbishness becomes more serious. She also becomes more cautious and worried that something unexpected may happen.

"If you feel uncomfortable, you must shout it out, so that you can use more strength."

Paul was very satisfied listening to his wife explaining the essentials of having a child to his daughter-in-law. The relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was extremely bad before, especially after the last engagement of the King of Sweden. Even he himself changed his usual doting attitude towards the Crown Princess.

Now all these things are moving in a good direction. Judging from the situation in the palace, he somewhat understands why his mother took that attitude towards his first wife. If everyone was like little Louisa, the family would have a lot less trouble.

When his wife forbad his daughter-in-law to read, the father-in-law was rather "improper" and sent someone to open the reading room and get out a few history books that Louisa liked. Since his wife said that reading wasted energy, as the Tsar, it should be okay for him to send a maid to read newspapers and a maid to read books, right?
Anyway, Alexander has to endure it now. When the Queen was still alive, he played the role between his grandmother and his father and fully studied the "actor's self-cultivation". Now the family's attention is focused on his wife, so he has to act well during this period.

Although there were palace eunuchs who helped him to be attractive in material things, he still had to behave better in front of his father during this period of time.

A plot to sow discord had already emerged. It came from Paul's confidant, Count Palen, who told Alexander and Constantine that the Tsar himself had a major problem while revising the inheritance law. After changing back to the primogeniture system, if the crown prince could not satisfy the Tsar himself, the order of succession would also be changed.

This kind of court conspiracy is common in Russia. Paul actually determined the succession law and designated Alexander. He himself had no intention of changing it and even said that the law should be formally written. However, because of Louisa's pregnancy, a low-level and clumsy rumor spread by Count Palen caused a rift between the two brothers. At the same time, Alexander began to worry about his position because of what happened in the court in the past.

In fact, Paul had this feeling before. If Louisa had given birth to a boy, and Paul was only in his forties now, under the system of primogeniture, the eldest grandson would normally be ranked second in line, so he did have a sense of crisis.

After all, in Russia, various palace coups are commonplace. The Romanov dynasty was the result of Boris Godunov's self-destruction, and after the fall of False Dmitry, the Moscow nobles elected the Romanov dynasty. If we really talk about internal strife, in their dynasty, until Peter III, a collateral dynasty succeeded by the descendants of Peter the Great's daughter, there have always been constant struggles. Coups are not only from the bottom up, but also Peter the Great overthrew his sister, and when Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, she also overthrew Ivan VI. It is not surprising that anything happened.

This is what palace conspiracies are like. Some strange plots of alienation are open conspiracies that target people’s mentality, mainly the “yin” with malicious intentions.

Of course, Paul knew nothing about it. After lunch, he put his son and daughter-in-law's hands together and said tenderly: "I will give everything I have to give you hope and a future."

Having said that, considering that Paul has always had a changeable mood, who knows when he will change his mind. Although Alexander agreed, he was unsure.

On the contrary, Louisa, who was still very innocent at the moment, responded very warmly to Paul. Seeing her smile, first to Alexander and then to Paul, could melt the hearts of both father and son.

Count Palen's trick has failed for the time being. But when the conspiracy fails at the low level, other backup plans will emerge.

Paul, who returned to work in the afternoon, began to review various architects' plans, including the decoration plan of Engineer Mikhailovsky's castle, which had already completed the construction plan.

Solovyov arrived five minutes earlier as requested by the Tsar himself. As for seeing the large pile of drawings, he knew that the Tsar had recently been in the mood for construction.

"Captain, please sit down. Let's talk about gardens this time."

"His Majesty."

"Don't worry. I raised this question before. The officers of the Guards and the aides-de-camp will all ask about it. You will also be on duty at Peterhof Palace in the future. You will know the environment there."

But the embarrassing thing is that when asking others, they always consider practicality. However, Solovyov, who usually labels himself as a practical person, now directly raises artistic issues.

Sometimes, Your Majesty, can we consider everyone's working characteristics? It was good for us to talk about weapons research and development before!
And what Paul talked about a lot was the setting of water flow in the garden.

“If you were the designer, which one would you choose?”

Two plans were proposed to him, one was a waterfall with flowing water, and the other was a plan for the most famous fountain in Russia, Peterhof Palace.

"Your Majesty, the Summer Palace comes from summer after all. If it is a concert, you can think of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" concerto, which is lively and warm in spring and summer, full of vitality."

"Gut, that's good. I think so too. Although I didn't give you any hints, you explained it very clearly from an artistic perspective. Young officers should indeed be like Frederick the Great and have some interest in music and art. Although you always write letters to our old marshal, your way of thinking and behavior is still the kind of officer I want. Come, sit down, Kutaisov, go and call all the young people on duty in the corridor. Let's suspend work this afternoon and have tea and chat. It would be too boring for a person if he worked all day."

It turns out that even this diligent Tsar would sometimes feel tired, and the rest time he set was probably the afternoon tea time period.

Then, there was another horrifying question. Paul called the guards and grenadiers officers on duty, a total of six people, all of whom were nobles. The worst was Soloviev, whose family was a baron without a certificate, but now it was still recognized. The other five were all counts. These young men were all young officers that Paul particularly liked, but once this question was mentioned, it made people feel something was wrong.

"Now there are a group of noble ladies in the palace who have qualified as maids. Please comment on their appearance, manners, and character. If there are any that you like, I will go and ask their families."

The other five had expressions of fear written all over their faces. Your Majesty, everyone knows that you are a master at arranging marriages. You have good intentions but end up doing bad things. Except for your Turkish captive who turned into a personal attendant, which of the marriages you arranged ended up being a happy one? Even if they were attracted to each other, there would always be problems in the future!

Solovyov knew nothing about this, but was reminded of it by one of the princes, the young Prince Golitsyn.

"Misha, you always go to 7 Million Street. Countess Skafronskaya is a good girl."

"Yes, yes, Katya is good. Your Majesty has always said that he wants to find a good boy. We all know that you are handsome."

"Why are you bringing this up in front of His Majesty? I have a French stepmother at home who is pregnant and looking for a wife for me in Moscow every day, so why are you joining in the fun? After she gave birth to a child, she has recently started to move around again. Every salon she goes to, she always stares at girls of our age."

Paul was drinking tea and almost spit it out when he said this.

"You are afraid of getting married, Misha! However, it is true that you and that girl are not a good match. It's not about family background, but you two can't talk about anything except making money. If marriage is based on pure interests, it's better to have a blank sheet of paper and rely on passion."

The Tsar suddenly started discussing this issue. He wanted to choose a wife for the little Prince Golitsyn, but these guys shifted their focus and set a trap for Solovyov. Fortunately, Paul had already chosen a husband's family for the Countess, but had not started to make connections yet. Moreover, these two were business partners, and they were definitely not suitable except for talking about money and doing things.

However, the Tsar should have done the same analysis when he was really planning a marriage.

(End of this chapter)