Chapter 50 050 Russia officially declares war on France

Everything that happened in France was changing the world, and with the fall of the Bastille, any news coming from continental Europe was shocking.

However, the aristocrats of various countries at that time all had the same view, which was the complete destruction of their known order, which also led to the First Anti-French Alliance.

But at that time, the empress still did not send Russian troops to Western Europe. Until 1791, Russia's attention was mainly on the south. The treaty with the Ottoman Empire determined Russia's southern border and completely took control of Crimea.

When 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 made trouble again and again, making the queen so angry that she fell ill.

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

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

But in Austria, except for his wife, no one in his family seemed to be optimistic about his marriage to Archduke Joseph of Austria. This atmosphere also spread to some favorites and confidants of his son Alexander.

For this matter, Count Stroganov, the chief steward of the court and leader of the Petersburg nobility, went to Vienna and reported to Paul after returning.

"Your Majesty, you know that my daughter is at her estate in Moscow, although I don't care what happens there. But I also have to say that although Grand Duke Joseph is a good person, in all aspects, his performance is not necessarily better than that of a country gentleman's child!"

"You may sit down and listen to me instead of standing there, Alexander Sergeevich."

After the old earl sat down, Paul handed him a document.

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

"But the Austrian royal family is in such a bad state. When Prince Ferdinand was received by His Majesty Franz, you should have heard that he had a convulsion on the spot. And I don't think those court ladies in Vienna will have any good feelings towards our noble eldest princess, Alexandra. The atmosphere in this court is very strange. Your Majesty, only in your court is there some warmth from relatives. No other court in Europe has such a close connection between royal family members."

Speaking of this, Paul sighed: "If I could make Constantine less ridiculous, I would thank God."

Constantine's situation is indeed hard to describe.

Even though Paul went against his mother, he still longed for a harmonious and warm family, and he was very concerned about his daughter-in-law.

He even had an idea that if Archduke Joseph was not the Vice-Prince of Hungary, would he be able to come to St. Petersburg if he was given the rank of Russian Field Marshal?
The old count had expressed this idea before he set out, saying that given the arrogance of the Habsburg family, they would not allow a grand duke to be their son-in-law.

If you want to do this, you have to find a prince from a German state who is not ranked first. This is a remedy.

"Your Majesty, the meeting with Archduke Joseph of Austria must still be arranged, but..."

Then the old earl produced 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 a selection of translated Chinese novels. Your Majesty, I am in charge of cultural sponsorship, and this aspect also needs special attention."

"Has the editor-in-chief discussed this with you? All this is talking about is blind dates!"

Of course old Count Stroganov had seen it. He knew that his son and daughter-in-law, as well as the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, had come up with many ways to prevent the eldest princess from getting married.

Finally, Count Stroganov the Younger told Solovyov that when you commission articles, don't include the preface and the previous chapters, and go straight to Ganlu Temple
What stands out is the annotation below. When Paul read this, he was smart and quickly realized the problem.

His problem was that he took things for granted when governing, which led to a series of supernatural 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 publish content that carries provocative signals."

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

Before old Count Stroganov was about to leave, Paul, still holding the newspaper in his hand, said: "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 blind date in Ganlu Temple and the first three chapters, and the preface has been put aside. This is already a fast speed. After all, his translation talent is still limited. This version can only be said to have content that will arouse other people's interest, but the wording is not beautiful enough, and it can even be said to be rushed.

Moreover, he already knew the content of the future military mobilization. When 1799 came, the last batch of mobilized Russian troops would prepare to set off for the Austrian border. The Guards and Grenadiers Regiment in St. Petersburg were making preparations. It was not known who would be the last batch to set off, so there were still some confidentiality measures involved.

The strong call for updates came from the Tsar himself, but fortunately his name was not signed at all, so he would not be forced into a small room to translate by the armed caller.

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 at the beginning was still somewhat politically correct in Russia, such as the sons of declining nobles recruiting volunteers to suppress peasant uprisings. It was quite useful for the young nobles in Petersburg to read.

If the whole article is to be completed, the workload is not small. After the old count who was in charge of the blind date left, Paul's next meeting was Count Alexander Andreevich Bezborodko, the Prime Minister of the Empire and the Dean of the Diplomatic Academy. Although his health was not good and he was no longer suitable to continue to perform his duties, Paul still needed to listen to the opinions of the empress's former foreign policy maker.

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

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

"I only have your opinion, Alexander Andreevich. I have already arranged your family affairs. Your heirs are your brother and his children."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. This is a great favor from you. My assistant, Count Bezukhov, is also in poor health. Your Majesty should be cautious in selecting the president of the Diplomatic Academy and the chancellor of the empire."

"I understand this. Let's discuss our relationship with Austria now."

"Well, sir, about Austria, and also about England."

The Count tried to sit up, but his physical condition was so bad that 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 the Austrian side to be "at fault" first, not us. At least it must be due to the mistake of the Austrian side to cancel the marriage. In this case, the marriage between Archduchess Elena and the heir of 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, even though you are at home, everything that happens in the palace and the Diplomatic Academy is reported to you immediately."

"Under such circumstances, the Austrians will definitely propose a joint operation plan after our army arrives. My brother once served under Alexander Vasilyevich, and we discussed this issue when he came to see me yesterday. 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. It was obvious that he was in a bad state because he had 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, let me finish my explanation. The Austrians will definitely hinder us secretly in order to meet their needs and also 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 a stupid move. There are so many concentrated means in diplomacy. Since we want to form a marriage, and at that time, Archduchess Alexandra is likely to "not get along" with Archduke Joseph during the blind date, we can adopt a sausage-cutting method to solve this problem, cough cough cough."

Then the earl began to cough violently again, but he had already said the main points he wanted to say.

When several servants came over to help the Imperial Prime Minister turn over, Paul gave him a hand.

"Your Majesty, you must use someone who is familiar with diplomacy to formulate policies, not someone close to you, as the dean of the Diplomatic Academy."

As for the specific details, it was obvious that he had no time to think about them due to his weak health. Just in the first half of the year, this imperial chancellor and dean of the Diplomatic Academy, the most important Russian civil servant, was still in good health. However, due to anxiety and the workload required by the changes in Russia's foreign policy, he quickly fell ill, and his health deteriorated into this state.

Although the chancellor was seriously ill, he still had to make some comments on the government's arrangements. Before he applied 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 was like inserting Sir Humphrey in any way.

It seems that these are the glorious days of the British Empire, and they know exactly what they want to do.

However, Russia's diplomatic department is divided into two parts: one is the Foreign Minister, and the other is the Dean of the Diplomatic Academy.

Apparently Paul did not immediately hand over the Diplomatic Academy to his trusted favorite, Count Rostopchin, who had been humiliated and dismissed from his post once this year, but now returned to take charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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

In fact, the Imperial Chancellor himself wanted his nephew, the Imperial Deputy Chancellor Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey, to come to the Diplomatic Academy to take charge instead of remaining in a deputy position.

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

Now Paul wanted to make a "test" on the issue of marriage, 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 blind 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, it would cause another diplomatic scandal. For the moody Paul, Austria now wanted to take advantage of the time when he was about to take action, and the first priority was to bring all the Russian troops to the battlefield.

In St. Petersburg, in December 1798, ambassadors from various countries had already 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 formally declared war on France and joined the Second Anti-French Alliance.

In fact, this anti-French alliance was stronger than any other time. Except for Prussia, all the major political forces in Europe, except the always weak Spanish Bourbons, joined in. This was the most dangerous time for France.

It can even be said that the generals and soldiers of the anti-French alliance were of the highest quality ever, and we may never see such a grand occasion in the future where famous generals of all ages from various countries participate in the battle.

However, despite so many countries uniting together, they ultimately failed because of their ulterior motives.

This is what would happen a year later, when the war officially began at the end of 1798.

(End of this chapter)

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