Struggle in Russia

The meeting between Stratford and Cavour was mysterious and short-lived. The two parties broke up immediately after a brief exchange was reached. Cavour returned to Durin, while Stratford crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. Return to London to debrief.

In fact, this trip back to Stratford was not really a report, but mainly to contact domestic friends who also hated Russia, such as Congressman Thomas Atwood, Congressman Robert Cattrall Ferguson, George Delacy E. Vince.

This group of people is extremely hostile to Russia, constantly concocting some Russian threat theories, advocating that in order to safeguard the interests of the British Empire, Russia must be attacked, and it is best to dismember Russia.

The influence of this group of people is quite huge. Later, before the Crimean War, when the prime ministers hesitated to attack Russia’s arrogance, they were also worried about triggering an unprecedented war similar to the Napoleonic War. It was these men who exerted such powerful influence that Britain and France declared war on Russia.

Of course, the threat from Russia is not so obvious at present. These anti-Russian people are more to create public opinion and lay the foundation for future actions. They are quite interested in the plan brought by Stratford.

Because this is equivalent to letting France and Austria take chestnuts out of the fire and let them bear the direct attack of Russia, just to try Russia's catty.

Rumors and rumors quickly spread throughout London, and all kinds of gossip about Russia's military dispatch to the Balkans became popular, leaving Baron Brunov, the Russian ambassador to the UK, both baffled and astonished.

Because the baron has never heard the slightest hint of using troops against the Balkans from the country. It stands to reason that it would be unreasonable not to notify such a heavyweight ambassador like him first, otherwise how would he deal with it if war broke out?

But Baron Brunov was not surprised by these rumors, and even felt that there was some truth to them. The use of troops against the Balkans has always been the national policy of the Russian Empire. Nicholas I had already done it once in 1829. In recent years, as the conflicts caused by the Holy Land issue have become more and more intense, Nicholas I tends to use war to solve the problem. Not surprising at all.

Moreover, Baron Brunov knew his Majesty very well. He was a full-fledged soldier who only believed in force, and never took diplomacy and civil servants like them seriously.

When Nicholas I visited England a few years ago, he did not inform him of the ambassador's arrival time. As a result, he could only put down his work and wait at the pier like an idiot.

Now it is more normal to send troops to the Balkans without telling him. Anyway, the majesty thinks that he is just a mouthpiece.

Baron Brunov was extremely dissatisfied with his master and his work. He didn't feel any respect, and naturally he didn't have much motivation to work. Basically, it was like a monk hitting the clock for a day, but after reminding the domestic London of the gossip about the Balkans, he let it go.

And this kind of work attitude is undoubtedly quite fatal. Baron Brunov's negative response naturally made those rumors more rampant-look at the Russians who have tacitly agreed, how can there be fakes!

All in all, in the last days of 1847, international public opinion was quite unfavorable to Russia. The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nesselrode was inexplicable. For some reason, Russia became the target of public criticism in Europe.

The only one who is happy about this situation is Nicholas I. Yes, you read that right, this His Majesty is actually very happy!

He felt that he made the whole of Europe tremble, which is the most direct manifestation of Russia's national strength. He likes the feeling of making the world fear, and he is intoxicated by it. In short, at the end of this year, Nicholas I was in a good mood.

Europe is afraid, Crown Prince Alexander finally began to assert his position, and Turkey trembled under strong pressure. Do you think he can be unhappy with so much good news?

Some are happy and some are sad. There are many unhappy people,

For example, our protagonist Li Xiao is in a very bad mood at the end of the year. The reasons come from several aspects, the first being the order of Nicholas I.

The punishment results of the last banned books incident came out, and Li Xiao was fined half a year's salary for negligence in management. In fact, Li Xiao doesn't care about this little money. He is no longer the poor and white man who can only live on dead wages when he first traveled through time.

Whether it's the manuscript fee or the cooperation with Duke Mikhail, his income has skyrocketed, and he lives happily without salary. What really hurt Li Xiaodan was that he had to go to every regiment of the naval infantry around St. Petersburg to do a public review. This made him very embarrassed and wasted a lot of his precious time.

Originally, this was enough troublesome, who would have thought that Grand Duke Constantine would come out again in the middle of the road, trying to find fault with the 748 regiment in various ways. Today, an order was issued to order the officers of the 748 regiment to rectify internally, and tomorrow they will deliberately delay the replenishment of logistics supplies of the 748 regiment, or simply find an excuse to deduct the military pay of the officers and soldiers of the 748 regiment.

Anyway, all kinds of small actions emerge in endlessly. If it hadn't been for the 748th regiment who had gone through the previous integration, the officers and soldiers had full confidence in Leonid, otherwise they would fall apart sooner or later after being so casually tossed about by Grand Duke Constantine.

It was here that Leonid struggled to deal with it. Originally, he had planned to do the training himself, so he had to start a career in the Ministry. One day he went to the Admiralty to urge food and grass, and the next day he went to the logistics to urge clothes, or he had to go to relatives to find the back door to offset his health. Grand Duke Standing's little stumbling block.

Anyway, Leonid, who has always been upright, was so angry by Grand Duke Constantine that his evaluation of the Grand Duke fell again and again, and he was really close to scolding.

Grand Duke Constantine was not the only troublemaker in Li Xiao's troubles, he even got into a fight with foreigners for no reason. Sir William Symonds, the chief designer of the Royal Navy, suddenly fired at Li Xiao in the naval journal, belittled Li Xiao's previous articles to nothing, saying that Li Xiao was just a clown who only knew how to play with numbers and knew nothing about shipbuilding .

So why did this Sir Symonds suddenly fall in love with Li Xiao? There is a grievance between them?

There is no personal sincerity, but ideal grievances are everywhere. Because the chief designer of Symonds is really special. Since the establishment of the chief designer of naval shipbuilding in the Royal Navy, Sir Symonds is the first chief designer from a non-professional technical background.

Let's put it this way, this Sir Symonds is more accustomed to the older way of shipbuilding. He believes that shipbuilding is more based on experience than science. He believes that the chief designer does not need to pay attention to mathematics and physics, as long as he has enough experience.

In all of Li Xiao's previous articles, he advocated a more scientific way of building ships, opposed to commanding blindly with the so-called experience from ancient times, and opposed to designing ships based on experience alone. Do you think they can still be right?