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On the sidelines of the 1754 Russian New Year Ball, guests gathered in front of the windows in the corridor to enjoy the dazzling fireworks display in the garden.

Of these, Peter seemed to be the only one who noticed that his aunt, Tsar Elizabeth I of the Russian Empire, had not bothered to enjoy the colorful moment, but was walking into a private reception room with a young woman in a light blue dress.

"Happy New Year, Your Highness"

The fireworks show was followed by a short break where guests chatted and clinked glasses with their acquaintances.

At this time, the deputy prime minister, Duke Volyntsov, took the initiative to talk to Peter with a wine glass.

"Happy New Year to you too, Count"

"Your Highness, I just received good news and want to inform Your Highness as soon as possible."

Warrentsov said with a smile.

"It's a pity, Earl, that I have bad news for you"

"Huh? Your Highness, this... Haha, Your Highness, you are so humorous..."

Volyntsov looked at Peter in surprise, wondering whether he was trying to take advantage of the festive mood to tease him, or if something bad was really happening.

"Let's go over there"

When the two came to the corridor that had been crowded with nobles and celebrities not long ago, Volyntsov did not dare to speak, and quietly looked out the window and waited for Peter to speak.

"Earl, just now, Aunt and Leah. Morality. Miss Beaumont walked into the reception room, do you know what they would talk about? ”

"Huh? Oh, it's Miss Beaumont, it's just a normal chat, right? ”

Leah. Morality. According to public information, Beaumont is the daughter of an English nobleman, 25 years old, who came to St. Petersburg with her business uncle in early October, is fluent in French, and was introduced to the palace for an audience, and soon became a French teacher for Empress Elizabeth.

"Hey, normal chat..."

"Your Highness, is there any special reason for you to ask this?"

Seeing Peter snort coldly, Warrentsov tensed and hurriedly asked.

"Although I don't care about the feud between you and Count Bestuzhev, this Leah. Morality. Beaumont, it's not just an English noblewoman, you sent her to the palace so unscreened, hehe, I'm afraid you've stabbed a big basket."

"What? Your Highness, this... How could this be? ”

Peter said it so badly that Volyntsov almost dropped his glass.

"The reason why I say this is, of course, because there is a lot of evidence. However, I would like to know why you insisted on sending her English uncle to the Empress after Bestuzhev found out that he was actually French. ”

"Uh... Your Highness, I haven't heard that Miss Beaumont's uncle is French? ”

Volyntsov calmed down immediately, and said in his heart that this kid was talking nonsense, and Bestuzhev didn't come to find fault at all for any British and French reasons.

"Okay, I'll just say I know the evidence."

Peter smiled strangely at the stocky Volyntsov.

"Do you know that the difference between men and women, in addition to obvious body and appearance, men will have a harder protrusion in their throats, but women do not?"

As if to confirm his words, Peter touched his neck.

"I've been there a few times before to get close to Miss Beaumont, and guess what I've discovered?"

"Uh... Could it be said? ”

Volyntsov's eyes widened and he muttered.

"This can't be! Miss Beaumont has breasts! She's 100% a woman, how could there be..."

"Hehe, Lord Earl, there are no absolutes in this world, have you ever heard of yin and yang people?"

"Yin and Yang people? What the hell is that? ”

"Yes, it's a ghost! Hehe, just from the appearance of a woman, but in fact, there is something hidden in the body of a man, can you understand what happens in this case? ”

"On a woman... There are men's things... This... This... Yes? Isn't it even that? ”

Volyntsov subconsciously glanced at the base of his thigh.

"Tsk... Has Your Highness ever seen it with your own eyes? ”

"On the surface, Miss Beaumont is still unmarried, how could I have seen it!"

"Then how is Your Highness sure... This one... This yin-yang person? ”

"This is simple, as long as you stay in the palace for a long time, you will need a small solution"

"Huh? Could it be that Your Highness, Your Highness, you are secretly..."

"How could I have done such a thing! You don't want to think about it either! ”

Peter glared angrily at Volyntsov.

"Oh, hehe, it's a faux pas, and I blame Your Highness"

Volyntsov scolded in his heart, and said in his heart that you haven't spied on you, how do you know!

"Actually, the maid in charge of serving Miss Beaumont used to be Catherine's maid, so..."

"Your Highness means that the crown princess told you this?"

Volyntsov was taken aback, and said in his heart, why did the crown princess also come in? Could it be that the Prussians were involved in this?

"It doesn't matter who told me, but this matter is obviously beyond your control, Deputy Prime Minister, at best, it is a scandal of the royal family, and at worst, it is likely to affect the political situation of the Empire, and even affect the relations with the European powers."

"Hmm..."

Volyntsov nodded slowly, although it was extremely cold outside with minus thirty or forty degrees, but at this moment his head was in a cold sweat.

"If I guess correctly, the real identity of this Miss Beaumont is in fact a secret envoy of the King of France, who came to St. Petersburg for the fundamental purpose of testing the possibility of an alliance between Russia and France. However, the French are also ruthless enough to play the trick of stealing the day. If the secret talks fail this time, I am afraid that the Russian royal family will lose face, which is really vicious and ruthless enough, tsk"

From the beginning to the end, Peter kept his eyes on Volyntsov, not giving the other party any suspicion.

"Your Highness... If that's the case... I'm afraid it's irreparable now..."

Volyntsov lowered his eyelids in wistful remorse.

"I can't say that."

Peter suddenly smiled, much to the confusion of Volyntsov.

"If the balance of power on the European continent is not broken, it will be difficult for war to break out, and now, hehe"

"Your Highness, please allow me to ask... You're looking forward to war, aren't you? ”

"If a war on the European continent can drag the empire into the water, then something interesting will inevitably happen in the country, and it will even affect the situation in the cabinet and even the palace..."

"Your Highness doesn't mean that..."

Volrentsov's eyes rolled sharply.

"Will the power of the British and Germans change dramatically at home?"

"I can't say anything about this, although the power of the French in the Russian upper class has been weakened to a certain extent after the incident of the French imperial doctor last time, but it seems to have recovered a lot in recent years."

"What does Your Highness mean?"

"What do I mean? I don't mean anything, haha, I'm just a little reward for the occasional small reward given that you've helped me many times, Earl."

"Oh..."

Volyntsov had to ponder what this young man with a wandering mind meant.

"Let's go, the dance continues"

Peter strode into the ballroom as if nothing had happened.

There were rumors in later generations that someone had discussed with Empress Catherine II why Peter did not usurp the throne and inherit the Tsar's throne early, if this was the case, the history of the Seven Years' War was likely to end before the start of the war, and no one could win the alliance between Prussia and Russia on land. Although Empress Ye was duplicitous, the result was the same, if Peter really dared to usurp power, then the Russian Empire would have collapsed decades before it was attacked by Napoleon.

There are many reasons for this, and judging from the example of Catherine's usurpation, the legitimacy of the law (law) is a very important point. Although the result of Empress Ye's murder and usurpation of the throne even triggered a great uprising of serfs like Pugachev, in the eyes of the upper echelons who held the discourse in the Russian Empire, Empress Ye was the wife of Peter III, and gave birth to a male heir, Paul I, whose DNA was uncertain but legally indisputable. Although Empress Ye did not hand over the throne to her son Paul in advance until her death, which did displease some Russian royalist nobles, as long as she was the de jure wife of Peter III and her son Paul was Peter's de jure son, then the Romanov dynasty would continue openly. This is similar to, but not exactly, the divine doctrine of monarchy in the great powers of the East, but 'legitimacy' is extremely necessary regardless of the cultural and religious background of any country.

Take Aunt Elizabeth as an example, although the female Tsar Elizabeth I was born to Catherine I, the second wife of Peter the Great, she is legally the daughter of Peter the Great, regardless of whether Catherine I usurped the throne and became a female tsar, Elizabeth I is still the blood of the Romanov dynasty. Then, Empress Elizabeth I usurped the throne of Ivan VI, Empress Anna's designated heir, the 'mysterious prisoner' mentioned by Peter in this work, a child younger than Peter (he was still a child when he was usurped!). But Elizabeth I still sat firmly on the throne, and although many opponents were burned and exiled to the bitter cold of Siberia, even if the words 'Ivan VI' would have their tongues cut out, the upper echelons of the Russian Empire still accepted the tsar. It can be seen from this that it is not enough to have legal legitimacy, you also have to have enough background background.

At that time, Empress Elizabeth I relied on opposition to the blood of the Braunschweig family from Germany. That is, Ivan VI became the Tsar of the Russians and put her on the throne, but Elizabeth I never had a de jure marriage, which means that there was no de jure heir, so he had to get Peter Jr., who was far away in Holstein, to St. Petersburg as the heir. It can be seen that the legitimacy of legal doctrine is important, even if it is an illegitimate child (although Aunt Elizabeth did not report about an illegitimate child).

How serious is the problem of illegitimate children on the side of the Emperor? There is no comparison with the seventy-two concubines of the three palaces and six courtyards of the Eastern Empire, and the European emperors have only one legal wife at the same time, and they want to break out the perfect heir with good physical strength and good RP, like Aunt Teresa in Austria next door, and Aunt Victoria a hundred years later, all of them are famous in Europe for their children. The two important wars that followed, the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession, were also caused by the severance of the male blood of the Habsburgs. One of the few illegitimate sons in history who won the throne is William the Great, who landed in England across the English Channel in 1066, an illegitimate son from Normandy, France, who won the widely praised Battle of Hastings and the Battle of Stamford Bridge, became the king of England, and sparked a feud between England and France for hundreds of years, until Joan of Arc came out of nowhere to end the War of the Roses, and France took a breather.

So, back to our protagonist, Peter, who is the heir to the law. Fedorovich, whose de jure succession came from his aunt, Empress Elizabeth I, who had usurped the throne of his predecessor, Ivan VI. If Peter usurped the throne of Empress Elizabeth I now, not to mention that Ivan VI was still alive as a mysterious prisoner, his Peter's legal legitimacy alone would be questioned by countless people, how could there be an idiot who killed the evidence of his legal legitimacy? Isn't that funny?

Secondly, Peter was originally born in the Duchy of Holstein in Germany, and was already despised by orthodox people in Russia, such as Chancellor Bestuzhev and Field Marshal Apleksin the Younger. Coupled with Peter's Lutheranism and his open boycott of the Orthodox Church, the orthodox state religion of the Russians, both nobles and commoners, this can already be said to be enough reason for 'jihad'. What's more, Peter was still an admirer of Frederick the Great of Prussia, and he was now hated as much as people from the great eastern countries would worship the emperor of a certain island country.

The Oriental Art of War talks about the time, place, and people, and Peter did not have any advantage to follow before he became Peter III, and it was simply a fantasy that he or a few people wanted to control the huge Russian Empire. In fact, it was Catherine who usurped the throne of Peter III at a loss, and if it had been someone else, the Russian Empire would not have seen the sun of the 19th century at all, and would have long since fallen into the sea of people and could not extricate itself~~