Tsaritsyn, the palace of Alexander I.

The Russian ministers and his close ministers in front of Alexander I had a chaotic and gloomy atmosphere. The dignitaries and generals who had been in the palace a few days ago were now all arguing with a straight face, or around the map.

The long-awaited good news came from the Balkan theater that the Austrians had finally entered the war. More than 100,000 Austrian troops appeared in Transylvania [now part of Romania], which was like a send-off in the snow, and Russia was in the middle of fire.

The Austrians' entry into the war put a lot of pressure on the Ottoman Empire, which not only stalled its offensive, but also began to actively retreat in the Ukrainian region for the first time because a large number of troops were pinned down by Austria. Although the distance is less than fifty versts.

But this already pleased Alexander I, the Ottoman offensive was contained, which, in the eyes of the Russian leadership, meant that the Ottoman power had passed its peak and began to decline from the top of the mountain.

But just a few days before Alexander I was happy, just a few days when the Russian ministers and nobles were happy, a terrible change broke out in the Volga battlefield - the Russian Caspian Fleet suffered a crushing defeat and was forced to relinquish control of the Volga estuary, which meant that New Astrakhan was completely surrounded by the Chinese from both land and water.

The failure of Bagration's offensive under the fortress of Astrakhan was, to be honest, happy to see by Alexander I. In the case of Kutuzov, who is dying and decrepit and does not live for a few days, Bagration, who is healthy and only fifty years old, becomes the flag of the Russian army, and the threat to the tsar is really a bit too serious. This divided the Russian military power that Alexander I had just unified in his own hands!

In particular, Bagration has a good reputation in Russia, and he is still covered with a halo of "hero of the Great Patriotic War".

Alexander I had every reason to believe that Bagration, after being made a marshal and becoming the leader of the Russian army, would definitely put a lot of pressure on him.

At that time, Bagration was able to rise from a pawn on the big chessboard of the 'Russian Empire' to a chess player.

From a part-time worker to a minority shareholder, even if it is small, it is still a shareholder, and that is also a difference in identity.

It is not a question of whether Bagration himself is willing to put pressure on the Tsar, but whether he is 'strong' or not. That's obviously possible.

So, Bagration's defeat outside Astrakhan was something Alexander I was happy to see. This defeat will greatly weaken the aura on Bagration's body. Of course, Alexander I was not an idiot at the end of the Qing Dynasty in the original time and space, and it was not a pity to tear each other back and corrupt the overall situation. He wanted to see Bagration's defeat, but he would never allow the elite of the hundreds of thousands of Russian troops to die completely in Astrakhan.

Now, the map in front of Alexander I is a schematic map of the battlefield of Astrakhan, on which the huge red arrows symbolizing the colors of the Wehrmacht have completely enveloped the Russian troops represented by the blue arrows from all sides.

Since this bad news reached Tsaritsyn, the entire Tsarist palace was in mourning, and even the high-level government officials accompanying him fell into a state of panic.

Everyone knows what that means!

Bagration they are in danger.

And if Russia loses this army, it will be equivalent to losing this war completely, and how huge their losses will be after Russia loses this war, it will be an unimaginable catastrophe.

Alexander I was reluctant to be a sinner in Russian history, even though Russia had already failed once before, throwing away the gains of three hundred years of Russian development in the East, which greatly damaged his grandmother's reputation. But now he is going to lose the Volga, not Siberia. The Volga is the mother river of Russia, and even if it is only a short stretch, it is a great shame.

Think about the emperor of China, which is the great pressure of losing the salary frontier or losing the Shandong Peninsula [Yellow River Estuary]?

Just thinking about this crime makes his whole person sensitive and irritable.

So he had to stop the catastrophe from happening.

But Alexander I had to ask himself, is this war going on in Russia? Does Russia still have the capital to continue to carry it on?

First Napoleon's invasion, then the wars against the Ottomans and China, Russia has shaken its fundamentals. With the help of Austria and the help of the British, Alexander I was relieved that Russia was in a great crisis in the East.

Let's not talk about the southern front and the war against France, but only about the development of the war on the Eastern Front, starting with Meloyarsky's 50,000 men at the beginning, and now the encirclement of Bagration's department, at least 100,000 Russian soldiers have been lost on the battlefield of the Eastern Front.

Even if there were no losses in the war against France, such a big defeat would have left Russia with a broken bone, not to mention now.

The Sino-Russian war continues, and it is possible that Russia will be completely dragged down.

Therefore, the nobility of the Russian court and the high-ranking generals of the government and military circles were silent in front of Alexander I, only in the absence of Alexander I. Their mouths will be high-pitched.

Now, of course, it was Alexander I who forced them to express their opinion.

"It's not defeated yet! We haven't lost yet! It only takes half a month, and it only takes half a month, and 100,000 reinforcements can arrive in Tsaritsyn. ”

"Your Majesty, we have gathered 30,000 recruits in Tsaritsyn during this time, and they can set out from Tsaritsyn now."

"I believe that Prince Bagration will be able to hold out at the mouth of the Volga for another month, and as long as he holds out for another month, the situation will definitely be turned around. Although it is impossible to beat the Chinese, at least there can be a draw. ”

"We've got to keep going. Otherwise, Russia will lose the core interests of the empire after losing the gains of the empire's eastward expansion for 300 years. ”

Yes, comparing the interests of Siberia and the Kazakh steppes, the Volga with the Caucasus, is definitely the basic plate of Russia.

"Your Majesty, please think carefully, think carefully, and make your next decision carefully." Imperial advisor Victor Kochube was also firmly on the side of the main battle faction. The latter faction was quite strong, and the head of the Guards regiment, Duke Nikolai Novostsev, was the head of this faction.

But this does not mean that Alexander I was left without opponents around him. The Minister of the Interior, Alexander Stragnov, the Chairman of the Constitutional Council, Gavril Derzhavin, and a large number of Russian aristocrats, were all anti-war.

And two of Alexander I's favorites: Count Alexis Arakchiev, Minister of War, and Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky, an exile who had just been pardoned for his crimes, and Duke Andrei Budberg, who took Speransky's place after his exile in Novgorod after being sued by the Minister of Police Barashov, were inextricably linked but contradictory, but they were all neutral.

But this in itself is a kind of denial of the continuation of the war.

It's just that the relationship between these three people is too complicated, and the identities of their respective representatives are too obvious, and they don't dare to open their mouths easily.

Count Alexis Arakchiev was a good friend of Alexander I, who had formed a close friendship since he was young, but he was the Minister of War, and he was the representative of the military at the Imperial Council, and if he expressed his opposition to the war, it would have been too bad and would greatly reduce his already low prestige in the army. Moreover, Arakchiev also faintly sensed the thoughts of Alexander I, and it was even more impossible for him to speak.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky is even less likely to speak.

After being exiled for more than half a year, he was able to stand before Alexander I in large part because he had been cleared of suspicion of fornicating with Napoleon, and partly because he was an open member of the Russian upper echelons of an organization marked by the one-eyed group. But Speransky, who came from a family of village clergymen, received the attention of Alexander I as a reformist, and offended a large number of Russian aristocratic figures during his three years in power, his current status is really difficult to speak.

It's easy for outsiders to think that he's holding on to his own weight.

Not to mention Duke Andrei Budberg, who is the supreme head of the Russian Council of Ministers, which is equivalent to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the role of Chen Han's first assistant minister, and the traditional Russian aristocracy, he needs to weigh more information if he wants to express his opinion.

In 1802, Alexander I established the Cabinet of Ministers, with nine ministers reporting directly to the Tsar, and the head of the Council elected by the nine ministers was the supreme head of the Council of Ministers.

Speransky served as de facto prime minister for three years, from 1808 to 1812, during which time even the Minister of War, Alexis Arakchiev, a close friend of Alexander I, was untenable by him. But Speransky made a big mistake at the beginning of 1812, and was anxious to know what was going on in France, so he secretly flipped through the secret documents of the Foreign Office. Speransky's move was undoubtedly too reckless, and no matter what his original intentions were, one wrong move was enough to ruin his political future.

The Minister of Police, Balashov, took advantage of this mistake and trumpeted Speransky's collusion with Napoleon to illicit intelligence.

Alexander I was facing a great threat from Napoleon at that time, and in order to better unite the great nobility of Russia and unite all the forces that could be united, he had to give up on him.

Speransky was exiled to Novgorod.

A reformer, coming to power in the spring breeze, but leaving lonely in the cold wind, everything is like a mirage, seemingly beautiful but only an illusion, full of reverie, but in the end in exchange for endless disappointment.

Fortunately, the victory in the war with France washed away the stain on Speransky, and more importantly, the great nobles whose vital interests were touched by Speransky's reforms were subsequently cleaned up by Alexander I.

The Russian military power and the repeated disobedience of the great nobles made Alexander I unbearable, so Alexander I took advantage of the victory of the war against France and the nobles went to St. Petersburg to attend a celebratory banquet, at which he launched the Winter Palace Incident, and used the Guards Regiment to disarm all the entourage of the nobles and put them under house arrest, forcing them to give up their military power and territory.

From then on, the army was no longer loyal to the nobility, but directly to the tsar.

In order to make the nobles see the reality clearly, and Alexander hated the repeated rebellion of the two long-established nobles of Godunov and Oligovich, he decisively ordered the two families to be completely wiped out, regardless of men, women, and children, all of whom were executed, and their in-laws were also implicated. It can be said that the hereditary territory of the great nobles was drastically reduced by iron-fisted means, and those who refused to accept it were all executed and suppressed. He divided the power to suppress them among the lower and middle nobles who obeyed him, but these new nobles had no military power. As a result, Alexander I was finally able to manage all the forces of Russia and became emperor in the truest sense of the word.

This is also the biggest reason why he is full of malice towards Bagration with his own halo, because after the Russian army has a new banner, it will inevitably touch the military power in the hands of Alexander I.

"Your Majesty, winning a victory or a draw in the war against the Chinese is indeed of great benefit to Russia. But I am not sure that Prince Bagration's loyal soldiers will be able to wait at least a month. They are surrounded by the Chinese and no longer suffer from pain all the time. Will they really make it through a month? ”

"What's more, the Chinese won't increase reinforcements? They have already increased once, and compared to the strength of China's Northwest Military District, the number of soldiers on the Volga battlefield is less than half of them. Who can guarantee that this will be the last time the Chinese will increase their troops? ”

"The soldiers under Prince Bagration are heroes of Russia, they drove out Napoleon, we can't lose them, absolutely not."

So, be peaceful. In this way, Russia's losses can be reduced to a minimum. Alexander Stragnov said.

The defeat of great Russia by the Chinese in the East is no longer a terrible thing, the loss of the Caspian Sea, the loss of the mouth of the Volga, this is of course a shame and black spot that the Russian army can never wash away, but there are more lice and no itching, and there are more debts.

Russia has more than one account with China. It's nothing more.

"My minister, victory is the key to preserving interests. Once we retreat, it is very likely that the Chinese will pursue with all their might. At that time, the consequences could be even more catastrophic than the destruction of the entire Front army, and the heroic sacrifice of the soldiers would be worthless. ”

"No, no, Your Majesty. The Chinese are not fools, they have caused fear and wariness throughout the Western world. His Excellency Speransky can attest to this, doesn't he? ”

Freemasonry is not a mysterious organization in Europe, although it is a religious brotherhood organization, and many of the leaders of the organization are not publicly identified, but there are still some members of the organization who are openly identified in many European countries.

Speransky is one of the most famous figures in Russian politics, so much so that he is now one of the most important sources of Russian military spending. He, or rather the organization behind him, provides Russia with a lot of money for military spending.

Although Freemasonry and Orthodoxy were not friends, there were many Jews living in Russia at this time, and at least half of the world's Jews lived in Russia.

The latter could not fully represent Freemasonry, and in the early 19th century, although money was very important, state power was clearly more deterrent than money, and it was the strong who held the knife in his hand at any time.

Even in the most capitalized Britain, the power of wealth can only be demonstrated through the rules of the game.

However, Freemasonry, a secret organization that has been crusaded against by the Vatican since its founding, undoubtedly has a good influence in many countries, and Russia needs the help of Freemasonry both financially and politically and diplomatically.

The opinions of the two forces are completely to the left. One thinks that if he continues to fight, the result will still be defeat, and if he wants to protect the interests of the Russian Empire to the greatest extent, he must immediately cut the meat and stop the loss. The other, on the other hand, somewhat coincided with the thoughts of Alexander I and insisted on fighting. Use time and life to let the Chinese take the initiative to sit at the negotiating table. Thereby preserving Russia's interests in the Caucasus and the lower Volga.

As for the Caspian Sea, the Russians already do not want to look.

Speransky continued to keep his mouth shut, his current awkward status as a face for Freemasonry in Russian politics if he wasn't careful—a role that he would have liked to play, whether he was a supporter of war or peace talks, and that was not what Speransky, an idealistic and aspiring reformer, wanted to play.

Rather than becoming the spokesman of Freemasonry in Russia, he wished that he would be a favorite of Alexander I again, and that he would have the trust of His Majesty the Tsar.

Therefore, he will never open his mouth at this time.

Alexis Arakchiev also hoped that he would win the loyal support of a part of the army, otherwise he would be embarrassed as Russia's Minister of War.

Now that Alexander I has completely cleared the internal obstacles, it is a good time for him to make a big difference, and Arakchiev will not jump out now.

Only Andre Budberg, who has the most autonomy of the three. But judging by the role that the Duke played on a day-to-day basis, it was clearly impossible for him to stand up against Alexander I.

Thus, the war continued. Russian reinforcements from all stripes continued to converge towards Tsaritsyn. Alexander I chose to persist even though he knew that many of his important ministers were opposed to the continuation of the war.

This is a person with a very strong character.

Just as Napoleon's 600,000-strong army pressed into Russia, how many times did Napoleon think that he could 'convince' Alexander I to obediently sacrifice his knees to him, but alas, the opposite is true.

"God willing, bless the great Russian ......"