St. Petersburg, Russia.

Alexander was apprehensive by the news of his father's return, after all, he had not done anything serious in the days of Nicholas I's departure, except for enlarging the bellies of several women.

In particular, His Majesty the Tsar was furious as soon as he returned, which frightened the prince even more. Fortunately, Nicholas I was quickly attracted to other matters and went to deal with urgent affairs.

Alexander's attitude towards Nicholas I was both respectful and fearful, and his attitude towards the throne was somewhat hateful.

From an early age, he was told:

"On that day, the inhabitants of the capital were jubilant to learn that Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich had accepted the crown of their ancestors.

It's been a long day

But an unfortunate accident occurred that day, and the tranquility of St. Petersburg was interrupted for several hours.

While the new tsar was everywhere receiving the sincere love and allegiance of the people, a handful of the most shameless villains appeared in the squares of the Senate"

That's all Alexander was told, no uprising, no shooting, no artillery, no shotguns, and no shotguns.

It's just an accident provoked by a ruffian, it's not a mutiny by the Guards, that's all.

It's just that when the child grows up, the cruel truth is still in front of Alexander. It was hard for him to accept that the idol he worshipped was a liar, an executioner, a bloody butcher who stepped on his bones to ascend to the throne.

Finally, one day, Alexander shot and killed a young nobleman who was publicly accusing the Tsar, but when he woke up, Duke Lyubay, who was in charge of the third section, told him that "it was just an accident" and told him not to take it seriously.

Since then, Alexander has been escaping from reality, becoming cynical, hoping to eat Hesse and then die before the age of thirty, and even repeatedly claiming that he wants to renounce his succession to the throne.

Nicholas I had a deep sense of fatalism towards Alexander, and the former felt that the latter had to be his heir, so he was extremely strict and tolerant of him.

From the age of 7 Alexander began to train as an heir to the throne, while studying history, Russian, mathematics, physics, philosophy, geography, French, English, German, Polish, law, speech, painting, music, gymnastics, swimming, fencing, horseback riding, dance, military affairs, civil engineering. Nearly fifty courses.

And no matter how ridiculous Alexander did, Nicholas I chose to be inclusive, whether it was to shove gunpowder into the horse's ass or to try to build an ice road from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

But at this time Nicholas I was in no mood to care what else Alexander had done, because what was happening in the Caucasus was too serious.

The Tsar had to admit that Shamir was a brilliant military strategist and a formidable adversary, having fought dozens of wars between the two sides in the last decade, and the latter had almost a complete victory.

Although Shamir only lost once or twice, his family was almost dead, and his last sister had to commit suicide by throwing herself into the river in order not to drag him down, and his eldest son even took Russia hostage.

Russia had not been wounded in dozens of previous battles, but this time it allowed Nicholas I to break the defense.

In less than a month, the Russian army lost nearly 20,000 men, 12 high-ranking Russian officers were publicly executed, and the number of Russian civilians slaughtered and captured was unknown.

In fact, one of the capitals of the Chechen and Russian confrontation was the smuggling of Russian white slaves to other Celestial states, such as the Ottomans and Persia, or further afield, the Khiva Khanate.

In the world of Tianfangjiao, raising white slaves is a very face-saving thing, so those big tyrants are very willing to spend money, and the Chechens are naturally even harder.

With these weapons obtained from Austria, together with the funds from the slave trade, Shamir was confident that he could fight Russia.

In fact, Shamir took the initiative to contact Megid, but in the eyes of the latter, the former was nothing more than a lowly bandit leader, especially since that lowly background reminded the former of the last person who said he wanted to help the Osmans - Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali, Pasha of Egypt, the initiator of two Turkish-Egyptian wars, and the culprit of the decline of the Ottoman Empire.

Shamir also contacted the Qajar dynasty that ruled Persia, Muhammad Shah Qajar, but the latter, due to differences of faith with the former, not only executed Shamir's envoys, but also reported to the Russians.

But Shamir didn't give up on turning to the Arab world for help, but he was helped by an unexpected group of people – the Karamanli family who occupied Tripoli and the mysterious masters behind it.

Shamir only met with the emissary of the Karamanli family with a try-and-see attitude, but received unexpectedly strong assistance.

Through the latter's accurate intelligence, the former has won successive victories, especially this venture to attack the port, which doubled Shamir's strength.

However, he was not a fool, and the Karamanli family and his master must have a greater intention to help them in this way.

But Shamir felt that he had become a hegemon by this time, and that he did not seem to need those debts anymore.

Nicholas I was very angry at the performance of the Russian army, and he cared more about the arms than the losses of the soldiers, which were worth tens of millions of rubles!

His Majesty the Tsar still had a deep obsession with the bargains he had bought from Austria, after all, the same goods cost twice as much from the British, while Austrian goods were not only cheap but also "free shipping".

For the sake of Russia and his own face, as well as those arms, Nicholas I made a surprising decision to use 200,000 Russian troops to level the Caucasus.

As for the northern mountains of Albania? The Tsar really didn't care about the horns, mainly because he didn't have the time and energy, because the civil strife was like a dagger spinning in the belly of Russia.

If the Chechens grow larger, they can threaten Siberia in the east, agricultural areas near the Black Sea in the south, and join forces with the Cossacks in the west, or even Moscow.

Although Nicholas I himself was in a hurry, Russia was so big that it would take several months for its troops to be assembled, and after a few months it would be winter, when supplies would be a problem.

So at least in 1845-1846 Russia could not have any large-scale military operations, and if the war did not go well, the Caucasian war could last a few years, and the cost of the country would be very staggering.

In fact, if there is a choice, Franz is not willing to do such a thing, after all, Austria theoretically needs to rely on the strength of Russia, an ally.

But he also doesn't like to leave the choice of fate in the hands of others, even if it is something that has happened in history.

To do this, Franz needed to make sure that Russia did not take advantage of the fire to rob the Austrian Empire, and that it was not able to continue to invade the Ottoman Empire for a short time.

(End of chapter)