Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Solovyov embarked on his journey back to Crimea, but on the way back, he made a detour to Mozdok.

"Why Mozdok, sir?"

"It's nothing, just going to take a look around there."

When Zaza asked this question, Solovyov couldn't possibly give a strange reason like "the struggle for the war zone: Mozdok," could he?
Of course, compared to operating on a computer, it's more interesting for him to actually manage the province and the army like this now. Besides, custom players are generally not very interesting; it's more fulfilling to develop a Tier 1 account into a Tier 0 account.

Moreover, he had no idea what was going on in Mozdok.

Even at this time, there were not many troops stationed in Mozdok, only a patrol of Cossacks. Yermolov was worried about Solovyov's safety, so he sent a team of Terek Cossacks to escort him to Mozdok.

After all, not all mountain people are as reasonable as the ones he had encountered before.

Those who were more reasonable eventually became Russia's biggest problem, but that's another story.

On his way back, Solovyov planned to recruit a group of brave warriors in the Circassian territory to form several heavy cavalry squadrons. They didn't necessarily have to be cataphracts, but they still wanted to send out a heavy cavalry unit to join the battle.

Moreover, this could soften the attitude of the Circassians. He had released a group of prisoners and recruited a group of people to fight alongside him, so he still had a good reputation in the area.

That's why he insisted on going to Mozdok on his way back.

However, as was his habit, he asked about the local industrial and agricultural situation, as this was his duty as the governor overseeing several important provinces.

"Sir, there's nothing special about this place, just some manors and small workshops."

"This place isn't far from Vladikavkaz, so it should be able to provide some supplies, less than 90 versts."

“But I am just an administrative official, sir.”

“There are many things that administrative officials need to know. You may not know them, but you cannot be unaware of this matter. However, when I talked to the residents just now, they all said that you are an honest person and that you shouldn’t be sweating so much. I only punish corrupt officials. Someone like you can only be considered mediocre at best, or perhaps you are cowardly and lack responsibility. But if you pay attention and maintain good relations with the local community, you can still be a good official.”

This junior civil servant can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Solovyov knew about the death of the minor official; this man had simply become bolder and brought it to life.

"If we don't have any local specialties, we can do something else, like trade."

"If that's the case, sir, we do have that. We import fruit from Georgia and wool from the northern grasslands, and we also have some local leather workshops."

He's just timid, but he's not too bad.

"That would be good, but you're under the jurisdiction of the Caucasus provincial governor, not one of my officials directly under Crimea. Otherwise, I might have promoted you and given you a raise. If you could reach the eighth rank of civil servant, it would also be beneficial for your children. How many children do you have?"

"My wife gave birth to three sons and two daughters."

"Your income must be very tight. This salary isn't enough. When I was inspecting Odessa, bribery was rampant among the officials there. I even managed to govern this place for a while, and they were still so arrogant. Of course, dismissing them from office just means sending them home. If it were a tyrannical emperor, they would probably be skinned alive."

When Solovyov mentioned what Zhu De had done, Nikolai frowned and said that although the Qing emperors were of barbaric Tatar origin, their cruel punishments were inherited from previous Chinese emperors, and skinning people alive was too cruel.

Nicholas, that hothead, labeled Zhu Yuanzhang as a tyrant. This is related to the fact that the Tsarist family has never liked to carry out the death penalty. Even Peter the Great rarely went so far as to play Candy Crush. It was only the rebels of the shooting army who met a tragic end.

Because the shooting army consisted more of vested interests than the kind of serf uprising.

Solovyov talked for a long time with the local official. The cities in this area, apart from Vladikavkaz, are Beslan and Mozdok.

Later, when the Chechens caused trouble, they wreaked havoc on these areas. The reason Solovyov didn't go on a killing spree and directly eliminate the Chechens was because they hadn't committed any major crimes yet, and even their leaders had handed him their grievances. His trip to Dagestan was quite fruitful.

Although Solovyov was a womanizer, he always managed to accumulate a lot of good karma. Even introducing a doctor to Princess Charlotte to help her with her pregnancy was a great act of merit. At least it prevented a situation where a queen like GAS couldn't control the councilors, leading to the endless spread of the great calamity in England.

His friend, the Duke of Clarence, William IV in history, was not very capable, but he was very good at intimidating the Conservative Party. During the years he was in power, the Irish and Catholics could breathe a sigh of relief and were not immediately in danger. They even had legal protection.

The same applies here. Moreover, Shamir, who comes from a religious school, believes that although Solovyov is not devout in every sense of the word, he is honest and kind, and is closer to heavenly paradise than some "devout" people.

Sometimes, you can't reason with people about this. Solovyov did a lot of good deeds, so if you can put them into practice, don't just talk about them.

But Solovyov was also curious about what the local serf owners were doing at this time.

What intrigued him even more was that the Queen's goddaughter, Countess Panina, also owned property here.

If her surname might not be immediately memorable, her maiden name was Orlova, and she was a cousin of Anna, the wife of young Kamensky. Her father was Vladimir, the intellectual among the five Orlov brothers.

The reason why Orlov is considered learned is that his four older brothers sent him to study at Leipzig University, and after returning, he worked at the Academy of Sciences for a long time.

The Countess's most striking feature was probably her fair skin; even at nearly fifty, she still retained her charm. Solovyov was getting a bit carried away with this thought, but Vladimir Orlov was indeed very good at educating children. After falling ill due to the pressure of managing the Academy of Sciences, he retired to the manor. Paul, of course, didn't cause him any trouble, since Peter III's death had nothing to do with him. This man was quite famous in academic circles and often discussed issues with great European scholars.

Importantly, he was also an astronomer.

Solovyov himself also enjoyed studying astronomy, but because military affairs, political affairs, literature, and history took up too much of his energy, he didn't have as much time as this count to discipline his family.

Sofia is his second daughter and a renowned philanthropist.

While other people's serfs might still be being whipped, she received the Queen's authorization at the age of fifteen to improve the treatment of her own serfs. In fact, these people only had to hand over 10% of their income to the Countess for protection. They would even receive the Countess's sponsorship if they wanted to start a small business or make an invention.

In Mozdok, there were three brothers, Dubinin, serfs under her name. These three men ran a workshop in the area, but the local officials were very vague about it.

"I think it was a brewery, full of stills, but I've never seen them produce any alcohol. The eldest of the three brothers, on the other hand, has been researching kerosene."

“Ah, kerosene? You know that Romanians use ‘petroleum’ products to lubricate axles? I mean, Moldavia and Wallachia. I saw them doing that when I led my troops through there.”

"You mean they're doing some kind of research with minerals?"

“I think so too. Take me there to see it.” Solovyov was several ranks higher in rank; a second-class military officer had absolute authority over a ninth-class civil official, and even the latter had to obey orders.

Zaza also prepared a horse for Solovyov, as he disliked riding in carriages and believed that a general should ride a horse.

The horses Paul gave him were all buried in the backyard of the estate, and the Orlov horse he rides now is a descendant of that white horse.

The Dubinin brothers' workshop is on the edge of Mozdok. They originally worked on pine resin at their estate in Vladimir Province. After moving to the Caucasus, they started researching ways to change the raw materials due to the different environment and materials. Recently, they have been using stills for fractionation, but the results have not been very good.

In Vladimir's hometown, their craftsmanship allows them to fractionate oils, and even refine them further, enough to fill the fuel tanks of their everyday Isuzu cars.

As for essential oils that can fetch high prices, the three brothers don't make them much. Their craftsmanship is top-notch, but they've always focused on everyday consumer goods, even though their protector is a middle-aged socialite who loves beauty.
"Look over there, a big shot has arrived. People like him are rare in Mozdok."

Solovyov's green military uniform was too conspicuous, and when he arrived in Mozdok, he hung up his medals to show his status.

On the battlefield, you can naturally make your subordinates see you. Here, you can make officials and commoners see you too. The governor is inspecting the area. If you want to submit a petition, you'd better hurry over.

When the Dubinin brothers saw Solovyov, they thought that although he didn't have the same fair skin as his wife, he was still a gentleman.
Fortunately, they were just skilled serfs in the Vladimir countryside and had no idea that Solovyov was incredibly beautiful when he dressed as a girl in his youth.

Fortunately, they only cared about their own craft and ran their workshops here.

When Solovyov arrived at the location, he was astonished just by looking at the oil stains on the wooden barrels.

I was wearing a Russian green coat. The serfs here were doing oil fractionation, although it was the most primitive kind of work, but they were actually doing it.

This oil industry is just too green!
However, the entire still was still quite primitive. Solovyov pointed to the equipment in the yard with his riding crop and asked, "Are you craftsmen under the protection of Sofia Vladimirovna?"

“Yes, sir. I am Vasily Dubinin, and these are my brothers Gerasimov and Makar. We discovered this oil when we were mining here.”

"You can identify petroleum; you're craftsmen. Not only are you literate, but you should also be able to do calculations, otherwise you couldn't have made such an exquisite still. We plan to use this for fractional distillation. The cooling section should be made longer, as should the entire reaction apparatus."

Solovyov took off his gloves, first tapped the equipment with his whip, then touched it with his hand.

"This product tastes good, and it's all good fuel."

"We started using this fuel because we saw that the locals were using it."

“You’ve done a good job. Sofia Vladimirovna is probably my wife’s predecessor, both of us were court ladies-in-waiting, but I was just a child when she got married.”

Moreover, the things that happened in the past had little to do with him.

The most important thing now is this equipment.

"That's right. If you were given funding and sufficient raw materials, how much could you produce?"

"Sir, we can produce three to five barrels a day."

"Is it refined kerosene?"

“The current product quality is not very good, sir. But you are knowledgeable and know where the problem lies. We will do as you say and rebuild a set of equipment. It will be able to start production next year and produce qualified products.”

"What about the waste?"

"We don't know what to do with that waste."

"I will contact scholars at the Imperial University of Moscow and ask them to help analyze it and study its applications."

Solovyov's return journey to Mozdok was like finding a treasure; much of the oil there is shallow and relatively easy to extract, but its potential is limited.

There are many oil fields with even larger reserves in the Caucasus Mountains, mainly Grozny and Baku, and some further towards Maikop.

If they could get a lot of funding, maybe these three brothers could come up with some new products.

However, it's difficult to leapfrog ahead, since the materials and technology can't keep up, and subsequent upgrades will also be challenging.

However, the residue used by the three brothers could be smelled as inferior fuel by Solovyov. If this stuff could be purified, it could be used directly in internal combustion engine technology.

Then, all that came to mind for GAZ, Lada, GAZ, and Gil Solovyov were famous Soviet car brands and off-road vehicles with door handles that could be broken off. Even the usually jovial general behind him couldn't hold back his laughter.

People can control their expressions their whole lives, but they only lose control a couple of times, and those are all memorable moments, which is quite amusing.

Solovyov could only imagine that the internal combustion engine technology initially burned coal gas, and it took twenty years of development before it began to burn petroleum products.

But regarding heat engines, Solovyov felt that his knowledge was sometimes sufficient and sometimes insufficient.

"Sir, we're here."

“Vasily, you have done something great for the country. This fuel can be used for more than just lighting.”

The Dubinin brothers interrupted his thoughts, but Solovyov then reorganized his ideas and realized that there was a way.

His eldest daughter, Octavia, married Polina's son, Demid, who loved tinkering with technology and had a group of academically trained people, especially his subordinates at École Polytechnique. Wasn't Carnot's eldest son the one who was tinkering with Carnot's heat engine theory?

Regarding this, he also wanted to write to Sofia's father, Count Vladimir. Although the old man was in poor health, he was still able to live a long life. He asked him to join him in writing a letter to the French academic community, which might cause a sensation.

However, he wanted to keep the oil issue out of the picture and focus mainly on combustion efficiency.

Now it remains to be seen how well Carno can improve his theory of heat engines, and how quickly he can perfect it. (End of Chapter)