Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

"God, it looks like it's almost over."

Some of the Guardsmen were never able to appear on the battlefield because of the roads in St. Petersburg.

But they also saw solid cannonballs break through the ice, and some people fell into the Neva River.

In this weather, it's easy to suffer from hypothermia due to the low temperatures, just like those French engineers on the Berezina River.

Only Mikhail Bestuzhev was able to maintain control over his company, a testament to the cohesion built up through his usual care for the soldiers, who had not abandoned their company commander.

But their final efforts to form a battle line were thwarted by the roar of cannons.

From the square all the way to the ice, there were corpses everywhere; many people died that day.

Nicholas himself had a somber expression; he was unwilling to witness such bloodshed on the very first day of his coronation.

But that's just how things are; he had to arrange a series of tasks, including arresting some people, including their accomplices.

This was the Decembrists' failed uprising in Senate Square. In the past, when citizens and serfs revolted, even the Tsar could understand what was happening, but it was worrying that these nobles had launched an action.

"Should we write a letter to Mikhail Sergeyevich and ask him what to do?"

Nicholas was asking his younger brother, who was now the Tsar and naturally wouldn't use the intimate terms of address that had been used between teacher and student before.

"Perhaps there are some other things. On my way back from Warsaw, I met his messenger. I read the letter. He believes that the events in the South were the result of some people in the secret society acting rashly when they saw an 'opportunity,' and that he has already uncovered some things over there. In fact, many things have been beyond his expectations."

Solovyov acted so swiftly that the Chernigov Regiment uprising was foiled before it even began.

Once Pestor was arrested, Solovyov and several generals stationed in the south followed the trail and captured some officers, including his own nephew Vinyamin, as well as many promising officers.

However, out of friendship with the Volkonsky family and his old comrade-in-arms General Raevsky, Solovyov did not immediately take control of Sergei Volkonsky, because all the evidence indicated that he was only involved in covering these operations and had not yet drawn his own army into the conspiracy.

He and Trubetskoy were of very high rank; one was a general and a close confidant of the Tsar.

The other was a promising colonel, whose work was praised by Solovyov in an internal Russian military bulletin.

But at this point, many decisions still had to be made by the Tsar.

If Solovyov hadn't been in such a hurry to deal with the Confederate States of America, especially the officers in Crimea, after obtaining the leads, the Chernigov Regiment incident would likely have been a complete farce.

For example, a group of drunken officers and soldiers, dispersed by cannons and sabers, robbed poor farmers along the way, without even harming a hair on the master's head.

The few officers with genuine ideals were either killed there or exiled.

"Their biggest problem is that they want to overthrow the monarchy, which is even more despicable than the group we see today. But..."

Why did the "boss" mention that some of these people made mistakes and got on the wrong path?
Nikolai then realized that although his mentor had once advocated sending a regimental commander to a military court, the punishment was not considered severe.

In short, it's a big problem that there's been too much talk about leniency.

That's because Solovyov's customary law is that it's easy to physically destroy a person, but difficult to mentally reform them.

He believed that the Decembrists were impulsive, taking to the streets to launch armed uprisings after hearing some trendy words, and that their conspiracies were like child's play.

In fact, Trubetskoy couldn't sever ties with his teammates. He watched the first half from the General Staff building, then left for his sister's house, and then the Austrian Embassy.

When it came time to arrest him, he was quite composed and went to meet the Tsar.

Nikolai eventually issued an order that evening to arrest and interrogate all those involved in the conspiracy.

However, there are exceptions, such as Mr. Speransky, who simply had a liberal ideology and no prior evidence of any connection between him and these people; it was just that one of his former secretaries joined the movement.

Moreover, these people all liked to recite Pushkin's poems. Nikolai had been a close friend of Pushkin during his time at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, and even had him recite a new work at his wedding. Even if these people were related to him, they wouldn't implicate him.

Moreover, because he couldn't sit still in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and failed the censorship of books and newspapers, he was exiled to the Caucasus and Odessa to experience life there, and incidentally developed a deep friendship with the daughters of the governors.

This guy isn't very tall; he can jump high enough to elbow Nikolai's knee, but he's surprisingly popular with women.

What pained Nikolai the most was probably that several of the first graduating students from the Royal Selo Lyceum School joined the group, which was the most distressing thing.

Moreover, the guy who was about to shoot Mikhail was also captured after the naval infantry formation broke down.

You should know that these were also classmates from Huangcun Middle School.

What Nikolai didn't even know was that at that moment, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gorchakov was making fake passports for several classmates, and he personally delivered them to their apartments that evening.

"Take these fake passports and find a chance to leave."

"Then what will you do? You're not a member of our secret society, this will implicate you."

"Of course I know, but we are classmates and friends. The sincere friendship we made at school will never change in a lifetime."

Gorchakov had nearly sixty years left to live. He was the last of the first graduating class of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum to die, and also the most accomplished among them.

He served as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Empire for twenty-five years, holding the highest civil service position, and was the last diplomat in Russia to hold such a position.

Ivan Pushkin and others ultimately refused Gorchakov's fake passports and burned them, leaving no physical evidence. Only the secret police might have known some information through hearsay.

That night, the arrests in St. Petersburg were mainly aimed at officers involved in secret societies.

The most severe treatment a soldier could receive was being transferred from the Guards to serve in the front lines of the Yermov Army in the Caucasus, where he would be assigned to an infantry battalion within the Old Semyonovsky Regiment. This battalion was now a disciplinary unit, whose main tasks were maintaining order and suppressing bandits in the mountains.

Nicholas wanted to severely punish the nobles, as they had angered him.

He knew of a conversation between his late brother’s teacher, the Swiss man Raharp who had recommended Stuhl to St. Petersburg, and Solovyov.

Both imperial tutors referred to the nobles during the French Revolution who chanted fashionable slogans as "opportunists." Solovyov's vocabulary was even richer: "A small group of ambitious individuals with ulterior motives infiltrated the ranks of the revolution and stole its fruits," a kind of denigration of the so-called "Louis Equality."

But these Russian nobles were at the forefront, seemingly truly acting for their ideals.

Why are they doing this?

"Your Majesty, we have captured some officers, including those from the Moscow Regiment and the Guards Grenadiers."

"Both groups were involved in bloodshed this morning, weren't they?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"General von Thor, you are the Quartermaster General, what do you think we should do?"

“Your Majesty, a screening should be conducted. The conspiracy group consists of at least several dozen people, but some of them ultimately pledged allegiance to Your Majesty.”

"Those who participated in the power grab and harmed their superiors should be severely punished, especially the gunman who wounded Count Miloradovich. By the way, how is the Count now?"

"The bullet has been removed. The doctor said it needs to be observed. Even if it's out of danger, it will still take some time to recover."

What kind of bullet was it?

"It was the latest revolver ammunition. According to the captured rebel officer, it was retired officer Kakhovsky who fired the shot. He also wounded Colonel Stuhller, whose condition is very dangerous. Many of the other wounded generals and officers were injured while trying to dissuade the rebels. After the doctor's examination, they were not in such bad condition, but the knife wounds looked very frightening."

"Does the Earl have anything to say?"

"He is."

Von Tol knew that Suvorov's students were all incredibly abstract, and Miloradovich was a chatterbox who was still complaining about being shot twice when he was injured.

"He pleaded with His Majesty to pardon some officers and soldiers, to refrain from such severe punishment, and that those who injured him were not active-duty officers, but rather his brothers who had been incited, and most of them were still good young men."

"That won't do. Although his request stems from a benevolent heart and his intentions are good, it cannot be adopted. The soldiers can be pardoned; they were incited by the officers. But what are the officers doing? They are soldiers who have to take an oath! Mr. Speransky must organize a review committee to see what's really going on in these men's heads."

Sending Speransky to handle the case was a sign of Nikolai's trust in him, and it also cleared him of suspicion.

In addition, it serves to verify his personal loyalty.

In Russia, anything can happen.

As for the situation in the south, the suppression was so swift because Sergei Volkonsky had met with Solovyov long ago, and some people always thought he was an enlightened nobleman who could influence the Tsar, so they wrote to him every few days, either explaining the pros and cons and hoping that he would adopt some of their opinions.

However, Solovyov had some protection and kind words of advice for the people of the Northern Association, whom he may have met.

The fact that he was closer to the people in the Southern Association made him reluctant to offer them any protection.

The main reason is their outrageous plans, including the assassination of the aunts who married abroad.

What kind of strange behavior is this?

To be honest, it would also provoke France, Sweden, and Prussia.

Alexander's daughters are not included, either because they lacked influence, or because the eldest princess went to the Americas, which was too far away for them to reach.

A hundred years later, apart from Nicholas II's family, most of the women were released. Gorky could even persuade Vladimir Ilyich to release one or two princes. If the German Free Corps hadn't been so ruthless, there wouldn't have been the retaliatory executions at Peter and Paul Fortress.

However, he did not advocate the death penalty, because in the South, if a conspiracy was uncovered in advance, the charges of murdering the Tsar and organizing a rebellion would be matched with the corresponding actions, while if it was quelled in advance, there would be no such thing.

The following day, most of the officers were arrested, and some who were abroad at the time were also investigated, even implicating many generals and important figures.

Those involved included Field Marshal Wittgenstein's son and adjutant, General Raevsky's son-in-law, General Konovnitsyn's sons, Solovyov's nephew, Speransky's former secretary, members of secret societies, the Tsar's cousins, and many other high-ranking nobles. These people were influential, wealthy, and of high status, and all were implicated.

When Nikolai saw a list from the Northern Association, he felt a chill run down his spine. A third of his classmates and many others who had been on good terms with him as Grand Dukes and could be called friends were also involved.

Moreover, he quickly learned about Gorchakov's forgery of documents through the secret police.

Nikolai himself doesn't plan to make this public.

If everyone gets involved, many people will be affected. Just the relatives and friends of these royals and high-ranking officials are already enough of a headache. Nicholas believes that the situation will be very difficult to handle.

Of course, some people were not involved.

For example, there was a fat railway worker in Moscow who didn't have much energy to devote to this job because Solovyov had entrusted him with a lot of business matters.

However, others will also face trouble during the subsequent investigation.

Some people quickly turned themselves in, and their families were forgiven. Nikolai had no intention of going on a killing spree.

In some European countries, the punishment for such rebellion would actually be more severe.

In addition, Nikolai now needs to demonstrate unity and has the support of his loyal generals.

Therefore, he decided to summon General Solovyov, Lieutenant General Paskovich, and Lieutenant General Arkady Suvorov, all of whom were, of course, his own men when Nikolai was Grand Duke.

After receiving the letter, Solovyov handed over the authority of the Governor-General of Crimea to Admiral Greg and returned to St. Petersburg with only a small entourage.

His original plan was that if war broke out, he would remain in the south, and the position of Governor-General of Crimea would be responsible for two fronts.

All he could think about was war, but the political turmoil had escalated to this point, necessitating his trip to St. Petersburg.

Although going home is a good thing, going home at this time will definitely involve many things.

The sheer number of princes and earls on the list of those implicated is already enough of a headache. (End of Chapter)