Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 313 015 The Parker Machine Gun, a Strange Thing

In front of the children of the Smolny Girls' School, his performance was just so-so. Solovyov knew that such things happened frequently to officers of the Guards.

In the future, if there were any non-commissioned officers, they would often dance with the students of the girls' school. This was considered a daily routine in St. Petersburg.

Solovyov was busy with these things all morning.

But in the afternoon, Louisa suddenly suggested taking the children to the shooting range.

"Why do you want to go to the shooting range? I know you never like it there."

"Nothing. I was just chatting with my sister and mentioned that during the reign of Louis XV, duels were popular among French ladies, although they were just fancy tricks, firing guns randomly into the sky. This always aroused some interest. Perhaps you can teach the girls how to use weapons."

"You actually think so?"

"Yeah, there's no one else here to ask for help, so I think it's best to ask you."

"Well, I'll do it."

Whenever there is something going on, he has to go. There is always some gap between him and other officers due to their status, but he can be more relaxed because he is often in the palace.

More importantly, both Louisa and Catherine trusted him.

That was how the target was set up in the garden of the Tauride Palace, and it was treated as if it were a serious matter.

When Solovyov saw Ekaterina, he knew that it must have been her idea.

Although Alexander allowed her to ride a horse, she was not allowed to touch a gun in the past, as flying props were somewhat dangerous.

This sister control
Recently, the restrictions on Catherine have been relaxed. Alexander himself is still focused on how to deal with Napoleon, so naturally, he left his sister to Louisa.

Louisa couldn't control Catherine, and it was indeed her who instigated the setting up of a target in the Tauride Palace this time.

"Is this all right?"

"Of course, Mr. Lieutenant Colonel. But although you are also a commander, others are generals, and you are the only one who is a lieutenant colonel."

"Your Highness, that's because of seniority, and the Jaegers are indeed the smallest regiment in the Royal Guards."

"But your regiment has the best guns, and this one, too."

Solovyov recognized the box that Catherine had the servant bring at a glance.

Alexander really doted on his sister beyond measure. When bidding for rifles, Solovyov asked the gunsmith to make a pair. This gun was later decorated with a lot of decorations, so you could tell at a glance that it was the one used by Paul.

Unlike Alexander, who often took the rifle with him when he went hunting, Paul kept it well in the palace after receiving it.

So far, it has only been used once during a public display, and is in much better condition than Alexander's gun.

The fact that Catherine was able to get this gun also proves that Alexander really favored her.

"And this gun is the one that could fire copper-cased bullets when we bid for it."

By the way, Primer is now hiring experts from the UK to prepare mercury fulminate, which has solved the long-standing production capacity problem.

This type of gun was originally designed to be reloadable, but if fired too many times, it would still cause some problems.

For example, explosion.

But for this gun, which has been well maintained, there is no such problem.

Catherine also called Solovyov's friend Prince Mikhail Dolgorukov, and it was obvious that there was something interesting going on between the two of them.

In the past, Ekaterina might have still been a little confused about her feelings, but now, apart from not sleeping in each other’s arms, their interactions have been very public, but they can’t go too far.

This happened in front of Catherine's sister-in-law. Queen Mother Maria did not seem to object to Catherine marrying a noble in the country. After all, this daughter was her favorite.

Things were not going right, and Catherine wanted to put a gun there, and she even asked Prince Mikhail for help.

It makes people shake their heads when they see it, and Louisa was not idle either.

"Your Majesty allowed the two older children to handle the weapons, but it's still a little unsafe when firing. Misha, I think you should..."

"There are two Mishas today, Your Highness."

"I know you two are still very good friends."

"I can't show it. If you need someone to help you steady yourself when aiming, you can put a support or sandbag under the rifle, but you can't do that with a pistol. If you hold the gun like this, at least for children, the gun can't be raised and fired."

As Solovyov was talking, he had already supported Louisa and asked her to aim the pistol at the target.

"Louisa, are you really going to shoot at the target?"

"Of course, don't be like others and think that I am as delicate as I appear."

But when there were people around, he couldn't whisper like this, so he could only hold Louisa's arm.

"His Majesty has taken me to the shooting range before. Come to think of it, he still cares about me a lot recently."

But while they were talking, Ekaterina had already fired a shot at the target. Her courage was indeed different from that of ordinary girls.

The maids were somewhat frightened. Sometimes fear is an instinct. Although this is in Russia, the disassembly, assembly and shooting of light weapons have not yet been popularized in schools.

Therefore, it is not surprising that some of the delicate ladies in the palace were frightened.

After all, Alexander was not like Paul, who sometimes would let his female relatives go to the training ground with him.

This group of maids should have undergone significant personnel changes compared to a few years ago. Many girls got married and some new ones were added.

Louisa was relatively calm because she had experienced a lot of trouble, but she rarely held a gun in her hand and pointed it at a target like this.

"Misha, you can let go of my arm now. I think I should have no problem aiming on my own."

Then she pulled the trigger, but she didn't control the shot well and it went flying.

It's not surprising. Baturu, the last one in the Qing Dynasty, uses a very weak bow for archery.

"It seems that I'm still not very good at this." Louisa knew that she really had no interest in this area.

But after firing the shot and then pulling the hammer to load the next bullet, she still hoped to hit the target.

"Your Highness, don't aim for too long like you did just now. You want the bullet to hit the target, not to be accurate. When it's level with the target, just pull the trigger."

After firing a few shots, Catherine seemed to be bored and was chatting with Prince Mikhail. Her attention was on this handsome guy and she didn't notice what her sister-in-law was doing.

Well, she was very generous and even thought that it would not be surprising if something happened between her third sister and Solovyov, but it was unlikely for her sister-in-law.

This can only be said to be an incorrect answer.

"I think you could do this, hold my arm."

"The basic posture is not wrong, Your Highness. Just like this, your shooting posture is still standard. You need to adapt to the weight of this pistol. It is not that heavy, and the recoil is not that great. This gun is not quite the same as the pistol used by officers."

The loaded paper shell bullets are themselves a reduced version, so the power is not that great.

Louisa first adjusted her breathing, then aimed at the target again, and this time the shot hit the target.

The daughters were still watching nearby. Although they were all very smart kids, they didn't pay much attention. They were just focusing on the fact that their mother's shot actually hit the target.

"That's it, Your Highness."

In fact, Solovyov really made Alexander feel at ease.
He was also careful enough in the Tavrid Palace and kept his distance.

But this time, it was so close.

"Louisa, I still like you very much."

"I know, but you have to be careful."

“You have to be careful.”

Louisa also put her pistol on the table and went over to Catherine.

Solovyov went to find Prince Mikhail at this time. The two of them had a very familiar relationship and close contacts.

"That's about right. I see you and Her Highness. She is very interested in you."

"It's just that the little girl has grown up a little, and she's still as playful as ever."

"But there have been some emotional changes. Her Royal Highness the Queen just said that Her Royal Highness Catherine and you have a very good relationship."

"But there are some status differences, and"

"Are you worried about His Majesty?"

Although Alexander and Catherine had such an ambiguous relationship, he also knew that his sister would eventually get married, and was looking for a suitable groom for her.

"Our princesses will still maintain marriage alliances with foreign countries, if the Queen Mother..."

However, Solovyov knew through the adjutant intelligence network and the coachman intelligence network that the Queen Mother was actually very satisfied with Prince Mikhail. He had a good family background, and he and his son were close confidants of Paul and Alexander. So this matter might be possible.

However, he couldn't intervene. If Louisa hadn't needed him today, he wouldn't have gotten so close in public.

To outsiders, it seems to be very polite.

Louisa recently brought all her children to the Tauride Palace, and also hired a tutor here. Therefore, there are many people coming and going here, and there are always people present.

Unless, in the summer, over at Peterhof.

But now Solovyov has been busy with serious matters and his work has become more intense. Besides, he is not one of those reckless people in the Guards and he still has a sense of propriety.

Therefore, when he sat down with Prince Mikhail, he still had to talk to him about weapons and equipment.

I thought about putting a Parker gun on a carriage, and then call it a "gun mount". How about that?
"Are you sure this thing works?"

"I think after overcoming the design flaws, it can still be taken out, but this kind of gun still needs someone to take care of it."

The main reason was that he didn't have enough confidence to develop the hand-cranked Gatling machine and the "coffee grinder", so he just came up with this thing first.

"If it can be mounted on a carriage, it may be of some benefit to our cavalry. Or, if it can be carried with the army like a cavalry cannon, I think that is also possible."

Most of the weapons in this era are new concepts, but few of them can be put into practice.

The Congreve rocket was invented when the British were fighting against Tipu Sultan. They were inspired by the rockets used by the Indians.

However, the actual effect is still greatly reduced.

Solovyov mentioned that the technological level of rockets in 1805 should be far from that of Laiyang Steel Pipe Factory.

Moreover, his previous idea of ​​a blasting tube still needed to be verified by someone in the arsenal who liked explosions.

A more feasible method is to use explosive packs. You can even use a very traditional method, such as lengthening the fuse and using a catapult to launch the explosive packs.
Speaking of which, the Tsar's name actually came more from Alexander Nevsky. What this grand duke did back then was exactly the same as what Lao Tie did as a "Zautihuli" under the Jin Dynasty.

It can be said that the orthodoxy of the Golden Horde can be counted here, and it is not surprising that someone suggested using a catapult to launch the explosive packs.

You know, many Russian leaders have Tatar ancestry, and the Tatar ancestry brought from Peter the Great's mother is nothing.

For example, the royal family of Georgia had some marriage ties with the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate, so it is not surprising to say that the Bagration family has Mongolian blood.

Not to mention Vladimir Ilyich. If he couldn't get food, he would simply and brutally shoot the speculators. This method was very Mongolian.

Solovyov even recalled that during the last period of Paul's reign, he did a big thing, which was to register the tribes of the Kazakh Khanate that had defected to Russia and rearrange the tribal form. Even now, the Great Juz, Middle Juz and Small Juz close to Russia in Kazakhstan are relatively stable. The only difference is that the relations between these khanates and the Khanate of Khiva, the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Kokand are not very good, and they are likely to fight each other if no one restrains them.

He knew that there was a huge disparity in the quality of the Russian cavalry, some were very elite, while others were very weak.

In addition to the Kalmyk cavalry, Solovyov also thought of the Kazakh Khanate opposite the Orenburg Military Governor's District. The cavalry combat effectiveness of this place was actually quite strong.

The last Khan of the Kazakh Khanate struggled for more than ten years in the era of Nicholas, but was finally defeated by the Kyrgyz tribes who were close to Tsarist Russia.
Of course, this was purely due to the stupidity of Nicholas's policy towards the nomadic tribes in his time.

Solovyov thought it would be interesting if these khanates became small khans themselves and let Alexander be their "Iskander Khan".

(End of this chapter)