Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Polina was indeed a bit willful as she stopped and walked along the way. She only entered her "former territory" when she reached Piacenza.

Because she found it troublesome to manage the territory, she sold it to Palma and only kept the Guastalla estate for herself. As for other places, her husband still had territories, so she didn't care.

"You seem to be familiar with this place as well."

"There have been battles on the Trebbia River, not only Hannibal, but also Russian and French armies. The banks of the Po River have all been places where I fought, so there's nothing strange about that."

As for Polina herself, she was sitting in the carriage, watching Solovyov riding along with some curiosity.

Even though he was so intimate with Maria in the Venus Room of the Palace of Versailles, he still showed great restraint in front of others.

After all, Katya is still here, which makes Maria and Katya happy, and they can't be sad.

This was probably all he could do, but Polina was very happy and she had a great time with Katya.

"You've been to so many places, you'll have to stay at my place for a while."

"Maybe I can only stay with you for a few days. I still have to go to Vienna and Berlin."

"Then your wife and Maria will stay with me."

"How can you make a decision on your own?"

"Michel, it doesn't matter. When Katya is willing to go back, I will find a way to send her home. Don't you have another appointment?"

"We stopped and walked along the way, but to get to Odessa, we had to cross the whole of Austria."

"It doesn't matter. Just do whatever you need to do during this time, Mishka. Paula and I are traveling in Italy, so we might as well take the children to Naples for a visit."

Solovyov knew that it was unlikely that he could return home by boat from the Mediterranean.

If Katya's health condition prevented her from traveling long distances, she would probably have to stay in Paulina's court in Italy for a while, or go to Weimar with Maria.

There are two children, and it seems that my wife and her lover have a very close relationship, which makes me feel a little redundant.

"Okay then, but if you go home, don't force your body."

While they were talking, a group of French soldiers passed by.

The French soldiers also noticed Solovyov, who was wearing a green uniform but had the Legion of Honor around his neck, and saluted him.

The green uniforms made it obvious to these French soldiers that they were Russians.

They were enemies before, but the emperor married a Russian girl, and the relationship changed after that.

They passed by like this, without concealing their actions, and were still pushing the cart.

Solovyov was a little curious, so he rode over and asked, "What are you doing?"

"We are transporting this batch of taxes and the collected grain to Milan."

Solovyov then asked about the local food and commodity prices, as well as their tax and grain collection practices.

The French soldiers answered truthfully, but then asked rhetorical questions.

"You are a Russian general, and you are passing through here on your journey. I see you are wearing a Legion of Honor, which must have been awarded to you by the Emperor."

"I passed by here. I was on my way to Guastalla. And speaking of which, before the Emperor and Empress Josephine divorced, I should have called him uncle. My stepmother was Empress Josephine's cousin."

"No wonder, you are the one who caused a lot of trouble to the emperor, but you are also very capable."

"Soloviev, some of our Russian surnames are quite long."

"Let me tell you this. We have been at war for the past few years. We have to collect grain and taxes to provide them to the battlefield in Spain. We can't get anything there, so we need to get food from France and Italy. His Majesty the Emperor is great, but sometimes he is inconsiderate. I am a grenadier, and I should be eligible to apply to join the Guards, but there is no point in being there. I am always in the back row during the battle."

"But you're just like those old guys because you're such a complainer. I was in the Russian Guards, and that was a common thing."

"Who says it's not true? My military service began during the Revolution. If I'm lucky, in a few years, I'll have completed my military service and can go home. What's different from others is that I married a wife and have children in Montargis before I joined the army, so I can go back to visit my family. I went out to fight to keep the land allocated to my family."

"Yes, that's the good thing about France. The peasants all got land. In our country, there are many self-employed farmers, but the plots they got are not that many."

"We'll fight those damned Germans and Englishmen for our land, our cattle, our house, and the little property we have. But what are we to do now? If you had come here with me, I'm afraid the ladies who were with you would have had to wait a while."

"It doesn't matter. The one wearing the white skirt is the emperor's sister. The one wearing the red skirt is Maria, the emperor's sister. The one wearing the blue skirt is my wife."

"I came here with my relatives, but to be honest, you are very lucky to have such a beautiful and young wife who can give birth to your children. My wife can't be said to be pretty, but she is not ugly either. She is very strong and gave birth to six children for me. When there was no war and I could visit my relatives, our regiment was stationed not far from home, but now there is no end to the war. You Russians have made peace with us, and the emperor even married your tsar's sister, but those British guys."

"We are also fighting with the Turks. If I hadn't come to send my bride off, I would have gone to fight with the Turks too."

"You Russians are enemies with those barbarians. Even a soldier like me, Luc Duval of Montargis, knows it. We are enemies with the Germans, too. But what about these Italians? I don't think so. They are farmers too. They are also human beings. They have been bullied by the Austrians, and now they want to tax us French."

In fact, this old soldier was quite progressive in his thinking and knew that Italians had always been bullied.

Of course, although he is also from Montargis, he is not a steel egg.

"You know that, but there's nothing we can do about it."

"Who says it's not true? We can't help these Italians. Italian women are nice, but we have wives, unlike those old bachelors, sans-culottes."

"Did they resist?"

"We dare not resist. We still have bayonets in our hands. As long as we scare them a few times, they will hand over the grain. To be honest, we don't want to do this. When I was fighting in Spain before, a hunter brother from Italy saved my life. It would be unkind to be too cruel to his fellow countrymen. Besides, I'm not telling you, even the emperor's sister has fallen out with him because too much grain was collected in Lucca and Tuscany, and many local people have become paupers. Could the person in the carriage be the Grand Duchess of Tuscany?"

"No, it's Princess Rossano."

"That woman, although a little absurd, is still a kind-hearted woman. We soldiers know something about the emperor's three sisters. Besides, you are good-looking, and the princess must like you very much." The old soldier spoke the truth. Solovyov and Polina had some emotional foundation.

"What you said is quite interesting, but there are some things that cannot be said carelessly."

"Of course I know that. You are also quite interesting and pay attention to what is happening here."

"I have some tobacco here, and I see you have a pipe here. It's some tobacco from the New World. I only take snuff, and I don't use anything like this."

"Thank you, sir."

The old soldier left with the tobacco, and Solovyov looked at the villages along the way.

Having been plundered once by the Austrians and once more by the French, the last time the Russian army arrived here, it looked rather desolate, but its appearance was still there.

This time we did not follow the previous route, and we did not know what happened to the merchants we met during the expedition.

But judging from the appearance of the villages along the way, the civilians under the rule of the French Empire are better off in mainland France, while those in Italy, which are relatively wealthy, look even more depressed.

This was still the territory under Napoleon's direct rule. The Kingdom of Italy, Tuscany and Lucca were also territories under Napoleon's rule.

What the French are doing here is already killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Considering that the French also like to engage in corruption and various transactions, they actually exploit the locals even more severely.

No wonder Elisa dared to go against Napoleon and a rift developed between the brother and sister.

If this continues, the Italians will become poor and there will be no more money to be made from them.

Elisa cares more about the territory than Paulina does. She really treats herself as the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and governs here together with her husband. She is also willing to protect the local civilians to some extent.

But Napoleon might be a little cruel to his brothers, and he had some respect for his eldest brother, but not much.

Elisa's three sisters doted on him in every way, and this only made the relationship between the two siblings worse. Napoleon had no intention of depriving him of his territory, so Louis abdicated directly.

It is even unreasonable that Carolina did what she did and even plotted to push her husband Murat out.

Napoleon pretended that nothing had happened and simply scolded Talleyrand for these possible conspiracies.

Then, what's even more outrageous is that Carolina slept with Metternich and almost gave birth to a child for him by accident.

Napoleon's household affairs were very troublesome, and Paulina was probably the only one who realized that her power came from her brother being the emperor, and that the power in the family was based on his strength.

So, Paulina simply ignored the offline monarchy system, sold all her territories, and would not exploit the people there.

So the strange thing is that Elisa and Paulina are still very popular in Italy.
At least one of them knew that for the sake of his own territory, no matter what the purpose was, he had to go against the emperor.

The other one, in addition to always looking for men, is also a harmless little white rabbit. She even often lives a luxurious life while giving money to the civilians around Guastalla.
This is better than what their emperor brother did in Italy.

However, the Italians are still optimistic. They at least think that the French are slightly better. At least here, some farmers have obtained their own land.
If it were the Austrian master, I'm afraid not even a penny would be returned.

Solovyov came back on horseback, and Polina was a little curious.

"What did you just do?"

"I talked to a grenadier for a while. The civilians here are living in poverty. It seems to be worse than ten years ago."

"There are always wars. There is nothing I can do about it. I don't want to manage the territory because I know I don't have the ability to do so. Now Parma has become a province of France. I just have a castle there."

"If you put more thought into other things besides 'catching men', things might get better."

"No, that's too much trouble. Elisa is willing to manage the territory because, in addition to her eldest brother being the housekeeper, she also often helps her mother with things."

"What about you? You're just dressing up, and you're getting more and more beautiful."

"Your wife is still in my arms, but she is asleep. It would be great if I had such a well-behaved and sensible sister."

Obviously, Paulina was very dissatisfied with what Carolina did.

This was not the sisters competing for favor in front of their brother and mother, but they were genuinely disgusted by her behavior.

"Katya is very well behaved, but if she really gets angry, I am a little afraid of her."

"No way?"

Polina was a little surprised that Solovyov was actually afraid of his wife.

"It's just that she's so well behaved that this kind of thing has never happened."

"That's fine. Catherine, Maria, and I are going to take a nice bath in the hot spring. You are not allowed to peek without our permission!"

It was still her usual style, but just like that, enjoying herself to the fullest, she was able to forget what was happening around her.

What's more, she has three sons. Speaking of this heartless state, considering Solovyov's "heresy", it's no wonder that all her children, including her two husbands and her lover, gave birth to boys.

If everyone were like her, Europe would probably soon have some peace.

But consumerism and this kind of enjoyment will still cause trouble later.

And there are children in the carriage, so these days, we need to completely relax our body and mind.

Apart from Louisa, the only one who had given birth to a child with him was Madame Récamier who stayed in St. Petersburg. He was lucky in that Katya, Polina and Silvia were not hostile to each other and had a very close relationship.

What about Maria?
Solovyov saw her expression and probably knew.
Trouble, all trouble.

If he could see the future and know the marriage Maria arranged for her child, he might find it even more outrageous. (End of this chapter)