Chapter 555: Irresistible Temptation

Chapter 556 An irresistible temptation

Petersburg.

In the Anichkov Palace in the middle of Nevsky Prospekt, laughter and some noisy music disturbed the peaceful dusk.

Alexey raised his glass to the young nobleman standing on the balcony railing and said loudly: "Dance! Ha! I bet 100 rubles that he can finish this song. Does anyone dare to bet with me?"

Next to him, a fat noble came over and whispered: "Count Bobulinski, Primakov has drank a whole bottle, he will fall..."

"No, you have never seen how drunk he is." Alexey said, patting the black bear next to him who was holding a wine glass in his paws and drinking. "Ivan, Sergey has never been drunk, right? Bar?"

The black bear nodded very humanely, then dropped the wine glass, turned around and pushed the playing pianist aside, climbed onto the chair awkwardly, raised his paws and slapped the keys, making a messy noise.

"Sergey, Ivan is urging you, dance quickly!!"

Alexei drank up the wine in the glass in one gulp, glanced at the middle-aged man with a long face next to him, and turned his head casually and said: "I bet 200 rubles that Primakov will not fall." !”

He has now achieved financial freedom through the earnings of Gemini Trading Company, and has become one of the business leaders in Petersburg. 200 rubles is not worth mentioning to him.

"300 rubles! Who bets with me?" He continued to increase his bet.

The long-faced middle-aged man seemed to be infected by his madness. He took a sip of wine, looked at the young man dangling on the balcony railing, and loudly answered:

"Okay, I'll bet you 300 rubles that he will fall!"

Alexey was overjoyed: "Great, let's get started, Sergey! Where is the music!"

The musician glanced at the black bear occupying the piano - it was Alexei's pet - and reluctantly picked up a violin, quickly came to the balcony and started playing.

Primakov sang loudly along with the music, and at the same time danced on the handrail that was less than the width of a hand.

Although this was the third floor, he had no fear, or maybe the alcohol had made him forget his fear. During this period, he staggered several times, but miraculously he stabilized and continued to flail around.

The nobles in the room gathered around, cheered and cheered, and occasionally handed him filled wine glasses as a sign of encouragement.

Seeing the long-faced middle-aged man staring at Primakov nervously, Alexey came over and said, "Count Chikolin, I heard that the British who came recently are going to negotiate a big business?"

Count Chikolin, second assistant to the Russian Foreign Secretary, had recently been in charge of receiving Lord Grenville.

He also drank a lot today, and his attention was focused on the bet. He immediately nodded subconsciously: "Ah, yes, they said they would increase trade volume, and they seemed to have mentioned developing Crimea."

"That's a good thing." Alexey curled his lips, "But they must have put forward a lot of conditions to be so generous, right?"

"What else can the British worry about? They want us to increase tariffs on French goods or reduce trade with France..."

Count Chikolin was suddenly startled as he spoke. He looked at Alexey and said, "Why do you suddenly ask these questions?"

The latter said to himself that of course it was the French Ambassador to Russia who asked me to help find out the news.

Ever since Lord Grenville landed at Riga, the French ambassador had been in the presence of an enemy, trying to find out what the British were up to. However, his gains were limited, and in the end he could only follow the Crown Prince's original instructions and approach Count Bobulinski when encountering problems.

Alexey hurriedly said: "As a businessman, I must understand the trade trends between countries as much as possible, so that I can make money, right?"

As he was talking, the black bear squeezed onto the balcony and tried to dance with Primakov. The latter was startled and immediately stepped on the air and fell out, "Ah——"

Fortunately, a servant laid straw under the balcony, saving him from being thrown to death.

Alexei feigned anger when he saw this and said, "Hey! This stupid bear shouldn't be allowed to drink so much!"

He signaled his entourage to hand over the bag containing 300 rubles to Count Chiklin. The latter immediately beamed: "Ah! Thank you for your generosity. It is really a smart animal, haha."

He put away the money bag and felt that the handler was short-handed, so he leaned into Alexey's ear and said: "Count Bobulinsky, you have to make some preparations in advance, such as trying the Baltic Sea route."

"What do you mean?"

"His Majesty the Emperor seems to be very interested in the British proposal." The assistant to the Foreign Secretary lowered his voice. "And His Majesty has sent someone to Iasi to summon Prince Potemkin back to Petersburg to discuss the matter."

Alexei said with a grateful expression: "You have helped me a lot. It seems that I really need to divide some ships to go to the Baltic Sea."

Potemkin is the de facto "prime minister" of Russia and is currently building the newly occupied territory in Moldavia, which is eastern Romania. The fact that the Tsar could summon him back in such a hurry showed that the British really impressed her.

Moreover, Potemkin was pro-British in his political pedigree and would probably not refuse an olive branch from the British.

The next day, Alexei went to see his brother, the Crown Prince Paul, to learn about the purpose of the British trip.

It is a pity that the latter did not enter the core political circle of Russia - Catherine II did not like him. So Alexei didn't get as much news from him as he did at the cocktail party.

Soon, the French ambassador to Russia wrote the information Alexey told him into a coded letter and sent someone back to Paris as quickly as possible.

…

North coast of the Black Sea.

On the Eju Prairie, more than a hundred elite Russian cavalry were guarding a golden carriage, galloping all the way north.

In the carriage, Potemkin leaned weakly on the seat and looked at the tsarist secretary opposite with his remaining right eye: "Baron Hrapovich, there are no outsiders here. Please tell me the truth, the British What do you want to do?

"Your Majesty will never ask me to put aside the affairs of Iasi and go back for some 'new trade agreement'. Unless...she misses me."

As the "Ivy" among Catherine II's many lovers, it is now difficult for him to win the favor of the queen due to his deteriorating health.

Especially when he ignored the doctor's advice and suffered from digestive system diseases after a binge at the beginning of the year.

But he had always dreamed of being by the Tsar's bedside again as he had been more than ten years ago.

"Ahem..." Hrabowitzki coughed slightly awkwardly, and then said, "In fact, the UK does want to cooperate with us in a lot of trade. But I heard that they should have mentioned Poland. "

"Poland?" Potemkin narrowed his one eye and shook his head immediately, "But Poland currently has no chance. It is difficult for us to deal with Poland alone. After all, we must always keep an eye on the Ottomans and Persia."