Chapter 596 Unexpected Reinforcements

Russia, St. Petersburg.

Alexander was originally worried about the news of his father's return. After all, he had not done anything serious during Nicholas I's absence except getting several women pregnant.

Especially the Tsar's rage upon his return frightened the prince. Fortunately, Nicholas I was soon attracted by other things and went to deal with urgent government affairs.

Alexander's attitude towards Nicholas I was both respectful and fearful, and he had some hatred for the throne.

He was told since childhood:

"That day, the residents of the capital were delighted to receive the crown of their ancestors from Tsar Sigurd Pavlovich.

This day was long and eagerly awaited.

But an unfortunate incident occurred that day, and the peace of St. Petersburg was interrupted for several hours.

When the new tsar was accepting the sincere love and loyalty of the people everywhere, a small group of the most shameless villains appeared in the Senate Square."

That was all Alexander was told, there was no uprising, no shooting, no cannons, and no shotguns.

It was just an incident instigated by rogues, not a rebellion by the Guards, that's all.

But when the child grew up, the cruel truth was still in front of Alexander. It was difficult for him to accept that the idol he worshipped was actually a liar, an executioner, and a bloody butcher who ascended the throne on corpses.

Finally one day, Alexander shot and killed a noble young man who accused the Tsar in public after drinking. But when he woke up, Duke Liubai of the third department told him that "it was just an accident" and asked him not to take it to heart.

Since then, Alexander began to escape from reality and became cynical. He hoped to eat and drink as much as he wanted and die before the age of 30. He even claimed many times that he would give up his right to inherit the throne.

Nicholas I had a deep sense of fate towards Alexander. The former felt that the latter must be his heir, so he was extremely strict and tolerant to him.

From the age of 7, Alexander began to receive training as the heir to the throne. At the same time, he had to learn history, Russian, mathematics, physics, philosophy, geography, French, English, German, Polish, law, rhetoric, painting, music, gymnastics, swimming, fencing, horse riding, dance, military, civil engineering. Nearly 50 courses.

No matter how absurd Alexander's actions were, Nicholas I chose to tolerate them, whether it was stuffing gunpowder into a horse's ass or trying to build an ice road from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

But at this time, Nicholas I was in no mood to care about what stupid things Alexander did, because what happened in the Caucasus was too serious.

The Tsar had to admit that Shamil was an outstanding military strategist and a tough opponent. The two sides had fought dozens of wars in the past decade, and the latter had almost maintained a perfect record.

Although Shamil only lost once or twice, his family was almost extinct. In order not to drag him down, his last sister had to commit suicide by jumping into the river, and his eldest son was even held hostage in Russia.

In the previous dozens of battles, Russia did not suffer any serious injuries, but this time it broke Nicholas I's defense.

In less than a month, the Russian army lost nearly 20,000 people, twelve senior Russian officers were publicly executed, and countless Russian civilians were slaughtered and captured.

In fact, one of the sources of the Chechens' confrontation with Russia was the smuggling of Russian white slaves and their sale to other Muslim countries, such as the Ottoman Empire and Persia, or the more distant Khanate of Khiva.

In the Muslim world, raising white slaves was a very prestigious thing, so the wealthy were willing to spend money, and the Chechens naturally worked harder.

With the weapons obtained from Austria, plus the funds obtained from the sale of white slaves, Shamil was very confident that he could fight Russia.

In fact, Shamil took the initiative to contact Magid, but in the latter's eyes, the former was just a lowly bandit leader, especially his lowly origin reminded the former of the last person who said he wanted to help the Ottoman Empire - Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali, the Egyptian Pasha, the initiator of the two Turkish-Egyptian wars, and the culprit of the decline of the Ottoman Empire.

Shamil also contacted the Qajar dynasty that ruled Persia - Muhammad Shah Qajar, but the latter had differences in faith with the former, not only executed Shamil's envoys but also informed the Russians.

However, Shamil did not give up seeking help from the Arab world, but the people who came to help him were an unexpected group of guys - the Karamanli family occupying Tripoli and the mysterious master behind it.

Shamil only met with the envoy of the Karamanli family with a try-and-see attitude, but he received unexpected and powerful assistance.

Through the latter's precise intelligence, the former won victory after victory, especially this risky attack on the port, which doubled Shamil's strength.

But he was not a fool. The Karamanli family and his master were willing to help him like this, and there must be a bigger intention.

But Shamil felt that he had become a hegemon at this time, and it seemed that he did not need those debts.

Nicholas I was very angry about the performance of the Russian army. Compared with the loss of soldiers, he cared more about the batch of arms, which was worth tens of millions of rubles!

His Majesty the Tsar still had a deep obsession with the cheap goods he bought from Austria. After all, the same goods would cost twice the price from the British, and Austrian goods were not only cheap but also "free shipping".

For the sake of Russia and his own face, as well as the arms, Nicholas I made an astonishing decision. He wanted to use 200,000 Russian troops to flatten the Caucasus region.

As for the northern mountainous areas of Albania? The Tsar was really not interested in those corners and corners, mainly because he had no time and energy, because the civil unrest was like a dagger always turning around in Russia's belly.

If the Chechens became bigger, they could threaten Siberia in the east, the agricultural areas near the Black Sea in the south, and they might join forces with the Cossacks in the west, and even threaten Moscow.

Although Nicholas I was very anxious, Russia was too big. It would take several months for its troops to gather, and winter would come in a few months, and supply would become a problem at that time.

So at least from 1845 to 1846, Russia could not have any large-scale military operations. If the war did not go well, the Caucasus War might last for several years, which would be very costly for the country.

In fact, if he could choose, Franz would not want to do this kind of thing. After all, in theory, Austria still needs the power of Russia as an ally.

But he also didn't like to hand over the right to choose his fate to others, even if it was something that had happened in history.

For this reason, Franz needed to ensure that Russia did not take advantage of the Austrian Empire and continued to invade the Ottoman Empire in the short term.