Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 15 015 Soloviev was troubled by seeing a bunch of Russian weights and measures

In St. Petersburg, Mrs. Lebrun actually spoke up and was able to open the issue from a female perspective. After all, these products are mainly aimed at women, and as a well-known portrait painter, Mrs. Lebrun is also the most admired female painter by the Queen of France. Her fame, appreciation level and makeup skills are there, which is always a gimmick, plus the way this lady does things is always more convincing.

No wonder she is also doing a booming business in St. Petersburg, and she has successfully taken out "gifts" to give to several grand duchesses.

On Solovyov's side, he came to Count Bobulinsky's Upper Palen Castle and saw the plots of land. He was very satisfied, and there were also hundreds of local serfs and some people for him to deploy.

But when drawing the blueprint, you also need to consider what weights and measures Russia uses, and what units of measurement France and Britain use. If you want to use the metric system at this time?

Excuse me, do you have relatives in France, or are you a French spy directly?

If there is any, Solovyov has a stepmother, and they just got married in the church. As for Miss de Rivery, she seems to be a good child. It was still summer when the old baron wrote to say that his wife wanted to give him and Yulia a brother or sister.

Doesn't this father feel guilty?

But think about what Potemkin did to his niece, that's another matter, not as good as the performance of the old baron of Solovyov's family. In addition, it should be pointed out that Potemkin left a large dowry for several nieces, allowing them to marry in glory, and they all married into good families.

It sounds strange, but the French no longer find some strange things in Russia strange, because they have more fun there, but they say in the letters that Russia

But Miss de Rivery is still deeply curious about the simple folk customs in the Russian countryside. After all, some Russian serfs are so poor, and they are not as sneaky as those she saw during her trip to France. Moreover, horses and vehicles are well taken care of in every manor and village they pass through.

She also likes to write letters to her stepson, talking about life in Moscow and socializing in salons with some nobles such as Count Rostov and Count Tolstoy.

This stepmother was not idle either. She actually thought of finding a wife for Mikhail. However, after looking around, there were no suitable girls of the right age. Perhaps from the French point of view, there were many families with suitable girls, but they could not afford to show off their wealth. Or in the case of the Soloviev family, the proper nobles still looked down on the baronial family that had only been passed down for three generations. Moreover, their family's patron, Prince Menshikov, had just recovered some power, and Lieutenant General Grushetsky would only come out to help when he promoted his adjutant's family. The rest could not be counted on.

As for some nobles who were more enthusiastic about the Soloviev family, such as Count Ilya Rostov, he was kind to everyone and very enthusiastic. When it came to marriage, he was actually worried. After all, marrying a daughter also required a dowry. Although there was still some capital, choosing a suitable son-in-law also required careful consideration.

When Mikhail read this, he was actually curious about what kind of family the Count married his eldest daughter Vera to? Although Natasha was not bad, her fiancé Andrei, Anatoly who almost eloped, and Pierre were all widows or secretly married. The last one was even more troubled by Helen. In fact, this also reflects a problem from the side, that is, although the Rostov family has the title, it is not easy to recruit a son-in-law.

"Uncle Sergei, look at what's going on at home. Our new mistress is still looking for a marriage for me. She's very good to me. She wants to find a girl with a good family background and decent character, but it's not easy in Moscow."

"What else does our master's new wife care about?"

"You don't know French, so I can't tell you, but everything here has to be built. Leave a 3-inch gap. A buttress needs to be built here. Don't make it too high, 1 foot, that's enough."

He turned around and talked to the count's bricklayer, and the other party responded like this.

"Master, it's better to make it 2.5 feet, or 3.5 feet, so that it's not easy for outsiders to climb in."

"If it's 2.5 feet, it's my height. What do you want a 2-foot-8-inch wall for? We still have an outer wall here. It's really a headache. These lengths are really a headache. Your head is so short."

One Russian inch (Вершок) is 4.45 centimeters. 16 Russian inches is equivalent to one Russian foot (Аршин), which is about 71 centimeters. 3 Russian feet is one Russian zhang (Сажень). As for Solovyov's complaint to the bricklayer about "pointy head", it is actually a pun, although he thought so himself.

It's only 1 Russian mile. Although it's a bit far, it's only 66.8 meters more than 1 kilometer. That's about it. It's better than the previous ones that are not really friendly to the decimal system.

Compared with units of length, area and weight are still relatively friendly. 1 Russian acre is slightly larger than 1 hectare. As for the putt and the like, in fact, some units have been used until the Soviet era and are still in use. They are no big deal now.

You should know that when your great emperor encouraged Uzbekistan to produce cotton, he still used the unit of Pood. At that time, the metric system had been popularized for a long time, and some habitual usage was still difficult to change.

In this regard, let alone those British who stubbornly use the British system.

The construction of the factory always requires on-site inspection. What Solovyov is most worried about is the lack of money. After all, in Russia, you are a noble lord. If you spend too much, no matter how many manors you have, it will be difficult to support you. And if you want to make progress, you always need money.

At least, the old baron told his son that if he wants to find a good job in Moscow or St. Petersburg in the future, it’s okay to make friends with connections, but if he wants to move up, unless he is a top noble, like them, a country baron, a job must at least be more than their family’s current annual income.

Roughly speaking, if you want to move up from a lieutenant, you will become an old man, that is, a captain or a major, and military merits will only speed up the process. From this point of view, officers in Louis XV can only come from the nobility, and in places like Britain and Russia, Prussia and Austria are actually similar. You need money.

The victorious brother at Waterloo, when he debuted, in order to become an officer and be promoted to colonel, these two critical moments were paid for by his brother.

The Wellesley family has a lot of money, and Mrs. Le Brun had previously asked Arthur Wellesley's current sister-in-law, a French actress, to paint a portrait.

And Solovyov himself may also have to spend some money when he is promoted in the future. It takes money to run the manor and marry a wife, and he is still very young. It is still a little early to find a wife now.

Therefore, his first priority is to make money. Being an officer is different from being a civil servant or a judge. In Russia, officers only have a chance to make money when they go out to fight. As for where they come from, it is actually very clear.

But at this time, the Russian army would not fight for the time being, and Solovyov had the need to move up. He did not want to become a civil servant like a provincial secretary, which was not something that a family with a certain rank should do, even if it was a nouveau riche family. It was something that a family with a rank of eight or above should do.

In Russia, there were a group of civil servants of the ninth rank who had been working for a long time. If they moved up, they would enter the ranks of hereditary aristocrats, and being an officer was probably an exception.

A few days later, Count Bobulinsky was very excited when he returned to his Upper Palen Castle from Petersburg.

In the manor, Count Bobulinsky was different from when he was in Petersburg. Sometimes he spoke to the villagers in a Germanic Russian with a strange accent, but it was understandable. In addition, there were some Baltic Germans here, and his wife was also from such a family. In fact, when he spoke, it was still strange compared to other places.

"Lieutenant, I'm glad you're still here to fulfill our agreement."

Soloviev was confused by what he said. After all, the other party's Russian level was better than that of the Frenchman Langgeron, at least he could understand it.

"Why did you come back from St. Petersburg?"

"I took a look here, and I went to Voronzovo Manor some time ago and saw that they were building a "Chinese Garden". I was a little interested, so I brought back a set of drawings. Come and see, the pagodas on it are so great, eight-story pagodas and ten-story pagodas."

At first glance, he didn't understand.

Soloviev actually knew what was going on, and he found it strange that when Count Bobulinsky's biological mother, Empress Catherine, was in power, she sent many delegations, from Peter to the present, and some had entered Beijing, but for Chinese architectural culture, it was obvious that everyone had the same deviation in understanding, and might not be as good as French missionaries.

"Frederick the Great was a great fan of French culture, just like Mr. Voltaire, but he had never been to China and probably didn't know much about the real situation there."

"Lieutenant, you'd better not speak German. You have to let the craftsmen know what's going on."

Speaking of which, his land was in Livonia, which is today's Estonia, but serfs came from everywhere, so it was not surprising to speak Russian, especially since Count Bobulinsky had to go to Novgorod or some southern places to buy serfs.

In this case, Solovyov could only express some opinions on the shape of the pagoda.

"According to Chinese tradition, as well as some Taoist and Buddhist ideas, odd numbers are yang and even numbers are yin. Yang and yin are definitely different. From the perspective of men and women, men are yang and women are yin."

Anyway, here, the right of interpretation is in his hands, and although this statement is a bit absurd, it is generally correct.

"Wait, Lieutenant, I think there are still some questions. What is yin and what is yang?"

I have to explain to this half-understanding count what Yang is and what Yin is.

For Soloviev, it is quite difficult to explain these contents in Russian. He found a wooden stick and gestured on the ground.

Although it may not be very respectful to the empress who just passed away, it is a fact. Of course, if this word reaches Paul's ears, it is disrespectful on the one hand, but it also meets his requirements for the reform of the Russian succession law. I really don't know whether to cry or laugh.

"If in India, there are no certain rules when building towers, but in China, it is a world view. If you want some good signs, you always want Yang, so the towers are odd numbers. If it is an even number, the Yin is too heavy."

Although Russia is a feudal autocracy and Lubyanka has opened, it will not be imprisoned for these problems. After all, the technical conditions are limited. In the Baltic Sea, the secret police can't hear the tsar being a fool, and Soloviev also mentioned some problems at this time.

"Since the yin energy is too strong and the tower is an even number, the original function of the pagoda to exorcise evil spirits is lost. That's basically it."

"No wonder my brother changed the inheritance law! Except for our great queen (his biological mother), it should be so in this environment in Russia!"

His wild imagination made Solovyov laugh and cry, but this association cannot be said to be completely correct, because Count Bobulinsky also extracted some content from his not-so-rich knowledge.

"Misha, come and see, in ancient mythology, before Zeus and Hera, you should also know that there were the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus, which are heaven and earth. This is the case in Greek mythology, which is very similar to the Chinese concept, and in the Bible"

But he realized a problem, that is, he is a master, and he should not talk nonsense on religious issues. At this point, he realized some small problems and stopped talking.

"But what you said before is right, guys, don't you think so?"

Soloviev asked the bricklayers, carpenters, stonemasons and blacksmiths present, and they all nodded.

"The master is right!"

"As a blacksmith, I think the masters are right. The blacksmith's furnace is hot. Look at me, I have been by the furnace for a long time, and I am not easy to get sick. It is because this place is yang, which eliminates those evil diseases."

The blacksmith said this, which made Bobulinsky and Solovyov laugh at the same time.

"Two masters, am I wrong?"

"You, the blacksmith, are right. Blacksmiths are not easy to get sick because you are always in a high temperature place, and many of the things that cause disease are killed."

Count Bobulinsky also nodded. Although his level is limited, he also knows that blacksmiths are not easy to get sick during the plague.

"Then it looks like this, there is something wrong with the construction of this tower."

"That's right, Alexei Grigorievich, you should modify the construction drawings and present them to the emperor."

"Present them to the emperor?"

Count Bobulinsky did not understand Solovyov's idea, so he had to continue to state his opinion: "I think the emperor likes the Prussian style very much. King Frederick the Great is also interested in China. There are pagodas in his garden, but they are not authentic. In our country, this problem should also be avoided in the construction of gardens, at least in the newly built towers. Some people have not yet mastered Chinese culture."

Then the count suddenly realized and understood Solovyov's idea: "That's right, present it to the emperor. If a 'Chinese-style' garden is to be built in Gatchina or a new palace in the future, it can also represent surpassing that king."

But this is in art rather than martial arts. In fact, Frederick himself is still a literary youth, but he is famous for having fought so many battles.