Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 21 021 Prince Bagration lost badly in the British Club

Soloviev did not go to test the gun. He had some time these days, so he went to see the British Club first. This place is only open to men, and it is also in St. Petersburg.

However, the people who go there are always higher-level. Even an eighth-class civil servant who is already considered a hereditary noble seems a little insignificant here, and there are dozens of people sitting on a long table from beginning to end, and then there are four long tables. It looks like Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Of course, if there is such a thing as the Ministry of Magic, it is also British.

And this club, the current gathering place, has not started in Prince Gagarin's palace, but in Gallenaya Street, the more important place of the Admiralty. It is also convenient for all gentlemen to come to the club to dine and enjoy life. The British food here tastes good, at least much better than those places in the UK.

In addition, the British Club strictly prohibits ladies from entering. It is a typical British-style "gentleman's club". Sometimes you can bring your entourage in and out of here. The local official members are all dignitaries and Russian gentlemen. They consider it an honor to be members of the British Club. Of course, there are some unlucky ones who died during the secret ballot to recommend new members and were unable to enjoy this glorious status.

For a young Russian nobleman, they have three main ambitions: to join the Guards, to get married, and to join the British Club.

Depending on its business situation, sometimes dignitaries who are not members and some children of the upper class are allowed to enter. However, the current Russian Tsar Paul always dislikes this club and intends to close all clubs outside St. Petersburg. This thing is too British, and Paul himself has always had a bad relationship with the British ambassador. For Paul, who is not very close to Britain and has long admired France and Prussia, although he does not like salons, ladies can hold various activities there, and at the same time, men, as long as they are still in active service, must return to the barracks.

These gentlemen always talk a lot when they are in the British Club. Although there are waiters here, sometimes they are willing to bring their own followers. As for who the director of the Imperial Theater is, Soloviev still doesn't care. Anyway, he is very sure that your secretary is a playboy.

Julie asked him to keep it secret, how could such a thing be kept secret? If he were to do it calmly, he would probably do it like a strong man with glasses, and quietly settle the matter. However, in that event that may not happen in the future, the parties involved are all related, and it is indeed easier to develop to this situation.

After carefully analyzing the ins and outs of this matter, Soloviev found that the other party actually had no power in St. Petersburg except serving the theater director. If you know that the painter chief when Napoleon was in Toulon also did something in the theater, you should know that this is a more honorary position, which is less important than the powerful generals, governors, senior officials, or members of the Privy Council.

Although the current Imperial Theater has the position of director, it is actually managed by a "board of directors", headed by Prince Nikolai Yusupov. Speaking of which, his wife is the aunt of the clingy little goblin and the niece of Potemkin. No matter how you look at it, it seems like a family matter. If it is not too much, Solovyov is a guest of the Skavronsky family, and what about Mr. Nigris?

In fact, his identity is indeed not so eye-catching, and the same is true for Solovyov.

In the club, there are always some men who exchange some interesting stories about their daily lives. The ones that are mentioned more frequently are always political issues and personal stories. Of course, there are also some people who prefer secret operations.

In any case, this is always a good place to exchange intelligence, but the meal fee is too high for ordinary people. At this time, the admission fee is not as high as the 100 rubles later, but it is not something that ordinary noble children can afford.

Being able to come to the British Club is already a respectable thing in the upper class. Old Soloviev is still waiting for the members to vote anonymously to approve the official membership of the Moscow Club. However, with Paul's temper, he still wants to close all the clubs outside of Petersburg recently.

After entering the club, Soloviev also knew the status of aristocratic men in the social scene. The lowest attendants here that he could recognize were eunuchs above level 5 on the rank list, and there were no civil servants below level 6. The only ones who were more relaxed were officers. On the open day, many young officers entered the public area here. There were few ordinary troops who came here. Most of them were guards, cavalry officers and grenadiers.

And today he also saw a celebrity who was more conspicuous in appearance, Peter Bagration, the prince of Georgia, now the colonel commander of the 6th Chasseur Regiment.

With his living habits, it was not surprising to come here, especially because he liked playing cards, was an old gambler, and had courage that ordinary people did not have.

When he played cards today, the situation was not optimistic. When Solovyov entered the club, it was not yet time for dinner, so he wanted to play for a while, but playing cards requires gambling and fines, which is not friendly to non-members, even in the public area.

Dolokhov thought Solovyov was not a member of their circle, but he promised to give him a pair of good guns and the two Mikhails helped him out in social occasions before, and taught Solovyov some ways to cheat in playing cards.

So far, he has only taught this method to a few people such as Count Fedor Tolstoy, but he taught it to Solovyov, who was obviously not in the "bastard" circle of the Guards, because there was a special need. This is a method needed in reconnaissance work. Dolokhov found out that people in the Imperial Theater like to cheat when playing cards.

If you go to the British Club, you will probably not order this thing, and you will suffer. The prince had bad luck today, but his card skills were not that bad. It was not like Kutuzov deliberately lost cards when he played cards with the Tsar in the palace. He simply lost 5,000 rubles at a card table. This amount is not a large amount for a master of his level, but it is not optimistic if he loses too much.

As for his opponent, Solovyov saw the gorgeous Imperial Theater logo. Wow, I was thinking about waiting to get information, but I didn’t expect this guy to be here, and there were four people sitting at this table, three of them were calculating the prince. According to the scoreboard, I’m afraid he would lose all day.

Cheating methods, among gentlemen, although some people will do it, they generally won’t point it out at the card table, especially in the open area, but judging from Solovyov’s performance, he actually just blurted it out accidentally.

"Monsieur, votre diamant J est tombé." (Sir, your diamond jack has fallen.)

The gentleman sitting opposite Bagration was obviously not very careful, and Soloviev did not notice that a diamond jack had just been played in the game. Sometimes some low-level tricks and card sequences are exposed, which may be unintentional.

This is a very embarrassing thing, especially in the British club. If you are caught cheating, if you are a member, you will be fined at the lightest, and if it is serious, you will be handed over to the committee for judgment. The outcome for non-members is probably expulsion from the club. This is a big scandal in St. Petersburg. Everyone is a decent person, and life will not be easy in the future. After all, for many people, entering this high-end "gentleman's club" and becoming a member is an honor. Even the waiters here are voted by the committee. What matters is face.

The gentleman's face turned purple. This is too embarrassing. He turned around and left, but was grabbed by Bagration.

"Ne partez pas précipitamment, monsieur." (Don't leave in a hurry, sir.)

These civil servants are more afraid of these officers. As for the current state of these people, it is obvious that they are not as calm as before.

"Ich denke, das sollte im Tagebuch unseres Herrenclubs festgehalten werden." (I think this should be recorded in the log of our gentleman's club)

Bagration turned to a waiter and said this. In the British Club in St. Petersburg, although many people spoke in French, they always used German in writing the club's log. Russian records were not used until after 1815.

This saved Bagration from a card-playing routine, but Solovyov's unintentional words also separated him from his target and turned to Bagration.

The prince is 32 years old this year, with a sharp gaze. His most obvious identifying features are his famous sideburns and big nose, but because he often takes care of his face, that's just the way it is. His skin color is a little dark due to his long military life, and he looks very capable.

"Lieutenant, thank you for accidentally "seeing through" this little trick, but you know, this kind of thing is too common at the card table."

"I'm just passing by, Your Highness."

"Do you know me?"

In fact, this is the first time Solovyov has met Bagration, and he has never even heard of him in the past. But when he speaks like this, there are actually some old men he has seen before, and he can say this to them.

"You are so famous! I heard about you from Prince Volkonsky. I mean Nikolai Sergeyevich, and I am the adjutant of Dmitri Petrovich. Mikhail Soloviev is from Ryazan. My father, Sergei Osipovich, was once the adjutant of General Grushetsky."

At this time, it is more appropriate to use these two as a shield. If it is Kutuzov, it may be a little inappropriate. He has only met Kutuzov twice and only replied once, which would easily reveal the truth.

But the Prince Volkonsky family has always had a good reputation and has held many important positions. Soloviev is the adjutant of the younger of the two, so it can be considered a solution.

"No wonder, I come from the Caucasus Mountains, and my characteristics are very different from those of the nobles in Petersburg and Moscow."

He also touched his temples and spoke leisurely, but he also noticed that after he finished speaking, Solovyov looked at the three people who had just made a fool of themselves, as if something was wrong.

"Lieutenant, you seem to be doing more than just helping me find someone cheating at cards, right?"

There are a total of four people at Bagration's card table, and the other three are foreigners. Only he is considered Russian, but he is still a Georgian. If he speaks Russian, there is a language barrier, even with a Caucasian accent. We can still communicate with Solovyov, a native of Ryazan.

"Yes, but this is a personal matter. I came to the club to investigate."

"Isn't the adjutant delivering orders? Why are you doing reconnaissance work? You look so smart. Why don't you become an officer in the Chasseur Regiment?"

Speaking of which, as far as the hunters are concerned, the rifle they tinkered with is considered a professional counterpart and is still very useful in skirmishes. Moreover, the chasseurs are also responsible for a lot of security and reconnaissance tasks. Although it is not what he said, Solovyov is indeed very good at climbing the pole.

"It's good to go to the Chasseurs, but among the infantry, apart from the Guards, they are the Grenadiers. You also know this."

Bagration also thought about this problem. Grenadiers are always called "warriors", and many regiments of chasseurs were formed later, and there are always chasseurs among grenadiers.

Moreover, the other party is the adjutant of Dmitry Volkonsky. His family background should be pretty good, and it is not easy to get people. What's more, in the Chasseur Regiment, if you shoot in the front during a battle, and then be chased and chopped down by cavalry, it's not surprising that you don't want to come.

Of course, there is one thing to note. Tsar Paul liked such an outstanding officer very much when he saw him. Although his family status was not as good as other princes, he was still considered the number one in Georgia, and he was still a bachelor until now.

Of course, the Tsar himself promised that if he achieved meritorious service in the future, he would definitely choose a wealthy aristocratic lady from Petersburg and Moscow to be his wife.

Although the image of the emperor gives people a feeling that is difficult to describe, he has a unique evaluation standard for appearance, and he is still the kind of warrior who matches a beautiful woman. It is just that this chaotic ability may always be wrong at some times. Good intentions lead to bad things.

"Very good then. Whatever you want to do, with your cleverness, there is still a lot to be done in the future. At some point in the future, we may fight side by side on the battlefield!"

The prince extended his hand as a sign of friendship, and Solovyov accepted his kindness with courtesy, owing to the difference of rank and rank, and with great respect for the warrior.

However, he never imagined that in the rest of his military career, he would spend a lot of time with this prince, and they would often cross paths, all the way to Borodino.