Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 356 058 How can I not meet Goethe when I come to Weimar? (Part 1)

Maria gave birth to a son in September. Now the child is not even 100 days old. After her body recovered slightly after giving birth, she came to take care of the child herself.

Speaking of which, her physical fitness is indeed good. She is the one who inherited the most from Queen Mother Maria.

Just when she had fed the child and coaxed him to sleep, a maid quietly came to the door of her bedroom.

Maria was also afraid of waking up the child, so she tiptoed to the door with her coat on.

"Your Highness, two Russian officers came to the palace. They all looked like the guards uniforms you mentioned."

After hearing this, Maria knew that they should be sent by her two brothers based on the news published in the recent Weimar newspapers.

"Have you found out who these two people are?"

"No, Your Highness, when I saw them outside the door, I only saw a short young colonel with a handsome face, and the Cossack behind him was very masculine."

"Sophia, you are obsessed with love again."

For Maria, when she came to Weimar, the maids arranged by the court here were reliable and hardworking, and they didn't look like a group of noble ladies, but there was a problem, they were too easy to be obsessed with love.

"Sorry, Your Highness, but it seems that the young colonel is here to take you back to St. Petersburg."

"Ah, this is not good."

When Maria heard this, she knew that her brother must have lost the battle, otherwise he would not have sent anyone over.

"Sophia, go and call the nanny over, I will dress up, and I will summon them later."

Maria went back to dress up, because she was indeed not suitable to meet guests in this state, and she also had to meet the people from her mother's family.

After all, Russia is a big country, and these small countries in marriage are still counting on this big backer to protect them.

In addition, Maria's husband is not strong in character, which also gives Maria a lot of say in the court.

Now that she has given birth to a legitimate son, her parents-in-law and husband take good care of her. If it weren't for the limited size of the Weimar court, they would still prepare a big show for her.

Of course, the local cultural undertakings are extremely prosperous, with two outstanding poets, Goethe and Schiller, but it's a pity that Schiller died a few months ago, and only Goethe is here now.

But with Wolfgang Goethe here, he can already overwhelm everyone in the German literary world.

Maria also came to the right place. She and her second sister Elena are both enthusiastic sponsors of cultural undertakings. Goethe praised her for literature, music, painting and sculpture, and Maria herself has long maintained contact with the famous Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky.

When she summoned the two officers, she also found that Solovyov was walking in front.

"Misha, I can think of the emperor sending you here."

However, Solovyov knew the temper of this little girl. Although she was easy to coax, she always had to squeeze his brain cells.

Seeing his embarrassed look, Bao Hong beside him found it quite funny.

A guard officer who was not afraid of even Napoleon behaved properly even in front of the emperor and Grand Duke Constantine, but was somewhat embarrassed in front of this prince.

Although Bao Hong was also a guard Cossack, Solovyov had already gone abroad when he came to St. Petersburg, so he was unlikely to know that Solovyov was restrained by Maria in the palace.

"Your Highness, I am relieved to see that you look so good. In this way, I can also return to St. Petersburg and report to the emperor."

"If you want to take me back, don't be so anxious. Maybe peace will come soon."

Queen Mother Maria is keen on politics and has a strong addiction to people. The daughters she raised are not the same.

It is obvious that the three married daughters are not keen on politics, but they like art very much. As for leading troops to fight, they just play "King Game" on the map when playing in the palace, and they don't have a deep understanding of it.

Only Catherine, who has not yet married and always wants to find a big country to be the queen, is more enthusiastic about this aspect. But her level follows her mother, and there will be no opportunity to accumulate experience in the palace.

Therefore, she does not have this sense of crisis.

"Yes, His Royal Highness the Duke also said so, waiting for mediation."

"But since you are here, you can come to my literary salon."

After all, Maria is not yet 20 years old. In fact, she is just a half-grown girl, and naturally she is still a passionate and lively little lady.

Speaking of which, she really stitched the name of the child, filling in the father, father-in-law, husband and two brothers.

According to the experience of working illegally for this little girl before, if you refuse her, you have to be careful of tears and temper, so Solovyov cannot refuse.

As for how Soloviev found out, it was because he had seen her acting like a spoiled child to Tsar Paul when he was on duty in the past. Paul favored his third daughter the most, and he doted on her even more after she was almost disfigured by smallpox.

Speaking of which, if the old emperor knew about the humiliating defeat of the Russian army, he would probably roll around in his coffin in anger.

Since Maria dressed up carefully, she did invite a lot of guests.

In addition to her husband, Duke Karl Frederick, the Crown Prince of Saxe-Weimar, there were Maria's sister-in-law Caroline Louise and brother-in-law Karl Bernhard.

The former was willing to play with her sister-in-law of similar age, but the latter preferred mathematics, especially geometry, and was not keen on these things in the literary salon.

However, he had to come because of his sister-in-law's invitation.

However, he was not without companions. A young scholar who passed by Weimar from Brunswick also came here.

As for Soloviev's jaw not being dislocated when he introduced himself, thank God.

It is said that no matter what he does, he will end up being the best, and this time is no exception.

To build a steamship, there are experts in this field among the royalist exiles;

To build a factory, many experts have been recruited;

To build water conservancy in his hometown, he met Belzoni in Rome.

This time in the Weimar court, the host is Maria, the central figure is Goethe, and Soloviev can play a supporting role because of his experience in translating poetry and novels and his identity as an oriental scholar.

However, because Karl Bernhard had some friendship between Saxe-Weimar and Brunswick, the Duke of Brunswick sent Gauss to Weimar to teach and tutor the young duke.

Speaking of which, Gauss was originally at the University of Göttingen, and later transferred back to the University of Helmstedt in his hometown of Brunswick. The old Duke of Brunswick took good care of him, not only sponsoring his studies and research, but also arranging a tutor for him at the university in his hometown.

One of the issues that Solovyov has been considering recently is that in order to improve shipping, Russia's canal system needs to be improved, which also involves his own business.

This guy from a profiteer family, because of the patent for the steamship, the franchise he obtained, now also needs to cooperate with water network transportation.

At the same time, water network transportation was also very important in the first industrial revolution.

If the water network transportation is to be improved, new canals need to be dug and the canal water network that has been built in the past needs to be improved, which requires surveying and mapping work, and of course, mathematicians are needed. Moreover, the Russian Academy of Sciences does need an outstanding mathematician to preside over the calculation of astronomical observations, as well as the construction of the Department of Mathematics of the Imperial University of St. Petersburg. After Euler's death, the Russian mathematics community really needed a mathematician from Western Europe to help develop its own mathematics. You know, Russia's level of mathematics, physics and chemistry was very strong during the imperial period, and it was also very strong during the Soviet period. But now, experts are also needed.

However, Gauss also rejected the invitation of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg because of the training and care of the Duke of Brunswick.

Such a mathematician is really a great talent. If he doesn't dig him away, he will feel itchy and uncomfortable.

But when he was chatting with Gauss, Maria started coughing here.

This is a literary salon, not an academy of sciences!

She looked very cute when she was angry. Solovyov didn't realize that this girl was interested in him before she got married. His mind was on Louisa.

Now, he didn't notice it either, and the people around him didn't feel it either.

As a literary master, Goethe was very calm. Gauss's name as a child prodigy was known to the whole of Europe, and he was also a guest of the little duke.

As for Baron Soloviev, he had heard of him when he went to St. Petersburg. Now it seems that he is a young man who is both literary and martial. As for the question he asked Gauss, it was a very interesting one.

Is there another planet besides Uranus?

Soloviev still has a basic level of advanced mathematics, so he was not too embarrassed when asking questions.

Gauss was also interested. After all, the orbit of Uranus was somewhat offset, which was also the focus of astronomers' attention recently.

However, it was difficult to explain it clearly for a while.

"Mr. Colonel, we can discuss this issue another day."

"Perhaps you can consider going to St. Petersburg for research. Russia is so large that observations can be carried out in several places at the same time. Such calculation data should also be more reliable."

He was always able to accurately grasp the pain points, but Gauss still politely declined the invitation.

"Thank you for your kindness, but His Royal Highness the Duke of Brunswick has been supporting me, and it is more convenient to conduct research in my hometown."

"Speaking of which, the old duke has also instructed me before, but we are both soldiers, and we are still discussing military theory."

Although his approach seemed abrupt, it also made his identity clear. Gauss knew the relationship between Solovyov and the Duke of Brunswick, and his attitude softened.

Soloviev grasped another key point. Prussia is likely to be doomed next year. By then, the Duke of Brunswick's principality will still be destroyed for a few years. If the old duke is unlucky, he will be on the battlefield.

Although it is a bit fatalistic to say so, it is indeed worth worrying about. If the Duchy of Brunswick is gone, the observatory that the old duke promised to build for Gauss will definitely be ruined.

At that time, invite Gauss to St. Petersburg. Since he can transfer from Göttingen to his hometown to complete his doctoral thesis, the treatment between Göttingen and St. Petersburg can still be made clear.

Of course, there is a small problem. Gauss, who has made great achievements in academics, hates writing books and teaching, and hopes to focus most of his energy on academic research.

No wonder there is a joke that when his wife (the second one) was critically ill, he was still working hard.

When it comes to this, Solovyov thinks it is not a problem, and there will always be a way to solve it in the future.

As for Bao Hong, the Cossack, he was confused beside him. He didn't understand mathematics, and he was not very good at poetry.

If he had played the piano and sang, and performed traditional Cossack lyric songs for Her Highness Maria and Mr. Goethe, he would have no problem.

But mathematics, Cossacks, and cavalry, there are too many people from this branch of the army who burned books and buried scholars in culture.

After being asked a lot of questions by Soloviev, Gauss felt that the literary salon was not in vain.

It was just that when discussing science, in addition to the two people who had just had a heated discussion, the little Duke Karl Bernhard, a diligent child, was very interested.

You know, this little Duke was not in vain. He made some achievements in geometry in the future and published papers on the construction of regular polygons.

It seems that he will be an artilleryman in the future. After all, the emperor of Corsica who likes cannons also made some achievements in geometry. If you want to be a good artilleryman, you must learn mathematics well and be proficient in measurement.

After a "extreme pull", Gauss can only agree to visit St. Petersburg in the future for academic exchanges, which is already a great success.

Of course, the observatories of many universities in Russia can be deployed for him, which is still a very tempting proposal.

As for the next step, we still have to get back to the topic.

After all, the literary salon held by Maria mainly discusses literature, not science.

In the next period of time, Gauss mainly answered questions from the little duke. It is not easy for such a famous teacher to come to Weimar.

And Goethe wanted to raise some topics that he was very interested in, especially Soloviev had a certain level of "Oriental Studies".

When Goethe was young, "China fever" was still popular in Europe, but there were not many genuine goods. Even Mr. Voltaire was a middleman.

And what Soloviev mastered was directly translated from first-hand information by him, which was obviously closer to the original appearance of those Chinese literature.

The distant East can still arouse the interest of this literary giant.

Of course, when he was in St. Petersburg, he had already come into contact with the picture book of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

As for Soloviev, he has been updating his knowledge base all the time, and as for other aspects of content, it is not without.

For example, some "dialogues" with oriental characteristics and the knowledge of Confucius from Shandong should be of interest to writers and philosophers.

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