Chapter 645 007 Russian Tsar Alexander's Reply to Ottoman Sultan Mahmud

In Petersburg, Russia has actually received a Turkish request for peace, but in the view of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed by Badberg, this is just a way to delay time.

The Turks are unwilling to give up the land occupied by Russia. It seems that they came up with such a thing under the instigation of the British, and they are really not afraid of laughing out loud.

However, it happens to be Alexander's daughters now. The older ones are losing their teeth one after another, and the younger ones are growing teeth. It seems that there is no problem.

"Your Majesty, how should the Ministry of Foreign Affairs respond?"

In the Tsar's office in the Little Winter Palace, Alexander had already read the Ottoman Sultan's documents, and then opened the reports of Little Kamensky and Solovyov, but never answered Badberg.

This foreign minister is also one of his teachers. Compared with Prince Saltykov, who has the responsibility of "teacher", or Laharp, who has a profound influence on the tsar himself, his status as a minister may be greater than Being a teacher is more important.

Speransky was sitting aside. Although he was the Secretary of State, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was relatively independent among the cabinet departments. Although he had jurisdiction, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was relatively independent.

Moreover, he generally would not interfere in the affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was mainly responsible for Alexander's policy formulation, which was actually about system reform.

Unfortunately today, among the people present, he was the only one with a civil service background.

Badberg, Balasov, Arakcheev, and Barclay were all military men. In fact, although Alexander's government reforms abolished the committee system, it left all major departments under the control of military personnel. There was only one It is unusual for the Secretary of State and Minister of Justice to be civil servants.

What can be seen is that Alexander valued order more, even more than Paul in this regard.

When Paul appointed ministers, it can also be seen that more of them were from civil service backgrounds. Although he has always been said to be a wise man, he behaved very normally in terms of hiring people.

What's abnormal is his temper. Therefore, his seemingly normal administrative policies appear abnormal.

Alexander seemed to be doing well, but he valued soldiers and order. By 1810, it seemed that only Speransky was left in the center of the liberal faction. This was something the person involved knew very well.

Especially after Adela came to his house to help manage the office, Alexander actually came to his house many times just because the place seemed "very orderly."

Now he himself has some doubts about Alexander's actions. Others may know what their "Tsar's little daddy" is doing recently through the edict and the Tsar's own performance in public.

As the head of the government, Speransky was directly responsible to Alexander himself.

He also has troubles now, but considering the support of two generations of czars, he has gone from a low-level civil servant to his current position under one person.

Then, he discovered that within the main government departments, he, the head of the civil service, was in charge of a group of generals.

Even people like Barclay are considered good. Arakcheyev is just rebelling against him and has no plans to create any conspiracy for him.

That Balashov indeed seemed to have the Tsar's confidence in his position as Minister of Police, and was always looking for trouble for him.

This puts him in a very delicate situation. If he talks about renewing his relationship, Balasov will have to take care of it.

But he never worried about his situation. Instead, he tried his best to maintain the operation of the government and promote reforms.

We should also pay attention to the affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After all, this time the letter of credence is to be issued, and he has to sign it as the head of the government.

According to Alexander's current government structure, such an important diplomatic document would probably have to be read by the tsar himself, the secretary of state, and the foreign minister before being sent out for final signature and confirmation.

The structure of the entire government is actually still biased towards the autocratic rule of the Tsar himself, but with the addition of a seal.

No wonder Balasov has always said that Speransky, the "stamped" part, is suspected of being a "French spy", and he can only accept it.

"Your Majesty, if you reply to the letter, I think we should reiterate our demands. In the previous armistice, the Turks did not abide by the armistice agreement, and they also accused us of violating the armistice agreement by military maneuvers along the Danube River, and the persecution of Christians was also a violation of the armistice agreement. It’s very serious. It seems that the Sultan of Turkey must first accept that Russia has the right to protect Christians in its territory in the 1791 peace treaty, among other things.”

"Badberg, if we follow your advice, our troops have already crossed the Danube. This will only give the Turks some dignity, but we won't get much."

Taking advantage of Alexander's trust, Balasov often came out to raise objections.

Regarding this point, Badberg was very calm. He said directly: "Instead of continuing the war to gain more land, we have to face the French. In the last meeting, everyone here read the report , The French Emperor still has his own views on the Polish issue, and does not intend to designate Poland as a buffer zone in the spirit of the Tilsit Peace Treaty and the Erfurt Meeting.”

"So what?"

"Compared to the weak Turks, the threat from France is more serious. We need at least three legions on the front to monitor the actions of the French in East Prussia and Poland. If there is no threat from France, we can take advantage of this moment. Go to Constantinople.”

Just as Balashov was about to speak, Speransky interrupted.

"Badberg's words make sense. The most serious threat we face is still France. Their emperor has always been ambitious. Many of us have seen him or fought him on the battlefield. Your Majesty, I think you should also understand that deploying troops at this time means that even I, a civil servant, am also worried about the threat from France."

This is also a means of self-protection, removing himself from the position of pro-French people, although he has always been regarded as a pro-French element by Balashov, and no matter how he expresses his position, it is useless.

Arakcheev and Barclay also nodded in agreement, and finally did not let Badberg take advantage of the issue here.

It seems that there are always some "insects" in certain positions that will be disliked by everyone, no matter how much he is trusted by the Tsar himself.

There is no way to take advantage of the issue, and diplomatic affairs are not his business. Badberg only allows Barclay to participate. After all, as the Minister of War, he is still very related to the front line.

But Alexander himself obviously let Balashov speak for him.

On the Danube battlefield, the great victory of the Russian army has shaken the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Although it may not be possible to gain a lot of territory, it is still possible to extend the sphere of influence to most parts of the Balkan Peninsula.

The more territory, the better. Alexander had met with envoys sent by Serbia before, and also received representatives of the Fanario Greeks who were exiled to Russia. In addition, there were Greek subjects in places such as Balaklava in Crimea, and they always had some understanding of the Balkan issues.

He himself believed that Badberg's plan could only serve as the bottom line of this diplomatic negotiation. It would be better to allow Serbia and some other places to obtain a high degree of autonomy, and then extend his tentacles to the Balkans.

However, considering the special situation in the Balkans, Alexander only planned to establish a pro-Russian regime in places such as Serbia and Greece, or require them to appear as a highly autonomous semi-independent regime within the territory of the Ottoman Empire.

There was a France with a larger sphere of influence on the front, and even many French troops were in Poland. Austria and Prussia had also become France's humble partners, and the situation was not so optimistic for Russia.

Therefore, Alexander always wanted to solve the problem in the south first.

But there were some things that he rarely told Speransky. Metternich and Talleyrand often wrote to him personally, and some governors and generals would secretly submit memorials to him, which was also a means of mastering communications.

Even Balashov didn't know about this. The communications did not even go through the post minister, but through secret channels in the court.

Alexander was indeed very good at secret diplomacy, which was also to ensure that his ministers could not block the channels of communication, and he was also happy to see these people fighting each other, even Speransky, who had always been in charge of reform affairs, was the same here.

After the meeting, Alexander began to read Talleyrand's recent letters. It can be said that the French emperor has been addicted to the gentle land recently, and marrying his sister does not seem to be such a bad thing, but Talleyrand is also worried that this will destroy the tacit understanding they formed in Erfurt.

Alexander met Talleyrand in private and knew the attitude of the former French Foreign Minister. If Napoleon was only in Paris, no one could do anything to him because of the support of the soldiers and the people.

Now the war in Spain has come to an end. The British are only in the coastal areas of Portugal. It seems that the overall situation there has been decided.

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If Napoleon stopped at this point, there should be no problem.

But Talleyrand's letter made it clear that Napoleon, who was recently in Paris, had privately expressed that he hoped his son would inherit his empire as the emperor of Europe.

Although it was only a private statement, it was also very dangerous, which meant that in addition to Russia and even possibly some parts of Russia, Napoleon still wanted a lot of things.

As for the situation on Metternich's side, Alexander had heard a little bit about it. Diplomats are always energetic, and this is often the case with women.

He could only pinch his nose and accept what he was proud of recently.

But the attitude of the Austrian side can indeed prove that after France was weakened to a certain extent, they seemed to have the idea of ​​changing camps.

It's just that the Austrians have always been unreliable, which makes it difficult for Alexander to make up his mind to believe them. When talking to the Prussian royal family, it's just that the king is FW.

It's just that Queen Louise is pregnant again after she separated from the king recently, which makes people curious.

Even his gossip spirit has risen. Who used the tools to commit the crime to do this to the queen?

After considering the off-field factors, Alexander also formally added some content to the diplomatic documents.

When the Russian army has entered Sofia and entered Thrace across the board, the diplomatic note to the Turks is also very clear.

1. In the European part, the area of ​​Bessarabia to the right bank of the Dniester River is assigned to Russia, and in the Asian part, it is the eastern coast of the Black Sea under the control of the Ottoman Empire, especially some places such as the Anapa Fortress.

2. Moldavia and Wallachia have become independent countries from the Ottoman Empire.

3. Serbia will gain independence and designate a ruler in accordance with the old practice of the two principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, and the Ottoman Empire will guarantee that it will not infringe on Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

4. In the area south of the Danube, in the Rumelia region, that is, in Thrace, the personal and property safety of Christians must be guaranteed, and a certain degree of autonomy must be obtained.

5. The issue of autonomy in the Greek region, especially the Morea region on the Peloponnese Peninsula, should also be included in diplomatic negotiations.

6. According to the provisions of the Treaty of Jassy, ​​the rights of Christians on the territory of the Ottoman Empire must be guaranteed, and Russia will continue to provide protection for these people.

7. The Ottoman Empire must compensate for the losses caused to Russia and the newly independent countries.

8. Restrict the deployment of the Ottoman Empire's army in the Balkan Peninsula and reduce the total number of its troops in the European part.

It seems that the Sultan will definitely not accept Alexander's conditions.

But if he does not accept it, he can only continue to fight, and there are many problems involved.

Sultan Mahmud's biggest advantage at this time was probably that he still had soldiers in his hands. Both Britain and France hoped to limit Russia's expansion in the Balkan Peninsula, so there was support from the outside world.

France also hoped that the Ottoman Empire would let the Turks contain Russia's flank in the war that might break out in the future. Although the Turkish soldiers were all garbage soldiers, they had a large number of people and could always contain part of the Russian army.

All this happened before and after the Russian army entered Sofia, when the letter from the Russian Tsar reached Sultan Mahmud.

The performance of this sultan was obviously in line with expectations. His reply was to tear the letter to pieces in front of his own returning envoy after reading it.

The Russian generals on the front line liked the sultan's unruly attitude. This experience pack was so fierce in its resistance, and it seemed that there was still a war to fight.

Even the Ottoman Sultan mobilized the army again and prepared to continue to work hard.

Now, the Turks have received strong support from Britain. Even though 60,000 Turks were wiped out at one time, the British provided a large amount of weapons and equipment this time, which kept the Russians' attention on the Balkan Peninsula and prevented them from paying attention to other directions. (End of this chapter)