Struggle in Russia

Chernyshov took it for granted that Menshikov's situation was far from as good as Paskovich estimated, and the old eunuch was a bit troubled and frustrated.

First of all, the Mesakov matter is still fermenting. The dead fat man and his little partner who fell into the hands of Grand Duke Constantine did not have such a deep background as Li Xiao, and they did not have such a tenacious will. Soon, under the coercion and lure of the third minion, he "honestly" confessed all the problems-including smuggling, embezzlement, bribery, and fraud.

In order to avoid being beaten, and to eat the pig food that he once disdained, Fatty Mesakov said whatever he wanted, without ambiguity! The pitiful appearance of wagging his tail and begging for mercy is really contemptuous.

"These are not enough!"

Grand Duke Konstantin was not very satisfied, and threw aside the confession signed and stamped by Mesakov, not that he thought Mesakov was innocent, although the confession was appropriately "modified" in some details , but in general, some fat guy did all those bad things. That guy deserves no sympathy.

What made Grand Duke Constantine dissatisfied was that these crimes were far from Menshikov, and what could directly implicate Menshikov was the trivial matter of accepting bribes. This is a well-known unspoken rule in Russian official circles, and Nicholas I also heard about it. Although he occasionally carried out investigations, he mostly turned a blind eye to it.

For a loyal old courtier like Menshikov, such a small flaw in private affairs is at best a matter of scolding, and it will not hurt his bones. Although Grand Duke Constantine also accepted the reality that Menshikov could not be knocked down once, he still wanted to maximize the results of the battle and make the old thing even worse.

He picked up the confession again and looked it over more carefully to see if there were any items that could make a big fuss. After a long time, he suddenly asked, "What's the matter with this fraud? Why are there no details?"

The confidant of Grand Duke Constantine in the third part quickly replied: "Your Excellency, because this is a trivial matter, we think it is not enough..."

Grand Duke Constantine interrupted impatiently: "Don't care about the size of the matter, tell me the details!"

This person did not dare to disobey, so he hurriedly made it clear: It turned out that when Mesakov was still a small section chief of the logistics department of the Navy Department more than a year ago, he received a letter from Menshikov. direct instructions.

The old eunuch asked Mesakov to tamper with a batch of specially purchased coal, replacing high-quality anthracite with the worst inferior coal gangue, and then supplying it to the steamship Fierce. As a result, the Furious later lost an intra-Navy competition.

The military police of the third part did not notice the change in Grand Duke Constantine's face at all. When the words coal gangue and fierce number were combined, the Grand Duke's face turned blue at first, then turned red, and then A loud bang was heard.

Grand Duke Constantine thumped the desk hard, knocking down the ink bottles on the desk, and the black ink flowed everywhere, messing up the desk and the precious Persian carpet on the floor.

But he turned a blind eye to these Grand Dukes Constantine. In anger, he waved his fists fiercely and cursed Menshikov:

"You eggless old bastard, you bastard who gave birth to a son without a penis, how dare you flirt with me!"

"You wait for me, this matter is endless!"

Grand Duke Konstantin was of course angry, because he still remembers that race vividly. The Fierce is a rare steamship in the Baltic Fleet, and the ship is also relatively young. He deliberately chose it for the long voyage with Menshikov's favorite sailing ship. Competing ships.

That time, Grand Duke Constantine spent a lot of effort to persuade his father to pay attention to this game, and planned to use the victory of this game as a stepping stone. As long as Nicholas I saw the advantages of steamships, he would be sure to persuade the stubborn emperor to build more steamships.

But the match that made Grand Duke Constantine have high hopes was lost very embarrassingly,

From the beginning to the end, the Fierce was like a lame bad horse or a drunken reckless man. He stumbled out of Kronstadt and broke down due to a boiler failure not long after, and lost the game in shame.

And it was this failure that made Nicholas I even less optimistic about steam ships. No matter how Duke Constantine did his work, the emperor's aversion to them could not be restored.

In fact, at that time, Grand Duke Constantine himself was very disappointed with the Intense and the steamship, thinking that they were worthless. If he hadn’t already invested a huge amount of money and no one took over, he would have walked away and stopped supporting the steamship.

But today, when the diorama was dismantled and he learned some of the secrets of the reason for the failure of the Fierce, he realized that he had been tricked by Menshikov. This dead eunuch dared to bully him, even made a fuss about the fuel shamelessly, replacing high-quality anthracite with coal gangue that was almost unburnable, it was too shameless and despicable.

Thinking of the grievances taught by Nicholas I and the grievances despised by the officials at that time, Grand Duke Constantine became furious. This account must be settled with Menshikov. He slapped Mesakov's statement heavily, and ordered solemnly:

"Continue to interrogate that bastard, and ask for all the details of the Fierce's defeat. Besides playing tricks on the coal, ask them if they have done anything else!"

The dog leg is a little unclear, so, isn't the master going to mess with Menshikov? Why do you suddenly pay attention to such trivial matters as the fierce number competition? Now the focus should be on the big issues of smuggling, bribery and corruption, right? What is the value of cheating in an internal game?

Of course, the dog leg does not dare to question his master, no matter how much he doubts and disdains, he does not dare to express it to his face. Like all loyal Russian officials in this era, he took over the task without a doubt, and went to work with high spirits up.

"This is also trash!"

Looking at the back of the dog's leg leaving, Grand Duke Constantine sighed, he had already found out that there was something wrong with his father's way of being a servant. Under his father's control, most of the officials in Russia are like this bastard. They only know how to obey blindly, only know how to flatter their horses, and they have no brains and no constructive ideas.

Such people are used to being called around and used to doing things without thinking. The help to the master is infinitely small, and it is almost a pipe dream to expect them to check for omissions or give reasonable suggestions.

For example, the matter of Ji Ji Hao is indeed small compared with corruption, but people with political acumen can realize that this incident is much more lethal than corruption.

If more inside stories can be unearthed, it will reverse the passivity of Grand Duke Constantine in supporting steamships in one fell swoop, revitalize his steel factory and boiler factory, and also make Menshikov's credibility greatly decline with Nicholas I. .

And these stupid guys couldn't see it, and Grand Duke Constantine was speechless. He began to miss dealing with Li Xiao and his friends. It has to be said that communicating with smart people is more comfortable than talking with idiots even if they don't like each other!