Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

As expected, the Ottoman Empire's ultimatum was delivered to St. Petersburg.

However, given the distance between the two capitals, even if diplomatic documents were delivered at the fastest speed, war would be inevitable.

Because the Russians didn't have much time, even if they sent a messenger to Bucharest in time, it would be difficult for him to travel through Ottoman territory to Constantinople.

War was inevitable, and Solovyov clearly had to play the role of war minister, deploying troops, before he could go to the front to assume the position of commander-in-chief.

Nicholas had given him all his resources, even though Russia was a large and powerful nation, and it was facing an opponent like the Ottoman Empire, whose strength was far inferior to Russia's.

The two sides were able to match entirely because they were neighbors, and the Ottoman Empire had always been a bit of a nuisance.

On the Greek issue, it is rare that the major European powers, with the exception of Austria, have reached a consensus.

Therefore, Britain and France will not interfere until Russia makes significant progress.

Catherine also wrote to her brother, stating that French troops would land in Greece in the future to cooperate with the Russian army in their operations, also for the sake of the Greek people.

Europeans all know that Greece is the birthplace of European civilization. At least the current political system is closely related to Greece and Rome. Although the "barbarians" of the past destroyed Rome, they were also deeply influenced by Rome and Greece.

Russia considered itself the Third Rome, and Britain and France were fond of praising Greek culture. Coupled with the fact that everyone was well-versed in Roman culture, this battle brought them together like never before.

Except for Austria, because this involves their vital interests.

Solovyov disliked Austria for another reason: the ethnic problems in Central Europe originated before the collapse of the Habsburgs, and the problems they created and nurtured in the 21st century continue to plague Europeans, especially in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

If Austria dares to come, he's prepared to fight them both.

Regarding the situation at the front, Solovyov was still sending letters to Serbia and Greece. The letters from the Tsar and the Foreign Minister were merely to express an attitude, while Solovyov's letter concerned strategic planning.

For the Ottoman Empire, the situation at this time was extremely unfavorable. If Serbia and Greece joined forces, Russia attacked from the Danube, France landed on the Greek coast, and Britain led a combined fleet to control the eastern Mediterranean, the encirclement of the Ottoman Empire would make it seem like no problem to directly swallow it whole and, incidentally, separate Mesopotamia and Egypt from the Ottoman Empire.

Even when Solovyov finished writing the letter and was summoned by Nikolai, he mentioned his thoughts.

"Your Majesty, after the war in the Caucasus ends, we can even go further and completely destroy the Ottoman Empire from several directions."

"Your idea is terrible; the British would never agree to it."

Nicholas, however, was very clear-headed. Solovyov knew that, at least for now, the Tsar would not be blinded by some interests.

But what the future holds is hard to say; the men of the Romanov family are usually unpredictable.

Paul was capricious, Alexander was a riddle-solver, and Nicholas himself knew his own problems, so he still needed to be kept a close eye on.

“I know that the final peace treaty will definitely be related to Constantinople. We must act quickly and seize control of the Danube crossings by spring. Then we need to move south to several important strongholds. To do this, we need to stockpile enough supplies in Bucharest, especially for artillery. We need the Guards artillery to go to the front lines, as well as siege artillery. The engineers also need to stockpile explosives, just like in the last war.”

Solovyov was deeply impressed by the previous Russo-Turkish War, especially after crossing the Danube River. He thought that if he had gone there in person, the Turkish army probably wouldn't have engaged him in open battle.

Siege artillery and engineers responsible for carrying out demolitions are very important.

For Nikolai, he was still a child during the last Russo-Turkish War, just like during Potemkin's Russo-Turkish War, many of the generals of his generation, such as Solovyov, were still children.

He was willing to listen to these experiences and wanted to make a name for himself, but the Tsar himself would not directly intervene in the fighting when he went to the front lines.

Solovyov's arrival will solve the problem; a series of problems were still fresh in everyone's memory when Alexander accompanied the army on his expedition.

The initial defeats in the Battle of 1813, in particular, were almost unbelievable.

Because of these events, Wittgenstein, as a field marshal, was not appointed as the commander-in-chief of the front this time.

Another reason is that he lacks the ability.

If Wittgenstein were sent, and the fighting became too intense, the war would continue for some time after retreating to a suitable winter camp, which was unacceptable to the Russians.

Solovyov believed that it would be best to defeat the enemy within the year, before November 1827. If it was delayed until 1828, it was hard to say what might happen.

Of course, he didn't have a timeline in his head, so he had no idea who the British prime minister was during this period.

1827 was a relatively chaotic year in British domestic politics. First, the Lord of Liverpool, who had been in power for more than ten years, resigned due to a stroke. Then came the short-lived George Canning cabinet. The Prime Minister died due to a serious illness. The cabinet that followed was formed by the Lord of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley's first cabinet.

In short, the UK will be in a lot of chaos during this period due to the frequent changes of prime ministers, and Lord Liverpool and George Canning are naturally fully supportive.

Solovyov also knew something about George Canning, and had received intelligence about the deteriorating health of Lord Liverpool, even mentioned in letters from Princess Charlotte and the Duke of Clarence.

It's no secret that the princess supports Mr. George Canning. If this diplomatically capable minister were to become prime minister, Britain might even focus on its internal affairs, addressing the issues of Irish and Catholic tolerance, and thus reforming the Tory party to make it seem less repulsive.

After all, Canning's attitude was caught between the Tories and the Whigs: reliable, moderate, and neutral.
Solovyov himself felt he had seen this episode somewhere before; that's how it is in Britain, and Princess Charlotte even jokingly mentioned in her letter that this would probably seem very prescient in Britain's future.

Since the British are now in this position, Solovyov has room to act freely.

In Odessa, after receiving his letter, Langeron quickly took action to ensure that the Odessa "passage," which had been improved over the years and extended to Bucharest, was used to transport supplies to the front.

Upon receiving his appointment, Dibich quickly left St. Petersburg and rushed to the front lines to take command of the Danube Legion. Even before the Sudanese army had moved towards the Danube, they probably didn't realize that Russia was already eager to fight them, and even the troop movements at the front were unusually swift.

Just like in the last war, many civilians on the south bank of the Danube are passing on intelligence to the Russians.

It wasn't for any other reason than that the Ottoman Empire's rule had become unbearable for many people, especially commoners of various Christian denominations.

Whether it's independence, a change of rule to a Russian Tsar, or Greece to the south, the point is they don't want a Sultan protecting their necks anymore.

Dibich, who is on the front lines, has received intelligence that Turkish forces are strengthening their defenses in several directions. They even know their own limitations and are not planning to launch an attack, but rather adopting a defensive posture.

"Sir, what should we do?"

"His Majesty will surely issue the order. If the Turks are not prepared to cross the river, we will control the crossing point and ensure that our army can assemble on the south bank of the Danube. We will take Varna first, and then Sistylia. We must act aggressively. I do not want to find that we have not even been able to take a single fortress by the time the Minister of War arrives at the front."

"My lord, why is that?"

"In fact, Prince Solovyov thought the same thing. He had already given me his plan: we should capture as many cities along the Danube as possible in the summer, and when the main force of the army was assembled in June, we should split into two groups. The main force would go to Constantinople, while the detachment would, like in his last war, cross the mountains into Greece. He is willing to share credit with others; even when he is vying for credit, he is not annoying."

Dibych and Solovyov rarely worked together. After seeing this deployment, he understood the Tsar's intentions. Both of them had the opportunity to be promoted to marshal this time. However, due to the mentor-student relationship between Solovyov and Nicholas, the credit for the victory in the Constantinople direction naturally belonged to Solovyov.

He will lead the Danube Legion south, with more troops than Solovyov had before. Once he clears the Macedonian region and joins forces with the Greeks, he will be the "Liberator of Greece," a great achievement in terms of prestige. The second greatest achievement of this war can be said to be the liberation of the Greek people.

The next main force of the Russian army was to capture Constantinople and enter the city before the British changed their attitude.

The rest of the things are not so important.

To achieve this goal, Dibich received further reinforcements, with some Tatar cavalrymen familiar with the inner workings of the Ottoman Empire joining the battle. Even when conducting reconnaissance at the front, their attire was somewhat similar to that of the Ottoman Drey light cavalry, making them quite deceptive at first glance.

It was obvious what he was going to do; besides the cavalry, there was also some unexpected support.

It was a group of Caucasian mountain people that Solovyov recruited on his last trip to the Caucasus, and these people would probably be very effective in the Danube Army when fighting in the mountains.

The Chechen "bandits" have now become light infantry in the Russian army. His trip to the Caucasus also brought back this group of elite soldiers.

Dibich even learned from Solovyov's letter that when the Danube Legion turned toward Greece in the summer, he would send a group of cavalry to join the legion.

Based on Dibich's understanding of Solovyov, it must have been the cavalry of those nomadic tribes, but the letter did not mention that it was the Kalmyk tribe, which had a good relationship with Solovyov. So who could it be?

Solovyov managed to recruit the Kazakh Khan of the Middle Horde, citing the promise of new pastures to benefit them in future wars between the Ottoman and Persian Empires.

Kazakh tribes are relatively scattered. If they can gather people from several tribes, they can put together two or three thousand cavalrymen, which can play a significant role on the front lines.

In mountain warfare, light infantry and cavalry are still very important. In the battles with the Persians, we can see several new types of weapons, and the muskets specially used in mountainous terrain can suppress the enemy.

The Persian army was driven back, but Paskovich was not yet able to eliminate them all, so he was still somewhat unsuccessful.

Therefore, the Caucasian front initially needed Cossacks and nomadic tribes to hold the line. However, Solovyov's efforts in Crimea to win over the Circassians were nearly successful, and except for the area near Anapa Fortress, they had already sided with Russia.

In fact, the first place where the Russian army started fighting was not on the Danube front.

Admiral Greg dispatched a fleet to bombard the Anapa fortress, and then naval infantry and Crimean garrison brought heavy artillery to the front of the fortress, whereupon the defenders quickly surrendered.

Even according to the time of the Ottoman Sultan's ultimatum, the time when Greg's warships opened fire was exactly the first day after the deadline.

For the Sultan, the news arrived even slower because the Anapa fortress was isolated on the northeastern coast of the Black Sea. If there was a complete defeat there, even the nearest Pasha and Bey would have difficulty receiving the news in time.

After the Russian army resolved Anapa, they could do whatever they wanted on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

The Black Sea Fleet also doesn't need to worry about its own backyard being threatened while it's supporting the Caucasus region.

In addition, the Danube Corps also received a batch of new equipment at this time. The Russian army's testing of new weapons on the Caucasus front was very successful. The Danube Corps had even been widely equipped with machine guns before the Guards.

Although this thing looks more like a cannon, the honeycomb-shaped firing ports on it prove that it is actually a gun and not an artillery piece.

Even within the Russian military, everyone knows how to use this thing.

The Imperial Guard had not yet had time to equip the Danube Corps with large-scale deployments, but had already prepared 48 units for the Danube Corps, which could be divided into multiple companies to accompany the various divisions within the corps.

Even if the Turks knew about the Persians' crushing defeat in Tbilisi, they probably couldn't have imagined just how good this thing really was.

Because the war between the Persian and Ottoman Empires was a battle of wits, with both sides often losing to the Russians except in light cavalry engagements.

The Turks were not surprised by the Persian defeat at Tbilisi; they were not necessarily going to win against them either.

Therefore, they had no concept of Russia's new weapons at this time.

When the war officially begins, they'll have a hard time. (End of Chapter)