Shadow of great britain

In the reception room of the Golden Lion Hotel, words and laughter could be heard from time to time.

Arthur asked: "Mr. Owen, were you serving in the U.S. Army in 1812?"

Irving swung his glass: "Well, although I have always thought that war is a stupid thing, given that the Royal Navy had already appeared off the coast of New York at that time, I, a New Yorker, would pick up a gun to defend my hometown no matter what. But I served The time was short, and I retired as soon as the siege of New York was lifted."

General Napier, who was sitting on the sofa, laughed after hearing this and replied: "If you put it this way, the shortest distance between us in 1812 was probably only a few miles."

Owen frowned and asked, "Are you an officer of the Royal Navy?"

Napier just smiled and shook his head: "No more, at least not now. Like you, I retired from active service in the Royal Navy after fighting that war. You also know that since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the Royal Navy has There are no opponents worth mentioning. If there are no battles, there will be no profit. If we stay there, we might as well go out and do some business."

Arthur joked after hearing this: "Really? Sir, this is different from the story I heard from General Codrington. General Codrington said that you were ordered to retire by the Admiralty due to disobedience on the battlefield. .”

When Napier heard this, he just raised his eyebrows and said: "You kid is quite aware of my experience. But did Codrington tell you that it was Gambier, that rusty-headed thing, who gave me the order at that time? Bill has only one principle for commanding the fleet, and that is to make no mistakes. As for whether it is possible to expand the results of the battle, and when to attack to gain the maximum benefit, he does not consider it at all. If I listened to his order, there would be something wrong with my brain. .”

Owen was also very interested in the internal anecdotes of the Royal Navy. He couldn't help but ask: "Allow me to take the liberty of asking, is the Gambier you are talking about Marshal Gambill of the Royal Navy?"

Napier squeezed out a breath from his nose with disdain: "Who else could it be besides him? The office marshal of the Royal Navy. If His Majesty had not served under him in the early years, how could he have been able to sit on the position of marshal based on his record? But let Gambier's position as marshal is not without its benefits. At least everyone does not have to worry about him being transferred to the position of commander of the Grand Fleet. The danger of him sitting in the office is far less than releasing him."

Arthur smiled and replied: "It seems that Marshal Gambier's reputation in the Royal Navy is indeed not very good. This is not the first time I have heard senior officers of the Royal Navy complain about his leadership."

"Huh?" Napier asked: "Who else have you heard scolding him? It shouldn't be General Codrington, right? Since he had the Ministry of Foreign Affairs clean up, he has become more and more cautious in what he says and does."

Arthur replied: "General Sidney Smith, and General Thomas Cochran."

"Both of them, they can really scold Gambier."

Napier couldn't help laughing loudly when he heard these two names: "When General Smith was a trainee at the military academy on the Sandwich, he hung out with General Rodney. After he was officially awarded the title, he became He killed General Hood's subordinates. Even if General Smith pointed at Gambill's nose and scolded him based on his seniority alone, Gambier would not dare to confront him.

Not to mention that General Smith's record was equally outstanding. He was dissatisfied with the internal management of the Royal Navy and resigned directly to Sweden to become the naval advisor to Gustav III. He commanded the Swedish Navy to hit the Russian Baltic Fleet on the head. Three naval battles directly wiped out the Russian maritime power in the Baltic Sea.

After the war, he returned home with the knighthood conferred on him by Sweden. The people in the Admiralty were still jealous of him and privately nicknamed him the "Swedish Knight". "

Arthur smiled and replied: "General Smith sounds like a really wonderful man."

Napier laughed and said, "That's not all. When the French Revolution broke out, General Smith's operations were even more amazing. He was doing business in the Levant at the time, but when news of the war came, he had a headache. He jumped on a ship and returned to his country without looking back.

As a result, before returning to London, he ran into his old boss General Hood in the waters near Toulon, France. At that time, Toulon was unwilling to obey the leadership of the French revolutionary government, so there was an uprising. Outside the city of Toulon is the counter-rebellion army sent by the French government. You should also know the leader of the army, it is Napoleon.

General Hood feared that after the fall of Toulon, the ships in the harbor would be used by the French against Britain. So General Smith volunteered to sail into the port of Toulon in a small boat. He took so many people and burned them in the port of Toulon. Half of the ships in the Toulon fleet were killed by him in this way.

Because of this, the Frenchman has always held a grudge against him. After General Smith was captured in Egypt, no matter what prisoners of war we produced, they were unwilling to release General Smith back to the UK. The French guys sentenced him to life imprisonment in the name of "Toulon arson". "

As a historical novelist, Owen has always been concerned about this kind of secret history: "Then how did he return to Britain?"

Napier replied: "This is thanks to our allies the French Royalists. They forged administrative documents and rescued General Smith under the pretext of transferring prison."

"It's really a legendary story." Arthur said with a smile: "The generals of the Royal Navy always have legendary experiences."

Napier shook his head sarcastically and said: "No, no, no, Gambier does not have such a legendary story. Oh, you can't say that, his story is quite legendary in a sense. As an officer of the Royal Navy After sitting in the office for more than ten years, he was promoted to the rank of marshal. What could be more legendary than this?"

Speaking of this, Napier couldn't help but sigh: "I joined the Royal Navy because I heard that the environment here is better than the Army. If I had known that both sides were equally bad, I might as well have gone there with my cousins."

"Cousin?" Arthur briefly recalled the active generals of the Army and asked, "Are you talking about Major General James Napier of the Army?"

"Yes, all three men of our generation in the Napier family are interested in the military. I went to the Royal Navy, and two of my cousins ​​went to the Army. One was James Napier, and the other was William. Napier, he also has a war history book "History of the War in the Pyrenees and Southern France", have you read it?"

When Arthur heard the name, his expression suddenly became strange: "That book... I read it when I was in college, and I remember that when this book was published, it caused some stir in the parliament and the historical circles. Controversial?"

Owen also remembered: "If I remember correctly, the literary critics at that time seemed to unanimously agree that this book was 'the best French report that had ever been written on this war.'"

Arthur smiled and said: "If I remember correctly, Blackwood seemed to have published an article at that time saying that fortunately the commander-in-chief of the Peninsular War was the Duke of Wellington. If General William Napier had led this army, he would have directly He surrendered to Napoleon."

Napier took a sip of tea: "If they like scolding, let them scold them. The men in the Napier family cannot be scolded by them in a few words. In addition, they also want to thank us for having enough cultivation and tolerance. If It’s up to Corcoran to handle this matter, and he will bring people to teach these guys a lesson no matter what.”

Arthur asked: "Are you talking about the time when General Corcoran was suspected of manipulating the stock market? Not only did he not cooperate with the parliamentary investigation, but he also led his officers to beat up the officials of the investigation committee?"

"More than that." Napier put down his teacup and said, "Later, the Admiralty sent people to beat him up too, didn't they? Those idiots at the Admiralty didn't even think about it. Cochrane still didn't change his behavior when he stood in the military court. Ting scolded his boss Gambhir as 'a coward and a rat in the cabin'."

Arthur asked: "But this year General Cochrane inherited his father's earldom. His bad temper should have been restrained, right?"

"Restrain? You really think too much."

Napier said: "He is obviously worse than before. With a seat in the House of Lords, he will naturally speak more forcefully to the Admiralty. If he cannot be commanded, how can the Admiralty be so selective? What about singling me out?

Alas, they can't control Cochran, but they can control me! Damn it! If I had not started a steamship company, I would not have gone bankrupt and been manipulated by the Admiralty. "

"Steamship Company?"

Arthur was about to ask what was going on, but Owen suddenly realized what was going on.

Owen said: "So you invested in the steamship passenger company across the English Channel back then?"

Napier asked in surprise: "You know about this?"

Owen commented: "Not only do I know about it, I have also ridden on it. But with all due respect, the speed of a steamship does not seem to be much faster than that of a sail. The first ride is a novelty, but if it is a long-term round trip, its ticket price The price is obviously much more expensive than ordinary sail ferries.”

Napier slapped his forehead: "Sure enough, even a layman like you can see something is wrong. Sigh... Speaking of which, I was also impulsive at the beginning. Ever since I saw the steamship built by Robert Fulton in New York , I can never forget it.

There were no steamship companies in Britain at that time, and I thought to myself that these people were so stupid that they couldn't seize such a good business opportunity. As a result, I realized that there was a reason why there were no steamship companies in Britain. The speed is not much faster than that of a sail warship. In most cases, it has to rely on sails as auxiliary power. Moreover, this thing is very wasteful. It is not cost-effective from any aspect. "

Arthur couldn't help laughing when he heard the name Fulton: "Why are all the generals of the Royal Navy fans of it? General Sidney Smith recommends the mine invented by Fulton to the Admiralty every day, and Thomas General Corcoran loves his submarines, and you..."

Before Arthur could finish his words, Napier's eyes lit up and he asked: "Submarine? That's right! Why did I almost forget about this thing before? Maybe after I finish the work on this trip, I can consider Open another submarine company?”

Hearing this, Arthur hurriedly advised: "Don't make a hasty decision yet. Before starting a company, you should probably go to Paris to investigate. If the French had not dismantled Fulton's invention, their ship would The submarine that was invented should be parked near the Seine.”

"Really?" Napier took out a notebook from his pocket and recorded it seriously: "What's the name of that submarine? When I have time, I'll go to Paris and take a look."

Arthur smiled and replied: "Fulton's submarine is called the Nautilus. But I think it would be better for you to use it to write a novel than to use it to start a company."

Owen also joked after hearing this: "Novel? Then it seems necessary for me to go along with you to investigate? Maybe I can also be inspired and leave an immortal masterpiece."

Arthur smiled and shook his head and said: "Mr. Owen, your reputation is already very great. Let's leave the Nautilus to others. Maybe we should talk about the origin of the nickname you gave New York in "Hodgepodge". What kind of reason?"

"Nickname?" Owen was stunned for a moment, then smiled: "Oh! You mean Gotham, right? I just filled it in casually, it has no special meaning. If you insist on finding the meaning, well, Gotham is It means Village of Fools. But putting that aside, I didn’t expect that you had actually read Hodgepodge. That magazine must have been around for more than twenty years.”

Several people were talking when suddenly, Louis opened the door and walked into the living room.

He smiled and said: "Mr. Owen, Mr. Napier, your outbound ships are ready. One of the ships of Swire and Sons is under the Azores, and the other is in transit in the West Indies."

After hearing this, Owen and Napier picked up the wooden suitcases beside them and stood up to say goodbye: "Mr. Hastings, thank you very much this time."

Arthur also smiled and stood up and said: "I look forward to meeting you two again next time. I wish you a safe journey."

He watched the two people leave the living room under the leadership of the servants, and suddenly turned his head and asked Louis: "Is my car about to leave too?"

Louis nodded slightly: "At 1 o'clock this afternoon, you are not the only one traveling in the car, there are also officials sent by the Liverpool City Council to London to report on their work, plus the lobbyist group of the Liverpool Association. Of course, the diplomat from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also On the list.”

When Arthur heard this, he pulled up his collar and nodded: "It seems that everyone is in a hurry. Let's go out now. Remember to call Alexander and Heinrich together. Louis, while I am not in Liverpool , it’s up to you here.”

"Don't worry. But...Arthur, there is something I don't know if it's convenient..."

Arthur put on his coat and gloves while saying without raising his head: "About your cousin, Valewski?"

"Well...if you find out his whereabouts, or go one step further and find him directly, can you..."

"You want to meet him?"

"Yes, but don't worry, our meeting will definitely not harm Britain's interests."

Arthur smoothed his gloves, looked up at Louis, and suddenly smiled: "Louis, you don't need to emphasize this to me. When it comes to harming Britain's interests, who can compare to the British themselves? Every country The biggest enemy is yourself. Even if you want to harm, it will be harming the interests of France, oh, by the way, and Poland."

"so……"

Arthur pushed open the door of the living room: "If you want to meet, that's absolutely fine. However, the premise is... I have to make sure that the gun in the back was not shot by him."