Shadow of great britain

When Vidocq saw a guest coming, he quickly put down the silver-plated fork in his hand, straightened his collar, and stood up to greet him with a smile on his face.

"Sir, you really have a discerning eye, and you fell in love with the latest powerful foreign aid of our Brayock Detective Agency at a glance - Sir Arthur Hastings. Come, sit here quickly. Sophie! Girl, go Give this guest a cup of steaming coffee. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot to ask you, do you prefer rich black coffee or au lait coffee sprinkled with cocoa powder? Turkish coffee with cinnamon and cloves?”

When the guest saw Vidocq, he was stunned for a moment, then exited the door and looked at the portrait hanging outside the door. Then he smiled and said: "So you are the legendary detective François Vidoc." Mr. Doc? I heard of your name when I was studying at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. Uh... But I'm not here to deal with detective work today. I just have some personal questions that I want to consult with Arthur Hess. Sir Tings.”

"Oh! You mean consulting business? This is actually within our business scope."

Vidocq smiled and picked up the business list on the table and handed it to the guest: "Look at this, these service projects launched by our company to the public have been brewing in my heart for a long time, and they are also the products of our company. To be honest, after resigning from public service, I have been dedicated to collecting business information about fraudsters who have been prosecuted in court or sentenced. They have all been included in the list of this detective agency and are at my disposal at any time. If you need any services, please feel free to inquire. The fee is 5 francs for a single consultation and only 20 francs for the annual service.”

The guest was a little embarrassed by Vidocq's warm hospitality. He politely took off his hat and said: "Thank you very much for your warm hospitality. However, sir, the matter I want to consult is not about business, but about business." Questions in Natural Philosophy.”

"Is it a question of natural philosophy? Well, sir, if it's a question of chemistry or disguise, I can barely be considered proficient in it. I'm also rough on ballistics, but..."

When Vidocq said this, he felt that he could not continue. He could only turn his head and look at Arthur: "Brother, when you were promoting the firm's business in private, you also boasted that we could handle this matter? "

Arthur had just lit his pipe. He stood up slowly and raised his hand to say hello: "Good morning, Mr. Liouville, don't you have any teaching arrangements at the Polytechnic University today?"

Liouville saw Arthur and finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Sir, I'm so lucky that you are here. Otherwise, I wouldn't know how to explain to Mr. Coriolis. I was planning to present the award two days ago. I went to look for you after the ceremony, but you left in such a hurry that day that I didn’t even follow you.”

"Coriolis?"

When Arthur heard the name, he suddenly felt something bad in his heart: "Which Coriolis are you talking about?"

"Gustave Coriolis."

Liouville took a seat under the leadership of Vidocq, and he continued: "He is a professor at Luqiao School and a member of the Mechanics Department of the Academy of Sciences. He saw the paper you wrote down that day, so he respected you very much. Achievements in mathematics. This gentleman is currently studying the forces on objects in a rotating system. He discovered that if an object moves relative to one another in a uniformly rotating reference system, there will be an inertial force acting on the object that is different from the usual centrifugal force. , but he was unable to find the mathematical expression of this inertial force. Therefore, he sent me to ask you, are you interested in research in this area? If you are indeed interested in this area, he hopes to find it someday. I’ll visit you at the right time.”

"ah……"

When Arthur heard this, he didn't put down the hand holding the coffee for a long time.

Sure enough, he knew that this was a New Year's greeting to Hastings from a scientist - either electricity or force.

Agares, who had been leaning against the window sill to bask in the sun, saw this scene. The red devil immediately walked up to Arthur with a smile, put his arm on his shoulder and said, "How do you think? Little bastard, do you want to continue with us?" I want to make a deal? The two of us were at least evenly matched last time, could you be wrong this time?"

Arthur's heart was pounding, but his face remained calm.

As a social servant who has been practicing in Scotland Yard for a long time, he naturally has the means to solve such thorny problems that cannot be solved but cannot be refused.

In a word - first lower the other party's expectations, and then slowly delay it.

Anyway, he won't be able to stay in Paris for long. Can Coriolis and the others pursue him to Hanover later?

Arthur smiled and said: "Of course I am very happy to help Mr. Coriolis, but I generally do not easily get involved in areas that I am not familiar with. Before I understand what exactly Mr. Coriolis is studying, I'm afraid. I dare not boast that I can help him solve this problem."

"Of course, Mr. Coriolis will be very happy if you agree to help."

Although Arthur expressed 'decline' between the lines, Liouville obviously did not understand the official language used by diplomats, nor did he understand the British people's tortuous thinking. Or maybe he clearly understood it, but he also didn't understand it. Pretending not to understand.

Liouville took out a stack of papers from the calfskin bag he carried with him and placed it in front of Arthur: "This is the first draft of Mr. Coriolis's paper. You can read it now, or if you are busy, you can read it in the evening. You can look at it again. If you think it’s appropriate, you can send someone to the Academy of Sciences or the Polytechnic University to inform me at any time.”

Liu Weier's sudden hand immediately forced Arthur to the corner.

Although he knew that he might not understand it well, Arthur still pretended to pick up the manuscript and flipped through a few pages.

But it's okay not to turn it over. When Arthur turned it over like this, his slightly frowning brows suddenly relaxed.

Perhaps because his mind was relaxed, Arthur's sitting posture became more relaxed. He held a pipe and talked: "I have to say that a person's destiny depends on one's own efforts, but one must also take into account history. Itinerary..."

Li Wei couldn't help but said in shock when he heard this: "Sir, what are you talking about?"

Arthur didn't say much, but took out a pen from his coat pocket and wrote down a series of mathematical expressions in a flash.

Liouville was originally picking up the coffee, but before the coffee cup came to his mouth, Arthur had already pushed the concise and clear line in front of him.

Before Liu Wei could realize what was going on, he was stunned for a long time before he said: "Sir, what is this?"

Arthur put the pen back into his pocket: "This is just my personal, a small, arbitrary guess, but if it is correct, please ask Mr. Coriolis to verify it yourself. As for the next time, I may I need to go out to handle business with Mr. Vidocq. He has agreed to take me on a good tour of Paris and to sit in the house of Mr. Samson, the executioner. Don’t you agree, Mr. Vidocq? "

Vidocq, a veteran of the French underworld, naturally understood what Arthur meant. Vidocq stood up with a smile and said: "That's right, Mr. Liouville. You may not know yet, but Sir Hastings is also carrying a As for the official business of the British Foreign Office, we can't delay him too much."

"Ah...of course, you two walk slowly."

Liu Wei has not completely digested what happened just a moment ago, and he feels a little dazed even when he speaks now.

It wasn't until Arthur and Vidocque walked out of the detective agency that Liouville was shocked as if he had just woken up from a dream.

The girl at the front desk asked politely: "Sir, do you need any more help?"

Hearing this, Will Liu hurriedly said: "Madam, please find me a pen. It would be better if you could provide me with a clean piece of draft paper!"

…

On the Champs Elysées, the iron wheels of carriages rolled over the cobblestones, making a crisp clicking sound, intertwined with the accordion melody of street performers, the cries of vendors, and the whispers of passers-by to form a leisurely waltz.

On both sides of the street, row upon row of Baroque buildings stand majestically, with flowers blooming on the windowsills and wrought iron balconies filled with clothes hanging to dry, giving it a strong sense of life.

Vidocq and Arthur were stopping at a small roadside fruit stall at this time. The talkative stall owner wore a straw hat and a fruit-stained apron on his chest. He was trying his best to sell his products to the two gentlemen. Good peaches, cherries, currants and citrus.

Perhaps because he was worried that the two guests would not believe it, he even enthusiastically picked out a peach that made him most confident. He wiped it vigorously with his apron and handed it to Arthur, indicating that he could taste it first before buying it. no problem.

Arthur took the peach and put it in his mouth and bit it gently. The fresh juice instantly filled his mouth. He nodded with satisfaction, raised a finger and said, "Please give me one kilogram."

The vendor packed the peaches diligently and said with a smile: "Sir, I charge you 4 sous for one kilogram of peaches."

According to the current French ratio, 1 gold louis = 20 francs = 400 sous.

According to what Arthur has just seen along the way, in most bakeries, a baguette costs 1 sous, and a lamb rib can be sold for 7 sous, so rent a taxi for one. An hour requires 40 sous.

Although peaches sold for 4 sous per kilogram were not very cheap, the stall owner did not cheat him, and they were still within a reasonable price range.

But although these peaches are not expensive for Arthur, it does not mean that they are not expensive for everyone.

Because according to Vidocq, although wages in London are not high, wages in Paris are obviously lower.

Working in a carton factory in Paris for 14 hours a day, he could only get a salary of 4 sous. The income of sewing workers for 17 hours was slightly higher, they could get 12 sous. For the workers, stevedores on the Seine River were the most popular jobs. Although this job was tiring, they could get a salary of 30 sous.

For people living in Paris, if they want to maintain a subsistence living standard, they have to spend 20 sous, or 1 franc, on food, clothing, housing and transportation every day.

The wages of workers in London are generally at least 50% higher than those in Paris. Unfortunately, due to the influence of the Corn Laws and other bills, prices in big cities like London, especially food prices, are also higher than in Paris. A lot.

If I had to say what is better about living in Paris than in London, except for the bright sunshine. In addition to the delicious French food and the different styles of French beauties, their metric system of weights and measures is much friendlier than the British system of weights and measures.

When it comes to the metric system of weights and measures, Arthur has to thank Mr. Talleyrand, the French ambassador who is still in London and is keen on playing cards and golf, because the set of weights and measures currently used in France was proposed to be improved by him in 1790.

As for the specific task of improving weights and measures, it naturally fell on the French Academy of Sciences, or more accurately, on the head of Lavoisier, who was beheaded by the Revolution.

Although British society was not interested in the set of weights and measures created by the French, at least in the British scientific community, natural philosophy researchers were quite happy to move closer to this metric system of weights and measures. Because in the view of British scientists, the metric system of weights and measures is very consistent with the development needs of science.

Arthur was naturally one of the natural philosophy researchers who advocated adapting to the metric system of weights and measures, but he was not doing it to promote science, but simply wanted to be able to buy peaches as easily as today.

Vidocq saw Arthur lifting the bag of peaches he had just purchased with satisfaction, holding his pipe in his mouth and jokingly said: "Brother, you don't look like a knight like this. I have never seen a knight carrying a big bag on the street by himself. If you buy fruit in small packages, you should hire a few followers, or at the very least, buy two loyal black slaves. "

When Arthur heard this, he just said: "Mr. Vidocq, it seems you don't know yet, Britain has already banned the slave trade. In London, buying and selling slaves is illegal."

"I know." Vidocq said, "But although you prohibit the slave trade, isn't it still legal to keep slaves? You can buy them abroad and then bring them back to London, so they can't say anything."

Arthur shook his head after hearing this and said: "It seems that your news needs to be updated. Not long ago, British abolitionists just proposed a bill in Parliament, calling for the immediate and complete ban on slavery in the country and overseas colonies, which includes both The slave trade also included slave-keeping.”

Vidocq smiled when he heard this and said: "Can this bill be passed? Will those slave owners who bought slaves before obediently obey the orders of Parliament and release their private property?"

"of course not."

Arthur took out a peach and handed it to Vidocq: "The slave owners expressed strong protest and said that freeing a large number of slaves might cause great instability in overseas colonies. Abolitionists and pro-slavery activists Parliament was deadlocked, but from the perspective of British society, especially in the context of the Whigs' recent victory, abolition had become the general trend. Therefore, abolitionists and pro-slavery activists decided to withdraw. A rather British compromise was reached."

"How did they compromise?"

“Slavery advocates agreed to completely abolish slavery in Britain and the overseas colonies, while abolitionists agreed that the government would spend 20 million pounds to redeem slaves from slave owners to make up for their economic losses. "

Vidocq curled his lips and said: "This is indeed very British. If it were in France, this matter would have to be fought with a war, one or several uprisings to finally solve the problem. But... having said that, brother, You didn't pull me out in a hurry just to treat me to some peaches or talk about the slave trade, right? I'm not very interested in that."

Arthur said: "Of course not. The young man who came to the office just now is a teaching assistant at the French Academy of Sciences. Not long ago, when I went to the French Academy for business, I met a popular person in your government— —M. Louis-Adolphe Thiers. Do you know much about him?"

"Huh? Thiers?" Vidocq lit his pipe: "Why are you asking him?"

Arthur replied: "You should know that when I came to Paris this time, one of the friends accompanying me has a very sensitive identity."

"Well... it's not just one. Both of them are quite sensitive, but the other is more sensitive. After all, one of them is just wielding a pen and writing a few articles that satirize the government. Although he has some influence among the Republicans, But it can’t reach a high level. But the other one is different. If that person raises his arms and shouts, it is really possible to stir up the Bonapartists.”

Arthur nodded slightly and said: "You are right. That's why I hope to find you to find out about Thiers, because that short gentleman seems to be very interested in people who can stir up the Bonapartists. Interested. He asked me privately at the banquet if I could introduce Mr. Louis Bonaparte to him. "

"Recommendation?" When Vidocq heard this, he couldn't help lowering his voice: "Brother, you must not talk nonsense. He is now a high-ranking official in the government and a die-hard supporter of the Orleans faction. That is why he became the Counselor and Dean, your words are unfounded. If this kind of thing spreads out rashly, it will cause trouble and may even lead to lives. "