Shadow of great britain

"Miss Clara, I don't want to disturb your mood on this occasion. But please don't forget that we are not really here to have fun. Do you remember the script I gave you earlier? There are many successful gentlemen here, and their They have a lot of francs in their pockets, and we have to find a way to get them to transfer the money to our bank account, or to participate in our project as a joint venture. "

Arthur's serious way of explaining things not only failed to make Clara become serious, but actually made the girl couldn't help laughing.

She poked Arthur's chest with her fan: "Look at you, you talk like a real knight."

Arthur took out the handkerchief from his coat pocket and wiped his hands stained with wine: "You are right, the real jazz probably works like me. But most of them have subordinates, so you don't need to do this kind of dirty work yourself. Take action."

Clara nodded with deep understanding: "Okay, then I hope you can live such a life one day, my dear."

Clara had just left the front hall and returned to the banquet hall. Before Arthur could breathe a sigh of relief, he felt as if his waist was being pressed by some cold cylindrical object.

"Brother, we meet again. How are you doing during this time?"

Arthur lit the fire calmly and took a puff to blow out the smoke. He didn't speak in a hurry or move around.

At this distance, he had no hope of escaping. No matter how fast he drew his gun, he would not be able to complete the action of taking out the gun from his arms and firing before the other party pulled the trigger.

"There's no need to be so mysterious. I can't run away and I don't plan to run away. Instead of asking me to guess here, why not just tell me what you want."

As soon as Arthur said these words, a hearty laugh and a German curse word came from behind him: "You bastard, you deserve to have been lying in the coffin board."

Arthur turned his head and looked around. Behind him stood an unexpected figure, Mr. August Schneider, a veteran of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an old customer of the Nightingale Mansion.

As for the thing on his waist, it was not a pistol, but Schneider's cane.

"Auguste? Why are you here in Paris too?"

Schneider patted the dust on his trousers, raised his eyebrows and complained: "Isn't this a gift from our wise and powerful Foreign Secretary, Viscount Palmerston? If it weren't for his error in judgment, why would I be traveling around the world like this? ?”

"Error in judgment?"

If something went wrong in other departments, Arthur would be able to get more or less information based on his information network.

But the scandal exposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is quite different.

To put it mildly, it is that the Foreign Secretary, Viscount Palmerston, has always done a good job in keeping confidentiality.

To put it bluntly, Palmerston has made the Ministry of Foreign Affairs like an iron bucket that cannot be penetrated by a needle or poured by water.

Even the Prime Minister, Earl Gray, may not be fully aware of the actions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and even the people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot fully understand what the ministers are doing under the table.

In this regard, Viscount Palmerston has almost the same style of doing things as his predecessor, Lord Canning, so much so that various diplomats in Whitehall privately call him more thoughtful, tougher, and more tempered. The irascible George Canning was nicknamed 'Lord Pumice'.

Before Arthur could take the initiative to ask this time, Schneider had already started complaining to him: "Do you remember last year when the Governor of Egypt, Mohammed Ali, declared war on the Ottoman Empire?"

Arthur recalled: "My memory is still at the stage when Ali's son Ibrahim led the army to conquer Syria. After that, I was fucked under the Tower of London. Behind it were the coffin boards and the awarding ceremony. , internal review and recuperation, there is really no time to care about the Egyptians and the Ottomans. "

"Well...you don't have to worry anymore, because the results have already come out."

Schneider sighed.

“At that time, we thought that although the Egyptian Governor Ali was a figure, he was only a governor under the Ottoman Empire. Even if the Ottoman Sultan Mahmoud II failed, he would not be able to control the vassal towns in the country.

But what we didn’t expect was that in the Battle of Konya that broke out in December last year, the Egyptian army, led by Ibrahim Pasha, defeated the Ottoman Empire’s Grand Vizier Rehi with less than 30,000 troops. An army of 60,000 men commanded by Depasha.

After the Battle of Konya, the Egyptian army quickly invaded the Anatolian Peninsula like a tiger out of the cage, and at the end of February this year, they captured Kushta, which was only three days away from the Ottoman capital Constantinople. Ya.

It was only then that Viscount Palmerston realized that things seemed to be going wrong. When the Ottomans sent us a distress signal, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was concentrating on the problems of the Portuguese Civil War.

And if we intervene, the French will definitely use this as an excuse to intervene in the war between the Ottomans and Egypt. In London and Paris, you stared at me and I stared at you. As a result, everyone stole the chicken but lost the rice. In the end, the Russians took advantage. "

"How do you say this?"

Schneider curled his lips: "The Ottoman Sultan Mahmoud II saw that London and Paris were reluctant to rescue him, so he turned to St. Petersburg. The Russians were very efficient in their actions. The Russians were asked for help just last month, and the Black Sea Fleet carrying 18,000 Russian army troops arrived in Constantinople on February 20.

At this time, both Viscount Palmerston and Talleyrand realized that something was wrong, so the two guys, who had refused to meet each other last year, held a meeting overnight in London, and sent messengers to inform the Ottomans and Egyptians the next day. It is said that Britain and France are willing to contribute their modest efforts to achieve peace in the Near East. "

Arthur leaned against the wall: "The Russians have already entered the toilet and have taken off their pants halfway. If you ask them to hold it back, they won't agree, right?"

"Hmm... I like this metaphor. Although it sounds unpalatable, it is actually the case."

Schneider said: "Although Ali of Egypt was very concerned about the face of London and Paris, and Mahmoud II of the Ottomans was not willing to antagonize us, the Russians came all the way from the Crimean Peninsula by boat. If we don't give them To compensate for this, Mahmoud was also worried that the more than 10,000 Russian soldiers would directly cause trouble in Constantinople.

Therefore, although Egypt and the Ottomans eventually made peace, in the "Quhitaya Agreement" signed by both parties, the Ottoman Empire not only recognized Ali's rule over Egypt, Hijaz, and Crete, but also placed Syria and Adana under Egypt's jurisdiction. In addition to governing and appointing Ali's son Ibrahim as governor of Jedrah, Damascus, Aleppo and Adana, he also made a compensation treaty to the Russians that we cannot tolerate. "

"What did they give the Russians?"

Schneider took a puff of cigarette: "The Ottoman government agreed to close the Dardanelles Strait and prohibit the passage of foreign warships when Russia is attacked by other countries."

When Arthur heard this, his originally calm expression became very exciting: "August, this is not a mistake in judgment, this is simply an accident in judgment. If the Admiralty and the Mediterranean Fleet find out, the generals of the Royal Navy will Why don’t you make a fuss?”

Schneider waved his hand and said: "This is not an accident, this is a mistake."

"If this is not called an accident? What kind of event can be called an accident?"

"It's an accident if everyone knows about it, otherwise it's an unfortunate little mistake and a temporary setback."

Schneider added: "Besides, Arthur, didn't you also say that? The admiralty generals will only make trouble if they know about it, but the problem is that they don't know that the supplementary agreement signed by the Russians and the Ottomans is a The secret agreement was not published in the newspapers."

At this point, Schneider couldn't help complaining: "Those gangsters in the Admiralty always think that the ocean is their territory. Even if I pee, the pee belongs to the Royal Navy's free navigation. If it weren't for This, I will not be sent to the European continent!"

Arthur rarely agreed with Schneider when he heard this. After all, he had a good relationship with the "Huang Family Navy" in the urine bubble, and at this time, he had two friends soaking in it and getting angry.

"August, I have a question. Since the Russians and the Ottomans signed a secret treaty, how did you know about it?"

Schneider did not shy away from this question. After all, most secrets were open to diplomats. Even if he didn't tell them, Arthur would be able to find out from others after a while. In this case, it would be better to give Arthur a favor and teach him his job as a diplomat.

"It came back from our legation in Constantinople, of course."

"Then where did the embassy know about it?"

Schneider glanced at Arthur, who seemed to want to test this newbie in the diplomatic world: "Guess? Friendly reminder, the person who leaked the information came from the Ottoman court."

"Did the Sultan send someone to tell the legation?"

"Oh, my God!" Schneider patted Arthur on the shoulder in surprise: "Brother, you are really suitable for this industry. Newbies in this industry generally can't guess the truth, and you hit the target right away. Just like the bullets under the Tower of London."

Arthur lit another one and tasted it carefully: "It's the same as the whip in Nightingale Mansion."

The two looked at each other and smiled tacitly.

Schneider explained: "As you might guess, although we cannot confirm that it was the Sultan himself who leaked the secret, but according to the usual practice, it was probably Mahmoud II who did it. On the one hand, he was afraid of offending the Russians by leaking the secret agreement, and on the other hand, he He was afraid that not revealing the secret would offend us, so he secretly asked his grand vizier and leader of the Ottoman pro-British faction, Reshid Pasha, to let us know secretly. "

"Then this information was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs non-stop, and then was pushed to the bottom of the table by Viscount Palmerston? In the entire cabinet, except for him, not even the Prime Minister knew about it?"

Schneider nodded and affirmed: "I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should recruit more people from Scotland Yard in the future. Detectives are not only good at investigating criminal crimes, but also very good at investigating diplomatic crimes."

"Then the diplomats are in trouble?"

"No, on the contrary, you were dug here to cover the cover for us. Putting you in Scotland Yard is too dangerous for diplomats."

"Okay." Arthur joked: "Now I understand what trouble Viscount Palmerston caused. But why did you run to Paris? Could it be a hit-and-run or absconding in fear of crime?"

When Schneider heard Arthur mentioning Palmerston, he squeezed out a breath of disdain from his nose: "Even if he wants to escape, it is the minister who should escape. Of course I came to the mainland to mend his trousers. If I don't do something about his crotchless trousers, "The thing that the Viscount is so proud of is about to be exposed in front of the whole of Europe. What's worse is that the Royal Navy, which has superb shooting skills, may fire at this target at any time."

Having said this, Schneider paused for a moment: "Arthur, counting the time, you will have to go to Hannover in a while, right? Just in time, I'm going to go with you. I'm going to Munich this time."

"Munich?" Arthur frowned: "You are going to Bavaria? If I remember correctly, don't you hate it there?"

"No, I don't hate Bavaria, I just discriminate against Bavarians."

"Then it seems that you are going to be in bad luck this time. Bavaria is full of Bavarians."

"No, it's worse than that."

Schneider sighed.

"What I want to meet in Bavaria are the Austrians. Munich will hold a conference of the German Confederation in September this year. This conference will naturally be chaired by the chairman of the German Confederation, or to put it more bluntly, it will be chaired by the Prime Minister of the Austrian Empire May Hosted by Tene.

According to the information and announcements we have received, the purpose of this meeting is to coordinate the policies of the German Confederation in order to deal with the tension between France and the Ottoman Empire, and to prevent the spread of revolutionary forces in Europe. In addition to the participating countries of the German Confederation, those invited to attend this meeting will also be present, including Russian Tsar Nicholas I.

Viscount Palmerston was very worried that Metternich would propose the restoration of the Holy Alliance composed of Austria, Prussia and Russia at this meeting. If Metternich really succeeded, with the support of Austria and Prussia, the Russians would be even less likely to give in to us on the Ottoman issue. "

When Schneider said this, he couldn't help but sarcastically said: "Although Britain has always been outnumbered, His Excellency the Viscount seems to want to give in this time. Just because he listened to Mrs. Levine's deception, it resulted in a series of strategies He made a mistake and put himself on the fire. Last year, this guy avoided Talleyrand, but this year he was as affectionate as a young lover who was not yet married. The two old men just held hands and danced together. The four parties danced. You may not have imagined that anti-French elements like Viscount Palmerston would actually propose the establishment of a four-nation alliance composed of Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal to fight against Metternich’s Holy Alliance.”

Schneider was merely complaining about Viscount Palmerston's repeated foreign policy, but Arthur heard an opportunity for performance in his words.

Arthur guided the topic: "It seems that between Talleyrand and Metternich, Viscount Palmerston finally chose the more annoying one."

Schneider nodded and said, "Isn't it? He and Metternich had a big quarrel at the London Conference over the Belgian issue a few years ago. Metternich ridiculed him and said: 'Palmerston is useless apart from France. Diplomacy is useless. The policies were all mistakes. They imitated George Canning in every word and deed, and the result was that Britain was left alone and helpless when facing the continental powers."

"Well... now it seems that Metternich was unfortunately right."

"Isn't it?" Schneider laughed loudly: "If Metternich hadn't hit the mark, I guess the minister wouldn't hate him so much. Seeing Metternich dominate the limelight at various international conferences, this is simply better than killing him. He is still feeling uncomfortable. There is a well-known secret in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As long as you can feed him some dirty information about Metternich, the work of the Ministry will be much easier today. "

Arthur pretended to mention it casually: "In other words, if the minister knew that there was a fire in the backyard of Metternich's house, he would probably have a smile on his face for several months."

"Huh?" Schneider quickly caught the keyword: "There was a fire in Metternich's backyard? Did you send someone to put it out?"

"No, no, August, I'm talking about Italy under Austrian control."

Arthur put his arm around Schneider's shoulders and led him to the smoking room: "By chance, I learned about an organization called 'Young Italy'. They seem to be inextricably linked to the 'Carbonari'. Moreover, An expedition against the Italian states is currently being planned.”

"ah……"

When Schneider heard this, his eyes shone a lot: "Brother, I never thought that you would be able to achieve such extraordinary achievements not long after you came to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Arthur replied with a smile: "August, it's not me who has done such a wonderful thing, but you and I who have done such a wonderful thing. I don't know if you are interested in participating in it and smiling for Viscount Palmerston." , no, is Britain’s major diplomatic work playing a key role?”

Schneider took a deep look at Arthur. He never expected that this kid could be such a good friend.

"My good brother, you are so interesting. When I get back to London, I will treat you to a couple of whippings."

Arthur smiled with dimples on his cheeks: "That won't work, the whip must be dipped in water."

"Easy to say, easy to say!"